As one can probably tell from the tag cloud one of my favorite hobbies is to bake. I really like being able to create something that looks and tastes amazing, especially when things in my life are stressful. It is relaxing somehow. This past year has been marked by moving away from my standard recipes and experimenting with more complex recipes. I think that I must talk about it a lot because for Christmas my wonderful loved ones gave me things like aprons, cook books, a baking book, and (wait for it) my very own Kitchen Aid mixer! The mixer was a gift from my husband David. It is bright red to match our tea kettle (red is also one of my all-time favorite colors; if it wasn’t for David this whole house would be full of red) and has a bowl-lift mechanism instead of the standard way of the top hinging upward. It looks so big on my kitchen countertop! I feel quite spoiled even having an automatic mixer but it is kind of wonderful at the same time. Inspired by it’s size and color the mixer has been christened Clifford. Of course, I couldn’t wait to use it so here was breakfast the day after Christmas:

Whole wheat blueberry muffins! Here is a link to the recipe: http://www.eatmedelicious.com/2008/02/whole-wheat-blueberry-muffins.html

Okay, so we didn’t blog every day, but we got off to a good start to begin with. There is still plenty of snow on the ground and this evening we made snow ice cream in celebration of David’s childhood memories. It was fun and easy and I am going to share it with you :)

In a blender place

1/2 orange (peel removed and diced), 2-3 tablespoons of sugar, 3/8 cup milk, a splash of vanilla and a dash of salt. Puree.

Go outside and get clean, unblemished, untouched snow (several cups worth). Add snow in large spoonfuls to mixture and blend in between scoops until recipe resembles ice cream. Makes 4-6 serving

Eat before it melts. Enjoy!

Last week I had some friends over to decorate Christmas cookies. In preparation for this event I decided to find the best sugar cookie recipe that I could. I pulled two classic books- Martha Stewart and Joy of Cooking and then went online to trusty ol’ Allrecipes to find the top-rated recipe. I baked a small batch of each of these recipes and then took them over to my husband’s work. David, several of his co-workers, and the lady at the front desk all ate the cookies and voted which cookie was most to their liking. The end result was a tie between Martha Stewart and Allrecipes. The consensus was that if they were only to eat one cookie that Martha Stewart was the way to go, but if they were going to eat more than one that the Allrecipe recipe would better. I think this was because the Martha Stewart recipe was a bit sweeter than the rest. For those of you also baking this holiday season here is the link to the Allrecipe sugar cookies (they were the one that got my vote. Mostly for the consistency and the not-too-sweet taste)

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/The-Best-Rolled-Sugar-Cookies/Detail.aspx?prop31=2

And for you Martha Stewart/sweet cookie lovers here is her sugar cookie recipe:

4 sticks (1 pound) unsalted butter, room temperature    3 cups sugar    2 large eggs      1 tsp pure vanilla extract     1 1/2 tstp salt    5 cups all-purpose flour

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add eggs, vanilla, and salt; mix until well combined. Add flour in two batches, mixing until just incorporated. Turn out dough onto a clean work surface, divide in half and pat into flattened rectangles. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 1 week.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut dough into shapes with cookie cutters and place on prepared sheets. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges and firm to the touch, about 15 minutes. (of note, I found this only took about 12 minutes).

Enjoy!

    On my way out of the locker room at work I noticed a small stack of photocopied papers sitting on a table. They were all copies of the following recipe. I do not know where this recipe came from or who left a stack of photocopies of it at work. I have been thinking about trying it out just for kicks. I mean, who doesn’t try out random recipes they find sitting around their place of employment. Okay, here is the recipe just as it appears in the recipe of mystery:

1. Four italian sausage links browned (out of casing) in soup ban. Remove and cut into chunks. Set aside (you can use more sausage if you like).

2. Sautee 1 red pepper (chopped), yellow pepper (chopped), orange pepper (chopped), yellow onion (cut into chunks), 3 celery sticks (chopped into 1/4 inch chunks), 2 (or as much as you like) garlic (diced). Sautee these in 2tbsp oil.

3. Pour in some red wine to deglaze the soup pan. Then add 3 cans stewed tomatoes, 1 can (6oz) tomato paste, 2 cans kidney beans (drained), one can butter beans (drained), 1/4 cup black olives (sliced). Add more wine until at least 1/2 the bottle is in the sauce- you can drink the rest! Add 1 1/2 tsp black pepper and 1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder.

4. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Taste…if not spicy enough add some red chili pepper flakes and simmer longer.

Hmmmm…should I try it? How many does this serve, anyways? An army? That is a whole lot of beans. And a whole lot of wine.