An Experiment: Chocolate Filled Cookies

I made some of Gramma's Filled Cookies today. They were a big hit at my dance class. I had 2 people ask me for the recipe saying that an Aunt or their mother made these.

After class I talked to my instructor for a while, it turns out he's likes to cook also. He was rambling about some puff pastry thing he did, and suggested I try Dark Chocolate and Raspberries with a little Rosemary. I thought it sounded interesting, so I traipsed all over town trying to find some fresh Raspberries. I was finally able to find them, and here are the results of my experiment. I'll let you know how they are after I try one.


Filled Cookies
Cookie:
1 c Shortening
1 1/4 c Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 c Milk
3 1/2 c Flour
2 t Baking Powder
2 t Vanilla
1/2 t Salt


Cream the shortening and sugar. Add the egg and milk.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add in increments to the sugar mixture, and the vanilla.


Refrigerate for an hour before rolling out.


Filling:
1 container fresh Raspberries
1 c Dark Chocolate Chips
1/4 c Raspberry Jam, seedless
1/4 c Chocolate Liqueur
1 T Cream
1 pinch ground Rosemary


Melt the chocolate. Mix in the jam, liqueur, rosemary and cream. After dough is rolled, cut and placed on a greased cookie sheet, place a couple raspberries on each round. Drizzle 1/2-1 t of the chocolate mixture over the top. Place a second round of dough on top and seal the edges. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F.

An Exploit: My Birthday

My birthday fell on a Friday this year, and that Friday just happened to be at the end of my school. Since my car was in Wyoming, I got to go home for the weekend. We had some amazing White Pizza made at the cabin, and a party with my 2 favorite little boys!


Claire picked me up from the airport, and on the way to the cabin we stopped to eat in Ft. Collins. This was the first time she saw my camera, so I have lots of pictures from this short trip.



The fields between Laramie and Centennial in the sunset.


The most awsomest biker dude ever.

The most awsomest scooter biker dude ever.

Playing dress up with some cool hats.

When we were packing up after the party my camera fell out of my pocket. I didn't notice until I got home. So I had to hike up on my way to Oklahoma City. It snowed after we left! Luckily I got the water resistant, freeze resistant, shock resistant camera!

The hike was very pretty.

Very fallish. I then drove back into mid-summer.

Some aspens hiding in the pines.

My camera also has a panorama setting. So I practiced with it a few times.

An Exploit: A New Hat

It rains a lot in the places these people send me. I think it's rained/poured on every job I've done.





I was sent to Louisiana for Halloween weekend. I started driving the 29th. I got almost to the Texas/Louisiana border when it started raining. By the time I got into Shreveport the underpasses had about 12 inches of water. I got off the interstate as soon as I could to try to find a place to stay. I almost got stuck in the water, and it was still pouring. The flooding was crazy and made the rig I was suppose to go to inaccessible. I went to another site to help move the "office box" and look around. They had 3-4 feet of water on the site, and it was still rising.


I ended up spending 4 nights on stand-by before they let me go home. In that time I wandered around some and found this cute little boardwalk.

I also found an awesome hat while I was there.

Blood and Caramel

I conducted my first experiment in caramel making last week. Turns out the process is pretty easy, the timing is the tricky part.



Pretty much you put some sugar in a pot to melt, heat some cream, mix them together and add butter. The problem I had was cooking the sugar a little too long before adding the cream, and not long enough after. It was slightly burnt, and very soft. But for a first try I am happy with it. And after the first bite, it's really not so bad...



The worst part was, while cutting this gooey mess into individual pieces I cut my finger on my SHARP knife. Now I remember why I am scared of them. I did discover that those little square plastic scrapers that come with stone cookware are perfect for scooping the caramel up and depositing it on the wax wrapper papers!

An Exploit: The Skinny

I am in South Texas again.

I was rather dreading it because last time I was here, it was 90 *F at night and so humid it wasn't worth using a towl after showering. This time, however, the weather is a little bit more hospitable. Today is about 65 *F, Sunny and a littly windy, but what's a little wind when you're from Wyoming? It's the perfect fall day. I love this weather, and I love the sea. I wish I could be outside all day, rather than in my box at the computer.

The thing that makes me laugh about this place is: I look out the window and see all these Soutern boys in Carhart coveralls and sweatshirts: the clothes I've seen my dad wear in 20 *F weather. And here I am, thinking I wish I didn't have to wear these darn nomex coveralls, because they're too warm.

Another story:

I just went over to the trailer to get some grapes. On the way back to my box, I saw Mark. Mark came over to ask me how I eat so much and stay so skinny.

Hahahahahahaha.

Anyway, he then noticed that I had grapes in the bowl. "I guess those are healthy," he tells me. Hmm. So what I had before wasn't healthy? I do admit I ate a lot yesterday. Every 2 or 3 hours seems like a lot when you have to walk back and forth. But I had an apple, grapes, carrots, celery, and a couple mini Luna bars. Maybe it was the tea? I don't know, but I guess it's a good thing I run. The calories in those carrot sticks, ugh!

Next on the entry menu: Burnt Sugar! what fun.

Breaking in the New Apron: Dipped Chocolates

First of all I'm not entirely sure how this picture ended up this way, I accidentally hit the shutter button when I was arranging something else, but I really like it.

Today I dipped some chocolates. I found out in my library book that truffles are rolled and covered with cocoa powder, or crushed nuts, not dipped; so who knows what the last ones I made were. My mom says Dipped Truffles. I kinda like that, so that's what we'll go with.

Either way the ones I made today were "Dipped Chocolates". I made the center last night, because they have to sit in the fridge overnight. I didn't have the correct tea to flavor the cream, but we won't worry about that too much, because plain chocolate is just fine for me.

I read the whole book about the types of chocolates one can create, pretty much cover to cover. It is quite fascinating. The ones I chose have a softer center than the first ones, but this time I actually followed the directions for tempering the chocolate I used for dipping. I tried some of the edges, that were mis-shaped. They turned out quite well for the first attempt, although I think the chocolate went out of temper for a few in the middle, they are taking much longer to set than the first ones.






Making the filling last night it didn't look like much. It only made about 2 cups. Even spreading it in the pan to set. It was about a half inch layer in a 9x9 inch pan. But after taking it out today, and cutting it into squares, then dipping it I have about 65 pieces. And they are just perfect. I thin I can make a lot of friends with these. Or maybe send them to friends in Saratoga for the holidays. I'll need to find some good tins or boxes to use!



I used my lovely yellow polka spotted ruffly apron that my sister got for me in Denmark for this adventure. It looks lovely with my plates and my tea set. Now I just need some company for afternoon tea.

An Exploit: New and Improved

I've spent a lot of time unpacking and washing, and wiping, and making my stuff fit for viewing/eating/sleeping. I arranged and moved stuff, and fought with the Futon, and finally got things almost the way I want them.

Imagine a bookshelf next to the lamp, and a chair in the foreground...someday.

My beautiful table!

I still have some things to put on the wall, but I need a way to hold them up.

My baking corner. I made some chocolate chip cookies today, I may go meet my other neighbor.

My bedroom is still a little bare, I need some night stands, and some other stuff I haven't decided on yet.


My little rocker was my Gramma's.

I have a lot of clothes! 15/16 of which were in storage for 2 years.

My frog bathroom!

I found some little guys in a box, and thought they'd make a good addition.

This is the "I don't know what to do with this stuff" room. Each of these boxes are about half full.

I still have a ways to go, but it's starting to look like a home, my home!

PJ's Kitchen: The Design

I have been thinking for some time now that I would like to have a bakery. I have not decided where, but it will be called PJ's Kitchen and my sister will design the sign. She has sent me some sketches and I have fallen in love with them.

Probably this will not happen in the near future. I need to take business classes and save up some money, but this is my dream. I have to ask Cupcake's opinion about the red, I can't decide if I want a touch of color or not.

The Shop sign

Perhaps on shirts or aprins

An Exploit: My New Home

My mom thought I should take pictures of my new home, sans furniture. This is easy since it's not going to get here for a few more days. So far I've spent about 5 nights here with only an old army trunk for furniture.

I do have some furniture in storage, awaiting movers, and I went shopping for some of the things I was lacking, such as a chair.

In my last apartment I used a rocker hand-me-down. I absolutely hated it. It was a horrible brown with the head of a horse stitched on the back. It also had wooden armrests which were always sticky because of the finish. I was very excited to be able to find one that I liked and is mine-all-mine.

When I started looking, I found a chair online. I didn't look at dimensions, and aparently I didn't look very closely at the chair itself. I went through 4 stores before I found a salesperson I was willing to talk to, and was willing to help me. She was kind enough to listen to my description of "the chair" and look all over the store. When we didn't see anything remotely like "the chair" we looked at lots of catalogs. We finally found one that was quite close to the one in my head. So I had to order it.

I did go back later an look at the one on the computer later. It was not remotely like what I had described, but it was inspiration...somehow.

By the way, I also got a dining set.

While I was at my last rig the furniture fairies came and delivered my table, so my flat is not entirely empty, just mostly.

My Kitchen


My Bar, currently acting as a catch-all, since I don't have an entry table


The Living Room, with a working fireplace!


My BEAUTIFUL table


My Bedroom


The closet, a bit barren

My Bathroom

Guest Bathroom

And my guest/office/watever-I-want room

This Time I Had Almonds: Curried Chicken Salad

I just had some Curried Chicken Salad and it was amazing, so I thought I'd share it again. One small change was the Almonds I used, rather than Pine Nuts.

The Adventures of an Empty Kitchen

I went to the store today for a few things, such as apples, and bread. I ended up getting a lot more than I expected. I couldn't live with an empty kitchen anymore (I've been in my new apartment for 5 days now!). So I got some things that will not go bad, that every kitchen should have: Flour, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Cocoa, Spices, and Canned Goods. I also got some chicken and mayonnaise, thinking I would make the lovely meal above. I got home and started cutting apples, and celery, and carrots when I realized "I don't have a bowl for this!" Ok, I'll make due with the tupperware that I got the celery and carrots in. "Wait a second, I don't have anything to stir it with." That one took a bit longer, but finally I figured out I had some measuring spoons that would probably work. I did end up getting pretty messy in during this adventure, but that's what makes it an adventure, right?