Getting Back Into The Flow

Just wanted to share a few words I found in one of my many books: 

A stone cutter may strike a rock ninety-nine times with no apparent effect, not even a crack on the surface. Yet with the hundredth blow, the rock splits in two.  It was not the final blow that did the trick, but all that had gone before.  I may pursue a goal for months without obvious results and become convinced that I am wasting my time.  But if I continue sharing about my struggles and being patient with myself, I may awaken to find that I have changed, seemingly overnight.  Suddenly I have the acceptance and self-confidence I have been seeking.  The results may have revealed themselves abruptly, but I know that all those months of faith and hard work made the changes possible. 

Written By: Anonymous

This helped me get out of a "I'm not as good as others" slump.  I sometimes feel like I'm just running out of time with life.  It was just enough to let light flood the channels of darkness and take me into the flow of creativity.  I now have a project in mind, of which I'm actually quite excited about and will take photos to share with you all....once I'm done.

Well, time to hit the pillow, it's way past midnight...quiet here.  Sasha's asleep under my rocker; Lucien's downstairs asleep in Sasha's bed...hugging his toy mouse I'm sure of it.  I'm one lucky mom.

This Week: Something Chocolate, Something Pink

So I tried out my new heart-shaped silicone pan on Monday.  I made little morsels that ended up packing quite a chocolate punch: tooo rich for me.  And others who tried them?  Well, let's just say they stuck to the one-a-day diet...nevertheless, they slowly disappeared.

To make up for putting my friends through a chocolate overload, I decided to try again my Twilight Swirl Cookies.  This time, with fresh raspberry which were passed through a colander to remove the seeds.  I actually ended up with pink batter, but added a drop of natural food coloring to make them pop just a little more.  Made them last night and ended up with about 60 cookies.  By 5pm today I had 14 left: not bad.  They still need more work, but this time my swirls turned out much better.  It's all a work in progress isn't it...

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

I was just viewing my blog and laughed out loud: my counter on the bottom of the page reads 206 visits.  I laughed because I know that 205 of that is me viewing my own site.  I'm amazed sometimes at how many followers other sites have.  I wonder how they did that??  Well, hopefully some day I'll have many followers too.  For now, I feel like my blog lives on a quiet block in the world wide web.  Just a quiet little corner where I enjoy my baking journey, photos and writing.

Well, if someone does happen to visit, I wouldn't mind a suggestion or two on food photography.  I'm really interested in taking a few classes but haven't been able to find any, at least any specific to food.  I also haven't had any luck with finding magazines where the focus is food photography, or food photography tips.  If you happen to visit my site and have any suggestions, please do share...it would be much appreciated.

Next stop: the library.

Have a lovely day you bloggers out there!!  Cheers.

Sweet, Deep & Chocolatey

Inspired by my pilgrimage through botanical gardens and a Hindu temple, on Sunday I made cookies.  I'm calling them Sri Pecan Cookies.  They were absolutely delicious, radiant.  Brown sugar and toasted pecans made for a deep flavor; topped with caramel and chocolate, these would be a great for anyone with a sweet tooth.  Somewhat crispy but  mostly soft and chewy, just yummy.

Once the batter is done, roll them in the cool toasted pecans.

Bake them for 12-15 minutes at 350.

Let them cool and drizzle caramel, followed by chocolate.

Here's the recipe:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 & 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/4 cups chopped pecans, toasted

An Accidental Pilgrimage

Today I traveled to an unknown place.  Once there, I thought perhaps I could consider it my artist's date.  But it turned out to be a spiritual pilgrimage.  See a few of the moments I captured, moments that softened my eyes and heart.  I look forward to turning this inspiration into journaling, art and baking.

LOLLI-FLOP # 2 (the "S" Attempt)

This past week I made Pistachio Cardamom Cookies.  Alas, piping them into an "S" shape 2" by 1/2" gave me lots of trouble.  I piped them too big and placed them too close together.  You really have to place them two inches or more apart otherwise it becomes one BIG cookie mess.  After they were done, I had to break them up into uneven pieces, which doesn't look pretty.  I know they look awful! but they actually taste good.  A really light crisp cookie.  Next time I'll try piping with a smaller tip.

Here's the recipe:
8 oz unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar + 2 tablespoons for reserved
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom + 1//4 teaspoon for reserved
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon rose water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup finely chopped pistachios
Oven: 350

SOME FUN WITH PHOTOS

THERE IS ENOUGH LIFE TO GO AROUND

I went to the park this past weekend
and found beautiful life.

 

LOLLI-FLOP #1 and 1/2

LOLLI-FLOP #1: A few weeks back I tried (for the 2nd time) to make lemon cupcakes.  I've learned, because I don't want to waste ingredients, to first make the base of what I'm baking (in this instance the cupcake) and then if the results are satisfactory, move forward with the frosting, garnish, etc.  Well these were a disaster.  To this day I still can't figure out completely what went wrong.  Perhaps I added too much Xantham gum?  In any case, they were not edible--they turned out dry, really gummy, with a raw- like consistency (yes I left them in the oven long enough).  I'm glad I didn't waste any more ingredients by making the ginger buttercream frosting I had planned.

LOLLI-FLOP #2 (really half a flop): This past weekend, I tried making something called Peanut Butter Blossoms.  The directions were so easy there was no way I was going to goof these up.  Think again.  Two things that might've worked against me: 1) the recipe called for brown sugar, I only had dark brown sugar and light brown sugar - so I decided to go with the dark; 2) you're also supposed to just let all the ingredients mix together.  Unlike other recipes, there were no instructions regarding what to mix first and how...so I started with dry ingredients in my KitchenAid.  When mixed well, I followed with the natural peanut butter, extracts, milk and lastly eggs.  They certainly smelled peanut-buttery!  The instructions stated, upon removing from the oven immediately top each cookie with 1 Hershey's Kiss, pressing firmly so the cookie cracks around the edge.  Well, not only did mine not look like a typical cookie, but when I pulled them out of the oven and tested their doneness with my little finger...this is what happened.

With a gasp and a flinch back....
"What...!" I said, "this can't be?!"  Then I tried it with a Hershey's Kiss.

It was beginning to look and feel like a comedy of errors.  They were too soft, crumbly, if I didn' know better I'd swear I just stuck my finger into a ball of packed brown sugar.  And, the crumbly-ness reminded me of the vegan cupcakes I had made the prior day.  Though they tasted peanut-buttery, it just wasn't standing up to the recipe.  Well, with a lot of frustration and determination, I decided not to let the ingredients go to waste--after all they did taste like a cookie.  The more they cooled the more they were of cookie consistency, so I had a plan...  I began melting all of my 22 unwrapped Hershey's Kisses.

Now, I bet you're thinking, problem solved right?  No such luck.  I could not melt the chocolate properly--in fact, the Kisses melted then the chocolate began to harden again!  "Now what's wrong with the chocolate!" I said in disbelief.  (Part of what's wrong is I didn't use a thermometer.)  One has to laugh, but at the time it did not occur to me to do so.  (Now, yes...then, no.)  Again with determination, I decided to melt some Hershey's mini-chips.  I had melted these in the past without a problem.  Were the chocolate gods going to finally smile upon me?  Yes.  The chocolate chips melted beautifully and here were the results.

I started spooning on the chocolate, but quickly found it was much easier to pick one up at a time and dip them in the chocolate.  By then they had hardened enough, like your basic cookie, to do so.  Who would've guessed, the ugly girls at the party turned out to be princesses---and a BIG hit with folks who tried them this week.  So after all of that, something wonderful came of it.  Because these tough girls stuck by me tilll the end, I INTRODUCE YOU TO (drum roll please)....

Peanut Butter Tuffies 

LESSON #1: When life gives you lemons, buy some more lemons until you make the cupcakes you want.
LESSON #2: Never give up...if you do, you will miss out on a miracle, or two.  :-)

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO

When last we "spoke", I was about to embark in a baking frenzy.  Indeed, I was able to make two out of the four recipes: the Twilight Swirl Cookies and the vegan Toasted Coconut Mini-Cupcakes w/Coffee Buttercream Frosting.

THE COOKIES: They tasted good, but didn't turn out exactly how I wanted.  I couldn't figure out how to roll the logs of dough in a smooth and even fashion.  I finally thought, "oh, maybe using the parchment paper will work?"  TIP#1: If you want the dark swirls in the center to come out perfectly, or close to, use the parchment paper to help you roll the dough forward, it will keep things tight, smooth and even.  TIP#2: Don't make things harder for yourself.  While reading a recipe, try not to rush or skim.  In fact, read the recipe through carefully at least twice before starting.  And that was my mistake: I didn't study the recipe, ultimately not realizing the instructions called for using the parchment paper along.  I meant to take pictures of the logs as a HOW NOT TO example but forgot.  The first picture below will show cookies from the logs that were rolled incorrectly, the second picture shows better results.

Notice the broken chocolate lines.

Some of these are better.

Here's an example of what they should look like.  These are called Pinwheel Cookies by La Table de Nana.  But come to think of it, perhaps mine are quite appropriately named Twilight Swirl Cookies (as in the Twilight Zone).


THE CUPCAKES: Although these vegan cupcakes tasted swell, the texture of the cake was crumbly.  In fact when I removed them from the trays, the tops of the cupcakes were actually coming off from the rest of the cupcake body.  I couldn't believe it, here I carefully followed directions because it was my first time baking vengan and still, problems.  I wish I had taken pictures of these too but didn't.  (Don't worry, some photo-flop-opps are coming in my next post, due to a baking attempt earlier today.  What I will call major Lolli-Flops.)  I really like how the vegan frosting tasted, even better than regular frostings I've had.  I'm not a fan of overly sweet frostings.  I usually make a creamcheese/buttercream mix, and I considerably reduce the butter and sugar amounts.  The upside is frosting is light, and many folks who have tasted it love it.  The downside is it doesn't ever seem to stay thick/stiff enough in order to make nice designs with my star tips.  Anyway, the frosting really tasted great, and the cake part too -- except like I said it falls apart when you pick it up.  Something I'll need to figure out when I make them again, because they were totally worth making.

Here I played with the star tip two different ways.

Here they are with toasted shredded coconut.

LESSON #1: Always show up no matter what.  I made a commitment to bring samples of my baking to the woman who owns a food truck at our farmer's market.  Despite my setbacks, I showed up early and delivered a tin with the best of the batch.  I gave her my number and merely said, "just let me know what you think."  You see, this was really about trying to get an honest (hopefully) opinion.  There were no strings attached to this, just simply "what do you think", from someone who's a cook/baker.  LESSON #2: Take risks.  What I made wasn't perfect but I needed to take the risk and say "Hi, I'm here!"  No matter what, it felt good to own my baking space.  Just like this site, no visitors and yet I keep coming back.

This was my complimentary tin.  

Next post: my Lolli-Flops.



STARTING TONIGHT...

Starting tonight and through tomorrow morning, it's going to be a baking frenzy.  A woman who owns a food truck is interested in my baking, so I told her I would bring samples this weekend.  I am going to attempt making two or more of the following: Twilight Swirl Cookies; Peanut Butter Cookies w/Chocolate Center; Toasted Coconut Mini-Cupcakes w/Coffee Buttercream Frosting; and, Carrot-Raisin Mini-Cupcakes w/Maple Cream Cheese Frosting (all gluten-free, the toasted coconut cupcakes will be completely vegan).  It sounds like a lot but I'm only going to make what I can without completely exhausting myself -- especially since I'm making these all for the first time.  This is what being a self-taught baker, some day pastry chef, is all about, right???  Time to get some shopping done, then take a moment to meditate before I start.  Oh look, a thunderstorm has begun outside!  Is that a good luck sign?  Gulp.  I'll post details on Sunday complete with pictures.  Wish me luck...somebody...out there.

HIS HOLINESS, HAPPY BIRTHDAY

His Holiness the Dalai Lama (born July 6, 1935) celebrated his 76th birthday on July 6 in Washington, DC.  I wish I had been in attendance, but his teachings are accessible whenever I need them.

Arun Ghandi (Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi's grandson)

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Martin Luther King III (Martin Luther King's son)

Mother Nature

The weather has been lovely the last couple of days.  After so much rain, all plant life around me is soaking up the sunshine.  I try to have my camera handy for any possible photo ops.  Lately I can't seem to be without my camera, it's like baking and photography are walking hand-in-hand with me right now.  I'm in the creative flow, and so grateful.  I took photography classes many years ago and loved learning all the ways I could use my camera.  Today, I'm saving my pennies for a good olde fashion camera, the kind where you pick your own f-stops, the kind where it doesn't do it all for you.  Hopefully those cameras still exist.  In the meantime, I'll continue using my trusty Canon Powershot digital camera, which is what I shot these photos with...

OK, I admit it, I can't decide which is more beautiful.  Purple is my favorite color, but Lucien...well...just look at him!

For A Special Someone

Hi there, hope everyone had a great 4th of July!  Boy I've been busy, too busy to post which is not good.  But the flipside is, I was baking.

I had a dinner party recently (which doubled as a little birthday gathering for my special someone) and made three different desserts.  THE FIRST: Ginger Cookies with Lemon Icing.  I used crystalized ginger AND powdered ginger to really give them a spicy bite.  They were great, I was really surprised.  (Though I'm my worst critic, so every time I bake and it turns out great, I'm surprised.)  It was a simple recipe and the fun part was using my Pineapple Tart Cookie Cutter to make the design.

THE SECOND DESSERT: It's what I call Bronx Chocolate Puddles (if you ever find yourself in certain sections of the Bronx after a terrible thunderstorm you'll know why).  Fortunately these are much more appealing.  And, the second batch turned out fantastic!  Yes, I said the second batch.  I found out the hard way: if you leave them in the oven just 2 to 5 minutes too long they will over cook.  And they did.  When they cooled...well, let's just say Fred Flintstone could've used them as wheels for his car.  Thank goodness I still had plenty of time to make these again, and my guests loved them.

MY THIRD DESSERT?  Chocolate Chip Angel Foods Cupcake.  Nope can't show you what they looked like because they did not turn out the way I wanted or imagined.  Nothing really angelic about them, the light airiness was especially missing -- plenty of chocolate chips though!  They turned out too dry and of course when they cooled they shrunk.  I didn't take photos, never do of my flops.  But now that I think about it, I will from now on.  After all, every flop is a successful step forward.  I'll start calling them the "Before&After Lessons"...or something of that nature.  Cheers!