Week 5 Part I

Double Chocolate Drops ☆☆☆☆☆ [pg 104 HFC]
While stirring together these easy Double Chocolate Drop Cookies, I realized some of the measurements didn't seem right. Certainly they didn't need 3/4 Tablespoon salt or 1 Tablespoon of vanilla, so I went back to an old edition of the family cookbook to check the recipe. These measurements should be 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla and I had a note next to this recipe in my old book—Very Good. So it seems I have made this recipe before, which means I sort of cheated this week.

The dough is very sticky and I recommend using a cookie scoop to shape these cookies. I made them with a 3/4 inch scoop so the cookies were a nice small size. They are very good and I give them a five. They are more cake like than regular chocolate chip cookies and even though they are double chocolate they are not too much chocolate. I have made these with mini chocolate chips before and they are good with either size chip.

Baking Some Love

The yeasty smell of bread baking takes me back to our kitchen on the farm, mom standing over the huge bread making bowl punching down the dough for six loaves of white bread. This was a weekly ritual at our home. You read right. Weekly, she made six loaves of bread. Every Monday laundry and bread making. Occasionally, on a Wednesday, she made buns. My mom was so particular about how her baked goods looked, that she was asked to makes dozens and dozens of rolls for our church dinners each year. At times, when making rolls for the church dinner, a batch would get too brown or be ill-shaped and as we sat down to supper she would explain that these were not good enough for the church. We happily ate the culls, because we rarely saw anything wrong with them.

Many years ago, when my husband first came to the farm to meet my parents, I warned him that my mom was a great cook. Baking was my mom’s way of showing love, or at least one way of showing her love. He gained 10 pounds in 7 days. Keep in mind it was during the winter, much too cold to do any exercising, and that we were the guests. He wasn’t allowed to do anything, but “You must eat. Another slice of bread? Certainly you need another cookie?”

My family ate five times a day. Breakfast came at 8:00 am, after milking was complete. The midday meal, which was our largest meal of the day, was always served at noon and properly known as dinner. Meal three, served about 3:00 pm, was mid-afternoon snack. During the summer, these snacks were eaten on a tractor in the field, and during the school year snacks were consumed while watching some mindless television after a long day at school.

Supper, the proper name for an evening meal, was served at 5:30. At 6:00 everyone headed to the barn to assist with evening chores, and naturally when we returned to the house at 8:00 pm we were hungry again. “Meal” number five was the bedtime snack.

Five “meals” a day x 365 days a year = 1825 meals every year and for seven people. That is a lot of baking and cooking. Is it any wonder baking was equated with love in my mom’s mind? She spent so much time baking and cooking. Even now as I look at those numbers I am flabbergasted. I don’t ever remember my mom complaining about doing all this cooking and baking and we rarely ate out.  Her only complaints were about the quality of the food she was providing.

When mom passed away we joked a bit about mom’s need for perfection in her food. There were so many meals that we listened to her litany of complaints about the meal. “The gravy is too salty, the potatoes are a bit lumpy, the meat is not as tender as I hoped, the buns got a bit dark” and on it went. As kids we just ignored it, as adults we tried to break her of the habit, and after she was gone we joked because it had become a memory of our mom that we would carry with us.

I have to admit, I don’t just carry this with me, I do this. I must tell myself to stop talking or I will sit down to a Thanksgiving dinner mumbling about how my gravy is too thin and the potatoes got cold. The scariest thing to me is that my daughter is starting to do the same thing and she didn’t spend that much time with my mom. She got it all from me. She isn’t channeling grandma, she is mimicking me. It seems a horrible thing to pass on to a daughter—a terrible desire for perfection. Or is it?

When I carefully consider my mom’s desire for perfection in her cooking and baking, I wonder if it wasn’t an expression of her desire to be a perfect mom, a desire for perfect love. I think all of us have an area of our life where we desire perfection. God created us that way. We long for the perfection that was the Garden of Eden. We long for the perfection that only God is. We long for perfect love, and it is not found in a perfectly shaped, perfectly browned bun—it is only found with God. Seek perfection, seek HIM!

A Diversion

Coming to our home this week is a new diversion yet to be named. Confused? Well, dear daughter has been living with us for the past eight months while she completes grad work at Concordia University, and she purchased a Pembroke Welsh Corgi just days after she came to live with us. Tom and I have become very attached to little Penny, and with Lynsey's wedding just five months away, we were beginning to realize how much we will miss Penny. (Yes, we will miss Lynsey too, but it is different. Really it is!)

Last Friday I finally found a Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppy for Tom and I. She is a tri-color pup currently living in Idaho. She is yet unnamed because Tom gets the honor of giving her a name, and he believes he needs to actually meet her to assign the proper name. Many suggestions have been submitted, probably the most hilarious is the name Grammar. It was a student's suggestion and our whole family found it a bit fun. We'll see if/how that gets incorporated.

We get our pup this Saturday and she will need much attention as she is only 8 weeks old. My hope is that I will be able to continue on my path of baking a new dessert once a week, ridding myself of about 30 things each month, and posting an occasional glimpse into my growing up years. (I fear the last will suffer the most in the coming months) For now, here are a few pictures of our new girl.

  

 

Week 4 Part I

Blond Brownies  ☆☆☆☆ [pg 97 HFC]
Somewhere in the past year I heard my sister say that my dad enjoys blond brownies more than regular brownies, and so this Monday I threw together some blond brownies. I like that these are made with ingredients I have on hand and they can easily be mixed by hand; no need to dirty the mixer.

The brownies were baked until they were a nice golden color and seemed firm to the touch. As is usual, I have a hard time waiting until they were cool for taste testing. Who doesn't love a warm brownie? When I first bit into this bar I was afraid I hadn't baked them enough. Then I mentally compared them to the consistency of my favorite regular brown. I like brownies more moist, and so I determined these brownies would need to be taste tested again when they were thoroughly cooled.

The next day, I tasted them and they were great. I like that they have just a bit of chocolate and who doesn't like walnuts in a brownie? Oh....wait...both my kids. :-(

Well, based on how fast these brownies are disappearing with just Tom and I eating them, I would say they rate a strong four but Tom says if regular brownies are a five (and they are for both him and me) then these are a four. A strong rating but given a choice, regular brownies will win out every time.

Week 3 Part II

While my goal for 2011 is related to trying the desserts in our family cookbook, the dessert baking has inspired other baking. This week I made two loaves of bread. I was striving for something very similar to the Artisan bread I love to purchase at the local grocery store.

My first loaf was a no-knead loaf made with all bleached flour and 1/4 cup of lager beer as part of the ingredients. It was a tasty loaf but did not rise much. A day later my newest kitchen purchase arrived and I was able to make another no-knead loaf.

This recipe was found at Breadtopia and has the most unusual thing about the dough is the 18 hour standing time.

I made the whole wheat recipe and replaced 1/4 cup of the water with lager beer, and set it to rest for the required 18 hours. The next day, I completed the loaf following the directions on the Breadtopia website. It is sticky and I really appreciated my plastic baker's scrapper. After a quick shaping the dough gets another 90 minute rest.

After a rest, the dough is carefully dropped into the preheated baker. (Watch the video at Breadtopia) This clay baker works at 500°. Wow that is hot, but it produced that lovely hard crust and soft interior that I so love about the Artisan bread at the grocery store.

I have determined that whole wheat bread baking is an art unto itself, and I plan to stick to the all-purpose flour loaves for a while in an effort to perfect them. I grew up on white bread and a desire to make bread can only come from a desire to connect to my mom—therefore, white bread it shall be, for now.

Week 3 Part I

Date Frying Pan Cookies ☆☆☆☆ [pg 106 HFC]
These cookies were some I remembered from my childhood, or at least I remember my sister making them one Christmas. Dates are not something I normally have in the house so I would need to plan to make these. Chopping dates is not easy, so I chose to cut them with kitchen shears. Even so, I needed to dip the shears in hot water several times to de-stick them. This is fussy work to me.

The ingredients go together easily but you need to cook and stir them for 10 minutes. Seriously?! My arms aren't that fit. This was a long time, but I hoped worth the effort. Once all the Rice Krispies were stirred in, I began the process of making the little balls of cookies. Yuck, what a sticky mess and my coconut didn't stick very well. I was beginning to think these would never be worth the effort.

Then the taste test. Wow, these have pretty good flavor. They certainly are different but not bizzare different, good different. Jason was available to give a review and we all agreed they worth a four on the rating scale. They are not like chocolate chip cookies you crave, but they are tasty and would be a nice addition to a cookie plate at a holiday. The next day Kyle was at our house and he also rated them a four. So after all my fussing and a bit of grumbling as I made the cookies, we all agreed they are tasty and worth making again, although they are a special occasion cookie to be made once or twice a year.

Week 2 Part II

Chocolate Streusel Bars ☆☆☆☆☆ [pg 109 HFC]
When considering these bars, I opted to make the complete batch since I was not sure how using just the egg white would affect the consistency of the cream cheese layer. As the recipe notes, the initial mixture is very dry and I was concerned the base of the bar would stick together. I made sure the butter was very evenly distributed and well pressed into the pan. A solid brownie like crust was formed, but it was much less dense than a regular brownie. Since I did not have confectioner's sugar on hand, I used powdered sugar. As noted at the bottom of the recipe, they are not the same, but I assumed the contributor of this recipe used powdered sugar as well.

I missed the instruction to chill the brownies and so ours were served at room temperature and were very good. Both Tom and I give them five stars. They are flavorful and a bit rich, but not so much that you need to cut the bars into 1" squares. Since we had 24 bars, much more than we needed for the taste test, Lynsey took them to her Bible study and many said they were very good, confirming my five star rating. These are certainly bars I will make again.

Week 2 Part I

Butter Pecan Cookies  ☆☆☆☆☆ [pg 94 HFC]
This week, on Monday, I made these buttery cookies. I wasn't sure how using just the egg yolk or just the egg white would affect the final product so I made the whole recipe. I used my large cookie scoop (1 1/2 inch cookie balls) and the final cookies seemed too large to me, so I switched to my small scoop. ( 3/4 inch cookie balls) The smaller scoop would allow me to make 36 cookies instead of 24, as noted in the cookbook. You can see the larger cookies in the left pile and smaller ones on the right.

The cookies were given a rating of 4 by me (it is hard to give a 5 rating to a cookie without chocolate, but that is my problem) and Nathan gave a rating of 5. He liked that the cookies were thin and loved the flavor. Lynsey gave the cookies a three for the opposite reasons. She likes her cookies a bit thicker, more substance she said, and they were almost too buttery for her.

Later that day, we attended a BCS football game, watching the Oregon Ducks play against the Auburn Tigers. Since I had plenty of cookies, I took them along for ratings from the Davis family. Tony, Debra, and Kyle all gave the cookies a five. They too enjoyed the buttery flavor and the pecans. The cookies have quickly disappeared.

Although, my rating is a 4, an overwhelming number of "qualified" raters gave these cookies a 5 and so that is what will be noted in my cookbook.

Love of a Father

“They say necessity is the mother of invention, so it’s not surprising that the snowmobile was invented in the deep Northwoods of Wisconsin. Born with a bum foot, Carl Eliason of Sayner needed a way to keep up with his friends and to check his traps in the winter. After working on his idea for two years, Eliason developed the prototype for his “motor toboggan” in 1924 and received a U.S. patent for it in 1929.” (Wisconsin Trails 2011)

During my preteen and teen years (and well past my years at home), our family owned snowmobiles. It began with a Polaris around 1969. Not many years later we acquired another sled, an Arctic Cat. Somewhere in the mid to late 1970’s my dad became a huge John Deere fan and we owned two John Deere sleds.

  

When I was growing up, my dad seemed a bit distant. Looking back, I realize he had much responsibility running a 250-acre farm and providing for a family of six; a family that would grow to seven in 1971. Farming was not and is not easy. We never took vacations, never went camping, rarely went on picnics, and all because of the farm. I resented it all through my teen years. When we kids asked if we could go on a vacation, Dad would respond, “We can go anywhere you want, as long as we are back by 6:00 to milk the cows.”

But then the snowmobiles came into our lives and snowmobiling became our vacation. At our house we prayed for snow, but not to have a day off from school. A day off from school meant the morning (or longer) spent cleaning the barn, feeding the cows, and bedding cows and calves. Really bad snow days meant thawing water troughs, silo unloaders, and gutter cleaners—a whole day of work. No, we wanted snow to accumulate over a week or so; the soft gentle snow, falling for days on end so school was still in session but the snow was piling up for the weekend. We wanted snow so the snowmobiles could come out of summer hibernation.

Often the first snowmobiling trip of the season was on Christmas night. My Aunt and Uncle LeJeune, and their three boys, always came for Christmas and always brought their two or three snowmobiles—Skidoos, yuck. Jovial banter about which sled was better and more reliable was always part of the trip. Our sleds were heavier than three of me and if I got that monster stuck, I wasn’t strong enough to lift it out; I was stuck.

The Christmas night ride was tradition. On a good night, we would ride for hours. I don’t remember very many rides being cancelled, despite the cold. If it was below zero, we just bundled up more and made the ride a short one. When the weather was good, and we were lucky, my dad and uncle would plan a whole day of riding for December 26. Christmas just wasn’t Christmas without the LeJeunes with us. Those three boys became my big brothers.

Snowmobiling fever really took a hold of my dad. Soon we were acquiring helmets, special gloves, one-piece snowmobile suits, and big insulated snow boots. Occasionally, in the evenings, my mom and dad would go riding with a group of neighbors. Another aunt and uncle were really into snowmobiling, and soon our two families had created a snowmobile club—the Sno Knights. We even had patches made for our snowmobile suits.

The Sno Knights would plan daylong adventures that would become vacations for our family. The day before the ride, Dad and Uncle Dave would venture into the Blue Hills of Northern Wisconsin and blaze a trail for our “vacation.” Chores were completed quickly on vacation days so that more time could be spent on the trails. Hot dogs, Shasta pop, hot chocolate, and cookies were loaded up with the firewood into our mush sled. The sled looked much like an Alaskan dog sled, but it was not nearly as lightweight. It had well built sides so two kids and supplies could be hauled easily. Trucks and trailers full of snowmobiles and accessories rolled into the Blues Hills. We kids were giddy with anticipation for the day’s ride.

The mid-day stop was a much-needed break from the trail. The fire provided an opportunity to warm up and make a hot lunch. As a young teen girl, wearing a one-piece snowmobile suit, I was quite careful about the amount of fluid consumed. Men don’t have the same bathroom issues as women wearing these one-piece straight jackets. Going to the bathroom was just one topic for complaint, and occasionally the cold was the other top area of contention. But these are not the things I choose to remember about our snowmobile vacations.

The crisp smell of snow, warmth of the sled, comfort of hotdogs and hot chocolate, banter about the best brand of sled, frozen eyelashes, cold fingers and toes, smell of snowmobile gas, drone of the snow machines, and time spent with family and friends are the things I remember. So much so, that 40 years later the smell of snow or sound of a snowmobile brings wonderful family memories flooding back to my mind, memories of a farm family’s version of a vacation. It is a reminder that as we grow our vision of our father can change. A father, who seemed to be distant, really wasn’t. He had his way of showing love for his family. My personal growth allows me to see my father more clearly.

Similarly, my growth in faith should allow me to see my Heavenly Father more clearly. My immature vision of a distant father was so wrong. He is a Father who loves me unconditionally and I don’t always understand His actions of love. I must choose to grow and mature in faith in order to see Him correctly. This is not a growth that occurs naturally as each day passes. This is a growth that only happens by choice, and each day I must make the choice to grow and mature. Will you make that choice today?

Week 1 Part III

Making 1/2 a recipe of baked goods has worked very well for the challenge so far. Items are tasted and disappearing, so today I was inspired to bake again. Admittedly, the recipe chosen for today was another simple one and it used chow mien noodles again.

Allison's Bird Nests ☆☆☆☆☆ [pg 97 HFC]
I opted to microwave the marshmallow cream, butter, and peanut butter and this worked very well. The ingredients stir together very quickly and my large cookie scoop was the perfect size to create the nests. I had only placed the peanut m&m's into two nests when I knew I had to share this with our Friday school teachers. Mrs. Flynn is looking forward to making these with the kids at the end of her bird unit.

It was hard to wait for the cookies to firm up before trying them but I resisted. Upon first bite I knew they would rank high. After my second cookie I had decided they were a five, but I had to wait for my husband to get home and give a rating. He took one bite and gave them a five. I agreed and these will most likely be made again in the near future. Thanks to my niece Allison for contributing these and at our house, the recipe will now bear her name.

Another 2011 goal

Goals: the result or achievement toward which effort is directed; aim; end.


I like New Year's goals rather than resolutions. Goals mean achievement, goals require effort, goals can be adjusted to meet the end desired. Maybe it is silly to think that resolutions will be broken but goals will be achieved, but that is what I think and so I set goals for 2011. One of those goals is the Family Cookbook Challenge and another is to minimize the things in my life.

David Bruno has offered up a "100 Things Challenge" that intrigues me. Now, I do not plan to whittle my life down to 100 things, although I do plan to read his book about his life with 100 things. No, my goal is to get rid of 100 things; actually one unnecessary thing per day for a year, so a total of 365 things.

This idea began as I took out the boxes to decorate for Christmas. Heavens to Betsy there was a lot of stuff. Did you catch that? STUFF—not treasures and mementos but stuff. The most ridiculous is the box marked "Second Christmas Tree". Years ago I had hoped to have two Christmas trees in my house, a theme tree and a family tree. That was nearly 20 years ago, and I have never had two trees in my house.  It is time to make decisions about this "stuff."

Each month I shall have a disposal day where I share with you the collection of stuff headed out the door. This will keep me accountable and maybe entertain you; possibly it will inspire you to simplify your life too. So, here are the 31 items head to a charity (or in the garbage) for this month.

1. Old Maps—Really, how long was I planning on holding on to these. Google maps and our GPS make these nothing more than a fire hazard. (yeah, I had a lot of them)
2. Manual for iLife 04-—This book is for software that is probably two versions ago, at least
3. Manual for Microsoft Office 04—Another outdated book
4. Tiered appetizer tray that has a missing piece—When I brought this item home the piece was missing. What was I thinking?
5. Huge candle holder—huge candles cost too much and reed diffusers are growing on me.
6. Photo album purchased in 2006 and has never been used—we've gone digital, duh!
7. Basket used once in 2008
8. Old apple lady figurine that was my grandmother's—a dust catcher
9. Young girl apple figurine—another dust catch formerly my grandmother's. The memories of her are in my mind and heart. I don't need them sitting on my shelf.
10. China platter I don't ever remember using or how I acquired it.
11. Glass cup thing that is a mystery. I took it because of the mystery and now it just annoys me. Bye, bye.
12. Blue bear box
13. Mama bear box—these two things were at the back of the china hutch. Pointless, yes, so adios.
14. Mystery creamer—called a creamer because it has a spout. I am not really sure what it is. (see comment on item #11)
15. Two Japanese containers with lids—these came from a Japanese exchange student we had many, many years ago. We never kept touch and these were never used.
16. Carved wooden box with all contents—mailed to a friend. This box and the contents belong to her and my mailing them to her is long overdue.
17. White dove figurine and two antique potpourri hangers—??? (That's what I thought too!)
18. All the window stickees—These were fun when the kids were little. They loved putting them in the windows and I had stickees for every holiday. Fifteen plus years later they don't stick to the windows. This one might be regretted but they are in the garbage now.
19. Architect's ruler—I had two of these. I kept one for sentimental reasons which I won't go into here.
20. Kid's Choices cards—We used to do these at the dinner table when the kids were preteens. They hated them, and I think they always answered with what we wanted to hear. They were situations like "You see a good friend shoplift. What do you do?"
21. Whole box of 2nd Christmas tree decorations—This box goes to the garage for now but kids have one month to claim stuff and then the box is gone.
22. Christmas tree topper—I admit I bought a new one I like better so not sure this counts.
23. Wooden Easter bunny I painted
24. Wooden Easter bunny my sister painted—these two items are very 90's, mauve and blue in color, they and haven't been displayed for years.
25. Half used skein of blue baby yarn
26. Seven miscellaneous cloth napkins
27. A-Z Medical Encyclopedia—Everything I might need to know is on the internet, right?
28. Electric frying pan—haven't used it in the last year and it has been well used. Hmmm, maybe this can go to the camper. (Yes, we camp where we have electricity.)
29. Glass four-cup measure with a chipped spout—found out at Christmas that this thing measures wrong.
30. A wooden howling dog. We have nothing else that is Southwestern style.
31. Two to three boxes of stuff I culled previous to my minimizing goal of 2011. I'll count them as one item.

What takes up space in your life and needs to be removed?

Week 1 Part II

The success of Barb's Roman Apple Cake yesterday has left our house without baked goods. So, today I went ahead and made another item from the cookbook.

Caramel Chews ☆☆☆☆ [page 92 HFC]
These "cookies" go together quite easily but caramels and chow mien noodles aren't considered staples in my kitchen so I would have to plan to make them. I like that the oven does not have to be heated up to make the cookies, and if a person uses a cookie scoop to actually shape them, they are really a snap to make. I opted to microwave the caramels to melt them, and it is possible the caramel mixture would have been smoother if I had melted the mixture on the stovetop. I used a quart size plastic Ziploc® bag to apply the chocolate topping (which I also melted in the microwave).

I admit to trying the cookies before they were properly chilled and then again later. They are better cold since the caramel is quite sticky at room temperature. After one bite it was apparent that this recipe should be in the miscellaneous section with other candy items.  They are particularly sweet, but that might be in part because I had a hard time determining 1.5 ounces of noodles as I had purchased a 14 oz bag of noodles vs the 3 ounce can.  Certainly, the sweetness could be diminished by adding more noodles and/or peanuts. I used store brand caramels, and I regret that. Kraft caramels are not only easier to unwrap, but they have better flavor.

Overall, I liked the chocolate topping but the caramel/noodle/peanut mixture is just so-so. The cookies have good texture but I was disappointed in the actual caramel flavor. This could be attributed to my decision to use store brand caramels. I have pondered chilling the caramel/noodle/peanut part and then dipping them in chocolate to totally cover them, but I don't really like the work of dipping stuff to get the final product. I have consumed four of these little cookies so they are certainly tasty and so I give them four stars.

Tom concurs on the four stars. He states "...I would eat them every time you made them, but they are not something you must make again."

Baking Adventure Week 1

While editing the latest edition of the Hayes Family Cookbook (HFC), I decided there are too many dessert recipes in the cookbook that our family has never tried, and I vowed to rectify that during 2011. My goal is to prepare a minimum of one dessert recipe a week and rate the recipes for future reference. Inspired by the movie Julie Julia I decided to chronicle this adventure on a blog and invite family members, and other interested parties, to follow this journey.

Today, the baking adventure begins. It has been decided to map out the month’s recipes, attach a pdf of the recipe to this blog, include a photo of the final product on the blog, and of course note the family’s final rating. Since one of my other goals for 2011 is to continue to watch my weight, each recipe will be cut in half whenever possible. It is understood this could affect final results and appropriate notations will be made in my evaluation of the recipe.

Consistent raters will include hubby Tom (my faithful husband and dishwasher), Lynsey (lovely daughter and self proclaimed procrastibaker), Jason (newest addition to the family and accomplished cook), and myself. Occasional raters will include Nathan (our fine son and biweekly dinner guest) and Laurie (Tom’s sister and another biweekly dinner guest). So here we go!

Barb’s Roman Apple Cake ☆☆☆☆☆ [pg 99 HFC]

Occasionally, we have one apple that seems to be left in the fruit bowl, as if no one wants to take the last one. This recipe is simple to throw together, as all the ingredients are staples in a baker’s kitchen, and about six people can share that one apple. (That is assuming you make ½ the recipe as I did.)

In lieu of the 13 x 9 pan I used this heart shaped pan. I imagine one 8" or 9" round cake pan will also work. The heart shaped pans have been around the house for some time and this seemed a good reason to use one; start the year with some "love" baking.

It is recommended this cake be served warm with ice cream or whipped cream, but I chose to taste the warm cake without these toppings. My first reaction is that this is a cake to be served with coffee, making it a coffee cake, I guess. It is fairly rich as the amount of cake is about equal to the amount of apple and topping. I give it five stars out of five and determine it well worth making again, particularly if we have company for breakfast. (I am thinking morning after the wedding. k) Tom says "... served with ice cream it is a total five."