Daring Kitchen: March Challenge

I decided I need to start participating in the Daring Kitchen/Daring Bakers monthly challenges once again.

The Daring Kitchen challenge for March due the 14th! Anyone out there want to join me?

Daring Bakers September?

Oops.

Yeah, I opened up the challenge long enough to see gluten free crackers and shut the window immideately.

September has sucked ass. Not because it is the busiest time of my work year either, I’ve just been way in over my head.

I guess I’ll see all you Daring Bakers in October.

Randomments

I hate putting new posts up when it is a Daring Bakers reveal weekend, especially over Labor Day weekend. People will be flocking to my blog and not able to find the post hidden below. So I shall include it here just in case: Daring Bakers August Challenge: Chocolate Éclairs

Mark and I saw two funny, funny movies this weekend: Tropic Thunder (Tom Cruise dancing ranks second pnly to Tuggernauts ringtone.) And HAMLET 2 where of course *Rock Me Sexy Jesus* is still running through my head “Slam bam spank you maam.”

Do you see what I see? The Burchfield Penney Art Center is looking good!

Hmmm. Confused how my Daring Bakers post is worthy of WNYM twittering, but ok! (Update: I guess this post is too? WNYM how are you choosing which Buffalo Blogger posts to put on your Twitter feed?)

I haven’t had one of these in a long, long time. Good thing I corrected that this weekend. My God I love them so.

I had my first nosebleed EVER in 35 years. I woke up, felt the running faucet drip, reached for a tissue and it was covered with blood. BLOOD! Scared the hell out of me. No idea why it happened, but I’ve been hesitant to use my nasal spray for allergies all weekend.

Not happy there’s a lawn sign in the wee lawn in front of my house. I’m a renter. Mark and I both are unable to vote in this particular primary (silly people, Republicans in Buffalo don’t do primaries and Mark is an Indie.)  My landlady lives upstairs and put it out there. Grrrr.

I washed that grey right out of my hair this weekend, loving the dark brown again.

Read sTORI telling while at B&N this weekend, not sure if I want to admit this and add it to the list of books read this year or not.

I’m not a fan of This American Life. And I think I should be but I just can’t stand the quirky background music in between the storytelling, it drive me NUTS. However, hearing the name Phil Collins made me listen to this repeat while it was on the air.

I LOVE buying presents at Treehouse. The colored ribbon makes me happy.

OLD! While driving home from a late evening over the weekend I passed through the intersection of Allen and Elmwood. The time was nearly 1 am and I realized just a few short years ago, that I would just be HEADING OUT AT THIS HOUR instead of going home. (Buffalo Bars, 4 am closing time.) And the girls, they looked so young…

In retrospect, I’m really, really, really glad that I didn’t choose the Action Figure JESUS doll to include as the *wedding shower gift* that started with the first letter of my name. The shower for my friend was thrown at a church by her future mother-in-law who led us in prayer before lunch. I chose wisely with a travel journal. (Mark recommended Jenga, which could not be found on Elmwood Strip. Or a joke book. Or a juggling set—we were in Treehouse shopping.

Upon entering the Lexington Co-op this afternoon the first thing I saw was CONCORD GRAPES. And they taste soooooo goooooood. Just like home. Welcome Fall!

YOUR TURN! If you’re reading this post…leave a randomment in my comments below!

Daring Bakers August Challenge: Chocolate Éclairs

Welcome to the Smith Sisters 3rd Daring Bakers Challenge! Chocolate Desserts By Pierre Hermé: Chocolate Éclairs. Click here for the entire Daring Bakers Blogroll.

Note to self: If you choose to do your Daring Bakers Challenge the first week it comes out, make sure to blog about it right away. My memory is lacking, so I shall try to the pictures do the talking.

The beginning. See, that was easy! Ok. I remember being excited about this recipe because I already had everything I needed to make eclairs, so I did them right away.

The first step was making the Pâte à Choux (cream puff dough.) LOTS OF EGGS. And I love the part in the recipe where it clearly states I should be using *a stand mixer* to finish this recipe “ or if you still have the energy, continue by hand.”

Cream Puff Dough

• ½ cup whole milk
• ½ cup water
• 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the
boil.

2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.

3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your
handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time,
beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough. You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.

So now, I’m supposed to take this luscious dough and pipe it from a bag. My bag was limp and pathetic and made rows that were too thin, so I tried to double up. Won’t do this next time.

Chocolate Éclairs

• Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by
positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with
waxed or parchment paper.

2) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough. Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers. Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.

3) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Yep! They came out and SMELLED SO GOOD. And tasted really good too, although I thought they were a little *eggy* which to me was a good thing. I imagined putting sausage and cheese and egg on these little puffs of goodness another day…

They did go a little flat in cooling, but I think this was more because of the thin layers I made rather than the jumping up and down in my kitchen over the success of making my first Pâte à Choux.

Now this is where it became a little much for me. And I should have known. HOLY CHOCOLATE. So much chocolate. TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE. I’m not the hugest fan of chocolate and I think the next 27 steps were chocolate overload for me.

Again, lots of eggs. Long process. But OH MY GOD WAS IT WORTH IT. Very tasty. My pastry creme turned out perfect. And I somehow had a lot left over…

Chocolate Pastry Cream

• 2 cups whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
• 7 oz bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
• 2½ tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.  In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled.  Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it  remains smooth.

5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

Last step, chocolate glaze…

Chocolate Glaze

• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 3½ oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 tsp unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
• 7 tbsp Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.

2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Chocolate Sauce

• 4½ oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup crème fraîche, or heavy cream
• 1/3 cup sugar

1) Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly.  Then reduce the heat  to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.

2) It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

And now, assembly!

Assembling the éclairs:

• Chocolate glaze
• Chocolate pastry cream

1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.

2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40
degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of
the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the
bottoms with the pastry cream.

3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.

WALLA!!! A ridiculously rich chocolate confection. Far too much so for my liking, but the Mark seemed to eat the rest of them without a problem.

I will certainly use again with modifications. Both the Pâte à Choux and the Chocolate Pastry Cream were amazingly delicious.

Hey good lookin!

What’cha got cookin?

Originally my plan was to go to Rochester. I went last weekend on Saturday but this weekend Mark had to work a shift at the RMSC on Sunday so he planned on spending the night. Again, oh how I needed a weekend like this…maybe 2 more weekends off and I will be refreshed?

So what did I do? A whole lot of stuff and nothing much. The one thing I did not want to do was be social. I felt very icky and itchy on Friday night with my allergy attack coming out of nowhere and not being prepared with the meds in the cabinet made me super grumpy. As if I haven’t been grumpy enough.

Saturday was better after a super long sleep.

I made a ridiculously hardy breakfast. SCALLIONS EVERYWHERE! And caught up on tons and tons and tons of blog feeds I had just sitting around. Did a little blogging (as you might have noticed.) Did a *very* little bit of cleaning. Played with the kitties and listened to the rhythm of the falling rain.  I do love the rain.

Oh and later? I made chocolate chip bar cookies.

Mmmm. I love bar cookies. My mommy used to make the Toll House Bar Cookies all the time. I admit I enjoy the bar cookies more than regular little chocolate chip rounds. Heartier or something. Plus, it takes less time in the kitchen and they never burn! I’ve altered the recipe on the bag a year or so ago and now I use 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup regular. Oh my GOODNESS I love them so.

I ended the evening with a whole lot of Teevee. The Princess Diaries, I never saw it before. Too cute! And some God awful show on MTV called “Engaged and Underage” had a marathon. Um, yeah enough said. I also flipped to “I Love Money” on VH1 because you know all those Bret’s Babes are on this stupid show. I guess I should have read but then The Fresh Prince of Bel Air came on and well…

Carleton is such a charmer! I love him. Such a crush on this character (as you can imagine.)

Somewhere into the 4th or 5th episode I fell asleep…woke up around 4 am and went to bed.

Sunday came around. And I chose to pretend it didn’t…I think I got out of bed around 12:30 or so? Very needed. Made breakfast and headed into the kitchen to work on my Daring Bakers August Challenge. WHICH WORKED OUT VERY WELL (and you will have to wait until August 30th for the big reveal!) I’m pretty sure I’ll be doing this one again in the next week or so with my own twists and turns. Mmmm!

And then some more of the same and more of nothing.

I made Garlic Chicken Broccoli pasta for dinner. So fresh and sooooooooooooo delicious.

And so easy. (And soooooooooo much left over for the week!)

I  cut up 3 chicken breasts into pieces and baked them in the oven with salt, pepper, garlic and onions. Tossed a bunch of tri-colored pasta with a drizzle of olive oil, tons of garlic and scallions and salt and pepper. And then steamed some broccoli and cherry tomatoes with again garlic and scallions…and mixed it all together into one delicious, fresh treat. Oh wait, I added mozzarella cheese too.

Yum!

God it’s been a while since I spent anytime cooking in the kitchen. Where have I been?

And now? It’s almost Monday…time to start another busy week with something to do after work every.single.night. Bah.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

What did YOU do this first weekend of AUGUST? (Almost fall! Almost FALL! ALMOST FALL!)

Daring Bakers July Challenge: Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

Welcome to the Smith Sisters 2nd Daring Bakers Challenge! Hosted by Chris of Mele Cotte. Click on the picture below to find the entire Daring Bakers Blogroll! (Question for the seasoned DBers, how on earth do you choose which blogs to browse? So very very very many people and only 24 hours in a day!) If I must recommend one other roundup besides the Smith Sister listed above, I’d check out Sass and Veracity. I love her, Sass and Veracity! And holy hell what a gorgeous cake she made!

July Challenge: Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream from Great Cakes by Carol Walter.

Oh boy. A cake a cake a cake a cake! I wanted a cake! Wait, a Gateau is a cake right?

What I didn’t want was this many pages of instructions! The recipe itself wasn’t exactly easy to follow. Not a fan. For example in order to make Praline Buttercream you need.

Praline Buttercream
1 recipe Swiss Buttercream
1/3 cup praline paste
1 ½ – 2 Tbsp. Jamaican rum (optional)

(See other recipes that follow for Swiss Buttercream and Praline Paste. Grrrr.)

Anyhow, I wanted to make this cake as close as I could to the letter, but I didn’t have a food processor and knew I needed one for this recipe.And I couldn’t find a 10″ pan anywhere, but in this package of Springform pans. I know so sad right? These challenges are helping me outfit my kitchen as a Proper Baker! Of course having a KITCHENAID MIXER would help the most, but you know…

Other items I purchased, a teeny tiny bottle of Grand Mariner and a small bottle of Dark Jamaican Rum.

And the other URGENT item needed to complete this challenge?

I had a raincheck from Target for $79.99. DO YOU KNOW WHAT JULY IS LIKE IN WESTERN NEW YORK? How about 90 degrees and 90% humidity? I would not have started this cake without, finally, finding a wee air conditioner (small enough to go room to room with me.)

Now. Ingredients.

(Note Lil Bear Ron Hawkins iPod and penguin speakers, very important to have good music while baking!)

And beer.

The toasted hazelnuts smelled SO GOOD. I didn’t go crazy and shell my own I bought a giant bag of chopped ones. Cheating? Maybe, I dunno

First time playing with clarified butter.

And oh how light and fluffy and wonderful my batter turned out!

I added Orange Zest instead of Lemon Rind since I used orange marmalade and mandarin oranges on top AND IT SMELLED LIKE HEAVEN! (I made the mistake last month of baking my danish braid while cooking other things. I wanted to reap the rewards of the smells this time, so I only made the cake.)

In the oven it went. Unfortunately, halfway through baking I smelled something burning.  Putting the pan on the lower 3rd of the oven was a BAD IDEA. Next time I will trust my judgment and put it in the middle. I feared the burning smell was the cake. I had maybe 10 minutes left but chose to take the cake from the oven and take a knife to the sides to make sure it wasn’t sticking. It wasn’t. But I think it made the fluffy love fest a little flat.

The 10′ pan already made my cake thin, but after it went flat? I had no choice but to half it in order to get layers. My folding of the nut mixture into the amazingly light and wonderful batter was nowhere near a fold but a plop and stir. Bet this had something to do with my flat cake but really, how the heck are you supposed to fold nut gook into layers of heavenly smelling batter? Oh wait. I goofed. I added the butter to the nut mixture and then tried to fold! (Just rereading now, it was very late when I was baking this!!! 2am methinks? OOPS!)

Anyhow, here’s the cake. It sat in my refrigerator for a few days.

A FEW DAYS LATER! Must finish last steps.

I mixed together the Swiss Buttercreme, which smelled delicious and was fluffy and wonderful. No problem with it turning out. I ended up licking the beaters. MMMM!

On to the praline paste, the brittle was easy to make. It formed a nice powdery mixture.

I mixed all the other sauces: the orange marmalade and water, the sugar syrup and the chocolate ganache and was ready to assemble. Of course I went in order and made each step not realizing I was supposed to make the chocolate AFTER the cake was in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Praline Dust (not paste) added to Swiss Buttercreme= Praline Buttercreme! Walla!

This is what my half cake looked like after layering the buttercreme and throwing the orange marmalade on top. Mmmm. Did I mention the buttercreme is rumaliciously delicious? 

The recipe now suddenly calls for layers of whipped cream on top of the buttercreme, but since the recipe for whipped creme was not included in the many, many little recipes I chose to opt out. Besides, I didn’t buy enough cream!

Cake in the fridge for 30 minutes…but my chocolate ganache was already mixed and waiting! Would it last the 30 minutes? Ok, more like 20 who am I kidding?

Time to pour! Again, I was impressed it turned out shiny and exactly as it should! My only oops happened because I was impatient (me, never!) and instead of letting the cake cool, I decided to decorate while the chocolate was still drippy. Um, I didn’t take a picture of that mess! And no, you don’t want to see the back side of the cake where my oranges and creme sllllllid down the side. I tried to make it look pretty anyhow, and this is what I came up with. I should have attempted the pasty bag and piping, I just ran out of time and whimped out. Ashamed, yes.

A half hearted decorated-Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercreme.

Actually, despite the few goof ups, I really enjoyed making this cake and I will certainly try it again sometime.

Verdict? Delicious! I only had a few bites but the texture of the gateau and the smoothness of the buttercream really, really, really goes well together! Mark enjoyed it. I caught him with a 2nd piece shortly after the 1st! My few bites had a *kick* to it though, maybe too much alcohol? (I think it’s in 4 different parts of the recipe and anyone who knows me knows I’m generous with the pour.) Mine was certainly an adult cake.

Next time?

I will use two 8″ pans instead of one.

I will add additional layers of the orange marmalade and one of Nutella.

And I will actually try to DECORATE the cake with a pastry bag.

Delicious cake! (And oh, so many eggs! My God how I love eggs, but I was in awe with how many were used.)

After reading though challenges I’ve learned something new and found myself surprised that hazelnuts in many places are hard to find and very expensive. The one vanilla bean I used last month was pricier than my large bag of chopped hazelnuts. And this is a nut I use quite frequently in recipes too, I adore them and thank God I live somewhere they are within my budget and reach. I grew up with a hazelnut tree (we called it our treehouse it was more of a large, sturdy bush) in the backyard, realizing far too late in my childhood that the nut was so much more than something to throw at my brother. 

Oops, one last oops. I just read “Refrigerate uncovered for 3-4 hours to allow the cake to set. Remove the cake from the refrigerator at least 3 hours before serving.” Um yeah, didn’t do that. Oops.

And now for the recipe: (Any items in bold were mentioned in my post…)

Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

From Great Cakes by Carol Walter

Daring Bakers June Challenge: Danish Braid

Welcome to AllThingsJennifer’s very first Daring Bakers Challenge. Hosted by Kelly of Sass & Veracity, and Ben of What’s Cookin’?

June Challenge: Danish Braid

Holy heck? DANISH BRAID? What’s a danish braid and how on earth am I going to make this beast!!!

Yeah, that’s what I thought when reading through the recipe. Laminated dough? Detrempe? Beurrage? I don’t understand, how am I going to do this folding thing? And the braid? And do you know how much vanilla beans and cardamom cost? Oy! (How did I ever dream I could be a pastry chef when I know so very, very little!)

Breathe…breathe...

Oh wait, there’s a video of the *turning* process.

And while Wegmans offered me a single vanilla bean for the cost of $10.50 the Lexington Co-op had 2 available for that price. Heck, I’ll splurge it’s my first challenge. And the Co-op always offers spices by bulk so I bought only one serving of cardamon for $.40. Not too bad.

I started my challenge after many, many other Daring Bakers did and I reaped the rewards of their questions and trials and tribulations reading through the message boards. THANK GOD. The braiding process made much more sense after seeing photos.

I was also glad I waited because my sister-in-law Dayna started her first challenge as a Daring Baker with me on the same day. Of course neither of us had a clue even after reading the recipe multiple times each, how long it would take us to complete!

While I was out fetching spices Dayna emailed me and said…

“HOLY CRAP – This dough smells amazing…It is like Orange Julius in my kitchen!”

Of course, mine did not smell like Orange Julius in my kitchen. But that’s a different story. Let’s start at the very beginning. Shall we?

Martha Saturday!!!

Welcome Saturday!

I’ve been waiting for you all week.

Aside: Why do I not have a mug of java in my hand when typing this? One moment please. Be right back.

Ok coffee brewing. B1G1F Eight O’Clock French Vanilla in fact. I do love TOPS for their sales. Last night I went to TOPS only to pick up B1G1F Blueberries, Coffee, Arnold Whole Grain Bread and a $30 huge jug of olive oil that was 50% off which I scored for $15.

So anyway…tis Saturday and I’m in front of the computer with my coffee and it is already 10 am. I bid Mark farewell around 8:45 (he teaches Wing Chun every Saturday morning in Rochester and this weekend he has to work on Sunday afternoon so he’s spending the evening there with his buddy Paul and hitting up the end of the Jazz Festival.)

I have a long list of *Martha* type things planned for the next two days. I started last night with a trip to many stores including Home Depot, Dollar Store, Tops and Wegmans. Long night of shopping! Of course in order to get time to do this list of things, I had to clear my schedule this weekend. Think of a Magna Doodle filled with marvelous scribblings in every corner and then WOOSH.

Clear.

I love love love the summertime because of all the fun things to do and I’m so blessed to have many people to do things with. But sometimes I just need to be…without plans with others which is something I have a hard time doing, saying no and passing on offers. (I passed on 5 things for the weekend and only stuck with 1 which is visiting family Sunday night.) If I don’t go somewhere because other *plans* I don’t feel bad but when my other *plans* include things like I want to do this weekend, I feel like I am being rude.

Alas… and there in lies MY biggest problem. I shouldn’t feel guilty for needing time for myself.

Thank you Daily Om for the that reminder today: Recharging Your Batteries.

In time, you might notice that the reasons you feel run down have less to do with how much you are doing and more to do with the fact that in your heart, you would rather be doing something else entirely. From now on, try and listen to what your heart really wants.

And this weekend? What my heart really wants? Is to catch up on the things below that I have been meaning to do for sometime.

1. PAINTING!!! (FINALLY!!!) The middle room, the bedroom and the bathroom. I really want my house looking like MY home before all my Allegheny girls come into town for Erin’s wedding in a few weeks. Click here to see the colors Mark approved. The man at Home Depot was funny “whoa, these are a few bright ones you have here!”

2. CLEANING!!! In order to paint, I have MUCH cleaning to do in these rooms and I have to move and rearrange all the furniture.

3. BAKING!!! My first daring bakers challenge! I’m terrified and excited all at the same time! (Trust me, this is something I likely would never have attempted without a challenge.) I must succeed! Oh and I’m preparing a strawberry whipped loaf thing for the family event tomorrow night.

4. PLANTING!!! I still have my seeds waiting…poor things. My herb garden is never going to grow if I don’t plant them!

5. READING!!! I have not been reading lately, only 24 books read for the year. What the? I’m usually good for a book or two a week, at least. This weekend, I want to finish a few by my bed that I’ve started: The Tao of Writing, Eat Pray Love and Second Chance:Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower.

Big plans for only a day and a half, eh? I’ll keep ya in touch with my progress. Well, except with that Daring Bakers project, that will be revealed with all the other Daring Bakers on June 29th.

Now off the computer and on to Bidwell Park for the Farmers Market. (And the Co-op for cardamon and a vanilla bean.)

Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday!

Update: 75 degrees is pretty much a perfect summer day for me. Perfect. Sun was shining (although tis not as much now) and there was a wee breeze. Lovely. No need for an air conditioner. 80 is about my breaking point before I get whiny.

Bought apples and strawberries at the farmers market. And decided never ever to go out to Bidwell Park again before eating breakfast or lunch because smelling that DELICIOUS Chiavettas BBQ CHICKEN they were selling had me practically on my knees begging. (The line was kinda long…I passed.)

One more picture and then I’m off.

Daring Bakers

Oh my goodness.

I don’t subscribe to nearly enough blogs. More baking blogs needed. More cooking blogs needed. More reading blogs needed. More writing blogs needed. More philanthropy blogs needed. More crafty blogs needed. More green blogs needed. More fit/eat healthy blogs needed. More political blogs needed. More more more. (And yet I hardly keep up with my 138 feeds as it is!)

As it is, I go in phases with the blogs I do have in my reader.

Now with that said, look what I just found and sigup to be a part of…

DARING BAKERS

MMMMMMMMM. THIS is going to be FUN! DARING BAKERS.

To give you just a bit of a history lesson, the idea for the The Daring Bakers was born in November of 2006 when Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice decided to challenge themselves by baking pretzels for the very first time using the same recipe. They each went ahead and posted about it.

Having enjoyed that experience tremendously, they decided to try it again in December, this time choosing to bake biscotti. And to make matters even better, they were joined by a few more food bloggers.

As the months went by, their baking group continued to grow, until it was finally decided that this “little baking group” had to have a name. And The Daring Bakers were born!

Hello, Mothership. Sure I’ll jump aboard. Yes indeed…I think I’m being called home… ANYONE OUT THERE READY TO JOIN ME? I see Stephanie is already a member. And B.A. Gourmet. (Like I said, I’ve been away from the food/baking blogs as of late.)

It was stumbling across this picture from Mimi on the Move and her Cheesecake Pops that made me dig deeper.