Sticks in the Mud

As I begin my 4th decade of life (cough, choke, what? 30 this year?), I hope all my family and friends are healthy and happy.

Alan and I wrote out our resolutions and took a moment to contemplate our existence. When you are comfortable and happy it is hard to think of things to improve. But it also important to be truly honest about whether YOU are happy. I spent a good part of my life not taking care of myself and I often did not fill my proverbial bucket. You can bet that I work hard at filling my own bucket now and I will work at overflowing Alan's bucket.

Alan, my best friend, I love you!

Cheers to you and yours.

(photo of Alan and me by K. Huck, used without asking his permission) ;)

It is Wednesday and I still haven't done my homework. Ugh. Instead, we went out to dinner with friends, fed the sour starter, and made butterscotch sticky buns... mmm. The recipe made the cover of Food & Wine, January 2010 so of course when I saw it in the store I had to buy it and try them out.

You eat them warm from the oven and drenched in the delicious gooey sauce. Oh man! With a whole batch it really is sad that it is only Alan and me here to enjoy them warm. Of course I have pictures on a vintage cake stand for you to drool over.

We have had a lovely holiday this year. Thanks Ken and Paula for all the treats and very generous gift. Thanks to Grandma Roma too!

Brian and Shirley, thanks for the cookbook. You definitely know me!

Dearest Kirbie, I hope you and the family have a nice holiday. We will enjoy Powell's. I hope you get the treats before they are too stale.

Mom, take care of yourself. Zack, I miss you!

Grandma, stay warm.

To our friends as far away as Barcelona, close in Seattle and San Francisco, up the road in Leaburg and Silverton, or on the move caring for family in Oregon and California, we miss you all. Cheers!

This recipe contains no refined sugar. The sweetness comes from molasses and pure maple syrup.

Here they are one of my cake stands. I have collected quite a bit of nice hobnail pieces and other cake stands. I hope to get a picture of the entire collection soon so you can all see it.

The cupcakes tasted pretty good. They weren't too sweet. I even got to candy little carrot slices in maple syrup to decorate the tops.

Ok, I do know where I got these photos but I don't have time to label each one. I can say it is a combination of Utterly Engaged, Green Wedding Shoes, Once Wed, Style me Pretty, 100 Layer Cake, the Knot, and more.

I will be making the cupcake tonight so photos of those soon.

Colors are:

We are in Eugene on holiday break. We have made some treats, wrapped presents, and watched a few classics (Love Actually, Scrooged). I have a couple more movies I want to watch (It is a Wonderful Life, Serendipity, Sabrina) and I also want to sleep more too.

Wedding planning is slow going, the list is getting longer as the day gets closer. Decor to figure, photographer to find, toasting sets to drool over... I will try and post some pictures of inspiration tomorrow. And tomorrow I will either make sticky buns or cupcakes... what is your vote?

Time is a funny thing. When you are bored with something, it seems to go on forever. When you are in a groove and are liking the situation, there is suddenly no time at all.

I went to school early again. My new bud Amanda joined me so it was nice. We had the entire back kitchen to ourselves. It was so cool! 12 burner gas stove, the 4 deck oven, industrial mixers, bowls, ingredients, everything and we didn't have to wait on other students for the salt. No one kept opening the oven and screwing up the temperature. I was able to really concentrate. We talked about our homework too. One question was about what needed a higher temperature of oil to fry correctly. You have two batters of yeast-donuts of equal fat but one with higher sugar content. It was cool to hear her reasoning and then explain mine and then between the two of us we figured it out.

It was nice to catch up. I made my coconut macaroons and by golly, they checked out perfect. It is so satisfying to understand the process and just do it. I pulled them out of the oven and when I cracked the crust, just knew that it was right.

I also measured out my ingredients for scones and lemon pound cake. For the scones internal garnish, I decided to use chunks of candied ginger, a little bit of sliced, roasted almonds, and top it with a cream wash and turbinado sugar. Mmmm. We cleaned up our kitchen and went to class happy as peaches...

Well, funny how life works out. Chef also wanted us to do a few other things too. Today was crepe, beignet, and corn muffin day. Yes folks, 5 recipes scaled, mixed, and baked off. I had 2 ready to mix but the crepe and beignets were more important today because the crepe batter was mixed up and had sat the right amount of time and the oil was set up and at the right temperature to fry the eclair paste/pate a choux for the beignets.

I decided to compromise because I realize that I am still not fast enough to do it all (no one in the class is). I decided to bake off one of my pre-scaled formulas (lemon pound cake) and then work on the pate a choux for the beignets, and then, if time permitted, I would practice my crepes. I will bake off my scones and measure out and bake my corn muffins after break.

Meanwhile, I managed to fold my coronets, all 12 from one sheet of parchment perfectly, check. Coconut macaroons, perfect, check. Oatmeal raisin baked last night, bad. Grr. Overdone again. This time Chef let me use the pre-scooped, community dough to try again. My advice, take them out when the don't look done. Seriously, it works out in the end because they still cook on the pan. I finally took them out when I didn't think they were done and they turned out. Check!!! Third time is a charm.

I have made pate a choux/cream puffs before but as I have found with most of my classmates, that means nothing here. You could have made a hundred biscuits a day for 2 years straight and you still don't have it right. I was nervous. I didn't want to be the person who boasted and then bombed. I read the formula, measured everything twice, and checked my temperature often. My dough turned out the right texture and color but the true test is in the frying. Does it puff and do you get nice holy, fried nuggets of goodness? You bag your dough with a #826 star tip, stand over the hot oil (360 degrees), press out a consistent 2 1/2" piece of dough, snip it with your scissors, and repeat until you have a few in the oil. Then you watch them fry. It goes pretty fast and you know right away if your dough is a success or not. Mine puffed up and browned, I couldn't believe it. I made about 10 pieces and was able to get 3 of them checked off as a successful skill. I watched people tonight stand at that fryer with their entire bag of dough and still not have a single piece that was correct. It is crushing.

My lemon pound cake looked done so I pulled it out to let it cool. It was too close to the end of the skill check time though so I knew I had missed the window for it to be tested. I was pretty bummed but Chef just told me to freeze one loaf of it and she would test it after break. So it wasn't a total waste.

I didn't have much time left so I didn't practice the crepes. I did get to bring some batter home so I can practice. It is pretty tough to get it evenly thick, very blonde in color, no crispy edges, and circular. Some of my class mates got pretty good at it by the end of the night though.

Any who... The time is flying by and my brain is overwhelmed with info and my shoes are covered in flour. I am used to taking things out to the oven with my short towels. I was so afraid of using them instead of oven mitts. Now I don't even notice. Alan and I are definitely not craving any sweets. I have so much left over. I am oozing sweets here. Won't anyone visit? ;)