Author Archives: Kris Baker

Food Friday – His and Hers Valentine Treats

10 Friday Feb 2017

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Every parent has experienced that helpless feeling when a child is sick and there is really nothing you can do to make them feel better; you are left at the mercy of time and medication.  Who knew that that feeling is almost the same when your blogging buddy has been sick for going on two weeks!  Tracey has strep so is not baking this week.

Our plan was to share Valentine’s Day treats chosen by our favorite Valentines for today’s.  Needless to say, Jeremy is not getting a Valentine treat today  Right now, despite the fact that according to the Care Bears “sharing is caring,” I’m thinking that he is hoping that Tracey does not share strep with him! 🙂  Hopefully she’ll be able to work her recipe into another post sometime before Valentine’s Day 2018!

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My husband’s one major shortfall is that he does not like chocolate if any way, shaoe, or form, in baked goods.  No chocolate cake, no chocolate chip cookies, no chocolate croissants.  He likes his “brownies” and his wife the same way…blonde. 🙂  As a Valentine’s Day treat, Weber asked me to make King Arthur Flour’s Crazy Blonde Brownies.  (The brownies and I only share the blonde part, not the crazy! :-))  I agreed to make these for him not because I love Blondies, but because I love him…a little more than I love chocolate.

This recipe seems a little odd both in its process and its ingredients, particularly, like with last week’s crumpet recipe,  the use of baking powder.  As I do most of the time when trying a new recipe, I followed the instructions exactly as written.  Though I was a little skeptical, I stayed the course.  I’m happy to say that the Crazy Blonde Brownie recipe actually works quite well.

The Crazy Blonde Brownies batter uses a mixture of whole wheat and all-purpose flour – heavier on the whole wheat.  This makes its consistency more like cookie dough rather than traditional brownie batter.  Once this basic very thick batter is mixed, you “personalize” it by adding your choice of nuts and chips.  I used pecans and Hersheys sea salt caramel chips.  Again, these were the recipient’s request.  I pressed the batter into the pan rather than pouring it.  That should tell you a lot about this batter’s consistency.  Still unsure if this recipe was going to work, I put the brownies in the oven for 35 minutes and hoped for the best.

I am pleased to report that the recipe worked perfectly and Mr. I Don’t Like Chocolate in My Baked Goods loved the Crazy Blonde Brownies.  I was happy to make them for him, but looking at a 9×13 pan of blonde brownies on the kitchen counter just made me want chocolate brownies.

So I made King Arthur’s Fudge Brownies.

These are these “real brownies” filled with “real” brownie chocolaty goodness, thanks to Double Dutch Dark cocoa and semi-sweet chocolate chips.  They also have espresso powder and two tablespoons of freshly brewed coffee.  I don’t care how delicious a blonde brownie recipe may be, there is no comparison between them brownies that contain chocolate and coffee!  The Fudge Brownie recipe is so easy, no unusual ingredients or techniques required. Just mix it up, bake, COOL, and eat!!!  These are very moist and gooey brownies.  They need to cool completely before cutting.  I actually put mine in the fridge to help them set.

Now I have a pan of blondies and a pan of decadent brownies in the kitchen…well minus a little of each that Weber and I sat down and enjoyed together.  If only the solution to all differences of opinion were so simple!

Bake something special for someone this week – a spouse or partner, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor…or, be bold and bake for a stranger.  The world needs a little more kindness, especially right now.

Find a way to share some love!

Crazy Blonde Brownies

Fudge Brownies

Tuesday In Texas – Sticking To It

07 Tuesday Feb 2017

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January, with its renewed energy and personal goal setting, not to be confused with New Year’s resolutions, has come and gone.  Also gone is that clean slate that marks the beginning of a new year.  With February comes the inevitable reality check.  How am I doing with working toward meeting the year’s goals that I set?  How am I maintaining motivation?  To who or what I am accountable?

I am a writer.  I don’t mean a creative writer, but one who has to write down everything or in my head it isn’t real; it doesn’t happen; it simply doesn’t exist.  For the second year in a row, I am using an Erin Condren planner to keep my life real…and organized.  I laughed at myself when I switched to this particular planner last year in mid year.  Normally I am one who likes things plain and simple.  Give me a calendar with the dates and a place to write down all the things I need to remember.  That’s all I need.  I don’t want anything cutesy.  No frilly designs or motivational quotes.  I want function.   The Erin Condren planner has the function I like, but it also has bright colors and just a few of those motivational sayings.  I could forgive it that. 🙂  It served me well last year.  Not only did I use it for all of my personal appointments and obligations, I also kept notes on my daily class lectures in it is well.  This system worked well for me.  Last fall, I ordered a 2017 Erin Condren planner.

Towards the end of last year, I discovered that there is a whole, almost cult-like, following around these planners.  At the center of this lifestyle seems to be the worship of stickers and the ritual of placing these stickers in your planner to make it cute, colorful, motivational, themed pieces of art.  Form was now on equal footing with function. Surprisingly, I found this all kind of fascinating.

Over the Christmas break, with my 2017 planner still in its shipping box waiting to be freed on January 1, I made the mistake of “just looking” on Etsy at what kinds of stickers were available for these planners.  Oh my goodness!  The better question is what kinds aren’t!  After scrolling through some ridiculous number of pages of all kinds of stickers, I was overwhelmed and gave up looking.  And then I remembered the funny stickers with saying about coffee.  And the ones that were little tiny coloring blocks that would be relaxing and a short diversion on my lunch break at school.  And the one’s that you filled in your weight so you could monitor your progress (or lack thereof) throughout the year.  And the one’s with daily affirmations to which I could actually relate…

I joined the cult.  I ordered some stickers.

When my stickers came in the mail, I tossed them in the box with my virgin 2017 planner.  January 1, 2017 came and went and both my planner and the stickers remained untouched.  At first I attributed this to the fact that I had not gone back to school yet and living by my planner is a “work” thing and I wanted to savor every moment of my vacation.  I know. I know that’s not true; so what was the real reason that I was avoiding using my new planner?  As stupid as thins sounds, I wasn’t using it because I didn’t want to “mess it up.”  What if I put the wrong sticker in the wrong place?  What if what I needed to write down didn’t fit because I where I placed a sticker.  What if my planner was not a work of art?  Good grief!  This was crazy thinking!!!

So what does my ridiculous perfectionist behavior have to do with meeting goals, maintaining motivation, and accountability?  Well, my planner now helps me with each of those things.

While I was ordering stickers, I ordered a page covered with little tiny runners and a set that contained the training routine for each day of Couch to 5K.  While I was not using my planner, I also was not putting in miles on the treadmill.  That was a goal I had set for myself.  In mid-January, when my spring semester started, I broke out my new planner, my running shoes, and all those stickers that I bought.  And just like a toddler who gets a gold star for good behavior, I get to stick a sticker each day that I run.  There is something motivational about seeing the rainbow of little runners appear across the week in my planner.  And last week, I got to start sticking the Couch to 5K stickers.  I have not completely overcome my fear of “mis-placing” a sticker.  Though I did complete week one of Couch to 5K, I didn’t stick all of the Week One stickers just in case I had to stay at that level for a second week.  I wanted my stickers to correctly reflect what I had actually done.  I am happy to report that I have had a successful start to week two with its incremental increase so I now feel confident sticking my remaining week one stickers.  Go ahead.  Laugh.  You are laughing with me.  You don’t have to tell me how crazy this sounds.  I am well aware!

For me, the ability to maintain my motivation comes from being consistent.  Whether its running, my commitment to a photo a day, writing blog posts, doing laundry, or grocery shopping, I need consistency.  I need to do things at the same time, on the same day each week, and in the same way whenever possible.  If I write things down at their time, on their day every week, things get done.  And I then know where I can squeeze in those unplanned activities.  Yes, I am a creature of habit.  For me, this consistency creates stability and security, not monotony and boredom.  Apparently I am a toddler at heart.

To whom or to what am I accountable concerning continued work toward my goals?  The realistic answer is that I am accountable to myself; however, I feel accountable to my planner.  Lol!  When I don’t see those stickers of accomplishment, I feel the need to do better.  I will do better.

I can control myself – my behavior and my attitudes…nothing more and no one else. I take control of those things that are mine to own – setting my own goals, figuring out my own plan to meet them, creating motivational strategies that work for me no matter how silly they may sound to others, and writing things (or sticking things) in my planner to keep me organized and accountable.

How are you doing with the goals that you set for yourself for 2017?  What is keeping you motivated?  Do you need accountability?  How do you feel about stickers?

Crumpets

04 Saturday Feb 2017

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from Kris B.

This is diet week here…only one recipe.  🙂

Tracey has been really sick this week and is feeling pretty lousy so she is not cooking or eating or doing much of anything right now so I am going solo today so she has time to rest and recuperate..  Hopefully she will feel well enough to share her intended recipe for today in her Monday in Michigan post next week.  Please send her some happy, healing thoughts!

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I am a fan of anything bread.  That includes the crumpet, which is probably not a household word in most U.S homes.  So what exactly is a crumpet?  The best description I have is that it is something between an English muffin and an unsweetened pancake.  English muffins and crumpets both have a texture that is full of nooks and crannies, making them perfect vehicles from butter and jam, but with the English muffins these “holes” are visible only on the inside once the muffin has been split in half.  Because crumpets are only cooked on one side, their “bubbles” tend to rise to the surface and are visible on the outside of the uncooked side. Both English muffins and crumpets are cooked in rings, making them a unifrom round size, about that of an American biscuit.  Crumpets are thinner than English muffins, more like thick pancakes,  and do not require splitting to eat.  Crumpets also have a slightly spongier texture than do English muffins, making them a nice contrast to their more familiar breakfast bread counterpart.

Now that I’ve sung the praises of crumpets in general, I’ll share my experience with the King Arthur Flour recipe.  I had never made crumpets before so I followed the King Arthur recipe blindly.  I mixed all of the ingredients called for – flour, milk, water, butter, yeast, baking powder, and salt – and then beat them vigorously for two minutes as the recipe directed. The batter then rested for an hour.

The crumpets are cooked in rings on a griddle.  The instructions call for 1/4 cup of batter to be dropped into each ring.  My batter was extremely “elasticy,” and was more like dough than batter. When dropped on the hot griddle, it did not spread to fill the rings.  It also did not form the characteristic crumpet holes on the topas it cooked.  When all was said and done, the King Arthur Flour Crumpet recipe produced something much more like an English muffin than a crumpet.  They are flavorful and will be eaten, but disappointing in that I wanted a traditional crumpet.

I couldn’t let the fact that I had been defeated by this recipe go.  I wanted to know whether my lack of success was baker’s error or recipe error.  My first step on this quest was to read the recipe reviews onn the King Arthur website.  I almost never read reviews before I make a recipe because I want to form my own opinions based on my own experience.  As I read this recipe’s reviews, several people, many of them British, said that this recipe did not produce a traditional crumpet, though most agreed that the taste was quite acceptable.

I then researched crumpet recipes from other sources.  I was fairly certain that because my batter was more like dough that the King Arthur ratio of flour to liquid was off.  Also, none of the recipes that I encountered called for baking powder; all used soda.  After reading all of these other recipes, I am fairly certain that the use of baking powder rather than baking soda is a typo in the King Arthur recipe.  Baking soda is a hallmark ingredient of crumpets; I can’t believe that King Arthur would have intentionally written their recipe to use baking powder.

Also, the batter’s long rest time, an hour, most certainly added to it’s elasticity.

Though I readlly didn’t have time, I decided to make another batch of crumpets modifying the recipe slightly to see if I could alter my results.

  • I reduced the amount of flour from 3 1/2 cups to only 3 cups
  • I used baking soda instead of baking powder
  • I reduced the batter’s resting time from an hour to 30 minutes

These three things made a world of difference!!!  This batch was exactly right in appearance and texture.  The batter spread to fill the rings and those characteristic bubble holes rose to the top as the crumpet cooked.  These are very simple adjustments to the recipe yet they make a huge difference.

My crumpet experience ended on a happy note!

If you are looking for a change from your morning toat or English muffin, give this easy to make recipe, with the adjustments :-), a try.  Topped with some butter and your favorite jam r jelly, these crumpets are sure to be a hit.

The recipe for King Arthur Flour’s Crumpets.

 

 

 

Tuesday In Texas – A Nourishing Word, Or Two

31 Tuesday Jan 2017

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A few weeks ago Tracey wrote about her One Little Word   choice for 2017.  I am going to follow her example and share my first month’s experience with my 2017 word.  I chose the word  “nourish”  for this year.  Nourish came to me clear as could be at the end of December.  What was not so clear, was exactly why or what I was supposed to do with it.

As I responded to the initial questions posed by Ali Edwards in the January materials, I wrote that I wanted to nourish my body, mind, and spirit.  Still quite a bit of vagueness there, but in writing those words, I made a commitment to figuring out exactly why I felt so strongly called to nourishing my self, my whole self, this year.

Most of us associate the word “nourish” with food, with what we eat.  Foods are  tangible.  There are choices that are healthy and provide nutrients for our bodies and then there are those choices that aren’t so healthy, but sure do taste good.  I have one foot firmly in each of those camps!  I do cook and eat healthy meals, but I am also an avid snacker.  I snack because I think doing so provides an extra boost of energy.  I need that extra boost of energy because I don’t get enough sleep/  I don’t get enough sleep because there are so many things that I want to do…and there you see nourishing oneself goes far beyond just the food that we put in our bodies.  It is about everything that goes into our bodies, touches our bodies, surrounds our bodies.  It is about those things that feed our emotions, that stimulate us intellectually, that touch us spiritually.  We are complex machines.  Our physical, emotional, and spiritual selves do not function independently of one another.  Therefore, we must care for, nurture, and nourish each piece of our human existence.  Sounds simple, right.  🙂

So how did January go?  What did I do to makes strides toward doing a better job of nourishing my body, mind, and spirit?

I was more successful with providing my emotional and spiritual self with a healthy fare than I was with feeding my physical self.  I continue to take a photo a day and write (almost) daily morning pages.  I have started knitting again, something that I realized at the end of 2016 that I really missed last year.  These are all seemingly little things, but taken together, they keep me grounded and somewhat sane, which I consider a major feat considering the current state of affairs in this country at the moment.

I hate to say that I failed at making any positive moves toward providing nourishment for my physical self, but if I am honest, and honesty is important, I have to say that I fell way short on this aspect of caring for myself.  The good news?  February is a new month and brings with it the opportunity to start with a clean slate, with new goals, and with newly gained insight.

So, this month, I am getting physical.  I had intended to get back on the treadmill at the beginning of January.  I can list lots of “reasons” why this didn’t happen, but then I have to stop and remind myself that I really have no reasons…I have only excuses.  Yesterday, I started practicing for February.  I got back on the treadmill and started the first week of Couch to 5K.  I did a second day today!  And, I feel good!  Bring on February!  I like having concrete, measurable physical goals.  Couch to 5K is a nine week training program that prepares you to run a 5K race at the end of those nine weeks.  We’ll see how it goes.  It may take me more than nine weeks to achieve that goal.  I have an old out of shape body that quite possibly will demand two or three weeks on a level where a younger and more fit body may require only one.  That’s OK too.  Doing something is better than doing nothing.

My youngest daughter and I are doing a 5K race together at the end of February.  I agreed to do this with the stipulation that I can walk rather than run.  My normal walking pace is four miles per hour, a reasonable pace for walking so hopefully I won’t be an embarrassment to her!  If I stay on track with my training program, I may be able to run part of the race.  Again, I’ll just have to wait and see how the next four weeks go.  Walk, run, or a combination of the two…I have a goal, something to work toward, something to motivate me, something that I am excited about doing.

All that said, I do know that I also need to work on my snacking and sleeping “habits” but they are not this month’s priority.  Perhaps these things will reap some residual benefits from my running.  If that’s the case, excellent!  I certainly will not complain.  And if I still snack too much and sleep too little, I’ll concentrate on those things in March, or April, or May…I don’t say that from a place of procrastination, but from one of being realistic.  One thing I do know is that I have to be gentle with myself.  It is too easy for me to beat myself up for not reaching the unrealistic personal goals that I often set.

I am grateful to be working towards nourishing my body, mind and spirit amidst the framework of Ali Edwards’ One Little Word.  I know that I have a year to journey with my word, nourish.  I am excited to see where that journey takes me.

What can you do to nourish your body, mind, and spirit in the next month…or year?

Mix It Up Friday – January 2017

28 Saturday Jan 2017

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from Kris B.

I was happy to discover that King Arthur Flour thinks about our canine family members too!  You may remember a few years ago when there was a safety scare surrounding commercial dog food.  The brand that our dogs were eating at the time was included in the potentially harmful list.  Needless to say, we immediately started feeding them something else.  Because I cook from scratch for us, I toyed with the idea of making homemade dog food for the furry kids.  At least then I would know exactly what they were eating.  I did quite a bit of research.  It is not surprising that I found all kinds of information and opinions; much of it conflicting.  The one thing that stuck with me was that making dog food at home does not necessarily provide that right balance of nutrients for your dog.  With that, I gave up on making their daily food.  I have, however, made many homemade treats recipes.  Our dogs, like their humans, enjoyy a good snack!  The King Arthur Homemade Dog Biscuit Mix is a fantastic addition to our snack list!

The King Arthur Flour Homemade Dog Biscuit Mix contains white whole wheat, oats, brown rice flour, flax, non-fat milk, carrots, “natural flavor,” spice, and yeast.  I’m not sure what the “natural flavor” is, but I’m fairly sure that the “spice” is poultry seasoning.  I was baking the biscuits in the morning, earlier than one’s adult child gets up on her day off.  When said adult child finally arose and made her way to the kitchen, she asked, “Why are you making stuffing for breakfast?”  I laughed and then told her it was not stuffing; it’s dog biscuits.  She said that it sure does smell like boxed stuffing. lol!  She confirmed my own thoughts that I had while mixing the dough.

This mix requires that you add an egg, vegetable oil, and lukewarm water.  In addition to the mix itself, the required yeast is also supplied.  All of the ingredients are combined, either by hand, with a mixer, or on the manual setting of a bread machine, to form a smooth dough.  The instructions say that you may need to add extra flour or water.  Once mixed, my dough felt very sticky; however, I resisted the temptation to add extra flour.  Since the dough was to rest for an hour before rolling, cutting, and baking, I decided that I would add flour at the rolling stage if I thought that it was still too sticky.  I’m glad that I waited!  After the hour of resting time, the dough felt just right!  I was able to roll it and to shape the biscuits using a cookie cutter without any sticking.  Working with the dog biscuit dough was quite easy!

The biscuits bake at 300 degrees for dark biscuits or for slightly less time for lighter biscuits.  The instructions suggest consulting with your dog concerning their personal preference here. 🙂  Once baked, the biscuits should cool in the oven for several hours or overnight.  “They are done when they are dog biscuit hard.”

The King Arthur instructions say that this mix makes 16 medium sized dog biscuits.  I got fifteen bone-shaped biscuits that are slightly larger than medium sized Milk-Bones and eighteen two inch hearts.  The instructions on the box say to roll the dough into a 12’x6’ rectangle.  To me, at this size, the dough seemed way too thick.  I rolled until the dough was maybe 2/3 of an inch thick.  My finished biscuits are about the same thickness as Milk-Bones.  With three dogs, the fact that I got 33 bones from one box of mix is a bonus!

As is the case with humans and cookie dough, all three of my dogs had a bite of the dough before it was baked.  They were sold on the recipe and blanketed the kitchen floor for an hour waiting for the “cookies” to come out of the oven.  We may or may not not have waited the full amount of time suggested for the biscuits to harden.  :-/

Adidas, Piper, and Harley give the King Arthur Flour Homemade Dog Biscuit Mix four paws up!

And if you need gifts for your dog-loving friends’ fur babies, King Arthur Flour offers the Deluxe Dog Biscuit Gift Set.  It comes with two boxes of homemade dog biscuit mix, a bone shaped cutter, and a dozen paw treat bags with stickers.

 

from Tracey G

I’m always interested in alternative baking/cooking, and by that I mean, traditional foods made in different ways to accommodate one thing or another, either health issues or taste preferences.

Mixes interest me because of their ease of use, and not having to go out and purchase all the “special” ingredients separately, but of course if I had to, I would, lol. I’ve tried a few of King Arthur Flour’s Gluten Free mixes and I’ve been happy with them all. I think so far my favorite of them all has been the Yellow Cake Mix, which is funny because I don’t usually care much for yellow cake, lol. But anyway, I thought I’d try the King Arthur Flour Gluten Free Cookie Mix – and what I really liked about this cookie mix is that YOU make it what you want it to be. It comes without “mix ins” – you decide what to add. I decided on chocolate chips as they are a pretty standard cookie!

The ingredients you add to the KAF Gluten Free Cooke Mix are simple, butter (or shortening, which I used due to my cholesterol issues), an egg and water. The mixing is a little different than with standard cookie mixes, wherein you mix half of the mix and beat in the butter, then you add the egg and water and beat until fluffy. At this point you beat in the rest of the mix. Once you’ve done that you can then add 1-3 cups of whatever add-in you choose. I, as I said, added in chocolate chips, 1 cup of them. I used my cookie scoop (it’s approximately the tablespoon size) to drop the dough onto my parchment lined cookie sheet, then once you do that you are directed to gently flatten each ball with your hand.

You bake them in a 350°F oven for 10-12 minutes, just until browned. Now here’s where I had some issues, lol. The first batch I bet I baked WAY too long, they just never looked browned! Or, never looked the kind of brown I expected, and that might have something to do with using shortening instead of butter in combination with the rest of the specialty flours etc. I don’t know, but I do know that the first batch I over-baked a bit (ok, maybe a lot), but they looked just like the batches I baked for 12 minutes, lol. They are then directed to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving them to a rack to cool completely. So, I think my lesson here is 10-12 minutes is fine – even if they don’t look how you expect.

Now came taste testing time! I have to say they are really good – of course they have a different texture, sort of a “gritty” feel, for a lack of a better term, and that they became just as addictive as “normal” chocolate chip cookies, lol. I can honestly say that I highly recommend this mix, it’s full of so many possibilities – it’s a literal blank drop cookie canvas, you’re only limited by your imagination!

I must say though, I’ll be glad when they are all eaten so that temptation is gone! But… they do taste pretty good for breakfast too, because of course I’d be remiss if I didn’t try that out, you know for informational purposes…ahem…

 

 

Tuesday In Texas – The Photographer’s Dilemma

24 Tuesday Jan 2017

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I was having lunch with a friend the other day.  He mentioned that he had a cherished family photo that he wanted to hang in his home.  He also had a frame that he loved.  The problem was that the photo and the frame were not compatible as is; to use that frame, he was going to have to cut down the photo.  My friend wasn’t sure that cutting down the photo was a good idea.  He mentioned his dilemma to another friend who asked why he was worried about trimming the photo.  It was his photo and had no value to anyone but him.  If he wanted to cut it down to fit into a particular frame so that he could enjoy it, then by all means do it.  He was the only one that could and would find meaning in that photo so however he wanted it is how it should be.

This conversation between my friend and me took place during a break in a day on which I was going through box after box of papers, scrapbooks, and photos that I brought back from my parents and grandparents house.  To say that I was overwhelmed is putting it lightly.  Ninety-nine percent of the memorabilia that lay before me had absolutely no intrinsic value to me.  There were photos of people that I couldn’t identify and there is no one left who can.  I didn’t even save my own high school scrapbook so I certainly had no inclination to save my mother’s.  Newspaper clippings, programs from events that I’m sure were monumental at the time, receipts, and the list goes on…lots and lots of stuff…I was buried in it, literally and figuratively.  I needed to dig myself out.  But how?  One by one, I made sure that I put my hands and eyes on every single piece of paper that I had.  As I sat in the midst of it all feeling extremely guilty because of my strong desire to toss most of it, a most freeing realization came to me.  These are not MY memories.  If they are not my memories, they aren’t going to be girls’ memories either.  Therefore, I don’t need to keep everything.  I went through and saved pictures and a few other things for myself and for my girls, but I threw a whole lot more away.  And, I feel good about that.  I must add here that, judging by the thickness of the layer of dirt and dust on the many boxes and photo albums, no one had looked at them in many, many years.  No longer is my guest room a repository for the unnecessary, a museum that no one is going to visit.  This room is now a place where guests can actually stay and hopefully feel comfortable.

This whole experience caused me to do a hefty bit of rumination and reflection surrounding my thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Here is what I learned about myself:

I very much live in the present.  Not the past.  Not the future.

I am not a keeper or collector…of anything (except Lego mini figures.  But, I use them; they have a real and present purpose in my life.)

There are very few tangible things to which I have an emotional attachment.

Things are meant to be seen, used, and enjoyed.  They serve no purpose “saved” in boxes in a closet.

The memories that I have are the memories that I have.  Simple as that.  The few pictures and such that I saved help to spark these memories, but they themselves are not the memories.  True memories reside in our heads and hearts.

As I went through the years and years of accumulated stuf, I vowed that I was not going to leave that kind of onerous undertaking for my girls.  That is one of the reasons that I was so determined to go through all of the boxes sooner rather than later.  I did find myself wondering if someday will my children and/or grandchildren will be sitting in the middle of the floor somewhere feeling guilt about throwing my photos away?  I certainly hope not.  For a brief moment, I wondered if taking so many photos myself is a ridiculous waste of time.  I snapped out of that mode of thinking fairly quickly realizing that all of those things I mentioned above about myself those things that I mentioned above that I learned about myself also apply to me as a photographer.

I have no problem deleting photos.  I will keep only a handful, if that many, of any particular event.  This forces me to look mindfully at all of my photos and select the one that best represents my thoughts and feelings at the time.  The bottom line…I am called to make intentional choices.  And living with intention is my number one priority, not just with regard to photography, but in all aspects of my life.

So that’s my philosophical approach to this whole dilemma.

Now, let’s be practical for a minute.

I am in my fifth year of taking a photo a day.  Thus far I have taken 1,485 daily photos.  I am 55 years old.  The average life expectancy for a woman in the United States born in 1961 is 88.  That means that potentially I could have 32 more years taking of a photo a day.  That, in addition to the photos I’ve already taken means that I could end up having taken over 12,000 photos.  And that’s with keeping only one a day!  Oh, and this number doesn’t include any pictures that I took for the first fifty years of my life, as in when my girls were growing up! 🙂  Yeah, there are quite of few of those.  How realistic is it to expect anyone to keep all of these pictures?  It is not realistic at all!  These photos, for the most part are my memories.  My family should keep only the ones that have meaning for and speak to them.

I am going to keep taking a photo a day for as long as I possibly can.  It is something that I do solely for me.  I consider photography as a spiritual discipline.  Taking a photo every day invites me to see the presence of the divine in my daily life, even when that life doesn’t really feel or look beautiful.  Seeking and acknowledging daily these sometimes fleeting glimpses of beauty also brings enlightenment   I am made aware of my internal and external struggles; of people, circumstances, and things for which I am grateful; as well as of things for which I need to offer thoughts of hope and prayer.

And perhaps most importantly, photography brings me joy..

I don’t take photos hoping to impress anyone.  I have no desire to become a professional photographer.  I take pictures because I love taking pictures.  That’s it.

As the familiar mantra says, “Love what you do and do what you love.”

Thank you. I think I will.

January King Arthur Bakealong Challenge – Pizza Party Buns

21 Saturday Jan 2017

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It’s time for our post on this month’s King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge recipe, Pizza Party Buns.

At our house, pizza is usually reserved for those nights when no one feels like cooking.  If I happen to have dough in the fridge, (We are fans of Jeff Hertzenberg and Zoe Francois’ recipe in Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes A Day.) We will have homemade pizza with whatever toppings I can scrounge – vegetables from peppers to asparagus to butternut squash and/or meats of various kinds.  Sometimes I have sauce on hand and sometimes a don’t.  But I always cheese.  And when there is no dough already made, we have pizza delivered.  All this to say that pizza is most often a lazy day meal.

I was excited to try this month’s Bakealong Challenge recipe because I am good with anything that has pizza in it’s name!  I have to say this at the outset here…There are recipes that look impressive and look like they took a lot of time to prepare and didn’t, and then there are recipes like this one that are actually time consuming, though relatively easy, but take a good amount of time and most people won’t realize what went into its preparation.  That is meant only as an observation, not a value statement.  From start to finish, because my rise times were slow, the making of the Party Pizza Buns took a little over four hours.  Would I make them again?  You bet!  They are well worth the time to make.

The dough is a relatively simple dough, though it does call for bread flour rather than all-purpose.  The liquids used are milk and a little olive oil.  And then of course salt and yeast are necessary.  Once made, the recipe says that the dough should rise until it doubles in size, 60-90 minutes.  Mine took almost two hours and I had it in my oven on the bread proofing setting.

After the first rise, the dough is rolled into a 12×18 rectangle.  This dough was quite cooperative when I was rolling it.  My go-to pizza dough recipe is much more “elastic” and is sometimes difficult to roll.  Once you have the rectangle of dough, it is spread with a layer of pizza sauce, (I used prepared.  I know.  Lazy!)  followed by cheese and then the filling.  The recipe suggests pepperoni; I used finely diced Canadian bacon, green bell pepper, and onion.  Any of your favorite pizza topics will work.  Just be careful to not overstuff!  After all of the “toppings” are added, you roll from the wide end of the dough just as you would cinnamon rolls.  The Party Pizza Buns are then sliced and laid flat on a parchment paper lined baking sheet for a second rise.  I cut mine into twelve slices, each of which makes a meal sized portion.  My rise time took the full ninety minutes.

After the second rise, the buns bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees.

We ate them straight out of the oven (Well, after they were photographed.) and they were delicious!  I have some in the fridge.  I’ll report back on how they are when reheated.

I prefer a thick crust pizza  so I loved these; however, if you prefer thin crust pizza, these are “bready”; hence there name, “buns.”  Lol!  Think of them more like a savory cinnamon roll rather than like a thin crust pizza.

I am also going to try using this dough to make other kinds of roll-up type meals.  I think ham and cheese or spinach and cheese would be just as good as the pizza filling.

I hope you’ll bake some Pizza Party Buns along with us and the January 2017 King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge!

from Tracey G

It’s my favorite time – – King Arthur Flour’s Bakealong Challenge time! Ok, I also love Mix Time too, but I really love Bakealong time! As in the household of my partner in crime, pizza is one of those save-mama-some-work dinners here – usually we get take out since my pizza stone cracked in half and I haven’t bothered to replace it. Due to where we live though, we don’t have the opportunity for delivery, lol, so it always still involves some effort – we (read: Jeremy) have to go out and pick it up. But that’s ok, it’s still a time saver! And one heck of a yummy one at that. Depending on where we order from, my favorite toppings can vary, but the boys favorites are: pepperoni and green olives. This can be a favorite of mine as well, but I equally enjoy a meat-free version of green peppers and onion, however, they do not! So, since this batch of Pizza Party Buns would be for everyone in the household, majority ruled, and I opted for the toppings suggested in the recipe, pepperoni and cheese, but added in sliced green olives.

As I read through the recipe for this month’s Bakealong Challenge, I knew what ingredients I had to pick up, the filling items, to be exact. While I always have pepperoni on hand and cheese, I didn’t have any pizza sauce – and I noticed I was low on the other two, so I grabbed some pepperoni and mozzarella cheese too while I was at it. I was ready to roll for whenever I got the chance to make them. Or so I thought. Once I was ready to get started on these, I started gathering my ingredients. Sauce, yep… cheese, check… pepperoni, yes… olive oil, check… salt, right here… yeast, got it… bread flour… Um bread flour… Hello bread flour???? Uh oh. Bread flour is MIA. I was sure I had bread flour – looked through every cabinet…none to be found. Even enlisted Jeremy’s help in the search as he’s my tall person who can check the higher areas of the cabinets easily, lol. But nope, there wasn’t any anywhere. So, when you’re thrown a curve, it’s on to Plan B – all-purpose flour it had to be. The difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour is protein content, bread flour is typically higher in protein content so it aids in the gluten development, which produces and chewier and more elastic crumb. But most of the time it’s ok to swap. And it was this time, as far as I’m concerned, lol. I had no choice! And it was ok! Nothing bad happened!

I too had a bit of trouble in the rising of the dough area – it was incredibly slow! But since it’s cold here in Northern Michigan, it didn’t completely surprise me, just an inconvenience. I don’t have a proofing-setting on my oven, but I do have trick I learned along the way from somewhere – I turn my oven on to 400 for 1-2 minutes, then turn it off and pop my dough in for its rising time. Usually works quite well!

But other than that, the rising, everything came together quite easily – what Kris mentioned about the dough being easy to work with and roll out, is spot-on. I had no issues with mine either. I patted it out into a rectangle with my hands slightly oiled with olive oil, and then rolled it the rest of the way to the desired size of 12×18″. Spooned on the sauce, sprinkled the cheese and toppings then rolled it up. I cut mine into 1-inch pieces, and somehow managed to get 17, I don’t know how I didn’t get 18 pieces, but I must have cut a couple a little larger than the others, lol.

After the 2nd rise, it was time to bake! Yay! And they baked-off beautifully, I think. I didn’t get to eat them straight out of the oven, but I did get to taste-test after they’d cooled to room temperature and they were super yummy – I was so pleased! Harry announced he loved them – and that right there made me extremely happy, 😉 I haven’t tried reheating them yet, but I can say that they are still yummy the next day straight out of the refrigerator! Cold Party Pizza Buns for breakfast! And lunch, and a snack…. Yes, they will definitely be made again, not only are they tasty, but they are very versatile as well – your imagination can run wild with one!

Tuesday In Texas – Impermanence

17 Tuesday Jan 2017

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I really don’t think of myself as a photographer.  I am a journaler.  I have been a journaler for a long time.  For most of that time, I have relied on words to tell my story, to create the picture of who, what, and where I was physically and emotionally at the moment in which my pen and  paper met.  It wasn’t until about five years ago that my camera joined in the process of sharing  my story.  I have to admit that I am still more comfortable and confident expressing myself with words, but every now and then, the images that make there way to my camera are far more powerful than any words that I might find to illustrate the me that is in that moment.  So was the case today.

A little over half way through January and I am feeling pretty good about where I stand with the goals that I set for myself in 2017.  A photo a day every day, regular blogging, knitting, and being intentional about how I choose to nourish my body, mind, and spirit.  I can say with confidence that I am on track.  But, I have not been working; I’ve been enjoying a four week break between semesters.  That came to an end today as my spring semester started at 7:30 this morning.  All of the sudden, I don’t feel in control.  Thirty plus hours a week that I have had to take care of me are now gone.  I do love my job, but I also love cooking, writing, taking photos, and sleeping.  I fear that sleeping will get the short end of the stick here now that I have less “free” time.  My coffee intake likely will increase proportionately to the decrease in my sleep time. Lol!  I intend to work toward finding a healthy balance between work, play, and sleep, but it may take me a few weeks…or months.

Today the Capture Your 365 photo prompt was bubbles.  Being the first day of school, I didn’t have much time to give to thinking about or taking the photo.  I figured I’d pull out the bubbles from under the kitchen sink when I got home, wave the wand around, and see what I could capture.  And that would be good enough for today.  One thing I have learned as I’ve gotten older is that today’s best is different from tomorrow’s or yesterday’s best and that is OK.  I have made a concerted effort to to stop worrying about yesterday and tomorrow and focus on being fully present to today.  Getting to this point has been a rough journey, but well worth the discomfort caused by rugged terrain along the way.

I was grateful that my husband offered to help me this afternoon by being the bubble blower.  Blowing the bubbles myself and then trying to focus and shoot requires much more coordination than I had this afternoon.  Oh wait…who am I kidding?  It requires more coordination than I have any afternoon!  Anyway, he stood and blew bubbles and I moved around looking for an interesting angle, something that resembled an intentionally composed photo.  I finally decided that I wanted a photo that looked like he was holding a bubble in his hand.  The bubbles were reflecting the trees in our yard, kind of cool; I could live with that being my picture for today.

I was having trouble focusing because I was tired and it was windy. So, I set my camera to continuous shooting, which gave me six shots per second.  Please! One shot in focus!  That’s all I wanted.  In my first few attempts I got some “OK” shots, but not exactly what I was hoping for.  Finally, I was happy with this shot.

After cleaning up all of my bubble mess, I sat down at the computer to pull the photo off of my SD card.  Then I looked at the next frame.  It was this.

Boom!  Right there, with these two photos, is one of those cases where photos do a much better job of describing my today than words will.  The first photo is what life has been like for the past sixteen days of this year – gentle, contained, focused, manageable.  And then its back to work and literally my bubble is burst.  No longer can I hold things together in the same way that I did yesterday.  As close as it may still feel, yesterday is gone.  Today is all that there is.  So today, I must find a way to embrace my burst bubble.  And tomorrow it will be gone and all will be new again.  As the quote by Pema Chodron that I included on the second photo says,

Impermanence is a principle of harmony. When we don’t struggle against it, we are in harmony with reality.

So very true!

Here’s to all that today has to offer!

Happy Tuesday from Texas.

A Tisket, A Tasket, A Biscuit In A Basket

13 Friday Jan 2017

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What exactly is a biscuit?  The word “bis” and “cuit” is derived from Latin and means twice baked.  It was first used in the Middle Ages.  Long before that, however, cracker-like “biscuits” appeared all over the world.  They were usually thin crisps and were made from a variety of grains depending on the part of the world.  Today, the term “biscuit” still means different things in different places.  In most of the U.S. what we refer to as a biscuit is a “southern biscuit,” which is a mixture of flour, fat, a leavening agent, and liquid.  Biscuits are a mainstay here in Texas.  And I love them!

When I was a kid, not living in Texas, the only biscuits I knew were Bisquick biscuits.  My mom made them to go with cans of Campbell’s tomato soup.  In my early twenties, when I moved to the Dallas area, I learned about “real” biscuits.  Restaurants in this area are judged solely by the quality of the biscuits.  How well they may or may not do anything else is not relevant.

I have my favorite biscuit recipe.  It comes from Heidi Swanson’s cookbook Super Natural Everyday.  Swanson’s recipe is not difficult, but it requires several ingredients and a bit of work to create tall flaky biscuits.  I will admit that I was a bit skeptical when I read King Arthur Flour’s recipe for Never-Fail Biscuits, which require only two ingredients!  Because I love biscuits and because in my mind,  with a little butter and jelly or maybe gravy, biscuits constitute an entire meal, I figured I’d give this recipe a try.  Anything that uses only two ingredients certainly must be quick and easy.  The real question though, do the biscuits taste good?!

One of the two ingredients required is self-rising flour.  That is one flour that I don’t normally keep on hand, so I had to make my own from regular all-purpose flour and baking powder.  By needing flour and baking powder, my biscuits are now up to three ingredients.  This is the link to a King Arthur Flour article on the proportions needed for making your own self-rising flour.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/homemade-self-rising-flour-recipe

Making your own self-rising flour is certainly no big deal and most of us always have flour and baking powder on hand.  The second ingredient (or third in my case) needed is heavy whipping cream.  With this comes the requisite fat and liquid.  And there you have it.  Biscuit dough!  I used equal parts by weight of the flour and cream.  This worked perfectly.  I am also including a link to a “measured” recipe as well.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/never-fail-biscuits-recipe

Funny thing that Tracey and I discovered when discussing this week’s recipe…I always make rolled and cut biscuits, never drop biscuits.  Tracey has never made rolled and cut biscuits.  So that we each had a new experience, we worked out of our comfort zones this week.  Though either recipe can made as either drop or rolled and cut, I made drop biscuits and she rolled and cut hers.  I enjoyed the drop biscuits with a little butter and jelly, but I think I am a rolled biscuit kind of girl.  I guess I am a control freak because I like the consistent round shape of the cut biscuits a little better than the moon rock shape of the drop biscuits.  The taste is no different…delicious either way! Rolled or drop is simply personal preference, or one that may be dictated by how you wish to “use” your biscuits.

Either way, biscuits are just an all-around good down-home comfort food.  With butter and jelly, sausage gravy, as a side with your favorite soup or stew, or with a little butter and cinnamon sugar as a sweet treat, they warm the belly and the heart.  The dozen biscuits that I made didn’t last long here at all!  We have a house full of warmed bellies and hearts!

With this, our first Food Friday post of 2017, we wish you and those you love a happy and well-nourished new year!

from TraceyG

I will admit it – I have never ever made biscuits that you roll out and cut. I’d always been a drop-biscuit girl, because, (don’t laugh!) for some reason it seemed intimidating! Ha ha! I have no idea why! And then, I imagine because I’ve always made drop-biscuits, it had gotten to the point where I never even thought about making them the roll-out and cut method. So, when Kris and I discussed what to make, and decided on biscuits, I thought “That’s it! I’m making roll out and cut biscuits!”  And that’s just what I did.

Enter King Arthur Flour’s recipe for Easy Self-Rising Biscuits. I conveniently had KAF Self Rising Flour on hand, from one of our other recipes we’d made. I’d had to purchase it through their website, as it was not to be found anywhere in any of my local stores. So, I was all set! Grab the butter & shortening, the buttermilk powder and get the show on the road!

The recipe says you can use butter or shortening – and since I doubled the recipe (as I know the eaters around here, and only a dozen would not be enough, lol), I used a combination of butter AND shortening. The recipe also gives you the option of using milk or buttermilk. Well, I was out of milk (Harry used the last bit on his cereal this morning!), I opted for my buttermilk powder – you add it to the dry ingredients then use water in the amount of buttermilk called for, it’s pretty handy to have around.

But moving right along, you cut in the butter or shortening (or both!) until the crumbs are about the size of peas. You add your liquid and stir until it comes together and leaves the sides of the bowl. Now, my batch was a wee bit sticky, lol. I had to really add a bunch of flour to my “kneading” step, but they still turned out, with no ill effects. After I folded it upon itself a few times, I patted it out a bit, then rolled it to about a 1/2-inch thick, and used my cutter. I got 18 out of a double batch because my cutter was a 3-inch round instead of a 2-inch round. And that’s ok with me!

I’m here to tell you that it was fun and easy-peasy!! I was so excited that my first-ever try at rolling out the biscuit dough turned out perfectly! Very encouraging and confidence building, lol. Not to mention extremely yummy to eat! I can honestly say these will now hold a special place in my recipe repertoire!

 

The First Ingredient

09 Monday Jan 2017

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On January 9, 2015, we launched our blog Pixels, Plates, and LOLs!  It was born from a friendship that grew from our mutual participation in Capture Your 365, an online community that provides inspiration and support for those who wish to document their lives by taking a photo a day.  Through the daily photos and narratives that we posted over a period of about nine months, we realized that although our lives looked very different on the surface, we had much in common.  We decided to explore our shared interests in food and photography by co-authoring a blog that celebrated our friendship by sharing our stories and experiences of cooking, taking pictures, and our quirky lives.

Initially, we began by sharing a personal recipe every Friday.  We are both “practical” cooks in that our everyday cooking is meant to make our families happy; it is in no way to impress the culinary elite.  After about a year and a half, we realized that we had posted most of our family recipes and thus found ourselves scrambling for a direction with our food posts.  We tried some random recipes from favorite cookbooks and magazines.  We tested some mixes.  But still, we were struggling to generate content.

Because we were expending much of our creative energy to figure out our Food Friday posts, we posted nothing else during the week.  Too little content causes almost certain death for bloggers.  We knew that we needed to step back and regroup.  In October of 2016, we began some serious soul searching.  We both agreed that we wanted to continue blogging together but that redirection was needed.

For any of you that have been around babies and toddlers, you know that around age two is when a child’s personality really starts to shine.  That is where we are.  Our venture together is two years old and its unique personality is finally starting  to emerge.  We have reached the terrible twos!  And, we are ready to show our true colors to the world.  You only need be a little scared! 🙂

As our adult selves conversed with our two year old blogging selves, we made a list of things that we want our blog to be:

  • We want it to be a lighthearted read (most of the time).
  • We want it to honestly represent who we are as individuals – the good, the bad, and the ugly.
  • We want it to convey the beauty of our unique friendship.
  • We want to share our love of photography.
  • We want to share our love of food.

Then came the hard part…figuring out a plan to accomplish these things.

Creating a lighthearted read is fairly easy for us.  Though we both battle perfectionism, we don’t take ourselves, or life in general, too seriously.   We are both guilty of sending hilarious text messages to the other that have resulted in spitting or snorting coffee upon reading.  We agree that spitting coffee is a waste of a precious commodity, but laughing is more valuable than almost anything so we continue to exchange such messages on almost a daily basis.

We are goofy.  We are sometimes irreverent.  We make silly mistakes in the kitchen.  We forget things.  Sometimes we are defiant. (Remember we are two!)  We are survivors.  We are caregivers.  We are honest.  We wear are hearts on our sleeves.  The bottom line…what you see is the real deal.

We have never met face to face.  We have never even talked on the phone!  Yet, there is a level of trust between us that is beyond measure. Tracey is a stay-at-home mom living in Northern Michigan.  Kris is an empty-nester and college professor who lives in Texas.   We are both confident that we can share with one another what is on our mind and in our heart without fear of judgement, criticism or ridicule…well, maybe a little ridicule, but it is always done with love!   We each know our strengths and weaknesses as far as our blogging relationship and respect each other for both.

Photography is where it all started and it is still the tie that binds.

And then there’s food.  What emerged over our two years of writing Pixels, Plates, and LOLs!  together is that our real shared passion when it comes to food is for baking.  Once we came to this realization, we found the direction that we needed to go forward.  From now on, the recipes that we share on here will all be baked goods.  Even with that, we still needed a bit more focus.  After several weeks off bouncing ideas back and forth, we had an epiphany.  In a random conversation, we discovered that we both use King Arthur Flour baking goods and have made many of their recipes.  King Arthur Flour has recently started a monthly Bakealong Challenge that intrigued us both.  They also have a regularly published magazine called Sift.  King Arthur Flour website has lots and lots of recipes that we have wanted to try.  That’s it! The ah-ha moment!  We found our niche!  The decision was made that our Food Friday posts will be based exclusively on recipes from either the King Arthur Flour website, magazine, or one of their cookbooks.  We have no affiliation with or support from King Arthur Flour.  This was a personal decision made by us and us alone.  During the final months of 2016 we tested this concept and it worked well for us.  So for now, it is us and King Arthur in the kitchen!

By using the King Arthur recipes, for which we can simply give links, a little more of our time is freed up and we can share more about our approach, struggles, and successes with the actual photography of the recipes, something that we both know has been missing from our posts.

With our new concept, we also felt that we needed a new name for our blog, one that more accurately reflects our new focus on baking as well as the nature of our friendship.  During the same period in which we were wrestling with “what we wanted to be when we grew up,” we were also trying to name ourselves.  That is much harder than you might think!!  Unlike naming children where it’s OK for there to be four Michaels and five Marys in a classroom, a blog name must be unique.  We came up with several names that we thought were both clever, fitting and unique only to discover that our ideas were not or as clever or as unique as we thought; many names that we entertained were already being used by either another blogger or business.  We spent many frustrating weeks trying to figure out this piece of the puzzle.  In our frustration, we came up with a “B-list” of names that definitely reflected our terrible two’s stage and our slightly rebellious selves.   Fortunately, we returned to adulthood before we made any inappropriate decisions that we might regret.

We finally came to the name, Sifted Together.  We feel that this describes how our friendship came into being and how it continues to grow.  It also speaks to our focus on baking..two ingredients poured in a container and sifted together so that they are mixed and work well in a recipe.  That’s us!  Individually we will still share our own quirky views on life through our Monday in Michigan and Tuesday in Texas posts.  We also have a few surprises up our sleeves!

Thank you for reading and we hope that you will come along with us as we bake, photograph, and laugh our way through life!

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