The latest cookbook that I have from the library is the Betty Crocker Ultimate Bisquick Cookbook. I chose this book very carefully and for one very specific reason.
Was it because I have a long time devotion to Betty Crocker and think that all of her recipes are the best? ... No. Although I'm sure Ms. Crocker is great and really knows what she's doing.
Was it because I simply adore anything and everything that involves Bisquick? ... No, but I certainly don't have anything against it.
The real reason: It has a chapter devoted to "Impossibly Easy" recipes. What domestic rookie wouldn't love the sound of that! This one sure does.
The first recipe that I picked to make out of this cookbook, Alfredo Chicken Bake, was not actually in the impossibly easy section. It did, however, look incredibly easy. It didn't have a long list of intimdating ingredients (like rice) and there were only three simple steps.
The recipe said that it should take 4o minutes from start to finish. And for the first time in all of my cooking experience something amazing happened. The food was ready in 4o minutes! The exact time that the book told me it would take! It normally takes me twice as long. I was so excited about this that I almost didn't care how it tasted.
Then my family showed up, all ready to eat lunch, and I suddenly cared a little more if it tasted good or not. They all walked in saying it smelled good, so that was a good start. They proceeded to eat the entire casserole (it only made 4 servings) and rave about how good it was.
Success!!!! :)
What have I learned from this experience? Three things:
1. Betty Crocker definitely knows what she's doing
2. Bisquick is pretty cool after all
3. Easy recipes are delightful!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Friday, December 30, 2011
The Right Pan Makes all the Difference
Guess what I got for Christmas ...
An actual Popover Pan!!! Instead of having twelve cups like the muffin pan I was using it just has six. The cups are deeper though and they taper down slightly at the bottom. I was so excited to try it out!
So I made popovers on Monday evening and my family agreed that they are so much better when made with the popover pan :)
What is one of my new favorite things?
You guessed it: my Popover Pan!
An actual Popover Pan!!! Instead of having twelve cups like the muffin pan I was using it just has six. The cups are deeper though and they taper down slightly at the bottom. I was so excited to try it out!
So I made popovers on Monday evening and my family agreed that they are so much better when made with the popover pan :)
What is one of my new favorite things?
You guessed it: my Popover Pan!
Saturday, December 24, 2011
'Tis the Season ...
... to be busy, busy, busy. But joyfully so :)
I have been too busy to try out any new recipes though. And the gloves I'm knitting are a disaster. It's really not my fault though. I think that the lady who wrote that pattern sat down and thought, How can I make this as confusing as possible? My mom and I spent half an hour trying to figure out the cuff until I finally set it aside in frustration. That was weeks ago and haven't picked it up since. That'll teach it!
What I have been doing is getting all of my Christmas shopping done (finished Wednesday December 21st) and wrapping gifts (which took five hours and two Christmas movies).
I did however go to a dear friend's house on Monday to help her make Christmas sugar cutout cookies. She had already made the dough so I just helped her roll it out and use the cookie cutters. She said that I did a really good job rolling out the dough. This may seem like a small matter, but it is not. If she says I have done a good job with anything having to do with baking I count that as a huge success. She is a fabulous baker and I hope to be half as good as her someday.
Funny story that has nothing to do with domesticity: I was out running some last minute Christmas errands the other day and on the way home I decided to stop at the coffee shop for my favorite drink - *a plain cappuccino with extra foam. I thought I would take it home and enjoy it while I watched a Christmas movie and got my wrapping done. I carried it in and set it down on a ledge as I put my purse at my feet so that I could hang my coat and hat up. As I reached over to put my hat on top of the coat rack I knocked over my cappuccino. Right into my purse. Not by my purse, not just on top of my purse, but into it. An entire 16 oz. (a.k.a. Grande) cappuccino now saturated all the contents of my bag.
What have I learned from this? Cappuccinos are awesome. But if you dump them in your purse you don't get to drink them. (Not to mention it makes a huge mess that takes a long time to clean up since you have to take everything out, one at a time, and dry it off.)
*one of my favorite things
I have been too busy to try out any new recipes though. And the gloves I'm knitting are a disaster. It's really not my fault though. I think that the lady who wrote that pattern sat down and thought, How can I make this as confusing as possible? My mom and I spent half an hour trying to figure out the cuff until I finally set it aside in frustration. That was weeks ago and haven't picked it up since. That'll teach it!
What I have been doing is getting all of my Christmas shopping done (finished Wednesday December 21st) and wrapping gifts (which took five hours and two Christmas movies).
I did however go to a dear friend's house on Monday to help her make Christmas sugar cutout cookies. She had already made the dough so I just helped her roll it out and use the cookie cutters. She said that I did a really good job rolling out the dough. This may seem like a small matter, but it is not. If she says I have done a good job with anything having to do with baking I count that as a huge success. She is a fabulous baker and I hope to be half as good as her someday.
Funny story that has nothing to do with domesticity: I was out running some last minute Christmas errands the other day and on the way home I decided to stop at the coffee shop for my favorite drink - *a plain cappuccino with extra foam. I thought I would take it home and enjoy it while I watched a Christmas movie and got my wrapping done. I carried it in and set it down on a ledge as I put my purse at my feet so that I could hang my coat and hat up. As I reached over to put my hat on top of the coat rack I knocked over my cappuccino. Right into my purse. Not by my purse, not just on top of my purse, but into it. An entire 16 oz. (a.k.a. Grande) cappuccino now saturated all the contents of my bag.
What have I learned from this? Cappuccinos are awesome. But if you dump them in your purse you don't get to drink them. (Not to mention it makes a huge mess that takes a long time to clean up since you have to take everything out, one at a time, and dry it off.)
*one of my favorite things
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Fa-la-la-la-la ...
Well, I haven't been doing much attempted cooking or knitting lately. I've been busy with Christmas shopping and gift wrapping. That endeavor is coming along swimmingly :) Christmas shopping usually stresses me out to no end. But this year I am actually enjoying myself! I am proud to say that I actually started my shopping before Thanksgiving. That never happens. Also, I have discovered the joy of shopping online. It's so convenient!
Speaking of Thanksgiving, I did make a teeny-tiny contribution to the holiday.
Spicedoodles.
They're like Snickerdoodles but instead of cinnamon and sugar you roll the cookies in a mixture of sugar and pumpkin spice. I thought that sounded like a nice Thanksgiving type of cookie. They turned out just fine and I had no trouble making them. Yay me!
As far as my knitting goes I haven't picked up my glove in over a week. The pattern becomes increasingly more complicated with every stitch. But I'm so close to the end!!!!
Confession: There is one other thing that has been keeping me from cooking and knitting.
Christmas movies!
Here are a few of my favorite things:
Scrooge (A Christmas Carol) - This is the 1951 version with Alistair Sim.
Elf
It's a Wonderful Life
The Santa Clause
Christmas Vacation
White Christmas
Speaking of Thanksgiving, I did make a teeny-tiny contribution to the holiday.
Spicedoodles.
They're like Snickerdoodles but instead of cinnamon and sugar you roll the cookies in a mixture of sugar and pumpkin spice. I thought that sounded like a nice Thanksgiving type of cookie. They turned out just fine and I had no trouble making them. Yay me!
As far as my knitting goes I haven't picked up my glove in over a week. The pattern becomes increasingly more complicated with every stitch. But I'm so close to the end!!!!
Confession: There is one other thing that has been keeping me from cooking and knitting.
Christmas movies!
Here are a few of my favorite things:
Scrooge (A Christmas Carol) - This is the 1951 version with Alistair Sim.
Elf
It's a Wonderful Life
The Santa Clause
Christmas Vacation
White Christmas
Thursday, November 24, 2011
The Accidental Vegitarian
It has been three days since I've eaten meat. I wasn't trying not to eat meat. I just didn't seek it out. I guess that's what happens when you live with an intentional vegitarian. My mother has been one for most of my life and I'm not a huge meat lover myself. In fact, the thought of cooking meat is totally intimidating. ... Maybe I should just become a vegitarian ...
But no, I couldn't. I love burgers too much. To me, the best comfort food in the world is a good burger with everything on it.
I'll just continue to be the occasional accidental vegitarian.
* A Favorite Thing: Burgers with everything (especially from Sonic or Culver's:)
But no, I couldn't. I love burgers too much. To me, the best comfort food in the world is a good burger with everything on it.
I'll just continue to be the occasional accidental vegitarian.
* A Favorite Thing: Burgers with everything (especially from Sonic or Culver's:)
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Slowly, slowly, slowly ...
The Cookbook: The Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes Volume 2
put out by Better Homes & Gardens
The Recipe: Rice-Stuffed Peppers
The Misadventure: Yes, I picked another recipe that involves rice. And a totally new type of rice at that: converted rice. But this time I knew what I was getting myself into. At least as far as that one ingredient was concerned. It also called for frozen green soybeans, a.k.a. edamame. The only frozen green soybeans I could find were in pods. So I bought them.
As I started preparations for the stuffed peppers, which the book said would take about 25 minutes, I opened the bag of edamame and realized that I definitely did not want the soybeans still in the pods.
Well, I thought, I will just have to get the beans out of the pods. Simple enough. After all, I only need a cup and a half. Besides, I'll have all this free time while the rice is cooking!
So I started the rice and grabbed a knife to cut into the edamame pods. It turned out to be not so easy since, of course, they were frozen. I set the knife down and grabbed the kitchen scissors thinking that would be easier.
Not so much. But I struggled with it for a little while, getting one bean out at a time. I soon realized it was going to take me forever to fill only a cup and a half. I needed a better method. So I grabbed a small pot, filled it with hot water from the faucet and dumped some of the pods in. I took one out and cut into it. Much easier! Unfortunately, it took the whole bag of edamame and 35 minutes to complete the task. That put me 10 minutes over the estimated prep time. And I still had other preparations to make, so all in all it took me one hour to get the peppers ready to put in the slow cooker. Twice as long as it should have taken. But that seems to be pretty normal for me. And it did get done so that's a plus! Not to mention I got to forget about it for the next 3 hours. That was pretty nice.
What have I learned from this experience? Never buy soybeans still in the pods. And if the recipe calls for it that way, pick a different recipe because they didn't look very good.
put out by Better Homes & Gardens
The Recipe: Rice-Stuffed Peppers
The Misadventure: Yes, I picked another recipe that involves rice. And a totally new type of rice at that: converted rice. But this time I knew what I was getting myself into. At least as far as that one ingredient was concerned. It also called for frozen green soybeans, a.k.a. edamame. The only frozen green soybeans I could find were in pods. So I bought them.
As I started preparations for the stuffed peppers, which the book said would take about 25 minutes, I opened the bag of edamame and realized that I definitely did not want the soybeans still in the pods.
Well, I thought, I will just have to get the beans out of the pods. Simple enough. After all, I only need a cup and a half. Besides, I'll have all this free time while the rice is cooking!
So I started the rice and grabbed a knife to cut into the edamame pods. It turned out to be not so easy since, of course, they were frozen. I set the knife down and grabbed the kitchen scissors thinking that would be easier.
Not so much. But I struggled with it for a little while, getting one bean out at a time. I soon realized it was going to take me forever to fill only a cup and a half. I needed a better method. So I grabbed a small pot, filled it with hot water from the faucet and dumped some of the pods in. I took one out and cut into it. Much easier! Unfortunately, it took the whole bag of edamame and 35 minutes to complete the task. That put me 10 minutes over the estimated prep time. And I still had other preparations to make, so all in all it took me one hour to get the peppers ready to put in the slow cooker. Twice as long as it should have taken. But that seems to be pretty normal for me. And it did get done so that's a plus! Not to mention I got to forget about it for the next 3 hours. That was pretty nice.
What have I learned from this experience? Never buy soybeans still in the pods. And if the recipe calls for it that way, pick a different recipe because they didn't look very good.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Third Time's a Charm (I hope!)
So back to my fingerless gloves. As you know, I got about halfway done with one of them and had to start over. It went a lot more smoothly the second time. In fact, I finished the main part of the glove rather quickly. All I had to do was add the cuff. Easy! Or at least it would have been if I had done the proper cast on in the first place. But I didn't.
For those of you who don't knit, the cast on (CO) is the very first thing you do when starting any project. Usually, you cast on, keep knitting, and once you're done with the first row you don't think about the cast on ever again. But this pattern called for a special kind of CO. One that I had never done before. One that I inevitably screwed up.
After finishing the entire body of the glove (complete with only a single thumb hole and everything!) I had to simply set it aside and, once again, start all over.
By the time I actually finish these gloves, I will have done enough knitting to have made three pair.
For those of you who don't knit, the cast on (CO) is the very first thing you do when starting any project. Usually, you cast on, keep knitting, and once you're done with the first row you don't think about the cast on ever again. But this pattern called for a special kind of CO. One that I had never done before. One that I inevitably screwed up.
After finishing the entire body of the glove (complete with only a single thumb hole and everything!) I had to simply set it aside and, once again, start all over.
By the time I actually finish these gloves, I will have done enough knitting to have made three pair.
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