baking and the weekend
So I had leftover lentils. (Okay, they weren’t really left-over; it just took me a long time to get around to doing what I wanted to do with them.) I’d wanted to make a veggie version of a pocket pie. But I was in a hurry and didn’t quite have time to do that (since I figured pie crust would take time, etc.). So I pulled out the South Carolina cookbook and looked for something akin to a meat pie, and found something called a meat roll. The recipe was essentially: take these ingredients, mix ‘em together like you would a biscuit dough, roll it out, spread some meat on it, roll it up (meat roll up!), slice it up (meaty cinnamon roll-like thing!), bake it up, cover in gravy, eat.
So, I didn’t do all that. I did manage to roll it out but by the time I got to the rolling up part things had gone a bit sideways, so I just baked it whole.
I hadn’t made a biscuit dough before so perhaps I did not mix correctly.* But I don’t care. The result was num-yummy. I feel about as enthusiastic about it as I do about the pancakes of awesomeness. Everything should be wrapped in this biscuit dough.
~~~~
This was Sunday, the day of my first cousin’s first baby’s first birthday party. So here’s why I was in a hurry:
- Went to mom’s house first thing in the morning, to help her with the cooking she was doing for the party.
- Came back home intending simply to make brownies for Cousin C but then
o Realized I needed to do something with those lentils and various other foods in the fridge
o Dad asked me to make him some munchies before I went
- I ended up making the lentil biscuit thing, then turning the oven temp down a smidge and making muffins (with cherries, from which at least most of the pits were removed), then turning the oven temp down a smidge more and making brownies (with bananas subbing for the egg).
- Then I had to hustle into the shower, get dressed, and get out the door to pick up mom.
Mishaps and modifications:
- I was out of white flour, again. (How does this keep happening?) So the biscuits were half white flour and half whole wheat. Also I used butter instead of shortening. Also I used two eggs instead of one because most recipes call for large eggs and I only have medium.
- I’m finally out of nonfat vanilla yogurt, so used full-fat plain yogurt in the muffins, and only two tablespoons of oil. And it was canola oil rather than olive.
- By the time I got to the brownies, I was racing. I raced to the store for more flour. I raced through the mixing process. (I decided to use regular granulated sugar instead of brown since it was already on the counter and quicker to measure. I ended up stirring the batter a few strokes before remembering that it needed to be folded.) And I tried to remove the brownies a bit too quickly (trying to fit the task in between exiting the shower and actually getting ready) so some of them ended up a bit misshapen. (Fortunately, this meant I could eat the unsalvageable.)
I think if I do the banana sub in the brownies again, I will need to make some adjustment. They seemed to be rising normally when I checked on them at half-time, but then they fell. Maybe I checked on ‘em too often (no window in my oven door, so I have to open it), maybe it was a lack of structural integrity, maybe the stirring was the problem, maybe I needed to adjust the leavening. So I guess I will need to make ‘em again just to have a better idea of what went wrong. But I’ll wait for the review from Cousin C first.
~~~~
Here’s what to know about Cousin Agby's baby's birthday party:
- The food was alright. The mac and cheese was a disappointment (I can only assume Dionne did not make it), but everything else was… alright.
- Cousin Aurora made an Elmo cake! So I totally quizzed her about it.
Her process [paraphrased]:
o Made the structure to hold the cake into shape. This was a heavy board with some serious looking spikes. Like, ‘if this had been a Count Chocula cake, we would’ve been eating dust’ spikes.
o Made the cakes. Wrapped and froze them. The put on the crumb coat layer of buttercream. Wrapped and froze them again. Then put on fondant/piped on buttercream “fur”, as applicable. (She made marshmallow fondant, and had fun playing with it--"It's like playdough." And it took her about an hour to do all the piping.)
o Made rice krispy treats and coated them in fondant, so they looked like wooden blocks. (Honestly, when I first saw the whole thing, I thought it was a decoration, not a cake display.)
Her “heart attack” moments:
o When the cakes came out super-dense and she realized that her baking powder had expired in 2007.
o When Elmo’s head fell off his body.
o When, after piecing Elmo back together, she drove from her house to the party house holding her breath all the while and hoping his head wouldn’t fall off again.
The result of her hard work.
- Eventually there was another cake on the table with a '40' candle on it. Upon inquiring what that was for, I was informed that Cousin Agby has recently turned 40. To which my response was: "40! OMG!" That just kinda snuck up on me. We are getting old, man. (Well, she is anyway.)
- Cousin Aurora didn't make the cupcakes on the table, but she does have a cupcake stand which I may be able to borrow. (Unfortunately, she'll be out of town the weekend of the reception, or else she'd be happy to help. It's nice that she offered. The Elmo cake is her first structured cake so I think she's feeling the 'baking is stressful' kinship.)
- Unsurprisingly, c* and Jeanne were at the party. He was standing right at the door when I walked in and didn't let me get away with ignoring him like I did at the last family event (8tn grade graduation for Cousin Ify's oldest during which our only interaction was him delivering a terrorist fist bump to my chin). Jeanne also made a point of saying hi. So I interacted with both him and, to a limited extent, her and it was mostly painless. (I'm still a bit galled by how she's been clutched with such readiness to the bosom of my family, but that's just my standard level of bitterness when it comes to my family.) I did get a good zinger in when c* was going on about the benefits of living in the east bay, as opposed to living in the 'burbs.
Him: blah blah urban dwelling blah
Me: Okay. But you know what you don't have up here?
Him: What?
Me: Me.
Game over.
- I made sure to return the hat that my Aunt forgot at mom's house the last time she came to visit. For no apparent reason, I'm glad I remembered to do that.
- I got to meet CameroonianD's folks. Very cute people. In general, it was nice interacting with people I don't see very often, either 'at all' or 'anymore since I declared a moratorium on attending Nortero events (except for events like this one that I can't manage to squiggle out of).'
- During the course of the conversation with c* I happened to mention how many vacation hours I've got saved up at the moment (290, or somewhere thereabouts, not counting PTO or Floating Holiday). So then CameroonianD became my vacation-planning consultant.
- I somehow, accidentally, started trying to plan my cousin's kids' future. Like, Cousin Aurora's daughter and the son of another woman at the party seemed to have a nice rapport. (Double trouble. If we'd left them to their own devices, I'm not sure the house would still be standing.) So I asked Aurora if she and Yinka might want to have a talk about maybe arranging a union down the road. Her facial expression... priceless.
And then c* made some comment about Cousin Ify's oldest, now that high school is on the horizon it's time to start thinking about college and grad school etc. So I asked Cousin Ify if he was paying for all that. His response "Hell NO!" This lead to an amusing interchange with his eldest, who is the biggest smart-ass (or maybe that's just SOP for 13 year olds these days). The comment of hers I'll most remember: "You're not my only source of money, you know."
Game over.
In other news, on Monday Queen B and I went to the Lilith Fair. Hijinks ensued. I am now terribly fond of the lead singer of The Submarines. And, as ever, I <3 Heart.
It's always funny to go to a concert with someone where you're like, "OMG, I can't wait to see X!" and then the other person is like "X? Dude, I'm totally blissed-out on the notion of seeing Y." That's how it was on Monday. I was totally bouncing on my heels to see Heart, meanwhile Queen B sat for most of the set. Then Sarah McLachlan came on and I had a seat while Queen B stood for most of the set. (I loved Sarah when "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" came out, but she lost me with "Surfacing.")
~~~~
* For future reference, here's a handy write-up on the biscuit method. I definitely did not do that. I mixed the dry ingredients together, softened the butter in the microwave, put it and the soymilk (the only milk I had on hand) in a well in the center of the dry ingredients, mixed it together with my hands, then turned it out onto a board and kneaded it some. *Then* attempted to roll it out. Will be interesting to try it again using the outlined method and see what the difference is.
So, I didn’t do all that. I did manage to roll it out but by the time I got to the rolling up part things had gone a bit sideways, so I just baked it whole.
I hadn’t made a biscuit dough before so perhaps I did not mix correctly.* But I don’t care. The result was num-yummy. I feel about as enthusiastic about it as I do about the pancakes of awesomeness. Everything should be wrapped in this biscuit dough.
~~~~
This was Sunday, the day of my first cousin’s first baby’s first birthday party. So here’s why I was in a hurry:
- Went to mom’s house first thing in the morning, to help her with the cooking she was doing for the party.
- Came back home intending simply to make brownies for Cousin C but then
o Realized I needed to do something with those lentils and various other foods in the fridge
o Dad asked me to make him some munchies before I went
- I ended up making the lentil biscuit thing, then turning the oven temp down a smidge and making muffins (with cherries, from which at least most of the pits were removed), then turning the oven temp down a smidge more and making brownies (with bananas subbing for the egg).
- Then I had to hustle into the shower, get dressed, and get out the door to pick up mom.
Mishaps and modifications:
- I was out of white flour, again. (How does this keep happening?) So the biscuits were half white flour and half whole wheat. Also I used butter instead of shortening. Also I used two eggs instead of one because most recipes call for large eggs and I only have medium.
- I’m finally out of nonfat vanilla yogurt, so used full-fat plain yogurt in the muffins, and only two tablespoons of oil. And it was canola oil rather than olive.
- By the time I got to the brownies, I was racing. I raced to the store for more flour. I raced through the mixing process. (I decided to use regular granulated sugar instead of brown since it was already on the counter and quicker to measure. I ended up stirring the batter a few strokes before remembering that it needed to be folded.) And I tried to remove the brownies a bit too quickly (trying to fit the task in between exiting the shower and actually getting ready) so some of them ended up a bit misshapen. (Fortunately, this meant I could eat the unsalvageable.)
I think if I do the banana sub in the brownies again, I will need to make some adjustment. They seemed to be rising normally when I checked on them at half-time, but then they fell. Maybe I checked on ‘em too often (no window in my oven door, so I have to open it), maybe it was a lack of structural integrity, maybe the stirring was the problem, maybe I needed to adjust the leavening. So I guess I will need to make ‘em again just to have a better idea of what went wrong. But I’ll wait for the review from Cousin C first.
~~~~
Here’s what to know about Cousin Agby's baby's birthday party:
- The food was alright. The mac and cheese was a disappointment (I can only assume Dionne did not make it), but everything else was… alright.
- Cousin Aurora made an Elmo cake! So I totally quizzed her about it.
Her process [paraphrased]:
o Made the structure to hold the cake into shape. This was a heavy board with some serious looking spikes. Like, ‘if this had been a Count Chocula cake, we would’ve been eating dust’ spikes.
o Made the cakes. Wrapped and froze them. The put on the crumb coat layer of buttercream. Wrapped and froze them again. Then put on fondant/piped on buttercream “fur”, as applicable. (She made marshmallow fondant, and had fun playing with it--"It's like playdough." And it took her about an hour to do all the piping.)
o Made rice krispy treats and coated them in fondant, so they looked like wooden blocks. (Honestly, when I first saw the whole thing, I thought it was a decoration, not a cake display.)
Her “heart attack” moments:
o When the cakes came out super-dense and she realized that her baking powder had expired in 2007.
o When Elmo’s head fell off his body.
o When, after piecing Elmo back together, she drove from her house to the party house holding her breath all the while and hoping his head wouldn’t fall off again.
The result of her hard work.
- Eventually there was another cake on the table with a '40' candle on it. Upon inquiring what that was for, I was informed that Cousin Agby has recently turned 40. To which my response was: "40! OMG!" That just kinda snuck up on me. We are getting old, man. (Well, she is anyway.)
- Cousin Aurora didn't make the cupcakes on the table, but she does have a cupcake stand which I may be able to borrow. (Unfortunately, she'll be out of town the weekend of the reception, or else she'd be happy to help. It's nice that she offered. The Elmo cake is her first structured cake so I think she's feeling the 'baking is stressful' kinship.)
- Unsurprisingly, c* and Jeanne were at the party. He was standing right at the door when I walked in and didn't let me get away with ignoring him like I did at the last family event (8tn grade graduation for Cousin Ify's oldest during which our only interaction was him delivering a terrorist fist bump to my chin). Jeanne also made a point of saying hi. So I interacted with both him and, to a limited extent, her and it was mostly painless. (I'm still a bit galled by how she's been clutched with such readiness to the bosom of my family, but that's just my standard level of bitterness when it comes to my family.) I did get a good zinger in when c* was going on about the benefits of living in the east bay, as opposed to living in the 'burbs.
Him: blah blah urban dwelling blah
Me: Okay. But you know what you don't have up here?
Him: What?
Me: Me.
Game over.
- I made sure to return the hat that my Aunt forgot at mom's house the last time she came to visit. For no apparent reason, I'm glad I remembered to do that.
- I got to meet CameroonianD's folks. Very cute people. In general, it was nice interacting with people I don't see very often, either 'at all' or 'anymore since I declared a moratorium on attending Nortero events (except for events like this one that I can't manage to squiggle out of).'
- During the course of the conversation with c* I happened to mention how many vacation hours I've got saved up at the moment (290, or somewhere thereabouts, not counting PTO or Floating Holiday). So then CameroonianD became my vacation-planning consultant.
- I somehow, accidentally, started trying to plan my cousin's kids' future. Like, Cousin Aurora's daughter and the son of another woman at the party seemed to have a nice rapport. (Double trouble. If we'd left them to their own devices, I'm not sure the house would still be standing.) So I asked Aurora if she and Yinka might want to have a talk about maybe arranging a union down the road. Her facial expression... priceless.
And then c* made some comment about Cousin Ify's oldest, now that high school is on the horizon it's time to start thinking about college and grad school etc. So I asked Cousin Ify if he was paying for all that. His response "Hell NO!" This lead to an amusing interchange with his eldest, who is the biggest smart-ass (or maybe that's just SOP for 13 year olds these days). The comment of hers I'll most remember: "You're not my only source of money, you know."
Game over.
In other news, on Monday Queen B and I went to the Lilith Fair. Hijinks ensued. I am now terribly fond of the lead singer of The Submarines. And, as ever, I <3 Heart.
It's always funny to go to a concert with someone where you're like, "OMG, I can't wait to see X!" and then the other person is like "X? Dude, I'm totally blissed-out on the notion of seeing Y." That's how it was on Monday. I was totally bouncing on my heels to see Heart, meanwhile Queen B sat for most of the set. Then Sarah McLachlan came on and I had a seat while Queen B stood for most of the set. (I loved Sarah when "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" came out, but she lost me with "Surfacing.")
~~~~
* For future reference, here's a handy write-up on the biscuit method. I definitely did not do that. I mixed the dry ingredients together, softened the butter in the microwave, put it and the soymilk (the only milk I had on hand) in a well in the center of the dry ingredients, mixed it together with my hands, then turned it out onto a board and kneaded it some. *Then* attempted to roll it out. Will be interesting to try it again using the outlined method and see what the difference is.