holiday cheer

So, I took a little nap this afternoon since my boss gave us a half day off today.  When I woke up, for some reason I was singing a christmas carol.  I guess I've still got a little holiday cheer laying around :)

Seems like a good time to share some of our holiday fun with you. Just in time to take the ornaments off the tree.

 

 This was what christmas looked like at our house...ornaments and lights on our Norfolk Island Pine, a wreath above the fireplace, stockings hung on the fireplace, and presents around the tree.  David hung our christmas lights on the rain gutters of the house and we had pretty red bows on the stair railings outside.  Of course, since the roof needs to be replaced, those lights may stay on the gutters until next summer when we can replace the roof, to minimize damage each time we go up there.  Yes, we'll be THOSE people. :)

 

 I just love the beautiful colors in these jams, jellies, marmalades, and sauces from Will and Sandy.  Can't wait to try one! 

Funny story about these.  When we got them in the mail, we set them around our tree like the other gifts, not knowing what they were.  One day when I was home working, I heard a loud "thud" over by the tree.  By the time I got up to see what it was, I saw that Sam had one of these wrapped presents in his mouth, and was headed to his bed to dig in.  So, for the rest of the holiday, we had to keep those wrapped presents up high out of Sammy's reach. :)

 We did our normal shellfish (king crab legs this time) and twice baked potato dinner this year, but we did it on christmas eve instead of christmas.  On Christmas evening, then, we ate cheese and crackers, and these yummy little appetizers that I made.  They are called Polenta Cakes with Tomato Jam and Goat cheese.  Pretty easy to make--hardest part was waiting for them to get a little brown/crispy in the frying pan.  David found the recipe on the Seattle Times and brought it to my attention.  Glad he did.  They were delicious!

And finally, a photo of us.  We had a groupon/living social coupon for a fancy french restaurant, and I decided that December 23rd would be a great night to go out to a nice dinner.  So, this is us, dressed up before our dinner date at Le Gourmand in Ballard.

It has been a great holiday.  I'm looking forward to my day off tomorrow, and a fun New Year.

baker, baker, bake me a cake

Wowzers!  I am on a roll, baking up a storm!

Today is Kim's birthday.  Happy Birthday Kim!  We are going out tonight to meet them for dinner. So, I asked her husband if I could make her birthday cake.  I generally find baking fun and I wanted to make a special cake for her birthday. 

I found this double chocolate layer cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen, a cooking blog I sometimes read. This is a "from scratch" cake, for sure.  I followed her directions, mostly. It is a moist chocolate cake with raspberry filling and a chocolate ganache frosting. I decided to bake my cakes in three 9" cake pans (because that is what I have) instead of the two 10- by 2-inch pans she suggests.

 Here we have all 3 layers with raspberry filling gushing out of the sides.  I probably went a little heavy on the raspberry.  I guess we'll find out when we cut into it tonight.

 I did the script on the top and the frosting around the edges.  You can see the edge frosting in the photos below.  David was the master of the little confectionery pearls.  He did such a good job. He also helped out during the making of the cake, saving the day a couple of times.

A little detail shot of the bottom edge of the cake.

Here is the masterpiece in all its glory!  

Happy Birthday Kim!

bread: conquered (for now)

For many years I have been afraid of using yeast in baking.  After making my mom's famous pumpkin biscuits one year and having them turn out like hockey pucks, I pretty much swore off any use of yeast in baking.  Then about one year ago, Emily shared with me her pizza dough recipe using quick rise yeast.  Well, she more than just shared it with me, she walked me through making it.  I got to feel the water to see what temperature she used and everything.  Since that time, I've made her pizza dough recipe a couple of times-always to good end.  Slowly, ever so slowly, has the idea been growing in my mind that perhaps I could try to bake bread with yeast.  Quick breads (like zucchini and banana) don't count since they don't use yeast.  REAL bread.  Whole Wheat Bread.

And so, in true lizzylife fashion, I attempted, struggled (with uncertainty), and conquered the whole wheat bread...documenting the stages of the process along the way.

 Here we have the dough before I let it rise.  I have a wonderful feature on my oven called "proof".  It keeps it at the perfect temperature for the bread to rise.  I kneaded the bread for about 10 minutes.  My wrists hurt by the time I was done!

Here is the dough after doubling in half.  I poked a couple holes into it to make sure the indentations stayed....I couldn't help making it into a smiley face:)

Oh--I made the recipe exactly as written. But I took one reviewers advice when they suggested putting the bread into 2 loaf pans instead of the 3 it calls for.  

I punched it down and then put it into 2 loaf pans to rise again.  I think this is a part I will have to do better on next time.  I had some odd indentations on the bottom of  bread, which I guess means that I didn't pinch it together well enough or maybe missed doing something.

Here are the loaves cooling after about 30 minutes of cooking.  Everything I had read said not to overcook the bread, and to test to make sure it was done by tapping on it to see if it sounds hollow.  If you hear a thud, it isn't done yet.  So- about 3 times during the last 5 minutes of cooking, I took the bread out to tap it, not sure if what I was hearing was a thud or hollowness.  I had to call David over and see what he thought.  We weren't really sure, but thought they sounded hollow with a hint of "thud".   So I took them out. 

I am sad this picture isn't more clear--I didn't take more than one, but you get the idea.  The density is really good inside-not too dense, and very holey.

We are planning to make some grilled cheese sandwiches with it tonight.  Yum! 

One wheat bread down, a million yeast adventures in my future :)  I am looking forward to it.


For those of you who might want to try baking bread, the recipe I used is on AllRecipes.com called "Simple Whole Wheat Bread" by Nita Crabb.  It is rated with 5 stars.  Lots of the reviews say it is a very forgiving bread recipe and a great one to start with for newbies.  Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

white elephants

Today I participated in my second and hopefully last white elephant party of the year. I went to the first one on Sunday and walked away with a Snuggie.

 Mine is the same color blue as in the photo above from the official snuggie website.  Bright!  Haven't worn it yet...

Then today at the second party, I walked away with some homemade cucumber infused gin, some "Passover sticker fun on a roll" and some "I'm trying to be like Jesus" stickers.  I can think of at least one but possibly two little boys down in Portland who might enjoy the Passover stickers...not sure what I'll do with the Jesus stickers.  I may start putting them on the mail I send to you all!

Overall, I feel pretty lucky with my two gifts..it could have been much worse!  Like the piece of pottery that one of my colleagues got stuck with:

whiplash

I had a bit of whiplash today--not the kind where you actually hurt your neck/head--the kind where you find yourself feeling pretty good only to get knocked back down.

I was on a phone call today with two people with whom I am going to co-authoring a chapter of a book.  One of the women was someone who actually asked me for a copy of my dissertation back in June or July. I was shocked back then when she asked me for a copy.  I was even more shocked when today on the phone she told me, "I'm going to make you famous".  I was like, "huh?"  "What do you mean you are going to make me famous?"  She says, "I am citing all kinds of stuff from your dissertation in this article I am writing right now."  Then the other person on the phone call said, "wow, that makes me really want to read your dissertation!"  That was a definite win.

The part about getting knocked down is not really something I want to go into detail about here.  Suffice it to say that something else happened to make me feel inadequate professionally.

So, it has been a whiplash day.  Grilled cheese and tomato soup made it a little bit better, as did a hug from David, and a dessert of peppermint bark.  I just need a good laugh to pull me out of it completely :)