Saturday in the kitchen

My blogging friend Michele (aka The Northwest Nature Nut) has been taunting me with images of homemade English muffins off and on for the last year or so (she recently posted photos of muffins topped with homemade marmalade that made me drool). Every time I would see them I'd think to myself "I have got to try making my own English muffins!" Well, yesterday was the day. Thanks for the inspiration, Michele. They turned out wonderfully!








Mmmm... especially delicious topped with some of the blackberry jam that we made this past summer. Yum!

Follow this link if you'd like to see the recipe I used. It was super easy.

A lovely day

We are experiencing a spell of Indian Summer here in southeast Ohio, and I knew that the weather was going to be excellent today.... clear skies and highs near 70 degrees. That means open windows, and even as I type I hear that cute little Golden-crowned Kinglet tsee-tsee-tseeing in the trees.

But the day got off to an especially wonderful start with some special sightings in the "yard".


I spotted this lovely doe from the kitchen window while I was doing some dishes.


Going, going, gone...
She didn't stick around too long once I came outside to photograph her, but that's okay. We made eye contact and enjoyed the smell of the crisp air together before she took off.


This cute kitteh also showed up in the driveway this morning. I've never seen it around before, so I don't know which of our neighbors it belongs to. I hope it moves on before Emmett becomes aware of its presence (although kitty could probably outrun our geriatric ol' boy).


Dark-eyed Junco, March 2008
Finally, I'm delighted to announce the return of the Dark-eyed Juncos to our yard! It's possible they've been around for a few days, but this is the first time I've spotted them. I saw at least 4 of them, and hopefully I'll see more when I start counting for Project Feederwatch next weekend!

AND... on a note completely unrelated to nature: I finally made a batch of pumpkin-pie flavored meringues this morning, a baking project I've been considering since this time last year. I'll let you know if they turn out, but so far it looks like they will be a success.

Halloween Pumpkin Cake

Tonight my cake went from plain old bundt cake...




... to a Halloween Pumpkin Cake!




I don't usually consider myself much of a "theme cake" baker, but I saw this online the other day and couldn't resist. I like to bake from scratch as much as I can, so I didn't use a box mix cake like the recipe recommends. Instead I tried something special... it's a "secret ingredient" cake! Click here for the cake recipe to find out what the secret ingredient is (recipe will open in a new window). (Dave, if you're reading this before the breakfast gets started, don't spoil it!)

I know there are going to be plenty of other delicious treats at our potluck breakfast. I can't wait.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Struggling to get in a groove

Since our return from the Red River Gorge last weekend, I find that I'm having a hard time getting back into a groove. It's been difficult to stay focused at work, and blogging hasn't been so appealing, either. I guess I got too used to not being in front of a computer screen for the days that we were gone, and that was a really nice change of pace that I'm not quite ready to part with.

Plus, I've been distracted by baking projects that I have floating around in my head. We have a potluck breakfast at my office every year for Halloween, and this evening I baked a cake for that. My birthday is coming up next week, and I'm going to make myself an awesome vanilla and lime flan that I saw on an episode of Planet Food a few weeks ago. Then there's the holidays.... I automatically go into high gear this time of year when it comes to baking.


Halloween cake, ready for the oven.


Showing off my new Kitchen Aid Artisan-series stand mixer. I love this thing. I've had it for about a month, and I've already used it a LOT.


I got this mixer for such a good price, and there was a rebate on top of that... it was a deal too good to pass up!

Just to prove I'm not totally obsessed with baking right now, here are a few photos of the great outdoors taken recently.


Beech trees on our property


Cool mushroom in the yard


Milkweed seeds bursting from their pod

Stay tuned for more baking obsessions...

Gone bakin'

Hi everyone. Sorry that I've been a bit absent over the last few days, both in posts and in commenting. The making of the Yule Log has turned out to be quite a project and has consumed my evenings more than I expected. BUT, the office party is tomorrow, and it will likely be devoured about 24 hours from now. Then it's on to making cookies! Hee hee.


Yule log, mostly ready for presentation

Meringue mushroom, for decorating the Yule Log.

Mixed evergreen swag hanging at our mailbox, showing off some snow we got a few days ago.


I'll be back in a few days! Hope you all are doing well!

Nerds of a feather...

I have always considered myself to be a nerd. And I've always considered my nerdiness to be a positive attribute.

(LOST logo found here)

Just yesterday at work I was having a conversation with some of my co-workers which caused my to contemplate our unique versions of nerdom. (NOTE: in addition to being a nature and bird nerd, I am also a LOST nerd and a baking nerd.) Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "Hey T (fellow LOST nerd), did you get your Dharma Initiative card in the mail yet?"
T: "Yeah, finally, but it's not laminated."
Me: "Awww, dude, that's a bummer!"
S: (Rolls eyes) "Okay, what the heck are you guys talking about?!"
Me: "Oh, you know, it's a LOST thing. He's a card-carrying member now."
S: (rolls eyes again, this time more emphatically)
Me: "T, I'll counter your Dharma card with MY membership card from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology!"
S: "OOOooooo - I don't know which one trumps which! Says the lady with the fancy knitting needles."

Yes, S is a knitting nerd, who was at the time of the conversation knitting socks in the round on 4 laminated birch double-pointed needles (are you envious Ruthie?) But more importantly, she's a fellow baking nerd, and totally knew what I was talking about when I told her how I spent 45 minutes poring over the Joy of Cooking trying to piece together the yule log recipe.

The baking portion of my practice cake went fine. In fact, it was kind of fun. Whenever a recipe calls for beating eggs in order to double or triple their original volume, I love it. It's fun to watch them expand in the bowl as the air gets whipped into them. It was also fun to hear the tiniest bit of baking powder in the batter start to react immediately when hot milk and butter was poured in.

Despite my best efforts and following the recipe to a "T", the cake still cracked when I rolled it. It cracked before I rolled it, as a matter of fact.


Despite the cracking of the cake, I still filled it with fantastic pastry cream (think of the yummy custard in Boston Cream Pie, eclairs, or fresh fruit tarts!) and rolled it up anyway. Then I made a sort of chocolate frosting and spread it on top. Chocolate makes anything look better! And the whole thing tasted pretty darn good.


I can think of several different reasons why the cake might have cracked, but first let me mention that the Joy of Cooking handles rolled sponge cakes different than most. Rather than "train" the cake by rolling it up in a damp kitchen towel right out of the oven, they recommend inverting it onto a piece of foil and letting it cool that way. The Joy says "cake sheets crack while rolling if they are overbaked and dry" so presumably taking the cake out of the oven at just the right instant will prevent the cracking.

I had to bake my cake longer than the recipe called for because when I checked it at the recommended time, it was still jiggly and uncooked in the middle. My thinking is that because the jelly roll pan I used was smaller than what was called for in the recipe, the batter was thicker/taller than it should have been, and thus required a slightly longer cooking time. Apparently it was too long, though, since it cracked. Oh well. I will try again. I did buy a larger pan that I will try out this weekend, and we'll see if that helps any. Also, with it being winter time and the humidity being very low, perhaps that somehow contributed to drying out the cake? I dunno. All I can say is practice makes perfect. But what am I going to do with all this cake?!

In addition to cake baking, I've got to start thinking about cookie baking, too. I love giving cookies to my family at Christmas. These should help me with some ideas.



By the way, for those of you wondering about my holiday cards, I'll be posting the finished product around the end of the week. I just mailed them out yesterday, and I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise for friends and family who might happen to cruise by here.

Birding and baking

Today was a pretty dreary day - very windy all day, drizzling off and on. What better way to spend part of the day than by doing some bird watching and some baking?

We bought some new feeders this week, and luckily the birds seem to have adapted to them pretty quickly.

The birding view from the dining room

The view with my camera pressed against the patio door

The birding view from the kitchen window - the goldfinch spot

'Tis the season for baking with pumpkin. I had a crazy idea the other day that I want to make pumpkin meringues, which is going to be a challenge. While I scanned the interwebs for inspiration with the meringues, I ran into so many other yummy-sounding pumpkin recipes. One of them was a recipe for pumpkin biscotti on Simply Recipe which sounded too good to pass up. I added a scant cup of Craisins and a scant cup of some of the hickory nuts that we coaxed out of their shells.









While the biscotti bake for the first round, time to take a bird break

alternate view from the kitchen window

Emmet says "Hey, what smells good in there?"

After the loafs cooled enough for me to handle, it was time to cut them.

Ah, the finished product! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go enjoy one of these with a nice cup of sweet coconut Thai Chai.