Sun Dried Tomatoes

Or nearly roasted to death, the first sounds way more appealing. I have tried several methods for making sun dried tomatoes. First I left them outside in the sun, yeah they get bugs or rot. Then I tried the dehumidifier, that took several days and dried them too much. Maybe that was just a case of leaving them in there too long. So the last thing I did was roast them on a baking pan. OMG! Not only do you get pretty dang tasty tomatoes you fill the house with a wonderful smell. So where do you begin? I love the grape and cherry tomatoes. All you need to do . . . → Read More: Sun Dried Tomatoes

Brioche Dough Part 3 of 3 ~ Cinnamon Rolls

It has started to be a Christmas tradition that I make cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve to be baked and enjoyed on Christmas morning. I have done this several years and have delivered unbaked pans of rolls to friends and family to make themselves. But since we are here in Nashville it’s just the 2 of us with no family and friends to deliver to. That is why this multi purpose dough is working out so well. So here we go!

Grab about a pound of dough from your dough bucket in the fridge. On a floured surface start working the dough and roll it out. I ended up with . . . → Read More: Brioche Dough Part 3 of 3 ~ Cinnamon Rolls

Brioche Dough Part 2 of 3 ~ Doughnuts and Doughnut holes.

Day 1 DOUGHNUTS!

So first thing I went to the fridge and grabbed what felt like enough (~1 lb). I rolled it out on a floured surface and cut doughnuts out, using the rest of the dough to make of course doughnut holes. The dough was a tick sticky so I was dusting with flour often and turning my dough. I made 4 doughnuts and about a dozen holes. In place of the round cutters that I still don’t own even though they have been on my Christmas list 3 years in a row I used a rocks glass to cut the big circle and my apple corer for the . . . → Read More: Brioche Dough Part 2 of 3 ~ Doughnuts and Doughnut holes.

Brioche Dough – Part 1 of 3 ~ Making the dough

There I was a few days before Christmas trying to figure out a better way to make cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. Knowing that my friend Melissa uses the Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes a Day and that she just tweeted about making cinnamon rolls for the neighbors I asked her what she uses as her dough. She promptly replies ” ABi5 brioche dough“. As I panic to find the recipe I discover many post where you can use this dough to make doughnuts, dinner rolls, brioche rolls, tarts and of course cinnamon rolls. The best news is that she tells me I have 10 days, yes 10 days to . . . → Read More: Brioche Dough – Part 1 of 3 ~ Making the dough

24 Hour what?

So the other day I had to pick up some new make-up, I mean it is winter and I am pretty pale. While I was out I found a new lip gloss thing that proclaimed to be 24-hour. Like a fearless follower I shelled out nearly 8 dollars for a nice plumy-pink shade. But it doesn’t stop there, when I went to apply said lip color for work yesterday I decided it was a great idea to document the day and the results of this lip color. So I give to you a day in the life of my lips with their new 24-hour color.

Instructions:

Step 1: Apply . . . → Read More: 24 Hour what?

#TSQL2sDay Resolutions

As part of my 2011 resolutions I feel the need to participate in T-SQL Tuesday (we’ll get to more about that later). First some of you reading this are expecting a recipe and some FOOD PORN, sorry not today I am a geek and sometimes like to show that off and today is it!!! T-SQL Tuesday was started by Adam Machanic (guess what? He has a blog and is on twitter!) and the basic rule is that someone new each month host and chooses a topic. This month it is our friends MIDNIGHTDBA (Jen and Sean – guess what they blog and twitter too!!). If you are able . . . → Read More: #TSQL2sDay Resolutions

Awesome Sauce

Also known as Red Sauce, Pizza Sauce, and dip for your bread sticks!

Having a garden is GREAT. Having your harvest come in a little at a time SUCKS! Yeah, Yeah I know I was posting all summer that I am hauling in 12-16 lbs every few days, but dang it that is mostly cucumbers and squash! So what’s a girl to do with tomatoes in quantities not worthy of skinning, dicing and canning or freezing? ROAST THEM!! Now I can’t tell you exactly how many of everything you need, not all tomatoes are created equal, but I can give you some estimates. I used this technique multipe times during . . . → Read More: Awesome Sauce

So long to you my faithful friend (2010)

Why I am ready to say good bye 2010.

The last year left me feeling pretty sad about my current job situation, I had a formal statement put into my record because I wasn’t the “tin foil”. At that point I had decided that I really didn’t give a shit and that it was the managers lack of technical skills problem not mine. So I figured I would wait it out and look for a new job later. I also was sad that I wasn’t getting to use any of my technical skills, I was a glorified secretary who spent too much time tracking and updating work task . . . → Read More: So long to you my faithful friend (2010)

Snicker Doodles

I was given this great book 101 Things to do with a cake mix, while I have only tried a few things one of my absolute favorites is the snickerdoodle recipe. Now I know it’s the Holidays and folks are needing thousands of cookies but since it is just the two of us this is a great recipe as it is QUICK and only produces about 2 dozen cookies. As I sat down to write this post I wondered “Why do they call them snicker doodles there aren’t any snickers in them?” Well a handy dandy BING search took me to the Wikipedia page for snickerdoodles and I wonder no . . . → Read More: Snicker Doodles

“Mexican Wedding Cakes”

Butterballs, Russian Tea Cake

Yesterday I set out to make Mexican Wedding Cakes, I new darn well that they in fact were not Mexican or wedding cakes so why on earth did we call them that? My research on this didn’t bring me any really good answers or even a <blockquote> to enhance the smartness of this page. All I found is that they were call Russian Tea Cakes until about the 1950s when the Mexican Wedding Cake term started being used. The guess is that it was because of our strained relationship with Russia at the time. Hmmm, can anyone say “Freedom Fries”.

Tea Cakes are a from . . . → Read More: “Mexican Wedding Cakes”