Babies and Crepes

I don't have a picture for this because this post is spontaneous.  Over to my left I can see my brother with his baby on his lap while also trying to eat up some Graham crackers and milk.  To my right is the kitchen where half an hour ago I finished making a small stack of crepes.  I was watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network channel while Guy was chowin down on some Polish food (that I want right now) they got to the dessert course and on the menu was crepes.  That was the moment I whipped out my phone and jumped on allrecipes.com to grab a quick recipe!  That link will take you to the one I used, however I decided to add a couple splashes of vanilla and a sprinkle of sugar over the batter bowl.  Once I thought you could just make this with really watered down pancake batter...nope, it doesn't work that way.

The baby was over to be baby sat while Mommy went to work and Daddy was on his way home from work.  Grandma is warming up some leftovers for dinner while the crepes sit in a plastic baggy waiting to be had for dessert.  I taste tested them with whipped topping and chocolate sauce.  I'm thinking that some fruit preserves would be yummy if I had any but we only have Grape and Apple jelly.  Bananas and peanut butter!  Yup, that's what I'm doing with mine next.  We did have honey but Brandt ate it all because he doesn't care about using the last of anything even when it's not his.....haha! Can't you tell I'm dying for some honey now?!

So...are these sugar cookies?

I have no idea what an original sugar cookie recipe looks like but I was tootaling along pinterest and found these cute "Melted Snowmen" cookies.  I didn't make melted snowmen cookies...I actually just made cookies and then found another recipe for that shiny icing and put two and two together to make YUM!

 

MIXED MATCHED SHUGARY COOKIES

 

Cookie Ingredients:

1- 1 1/4 c. sugar

2- 1 c. softened butter

3- 1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar

4. 2 eggs

5- 2 t. cream of tartar

6- 2 t. vanilla extract

7- 3 c. flour

8- 1 t. baking soda

9- 1/2 t. salt

 

Set the oven temp to 375 degree F.

On med. speed beat together 1, 2 & 3.

Then add 4, 5 & 6 beating on med.

Then at low speed add in 7, 8 & 9.

The dough will come together when you shape into balls.

On an ungreased cookie sheet place 2 in. apart and bake 10-12 minutes.  Cool on pan for 1 min. then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cooled apply the icing.

 

Icing Ingredients:

1- 2 c. sifted powdered sugar

2- 1 or 2 T milk (I guess this is the difference between piping and flood icing)

3- 1 T light corn syrup

4- 1/4 t. or to taste extract (I used vanilla- most call for almond)

5- food coloring

 

Combine all together and (I never thought to do this-I used a messy spoon)spoon into a plastic bag or a piping bag or...a squeeze bottle!  I don't like the taste of powdered sugar but when it's on the cookie you don't taste it very much or at all.

 

Though I told my mom I would help her vacuum and mop today I've neglected to start yet!  Hopefully leaving my latest baking excursions for you to read will get me going!  It sure will warm me up since a cool front blew in the other day.  I like the cold because I like bundling up...but then again, I don't want to be outside in the cold for very long!

 

I made the Christmas cards this year!  They aren't exactly what I was going for but it was the cheapest route for sure since the card base was already made.  I did my best to make them to where I could be proud of them :) My mom said, "Well...we've received 3 Christmas cards and I just sent out 50.  We'll see what happens."  Apparently she doesn't like giving to give...she likes giving to receive.  I'm not just saying that!  Oh no, she says those sorts of things a lot and it always seems to be around Christmas time.  I try and tell her that she doesn't have the right mind set.

 

Finally I've realized my way of life.  I believe that everyone is equal on the opinion field.  Not everyone believes this so it can get me in trouble but it's just plain silly that I'm 22 and someone would say that I should respect my elders when speaking my mind is not about respect...it's about being heard!  To tell anyone that they should respect their elders should only be applied if someone is truly being disrespected.  My brain is scattered right now so I'm probably just venting.  Don't silence your friends and children with the sorry excuse that you're older than them, you should listen to all that they have to say and compromise the outcome or explain why things aren't going to work in their favor that day.  Tomorrow is always another day, but if you keep dragging around excuses for you to get your way there will probably never be a sense of connection in your home.  It is just like that in my home and I am longing for the day to remove myself because when there are close minded people in the vicinity then nothing can ever be fully resolved. 

 

Now I'm going to mix up some early morning banana bread, previously known as late-night banana bread.

Shake that taffy!

 

The recipe is as follows though I'm still experimenting:

SALT WATER TAFFY

 

Ingredients:

2 1/2 C White Sugar

3 T Cornstarch

1 C Corn Syrup

1 1/3 C Water

2 T Butter

2 t salt

2 T extract

8 drops food coloring

 

Notes: originally this was 1/2 t salt which equaled sugar taffy not salt taffy. Then 1 T of extract wasn't enough so I bumped it up by another T. Some say just 3 or so drops of food coloring but I think that's silly! I made an awesome yellow using about 8 drops so it was still bright.  I also made a nice raspberry color using 9 drops of red and 3 of blue.

 

How to:

1. Butter your glass pans or baking sheets and set aside. A deep square will hold this amount easily.

2. In a medium saucepan stir together the sugar and cornstarch so to make everything lump-free.

3. Add the corn syrup, water, batter and salt, and stir to blend. 

4. Turn on the heat bringing it to a boil over Medium.  You want it to reach 250 degrees F. on the candy thermometer though this turns out pretty soft so you might want to go until it reaches 260...I'm trying this next.

5. Remove from heat and immediately stir in the extract and food coloring.

6. Quickly pour into your baking pan or pans depending on if you plan to make 2 flavors out of this 1 batch.

7. Let cool! Until you can handle it without howling!

8. Stretch by rolling into a big ball or small balls and pass them around to helpers...BUTTER YOUR HANDS, you'll have to do that often probably...and roll into a cylinder then pull and fold.

9. PULL AND FOLD x 1,000,000...or until the color has lightened significantly.

10. Roll into skinny ropes and cut up to either roll in powdered sugar or wrap in wax paper so they don't stick to each other.

 

Note: Be patient! I read a comment that told me to only heat it to 234 and it was a runny mess that I had to toss.  Then I read that some woman waited only 5 minutes to start pulling but it was still waaaay too hot to handle and I just ended up making a huge mess.  I threw away most of both batches but plan to attempt tomorrow.  DON'T HAVE YOUR NAILS PAINTED!!! My nail polish started to flake off into the taffy...green glitter was not a part of the recipe! 

 

I haven't perfected this at all yet, but maybe you can fail along side of me!  I hope to make these next batches useful...maybe I'll just make one batch and split it up...it'll cool faster this way.

 

ALSO...DON'T THINK YOU CAN GET THIS DONE BEFORE WORK BECAUSE IT IS ONE STICKY MESS!  

Late-night blogging while baking!

HOMEMADE GOLDFISH

Yeah buddy, I made goldfish from scratch!  Maybe I'll add some food coloring to the batch I make for my brother for Christmas to make them Goldfish brand orange.  I'll have to make them the eve of Christmas Eve so they're super fresh...I just had to make sure that they tasted good before I went all in and relied on this being my present to him.  Mmmm...they're good! They're so easy to make and all you need really is a bag of cheese!  (That is if you love baking and have the main staples already).

Homemade Goldfish

 

+Ingredients+

8 ounces Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Shredded

4 T Butter, Cubed

1 C Flour

3/4 t salt

2 T Cold Water

 

+How To+

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grab yo food processor!

Slap in the Cheese, the Butter, the Flour, and dat salt!

Now pulse it up! (Really I gave up after pulsing got boring and I just turned the thing on). You want to get an even sandy texture.  DON'T ADD SAND!

Then pulse in the Water a Tablespoon at a time. (I had a cup of ice water with my measuring spoon in it...then you have leftover hydration).

Remove the dough and put it in plastic wrap to chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.  Here is when you teach yourself how to make fishy cutters out of a beer can. 

When it's all chilled up you roll it out thin and cut 'em up and place them on the cookie sheets and bake for 15 minuets.  I made about 4 cookie sheets worth by placing them close together...like 1/2 inch or less.

 

They come out chewy...but I guess that depends on how determined you are to get the dough rolled out thin.  I compared the already shredded cheese to the big chunks of cheese and it was 4 cents cheaper to buy it already shredded...I'm willing to save a cent so it actually surprised me that they were willing to do all the work for me while adding a zipper bag to the equation.  I think I won that battle. 

 

BUT SERIOUSLY...This is an awesome idea for having kids work for their food.  If they want a hamburger have them learn how to grill or make them on the stove.  If they want pizza get the fixins from the store and you can buy the pre-made crust.  If they want goldfish, well here ya go!  If they want candy there are all sorts of recipes out there!  I plan on making taffy soooooooon!  It might demand a late-night pulling post.  (Get it?  Because you pull taffy!!!)

 

In the end, they aren't Goldfish brand, but they are yummy and cheesy!  Two ingredients that both have, thank you very much.