Peanut Butter Blossoms Cookie Recipe

I love peanut butter. I love it with chocolate, I love it with banana, I even love it with bacon. I normally have a huge container of PB on hand, but apparently I'd gotten down to the bottom of it and only had PB scraps left in the jar. I didn't realize this until after I'd started getting ready to bake these. Rookie mistake, i know i know. Luckily I had a few nutella samples laying around, which added up to almost the amount of nutty butter I needed! Lucky for me, but unlucky for my cousin Laura who is severely allergic to hazelnuts and whom I tried to feed these to. These cookies are super yummy. Mine spread out a bit, I could've put the dough in the fridge to harden up, but this was my third batch of cookies and I was pooped.

Peanut Butter Blossoms (original recipe here)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup lard
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup nutella
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 tsps vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsps baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup white sugar (for rolling)
1/2 bag of mini Hershey kisses

1. Cream butters and sugar. Then add in wet ingredients a little at a time until smooth.
2. Add in dry ingredients until just combined. Don't over mix.
3. Roll into 3/4 inch balls, then roll in white sugar. If the dough is a bit too soft, throw in the fridge for a bit.
4. Bake in 375 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes.
5. When the cookies come out, press a chocolate kiss in the middle of each one.

 

Kiss Me Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are almost the perfect cookie. Stuff a Hershey kiss inside and viola! it IS the perfect cookie! I searched for a recipe online, but was delightfully surprised to find it printed on the bag of mini Hershey's kisses! As long as you don't mind getting your hands dirty, you'll have a great time making and eating these. Anyone you share these with will definitely want to kiss you, so choose wisely :)

Kiss Me Chocolate Chip Cookies (original recipe here)

1 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 bag of Hershey's Mini Chocolate Kisses

1. Cream together butter and sugar until smooth and delicious, then add in vanilla.
2. Mix in flour and then chocolate chips.
3. Take a tablespoon of dough and split in half, pop in the Hershey's Kiss and then cover with remaining dough. Place on cookie sheet.
4. Bake cookies in 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. 

Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies

A recipe with chocolate in the title twice means guaranteed deliciousness. These cookies are chewy and chocolatey and decadent. I had to taste test a few of these just to make sure. These yummy morsels were a perfect addition to my Christmas baking - which also included Snickerdoodles, Easy Rolled Shortbread, Peanut Butter Blossoms and Kiss Me Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies (original recipe here)

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup lard
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3 tsps vanilla
2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 bag white chocolate chips

1. Cream butter, lard and sugar together until light and fluffy, then add in eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.
2. Sift in dry ingredients and mix until just combined and then hand stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Drop teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets at lesat an inch a part as these will spread out quite a bit.
4. Bake in 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes and let cool before transferring to cooling rack so they don't break apart on you!
5. Now you can taste test your cookies, or share with friends... Whatever suits you!

Shelly's Snickerdoodles Recipe

Merry Christmas ya'll! I wish you lots of turkey, baked goods, presents and joy!

You might want to sit down for the news I'm about to share... This is the first of four cookie blogs I'm hoping to post over the next week (Kiss Me Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies) !  I had a marathon Christmas Cookies baking session spanning three days, which was super exciting for me and now hopefully for you! Stay tuned!

So if you don't know what a snickerdoodle is, don't feel bad. I'd never heard of them until a few weeks ago when in am across them on a top 10 Christmas cookie list. Essentially they are a light and fluffy sugar cookie rolled I'm cinnamon sugar. They taste like cinnamon buns and heaven.

Shelly's Snickerdoodles (original recipe here)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup lard
11/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla
2 tsps white vinegar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsps cinnamon
3 tbsps white sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400. Ideally you want your butter and eggs to be at room temperature. 
2. Cream butter and sugar together then add eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla and vinegar. Don't worry you won't be able to taste the vinegar- but it's important as it acts as a leavening agent.
3. Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. 
4. Mix cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl. Roll 3/4 inch balls and drop into cinnamon sugar mixture until evenly coated.
5. Pop on a pan at least two inches apart and bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and place on cooling rack. This makes about 4 dozen.

Chocolate Fig Cake with Chocolate Glaze

Fig fig fig. What a fun word. Oh what, you don't like it? Fig off then!

If dried figs are new to you, I can tell you that they are sweet and very seedy. They aren't my favorite dried fruit, but I have a Costco-sized bag of them that need to get used, so. I decided they would go fantastic with chocolate, because, well, everything goes with chocolate! I found a recipe here that looked really great, and with a few minor adjustments they turned out lovely.

One warning though, this cake is a million times better the next day. The flavors get a chance to meld together and the cake gets really fudgey.

Chocolate Fig Cake
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
10 dried figs (finely chopped)
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round cake pans. 
2. Finely chop your figs and pour 1 cup of boiling water over them. Let them sit for 30 minutes. I mashed mine a bit with a fork. You could probably even puree them to make sure they are lump free.
3. Next, sift your dry ingredients together. Then mix in your wet, followed by the figs and water mixture. Pour into your cake pans and pop into oven for about 30 minutes.

Chocolate Glaze
2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup margarine

1. Microwave chocolate chips and margarine together and stir until smooth.
2. When your cakes are cooled, top with chocolate glaze. You can stack them or keep as individual cakes.

Pumpkin Choclate Chip Cookies

In the spirit of Thanksgiving weekend, I'd like to thank chocolate and pumpkin for existing and being such a great team.

Last night I made a double batch of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, or Chumpkin Cookies as I like to call them (as of three seconds ago). It's a super easy recipe that produces more of a cake like cookie. I love the spiciness of it with the sweetness of the chocoalte chips. This cookie is a huge winner and is rivalled by none other than my pumpkin swirl brownies (which I'll be making on Sunday).

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Here's the recipe:
1 cup of canned pumpkin
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon milk
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 table spoon vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips

Mix the pumpkin, sugar, oil, egg, spices and vanilla together by hand.Dissolve bakign soda into milk and add to bowl. Mix in dry ingredients. Add choclate chips. Put on cookie sheet by spoolful. Bake in 350 degree oven for 10+ minutes. I always test my cookies by poking them, if they bounce back then they are done.

Adapted from an Allrecipes.com recipe.

Cobbles & Cream

Valentine's day dessert, of course, was up to me. A million chocolaty recipes ran through my mind, along with guilty thoughts that I was being selfish because i know Nick likes vanilla more. I also learned this week that he thinks pie trumps cake. I don't think I've ever been so surprised...and horrified. PIE!? hrmph. So i mulled over maybe making an apple pie, but then all of the sudden it was Friday and I had no time and no pie making ingredients.. and by that I'm referring to Lard. I Also think peeling, coring and slicing apples is the most painful thing ever. My mommy dearest has a contraption that does it all for you, so I prefer to fulfil my apple pie needs at her house.

5PM on Friday, no desert in sight. I find a can of coconut milk, score! I have a can of sliced peaches in the fridge and blueberries in the freezer. A plan arises. Blueberry peach cobbler with coconut whipped cream!

I find some recipes and make some adjustments to suit my ingredients and need to not leave well enough alone. The cobbler comes together without a hitch and I throw it in the oven by 5:30, deciding I will warm it up after dinner.

The Coconut Whipped Cream (Oh She Glows has a great write up) did not go as planned. Every recipe called for a can of FULL FAT coconut milk, which is a problem as I never buy full fat anything. The second problem- I don't have time to let it chill as long as is called for. I throw it in the freezer and pull it out half an hour later, hoping for the best. Ideally, when you open the can of coconut milk the cream should have hardened so you can easily scoop it out and leave the rest of the coconut milk behind . Mine isn't even close. I carefully tried to skim the coconut cream off but of course, got some milk in the bowl in the process. Bad news. I chill my bowl and beaters and cream and cross my fingers and try to whip it. No luck. It will not get whippy. Hrmph. I recall a recipe for chocolate coconut milk ice cream that I had perused and dismissed earlier, and decide to go that route. I throw the rest of the coconut milk in the bowl and add some sugar and vanilla and whip it up, throw it in a container and into the freezer. I say a little prayer to the Dessert Gods that the ice cream will harden in time.

The re-warmed cobbler comes out of the oven and is bubbly and the crust is golden brown and it looks amazing. I check the ice cream and it has hardened- hallelujah! It is isn't very creamy but it IS cold and delicious I throw a couple of scoops on top of the cobbler and BOOM Valentine's Day is complete!

Here are my adapted recipes:

Winter Blueberry-Peach Cobbler (Adapted from Better Homes & Garden)

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/4 cup margarine, softened

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 cup canned peach syrup

3 cups canned peaches

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 tablespoon margarine

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoonground cinnamon

Directions

1. For topping, stir together flour, the 1/2 cup sugar, and baking powder. Add coconut milk and the 1/4 cup margarine all at once. Stir until smooth; set aside.

2. For filling, in a medium saucepan stir together brown sugar and cornstarch; stir in water. Add peaches and blueberries. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Add the 1 tablespoon margarine and the lemon juice; stir until butter or margarine melts. Pour into an ungreased 9x9 glass dish. Spoon topping in mounds over hot filling. Sprinkle with a mixture of the 2 tablespoons coarse sugar and the nutmeg or cinnamon. Place on a shallow baking pan in oven, to catch any spill over.

3. Bake cobbler in a 350 degree F. oven about 35 minutes or until bubbly and a toothpick inserted into topper comes out clean.

Vanilla Coconut Milk Ice Cream (Adapted from The Detoxinista)

Ingredients:
1 14 can coconut milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and with a hand mixer beat until smooth and creamy. Throw in a container and freeze for a few hours. Take it out of the freezer and let it sit until it's scoopable.

Fall is here

Fall is here and that means no more beach time, boating or bathing suits. It means a significant reduction in margarita drinking and cheese-filled smokie eating. It means jean shorts, sandals and block rockers are being put away.

The arrival of fall makes me want to type a frowny face. This feeling usually comes and goes pretty quickly, because I force myself to remember that there are a few things I actually like about fall. In case you are suffering the loss of summer as well, I will share my list and hopefully bring you back to Happy Town. No promises, but let's give'er a whirl...

• fall means new clothes. Back to School clothes, if you will. Oh.. not going back to school? Doesn't matter. Go shopping, buy new things. It's cold out for god sakes! Boots and a jacket at minimum.
• Fall means my birthday is around the corner. October 19th for those of you who haven't memorized it. Put that on your list of things to remember, along with present shopping for said birthday. Hint: shiny is good.
• fall means delicious comfort food. soups, stews, chili and things covered in cheese. *Drools*
• it means fall-inspired baking can begin. You can't even imagine how fast I typed that. I super love pumpkin in baking and apples and doughy things topped with ice cream.
• On my To-Bake list: pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin loaves; apple tartlets (so I can perfect my tartyness); something with beets (see previous blog).; and Halloween themed something - cupcakes or cookies perhaps.
• it means thanksgiving, a day of turkey and thanks for turkey, is 8 days away. Oh yes, turkey AND time to hang with the family as well, which is, of course, my favorite part. Oh and lots of wine, which is my second favorite part.
• fall means Halloween is nearly upon us. Super excited to see my dogs dressed up like hot dogs, my new nephew dressed up as a pumpkin. Side bonus: a whole lot of mini chocolate bars. Not that I would overindulge, that would be wrong.
• fall means Christmas is almost here, which makes me giddy. *spoiler alert* I'm decorating my Christmas tree in pink this year.

Welcome, Fall! If you could please ask your friend Rain not to join us, that would be splendid.

xo Shelly.

that's me in fall. nom nom nom.

Commissioned Baker

Laura From Work (LFW) agreed to cater a wedding for a friend of hers and asked if I would help with the baking. How could I say no? I actually, physically couldn't. Perhaps one day I will grow a back bone and learn to turn things down, but these days I'm a Yes girl. Unless it's in relation to eating Fish, then I can No the crap out of it.

After this adventure I realized that baking as work and baking for fun are two totally different things. When I bake for fun, I can mess around with the ingredients, let cat hair get in the goods and lick the spatula whenever I please. Work baking, not so much. Although I MIGHT have accidentally licked the spatula once or twice... might have! That is in no way a confession. I am a weak person. who can say no to spatulas covered in chocolate? If I ever meet that person i might light them on fire to make sure they aren't a witch, or perhaps stab them with a stake to make sure they aren't a vampire. No real, good human being in my association says no to chocolate. At this point, if you hate me because YOU don't like chocolate, you can leave. Go. go right now. check yourself into a mental health facility and figure your sh*t out. Then go eat a chunky KitKat bar and enjoy life. *rant over*

My baking assignment was this: 3 key lime pies, 3 batches of mini 2 heart cheesecakes (new york style) and 2 double layer chocolate cakes with butter cream icing.

The key lime pies turned out super amazingly delicious. I actually followed them up with a batch of mini key lime cheesecakes, topped with a key lime reduction sauce, but i still had more limes left so i made a batch of shortbread lime bars. This, of course, was after some limes had been appropriated as beer limes.

I made a double batch of the chocolate cake recipe and the first batch of cakes stuck to the pan which made them not usable. Apparently reading the directions helped. Step 1, line pan with waxed paper. Apparently greasing and flouring the pan is not sufficient. Oh well, those cakes are in my freezer and will be turned into cake balls at some later date - stay tuned. The other batches of cakes came perfectly.

Third- mini cheesecakes. 72 of them. that's 6 cupcake pans. LFW gave me 2 to use, I own 1 (which is blasphemous and which I will rectify soon by borrowing one of mommy's), and I broke into Cam's apartment and stole two more. Which is 5. So I made a TRIPLE batch of cheesecake batter, which is like 16 bars of cream cheese and a kajillion eggs and three tons of sugar. Deliciousness. Andddd time consuming. I had to pre-bake the mini crusts and let them cool, and fill each cup with filling and then put two dots of raspberry coulis onto each one and drag a toothpick through to make it look like 2 hearts, then i had to bake them in water baths and then chill them. A project and a half. They didn't even turn out that cute. Delicious yes, cute meh.

I made some bucks doing it and it was a neat project to undertake, so I guess it was worth it. My first commissioned baking assignment, and perhaps my last. Here are some pictures for your eyes to feast on:

Coinkydinks

Coincidences, or co-inky-dinks as my grandma likes to call them, really freak me out. My initial reaction is usually Wow - that's neat! But after thinking and eventually dissecting the coincidence, I get slightly uneasy. I think this is one of the reasons I should probably get Cable TV, as I would have a lot less time to freak myself out with nonsensical thinking. At the same time, I would have a lot less time for baking, which would probably lead to less blogging, and a noticeable drop in my likability factor. Don't worry friends, family and co-workers, I'm too addicted to recipe collecting and chocolate to quit baking.

Back to the topic at hand- coincidences, which for those of you who don't know, is defined as: A chance occurrence of events remarkable either for being simultaneous or for apparently being connected.

At work yesterday, a client asked after a retired employee of ours (Paul) and said to pass along their hello. I hadn't thought of Paul in ages, so thought it would be nice to send a catch-up email. He responds back saying all is well, blah blah blah. When I got home from work, I went on facebook and lo and behold, Paul's face is on my Recommended Friends List. Now, I thought this could be some kind of sneaky facebook thing, but I was using a different computer, so I can't imagine how that would work (suspicious by nature, I am). The next day at work, out of the blue, my boss mentions Paul to me, saying he had been talking about him recently. Weird!

AND THEN I had another coincidence happen yesterday. I texted Jess to see what she was up to and she told me she was baking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. At that exact moment I had just finished making oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough. And no, I hadn't mentioned to her that I was planning on making cookies, nor she to me. SUPER WEIRD.

REVISED: I totally forgot to add in the main reason I started writing this post. I found out the other day that Katie In India (yes that's what I call her these days) is reading the same book as I am. A book I had never heard about until I borrowed it from Nick's roommate on his reccomendation. This book is amazing and I was planning on passing it along to KTII when she returned, and then I discovered via Facebook that she is reading it right now too. Coincidence? I think so. Spoooky? Not really. maybe if the book was about a ghost or something. Or if my house suddenly became haunted. Uhm. ya...moving along....
Since, I'm pretty sure you expect it. I did some research and found The 20 Most Amazing Coincidences and picked my favorite two, although there were lots of WTF ones in there. Here they are:

A falling baby, saved twice by the same man
In Detroit sometime in the 1930s, a young (if incredibly careless) mother must have been eternally grateful to a man named Joseph Figlock. As Figlock was walking down the street, the mother's baby fell from a high window onto Figlock. The baby's fall was broken and both man and baby were unharmed. A stroke of luck on its own, but a year later, the very same baby fell from the very same window onto poor, unsuspecting Joseph Figlock as he was again passing beneath. And again, they both survived the event. (Source: Mysteries of the Unexplained)

A writer, found the book of her childhood
While American novelist Anne Parrish was browsing bookstores in Paris in the 1920s, she came upon a book that was one of her childhood favorites - Jack Frost and Other Stories. She picked up the old book and showed it to her husband, telling him of the book she fondly remembered as a child. Her husband took the book, opened it, and on the flyleaf found the inscription: "Anne Parrish, 209 N. Weber Street, Colorado Springs." It was Anne's very own book. (Source: While Rome Burns, Alexander Wollcott)

Super side note- the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies I baked yesterday are delicious and the recipe can be found here. I had a super baking extravaganza and also made Banana Carrot Walnut muffins which are a huge hit with my taste buds and definitely have my endorsement. Recipe here if you'd like it. Pictures below, if you care. That is all. XO shelly.

nom nom nom.

A Case of the Grumps

The Michelle Health Organization (MHO for short) reports that there's been a case of the grumps going around lately. This organization, which is neither very organized nor very healthy, would like to help you diagnose yourself. Not sure if you are suffering from the grumps? Here's a few things that might be a tip off:

• People leave the room when you walk in because they dread being around you and your bad attitude (badittude, if you will).
• You spend extended periods of time wallowing in self-loathing and, alternatively, self-pity.
• The usual good mood-inspiring things do not even bring a semi smile to your face. An adorable puppy in a cute outfit makes you roll your eyes instead of the normal giggle and clap.
• Even eating delicious treats do not make you happy.

Now, drinking excessively may seem like a good idea to dull the pain of your grumptastic mood, but it will not help. Let me repeat: Do Not try to drink the grumps away. It is cause for disaster and you will then be hungover AND grumpy. Please do not fret though, I have some helpful suggestions (that worked for me) to bring you back to Happy Land.

1. You need to go overboard on the things that make you happy. For me, it's baking. This weekend I baked a batch of deliciously low fat cookies, chocolate mousse (not technically baking, but still counts) and mini chocolate cupcakes with peppermint chocolate icing. The delicious end results, combined with the pleasure it brought to those who devoured the treats nearly pulled me out my funk. [see below for photos]
2. Exercise. Again, I suggest going overboard. Get out and work your butt off doing whatever it is you do to stay in shape. Yesterday I spent an hour at the gym and then hit the track with my iPod on the loudest it could go. By the time I was done, I was so frozen, deaf, hungry and tired that I had no room to be grumpy. Pure bliss.
3. Shopping therapy. Simple. Go out and buy things. You don't need to spend a million dollars, feel free to hit the dollar store, walmart or even go to the grocery store and hit the bulk bins real hard. Don't get me wrong, if you have the money and the inclination to make a big purchase, by all means do so. A new TV or car would certainly make your grumps disappear twice or even three times as fast.
4. Go tanning. I hear the WHO (world health organisation- who is actually a real organisation, unlike the MHO) declared tanning a carcinogenic, so maybe this option isn't for everyone...but if you aren't opposed to tanning and your skin could use some colour- jump on in to your nearest cancer box. Not only will you feel better because you will look prettier- you will feel better from that dose of vitamin D that you can only get from the sun, which we probably won't seeing much of for the next few months.
5. If you have completed suggestions 1-4 and are still feeling down then you have no choice but to go to Disney Land. It is the happiest place on earth. If a dose of the magic kingdom, mickey mouse and frozen lemonade can't cure you then you are pretty much out of luck. You can try repeating the above steps, perhaps in reverse order, but unfortunately and most likely, you will need to move onto #5.
6. Strong meds are officially in order. Prozak or some other anti-depressant. It will make you feel like you are living your life in a hazy cloud, not to mention the long list of negative side effects, but hey, it will likely kill the grumps. Murder at its finest. Visit a doctor near you for treatment.

Wishing you all a grump-free afternoon. Good day to you.

zucchini, two ways.

I was formally introduced to chocolate zucchini loaf a couple of years ago. It was a total sneak attack; it looked like chocolate cake and tasted like Nom nom nom but was filled with squash! When I asked what kind of cake it was and the secret ingredient was revealed my life was forever changed.

Wendy brought me a fresh zucchini from her garden, it was huge! She told me that it only takes about a week to grow that big in her garden. I told her I'd bake something and bring it to work. La la la, two weeks it'd been sitting in my fridge before I finally got up the courage to deal with it. I cut and grate it up, resulting in about 4 cups of zukey goodness- which is enough for two recipes of deliciousness. Yes indeed, that makes it a twofer!

While it was hanging out in my fridge it of course was haunting me. I scoured the internet for recipes and came up with about fifty I wanted to try. Earlier this week I quit messing around and decided on zucchini brownies.

Recipe one- Zucchini Brownies. I decided not to stray too far from chocolate zucchini cake as it's such a winning recipe, so this recipe was a perfect fit. Super simple AND they are vegan! The moisture in the zuke makes eggs unnecessary and the fat comes from vegetable oil! As I am a glutton, I sampled an edge piece for breakfast and it was delicious- a little cakier than I like though- perhaps I sifted the flour too much. For an afternoon snack I had a piece cut from the middle of the pan and it was undercooked, fudgey deliciousness. I didn't even bother frosting the brownies and they are still amazing. My taste testing panel all made yummy noises.

Recipe two- Zucchini Banana Loaf. I had a whole bunch of ripe bananas that I'd been procrastinating on baking. I was thinking of doing a basic Zuke loaf but got nervous that it would taste healthy (aka gross), so i found a highly rated recipe with both banana and zucchini! I decided to healthy up the recipe (I had a guilty conscience from eating all those brownies), so I added in extra zucchini and banana, substituted part of the flour for whole wheat and part of the oil for flax oil, and I added in a few table spoons of: ground flax, wheat germ and oat bran, and a cup of chopped walnuts for crunch and protein. Usually making this many substitutions is how i end up with a baking disaster but sometimes i just can't stop myself.

I put the timer on for an hour and had a bath. I got out with plenty of time to spare so i plopped my butt on the floor in front of the stove. My fireplace is still shut off for the summer and apparently I can't be bothered to spend the three minutes it takes to re light the pilot, so my place is a freezing cold ice box. My laziness appalls me but still I make no move to fix it.

While parked on the floor in front of the stove me I was catching up with Smy on bbm and told her what i was baking...

michelle.: My loaves are looking so high!

Smy: Ya. Ohh let's see

michelle.: will opening the oven wreck them?

Smy: No

Smy: Be quick

michelle.: IMG01416-20110929-2017.jpg

Smy: Ooooh

Smy: They r beautiful

michelle.: :d

michelle.: I am sitting in front of the oven watching them grow
michelle.: They are my children
Smy: Hahahahhaha

Smy: Ur deranged :O

michelle.: Hahahahah I am indeed
michelle.: Freshly baked children, hot out of the oven. Yummmo

Smy: Hahahhaa

Smy: Lil chubby babies
Smy: Good for the pokin
michelle.: Sliced up with some butter
michelle.: Nothin like a slice of baby to start the morning right
Smy: Ahaha
Smy: SICKO
michelle.: :)

I took the first loaf out at about 58 min and the second loaf out at 65 minutes as its a much bigger loaf pan. I was being a bit impatient so the loaves are slightly undercooked at the very center, but that's just extra texture, right? I feel pretty happy to have made two good sized, good looking loaves, with not even one disaster during the process. On the way to work this morning I dropped off a few slices to my Great Uncle Ron and brought the rest to work. I'm essentially a mix between Martha Stewart and Santa Clause, minus the magic reindeer and insider trading.
xo.shelly. over and out.