Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Tuesdays with Dorie & ITunes
Posted by Amy Ruth | Filed under Uncategorized
What happened? Its Tuesday already? Yesterday I lost my head and got caught up with music on iTunes for my iPod and the whole Family Sharing feature. Corbin has some music, and he sat down with me last night, we began talking about his music and sites he is interested in and I just lost track of time. Before I knew it, I looked down and it was midnight. Corbin, like many teenage people spends a ton of time learning and viewing current sites that I have never even heard of before…. go figure. I’m concerned about what is in the ‘frig and he is soaking up all the technology around him. So, when I get his undivided attention and I have the presence of mind to turn down or turn off the idiot box (TV) he shares amazing information with me. So we talked and shared music. I got some cool music for my iPod, ultimately for running outside, yea even in 25 degree weather, and for those dratted machines I enjoy at the gym. Yesterday, I tweeted about this “app” on my iphone for running, its not new but its new to me and its called RunKeeper, and it uses GPS to help me track distance, and time and prompts me. The cool thing is I can also listen to my music while it is running. I know you guys who use it are saying duh, lady. I know, but see its new to me. So if you have any tips or comments about that…. well, I’m listening.
My point to all of this is, yea, I know its Tuesday and where are those delicious little cookies? Well, they are right here. haha I made them a while back and yesterday and last night totally forgot to write my post. I’m not going on any totally awesome trips where you “do it ahead” or anything that exciting. I was just immersed in discovery of a new iphone app and iTunes and talking to Corbin and I totally forgot that today is the day to show you pictures of my sweet little Dorie cookies.
What are the names of these cookies you ask? Good question. They are a bit unusual and seem to remind me of a British biscuit that would pair well with tea or would be consumed in the mid morning whilst visiting with a friend over coffee. Here you go coffee or tea and a Honey Wheat Cookie. Dorie says she discovered it (see there’s that word) in the NYT’s and saved it. It spoke to her as being wholesome because, ladies and gents, it has 1 cup of wheat germ in its ingredients.
I photographed these thinking of love and this whole month of love. Can you tell?
I hope you’ll stop by and visit Michelle at The Flourchild where you too can grab the recipe for these awesome little cookies, not too sweet but just a simple little cookie for snacking, filled with wholesome goodness and honey. Check it out.
Thanks for stopping by… gotta run!
All-In-One Holiday Bundt Cake
Posted by Amy Ruth | Filed under Uncategorized
In Dorie’s book, Baking From My Home to Yours, she describes this concoction as the ”name your favorite Thanksgiving flavor, and you’ll find it here.” After putting the cake in the oven, it was time to do the clean up and I tasted the remnants of batter in my mixer bowl. Yes, it definitely is all things Thanksgiving. Truly it is. Among the array of ingredients or flavors present are pecans, cranberries, apples and pumpkin. All the wonderful spices you would expect to follow along are cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and brown sugar, to round it out. You know all these wonderful things combined will provide you the perfect chunky piece of cake suitable for eating out of hand. Dorie suggests making a glaze with maple syrup to finish off the marriage of flavors. So there you have it folks. My cake is resting right now, on a rack. You see it is too hot to cut right now so I will have to come back later and tell you all about how wonderful it tastes with a strong black cup of Jo. I do love my coffee. Have no fear, I’ll let you know what I think about it. Until then, go on out and buy yourself the book. If you don’t have it yet you should. It is the baking season and Dorie Greenspan has a wonderful variety of holiday goodies for you to try in Baking From My Home to Yours. There now, no excuses.
Okay, maybe you can have just one so go on over to Britan of the Nitty Britty and she will have the recipe right there for you to bake from and enjoy this tasty, worthy of giving to your friends, beautiful holiday bundt cake. Just for fun, there is at least one more stop at Mary The Food Librarian who has baked Big Bundts for an entire month. Yup, that’s right!!! If you don’t believe me, check it out. hehe She has that many bundt cakes with recipes posted. Have you ever thought someone could solve all your bundt cake challenges?
Thanks folks for being so kind and stoping by for a visit. Have a wonderful holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving!
Photos of this holiday concoction are forthcoming. For those of you who have an X-box in the house you may be aware of a new game recently introduced. I am a midnight baker and so he is a game player. You’ll see the proof later this evening. Thanks again.
At last, the photo shoot was completed and, (this is where it gets good) I finally cut the cake. Yup, I tasted it and then some. It is moist, full of fun Fall flavors, a perfect choice for warming up the season with loved ones and sharing with friends. Dorie’s All-In-One Holiday Bundt Cake is a keeper and definitely will be repeated. Even my sweet Texas friend who isn’t a TWD baker is getting ready to make it. See, I can be convincing.
Sugar Topped Molasses Spice Cookies & Cran~Apple Crisps
Posted by Amy Ruth | Filed under Uncategorized
These recipes are from Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking From My Home to Yours. Since I assume by now that you are aware of the baking group called Tuesdays With Dorie, then you are probably also knowledgeable of how this game is played. You know the one, so I won’t explain myself.
Somewhere on this page you will see a photo of a beautiful Paula Dean pie plate. Do you see it? Around the end of October I opened my email to find an email from a lovely young Mom, Angie of Southern Grace Gourmet, who notified me that I had won the pie plate from her blog. I never win even though each time I enter a contest I tell myself, “Amy, someone is going to win it may as well be you.” Yea, I know… . Anyway, this time I scored. Of course, original intentions were to make a pumpkin pie. You see Angie has a post using pie pumpkins which inspired me to give it a try. However, I couldn’t resist baking the Cran-Apple Crisp in it. It worked perfectly. I love it! Thank you so much Angie and Mr. Random Picker Program! (whoever you are?)
Let it be said that the crisp is out of this world, thank you Dorie! Just one of those familiar tasty fall spice kind of treats. Super simple to make and the only additional ingredient I required was the fresh cranberries, duh…. tis the season. You must make and enjoy one or two or three or okay more spoonfuls. De-lish!
Now as far as those cookies go…. I love molasses! Know what? So does Corbin. He loves these cookies too. Sweet little guy. Well, he isn’t so little but it just makes me happy that he loves them. A Mom thing. Also, one must understand that this third child is very discriminating. A polite way of saying he is a picky eater. ugh! Well, I’ve made these for Corbin before during the fall season. The aroma brought the boy to life so tonight I whipped the dough out of the freezer and sliced off six little cookies to bake along while making the Cran-apple crisp. They were sort of a reward for taking these scrumptious photos, ya know. he he
One more order of business, the recipes of course can be found in Dorie’s wonderful book or if you like you may also find them at the following blogs, because these bakers are the lucky ones who took their turns choosing the recipes for this month. Isn’t it such a wonderful season?
Pamela of “Cookies” with Boys chose the cookies, ha ha do ya get it? cookies…. haha Okay, well the Sugar Topped Molasses Spice Cookies recipe can be found on her blog here.
Well, guess what? Sometime this month Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef will reveal to you the magic recipe for Cran-Apple Crisps. Just stop by for a visit. I know lots of others in the baking group have been baking up lots of special treats for their families and friends so please join in if you would like. All you need is the book, a blog and a visit to the TWD site to get yourself set to roll.
Thank you so much for stopping by. I really enjoyed sharing these treats with you this week. They were among some of my favorites from Dorie’s book. Hope you’ll like them too. (They weren’t even chocolate?)
Dorie’s Sweet Potato Biscuits ~ TWD
Posted by Amy Ruth | Filed under Uncategorized
Sweet Potatoes are a little mystifying to me. I never know what I’m getting when I pick one up out of the bin at the grocery store. I like them and grew up eating sweet potato concoctions, the southern version with toasted marshmallows on top. Sweetness, sweetness.
It is the best way to eat your vegetables I would say. Recently, while flipping through the final issue of Gourmet I noticed a small article near the back explaining all the varieties and further describing their appearance as well as nuances of their flavor. Still I would probably have to have flash cards or the magazine with me to identify the different varieties. Crazy huh? 
Erin of Prudence and Pennywise chose these unique and yummy biscuits to help usher in the upcoming Thanksgiving season. They are pretty tasty especially with jam. To top it all off, you can whip these up in no time and you can even use canned sweet potatoes if you want. That’s remarkable. This little biscuit is in the front section of Dorie Greenspans Baking From My Home to Yours along with some other types of biscuits and scones. If you would like to give them a whirl, you can find the recipe on Erin’s blog or in Dorie’s book. Hope you are enjoying the Fall season along with all the yumminess too.
Allspice Crumble Muffins for TWD
Posted by Amy Ruth | Filed under Uncategorized
What theory do you subscribe to regarding caloric intake? Generally, moderation has proved to be fairly effective along with regular gym time. You know a splurge now and then sort of sneaks in there. Okay, yea lately a lot. sssshh So, today as I was at the gym, the subject of what was being baked or what type of food I was “cooking up” became the topic for the rest of the hour. That was when I thought I would give it a whirl with a different twist. When baking, I almost always follow pretty closely or exactly to the letter how the recipe is written. Today was different. I modified the flour with 1 cup AP, 1/2 cup whole wheat, 1/2 cup kamut flour. I replaced the butter with unsweetened applesauce. Two large eggs were modified to one whole and one white. I followed the rest of the recipe as written.
Well, I suppose you are wondering what became of all the efforts to reduce the fat content? The Allspice Crumble muffins reduced fat version, actually weren’t that bad with out the butter fat and minus one yolk. Don’t get me wrong. I love living the good life just like anyone else. Like butter in my baked goods. No shortening for me. The flavor with the brown sugar, allspice and optional lemon zest (included) was quite comforting and nice.
COMO has had grey, cool and partly rainy weather lately. I think that is what they call Fall. Darn, really liking warmer weather right about now a whole lot better. Does a warm sunny beach sound pretty good? Yea, that’s what I was thinking too. The point is, Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table lovingly and thoughtfully chose this weeks recipe for all the bakers this week. If you are reading this Kayte, thank you for this choice. Nice of you to choose a simple, “go-to” muffin. I had all the ingredients on hand even the whole milk which I keep for baking and I really use it. Go figure with all these new found thoughts of reduced fat. hehe Yes, you will want the recipe and you can find it posted on Kayte’s site. You can also journey through the blog roll of all the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers here. There really are a lot of very talented people who love to write their stories, bake a little for their friends and families not to mention some awesome photography. (BTW Corbin was busy so…..these are mine with a different camera)
I shared this little treat with one of my special gym rat friends along with a small bottle of 2% chocolate milk.
Even they like treats. Yes they do.
Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be sure and come by your place for a visit too.
