Last week one of my nieces put up a wee Facebook post about Wednesday cake. It set off my make-cake-bells and I went to the crisper to retrieve some bananas that I’d put there to ripen slowly for some baking purpose. Sadly, overripe, so the banana-nut cake that I had in mind? Nope. Substitute cake? … More Sunday Cake: Banana Nut with Creamy Nut Icing. No nuts.
There was a time when sunflower posters, prints and paintings, pillows and paraphernalia adorned my daughter’s room. It wasn’t recently, but a good amount of the wall art has survived mixed in with the rest of my collection. The time has come to clean the sunflower pieces, say thanks for the beauty you brought into … More Art in the kitchen: Angelic blonde with ginger tabby n sunflowers in vintage Burwood frame
There was maybe 3/4 cup of leftover chocolate fudge icing in the fridge and last night somebody gifted me with a bag of Washington’s own Bluebird Grain Farms organic whole grain hard white flour while we were discussing acquisition of some good quality chocolate for a cake recipe. So, with chocolate on my mind and … More j’s Hard Flour Brownies with Cocoa, Walnuts & Fudge Icing
Somewhere and sometime during a recipe search for something, there was a reference to using yogurt to boost the sour power of sourdough bread if one was in a rush. Some large commercial bakeries do it with added ingredients, so why not try it? I wanted fresh sourdough bread in a hurry, didn’t think about … More Sourdough Yogurt Bread, Garden Roses and Tiny Tomatoes on Deck
Having discovered a neighbor’s taste for Mexican chocolate, I decided to surprise her on her birthday today, August 12th, with some fudgy brownies made with Ibarra chocolate, well-known to bakers. A little goes a long way, so the icing was a simple, plain fudge. She loved them. In honor of her birthday, in addition to … More Mexican Chocolate Brownies & garden art for a birthday girl
You don’t even have to see the cookie to imagine it. Those Mariani Sea Salt Caramel Raisins are perfect for the oatmeal cookie variations. We’re fond of the chewy variety that doesn’t have butter or margarine or shortening or other fat excepting that inside the yolk of an egg. These were a success all around, … More Chewy Oatmeal Bars with Caramel Raisins
My mother’s birthday is tomorrow and my acknowledgment is always something that I make for her. I do the same thing for the other holidays. Some years I paint a card; she likes and saves them. Other years I bake a goodie of some sort. She’s very fond of crispy butter cookies and I had … More Lavender Butter Cookies
In the city of Seattle, food waste is not allowed in the rubbish nor are recyclable items. Food waste joins lawn and garden waste in a big plastic bin collected every week on the same day as the rubbish, in a separate truck and for a different destination. Seattle composts, mostly citywide, but there are … More Composting: A Rant
Doesn’t it look delicious? Somebodies had their plates full making these gardens for people to appreciate. I do not like to garden, but I’m a devoted appreciator. I just eat it up, bless the people who did all the work, and, if I can, give them a little something in return for the pleasure I’ve … More Garden Art as Food
Mark brought me some crystalised, candied ginger pieces all ready to go into a cookie batter and some dried cranberries and suggested an oatmeal cookie would be nice, soon, sometime in the next two weeks. Oh, and some raisins, too, and walnuts. I told him that my oatmeal cookies do not have butter or shortening … More Oatmeal Chews with Candied Ginger, Raisins, Cranberries, Walnuts and Peonies
Ms Chef in Seattle 