Bake Off!

We're not cooking Thanksgiving, but we have tried some new recipes recently. In fact, Sis is a baking fiend. She's on Pinterest a lot, choosing recipes, planning what to make next. We even had a Great Brownie Bake-Off; she made our regular recipe and I made Mama Teacher's special brownies. It was a tie, but the fun part was pretending we were on the Great British Bake Off, one of our favorite shows--Bud even interviewed us! She makes great crepes, especially in our new ceramic non-stick skillet, and has a recent thing for micorwavable mug cakes, which I don't quite understand. 

Perhaps she should start her own baking blog!

Mama Teacher's Special Brownies

1 pkg. (4 oz.) BAKER'S Unsweetened Chocolate 




3/4 cup butter or margarine 



2 cups sugar 



3 eggs 



1 tsp. vanilla 



1 cup flour 




Heat oven to 350°F. Line 13x9-inch pan with aluminum foil with ends of foil extending over sides. 

Spray foil with cooking spray.

Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is

melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour

and nuts; mix well. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake 30 to 35 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. (Do not

overbake.) Cool completely. Use foil handles to remove brownies from pan before cutting to serve.

Molten Nutella Lava Mug Cake

• from Kirbie's Cravings
• 4 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup Nutella
• 3 tbsp fat free milk

Preheat oven to 350F. In an oven-safe mug (it won't rise too high, so an 8 oz is fine), add all four ingredients. Mix with a mini whisk vigorously until batter is completely mixed and smooth.

Place mug on a baking sheet and then place into oven. Bake for approximately 16-18 minutes (mine took exactly 17 1/2 minutes). Watch the cake carefully towards the end. You want the cake to have puffed up except the center, which should still look dark and not completely set (but no longer wet, like photo above). Let cake cool a few moments before eating. You can top with powdered sugar and eat with ice cream if desired.

Molten Chocolate Lava Mug Cake
from Girl on Gourmet

2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 egg
3 tablespoons heavy cream
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 pinch of salt
3 tablespoons semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup vanilla bean ice cream (optional)

Combine the butter, egg, and cream together in a coffee mug until well combined. Add the flour and sugar and keep stirring. Add the cocoa, vanilla, and salt and stir until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Place the mug in a microwave and cook for 2 minutes. Remove the mug from the microwave and let it sit for a few minutes to cool.
Top the cake with the ice cream, grab a spoon, and dig in.

Sis's #1 Crepes

from Sweet as Honey

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (230g)
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract optional
1 teaspoon white sugar optional
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter melted or vegetable oil of your choice

In a large bowl add the flour, eggs, salt, vanilla extract, melted butter and sugar if used.

Using a whisk or electric mixer, beat in the milk gradually until a smooth batter form with no lumps.
Heat a lightly buttered crepes pan over medium/high heat.
Pour or scoop the batter onto the pan, then tip and rotate the pan to spread batter as thinly as possible.

Brown on both sides about 1-2 minutes on each sides and serve hot with your favorite fillings

Recipe Notes

Store: you can cook all the crepes then store them in the fridge, on a plate covered with plastic wrap. It store well up to 2 days.

Filling ideas: jam, chocolate spread, honey, maple syrup, apple compote, fruits, nut butters, whipped cream, ice cream, nuts, coconut and more!

Chocolate Lava Cakes

from Sally's Baking Addiction

6 ounces (170g) high quality semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup (115g; 1 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup (31g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (60g) confectioners' sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks²
optional for topping: ice cream, raspberries, and/or chocolate syrup

Spray each ramekin with nonstick cooking spray and dust with cocoa powder. This ensures the cakes will seamlessly come out of the ramekins when inverted onto a plate in step 7. *Or spray half of a 12-count muffin pan and dust with cocoa powder. If baking in a muffin pan, the recipe will yield 6 cakes.

Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C).

Coarsely chop the chocolate. Place butter into a medium heat-proof bowl, then add chopped chocolate on top. Microwave on high in 10 second increments, stirring after each until completely smooth. Set aside.

Whisk the flour, confectioners' sugar, and salt together in a small bowl. Whisk the eggs and egg yolks together until combined in another small bowl. Pour the flour mixture and eggs into the bowl of chocolate. Slowly stir everything together using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. If there are any lumps, gently use your whisk to rid them. The batter will be slightly thick.

Spoon chocolate batter evenly into each prepared ramekin or muffin cup.

Place ramekins onto a baking sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes until the sides appear solid and firm-- the tops will still look soft. *If baking in a muffin pan, the cakes only take about 8-10 minutes.
Allow to cool for 1 minute, then cover each with an inverted plate and turn over. Use an oven mitt because those ramekins are hot! The cakes should release easily from the ramekin. *If you used a muffin pan, use a spoon to release the cakes from the pan and place each upside down on plates.
Add toppings. Serve immediately.

Make ahead tip and freezing: You can prepare the batter through step 4. Cover tightly and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Allow to come to room temperature before continuing with step 5. You can freeze the baked lava cakes for up to 3 months. Allow them to cool completely before freezing. Re-heat in the microwave.

Recipe Notes:

Make sure to use high quality chocolate, not chocolate chips. You won't have much "lava" with chocolate chips! I suggest high quality chocolate baking bars sold in the baking aisle such as Baker's, Ghirardelli, Nestle, or Lindt. They're all typically sold in 4 ounce bars, so you will need 1 and 1/2 bars total.

A note on the eggs-- for this recipe, you need 2 whole eggs plus an addition 2 egg yolks. After 10-14 minutes in an oven this hot, the eggs should be cooked to 160°F which is considered safe to eat. If you're concerned, you can take the temperature to be sure!

Childhood Memories

Lemon twist.
Sit 'N Spin.
Moppet's Secret Dollhouse.
Fisher Price Little People Castle, A-frame House, Town.
CandyLand, with the original board game.
Speak & Spell.
Simon Says game.
Waterful Ring Toss.
Great Greetings and Fashion Plates.

I've come across several toys and games from my childhood through Pinterest and the pinned blogs and websites (here, here, here, here, and here). It's been such a fun ride!

Red Rover.
Thumbs-Up, 7Up!
Folded notes.
Metal dome playground equipment.
Silly String.
Fortune Tellers.
Super Plastic Bubbles.
Weeble Wobbles.
Rub-a-Dub Dolly.

It's been such a wonderful trip down memory lane, but I couldn't find one thing:  a blue and pink plastic ice cream sundae toy that contained a miniature dollhouse.  I also had a miniature brown ice cream sandwich, also with a dollhouse inside.  But I couldn't remember the name and couldn't find them online.  I kept looking, finding many other things.

Tinkerbell makeup.
Jellies shoes.
Twisty bead necklaces.
Woven barrettes.
Banana clips.
Prairie shirts.
Yarn hair ribbons.

And so I told Mama, who had heard me talk of these toys before.  And so she started looking.

Plastic Halloween costumes with masks that came in paper boxes.
"Popcorn" Rudolph decorations.
Plastic-net Christmas stockings.
Woodsy the Owl.
Smokey the Bear.

 I didn't have much hope.  I should have, though, because years ago she found one of my favorite childhood book series, the Meg Mysteries, and even bought me a few; this in the days before Amazon and such. She's just more creative and thorough with her Boolean logic, I guess.  But I was still surprised this morning when she reached over and showed me this:

She found them!!!!  Mattel Liddle Kiddle, also marketed in the 1970s as Sweet Treats.  I had forgotten the rainbow-colored hair of the dolls.  We don't need to buy them, even though mine are long gone.  It was just nice to see them again and remember all the fun I had with these toys and all the others.

Pintathletes

My last few weeks on Pinterest have been an eye-opening experience for me.  For those of you who don't know, Pinterest is an extremely popular website that functions as the virtual corkboard of ideas and inspirations found around the web by internet users, a very specific, highly-desirable subset of internet users--those who control the American family's pursestrings.  Pinterest users, if I may hazard a (completely stereotyped) guess all in good fun, are generally white, middle-class, 30s-ish, Christian American women with children, many of whom teach school or stay at home, and who:

• love tattoos--especially tattoos that say "love" in cursivey-hearts
• express creativity through elaborate fingernail polish designs (I've seen Santas, tie dye, sneaker laces, and hundreds of others)
• have long hair and love braids but don't really know how to braid and so need many tutorials
• want to know how to make the most out of limited wardrobes, like the basic shirt
•  . . . .which can also be made into a reusable grocery bag, a necklace, or a headband!
• feel fat--and want either products like this plastic warp treatment or exercise regimes like this countdown jumping jacks one or make-your-own skinny desserts and 100 calorie snack packs to become thinner
• crave, make, and eat food that might contribute to a weight problem--if you only ate dishes published on Pinterest, you would eat an amazing amount of 1). crockpot meals with cream of fat soup and packages of ranch dressing 2). chicken bakes with 1/2 stick of butter and more packages of ranch dressing or onion soup 3). quick pastas combining jars of both spaghetti sauce and alfredo sauce 4). desserts with Oreos baked inside, covered in white chocolate, or inspiring desserts that look like Oreos or anything Red Velvet---oh, Red Velvet Oreos!!!???
• only want their kids to eat healthy snacks from long lists of pre-approved ideas and lunches made of the same
• express their frugality by DIY home decor projects, home sewn clothes, homemade Christmas presents, and recreated versions of store-bought mixes
• love crafts, especially those with paint swatches, crochet, owls, stenciling, and fun things to do with kids
• but want to make their own bubbles, finger paint, chalk, crayons (hey, that's my pin!), etc.
• really prefer programmed time with their kids--101 activities to cheer up, calm down, explore nature, play with science, learn about artists--often inspired by Montessori
• while I don't see it too often, I figure there are a lot of homeschoolers or homeschooler-wannabes
• . . . . and Mormons
• really love compendiums, lists, sets, collections, bullet-points, and itemization
• obsess about clean houses and how to achieve them with shortcuts using baking soda, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, and such and projects on de-cluttering their houses in 30 days
• actually, 30-day challenges are big--to draw, journal, be a better parent, romance their husbands
• "Have a sweet, gentle sense of humor," said nobody ever (and love to see such quotes on snarky, sarcastic or ironic postcards with Victorian line drawings and stylish colors or cross-stitched with pretty little flowers)
• but avoid irony and sarcasm in their embrace of inspirational quotes, preferably hand-lettered on chalkboards or canvas, and guides to the Bible and scripture (which is not granola, by the way, so don't just choose the parts you like!)
• worry about how to record for posterity their weddings, pregnancies, and children's childhoods (and school experiences in a Oh The Places You'll Go secretly autographed by teachers for a dozen years!) and so detail memory crafts, photography poses, birth announcements etc.
• prepare for holidays approximately two holidays in advance (and want to put Jesus back in Easter and Christmas, and that ELF)
• don't like Twilight much at all, at least in public, and will poke fun at it (Hermione fought a dark lord, Princess Leia fought an empire, Katniss started a rebellion, and Bella got married.)
• really like 50 Shades of Grey but don't mention it in public often
• also love Disney princesses, without the irony
• not only read and share but create the content shared on Pinterest by writing blogs with interesting ideas and often amazing artistic photography
• know their way around Photoshop, Instagram, Adobe, and other programs/apps
• even enjoy poking fun at Pinterest projects and ideas on Pinstrosity

And in truth, though I type in the third person on the list (and am somewhat snarky about it), most of those apply to me, of which my pins are veritable proof (I mean, how else would I know exactly what pinners prefer??).  I'm not at all embarrassed and am quite enjoying it . . . Besides, I'm sure there's a pin of "Judge not lest ye be judged!"