Archive: Crafty/Tasty

Over the snowed-in weekend, I took my first stab at baking and decorating sugar cookies, per my goals for 2010. Before my horrific experience at David’s Bridal, I had stopped by a lovely cake decorating shop for supplies, and I am now the proud owner of a handful of piping tips, couplers, and gel food coloring. (I foresee going back to the shop many times in the future for the cute cupcake liners, sugar decorations, and candy molds.) For this attempt, I used the sugar cookie and royal icing recipes from Annie’s Eats, and I took careful notes from Annie’s decorating tutorial for my process and timing.

The Cookie
I had to buy almond extract for this recipe, which I sort of resented because I don’t particularly like almonds, but for the sake of testing the recipe rigorously, I picked up the smallest bottle possible. Hey, on sale for 90 cents! Sold! I didn’t get 40 cookies out of this recipe, but I wasn’t too discerning in trying to eke out every possible cookie from the dough. I had trouble judging when the cookies were done because they weren’t supposed to brown, but my educated guess turned out okay, texture-wise. JG and I taste-tested a cookie after they’d cooled, but before I iced them, and we pronounced them Very! Almondy! I was not pleased.

The Icing
From what I’ve seen, the icing recipe I used is pretty standard (note: I had to buy meringue powder at the cake supply shop because it wasn’t at my grocery store), although I halved it for my purposes. Icing is tricky business; I kept adding more water or powdered sugar to make it the right consistency, but then I ended up with way more icing than I bargained for, kind of like endlessly trimming bangs to even them out.

The Decorating
Instead of using a real piping bag, I cut a hole into a sandwich bag and fastened the coupler and piping tip inside, thus vindicating my hesitation to buy the real thing at the decorating shop. I dyed some of the icing blue for my outlines and followed Annie’s recommendation to do this step sitting down at my counter. The stars were much easier than the circles to outline because I could pause at each point and evaluate my margins. For the circles, I felt like I had to do each loop in one fell swoop, and my shapes suffered for it.

Flooding was … hard. I couldn’t figure out a good method for adding in the right amount, spreading it to the sides, and popping errant air bubbles, all before the icing set up. Maybe I need to buy a squeeze bottle to do this correctly, but I’m loath to buy supplies I can rig up on my own (see sandwich bag hack above). I’m still pondering this step.

I planned on sending JG to school with the cookies — as with so many other experiments — so I decided to practice writing as my decoration. I piped out the school initials, nerdy sayings, and every course I could think of in the math/science department. This step was the most fun for me. Sure, my nature lends itself to twitchy detail-work, but it was so gratifying to see the cookies have their own (albeit geeky) personalities.

The Verdict
JG reported that the cookies were “a big hit” with his co-workers. He brought back an empty plastic container after only one day, but I know that teachers aren’t the most discriminating judges of baked goods. I asked about what I thought was an overwhelming almond flavor (so much so that I wrote it on the container label), but JG assured me that the taste mellowed out over the two days the cookies had rested. Woo!

Next Steps

• Unless I dial down the almond extract, this recipe is not The Cookie, but I’m keeping it around as a contender. The next recipe on my list is from Joy of Baking, recommended by Anna.
• I will work with smaller batches of dough to keep it from sticking to the board and warming up too quickly.
• I need to be more careful about thinning or thickening my icing too quickly, lest I create a lot more icing than I need.
• I will keep my areas of improvement in mind and make some changes to my process:
  • Chill the cutouts before baking to prevent spreading
  • Pipe outlines more slowly and go back to smooth out bumps or pop air bubbles
  • Be more aware of icing spread to prevent overflow

All in all, I really enjoyed my first foray into cookie decorating, and as I suspected, piping icing was indeed a good transfer of my as-yet-unmarketable penchant for puff-painting. I’m already thinking up my next excuse to bust out the piping tips.

I’ve always been a little ashamed of that Crafty/Tasty category because it’s hardly ever crafty. That is to say, I am not. (Not that I am tasty, either, but … you know what I mean.) I am meticulous enough to follow directions if someone hands me a project, but I don’t naturally generate my own crafty ideas. Besides, the bulk of those arty posts involved me griping about churning out volleyball scarves. I hardly think making a pile of the same exact scarf warrants true craftiness. So, I embrace it. I am not crafty at heart, and I lean on the crutch of cooking to fill out that category.

However!

I was particularly crafty during January, if I do say so myself, so, um — reward, please?

First, I finished a humongous scarf for my brother-in-law:

I started this scarf at Thanksgiving, but I only finished it in January after not working on it for the weeks surrounding Christmas. Whenever anyone saw me working on it, they’d ask, “Are you a Vikings fan? An LSU fan?”

“No,” I’d explain. “It’s for my brother-in-law. He went to James Madison.”

Blank stare.

“Their colors are purple and gold.”

“Oh!”

That’s when I ducked my head to hide the sideways shifty glance. Anyway, the scarf is obnoxiously purple and gold, so much so that I brought the yarn with me to Thanksgiving to make sure I had it right. It’s over 7 feet long, in giant stripes knit in a 1×1 rib pattern. When I sling it around my shoulders, it goes to my shins, and even when I loop it all around my neck, there is no escaping its ginormosity. I love it. I think my brother-in-law will, too, once he receives it for his birthday this month.

Second, and even more impressive (for me), I embellished four onesies for two baby showers, which occurred on consecutive Saturdays:

The onesies on the left were for identical twin boys. I tried to come up with a pair of items that were similar, but not the same; things I could draw (or copy) in a silhouette form; and things that were cute, even though my brain kept wandering to nerdy references, like time/space and Jeeves/Wooster. I finally settled on the lemon and lime, and after the fact, I panicked that someone would think I was calling one of the twins sour, but at that point, I was committed, so I went with it. Of course, now, I have a bunch of other ideas running through my brain, but all for naught! Who will have twins next?

The pink onesies on the right were for the first child of a young couple in our church. This shower wigged me out just slightly because I was the wife’s youth group leader when she was in high school, so it was a strange time-warp situation. Regardless, I chose a cursive initial for the name they picked out and … a llama. Because she and I have an unhealthy obsession with The Emperor’s New Groove (llama face!). I knew it was a little strange, but I had faith that she would love it, and when she opened it, she just about shrieked. Success!

After I prowled the internet reading tutorials, my plan was to use fusible web to make appliques in the shapes I wanted and then finish them with hand sewing. The applique process was surprisingly easy; I finished all of those steps in the time it took to do a load of laundry on a Saturday morning. Feeling optimistic, I started sewing the lime onesie that afternoon. And it was horrible. It was like I had no control over my hands, and my stitches went all over the place. I had to redo almost all of the lime, several times. Sometime during the lemon, I rediscovered my fine motor skills, and the rest of the hand sewing progressed without issue. Thank goodness I saved the loopy L until the end.

The onesies were a really inexpensive gift option, too, if I don’t monetize the time spent cursing my stitches. I only used a fraction of the fabric, thread, and fusible web I bought, but assuming I went through all of the materials, the onesies only cost $3.80 each. Not bad, right? I think I saw similar ones at Etsy for what, $25? As tempting as that is, and as proud as I am of my handiwork, I’m a little baby-ed out at this point.

Now that all of my projects are complete, I almost feel guilty when I’m watching television with nothing crafty in my hands. I suppose I could get started on those off-season scarves, like I always say I should. Eh … maybe tomorrow.

Over the past several months, JG and I have added several new, easy dinners to the rotation, and I’m embarrassed that I didn’t think to share them earlier. Without further ado, here they are!

Herb chicken with creamy orzo
I initially saw a version of this first recipe at Annie’s Eats, and JG made it for dinner soon afterward with delicious results. However, I wondered if I could hack it to behave the same way as the one-pot dishes I love from America’s Test Kitchen and eliminate the pot and colander for the orzo. After a bit of trial and error, I did it! The recipe is after the jump, but it follows the same basic principles: cook the meat, throw in the aromatics, deglaze the pan, add some liquid, cook the starch, and put it all together in the end. It only took me 35 minutes to make with no advance preparation, there’s only one pan to clean (okay, plus a cutting board and other sundries), and it yields enough leftovers for JG and me to eat lunch the next day. I am ridiculously proud of myself for figuring out how to adapt this recipe, even though I know it’s simple. I feel like I’m emerging ever-so-slightly out of my strict adherence to recipes to make them work for me.

One other one-pot meal that earned immediate binder status was this skillet baked ziti. If you don’t have an oven-safe skillet, you can transfer it to a casserole dish, but that will negate the one-pot-ness of it. Also, I deviated just slightly from the recipe to use diced tomatoes instead of processing the whole ones. Regardless, it is easy! And delicious! And cheap!

Hot sandwiches
I know, it’s like rocket science over here. Seriously, though, the only hot sandwiches we ever made regularly were grilled cheese ones, and that was usually a Sunday lunch or a “we have nothing left in the fridge” last resort. Since then, we’ve graduated to two new ones:

• Mozzarella and roasted red pepper pressed sandwiches: We got the idea from the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook (shocker!), but the basic gist is that you slice some crusty rolls (like focaccia or ciabatta), spread them with pesto, and layer slices of nicer mozzarella cheese and roasted red peppers with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, plus a dash of balsamic vinegar if that sounds appealing. Brush the sandwiches with olive oil and press them on a griddle with a heavy pot on top — or use a Foreman grill like we do — and keep an eye out for slippage. You can make your own pesto and roast your own red peppers, but jarred products are fine, and they keep well in the pantry.
• Portobello mushroom sandwiches: I was suspicious of this recipe when I first saw it. English muffins? Dijon mustard? But, oh, you have to try it before you knock it. Not only is this sandwich easy and fast, but you can make the garlic-herb butter in bulk and in advance, and it keeps well in the freezer for future sandwiches (or, you know, garlic bread). I will note that one sandwich each was not enough for dinner for the two of us, so we normally go with two sandwiches apiece, plus a vegetable on the side. Also, aim for portobello caps that are about the same size as the English muffin; if you opt for the monster ones, you will have a messy (albeit delicious) sandwich. Not that I am speaking from experience, or anything.

The down side to sandwiches for dinner is the lack of leftovers, but they are a good way to mix things up on a Friday night or if we already have enough lunches for the week.

Soups
I got JG an immersion blender for Christmas. It was not a completely selfless act on my part because I knew that it would increase our soup consumption, and I have a deep love for soup. With his new toy, JG has jumped on board the soup wagon, and we now have it once a week. Woo! Soup is a great leftover lunch the next day (and the day after that), and it’s helpful to bulk up lighter dinners, like when we have sandwiches. We’ve also leaned toward soups for our weekly no-meat night. If you don’t have an immersion blender, a regular blender or food processor will do the job, but be careful pouring that hot soup!

• Broccoli soup: JG uses the America’s Test Kitchen version, but we have tried and also liked this one, which is lighter, with a lemon tang.
• Mushroom soup: This version from Anthony Bourdain is our standby, and I think JG omits the sherry.

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Are there any other easy, weeknight dinners lying in wait out there? I am all ears…

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Last night, I finished the last volleyball scarf of the season, bringing this year’s total up to 8 and the grand total, across four seasons of seniors, to 25. I wrapped each scarf in layers of tissue paper to hide the pattern and decorated the lumpy packages with blue and white curly ribbon. I hope it all ends up looking charming and festive, instead of shoddy and clumsy, because it took me way too many tries on the first one to come up with packaging that didn’t look altogether wretched. It is excessively hard to impose order on a floppy scarf.

I carefully packed the parcels into a large canvas tote bag for JG to take with him to school. “Try not to crunch them, please,” I whispered this morning. That ribbon has to stay at least mildly springy until the senior game, and I envisioned the bag being squashed underneath something heavy sometime during the school day.

“I won’t crunch them at all,” he assured me. “See you soon, kiddo.”

I’m taking the afternoon off today so I can attend the game tonight; it’ll be my first time going to the senior game. In the past, I’ve sent JG to school with the scarves, and he reports that everyone liked everything, but I’m glad to attend this year. I’ll take pictures, wear school colors, and otherwise be the dutiful spouse. I just hope the team wins and we can end on a high note.

However, it’s not quite the end. Tonight is our last home game, but there’s one last away game tomorrow, and then the junior varsity team has a tournament on Saturday, but I can’t make it to either of these matches. I’m disappointed that I can’t be there to commemorate another season of volleyball, so JG and I are going out to dinner tonight after the senior game at a local place. We’ve barely gone out to eat all season, so it’ll be nice to celebrate in a little way that we made it.

This year, I only needed one late night of knitting — mostly because I inexplicably and stupidly slacked off during #7 and 8 — and I knitted my way through West Side Story on demand until 1am. Thankfully, that night was not last night. Once all the scarves were ready to go, I turned on the television and watched an hour and a half of Food Network. Giada made a pork sandwich, Morimoto lost a fish challenge, and Bobby Flay tied with a chili cook-off champ. I had no real interest in what I was watching, but I took inordinate pleasure in watching the shows without having to knit. I didn’t have to look down every ten seconds to check for a dropped stitch or knit busily during the commercial breaks. I know I volunteer to make the scarves, but it is always nice to be finished and regain control of my hands.