Never Bashful with Butter

This pizza has SO many calories, I’m not even joking.

But it was definately worth it.

I used a Garlic and herb pizza dough recipe. I was pretty happy with it, though I wish I had let it rise a bit more before finally applying the toppings. I like to let my dough rest a bit after Iv’e rolled it out.

The pizza you see here has Fresh mozzarella, Black olives, Proscuitto di Parma, Pepperoni and fresh shaved Parmagiano Reggiano and a simple tomato sauce.

Here is the recipe I used for the Pizza dough as it reads on Great chefs.com

1 envelope (2-1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
2-1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 cup fine-ground White cornmeal
1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
2-1/2 to 3-1/2 cups unbleached white flour

To prepare the pizza dough: In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water with the sugar. After about 10 minutes, stir inneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com the salt, cornmeal, 3 tablespoons of the flour, and oil. Gradually add the rest of the flour, stirring with a wooden spoon until a stiff dough has formed. Place the dough on a floured board and knead it for several minutes, adding only enough additional flour to keep the dough from sticking. When the dough is smooth, transfer it to a bowl that has been brushed with olive oil. To prevent a skin from forming, brush the top of the dough with additional olive oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place, away from drafts, until double in bulk, 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Punch down the dough and knead once more. Let the dough rise again for about 40 minutes. Punch down the dough. If it is sticky, knead in a bit more flour.

I know, the pizza dough doesnt call for herbs or garlic, but that doesnt mean you cant add it!

I added about a quarter cup of fresh herbs often used for Italian dishes. Try Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano, Basil, Parsley/cilantro, sage or any other herb mentioned in Simon and Garfunkle’s song-”Scarborough Fair”

Also, add some minced garlic and garlic powder to the mix. I usually use a lot of it, since I really like the garlicky flavour, but just a sprinkle will do.

Add all the herbs and garlic to the flour before you mix the flour into the liquid mixture. This ensures even distribution throughout the dough.

You can either pre-bake your pizza crust, or you can top it first, depending on your preferences. I recommend cooking on a pizza stone or on a round pizza pan in an oven with a pizza stone or tiles in it. The oven will bake the pizza more evenly this way, and baking directly on the stone will create a crisp bottom crust. Turn the temperature up to 375 or 400 depending on your individual oven’s predilection to cook hot or cold, and in 12-20 minutes later you’ll have yourself a delicious pizza.

Pizza be with you!

-A.

I cheated and added strawberry extract and some fresh sliced strawberries to a premade white cake mix for these little beauties.

I used this recipe to make a cream cheese icing-

1 lb (two 8 ounce packages) cream cheese
4 Cups powdered sugar
2 Tsp vanilla
3 Tsp heavy cream
3 Tsp lemon juice

Directions:
Make sure the cream cheese is soft and pliable, but still slightly cool. Open the packages and drop all of the cream cheese into a large mixing bowl. Use a mixer and mix until creamy and smooth.
Add confectioner’s sugar and mix again, until creamy and smooth, and then add in rest of ingredients.
Mix well until you have a smooth, soft icing.

Only instead of vanilla flavouring I used real orange extract, and instead of lemon juice I used orange juice concentrate.

It totally tasted like a fruit creamsicle cupcake.

If you dont want to use a mix, and you want make your batter from scraneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comtch, go right ahead, just add strawberry extract instead of vanilla and add some sliced or chopped strawberries.

-A.

So today I made lemon muffins.

Actually, I made lemon cake, but since the batter was much more muffin-y than cake-y, I’m calling them muffins.

I kept trying to think of something different to do for decorations. I’m not always in the mood for butter on my muffins, and since these dont actually have any real fruit in them, or any seeds, or anything of any nutritional value, I cant see putting butter on them. Also, they’re not overly sweet or puffy like cake, so a big heap of frosting just wouldnt do.

I tasted the batter and decided it wasnt sweet enough. Not wanting to add any more sugar and mess up the proportions, I thought about just sprinkling some sugar on the top. No. that wont work either. I dont want plain lemon crunchy top muffins.

Maybe these were just destined to be boring. Boring boring muffins.

I actually left the batter in the bowl for a while and went through some old family cookbooks, trying to see if there was anything I could make that I neverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comcould just add this batter to.

Then it hit me.

I was flipping through the pages and I saw my mom’s recipe for zucchini bread with gumdrops in it.

I just happened to have some dots candies (like gumdrops without the sugar on outside) So I got out a bowl of sugar and started slicing with a sharp knife.

I started remembering being a child and watching TV and having my mom thrust a giant mixing bowl filled with sugar onto my lap. I guess most kids would be excited at the offering, but not me. Both me and my sister knew that this could mean only one thing.

Time to slice the gumdrops.

I dont know if anyone other than my family has made such a practice a seasonal affair, but its fairly commonplace in our family. Every year, sometimes twice a year, my mom would make zucchini bread in HUGE batches. HUGE! The bowl she would use to mix the batter was almost two feet in diameter. I am not kidding. This bowl was huge, and for the most part it was only brought out to make two recipes- Banana oatmeal cookies and zucchini bread.

Now, in order to make a batch of anything big enough to warrent using “the bowl” it required plenty of ingredients. If one of those ingredients so happens to be sliced gumdrops, then you better get your little kitchen elves to work.

That was where me and my sister came into play.

The act of slicing gumdrops sounds much easier than it really is. Especially when you consider that gumdrops arent particularly soft. They’re actually kind of hard, BUT GOOEY! That was the hard part. You’d have to stop after only a few candies because your knife would be all gummed up. Also, if you have to slice the large sized gumdrops, you’re screwed. Those things are twice as gummy as the regular sized ones.

Now imagine having to slice gumdrops with a butterknife. Yep, thats right. A butter knife. Originally thats what I had to use to slice the gumdrops, because I was too young to be trusted with a sharper knife. I know from more recent experience that it is STILL difficult to slice gumdrops with a sharp knife, but.. a butter knife? thats like a slow painful death.

I know that I attempted to boycott the zucchini bread in hopes that she wouldnt make it again, and that I wouldnt have to cut up any more gumdrops. It didnt work.

And it wasnt that it didnt work because she made me do it anyway, it didnt work because I gave in and ate like an entire loaf of the zucchini bread. That stuff is SO GOOD. I’m totally going to have to make it and write about it and post pictures, because its seriously the best stuff ever.

She would make huge batches of this stuff, bake them in miniature loaf pans and then wrap them up and freeze them. These were the Christmas gift of choice for the longest time. People would ask for more. When anyone sliced into the bread and saw the shiny little jewel like gumdrop slices inside the bread, they were amazed. It was like finding the buried treasure.

Anyways, So I finished slicing up my dots. I spooned the batter into the muffin tins and put the sliced dots on the TOP of the muffins. See, That way its like a decoration AND an ingredient. It makes my job so much easier.

This was the final result-

The recipe I used would have made entirely too many muffins (I make muffins like, every weekday, I dont need to make a thousand at a time) So I fixed the proportions and only made about a quarter batch, which only made like, 12 mini muffins, which I am totally alright with.

I think I might have to start adapting the gumdrops to more recipes. They’re so pretty!
Amazingly enough, these are some of the least sweet muffins I’ve made in a long time. I used a simple yellow cake recipe using lemon extract instead of vanilla extract. I would have added lemon juice but I hadnt thought about that when I last went to the store, so I would have to just be happy with the lemon extract.

I got this recipe off of Epicurious.com

3 cups cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs
2 tsp Lemon extract
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350.

Sift the dry ingredients together in one bowl, set off to the side. Mix the liquid ingredients together in another bowl.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the butter until its smooth. Then add the sugar slowly until it fluffs up a bit. Add the liquid and dry ingredients, alternating between them.
The batter was pretty thick, actually. I call them muffins because they’re more muffin-y than they are cake-y.

After you’ve got all the ingredients mixed together and whipped up and as fluffy as you can get it (you might have to add some milk if its still too thick) set the batter off to the side.

You’ll need greased muffin tins or papered muffin tins. I liked how these looked without the cups. I’m actually thinking I’ll keep making muffins without papers because I’m really not a big fan of how the traditional muffin papers look at the bottom of my muffins. Cupcakes- sure, but I like the bottoms of my muffins showing.

Anyways.. For the jewel tops I thinly sliced a couple dots candies (you can use gumdrops) and dipped them in sugar. then I cut the slices into three separate pieces. Dipping them in granulated sugar keeps them from sticking to each other and also helps add a little sweet crunch to the muffin tops.

After you’ve got your dots or gumdrops sliced and chopped, spoon the muffin batter into your greased or papered muffin tins by the spoonful.

Once the muffin batter is in the tins, take a pinch of your sliced, chopped and sugared candy and put it on top of the batter. Bake muffins at 350 until the tops of the muffins are lightly golden. Let them cool a little before taking them out of the tins.

For my cupless muffins I like to dip the bottoms in a little granulated sugar. It helps keep them from sticking to whatever plate I set them on and it helps with the lack of sweetness.

-A.

One day, after a particularly successful jaunt to the palace bakery, The King of planet sprinkle set out to hide all his delicious cupcakes where no one would find them.

Thinking that no one ever thinks to check the most obvious places, The King stashed his special blueberry and banana cupcake and a batch of grape iced cupcakes the muffin forest. No one would think to look for a cupcake in a forest of MUFFINS…

Or would they?

It just so happens that on this particular day, a friendly robot named Rodney was taking a leisurely stroll through the muffin forest happened upon something astonishing…

Whats this?
Cupcakes in the muffin forest?

Ooh, and this one is spectacular!

The robot bent down to take a closer look.

This cupcake looks and smells just like the ones from the Palace bakeryneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com.
This is a very special cupcake.

Knowing that he had happened upon a delicious treasure in a sea of bland muffins.. Rodney decides not to tempt fate, and picks up the cupcake.

No one will miss one measly cupcake.

Oh no!
The king, havent felt a little iffy about his decision to leave his precious cupcakes out in the open, had come back to take the cupcakes back home with him. But Rodney had the cupcake in his grasp. He ran and ran..

And ran some more…

He ran until the coast was finally clear…

All that running made Rodney a litle hungry-
So he stopped for a minute to sit and relax and have a bite of his delicious cupcake.

And then he realized.. Robots dont eat cupcakes!

Would you like some?

Dont worry, there will be many more Adventures for Rodney Robot!

-A.

For today’s baking adventures, I decided to make a more dense flavourful cake than the lighter, fluffier cakes I’ve been making lately.

So I found myself a nice little butter cake recipe on About.com

And I altered it a bit.

This is the recipe as it reads on the aforementioned webpage-

2 cups all-purpose flour, stirred before measuring
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

PREPARATION:
Mix flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Cream sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add half of the flour mixture then half of the milk.
zSB(3,3)
Add vanilla. Mix until blended; add remaining flour and milk and beat until smooth.

Bake at 375° for 25 to 35 minutes.

My recipe is pretty much the same with these substitutions-

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter- melted and cooled
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 egg + 3 egg yolks
1/2 cup milk
1/4 heavy cream
2 teaspoons banana flavouring.
1 regular sized banana, sliced and chopped

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Give it a spin to make sure the ingredients are evenly distributed.

Melt the butter and let it sit a minute or two to coagulate. You want it SUPER softened, not molten lava hot.

Add the banana to the container with the melted butter, let the butter coat the banana chunks. With the mixer on low, add the butter coated banana mixture , milk, heavy cream and banana flavouring. If the batter more closely resembles a dough, add more milk. If the dough is too thin, put it in the fridge for a minute or two. If it is still too thin, add more flour and sugar, at a ratio of 3:1 Flour/Sugar.

Pour by the spoonful into greased or papered muffin tins. I used a mini muffin tin and it made 36. It would probably make a solid 12 regular sized cupcakes.

Bake at 375 until the tops are lightly browned and golden.

After they came out of the oven I let them cool a bit while I decided what type of Icing to use on them. There are so many choices, I wanted to make a good one.

Most recipes available for Banana cake have an attached recipe for Chocolate or Coconut icing. I didnt have a particular craving for either, so I thought about what ingredients I had in my fridge that would make a nice icing.

OOH BLUEBERRY JUICE! Yep. I saved the blueberry juice from the blueberries I used for the Blueberry muffins I made about a week ago.

I pulled the blueberry juice out of the fridge, along with some more butter and a fresh bag of powdered sugar that I bought last night knowing I was going to have to make more icing this week.

I used a typical butter icing recipe-

2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cream
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whip the butter in the bowl of a high powered stand mixer until soft. Add the remaining ingredients, alternating liquid and sugar. Whip until soft and fluffy.

Only I used blueberry juice instead of cream and vanilla extract and added just a drop of blue food colouring to the mix.

Then I spread my blueberry icing on my banana butter cupcakes and took some photos!

Me and the robot agree, it tastes delicious.

Just fair warning, 3/4 of this post will not go any farther than this. Right here. You and me.

I can admit defeat. I am not a prideful person. I know when I’ve messed up.

So I feel perfectly comfortable telling everyone that I lit my stove on fire this evening, losing the good fight and half of a fingerprint on my right hand middle finger in the process.

I am posting this just so everyone knows- Its ok to mess up, and its ok to admit it. Just don’t do it again. And that is the exact reason I will not be deep frying on my stove top for a long time.

I want to blame my stove for this. Its been weird lately, heating up faster and hotter than normal, boiling water on low heat and not even melting butter on medium. I cant blame the stove for this. This was an act of God, or “cod” as it were.

You see, today was the end of Operation Leftovers, and I purged my refrigerator of all the unused, unusual, little bits and odds and ends that have been keeping it full for tneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comhe past 3-6 months. This morning whilst extricating a freezer burnt package of ground turkey that has held court over the freezer since one week to the day after we moved into this apartment, I discovered a strange and beautiful thing. A box filled with catfish my husband caught while visiting his family up north about 4 months ago. Beautiful filets of tasty tasty catfish. I decided I would fry it up along with the potato I found in the pantry while cleaning it out too. Catfish and fries, Cajun style. Good plan.

So I let it thaw in the fridge until around 3pm, when I took it out and rinsed it off, putting it in a new ziplock and putting the entire packet into a bowl of cold water to let it thaw in the sink while I went out for a bit.

I came back and just as I had hoped, it was completely thawed.

My husband came home from work, and I had just started slicing the potato into thin shoestring sliced pieces. I put them off to the side and broke down the fish into smaller more nuggety chunks.

I took my medium sized heavy bottomed sauce pan that I use EVERY TIME that I deep fry anything, filled it with fresh vegetable oil and turned the heat up to the low end of the medium range. I waited in the living room while it heated and I came back, checked the temperature and started frying up the fish.

I decided I would only par fry the fish, setting it on a cookie sheet and baking it for a little while to make sure the inside was fully cooked. They were pretty thick pieces of fish so I figure better safe than sorry.
I had just put the pan in the oven and re-checked the temperature on the oil. All was well.

I grabbed a small amount of the potatoes with my tongs and dropped them into the oil. I do this all the time. No problem. I used the same amount of oil as I usually do. No problem.

But this time there was a problem.

The moment the potatoes hit the oil, the oil boiled over the edges of the pan and ignited.

Not being one to panic, I reached through the flames, grabbing the sauce pot by the handle and moved it to a back burner that was not in use. Again, I reached through the flames to turn off the burner.

The flames died down considerably and boy was I glad. I couldn’t remember how to put out an oil fire without an ansul pull system or a specially graded kitchen fire extinguisher. Neither of which are something my kitchen possesses.

My husband came to my rescue, grabbed a towel and batted down the flames until they were completely gone. I didn’t even freak out about him using one of the good bath towels either.

I took the flame scorched potatoes out of the remaining oil and put them on the paper towels. Barely any potatoes at all caused that. And they didn’t even have that much moisture on them either.

Dinner was salvageable. I had managed to finish the fish which was safely in the oven at that time, and the remaining fries were put on a pan in the oven with some olive oil and roasted until the majority of them were cooked through.

This was what dinner looked like tonight-

Normally I wouldn’t take photos of such unappealing food. I like food photos, but if its not aesthetically pleasing, why take a picture, right?

Well I had to show off my newly liberated fast food restaurant issue fish and chips basket, THAT’S WHY!

I didn’t steal it. I liberated it. There is a difference. At least that’s what my sister says, she was there when it happened.

Anyways, that was the 3/4 of the post that will not go any farther than this blog.

What I had planned on posting in the first place is what we had to drink tonight. Yes, that’s right folks, A NEW LIBATION! I’m pretty sure I made it up too. Hehe..

I like to call it “Blood in the water” AKA- The Jesus cocktail-

Its a little piece of easily attainable kitchen alchemy that anyone can do with a steady hand and the right ingredients.

This drink right here I like to call “Blood in the water” or “The Jesus Cocktail” (water into wine, blood of my blood, you get it, right?)

Its fruity, its tasty, Its delicious, its full of alcohol but you cant taste it at all, which is awesome.

And here is my recipe-

You’ll need-

2 clear balloon wine glasses (No patterns or designs or etching or the effect is lost)
1 ziplock bag

Clear soda
Blue Curacao
Raspberries or Raspberry juice

First, you’ll need to smash your raspberries. The plan is to extract a thick bright red juice from them. You could smash the berries and heat them up, you could blenderize them, you could mash them with a fork. It doesnt matter. Just free the beautiful juice from the berry some way or another.

Strain the raspberry juice so there are no seeds. Pour raspberry juice into a ziplock bag and put it aside.

Add one shot of Blue Curacao to the clear soda. You want the soda to have a colour simular to that of windex. If its too dark, add more soda, if its too light, add more Curacao. Let it sit a minute and get the ziplock with the berry juice.

Snip off one corner of the bag and very gently drizzle the juice into the CENTER of the glass. Do not squeeze it. You want the juice to land softly and float on top of the syrupy curacao.

Keep dripping until you feel you’ve got enough in there. You’ll be able to tell. I say about a tablespoon or so is good.

If you did it right, the effect will last about 10 minutes with as little fuss as possible. I grabbed my glass and put it on a tray and walked around for about 2 minutes, alternating between holding the glass and putting it back on the tray, before the juice started to mix in with the drink. (I had to test the useablity of the drink in a party type situation)

It was very pretty and very good. The simplicity of the drink is garnish enough, so I dont really think this drink is one you’d want to frilly up at all with a sugared rim or any fruit bobbins on the side of the glass.

So, there you have it. I’m sharing my alcohol secrets! GASP!

-A.

P.S. this would make a totally awesome drink for a pirate themed party, btw.

As I’ve already established here, I’m a HUGE fan of breakfast foods. French toast, pancakes, waffles, belgian waffles, bacon, eggs, scrambled eggs, cheesy eggs, cereal, MUFFINS. I love breakfast.

Today I woke up a bit later than I wanted to, but still early enough to make myself a bit of a breakfast. I was up late last night but really hadnt eaten much after those biscuits (so filling) so I was a little hungry. Not too hungry, but as it was bordering on 10am, there was no time for debate.

Also, coming off of O.L.- Operation Leftovers, I really didnt have much in the way of food at all in my kitchen this morning.

Trudging through the barren wasteland I call my fridge, I came up with a half filled carton of eggs. I placed it in my rucksack and continued on through the fridgid tundra locating a half pint of whipping cream about a quarter filled. It too went into my rucksack. Just beyond the yeasty beer forest, I discovered a small bottle of hersheys chocolate syrneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comup. I placed it in my rucksack as well and ran as fast as I could towards the bread box of dispair.

In the bread box of dispair I was shocked to find not one, but TWO bags with thin sliced “day old” baguette inside. I happily placed them in my rucksack and raised my arm to lift the door to the spice rack of infinite fullness. There I obtained a jar of spicy cinnamon and a jar of sea salt. Into my rucksack they went. I had created a plan now.. I only had to locate one more item before I could continue on to level 2. Breakfast preparation.

After I left the spice rack of infinite fullness my brow raised in worry. I stopped and checked my inventory. Yes, It was true. I only had one more item to collect. But where would it be found? I checked my maps and discovered something truely frightening..

..if I was to capture this last item, I would have to risk the worst fate imaginable..

I would have to enter the pantry of the unknown.

Some times things make it inside the pantry, but not all of them make it out.
Strange things lurked behind its creaking doors- Half filled bags of flour piled one on top of the other. Bags of potato chips, partially eaten and sealed with only a single clip. Cans of different shapes and sized balanced precariously on unsturdy ledges.

I needed to enter this horrible place..

Dodging boxes and tupperware, half filled bags of god knows what on top of cans missing labels and jars of unnatural looking canned fruits- I found it. The bag of sugar. I placed it in my rucksack and as I was elevated to the next level I realized..

I should not have been up so late last night playing video games.

So I had decided to make some good ol’ cinnamon toasties and a couple fried eggs. Simple. easy. Greasy. Tasty and quick.

The preparation and completion was much easier than collecting the ingredients and developing a plan. I really need to clean my kitchen. I slacked off yesterday working on the foodblog and I totally didnt do anything around the house.

Lazy sunday I guess, only I didnt have any Mr. Pibb or Red vines.

So, about half an hour after I began, I had completed my quest and breakfast was my reward.

I know. It doesnt look like cinnamon toast crunch. Why am I calling it that?

Easy.

It tastes just like cinnamon toast crunch. Its not saturated in milk, but if you really wanted to, you probably could chop it up and put it in a bowl.

My recipe is simple-

1 day old baguette sliced thinly on the bias
1/3 cup of heavy cream
1 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 cup of butter

Your baguette slices should be no more than half an inch in thickness.
-Put the sugar and cinnamon into a gallon sized ziplock bag.
-Pour the cream into a shallow bowl
-In a large heavy bottomed skillet, melt a little of the butter. You want just enough butter on the skillet as you are comfortable having soak into the bread. Dont let the butter brown. Just before the butter starts to bubble, quickly dip the day old bread one slice at a time into the cream, shake off any excess cream and then place the bread into the ziplock bag with the sugar and cinnamon.

You can do a few pieces at a time, but make sure they have plenty of room to breathe. Shake the bag quickly, ensuring an even coat of cinnamon sugar.

Place the cinnamon sugar coated bread onto the bubbling butter and brown both sides of the bread. The cinnamon sugar will caramelize, leaving the outside crispy and the inside soft from the moisture left from the cream.

When you’re done with all of the toasties, put them back into the bag with the cinnamon sugar and give them a quick little toss.

They’re really good. I made them this morning and I ate entirely too many of them.

The directions make them sound complicated, but really they’re very simple to make. I guess if you didnt want to use the ziplock bag method you could just put the cinnamon sugar into a shallow dish and dip the cream dipped bread into it before putting it on the skillet.

You could omit the entire cream step and just spread butter onto the little bread slices and fry them up on the skillet and then put them in a ziplock bag with cinnamon sugar and give them a shake.

However you choose to do it, I hope you enjoy it.

Cinnamon toast is one of my favourite comfort foods, right up there with hot chocolate with marshmellows and mashed potatoes.

Just not all on the same plate.

-A.

Here is the recipe I used.

I scoured my memory and remembered this ancient recipe from god knows what book I read it in.

I figure since its stuck in my head, I’m free to post it here for everyone to read-

4 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons butter
1- 3/4 cups milk

Preheat oven to 400.

Sift the dry ingredients together a few times; cut and rub the butter into the mixture with the thumb and fingers the same way you would if you were making pie crust, add the milk gradually, mixing until it becomes a spongy mass, then fold and kneed the mixture until it turns into a solid dough.

Turn dough onto a well floured board, roll lightly until it is a large circle about 1 and a half inches thick. use a knife to cut the dough into squares and bake in 2 circular pie pans or on a large cookie sheet.
Bake for about 8-12 minutes depending on the size of the biscuits and the individual temperature of your oven.

This is a general baking soda biscuit recipe.
You can find one simular anywhere on the netneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com, and in many baking cook books.

At the stage just before you add the milk, feel free to add flavourful dry ingredients to the mix.

Examples include but are not limited to-

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, Chilled or frozen (you can freeze shredded cheese and not have it form a large clumpy block if you shred the cheese into a small amount of cornstarch before freezing. The cornstarch keeps it from adhering to itself)

Or- 1/4 cup fresh chopped herbs

Or- about a tablespoon garlic powder
Or- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds, sesame seeds or any other EDIBLE, tasty and flavourful seed.
Just make sure whatever ingredients you add are dried or frozen (except the fresh herbs, they’re ok fresh or dried) so they’ hold up during the kneading process.

So, I made these biscuits by adding cheddar cheese to the mix as well as a little less than a tablespoon of garlic powder and they were wonderful.

The top of the biscuit was powdery and flaky and the inside of the biscuit was tender and delicious.
The bottom of the biscuit baked to perfection, not burnt or soggy.

So, Be creative with your biscuits. Try new things and revel in their deliciousness.

I say delicious way too often.

Oh goodness these are good. I had to keep myself from eating all of them.

Good thing I cut them into bite sized squares, and limited myself to 3 pieces. I WOULD HAVE EATEN THE WHOLE PAN HAD I NOT!

I love biscuits. I really do. I always have loved biscuits too.

Apparently, my favourite food at age 2 was buttered biscuits. There is documented proof of this in one of my moms scrap books. “Age 2, favourite food- Buttered biscuits. Favourite toy- owl squeeze toy. Favourite word- Stesanie ” (my sister’s name pronounced in a way that only an adorable 2 year old can pull off.)

I’m sure the buttered biscuits refered to in the text of my mom’s scrapbook were the kind from KFC. I’ve still got a soft spot for those things. I. LOVE. THEM. They are the only biscuits I’ll eat with margarine, THATS how good they are. But they’re way better with butter and honey. Mmmohgawd hot biscuits with melted butter and honey. That’s heaven right there.

The biscuits I made were not the sort you’d add honey to. Had I left out the cheese and the garlic, perhaps, but not even with my tastebuds of steel and my cravings for garlic toast with strawberry jam would pour honey on a garlic cheese biscuit.

I dont really remember my mom making biscuits very often in my younger years. I know that in the later years of my stay under my parents roof, she was always making drop biscuits for use in her strawberry shortcakes. She WAS OBSESSED with strawberry shortcakes. I dont think she is anymore.. But holy crap, for a few years there it seemed like that was all she was eating.

Bisquick drop biscuits the size of my clenched fist.

Now, I’m not a huge fan of bisquick biscuits, but there was just something mouth watering about these puppies. Maybe it was their sheer size that got my saliva glands goin, but I could not stop eating them. Thank goodness at some point she tired of strawberry shortcake for every other meal and so faded my urge to eat nothing but biscuits for breakfast lunch and dinner.

There was a period during my childhood when I know we ate KFC pretty regularly. Thats why I’m sure it was their biscuits that I loved and not something my mom made. I could be wrong though.

And since we’re on the topic of KFC, does anyone else remember when their food actually tasted good? I do. I wouldnt touch it with a ten foot pole now a days.

I watched a special on fast food history, and there was a segment about KFC. “The Colonel” created his original recipe so long ago, and supposedly the recipe includes 11 secret herbs and spices (paprika, garlic salt, onion salt, oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme, parsley, salt, black pepper and ginger, thankyouverymush!)

KFC Still advertises that it uses the same “original recipe” with those same 11 herbs and spices.. So why does it taste so different? is it just my tastebuds?

I still love their biscuits, so thank goodness when I’m craving fast food there are A&W + KFC restaurants around here where I can get a delicious rootbeer float and a couple biscuits. Best carbo-loading meal ever, btw.
But I digress.

If it’s not perfect, that’s okay, there are a lot more coming along.
-Antonin Scalia

‘m not sure how much I Like this pancake recipe. I got it from The CD Kitchen website, and other than having a little more sweetness and a little less chalkiness, its very simular to krusteaz brand pancake mix. You know, the kind you just add water to.

Anyways, here is the recipe as it reads off CD Kitchen-

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 extra large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat a griddle or non-stick skillet. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, Baking powder and salt. Make a small well in the center of the bowl. Add the milk, melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Gently whisk the wet and dry ingredients together, just until well combined (about 20 strokes). Using a dry measure for each pancake, spoon 1/3 cup batter onto the hot pan (with or without sizzling fat, such as butter, oil or bacon drippings). Cook neverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comuntil the top of the pancake bubbles. Turn the pancake with a spatula and cook just until the underside is golden brown.

This recipe for Basic Pancake Batter serves/makes 16 pancakes

A few addendums to the directions-

You do not have to use a nonstick skillet. The only nonstick kitchen Items I have are muffin tins, springform pans and removable bottom tart/quiche pans. I wouldnt have even have those if they hadnt been purchased for me as gifts. I dont like the cooking with items that emit gasses that are toxic enough that they will kill birds.

Secondly, the order in which you mix the ingredients in this recipe does not matter, however I do recommend mixing dry ingredients together first, just because then you can be sure you wont have a really salty chunk of pancake where all the salt stuck when you added in the liquids. I also like to whisk my eggs together before I add them to the mixture. There is no real reason for this outside of my own neurotic thoughts. Also, I think it makes the mix a bit easier to blend in the end.

Thirdly WHO THE HECK USES BACON DRIPPINGS TO GREASE A PAN?!! holy crap. This must be some crazy southern thing that I havent heard of. I like my bacon, but the thought of cooking pancakes in bacon grease just seems crazy. I prefer butter, but if you have to, use a little margarine or some Pam or something. Holy hell, just leave the bacon out of it.

And lastly, the directions say “hot pan” as though that was a notch on your stovetop temperature gauge. This simply is not so. My rule of thumb is NEVER turn the temperature over Medium when doing anything on the stovetop unless you’re boiling water or running a kettle. And even then, once you’ve got the water to a boil and you add whatever it is that you’re boiling, turn the temperature down to medium and let it cook without boiling over.

When you cook any sort of battered food on the stovetop, its probably best to go with the lower end of the medium notch on the temperature gauge. Reason being, the more reasonable the heat, the more evenly the food item will cook, resulting in a uniform colour and texture. Higher temperatures will cause the liquid in the batter to evaporate quickly and whatever rising agent used in the batter (in the case of pancakes, its baking powder and salt) will form large bubbles causing the batter to cook unevenly, resulting in an ununiform colour and irregular texture on the food item.

A great rule of thumb is ” if the butter turns brown, turn it down. ”

So here are the results of todays kitchen adventures-

I’m a pancake stacker, and he’s a spread out pancake kinda guy. I’ve noticed a fair amount of people in restaurants rearranging their plates like this too.

I first noticed it on my first date with my husband though. Of all places on the planet to have a first date, we chose dennys.

A little back story.. We had been talking online for a while. Yes, I met my husband on the internet. I wasnt LOOKING for a husband, merely someone to pass the time with. I’ve got quite a few friends I met online, so I figured why not. I’ll go on a date with a guy. We sent a few photos back and forth, talked online a bit, it progressed into phone conversations. Not once did he cross the line and do anything inappropriate. He seemed like a good guy, so why not meet him.

To be honest, we hadnt planned on meeting until the following Friday, but that Tuesday we were on the phone and I thought, why not. I’m on the phone anyways. I’ll ask if he wants to meet.

I didnt think he would say yes, but he did. OH CRAP! I had to think of somewhere to meet a guy at 3am. A guy off the internet that I had not met before.

I chose Dennys because I knew everyone that worked the nightshift. I was a bit of a club goer in my younger years, and being a club goer, you always have a hangout spot where everyone gathers after the bars close. Luckily half the people working the nightshift were also club goers, so it wasnt like they cared about the group of drunken 20 somethings drinking free refills of soda and sharing an order of fries amongst the whole group.

This was also the Dennys that a couple years ago when the entire town froze over, I got my car stuck in the grassy area of the parking lot and they not only let me keep my car there for two days while the ground thawed, but when my right front tire got buried in the mud and wouldnt budge, four of the guys that worked there came out with shovels, and one of them used the chains from his car and a bundle of rope to pull me out. it was nice. They totally didnt have to do that. I got to know the people there pretty well at that point.

So it was set. I warned him that I was wearing pajamas, and I threw on some jeans and put my hair up in a ponytail and headed out. I expected him to take one look at me and run, OR I expected him to show up and be nothing like what he presented himself as and I would have to have one of the waitstaff escort him to his vehicle. They’d do it. I know they would because I called before I headed out. HA! I was prepared.

I got there and told the hostess what was going on and she asked if I wanted any colouring sheets and crayons to play with while I was waiting. OF COURSE I DID! I also ordered a 7-up and told her I’d order when he got there.

I waited a while. It seemed like forever. Every time I heard the bell ring on the door or heard footsteps walking towards the entrance I looked up. I didnt want to seem like I was over excited though. I wanted to seem casual.

Focus on the colour pages. Focus on the colour pages. Engage in conversation with the hostess. Seem uninterested, it makes you more appealing… Who was I kidding. I was freaking out. My heart leapt every time a male came in alone and settled again once I saw he wasnt who I was waiting for. I was glad every time too. On a purely physical level, there arent too many attractive single 20 something single males walking into a Dennys at 3am on a Wednesday morning.

He said he would be wearing all black. Oooh, mysterious. I hoped he wasnt all gothed out, or emo, or a liar, or too short, or had bad manners. I worried that maybe he had a horrible laugh or girly hands. I wondered if maybe he was creepy and a stalker. What if he was going to follow me home and try to attack me. What kind of a crazy person agrees to meet someone off the internet at 3am on a wednesday morning?!

Me. thats who. I panicked a little quieter at that point, carrying on a casual conversation with the hostess who was now seated in my booth across the table from me. She joked saying if I didnt like the guy I could tell him that she was my lover and I was just looking for a little man action on the side. I laughed. Holy crap, what if I DID have to say that? What if he was weird.

And then I saw him walking away from his car and up to the front of the restaurant. He looked just like his picture, only cuter. Please dont let this guy have a horrible laugh, or horrible teeth, or bad breath, or have tourettes or anything. Oh god what about me? Did I put enough makeup on before I left the house? Does my hair look ok? Did I brush my teeth? oh god, swish the soda around your mouth a little, you dont want to have bad breath. The hostess recognized my reaction to the man now walking in the door and she laid a casual hand on mine saying “its ok sweetie, you look fine”

I think he recognized me. I recognized him. I thought he was cute. He smiled. HE HAD GOOD TEETH! I waived and he came and sat down. I introduced myself. OH CRAP! Should I have gotten up? Do people hug when they first meet each other? WHAT DO I DO NOW?!?!

I have no idea what we talked about, but we must have talked about a lot. We were there for about an hour before we ordered anything.

Originally I had no intention of ordering anything. I’ve got this strange phobia about eating infront of people. I dont do it unless I feel comfortable, and I didnt even know this guy. I couldnt be comfortable eating infront of someone I just met.

He ordered pancakes and a plate of seasoned fries, and some cheese sticks and another soda, and two mugs of hot cocoa. I didnt even have to tell him anything that I would want to eat, he just ordered and said that he figured that would cover snacks for the two of us.

Our hot cocoa came and I quickly slurped mine down. Refill after refill, hot cocoa after hot cocoa, we continued talking and laughing and smiling. At one point he even joined in colouring the colour pages. Finally the pancakes came and he put half the stack on a plate for me, and left the other half for himself. Was I going to feel comfortable enough to eat?

Yep. I rearranged my plate so that my pancakes were stacked on top of each other. I looked over and saw him deconstructing his nicely stacked pile, and laying them out overlapped on the plate. I kinda giggled a little and realized that maybe even pancake arranger opposites can attract.

And the rest is history.

We got married this last June, and things have been wonderful ever since, because they were wonderful before.

So as we ate our pancakes this morning, I chuckled to myself as I drank my hot cocoa and ate my nicely stacked pancake pile, looking across the table at my honey with the laid out overlapping pancakes and thought about our first meeting and how happy I was, and how every time I look at him I feel the same way.

Or maybe I was just having a pancake high. I’m not sure. Anything is possible at this point.
-A.

So after all these cupcake glamourshot posts, I’ve decided its entirely too hard for me to make any sort of emotional connection with the actual cupcake itself.

Sure, I know I’ve made plenty of cupcakes in my life, I just cant pin a particular memory onto cupcakes and leave it at that. I love cupcakes, but I honestly cant think of a particular instance where the cupcake itself was a focus for me. For some reason, this seems to suck all the creative writing juices out of me, and I start writing things like “HAY YOU GUUUUUYZ!!”

This is what happens when you attempt to write something at 4am after watching scary movies and taking entirely too many photos of rainbow cupcakes-

I was born a few months before the end of 1981. Growing up in the eighties, I witnessed the dawning of all sorts of interesting fads and popular culture thneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comat kids growing up now dont even know about, and will probably never really understand.

I’m talking about Pound Puppies and PEE WEE, Xanadu and Members Only jackets, A Flock of Seagulls, Valley girl and Eddie Murphy’s musical debut. I remember Mr. Belvedere, She-ra, Thundercats and Clear Pepsi. Swatch watches were where its at, We all knew about the California raisins and ‘Win, Lose or Draw’ was a popular game show. Tetris was Hi-Tech, We listened to Cassette Tapes and the world was shocked when it was revealed that Milli Vanilli were a couple of lip synching tone deaf liars.

It was common for people to still have avocado coloured fridgidare refridgerators, with gold starburst decals. My grandma still had metal ice cube trays. Slouchy socks, sideways ponytails and bike shorts were all the rage.
I crimped my hair. My friends crimped their hair.

We had entire slumberparties dedicated to the pursuit of perfectly crimped hair.

And everything I owned had a rainbow on it.

I had Rainbow blankets, Rainbow sheets. My clothes all had rainbows on them.
Rainbow pillowcases and rainbow hi-tops, Sweatshirts, fanny packs, jewelry and bomber jackets, none were safe from the rainbow.

In fact, I’m fairly certain you could say that everything that I considered mine in the 80’s had to fit one of three criteria.

1.) Be pink
2.) Be covered in hearts
or
3.) Be covered in rainbows.

Thats just how I roll.

So I guess it just makes sense that every night before I go to bed, right after I’ve gone over everything I’ve done that day, and everything that I need to remember for the next day…

I think about rainbows and carebears.
I’ve thought about rainbows and carebears every night before falling asleep ever since I was a little kid.

I’m fairly certain I do this because subconsciously I believe that it makes me focus on something positive so that while I’m sleeping my brain will be in positive mode and therefore I cannot think of negative things for which to dream of.
I dont know if thats truth or not, but it kind of makes sense.

Lay in bed and close your eyes.

Do you want to think of rainbows and soft cuddly pastel coloured talking bears with hearts on their butts and cute little patterns on their tummies, fighting off evil with the care bear stare. Oh, and they ride around in cloud cars.

OR

Do you want to think of slippery slimy worms and cockroaches writhing together. Dark shadows and footsteps behind you, Sharp things and creepy eyes.

Do you want to think of what lurks in the dark, or do you want a troupe of Teddybears who fight what lurks in the dark with giant rainbows that project off their tummies?

My vote will always be with the latter.

Speaking of rainbows and carebears and sleeping- I’m gonna go eat a cupcake and head to bed.

I’ve got a hot date with my rainbow pillowcase.

-A.

P.S. My husband insists I take the weekend off, so I’ll be back on monday with a fridge full of new foods and plenty of photos, recipes and stories to go along with it!