Baking again, in small batches

Now that I’ve gotten a bit settled, I’ve begun baking again when I’m not marching through reading for my Japanese Modernity class (why am I taking this again?).  I’m not on the grand scale I used to be back in Orlando, and I’m still missing some baking tins I need to buy or maybe even have shipped to me, but still, I’ve been making things here and there, and I hope to make some more things soon.  I’ve gotten a bit of help from my friends Lucy and Jim who managed to hook me up with some unused baking tins.  The little loaf pan I got from them can be seen in the photo with the banana bread.

Anyway, here are a couple photos of what I’ve been up to in my tiny kitchen.  The banana bread was a nice morning baking project this past Wednesday.  No nuts in it, as I normally am not a fan of nuts in baked goods (though I am getting better and more tolerant of them), so it’s just kind of plain.

Next time, though, I think I’ll add some chocolate bits, and maybe even walnuts if I’m going to share the bread with folks.  This particular loaf, though, was pretty much exclusively devoured by me, except for a slice I brought to my manager at work.

The coconut lime cookies in the photo were made for my friend Paul’s Day of the Dead party at his place in Green Lanes.  I think they were quite popular; David told me he ate something like nine of them.  That might be an exaggeration.

I wound up making similar cookies with cocoa instead of lime for Fireworks Day at Victoria Park.  I still have a few little rounds unbaked that I might throw in the oven sometime soon when I want something sweet and cookie-ish, but don’t have the time nor ingredients to fix up something from scratch.

This evening or perhaps tomorrow evening I’m going to have a go at making the dessert I plan on bringing for Lucy and Jim’s farewell dinner for Lotte and James this Wednesday.  It’s going to be a surprise, but I will say that chocolate will be involved, as Lucy informed me that Jim wouldn’t have been fond of the other options of flavours I gave: coconut, banana or apple.  This batch I will be making is going to be a test-run for the main event, and I won’t be eating all of it myself, so I told Aru that I will be making it so she can come by my flat and take some back to the old button factory she lives in, where I currently am at the moment, writing this entry (I’m an honorary button).

Thanksgiving celebrations among my Food friends are coming up at the end of this month, so I will be planning on making an apple crumble for that (or two, depending on the amount of people invited), along with biscuits, American-style.  I need to find a baker’s blade here so I can fix up some biscuits and scones–I haven’t made scones in ages!

Thursday’s Thread Swap

Thursday, the 18th of June, was the Thread Swap, hosted by Alex at the Black Box Collective.  I was offered an area to sell vegan baked goods at, and so, I baked up a little army of edibles to sell at the event.

Before showing up on the 18th, I’d never been to the Black Box Collective, nor really knew what it was all about.  I had heard about it from a handful of people, but nothing really cohesive or that really painted a picture of what Black Box is and what it’s all about.

That evening, I had been running late because I was hungry and stopped for a sandwich at Pom-Pom’s.  When I got to the place at 7 pm, Alex was the only one there amid bags of used clothes, slowly being sorted and strewn about.  The Black Box Collective is housed in a warehouse, and it reminded me a lot of what the Stone Soup Collective used to be like: no a/c and a DIY attitude.  A few leaks from the recent rain dripped onto the floor, so we had to alter some of the placement of clothes draped upon the donated church pews.  The doors were wide open to let any cooler breezes into the building.  I helped Alex set out some clothing as people began to trickle in, then I set up shop on a table by one of the entrances.

It turned out to be a really awesome evening of digging through clothes, drinking beer, meeting people, listening to music, selling baked goods and hanging out, despite the insane heat that permeated the building once more people started showing up.  I made chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cupcakes with coconut icing, chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing, blackberry scones and all spice crumb-topped muffins.  All the items were vegan and made from scratch.  The goods sold well, considering the clientele of the fashionably broke and that Jorge was selling $2 beer at the Black Box Bar.  I overbaked a bit this time around, but my coworkers at the library were jolly at having some of the excess cookies at work.

The musical side to the evening was fantastic.  Dani Shay started the evening out with her guitar and witty banter, followed by the acoustic talents of Amy White and then an excellent performance by Open Windows.  If you missed out on seeing any of these three acts, you should check out their MySpace pages to look up where they will be next, because all of them had fantastic performances, and I feel really lucky to have been able to see all three of them.  I stayed at Black Box a lot longer than I had originally intended because I enjoyed the company and the performances so much.  Mollie joined in after she got out of class, so that was an extra bonus.

I had a great time at the Black Box, and would love to hold another bake sale again, especially if I get to pick through the discarded outfits of others and score finds on the same level as I did on the 18th.  If you’re interested in seeing what’s going to be coming up in the future at the venue, why not visit the Black Box Collective’s website, or see them on Facebook or MySpace.  After speaking with Jorge that night, there’s a lot in store for Black Box’s future, and if I wasn’t moving to London, I’d definitely want in on it, because it sounds really exciting.  There’s an online forum on the website as well, so go hobnobb.

Ending the year, 2008-style

The holidays were good to me, as I hope they were for you.  My parents took me along to visit some of my father’s side of the family in the Highland county area of Florida, where I got to pick Honeybell oranges from my great-aunt’s backyard and wild, presumably Meyer, lemons in the forest over the barbed-wire fence of my aunt’s ranch.  I still have orange juice and lemon juice I’m not sure what to do with.  I think some lemonade is in order.

I did make a really good batch of lemon sugar cookies, which were a big hit at work when I brought them in.

In any case, it was good to reconnect with my aunts and Granny, whom I don’t see often.

I rang in 2009 with friends at the Peacock Room, which was nice because it’s walking distance from our houses, and they make good hot toddies.  Afterwards, we played a boardgame at Marie and Mike’s called 7 Deadly Sins, which was fun but a bit dangerous.  It’s not a game to play with people you don’t know well unless you want to get to know them… perhaps too well.  Even though Clark passed out on the couch straightaway, the remaining conscious players had a good time.

It’s COOKIE PORN!

Because I am a poor little thing, instead of buying the book, I waited patiently for the library to begin carrying Martha Stewart’s Cookies.  And today, oh glorious day, the library got it in, and I have a copy of the book in my hot little hands.

I had a look through most of the book, though I tapered off towards the end in favour of an afternoon nap. Still, I’ve busted out my sticky-tabs to note what cookies I can make with what ingredients I currently have (or think I have) at my parents’ house.  Once my mother’s finished at the stove, I think I’ll try my hand at making a batch of snickerdoodles, assuming it isn’t too late in the evening for baking.

The photos, as the title of this posting blatantly states, are flat-out cookie porn.  For example, see the cookies on the cover?  Yep, I know what you’re thinking about doing with that dollop of chocolate oozing out of that cookie on the side.  Mm-hmm, do your parents know how filthy your mind is?

Martha Stewart: Cookie-smut peddler.

On the whole, the recipes for the cookies seem easy enough to make and bake, although I bet it would be easier if I had a stand mixer, as seemingly every recipe assumes you have.  Bleh.  One of the original ideas for a blog title was “The Budget Baker,” seeing as how I didn’t really have a stand mixer, and was afraid of my hand mixer for the longest time after my first attempt at using it (I flung sugared butter everywhere).  But, well, I don’t really skimp too much when it comes to ingredients, and the term “budget” might have connotations that I might’ve not intended.  Perhaps “broke-ass” would’ve been a better term.  Certainly not Martha-approved, that’s for sure.  I still have a penchant for mixing batter with forks if I’m not using one of my pastry blenders.  It’s just easier to clean than the hand mixer, which I only break out if I have to get dominatrix-style on some egg whites or something.

I love baking, but I’m not such a big fan of cleaning.

Anyway, beginning Tuesday or Wednesday next week, I should be able to have full reign over my very own kitchen empire!  I can have my ingredients organised the way I want them, and not have to worry about my mother rearranging my stuff so I can’t find it!  There will be a kitchen with a crazy side-opening oven that will be allll miiiiiine!

Well, until my roommate moves in with me.  Actually, now that I think about it, I’m not sure how often Clark cooks.  I know he can grill.  In fact, one of the stipulations of the apartment that we’re moving into was that he had to have a place to grill.  One of our mutual agreements was to make sure the place also came with an oven “big enough to fit a baby in.”  Those were Clark’s words, but I wholly concur.  In other words, no dinky stoves that were absconded from the Barbie Beachouse.

We’re serious.

Damn you, tiny print!

So, I don’t have the best vision in the world.  I grew up as the girl with the thick glasses, which were passed around in class from kid to kid during free time.  The kid would put my glasses on, and inevitably exclaim something along the lines of “Whoa!  You’re really BLIND!!” as they struggle to make out the laughing face of the next kid who wanted to try the lenses on.

By the time I had gotten into high school, I had begged to get contacts, and, at 14, I started wearing them, thinking that ditching the glasses would mean a one-way ticket to Cool Town.  Well, it didn’t, but I still wear contacts for the most part, and most people wouldn’t have really considered me to have a glasses-wearing past unless I tell them, “Yeah, past a couple of inches beyond my face–can’t see a thing.”

And lately, I’ve been concerned my vision is taking a turn for the worst.  My main culprit for the decline in my vision is the fact I stare at a computer screen for two or more hours pretty much consecutively at a time for work.  While driving and looking for street names, my companion in the seat next to me seems to point out the signs before I do.  Unless it’s Clark without his glasses, and for a moment, I feel a bit better about myself, until I put it into perspective: He’s not wearing contacts, but I am.

*sigh*

Just now, in an effort to make a new recipe called “Chocolate Spice Cookies,” I was at a point where something didn’t seem right.  Sure enough, taking a squintier look at the book, I realise the minuscule fraction next to the “1″ and before the word “cups” was not, as I had thought, 1/2, but 1/4.

Damn it.

So, to fix, or at least lessen, my error, I added a bit more butter, more honey (though the recipe called for maple syrup–I cheated) and more cocoa.  The recipe says to “refrigerate until firm,” but I’m impatient.  Also, I’ve already not followed the directions, so I likely won’t be rolling the dough out, as it wants me to, onto floured plastic sheets or plastic wrap.  My parents are out of plastic wrap, by the way.

This whole event goes to show that: 1) I will likely need a stronger prescription for my next set of contacts; and, 2) I really oughtn’t bake in someone else’s kitchen, like my parents’ kitchen, unless I know I have everything I need, not just what’s on the list of ingredients.

I guess now it’s time to plop this dough on a sheet, bake it, and see what happens.