Monthly Archives: November 2008

My biggest project this week was baking and decorating a cake for a friend’s golden birthday (29 on the 29th).  It was a surprise party thrown for her by her husband.  He asked me to make a cake for 100 people, and chose a cherry almond cake with almond buttercream – one of my favorites (to eat and to make!).  I did two round tiers – a bottom, 16-inch round, and a 12-inch round on top.  As it was her golden birthday, I decorated with a gold ribbon around the base of each tier, and then piped dots around the cakes which were painted with an edible gold glaze.  One of the new things that I tried with this cake was a different type of support structure.  In the past I have used wood dowels, which have to be measured and then painstakingly cut to the right size.  It is always a chore, and the last one I did, I ended up breaking a good knife.  So one time when I was watching Ace of Cakes recently, I noticed one of the guys putting supports in a cake, almost like straws, but really thick, and easily snipping them to the right height with a scissors.  Snip Snip Snip, and it was done!  (Yes, I know, most people just watch that show for the fun, but I have stuff to LEARN from watching it!)  So I went to their website, and found one of their links for cake advice.  And there was the answer – bubble tea straws!!  I immediately found a source online and purchased some – spent about $5 on 50 straws.  Oh, but let me tell you, how wonderfully easy it was to cut those supports for the cake.  Snip Snip Snip, and it was done!  Never, ever will I use those awful wood dowels again.  

There are many things I appreciate and admire about my mother-in-law, including (but not limited to) her ability to stay out of all photographs, her humility (she’s going to hate this post!), and her amazing recipe for crescent rolls (those tubes of dough have no place in her kitchen!).   She generously and happily shared this recipe with me the first year Justin and I were married, and it is my go-to dinner roll recipe.  They freeze remarkably well, and I usually make a giant batch and freeze the majority of them, taking them out and reheating them in the oven with dinners for a month.  I haven’t made them in quite awhile, but as Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I made a big triple batch this week – 3 dozen for a friend to take to her family’s thanksgiving dinner, and a couple dozen for ours.  Here you go, from the Gasper family to yours.

Two words:

Bacon Salt

I don’t think I have ever agreed with a product’s slogan more: “Everything should taste like bacon”.

What more could you expect from a company funded in part by winning $5000 on America’s Funniest Home Videos?

Everything about this company is perfect. From the fact that they actually make a product called Baconnaise, to the fact that they somehow also obtained Kosher certification.

I don’t think this reviewer is exaggerating at all:

“”This is one of those inventions, like the wheel or the incandescent light bulb, that will forever change the landscape of our culture.”
— John Campanelli, Cleveland Plain Dealer”

Update:

We went to Copps looking for Baconnaise, and could only find Bacon Salt. Still worked well on popcorn! Not like the faux bacon experience Jim had.

I’m in a moody kind of mood today.  The kind of mood that I am apt to make rash decisions without a moment’s thought or care.  However, rather than randomly painting a room or moving furniture around, I thought the blog could use a new look.  So what do you think?  Are the renovations appreciated?  Or should it be changed back?  I guess I am also in an approval-seeking mood!

Justin and I spent a good part of the day in the car.  This morning we drove over to Appleton to pick up a few things – Penzey’s for spices, World Market for chocolate, and Game Stop for a used XBox 360 controller (Trav picked up an XBox this past week, but it only comes with one controller).  

The bread was a hit.  I should mention I changed the recipe just a little.  For the soaker I only used about an 1/8 of a cup of oats, but then I added about 1/4 cup of a seed blend I had on hand – sunflower, poppy, sesame and some other seeds.  I also don’t really like fennel seeds, so I left that out of the bread completely.  The flavor from the seed blend more than made up for leaving those nasty fennel seeds out.  The recipe also made quite a bit.  I made two small to medium size baguette style loaves, and then I made a dozen small rolls as well to freeze (though I don’t know if they will last that long!).  The bread was a perfect compliment to the soup for lunch.  

I haven’t made leavened bread in a LONG time.  I used to make a loaf almost every other day, sometimes every day, but I got out of habit and it always seems like such a time investment in theory.  Well, I was determined to change that today.  Not only did I make pizza dough and Parmesan bread sticks from scratch, but I decided to throw in a loaf of Roasted Butternut Squash bread as well.  I thought it would make a good accompaniment to our Roasted Vegetable Soup for tomorrow’s lunch (the pizza dough was for Roasted Vegetable Pizza this evening).  The good ol’ Kitchen Aid is kneading it as I’m typing this, and I’m going to let it rise in the refrigerator overnight.  I’ll let you know tomorrow how it turns out!