Nonfiction, Cakes, and Rugs

I said (maybe just to myself) that I really shouldn't sign up for any more challenges. The reason being that I've never finished one and my reading is very eclectic and unplanned. Another reason is, that book I'm reading right now? Annals of the Former World? is HUGE. And dense. And all about geology. It's gonna take awhile. BUT there is a challenge on the horizon. A challenge I'm not sure I can resist. It's a nonfiction challenge and you can find out about it here at Thoughts of Joy. When I first noticed a new challenge in the air, on Cam's blog, and before I knew the details, I thought, No way, baby due first week in March. But then I looked at the source and found out that this challenge doesn't start until May. Well, May is a different story. And I do often read nonfiction. I could count the one I'm reading now (because it'll take me until May to finish it) and there is another nonfiction I'm curious about that I saw on A Garden Carried in the Pocket called Written in Bones: How Human Remains Unlock the Secrets of the Dead edited by Paul Bahn. Jenclair discusses it here. So that's two. And there are other John McPhee's and Stephen Jay Gould's I want to read. But here's what will happen. Say I read the first two books I have planned. Then I'll want to read fiction or something will make me go off on a tangent. I would have until September, but I don't know. Sure is tempting.

In other news, I made French buttercream today for the first time in a long time. It was surprisingly easy and fast. I guess I'm getting the hang of it and feeling comfortable with it now. It pays to do things many times. Hey! Let's call this phenomenon I just discovered, practice! I'm making some kind of Valentine cake tomorrow plus vegan mini-cakes, probably heart-shaped. The main cake will also have something to do with white chocolate ganache. It'll either be filled with it or decorations piped with it.

New rug coming tomorrow. Yay! We have to have wall-to-wall unless we put in our own hardwood because we live in crappy 1980s-built builder-grade crap. It's not all that bad, actually, but it sure looks crappy when you pull up the existing carpet and then have to walk on subflooring with the big ring stains from the builders' 5-gallon buckets of whatever.

Happy Christmas Weekend Everyone

OK, I'm sorry but my husband is just sweet. He made this train cake today with Toddler to take to Christmas Eve tomorrow. It's vegan so Toddler and Nephew can eat it since they're allergic to dairy and eggs. It was done in a Williams-Sonoma train pan that I got yesterday in the mail from my best friend in Boston. Yesterday we got a big wrapped box from her and today we got a box of wrapped presents from my sister that she had mailed before she left. She'll be in England for the whole holiday through New Year's. (I think she should have come here for half the time to be home for Christmas but whatever.)

I now have cookies spread around every surface of my kitchen on long sheets of wax paper defrosting to put together my final cookie platters. I already sent a big tin to CA and gave a platter to friends last night. I think I have enough for three or four more. At least this will give me a better gauge on how many platters I can make with 10 batches of cookies.

Christmas Eve tomorrow!! I was pretending I was in the southern hemisphere today, though, as I made sugar cookies in capri pants and flip flops. Sixty-seven degrees! I'm moving to Vermont.

Rugelach Snafu

Whereas the reading of One L is going well (especially due to my having to sit at the lab for an hour after drinking the glucose drink they give you when you're pregnant), the making of the rugelach is not. (I'm not using the Martha Stewart recipe I linked to.) I've been having good cookie luck so far, but these are hard. And it also doesn't help when you turn off your oven just before you put your cookies in said oven. Allow me to explain. I was on the phone with M. and toasting pecans and walnuts in a pan at the same time. When the nuts were done, I turned off the stove, moved the pan, and must have also turned off the oven. Without realizing it. So I'm rolling out my rugelach which are sticking like crazy to any surface I try (heavily floured, Silpat, everything). And the dough is so sticky probably because it's not mixed very well since I blew up my Cuisinart food processor this afternoon making the dough. It's kind of small and you have to mix 2 1/4 cups of flour with a whole brick of cream cheese and two sticks of butter. The poor thing couldn't handle it and started whining and smoking and shooting little bits of black rubber onto the countertop. (Toddler, who has always hated the food processor, a.k.a The Loud, now hates it even more.) So then I had to finish combining with two butter knives in a bowl. So anyway, hours later, I'm rolling out the sticky dough, making sticky triangles with jam leaking out, finally get them in the oven and, after checking on them repeatedly, I'm like, why are they not done yet? So I keep setting the timer for a few more minutes. Then, duh, the oven is off, dumbass.

On a happier note, there is nothing on the Food Network but the boring old Holiday Cake Challenge from last year, so between batches of botched rugelach I can work on reading more.

Cookie Month: Batch 4

Tea Cakes

Cookie Month: Batch 3

Mormon Molasses Spice Cookies

There's no stopping me now.

Cookie Month: Batch 2

Oatmeal Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are kind of boring-looking so I didn't try to arrange them for a nice picture. But they are good and most are safely in the freezer now.

On to the next batch!

Let Cookie Month Begin!

I was going to bake almost every day this month until Christmas, but I'm gaining too much weight with my pregnancy, so I might back off a little. I am going to freeze most that I make anyway and give them away so it's not like I'll be pigging out on cookies all month. So the first ones I've done have come out great. The very first were vegan sugar cookies for Toddler (dairy/egg allergies). They were SOOOO good. The similarity to real sugar cookies is truly amazing; I bet a lot of people couldn't even tell the difference. I'm not sure if I would have if I hadn't made them myself. Funky, if you make cookies this season, this is a great recipe to try. It's from a library discard sent to me by my best friend in Boston called "Allergy Kitchen 2: The Creative Cookie" by James Rudoff, published in 1987. The picture shows all that's left of them, and we baked them yesterday.

Vegan Sugar Cookies
3 1/4 cups sifted flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk-free margarine (I use Smart Balance Light)
1 3/4 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons egg substitute, plus 4 tablespoons water (I use Ener-G Egg Replacer, which calls for 1 1/2 teaspoons egg substitute with 2 tablespoons water)
1 tablespoon water
granulated sugar

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Cream the margarine. Add the vanilla and sugar, beating well. Beat in 1 teaspoon egg sub and 2 tablespoons water at a time. Add the 1 tablespoon water. Gradually add the sifted flour mixture, beating only until mixed.

Divide the dough in half, wrapping each half in wax paper and chill in the refrigerator 2 or more hours. (I had to freeze mine for a little while.) Work with one half at a time.

Place dough on lightly floured surface and form a ball, flouring all surfaces. Flour the rolling pin and roll the dough to 1/4 inch. Use cookie cutters.

Place on cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Sprinkle tops with sugar.
Bake in 400° oven for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned.

Cookie Poetry

I really wanted to go food shopping today to get ingredients for Cookie Month, but it's pouring rain. Last year I had Cookie Week which is just what it sounds like; for about a week before Christmas I made cookies everyday and gave them as gifts. But I got a little stressed because I was running out of time. So this year my plan is to start earlier and go for the whole month, freezing cookies or dough as I go along. Hence, Cookie Month. I went through my Christmas cookie book and wrote down a list of what I'll probably make. Behold the poetry.

Gingerbread Men

Madeleines

Gingerbread Snowflakes

Raspberry Swirls

Tea Cakes

Snowflakes

Rugelach

Rolled Cinnamon Sugar Angels

Pfeffernuesse

Chocolate Chubbies

Oatmeal

Coconut Macadamia

Coffee Bean

Cocoa Almond Biscotti

During Naptime

While I would like to listen to Mahler's 1st Symphony or finish my Bryson book or read a few pages of the new book I couldn't resist from the library yesterday, The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes edited by John Gross, I have to make one of these. I really wanted to make one of these instead but the store didn't have them yet. Not such a bad deal. It's one of my last duties for Wilton and I get paid for doing it. Then I have to do a demo next Saturday and I'm done.