I discovered the idea of flood icing a couple days ago, so I gave it a shot. I think I did okay for a first time… Kindof?
Lessons learned:
– Get the squeezy bottles everyone mentions, ziplock bags are a pain
– Make a batch of royal icing and add small amounts (a tsp or two) for the flood version
– Drawing over the flood icing works with either normal or flood icing
– Icing dries fast, go one cookie at a time
I’m the co-author of a (barely working) award winning iPad recipe app! (Hah. Literally true, but not really.)
Shamiq and I spent the day at GitHub for a Swift Hack Day, where we built a chocolate chip recipe app with the idea that referring to recipes while cooking/baking is often messy (mmmm buttered phone!). We called ourselves team “ElbowBook” since clearly if your hands are covered in butter, the best way of advancing to the next step is with your elbows!
I’ve wanted cake stands for a while, but I thought they seemed a little crazy to spend lotssss of money on one. SO, diy time!
I got the tops and bottoms at Michaels, depending on the size, the wooden circles are ~$1.99 to $11. I liked these versus more plain ones because the edges are beveled. The middles are from home depot, I think they’re meant to be table legs or cabinet legs. They were $6-8 each. I suspect that if I was more patient, one could probably find wooden candlesticks somewhere for less.
I’m not done painting yet — but with much guidance from Shamiq, I’m sanding, painting, sanding, painting then varnishing.
I noticed these prickly looking fruit in my parents’ yard a couple days ago — and after some Googling, it turns out they’re edible!
Also, they’re called Kousa or Korean Dogwood. They have beautiful white, cross-shaped flowers during the spring, then these crazy looking fruit in late summer. The fruit reminds me of a mild mango or jackfruit — definitely the flavor of a summer fruit.
I guess the big caveat is that the tree grows near a road, and has possibly been fertilized… I suppose I shouldn’t eat too many.
To start with, I’m not at all a bagel connoisseur, I just like eating them, especially when lightly toasted. I also reallllly like chopped liver. So here’s a sandwich of both! I liked their chopped liver much more than the Wise & Sons — and the line is much less massive. And it’s in Oakland, another plus.
Their smoked trout salad was also quite tasty. But the bagels definitely need toasting. (But then again, isn’t that true of all bagels?)
I followed Serious Eats recipe for Blitz Puff Pastry and tried to make croissants. The results weren’t bad — but not quite the fabulous croissants I’d hoped for.
Some thoughts:
– The croissants need to have a chance to rise and come to room temp, I tried up to two hours (they weren’t quite jiggly yet) and there was still a small log of dense (but cooked) buttery dough in the middle.
– I wonder if this has to do with the dough itself, I plan on trying this technique with the Momofuku Mother Dough base.
Edit:
Shamiq points out that my croissant looks like an Omanyte. LOL
