Dec
20

On Meringues

Posted in baking, snow | 3 Comments
I almost ended up not making these yesterday, and it’s a good thing I hadn’t gotten very far – if the power had gone out when I was mixing, the entire batch would have had to be tossed. As it stands though, I decided to document a bit of the baking process as I’ve had a lot of questions over the years on how to make them. (And it’s not that it’s overly tricky, but it doesn’t take much to screw it up. Given the amount of time it takes to make them, that can be a bit heartbreaking. LOL.)  Last time I made these I was in Canada and they turned out like ass – though I think part of that was because I had a hand beater and a shallow bowl, which really doesn’t work. You need a fast mixer. (It could also have been that the elevation… Read more
Nov
25

Oh My! It’s Fruitcake Weather, Buddy!

Posted in baking | 2 Comments
Somehow I don’t think Truman Capote was thinking about inflatable fruitcakes when he wrote A Christmas Memory.  However, the holiday season is upon us, and that means eating. And hopefully lots of it. Like Abby, I can’t cook worth a damn – but I can bake when I get in the mood to do so. So in the next few weeks, I’ll start up my annual round of cookies – chocolate chip, mostly, along with my famous meringues. (Which take forever, but are so totally worth it.) For quick and dirty baking, though – I drag out the bread machine and toss it on the Quick Bread setting. And then I make a run to Williams Sonoma and buy a fair number of gourmet bread mixes. 1) It’s easy – just dump it all into the bread machine and turn it on. 2 hours later, and you’ve got an awesome… Read more