Cumin?  Do I have enough?

It was also difficult to see what I had on hand, and what was getting low.  I’m a visual kinda girl.  So, I’ve been collecting spice jars one at a time.  Yeah, except they don’t exactly match.  And who has the time to take off all the labels?  Not me.

Putting together the perfect spice cabinet begins…

So, about a month ago, I took some ideas I found, and I started thinking about what my ideal spice cabinet would look like.  I started with buying these containers.

What if I mounted them to the cabinet door?

I wanted more space in my actual cabinet, and I have all this glorious open space on my cabinet doors.  So, going from a previous Alton Brown episode, I decided I would mount the containers on my doors.   The thing was, he put them on the doors with velcro.  All I could think about was the gunky-goo that would accumulate in the velcro fibers.  Disgusting.  Really.  No velcro for me.

“Do you have metal strip thingies you could mount on a wall?”

I didn’t know what the term was I was looking for.  This made it difficult to ask for the product in the crafty-craft store.  ”Do you have those metal strip things you can mount on a wall?  I’ve seen them in organizing stores.  You can put magnets on them?”  Blank stare.  ”Let me call my manager.”  Yeah, manager didn’t know either.  Next time I will arm myself with better vocabulary…

The office supply store should have that, right?

I strolled into my local office supply store.  Surely they would be able to decipher what I needed and direct me to make my perfect purchase.  After artfully dodging the disturbingly friendly greeter at the door, I wandered around the store looking for that metal thingy.  Then I wandered some more.  Not by the magnets.  Not in the organizing section.  Nada in the clearance section.  No luck.  So, I tried my best to look lost, knowing I would attract a friendly helpful employee.

Me: “Do you know where I can find those metal thingies you can hang on the wall and attach magnets to?”

Helpful employee: “Uh, let’s look over here….how about this cork strip?”

Me: (trying to understand how “magnetic” led us to cork….)  ”Um, that’s not quite what I’m looking for.  Thanks for your help.”

One last try…

A little disheartened, I crossed the street to another crafty-craft store.  It seems everytime I need something strange like this, I find it there.  (Hmm, perhaps I should just start there in the future…)  Again, I wandered around to see what I could find.  I happened on some magnetic bulletin boards.  It turns out they were samples, flanked by supplies to make them.  Eureka!  I grabbed two 12×12 pieces of the sheet metal and headed for the door.  Who needs metal strip thingies anyway?

My Spice Cabinet Makeover:

(Cost: I spent less than $30 USD)

1. Attach the metal squares to the doors.  Drill a small hole in each corner of the metal squares.  Put a little adhesive on the back (to help the sheet lay flat) and attach the squares  to the doors with small, short wood screws.

2. Prepare the containers.  Label and fill  containers with existing spices (or new if it’s been a while).  Attach adhesive magnetic tape or hot glue magnets to the bottom of each container.

3. Put them in order and arrange.  I recommend alphabetizing the containers (makes them easier to find) and attach them to the doors.

Below is what my spices look like now.  Isn’t it pretty?  Best of all, it’s all in one place and I can see exactly what I have.  Love that!

Last night I was a little stressed, and decided to do a little stress baking.  I found this recipe on the back of the flour bag.  I adapted it a bit, and offer it here for you to enjoy. 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1 1/2 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C butter
1/2 C unsweetened applesauce (or pear if you can find it)
1 t vanilla
1 egg
2 C quick-cooking oats
1 C all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 whole wheat pastry flour*
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
12 oz. chocolate chunks (or chips)

1. Heat oven to 350F. Beat brown sugar, butter, vanilla and egg with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended, and pale in color. Add oats, flours, baking soda & salt. Mix well. Stir in chocolate chunks.

2. Drop dough in rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet (or parchment/silpat lined), 2 inches apart.

3. Bake 9-11 minutes (I baked them 10 1/2 minutes) until golden brown – more if you like a crispier cookie. Cool slightly, remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.

Yield: About 3 1/2 dozen cookies

* or you can use all-purpose for all the flour

(recipe adapted from Gold Medal Flour recipe)

Cast a vote or send a “virtual cake” and Electrolux donates a $1 to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.  Or do both – once a day!

Oh, and you’ll be entered to win an Electrolux range.  Uh, yes please!  You can enter here:

Kelly’s Cake Off For a Cause

I always wanted to make fresh bread.  The problem is, I was the world’s worst baker.  I tried making bread.  It turned out dry and ordinary.  So, I quit doing it.  Then, I started seeing some friends on Facebook turning out these gorgeous loaves of bread that I was paying $5 or so per loaf.  Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mind.  They were yummy, and I would be most happy to go 100% carbs all the time.   But still, there is nothing like fresh (good) bread from the oven.

So, I looked into the book these friends mentioned.  I was intrigued.  5 minutes a day and I have bread.  I know, it sounds like a get-rich-quick scheme.  I had slaved over bread recipes with mediocre results.  So, after looking at these insanely delicious looking loaves on Facebook,  I was going to give it another shot.  Oh, yeah, am I glad I did.

I mixed up my first batch of dough, using my handy mixer and dough hook.  I put the dough in oversized food container I picked up at the Big Box Store.  And I waited for two hours.  And it rose.  I was as giddy as a school girl.  The dough went into the oven to rest overnight.  Oh, that anticipation.

Tonight after dinner I decided to give it a whirl, just case I had the same experience as before.  Nothing’s worse than a flop at dinnertime!  So, I shaped the bread and popped it in the oven.

The house filled with the heady aroma of yeast as the bread baked.  I watched the crust turn a golden brown, and I think I squealed like a school girl.  I couldn’t wait too long to try it… and there was Nutella involved.  Oh sweet success…

Bring it on bread.  One down, two more to go for this batch.  Ah, sweet bread.  Welcome home.

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Just in case you’re interested in trying this out yourself, here’s a link to the book I’m referring to >>>

photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/enigmachck | CC BY 2.0

photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mellis | CC BY 2.0

photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/taste-buzz | CC BY 2.0

photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mckaysavage | CC BY 2.0

photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirrilyrobert | CC BY 2.0

photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhamshu | CC BY 2.0

Ok, so maybe my spice rack won’t look like this, but how gorgeous is this?!

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[All photos are licensed under Creative Commons 2.0]

I keep it traditional, but play with it just a bit.

Because I love this holiday menu so much, I rarely stray from it.  So, no southwest turkey, tofurkey or turducken for this gal.  I like to keep the flavors simple, complimentary and local whenever possible.  However, I do like to play with things a little bit.  This year I’ll be putting my pumpkin pies in the shrinking machine.  Our pie will be in the size of muffin cups.  How fun!

My mini pumpkin pie game plan:

This is my favorite pumpkin pie recipe.  Because most of us are lactose-intolerant, I can use soy milk in place of the regular ol’ milk (and no one knows the difference, so shhhhh….).

I’ll use my standard pie crust recipe.  Why mess with a good thing?

The cooking method. I learned that one should preheat the oven to be nice an hot.  So, I’ll preheat at 425F and then turning it down to 375F when the pies go in.  Also, I’ll try baking them for about 30 minutes.

How will it turn out?  We’ll see when I try it out a couple days early. 

It was quite a sight…

Fall is in the air… and the lovely children of our neighborhood were out raking up the leaves.  I was also proud to learn that my little one was the instigator!  He was the “boss”, and was out directing his friends to work together and rake up all the leaves in our yard.  Then, they proceeded to move to the next house.  I watched him for a while, with pride in my heart at his enterprising and helpful spirit. 

A reward & a recipe…

After a while, my son came inside and was preparing to make nametags for all of his “employees”.  Then, I got an idea… think of it as positive reinforcement.  They were doing a wonderful job, and I had a recipe I was dying to try out.    So, I fired up the waffle iron and busted out the recipe.  Let’s just say the kids liked it… as evidenced by the empty plate below.  Well done kiddos! 

Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Waffle Cookies

Notes:   These whip up in a hurry, using a minimal amount of dishes.  The one thing I added the second time I made them (about 30 minutes ago) was a couple dashes of cinnamon.  I would highly recommend you do the same.  Delish!

I am lactose intolerant, so dairy and I do not get along well. One of the hardest things to do without when I mostly severed my ties with moo-products was ice cream. I have tried all kinds of soy, frozen yogurts and other things. Today, I tried Coconut Bliss at WordCamp Portland.

Holy cow delish.

The texture is creamy, rich and with a delightful hint of coconut.  Add to that dark chocolate (or the peanut butter chocolate I tried earlier today), and it’s positively, well, bliss!

I’d write more, but it’s calling my name from the freezer right now….

Something about pulling veggies from the garden makes me want to eat them more than usual! This is our first crop, now we are waiting for the heirlooms!

What’s in your garden?