Pinterest Success #1: Rosemary Parmesan Crackers & Texas Trash Dip

In common with many others, I spend more time pinning things to Pinterest and less time actually making things, but I finally tried out some new recipes. Some worked, some didn't. These are the ones that worked.

First up are the Rosemary Parmesan Crackers (see here for the recipe). These were tasty indeed, and I will definitely make these again (though in greater numbers). For once, something I made actually resembled the picture on the website.

(LEFT: picture from Alexandra's Kitchen blog, RIGHT: fuzzy photo demonstrating my efforts minus the garnish)

Secondly was the Texas Trash dip. It's basically all refried beans and large amounts of cheese - what could go wrong? No pictures of my efforts this time, but I'm highly endorsing this and will do this again.

(Picture & recipe from Life as a Lofthouse blog)

The only changes I made were to halve the amounts, replace the sour cream with creme fraiche, replace Monterey Jack with Edam, and the taco seasoning with a tbsp of my homemade chili mix.

 
I am making a general pre-new year resolution to actually DO rather than PIN. Or, at least, get the ratios of doing to pinning to a more appropriate level.

The last move?

I'm hoping so. At least for a few years now. I've made yet another drastic life-changing move, this time back home from Newfoundland to start a new job in York. For the first time in my life I have a job that won't end in 12 months' time. This is exciting stuff people!

York is ancient, beautiful and, as I discovered yesterday, home to an amazing Italian deli where I had a most excellent lunch and came home loaded with cheese and cured meats. I would heartily recommend it to any visitors to ye olde city.

Since moving back I have got into baking in a big way. I have had nothing but triumphs with this invaluable book, and given that my other half is still in Canada, I have the patience to spend two days making one loaf of bread. Worth the wait.

My Italian Bread

I have also equipped myself with rennet, mesophilic starter, a mould, and a book on Home Cheesing Making. My plan today is to make some cultures, then this afternoon maybe try out some cheddar.

Despite my new focus on domesticity, my other crafty habits aren't suffering, and I'm planning on learning to spin soon. I had a go at York Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers' open day last weekend, and had a grand old time. Will this yarn obsession ever end? I doubt it.

Adventures in Baking

Since my last disasters in cooking, I've been a little reluctant to step out of familiar territory. Recently, however, I've been getting up the nerve to try again. The price of food here has meant that I've been quite keen to do some home-cooked versions of the staples.

We started out with the Darwin fishcake, but have since moved onto muffins and cookies aplenty. These have mostly worked, with a few exceptions, mostly due to our odd oven. Because the element is at the bottom, everything burns underneath. I've been advised to put in an extra baking tray underneath to disperse the heat, but things are still going black :(

What I was particularly keen to try, though, was bread baking. I tried my first loaf on Saturday but things went a little wrong. We were having a housewarming party and we took on a little too much with the preparation. As a result the bread was still rising when the first guests arrived. Quite a few cocktails intervened and I forgot to bake it, and didn't return to it until lunchtime the next day. I thought I'd still give it a go, but we ended up with a rather flat loaf that absolutely reeked of white wine (not what I wanted with my hangover)! We reluctantly binned it and I worked out the many and varied reasons why the loaf had done this. Accidentally leaving it to rise on the oven heat outlet was probably not my best idea. Anyway, my second attempt yesterday seemed to actually work. It was a wholemeal oaty bread, and it didn't fully rise, but was still pretty tasty (if a bit dense). I have plans to do it better next time.

We also found some Hobnobs in Auntie Crae's for the alarming price of $4.13 and so I searched out a recipe. They're still cooling downstairs but I've already taste-tested them. They just need a thin covering of chocolate and they'll be complete. So much for my diet...



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Happy Birthday Charles #2

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UPDATE!
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Here is the finished item. Hope it tastes ok - there was an issue with the baking powder...

Happy Birthday Charles

Today is the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin. I was rather surprised to hear last night that Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were exactly the same age. In my mind Lincoln was very much of an older period in history than Darwin, but it seems it's not true at all, just a construct of my own mind. Liam decided last night that this was because Darwin is seen as the beginning of a modern age so I was simply associating him with being 'younger', whilst Lincoln is all big hats and civil war. I wonder why his birthday isn't being made a deal of?

In the spirit of evolution, this is me as an australopithecene. You can devolve yourself on this Open University web site, which is quite fun, except that it was male only and I ended up with a large beard in most of the iterations. Hey ho! No change there then...

That aside, in celebration, Liam and I decided to do some baking. We used Delia's recipe for all-in-one-sponge cake and got busy with the icing. It took two goes at making the icing as we were relying on internet recipes. The first batch was a disturbing lumpy mess that kept separating. The second was more successful and we managed to use a ziploc bag as a pipe. It's quite fun, if a bit messy when the bag explodes at the top and you get icing all over your nice lambswool cardigan.

So here are some photos (apologies for the quality - they're from a phone):

This is our amazing giant 60s cooker. I love it!

The outline in baking parchment:

After the icing sugar has been sifted over the outline, and the piping begins!

More piping:

Liam attacks the edge:

You'll have to wait for the final photo as Liam is withholding it from me, for reasons unknown.

More soon!

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