Category Archives: recipe

I wrote a menu

04 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by in All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, calligraphy, cooking, encouragement, food, Free Idea, nature, photography, recipe

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It’s for a restaurant in my imagination. Outside, surrounded by trees and mountains and seas. The rush of wind and fall of water.
Whole Earth.
Five Courses – Water, Field, Tree, Rain and Root.

A menu for Whole Earth, a restaurant in my imagination.

A menu for Whole Earth, a restaurant in my imagination.

What limits your dreams? What stops you? What if you never quit? In addition to a dozen other professions out of my reach, such as surgeon, lawyer, scientist, glass blower, architect and machine engineer.. I would love to be a chef. Here is a menu for my non-existent restaurant, Whole Earth, with some of the courses. Don’t ever let anyone stop your imagination. You never know how far it will reach.

Sweet & Sparkling Specialty Sugars for tea and coffee and sprinkling

31 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by in All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, baking, cooking, crafts, DIY, food, recipe, sparkling, tea time, tutorial, Uncategorized

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So happy she loved the gift I made for her! Specialty Sugars for her tea and coffee and sprinkling on toast, cereal or anything else that needs a little sweet sparkle.

Delicious and beautiful flavored sugars in jars.

Delicious and beautiful flavored sugars in jars.


I bought the decorative knobs and glass jars at Hobby Lobby. It was easy drilling a hole in the corks, using a hack saw to shorten the knob bolt and gluing them together with a few beads.
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~ Lavender Sugar ~
I ground up culinary lavender with a mortar and pestle, then put the lavender and sugar in a food processor. The lavender sugar was then layered with crystal sugar in the jar.
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~ Lemon Orange Sugar ~
Lemon and Orange zest were placed in a food processor with sugar and ground medium fine. I’ve been making this mixture for years for use in cheesecake because it makes a very fine textured cheesecake. To fill the jar, I spooned in a layer of Lemon Orange Sugar then used tongs to place white sugar cubes against the side of the jar. Then I spooned in more sugar and repeated the layers. Next time I’ll add more orange zest for a darker orange colored sugar.
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~ Vanilla Bean Sugar ~
I scraped the seeds from two vanilla beans and ground the seeds with sugar in a food processor. I used one half of each vanilla bean, split lengthwise, to place in the jar. I spooned in about 1″ of Vanilla Sugar in the bottom of the jar. Then I used tongs and a wood skewer to position each vanilla bean against the side of the jar before adding the rest of the Vanilla Sugar.
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~ Pumpkin Spice Sugar ~
This recipe is something one of my sons and I made up, based on the spice ratio I use in my Pumpkin Pies. We keep this sugar blend on hand to make Pumpkin Spice Lattes, which everyone knows don’t have any pumpkin in them anyway. haha. Still, the flavor is very close to my pumpkin pies, sans pumpkin. To fill this jar, I used a small spoon and a tiny funnel I made from two straws. I can’t explain how I did the design but if you look up “sand art in a bottle” on youtube, you’ll get the idea. The white layer is Vanilla Bean Sugar. The dark brown “spots” in the white layer are pieces of cinnamon stick. I wanted to position the cinnamon stick pieces to look like hearts but the white sugar kept filling in the spaces so it didn’t work out.
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“Necessity is the mother of invention,” it is said. So true. I couldn’t access my precut wood pieces or run a saw so I ended up using the only wood on hand, a 30 year old piece of Sassafrass root from my parents property. It’s been in my tea collection for decades and still has a beautiful scent. I used a small craft saw to cut thin slices of the wood to make the tags. I wrote on them with permanent marker. Now I wonder if I had wood-burned the words in… could the slice of sassafrass be steeped in boiling water to flavor tea? What fun that would be! I’ll have to try it out.

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For each of the flavored sugars, I used one cup of granulated sugar plus the flavoring agent. That was plenty to fill the jar, with a little left over.
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I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! We sure had a jolly time.

Croque Monsieur

12 Wednesday Oct 2016

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It’s the most luscious Ham & Cheese sandwich ever! Definitely our favorite. The guys loved them for lunch.
Don’t these ingredients look yummy?

Ingredients for Croque Monsieur. Sliced homemade bread, sliced ham, gruyere cheese, Herbs de Provence, mustard bechemel.

Ingredients for Croque Monsieur. Sliced homemade bread, sliced ham, gruyere cheese, Herbs de Provence, mustard béchemel.

I followed Bon Appetit’s recipe for Croque Monsieur. So delicious!
I baked a loaf of bread the day before but the guys cut into it so I had to make the Croque Monsieur slices a little thinner. The mustard béchemel turned out perfect. The only mustard I had on hand had horseradish in it but that was great with the ham and gruyere. The herbs were from Penzey’s, Herb de Provence.
Four slices of bread were spread with the prepared béchemel.

Tear two round ham slices in half to fit a square piece of bread.

Note: Tear two round ham slices in half to fit a square piece of bread.

Half of the cheese sprinkled over the ham.

Half of the cheese sprinkled over the ham.

The remaining four slices of bread had more mustard béchemel spread on and placed on the sandwiches.

The remaining four slices of bread were spread with more mustard béchemel and placed on the sandwiches.

The remaining cheese was scattered on top of the sandwiches.

The remaining cheese was scattered on top of the sandwiches.

Herbes de Provence sprinkled over tops of the sandwiches.

Herbes de Provence sprinkled over tops of the sandwiches.

 

Baked for about 18 minutes at 425.

Baked for about 18 minutes at 425 F.

Croque Monsieur

Croque Monsieur

The smell coming from the oven was sooo good… The cheese! The toasty bread! The herbes!

Oh I wish you could taste this Croque Monsieur hot from the oven!

Oh I wish you could taste this Croque Monsieur hot from the oven!

The middle was all melty and soft and the bottom crusts with dripping cheese had a great crunch. Oh so delicous!
Please comment if you’ve ever had a Croque Monsieur sandwich. Did you like it? This will be our go-to sandwich when we have tomato or bean soup this winter.

Save

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In Lieu of Luke’s Diner – Sugar Crusted Orange Ginger Muffins

05 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by in All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, baking, family, food, recipe, tea time

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The plan was to get a free cup of hot coffee from “Luke’s Diner” in town. Commemorating the 16th anniversary of Gilmore Girls, and to celebrate the upcoming debut of a Gilmore Girls mini series, Netflix sponsored pop-up “Luke’s Diner” in coffee shops all over the country. Oh my goodness, I love that show!

I had every intention of going and really looked forward to it. In fact, I even walked toward the line and snapped a picture. What a special event in town!

"Luke's Diner" pop-up at one of the local coffee shops

“Luke’s Diner” pop-up at one of the local coffee shops

But then I started to miss my own “Rory” so much that I had to leave. If I had stayed, I feared I would have started to cry and end up blubbering something like “Will you please be my daughter? I miss my daughter! Anyone in this line, can I please be your Lorelai because my daughter lives halfway to China and I’m missing her so much and we watched Gilmore Girls together when she was going to college and HOW can I possibly get a cup of coffee that we would have shared but can’t because she’s halfway to China??” If I had stayed, I totally would have done that. 0_0

So I left without coffee, immediately went home and did a Sookie thing – I whipped up some Sugar Crusted Orange Ginger Muffins and cried the entire time. I sure did.

Sugar Crusted Orange Ginger Muffin

Sugar Crusted Orange Ginger Muffin

I made up this recipe years ago, just because I needed a batter that fit in the big, new muffin tins. I still use my favorite batter-scooping spoon, even though the handle is broken.

Scooping the muffin batter with the broken spoon, just because it's the perfect size and shape for scooping.

Scooping the muffin batter with the broken spoon, just because it’s the perfect size and shape for scooping.

Sugar Crusted Orange Ginger Muffins

Sift together in a large bowl:
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cardamom

Mix together in another bowl:
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup oil
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp grated orange rind

Mix together in another bowl:
3/4 cup raisins (I like golden best but any raisin will do)
3/4 cup candied ginger cut up into little pieces (I never buy the precut ginger because it has too much sugar sprinkled on it. All that extra sugar changes the texture of the recipe. It’s better to buy candied, sliced ginger and cut it up yourself with scissors.)

Dump the egg mixture into the flour mixture and quickly stir with a whisk or wooden spoon about 5 or 6 strokes. Mixture will be lumpy and NOT mixed together.

Dump in the raisins and ginger.

Stir quickly and thoroughly but briefly using a wood spoon or whisk. Mixture will be lumpy. Make sure you scrape the dry ingredients off the bottom of the bowl while mixing. If the batter gets rubbery and stretchy, you mixed it too long and the muffins might be tough. Anyway, drop spoonfuls of batter into greased, large muffin tins.

Sprinkle tops with coarse sugar crystals.

BAKE at 400F for 20-25 minutes.

Makes 12 large muffins.

Spicy bits of crystalized ginger and raisins stud this ginger & cardamom muffin.

Spicy bits of crystalized ginger and raisins stud this ginger & cardamom muffin.


After I had two cups of good strong coffee and a muffin, I felt better. But since I miss my daughter so much, I’m declaring it Official Wallowing Day. Truly. At least once a year I just need a good wallow.

I miss you and love you, Heather. <3
And Texas just seems like half-way to China. ;)

Woven Tortillas

04 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by in cooking, food, Mexican, recipe, tutorial

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I don’t know what gave me the idea but I was eating a tortilla one day a couple weeks ago and thought it would be great to make a weaving of colored tortilla strips. 
Woven Tortillas
It took a week or so to hunt down colored tortillas. We found the green Spinach Wrap tortillas at Whole Foods and the spicy Habanero Lime tortillas at Trader Joes.

The first Woven Tortilla was made of strips of white and orange tortillas. I cut them with kitchen shears.

Strips of white Mission flour tortilla and orange Habanero Lime tortilla.

Strips of white Mission flour tortilla and orange Habanero Lime tortilla.


The Habanero Lime tortillas were a little smaller than the white Mission tortillas. I ended up using the center section of two Habanero tortillas to get enough strips that were long enough.
2 Woven Tortillas
It was almost as easy as weaving paper strips, but tortillas are more fragile. None broke but I treated them gently.
Spicy Habanero Lime tortillas are woven together with a white flour tortilla.

Spicy Habanero Lime tortillas are woven together with a white flour tortilla.


Brushing the woven tortilla mat with olive oil helped the pieces stick together.
The woven tortilla mat is brushed with olive oil.

The woven tortilla mat is brushed with olive oil.


They still weren’t very stable though so I had to slide the woven piece into the skillet using a big spatula. Once one side was browned on medium heat, I placed another hot skillet over top and flipped it over. That was tricky! The tortilla mat still folded in half and it was a bit of work straightening out the strips.
The woven tortilla mat is lightly toasted on both sides over medium heat in a skillet.

The woven tortilla mat is lightly toasted on both sides over medium heat in a skillet.


Once they were lightly browned, the tortillas were more crisp and held together better. I slid the finished tortilla mat out of the skillet and onto the plate.
Woven Tortillas

Woven Tortillas


Topped with black beans in a taco meat nest, scoops of guacamole and sour cream and a sprinkling of white cheddar, the Woven Tortillas looked and tasted wonderful!
Woven Tortillas, served with taco meat, black beans, guacamole, sour cream and cheddar cheese. Use knife and fork to eat.

Woven Tortillas, served with taco meat, black beans, guacamole, sour cream and cheddar cheese. Use knife and fork to eat.


I tried another method of weaving that stayed together easily. Instead of cutting the white tortilla into strips, I cut slits in it with a knife, then wove strips of colored tortilla through the slits.
Strips of Habanero tortilla are woven through slits in a white flour tortilla.

Strips of Habanero tortilla are woven through slits in a white flour tortilla.


This time, I brushed olive oil on the white flour tortilla before weaving so the oil would help hold the pieces together. That worked great.
Woven Tortillas

Woven Tortillas


Treating the tortillas gently so the one-piece white tortilla didn’t split at the ends, I carefully wove orange Habanero and green Spinach tortilla strips through the slits.
Green and orange tortilla strips are woven through the slits in a white flour tortilla.

Green and orange tortilla strips are woven through the slits in a white flour tortilla.


Woven Tortillas are so fun and festive! Tasty too!

Woven Tortillas are so fun and festive! Tasty too!


These take time so I recommend weaving them ahead of time, wrapping air tight and keeping the woven tortillas in the fridge. Brown them on medium heat right before serving.
Woven Tortillas - great way to add color and flavor to a Tex-Mex meal.

Woven Tortillas – great way to add color and flavor to a Tex-Mex meal.


Lunch was festive and delicious!

Meringue Breakfast Buns again

17 Tuesday Feb 2015

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While it was freezing outside, this was going on in my oven this morning.

Savory Meringue Breakfast Buns in the oven

Savory Meringue Breakfast Buns in the oven


I posted about this before and you can find the recipe on my blog here.
They were soooo delicious. Oh the crunch! Oh the creamy! Something magical happens when you bake cheese on top of meringue. Please try it!
Meringue Breakfast Buns, served with banana drizzled with Tomato Marmalade.

Meringue Breakfast Buns, served with banana drizzled with Tomato Marmalade.

Super Bowl Soup with Chip Dip Dumplings

13 Friday Feb 2015

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Well now, this post is a bit late! Ha ha! But the recipe is applicable to any party leftovers of hot wings, a veggie tray and chip dip. Hey, you don’t even need a party. The night we had this, the soup WAS the party!

What do you do after the Super Bowl game with all those delicious leftovers? I had some spicy Hot Chicken Wings, a veggie tray and chip dip. They were the perfect leftovers to make spicy Super Bowl Soup with Chip Dip Dumplings!

This recipe doesn’t need many measurements. Just use what you have and it will be delicious.

Start the soup broth by putting hot chicken wings in a couple quarts of water with a handful of herbs. I used Bouquet Garni.

Place hot chicken wings and a handful of fresh or dried herbs in a couple quarts of water in a pot.

Place hot chicken wings and a handful of fresh or dried herbs in a couple quarts of water in a pot.


Simmer a bit.
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In the meantime, in a little oil and butter in a skillet, saute the veggie tray vegetables. I had pepper strips, carrots and broccoli and added more carrots.
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When the veggies have browned a bit on the edges, add a little water to deglaze.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken wings from the broth and let them cool on a plate.
Stir the veggies and liquid into the pot of broth. Simmer on low.
I added a bit of thyme and fresh rosemary along with the sauteed veggies.

I added a bit of thyme and fresh rosemary along with the sauteed veggies.


While the soup is simmering, make the Chip Dip Dumplings. Whisk together 3 cups flour, 5 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt in a bowl. Cut 1/4 cup unsalted butter and 1/4 cup shortening into the dry ingredients until crumbly.
5 Chip Dip Dumplings
Measure about 3/4 cup chip dip. I had a little less so I added another spoonful of sour cream. Then I added milk to make about 1 1/4 cup of sour cream liquid. Beat one egg in a bowl.
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Stir the sour cream mixture and egg into the flour mixture. Mix with a fork until everything sticks together.
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The dumpling mixture will be sticky and lumpy.
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Taste the soup and add more seasoning if desired. We added more Frank’s Red Hot sauce and Cholula Hot Sauce. I also transferred the soup into a bigger pot to make room for the dumplings to puff up. Add more water if necessary. The dumplings absorb quite a bit of liquid while cooking so it’s ok if there seems to be too much liquid.
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Use a fork to drop blobs of dumpling dough on top of the simmering broth. The recipe makes a lot of dumplings, plenty for 8 or more servings. The dumplings will be crowded but that’s ok. Cover with a lid, turn down heat to low and time 15 minutes. While the dumplings are cooking, debone the chicken wings.
10 Chip Dip Dumplings
Remove the lid and check the dumplings. I use a fork to break one open. If it’s not done, I cover with the lid and time another couple minutes.
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When the dumplings are done, use a big fork to lift them off the soup and transfer to another dish.
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Look at that fluffy mountain of dumplings!
13 Chip Dip Dumplings
Stir the chicken meat into the soup and heat. The dumplings absorb a lot of liquid so add more water and seasonings if you want. Heat and serve.
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Super Bowl Soup with Chip Dip Dumplings. What a yummy way to use party leftovers!
Super Bowl Soup with Chip Dip Dumplings. It was delicous!

Super Bowl Soup with Chip Dip Dumplings. It was delicous!

Sugar Bonnets

02 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by in cake decorating, candy, crafts, food, recipe, tea time, tutorial, Uncategorized

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1 Sugar Bonnets

Sugar Bonnets, made with just sugar and water and a tiny bit of food color for the decoration. Each one is about 1 teaspoon of sugar.

I’ve been making these Sugar Bonnets for many years and used to sell them to a local tea room. Now I just make them to keep on hand for guests. They can be used for cake decorations but I just use them as sugar cubes to sweeten tea. Recently I made a batch for a Dessert Tea.

The Dessert Tea was so much fun! The tablescape was actually my entry for a Dessert Tablescape Contest by Rosanna Inc, which I will post about soon. Every year Rosanna has a terrific tablescape contest and the entries are beautiful. I seriously adore Rosanna’s style and look forward to seeing the entries every year. This is the first time I’ve entered and I’ll definitely be doing this again.

Oh my goodness, I had so much fun setting the table and baking all the treats! I’m looking forward to sharing photos with you soon.

I didn’t have a smaller table for my entry so there was a lot of table space to fill. I spread things out a bit and placed all the desserts on the front of the table but the back of the table had tea items, including a dish of Sugar Bonnets for the tea.

The back of the Dessert Table had items for tea, including a dish of Sugar Bonnets.

The back of the Dessert Table had items for tea, including a dish of Sugar Bonnets.

This is the recipe I wrote a long time ago for making Sugar Bonnets.

This is my recipe for Sugar Bonnets, written over 15 years ago.

This is my recipe for Sugar Bonnets, written well over a decade ago. I can’t even remember!

Each bonnet is about 1 teaspoon of sugar. The ingredients are just sugar and water. Perhaps with a little food coloring if you want other colors. They dissolve quickly in a cup of hot tea.

I do confess it takes dexterity and patience to make these but the effort is well worth it. And they keep for several years in an airtight container between layers of wax paper, perfect for on the tea tray.

I created the hat form from a cake decorating lily nail set, matte board and packing tape. There is a piece of packing-tape-wrapped matte board wrapped around the nail to form a small smooth edge, which becomes the hat brim. I’ve replaced the matte board and tape only once and it has held up amazingly well, even with a quick wash and air dry. Some day I’ll cut a piece of PVC pipe to replace the matte board piece.

4 Sugar Bonnets

The tools I use to make the Sugar Bonnets include a Lily Nail that I’ve adapted with tape and matte board.

5 Sugar Bonnets

The bottom of the lily nail, showing how the matte board has been secured to the nail.

I use a small baby spoon to spoon damp sugar into the lily nail. This is how I hold the nail while spooning in the sugar and making the initial “press” with the top of the lily nail. Holding the nail this way helps the sugar stick together around the “brim” of the hat.

6 Sugar Bonnets

Holding the custom lily nail before spooning in the damp sugar.

After spooning the damp sugar in the mold, the top of the lily nail is pressed down on the damp sugar and then the excess sugar is scraped off around the edge.

I’m sorry that I don’t have actual action photos since I didn’t have time to set up a tripod and remote. Holding a heavy camera with one hand to take a photo of your other hand sure isn’t easy! So I’ve reenacted a couple of the important steps. Here I’ve placed a dry sugar bonnet back in the mold. If the sugar were freshly pressed, it would fit tightly in the mold and the lily nail would be a tight fit on top of sugar.

The top of the lily nail is removed. Note: if the sugar sticks too much to either piece of the lily nail, wipe them clean with a damp cloth, dry them and then brush on a little bit of cornstarch with a clean paint brush. The amount is so small that you can’t even see it but it makes a difference.

7 Sugar Bonnets

The lily nail set with a sugar bonnet pressed in between.

8 Sugar Bonnets

The top of the lily nail is removed to show the shaped sugar piece.

The hardest part of making these is tapping out the fragile, freshly pressed sugar bonnet on the wax-paper lined cookie sheet. The sugar usually sticks a little in the mold so I hold the lily nail right above the cookie sheet and tap on the handle of the nail with the spatula and the hat drops right out.

9 Sugar Bonnets

The bonnets can not be moved for at least 15 minutes. Then I’ll carefully slide the barely dried ones in neat rows to dry further as I make more. They must be dried overnight to be strong enough to be handled.

10 Sugar Bonnets

If the sugar breaks as it’s tapped out of the mold, I just push the broken pieces aside.

11 Sugar Bonnets

There will be broken pieces. Even with a very light dusting of corn starch, the sugar still sticks a little in the mold.

Some broken pieces are inevitable. They can be reused if you mix the sugar immediately back in with the damp sugar. If they are even the tiniest dry on the edges, they can not be reused.

Some broken pieces are inevitable. They can be reused if you mix the sugar immediately back in with the damp sugar. If they are even the tiniest dry on the edges, they can not be reused.

When the bonnets are dry, they are surprisingly sturdy. Once all the bonnets are drying, I make the sugar decorations.

Royal icing doesn’t melt in tea so the decorations are made like the bonnets, just sugar and water, perhaps colored with a little food coloring, then pressed into flower and leaf molds.

Sugar Bonnet decorations made of sugar, water and a little food coloring.

Sugar Bonnet decorations made of sugar, water and a little food coloring.

To make the decorating process more efficient, I line up all the decorations as they will be used on each sugar bonnet.
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The bonnet decorations are attached using a drop or two of “sugar paste” which is simply sugar and water mixed together. I crush a bit of the sugar grains up with the back of the spoon while stirring in the water. The consistency is thick, but not dry.

Sugar and water are mixed to make the gritty "sugar paste" to attach the sugar decorations.

Sugar and water are mixed to make the gritty “sugar paste” to attach the sugar decorations.

16 Sugar Bonnets

Small imperfections and cracks in the side of the hats aren’t a problem since decorations can be glued over the holes.

17 Sugar Bonnets

A small bit of sticky “sugar paste” covers a crack in the side.

Even a large hole can be covered using a decoration.
18 Sugar Bonnets
19 Sugar Bonnets
It’s so satisfying to see an entire cookie sheet covered with drying Sugar Bonnets.

The Sugar Bonnets are decorated and drying.

The Sugar Bonnets are decorated and drying.

The only sweetener better than a sugar cube is a Sugar Bonnet.

The birthday girl drops a little Sugar Bonnet in her cup of tea.

The birthday girl drops a little Sugar Bonnet in her cup of tea.

It quickly dissolved.

The Sugar Bonnet quickly and completely dissolves in the cup of hot tea.

The Sugar Bonnet quickly and completely dissolves in the cup of hot tea.

If you want less than one teaspoon of sugar in your tea, simply break a Sugar Bonnet into pieces.

Aren’t Sugar Bonnets sweet? Please let me know if you make them!

My granddaughter hold a little Sugar Bonnet before dropping it in her tea.

My granddaughter holds a little Sugar Bonnet before dropping it in her tea.

Meringue Breakfast Buns

31 Sunday Aug 2014

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So much has happened since I last posted. I’m sorry for the long delay. Please accept my apologies. Some bloggers have trouble coming up with topics to write about but my problem is I’ve got too much.

One thing I’ve been busy with is cooking and baking. I didn’t cook or bake much for almost three years so I’m thrilled to be back in the kitchen again!

My mom was visiting and I didn’t have anything special for breakfast except for day old buns and eggs. So I whipped up these Meringue Breakfast Buns. They were delicious and perfect for guests.

Meringue Breakfast Buns - an egg yolk in a bun topped with cheesy meringue, served with Balsamic Cucumber Raspberry relish and sour cream.

Meringue Breakfast Buns – an egg yolk in a bun topped with cheesy meringue, served with Balsamic Cucumber Raspberry relish and sour cream.

You can make any quantity you want, but I like to make a dozen at a time and refrigerate the leftovers to eat cold for lunch the next day. The cheese won’t be crisp anymore but they are still delicious. They’re great for breakfast on the run too.

MERINGUE BREAKFAST BUNS

Ingredients:

~ 12 small rolls, about the size of a small muffin or cupcake. This is a good time to use day-old rolls too.
~ 12 egg yolks
~ 3 or 4 egg whites (reserve the remaining egg whites for some other recipe)
~ 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
~ Olive oil (optional)
~ About 1 cup grated cheese, any kind
~ Salt and pepper
~ Dried or fresh herbs of your choice
~ Herb dipping oil (optional)

Start by preparing the rolls. This can be done the night before if you want to save time in the morning. Use a small paring knife to cut a piece out of the bottom of the rolls or buns. The portion I cut out looks like a shallow little cone. You don’t need to cut much out, just enough for an egg yolk with a little cheese. Place the rolls cut side up in a muffin tin. Brush the inside with olive oil if you want. I’ve used olive oil or softened butter or nothing and they’re all good.

Slip one egg yolk in each bun.

Sprinkle the egg yolk with a little grated cheese and herbs of your choice.

Sprinkle the egg yolk with a little grated cheese and herbs of your choice.

To make a dozen Meringue Breakfast Buns, you’ll need a dozen egg yolks but only 3 or 4 egg whites. [Note: Save the rest of the egg whites for another recipe or cook them in a skillet to make Roulades, shown further down this post.]
Beat 3 or 4 egg whites with 1/8 tsp cream of tartar until fluffy. The meringue won’t look the same or peak the same as a dessert meringue that has added sugar. Don’t worry, it will still bake nicely on top of the buns.

Sprinkle grated cheese on top of the meringues.

Sprinkle grated cheese on top of the meringues.

Sprinkle a little grated cheese on top of each egg yolk. Add a little sprinkle of herbs over each yolk.

Use a spoon to spread meringue over each egg yolk. Cover the top completely.

Sprinkle more cheese and salt and pepper over the top of each meringue.

Sprinkle grated cheese on top of the meringues.

Sprinkle grated cheese on top of the meringues.

Here you can see I left some meringues without cheese.
4 Meringue Breakfast Buns
5 Meringue Breakfast Buns
Cheddar cheese is great but I’m partial to asiago.

Grated asiago and dried herbs sprinkled over the egg yolk in the bun.

Grated asiago and dried herbs sprinkled over the egg yolk in the bun.

7 Meringue Breakfast Buns

Look at all that fluffy meringue!

Look at all that fluffy meringue!

Brush the leftover cutouts from the rolls with herb dipping oil and place them on a cookie sheet to bake at the same time as the Meringue Buns.

The little cutouts from the rolls are brushed with herb dipping oil and baked in on a separate pan.

The little cutouts from the rolls are brushed with herb dipping oil and baked in on a separate pan.

When picking buns to use, make sure they are small enough to be placed in the muffin tin. For this batch, the buns were bigger so they touched and barely fit in the pan.
10 Meringue Breakfast Buns
If the buns are a tight squeeze, try not to let the meringues touch when you spread the tops.

Try not to let the meringues touch so they can be separated easy after baking.

Try not to let the meringues touch so they can be separated easy after baking.

Both Meringue topped buns and the small roll cutouts are baked at the same time at 375 degrees. The cutouts will be done after about 10 minutes but the buns stay in longer. (In this photo, I baked the cutouts and slices of leftover buns to make croutons for a future use.)
All ovens are different. In my oven, a LIQUID center egg yolk takes 15 minutes, a SOFT BOILED egg yolk takes 16 minutes, and a HARD BOILED egg yolk takes 17 minutes. If you’re going to eat these cold the next day, bake 16 or 17 minutes.

Bake brushed roll pieces for 10 minutes at 375. Bake Meringue Buns for 15 minutes for a liquid center yolk, 16 minutes for a soft-boiled yolk and 17 minutes for a hard-boiled yolk.

Bake brushed roll pieces for 10 minutes at 375. Bake Meringue Buns for 15 minutes for a liquid center yolk, 16 minutes for a soft-boiled yolk and 17 minutes for a hard-boiled yolk.

The cheesy topping on these is amazing! It forms a delicious crispy shell on top of the meringue!
13 Meringue Breakfast Buns
14 Meringue Breakfast Buns
15 Meringue Breakfast Buns

Fun to eat and Yummy!

Fun to eat and Yummy!

17 Meringue Breakfast Buns

Egg White Roulade
I spread the leftover, fluffy beaten egg whites in a medium hot skillet, lightly greased with olive oil, about 1″ thick and sprinkled herbs and pepper over the surface. When the bottom was golden, I flipped the egg white over till it was golden brown. The hot baked egg white was sprinkled with cheese and rolled up.

The cooked egg white rolled up.

The cooked egg white rolled up.

19 Meringue Breakfast Buns

20 Meringue Breakfast Buns

Meringue Breakfast Buns, with crisp cheese-topped meringue and hot, liquid egg yolk inside.

To make the Cucumber Raspberry Relish, I simply diced a cucumber with raspberries and tossed the mixture with balsamic vinegar, boiled apple cider and a little salt and pepper. It was so good with the eggs!

Meringue Breakfast Buns, hot from the oven, served with Cucumber Raspberry Relish and Sour Cream.

Meringue Breakfast Buns, hot from the oven, served with Cucumber Raspberry Relish and Sour Cream.

Sourdough Breadstick Cobras

19 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by in baking, food, recipe, tutorial

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We were scraping the bottom of the barrel for supper tonight. Things went from bad to worse when he forgot to put the yeast in the bread dough. He forgot to add the honey too and I forgot to check the dough, so much later we found the forlorn little lump in the bottom of the bread machine bowl. I was going to throw it out but decided to try breadsticks and called him out to help.

“What are we doing?” he called from the other room.

“Making bread sticks,” I called back. “Help me roll all these snakes.”

And so he did. I watched as he coiled up his snake like a … snake.

So then I figured we might as well make a bunch of snakes, cobras, actually, with little flat heads and perky tails. They were delicious and adorable!

The recipe is my Sourdough Grain Bread recipe, found here, but WITHOUT adding yeast or honey and using the starter cold, straight from the refrigerator unfed.
These chewy breadsticks need a tiny little rise so it’s essential to use a good sourdough starter in the recipe.

SOURDOUGH BREADSTICK COBRAS

Prepare a shallow muffin tin by greasing the muffin cups. Place a tart tin upside down as shown next to each muffin cup. Roll a small piece of tin foil into a ball and place in each muffin cup.
Roll a piece of sourdough bread dough, about the size of a small egg, 16″ long, with a little taper at one end for the tail.
Sourdough Breadstick Cobras-2

Lift the long piece of dough and place the tail over the muffin cup edge. Slowly lower the long piece of dough into the muffin cup, around the foil ball twice and then back up out of the muffin cup, draping the end over the tart tin. Pinch the end flat to form the cobra head. Ours puffed up more than I thought in the oven so next time I will flatten them even more.

The sourdough "snakes" are formed into snakes and positioned over a foil ball and tart tin.

The sourdough “snakes” are formed into snakes and positioned over a foil ball and tart tin.

Beat one egg white and use a small brush to brush the cobras. Sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. (NOTE: Ours seemed barely underdone so next time I will quickly remove the foil balls and pop them back in the oven for another minute.)

Bake at 375 for 15 or so minutes.

Bake at 375 for 15 or so minutes.

Remove from oven and remove from the muffin cups. Pull out the foil balls. Ours didn’t stick, even though they weren’t greased.
Sourdough Breadstick Cobras-4
Sourdough Breadstick Cobras-5
Aren’t they adorable?
Sourdough Breadstick Cobras-6
Sourdough Breadstick Cobras-7
Who could complain about a sorry-lettuce salad, canned beans and fried egg yolk supper when there were Sourdough Breadstick Cobras?

Salad with beans and Fried Egg Yolk and a Sourdough Breadstick Cobra

Salad with beans and Fried Egg Yolk and a Sourdough Breadstick Cobra

Perfect for a warm summer evening. So what started as a recipe fail ended up as an Oh my goodness “play with your food” meal!