One of the more typical Chinese products is a toothpast brand called Darlie, which is one of the top -selling brands in the country.  Before the company was sold to Colgate-Palmolive in 1985, in English the brand was called Darkie and featured a somewhat racist and stereotypcial picture of a wide-eyed, smiling black man in a top hat that was supposed to have been inspired by an Al Jolson performance.  Colgate wisely decided to change the name in English-speaking markets to "Darlie" and come up with a less steretypical image for the package, but in China the brand is still called "heiren yagao" (黑人牙膏), which means black people toothpaste in Chinese.  Heiren (黑人) or black people does not have a negative connotation in China, but instead is used to refer to people of African descent.  It's slightly jarring to walk through the health & beauty section to be greeted by a large display of Darlie toothpaste with this image of a black man in a top hot smiling at you, something that would never fly in the States. 

But my favorite section of the Carrefour is the bakery with signs advertising all of the store's freshly baked bread products, including the Russia Bread full of 100% Russian smack goodness and Big Nutlet Bread with lots of tasty nutlets.

I also found yesterday an old piece of art work that I did in my last year at high school and had a wee chuckle to myself! They say that when you do something like this that there is meant to be a likeness to the creator!! I'm not sure about this!

1 cup green onions |||| 1 3/4 cups yellow cornmeal |||| 1 1/4 cups flour |||| 1/4 cup sugar |||| 1 tablespoon + 6 tablespoons butter |||| 1 tablespoon baking powder |||| 1 1/2 teaspoons salt ||||1/2 teaspoon baking soda |||| 1 1/2 cups buttermilk |||| 3 large eggs |||| 1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese |||| 1 cup whole corn kernels |||| 1/2 cup roasted red peppers from a jar, chopped  |||| 2 tablespoons jalapenos, seaded and chopped

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet and saute green onions until browned.

2. Mix the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. Whisk buttermilk and eggs in a seperate bowl. Mix the milk mixture into the cornmeal mixture. Add 6 tablespoons melted butter, cheese, green onions, corn, red pepper, and jalapenos.

3. Pour batter into a greased 6x6 glass casserole dish. Bake cornbread about 1 hour and 15 minutes until bread is golden brown.

COST

I had the flour,  sugar, butter, baking powder, salt, baking soda and eggs in the pantry.

$0.99 - 1 bunch green onions

$1.69 - 1 jar of yellow cornmeal

$4.69 - 1 chunk of sharp cheddar cheese (but I only used half of the chunk)

$1.42 - 1 bag of frozen whole corn kernels

$3.99 - 1 jar of roasted red peppers (but I only used about 1/3 of the jar)

$0.19 - 1 jalapeno

________

$12.97 TOTAL

$12.97/10 servings = $1.30 per serving

Click here for more

This cornbread was perfect along side a whole rotisserie chicken from Wegmans. Corn, jalapeno, and red pepper make the bread is so chunky and the sharp cheddar gives the dough an extra kick.

I used a 6x6 glass dish but I think a 13x9 casserole dish might work better. The cornbread gets very crispy around the edges in the 6x6 dish because it takes a long time to cook the bread in the middle. Using a 13x9 dish would decrease the cooking time and the edges wouldn't get as brown. But if crispy is what you are after, use the 6x6.

Next time, I might add a little paprika to the batter to add some more spicy flavor and color.  A little bit of green pepper and shallots could be pretty good too.

In his landmark book The Denial of death, author and anthropologist Ernest Becker argues that aall of our anxieties and fears are rooted in our dread of death. Although Becker was not a Christ-follower, his scholarly study could serve as a commentary on Hebrews 2, which tells us that in our natural state we are subject to the fear of death throughout life(v.15).

We all know something about fear. And certainly the men and women we meet in the Bible were subject to fear, ranging from a mere tremor of anxiety all the way to terrifying panic, even in the face of death. Our Lord has experienced death and conquered it!

The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus " was made a little lower than the angels,...that  He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone"(2:9). Through His death Christ has defeated "him who had the power of death, that is, the devil," granting us our "release" from the "fear of death"(vv.14-15).

Are you victimized by your fears? Recall the wonderful dread-dispelling promise of Scripture: "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand"(Isa 41:10).---Vernon Grounds.

When I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast; When the tempter would prevail, He will hold me fast---Habershon.

Saturday was pretty boring for me food wise, I had the usual breakfast minus the oatmeal. I really didn't feel good, meaning I had little appetite. I spent some time with J before he left to go work on his car. We were watching "Ask Aida" where she was making lasagna, which prompted J to ask for that for dinner.  When he left I had to some peanut butter and jelly toast for lunch and got down to studying.  This creation was prompted by the Food Network. Thankfully, I had everything on hand because all the ingredients happened to be on sale this week. Plus I had planned to make it later this week. My stuffed shells are somewhat similar to my lasagna but the filling is slightly different. I used 4 oz of low fat ricotta (fat free is kinda gross, in my opinion) with a box of frozen chopped spinach and half a pound of ground turkey. Add a little parm and some italian seasonings and it's set. This was enough to stuff 20 shells, most of them were slightly overflowing too. Added homemade tomato sauce and topped it with half a ball of fresh mozzarella and some parm, baked it for 45 minutes and then but it under the broiler for a minute or two because I like the cheese crunchy. I had four shells plus a leftover roll from Thursday. It was really good and filling, it held me over when we went to our friend's house to have a bonfire, which we ended up staying out until 2:30! Yikes!

I slept in Sunday, and woke up feeling even worse, hmm I wonder why? Oh well. Still had little appetite, I didn't even want coffee this morning, that's rare for me.  I knew I had to study some more (dang, global economy history class!) but I just didn't want to be a bum and study all day. I knew that I had two bananas that were on their way out (I really don't like them when they get too ripe), so banana bread muffins were added to the agenda. These are good, they are/were? an Ina Garten recipe that someone had scaled down, and I made some changes, as her recipes are not the most diet friendly. More banana was added, oats for the granola, applesauce for half of the butter, less sugar... all that fun stuff. These are really good. I think I had two of them today, plus I had two small slices of leftover pizza. I read a lot while they baked. I promise I will post the recipe too!

Sunday is also a day when I usually make a decent sized dinner, mainly for the leftovers for Monday since I work both of my jobs that day, plus I have the time to make something a little more time intentsive.  I had bought a whole chicken a couple weeks ago and froze it with the intention of making it when the weather was colder. Well the weather wasn't colder but it was defrosted so off it went. Rubbed it down with a grilling mix, some lemon juice and some honey, stuffed it with the lemon and baked it for an hour at 400. It turned out perfect. I threw some potatoes in to bake (sweet potatoes looked horrible this week!), some frozen veggies and some gravy mix and it's was actually a pretty easy dinner. I had a little bit of chicken, half a potato with gravy and seasoned salt and some veggies. It was good, and good for me to eat since I still wasn't feeling great. Plus now I have stuff for lunch tomorrow. Yay!

After dinner I headed off to Starbucks for a little bit, and had a nonfat hot chocolate. I stayed for about an hour and headed home so I could blog and go to bed. I hope all of you had good weekends! I'm sad tomorrow is Monday.

One more thing... I added a recipe page, which I will be adding more stuff to soon... It makes it easier to look at that, I think than to search through posts!

]]> http://laurasrecipecollection.wordpress.com/?p=109 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:01:05 +0000 hulalula http://laurasrecipecollection.pl.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/corn-bread/ I absolutely love corn bread, but I haven't had it in years. The last time I had it was, I'm certain, the Jiffy corn bread mix. That hardly counts! :)

So when I was looking for a nice side dish or two for dinner tonight I thought of this. It paired quite nicely.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. stone-ground yellow cornmeal
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. brown sugar, packed
3/4 c. corn
1 c. buttermilk
2 large eggs
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Directions:

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Spray 8-inch-square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl until combined; set aside.
In food processor or blender, process brown sugar, corn kernels, and buttermilk until combined, about 5 seconds.
Add eggs and process until well combined (corn lumps will remain), about 5 seconds longer.
Using rubber spatula, make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
Pour wet ingredients into well.
Begin folding dry ingredients into wet, giving mixture only a few turns to barely combine.
Add melted butter and continue folding until dry ingredients are just moistened.
Pour batter into prepared baking dish; smooth surface with rubber spatula.
Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes.
Cool on wire rack rack 10 minutes.
Best served warm; leftovers can be wrapped in foil and reheated in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes

Source: Good Things Catered

I'll always remember the first morning when I arose to discover the result of my first, Mark Bittman, slow-rise, no-knead, dough as it finished the last of its 12 hours sitting on my kitchen counter - I had before that time, never witnessed the heady perfume of a long dough fermentation, and it was, as they say, one of my foodie epiphanies.  If you are not yet aware of the home baked artisan style bread made famous by Bittman and Jim Lahey, of the Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC, here's the original 2006, NY Times article that spurred a minor revolution in the world's bread baking world.  If you've never tried this bread, I encourage you to do so - and I'll bet you'll add it to those other essential family recipes in your collection.

Please allow me to quickly relate what it is about this process which makes it an instant classic.  BTW, this process is not new with Lahey and Bittman, they simply improved on a method of baking that is thousands of years old.  First, the long rise removes the need for kneading the dough - a wonderful improvement.  The long rise also develops flavor as the slow process of fermentation occurs in the dough.  Thirdly, the bread is baked within a pot which has been heated to the same high temperature as the oven itself, thereby creating a fantastic chewy but crisp crust which often is the difference between homemade and bakery breads.  Fourth, it calls for a very wet dough, which if you were kneading the dough, would be impossible to work with, but which creates the big holes so often missing in home baked bread.  To sum it all up, this process reduces the labor effort and increases both the flavor and quality of the finished loaf.

While I'm more than pleased each time I bake this loaf, I have baked it so often since that first loaf that it's hard not to recognize ways in which improvements can be added.  And I'd like to share those potential improvements with you here.  Certainly, one of the obvious weak points of the original process is that when the time comes to add the risen loaf to the heated pot, it is simply "plopped" into the pot!  Just when you want to protect as much of the dough rise as possible, you are forced to use a procedure that sacrifices the risen dough to avoiding getting burned.  Now admittedly, the super-hot pot plays magic with the rudely violated dough, and you are always amazed at how much "oven spring" occurs in the first five minutes in the pot!  Still, there's little doubt that the more rise goes in, the more comes out.  My improvement?  I simply use a piece of baker's parchment under the last rise of the loaf, and grab it by the edges to lower it into the pot - result: gentle entry  = less loss of rise by the loaf.

Now, there's more to this simple improvement than meets the eye.  If you lower the upright loaf into the hot pot, that means you can also score the top before doing so.  This is no small thing, since with the original process, you must turn the loaf over as you plop it in, which means the bottom becomes the top, and the bottom is often less attractive than is the well rounded and tightened top.  But even more significant is that without a score on its top, the loaf is left to create its own pressure split, which unfortunately often occurs on the side of the loaf than on its top, where it would look more attractive.  OK, I hear some cynic saying, "Well, what's so hard about just turning the loaf over and scoring it as you lift it into the pan?" - to which I respond, "And that will take even more of your precious rise away".  The less you handle your risen loaf, the more of that rise you protect.

What about the other improvements?  Well, an easy addition that will give you even more flavor development during the fermentation period is to add some sourdough starter to your yeasted dough during the initial mixing.  But this addition will give you an added plus, it increases the stability of the rise.  When you use yeast as a leavening agent, the more yeast you use, the more stable is your rise.  But we're using an incredibly small amount of yeast in this loaf.  By adding a second leavening, the stability of the rise is increased over the use of only one.  Not only that, but the rise times of each is just about equal, which is exactly what you want.  This means that when you are ready to bake, your loaf will not be so delicate that a mere touch will cause it to deflate - that's why you can safely score it without fear.

There is still one more advantage to the use of both yeast and sourdough - following the long, slow, fermentation period of the Bittman/Lahey process, you quickly form your loaf, and let it rise for only two hours.  But you'd have even more flavor development if you could allow it to rise even further.  And the use of the sourdough will allow a continued second rise/fermentation of 4-6 hours with no fear of over-proofing.  How much sourdough starter to use?  I use 1 cup of starter for each loaf I'm making - is this a perfect ratio?  I'll know better with another 10/20 loaves made.

• 12 oz self-rising flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 c cold butter
• 1 c (approx.) buttermilk

Heat oven to 450 degrees C. Mix all the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients (I use my hands, though I always suspect that there's a better way). Mix in 1/2 c buttermilk. Add more buttermilk until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

The moral was simple: buttermilk matters. These biscuits were much better than the non-buttermilk ones I last made. I haven't tested to see if buttermilk powder is as good, though I recall Cook's Illustrated claiming that it was even better. Also, in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Bittman says that yogurt biscuits are even better. I'll have to try that...

Hello everyone, 

I have decided to start a food blog where I blog about the foods that I create. Noticing the title, normally I will be baking things that are sweet because I have the biggest sweet tooth ever but occasionally there will be non-sweet things. However today I decided to create banana bread from a recipe from hungry-girl.com

Normally I'd make my chocolate banana muffins that I have perfected but I thought I'd be healthy today. Here's the recipe and the changes I made to it.

Banana Bread

Ingredients: 
1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour (I didn't have any whole-wheat flour so I just used 1 1/2 all purpose flour)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour 
3/4 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated) (i 
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas) 
1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters) 
1/2 cup no-sugar-added applesauce 
2 tsp. baking powder 
1 tsp. vanilla extract 
1/2 tsp. cinnamon 
1/2 tsp. salt 
Optional Toppings: no-calorie spray butter, Cool Whip Free

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine both types of flour, Splenda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon (in other words, all dry ingredients). In a separate bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, egg substitute, applesauce, and vanilla extract (all the wet ingredients). Add this mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir until just blended. Spoon batter into a large loaf pan (about 9" X 5") sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly, and then cut into 8 slices. If you like, spritz with some spray butter or spread on some Cool Whip Free. MAKES 8 SERVINGS

Rating: B

It was ok, not as good as my normal banana chocolate chip muffins. I think this was because this was a "healthy" recipe and also I tried to use up all our overripped bananas so I may have put more than needed for in this recipe. But hey that's what you get when you go healthy! :)

Combine all ingredients. Grease a pan and add all ingredients. Bake at 350-degrees for 1 hour. Serve as a wonderful breakfast casserole. Serves 6-8

bread

yesterday there was to be a dinner party. Chris and I decided to bring baked goods (as well as some wine)... two loaves of zucchini bread, a loaf of bear bread, and sweet potato biscuits. The biscuits were an experiment, a new un-tested recipe from Beth Hensperger's "The Bread Bible". The turned out delicious. We made tons, two and a half times the recipe, scaled to match how much potato we ended up with. The problem is, the dinner never happened. So now we have a lot of baked goods. A delicious delicious problem.

Reason why fail is due to : -

1. Never read instruction carefully

2. Too cold milk that cause the yeast may not activate. If too hot, it will kill the yeast.

I'm not afraid of losing you or saying good-bye
If someone needs you more than me, I will understand why
I'd never stand between someone who's holding your heart
But I can't let a superstition tear us apart
Who has the right to speak fire from above
If heaven is away from you, that is the place I will give up
For falling in love can't be taking these lips from the cup

Don't fill her mind with bread and blood
Don't confuse strength with pride and mud
I have a faith in love that's thicker than all bread and blood

I'm not afraid to face the truth of what I believe
If love was never meant to choose, it could never succeed
And we may always stand alone in everyone's sight
And be the judge unto ourselves between wrong and right
Who puts a price on eternity's sin
Who throws the first stone shall search for perfection again
For you are the reason that pleasure was taken from the pain

Don't fill her mind with bread and blood
Don't confuse strength with pride and mud
I have a faith in love that's thicker than all bread and blood

I won't see you cry, should it make you cry

Don't fill her mind with bread and blood
Don't confuse strength with pride and mud
I have a faith in love that's thicker than all bread and blood

Don't fill her mind with bread and blood
Don't confuse strength with pride and mud
I have a faith in love that's thicker than all bread and blood

First up was to use the last of the organic pears we had laying in the kitchen, a day away from being rotten. I made Pear-Walnut Quick Bread, based on the lower-fat banana bread recipe from Veganomicon.

Then I got to work on making some sandwich bread for toast for the week. One loaf to eat, one loaf to freeze.

Following the bread was the project I was looking forward to the most. Pumpkin Scones with Cinnamon Glaze. So good. I had a pumpkin scone from Starbucks two weeks ago and ever since I've been wanting another one. These were much smaller, and then turned out more cakey than other scones I've made, I guess from all the pumpkin. A perfect fall treat.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 3 tablespoons cream (i used silk creamer)
• 1 egg

Mix all the flour, baking powder, sugar and spices together in a large bowl. Add in diced butter and mix with a fork until crumbly. Whisk pumpkin, egg and cream together and add to dough. When dough comes together, form into a ball on flat surface and flatten into 1 inch thick rectangle or circle. You can cut the dough into triangles, or use a cutter to make circles. Bake at 425 for ~15 minutes depending on size of scones. (This makes 12 scones, 2.5 inches in diameter).  Whisk together 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon milk and drizzle over cooled scones. Enjoy!

The final project for today's bake-athon was of course Bagels! I made some sun-dried tomato for myself and some everything for Brent.

Here is the world's ugliest bagel, according to Brent:

Today was great! I've been looking forward to baking all week, and now we have treats for all this week, as well as a pretty well stocked freezer.

On a side note, we went to the grocery store and because we're trying to be mindful of how much we waste and we're trying to cut down on non-fixed expenses, we planned everything meal out before going, used a few coupons, and managed to spend less than $45 at the store for groceries for the whole week. This was a big accomplishment for me, because I love the grocery store and every time I go I see tons of new things I want to try.

]]> http://fatbunny.wordpress.com/?p=339 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:36:26 +0000 Ag http://fatbunny.pl.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/banana-bread-again/

I have a surplus of bananas that came out of nowhere. I just came home one day and there was a whole bunch of bananas. So I made banana bread because I really had no other choice.

Banana Bread
Adapted from Joy of Baking

1 cup chopped pecans
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3 ripe large bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Whisk together nuts, flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In another bowl, mash the bananas, add the eggs, yogurt, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and fold together until just combined.

Pour the batter into a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes.

Upon coming home, I enjoyed a cup of green tea infused with jasmine, by Lipton.

This was my first time trying it, and I found it a little sweet. I forgot to bring my stash of green tea upon coming home for the holidays, since no one in my family likes to drink green tea, but this infused one should be sufficient for the next few days - I wouldn't say I'm that picky!

Anyhow, my mom was planning on going to the public library to find a few books on knitting, so I thought I would tag along since I like borrowing magazines from the library. As we were about to leave, I suggested that we ride our bikes instead. And after a few minutes of talking her into it (she was reluctant as first) she finally gave in! So, before we headed out the door, I had a quick mini banana.

Isn't it adorable? I am not a big fan of bananas, so these are just the perfect size. I actually have never seen them in grocery stores before, so this was something that I found exciting to come across! And as you can tell, I am easily amused. Either way, in no time, we were out the door and on the trails to the library!

The bike ride to the public library was only around fifteen minutes, as most of the hills we were going through were to our advantage, as they were downhill. So, it took us just about thirty minutes to get back home from the library on our bikes, since we had to use way more effort to get up those steep hills! And I must say, I am noticing improvements! I only had to get off my bike and walk up very steep hills in less than a handful of times, and I was usually already more than half way to the top of the hill to! Overall, the bike ride was great, and I had such a fun time with my mom! She was glad that I ended up talking her into riding our bikes to the library, because even though she was exhausted when she came home, she knew it was so worth while! Now, I wonder if I can get my dad to bike with me one day!

Once we arrived home, I had half of a Think Protein Brownie Crunch protein bar and a few delicious handfuls of mixed nuts.

Afterwards, we decided to make a trip to the grocery store and upon coming back, I ended up having many - oh so many chicken wings and a few dinner rolls. I must say, I definitely need to reread Brian Wansink's book on Mindless Eating again! And later on, I had a some Pocky chocolate sticks.

I had some mindless nibbles here and there, which I should have taking note of. But today was such a busy day! For supper, I had a big bowl of my mom's homemade Chinese soup, and two bowls of supper, which was comprised of an array of turkey meat, tofu, beans, broccoli and all sorts of stir fry ingredients all on a bed of white rice. It was just too good that I had to have two servings! Yum yum!

And to finish off, I had some chocolate later in the evening, and since I noticed that I didn't really get much fruit servings in, I had a huge nectarine.

Overall, today was filled with some mindless nibbles here and there, and I think it was because I was just so busy. Although tomorrow will be a long day as well, I really hope my throat clears up, because I really don't want to be sick, especially since midterms are in a week's time.

Well, I better be off! I should try to read some Finance notes before calling it a night!

Trim, split, core and chop the fennel bulb.

Saute the sausage with garlic, onions and fennel. I've added smoked paprika and red chili flakes for color and kick.

When the sausage is done, turn off the heat and set aside.

Prepare the quiche-like filling by mixing milk, eggs, salt & pepper and dried herbs.

Line a buttered dish with rounds of stale bread.

Add the cooked sausage.

Add the tomatoes and chopped fennel feathers.

Add the cheese.

Some more bread.

Milk/egg mixture and dried basil.

More cheese and fennel. Decorate with the tomato ends if desired.

Bake at 350 degrees until eggs are set and top is crisp and brown.

Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

the sous-chef...my daughter,

What ever happened to the notion of giving for the sake of giving? asked Tim Harford, columnist for Financial Times. "The closer you look at charitable giving, the less charitable it appears to be." A study of door-to-door fund-raising campaigns, for instance, found that organizations earned far more by selling lotter tickets than by asking for donations.

"This hardly suggets a world populated by altruists seeking to do the maximum good with their charitable cash," says hardford. At least for some people there's a something-for-me/something-for-you approach to giving.

Jesus also dealt with the issue of motives in giving. When He said not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, He was teaching that our motives for giving to God and to others must be pure. Our giving should be in response to God's love. To encourage pure motives, Jesus instructed people to give and to do good deeds in secret with no thought of themselves. God, who see everything, would reward them(Matt. 6:3-4).

Our generosity should be God-centered-not to makes us look good, but to please the Lord. With your next good deed, ask yourself:I knew that no one would ever find out that I did this, would I still do it?--Marvin williams

Grant us, then, the grace for giving With a spirit large and free, That our life and all our living We may  consecrate to Thee..--Murray.

Small butter pastries

• 590g flour
• 330g milk (or a little less)
• 2 eggs
• 50g sugar
• 15 fresh yeast
• 10g salt

Make a firm but supple sweet cake dough and chill overnight. 330g of milk (original Bloch recipe) was a bit much in my case.

And:

• 275g butter, chilled
• 160g currants

Take the dough and the butter out of the fridge and, depending on how cold, let rest for 10 minutes at room temperature. Roll out the dough to a large rectangle, about 1cm in thickness. Put the butter on 2/3 of the rectangle, sprinkle the currants over the butter. Fold the unbuttered 1/3 onto the buttered center, then fold over the remaining buttered 1/3. Roll out to the same thickness again. Don't be tempted to roll it out thinner than that, it will make a tough and eventually dense dough. Chill for at least an hour and repeat the folding step one more time. Chill, roll out to a thickness of 5mm. Cut into desired pieces. I put two triangles on top of each other. Prove, glaze with eggwash, bake at about 190°C. Brush with a clear sugar glaze (equal parts of water and sugar brought to the boil once) after they come out of the oven.

Work was fine today - especially for the Friday of a long weekend! We all went out for sushi - it was nice to get out of the office for lunch for the first time in weeks (maybe months). The afternoon went by really quickly and I was home around 5. 

Graham and I were going to go for a run, but he was a little depressed after a hard and irritating day at work, so we went for a walk instead. There's a path near our house that borders a river, so we went out for about 50 minutes. Should have brought my camera!

Once home, we went over to the grocery store. I've been busy making chili, muffins and pear & cranberry crisp. I will tell you why later. This was dinner...

But we ate it here...

while watching Amazing Race!

Up for the weekend: going up north! That's why I'm cooking and baking - so we can bring good food with us! Graham and I are going to his parents' sailboat tomorrow morning. We'll be there til Sunday, then will go to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. Monday is lunch at his parents'.

So, that means that I will post breakfast tomorrow, but then you probably won't see me til Sunday night or even Monday. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I will be sure to take lots of picture, so I will come back with a full report of my meals and adventures.

Happy weekend!!