mmMMMmMmmMMm
Maybe less apples and more crumblies next time though.
How I did it: Baking more often is very easy -- especially with the tasty benefits you receive from it. Even just baking boxed cake mix is very fun... in fact, you can make cookies from cake mix. One of my favorites uses chocolate cake mix and m&ms.... Here's the recipe.1 box chocolate cake mix (Devil's Food or Milk Chocolate)1/2 large bag m&ms2 eggs1/2 cup oilPreheat your oven to 350F. In a bowl, combine chocolate cake mix, eggs, and oil. Use … Read how I did it…
How I did it: I looked at a lot of pictures of cupcakes to psych myself up. I also thought about how much I'd like to share them with my friends. I think that baking is one of those girly things that are so much fun and that I would like to do more of. I think how people who always show up with really great baked goods have a lot of friends Read how I did it…
butterflychaser is slept and sunny
How I did it: I used recipes and I made the same recipe more than once, because like anything, practice makes it better, and you can refine recipes to suit your own taste. Read how I did it…
germander thinks it may be time to reinvent herself
As luck would have it, my sister brought us garden-fresh vegetables this weekend, a gift from her new boyfriend and his family garden. Among the sundry variety of tomatoes were three beautiful yellow squash and a gigantic zucchini. Now we have all those tomatoes and a really beautiful zucchini souffle with mashed squash and cheddar. The whole house smells so good!
This recipe is very similar to the squash bake I learned two weeks ago, but the major difference is this one called for flour and baking powder – here’s hoping the batter turned out alright. Off to find out…

germander thinks it may be time to reinvent herself
I remember being moderately scornful of the whole idea of home economics class in high school, probably as some sort of alliance-seeking with my woolhat dad, and boy has life shown me up in this regard, over and over again.
Home economics is HARD WORK! I’m not even trying to run a household – I’m working on just me stuff – and it’s hard. This weekend, I found myself attempting to create a month-long menu, 28 days of recipes I already know (or things that won’t be difficult to pick up) so I could have a food budget, make far fewer trips to the grocery store, and minimize the amount of unhappy surprises inherent in feeding yourself. An added bonus to trying this out is I can figure out a way to keep from being bored by eating the same foods day in and day out.
I’d give myself about a C for “nice try, but keep working on this” because it was worth doing but it isn’t a presentable menu, by any means. The simple fact is, I’m one of those people who is always going to spend more money than absolutely necessary on food, and I don’t mean by eating out, either. I just like to splurge on food.
The most exciting part of this exercise was when I realized I wanted to learn how to bake more casserole dishes. The squash bake I recently discovered was so good, and I would like to have more of these recipes among my options.
germander thinks it may be time to reinvent herself
I would like to have a fairly decent menu of meals worked up so I can cook for myself without too much fuss on a consistent, economical basis. Some of those meals will require baking. Ah, that feels good – having a clear reason for wanting to bake more often will probably help me achieve this goal more quickly. It has the added benefit of helping me figure out when such a thing can be accomplished.
On deck: some kind of fish. That shouldn’t be too hard, and it’s great brain food. Maybe I could try a marinade? Maybe just lemon butter – simple, good.
Some of my mango bread. It was nice-looking. I don’t think it tasted quite as good after a few days had passed, but I guess I’ll keep trying. And I think I’ll mark this goal as “done” after I’ve baked 5 things. I also baked cookies, but I didn’t like the way they tasted.
Grrr.
germander thinks it may be time to reinvent herself
This sort of knowledge is really important to me – knowing that I can feed myself economically, with satisfaction, day in and day out can help me get on with the business of living.
I’ve got a recipe box and am working up a repertoire of repeat recipes. I may only try a new recipe every few weeks, but this will build on itself as I continue. My latest: squash supreme. Yum!
http://bakingwiththeboys.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/twd-my-fresh-mango-bread-well-my-pick-anyway/
It was incredible right out of the oven, the bread had risen perfectly and it was really pretty. It looked better than most of the pictures, if I do say so myself.
Too bad I ate it before I could take any pictures.
Emma_Marie is growing flowers.
I made this cake for Mother’s Day on Sunday. It’s a pineapple sponge, topped with pineapple butter cream and dessicated coconut.
I love love love baking! I have tons of recipes and stuff… and I always enjoy secretly snitching some of the batter before it goes in the oven. I started to bake often and I gained ten pounds! whoops! So for lent this year I gave up baking sweets.
)=
I still love to bake though =)