The Art of Fine Baking

I just discovered a wonderful book on baking just about anything you can think of at home. The author really breaks down the procedures for each recipe into easy to understand steps. I'm a pretty good baker but her directions and explanations have me wanting to try some recipes I have usually avoided as to technical and difficult for the outcome. I noticed that there are a lot of good, used copies available so if you are interested, it is called The Art of Fine Baking by Paula Peck. I feel like I've just discovered a treasure. Uh, glad I found it at the end of Lent or my Lent would have been even more sacrificial!

Sewing? What sewing?

Yes, with children coming home from college and Holy Week, etc., my quilting time hasn't happened this week. I've learned to not become frustrated because God knows how my time should be filled and I'm getting used to rolling with the order of the day as it happens. I do walk past my sewing table and finger the unfinished quilt pieces and think about how they will really look once they are put together and I can see how my imagination has come into physical being.

My bolt of quilt batting, the stuff that fills a quilt, arrived. I like it when the fabric store offers 50% off coupons and I immediately go for 40 yards of the stuff at this drastic reduction. Few stores make much of a profit off my money, that's for sure!

I have two quilts in the piecing and sewing stage right now. One is a very, very scrappy quilt. I'm trying to reduce my collection of scraps drastically and this one surely incorporates a lot of them. It's almost like a 'free' quilt as no lengths of new fabric were harmed in the making of this quilt! The other one is partially a scrap quilt and rather subdued which is a departure from my usual choice of colors.

Over my quilting years, I've found that people seem to go for the scrap quilts more than my carefully orchestrated ones. I think they like the homey feel of an old-fashioned quilt. I made an elaborate scrap quilt a few years ago using leftovers for both the top and back of the quilt. I left it on the sofa and before I knew it, my younger son had laid claim to it and we can often find him settling under it to watch television or read a book. I didn't have to worry about finding that quilt a home!

The word and warning is out there . . .

Two thoughts from the Holy Father's Holy Thursday sermon that I found very pertinent to our world today. God sure sends out the 'wake up' notices yet how few heed them!

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The Holy Father alluded to the countries of the West, saying that Jesus "knows all about empty places at table, invitations refused, lack of interest in him and his closeness."

"For us," he said, "the empty places at the table of the Lord’s wedding feast, whether excusable or not, are no longer a parable but a reality, in those very countries to which he had revealed his closeness in a special way."

A smile for today, especially the third quote!

"Channeling is just bad ventriloquism. You use another voice, but people can see your lips moving."
-- Penn Jillette

"Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made."
-- Otto von Bismarck

"You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do."
-- Olin Miller

Ginger cookies are good any time of the year!

Although Gingersnap cookies are traditionally found around the Christmas holidays, my family likes these cookies so much that I bake them most any time of the year. One of my sons is extremely health conscious yet he will devour any unguarded Gingersnaps and not think twice about it. We like our cookies to really have a tangy 'snap' to them. If you like a spicy cookie that goes great with hot tea in the Winter or an iced drink in the summer, you might consider these.

Spicy Ginger Snaps

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup dark molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried mustard
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
Granulated sugar for dipping

Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses.
Sift together baking soda, salt, ginger, pepper, mustard and flour; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill dough until easy to handle.

Shape dough with hands into balls the size of large marbles. Dip into sugar before placing on un-greased baking sheet. Place each cookie about 1 ½ inches apart to allow for spreading.

Bake at 350 degrees approximately 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on baking sheet one minute before removing to rack to cool completely. Makes about 7 dozen cookies.

Using it all up . . .

I enjoy baking bread but often end up with leftover ends and pieces that are quickly heading for the stale department. I dislike wasting food if I can help it and came up with a recipe that uses leftover bread and the family actually enjoys the results. I know that thinking about using old bread for a dessert doesn't sound promising but my family looks forward to this. You do, however, have to use a firm, homemade bread or a better quality purchased type. The soft, sandwich stuff will just mush down into a nasty paste.

Bread Pudding

Approximately 4 cups cubed bread
1 cup finely chopped apple
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
3 well-beaten eggs
½ cup packed, brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
½ cup fresh orange juice
Juice and zest of one lemon
1/4 cup brandy (optional - you can use apple juice)
1 tsp. cinnamon

Place bread in large mixing bowl, add everything and combine well. Mixture should be very moist but not waterlogged. Add more juice, if necessary. Arrange in a buttered baking dish and bake approximately 30 minutes until golden at 350 degrees. Tastes good hot, warm or cold. Ice cream, whipped cream, or just a dribble of heavy cream can only upgrade your creation.

You can substitute any fruit you have on hand for this, add raisins, cranberries, canned peaches, etc. The main thing is that it has to go into the oven moderately moist.

What next?

Who put the inmates of the asylum in charge? I couldn't believe the news report from Florida about some unemployment agency spending over $14,000 on capes for unemployed people. The reason? They said they were to instill hope in these 60,000 unemployed that they WERE cape-able. Huh? The country is in the midst of a financial crisis and they think red super hero capes is going to help? In my humble opinion, it was a wasted of precious income and a very stupid idea. Are they supposed to wear their capes to job interviews? Would anyone be impressed with an applicant arriving in a swirl of red cape and believe him to be cape-able?

Seems to me, again in my humble opinion, that if the unemployment agency had $14,000 sitting around it could have paid the salary for a part time employee rather than invest in super hero capes. Last I heard, these capes do not even provide super hero powers! You won't see any of these 'lucky' recipients darting happily among the clouds searching for jobs.

Good Friday . . .

Ye cruel thorns, in mocking wreath entwined
My Savior's brow in agony to bind
Oh, cease to rend that flesh divine ;
My loving Lord torment no more ;
Wound rather, wound this heart of mine,
The guilty cause of all He bore.

Unpitying nails, whose points with anguish fierce
The hands and feet of my Redeemer pierce
Oh, cease to rend that flesh divine ;
My loving Lord torment no more ;
Wound rather, wound this heart of mine,
The guilty cause of all He bore.

Unfeeling lance, that dar'st to open wide
The sacred temple of my Savior's side
Oh, cease to wound that flesh divine ;
My loving Lord insult no more ;
Pierce rather, pierce this heart of mine,
The guilty cause of all He bore.


~St. Alphonsus de Ligouri