Even when things should be slowing down…

…they just end up speeding up.

It’s summer.

We are now nearly ready to end school. Exams have been handed back (all but art). Lessons are winding down.

Deadlines are being met,  summer work is being set, and relaxation is being post-poned…

Its that time of year when everyone just wants to relax, and finish, and start summer, but our school has decided to have school end a bit later this year, so we are all enduring a bit more of the … well nothingness that marks our daily lives. typical days.

That sounds really depressing.

I just mean that we are all in suspense as usual, always waiting for something, to happen.

Tomorrow morning, something will happen. My grade is going on a camping trip. Beach, sun, trees, relaxation, swimming, ice-cream, good company (hopefully)… what more can I ask for? (that actually sounds like a lot of demands :P)

Well my point is that not much has been going on right now. I just finished packing. I’ve got everything on my check list (provided by school) and yet I still feel like I’m missing something… We all go through this, problem is, I think I have this feeling far too often. And its normally right.

Anyways, I know this is kinda short, (VERY short) but I’ll be getting up in 7 and a half hours… probably I’ll only get 5 hours sleep by the time I’m done getting everything I could possibly need, and finally put my mind to rest that I have EVERYTHING I could Possibly need.

I think the big problem though  is that I’m not taking my I-pod with me. I mean can you imagine 3 days with out music??? I certainly can not! Haha, this sounds really spoiled. But Music, Dance, and words… they are just a must for me in my everyday life. (oh! Thats something I need to get, my notebooks! Thx guys!) (oh and I could get another novel too… what else is there to do but read when I’m not swimming. I’m not a sun bathing type. WAY too boring!) Keep up the Brain storm! see this is one of the great things about being able to multiple think… while you are busy doing one thing you mind keeps tackling another problem… Where as other people, though tend to think about 2 or 3 things at once, it seems that I can annoyingly think of 5 or 6 at once and sometimes end up getting confused.

Ok- new problem arose. My flashlight isnt working. It’s an underwater one I got last year. Bulb is fine, batteries have charge- but for some reason there seems to be no negative terminal and we can not find out how to get the light on! oh well… another thing to do while I can not sleep. Find new Flashlight!  *sigh* aint this just swell?

Ok flash light is now working and I just managed to stuff a few more things into my bag. Next, a couple more books.

Ok books and flash light added to bag… bag itself is full, though the zip still goes by really easily… htere fore there is still some room for stuff on the top should I need it (such as books… camera… more books 😛 I know I know, I’m a total book worm! :P)

Ok forget about that. It’s now officially full… which means that coming back I wont be able to fit ANYTHING in it! haha. I’ll manage… somehow…

Well I really should go. I have some email and correspondances to write before I go to bed so toodle-oo (just found out how to spell it correctly haha!)

Bonna Notte Tutti!

Baking time

Well it has been pretty warm lately, summer has been coming! That means we’ve been eating more ice cream and baking less unfortunately. The entire house just heats up way too much as soon as you put the oven on! However, right now I’m the only ones home, (plus the dogs but they get to sleep on the cool shady floor- jealousy) so therefore without any one here to complain about the heat I will do some baking! And of course share the recipe de jour (well week now I guess) with all of you!

Ok, so I go to our kitchen bookshelf (we have a bookshelf in pretty much every room of the house each with different genres and such) and take down the Williams-Sonoma baking book. We have the baking and Italian cooking one and use both all the time.

Anyways, I turn to my favourite two pages and am immediately struck by a dilemma. which to make!? Snickerdoodles or oldfashioned oatmeal cookies!? they are both sooo good! Its so hard to choose, so I thought of you guys. Which would you rather hear about? I came to the conclusion that probably you all have at least one oatmeal cookie recipe from Grandma (maybe not granny but its soo easy to get a hold of a good one) and it took me ages to find this good, reliable snickerdoodle recipe, and some of you might not even know them, so that made up my choice.Hope you all agree with my decision.

So, without further ado, I present to you (rhyme… 😛 ) SNICKERDOODLES!

Ingredients:

2 table spoons plus 3/4 cup sugar (6 oz or185 g)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour (plain) (5 1/2 oz or 170g)

1 teaspoon cream of tartar 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

pinch of salt

1/2 cup butter, softened ( 4 oz or 125 g)

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or essence

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C)

In a bowl, stir together the 2 tablespoons of sugar and the cinnamon. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Set aside

In a large bowl, combine the butter, the 3/4 cup of sugar, egg and canilla. With an ellectric mixer set on medium-high speed, beat until the mixture is smooth and well blended. Reduce the speed to low, add the flur mixture, and continue to mix just until incorporated (the worst mistake normally occurs here. People tend to over beat the mixture, I have done it many times. It just doesn’t bake the same so as soon as it is blended  shut it off!)

Roll 1 rounded teaspoonful of dough between your palms into a ball. Roll the ball in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Put the sugar coated ball on an un-greased baking sheet (though you may put a sheet of parchment paper underneath if you like), spacing the balls 2 inches (5 cm) apart on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough and a second baking sheet.

Bake until round, flat and a light golden brown, should be 8-10 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and let cool for 1-2 minutes. Using a metal spatula, transfer the cookies to the racks to cool completely.

Bon appetit! (you should get about 2 dozen allowing for size of cookies)

These are great recipes for the fall too. The rich cinnamon flavour is perfect for autumn in New York or even Christmas time. I normally wouldn’t have had them at this time of year, but as soon as I saw the recipe I realised how long it had been and I had a huge craving so they are in the oven as we speak (or as I type rather…)

In the book there is a little piece about the cookies, a description I guess. I’ll write the tid bit here:

“A cinnamon-and-sugar topping distinguishes these classic cookies. Served warm with a tall glass of cold milk, they make a favourite after-noon snack. Store cream of tartar, tightly covered for up to 1 year)

Ok, well I have never left the cream of tartar for so long, because we always find another use for it, especially around the holiday season, so I dont know what to tell you there, but the rest is all too. They are great morning noon or night, with milk they are superb! They are also great if you freeze a batch and then take them out just as you need. I’ll probably do that with half of this batch because during the summer my sister and brothers and I love to eat them still frozen! They are just as good as when they are warm, and still just as deliciously chewy!

I’ve just been looking through some of the other recipes. I’ve forgotten how many great ones there were! Next time maybe the Cinnamon-Chocolate Chip refrigerator cookies (we also like to freeze these… :P) or the Othellos are great. There are some good biscoti recipes and a nice one (though not my favourite) recipe for walnut cardamom viennese crescents… Or of course I could give the delish Peanut butter cup cookies… oooh! Just caught site of the chocolate Fudge Squares… yummmo! but those are really great for the holdiay season! There are so many that are perfect for that time of year I think I will have to put up a seperate one each day for a month or two to get them all to you!

Also is anyone a carrot cake fan but allergic to nuts? I have a great on for nut free carrot cake and a lot of other recipies where nuts or dried fruit are optional because I prefer my baked goods to be clean… so to speak (I’ll explain another day) And so if anyone wants that, I’ll put it up.

From any sugestions I’ve given, if there is one you would like to see, leave a comment. Or if you like… say coffee and want a recipe involving it (I have a great coffee cake recipe and another for esspresso-spice cheesecake) or if you like almonds, or anything of the like… Or if you would rather a recipe for something more… healthy or trailmix type…  there are some great bread recipes int he book. THeres a Vegetable Nut bread (which actually turned out surprisingly appetizing, despite looking moldy), pistachio-olive bread, honey nut bread (i like this quite a bit if I either dont put the nuts or finely grind them in a food processor) and countless other great recipes…

I would put them all up, but its so time consuming I’d hate to put one no one would use. Especially now that they are all done I should get back to my history revision… (nearly done those exams! Only English literature- sorry bout the rants on the books last time, history and chemistry- which I still haven’t started for…)

This summer however, I will probably be able to write many more posts, and possibly if the recipes still get as good reception I’ll put up more more often. DUring the summer we are all so active that me and my sister will normally bake something either the night before (or one of those over night recipes where you leave it in the fridge over night and then just harden and cut in the morning) or get up early to bake before anyone’s up. We have a great habit of stuffing something in the oven and going for a jog around the block a few times before stopping back in and taking it out of the oven. We can proudly say only once did something burn on us… ANyways my point being, becuase we are so active, going to the beach, biking, playing volley ball and soccer (and dancing for me) as well as our weekend adventures rock climbing or hiking we HAVE to make things more… healthy because we wil be eating them so much. So bye bye christmas triple chocolate cupcakes and hello Strawberry orange, Orange Yogurt, and bran muffins. :S not that they are that bad but… we do have to purge on the fresh summer fruit to get our summer sweet kicks…

Sometimes we end up in Europe, Greece, Italy or Spain for our summers visiting family or traveling, so we really take advantage of the fruit which is always so great and fresh! Unfortunately I have yet to recipe that uses fresh watermellon or fresh cherries in a baked good. Normally fruit needs to be dried…

Oh boy, people are gonna start getting home soon and I’m still not at my goal for history revision. Better leave the cyber world and get back to the physical world. I think i prefer the 2-D world of computers… life is so much easier, I mean there are undo buttons and everything…*sigh*

Don’t forget, all comments welcome and you can email me if you have any suggestions or requests: miraella_rose@yahoo.com