Homemade yeast...Fail.

Update: My yeast didn't take. Oh well. Somehow I knew that some Sunmaid raisins and Worcester water wouldn't give me workable yeast for breadmaking. But it was worth a shot, right? Maybe I'll try again someday with better ingredients. For now, I will stick to buying my jars of yeast at the grocery store.

In other news, I've updated the design of the blog. I wanted something brighter, cheerier. So I went with my favorite color combo, pink and green and found some cute illustrations from a 1950s Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I think it's really cute! I may keep working on it for the next few days, but I think that this look is much happier than the old design.

I'm making my own yeast. I know...

I can't recall how I came up with the idea. It just kind of came to me. I was sitting on the couch and googled "make your own yeast." I found this video which used a variety of fruits to make natural homemade yeast for baking. The raisins that were used worked the best, but it was an 8+ day process. Do I really want to make it that bad? Sure, why not. I have raisins, and water! And yeast isn't cheap. And it was easy enough to start.

Day 1

Throw some raisins into a glass jar, and fill halfway with water. Screw on the lid, give a little shake, and wait till tomorrow...

Finished vanilla! and Christmas cookies

It's all ready to go! After more than two months of steeping in my cupboard, I've bottled and started giving away my homemade vanilla extract. I used some in my whole wheat m&m cookies tonight, and they tasted fine. I was a little worried because the extract isn't nearly as dark as I thought it would be. About a week ago, I was searching this problem online and came across Jamie Deen's (one of Paula's sons, who I usually find annoying) recipe for making vanilla extract. He heats and simmers the vodka on the stove before adding it to the beans. Does the heat draw out the vanilla faster than room temperature vodka? I should know this but I don't.

Happy Birthday Jiaozi

Tomorrow is my dog's birthday. I know, I'm way too obsessed with my dogs. As if celebrating their birthdays wasn't enough, I also bake them treats for the occasion. Last month, for Siena's birthday, I made a dog biscuit recipe I found online. The girls loved them... until the next day when Siena got sick. I made a dumb mistake, I totally forgot that Siena's tummy cannot handle gluten. I promised her that on Jiaozi's birthday, I would make something gluten free so that she could enjoy them without getting sick.

Healthy muffins

Last week, Ron had his yearly appointment with his cardiologist (he has atrial fibrillation). I went with him for this appointment, I like hearing things straight from the horse's mouth. One of the things Ron needs to work on, his weight. Both of us have been pretty lax in our diets lately (for many reasons) and it's time to get back on track. So no more sweet granola bars for breakfast, I'm making muffins. High fiber, low calorie muffins. I call them "colon blow muffins." Oh how I love classic SNL. Anyways, I started with this apple muffin recipe from KAF, but I've changed it so much, I think I can call it my own recipe. And even though I cut down the sugars by more than half, these muffins still have enough sweetness. Here we go.

Vanilla update

Last month, I began the process of making my own vanilla extract as Christmas presents for my friends. Well, it's been a month, and since then I decided that the three cups I started out with were not going to be enough, so I bought another bottle of vodka, and more vanilla beans. This time, I bought the beans on Amazon, which gave me 7 beans for $7.95. And it was free shipping and they arrived at my house in three days! Since I didn't have another large Bell jar for the extract, I simply added the beans to the vodka bottle. This second batch was made about two weeks ago. But you'll notice that the color of the vodkas are very similar. I think that they will be ready for Christmas, and now I just have to buy the bottles to put them in!

1947 oatmeal cookies: are these Sverhoeven crispies???

I wanted cookies. I thought I wanted the fatty Martha Stewart chocolate chip cookies. Then I looked on my bookshelf. I pulled down a few cookbooks. One of them was Anna Olsson Coombs' Modern Swedish Cookbook from 1947. I've been having this thing where I'm collecting 1940s, 50s and 60s cookbooks. I was intrigued by the cover, and since I'm part Swedish, I bought this book.

fun with pastry dough

Now, when I started this blog, I thought I'd only be making new recipes to blog about. But there are some items that I make often, like KAF's cinnamon sticks and toaster tarts. They're just so good! I've played with the recipes a little, making the dough with whole wheat flour once, and filling them with goodies other than cinnamon-sugar. Today I saw mini palmiers at Trader Joe's. I've stopped buying things I can bake myself, so I passed them by but thought "Why can't I make my own with the cinnamon stick dough?" So I decided to try.

I made butter!

I was perusing a popular food blog today, and came across this yummy looking item. Cinnamon butter, mmmm. The Texas Roadhouse serves a honey-cinnamon butter with their rolls. And Country Crock made a cinnamon butter for a while but no longer does. Then I thought, I can make butter right? Yes, yes I can. (Oh, and yes, I do most of my shopping at Shaw's. How'd you know?)

Experiment time

Last year I had a brilliant idea. I should make my own vanilla extract. It's easy enough, vanilla beans, vodka and time. I can do that. Well, of course I forgot about it until this week. I decided to try it today while my noon rogani rose. All week I had been searching the local grocery stores and online for the best price on beans. Prices ranged from $4 to $8 per bean. And I would have to pay shipping for the $3 beans. Until I remembered the city's Mediterranean food store. I buy my pastry flour there for $.69 a pound! I can't find it that cheap anywhere else. So I stopped there this morning and was able to buy my beans for $2.99 each. So great. Anyways, the process of making the extract is easy enough.

I had a bottle of vodka, 40% alcohol. I guess the higher the alcohol content, the better.