Bake Sale!

Ugh, after five hours of straight bakin' (seriously, no breaks in that business!) I'm ready to check out. For tomorrow's fundraiser bake sale for the Esch*, I'll be taking Orange Chocolate Pinwheels, sugar cookies (which may or may not be frosted, depending on how sparky I'm feeling tomorrow morning), and chocolate chip walnut cookies. 

Sheep and moon sugar cookies cooling, a plate of reject cookies that will stay safe in my home. Sugar cookies don't look like much when they're not frosted, do they?

If you want some of these delectable treats, kick on over to See Jane Run (3910 24th Street at Sanchez) in San Francisco today/Saturday for snackems. This will be happening rain or rain, since it is going to rain. Chris and I will be there from noon to two (or so) with our baked wonder. 
Time for bed!


*Eschy (Bryce) is taking part in the Wildflower Triathalon and is doing all she can to raise money to fight AIDS. See her fundraiser site!

Current Status

Today is the Bazaar, which means that today is the day all of the sisters get together and bicker relentlessly determine the theme for Sister Gift*. I made a cake to smooth things over as we use the process of elimination to figure out what will torment us the most for the holiday season.

*Sister Gift is the drawing of names between Beth, Jenn, Michelle, and myself; each sister must get a special themed gift for the sister who they drew--today is the day we draw names and select the theme.

Regrettably, most of our sister proxies are not here--Leslie's cat is sick, Bryce's parents are in town, and Claire lives down south. Things are not looking good.

In other news, I purchased an obscene amount of fabric for Christmas gifts last weekend. As you know, there is nothing to motivate me to do things I've been procrastinating on than to give me a more daunting task. Once I got home from the monumental fabric trip, I mended my two brown skirts and finally made a holder for Timber's papers (for his walks, not to keep him in the country legally). I think it is pretty cute, don't you?

Well, it is time to go walk that dog before we head off to Stockton. Sneak peak of Christmas fabric below, whee!

No definite ideas for this one yet, but isn't it pretty?
Send thoughts, ideas, projected recipients to me! (there is much more than this, but I already have those projects mapped out)

A-Team Dessert, 3-23-10

Chrisface and I were in charge this past week, and the perhaps-fortuitous discovery of rice paper wrappers at the Co-op yielded our big idea.

Ong Bak Rolls

Coconut Jasmine Rice

Raisins

Banana (sliced)

Toasted Coconut

Toasted Almonds

Caramel Sauce

Sadly, we completely forgot one ingredient I had been super looking forward to including, candied ginger. I really think it would have made the dish pop. As it was, things were a touch doughy as we under-fried the rolls. Also, this was my first foray into making caramel, yikes! Still, reviews were generally positive and I think the final ruling was "Success!", though not to the same degree as our last dessert. And now we have candied ginger, what are we supposed to do with that?

A-Team Dessert, 3-16-10

Michellibal and Scottdoch joint-captained this one.

Lamarshmallow Haystacks, in honor of their favorite Davis politico.

Marshmallow cream

Lemon curd

Coconut

Fiber One

It was determined that the lamarshmallow Haystacks are best after they have been frozen for a time. Just a tip, because I know you're running off to check your cupboards, "Do I have enough time to make this before company stops by?"

Yes, you do. Now get going!

A-Team Dessert, 3-9-10

Chris and I made our first A-Team Dessert this past Tuesday. For those of you not in the know, A-Team dessert involves you building something as the A-Team would--out of found objects within your reach.
As Michellibal would say, "I love it when a dessert comes together!"
Meet Jengacake!

French Toast Fingers

Lemon Curd

Plain Greek Yogurt

Brandy-based Hard Sauce

Candied Walnuts

Scottdoch was pretty shocked that Chrisface and I could pull together something of this caliber, especially since I'm only a staff sergeant, but that is just the way we work. 

The proud yet scared Chrisface with our creation (for scale). It was pretty darn good!

Baking Day (a little late, part 2)

And, everyone's favorite, the sugar cookies.

Why is it that the confection on which we spend the most time only yields about 8 cookies? How does that happen? Anyhow, the meringue powder yielded another beautiful batch of frosting even if we did forget to mix a yellow. Oops.

And the final product. Looking at this, maybe we should just use clear saran wrap, the green is doing weird things to our vibrant cookies.

Another year of sisters baking, and another year I did not take a nap! Mark THAT on your calendars!

Baking Day (a little late, part 1)

Baking day! It actually occurred a little over two weeks ago, but I was quite busy with Christmas things so I didn't get around to posting the pictures from it.

All (most) of our materials for the day.

Jenn's crinkles. Which ones met the floor? Can you tell?

Fudge and magic bars, easy peasy.

Evil truffles, of course. Possibly my favorite item on the plate, and not just because of the cocoa powder I blow everywhere

Macarons REQUIRE parchment paper

This is sad, possibly the saddest thing in the world. I wanted to try my hand at good looking macarons. I've made some ugly ones in my time (twice) but I was really going to step it up this time. But after the last bits of powder sugar were sifted and stirred, I realized, "Oh snap, we're out of parchment paper! How did this happen?" Well, surely there must be a way around this.

You might notice how I tried to compensate for the lack of parchment paper by adding another French item to the mix, the silpat sheets. The cookies did look pretty well formed on the sheet, but the sheet was not about to let those cookies go without a fight.

Macarons require parchment paper. There is no way around it.