Wolf's Den

Somedays...

2009-11-11T22:57:11Z

I have lots of words. Mark says I'm 'wordy', but in a good way. I think. Heh.

Other days, I have very few words. This is one of them.

Thank a Vet today. While you're at it, remember the service animals as well. Many gave their lives for their human counterparts.

Whether you agree with the current war or not, thank the servicemen and service women who are currently serving, who have served, or who will serve.

Count your blessings and thank those who have gone before, who are there now, and who are still to come.

We are the reason you are free. We are the reason you have the rights and liberties you currently enjoy. Without us, you may not have your freedom.

You don't have to agree with the war, past, present, any possible future, but please, support your service people. They need you as much as you need them.

For my part, thank you to those who've served before me, those who've served with me, those who serve now, and those who are yet to serve. Semper Fi.

For the rest, you're welcome.

Today....

2009-11-11T00:15:27Z

Would have been Dante's 16th birth day. It's rained much of the day.

Today is also the Marine Corps Birth Day.

Happy Birth Day, Dante.

Happy Birth Day to my fellow Marines. Semper Fi.

Randomness...

2009-11-09T22:05:22Z

Caena loves playing in the leaves. This time of year, it's hard getting her to come back inside.

An almost the picture of health Max kitty. He's probably about 98% back to normal. Well, what passes for normal for him, anyway.

Ranty McRanty. AKA I. Am. Done.

2009-11-03T21:47:18Z

1- If you set up a barter/trade with me- fulfill your end of the damn barter/trade. Don't keep giving me excuse after excuse. It should not take SEVEN MONTHS and me asking several times about your end of this, to get any sort of info. And it STILL has not been completed.

To that regard- I can't even go and get my own copy of what was supposed to be sent in exchange, as it's now out of print. Yeah. Royally pissed off about that one.

To that end- unless you are family, or someone I've bartered with before and KNOW you will fulfill your end of the deal, or a friend I've known for YEARS or can completely trust- forget it. No. More. Barters/trades. I'm done. I'm fed up with getting burned.

2- If you don't like something I create, then TELL ME. I won't bite your head off, for gods' sakes. Don't ignore me when I ask. It pisses me off.

3- Don't offer to sell a few of my scarves then bitch about the price I set on them. If you don't think you can sell the damn things, at a REDUCED PRICE NO LESS, then say so and don't make me waste not only my time getting them packaged up and ready to go, but the money to ship them to you.

You aren't doing me any favors. YOU are getting a cut of any that sell, so stop bitching about the price. I don't need your help selling them, I can do that on my own. I thought it would be nice to give you the chance to earn a little bit more cash when you do sell one.

It's ridiculous and it disparages my work. If I feel it'll sell at that price, then you have no business saying it won't. You don't want to sell them, say so.

I. Am. Done.

No more Barters. No more Trades. No more 'gifts'. No more sending my stuff to someone who says they can sell them. It's not worth it. I'm finishing what I have promised people, then that's it. Done.

In other news...

2009-10-29T17:21:45Z

Took Max to the vet this morning. It was originally just a check up to see how he was doing.

Well, Tuesday I noticed that he appeared to have an abcessed wound on his neck, right at the edge of the bandage wrap. So I started cleaning it as best I could with peroxide. That night the feeding tube clogged again. Spent all of Weds trying to get it unclogged.

Well, because he was fully eating on his own, with me only supplementing with the feeding tube, I was too concerned about the clog. The wound on the other hand, bugged me. Especially when I pulled GRASS out from under the wrap!

Took him in, got him weighed. He's at 11.3lbs. Last week was 11.7lbs, so he's maintaining his weight, more or less. This is what we want! This is good!

Addressed the wound, Dr Nelson asked if he was eating, etc.

Because he IS eating and eating well, because his color is very good for a cat his age, she went ahead and removed the feeding tube today. Yay!

Cleaned his neck up really well. He was arching his head back, thoroughly enjoying the scrubbing.}:) Looks nasty, but she says it'll close over in a day or so, though it will bleed if he scratches it- which he does, and it has, so I have to keep cleaning his neck.}:/

So now, we don't need to take him back for at least a month. As long as he continues to eat, then we're good to go.

Yay, Max kitty!

Daring Bakers October Challenge- French Macarons

2009-10-27T17:03:21Z

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

I've always wanted to make French Macarons.I've long admired them and have several recipes stored in my favorites links. I just never got around to it, until now.

Talk about a challenge. Yikes.

I had great plans. Really I did. I wanted to do like, 6 different flavors. Then I ran out of time. Whoops. So gathered what I had on hand, and went from there.

So I mixed the powdered sugar and almond meal together. I really should have taken Audax's advice and ran the almond meal through a processor first, to get it as fine as possible. I dindn't though, but next time I definitely will.

So, I had aged the 5 egg whites for roughly 36 hours. I also added a teaspoon of powdered egg white , cause it's supposed to be a stabilizer for the whipped eggs. Next time, I'll do what others did and age the egg whites for longer. Maybe I'd get better results. Ooooo, foreboding... O.o

Whipped the egg whites to soft peaks. I swear they were soft peaks! Honest! The peaks folded right over on themselves in the bowl. So far, so good, right? Yeah, you tell yourself that, ok?

Turned the mixer back on, and added the granulated sugar. Then beat them into what I thought was stiff peaks. In hindsight, maybe I should have beat them a bit longer, they were a bit sad for peaks. Who knows though. There are SO MANY things that can apparently go wrong when making macarons. Honestly? I think I hit nearly all of them.}:P

So after the egg whites are beaten ~~within an inch of their lives~~ to soft peaks, I added about 1/3 of the powdered sugar/almond meal mix. And proceeded to fold it in. And fold and fold. I'm good at gently folding. Maybe next time I'll be harsher with it. Maybe it needed a good beating. Maybe it just wasn't my day.

Before I'd even started on the egg whites, I'd run some Lavender and powdered sugar through my coffe grinder, dumped it in a bowl after sifting out the big pieces, and dumped Matcha (Green Tea powder) into another bowl, then set them aside for a minute or so. When I was ready, I split the macaron batter more or less evenly into three portions.

I used Wilton's Icing Gel colors to color my macarons. JUST barely the tip of a butter knife is all it takes with this stuff. It's that good. The bottom one, I added blueberry juice as well as the blue gel coloring. I also added a bit more almond meal and powdered sugar to balance out the added liquid. It sort of worked, I guess. Maybe.

Aren't those wonderful colors? I thought so too. Enjoy, cause 2 of them don't survive too well.

I need to work on my circles, trust me. Very very actually came out in neat circles. These were a few of them. Also? Baking stones? Not such a good idea.}:/ Lesson learned there.

First baking, as per the provided recipe- WHICH incidentally, I followed nearly exactly- set the shells and caused the macarons to spread a bit more. Hrm. Ok, moving right along...

Second baking, they puffed up a wee bit. Nowhere NEAR as nice as these. Or these. And don't get me started about these. And THIS, oh my gods.

Ahem. Sorry.

I did get feet! They may be small, but they are definitely feet! Whee! And the shells WERE gorgeous- shiney, smooth... until I went to remove them from the baking stones. The Matcha ones weren't too bad, as far as cracking goes, generally it stayed to the edges. But the Lavender? Ummm...

Yeah. We won't talk about them anymore, ok? When they say use parchment paper, USE PARCHMENT PAPER. Baking stones alone really don't workj well. Especially if you completely cool the macarons on them.}:(

So with the Blueberry ones, I used parchment paper. And regular cookie sheets. Only, I totally missed where you flip the sheet over and stack two together. Totally, utterly missed it.

My Blueberry macarons amoeba'd. Literally. They were round when I stuck them in the oven, I swear.

Amoebas. With feet. LOL. (A fellow Daring Baker says they look like nuggets of turquoise, hee.)

Ok then. I quit that night and filled them the next day. I made a simple Bittersweet Dark Chocolate Ganache. I had PLANS, I tell you. Flavored ganaches, the whole nine yards. Yeah, that didn't happen either. *sigh*

I will say, that despite the obvious FAIL (maybe I over beat the egg whites? Maybe I underbeat? Maybe my oven hates me? Maybe macarons are just not my thing? Who knows.), that I did enjoy at least EATING these. They are good. The ganache offsets the sweetness just enough to create the perfect balance. Can't taste the Blueberry, unfortunately. The Matcha really came through with it's earthy smokiness. The Lavender though, next time I'll use less. All I could taste WAS the Lavender.}:/

It's is really amazing what plating can do though.}:P

Thanks, Ami, for a truly challenging Challenge! Will I try these again? Yes, eventually.}:P Maybe next time, I'll succeed completely.

And OH!!! You all really need to check these ones out!

THE RECIPE AS PROVIDED-

Preparation time: Not taking into account the amount of time it takes for you to bring your egg whites to room temperature, the whole baking process, including making the batter, piping and baking will probably take you about an hour to an hour and a half. How long it takes to make your filling is dependent on what you choose to make.

Actual baking time: 12 minutes total, plus a few minutes to get your oven from 200°F to 375°F.

Equipment required:
• Electric mixer, preferably a stand mixer with a whisk attachment
• Rubber spatula
• Baking sheets
• Parchment paper or nonstick liners
• Pastry bag (can be disposable)
• Plain half-inch pastry bag tip
• Sifter or sieve
• If you don’t have a pastry bag and/or tips, you can use a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off
• Oven
• Cooling rack
• Thin-bladed spatula for removing the macaroons from the baking sheets
• Food processor or nut grinder, if grinding your own nuts (ouch!)

Ingredients
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Yield: 10 dozen. Ami's note: My yield was much smaller than this. I produced about two dozen filled macaroons.

Additional Information:

David Lebovitz breaks it down: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2008/09/making_french_macarons.htm...
More macaroon 411: http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/10/introduction-to-french-macarons.html
Get inspired by our own Tartlette!: http://www.mytartelette.com/search/label/macarons
Go behind the scenes of Paulette: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXIvX0-CEu0
Watch a pro pipe macaroons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_RfiFoWZKQ&feature=related
Beating egg whites: http://www.glutenfreecookingschool.com/archives/egg-series-no-1-how-to-b...

Please, sir, can you spare a dollar? (This is worth using the LJ for.)

2009-10-27T05:10:34Z

We probably all know someone who's been in this position before, but here goes...

I have a really good, long time friend who needs your help. All she's asking for is a dollar from at least 4700 people.

See, Nicole is disabled, she has Spina Bifida, with a host of medical issues related to that, and is wheelchair/scooter bound. Add to this panic attacks, for which she has Diamond, her service animal.

Because of her disability, she is pretty much unemployable, and believe you me, she's tried.

Nicole is facing eviction due to bureaucratic fuckups that cut off her housing fundages, without any warning or notice until it was too late. This means that her rent went skyrocketing up to more than her SSI/Medicare/etc combined can cover.
She won't be able to get this straightened out for some time still, as, if I understand it correctly, there's a waiting listing a mile long.}:/

You can see the eviction notice, see Nicole and diamond, and see that this is real, here.

She's managed to raise nearly $600 on her own, but she's rapidly running out of time.

Can you help? All she's asking for is a dollar. ONE dollar. Of course, more is definitely appreciated, but by all means, don't break the bank. If you can't donate, would you be willing to pass this on, and spread the word?

Facebook page

PayPal link on her Blog

Thanks fer listening.}:P

I dunno...

2009-10-21T17:32:07Z

Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, but the new scarf is a disappointment thus far.

It took 3 tries to get something other than burnt orange, and it's still not a deep red like I wanted, but is more of a scarlet red with darker areas and lighter areas.

I've just started pulling the strings out, only one Kumo design is showing up so far, clearly, the other few are so faint as to be almost nonexistant.

Not happy with it.

Maybe it'll get better when I get it all pulled out and wash it again. Maybe the design will show up better. Who knows.

But right now, I'm not happy with it.

And it was supposed to be a wedding gift. Now, I don't have the time to do another.}:(

I ... just dunno.

Daring Cooks Oct Challenge- Pho Ga

2009-10-17T19:27:00Z

Yeah, so I'm late. Between stressing over Max and accidentally leaving a few ingrediants off my grocery list, as well as running out of time, well, I didn't get it made by the Reveal date.

I did, however, make it yesterday. And man is it good. Besides, it gave me a chance to look over my bowls and realise that I needed to work on my bowl collection now, since I have well over 2 dozen various plates, after all. Heh. I added 6 bowls to my plating collection, with at least 4 more that I want to get. *headdesk*

The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

Ok, so this is a quick, bare bones type of post. Sorry.

This is the basics. The spices, the broth (unless, of course, you choose to make homemade. Again, time constraints and dealing with a sick cat kinda made it so I didn't have that time.), I used bean thread noodles cause that's what I had on hand, the fish sauce that I forgot the first time around, same with the Hoisin sauce. I also did not use bean sprouts, as neither of us like them. I was going to use mushrooms, but... I forgot.}:/

Not pictured are the condiments I suppose they're called- the carrot shreds, the sliced onion, the snow pea pods, the sugar snap peas, the lime wedges, the chili pepper slices, the fresh cilantro and the spring onions. Oh, and the chicken.

First, you toast the spices- whole star anise, whole cloves and whole coriander. I know a few Daring Cooks added pieces of cinnamon and whole black peppercorns to theirs as well. Let me just say, as these toasted, they smelled wonderful. Made me want to put some in a pan of water to simmer on the stove for hours at a time.

Be careful as you toast your spices, as they can go from nicely toasted to burned in mere seconds. So stay with them and stir them often. Trust me.

This is the broth I used. In hindsight, I think I'll take a day and make up LOTS of homemade stock. While this was good broth, it simply did not clear out as much as I had hoped it would.}:/ Now, I'm not saying MY homemade would clear out any better, cause knowing my luck? It wouldn't. LOL.

So, put the broth in a large pan, and add your toasted spices.

Then I took a good sized chunk of fresh ginger, quartered it, and smashed it with my knife. Into the pan it went. I also peeled, and quartered a small red onion, for added flavor. It also went into the pan.

Since it was just the two of us, I used chicken tenderloin pieces. Basically, just boneless strips of white chicken. After bringing the broth/spices mix up to a slow boil, I added the chicken, a piece at a time and stirred carefully. Then brought it all up to a nice steady boil for a bit. Then, as I salivated over the sheer delicious SMELL, reduced the heat and let simmer for 20 minutes. Give or take.

After 20 or so minutes, I removed the chicken pieces, cooled them and broke them into pieces. Set it aside in the fridge. I may or may not have sampled several pieces. *looks askance*

I strained the broth through my fine mesh gold strainer. The same one I use when I make homemade liqueors. Yes, ALCOHOL. You know, Blackberry Cordial, Raspberry Cordial, Blueberry Cordial, that sort of thing. Somewhere in here is a post with lots of recipes. Go look for them. *nods sagely*

Then I set it in the fridge in the hopes it would clear out/separate more, by the time Mark got home from work. Well, it DIDN'T. Hmph.

A few minutes before Mark got home, I boiled some water, and poured it over the bean threads. This is what they look like when softened/cooked. I originally used them back when I made Summer Rolls (again, there's a recipe here somewhere) this past spring. They're good, although rather plain.}:P

The verdict? Very good. The broth, despite not being clear, was very flavorful. The Sriracha chili sauce (which we keep in the house) and the Hooisin sauce (which will now be kept on hand) definitely added extra layers of flavor to the dish as a whole.

Mark says though, next time, just make soup. LOL. This would be great for a lunch party, honestly, with a dining room table to set the condiments in the center so everyone can help themselves.

Overall, we did enjoy it. And I have enough broth left for a second time.}:P

Thanks, Jaden!

THE RECIPE(S)
Variations – Pho:

1. You like: chicken, beef, pork, seafood or vegetarian/vegan.

2. There is no variation allowed with regard to seasoning. You must use the spices listed in the recipe and they must be toasted. (Only leeway here is if you cannot use the spices for health/dietary reasons.) *Note: Use same spices as listed in the chicken Pho recipe for pork, seafood and vegetarian/vegan variations. The beef variation lists it’s unique spices in the recipe.

Equipment:

• Frying pan
• Large stockpot
• Tongs
• Strainer, sieve or colander
• Bowls for serving

Preparation Time: 45 cooking time + 15 minutes to cook noodles based on package directions

Servings: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

For the Chicken Pho Broth:
2 tbsp. whole coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
2 whole star anise
2 quarts (2 liters/8 cups/64 fluid ounces) store-bought or homemade chicken stock
1 whole chicken breast (bone in or boneless)
½ onion
1 3-inch (7.5 cm) chunk of ginger, sliced and smashed with side of knife
1 to 2 tbsps. sugar
1 to 2 tbsps. fish sauce

1 lb. (500 grams/16 ounces) dried rice noodles (about ¼ inch/6 mm wide)

Accompaniments:

2 cups (200 grams/7 ounces) bean sprouts, washed and tails pinched off
Fresh cilantro (coriander) tops (leaves and tender stems)
½ cup (50 grams/approx. 2 ounces) shaved red onions
½ lime, cut into 4 wedges
Sriracha chili sauce
Hoisin sauce
Sliced fresh chili peppers of your choice

Directions:

1.To make the Chicken Pho Broth: heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add the coriander seeds, cloves and star anise and toast until fragrant, about 3-4 minutes. Immediately spoon out the spices to avoid burning.
2.In a large pot, add all the ingredients (including the toasted spices) and bring to a boil.
3.Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 20 minutes, skimming the surface frequently.
4.Use tongs to remove the chicken breasts and shred the meat with your fingers, discarding the bone if you have used bone-in breasts.
5.Taste the broth and add more fish sauce or sugar, if needed. Strain the broth and discard the solids.
6.Prepare the noodles as per directions on the package.
7.Ladle the broth into bowls. Then divide the shredded chicken breast and the soft noodles evenly into each bowl.
8.Have the accompaniments spread out on the table. Each person can customize their own bowl with these ingredients.

Challenge #2: Chocolate Wontons Note- I did NOT do this one, it was not required, and well, my creativity was severely lacking at the time.
Recipe Source: Jaden of Steamy Kitchen from her new book The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

Variations – Chocolate Wontons:

1. Can be shaped any way you want, not just triangles as pictured. Can even be layered like napoleons.

2. Can be filled with your choice of filling, doesn’t have to be chocolate. But the fillings and final wonton must be SWEET - these are DESSERT wontons - to be eligible for a chance to win a book.

Equipment:

• Small bowl
• Pastry brush
• Plastic wrap and/or damp paper towels
• Wok or medium-sized pot
• Frying thermometer (if you don’t have a thermometer, you can test the oil temperature by dropping in a cube of bread … if it browns quickly, the oil is ready)

Preparation time: 15 minutes + 15 minutes cooking time (for 12 wontons)

Servings: Makes 12 wontons.

Ingredients:

1 large egg
1 tbsp. water
12 wonton wrappers, defrosted (keep wrappers covered with damp towel)
12 pieces or nuggets of chocolate (use any type of chocolate you like)
High-heat oil for frying (i.e., vegetable oil, corn oil)
Confectioners’ sugar (icing sugar) for sprinkling

Directions:

1.In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and water to make an egg wash.
2.On a clean, dry surface lay 1 wonton wrapper down with a point toward you, like a diamond.
3.Place 1 piece of chocolate near the top end of the wrapper.
4.Brush a very thin layer of the egg wash on the edges of the wrapper.
5.Fold the bottom corner of the wrapper up to create a triangle and gently press to remove all air from the middle. Press the edges to adhere the sides. Make sure the wrapper is sealed completely.
6.Repeat with the remaining wrappers and chocolate pieces.
7.Keep the folded chocolate wontons covered under plastic wrap or a damp paper towel to prevent them from drying.
8.In a wok or medium pot, pour in 2 inches (5 cm.) of high-heat oil.
9.Heat the oil to 350º F (180º C) and gently slide a few of the chocolate wontons into the hot oil. Make sure you don’t crowd the chocolate wontons.
10.Fry the wontons for 1 ½ minutes, then flip over and fry another minute until both sides are golden brown and crisp.

In which I am thoroughly amused...

2009-10-14T19:00:01Z

This is not the entry I wanted to do today.

Today is the reveal day for the Daring Cooks Oct Challenge. Well, mine's going to be 2 days late, so you get this instead.

Be amused with me.

I was checking my emails and received my first scam convo via Etsy today. WooHoo! 3.5 yrs+ on Etsy and only now getting targeted by a scammer! Whee!

Ahem..

As it is MY journal and not affiliated with Etsy in any way, I can show what I want, in my opinion. Besides, I don't expect this shop to stick around long.
This was the convo-

"gapgal1618 profile shop contact

Listing: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14028006
Hello, I saw your beautiful work on the Etsy site and was particularly touched by the fact that some of the proceeds go to benefit an Akita rescue group. I recently lost my own Akita rescue, an amazing dog and a love of my life. I would be interested in purchasing the memorial scarf and would like to know the name I can make a check out to, and an address to which I can send it. I understand if you have to wait to receive payment before shipping the item. Please let me know at this email address (gapgal1618@alloymail.com) at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your beautiful work and contributions to the akita rescue efforts. "

Things to note-

1- Buyer JUST signed up on Etsy TODAY. Has no feedback, no purchases, nothing. Completely empty profile.

2- Classic spam style name. Usually you see this sort of name on, say, Twitter. And they're almost always spammers.

3- Tried to bypass purchasing on Etsy by asking where to send a check, when it's easier to click the 'Add to cart' button and actually BUY the item.

4- Attempts to flatter me and insinuates a 'kinship' that may or may not be true.

5- Saw my work on 'the Etsy site'? Hello, you are ON THE ETSY SITE. You sent me a convo VIA THE ETSY SITE. Duh.

Now, after I was done rolling on the floor laughing my ass off at the audacity, here's my response... Keep in mind, I'm not usually this tactful, so this is a rarity. And yes, it was meant to be a touch sarcastic.

"Hi there! While I am glad you're interested in the Dante-Inu Memorial Silk Scarves, currently the only way to purchase one is via the listing itself.

It's really easy- you click 'Add to cart' and follow the payment directions on the next page. You'll get all the info you would need after you select 'pay now'.

Keep in mind, that if you should chose to pay via check, it will take upwards of 2-3 weeks while I wait for said check to arrive, then for funds to fully clear my account upon deposit, plus a few extra days to ensure it will not bounce.

Once funds have cleared to my satisfaction, only then will the item be shipped out to you. You would then receive a notice stating that your purchase had been shipped at that time.

I would suggest, that if this item is intended as a gift to someone and you need it within a certain timframe, that perhaps a different form of payment would be in order, to expediate the purchase process and the subsequent shipping of your purchase.

Thank you again for your interest and I will await your possible order after you fully consider what payment option you would like to use."

Naturally, I don't expect to hear back from them, nor do I expect to receive an order from them. I am, however, very amused now.

Ok, back to tying a scarf.

I give up.

2009-10-07T18:40:34Z

It takes a lot to get me to admit defeat and here I am. Admitting defeat.

Tomorrow, at Max's vet appointment, I'm going to ask for a feeding tube to be put in. It's a last resort, of sorts, honestly. But he's NOT improving with me just force feeding him every 5 hours. He fights me so much, that now, the tip of the syringe cuts his mouth because he's chewed it into roughness.

He threw up MORE with the meds, mainly Flagyl, than he ever did before this started. That means he's not keeping enough down to really do much good. He hates me, he thinks everytime I pick him up, I'm going to force nasty stuff down his throat, so he starts drooling and gets himself so worked up, that he pukes anyway. Then he pukes up the food as well, 3-4 hours later. It's a no win cycle.

He peed on himself again yesterday. I feel like my cat is wasting away in front of me and there's little I can do to stop it. Believe me, I've tried.

So, yeah. Feeding tube and asking about what else we can do to stop the vomiting. I just don't know what else to do anymore.

Various and Sundry...

2009-10-02T16:01:44Z

Max hates me. He cowers and hides lately. Especially when he knows it's time for meds. I'll be really glad when the Flagyl is gone. He gets so worked up over the mere thought of the meds, that he starts gagging and retching.}:(

Took him down for a weigh in yesterday. I find it extremely difficult to believe he lost two pounds in one week. That's ridiculous and impossible, as he still eats well and in fact, is getting MORE food when I med him. So yeah. Not buying it. Mark doesn't either. Max has another vet appointment this coming Thursday, so we'll see.

Sat is Dogtober Fest. Hopefully the weather holds good for at least that day. Will definitely have photos.

The Parents In Law are on their way down. Coming down to celebrate the SiL's birthday. Not looking forward to this weekend visit, mentally trying to prepare for the third degree and stink eye about us not attending the BiL and SiL's wedding renewal in Dec. But dammit, we can't afford it and with Max still sick, don't feel right leaving him with strangers to care for him. It's not fair to him.

Redyed hair today. Went dark, really dark. Photos eventually. It's 'batching' now.

Need to list that brooch I finished. I have a name for it now, so stay tuned. It won't be very much either, very affordable.

Nearly finished beading the pendent for the next 'Mirror' necklace. Once that's done, I'll have sneak peek photos up.

Neighbor up the hill behind us is having a tree taken down. It's a split trunk type. One trunk leans towards one house, the other leans towards his house. Makes sense to take it down, really. Also means more sun at the top of the hill. Which there is already, and all they've done is top it out and debranch it so far. Also means less leaves to blow down into my yard. Heh.

And that's all the news that I have for now.

Daring Bakers Sept Challenge- Vols-Au-Vent

2009-09-27T19:13:46Z

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

I've never even considered making my own puff pastry. I'm one of those people who buys the Pepperidge Farms puff pastry sheets and calls it good. In fact, I have a package of THAT in my freezer now, right next to the homemade.

Then of course, time got away from me, Max had a vet appointment where we found that his liver is STILL out of whack, so back onto 3 more weeks of antibiotics via force feeding he went. Yeah, that's fun.

I was, however, determined not to miss out on this Challenge, even if it meant my puff pastry didn't puff and I failed miserably.

As per usual, I gathered all the stuff I thought I'd need, and then some. I don't have cake flour- I never remember to buy any to have on hand, just in case. One of these days, I will. So I ended up making a sub- corn starch and regular flour.

While we were in Michigan back in August, my mom gave me one of her marble rolling pins. So if ever there was a perfect time to use one, this would be it. After all, the dough is supposed to be well chilled throughout, so marble is good at keeping cool.}:P Works for me.

Sifted together the proper ratios of corn starch to flour - don't ask, I don't remember and don't feel like looking it up again right now- and dumped it and the rest of the flour into the food processor.

That's a lot of sea salt... Added the salt and pulsed the flour mix a few times to combine. Ok, so maybe it was more than a few times.

The recipe calls for ice water and I just happen to keep water in my fridge. For drinking, generally. But hey, it works for this too, I guess. Added it to the flour stuffs and turned the processor on. Then I waited.

It took a bit, but once the dough formed a sort of ball around the blade, I turned off the processor and dumped it out onto my table. Formed it into a ball and scored the top in a criss cross pattern.

THEN I realized, well, crap, I need a damp towel, and went looking for one...

Well, I couldn't find a stupid towel, my house seems to have eaten all my dish towels. *grumble grumble* So I had to make do with well flouring the dough and wrapping it in plastic wrap. Then into the fridge it went.

Next up was making the butter layer. I used Land o' Lakes Unsalted butter. From what I understand, you shouldn't use generic butter. Use a name brand. Something about the fat ratio to water content. Audax would know for sure.}:P Oh and it has to be very cold butter too.

Laid the butter out on a layer of plastic wrap, then covered with another layer. Then I proceeded to beat the daylights out of it. Here's when the hubby came home. And good thing he did too, cause otherwise, there'd no more photos as my camera almost FELL ON THE FLOOR. Yikes. Yeah, the pounding made the camera edge towards the edge of the table and almost off. Whoops. That would have been bad. Real bad.

So the butter gets beat into a rough square. It says to make it about an inch thick. Well, that's hard to do when it starts out at an inch thick as is. Mine I think I got to about a half inch thick instead. Wrapped it back up and into the fridge it went.

I will admit, I did the rest of the steps the next day. *nods sagely*

So yesterday, I took the dough back out of the fridge. Floured it well again and rolled it somewhat flat. Then I rolled the sides out so it was way thick in the center. Only, mine didn't really form a square. Hrm.

Took the butter out of the fridge, played havoc with getting the plastic wrap off, and laid it in the center of the dough.

Then I took the 'sides' and carefully pulled them, stretching as evenly as possible, up over the butter. Rather like I was making a homemade envelope. Had to make sure the edges overlapped a bit. Then took my marble rolling pin and tamped everything down to make sure it'd all stay put. Which it sort of did, I guess.

Rolling the dough while making sure the butter spread evenly too was actually a bit trickier than it looks. however, if you look closely, you can see faint lines where the actual butter is. This amused me for some reason. But hey, I know the butter definitely spread well. I also learned that I tend to get flour Every. Where. And that rolling the length of the table instead of the width would be easier.

Folded the dough into thirds, like a business letter. And rolled out again. This was turn one. This was repeated 5 more times over the course of the next 3 hours. It actually did start lining up and evening out along the edges after the first 2 turns. Amazing. Then I cut about a third off and folded the rest up, wrapped it very well in plastic wrap and tinfoil, then stuck it in the freezer. There's only 2 of us, so no reason to make a whole lot.

I like cookie cutters. So any excuse to buy more, hey, I'll take it! I got these neat sets at A.C. Moore, which is a hobby/craft store like Micheal's or Hobby Lobby. The square ones? Are actually fondant cutters. Hee.

And these are the two I used.

Rolled out the dough I was going to use, and I'll admit- I did a seventh fold/turn on this bit of dough. I also think I rolled it out too thin. Hrm. Had enough to do 5 Vols-au-Vent, which worked for me.

'Docked' or 'pricked' the bottoms and the center pieces, then brushed them with an egg wash. Then I carefully laid the sides on, and used my finger to brush egg wash on them too, so I wouldn't get any down the sides. Stuck it in the fridge while Mark fired up the grill and I preheated the oven.

I grilled out some Black Cherry Mead, Olive Oil and dried Tarragon marinated chicken breasts and Olive Oil And Sicilian Sea Salt coated Asparagus for the side. While they grilled, I sauteed a mix of mushrooms in butter, sea salt, pepper and dried basil, then added heavy cream to make a nice sauce.

The center pieces were done first, so they were removed. I had achieved puff! I was happy. Yayness abounded! Of course, then I almost burned the Asparagus. Whoops.

The rest were pulled out a few minutes before the chicken was done. So not bad on my timing if I do say so myself. I had to push the centers down a few times, it wouldn't stay put. Hee.
Not bad on the puff factor either, if I do say so myself.

Sliced the grilled chicken, arranged it in a base, topped with mushroom sauce and plated with Asparagus on the side. It was delicious. And it all was gone relatively quick too.

I cut one of the small pieces in half, so as to show the layers and puff. Crispy deliciousness. Better than store bought, honestly.

Thanks, Steph , for a very interesting Challenge! And yes, I'm feeling it in my shoulders today.}:P

THE RECIPE-

Equipment:
-food processor (will make mixing dough easy, but I imagine this can be done by hand as well)
-rolling pin
-pastry brush
-metal bench scraper (optional, but recommended)
-plastic wrap
-baking sheet
-parchment paper
-silicone baking mat (optional, but recommended)
-set of round cutters (optional, but recommended)
-sharp chef’s knife
-fork
-oven
-cooling rack

Prep Times:
-about 4-5 hours to prepare the puff pastry dough (much of this time is inactive, while you wait for the dough to chill between turns…it can be stretched out over an even longer period of time if that better suits your schedule)
-about 1.5 hours to shape, chill and bake the vols-au-vent after your puff pastry dough is complete

Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry Dough
From: Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan
Yield: 2-1/2 pounds dough

Steph’s note: This recipe makes more than you will need for the quantity of vols-au-vent stated above. While I encourage you to make the full recipe of puff pastry, as extra dough freezes well, you can halve it successfully if you’d rather not have much leftover.

There is a wonderful on-line video from the PBS show “Baking with Julia” that accompanies the book. In it, Michel Richard and Julia Child demonstrate making puff pastry dough (although they go on to use it in other applications). They do seem to give slightly different ingredient measurements verbally than the ones in the book…I listed the recipe as it appears printed in the book. http://video.pbs.org/video/1174110297/search/Pastry (**** Definitely WATCH THE VIDEO***)

Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups (12.2 oz/ 354 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups (5.0 oz/ 142 g) cake flour
1 tbsp. salt (you can cut this by half for a less salty dough or for sweet preparations)
1-1/4 cups (10 fl oz/ 300 ml) ice water
1 pound (16 oz/ 454 g) very cold unsalted butter
plus extra flour for dusting work surface

Mixing the Dough:

Check the capacity of your food processor before you start. If it cannot hold the full quantity of ingredients, make the dough into two batches and combine them.

Put the all-purpose flour, cake flour, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse a couple of times just to mix. Add the water all at once, pulsing until the dough forms a ball on the blade. The dough will be very moist and pliable and will hold together when squeezed between your fingers. (Actually, it will feel like Play-Doh.)

Remove the dough from the machine, form it into a ball, with a small sharp knife, slash the top in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Wrap the dough in a damp towel and refrigerate for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the butter between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and beat it with a rolling pin until it flattens into a square that's about 1" thick. Take care that the butter remains cool and firm: if it has softened or become oily, chill it before continuing.

Incorporating the Butter:

Unwrap the dough and place it on a work surface dusted with all-purpose flour (A cool piece of marble is the ideal surface for puff pastry) with your rolling pin (preferably a French rolling pin without handles), press on the dough to flatten it and then roll it into a 10" square. Keep the top and bottom of the dough well floured to prevent sticking and lift the dough and move it around frequently. Starting from the center of the square, roll out over each corner to create a thick center pad with "ears," or flaps.

Place the cold butter in the middle of the dough and fold the ears over the butter, stretching them as needed so that they overlap slightly and encase the butter completely. (If you have to stretch the dough, stretch it from all over; don't just pull the ends) you should now have a package that is 8" square.

To make great puff pastry, it is important to keep the dough cold at all times. There are specified times for chilling the dough, but if your room is warm, or you work slowly, or you find that for no particular reason the butter starts to ooze out of the pastry, cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it . You can stop at any point in the process and continue at your convenience or when the dough is properly chilled.

Making the Turns:

Gently but firmly press the rolling pin against the top and bottom edges of the square (this will help keep it square). Then, keeping the work surface and the top of the dough well floured to prevent sticking, roll the dough into a rectangle that is three times as long as the square you started with, about 24" (don't worry about the width of the rectangle: if you get the 24", everything else will work itself out.) With this first roll, it is particularly important that the butter be rolled evenly along the length and width of the rectangle; check when you start rolling that the butter is moving along well, and roll a bit harder or more evenly, if necessary, to get a smooth, even dough-butter sandwich (use your arm-strength!).

With a pastry brush, brush off the excess flour from the top of the dough, and fold the rectangle up from the bottom and down from the top in thirds, like a business letter, brushing off the excess flour. You have completed one turn.

Rotate the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Repeat the rolling and folding process, rolling the dough to a length of 24" and then folding it in thirds. This is the second turn.

Chilling the Dough:

If the dough is still cool and no butter is oozing out, you can give the dough another two turns now. If the condition of the dough is iffy, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Each time you refrigerate the dough, mark the number of turns you've completed by indenting the dough with your fingertips. It is best to refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns.

The total number of turns needed is six. If you prefer, you can give the dough just four turns now, chill it overnight, and do the last two turns the next day. Puff pastry is extremely flexible in this regard. However, no matter how you arrange your schedule, you should plan to chill the dough for at least an hour before cutting or shaping it.

Steph’s extra tips:
-While this is not included in the original recipe we are using (and I did not do this in my own trials), many puff pastry recipes use a teaspoon or two of white vinegar or lemon juice, added to the ice water, in the détrempe dough. This adds acidity, which relaxes the gluten in the dough by breaking down the proteins, making rolling easier. You are welcome to try this if you wish.

-Keep things cool by using the refrigerator as your friend! If you see any butter starting to leak through the dough during the turning process, rub a little flour on the exposed dough and chill straight away. Although you should certainly chill the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns, if you feel the dough getting to soft or hard to work with at any point, pop in the fridge for a rest.

-Not to sound contradictory, but if you chill your paton longer than the recommended time between turns, the butter can firm up too much. If this seems to be the case, I advise letting it sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes to give it a chance to soften before proceeding to roll. You don't want the hard butter to separate into chunks or break through the dough...you want it to roll evenly, in a continuous layer.

-Roll the puff pastry gently but firmly, and don’t roll your pin over the edges, which will prevent them from rising properly. Don't roll your puff thinner than about about 1/8 to 1/4-inch (3-6 mm) thick, or you will not get the rise you are looking for.

-Try to keep “neat” edges and corners during the rolling and turning process, so the layers are properly aligned. Give the edges of the paton a scooch with your rolling pin or a bench scraper to keep straight edges and 90-degree corners.

-Brush off excess flour before turning dough and after rolling.

-Make clean cuts. Don’t drag your knife through the puff or twist your cutters too much, which can inhibit rise.

-When egg washing puff pastry, try not to let extra egg wash drip down the cut edges, which can also inhibit rise.

-Extra puff pastry dough freezes beautifully. It’s best to roll it into a sheet about 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick (similar to store-bought puff) and freeze firm on a lined baking sheet. Then you can easily wrap the sheet in plastic, then foil (and if you have a sealable plastic bag big enough, place the wrapped dough inside) and return to the freezer for up to a few months. Defrost in the refrigerator when ready to use.

-You can also freeze well-wrapped, unbaked cut and shaped puff pastry (i.e., unbaked vols-au-vent shells). Bake from frozen, without thawing first.

-Homemade puff pastry is precious stuff, so save any clean scraps. Stack or overlap them, rather than balling them up, to help keep the integrity of the layers. Then give them a singe “turn” and gently re-roll. Scrap puff can be used for applications where a super-high rise is not necessary (such as palmiers, cheese straws, napoleons, or even the bottom bases for your vols-au-vent).

Forming and Baking the Vols-au-Vent
Yield: 1/3 of the puff pastry recipe below will yield about 8-10 1.5” vols-au-vent or 4 4” vols-au-vent

In addition to the equipment listed above, you will need:
-well-chilled puff pastry dough (recipe below)
-egg wash (1 egg or yolk beaten with a small amount of water)
-your filling of choice

Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

Using a knife or metal bench scraper, divided your chilled puff pastry dough into three equal pieces. Work with one piece of the dough, and leave the rest wrapped and chilled. (If you are looking to make more vols-au-vent than the yield stated above, you can roll and cut the remaining two pieces of dough as well…if not, then leave refrigerated for the time being or prepare it for longer-term freezer storage. See the “Tips” section below for more storage info.)

On a lightly floured surface, roll the piece of dough into a rectangle about 1/8 to 1/4-inch (3-6 mm) thick. Transfer it to the baking sheet and refrigerate for about 10 minutes before proceeding with the cutting.

(This assumes you will be using round cutters, but if you do not have them, it is possible to cut square vols-au-vents using a sharp chef’s knife.) For smaller, hors d'oeuvre sized vols-au-vent, use a 1.5” round cutter to cut out 8-10 circles. For larger sized vols-au-vent, fit for a main course or dessert, use a 4” cutter to cut out about 4 circles. Make clean, sharp cuts and try not to twist your cutters back and forth or drag your knife through the dough. Half of these rounds will be for the bases, and the other half will be for the sides. (Save any scrap by stacking—not wadding up—the pieces…they can be re-rolled and used if you need extra dough. If you do need to re-roll scrap to get enough disks, be sure to use any rounds cut from it for the bases, not the ring-shaped sides.)

Using a ¾-inch cutter for small vols-au-vent, or a 2- to 2.5-inch round cutter for large, cut centers from half of the rounds to make rings. These rings will become the sides of the vols-au-vent, while the solid disks will be the bottoms. You can either save the center cut-outs to bake off as little “caps” for you vols-au-vent, or put them in the scrap pile.

Dock the solid bottom rounds with a fork (prick them lightly, making sure not to go all the way through the pastry) and lightly brush them with egg wash. Place the rings directly on top of the bottom rounds and very lightly press them to adhere. Brush the top rings lightly with egg wash, trying not to drip any down the sides (which may inhibit rise). If you are using the little “caps,” dock and egg wash them as well.

Refrigerate the assembled vols-au-vent on the lined baking sheet while you pre-heat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). (You could also cover and refrigerate them for a few hours at this point.)

Once the oven is heated, remove the sheet from the refrigerator and place a silicon baking mat (preferred because of its weight) or another sheet of parchment over top of the shells. This will help them rise evenly. Bake the shells until they have risen and begin to brown, about 10-15 minutes depending on their size. Reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC), and remove the silicon mat or parchment sheet from the top of the vols-au-vent. If the centers have risen up inside the vols-au-vent, you can gently press them down. Continue baking (with no sheet on top) until the layers are golden, about 15-20 minutes more. (If you are baking the center “caps” they will likely be finished well ahead of the shells, so keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven when browned.)

Remove to a rack to cool. Cool to room temperature for cold fillings or to warm for hot fillings.

Fill and serve.

*For additional rise on the larger-sized vols-au-vents, you can stack one or two additional ring layers on top of each other (using egg wash to "glue"). This will give higher sides to larger vols-au-vents, but is not advisable for the smaller ones, whose bases may not be large enough to support the extra weight.

*Although they are at their best filled and eaten soon after baking, baked vols-au-vent shells can be stored airtight for a day.

*Shaped, unbaked vols-au-vent can be wrapped and frozen for up to a month (bake from frozen, egg-washing them first).

Max Update

2009-09-24T15:44:25Z

So Max had a vet appointment this morning. Checkup, few shots, that sort of thing.

Except, Dr Fleming says he's still a touch jaundiced. I KNEW I'd seen a shade of yellow a few times, I always shoved food in his face at those times, and he ate willingly, soo...

Because we still don't know what caused him to stop eating, etc, she wanted to run blood tests again and see if we could detect anything now.

So no vaccinations today. Possibly, depending on the results from the bloodwork, no more other than rabies, ever. He IS 12 yrs old after all, and extremely low risk for Feline Aids, etc- goes outside maybe once a week tops and NEVER unsupervised, nor for any longer than 10-15 minutes.

His weight is down again. In August when this all started, he was 15.5lbs. A few years before that, he'd been nearly 20lbs. So yeah, he was a big cat.

Today, he's at 13.5lbs. Which Dr Fleming says is a good weight and what we want to maintain, to keep the Fatty Liver Syndrome from coming back again. He just looks... odd to me, as I'm used to seeing a roly poly Max instead of this slimmer version.

He's still eating on his own, just no where near as mush as he used too- he doesn't gorge himself anymore, Aries does though, need to watch that.

So, we're in a holding pattern right now, waiting for blood results and where we go from there.

Update, 1215pm-
Max's ilbuterin (sp?) is still way too high. To put it shortly, things that shouldn't be high are still 6 times as high as normal, and things that should be normal, are way low.

So, he goes back on antibiotics for 3 more weeks.

Vet wants to suppliment with 1/2 of a 200mg tablet of Sam-E as well. Then we do more bloodwork in a couple weeks, see where we are from there.

He can't lose anymore weight. He loses more, we may have to have a feeding tube put in.}:/

New Shibori Scarf...

2009-09-21T20:29:30Z

From this, the one on the right is the finished scarf. The one on the left is being worked on now...

To this... Scarf was 14"x72" by the way...

To THIS... hard to believe that large of a scarf tied down into something less than a foot long and 3 inches wide...

To soaked in soda ash solution, then dunked in blue Procion MX dyes, allowed to dry, then rinsed and allowed to dry again...

To pulling out the strings, two days later...

To washing again and ironing it flat (this was wet)...

To the finished product. This is Kumo Shibori. This is awesomeness.}:P And makes 5 types of Shibori I have attempted and succeeded in varying degrees.

As yet unnamed, so as yet unlisted.

Newest Beadwork

2009-09-16T02:22:59Z

'The Sun's Mirror', 2nd in my new 'Mirror' Series, Ndebele(Herringbone) Choker
Available on 1000Markets or Artfire.

As yet unnamed (and unlisted) brooch, featuring a raku fired button by LisaPetersArt

Daring Cooks September Challenge- Indian Dosas, Vegan Style

2009-09-14T18:10:42Z

This month's Challenge was chosen by Debyi, of The Healthy Vegan Kitchen.

I've made Dosas before. But the ones I've made used regular wheat based flour.And they most certainly weren't vegetarian/vegan.}:P In fact, this was honestly the first time I've actively tried to cook a vegetarian/vegan meal.

I will freely admit that I did not make the filling in this recipe. However, I DID stay true to the vegetarian requirements. To appease the hubby, I also baked a few herbed chicken breasts and served them along side- otherwise, he'd never even of tried them.}:P

It's a quick post, not near as long as my usual ones, nor does it really have as much acerbic humor as usual. It's been a rough 1.5 months. Next Daring Bakers or Daring Cooks post will be back to normal. I promise.

So for my filling, I used red skin potatoes, homegrown heirloom tomatoes, red onions, a mix of mushrooms- including some of my hoarded Hen of the Woods wild mushrooms, dried Tarragon, sea salt, Curry, Garam Masala, pepper. And a splash of unsweetened almond milk.

Everything that needed to be, was chopped up into small pieces and dumped in a large pan. I also added a finely chopped clove of garlic. This was then set on the stove, stirred until everything was thoroughly mixed, then allowed to cook down.

While the filling cooked, and smelled divine by the way, I made a quick sauce. About a cup of the almond milk, Garam Masala and Ginger to taste, with a touch of Tumeric at the end for color, and Xantham Gum powder as a thickener. For something made 'on the fly', so to speak, it was actually quite good. We even dipped the baked chicken in it}:P

I added more chopped heirloom tomatoes and redskin potatoes to the filling mix about 3/4s of the way through cooking, to give it a bit more body as well as juice.

The Dosas themselves are really easy to make. It's spelt flour, water, almond (or soy or rice) milk, Curry, Sea salt, baking powder and really, that's it.

After putting all the dry ingredients in the bowl and thoroughly mixing them until combined, I added the water. Mixed that in well and added the almond milk. Stirred that in and made sure there were no lumps. Well, as few lumps as possible.

Lightly sprayed my frying pan with olive oil cooking spray and set it on a medium heat burner to heat up.

They say that when making crepes, the first one is either for the Chef or the dog. Well, it's pretty much the same with Dosas. This one? Was my third try.}:/

Mine came out thicker than they should be, but, well, I made them and that's what mattered. While I made up the rest, I kept sticking them in a barely warm oven, to keep them hot until they were to be served. I'd already baked the chicken by this time, so the oven had residue heat that was put to use. I also cooked up some Jasmine Rice as a side too.

The verdict? I enjoyed them. But then, I like eating a lot of veggies and salads. Mark? First words out of his mouth were 'Needs Meat.' BUT he liked them. He ate them willingly, although he thought the filling would be better with ground beef added to it.

The filling was really good served over the jasmine rice. Would I make this again? Of course! As a vegetarian/vegan dish? As a side, yes, as a main course, probably not.}:P

Thanks, Debyi for an interesting and challenging Challenge!

THE ORIGINAL RECIPES!

Indian Dosas

This recipe comes in 3 parts, the dosas, the filling and the sauce. It does take awhile to make, but the filling and sauce can be made ahead and frozen if need be. You can serve them as a main course with rice and veggies, or as an appetizer. This does take a little planning ahead, so make sure you read the recipe through before starting (I forgot & didn't start making the rice until everything was ready, oops).

Serves 4

Equipment needed:
large bowl
whisk
griddle or skillet
ladle (or large spoon)
spatula
vegetable peeler &/or knife
large saucepan
food processor or bean masher

Dosa Pancakes
1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)
½ tsp (2½ gm) salt
½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder
½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder
½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc.)
¾ cup (175ml/6oz) water
cooking spray, if needed

Dosa Filling
1 batch Curried Garbanzo Filling (see below), heated

Dosa Toppings
1 batch Coconut Curry Sauce (see below), heated
¼ cup (125gm) grated coconut
¼ cucumber, sliced

Dosa Pancakes
1.Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
2.Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
3.Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.

Curried Garbanzo Filling
This filling works great as a rice bowl topping or as a wrap too, so don't be afraid to make a full batch.

5 cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
2 TBSP (16gm) cumin, ground
1 TBSP (8gm) oregano
1 TBSP (8gm) sea salt (coarse)
1 TBSP (8gm) turmeric
4 cups (850gm/30oz) cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)
½ cup (125gm/4oz) tomato paste

1.Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.
2.Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.

Coconut Curry Sauce
This makes a great sauce to just pour over rice as well. This does freeze well, but the texture will be a little different. The flavor is still the same though. My picture of this sauce is one that I had made, had to freeze, then thaw to use. It tastes great, but the texture is a little runnier, not quite as thick as it was before freezing.

1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground
¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)
3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder
3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)
3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth
2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced

1.Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
2.Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
3.Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
4.Let it simmer for half an hour.
Happy eating!

wolfsilveroak @ 2009-09-08T21:50:00

2009-09-09T01:50:55Z

Puck
Netherlands Dwarf Harlequin Rabbit
1996?- Sept 8, 2009

Rest easy, little guy. Tell Dante and Nyx hello for me. I'll miss you.

Yes, Puck was 13-14 years old. Seriously.

CaturDay- Max on the couch this afternoon.

2009-09-05T18:48:47Z

Annnddd... now I'm being harrassed for not having a 'resale license'.

2009-09-03T02:29:37Z

Heh.

According to the IRS website, I'm a hobbyist, so don't even need a damn EIN!

Still re-looking up info in my City/County, but from what I understand, only if I register/apply for a business license, would I need a 'resale license'- which as I understand it, would really only do me any good if I wanted to buy my 'supplies' at wholesale prices. Well, most of my bead suppliers are fellow 'hobbyists' or on Ebay, so no reason/way to buy anything at wholesale prices there.

Also- I don't buy things from suppliers and turn around a RESELL it with the original tags/packaging, etc, at a mark-up. Yeah. That would make me a reseller. Obviously, I'm not. I buy supplies (beads, dye, scarf blanks, etc), create something from it, then either list it for sale if anyone is interested in it, or donate it to Rescues to auction off with no monies received by me, or plain give the items I create away as gifts to family and friends.

Good thing I'm not trying to make a living from what I do. I give away more than I've ever sold, heh. As for a profit, what the hell is that? I have NEVER made a profit at anything. I have the receipts to show for it too.

When I DO decide to try to make a living from my 'hobbies', then you bet I'll go get a business license and register my name, etc. Until then, this is my hobby. I happen to be good at it and like to do it a lot, as it's a great stress reliever for me, is all.

All this because I reported someone for reselling shit on Etsy.

Edit to add- It seems, that even though the IRS deems my work a 'hobby activity' and does NOT require any licenses, that my State/County/City do, anyway. Well, and so, that's being taken care of this morning. Yes, yes, I should have double checked a long time ago. Oh well, live and learn. I've not made any money off my items anyway and I have records/reciepts to back me up on this anyway. I'm rather anal about my reciepts. Heh.

Work in Progress....

2009-09-02T17:24:30Z

The newest pendant for the next 'Mirror' necklace/choker. 'The Sea's Mirror' was the first.

3 drop netweave stitched around, with Czech glass siam ruby drops, suede on the back.

Need to finish off the back, then do the actual necklace portion of this piece.

Have plans for at least 2 more in this series. If I can think up color combos/names, I may do 2 more after that. I have 6 of these tiles total.

So... 4 known Mirror necklaces/chokers to start. Not bad, I guess.

Progress is good- Max update

2009-08-31T17:19:48Z

Sure signs that Max is on the road to wellness again-

1- He's eating on his own more and more, especially at night when no one else is around. Still not as much and not as much as he should be, but it's a start.

2- Yesterday, he came flying out of the kennel where he's been camping out and snarled and hissed at Caena as she ran past, playing.

3- He's now coming into the kitchen looking for tasty treats again.

4- This morning he wandered into the kitchen and rolled on the floor, wanting his belly rubbed. He then went and chased Caena around the living room.

5- His color is very nearly normal. The yellow tinge is barely perceptible anymore. The sparkle is back in his eyes again.

6- Aries is more willing to come downstairs and be around him more often during the day now, and not just when Aries wants a treat.

7- HE PURRED LAST NIGHT AND KNEADED MY HAIR FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2 WEEKS.

$10.00 off Coupon , only good in my ArtFire Shop!

2009-08-30T19:22:05Z

Max is feeling LOTS better, so I'm celebrating!

Visit DantesSpirit's Studio

SAVE $ 10.00 On
All Items

Use Coupon Code:

MAX

during checkout.

Daring Bakers August Challenge- Dobos Torte

2009-08-27T04:02:00Z

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Oh boy.

When I first heard of the Daring Bakers, I came across this Torte. Well maybe not this particular recipe, but something similar. And I've wanted to make one ever since.

As with every Challenge, first I gathered everything I thought I might need. Wait.. what's that? There, on the right....

Why, it's parchment paper! Looky! I actually remembered to get some! And not only that, but I remembered to get plastic wrap too! Oh joy!

Any way...

First I had to separate 6 large eggs. I did really well until that last one. That one insisted on breaking as I dropped the yolk in the bowl. Hmph. Stupid yolk.

Then, because I couldn't find actual cake flour readily, I had to sift together regular flour and cornstarch. Except... I needed that bowl to beat the egg yolks in, cause it's my mixer bowl. D'oh!
So I had to dump that stuffs into another bowl. Yeah, I went through a lot of dishes on this Challenge.}:/

After wiping the bowl out, I added the egg yolks and powdered sugar. Then I started it beating.

While the yolks and sugar were beating, I sprayed 2 cookie sheets with cooking spray (Pam Olive Oil Cooking Spray to be exact.) and lined them with the parchment paper. The quick spray of oil was to help keep the parchment from sliding around when I was ready to put the batter on them. Doing a traditional round Dobos Torte? Pffft. Puh-lease. Not me, nope, nu-uh. Ok, ok, I didn't have the time or the funds to go buy 4 more round cake pans and didn't feel like bothering with just the two I had. Satisfied? Sheesh.

So, beat the egg yolks and sugar until they were a nice pale yellow and created ribbons when the beaters were lifted. Purty.

While the eggs yolks were beating and after I lined the cookie sheets, I got to work hand beating the egg whites and the rest of the powdered sugar. And beating. And beating. And beating. We see where this is going, right? Yeah. I think it's time to invest in a back up hand mixer.

After what seemed like an eternity of hand beating, finally I achieved soft peaks and was able to gently fold 1/4 of the whites into the yolks. Then the rest was folded in. Gently mind you. I had to keep reminding myself to fold, not stir.

Then I had to do the same thing with the sifted flour, half at a time. Fold, not stir. Heh. It took a bit of doing, but I got it all mixed in. And it was still fluffy! Yay!

Then I took one of the parchment paper lined cookie sheets, and spread about half of the sponge cake batter on it. I repeated this with the other cookie sheet as well. I tried really hard to get them as evenly distributed as I could. I was moderately successful.

Each layer baked for roughly 6 minutes. Then, after they mostly cooled, I placed a sheet of parchment on them , and put them on top of each other, then weighted them down with a third cookie sheet and several plates to flatten them a bit more. It sort of worked.

Once they were cooled completely, I then removed the sheets of sponge cake from the cookie sheets. I carefully measured them out and cut them more or less equally into 6 sections, 5" wide by 8" long, with 2" pieces left for whatever decorations I planned. And I had plans for them pieces too. I placed each piece in a ziploc container with a piece of parchment between each, then stuck it in the fridge.

Next up was making the chocolate buttercream frosting.

Now, buttercream and I... we don't have a good track record. Failcakes, anyone? Yeah. So I didn't have high hopes for this particular buttercream either.

Beat the eggs and powdered sugar together and I cheated a bit.. and used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa instead of grating chocolate to use in this. Dumped in roughly 1/4 cup at the start.

Then I, still dubious, put it over a pan of simmering water to thicken and slightly cook the eggs. I also added another 1/4 cup of cocoa at this point, as well as 1/2 teaspoon of Cardamom. Being skeptical, it didn't appear to be thickening to me. But I let it cook for the 2-3 minutes the recipe said and removed the bowl.

Set it on the table and walked away. It had to cool to room temp. That took awhile. Every so often I'd give it a good whip and a stir. It didn't look thick to me. I actually went to the store and BOUGHT, using mostly change no less, chocolate frosting, cause I just knew this was going to fail. I knew it.

Once the chocolate mixture was cooled, I poured it into the mixing bowl and turned the mixer on medium-high speed. Then I slowly added the unsalted butter, a piece at a time. I kept giving the hubby odd looks, which he totally missed, cause...

Umm... it worked. I actually made chocolate buttercream. O.O My mind, it is still boggled. So, I scooped it all into a bowl and quickly stuck it in the fridge until the next day.

The next day, I had to make the caramel layer. Well, those 2" wide pieces I had left? I cut 1" stars out of them and laid them on a piece of wax paper. Then, instead of lemon juice, I used vanilla extract in my caramel. And I added Cardamom. I like Cardamom, what can I say.

Pulled the sponge cake layers and the buttercream out of the fridge. Look! It's still buttercream frosting! Whee! The buttercream in particular needed to come back up to room temp so I could spread it easily.

Made the FIRST batch of caramel. Note I said FIRST. Poured it over the stars. Then tried to spread it around a bit to coat the stars more evenly and well, that didn't work very well. So I stuck the pan in the freezer and set about putting the Torte together.

I took a small metal pan, flipped it over, put a sheet of parchment on it, tucked the ends under. That was my base for building my Torte. I put a small dab of buttercream on the parchment to hold the first layer in place so it wouldn't slide around as I spread a thin layer of buttercream on it. That worked beautifully.

Rinse and repeat for all 6 layers, building the Torte as evenly as possible and creating a crumb coat on the outside to hide where one layer wasn't quite as wide as the one below, etc. Not that that was a huge issue, but one layer was a bit narrower. There weren't many crumbs either, luckily. Unfortunately, there was apparently some unmixed bits butter in my buttercream, but you know what?? I. Don't. Care. I made buttercream. That's all I cared about.}:P

Finally, all layers were on and I did a final coating of buttercream to even it all out and make it as smooth as possible.

For some strange reason, one corner dipped. Hrm. No idea why. Oh well. The Torte then was stuck in the fridge to set up firm and I checked on the stars in the freezer.

Umm... yeah. I couldn't get them off the stupid wax paper. So, they were tossed. I was now frustrated. I had to figure some sort of caramel layer decoration and all I had left was scraps. Well, I took the outline sections of the stars, trimmed them into rough squares and made a second batch of caramel. This time, I used lime juice and Cardamom. I also sprayed a cookie sheet AND a wire rack with oil and laid the squares on it, hoping THAT would work.

#$%%^&#@$@#* squares didn't get fully covered, so I made a THIRD batch of caramel. Then I flipped the wire rack over, cause, you KNOW the stupid squares were stuck to it, despite being sprayed with oil first.

At that point, I gave up. I waited until the caramel hardened and broke it up into pieces. THAT was what I ended up using.

I managed to get the Torte off the parchment paper and onto the plate. Then I decorated it with shards of caramel and a few pecan halves- I hate hazelnuts. The bottom edge was lined with pecans.

Other than the caramel layer/decoration, it was worth it. It was very good. Mark gave it 2 thumbs up approval. HOWEVER, I don't think I'll be making another anytime soon.}:P

Thanks Angela and Lorraine, for a definitely challenging Challenge!

THE CHALLENGE RECIPES-

So, what is the Dobos Torta (or Torte)?

The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!) It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners' and Gingerbread Makers' Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely.

Lorraine and I would like you to make this famous cake which we chose in the spirit of being Daring and Challenging us. Variations are discussed at the end of this post and as always, if you have to make substitutions for dietary or financial reasons, that is fine.

Equipment

•2 baking sheets
•9” (23cm) springform tin and 8” cake tin, for templates
•mixing bowls (1 medium, 1 large)
•a sieve
•a double boiler (a large saucepan plus a large heat-proof mixing bowl which fits snugly over the top of the pan)
•a small saucepan
•a whisk (you could use a balloon whisk for the entire cake, but an electric hand whisk or stand mixer will make life much easier)
•metal offset spatula
•sharp knife
•a 7 1/2” cardboard cake round, or just build cake on the base of a sprinfrom tin.
•piping bag and tip, optional
Prep times

•Sponge layers: 20 mins prep, 40 mins cooking total if baking each layer individually.
•Buttercream: 20 mins cooking. Cooling time for buttercream: about 1 hour plus 10 minutes after this to beat and divide.
•Caramel layer: 10-15 minutes.
•Assembly of whole cake: 20 minutes

Sponge cake layers

•6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
•1 1/3 cups (162g) confectioner's (icing) sugar, divided
•1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
•1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (112g) sifted cake flour (SUBSTITUTE 95g plain flour + 17g cornflour (cornstarch) sifted together)
•pinch of salt

Chocolate Buttercream

•4 large eggs, at room temperature
•1 cup (200g) caster (ultrafine or superfine white) sugar
•4oz (110g) bakers chocolate or your favourite dark chocolate, finely chopped
•2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons (250g) unsalted butter, at room temperature.

Caramel topping

•1 cup (200g) caster (superfine or ultrafine white) sugar
•12 tablespoons (180 ml) water
•8 teaspoons (40 ml) lemon juice
•1 tablespoon neutral oil (e.g. grapeseed, rice bran, sunflower)

Finishing touches

•a 7” cardboard round
•12 whole hazelnuts, peeled and toasted
•½ cup (50g) peeled and finely chopped hazelnuts
Directions for the sponge layers:

NB. The sponge layers can be prepared in advance and stored interleaved with parchment and well-wrapped in the fridge overnight.

1.Position the racks in the top and centre thirds of the oven and heat to 400F (200C).

2.Cut six pieces of parchment paper to fit the baking sheets. Using the bottom of a 9" (23cm) springform tin as a template and a dark pencil or a pen, trace a circle on each of the papers, and turn them over (the circle should be visible from the other side, so that the graphite or ink doesn't touch the cake batter.)

3.Beat the egg yolks, 2/3 cup (81g) of the confectioner's (icing) sugar, and the vanilla in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes. (You can do this step with a balloon whisk if you don't have a mixer.)

4.In another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 2/3 cup (81g) of confectioner's (icing)sugar until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks. Using a large rubber spatula, stir about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder, leaving a few wisps of white visible. Combine the flour and salt. Sift half the flour over the eggs, and fold in; repeat with the remaining flour.

5.Line one of the baking sheets with a circle-marked paper. Using a small offset spatula, spread about 3/4cup of the batter in an even layer, filling in the traced circle on one baking sheet.

Bake on the top rack for 5 minutes, until the cake springs back when pressed gently in the centre and the edges are lightly browned. While this cake bakes, repeat the process on the other baking sheet, placing it on the centre rack. When the first cake is done, move the second cake to the top rack. Invert the first cake onto a flat surface and carefully peel off the paper. Slide the cake layer back onto the paper and let stand until cool. Rinse the baking sheet under cold running water to cool, and dry it before lining with another parchment. Continue with the remaining papers and batter to make a total of six layers. Completely cool the layers. Using an 8" springform pan bottom or plate as a template, trim each cake layer into a neat round. (A small serrated knife is best for this task.)

Directions for the chocolate buttercream:

NB. This can be prepared in advance and kept chilled until required.

1.Prepare a double-boiler: quarter-fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to a boil.

2.Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and thickened, about five minutes. You can use a balloon whisk or electric hand mixer for this.

3.Fit bowl over the boiling water in the saucepan (water should not touch bowl) and lower the heat to a brisk simmer. Cook the egg mixture, whisking constantly, for 2-3 minutes until you see it starting to thicken a bit. Whisk in the finely chopped chocolate and cook, stirring, for a further 2-3 minutes.

4.Scrape the chocolate mixture into a medium bowl and leave to cool to room temperature. It should be quite thick and sticky in consistency.

5.When cool, beat in the soft butter, a small piece (about 2 tablespoons/30g) at a time. An electric hand mixer is great here, but it is possible to beat the butter in with a spatula if it is soft enough. You should end up with a thick, velvety chocolate buttercream. Chill while you make the caramel topping.

Lorraine's note: If you're in Winter just now your butter might not soften enough at room temperature, which leads to lumps forming in the buttercream. Male sure the butter is of a very soft texture I.e. running a knife through it will provide little resistance, before you try to beat it into the chocolate mixture. Also, if you beat the butter in while the chocolate mixture is hot you'll end up with more of a ganache than a buttercream!

Directions for the caramel topping:

1.Choose the best-looking cake layer for the caramel top. To make the caramel topping: Line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper and butter the paper. Place the reserved cake layer on the paper. Score the cake into 12 equal wedges. Lightly oil a thin, sharp knife and an offset metal spatula.

2.Stir the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn the heat up to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally and washing down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet brush until the syrup has turned into an amber-coloured caramel.

3.The top layer is perhaps the hardest part of the whole cake so make sure you have a oiled, hot offset spatula ready. I also find it helps if the cake layer hasn't just been taken out of the refrigerator. I made mine ahead of time and the cake layer was cold and the toffee set very, very quickly—too quickly for me to spread it. Immediately pour all of the hot caramel over the cake layer. You will have some leftover most probably but more is better than less and you can always make nice toffee pattern using the extra to decorate. Using the offset spatula, quickly spread the caramel evenly to the edge of the cake layer. Let cool until beginning to set, about 30 seconds. Using the tip of the hot oiled knife (keep re-oiling this with a pastry brush between cutting), cut through the scored marks to divide the caramel layer into 12 equal wedges. Cool another minute or so, then use the edge of the knife to completely cut and separate the wedges using one firm slice movement (rather than rocking back and forth which may produce toffee strands). Cool completely.

Angela's note: I recommend cutting, rather than scoring, the cake layer into wedges before covering in caramel (reform them into a round). If you have an 8” silicon round form, then I highly recommend placing the wedges in that for easy removal later and it also ensures that the caramel stays on the cake layer. Once set, use a very sharp knife to separate the wedges.

Assembling the Dobos

1.Divide the buttercream into six equal parts.

2.Place a dab of chocolate buttercream on the middle of a 7 1/2” cardboard round and top with one cake layer. Spread the layer with one part of the chocolate icing. Repeat with 4 more cake layers. Spread the remaining icing on the sides of the cake.

3.Optional: press the finely chopped hazelnuts onto the sides of the cake.

4.Propping a hazelnut under each wedge so that it sits at an angle, arrange the wedges on top of the cake in a spoke pattern. If you have any leftover buttercream, you can pipe rosettes under each hazelnut or a large rosette in the centre of the cake. Refrigerate the cake under a cake dome until the icing is set, about 2 hours. Let slices come to room temperature for the best possible flavour.

Storage

I (Angela) am quite happy to store this cake at room temperature under a glass dome, but your mileage may vary. If you do decide to chill it, then I would advise also using a glass dome if you have done. I should also note that the cake will cut more cleanly when chilled.

Variations

Shape: The traditional shape of a Dobos Torta is a circular cake, but you can vary the shape and size if you want. Sherry Yard in Desserts By The Yard makes a skyscraper Dobos by cutting a full-size cake into four wedges and stacking them to create a tall, sail-shaped cake. Mini Dobos would be very cute, and you could perch a little disc of caramel on top.

Flavour: While we both love the dark chocolate buttercream and this is traditional, we think it would be fun to see what fun buttercreams you all come up with! So, go wild! Or, you could brush each layer with a flavoured syrup if you just want a hint of a second flavour. Cointreau syrup would be divine!

Nuts: These are optional for decoration, so no worries if you're allergic to them. If you don't like hazelnuts, then substitute for another variety that you like.

Egg concerns

The cooking process for the buttercream will produce lightly cooked eggs. If you fall into a vulnerable health group then you may wish to use an egg-less buttercream.

Resources
http://cafechocolada.blogspot.com/2008/04/dobos-torte.html
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4VHMjIfxfYcC&pg=PA240&lpg=PA240&dq=%22dobos+torte%22&source=bl&ots=tcE2j8dTLl&sig=QoPANOL_MJnfi_vmHm5rW2ncC60&hl=en&ei=jidySrbpKeG2jAec58mODA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7
http://paulaerbay2.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/dobos-torte-recipe/

Pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaykivi/1461855790/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moemegan/91029833/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kisima/331016996/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_cupcake_store/2500169495/

Hard Decisions.

2009-08-25T18:30:18Z

No, not about Max. Well, sort of. He was the catalyst anyway.

Right from the start, I had my doubts about being able to afford to go to New Jersey for the SiL/BiL's wedding renewal/10th anniversary thing. After all, we almost didn't go to Michigan, due to finances.

THAT came down to the wire, literally.

So, yeah.

After Max got sick, and we had to call the Parents in Law for help with the emergency vet bills, it became less of an unknown and more of a 'how do we tell them we can't come?'. We already canceled plans to go up in Sept for the Akita Fun Day/Picnic due to not being able to afford it as well as vet appointments.

Between paying them back for the vet loan, having to have more vet trips for Max in the upcoming months to ensure his kidneys/liver are still functioning normally, then having to save up for a rental car, having to buy new outfits for the event as well as having to find a pet sitter, let alone saving up to afford THAT.

There's no way.

Absolutely no way possible. And not getting a rental car is out of the question, as the Banshee Car will never make it there and back. Well, it might, but it'd probably die soon after. So honestly, saving THAT money for a new car is the better idea.

So I emailed the SiL and told her that I'd not be able to make her mini cakes for her, and as of right now, we don't foresee being able to attend in Dec. And opened a can of worms.

I told Mark she'd read it and immediately call their mom. Then I'd get emails from both asking what was up, and his mom wanting to give us money, etc, so on and so forth.

I was right.

Well, sorry, but it's not going to work. I don't deal with guilt trips well, so I forwarded the email to Mark and said YOU DEAL WITH THIS NOW.

So tired of this shit.