Grandkids and grandma in the kitchen!

Last Saturday around 3 p.m. my granddaughter remembered we were going to a church potluck, where we were suppose to make a dish and share it for different contests.

The dinner, I thought started at 6:30 p.m. So we pulled out one of Seth's cookbooks, each found a recipe we wanted to try and got started.

Kalene started first with the recipe, 'Vanilla Rings'. As she was pounding whole almonds into ground almonds, Seth got his ingredients together. I went to the store to buy some yogurt as we were actually out. They did an awesome job, all by themselves and both of their cookie batches came out so delicious!

In the recipe that Kalene chose, she decided to add melted chocolate on top. What a great idea and it made the cookies.

I haven't tasted a sugar type cookie with ginger in it before, Seth's were a light type with just a little crunch as they cooled off. 'Grantham Gingerbreads' is the recipe Seth chose.

I decided to make a bread that I needed to enter a recipe for Bread Baking Day, 'Lemon Poppyseed Braid'. Post is below this one.

When we got to church, we found out the dinner started at 6 p.m., but lucky for us there were others who were late and plenty of food. Everyone was glad I brought bread as only two others did and this helped to be spread around, same with the kids bringing cookies. We must have chosen the right recipes as we didn't take anything home, yeah!

I think everyone who brought a dish should have won, everything was great! Very filling night.

Recipes:

Vanilla Rings

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup ground almonds

3 cups flour

• Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
• Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl, or use a food processor on a low speed, until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg, then the vanilla extract, almonds, and flour.
• Put the paste into a decorating bag fitted with a star-shaped tip.
• Pipe 2-inch rings on to a greased baking sheet.
• Bake for 8 to 9 minutes.

Recipe by: Deborah Gray

Book: the baker’s bible

Grantham Gingerbreads

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons self-rising flour

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 stick butter or margarine

1 ½ cups superfine sugar

1 egg, beaten

• Preheat oven to 300˚F.
• In one bowl, sift together the flour and the giner.
• In another bowl, beat together the butter or margarine and sugar, then beat in the egg.
• Stir in the flour mixture and combine well.
• Roll the dough into a walnut-sized balls.
• Place the balls on a greased baking tray and bake for about 40 minutes until crisp, hollow, and lightly browned.

*Note: These round puffy gingerbread cookies should be “hollow and slightly dome-shaped, with a pleasing fawn tint.”

Recipe by: Deborah Gray

Book: the baker’s bible

BBD #23 “Something You’ve Never Made Before"

This is my granddaughter's hand, giving this recipe a thumbs up for the recipe I chose for the BBD #23 hosted by Nick of imafoodblog.com. Thanks Nick and group for hosting this month. Will be making this bread again.

Slightly sweet, flavored with lemon, and full of poppy seeds, tender delicious bread! Here is the bread I decided to make for the BBD #23. It took me way too long to figure out which bread I wanted to try, that I have not made. Well an opportunity came up for a church potluck, so got out one of my grandson's cookbooks and went to work. Here is what I baked and it did win a prize for using whole grains!

Lemon Poppyseed Braid

1 egg

½ cup lemon yogurt (the store was out of lemon yogurt, so I used plain and added to 2 tablespoons of juice from a lemon.)

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons sugar

1 ½ tablespoons poppyseeds

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup unbleached bread flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 ½ teaspoons yeast

Glaze or egg wash:

1 egg white beaten with 2 teaspoons water

• Beat egg with yogurt, butter, sugar, poppyseeds, and lemon zest.
• Sift together the flours, yeast and salt.
• Stir all of the ingredients together to get the flours wet. You may need to add more unbleached flour, (as I did, almost another 1 cup).
• Knead the dough by hand until soft and not too wet.
• Put dough into a well-greased bowl and let rise for about 1 hour.
• When the dough has doubled in size take out of bowl and knead onto a lightly floured surface.
• Cut dough into 3 equal pieces and roll into a rope, about 14” long.
• Braid the three ropes into a braid and put onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (Can use a greased cookie sheet.)
• Cover dough and rise until doubled, about 30-40 minutes.
• Brush top of dough with egg-water wash.
• Bake bread in a preheated oven 350˚F until golden, 25-35 minutes. Make sure dough is done in middle, use the toothpick method to check.

Orginal recipe by: Deborah Gray of the baker's bible

My Daughters' Wedding

Haven't taken a chance to write about my daughters wedding. It's almost two months now. I don't write much, because I don't know how to express my feelings well. But here goes.

It was beautiful!!! A nice day and we didn't see any rain until we were almost home.

In our church we are sealed for time and eternity, so we go to our temples and have the ceremony there. Very special, very sacred, very peaceful. It is just a special feeling inside, not that all marriage ceremonies are not special and beautiful, they are. I love how you know that you are seal to your spouse always, and because of this sacredness, you strive hard to stay married and work on your relationship with your spouse. In the ceremony Michelle cried tears of happiness and we all felt the spirit there. She is a good example to her nephews and nieces and cousins.

The reception was at our church building and the lady who was in charge of decoration did a fabulous job! It was magical and beautiful!!!! Words cannot describe it all, so hopefully the pictures will.

As I drove to my house to finish and pick up the cake, I started to panic. It was hot and steamy out side and I was worried the frosting on the cake would melt. So we packed each tier carefully and away we went. Whenever I make wedding cakes I finished them at the reception, in case the decorations fall from the driving. Well we didn’t get home early enough from the wedding ceremony, so I was rushed and got to the church as the reception was starting. A few people suggested to hurry up and get in the reception line as the mother-of-the bride should do. But how do you hurry the decorations on the cake. I did my best and one of the corners of the bottom tier fell off, so I had to ‘glue’ it back together with more frosting and toothpicks. Any way for all that panic, Michelle thought the cake looked great!

At the reception there were lots of guests and things went well. She looked lovely and we all liked the tux, Alex chose to wear. They both are a good looking couple and are very happy.

It was sad to see them leave for their honeymoon, as I realized I won’t see her everyday, anymore. She now has her own life to live. So to me it is a happy day and a sad day. I hope and pray the best for them and that they will strive to live a great married life!

(By the way, no one ate the toothpicks, as luckily it was the last piece of cake to be cut.)

I want to thank all who helped by taking these pictures: Sarah, Julie, Joey, Cynthia, and Seth. (I also took some.)

Berry Crumble Cake

Jamie,

Made this a couple of weeks ago and forgot to put in on my blog. Didn't have plums right away, so made the 'Plum Crumble Cake' with berries. Oh my gosh! Delicious!!! Thanks for your recipe. Only difference is that I used 1 cup blueberries and 1 cup raspberries! Can't wait to try with the plums. I enjoyed how you tasted a coffee cake, yet the crispy bread crust.

What mixture of the two! We really enjoyed it, for the recipe go to:

http://lifesafeast.blogspot.com/2009/07/jamie-and-clare-bake.html

Very easy to make, hope all of you try it!