Indiscriminate # of days of cookies.

Since I'm going home to California this Saturday and I can't take my kitchen on the plane with me, I'm choosing to do all of my baking here.

• I kicked it all off last weekend with Seasoned Oyster Crackers; not exactly a sweet treat but they count as a holiday thing.

1. Ingredients: one bag of oyster crackers {12 oz} , one pack of powdered ranch dressing mix {1 oz}, 1/2 tsp dried dill weed, 1/4 tsp lemon pepper, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, and 3.4 cup vegetable {or anything mild} oil.
2. Preheat oven to 275 F.
3. In a bowl, mix all ingredients except the crackers together and then fold in the oyster crackers until everything is well coated. I used whisk to do this.
4. Spread crackers on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. I prefer the 20-minute option because the crackers get a bit crunchier.

• On Monday I made Snickerdoodles since those are Mike's favorites.
• Today I made Hershey's Peanut Butter Blossoms which are some of my favorites.
• On the agenda for tomorrow? Raspberry Jam Thumbprints and maybe some Shortbread Cookies. 
• I am also being tempted by Key Lime Meltaways but I think I might save those for next year.

Have you kicked off baking yet this season Reader? What are your favorite holiday treats? Any holiday traditions out there?
xoxo, natty ♥

Cleaning out our fridge, one loaf of banana bread at at time.

The end of our time in this apartment is rapidly approaching {wahhhhhh} and I'm scrambling to use up as much food as possible. I'm tackling three distinct areas 1} the cupboard/pantry {this is about a 3 on the 1 to "oh s%#*" freaking out scale since we can schlep most of this} 2} the refrigerator {about a 7 since I am not so cheap as to haul around a little cooler full of ketchup across the country} and 3} the freezer {oh.s@*&.}.
I'll probably just end up buying new condiments when we get to DC but I certainly am cheap enough to not throw out brown bananas; what DO I do with them? I freeze them.

Frozen Brown Bananas.

Then I can make banana bread.

Plus flour. Does it always charm you too how Trader Joe's name reconfigures itself when he's giving you different things? Trader Giuseppe for pasta!

They are a bit slimy when thawing but I can get over that.

Plus buttermilk {you can substitute with a ratio of one cup regular milk to one teaspoon white [NO OTHER VARIETY] vinegar}.

The recipe {the link is above} is quick and easy though the bake time is about an hour.

Plus chocolate chips.

I always add chocolate chips.

Plus sugar, butter, eggs, baking soda and a bit of vanilla. And love.

And I never add in nuts.
This week I only eked out one batch of two loaves but I am expecting three plus another cobbler before the next seven days are over.

Ta-yum!

Today I'm spending the afternoon in San Francisco; happy weekend to you!
xoxo, natty ♥

Lemony Lovliness.

This week I ventured into New Baking Territory and created my very own loaf of lemon bread; yum!
As I mentioned a few weeks ago one of my pals gifted me with a bagful of Meyer lemons and I decided to do something with them for my monthly baked good goal.
After a bit of searching I decided on a bread/pound cake thing with a glaze. It was pretty easy to whip up.

That red juice squeezer/bar contraption made things go quickly for me!

I might have baked it a bit too long because it seemed a bit dry but it might also be that I let it sit out for many hours "cooling".
No matter what, though, it was delicious and made good use of at least half of those lemons. The other five or so have gone into various dinners; thanks Lauren!

Yum! Yesterday's picture.

Have you baked anything new recently? Do you have a fall-back baked good? Mine is usually chocolate chip cookies {a little too often maybe} so I was glad to try something new. Happy almost Friday to you!


PS
Here's an approximation of what I did. 

Cake ingredients:
1.5 cups of flour
1 tsp baking powder
about half of 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
A little over 1 cup of sugar
4 eggs at room temperature
Grated lemon zest from 1 to 2 lemons
A scant 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice {put some more aside for the syrup and glaze}
2 sticks of melted and cooled butter {salted or unsalted is up to you}
1/4 cup of sour cream at room temperature {I used plain Greek yogurt}
1 tsp of vanilla extract


Syrup ingredients: 
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar

Glaze ingredients:
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 


Make the loaf!

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
• In your mixer {or using a hand-held jobaroo} mix together the sugar, eggs, lemon zest and lemon juice.
• Slowly add in the melted butter {I used a tablespoon to do the trick}.
• Slowly add in the sour cream and vanilla.
• Quickly fold in the flour mixture taking care not to over mix.
• Bake this dude up in a 9x5 {approximately} baking pan. I greased the heck out of mine AND lined it with foil. Do what you will to ensure that your finished product pops out nicely and doesn't break apart in a sad and crumbly manner.
• Cook for 20 minutes at 350 then another 30 to 35 at 325 {though I'm not sure how effective it is to lower an oven temperature in the middle of a job but that's what I did...}. Or at least until a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean.
• Let the loaf cool. I usually put the pan with the loaf still in it onto a cooling rack or if you're brave and it's dropped in temperature a bit, put the loaf itself onto a rack.

Now make the syrup!

• Stir together about 1/3 of a cup of lemon juice and the same amount of sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat until it dissolves. 
• When the loaf has cooled for about 15 minutes then score the top and sides of the bread. Using a brush {or pour slowly} coat the top and sides of the loaf with the sugar/lemon mixture. Use about half, let it soak in for about 10 minutes and then finish it off. Or do it all at once. Whichever pleases you.

Now make the glaze!

• Mix together half a cup of confectioner's sugar and a few more tablespoons of lemon juice. Mine came out thin so maybe go heavy on the sugar. Pour this over the top and enjoy!!!

xoxo, natty ♥

Yippee!

Some warmth has finally arrived to our parts, but being so close to the water (SF Bay and the Pacific), things are always subject change so I'm greatly enjoying this.

Today I did some wedding planning, most specifically a plan of what the table centerpieces will look like. I would like for our reception tables to be themed and so far I'm having a great time putting together things for each theme. Ideally I'll put the stuff for each table in a bag or box for easy assembly and clean up, whomever is helping us can just unpack each bag/box of stuff onto a table.

Over the years I've gotten good at collecting things I realized today, not necessarily collections but just crap (arguably so to some, I realize). It's mostly older home ware, Pyrex and vintage cookie plates and vases. The upside to this, ahem...habit, is that I've got a great supply of centerpiece decorations to choose from! I can use the bowls and vases to hold things in, obviously, and the other tchotchkes fit in to my various themes. This sounds a bit jumbled, but trust me, it works!

The great thing is that it's forcing me to organize a bit. Does anyone else have as much stuff as I do? I never know what to do with all of the notes and greeting cards and little mementos that I get. If I were better organized, I could pare things down so that I could have a neat little box for the different phases in my life, like a high school box or fun kitchen stuff box {we're not living in our own place yet}. Since we moved last year I kind of started this and 'box' is more like a big rubbermaid tub , but this way things are contained, easy to find and unpack in the future.

So I'll get some more tubs since I have a few already half full and when the wedding is over then I can disassemble the centerpieces into their respective boxes or donate what we probably don't need anymore. I don't want to sound as though I'm not sentimental, I'm too so much so considering all the stuff I hold on to. I'm finding things from when I was in grade school, not much, but there still is some and I'm just so blown away by how many things we accumulate. When I would visit Mike in El Salvador while he was living with pretty poor people, they often had as much stuff packed into their homes as they could, which means it must be only human to gather and gather and it's not just unique to US culture?? So I'm inspired to live more minimally but it's going to take some digging out to begin. More than some, actually. Wish us luck and watch out Goodwill donation stations!

I grilled a lovely late spring dinner for me and my grandmother, including my first go at grilled fruit! We had some bitter apricots and I thought the heat might help to bring out the natural sugars. It didn't, but it looked kind of pretty

Don't worry, the fence is being repainted soon.

I tried out this contraption that a coworker lent me, it's for making baby cupcakes in a short amount of time, though if you do a full box of cake mix, it will take as much time as baking a whole cake in the oven, but baby cupcakes are cuter so yay! ***UPDATE***After getting the hang of it, this is quicker...

Cupcake machine.

Spooning...

Baby-caking...

Trying to be ready...

My only complaint is that the little buggers were sticking like crazy, so I used some cooking spray which helped a bit. It was fun to try, though I probably wouldn't buy it.

Crumbly mess =(

***UPDATE*** I wrote this while "baking" and figured through trial and error that my "babycakes" were not baby enough, they were too big, so with a bit less batter and the spray, they came out awesomely!!

Mo' bettah =)

Of course, everything's even better with chocolate frosting.

I'm going mother of the bride dress shopping with my mom tomorrow and then later seeing a friend; vacation is wonderful!

Trying-to-be-artistic side of house and cat shot.

xoxo, natty ♥