TWD/BWJ: Chocolate Mascarpone Cheesecake

Let's just say it's been a bad day and leave it at that.

Except for the chocolate cheesecake, whose

only purpose is to make the world a better place.

Thank God.

I thought it might be a full moon. Looked at the calendar. Not quite. Then I remembered Mercury. Have you ever heard of Mercury in retrograde? Whenever I hit a stretch of unexplainable frustrations, little setbacks, things that stop working, people who confuse me or hurt my feelings, Mercury is usually in retrograde. And sure enough, that's the case, Feb 6-28, which means we're right smack in the middle of it now. It might just be a convenient excuse. I don't care. Had myself a good little pity party today. Wallowed in the sadness. Which is OK as long as you don't get trapped there. Chocolate cheesecake helps.

I do think it might be easier, well certainly neater, to make this the normal way with the crust inside the pan. But I'm willing to give anything a try once, and the recipe specified cooking the cake, then flipping it out of the pan and pressing crumbs onto the bottom afterward. You can't make many crumbs stick that way. Which makes all that Oreo crushing seem fruitless. Wish I'd taken a picture of the ball of "middle" cream that I dug out of those cookies. Pretty nasty really. I considered using it for sculpture material. But I digress.

  

All's well that ends well. But next time I'll press the crumbs in the pan first. This recipe can be found in the Baking With Julia cookbook, and the other Tuesdays With Dorie bloggers are here.

Here's a shoe. Close enough for Mercury in retrograde:

Emergency Snow Day Girl Scout Cookies

Not-So-Thin Mints

Oh my goodness, how lucky we have been.

Ice? Yes.

Snow? Yes.

Power? YES!

And then cabin fever set in. One of my friends mentioned Girl Scout cookies, specifically Thin Mints, on Facebook. Why did she have to do that? Poked around the internet and found this recipe. There were other recipes out there, but they required chocolate cake mix. Not in my pantry. I had the ingredients for this one, so the experiment was a go.

My mother was the troop leader.
This is the only picture I have of
us together in our uniforms

I've been a girl scout since I was 4 years old. They don't technically have a category for 4-yr-olds, but my mother was the camp nurse that year, so I went too. Official enough for me. Oh yes, I have many happy girl scout memories. I know all the songs. How many of you know "High up, high on the mountain, they founded Our Chalet"? My first experience cleaning a stove was for a girl scout badge. I could go on and on.

A letter I sent home from camp.
It's hilarious.

Camp was a entire world to itself. The flag ceremonies, table hopping for meals, the crafts cabin! I will always associate the smell of Prell shampoo with Camp Bear Creek because they sold little tubes of it at the trading post. We washed our hair in the outdoor concrete block showers, along with the spiders and other creepy crawlies. We sent hand-written letters to our parents and received goodie boxes, as if two weeks away from home was an eternity. 

The dough scraper is a perfect
tool for cutting these. The recipe
says 1/4" but they should
definitely be thinner.

The dough is stiff!
Powerful mixer helps.

My daughter at one of her first
Brownie meetings.

I got to experience girl scouting from a whole new perspective when my daughter became a scout. Oh, the times we had. Yes, there were camping trips. Let me tell you, the first time we arrived at a camp and there was air-conditioning, I knew times had changed! So many memories. The ballet, kangaroo farm, waterfall hikes, tent camping at Stone Mountain, horseback riding ("vaulting" they call it, where you learn to do tricks), quiltmaking, river clean-ups, Thinking Day overnights, dolphin-watching, Juliette Gordon Low's home in Savannah. What a close little group her troop became over the years. I will always love each one of those girls.

The troop learning about marine life at Tybee Island.

I've managed to write lots more than you want to know and haven't even mentioned the star of the family, my sister, the overachiever girl scout who filled her sash with badges all the way up the back! She even went on a trip to California as a Senior scout by winning some kind of contest. Forgive me for not knowing all the details. Scouting prepared her to be a community leader. Last year, she was honored by the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana with the Tough Cookie Award. I'm so proud of her. I only wish our mother could have been there to see it.

Out of the oven.
They don't spread at all.

Mint-flavored chocolate chips
are definitely the way to go if you
can find them.

And did I mention COOKIES? I'd hate to think how many boxes have passed through these hands over the years. I believe they cost 50 cents when I first sold them. I could wax nostalgic about unloading a semi trailer truckload on a rainy morning, or sorting hundreds of boxes for distribution, or the variety of flavors that have come and gone over the years (does anybody remember Sugar 'n Spice?)...   But through it all, there were Thin Mints. They have nothing to fear from the homemade variety. Sure, the ones I made are free from preservatives. For an emergency craving, they weren't bad. But I'll be stocking up when the real ones come out this year. They freeze beautifully.

Just for fun, here's a video you might enjoy:

And a shoe:

TWD/BWJ: Onion Bialys

Here we go again. 

The weather radio is blasting out a winter storm warning.  

They're using the word "catastrophic" on TV. 

There's ICE a-comin'! 

What's a girl to do? 

Bake some bread of course.

Oooo - weeee, these are good! 

Unfortunately, I only made half a recipe because Mr. Wonderful doesn't like onions. Unless he's in a super expensive restaurant. Then anything goes. He denies it, but it's true. Also, there was only one onion in the fridge and I couldn't face the prospect of a pre-ice-storm grocery store. It's surely a madhouse about now.

The onions, poppy seeds, pepper, sweet little bun shape. Liked it all.

I'm definitely more confident tossing a cup full of ice and water in the oven these days. Thank you, Tuesdays With Dorie, for making me brave!

This recipe can be found in the Baking With Julia cookbook, and the other TWD bakers are here.

And then there's the Winter Olympics in Sochi. It's so much fun to have a break from the ordinary and watch all these amazing young athletes. Doesn't matter what the sport is. They're all interesting. Have you seen those free-style skiers and snowboarders? And what about those cross-country skiers that stop and shoot a gun? (I had a bad cross-country experience once. Fell over. Stuck. Totally helpless. In very deep snow. In Norway. 'Nuf said. OK, it's funny NOW.)

Speed-skating is more exciting than you'd think, especially in person. Seriously, when they fall it's exciting, and heart-breaking. We saw speed-skating at the Lillehammer Olympics. Here's a picture outside the venue, just so you know I'm not fibbing.

Has it really been 20 years?!?

But of course, nothing is quite so dramatic as the figure skating. How can you not be mesmerized by it? Oh yes, we saw that too, in Lillehammer. Well, technically the arena was in Hamar and we missed our bus from Lillehammer. Hockey game ran over, not our fault. But as we happened to be walking past a "taxi stand", a taxi pulled up and took us there. Let me tell you that was a miracle. There were no taxis available anywhere. OK, I'll stop reminiscing now.

Or not. You might have heard that we had an Olympic event here in Atlanta. 1996. Seems like yesterday. I made a little quilt to put our pins on. Thought the bialys might like to see it.

As close as I could get to Olympic rings!

Well, wish us luck. Hopefully the sky (and the 6 huge oak trees in our front yard) won't fall. I'm visualizing our power staying on. You know, I really should've made that entire recipe. Could have used the extras for bribery. We have a neighbor with a generator. We get to listen to it whenever the power goes out. Maybe I'll bake something else while I can.

Here's a shoe, in honor of all those power company employees working in the cold. Thanks for all you do!

TWD/BWJ: Vanilla Chiffon Roll

There's something to be said for blissful ignorance.

Sometimes it's best not to know what's coming.

I skimmed through this recipe, checked to be sure I had the ingredients, and still had no idea that I would dirty up every piece of heavy equipment in the kitchen and need about three extra hands.

At one point, I was toasting walnuts in a pan, melting chocolate in a double boiler, and separating eggs when I suddenly thought "what's that smell?" A cake that needs to come out of the oven! I have no idea how long it cooked. Heard the timer go off at 12 minutes but was busy with the mousse and forgot about it. Ah well, it was fine anyway.

probably wasn't the best plan to also have a
crockpot full of chili cooking... limited my counter space

The fire marshall would
have a fit.

Not to mention that I was keeping one eye on the weather. Between the cracking of the first egg and the cutting of the finished cake roll, Atlanta went from southern city to winter wonderland. I probably won't leave the house for days. But I'll have plenty of cake. It's good, but honestly, I think it was too much trouble. Blissful ignorance only works the first time.

The recipe for Vanilla Chiffon Roll is in the Baking With Julia cookbook, and the other bakers can be found here.

Tonight I sit in the warmth of my home, thinking of those who aren't so lucky. It's a terrible mess out there. Atlanta is a city in distress. Thousands of people are stuck on the frozen grid-locked interstates. They're abandoning their cars and walking for help. School busses full of hungry, improperly-clothed children are unable to move. A woman gave birth on I-285. The airport is jammed with stranded passengers. And it's COLD. Many acts of compassion and courage are happening, even as I type these words.

Now a shoe. Taken on a much warmer day. I hope the people who've abandoned their cars tonight are wearing boots.

TWD/BWJ: Country Bread

Was a couple of days late making this bread. Kept forgetting to make the sponge the night before and couldn't figure out the timing otherwise. I mean, what's the good of fresh bread if you have to bake it at 10 p.m. and don't get to taste it right away? Finally made it work on Thursday but didn't post the results. Then, about the time I'd forgotten all about it, the "leave your link" email arrived on the NEXT Tuesday. What? I inadvertently baked early? Still didn't post it though, so I'm back to being late. Sigh. One of these days I'll get it all together. Apparently there's a small child inside me who refuses to do things "on time". I'll give her a break. There are more important things in life.

Katie, the elderly KitchenAid came through again.
10 minutes kneading that dough without a complaint!
I love you, Katie.

Should've watched the video. Was already shaping the dough
when I realized that I didn't really understand the directions.
Was there supposed to be a hole?

About as good as it's gonna get

Who has a special basket for letting bread rise?
Not I, said the little red hen. Made do with a bowl.
It was fine.

My inner child didn't want to
make a checkerboard.
And didn't have
a razor blade. 

Finally, something was right! 

Oh yeah, I didn't win the lottery either. But I tried. I really want to go to San Fransisco and see this amazing art installation that'll be up until the end of February.

And something new in my life. Green Smoothies. Who knew? They're wonderful! I'm taking the Simple Green Smoothies 31-day Challenge for January. I feel so healthy. :-)

Finally, a shoe. Out on Pleasant Hill Road.

TWD/BWJ: Gingersnaps

I baked these. Didn't post. Whip me with a wet noodle.

I love making cut-out cookies.

And I especially love the set of alphabet cookie cutters I found

once upon a time at some yard sale or thrift store.

What's more fun that making cookies that SAY SOMETHING?!?

A few notes to myself for the next time:

1) Don't be afraid to add more of the spices

2) Bake longer than the recipe says. Wait til they've started

to fall a little bit in the oven. Then they'll be nice and crunchy.

Tough, chewy gingersnaps aren't that good. 

But the ones I accidentally left in the oven "too long" were great!

3) The milk and eggnog in glass bottles is worth the splurge.

4) Making Starlight Mint Surprise cookies on the same day

as any other cookie puts the other cookie at a disadvantage.

Just sayin'...

For anyone outside the family who may read this one day, Starlight Mint Surprise cookies are THE Christmas cookie of our childhood. We used to be able to buy these mint-flavored chocolate disks called "starlight mints" but now we have to make our own. The chocolates are covered with a brown sugar dough and topped with a nut. Part of the experience is licking the beaters and mixing bowl. Worth the egg risk once a year. It's simply not Christmas to me until I've had my first Starlight Mint Surprise cookies. I remember making them with my mother, and the tradition continues with my own kids. It's labor-intensive. A good time to sit and chat. One day I'll post that recipe, but for now, the poor Gingersnaps didn't have much of a chance.

The other Tuesday With Dorie Gingersnap bakers are here. The recipe is in the book we're baking through, Baking With Julia. As in Julia, you know, THE Julia. Just thought I'd mention it since I haven't covered the details in awhile.

Now a shoe. Was in McDonough for a funeral (the day after cookie baking) when I spied this one. Looks like it might be a soccer cleat.