Let's eat!

I love chocolate chip cookies! It’s been a long time since I had these tasty delights. They are full of butter and sugar and chocolate. I’m not allowed to eat more than a couple a day (the cookie police are watching), but it’s better than nothing. Sorry, I didn’t make enough to share this time due to a minor setback with the first batch. The first batch came out flat/ crispy and oily…yuck. After a quick internet search, I learned that adding more flour should correct the problem. Yeah, it did! The next time I bake cookies I’ll use a different combination of organic shortening and butter. I believe the water content in the butter I’m using is different than the butter I used in Seattle. The first batch is edible, but not presentable. I can’t waste those precious dark chocolate morsels ;O)  

The oven certainly got a workout today. Erika can't stand wasting energy so she cooked lasagna, 

meatloaf, and 

artichoke bread stuffing while the oven was still hot.The stuffing is a practice dish for a Thanksgiving dinner we will have next month. Stay tuned for that. 

Pies, cakes, an assortment of cookies and bread are up next on the baking schedule. How about an apple crisp pie with french vanilla ice cream? Or maybe pecan/ walnut pie? Decisions, decisions..."Home Sweet Home."

A tail to tell

Instead of the traditional hat rack hook, we chose something with a “tail.” Easy to install and it comes in an assortment of colors. We’re able to hang our hats and fanny packs for dog walking. I really like the “whimsical” look. 

Quick update on the stairwell remodel: The walls have been repaired, primed and painted. The stair treads have new plywood installed. This is needed because the height of the second story floor will be raised to accommodate the new flooring. Stay tuned for pictures.

Oven is here!

After five years and eight months of waiting, the oven is finally installed and operational. I couldn’t wait to start baking again so I gave the oven a test spin. All of my baking equipment was still in boxes from Seattle. Unboxing that stuff was like opening presents on Christmas. I haven’t seen any of it in six years. I chose to make a simple banana nut muffin. I made all the conversions from English to metric. Some of the ingredients needed to be modified since Japan either doesn’t stock the ingredient or it’s outrageously expensive. The full size convection oven worked wonderfully. I’m able to evenly bake on four racks at a time using “fan mode.” 

Lucky was able to keep an eye on the muffins to let me know when they were done. I still need to add trim to the cabinet to give the oven a "built in" look.

Nice! Everything was evenly brown and slightly crunchy on the outside and light and moist on the inside. It's time for something a little more challenging, but first I really want to make my mom's chocolate chip cookies. They are fantastic and I've been craving them for a long time. Stay tuned. 

Since the weather is cooler, it's the start of pizza season.Yeah! The wood stove is operational and here's our first pizza of the season. Time to eat!