Sweets for your sweets

Well we have made the turn into what I call the last half of winter.  Here in upstate NY winter seems to drag on and on and by the time we get into February and March I think most of us have really had enough.  Unfortunately we can sometimes get snow all the way up until to Mother's Day and I have lived through that several times since moving back up here.  By the way the picture to the left is of our coconut monster cookies.  Which I just baked and of course I had to eat one.  They are delicious!

Enough though on the winter blues and blahs.....lets get into a Valentine's Day Spirit!  My daughter and I were searching through our makeshift baking cookbook and really were not finding the inspiration that we wanted for our Valentine's Day cookies that we would like to bake for our weekly selection at La Vie Boheme Bistro. So we have made up our own recipe to get into the spirit..... with of course a red and white theme.  We have appropriately named them RED & WHITES.....a twist of cranberry, white chocolate and nuts.

Now let me digress a little here and tell you what La Vie Boheme Bistro is...... .it is a wonderful family run bistro/coffee house that resides in our downtown business district here in Oneida, NY.
You may think to yourself that the City name of Oneida sounds familiar...well it should since we have the Oneida Silver factory here....this is where the silverware that you use on a daily basis probably came from, but that is another topic completely.  So back to La Vie Bohem Bistro.   It is a place that you can go and have a sandwich...which I really enjoy their chicken salad with cranberries and almonds...they also have homemade soups and salads that they offer daily.... and we can't forget homemade desserts including you know who FOOTIE'S GOODIES!  The coffee is always fresh and for you tea lovers they have a great selection as well.  They offer free WIFI and you will catch me there at least once a week doing some work on the netbook while having lunch.

On friday nights La Vie Boheme Bistro has an OPEN MIC NIGHT....so now you are officially invited to grab the family and your instruments, singing voices, poetry, comedy stand up routine or anything else you can think of and come join us from 6pm to 10 pm every Friday Night.  You will see yours truly there with daughter and friends in tow and we can't forget our Fabulous Cookies for Sale!

So as my post title anounced without further interruptions "SWEETS FOR YOUR SWEETS"

Here is our cookie menu we are Baking Fresh for tonights La Vie Boheme Open Mic appearance:

Red & Whites ( cranberries, white chocolate, macadamia nut)

Coconut Monster Cookies ( m&m's, peanutbutter, chocolate chips, coconut)

Blue & Whites ( blueberries, white chocolate, macadamia nut)

Double Chocolate Expresso (chocolate, expresso, walnut)

If the Red & Whites are a hit tonight we will include them in our list of regulars. 
If you would like to just buy half a dozen or a dozen to go we always have to go bags while selling at La Vie Boheme.  You can also buy our cookies at The Market @ Oneida Commons here in Oneida, NY. Again find the link to the right for the Market's Website.

If you are a local and are not quite sure you want to come down to La Vie Boheme Bistro you can watch OPEN MIC NIGHT by going to their website and clicking on their LIVE STREAM, yes folks you can see and hear everthing that is going on live! Their link is on the right side of this blog. Check it out!

My daughter and her friend think they want to try and sing tonight.....I hope I can keep it together.  I have heard them singing around the house and I am not so sure that they will make it through a whole song without completely cracking themselves up, but what can you do they are only 12 years old.  Got to give them credit for wanting to try in front of an audience.  This ought to be good tonight!  Wish us all luck and thanks for reading my ever so long post.

OH AND I WANT TO SAY HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO MY SWEET!

Confessions of an amateur baker

Just so you know I am not a baker by profession, I kind of just fell into this because of my 12 year old daughter's desire to learn how to bake and have a business where she could make a little money.

I am a Skin Therapist or you may know the professional term used.... Licensed Aesthetician.  I have my own  practice where I live here in upstate NY.  It is called All About You and you can find my website by clicking: http://www.allaboutyou.skincaretherapy.net/

The reason I bring this up is simple, there are many organic and natural foods out there that can be used as an effective skin care treatment and regimen.  So I thought since we have recently been exploring pumpkin in our baking adventures that I would give you all a recipe for a pumpkin facial mask.

Pumpkin Facial Mask Recipe:
You can buy canned pumpkin...the very same kind that you would make a pumpkin pie with or you can use fresh pumpkin.  Pumpkin is rich in vitamins.... especially vitamin A.  It will help to soften and exfoliate your dry winter skin and it smells good as well. 

1/2 Cup of pumpkin
2 Tbsps. honey
1 Tbsp. of milk
1/8 of a banana peeled and mashed
 If you have an allergy to milk or milk products omitt the milk
*optional ground almonds---omitt if allergic to nuts
For skin only.

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients together.  You can leave the mask out for a little while for it to become room temperature.

2.  Apply to your face avoiding contact with eyes.

3. Leave on for about 10 minutes.  Wash off with warm water. Follow with your favorite moisturizer.

4. Have a little fun and put it on while soaking in a bath.

I hope you try this and pamper yourself a little.  Tell me how you liked it.

My daughter's reaction

My daughter's reaction to this new blog was pretty comical. All she really cared about was that the picture I posted on here of her looked good.  After that was done I let her read what I had already written and of course she said, and I quote, "Mother why did you have to say that I didn't like to cook or bake, I always have liked to cook and bake".  Oh well, so I got it wrong.... life moves on when you live with a drama queen....oh did I really write that?

So today I would like to set the record straight and state, "that my 12 year old daughter has always liked to cook and bake"! 

 As we have been going along with our baking, well mostly me because school work comes first, we have been compiling a book of baking recipes so to speak..... and the thought has come to mind that maybe we would like to make and publish a mother daughter cookbook of some sort. Of course that is a million miles down the road.  Maybe we should include journaling as we go along... for posterity...because you and I  know that working with a 12 year old in the close quarters of a kitchen can get a little frustrating at times... and I suppose that she will tell you that working with mothers can be frustrating as well.  

 I am hoping that in the end of all of this blissful baking we come away from this with more than just some extra pounds and a serious sweettooth!   The whole point of this project was not only to have some quality time together, but to throw in some learning about how to run a business....of course that point is only important to me.   I really haven't played that part of the plan up, because if I did our daughter probably wouldn't last in the business for more than 2 seconds! 


 I do have one story to tell about one night of baking that didn't turn out so well.  My daughter asked if a friend of hers could stay to help us mix up some cookie dough.  I said yes thinking that I would get 2 helpers that evening....but to my dismay all I got were two 12 year olds, goofing around and not paying any attention to the details, (Like I didn't know that was going to happen.....hahaha).  I honestly felt like a task master cracking the whip every 5 seconds to get them to help add the necessary ingredients to one of our recipes that we always make.  Now usually we mix up about 3 to 5 different types of dough at night and then the next afternoon we bake them. Everything seemed like it was mixed up and ready to go so we called it a night, stored all of the different types of dough in the fridge and called it quits for the night.  The next afternoon we were baking and so far all of the cookies had turned out like they should until we got to the last dough. We had all of the cookie sheets lined up to go....popped them in the oven and I thought wow this was smooth sailing.  It couldn't be that easy though.  The last dough went in for 10 to 12 minutes and I had the light on in the oven so I could see their progress.....they got to about the 6th minute and I realized soemthing was very wrong....they had begun to spread out, but not in their usual manner....this time they were really flat like a pan cake and the edges had started to turn an awful crispy brown color.  Now I knew that they weren't in there long enough to burn, so I opened the oven and confirmed what I could see through the glass door...the dough was missing an important ingredient and guess what that ingredient was.....it was the flour!

 In the girls haste to finish mixing the last dough together, they had added more sugar instead of flour.  So I learned 2 very important lessons that night after throwing out all of that dough....never let my daughter have her friends over when we are mixing up the dough and always buy or store the sugar and the flour in bags that are 2 different colors. 

 That night the flour and the sugar we were using were both in the blue bags that we bought them in and I am sure that when I read out the last direction to mix in the flour, the girls  didn't bother to read the writing on the bags they just grabbed the closest blue bag and measured it out.  So I will take the blame this time!  Needless to say we sucked it up and mixed up another batch that we made sure to add the flour to and the cookies baked up just fine....crisis averted.

*Remember when baking with children patience is a virtue!  I will re-read this line frequently and I will always love you my darling daughter no matter what!

Just recently my daughter was given a book about baking.   Up until now all of my attempts to teach her some skills in the kitchen have really been futile.  She can in fact make toast, scrambled eggs, and if pressed a grilled cheese sandwich and lets not forget the occasional dreaded ramen noodles! Which by the way I will only buy under extreme protest in the grocery store.  

Now as a young child, maybe age 6 or 7, I was given a copy of the 1975 "Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Cookbook" by my grandmother. Please don't calculate my age.  My grandmother was most definetly a better baker than a cook and this talent followed through to my mother and me as well.  

My daughter on the other hand had not really shown any desire to learn to cook or bake until just recently. She can be very lazy at times and is known to enjoy being waited on hand and foot; just so you know not by me, by my husband, but that is another story! A while back I was going through some of my childhood belongs and came across the good old "Mickey Mouse Cookbook" and thought maybe if I give this to her she will become interested in learning the basics of cooking and baking.  I mean this book is great it's table of contents starts with Kitchen Rules, how to measure, kitchen uttensils and goes on to sandwiches and soups, cakes frostings and cookies, main dishes, vegetables and salads, pancakes and eggs and my favorite beverages.

It shows all of the disney characters in full color cartoon style pages and has very simple written directions for all of the recipes.  So I thought great this will spark some interest.

Well for about 2 days she tried a few recipes and then the interest began to wane.  I was really disappointed, but knew if you push the issue with a 12 year old you will only push her farther from doing what it is you want her to do or try, so I let it go and the book got put back on the shelf behind all of the clutter and mess she calls her room.

It just so happens that every year my mother and I bake a bazillion cookies for the holidays and this year was no exception for my mother that is.  I unfortunately was having some health issues and was not able to help her with the huge undertaking.  So my mother forged ahead knee deep in dough and made about 20 dozen cookies herself.  My daughter really missed eating the cookies that I usually bring home after 2 days of baking, so she took it upon herself to try and bake some of her own cookies.

She started with sugar cookies, which she had made a couple of times with me and surprisingly enough they came out pretty good for her first solo baking act. Well I guess that inspired her and she then baked a batch of Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies.  To make a long story short her small success in the kitchen spurred a baking business, which of course I became a part of.

Footie's Goodies was born and after our first 2 weeks of baking we had sold 15 dozen cookies.
So just when I had lost all hope of passing down the baking bug, my daughter came through and also has shown promising signs of an entrepeneur in the making.  Of course my husband benefits from all of this as well because he became our designated taste tester.

So we would like to show a couple of our new recipes that we have had some success with.

The first recipe is a Double Chocolate Expresso Cookie that I love even though I am not a coffee drinker.  When baked they make the house smell like you are visiting Charlie and The Chocolate Factory!

Double Chocolate Expresso Cookies Recipe

3 (1 ounce) Squares of unsweetened chocolate
2 Cups Semi Sweet chocolate chips
1/2 Cup salted butter
3 eggs
1 Cup sugar
2 1/4 tsps. finely ground expresso beans ( I used starbucks bold)
3/4 Cup  all purpose flour
1/3 tsp. baking powder
1 Cup chopped walnuts or whatever nut you like

Directions:
1. pre-heat oven to 350 F.
2. line cookie sheets with parchment paper
3. In a double boiler or microwave on low melt together butter, unsweetened chocolate squares, and 1 Cup of the chocolate chips. If using the microwave use low power and stir frequently until completely melted and mixed together.
4. In a medium bowl beat eggs and sugar together until mixed. Then add expresso and mix well. Next add chocolate mixture and mix well.
5. Sift flour and baking powder together and then fold into egg mixture. Carefully fold in chopped nuts and remaing chocolate chips.
6. drop dough onto sheets about 2" apart and bake for about 8-10 minutes.  Tops of cookies will appear crackled when done. Cool on baking sheets.