I baked something!

[Chivewarrior]

I baked something! I actually baked something!

I got this recipe off the internet: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Bread-Pretzels/Detail.aspx

I didn't have any measuring tools other than a one-cup measure with gradations for halves and quarters. (It came with the rice cooker I got for Christmas.) So I was eyeballing an estimate for the salt and sugar. (The yeast I just used the contents of the package.) I don't have a full-size oven but I have a toaster oven, so I did the baking in two batches. Lacking a brush, I used my fingers, and it was all regular salt because I didn't have any kosher salt. Apparently it came out quite well-- my cousin's wife tried some, and my parents and sister tried it, and all agreed it was tasty. I think it's tasty too, and relatively easy.

Unfortunately, presentation is a vastly different skill-- everyone's comment was that it tastes much better than it looks.

[Eric Renderking Fisk]

I wish I was there to taste it.

[Doug Palumbo]

Good work Chive! Did you get any pics of the event?

[Chivewarrior]

No pics; unfortunately I mostly lack camera. It's just occurred to me that I could have used the shiny new webcam to take pictures. Oh, well; if I bake them again I'll find the webcam.

[DanielJones]

Congratulations Chive! The cooking bug always starts small, and when you have success it is momentous. Also, improvising with what you have is always a good skill to learn. We don't always have all the nifty tools that the chefs have.
Can't wait to hear about your next culinary success. I really hope that it keeps you inspired. And please do share. If you come across any other good or old recipes that you enjoy add it to the collective Recipe Book thread we have here. Family recipes are always fun especially if they've been passed dow through the generations. Then the new discoveries come along and they are exciting too.

Cheers!

Dan

[Chivewarrior]

The continuing adventures of my cooking fun, again lacking pictures: today's first project was Ghirardelli brownies. Someone gave my sister a fancy brownie mix and she was never going to bake it herself. (And truth be told, she isn't wild about fudge topping on her brownies.) So I baked it up today as part of my quest to actually use some of the stuff in the pantry, since a lot of it has been sitting there for a while and most of it hasn't been used in ages. My mother had a hissy fit at me for tossing some of the stuff I found in the pantry, which expired in 2006! She says Bisquick and fajita helper kits don't go bad. Well, that's why they have expiration dates that go for a few years, so if it's a few years past date you know it's close to a decade old. The fajita helper kits, as I recall, have been sitting up there unused since the early nineties. So A) it's expired and B) if it's been up there that long she was never going to use it anyway.

The brownies came out really well, though since they're from a mix I can't take that much credit. It's an uber-rich gooey brownie with fudge topping that I had to warm up by putting the pouch in a bowl of hot tap water so it would be nice and gooey when I put it on top. Turned out pretty tasty. And let me tell you, all that baking from scratch I've been doing has left me with an appreciation for how easy it is if you use a mix! My mix cooking probably won't be over for a bit; there are a lot more mixes in the pantry.

Since I'd been rummaging through pantries, I pulled out a tin of anchovies, some olive oil, a can of green chiles, and a jar of red peppers, with the intention of mixing up spaghetti with peppers and anchovies for dinner. (What can I say, I'm Italian, and in terms of cooking that blood is strong-- so strong that the equally pervasive Jewish food culture from my father's side shows up in my cooking a lot less. But then, both Italians and Jews are matriarchal, and the Italian comes from my mother.) Turned out the anchovies had gone bad and the chiles were another one of those things things past their expiry date that my mother insists are still keepable, so I rummaged a little in the fridge and turned up some jalapeño chicken sausage. I had originally planned to whip up some crescent rolls out of a can to go with it but I realized that I don't yet have enough multitask to manage even that much separately. I fried the sausage and peppers together while I cooked the spaghetti, then drained the spaghetti, mixed, and added tomato sauce.

My mother pulled out a prebagged salad to go with it, and it was yummy dinner!

[n11pilot]

Well done, Chive! I myself have experimented with "Pantry dregs" over the years but I think you have reached a level of success with it far beyond me.