Archive for the ‘The Baking’ Category

Last week, my friend Daisy and I made a big decision. A time sucking, life changing (okay, not really) decision.

We decided that with our mutual love of all things cooking and baking and well, basically kitchen-related, we should begin a new blog. You see, Daisy is a fantastic cook (and a great baker, don’t get me wrong) and I am a fairly talented baker. And when our powers combine, we are…The Kitchenettes

No really, we are. Go see for yourself.

I spent much of the weekend wading through code and “themes” in wordpress and now have a very early (beta, if you’re technologically inclined) version of our new blog ready for you to go visit. Not only that, but we need your help with it.

You see, the whole cooking/baking blog thing doesn’t work at all, if a) no one reads and b) no one likes what we’re making. And since our major goal is to give you ideas and recipes that you’ll use, well, we need to know what you want. So hop on over there and tell us what you’re interested in seeing and eating.

www.thekitchenettes.net

And while you’re there, go ahead and bookmark or feed us. And hell, you may as well grab our twitter feed too (@thekitchenettes). I mean really, why not?

We are so excited and absolutely cannot wait to see you there. Bon Appetit!

I’ve spoken briefly in the past about my sisters. I have one biological older (perfect) sister, 3 step-sisters who range in age between 24 and 28 and one half-sister who is now in college. We’re all exceedingly different and pretty damned independent.

My older (perfect) sister is brilliant. She, almost literally, has brains coming out her ears. She went to the same school (and program) I am starting in August, got perfect grades, scholarships every year and is now an adjunct faculty member. It’s important to keep in mind that this is the best program in the country. She got one of two internships they offer in the whole school and the job of her choice. She’s, as the parentheses indicate, perfect. And always has been.

My younger (angstful) sister is an athlete. She’s smart, much smarter than she thinks she is (that’s what having a ridiculously brilliant oldest sister does to your mind), but she is in college on a full scholarship for swimming. After one year she has half the school records and placed in the top 10 in the western conference (division 1). She’s less than half a second off olympic trial cut times. She works hard, but she’s just so naturally athletically inclined it’s gross. In a good way.

I, on the other hand, am intelligent, not brilliant. I’m a fair athlete in some sports, but in general suffer from a severe lack of coordination. I got some academic scholarships, but in the end, did not graduate from college with any honors, awards or recognition. I’m not trying to demean myself, but I’m not in a league academically with my older (perfect) sister, nor athletically with my younger (angstful) sister.

What I have had is baking. When I started college, I began to have a love of food (which is ironic since it’s also when I stopped eating for a year, but whatever). I began to cook and especially bake, every chance I got. I won a ridiculous number of pie and cake baking contests and I was officially given the job of providing dessert for every family gathering. It was my thing. It is my thing and I love it.

My younger (angstful) sister has recently decided that what she wants to do is become a baker. She wants to get a degree in business and then go to culinary school. She wants to run a bakery. She wants to do the one thing I’d do if I had all the money in the world. She wants to steal my cake, and eat it too.

Rationally I know her decision has little to do with me and considering that she’s 19 and changes her mind about everything every 15 seconds there’s a good chance it won’t happen, but I am a little HUGE bit jealous that she’s going to do this. That she’s going to be bringing the desserts for family gatherings. That people will wonder what she’ll be bringing next time and make requests for her baked goods.

I want to be bigger than this. Bigger than these feelings and just be happy for her. But this wave of jealousy has crashed over my head and I’m drowning in it. I want my talent back and I want it all to myself.

In case you were keeping score, that’s jealousy AND selfishness.

After seeing Nashville and realizing that in place that aren’t New Orleans (where it’s going to be 80 degrees tomorrow) are experiencing fall, I had a need today to have little bits of things that remind me of fall. And since I still can’t seem to locate my sense of humor, I’m going to share with you a lovely simple fall recipe, because really, you should make this. My mom gave me the recipe, the first time she made it was for Thanksgiving a year or two ago. After frosting the cake the grabbed the cinnamon sugar out of the cabinet to sprinkle on top and about halfway through covering the cake in a generous blanket of what she thought was cinnamon sugar, she realized she had in fact, grabbed garlic powder. She claims she scraped the frosting off and re-did it, but it absolutely had a garlic after-taste. So here’s the recipe. I prefer it sans-garlic.

Pumpkin Cake

Ingredients:
-One small can of pumpkin (I don’t remember how many ounces, but you can get the big-ass can or the small can of pumpkin puree NOT pie filling, and you want the non-big-ass one)
-One spice cake mix
-Cream cheese frosting (absolutely optional)

Directions:
-Put cake mix and pumpkin into bowl. Mix. Pour (it will be thick, so it’ll be more like scoop) the batter into a greased 9×13″ pan. Bake according to cake mix directions. You can’t undercook this, there are no eggs in it, so it’s okay if it’s soft, it’s much more dense than a regular cake.
-When cool, frost with cream cheese frosting. Or don’t. Or if you’re one of those health freaks, you can put a dollup of cool whip on it. Or nothing, because it’s pretty good alone too.

Pictures could be forthcoming, but considering the number of things I should be doing right now and the vast quantities of cake I’d like to eat over the next day, that seems dubious at best.

Enjoy!