Unfortunately, I have gotten really behind on the blogging portion of my challenge, so I have made a number of yummy items that no one ever got to see.  So I thought it would be fun to go through and list those items.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I made this for Matt’s birthday, and it turned out really well.

Oatmeal Cake with Broiled Frosting

This was a disaster that ended in burnt frosting and a folded cake.

Triple Chocolate Mouse Cake

One of the most time consuming recipes I’ve taken on, but it was amazing

Ginger Snaps

These were intense. They had both 2 tablespoons of powdered ginger and 2 tablespoons of fresh ginger.

Fudge

A Manning family Christmas tradition

Yule Log Cake

I was certain that the sponge cake wouldn’t roll up, but not only did it roll, it tasted amazing.

Homemade Oreos

These were a lot of work, but tasted delicious in the end. Matt helped by slicing the cookies so they would be evenly sized.

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

I got a bundt cake pan for Christmas, and my first cake turned out really well.  It feel right out of the pan with no sticking.

Strawberry filled Short Bread

This was a non-Cooks Illustrated recipe that ended up under cooked and under flavored.  The strawberry compote on time was quite tasty though.

Quiche Loraine with a Whole Wheat Crust

I forgot to take a photo of this, but it turned out amazing.  Even the 100% whole wheat crust turned out well.  It didn’t look fancy but it tasted yummy. Of course using 1/2 a pound of bacon will do that.

Pecan Pie

For my dad’s visit, I made a pecan pie.  I was worried it would be runny,but it turned out quite well.  My pie crust had too much gluten, and it shrunk, but otherwise it was great.

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Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

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Eclairs

Eclairs are one of my favorite desserts, and ever since I started my baking adventure I have wanted to make them. They are very intimidating because they have so many steps, and the dough is very easy to mess up, so I have been putting them off.  Turns out they are just as time consuming to make as I imagined.  It took me a whole evening to prepare, bake, and fill the eclairs, and as I hinted at earlier they did not turn out 100% correct.

One of the things that Cooks Illustrated warns about is to make sure that your pastry is cooked fully before moving on to the next step.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to tell when they are finished because an undercooked pastry looks just as golden brown as a fully cooked one.  I fell prey to this, and took my pastries out of the oven too early.  When I cut into them to release the steam, they deflated.  I was still able to fill the pastries just fine, and they tasted amazing, but they did not look as nice as I would have liked.

In the end they were so tasty I didn’t care that they looked a little off, and I am definitely going to make them again.

Chocolate Cream Pie

Chocolate cream pie has a history attached to it at our Thanksgiving dinners.  My mom used to make it out of jello pudding when I was a kid, and I thought that was stellar.  Then Matt tried to out do my mom and make it from scratch only to end up with something that more resembled chocolate puddle pie.  So, when I decided to take on my own from-scratch chocolate cream pie, there was a lot of internal pressure to get it right.

It was a little complicated and required getting all my ingredients measured out and in place before I started, but it was totally worth it.  It was amazing.  My biggest fear was that the texture wouldn’t end up right, but I had nothing to worry about.  There were no scrambled eggs. It didn’t turn into a puddle.  It was perfect!  My second biggest fear was that it wouldn’t taste like much, but it really had a nice chocolaty flavor.

The one thing that didn’t work out as well as I hoped was what I thought would be easiest part.  The Oreo cookie crust turned out to be difficult to get set in the pie pan, and then it crumbled when we cut the pie.  I think it needed more butter, but I am not honestly sure.  It still tasted good though.

All in all these turned out to be two very successful desserts that I will likely make again.

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That’s right folks, I am a quitter.  I quit the Six Items of Less Challenge yesterday.  It was my second go round, and I was just simply tired of doing it. I made it through day 24 of 30, but couldn’t finish.  I spent a week trying to talk myself out of quitting but didn’t succeed.

The reason I started doing the challenge to begin with was because I had a good time the first time I did it, and I thought I would enjoy it equally this time.  Unfortunately I did not.  I don’t know if it was the clothes I picked or the time of the year or the fact that I was sick for most of it, but I was not into it.  I realized that wearing clothes I didn’t enjoy was affecting my mood. I was spending far too much time stressing in the morning about how I could possibly make the same six items of clothes look different or make me happy about what I was wearing.  But for a long time I wouldn’t allow myself to quit.

I thought I would let people down:  At least a few people have enjoyed seeing my photos each day.

I though people would think less of me:  Who quits a challenge six days before it ends.

I though that Matt would pick on me:  He had a much harder time the first go round but didn’t quit.

I thought it meant I was a failure: I have a very hard time not being able to complete something.

But I realized that if the point of doing this was for enjoyment and I was no longer enjoying it, then it was time to stop. And I think I might have learned more from quitting than finishing.

What I learned

• My friends and family aren’t going to stop loving me just because I don’t succeed at something or if I change my mind.  They don’t like me for what I do or accomplish.  They like me for me.
• I don’t always have to be perfect.  I don’t always have to “win”.  People will not think less of me.

Personally, I think these lessons are more important than anything I might learn about my clothes or my relationship to my clothing.

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Outfit for day one

Well it is official: I have lost my mind.  I am going to do the Six Items or Less (SIOL) Clothing Challenge again.  There is an official cycle starting today on the SIOL website, so I am joining the community and jumping in.  For those of you who don’t know or remember what SIOL is, here is a quick reminder. Each cycle of SIOL is 30 days and you choose six articles of clothing to wear for the full 30 days. That does not include: undergarments, socks, shoes, accessories, workout clothes, work issued uniforms, outerwear, or pajamas.

I am still picking out my six items of clothing, but as long as I don’t wear something I still have a few days to make a decision.  It is a lot harder this time to make a decision, because I don’t want to just usethe same clothes I did last time. I actually broke down and borrowed a few items from a wonderful friend so there would be some variety in my wardrobe.  Plus there is the added pressure of living up to my last experience.  I have decided on four main pieces, but I am struggling with the last two.  I am waffling between a purple dress and a pair of black dress pants for one item and a black sweater or something more colorful for the other.

I have selected the following itmes for sure (I’ll post photos once I get them all chosen):

• Dark-wash skinny jeans
• Purple v-neck sweater (One item from last round)
• Grey striped long-sleeve shirt (On loan from a friend)
• Grey button-up shirt (On loan from a friend)

As with last time, I will take a photo of my outfit every day and post it on Facebook. I will also be blogging here and as a part of the SIOL community.

I am a lot more nervous about this round than I was the last one.  Especially with the weather being so cold.  I am worried I’ll end up wearing the same combination all the time just because it is warmer than others.  Either way, it will be an adventure and I am looking forward to learning more about myself and my relationship to clothes.

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I did have some trials and tribulation at the beginning because the recipe in Alton’s cookbook, “I’m Just Here for More Food,”  has some pretty major typos. I wasted 30 minutes scouring the interwebs for corrections.  I finally found a corrected recipe on the Good Eats fan page, and it was worth the wait.  I don’t know what the major difference between Alton’s recipe and the Cooks Illustrated recipe was, but I am sure the 2 sticks of butter and 4 eggs didn’t hurt.  The use of amazing Equal Exchange baking cocoa gifted to us by our friend Adrienne was definitely a factor as well. I also added a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips to the recipe, but what brownie recipe isn’t better with more chocolate.

These are definitely my new go-to brownies.  I didn’t think this day would come, but I have finally found a brownie recipe that I think tastes better than box brownies.  Here’s hoping it wasn’t a fluke!

Things I learned from this recipe:

• Cookbooks can have typos. It is important to read through the whole recipe at the beginning of the process to catch them.
• Equal Exchange cocoa is pretty tasty. It hasn’t passed the fudge test yet, so I haven’t decided if it will replace my Penzey’s cocoa.
• Leaving brownies SLIGHTLY under cooked means that the edges are all hard and crusty but the middle is still finger food.

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The recipe calls for 1 stick of butter melted, so I popped it in the microwave, like I have done 100 times, to melt the butter.  About 30 seconds in, I heard a bang and turned to see that the unmelted half of the butter had exploded all over the inside of the microwave.

And, in this case exploded is not too strong of a word.  There was literally butter all over the inside of the microwave including under the rotating tray. It was quite impressive.  It took me 15 minutes to clean out the inside of the microwave so I could complete the melting process.

I did, however, learn a valuable lesson for future butter melting: Do not melt a whole stick of butter all at once on high in the microwave.  From now on, I will use short burst at about half power.  On the bright side, our microwave is now quite clean.

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You make the buns by spreading the dough out on the counter in a rectangle and putting a layer of cinnamon and clove filling on top.  Then you roll the dough into a log and cut it into eight equal pieces.  Mixing the dough together was a snap, but things got more complicated when it came time to knead and spread the dough.  My dough was a little wet, and it kept sticking to my hands and the counter.  I was pretty frustrated for most of the process, and I kept having to add more flour.  When it came time to roll the dough into a log, I ended up with a stretched out uneven log that had a couple holes in it from where the dough had stuck to the counter.

Needless to say, my buns did not look very pretty once I got them all into the pan, but a strange thing happened.  I turned around to put something away, and when I came back, the baking-fairy had magically massaged the buns into looking like real cinnamon rolls.  I am pretty sure this is cheating, but what can you do when the baking-fairy makes an unexpected visit.

I made a super rich buttermilk glaze to go on top, and we ate them fresh out of the oven.  They were amazing!!  They were still good two days later when we had a second round warmed for breakfast. This is a recipe I will be repeating!

Things I learned from this recipe:

• Sticky dough is one of the most frustrating things in the kitchen.
• The baking-fairy can’t keep from “fixing” your baked goods.  You must keep an eye on him at all times.
• Clove is not as strong as it smells.  I was really concerned that the cinnamon buns would taste like clove buns because they smelled very strongly of clove, but after baking they had a really pleasant cinnamon flavor.
• Anything that basically fries in 4 tablespoons of butter while it bakes is going to taste like heaven!

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I got my Mixte from a local bike enthusiast, Ken Beisner who saved it from an estate sale and found it a good home.  Such a good home, in fact, that I have given it a name:  Meet Misty the Mixte.  A lot of the bike bloggers I follow bestow names on their favorite bikes, and I enjoy my new bike so much I felt like it deserved a name.

I have made a few changes to make it more comfortable and attractive , and I have a few more changes to make in the future.  I am really pleased with how the bike has turned out. It looks like a totally new bike.

Before:

After:

Things I like:

Skinny Tires
Misty has very skinny tires that make her quick and agile.  There is much less rolling resistance than on bikes with wider tires, and it lets me dart around much faster than on my recumbent.

10-Speed
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that I have another upright bike that I used to ride, but it has a 3-speed internal hub that only 1 to 2 of the gears ever work correctly on. Misty is a 10-speed that shifts well.  I really appreciate the extra gears and the fact that all the gears work reliably.

Frame Style
Misty has a step-through frame, which makes it really easy to get on and off of.  This is quite nice ,and I love being able to easily hop on and off of the bike without throwing my leg up over the seat.  The upright seating position is also great for riding in a bike or skirt.  Unlike on my recumbent, I don’t have to worry about flashing oncoming traffic when I ride in a skirt on the mixte.

Look
This bike is absolutely adorable! It is a very classic style and with the additions I have made, looks very stylish and sleek.  I know what a bike looks like shouldn’t be the most important part of bike selection, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t makes a difference to me.  I love the blue frame, swept-back handle bars, leather grips, and wicker basket.  Not only do I love the looks of the bike, but I also love that it makes me feel stylish when I am riding it.

Things I am changing/adding:

Handlebars
The bike came with drop handle bars, which were very difficult to use. Not only was it an uncomfortable riding postion to be hunched over the handle bars, but it also made the steering very twitchy and unsafe. The first change I made to the bike was to replace the drop bars with swept-back riser bars with leather grips. It totally changes the riding postition and makes the steering much more stable.  I am really pleased.

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This was officially my first no-mistakes baking experience. I followed the recipe correctly, used all the correct ingredients, didn’t make a huge mess,  didn’t hurt myself, and my cookie bars turned out beautifully. Of course some of this can be chalked up to the fact that this was a simple recipe that I have come close to making in the past, but the real trick was paying attention to what I was doing.

After my brownie debacle a few weeks back, I double checked that I had enough of every ingredient before I started,  read through the whole recipe before I mixed anything, and only got out the measuring cups and spoons I needed.  It definitely paid off.  I still had the sense of anxiety as I mixed the ingredients but because I took the time to really pay attention to what I was doing, the cookie bars turned out really well. Here’s hoping I learned something!

Things I learned from this recipe:

• Read the recipe all the way through before you begin.  This really cuts down on surprises
• Despite what Matt says, you don’t have to roast pecans before you use them in baked goods to have them taste good.
• I actually can bake unsupervised if I take the time to pay attention to what I am doing.
• Baking is a great distraction.

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