Holiday Baking!

Well, after all of my bitchin' and moanin' about my cold, I actually started feeling a lot better yesterday afternoon. On the downside though, I gave Doug my germs. Sigh. Oh well. I think I made a good selection of treats to make up for it.

First, I started out with something basic. I've never made yeast-based bread at home before and caught an episode of Chuck's Day Off where he made a couple of loaves of No Knead Bread. It sounded easy enough, so I gave it a shot:



Dough.



Dough doubled over.



Two loaves.



Done (and brushed with butter).





They didn't turn out super tall like I was hoping for, but I guess that's because of the lack of kneading? The bread itself wasn't dense either though; it had a nice texture relative to its size. I was pleased with the taste too; I skipped sprinkling sugar or steak seasoning like Chuck did and just enjoyed it plain. Great hearty flavor, thanks to the wheat flour!

I also made a batch of the World's Easiest Christmas Candy, thanks to Money Saving Mom. I didn't bother taking any pictures though because my batch looked exactly like the original's. Doug was skeptical at first, but enjoyed it in the end. The salt from the crackers makes for a great salty & sweet fix. Plus, it really was super-easy.

Next, I made Butter Mints with a recipe from Bake It Pretty. I didn't have any cute candy molds though and decided to make plain round shapes by hand.



The dough...



Almost 2 hours later...



Of course, after I was done, Doug suggested a few different ways I could have rolled the dough out and cut it into small pieces instead of doing each one by hand. Well derpy derp DER. Oh well. Not sure I'll be motivated to make these again, but they turned out nice. Sweet, creamy and minty.

Today, it was on to cookies. I made more of the Green Tea Cookies, along with a more festive option:



Chocolate-Chocolate Chip cookies with Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses. These were pretty damn easy since I cut corners and used a box mix for the cookies. I love the combination of peppermint with chocolate, so I'm glad my inner fat kid brought this idea to my attention. Not the prettiest things on earth, but still tasty and fun to make.

Phew!  I used to avoid baking like the plague, but I've really come to enjoy it more these days. After busting out all of these recipes in less than 24 hours though, I think I'm done baking for a while.

Taste the rainbow.

This past weekend saw some colorful highlights in the Land of Food. Starting with Friday:



Raw ground beef? Not quite... Beet, Carrot, Onion & Potato Latkes!



I saw this dish on a holiday episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate and since we had the ingredients on hand, I decided we should give it a shot. I wouldn't say it was the best thing I ever ate, but it was okay.



I liked my latkes with applesauce the most. We also tried sour cream and horseradish. Doug liked a mix of both horseradish and applesauce the best. A fun experiment, but in retrospect, it was a lot of work for not necessarily the best result. We still want to try making traditional potato-only latkes though. I've come to love beets, but I just wasn't feeling them in this particular application.

Saturday ended up being a baking day. We were invited to a holiday party that evening and wanted to share some sweet bites:



I made Green Tea Sweets. I bought some matcha powder a couple of weeks ago and while I love drinking it, I thought it would be fun to try cooking with it too. I didn't have a leaf-shaped cookie cutter, so I improvised with a palm-tree cutter instead.



These turned out pretty good! They weren't overly sweet and there was just enough sugar in the mix to cut through the bitterness of the tea leaves. They seemed to be a hit at the party, so I think a repeat batch is in order.

Doug also did some baking and made some Snowball cookies:



He jazzed up the recipe by adding vanilla extract and orange zest. Great additions, especially the orange flavor!

After partying a little too hardy Saturday night, Sunday morning demanded a good hangover breakfast:



Diner-style, but made at home. Two corn tortillas, Doug's hashbrowns, scrambled egg whites plus one whole egg, one chopped up turkey sausage patty, fat-free shredded cheddar and some green chile sauce that Doug threw together.

!!!!!

So, so delicious. And way healthier and cheaper than going out to breakfast.

That concludes our weekend in food. Hope everyone has a great week!