DB's Challenge - Gingerbread House

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes....

Sooooo glad this challenge is over!

I had a lot of fun making it, but it was such a mess!

After 2 frosting explosions my kitchen is a disaster.

It smells nice though.

The gingerbread smells great, but I would never eat it, because it is super hard.

Remember how my sushi challenge ended?

Hee hee hee! (evil laughter)

The dough after chilling.

I made this twice.
I hated the first house, so I re-did it.
This is a picture of the first set of cut outs.







One of my apple trees.

This is the house after the first frosting explosion.

Now I know why the directions say to sift the powdered sugar.

There is only so much pressure you can put on a plastic pastry bag.

Ta da!

Finished chicken cottage, garden, trees and little pond.

I used jelly beans for the cucumbers, radishes and carrots in the first garden bed.

I used fondant to make corn, carrots and cauliflower.

Red hots for the apples and 'roses' on the cottage.

Starbursts for the stepping stones.

Pretzels for the fence.

Here are my fondant cauliflower, carrots and corn.

I'd never used fondant before.

It was fun!

Like play dough.

Oreo cookies for the dirt.

Jolly Ranchers melted for the windows.

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Ok, now are you ready?

What did I do with this cute little gingerbread cottage?

Gave it to the Ladies!

Of course!

At first they were curious.
"Hmmm, is that a real carrot?"

"Let me try a little of that."

"Do these apples taste weird to you?"

"What a tiny garden! I'm a giant chicken!"

"Ho hum, not that tasty..."

Smashed.

The End.

Anything Pie and Roasty Toasty Potatoes

Anything Pie

You should make this pie when:

You want to impress

Uninvited guests

Mother-in-law

You just got home from work

The cupboards are bare.

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You can put whatever you want/have on hand into this pie.

But this is what I did...

I started with the same sauce that I used for the Salmon en croute

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Some cream cheese, spinach, dried onions, dill, salt and pepper and a little cream.

Blended up.

I used the Secret Family Recipe for the crust.

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup filled with 1 egg and a little white wine

See Here again for more info.

Rolled out the dough.

It will make a top and bottom crust.

Roll it out really thin.

I used a greased round cake pan as my pie pan.

Leftover Roasty Toasty potatoes and 1 cup of frozen veggies.

Roasty Toasty potatoes are a double leftover.

I started with leftover baked potatoes - sliced them up and soaked them in 1 cup of fig infused vinegar.

Pre-heated the oven to 400 F.

After 15 mins I tossed the potatoes with savory, thyme, oregano, salt and pepper and a little olive oil.

Baked for 20 mins.

Added spinach sauce.

Covered with top crust and washed with egg wash.

Baked at 350 F for 20 mins.

Just until the crust was brown.

Winter Chickens and A Purple Girl

Here are a few pictures of the Ladies.

You can tell Winter is in full swing: cabbage and warm mash for all!

Cheap chicken entertainment - a hanging cabbage.

There's Butter!
She's busy catching that cabbage.

Zela and Lavender

And a purple chicken!?!

I nicknamed her Turkey.

She started moulting and her sisters picked on her, so.....I Blukoted her.

It's a spray that covers up the bare red skin and doesn't taste very nice.

There are a couple other Girls developing bare spots, so I might give them a little dash of Blu kote too, if Carol doesn't mind.

Winter is hard on a chicken. :(

Isn't she cute?!?

Little cutie!

I noticed her attitude changed, when she realized she wasn't going to be picked on any more.

She's more assertive and was *sigh* picking on the Barred Rock girl, while she was taking a dust bath, yesterday.

A lot of Carol's Girls are getting friendly, as you can see from this video.

They like to be held and snuggled.

The only problem - I only have 2 arms!

Cardamum Sugar Cakes

Cardamom Sugar Cakes

I love cardamom. It is especially wonderful in these light-as-air sugar cookies.

Watch out for the unusual combination of sour cream and baking soda.

1/2 cup sour cream (not nonfat)

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cardamom

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Coarse sugar, colored sugar or sprinkles for decoration.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the sour cream and baking soda. Set aside.

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In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar,egg, salt, spices, vanilla and baking powder. Add the sour cream mixture and blend well. Add the flour, blending until well combined.

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Pre-heat the oven to 400 F and lightly grease/parchment/silpat 2 baking sheets.

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Drop the dough by 1 Tbs. into the sugar, roll in sugar and place on baking sheet.

Work quickly or the butter will melt.

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Freeze rolled sugar covered cookie dough.

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Bake for 10 mins. - Watch carefully!!

After removing them from the oven, leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 3 mins.

DC's Challenge - Salmon en Croute

The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.

This was a fun recipe.

I enjoyed making and eating it.

It's also something I would make again.

Yay! Three out of three!

~

So basically it is salmon with a cream/spinach sauce in a pastry crust.

Now....I'm going to share a secret family recipe.

For crust.

3 ingredients

1 cup of flour

1/2 cup of cold butter

1/4 cup - with one egg

and if their is room in the cup measure liquid of your choice

I used orange juice this time, but I've used wine, other juices and milk in the past.

Grind your flour and butter together. Mix your egg and liquid together.

Mix egg/liquid into flour/butter. Form into a ball and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Roll out the dough.

This dough is very nice to work with and can be rolled out paper thin, if you want.

Cutting out some shapes for the top of the salmon packages.

I made this in November, so leaves seemed appropriate.

$1 fillet of salmon topped with cream cheese, spinach, dill, a little onion, salt and pepper.

Egg washing pastry cut outs on to the salmon packages.

Pastry leaves.

More egg washing.

After baking.

Yummy!

Looks fancy.

Was cheap.

Tasted great!

A++