Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies!

A friend's 40th fell on a frisbee night - just the excuse Shay and I needed to do some baking. Cake seemed appropriate for a birthday, but since we were going to be eating at the field with limited amenities, this seemed like a good time to try a giant cookie.

It was easy to make and oh so tasty with the perfect combination of crunchy outside and soft, chewy center. Instead of one giant 14 inch cookie, I made two smaller 9 inch ones. Instead of nuts, I used extra chocolate chips.

Blueberry Cranberry Pie

My first double crust pie! And what pie it was! Not to mention is use frozen blueberries and frozen cranberries both of which are not getting any fresher in my freezer.

I will definitely make this again, like maybe this weekend.

Oatmeal (Raisin) Bread

I thought Anadama Bread was going to be my new staple bread. Until, that is, I tried King Arthur's Oatmeal Toasting and Sandwich Bread. Over, and over, and over again.

Without raisins, it is a perfect bread for sandwiches. Not too sweet.

With raisins, it has quickly become my favorite breakfast bread - with honey, with jam, with cinnamon sugar, or just plain.

We have made it with and without raisins, with brown sugar, with honey, and with water instead of milk (I'm not always the most careful recipe reader). Always, it came out excellent!

Curried Carrot Soup

We have a lot of carrots in our cellar. And I mean a LOT of carrots! So we eat carrot soup a lot. I love the recipe that I got from my mother. But change is good so today we tried curried carrot soup from Rachel Ray.

Changes to the recipe: Rather than baby carrots, I used full sizes carrots cut into chunks.

Verdict: We have made this soup previously without any cayenne. This time I decided to try a small bit of cayenne. Either we have very spicy cayenne or wimpy palates (or both) but 1/4 tsp of cayenne was too much for us, especially Shay.

Whole Wheat Bread

I wanted to make more Anadama Bread, but still haven't restocked my cornmeal supply so I opted for King Arthur's Classic 100% Whole Wheat Bread.

Changes to the recipe: I offered Shay a choice between honey, molasses, and maple syrup. He opted for the later. I also added a tablespoon of gluten. I had a read that it helps whole wheat loaves rise better and I have a lot of it, so I figured 'why not?'!

Verdict: Gareth thought it was very good. I thought it was a bit dry and boring. 

Hummus

What to have for lunch? We were away all weekend so don't have many groceries in the house. We ate soup for dinner last night so didn't feel like having it for lunch today. So bagels from the freezer and hummus it was!

Changes to the recipe: I add a whole garlic clove instead of a half (we love garlic) and didn't mince it (that's what the food processor is for, right?).

Verdict: It's possible that I overdid the garlic. Otherwise, this hummus was a hit.

Anadama Bread

I love Anadama bread but have never had much success making it. In all fairness, that probably has more to do with lack of trying than anything else but still... So now that I am on a bread baking kick, I decided to give it another shot using King Arthur's New England Anadama Bread recipe.

Changes to the recipe: I followed the recipe except that I allowed the first rise to continue for about three hours instead of the suggested one in order to make time for story hour.

Verdict: We all enjoyed untoasted slices for dinner. The crust was crispy without being hard. The crumb was soft and moist. The following day, we all had toast for breakfast and were equally impressed. I plan to make another load as soon as I buy more cornmeal!