Cookies, Cookies Cookies

I again recruited help to make cookies. I had made two batches of no fail sugar cookies and a batch of Penny's sugar cookies. They both made very nice cut out cookies, but the flavor was a disappointment. So begins the hunt for a cut out cookie with knock your socks off flavor. I made four more batches, Colette's chocolate cookies, cream cheese, white chocolate and almond paste. I added a tsp of espresso powder to the chocolate which certainly made them have a richer flavor. As for the rest, the white chocolate was good, but my socks are still on. I made white chocolate fondant to decorate them , which helped. Then all my plans fell apart, I lost track of the recipes and the cookies never received the fondants which had been formulated to enhance each cookie's flavor. I should know by now that inviting people over to help decorate doesn't work out like I had hoped. Most don't understand that the cookie should be thicker than the icing that goes on it. I have rings for each rolling pin, ¼" for the cookie dough and 1/8" for the fondant. Too thick a fondant tends to overpower the cookie itself. Cookies have to be a uniform size and thickness to bake at the same rates on a single sheet. The dough has to be cold, so it doesn't stick to everything and spread out when it bakes. We baked some of the dough and I finished the rest when my "help" left. If I am ever going to master this, I am going to have to go it alone.

Alzhemier's Spreading

I made cookie dough several weeks ago, but hadn't baked it yet. I took it out of the frig a few days ago and started cutting out the shapes and baking. Nothing worked. The cookies spread until they were unrecognizable. I added a few handfuls of flour and tried again. They spread less but were still not satisfactory. I had made these cookies before, so I knew the recipe was a good one in terms of baking. It did lack in the taste area.

I gave up, wrapped up the dough and stuck it back in cold storage. It took me a few days, but I finally decided that I had made a mistake in the math translating the cup measurements into grams. Tuesday, I put the dough back in the mixer and remixed it with more flour. I made two more batches. I made two additional batches using two other recipes and adding the new creme bouquet emulsion I bought Saturday. I hope to find out tonight if the doughs are any good. I double checked my math and feel confident this will no longer be an issue. We are having a heat wave right now, so I must be crazy to think of baking.

The whole point of this cookie baking is to make cookies for my mother's and nephew's birthdays. The birthdays were in July. I am a little slow. I bought motorcyle cookie cutters and a few other shapes that should prove fun to decorate.

here's an example of my poor planning skills. I sit here thinking of baking tonight and I haven't made the icing yet. I have some left over black and white, but I wanted to make some bright colors for these.

A Sad Story and my worst nightmare

I bought a ticket for a BBQ last night. The event is to raise money for some poor woman who recently lost a leg to a flesh-eating virus. She had broken her ankle and the doctor had cast it. A few days or weeks after the cast was applied, she started having pain in the ankle area. She went to the emergency room where they had applied the cast and sat for almost 8 hours without getting to see a doctor. Finally, she went to another hospital, where she was seen soon after arriving and they removed her cast. What they found was a leg damaged so badly by the virus, that they amputated her leg. I can't imagine losing a limb under these kinds of circumstances. Last year a woman died from a virus of this kind after she scratched her leg while riding a jet ski. Another woman entered the hospital to have a baby and became a quadruple amputee, when they removed both legs above the knee and both arms just below the elbow.

ESWR Part 1

Dennis emailed me the other day asking what color t-shirts I wanted for the reststop. The theme for this year is the 60s. Peace, Love, and Watermelon. I was hoping for tie-dye, but Dennis is rather enigmatic with the details. He did tell me he chose hi-viz green. I had suggested reworking the Endless Summer poster to feature a silhouette of a bike rider and bike with a setting sun that was a slice of watermelon. We'll see how it turns out.

I wanted to do something different this year. I hope to make cookies. I bought bicycle cookie cutters and found great examples of tie-dye icing designs on cookies. I also found some cute flower power cookies and VW bugs cookies in neon colors. I hate shopping, but I'll have to go to the grocery store to get some neon food coloring. I bought neon food markers at the cake store last weekend. Hopefully, this weekend I can pick up some squeeze bottles at the restaurant supply store to use as icing applicators. Next task: recruit some unsuspecting folks as cookie decorators. In the meantime, clean out the freezer, so I'll have some place to store these goodies until the ride.

Worn Out Parts

We all know that my parts are worn out, but now I've worn out parts of the bike. I have ridden 8,000 miles on the Specialized. The chain, chain ring, and gears show enough wear that they need replacing. I should have been diligent and checked the chain stretch all along the way. I guess I'd rather ride than perform maintenance. I cleaned it, but the shop has called to tell me the parts are here. The ride for Saturday is scheduled, so I guess it will be dirty by the time it gets into the shop.

Those 8,000 miles have been a challenge, therapy, and pure enjoyment! I had stopped riding for a long time. Why did I stop? I guess I was too busy or wasn't living in a bike friendly place. Only once in a while, I would take the bike on vacation to Sanibel Island. There driving a car is heretical. Driving takes much longer than pedaling your way to various destinations. By riding, you aren't held up by traffic or plagued with parking hassles. Riding in Alfred was impossible due to the mountains and snow. I don't think I even took my bike with me then.

That old bike has a lot of miles on it too. I wish I had kept track. I know I logged quite a few since I used it to visit friends and commute to work. Now it just hangs in the garage.

Becoming a Chow - Literally

Last Friday night, we decided to try a new restaurant that served Vietnamese food. I love fresh spring rolls and am in the process of scouring the culinary wastelands of northern Florida for new dining experiences. I work for a non-profit, so have budgetary concerns, but I like good food!

Back to the subject at hand.... Anyway after consuming a couple of spring rolls and beef with bohk choy, I thought my tongue felt strange. It felt like something was stuck to it, so I proceeded to rub it against my teeth to dislodge the miscreant molecules. That didn't seem to work, so I finally asked my dining companion to look at my tongue. I couldn't find a mirror. Lo and behold, I had a large black spot on my tongue about 1" in diameter. I was alarmed. Was I transforming into a black-tongued Chow? I didn't remember biting my tongue and besides this spot was not anywhere near the edge, but closer to center. Did a piece of metal or glass become lodged in my tongue while eating? Did an insect bite me? I had to have surgery on my finger last year for necropic tissue caused by a spider bite. I called my mother, who lives 1,000 miles away, to describe my malady. Now, she was alarmed. The consensus was that I should go to the Acute Care clinic a few blocks away. Now, the embarrassing part begins. I saw the doctor. The same one I saw me a few weeks ago for a large tennis ball size hematoma on the back of my hand. I had hit my hand sharply against my desk and it had blown up in a matter of seconds to alarming proportions. Are we getting the trend here ..."alarming"! The diagnosis was a broken blood vessel that would go away on its own. I was not taking any blood thinners, so I should be fine in a few days and all traces would be gone. Oh gees, now I am seeing the same doctor for my alarming BLACK-spotted tongue. He diagnoses it as a bruised tongue. However, they decide to rule out any foreign objects by x-raying this body part. The technician says, "this wasn't covered in my textbooks, but I'll try". I mention to her that I have old silver fillings, so I will have to try and stick my tongue out away from my teeth. After all this, no foreign objects are found and the diagnosis is still a bruised tongue. My reputation for being a sane person is damaged and I hope I won't have to go back to that clinic for a long time.