Sunday, October 14, 2012

Sundays Upside Down

I know it's been a bit quiet around here; not as quiet as it has been in the past, but quieter than I'd like it to be.  This week in particular has been extremely stressful.  Hubby hurt himself on Saturday, and then we had to run to Toccoa for a funeral on Monday.  Since he hurt himself, I spent most of the week basically as a single mom.  This meant that all housework, food prep, and most of taking care of the kids fell to me.  It wore me out, so this weekend we've laying low.

One of his aunts passed away on Friday, and the funeral was set for Monday.  Me, being the spouse of the relative, watched the kids during the funeral and at the family lunch.  I loved being around the family, even if it was for a sad reason.  However, one of the big things at a Southern funeral is the food.  This time, it was honestly not that good.  There was mediocre fried chicken, canned green beans (yuck) and no cornbread to be seen.  And this was from a Baptist church!  Honestly, it was sad.  Baptists usually have really good food, and this one was a complete disappointment.

Speaking of food, we're baking our way through some science and math.  Fractions and chemistry - easy peasy.  I chose 6 different chocolate chip cookie recipes, and we're slowly but surely baking through all of them.  Each week, we're making one dough, baking half of it, tasting it and writing down our observations.  We are currently in week #3, but I thought I'd go ahead and comment on the first 3 recipes we've made. Our first recipe was from Savory Sweet Life, and is entitled "The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe EVER," so you can see why it had to be first.  Here's the resulting cookies:



These cookies were good, but I don't know I would consider them "the best."  They were kind of thin, but good.  I should have spread them out a little farther, but all in all, a decent cookie.

The next one we baked, I chose, and it was Alton Brown's "The Chewy."  To me, these were actually the best, and I over-baked these.



These were definitely chewy, so they were soft (my favorite way for cookies to be).  They also puffed up, and gave good height to the cookie.  I didn't refrigerate the dough like I should have before baking, and so the normal baking time for them was actually a little long.  The interesting difference in this recipe is that you weigh the ingredients.  It makes for a more accurate measurement.

The one we just baked today was Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies by the Brown Eyed Baker.  She put some measurements by weight, and others simply by volume.  These were #2 in my book; they baked up nicely, slightly crunchy on the outside, while retaining some softness on the inside.  They are very similar to cookies that you find in a bake shop, or coffee house.  They are meant to be big, and they really are.


 
We still have 4 more recipes to bake through (I found another one for a cast iron skillet and I think this one will be our last one, when we bake all the others).  Thanks to the ladies from the Luvinthemommyhood Summer Sweater Knit-a-long for all the recipes.  They were instrumental in helping me find them - each one of the recipes is a favorite of someone from that group.  Thanks so much ladies!

Knitting updates will be given more next week - pictures will abound!  And, as I leave you today, I just want this to be the last vision you have:


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