Archive for December, 2006

Toaster Oven to the Rescue

Published by kindli on December 9, 2006 in cooking. 0 Comments

This evening is WoW night, so I decided to bake.

Let me state now I REALLY REALLY REALLY HATE OUR OVEN, but I somehow managed to make “really good” cookies anyway.

I found the recipe for Cranberry, Orange & Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies on Slashfood. We had leftover dried cranberries from Thanksgiving and I figured that’d be a fun way for them to meet their end.

The following are things Gavin said during the process:

“Those don’t look done.”
“There’s no need to be upset.”
“You’re using the toaster oven?”
“Cranberries?”
“Kindli? Kindli, they’re really good!!” (with excited thumbs up and telemarketer headset on).

The cookies started out on a slippery slope. I had to bring the butter to “room temperature” by putting it in the microwave on low power for 2 minutes (room temperature was closer to the temperature of the refrigerator than it was to making the butter any softer).

Then I accidentally used 2 sticks of butter instead of a stick and a half, so I added more sugar and flour to make up for that imbalance (oops?).

They balled up nicely and went into the oven for 10 minutes at 350*F. Then I added 5 more minutes… then they fell apart when I picked one up. Clearly NOT done. Gavin agreed.

After cursing the oven, and the kitchen in general, I put in the second tray of cookies for 20 minutes They turned out perfectly. The first tray was put onto the smaller toaster-oven sized tray and toaster-ovened at 305*F for another 5 minutes (they turned out slightly more brown, but still quite good).

Gavin questioned the toasted-oven logic. I’ve made baked chicken in the toaster oven, I’ve made pastatsio, and lasagna, and toasted toast and bagels, and frozen pizzas… It has not let me down yet, and it managed the cookies wonderfully.


Gavin had griped there was no raw cookie dough, so I brought him a perfectly baked (tray 2) cookie. The first thing he said was “Cranberries?” “Yes, you read the recipe.” “Oh.”

A moment later he turned around, frantically waving a thumb in the air, “Kindli? Kindli, they’re really good!!”

Cranberry, Orange & Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
zest of one orange (about 2-3 tsp)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar, beating with an electric mixer until light. Beat in egg and orange zest. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add in the flour mixture, stirring only until just combined. Stir in the cranberries and chocolate chips.
Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls (about 1 1/4-inch balls) onto prepared cookie sheets and bake for 9-12 minutes, until edges are very lightly browned. Cool for 3-4 minutes on baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes about 4 dozen.

Ye Olde Tradational Christmas Letter

Published by kindli on December 6, 2006 in adventures and update. 0 Comments

I was going to write a Christmas letter describing in excruciating detail all the things that have happened to us this year (Gavin was quite opposed to the idea and I really don’t feel like doing all that), instead I’ll give you a run-down of the highlights (with links to the blogs).

January: Gavin proposes, Kindli says yes.

February: Kindli begins the wedding planning process. The all important dress is ordered/arrives. To Gavin’s chagrin boxes begin being shipped to Boston.

March: Wedding planning continues, Kindli visits Gavin in Boston, Elizabeth visits Kindli in Houston, flowers are made.

April: Meet the parents! The Carothers visit the Trudells in Houston, Kindli has her birthday.

5/13/06 Heidi, Irene, Pete, Kindli, Gavin, Stephen, Dulce, Megan

May: Kindli & Gavin get married. They honeymoon in Galveston (we wouldn’t recommend it).

June/July/August/September: Long hot Boston summer, Kindli & Gavin buy an air-conditioning, a new mattress, a lot of Ikea furniture, rearrange the apartment. Kindli’s friend Kelly visits, Kindli’s parents visit, Gavin’s former roommate Mike visits, and we went to Jenny and Paul’s wedding reception. Gavin, Jenny and Kindli go to Plymouth and see the Rock. Gavin gets a new job, Kindli keeps busy with temping (not all in that order).

Gavin and Kindli near Plymouth Rock

October: Kindli visits Elizabeth in PA. Kindli & Gavin take the Zip-Car to Maine for a long weekend.

November: Kindli & Gavin play hosts for a successful Thanksgiving feast, no one is killed (or poisoned or even seriously injured).

December: It snowed. Kindli & Gavin fly to California to visit the Carothers for Christmas.

Gavin made a lot of waffles, so we had a lot of waffle brunches, with Jenny, with Roger, with Andy, with each other. Kindli cooked a lot of meals, and did a lot of baking. Gavin did a lot of appreciating (although the 3lbs of fudge got to be a bit much).

As of Dec. 13 we will be married for 7 months. On May 13, 2007 we will have been married a year. Maybe next year’s Christmas letter will be excruciatingly detailed.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Today there was Snow

Published by kindli on December 4, 2006 in weather. 0 Comments

Today was the first snow of the winter. It snowed this morning. There is nothing magical about standing at the bus stop in the snow. I don’t like snow. Snow is best experienced through a window (when you’re inside, wrapped up in a blanket, with a good book and hot chocolate).


This morning I put on my down coat, scarf, hat and gloves and was promptly laughed at by Gavin. I was comfortably warm as I waited for the bus, and the coat was quite nice on the walk down the hill to my temp job. It helps keep my legs warm. I don’t care if I look silly, I’d rather be warm.

RasinBran Crunch, The Breakfast of Deposed Dictators

Published by kindli on December 3, 2006 in cooking. 0 Comments

Although we have 3 boxes of Crispix (2 unopened), 1 box of cornflakes and 3 variations of RasinBran (regular, organic and crunch –Sadam’s favorite) in our pantry, every now and then I don’t feel like cereal for breakfast.

Waffles, while most excellent (we had some for breakfast this morning), are not always an option (mostly due to time constraints), so when I came cross a recipe for Oatmeal Bars on SlashFood, I figured why not try them out.


I am not the hugest fan of oatmeal outside of cookies, so I was a little hesitant to give it a try. It wasn’t all that complicated, the recipe is very straight forward, and the end result was surprisingly good.

OATMEAL BARS

Old fashioned uncooked oats - 2 3/4 cups
Brown Sugar (Firmly packed) - 2/3 cups
Raisins - 1/2 cup
Walnuts - 1/2 cup (roughly chopped)
Ground Cinnamon - 1 tsp
Vanilla extract - 2 tsp
Eggs - 2, lightly beaten
Salt - a pinch
Milk - 3 cups + 2 tbsp
Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp

Preheat oven to 360°F . Grease a 13 by 9inch baking pan with little oil.
Add sugar, raisins, chopped nuts, ground cinnamon and a pinch of salt in a large bowl, mix well.
In another bowl, add vanilla, milk, eggs and mix well. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix well until they are blended.
Pour this mixture to a baking dish and spread evenly using a spatula.
Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until golden brown and center is firm. Let it cool for 8 minutes and cut them to bars.
Serve warm.
* Wrap the the leftover bars individually and refrigerate.

What I like most is the combination of flavors and textures. I added some dried cranberries in addition to the raisins, and the sweet chewiness contrasted with the crunchy pecans (I don’t like walnuts all that much) was enjoyable.

Gavin looked at them as they came out of the oven and simply said: “Enjoy.” This from the guy who’s drinking warm Tang. To each their own.

For more of what I’ve been cooking, and what I hope to cook in the near future, check out my del.icio.us.

Visions of Sugar Plums danced in their Heads

Published by kindli on December 3, 2006 in adventures. 0 Comments

Gavin and I saw the Boston Ballet’s presentation of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.

Over all it was very good except for the following:

Clara’s nightgown was way too sheer. Victoria’s Secret models wear more opaque nightgowns than this little girl did. Fortunately she was wearing a leotard underneath (this was particularly noticeable when it was backlit).

The flower girls looked like they were wearing Fairy costumes from this last Halloween (garish woodland fairy costumes).

The audience clapped too soon (this was Gavin’s big complaint).

What happened to Mother Hubbard’s dress? Why couldn’t she move? Why did they drop the curtain and not say anything? I guess her dress had a technical malfunction, she was sort of stuck there waving her arms about.

I very much enjoyed:

The unique dance groups in the second act, particularly the Russians.

I would like to question who added the dancing bear, the gingerbread and candy men, why the Rat King was dressed like an Arabian Prince, and what purpose the sheep served.

Gavin said they were fun. I’m not disagreeing, they just seemed a little… out of place? What do you do with a dancing bear at a Christmas party and sheep in the realm of the Sugar Plum Fairy? (Bad entertainment and lamb chops come to mind).

During the intermission I enjoyed watching how people were dressed. The under-ten crowd was out in force with their mommies and daddies, dressed in what mommy/daddy considered to be acceptable, then there were clearly some who’d gotten to dress themselves, and a few who’d started to dress themselves and then been stopped about half way.

I sat next to a couple who made out most of the time and Gavin sat next to a woman who was never quite sure when to clap. In front of us were four ladies with way too much perfume (my nose is stuffed up and I could still smell it) and lots of sparkly beaded jewelry, they shared a beer and talked loudly in English accents. Behind us sat some teenie-boppers who were allowed out and were dressed in what they thought was trendy.

Over all we had an enjoyable experience, I am going to google around online and see if I can find more fun things like this for us to go to. One a month might be nice (as a change of scenery). Gavin is thinking the symphony, I’m thinking a variety. We shall see.

On the 2nd Day of Christmas

Published by kindli on December 2, 2006 in cooking. 0 Comments

Gavin and I are going to see the Boston Ballet’s presentation of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Gavin has never seen it performed live before, so I decided that we should go see it.

Because today is Dec. 2, I also though it would be fitting to post pictures of our Christmas tree. I have also opened the first two days of my Chocolate Advent calendar, and, as predicted, the chocolate is incredibly cheap and waxy.

In a fit of domesticity, I did the dishes, and made Banana Bread (I did the dishes mostly so I’d have space to put the dirty bowl and stuff from making the bread).

Banana Bread

1 stick butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe (overripe) bananas
2 cups flour
some salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup nuts/raisins/chocolate chips (optional, but the bread is kind of dull with out at least one of them, I like pecans and raisins)

bake @ 350*F 15 min. for mini muffins; 20 min. for cupcake sized muffins; 40-45+ min. for a large loaf

Mom likes to add wheat germ and use honey instead of sugar. I prefer adding a little cinnamon and some vanilla. To each their own.


The Banana bread decided to take closer to an hour+ to bake. I’d blame the oven, but as I was making a large loaf in a pyrex loaf dish I figure that’s just how things go.

To kill time while I waited for the banana bread to finish, I decorated my Authentic German Gingerbread house that Elizabeth brought as token of appreciation at Thanksgiving.

I will be the first to vouch for its authenticity. The taste is dead-on (even if it is a little stale, but that’s to be expected). I opted to use real icing instead of the vinegar based ick recommended on the back of the box –what’s the point of authentic german gingerbread if you can’t eat it?!

I had a wonderful time decorating it. It came with some gingerbread cookies, little sugar pretzels, and little sugar people to help add to the over all look.


The finished house has taken up residence on the cake stand. It looks quite lovely there.