Archive for September, 2007

Toilets of the World, adventures getting LW from Oakland

Published by kindli on September 29, 2007 in adventures and family. 0 Comments

Today Gavin and I ventured south to the Oakland Airport to pick up my little sister, Heidi (aka LW).

It was an uneventful drive down, and a fairly uneventful drive back.

We did not get lost, we did not miss our exit, we did not see any rare/exotic bird species (although Heidi was keeping an eye out for them).

Once we got home, Heidi unloaded “about 20lbs” out of her bag. An exaggeration of course, but the Dr. Pepper Cake Mix and Jelly Bellies were a most welcome surprise, as was the Keep Abilene Boring
t-shirt (the counterpart to the Keep Austin Weird movement).

She also brought some cute fridge magnets from the Abilene Zoo, where she actively volunteers, and Toilets of the World, which has taken up residence in our downstairs WC.

Tomorrow we plan to have more adventures, I’m not sure what they’ll be yet.

Stephen, this post is for you

Published by kindli on September 28, 2007 in cooking. 1 Comment

Yesterday, Stephen, my father-in-law, called and asked what I had baked recently (actually he called to ask Gavin a computer question, but I got to the phone first). I didn’t do any baking on Thursday, but with Heidi’s impending visit, I felt compelled to make cookies.

So today I made Ginger Cookies and the Orange-Crasin Chocolate Chip cookies. I tend to make them together, ginger cookies first, then orange-crasin chocolate chip, because I end up using 3 sticks of butter and by the time the orange-crasin cookies are done the ginger cookie dough is ready to come out of the freezer.

Also, when I first started making them Gavin didn’t like the ginger cookies quite as much (I blame the oven) as he enjoyed the orange-crasin chocolate chip (although the first time I made them he thought I was crazy).


The Orange-Crasin Chocolate Chip cookies didn’t turn out quite right, the consistency of the dough was slightly off I’m not quite sure why. The ginger cookies turned out well.

I’m also doing laundry, sheets and towels. Tomorrow (Saturday) Heidi is arriving. She’s staying with us until Monday afternoon, then I’m taking her to BART so she can go off on other grand adventures.

breakfast and dinner, now all we need is lunch

Published by kindli on September 26, 2007 in adventures and cooking. 0 Comments

Yesterday I kept quite busy puttering around the kitchen. I made Mom’s Noodle Souffle, and Cinnamon Pecan Sticky Rolls.

The Noodle Souffle turned out perfectly. It was the first time I’d made it on my own, and I was quite pleased with the results. I thought it looked a little too liquid-ee, but it baked nicely. The recipe worked perfectly in the Baker’s Edge Pan, which also made it easier to get the souffle out.

Gavin deemed it “a little bland” but over all it was quite successful.


Mom’s Noodle Souffle
3 eggs seperated
1/2 cup melted butter
1 table spoon sugar
1 lb. creamed cottage cheese
1 cup sour cream
1/2 lb. medium cooked noodles (1 6oz. bag)
1/2 cup frosted flakes

boil noodles according to package directions

in small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff

in large bowl, beat egg yolks with melted butter & sugar; add cottage cheese & sour cream, fold in cooked noodles and egg whites

pour into buttered casserole dish and sprinkle w/flakes

bake @ 375*F for 45 min.


The Cinnamon Pecan Sticky Rolls were quite a success. The dough rose quickly, I put it outside on top the recycling bin in the sun, and it easily doubled in size.


Instead of baking all of them at once, I divided the dough in half and used two cake rounds each holding six sticky rolls. I baked one of the rounds for breakfast this morning. The others will either get frozen, or baked later this week.

Leslie’s Revealed Utensil

Published by kindli on September 25, 2007 in reading and update. 0 Comments

My dear friend (and former roommate) Leslie has a new blog, The Revealed Utensil, where she plans to share her Adventures, News, and Noteworthy Opinions. Leslie is also going to share her culinary adventures and recipes.

For more information about Leslie and The Revealed Utensil, you can visit her blog, it is listed on the right under “Our Links,” or lesliebakes.blogspot.com.

another spider

Published by kindli on September 25, 2007 in townhouse. 0 Comments

At least two of these spiders have made themselves conspicuous homes in our back yard. I’m sure there are several more, I didn’t go looking for them.


I’m sure they do a great job eating little bugs and all, but why do they have to stretch their webs across where people walk?! I guess that’s where the bugs fly too.

Make Cheesecake?

Published by kindli on September 24, 2007 in adventures and cooking. 0 Comments

Today is Monday. Depending on who you ask, it is the start of a new week (others will argue Sunday is, but for the purposes of this post that is a moot point).

Monday: take Gavin to work, buy groceries, clean the bathroom, set up the office/guest room, check the mail, make cheesecake, check the mail.

Make Cheesecake?

Today, I felt inspired to make (try to make) Cheesecake. It was another one of those recipe cards from Mom.

I have never made cheesecake, wait, that’s not entirely true, for my bridal “luncheon” I helped Polly make the dessert, but we didn’t use spring-form pans, we used pie pans.

The directions were fairly easy to follow: I used my stand mixer, the spring-form pan, and several rubber scrapers. I managed to get the oven to stay at about 300*F (quite a feat), and at the suggestion of the recipe card I let it cool in the oven.

The spring-form came off fairly cleanly, although the graham cracker crust crumbled a little around the edges. I transferred it carefully onto a platter, put saran-wrap over it, and placed it in the fridge to chill for at least two hours.


I checked on the cheesecake a little over two hours into the cooling process. I pulled up the saran wrap to check and several little cream-cheese clots clung to it, marring the perfectly smooth finish. Oops there.

After dinner I sampled a thin slice. It was a little on the soft side, but over all I think it was a very good first attempt: it didn’t fall apart, it didn’t burn, it’s edible, and it tastes right.

another car adventure - along 12

Published by kindli on September 24, 2007 in California, adventures and car. 0 Comments

Today Gavin and I had another adventure with out car. We drove up 12, through Napa and Calistoga. It took a little over two hours to finally meet back up at 101. When we drove 101 home it took about half an hour.

I guess that’s the difference between going 65 in a straight line and 25-35 on curvy back roads through little towns.

We didn’t take any pictures, but I noticed the difference between the coast and further inland. Along the coast there are lots of cows, further inland there are lots of grapes.

Both have pretty scenery, but the coast has scarier drop-offs into the Pacific and it has the cows that can freely roam the highway, while further inland has the Casino busses which are not fun to meet in tight curves.

On our drive we passed the Ehler’s Estate in St. Helena some sort of vineyard/winery. Their website mentions “…Bernard Ehlers had his name carved in stone above the door of our historic 1886 building, planted our olive grove and the first Ehlers Estate vines.” No relation, Ehlers is a popular name in Northern Germany.

Point Reyes, to Nowhere and Beyond

Published by kindli on September 23, 2007 in California, adventures and car. 0 Comments

Today Gavin and I turned left off of 116 onto Highway 1 for a random adventure, we ended up at Point Reyes. In the past we’ve turned right (less scary traffic to cross) and gone to Bodega Bay and Ft. Ross. We didn’t bring our camera and we didn’t bring any snacks, fortunately Gavin grabbed a water bottle.

I would like to share some insights that I have gained from today’s trip:
- Pack a snack & bring a water bottle. Unless you like clams there are very few places to eat once you get close to Point Reyes (Gavin disputes this).
- Make sure you have enough fuel. Of course you could pay $3.29 a gallon in some little town in the middle (literally) of nowhere… we were lucky enough to avoid this fate, and get to Petaluma where we paid $2.95.
- Eat something before you walk 30 stories down to see the “really cool” lighthouse.
- Watch out for Birders, and potholes, and cattle grids (they come in groups).
- Federally maintained roads tend to be in worse condition than county maintained roads.
- Don’t turn quickly while driving over federally maintained roads, potholes or cattle girds.

A few notes about Birders:
- Look out when you go over steep hills. Birders congregate in odd places, like the far side of steep hills.
- Birders can’t park. Well they can, just not off on the side of the road where they should, look for their vehicles precariously placed half-on half-off the road (usually in awkward narrow spots and turns). So you know what to look out for Birders drive Hybrid SUVs, Subarus, and other such cars.
- They carry tripods. These tripods tend to be set up precariously near the edge of the road, this way when the birder leans over to look through the binoculars, their butt sticks out into the road.
- Birders also carry cameras with massive lenses, well, the richer hobby birders do. Other birders take pictures through their binoculars (with varying results, hence the need for a tripod).
- Many Birders wear a multi-pocked vest, this way they can carry all their birding “equipment,” die-hard Birders also carry a “birder-bag” usually something rugged, and expensive binoculars. Both will invest quite a lot in outerwear.

So when LW comes to visit next weekend I think we’ll go out there. She’s into the birding scene.

it has carrots so it must be healthy

Published by kindli on September 21, 2007 in adventures and cooking. 0 Comments

Today I tried another one of the recipes from Mom (the same collection the eclairs came from). Gavin specially requested carrot cake (under the premiss that “carrot cake” sounded healthier than “cheese cake”).

So far following directions closely has gone well, but I am still slightly skeptical of the use of a 9-inch cake pan for the carrot cake batter. It did hold all the batter with about 1/4 inch of clearance, but what about once it rises? Could it bubble over?

About 20 minutes into the baking process I smelled the faintest whiffs of “something not quite right.” I ran to the kitchen. Sure enough, a little bit of batter had bubbled over, nothing drastic, just enough to give off a little stink.

I opened the window (to help with the smell), and kept a close eye on the cake for the remaining cooking time.

After the allotted baking time had passed I tooth-pick tested it, it came out clean. I also noticed that it was not the batter bubbling over, it was the PAM cooking spray that I’d used to keep the cake from sticking. Ironic.

To be on the safe side I let the cake cook in the pan for an extra few minutes. I’d love to say it came out without any mishaps, but that wouldn’t be entirely true.

I rotated the pan onto the cooling rack, because the cake was still hot, I used oven mitts. Unfortunately I didn’t have a good grip so the cake went sliding across the rack and onto the counter top. Fortunately it stayed in one piece (and I’d cleaned off the counter top while it was in the oven), so I was able to slide it back onto the cooling rack.


Once it had finished cooling, I iced it, and brought a sample piece up to Gavin for us to share.

“Is it supposed to have large chunks of carrots?” Gavin asked, after commenting favorably about the taste, and icing.
“The Cusinart can only hold so many carrots before it makes chunks.”
So next time I’ll shred them in smaller batches.

The Gavin Rating: Excellent

I declare Eclaire!

Published by kindli on September 19, 2007 in cooking. 0 Comments

For several years a recipe for Miniature Chocolate Eclairs has been sitting in the back of my recipe collection. I got the recipe from Mom (ironic, I know), and I’m not entirely sure where she got it from. It appears to be one of those recipe-by-mail collections that Mom got offers for, but never fully subscribed to.

The recipe was clearly printed on thick paper with a lovely picture of the eclairs. They also offered simple, comprehensive steps, on how to make the eclair.

Although the steps they advised sounded a little odd, and the dough felt really sticky, I followed the directions quite carefully. They baked for the allotted time, I slit them in the described manner, and made sure they were fully cooled.

from the oven

I could only fit eight of the twelve on the baking sheet, so I put the extra four in the toaster-oven. I realized the rack was upside-down (Gavin likes his toast a little more toasted), consequently, the four in the toaster-oven got a little browner than the ones in the oven.

The ones in the oven turned out perfectly. Light and crisp. After they had cooled a little, I finished slicing them open. I filled and frosted one of the demented toaster-oven ones to test the taste. Taste-wise it turned out perfectly, appearance-wise, the toaster-oven made them a little special.

from the toaster-oven, filled and iced