Naturally Optimistic

I always offer to bring dessert to my MIL's because it's what I *make best* (IMHO)and she's a great cook...and I suck at salads. This Easter was no different. So I pulled out the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook to pick a recipe for Easter Sunday. I thought lemon would be springy and picked the Lemon Curd Cake. Read through - sounded easy! I'll be done in a snap! Um, yeah. I spent 5 hours on Saturday making this cake. Well, more specifically the lemon CURD. This cake took forever. It also took more eggs, butter & sugar than I thought possible (16 yokes just for the curd!!!!!). By time I finished the cake I didn't have time to frost the thing. So I made the frosting and refrigerated it for the night. Well, long story short, when I went to frost the cake yesterday - the frosting separated (even though I followed the directions on how to get it back to a spreadable consistency), then I could get the paper cornet w/decorating tip to stay together to put the decora...

Meigan was kind enough to send me some diabetic recipes to try out and because I'm getting sick of a slab of meat + a measly 1/2 cup of carbs I thought - why not! I love making soups and was excited to try the Ginger Carrot Soup. Plus I would get to use my oh-so-neglected food processor. It's so fun to use but I just don't have use for it that much. Martha always uses hers for everything...but I haven't been very "Martha-ish" lately. So, I got home after running some errands, chopped everything, used some turkey broth that I had been saving in my freezer for base (I'm always excited to get to use that too), threw it all in a pot and let it cook for about an hour. It smelled delish. By the time an hour was up I was starving. I cut up some crusty bread (mmmm....) and called Steve to the table. However, I didn't FINISH the recipe! DUH. I served my husband this: Yes, that's right - it looks like carrots and peeled tomatoes in a watery broth. We ate it...

In my neverending quest to clean out our house I've decided it's time to let Martha go. I have a box of VERY HEAVY MSL mags (some dating back to '96!) that has been moved with me from Duluth to Hollywood back to Duluth and it's beginning to seem unnecessary to me. I don't look at them, I can't enjoy them, I can't move the box they're in! So, I'm going through each one and tearing out each page that I want - whether it's recipes, craft projects, decorating ideas, tips or just pretty pictures. I'm finding that I can recycle about 90% of each magazine and everything that I actually MIGHT use is going into a binder. I thought it would be harder, but it's been a lot of fun actually, and I'm excited to be re-inspired by some ideas. This is a big step for Miss Pack Rat Carrie!!

Ice cream & Martha Stewart...sounds good to me!

Ah the cheesecake! That's what Easter's about, right? I started off here with the MARTHA STEWART BAKING HANDBOOK - New York Cheesecake: It called for 7 8 oz packages of cream cheese. I thought that was a lot. What I didn't realize was it was a recipe for a 10" pan which as cheesecakes go is quite large. I believe my pan is only 8" doh. So much for reading ahead. After reading more of the recipe and starting to feel a time crunch as I had to be to Steve's Dad's by a certain time....I started researching other cheesecake recipes in my cookbooks and online. I decided to forgo the "water bath" and bake it the normal way. I did learn though that you can let your cheesecake cool from 3-5 hours IN THE OVEN which apparently prevents cracking. Hmmmm, the top popped up (I used SO MUCH FILLING - and sadly still dumped a ton down the drain. Pooey for wasting good cheesecake filling! the top got quite brown - unfortunately. Hmmmm..... After freaking out a bit...

For Christmas, my Mother-in-Law gave me this book that had been on my wishlist: I was so excited! And had the perfect occassion to try it out. My Dad's 60th birthday is only a few days after Christmas and we were having a party for him the following weekend. I decided to make the Ginger Chocolate cakes because 1) it seemed like a "special" cake (as one should have for celebrating 60 years!) and 2) it was ginger bread and we were still in between the holidays so I figured people would not think I was out of season by baking this. Oh and 3) I LOVE gingerbread. It took me all morning to create the cakes & the ganache (and pack for the weekend). I also had to run to a candy store to buy crystallized ginger (who knew they sell it at candy stores? Well, they do!) I was quite pleased with how they turned out. The ganache frosting was easy to make (putzy but easy) but the recipe was WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too big for these 12 cakes and sadly a lot of it ended up getting tossed (af...