Sewing Your Own Oats

I've found it's IMPOSSIBLE to duplicate a friend's recipe exactly as they made it.  Beth makes the greatest "stolen neiman marcus (or is it Mrs. Fields?) chocolate chip cookie" recipe. It uses oatmeal that you put in the food processor to make it a finer texture. Some of the chips are ground up too, which gives it a brownish/taupe-ish color. Then you bake for a VERY short period of time. So I tried it myself. Close, but I think I'll just let Beth make them. She has it all figured out. Perfect every time!

So on to BEV's oatmeal cookies. She brought them to a party at my house a few years ago and they were memorable. So memorable that when I saw her the other day, she was happy to give me the recipe.
Here's my attempt:

Things didn't start out very well. 

I set the microwave for 25 seconds...or so I thought. 

I wasted a whole pound of butter. @$%#! Thanks to mega quantities from Costco, I had more butter in the fridge so I moved forward with the project.

Standard mixing proceedure, sugar/butter, eggs/vanilla, dry, then oatmeal/chips. 

Nothing unusual, except for the delightfully scripted recipe which includes:

1 teaspoon soda (That’s baking soda not Coke)

3 cups “Old Fashion Oats” (Don’t be using any of that quick stuff)

½ cup chopped California walnuts (I’m sure there are other places in the world that grow walnuts)

1 cup raisons (leaving the raisons out or substituting would be sacrilege)

Well sacrilege, here I come, because I substituted BUTTERSCOTCH CHIPS. They are my vice of the month. And no nuts. The kids would have a fit.

Also in the recipe: "Here comes the good part – Eat while still warm."

My first pan of cookies were like pancakes, way too thin. But very edible.

So I added a smidge more flour:

Much better. This is the backside (probably a blog photography first):

One last tip from the creator: "For freezing: (But why not eat them all right now) Make rolls of dough and wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper, seal in double freezer bag. Good for 3 to 6 months."

So I did it but this log doesn't have the extra flour so they will be pancakes. Can't believe I even own freezer paper...what did I buy that for anyway?

PS coming soon: my attempt at Dianne's Oatmeal cookies...but never mind. Let's just say hers can't be duplicated either.

The Garage Condo: The new "UP NORTH"

Last weekend we were invited to "CARS AND CAFE", an early morning event that's over and done with by 11am. It has a flea market, carnival-like atmosphere, but the items on display and aren't for sale. It's held at the Auto Motor Plex in Chanhassan, right near Paisley Park studios. Upon arrival, the first thing we saw were tons of people and heard the roar of expensive engines.

The next thing we saw were the "garage condos".  

Rows and row of the them, many with great garage decor.

There's a main lodge. If this place had a pool, 

you could come here for a vacation.

Cars aren't the only things housed here. 

I saw a guy working on a great big boat. 

I also learned what a "Rat Rod" is.

It's a car that is intentionally left rusty and raw. 

The surface is sealed so the rusty stays perfect. Really cool!

SOOOOO a Needle Pulling Thread...

Remember when Maria from the Sound Of Music made outfits out of curtians? A few years ago I picked up this fabric at Unique Thift.  It was a nice cotton that was made into 2 lengthy curtian panels. I paid less than 3 bucks for it.

I thought the pattern/color was very similiar to a dress I had just seen in Vogue. This spring at Target I saw these dresses and thought the fabric was very similar to curtian fabric stashed in the basement. Maybe Target was inspired by the dress in Vogue, too.

Elastic waist skirts are also very "IN" this year.  I picked up WIDE elastic at Joann Fabrics for $6.

Sammy has a skirt similiar to the ones above. Looked very easy to duplicate. Idea is now hatched.

I put the girls to work. They learned how to make and pull a gathering thread & press and sew a hem.

Of course all couture creations involve fittings.

All for less than $5 bucks each. Don't they look great? I still have enough fabric to make one more...

Caramel not Carmel

Mom makes everyone caramels at Christmastime. 
She makes boxes out of old Xmas cards to hold the 
candy and writes everyone's name with her calligraphy pen. 
2004's packaging had a curvy shape:

Mom's been wanting to teach the girls how to make them. 

She came the house last weekend fully prepared. 
That's the girl scout and teacher in her.  

The recipe is from one of the volumes in 
her Woman's Day recipe encyclopedia.

Once everything was measured (and don't ruin it by adding nuts!)

all it needed to do was to cook on the stovetop.

Sammy went first. Notice tiny bubbles early on.

Stirring duties were transfered to another willing student.

Still stirring. Notice how the bubbles are larger.

That's the same wooden spoon we used when I was a kid. 

They tested the temp by dropping hot candy in cold water. 
I didn't take a photo of that.

The pan is from Martha Stewart's collection at Macy's. 

Nice even heat with a non-stick coating. 
It worked great and clean-up was a breeze.

Seems like they stirred for about an hour... 
think I'll check the photo records for the time.

Wow! I was right. They started at 11:20 and didn't 
pour it into the Fire King casserole until 12:24pm. 

And mom wasn't trying to be hip and trendy by using 
the old yellow glass casserole. 

She got it for her wedding in the 50s, 
and "that's the pan I make the caramels in".

The caramels needed to cool before cutting. 

After about a half hour, we put it in the fridge and 
went to the fabric outlet. All I brought home was my life 
(that place is a fire trap!) and this lovely photo.

Oops, we were gone a little too long. 
Now the caramel was a little too cold.

See the spatula marks where mom forced 
it out of the pan onto the cutting board.

After cutting into 1/2 inch strips and then into one inch-ish pieces with a chef's knife, 

Mom showed us how to wrap them in waxed paper.

 "Roll it than twist the outer end of the wrapper and push it in.

If you twist it too close to the caramel, it can tear the paper."

I put the bowl up high. When it's in full view, you're constantly into it.

Think I'll go have one--RIGHT NOW!

Gee Winz!

Mom gave me some old letters last weekend. I don't think they are bake-a-lite, but could be made from the earliest form of plastic invented. Thought I'd spell out a little message:

Here's the link to my WIN on youtube:

There were many food bloggers covering the bake-off this year. Food bloggers carrotsandcake captured exactly how I felt. 

Weeee GE!

My Road to the 44th Pillsbury Bake-off

My interest in the Pillsbury Bake-Off® contest began in 2004 when I saw an Oprah episode featuring the million dollar prize winner. She smashed a wrapped granola bar with a hammer to make a pie.  Two years later the next winner used waffles to make a chicken stuffing dinner. Hmmm. What could I do? I'd developed simpler, easier version of Todd English's turkey meatloaf that my family loved and thought I could enter that...until I read the rules. You needed to use one ingredient from list A and one ingredient from list B. List A was mostly Pillsbury rolls, doughs and mixes. List B contained flour, nuts, chocolate chips and jellies and more. How do I adapt my recipe to work? I wrote this e-mail to my friend in March of 2007: "I finally figured out my angle for the Pillsbury Bake-Off®. Turkey Meatloaf Burgers. Everyone gobbles up my meatloaf. So if I bake or fry mini-patties and use biscuits for the bun, that might work!" My friend wrote back: "Yummy! I'd add the word Mini. Mini is cute." But the meatloaf is so good on its own. Why make it more difficult? I shelved it.

The contest is every two years so I got another chance in March of 2009. Pillsbury publishes mini-cookbooks and magazines to keep the Bake-Off® "top of mind". I saw one at Cub foods and decided to finally do it. I approached it like a graphic design problem. I read the rules, highlighting ingredients that interested me. I brainstormed, sketching out ideas that combined my repertoire of recipes and unused equipment in my cupboard. I made a special trip to Cub and spent 30 bucks on ingredients to "play with" that weekend. But I was sidelined with the flu. The deadline was looming so I pulled myself out of bed early Monday morning and cranked out 3 recipes and entered them online. No one in my family ever saw them. The brownie recipe needed improvement and the other two recipes were OK, but being sick--I tossed it all out. I just wasn't in the mood to eat pesto at 10am. I never thought about it again. 

Fast forward to the Minnesota State Fair. I was touring the sauna barrels in the grandstand when I got a phone call from my husband: "I just got the strangest phone call for you. She wouldn't leave her name wanted to know what time you'd be back. The caller ID said GENERAL MILLS...did you apply for a job there?" Nope, but I had been to their website after reading Star Tribune's article about them being the best company on the planet to work for. Nope, I wasn't qualified for the co-pilot position that I saw on their website. Maybe it was a word of mouth thing. Did a former co-worker recommend me to the BIG G? My employment fantasy fizzled when it finally dawned on me---THE Bake-Off®....OMG THE Bake-Off® IS CALLING ME! And yes, my dreams always have registered trademarks in them.

It was the Pepperoni-Pesto Popovers that had gotten their attention. I wanted to tell the world, but I had a long questionairre to fill out and legal documents to sign. It paralled being pregnant. What if I loose the baby? I kept it secret for 6 weeks until I got the official word. 

Being a Bake-Off® finalist is great because it makes for great conversation at cocktail parties. If I'm having a bad day, I can daydream about winning the big prize. I can empathize with movies stars. "It's great just to be nominated," they always say. It really is. I have a trip to Orlando to look forward to and I've already made some new friends. And someday when I die my obit will say "this Pillsbury Bake-Off® finalist divided time between her riverfront condo and the dusty sands of Idaho..." (i made that up).

There are five Bake-Off® finalists from Minnesota. Some of us met for first time in Mill City Museum's test kitchen on Feb. 14th. Left to right: Michele Gauer of Spicer (Double Chocolate-Orange Scones). Laura Stanke of Maple Grove (Pepperoni-Pesto Popovers) and Cathy Wiechert of Mound (Pecan Cookie Waffles with Honey-Cinnamon Butter). 

Betsy Chan, of Bloomington (3rd from left) has entered Rachel Meatball Poppers. Not pictured is finalist Carole Holt of Mendota Heights (Chocolate-Caramel Crumb Cupcakes). For a complete list of finalists go to pillsbury.com or click here.

All in the Family

No sitting in librarys hunched over microfiche machines. No flying across the country to find the info you need. Just google it and it appears! I had always thought that great Aunt Hilda was in the Bake-off in the 40s. Well, I was wrong. Her great accomplishment was that she was the first female pharmacist to graduate from the University of Minnesota. How cool it that. But I wasn't too far off with the story. It was her son John that was in the Bake-off. He got second place in the 17th Busy Lady Bake-Off, Junior Division. He won $1000 at the age of 16. His recipe had a creative name: Gold Rush Brunch. They lived in Alaska at the time and lived through the earthquake. Here's the clipping I found online--and wow, that's a lot of sour cream!

Here's the recipe:

Gold Rush Brunch   

John Forrest Edwards

$500 Junior Second Prize Winner and $500 

Bright Idea Bonus Award Winner in Pillsbury's 17th Busy Lady Bake-Off

1 pkg. Pillsbury Hash Brown Potatoes

1/2 cup (1 medium onion) chopped onion

2 Tblsps. chopped parsley

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup Pillsbury's Best Flour (Regular, Instant Blending or Self-Rising)

1 tsp. salt

1/4 pepper

1 1/2 cups dairy sour cream

1 to 1 1/2 lbs. sliced Canadian - style bacon

8 eggs

Prepare potatoes according to package directions; drain well.  Stir in onion and parsley.  Place in well-greased 13 x 9 baking dish.  Melt butter in saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.  Remove from heat; blend in sour cream.  Pour over potatoes, lifting potatoes lightly to permit sauce to mix well.  Arrange bacon in an overlapping row down center of dish.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Make 4  indentations on each side of bacon; slip 1 egg carefully into each indentation.  Season with salt and pepper as desired.  Bake 15 to 20 Minutes longer or until eggs are set.

Hilda's comments:

4 cups of cubed fresh potatoes which I prefer using, cook them partially.

Sliced ham works well. I've also made it without eggs.

UPDATE FROM JOHN:
I heard from John shortly after the I was in the Bake-Off and wanted to add his comments here:

    I don’t remember them having category winners when I attended in 1966.  For comparisons sake, then the top prize was $25,000.00 and second place overall was $5,000.00.  There were also, a first place Junior Class prize of $2,500.00, and a second place Junior Class prize of $500.00.  Back then those were the top winners of the contest.  They also had a theme that year and it was ‘Busy Lady’ of which they gave away three more bonus prizes of $500.00 each for the recipes they judged to be the best that went along with that theme.  The idea was to be able to throw together a recipe quickly without much muss and fuss for the lady that was on the go.  So, a total of seven people were awarded prize money, out of the 100 contestants that participated in San Francisco.
            Only the two top prize winners appeared on TV when Pat Boone (the show’s host) announced the winner’s and presented them with their awards, while the other 98 contestants stood in the background singing the Pillsbury ditty, ‘Nothing says loving like something from the oven, and Pillsbury says it best’ accompanied by a full orchestra (very corny).  This was a 1/2 hour show broadcast live from the San Francisco Hilton’s ballroom. 
            The best thing was my mother got to fulfill one of her life long dreams, and that was; to attend the Pillsbury Bakeoff.  She really didn’t care if she was in the contest, she just wanted to go and see it live.  Because, I was still a minor at 16, she accompanied me as my guardian.  Laura’s news brings back very fond memories of, sharing that experience together with mom.