Bread Maker - NOT!

So I've been experimenting with our bread maker since we got it some time ago. I've only been successful at like 2 loafs so far though. I don't remember the name of the 1st successful one, but it was some kind of Italian bread. The one that I've made the most and been the most successful at is Raisin Bran Bread, but that was prolly due to necessity. We had a good 10 or so boxes of the cereal that we needed to get rid of and thanks to the success of the bread, we're down to 4. However, one cannot nor does anyone want to just eat Raisin Bran Bread so I'm once again attempting this regular bread thing.

So I started with a recipe for making just plain ol' regular white bread. It smelled good and seemed like it was progressing really well until I opened the bread machine up and got a whiff of the semi-burnt bread. It wasn't burnt, BUT it was definitely darker than what I was aiming for with this bread. I wanted a nice, soft, light brown loaf of bread. FAIL!

I so didn't get what I wanted. I'm beginning to think the bread machine is broken or something. Maybe it's getting too hot too quickly. The inside looked fine ... But that outside made even me think twice about eating it. [Side Note: In case you don't know, Husband is what I call a Bread Racist. He won't eat bread if it's too dark. He'll eat the inside of it, but eating the crust is NOT happening if it's too dark. That amazes me because, well, Husband is not the lightest kid on the block & he has written a blog on crust having a bad rep (An Unfair Rep) ... anyway end of side note.]

I'm thinking that maybe I can still keep the bread maker and make it work for us. Here's what I figure. I could use the bread maker to make the dough for me. Then I can take it out and bake it in the oven to my desired firmness and crust color. And this is what I tried.

SUCCESS! It worked so well that we actually consumed the entire loaf in a week. It's a rarity for us to do that even when we buy a smaller loaf at the store. Oh yeah, this is going to work. Now, I only made plain white bread this time around, but next time I'll get a bit fancier. Heck, I may make up several batches and freeze then so we can thaw and bake and will. I know I have to make some biscuits for the Deac too now that I think I know what I'm doing :) ... I'll take pics the next time too; the bread was gone before I thought to take a pic for the site.

Cherry Syrup

Okay so as you may see now, I come up with random ideas and some times actually go through with them. I'm real late on this one because I actually tried this before the ketchup or the cake balls, but better late than never right? Anyway ...

I had the idea of making a flavored simple syrup for my tea so as to add another dimension to the tea and in preparation for a future business endeavor. We received a huge can of tart cherries and so of course it became my 1st one ... and it was just alright. We've used it in our tea (both hot and cold), but it was not mind blowing so I'll continue to tweak it for a bit. Especially since it tasted like a certain store bought ice tea when I attempted to make sweet tea with it. Not that I'm clowning store-bought sweet tea, but homemade sweet tea is so much better! We also used it in some lemonade and ginger ale ... that was fairly delicious, but I shall revisit this at a later date when I feel like coming back to cherries.

With the Fall season approaching (or is it here?), I think it's time for experimenting with apples. I look forward to making apple cider and maybe even an apple syrup. If I fill ambitious enough I'll give an Apple Jelly recipe a try because it's my favorite flavor of jelly, but not so easy to budget in since there's always grape jelly and I'm the only one that really eats it. Oh yeah, I'm sure I'll do my Candy Apple Chicken again soon too so I look forward to that. Depending on if I can figure something out maybe I'll make a Candy Apple Cider ... mmmm!

Again, there's no telling when I'll actually get time to make these things and blog about them, but I will try.

Homemade Ketchup

Have you ever had any homemade ketchup? Well, my household has and it was delish! Oh, and the smell as it was simmering in the pot ... whew! It was mind blowing. Now I know, I know ... we could have just bought some ketchup; it's not that expensive - right? Well, we had quite a few tomatoes & peppers in the fridge that we needed to use up. Husband doesn't eat tomatoes enough for us to just eat them (yes, I do eat tomatoes right out of the fridge by their lonesome with a dab of pepper if I'm in the mood for it - say something, I dare you). Also, I've been on this whole "let's try it homemade" kick for a while now. And of course, another one of the food blogs I follow had posted about homemade ketchup weeks before. So of course I had to go for it.

Now, being true to who I am, I of course didn't have all of the ingredients nor did I use or measure all of the ingredients for the recipe. I figured, it's ketchup, just throw some stuff together and see what happens. I wrote down all that I placed in it and may put that up if someone cares to see it, but let me tell you ... This ketchup was AMAZING! It's a little too much on the vinegary side for what I am used to, but I could get used to it I'm sure. Plus, it made for a great sauce on one our or slow cooker chicken meals. It also has little seeds in it because I don't have any cheesecloth, but I like the rustic look, taste, and feel of it.

Will I make this again? Of course. Will I follow a recipe next time? Prolly not to the T. The point is ... we've discovered we like homemade ketchup and if I find that it's more cost efficient for me to buy tomatoes and make it over buying a bottle, I'll do it. Also, I just had a great idea ... I love BBQ Sauce, but I have yet to make my own. I think I can use this stuff as a base to make some. That way I could have whatever lil extra taste I want in my sauce. Oh the possibilities!

I'm not going to even pretend as though, I know what will show up on our homemade plates next time. However, I can say that I will be attempting to do better at taking pics and describing the steps. I'm working on it. I think a craft project will be up next though because its one that needs to get done sooner than later or a certain set of runners will be all up in arms ...

Strawberry S'More Cake Balls

I did it! I did it! I've been trying to make some cake balls since reading about them on one of my fave blogs, Bakerella.com. I finally did it this past weekend ... mmmmmm! Okay, not really. They're actually way too sweet for my liking and I made them too big. BUT it's definitely something I'll be trying again because I want to be able to make them for Kiddo's parties; I imagine little bite sized cake balls are so much better than getting a huge sheet cake that ends up sitting at the house cause I over estimated the amount of cake to buy. The other thing is I need to perfect this concept I randomly came up with and decided to run with. Bakerella tells exactly how to make cake balls, but I had to do some experimenting since I am not a huge icing fan. I used marshmallow puff instead and of my! It was a sticky mess! But I'm not discouraged ... I shall try again. I have over a year before they need to be perfected.

My recipe is below. It's not from scratch this time (I used a box cake), but one day I'll step up my game because cakes from scratch have that much more love in them. I'm trying to make my godmother proud since she's the Cake Master of the fam. ;)

Ingredients:

I box of Strawberry Cake Mix

~8 oz of Marshmallow Fluff

16 oz melting chocolate (I used some leftover Baker's Milk Chocolate that I had)

~ 3 Tbsp of Graham Cracker Crumbs

There are approximations because I just didn't measure this time, but I will attempt to remember to do better as I continue to experiment with food and blogging about food.

I made the cake balls based on Bakerella instructions (go to the site, it's awesome!). The only differences were that I used marshmallow fluff instead of icing. I meant to take pics and will attempt to get them on here before next week since these are clearly still in the fridge. Again, I will be attempting this again, but I just have to work on measurements and whatnots. Plus, I have the recipe book so I have to try the various recipes for various Holiday desserts ... there are some football Oreo truffles that have been calling my name.