Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Personal Building Projects

Now that school is done for the summer (basically), I am getting to some projects that I've wanted to do and some things that are just fun for me.

Last week I saw a recipe for Phillie Cheesesteak sloppy joes that I wanted to try. The recipe suggested serving them up on brioche buns. So while the sloppy joes were okay, I really got a kick out of making brioche buns. The dough had such a different texture; it took lots of butter and egg yolks. I loved it, and I'll definitely be experimenting with it in the future.

Brioche dough

And that's the end of any cooking triumph for the week.

See these blackberries and raspberries? 



I cooked them down for some puree for blackberry ice cream which we churned and churned and churned to no avail. We were all sorely disappointed when we had to pour the still-liquid ice cream into a container and then into the freezer. The next day, we did enjoy the ice cream, but it wasn't as amazing as I wanted it to be. 

But the recipe did call for a lot of egg yolks. So there were lots of egg whites leftover from the ice cream and brioche dough. And you know what? I've been wanting to try to make an angel food cake for my entire adult life, so it seemed the logical choice.

And you know what? It flopped.


Literal flop

Once again, another disappointment. It wasn't horrible tasting, but it was a little eggy tasting and maybe undercooked slightly? I'm not sure because it was so cooked that I couldn't tell if it was undercooked or not. 

Now, moving on from food creations. How about repurposed food container creations?







Ain't this feller cute? The kids and I made him to be noisy in our garden; we want to keep away the deer who munched on some squash a few nights ago. Each and every child contributed in some way, and I think, whether or not he keeps the deer away, he's a success. He's so cute in the garden!


In the garden with Sideling Hill as a backdrop


And speaking of the garden, we've been working hard out there to rescue the veggies from weeds and deer. And by hard, I mean stained hands and sweat-dripping-from-my-nose hard. And there's still more work to do. And that means I need to get off this computer and get to it!


View of the garden's crooked center path

*This post has been shared at Strangers & Pilgrims on Earth for The Art of Home-Making Mondays.


4 comments:

  1. Whenever we make homemade ice cream I end up making angel food cake and it seems so easy. Maybe I should send you my recipe though it might be from the Betty Crocker Cookbook.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If it's not from Betty Crocker, send it to me. Otherwise, let me know since I have Betty on hand. I used America's Test Kitchen which is usually pretty reliable. I think next time I'll just make blackberry topping for the ice cream :)

      Delete
  2. I would be as proud as punch if I could achieve just one of your cooking projects. They all look and sound delicious to me. I can make a decent fruit cake but not much else.
    As for the food container creation – he is wonderful! We occasionally spot a deer when we are out walking, but they never visit our garden. We do get a rabbit or two, but they don’t do very much damage, so we are content to let them nibble on a few bits, and the hedgehogs are great for getting rid of insects.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And I've never made a fruit cake. . . that's on my cooking to-do list, too. Thank you for the encouragement.
      Hedgehogs! That's something we don't have here. Deer are the biggest nuisance because our cats are not nice to rabbits. Now, hopefully the bear doesn't get into the garden because I know scaring them away is much harder :)

      Delete