Sugar, Sugar and More Sugar

So…I had my glucose tolerance test today.  Let’s just say, I did not pass with flying colors.  Which means I have to go back next week and take a 3 hour test (they take my blood, give me the nasty orange drink, take my blood an hour later, another hour later then another hour later).  I went through this with my first pregnancy and it turned out fine.  However, I don’t remember what my level was the first time around.  This time it was 50 points higher than the cutoff.  I wonder if eating ice cream around 9pm last night had something to do with it.  I was supposed to fast – no food after 8 and no liquid after midnight.  Oops.  They forgot to mention that when I made the appointment and how’s a person supposed to remember something like that from 3 years ago?    Anyway, I’m trying not to worry about it, but I think I’ll lay off the sweet stuff for the week, just to help my chances.  My motto has always been “everything in moderation”, so having to be on a restricted diet for the rest of the pregnancy (3 more months!) would kill me.  Haha, ok, I’d do anything to keep myself and BG healthy, but UGH.  No thank you.

Let me just leave you with this sweetness.  This picture was taken a few weeks ago at my in-laws.  I had my nephew on my lap and MC decided he wanted to hold him on his lap. This gives me hope that he will get along just fine with BG. 
 
(photo taken with my iphone)

Just Some Randomness

My local Kroger had blueberries and strawberries on sale this week, so of course I had to get some.  I ended up making some blueberry scones, but I’m going to have to work on the recipe a bit more before I post it.  I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my strawberries.  I already have some sliced up to put on top of my ice cream this evening (no, I don’t eat ice cream everything night!), but I still have some left to tinker with.  Any suggestions?  I may have to peruse foodgawker to get some ideas. 

I’m sure I’ve mentioned the blog Simmer Till Done on here before. If you haven’t checked it out, you should.  I came across Marilyn’s “Two-Bite Jam Tarts” post the other day and I knew I had to try it out.  I loved the cream cheese dough! It came out soft and moist, yet crispy all at the same time.  I think they need to be re-named to “Bite-size”, but then again, I do have a big mouth.    I even tried making a larger version with blackberry jam.  Oh so good!

Last Tuesday was the second day of my Fundamentals of Baking class.  We were supposed to have a lecture and discuss the chapter we read (ok, I read it before I went to class), but ended up baking for a charity luncheon instead.  The instructor prefaced it with the fact that he normally wouldn’t let us into the kitchen for a few weeks, but because the luncheon was tomorrow, blah blah, yadda yadda, it would make the school and the department some money, so we could have more supplies, yadda yadda.  Um, I pay extra every semester for “Culinary Arts” supplies.  Where’s that money going exactly?  I mean, I know they’re trying to fix the restaurant/kitchen up for the CA program, but he needs to stop making these events priority over our education.  I can’t make something nice, if I don’t understand how to do it.  You know?  So, we’ll see how tomorrow goes. 

One interesting thing I learned through reading my book, shortening is called shortening because it shortens the gluten strands.  Isn’t that neat?    It was something new to me and something I don’t think I actually really ever though about before.  Cool. 

I’m off to relax for a few…

Buttermilk Waffles

My son loves breakfast.  I love breakfast.  Hubby likes it, but MC and I can definitely put it away in the morning.  I don’t have time during the week to make anything, so I make pancakes, waffles, cinnamon rolls, etc on the weekends, then freeze or refrigerate them for easy access during the week. 

I always seem to have a problem with keeping my waffles crispy, so  I actually prefer eating them after they’ve been frozen.  I just pop one in the toaster oven and off I go.  I’ve tried putting them in a low oven, but even that doesn’t seem to work for me.  If anyone has any pointers or suggestions I’d love to hear them.

The recipe I used was based on this pancake recipe (a total flop of a pancake for me, and I mean literally, they were flat!) and the recipe out of my Joy of Cooking.  These came out light, fluffy and crispy (after a little toasting).  I served them with some carmelized bananas and maple syrup.

Buttermilk Waffles
Yield: approximately 8 waffles
Inspired by Joy of Cooking & Aida Mollenkamp’s Cakey Buttermilk Pancakes
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium bowl, whisk together all ingredients until evenly combined and moistened thoroughly (some small lumps will remain). Set mixture aside to rest while the waffle iron heats up.

Pour approximately 1/3 to ½ cup of batter into the waffle iron. These puff up, so do not completely fill the waffle iron with batter. Remove as indicated by your iron or when the waffles are lightly brown and crispy.

serving suggestion – topped with carmelized bananas

No, I Haven’t Fallen Off The Face Of The Earth

I think I’ve started and re-started this post a bajillion times now. I’ve also been thinking alot about what type of blog I want to maintain. I don’t want separate ones for “me” and for food, especially now that they are more intertwined than before. I think my main problem is actually keeping up with it. I was doing well when I had a desk job. I could spend my “break time” online and working on posts. Now my break time consists of scarfing down some lunch and heading back into the kitchen. Which, I don’t mind, it just forces me to use some of my at home time on the computer.

I’ve actually been doing something these past few months, I promise. Let’s see…since the last post Thanksgiving came and went. We visited my family in Kansas and I found out two of my girlfriends from back home, who are sisters, are both pregnant. We’re all about 4 weeks apart from each other! My mom told my sister not to drink the water. Haha!

Christmas came and went. I made a pumpkin cheesecake with an awesome graham cracker and pecan crust that I took to the in-laws. MC’s teachers received a tray full of goodies this year: red & green sprinkled sugar cookies, dark chocolate covered pretzels, chewy cocoa brownies, ginger molasses cookies and chocolate peanut butter squares. Man, when I was making those pb squares I just about licked the bowl clean they were so good!

There’s a lot that has happened in the past few months that I wanted to blog about, but never got around to. I quit my job at the “mass production” bakery and now work at a much smaller local bakery/cafe and I love it. I started working there about a week or so before Thanksgiving and I’m so glad I did. One day here is different than the next. I’m not baking up sheets and sheets and layers and layers of cakes every day. Some days I’m making pies, other days brownies, most days some sort of soup (for their lunch business), sometimes bundt cakes or muffins. Although, when Christmas rolled around, it was brownie central in there. They do a huge mail order business around Christmas. Everyone wants brownies shipped to friends, family and co-workers. I’m actually not a huge fan of their brownies. But I must say, the best way to eat these are frozen with ice cream. OMG! Baby Girl (BG) loves it too.

Speaking of BG…this girl moves around in utero way more than her brother did. At least from what I can remember. I’ve slept alot since then. But seriously. At 9pm all I want to do is sit on the couch and relax for a little bit. But, noooo…she wants to have a dance party in my belly!

And then there’s school. I completed my Basic Food Prep class with an A, but that was to be expected. We had an open book final, which I finished in 30 minutes, because I actually studied the guides, that the questions came directly from. So…yeah. Anyway. I’m hoping my Fundamentals of Baking class (5:30pm-10:00pm on Tuesday nights) is structured better and I that I learn more. Otherwise, I’m going to wait until they get their act together a little better. I’ve already talked to the instructor about possibly having to take the final early or late due to extenuating circumstances AKA giving birth. Heehee.

I don’t know if anyone is even still reading this blog, but if you are, thanks for sticking around. I promise to work on more content and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to at least do 1 or 2 posts a week. There are currently a couple rattling around in this noggin of mine. Be on the look out for some Buttermilk Waffles and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies.