So I haven’t been cooking lately since it’s no fun cooking for just one person. Also, I recently retired the no-brand mixer that I bought from Walmart in my thrifty college days because the chrome plating on the beaters were flaking off, and I don’t want that stuff ending up in my food. For a couple of weeks, I wrestled with myself, deciding whether I should just get another $10 beater mixer or just splurge on the coveted KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer With Styled Tilting Head And Ergonomically Designed Mixing Bowl Handle. In the end, I picked out the cheapest hand mixer available from the reputable KitchenAid. The Artisan Stand Mixer will just have to wait until I reach Joy the Baker status. Or when I am rich.
Armed with my new mixer on Monday night, I had the brilliant idea of baking/cooking 3 different dessert/snacks at the same time. I would tackle marshmallows, shortbread, and caramel popcorn all at the same time! Never mind that I have neither a candy thermometer, nor do even my regular cookies come out well. I think more sugar ended up on the counter/floor/my hair than in the food itself, and I certainly had bits of liquid marshmallow in my hair. Egads. Well, luckily for the recipients, better that than my hair getting in the marshmallow instead!
Anyway, the following pictures are lacking in quality because 1) my photography skills are lacking, and 2) I don’t have the patience to photograph when both hands are covered in some mix of chocolate, marshmallow, cookie dough (which tasted really good out of the mixing bowl, btw).
Smitten Kitchen’s Toasted Coconut Shortbread turned out pretty well. I’m normally not a fan of coconut, but I think I’m adverse to only the papery texture regularly used in baked goods. I toasted the coconut and then ground it up in a processor pretty well so there wasn’t a texture issue here and were thus delicious! I used regular Safeway butter, but maybe next time I can try something more decadent? :)
Orangette’s Caramel Popcorn with Salted Peanuts turned out delightfully chewy, crunchy, sweet, and salty. Perfect! It was so easy to make, I think this will become a regular snack to make!
Lastly, the Chocolate-dipped Marshmallows turned out way too sweet for my own liking. I was never a huge marshmallow fan (except in s’mores!), but this one seemed like an interesting challenge to tackle. And there it is. At least my sweet-toothed Mom loves them so I gave her most of the batch to share.
Yikes, I wish I could take better pictures! It’s something to work on, I suppose. Wouldn’t it be great if my photography skills developed in a positive linear correlation to my cooking/baking skills? That would be an interesting trend to see :) Fingers crossed.
Anyway, the snow was so great last weekend thaaaaat… we’re doing it again! Tomorrow, all the college kids are out of finals and it’s going to be a beautiful partly sunny Saturday, so we’ll probably have to deal with the crowds. The more the merrier? Perhaps. Oh well. If all else fails, we still have our 5-day New Year’s Eve cabin trip snow bonanza coming up in 2 weeks!