Pumpkin pie...the gods are punishing me..

I am a single woman and as such am invited to many thanksgiving dinners, family and friends events alike. This year I couldn't be with family so I opted to attend an "orphans" feast hosted by really great friends. Said friends were two guys, who produced a good turkey, but beyond that there was Stove-top stuffing, mashed potatoes that consisted of boiled potatoes and water, store bought pumpkin pie..you get the picture.
So, on Black Friday, rather than being foolish and braving the crowds in stores I stayed put at home. I decided to make a complete Thanksgiving feast in an effort to produce "left overs."
No Thanksgiving can be complete without a good pumpkin pie but I had so much going on I decided to use a frozen pie crust. BIG MISTAKE! While the custard of my pie was absolutely delicious the crust never really cooked so it is still a little mushy and blah. NEVER AGAIN will I cheat. I can make a great pie crust with my eyes closed but I didn't want to deal with another mess. I will redeem myself soon and make another pie with real crust.

I really want some rain..

The baking season is upon most of the country, but not San Diego. It is sunny and warm here every day as of late and that my friends, is not conducive to making me want to heat up the kitchen and turn out tasty treats. This is the time of year I miss my farm in Montana the most..standing in that farm kitchen with an amazing view of the Bitterroot valley baking and baking for days.
I have big plans for Christmas baking and I need to practice/test some new recipes but I am so uninspired. How do you work through a lake of inspiration?
This week is Halloween...I will be baking cookies for a mock "bakery" that is part of my office halloween decor but they will just be basic peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, and snickerdoodles (assuming I can garner up the energy to bust them out and don't cop to buying blah cookies at the store.)
Normally the onset of fall has me making this amazing Pumpkin Applesauce bread, the recipe and pictures will be posted when I get around to baking it.
I think I just want to complain about the weather. I so desperately want a rainy weekend. I want to spend some time at my house alone - no roommate..just some down time.

Feel that Chill????

San Diego may not have seasons like the rest of the country but we do have a distinct change from summer to fall/winter and it has started. A chill in the morning; cool enough at night to start a fire in the old hearth, but absolutely perfect for baking.
It's early October and so begins the testing of holiday cookies. Today's option was a "hermit" cookie - there would be a picture but I thought about it (err, was encouraged to think about it) after the fact. This particular hermit had something of a bread quality to it, very cakey texture with cinnamon, walnuts, raisins, brown sugar and nutmeg. When they first emerged from the oven they looked and tasted a little blah.
Think think think.. I had some 60% cacao bars, some heavy cream and some corn sryup...within minutes I had a fabulous ganache to dip the cookies in, low and behold...DELISH! well not earth shattering but good. They were consumed by the end of the day and now I have an empty tin to fill again.
I have been off blog for a while..updates.. I got the job and have been working for 2 months.. the boy..he is once again off..too many issues there..

I want to bake, I want to bake, I want to bake!!!

But I can't.

I have been looking at all kinds of baking blogs and even joined the Daring Bakers website for monthly challenges. All of it has me itching to bake but I really need to find some boys who are willing to take on the caloric responsibility of my baking so that it comes out of my oven and into their bellies not mine.

The search continues!

Okay this isn't about baking..

But the smell eminating from my oven right now is so delicious I had to share it. I spent a good 20 minutes searching the web for something yummy to do with a pork tenderloin..and finally "stumbled upon" what smells to be a winner.

Take your loin, trim it, wash it, pat it dry.

Take 1 cup unseasoned bread crumbs and brown in 1tbsp of olive oil
Remove from heat and in a bowl mix in 4tbsp horseradish, salt and pepper to taste

In a separate bowl mix 3tbsp spicy (or dijon) mustard and 2tbsp mayo (I used light mayo since the flavor will be pretty much masked by the mustard anyway).

Place your loin(s) on a baking sheet (I put parchment on my baking sheet) slather with the Mayo and Mustard combo. Then cover with breadcrumb mixture.

Put in the oven at 450 for 25 minutes. Let rest before cooking.. it smells really good and I had to write about it.

I am still resisting my urge to bake, although I did scour the web today looking for interesting baking blogs and found a bunch that I really liked. I think you can see them on my blog, so by all means venture out and visit some! Once the store gets off the ground I am going to be hosting an entire site with a community area and a favorite links page so that all of my CraftBake customers can have instant access to other CraftBakers from around the globe!

As for the rest of my night.. I just need to figure out what to serve with this pork..and what wine to drink!

Amish Friendship bread is crap!

I babysat this damn bread for 10 days, mashing the bag, adding ingredients, tending to it like a mama bird waiting for an egg to hatch. The day finally came to bake it off, I was hopeful but certainly not expecting a miracle. Which is a blessing because it was awful! I followed the instructions, sugared the pans, mixed the batter in a glass bowl with a wooden spoon, poured it in the pans and baked it as directed for an hour.
It didn't smell great, it certainly didn't look great, and it tasted horrid! Certainly not the success that my spring celebration carrot cake was. Which by the way it was DELICIOUS!

Friday night..game night..

The ritual of friends gathering on a Friday night to share some laughs, eat some food, and drink some libations is not new. My friends are insane and we play ridiculously competitive and raunchy versions of games like Scattegories, Scene It, and Balderdash to name a few.. there is almost always pizza and beer...and I am the dessert bringer.
This Friday I was asked to bring the dessert and an amazing chinese chicken salad (which I won't go into because this is a bakers type blog). I get so excited when I talk about baking and when I think about getting this store off the ground. It will be incredible the day I open the doors and spread the love!
But, alas, today I just bake. A quick search of the net revealed a "Spring Celebration Carrot Cake"..hmm carrot cake sounded good and the recipe looked delicious. So made it I did! I haven't had the chance to taste it yet, but the frosting is yummy and the cake feels super moist. I can't republish the recipe because it is copywritten but I found it at Foodnetwork.com and have included a picture (I made a round version because I didn't have two square pans, go figure!)..