Paska overload

Easter just isn't as fun without the traditional paska. It's a sweet bread served on Sunday topped with butter icing and sprinkles. My past paskas have been dry, but this years was quite good, so I thought I'd share the recipe in case anyone has a hankering!

3 tbsp. yeast

1 c. warm water

8 eggs

2 c. sugar

1 c. whipping cream

1 c. milk

1 c. warm margarine

1 tsp. vanilla

Rind & juice of 1 lemon

9-11 c. flour

Dissolve yeast in one cup warm water. Whip eggs and sugar. Add warm margarine, milk and cream. Add yeast, vanilla and lemon (I didn't use the whole rind, try 1-2 tsps). Add flour to make a soft dough. Let rise until double in size(1 1/2 to 2 hours). Form into small loaves and let rise again. Bake at 300 F for 30 minutes or when the top is a nice golden color. Ice with vanilla icing and decorate.

Hope you enjoy!

Christmas baking

I don't really know what we were thinking. Between us, Heather and I have five, I repeat, five boys. And yet we felt up to the challenge of tackling a boat load of Christmas baking. It didn't start off that badly at all. The sugar cookies were a snap. Three kids outside and two inside made for a pleasant morning. There was no whining from the kids and no whining from Heather and I. It was fun.

We had lunch and then started on the pepper nuts. They were fun - make little snakes out of the dough and then chop them up. With both of us working at it, it didn't even take too long. I only got in trouble once from Kyle (Heather's youngest). Little mister Kyle really liked the pepper nuts. I tried taking them away and he looked at me and said, "Carmen! No!" with attitude only a two year old can give.

The final cookie of the day were spritz cookies. I was so excited to use my cookie press for the first time. As you may notice from the picture above, my cookie press wasn't exactly successful. After much frustration, Heather finally got her cookie press out. By this time, neither of us were feeling that optimistic and for good reason. Apparantly good ol' Martha (Stewart, that is) had steered us wrong in the flour department. We finally ended up pressing it into pans and cooking as is. The best thing, though, about baking with your best friend is that instead of slamming cupboard doors and sniping at the kids like I would at home by myself, we laughed our heads off over the whole fiasco. I sure am glad I moved close to home again.

Baking buns

I like to cook. I like to bake. It's just something that gives me pleasure. The only thing I don't like is cooking or baking something that just doesn't turn out. Our first year of marriage was one of many, shall we say, interesting foods that caused a prompt drive to the restaurant. Of course, ten years of marriage have made that a thing of the past, but I can still remember the hockey puck buns, the ginormous pot of soup that wasn't edible, and the various dishes that all met an ignoble end.

So, after the barf debacle the other day, I decided the whole family could use some good ol' buns and borscht. My favorite meal (besides cabbage rolls, pizza, bbq ribs... who am I trying to kid? I really like food!) and something the whole family loves. Couldn't go wrong, right?

OK, I blame being tired on what happened next. As I was kneading the bun dough I realized my mistake. It was feeling, well, stiff. And as I punched the heck out of it, I thought back to those hockey puck buns. Not again! I had a decision to make. Bake the buns with the dough I had or throw it all out and start over. Being the person I am, I decided to chance it.

That whole day, while waiting for the dough to rise, putting the buns on the pans and waiting for them to rise I had a sinking feeling. Maybe I should have just started over. Maybe I shouldn't have tried this on a day with no or little sleep the night before. Maybe, maybe, maybe. It's funny how those thoughts just ruin a whole day. And for what? At the end I came away with buns that tasted slightly like biscuits. Not the best batch I've ever made, but not the worst either. I just wish I hadn't wasted my day dwelling on it.