Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

What am I doing wrong!?!?
This is the second batch of cookies I’ve attempted in the past couple of days that has turned out spectacularly awful. The first time I used Alton Brown’s “Chewy” recipe, and they came out totally powdery, with a dry, cake-like crumb. This time I used the Tollhouse recipe (which [...]

It’s all Bill’s fault. He told me how easy it is to roast your own coffee. Now I’m obsessed with it. I bought a FreshRoast rather than went hard-core with a heatgun and a dog bowl, like some of the people on Coffee Geek.
The roaster came with a pound of [...]

I was so inspired with all the sourdough in Alaska that I decided to try to make my own starter. Unfortunately mine never took off and the loaf of bread I baked with it ended up being about an inch tall and denser than a brick. I called around to various different bakeries [...]

This has got to be the coolest cake I have ever seen. It totally blows away the kitty litter cake (which yes, is actually a cake and is perfectly edible, see recipe here.
Damn, some people are just too creative. And have too much time.

Since the information is absolutely nowhere to be found regarding the calorie count on the Jack in the Box pannido sandwiches, allow me to break the story:
Zesty turkey - 750
Triple meat - 650
Ham and cheese - 675
Zoinks! I ate one of the zesty turkey ones the other day thinking “Hey, turkey can’t be all [...]

Last night Jo and I went grocery shopping.
“Mommy, which area is this?”
“This is the health food area.”
“Oh. So where’s the Oreo area?”
What a precocious little twerp.
I bought a Crenshaw melon, never having tried one before. It’s insanely tender and juicy. The knife slid through it like butter. Rivulets of sweet juice [...]

Hub and the three year old went on an excursion today, so I took the 1.5 year old to the Farmer’s Market around the corner. I got a bunch of good stuff even though we got there late: cucumbers, summer and acorn squash, tamales, tomatoes, and peaches. Only problem is that it was [...]

By popular request, here’s my recipe for cream gravy:
2 tablespoons fat (may use pan drippings, butter, bacon grease, etc. or any combination of the above)
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
salt to taste
fresh-ground black pepper to taste
Melt 2 tablespoons of fat in a pan. Add the flour and stir well. The mixture will become a [...]

Tonight’s meal:
Pan fried chicken
Mashed skin-on potatoes
Cream gravy
Buttermilk biscuits
Strawberry shortcake
all homemade. Scuse me, gotta pop now.

You know you’ve been reading too much Sue Grafton when you actually start craving peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. Honestly, they’re pretty good. Get whole-grain wheat bread, and use crunchy peanut butter and bread and butter pickles. They even make the pickles in the sandwich stackers.
We dropped the kids in Houston so [...]