I love to cook and bake. My specialty for baking is my Chocolate marble cheese cake (I'll post some pics when I make it at Christmas), and for a meal i love to make my Ranch cheddar chicken with a toss salad and fresh green beans. But I thought that I would share a recipe with you all. It's a recipe that every Narnia lover needs to have!!!! what is it?

2 cups Granulated sugar
1 lemon, juiced and strained
1 Orange, juced and strained, and the peel cut into strips
4 Tablespoons Unflavored powdered gelatin
2 Tablespoons Confectioner's sugar
1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
1 1/4 cups Water

Dissolve the granulated sugar in half of the water over medium heart. Add the strips of lemon and orange juices, and orange peel. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Soak the gelatin in the mixture for 5 to 10 minutes. Strain the mixture into a shallow pan and let it set for 24 hours.
Cut the candy into 1-inch squares. Sift the confectioner's sugar and cornstarch together in a shallow dish. Roll the pieces of candy in the mixture. Store the squares in boxes with more confectioner's sugar and cornstarch between each layer. Refrigerate.

So, here's my latest baking - Spritz Cookies! My sisters and I got a cookie press for Christmas a couple years back and that is my "secret" to quick, cute spritz cookies. It really speeds the whole process up, and leaves me more time for the fun part: tea parties! Little sibs and I had quite a nice tea yesterday with the fresh cookies. The espresso cup certainly isn't up to C. S. Lewis' standard, but hey, it was available!

SnowAngel

So, here's my latest baking - Spritz Cookies!

I LOVE spritz cookies!! They are one of my holiday faves.! My mom has a cookie press too and it seems like we ALWAYS make those.

Do you do all the cooking Shadowlander?

Pretty much. My wife is interested in learning to cook but when the time comes she'd really just rather eat. That leaves it up to me to do the cooking, but I lack a ton of experience in making stuff from scratch, so our fridge is typically packed with frozen pizzas, burritos, Steak-Ums, hamburgers, hot dogs, Stouffer's frozen family dinners, fish sticks, and occasionally a pair of steaks if it's a good pay week. About 3 weeks ago I made my first ever successful batch of French toast...my first foray into it years ago was an unmitigated disaster! So I was pretty proud of this.

I can do breakfast just fine...scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage links, corned beef hash, grits (sometimes with cheese, sometimes with just butter, salt, and pepper...breakfast just isn't breakfast without some grits!) and if I'm feeling froggy some hash browns. I'd love to try and tackle biscuits and gravy, but while I think I might be able to swing it with the biscuits I'm leary about the gravy...gravy is tough. If you foul up you can ruin the whole batch.

I'd say give biscuits and gravy a shot, Shadowlander. I have a feeling they're harder to mess up than you'd think. I made them earlier this year on a whim (my mom was rather skeptical of the whole deal) and I've made them at least half a dozen times since upon popular demand (I think my family, mother in particular, like them better now than I ever did). I'm not positive what you have in mind, but there's a fairly simple recipe online that I use, if you'd like it. And, hey---if it fails, I'd be very interested in finding out how you messed it up.

And now that the semester is drawing to an end, I am getting close to actually (possibly...pesky intersession!) having time to do some of the baking I've been putting off due to busyness. I can get started on pizzelles soon since it's December! And then I'm planning on getting together with a friend when she gets back from college for break to make bagels!

I had to do some decorating of ice cream cakes at my old job. I found it kinda hard at first but later it wasn't too bad.
I'm not much of a cook (well ok I never cook )

I'm a little behind post my creations.
Here is a gingerbread nativity. I did most of the work but my sister helped with frosting and positioning.
I made these cupcakes for my mom's birthday (Oct. 16).

Cute cupcakes Pattertwigs Pal

I made some red velvet cupcakes today, just out of the oven -

and after being topped with butter roux icing -

This was my first time making both red velvets and butter roux, luckily they both came out fine The buttermilk (well, I used milk with a spoon of white wine vinegar instead, it works the same) and dash of vegetable oil in the recipe really makes all the difference, my cupcakes often annoy me by coming out a bit dry but these are moist and most definitely 'velvety'

The butter roux is a bit annoying as it doesn't hold up well in room temperature, so piping it got a bit messy, but it's fine once the you leave it in the fridge a while and is a really yummy icing

^^those cupcakes look delicious, I don't think I've ever made cupcakes before , but I made blueberry muffins just the other day

I'm a little behind post my creations.
Here is a gingerbread nativity. I did most of the work but my sister helped with frosting and positioning.

I have to ask...did you eat the nativity when Christmas season was over? Just curious!

Red velvet cake is scrumdiliumptious stuff. Butter roux...is that anything like cream cheese icing? I have to admit your cupcakes look rather good!

My wife is the world's pickiest eater and I found a dish I can make that she absolutely loves. It is very much "comfort food" in the traditional sense and I got the recipe from my mom, who made it for all of us for years beyond count. We don't even have a name for it...my mom entitles every ad hoc dish she comes up with that doesn't have a formal name "slumgullion". Give it your own official moniker if you see fit.

1 x large onion (I use white, but you can use any type)
10-15 small Russet potatoes (the groc. store usually sells these in a perfect size bag)
1 x smoked sausage or Kielbasa Polish sausage (The horseshoe shaped sausages you find in the hot dog section of the grocery store, not the seasonal things from Hillshire Farms you get around Christmas)
1 x bag of shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
1/3rd cup of vegetable oil
salt, pepper, garlic

Ok, the key here is to have a working electric frying pan, one of those big suckers that you can plug into the wall and has a 15" diameter (I'm not sure of the metric equivalent). Preheat the frying pan to around 325 degrees and put in the oil. Dice up your onion, finish wiping the tears from your eyes, and dump the onions into the skillet to let them brown, and it'll take a little while, which sets up nicely for the next part.

I hate peeling potatoes, don't you? But it's a necessary evil for the next part. Peel about 10-15 small/medium Russets (you'll have to guesstimate how much your skillet will be able to hold..it may be more or less than what I list based on that). Once they're peeled go ahead and cut them into bitesize portions and put them in the skillet with the onions, which by now should be nice and brown. Next up is the easy part. Take your Kielbasa (smoked sausage is a suitable substitute) and cut it into semi-thin slices so you have a bunch of discs. Sometimes I halve those so there's more meat in every bite, but it's up to you. Toss those in with the onions and potatoes. Now sprinkle the whole mess liberally with salt, pepper, and garlic powder (sometimes I put in minced garlic in with the browning onions, but that's totally optional) to your specific taste. Stir every 5-10 minutes. Let it cook for anywhere between 30-45 minutes. The potatoes are the key here as they're going to take the longest to cook all the way through, so you'll have to monitor by eye to see when the whole batch is done.

Now, when it is done comes my favorite part. This is thoroughly optional, but I love putting cheddar cheese over the whole thing. Lots of cheese. Because cheese makes everything better . After you've turned off the skillet just dump the cheese liberally (as much as you want or desire) over the whole concoction and cover for perhaps 5-10 minutes. And then it's done! Voila! It feeds 4. Actually it'd feed 8 of my wife or 3 of me, so really the quantity is rather subject to the variables of your particular family group size/appetite, yes?

This has your 4 major food groups involved...it's got some Potato Group, some Meat Group, some Cheese Group, and the Spices Group. I just dump some hot sauce over it (the 5th Food Group) in my bowl and I'm thoroughly satisfied.

I'm tinkering with the idea of frying up a few strips of bacon and dicing them and adding them to the mix for extra flavor. Thoughts?

Mmm, a thread with near-to-be-hobbits!

My sister and I have been cooking a lot lately, and some things have been good while others have been faliures. But, eh. I think I'm better at cookies and desserts, while my sister's really good with casseroles and sandwiches. Like two puzzle pieces fitting together...

Anyways. Does anyone know of a good recepie that requires using condensed milk? I thought I knew one, figured I didn't, and now I have an open can of the stuff waiting to be used. I looked at some sites, but it requires things that (most) people don't acquire easily.

*is glad she found this thread*

Hm...There might be some fudge recipes, Bella. Or we have one for homemade ice cream (very simple, requires sweetened condensed milk, whipping cream, vanilla, water, and Oreos...though you can put something else in besides Oreos if you want) if you'd like that.

*scurries off as she hasn't had time to do much cooking lately*

I'd love to try and tackle biscuits and gravy, but while I think I might be able to swing it with the biscuits I'm leary about the gravy...gravy is tough. If you foul up you can ruin the whole batch.

SL, biscuits and gravy are easy to make, as long as you know what you're doing. Whatever happens, just keep stirring. I have been making gravy by myself since I was 13 (before that my Mom always helped me make them). I made sausage and gravy with biscuits yet again last week, but this time I made beef sausage.

Cool cupcakes, Shantih! What is butter roux? I've never heard of it.

I saved your recipe, Shadowlander. Sounds delicious! I think my Dad and brothers will really like it, but I'll have to double it.

I made Brownie Cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting today for our church dinner tomorrow. First time to try both recipes and I'm very relieved both appeared to turn out well. The frosting recipe is definitely a keeper, because it's pipeable.

I have several pictures to post, but I still need to resize them.
SnowAngel

I made some chocolate chip cookies today, just the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag

@Pattertwigs Pal: Your gingerbread nativity is so cute! I wanted to make a gingerbread house this past Christmas, but never did...
Those cupcakes look really yummy, Shantih!

But those cookies are always SOO good aren't they Glenstorm?!