Baking Day - Cookies

I'm planning on using this month's OAMC day to do most of my holiday baking. I'll also be trying to find the time to make some tutorials, create gift tags, and get gifts shipped out.

So here's what I'm planning on:

Cranberry Pecan Biscotti
Lemon Meltaways
Pecan Tarts
Ginger Cookies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars
Carmello Candy
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies*
Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies*
Homemade Bread

*from pre-made dough

Craftday - Part One

Not feeling great, so not getting much of my to-do list done for craft day, but here's what I did the first day.

Finished off these kusudama origami ornaments for my etsy shop (all the folding was done already):

Made these altered letters for a gift exchange:


And put together a banner that I don't have pictured yet.

Then, in the middle of the night, dealing with insomnia, I did all the folding for another kusudama. Hoping to get it done tomorrow.

Indian-Spiced Turkey Burgers

Those of you who know me know, that while I love to cook, I don't buy cook books. Most recipes I can find online for free. But a while back, I did purchase a copy of Anjum Anand's "Indian Food Made Easy" because I really wanted to learn to cook the Indian food that we enjoy so much when we go out to eat. Everything I've made from the book has been delicious and enjoyed by all of us (as long as I make milder versions of the spicy dishes for Autumn).

I adapted her Chicken Burger recipe from the book to make turkey burgers for lunch today and they turned out soooooo yummy. I'd love to try the original recipe as it's written in the book, but adapted it to use what I had on hand in the house. Here's my version from today (oh, and this made about 13 burgers, 10 of which I'm sticking in the freezer for quick lunches):

2 lbs ground turkey
1 1/2 t ground ginger
1/2 small onion minced
2-3 large garlic cloves minced
handful of fresh parsley leaves and stalks finely chopped
2 heaping teaspoons salt
1 1/2 t garam masala (common Indian spice combination - you can find this one in the grocery store)
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
2 eggs
2 t ground cumin
2 t fresh lemon juice
1/2 - 1 t ground red pepper
2 T EVOO, plus extra for oiling pan

Pre-heat oven to 400. Mix all ingredients together with your hands until well-combined. Shape into patties and place on an oiled pan. Cook for 10 minutes, flipping halfway through. Serve on toasted buns with tomato, lettuce, onion and (herbed) mayo.

"Baking Day" Part Four

Wednesday afternoon after grocery shopping, I came home and started browning ground chuck for the pasta sauce in the crock pot. Made sauce with lots of fresh herbs from the garden, then added it all together with spinach to simmer in the crock pot.


Baked two loaves of oatmeal bread and two more batches of muffins for the freezer. (not pictured)


Cooked pasta and assembled baked ziti with lots of cheese and popped them in the oven. Made four-six meals worth of baked ziti. Some below.


Mixed up four batches of pizza dough, freezing three and making BBQ chicken pizza for dinner.


Baked a couple dozen pecan tarts, but the rest will have to be for tomorrow. I'm just too tired! I'm hoping to put together a complete list and how much I spent, but again, just too tired.

"Baking Day" Part Three

Wednesday morning it was great to start with a clean kitchen after cleaning up the night before. Started out by packaging up and freezing five meals worth of black bean soup that had cooked in the crockpot all night! (No picture)

Then I mixed up oatmeal bread dough and set it out to rise.


Mixed up five batches of blueberry waffles and ate some for breakfast and froze enough for five more breakfasts.

Rolling out and shaping bread for baking.

Processed the rest of the garden tomatoes that I had had sitting on the counter to make the beginning of pasta sauce and off to storytime @ the library and the grocery store.

"Baking Day" Part Two

Tuesday evening I started out by removing the bones and shredding all the chicken and adding seasoning to taste. Looks nasty, I know, but it really isn't. Enough for four meals for the freezer, with some left over for dinner Wednesday.

Sauteing sweet potatoes and onions for black bean soup.

Then it was time to chop up the precooked bacon, dice up leftover steamed veggies, and mix up the egg/milk/cheese for quiche.

I had pillsbury pie crusts from a freebie deal this week, so I guess I cheated a bit. :-) Here are the crusts with veggies and bacon layered in them.

And one of them finished. I made four, three for the freezer and one for dinner (and lunch Thursday from the leftovers).

Got everything in the freezer and mixed up a batch of pecan tart dough.

Also put all the black bean soup ingredients in the crock pot to cook overnight - smells good!!!

Oh, and made two experimental batches of muffins, trying to make my own recipe...

"Baking Day" Part One

I joined in moneysavingmom's Bakingday on twitter over the last couple days. Too exhausted at the moment to clean up the mess from today, so I'm blogging some of what I got done.


Tuesday morning I started out by soaking black beans, pre-cooking bacon in the oven, and starting a whole crockpot full of BBQ split chicken breasts, before making lunch and heading to home-school co-op for the afternoon.