Things I Love: Food Network Store and My Half-Sheet Pans

     Confession time:  I drool over kitchen gear the way a child drools over the holiday window displays at a toy store.  More than once I've been asked to stop loitering when passing the local restaurant supply.  So, to say that I spend a lot of time surfing cooking gadgetry online is a bit of an understatement.  (In fact, after Ravenwood Fair on Facebook, it's probably my second biggest obsession.)

     I remember when the Food Network store went online.  I'd spent weeks before that scouring the internet for certain dishes and utensils I'd seen used in various shows.  (I particularly loved Alton Brown's salt cellar and Nigella's measuring cups.)  The Food Network store, which is obviously based as a companion to Food Network's website gave me a place where most of these items could be found- in one place! 

     While glancing through it today- in a blatant attempt to find holiday swag to suggest to the Husbeastie- I came across a familiar item.  In fact, with the Cookie Caper only two days behind me, I have to admit it's VERY familiar since I pulled it out of the oven no less than 80 times.

This, for the record, is NOT a cookie sheet.  It's a half-sheet pan.  This one happens to come with a lid, an idea I find highly appealing.

 

      It seems as if I've been asked a lot of questions recently about baking and making cookies.  A LOT.  I never thought it was that difficult (if you were a mad chemist like myself) to come up with cookie recipes that really worked.
     However, it became quickly apparent that the most common question on everyone's mind is: Do you use some high tech cookie sheet?  

Well, that is certainly a fair question. 

The truth is, I've tested almost every cookie sheet on the market at some point or another.  Things promising non-stick, air-filled layers, even heating, and NASA-space-technology have all been tried and tossed on the wayside.

I use half-sheet pans.  In fact, I use the half-sheet pans shown above (long ago purchased from the then-new Food Network store with a great discount code).  I don't just use them for cookies, though.  I use them for EVERYTHING: drip pans for pies, individually quick freezing items, baking brownies and layers for cakes, to line fridge shelves on meat market days, a tray to catch glitter when I craft... so many uses.

Pros:
-multi-taskers: These pans are amazing for just about every use I've ever put them through.
-even cooking:  The shallow 1-inch rim helps stabilize the pan and reduce warping.  Warping is the bane of bakers because it causes uneven cooking patterns.
-Easy to clean: hand wash them or toss them in the dishwasher... they'll take a beating. (And hand-washing is the preferred cleaning method.)
-Durable:  My oldest sheet pan I bought over 8 years ago.  It performs just as well as the newer ones from only a few years back.

Cons:
-Get Ugly Fast:  I hate to say it, but gunk gets baked on easily- especially in the corners and the backside.  However, from my years in a professional bakery, I know that the baked on ugliness in NO WAY affect performance of the pans.
-Size:  Typically, I'd put this under pros, however, if you live in a place with a tiny oven, these may be a bit too large for you.  However, you can also purchase these as Quarter Sheet Pans which fit in even the smaller ovens.

So, if you're like me or plan to become the family's Cookie-ista, a serious investment in half-sheet pans will go far.



    

Chaos and the Homemade Cards

Chaos LOVES getting mail. 
He's obsessed with the mail man's arrival every day.  And he's crushed when there is nothing for him. 

Every year, I sign him up for Kids Crafts Weekly's International card exchange.  In it, you are assigned 10 other families to send cards to.  The trick is that the cards MUST be handmade BY THE CHILDREN SENDING THEM.

So, normally I buy blank cards and let him decorate them. 
This year, we decided to see what we had around the house.

We started with a standard size filing folder.  (I have a huge amount of these because I'm addicted to procrastinating about filing things away.  No, seriously?  Ok, I use them for home schooling to make lap books.)

Step 1) Since a folder is already folded, he cut the excess side off.

Step 2) He cut the "card" side of the folder in half.  This gave him two square shaped cards.

Step 3) Decorate the cards.  He chose to just use a rubber stamp, but I offered him a chance to use glitter, glue, draw his own pictures, etc...

Step 4) The finished project.  He stamped in two contrasting colors.  Some cards got more stamping, some cards less.  But, since this was a made-by-kids-only project, I'm not complaining at how odd some of the cards looked.

Once that was done, I made some simple envelopes from paper from my office supply stash and we mailed them out. 

Operation Cookie Caper: COMPLETE!

This is what 40 dozen cookies look like.  (Ok, this is only 37 dozen because the last 3 dozen were in the oven still.)  For size reference, this is my largest laundry basket.

And just for fun- this was the kidlets' lunch today: Ginger and Peanut Butter Shimmers with Veggie Crisps and Mandarin Oranges.

Mandarin Ginger Tea Cakes

I wish I had a witty story for this recipe.  Really, I do. 

However, the truth is that I was running out of supplies for the Cookie Caper baking.  So, I improvised with what I had on hand: cream cheese and tiny little clementine mandarins.  Even worse, when writing the recipe, I had a total mental moment and wrote down the wrong leavening ingredient... then I followed my own recipe.  So, instead of the crunchy and thin orange-flavored gingersnap I was hoping for, I ended up with these lovely, delicious cakey bites of clementine goodness.

 

Mandarin Ginger Tea Cakes

8 oz cream cheese

8 oz butter-flavored shortening

2 c. dark brown sugar

1/2 c granulated sugar

4 eggs

2 seedless mandarin oranges

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp white pepper

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

5 cups flour

1.  Preheat oven to 325F.  In a food processor, pulse oranges until very finely processed.  You will need 3-4 tablespoons of pulp and liquid.  

2. Cream together cream cheese, shortening, sugars, eggs, and spices.  Add orange pulp and juice and continue to cream until the mixture is light and fluffy.

3.  Mix in flour and baking soda.  Mix well to combine.

4.  Scoop onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Bake 16 minutes or until bottoms are golden.

Note: This is a double recipe!  If you use a tablespoon sized cookie scoop, this should make approximately 8 dozen cookies.

Filling that Annoying Negative Space and Upcycling an Old Calendar

I'm not the best at the whole "Decking the Halls" concept- I admit it.  I haven't spent the holidays in the same place in 17 years!  In all honesty, I doubt we'll be in this house for the next Yule either.  We have the problem of most couples- we're perpetual renters.

We've lived in hotels, motels, relatives' homes, and small rental places ever since we've been married.  Before that, I was also a bit of a gypsy.  I've even spent a holiday season at Boot Camp!

So, now that we're in a cozy little cottage (even if it's not permanent) I'm trying to make it cozy for the kids.  I've got a bunch of projects that I'll be showing throughout the month.

The Cottage the day before we moved in.  Look how peaceful, how unsuspecting... ahhh- the poor neighborhood!

I have this giant fireplace mantel that was driving me nuts.  It wasn't a small or cozy sized mantel like the one in the dining room:

See- the dining room mantel is such a much more manageable size.  It's perfect for a charcoal sketch of Sango-kitty's fat bottom!  (And it looks fabulous with the lights on!)

It was huge!  So, I hung some wreaths.  But, those were pretty boring all alone.  Plus, it left this huge gap between the wreaths.  I left it alone.  I just wasn't ready to think about it, I suppose.

Such is the poor photography of using a cell phone camera.  Can you guess what was on my wish list for the holidays?  By the way, mind the gap! (The VERY BIG OBVIOUSLY UGLY GAP IN BETWEEN THE BORING WREATHS!)

I moved on to other projects around the house.  I set up the classroom (another post for another time) and I came across an old calendar from the local Chinese restaurant.  I nearly tossed it out before I caught sight of the blank backside of it.  "Hmmm," I thought to myself, "the size is right... the scale is ok... and I suppose storage wouldn't be a problem..."

I decided to turn my trash into a banner to fill that gap on the wall above the fireplace.

Step 1: Gather Supplies- old scroll style calendar, newspaper, pencil, paints, brushes

Step 2: IN PENCIL, sketch out your phrase.  I chose the word JOY simply because I'm too lazy to spend all night sketching in other letters.  If you have stencils, this is your time to shine.  I didn't have stencils so I did some complicated math in my head that involved counting the number of stitches in the scroll and dividing to find the height of each letter.  My letters ended up 40 "stitches" high with ten "stitches" between.

Step 3: Fill in your letters.  BE CERTAIN TO PUT NEWSPAPER UNDER THE CALENDAR!  Don't worry about getting smudges outside the lines.  We'll take care of that.

Step 4: Remember those smudges?  Use a contrasting color to outline the letters.  Instant smudge-away.

Step 5: If you have any empty space at the top or bottom (I had 22 "stitches" on both ends) you can fill it with another doodle.  I didn't feel like taking a long time sketching out the original partridge motif I was imagining, so I stuck with some simple geometric designs that worked well with the scrolls stitching.

Step 6: Hang it up and enjoy it.  I'm rather pleased with how well it worked out.  I'm planning on putting a smaller pine swag on the top to hide the nail, but I've got to admit- it fills the ugly negative space and makes the wreaths look a bit more interesting.