Baking/Cooking Bucket List

Pigu {Italian Gougères}

Here while back, I came across a recipe for Pigu. What the heck is Pigu I wondered? Well, basically it is a little dough like thing filled with romano cheese. You start out by making the dough much like noodles, but I almost think it comes out tasting more like bread than a noodle dough. Basically, it is like an Italian Gougères.

Okay, I’ll bite (for you)… what is a Gougères? It is a choux pastry flavored with cheese (usually Gruyère), then usually filled with a savory filling.

So, we have dough, check.

We have cheese, check.

Well, it’s like an Italian Gougères, correct? We’re going to go with it and run! (more…)

Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Bites

Over the weekend I found myself in Gravette, Arkansas. We were at a BBQ Smoking contest called Smoke on the Border. I’ll delve into that more in another post, but… as Hubby and Jared were moving stuff down on Friday afternoon, I found myself in the kitchen. I had it in my head I wanted to make something on the sweeter side, simply because of all that savory food I knew we were going to be eating over the weekend. That’s when I decided on Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Bites. Still a little savory from the dough, but that sweet side from the sugar and the heat from the cinnamon. Just seemed like the perfect combination.

Handheld little bites of yumminess. Although as you can see on my hand above, being in a zip lock bag, I brought some of that topping out on my hand for a nice dose of stickiness too. Hey… you win some… you lose some… and in this case, I’m pretty sure I won because hello YUM! (more…)

Just Retired Tiered Cake (Vanilla)

Just Retired Tiered Vanilla Cake

I sure hope you didn’t try to come to my blog last week. I woke up on Wednesday and would have sworn it was April Fool’s Day (by the way, I hate that day). When I came to the blog, it redirected me to some weird website.

It was trying to get me to click on a button to back up my Window’s machine. Well joke’s on them because I don’t have a window’s machine. But whatever. Anyway…

Over the weekend, I was able to knock 2 things off my Baking/Cooking Bucket List. I made a tiered cake which I haven’t done since I took cake decorating classes. And 2, I made a mirror glaze cake.

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Chicken Garlic Alfredo

Guys, when I made my baking/cooking bucket list, there were a few things included that I have done before. I just left them there though because I was modifying the list from Brown Eyed Baker for 1. For 2, I just hadn’t made them in a while and wanted to try my luck at them again.

This just so happened to be one of the items… Fettuccine Alfredo. Gosh, as a kid, I hated Spaghetti but loved Fettuccine Alfredo. My dad on the other hand wasn’t crazy about Alfredo, so really the only time I got it was when I went to a restaurant.

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Irish Soda Bread

Guys, yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day. Did you wear green? I did. I had on a t-shirt that said “Lucky Charms.” I also had on a sweatshirt that had green on it. Speaking of said sweatshirt, when I took it off I don’t know what I did with it… plus I don’t remember taking it off. Oy!

So Last week I showed you my list of 100+ things to bake. I’m kind of thinking of it as a 101 in 1001, but there really is no deadline… it’s also kind of like a bucket List. Either way, a lot of things I’d like to make. It’ll be fun! Especially when my new kitchen gets done! (Of course, we’ll have to move into the house also…)

But, yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve always wanted to be that mom who celebrates all holidays. I fail miserably! But yesterday, Abug and I made Lucky Charms Cupcakes, I made Irish Soda Bread (on my list), and then we had Rubenish/Deli Style Nachos. I’d say between the shirt and the food I nailed this one!

Irish Soda Bread

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Baking/Cooking Bucket List

Everyone needs a good challenge in their life, am I right? I’ve gotten swept in watching all these baking and cooking shows. I swear, my favorite tends to be the Great American and Great British Baking shows. They have baked so many things I’ve never heard of, it’s kind of crazy. But that is what keeps us growing. So here is a modified version I snagged from Brown Eyed Baker.

I deleted a few things because, well… I don’t like baked beans and I’m not sure I want to make lamb… goes back to my years in FFA… But… I like the idea she had and there were even things on her list I’ve either a) never tried or b) never heard of, so I’m growing.

If I had the guts, I would take on Julia Child’s cookbook as Julie Powell did, but I just am not sure I could do that… some of those things we don’t get in rural America. If I lived in a bigger city, that might be a different story. So here goes nothing!

Yeast Goodies:
1. Focaccia bread 
2. Bagels 
3. English muffins 
4. Challah 
5. No-Knead bread
6. Ciabatta
7. Babka 
8. Kaiser rolls
9. Panettone 
10. Sourdough bread
11. Parker House Rolls
12. Olive oil bread
13. Baguettes
13. Croissants 
14. Doughnuts 
15. Yeasted Coffee Cake
16. Kouign Amann

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