Sunday, March 14, 2004
No chef's hat for me...
Ok, when I say I don't cook, I really mean it. Someone recently suggested I make soup in a crock pot, and I couldn't remember if I had one. Went through the cabinets and did find one, unused since I bought this house in 1998. Oh, and the day after I got married, my new mother-in-law was rifling through my cabinets and called out, "Where do you keep your corn starch?" I had to laugh because I didn't even know what corn starch was.
Anyway, going gluten-free in November has often proved to be an exercise in frustration. The most aggravating thing is that when I go to family gatherings, I can almost never eat dessert because everyone brings the usual cookies, cake, pie. Not that I ever ate much of that stuff anyway, but I used to at least have a bite or two. For some reason, I decided recently that the best solution would be to bring my own dessert so I'd know I could have some. Trouble is, the last time I made a dessert was eight years ago when I attempted to make Dan a birthday cake. During that particular adventure, I couldn't spread the frosting without the cake crumbling underneath it. Ended up with crumb-y frosting and an even crummier outlook.
I guess enough time had passed to give me amnesia because I decided I wanted to make a dessert to bring to the potluck at work next week. Knowing how out of practice I was, I thought I'd better give it a trial run this weekend. A little birdy told me about a recipe for cheesecake cupcakes that doesn't use flour, so I thought I'd start with that. Bought actual white sugar for the first time in ten years...felt so weird. Hauled out the Kitchen-aid mixer I inherited from my mom, who made wedding cakes with it. I'd only used it once before, during a disastrous attempt at making mashed potatoes. I have to admit it made softening the cream cheese really easy. After so many years of trying to keep white sugar out of my diet, I actually felt guilty pouring a whole cup of the stuff into the batter and than another entire cup into the frosting. I guess I thought the diet police were going to arrest me or something.
Even though I followed the recipe to the letter, it was a bit like a person who only drives an automatic transmission suddenly trying to maneuver a stick shift....I kept thinking I would wreck the car, or in my case, the kitchen. It wasn't quite that bad, but before I was done, I had sticky hands, batter on my pjs and cream cheese in my hair! I got impatient using a spoon to put the batter in the cup holders, so I used a ladle. I didn't dare pour the batter in with my shaky hands. I thought I'd overfilled the cups at first because they were nearly overflowing as they baked. I didn't know they would sink after I took them out to cool. Good thing they did, so I had a place to put the frosting. I have no idea if they cooked the right amount of time...I can never remember how to convert for high altitude. All I know is that it takes five minutes to cook a three minute egg here.
Interesting result...moist like cheesecake, but almost solid enough to pass as cake. I liked it ok, but I have no idea if the average person would eat it. Can't decide if I'm going to make a second batch for the pot luck or not. Maybe I should just be grateful I didn't burn the house down and go back to what I know: nuking, broiling and boiling.
Pain level: 6
Fatigue level: 8
Anyway, going gluten-free in November has often proved to be an exercise in frustration. The most aggravating thing is that when I go to family gatherings, I can almost never eat dessert because everyone brings the usual cookies, cake, pie. Not that I ever ate much of that stuff anyway, but I used to at least have a bite or two. For some reason, I decided recently that the best solution would be to bring my own dessert so I'd know I could have some. Trouble is, the last time I made a dessert was eight years ago when I attempted to make Dan a birthday cake. During that particular adventure, I couldn't spread the frosting without the cake crumbling underneath it. Ended up with crumb-y frosting and an even crummier outlook.
I guess enough time had passed to give me amnesia because I decided I wanted to make a dessert to bring to the potluck at work next week. Knowing how out of practice I was, I thought I'd better give it a trial run this weekend. A little birdy told me about a recipe for cheesecake cupcakes that doesn't use flour, so I thought I'd start with that. Bought actual white sugar for the first time in ten years...felt so weird. Hauled out the Kitchen-aid mixer I inherited from my mom, who made wedding cakes with it. I'd only used it once before, during a disastrous attempt at making mashed potatoes. I have to admit it made softening the cream cheese really easy. After so many years of trying to keep white sugar out of my diet, I actually felt guilty pouring a whole cup of the stuff into the batter and than another entire cup into the frosting. I guess I thought the diet police were going to arrest me or something.
Even though I followed the recipe to the letter, it was a bit like a person who only drives an automatic transmission suddenly trying to maneuver a stick shift....I kept thinking I would wreck the car, or in my case, the kitchen. It wasn't quite that bad, but before I was done, I had sticky hands, batter on my pjs and cream cheese in my hair! I got impatient using a spoon to put the batter in the cup holders, so I used a ladle. I didn't dare pour the batter in with my shaky hands. I thought I'd overfilled the cups at first because they were nearly overflowing as they baked. I didn't know they would sink after I took them out to cool. Good thing they did, so I had a place to put the frosting. I have no idea if they cooked the right amount of time...I can never remember how to convert for high altitude. All I know is that it takes five minutes to cook a three minute egg here.
Interesting result...moist like cheesecake, but almost solid enough to pass as cake. I liked it ok, but I have no idea if the average person would eat it. Can't decide if I'm going to make a second batch for the pot luck or not. Maybe I should just be grateful I didn't burn the house down and go back to what I know: nuking, broiling and boiling.
Pain level: 6
Fatigue level: 8
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