My latest adventures in baking

Last week I completely forgot to post about my monthly workday five creation for BK's team. Maybe it was the fact that I was still trying to adjust back to normal after returning to Switzerland or that BK pulled an all-nighter at work (as in he worked from 8am Tuesday until 7pm Wednesday without making a trip home) which completely threw me off.

For workday five this month I made Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Crinkle Cookies…didn't realize what a mouthful that was! I think they sound much fancier and harder to make than they actually are. As this was year end, there was part of me that thought I should do something really out there, but honestly, that first week back after flying from the US is really hard on me and Baby K. I wanted to make sure that I still did something for them, and of course wanted to try something new, but I didn't get too far out there.

On one of our previous trips to the US I did think to bring caramels back with me. The ones here just aren't the same- they are much drier and not chewy. I've made my own before, but things can turn really bad really quick when trying to get it to be the right consistency and all. The chocolate cookie part is your basic cookie dough, then you roll them into balls, flatten them out and press a caramel into them. After you sprinkle salt on them you then wrap the caramel up with dough so it's stuffed with the caramel.

After you've wrapped the caramels up with dough you roll the unbaked cookie around in powdered sugar.

I'm not sure why you do this, as all of the powdered sugar bakes right into the cookie, so there's nothing left when they're done baking. I cooked the first batch a little too long for my liking the first time, but then reduced the second batch by just a couple of minutes for chewier cookies. After they cool you sift powdered sugar onto them, so there's actually some on there.

As they were all consumed in no time flat, I'd say the cookies went over well at the office. I have to say though, they weren't my favorite thing I've ever baked. The main thing I didn't like was that the caramel gets hard on the inside of the cookie, so it's not all gooey like the recipe indicates. If you have a microwave handy, they are really good heated up. Like I said, not bad, but not my favorite. This one probably won't make it into the regular rotation of baking.

The other treat that I made this week ranks much higher in my book: Chocolate Cheesecake Truffles. They are super easy to make and, in reality, don't actually require any baking. BK and I went to Zurich for the day Saturday and spent the night there for him to fly out the next morning. Our friends L&V stayed with the pups, so as a way to say thank you, I wanted to make them a little something. L really likes cheesecake, so I thought these would be good for her.

There are only four ingredients involved in this recipe: cream cheese, powdered sugar, chocolate and vanilla extract. You would think with all the baking I've done I would be trained to check my ingredients before going to the store. But no, I forgot and had to walk back to the store for cream cheese, only to get home and realize that I didn't have nearly as much powdered sugar as I thought either. That didn't deter me; I just adjusted and made a few less truffles than the recipe states.

Start by melting chocolate. Surprisingly in the land of chocolate over here, I can't find baking chocolate, so this is another US purchase brought back by BK.

Mix the melted chocolate in with cream cheese and powdered sugar that you've already combined in a little bowl.

Here comes the annoying part- then you have to chill them. Ugh…I don't know why I hate this part, but I just want to move on to the next step in the recipe and not have to wait for them to sit in my fridge. I did chill them, and have a feeling that of you don't the "dough" is way too soft to keep the shape you want.

I would think that you could pretty much top them with anything, but I went with almonds, coconut and cocoa powder.

It's pretty simple, although a little messy. Just roll your dough in one of the chosen toppings and set aside to package, or just to eat later. They do have to chill again after you roll them in the toppings, but it makes them stay together so much better.

Mine are still chilling in the fridge, so now all I have to do is figure out how I want to package them. As someone who really doesn't like my food to mix (and yes I know that it all goes to the same place and mixes together, blah, blah, blah) I don't want to just cram them into the same package. I'll figure that out this afternoon.

I'm about to head out for another walk with the boys and thought I should sample one. The cocoa covered ones are good. Yum!

Let the learning begin!

Ah yes, it's time once again to get going with German. I took an intensive course (three hours a day, five days a week) during the summer which got me started with things, but couldn't continue until now due to all of the traveling we were doing. Yes, I know, it's a hard life I lead.

Through the intensive course I completed levels A1 and A2, and now I have moved on to a semi-intensive course, which is a little bit of review from level A2 and then moves into B1. They say after you finish B1 you should pretty much be able to carry on any conversation in German. The only downside for me is that in Switzerland they speak Swiss-German, so they're going to have to slow it down a bit and switch into high German.

This morning was the first morning of class, and of course, I loved it. If I'm not involved in some kind of learning or structured personal/professional development of some kind, I sort of forget how much I like it. I was also very happy with how much I knew, especially considering how much I doubt myself when people are firing off an entire conversation in Swiss-German.

I will say, the pups and I are back to early morning walks- we're up and out by around 6:30 so that we can walk for an hour. As I've mentioned before, the fact that it doesn't get light until around 8:00, and add to it that it's cold and rainy right now makes it a little difficult to get out of bed. When outside looks like this, it's hard to get excited about going outside.

Ultimately though, it results in this:

Meaning that I can go to school, to the store and pretty much do anything I want or need to without having to worry about two wild weenie dogs terrorizing the neighbors with their barks. They don't so much appreciate the raincoats right now, but they'll live. Hopefully it won't be such gross weather for too long and we can get out without all of our gear.

That's all for now. I'm off into to the kitchen to make some sweet treats for our friends who watched the boys this weekend while BK and I went to Zurich. I'll update you on my adventures in baking soon!

Christmas craziness (Part II)

The second part of Christmas was just as packed as the first half. Our tradition at Christmas is to do Christmas Eve, until around 9, with my family, then drive to East Texas so that we can wake up there on Christmas morning with BK's family. Most people think the driving at night part seems really hard, but I just can't bring myself to trade off years or switch between Christmas and Thanksgiving or some other arrangement like that.

I have a lot of guilt about the fact that I don't have nearly as many pictures of the second half of Christmas as the first, and I literally have no evidence that we even went to Arkansas. Ugh! Usually I'm the family photographer; not sure what happened this year.

We spent Christmas day like most others do, seeing what Santa brought the kids, opening gifts from one another and eating. Luckily we got to spend lots of time with these guys!

BK and I were recruited to put some toys together too. BK put these doll bunk beds together for HG. He questioned how he ended up with the task. I told him he was getting to practice for future toys that needed to be put together for Baby K some day.

Somehow I was roped into helping Hud put together lego figures. BK and I gave him Ninja Turtle legos for Christmas, but before getting them I hadn't considered how hard they would be to put together. Hud and I were able to put together the tiny car in the picture below and in that same time BK came over and put the big car together. I seriously had to follow the directions step by step to get the thing done; it seemed to come much easier to BK- maybe from childhood experience with these things? Hud and I then put together one leg of a lego Samurai…and that's as far as we made it. We returned to that project a few days later.

After Christmas BK and I, along with his sister and her boyfriend, headed to Arkansas to see BK's extended family. We hit Camden and Magnolia; saw aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents; played Wait-A-Minute; and enjoyed catching up and spending time with family. After that whirlwind of a visit, we made our annual trip to/stop at Superior Bar and Grill in Shreveport to meet the rest of BK's family for dinner.

We caught a movie the next day before leaving East Texas and then headed back to Fort Worth in time to catch Robert Earl Keen's Merry Christmas from the Fam-O-Lee concert at Bass Hall. I would highly recommend the concert- it's a fun way to end the Christmas season.

BK joined UCC the next morning and he and I spent the day watching playoff games…he, more than I, as I took the iPad and my magazine to keep me occupied. I swear it seems like the next couple of days were spent getting some of the big stuff off the registry, washing baby clothes and bedding, and trying to figure out how in the world we were going to get all of the stuff back to Switzerland.

We spent New Year's with some great friends and enjoyed dinner at Michael's in Fort Worth, then met BK's sister downtown to ring in midnight. As much of a party animal as I am right now, BK and headed home not too long after that.

I know I've posted it on the blog before, but it still gets me. The next day was spent packing to come back to Switzerland, where somehow we got nearly everything baby-related back in approximately eight suitcases!

I'm here for quite a while now. No more air travel for me and Baby K until after she arrives, but BK and I will be embarking on some train travel before she makes her arrival. I'll keep you updated on where we're headed to next!