Aunt Hazel Bread (a.k.a. Kuchen)

This is a delicious bread that my Aunt Hazel always made for family dinners & breakfast for special occassions like Easter and Thanksgiving morning. You can leave the dough plain and make into dinner rolls or regular bread. You can also roll the dough out and spread it with butter, cinnamon, sugar, etc., roll it up, and bake it as loaves or cut into rolls. Either way it's delicious. Don't skip the nutmeg. It seems weird, but it gives the bread a certain je ne sais quoi.

As with my other recipes, let me know if you make the bread and what you think of it.

- TM

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Aunt Hazel Bread

2 c. milk
6 T. butter
1/2 c. + 1 t. sugar
1 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. nutmeg
7 1/2-8 c. flour
2 pkgs. yeast
2 eggs

Scald milk.  Add butter, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, and nutmeg

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water with 1 teaspoon sugar.  Stir 4 cups flour into milk mixture.  Add yeast, eggs, and vanilla; beat well.  Add enough extra flour to make non-sticky dough.  Let rise to double bulk (about 1 hour).  Gently fold to remove air; let rise second time.

Remove from bowl and knead on a floured surface until not sticky.

For rolls:

Preheat oven to 375.  Form dough into rolls and put into appropriately sized pan.  Bake until light brown, about 25 minutes.

For bread:

Preheat oven to 350.  Form dough into loaves and put into loaf pans.  Bake until light brown and hollow-sounding when tapped on the bottom.

For cinnamon bread:

Preheat oven to 350.  Roll dough into slightly less than 1/2-inch thickness.  Spread with softened butter.  Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.  Raisins, dates, or nuts are optional.  Roll like a jelly roll.  Place in loaf pans.  Bake until light brown, about 30 minutes.

My first one-shot

My first one-shot is now posted under my fanfiction.net profile. It was written for the 30 Days of Emmett compilation. The story is called Hiking, and is a Rosalie/Emmett story. If you get a chance, have a read & let me know what you think.

- TM

Peanut Butter Balls

This is my grandma's recipe, and I haven't made them in eons, hence the notes about "maybe you should do this." Anyway, enjoy. Let me know if you make them and how they turned out.

TM

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1 med. jar chunky peanut butter (sorry I don't have a more precise measurement. You know how old recipes are.)

1 stick margarine (I'm sure butter would work as well)

1 lb. confectioner's sugar

3 cups Rice Krispies

6 oz. chocolate chips

1 large Hershey bar

1/4 bar paraffin wax

Form peanut butter, margarine, sugar and Rice Krispies into balls (I'm assuming mix them first?). Melt chocolate chips, Hershey bar, and praffin wax over a double boiler.  Dip peanut butter balls into chocolate mixture. Place on waxed paper to cool. Store in covered container.

Cocoa Mints

Cocoa Mints

My grandma's recipe. These are a little time-consuming, but awesome.

Serving size: 60 cookies

3/4 c. butter
1 c. sifted sugar
1 egg
1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 t. salt
2 c. sifted flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
3/4 c. cocoa
1/4 c. milk

Preheat oven to 325.  Cream butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, and salt thoroughly. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and cocoa together 3 times (yes, really, 3 times). Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Mix well. Using a cookie press fitted with a sawtooth plate, press onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes.

When cookies come out, cut into cookies about 1 1/2" long.  Frost one cookie on the flat side and top with another cookie, forming sandwich cookies. For these cookies, mint-flavored frosting should be used (frosting recipe below).

Cookies can be made like standard ice box cookies, or dough may be packed in 6-oz. juice cans, frozen, then sliced & baked.

Powdered Sugar Icing

2 c. confectioner's sugar
4 T. unsalted butter
3-4 T. milk
1 t.  vanilla
1/8 t. salt

In medium bowl, beat together, at medium speed, sugar and butter. Add milk, vanilla, and salt and beat until smooth. If necessary, correct consistency with additional powdered sugar or liquid of choice (milk, dry sherry, rum, coffee, etc.). Add food coloring and flavoring, if desired. (For Cocoa Mints, add peppermint flavoring to taste.)

To store, cover the surface with a sheet of plastic wrap. Keeps for up to three days at room temperature or up to three weeks refrigerated. Or freeze up to six months. Soften and stir or beat until smooth before using.

Creamy Delicata Squash Soup

I'm not a fan of winter squash at all. However, we belong to a CSA (community supported agriculture), and we get a lot of winter squash at the end of the season, so I'm always looking for ways to cook it that my family and I will like. This soup is really good, and uses up a few of the squash. It calls for Delicata squash, but any kind of winter squash will work.

Delicata Creamy Squash Soup

 

INGREDIENTS

• 3 delicata squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream (you can substitute fat free evaporated milk to lower the fat)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Place the squash, cut sides down, in a baking dish. Add 1/8 inch water in baking dish, cover with foil and bake 35-40 minutes or until tender. Cool.
2. In a large saucepan, melt butter. Add onion and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until onion is softened but not brown.
3. Scrape the squash out of the flesh and add to onions. Add the stock and heavy cream. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes.
4. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor, or use an immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Adverse vs. Averse

This is one that I see quite often, and I've found myself wondering if people even realize they are two different words.  Anywho, here's the lowdown from an actual writing site, so don't take my word for it. :)

"It is easy to confuse adverse and averse but their meanings are totally different." - From DailyWritingTips.com

Lay, Lie, Laid, Lain

This is one that I know ever so slightly, but I'm not perfect, so I sent out a plea on Twitter just now asking for help, and the inimitable @d0tpark3r came through for me, as usual, recommending this site: Grammar Girl : Lay Versus Lie :: Quick and Dirty Tips. I'm so happy (in a way) to see the author say that it's a complicated subject, because that makes me feel not so stupid. ;)


Here's what she says about present tense:

It's pretty easy; you lay something down, and people lie down by themselves.

It gets tricky in past tense, though, and that's where I have the most trouble. I'm not going to repeat the details here. She has a chart on the website, as well as examples written out. Go take a look. I'll be referencing it often.

loath, loathe, lathe

From @FakeAPStylebook: loath, loathe, lathe - She is loath to stay with him. He loathes her. She used the lathe to cut up his corpse.

Sweet Dulcinea's Soccer Boys Pictures

I'm putting this link here so I don't have to keep bugging her to remind me of where to find this deliciousness. Now I can just come here when I need a little distraction.

Former/Latter and Latter/Later

Hi all,

I don't see this too often, but thought I'd bring it up.

First of all, former vs. latter. Simply put, "former" is the first of two things in a list, and "latter" is the second of two things in a list.

Edward asked me if I wanted pizza or pasta for supper. I chose the former, as we had pasta last night.

Now, later vs. latter. From  About.com: "Use later when referring to time. Use latter when referring to the second of two persons or things mentioned previously."

That's all for now. I'll try to find something amusing or sexy to put up here soon, so I won't look like such a stick in the mud. Or Persnickety Bitch as I just labeled myself on Twitter. ;)

Dear D0t

If you aren't reading this advice column, what is wrong with you?!? You absolutely MUST read. It is written once (sometimes twice) a week by d0tpark3r, and is filled with her wit, wisdom, and not a little bit of snark.

Dear D0t can be found over at TwificNews. Go read. Just do it. It's good for you.

Lover Mine

Ok, I'm going to go a little off track here and write about a book I just read. Yes, a real book. One that I bought at a store that was published by a real publisher and everything.

I read the latest in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Lover Mine, last week, and it was wonderful. It was about John Matthew, with a healthy dose of Qhuinn and Blay (who collectively broke my heart). We also got the backstory on Xhex, who is much older than I'd thought. Terrific, though. The book had the same tough sexiness of the other books in the series. My quibbles were her overuse of some of the slang, such as "getting verticle" and derivations thereof. Once or twice was fine; after that she could have just said that people sat up.

If you haven't read the BDB series, I highly recommend that you do so. They are fantastic. You can find them all on Amazon or elsewhere, probably used. I don't know the order off the top of my head, but I know that Amazon does number them, so you can make note of it there if you're going elsewhere to obtain the books.


Update: I was chatting with someone on Twitter who said that she had picked up the first book in this series and was intimidated by the glossary at the beginning and put the book back down. Let me tell you right now: YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ THE GLOSSARY FIRST!!! ::ahem:: Sorry for yelling. Seriously, though, it's unfortunate that they put it at the front, because that makes it seem like essential reading material, where I think that it belongs at the back as reference material. They probably wanted the reader to know it's there. Anyhoo, you can grasp the meaning of most of the made-up words from the context, and the glossary is always there for those you want to double-check. So don't get scared. Skip the glossary and move into the glory of the story.


Heh. I rhymed.


;)

Are we singing, praying, or fighting?

Homophones, homophones, homophones. They are still a problem, aren't they? Here's another one that I just came across in a fic:

verses/versus

From Dictionary.com:

verse [plural: verses]

   /vɜrs/ Show Spelled [vurs] Show IPA ,noun, adjective, verb,versed, vers·ing.

–noun

1. (not in technical use) a stanza.

2. a succession of metrical feet written, printed, or orally composed as one line; one of the lines of a poem.

3. a particular type of metrical line: a hexameter verse.

4. a poem, or piece of poetry.

5. metrical composition; poetry, esp. as involving metrical form.

6. metrical writing distinguished from poetry because of its inferior quality: a writer of verse, not poetry.

7. a particular type of metrical composition: elegiac verse.

8. the collective poetry of an author, period, nation, etc.: Miltonian verse; American verse.

9. one of the short conventional divisions of a chapter of the Bible.

10. Music.

a. that part of a song following the introduction and preceding the chorus.

b. a part of a song designed to be sung by a solo voice. 

ver·sus

   /ˈvɜrsəs, -səz/ Show Spelled[vur-suhs, -suhz] Show IPA

–preposition

1. against (used esp. to indicate an action brought by one party against another in a court of law, or to denote competing teams or players in a sports contest): Smith versus Jones; Army versus Navy.

2. as compared to or as one of two choices; in contrast with: traveling by plane versus traveling by train. Abbreviation: v., vs. 

So, as you can see, sound much the same, mean completely different things. Let's try to remember, 'kay? Oh, I just checked, and they also cover this on Learn Your Damn Homophones, also mentioned in a previous post.

Learn Your Damn Homophones

This is a little more, uh, blue than some of the other spelling/grammar guides I reference, but I think it gets its point across. Thanks to Einfach Mich for the reference.

Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

I got this recipe from Kimpy0464, and I don't know where she got it. I just know that it's wonderful and fabulous and easy and soooo delicious. So, make and eat and enjoy. Thank you, Kimpy, for the recipe.

Ingredients for brownie layer:

10 tbsp butter (5 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

1/2 cup Nutella

2 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup natural cocoa powder

Ingredients for cheesecake layer:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temp.

3 tbsp granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup Nutella

Preheat oven to 325F. Line a 9x9 inch square pan with parchment.

To make the brownie layer...

Combine butter, Nutella, eggs, and sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Sift in flour and cocoa powder and mix until well combined. Pour batter into your prepared pan and spread evenly. Set aside while you prepare the cheesecake layer.

To make the cheesecake layer...

Mix the cream cheese, sugar, eggs and Nutella until well combined. Pour over your brownie batter.

Bake at 325F until the cheesecake looks set, about 40-45 minutes. Allow brownies to cool completely in the pan before cutting

Weary vs. Wary

weary = mentally or physically exhausted; wary = watchful; being on one's guard against danger. Please to be noting the difference. thx

Boy love

I love this video, and I keep losing track of it, so I'm putting it here so I won't lose it again.

The use of Dashes

I've never given this a ton of thought, but a link about the use of dashes, specifically the en-dash and em-dash, was posted on Twitter today, and the article is useful and interesting, so I'm posting it.

My Pet Peeves

Yeah, I'm gonna go there.

This may start out being my little corner of the world for putting references to grammar and punctuation stuff. Call it a handy reference shelf for myself or for the authors I beta. My point is not to make anyone feel bad. I never want to do that. My point is to educate. Always. I have to look stuff up all the time. Everyone does. And if they don't, they're ignorant. Ignorant of the fact that they have to (or should) look things up. So let's get rid of the stigma that says, "I learned that in high school, I should know it, I shouldn't have to look it up." High school was a long time ago. (Longer ago for some of us than for others.) Get over it, and find good resources.  Below are some that I like. I'm sure there are a gajillion more out there. If you have some you particularly like and would like to recommend, let me know.

Peeve #1

Ok, my first pet peeve: turning plurals into possessives. What I mean by that is putting an apostrophe before an "s" when you're making something plural. It's not needed, people! Just stick an s (or an "es" if the word ends with an "s") on the end. That's all. Simple.

The Oatmeal has a much more thorough, and humorous, explanation on How to Use an Apostrophe. Please go take a look, then come back.

Peeve #2


People, please. The phrase is "for all intents and purposes," not "for all intensive purposes." Well, maybe it is for intensive purposes, but that's not the same thing.

Peeve #3


There/Their/They're
Its/It's
You're/Your
Lose/Loose
Chose/Choose (choose is present tense; chose is past tense. "I choose to spit out this disgusting fruit beverage. I chose to drink something else last week.")

Again, The Oatmeal has a complete and fun explanation of these (except for chose/choose) in their 10 Words You Need to Stop Misspellingcartoon.

Peeve #4


Semicolons. They're lovely. They are not interchangeable with commas. Sometimes, but not always. Again, The Oatmeal has a fun poster on How to Use a Semicolon.

Ok, those are my peeves for now. You may be wondering what resources I use other than The Oatmeal. There really are other grammar resources out there. The one that I find I go to most often is GrammarBook.com.  I've found answers there to every question I've had so far.

Of course, you shouldn't forget your local library reference desk, with its attendant librarian, who is more than happy to help you with your questions. If you're serious about this writing thing, you might want to buy yourself a grammar book and maybe a style guide or two. I'm sure there are writing forums out there where people would give you tips on what's good. Or, again, consult with your friendly local librarian.

Ok, all for now. Later, taters.