Convenient cooking.

Last week, I made what I would call convenience-style pulled pork. I give it the "convenience" title because all of the ingredients, with the exception of the pork, can be picked up at the market on the corner, or a nice gas station.

This is a good recipe to file if:
--You have kids.
--The culinary arts challenge you.
--You like meat. And lots of it.
--You are darn busy, and cooking isn't high on your priority list.

Convenience-style Pulled Pork

Ingredients:
--2 lbs pork tenderloin
--1 12 oz. can or bottle of root beer
--1 18 oz. bottle of barbecue sauce

1. Place pork in a slow cooker; pour root beer over meat. Cover and cook on low until pork shreds easily, between 6 and 8 hours. Drain. Add barbecue sauce. Mix well. Serve on bun with desired fixings.

Source: allrecipes.com

For the original recipe, click here.

Baby, it's cold outside. So let's bake.

This is the first year I've done serious holiday baking, and I'm seeing the effect on the scale in rising numbers. I run four to six days a week, and it's not helping.

I will happily part with some of the goodies tonight at a cookie exchange party my friend is hosting. But I know that I will come home with goodies as well. It's an exchange, after all.

For those of you who will see me when I go home to Minnesota for Christmas, expect to receive baked goods. Unless I've eaten them all. If that happens, you can expect me to ask you to join me for a run.

Here are a few looks at what I made for the cookie exchange. They're "healthy" ginger snaps. For the recipe, click here.

I wear a size 8. Unless it's a running shoe. Then I wear a size 9. Sometimes I'm an 8 1/2.

After six weeks of bliss -- surrounding myself with a dozen women who are smart and full of interesting life experiences and who have a passion to write and learn about the craft; learning from an instructor who is quick with an inspiring quote, literary reference or insightful comment and who, I believe, could have a career as a therapist; and writing my first personal essay in years -- my writing seminar is over.

It's hard to write about writing, and equally difficult, in my experience, to write about a writing class.

I won't write a long, winding post about the seminar. Instead, I will leave you with a few quotes from class that make me want to be better.

Topics are everywhere. They're like shoes; you just have to see what fits. -- Classmate

Listen with the ear of the heart. -- St. Benedict

If I can't find some kind of take-home message in my experience, I set (the essay) aside until I do. -- Katheryn Lay

Everyone has experiences; we as writers must make something of them, in both language and idea. -- Stephen Corey

I am a writer by determination rather than natural talent. -- Ernest Hemingway

Amen.

Losing streak.

Like in life, you win some and you lose some in the kitchen. Today, I'm on a losing streak.

It started during my trip to the grocery store to pick up my list of baking ingredients. I couldn't find molasses in the baking aisle. It was out of stock there, but there were small jars of molasses in the kosher section. I brought the molasses home, excited to make my first ever ginger snaps, only to consult my recipe and learn that I needed a cup. The jar contains only seven tablespoons. It takes 16 tablespoons to equal one cup (I didn't know this offhand; I had to look it up.).

I decided the ginger snaps could wait until tomorrow and that I would embark on the project of making sugar cookie cutouts with frosting, as well as almond bark dipped pretzels. The cutouts were easy enough, and the dough is resting in the fridge for a few hours. The process of melting the bark and dipping the pretzels went well, too. Until it didn't.


I thought red sprinkles added nice holidazzle. But I wanted to be bold. So with my recently purchased food coloring, I added a few drops of green dye to the almond bark. Umm, yeah, if you want to trash your almond bark, this is the way to do it. The dye thickened the bark so that it would no longer coat the pretzels. (As I type this, Ben is digging into my already small supply of dipped pretzels. I didn't think he liked vanilla almond bark.)



I'm headed to a different grocery store for more vanilla and chocolate almond bark. And a big-butt jar of molasses. Plus ingredients for Ben's fancy toffee. And maybe some sanity. I wonder what aisle it's in.

The Cookie Exchange.

***I hope Indie has a forgiving heart. Poor guy is very sensitive to sound and hated, if you couldn't tell by the photo, wearing the antlers.

Happy holidays!

I am going over the list of holiday goodies I plan to bake this week while listening to Christmas music -- how appropriate -- and this is what I have come up with:

--almond bark dipped pretzels
--ginger snaps
--sugar cutouts
--another batch of caramels (maybe next week)

A normal person might think this is plenty of baking. But I have significant free time being unemployed, and I'd like to take advantage of my sorry state. I might not get such precious free time for baking again in the near future.

I've signed up for various cookie countdowns for inspiration. If you'd like to be similarly inspired, go here and here.

Caramels, part II

A few warnings on caramel-making:

1. Give caramels to friends and family as quickly as possible. Otherwise, you may find yourself walking to the fridge a few times in the morning, afternoon and evening to eat a handful. This could be hazardous to your waistline come your holiday party.

2. Once you store the caramels in a cool place, keep them there. They get ultra gooey and sticky and become difficult to unwrap in room temperature.

3. These buggers can sometimes be difficult to unwrap no matter the temperature. I blame this on my poor wrapping skills (I used wax paper). If you've made caramels before and are an expert wrapper (Anna, not rapper), please leave a note with your advice in the comments section.

The holiday baking is underway!

Look at you Ms. Martha Stewart. -- Friend

Since getting married two years ago, I've hosted an annual baking fest with friends. We all bake a few dozen cookies or treats and share them with each other. This year, I'm not hosting such an event. My kitchen is too small. I may be going it alone, but I'm ramping up this year's baking efforts and I'm spreading my baking throughout the month of December so I don't get burned out in one weekend.

The holiday baking commenced yesterday evening with caramels. I have fond, fond memories of these homemade caramels. I attended a private Catholic elementary school, and every December we'd have a program called Advent Angels. We picked a classmate's name out of a hat, and for four weeks, we were his/her Advent Angel. We occasionally brought goodies like candy and cards and maybe even a note. Usually on the last day before Christmas break, we revealed ourselves as Advent Angels and gave a bigger gift of $5 to $10. I recall my sixth grade year when I got lots and lots of homemade caramels, and I fell in love with them. I love the gooey goodness and sweetness of them. I continue to find them at holiday parties and cookie exchanges. But they've always had an air of mystery for me. Like how does one make these caramels? And can someone like me, a mortal, make them?

Well, I apparently can. I whipped up a batch last night. Cooking the caramels was easy. It was cutting and wrapping them that took me almost two hours. Two hours. But they were well worth it. I have a container full of caramels in the fridge, keeping cool. I plan to give them away as gifts (I recommend others on a budget do the same) in cute containers and take the rest home for Christmas. And you can do the same. Here's the recipe:

Melt in the Mouth Caramels

Makes about 2 1/2 pounds

1 cup butter or margarine
1 pound brown sugar (equals about 2 1/4 cups)
Dash salt
1 cup light corn syrup
1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan. Add brown sugar and salt. Stir until thoroughly combined. Stir in corn syrup and mix well. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly.

Cook and stir over medium heat until candy reaches firm ball stage or 245 degrees on candy thermometer. Stir for about 12 to 15 min.

Remove from heat, stir in vanilla. Pour into a buttered 9 inch square pan. Cool (for about two hours) and cut into squares.

Recipe from a 1974 cookbook