Butter Cookies

Wendell bought too much powdered sugar for I-don't-remember-what so I decided to make some butter cookies with them. 

Actually, I wanted to take photos so that I could fuss around in that Keynote app again.  It's a pretty amazing program with lots of controls and options to click on.  It's fun discovering all the different things that can be done.

The recipe in the video is for a double batch of cookies because that's what I made.  The salt should be 1/2 teaspoon for a double recipe (I put 1/4).  

My typed recipe below is for a single batch.

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream butter.

Add sugar gradually.

Add unbeaten egg and vanilla.

Add sifted dry ingredients.

Make into rolls and refrigerate or freeze.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. 

Mini Book by Cleta

 It was so nice to receive this in the mail from my pal Cleta.  I love it!!

Why So Hard, Bread Dough?

I found this info at the Taste of Home site on reasons why bread dough might not rise.  I'm not sure if I should just quit already.   

1. Your yeast is old.  If your yeast is too old, chances are you aren't going to get a good rise.

2.  The water is too hot.  Anything hotter than 105 degree to 115 degrees F could kill the yeast.

3.  It's too cold inside.  If your kitchen is too cold, the yeast could die.

4.  You added too much salt.  Too much salt can keep the yeast from doing its job.  Never pour yeast and salt on top of another in your mixing bowl.

5.  You added too much sugar.  If you added too much sugar in your dough, chances are that it will gobble up almost all of the food the yeast needs, leaving you with dry, ineffective yeast.

6.  You added too much flour.  Too much flour can make your dough stiff and dry.  If there's not enough liquid present it doesn't work the way it should.

7.  You're using whole grains.  Whole wheat and other alternative flours don't develop gluten as easily or at all.

8.  The crust is too dry.  If a crust develops on top of the dough, it can be difficult for the bread to rise.

Cheese Bread with Jalapeños

I fussed around with the Keynote app on my computer.  It felt totally foreign to me and after stumbling around for awhile I came up with this presentation. The fact that I did end up with a workable video actually surprised me. 

And the fact that I ended up with an edible cheese bread was also a surprise.  My dough never did rise . . . not at the initial 90-minute rest and not at the second 30-minute one. It was looking like I was going to end up with burrito nuggets instead of bread. 

But surprise, surprise!  It came out okay.  And ono too.  

I got the recipe from this YouTube video and used jalapeños instead of onions.

Stir:

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Add:

1/2 cup warm milk

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 large egg, room temperature

Mix for 5 minutes.  Cover and rest for 90 minutes.

Flatten and roll out dough to 16-inch diameter.  Spread on butter.  Sprinkle 1 cup or more of grated cheddar cheese and jalapeños.  Cut into triangle wedges and roll up.

Place pieces in an 8 x 8 inch baking pan, cover and let rise 30 minutes. Brush on an egg wash and sprinkle with more grated cheese. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. 

Time-Lapse Drawing

A couple of weeks ago Kat from Our Adventures in Japan posted this photo that she took of a liquor store in a neighborhood in Tokyo called Chuo. 

I thought it would be cool to try to draw the picture and wondered if I could document the progress in a video.  I realized real fast that without a proper setup (tripod, etc.) it would be pretty impossible.  Plus, the video would probably end up being too long and boring. 

I decided to take intermittent photos of my progress instead and put them together in a video.  The drawing took me 2 days to do, so taking photos in the changing light was a problem, but not a biggy. 

This was maybe the funnest video project that I've done so far.  I learned so much.  

I did the title for the video in Keynote which is a presentation software application that is included with my Mac.  I never even knew what it was before. I learned about it from a beginner tutorial for iMovie on YouTube.

I learned how to insert a "camera click" sound between my photos in the video.  It is one of many sound effects that is included with iMovie.  Even the music that I used is from the sound effects list.  

I also learned how to "crop to fit" so that my photos would more or less generally stay in the same location relative to each other. 

Anyway, here's the video.  It's really short.  Only 36 seconds.  Enjoy!  😄

Dd's Korean-Style Hot Meat

 

KOREAN-STYLE HOT MEAT 

(adapted from Dd’s Table Talk II)

 

2 lbs. chuck roast or pork shoulder, 1 ½-2 inch cubes

water

1 c. water

1-1 ½ c. soy sauce, as needed

¾ c. brown sugar

5 red Jalapeno peppers

2 green Jalapeno peppers

 

In a large saucepan over medium heat, cover meat with water; bring to a boil. Skim off scum from top of saucepan. Drain all but 1 cup of water. 

Add additional 1 cup of water and soy sauce as needed to cover meat. Add sugar and peppers. Return to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 1 hour. 

Serve hot or cold with lots of hot rice and kim chee on the side. 

Note: Optional to use sweet peppers. Serves 2-4.

Bread "Rolls"

My sister Geri has been into bread making lately so I felt like making some too.  I imagined myself having fun and getting great satisfaction while kneading the dough. 

But tell me . . .  seriously . . . how are you supposed to knead something like this?  It was not satisfying at all.  It was totally ANNOYING.

After kneading I was supposed to separate the dough into six pieces and roll each into a small log and then coil them with the tails nicely tucked in the middle. Forget that. I barely managed to divide the dough into six pieces and then plop them into a loaf pan.

Here it is after the dough rose.  I admit, seeing the dough rise was kinda satisfying.

And after it baked, it did look good.

And it tasted good too.  Yippee!  But I'm not sure if I'll be making this again. 

Here's Maangchi showing how it's supposed to be done.  Easily.  So annoying. 

Ant Break

I had an ant visitor the other day while I was painting, so I took a break and tried videoing him.  My phone struggled with focusing because he was so tiny so I went and got my camera.  He actually appeared and disappeared several times, and I got a lot of footage, but most were blurry.  Luckily, one short clip came out and I was able to make a 1-1/2 minute movie. 

For the music I searched through several YouTube videos and found one that kinda suited.  I recorded it with my iPhone's VoiceMemo feature.  Then I Airdropped it onto my computer and was able to attach it to the video. 

More Gouache

 Here's a recent page that I did using gouache paints.   

This is my paint set.  I actually got it 2 years ago from Amazon, but had only used it a few times until recently.  It's $34.42 right now in case you're interested.

You can use the top to mix the paint, but I like to keep it clean so I use a separate palette for mixing.  

This is what I had been using to mix.

But I'm transitioning to this palette that I just found at the swap meet. 

Gouache Painting Video

Looks like a kid might've done the painting, but it was me.  And it was fun painting . . . and filming . . . and editing.

This time around I learned how to splice and shorten loooooooog, boring clips.