More Bike Mandalas

I've been really into these mandala things. I just think they look so neat. Here's another one I played around with, it's not quite there but slowly getting there. (Yes, it's my bike, again...) We've been brainstorming designs, we're going to have our first booth at a bike race in November and gonna try to have five designs ready. Should be interesting...

If You Can't Bake...

...make No-Bake Cookies! Still waiting on the oven part to arrive... Here's some Chocolate Crispy Cookies. I had some leftover chocolate ganache from a previous chocolate eclair recipe, so I tossed them with some corn flakes and shaped them into disks. The original recipe is as follows:

3.5 oz. milk chocolate

1 T. light corn syrup

4.5 c. corn flakes

powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

Melt chocolate with corn syrup atop a double boiler. Put cornflakes in a plastic bag and lightly crush with a rolling pin (or I just used a potato masher in a bowl). Mix the chocolate with the corn flakes in the bowl. Place 2.5" round cookie cutter on top of your baking sheet lined with wax paper or parchment. Put a spoonful of the cereal mixture in the center and pack down firmly with the back of the spoon to make a thick cookie. Gently ease away the cutter and repeat. Chill for 1 hour. (Optional: Put a little powdered sugar in a small bowl and roll the edges of the cookies in the sugar to finish.)

(Recipe courtesy of: "The Cookie Book" by Atkinson, Farrow and Barrett.)

SIREN

What do you think, B & M? Pretty cool, huh? (Couldn't figure out your font...)

Lynx Star

Lynx Mandala

Took a picture of my singlespeed Lynx and photoshopped it to make a mandala. Awesome looking, isn't it? You can create one using any picture with this tutorial by Earth Mandalas. Now, THIS would make a killer shirt.

Why Now?

My oven had been giving me fits, and now it finally decided to go on strike. It won't fire up at all. So no baking till I figure out how to fix this thing, I don't want to spend hundreds on a new one at the moment. Sage (Halloween) and Emi's (Nov. 19) b-days are coming up, and they usually want a baked dessert of some sort, I hope I can fix it soon. No fresh baked bread for a while... boo hoo. The weather's getting chilly and it's baking season, too. And of course, baking has been on my mind a lot, like yummy apple pie with some apples we just picked. Damn...

Handmade Sausages

My first attempt at making sausages. The stuffing part went better than expected and they look pretty good, don't they? This one's Sweet Italian Sausage. (Ground pork with salt, blk. pepper, paprika, fennel seeds, thyme, basil, garlic, and sage.)
The kids helped me out, they cranked while I held the hog casing. I found a sausage stuffer/meat grinder/pasta maker at a discount store for $10. It was like a sign, I had been thinking about doing this and then I find this thing.
The other one is Breakfast Maple Sausages. Both sausages tasted pretty good, but were a little on the dry side, I used pre-ground pork. Next time I'll grind my own pork so I can get the fatty kind to make some juicy sausages.

Another Visit from Dave

The kids were so happy Dave came over, they couldn't leave him alone. He was tired from doing a long ride, but they climbed all over him without mercy. Poor fellow... But looks like we'll be seeing more of him soon. Be prepared Dave...

Raspberry Sherbet

Followed the recipe for the mango sherbet but subbed some raspberries we picked. Yummy!

Homemade Salami

One (of many) things I'd like to try making at home is salami. But real salami, requires a temperature and humidity controlled environment, and it takes about a month to make. So when I found a recipe for salami that was cooked in the oven instead, I had to give it a try. Reviews were good, people seemed to like it. Some said it's more like a summer sausage than a salami, and I agree. The kids liked it though, and we had it for dinner one day with some bread, cheese, and veggies.