Monday, March 12, 2012

Why I don't have a Cooking Blog, Part A

While my creative motivation seems to be either on strike or vacation, the "creating" has not stopped.  It has just ventured onto a different path.  This weekend it was all about creativity in the kitchen. 

The Youngest kiddo informed me that he would like to do the demonstration speech at school that was for extra credit.  GREAT!!  Then the Kiddo came up with the idea of pizza.  Uhhh, okaaaay.  Not exactly an easy demonstration project, but we'll work with it.  But!  Then he mentioned that *A, a classmate with Celiac disease, would not be able to eat the pizza.  Maybe we could find a recipe that she could eat too?  This  sweet child  makes his mama so proud!!  So, the hunt for an easy, demonstrative and gluten free recipe was started.  Found one that seemed to fit the ticket perfectly!  After a conversation with *A's mother to confirm that all the ingredients were allowed (did you know that even Vanilla can have gluten in it?!!), the Youngest Kiddo and I set up to make Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies.  

This is where I came upon the realization that I'm a failure at food blogging.

When blogging, it is to your benefit to take good pictures.  Notice the background, which may distract from your focal image.  It is also imperative that your main image is in focus. 





Only I could manage to get all pictures out of focus!!  I'm off to a fabulous start on this blog post!!

Another important consideration in blogging is to photograph step by step illustrations, if applicable.  Blog posts on cooking or say, art techniques, require this step to engage your audiance.

Yeah.  Okaaaay.  It would seem that someone, who shall remain nameless (cough, me, cough), got caught up in the actual making of the cookies and forgot to PHOTOGRAPH the steps. 

 I could have easily enough "re staged" this whole cooking episode with the Kiddo (in focus), the kitchen spotless, and each and every easy little step in the cooking process photographed.  But I didn't. Why?  Despite the demise to my "cooking blog", I'm just too lazy.  And this is my real  life.  Unedited.   Photos out of focus. The kitchen a mess from another baking project.  It is what it is. 

But the cookies still tasted good!

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
adapted from a couple of recipes on the www

Ingredients
1 cup natural Peanut butter
3/4 cup to 1 cup sugar
1 egg slightly beaten
1 teaspoon Vanilla (gluten free, if needed)
Corse sea salt (optional)
Hershey's Kisses (could be optional, but why?!!)

Place oven racks in the upper and lower third of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl.  Roll into 1" ball (approximately) and place on prepared cookie sheets.  Use a fork to make cross hatch pattern.  If using sea salt, sprinkle on cookies now.  Bake 10-15 minutes, switching cookie sheets half way through baking time.  Bake until slightly golden at edges (which, is a bit difficult to tell, since the cookies are already golden in color!).  Remove from oven and let cool on sheets for a couple of minutes, before transfering to cooling racks.  Place Hershey kiss in middle of warm cookie.  Transfer cookies to cooling racks to finish cooling process completely.  Makes about 18 cookies. 
ENJOY!

Stay tuned for Part B:  I'm not Bakerella.  


2 comments:

Sylvia said...

What a fun post, Starla! I am totally out of whack on my sleeping, up late, because I am used to it, but up early because after five hours of sleep my body is totally confused, so reading this post has given me a real laugh. I hope you and your son enjoy more great days in the kitchen. Oh by the way, have a wonderful Tuesday!

Carolyn King said...

YUMMYYYYY!!!