HIstory :

As a young child I was always interested in being in the kitchen and the older I became the more fascinated I found myself. I enjoyed helping my mother in the kitchen at a very young age, at age 9 I started to learn more of the fundamentals of cooking, and at age 12 I started cooking by myself I would make lunch, and supper. At first it was simple things, but the older I got the more complexed things became. Now as an adult my mother and I take turns cooking, she cooks for one week, and I cook the next week, I enjoy this immensely. During this project I decided how ever my cooking skills needed an update, more specifically my baking skills. So I ventured out on a small lim and learned a lot. Not only did I learn skills in the kitchen but I learned a lot about myself as a person, I grew and developed more confidence. Now I am capable of making desserts with supper, or making meat pies, the possibilities are a lot more endless. I learned how to work with different types of dough, make cakes, make pies and so much more. As I said earlier self growth was also an important thing I did a lot of self growth during this project. I am now more self- assured in the kitchen as well as in life in general. I find I am not as daunted by certain tasks as I was before, because I have proven myself capable of more then is expected from me. Now I leave you with this last picture of the finished gingerbread house. Good Bye.

Gingerbread House :

Here is my first set of ingredients.




They are, flower, sugar, molasses, margarine, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cloves, icing sugar, almond extract, pepper & mint extract, cream of tarter, neon food colouring, basic food colouring, potatoes, apple cider, vinegar.








Now here is a picture of all the candy for the house. I am not going to name each candy, because quite frankly I do not know all the "official names" for each of these candies.

My next step is to make the dough. This is first accomplished, when you cream together the following ingredients. Those ingredients are , 3/4 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup of margarine, 1 Tsp. each ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and baking powder, 1/2 Tsp. each ground cloves and baking soda with a mixer on medium- high speed until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. Mix in 1 egg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now you beat in the following ingredients. You start with a 1/4 cup of molasses, and 1 Tbsp. of cider vinegar. Gradually beat in 2 cups of all- purpose flour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dough must be chilled in plastic wrap for 3-4 hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once it has chilled sufficiently. Roll it on flowered parchment paper, so it is a 1/4-  inch thick. Then you put your pattern piece on the dough, and cut them out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The oven should be pre-heated to 375. You put it in the oven for 17 minutes.

Once the cookies are done you need to make royal icing. This consists of, egg whites, cream of tarter, and icing sugar. This first needs to be applied to your basic surface.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now you put the ginger bread house together.

You start with the bottom, which holds the whole house together.

 

 

 

The next step is to add the sides.

 

 
 

 

After the sides are added you add the front and the back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the sides the roof goes on the house .

 

 

Next you add the chimney and the door.

Now you decorate the house, the roof, sides, front, and back.





















Here is the finished product after decoration.

Reflection: I learned a lot during this process like, some more icing technics . Another thing I learned is how to make gingerbread. I also found out it is crucial  that you find the right recipes,when you do this. I learned how to make windows for the gingerbread house. Did you know that making your own cookie cutter is a tedious process, my mother makes it look easy. Ginger bread house making is a time consuming process.

Lemon Meringue pie

Lemon meringue pie : Yesterday made lemon meringue pie. I think that the recipe I found had been the best recipe have have worked with yet. 

Lemons :

I have been trying to get around to posting this all week so here it is . 

Lemon squares : 

I positively love Lemon bars, so of course I had to make them. They turned out great, but I would like a new crust recipe.

Lemmon loaf : 

I made Lemon loaf this week I had a lot of fun, and the taste was great. The recipe I found was lovely. 

Blueberry pie

 

Who doesn't love a good pie, so I thought that I would make one. The pie turned out wonderfully. I had a lot of fun making it and, learning how to make a weave for the top of the pie.   

Oat meat and chocolate chip Cookies

The other day I made these wonderful cookies they turned out great. They were oat meal and chocolate chip. I have noticed that I am finding easier to make drop cookies than before , now that I have had some experience.    

Homemade noodles

The other day I made these noodles, and they turned out so wonderfully that I just have to put them on my blog . Their made from scratch, I basically used eggs and flower then shaped them the way I wanted. 

  

Pudding

The other day made pudding, and I must say I am very proud of my self . I'm not sure if It really considered baking, but non the less It's a new skill I have learned.  

An Apple Danish

I decide to make an apple danish, the process took me half the day . When I was making the danish I followed everything exactly as the recipe said. First I makes the pastry, then the filling . After that I put the filling in the pastry. After I had started putting the filling on the pastry, I dawned on me that I had only made one danish . As an end result I needed up with a danish the size of my tray. I did learn a few thing from making this recipe, like I should thinking things through. I also learned how to crisscross the to of my pastry. 

This week

This week I experimented with lots of different recipes. I have not had a chance to post everything , so hopefully that will happen to night.  

Cupcakes

I finally got around to making and decorating cup cakes . I learned a lot like how to make frosting for cup cakes. I also learned one way of decorating cupcakes. 

Wonderful chocolate

 

 

This brownie recipe I tried worked wonderfully .It smells magnificent and tastes even better .

The best part was that I learned how to make frosting . In the end, I ended making a double recipe .

  

It worked

 

I finally made bread after three try's repeating the first step, I got my yeast to rise. It was a fun and frustrating process. I definitely learned a new skill and wasted a lot of flower, yeast, water, and salt in the process.  The real trick of this was really finding a recipe that worked. Most of the recipes I found were not very helpful instructionally. At the end of all my recipe searching I steeled on a u-tube video. I post in in resources, so you can see it.  

A very plain cookie

I made this sugar cookie recipe. It tastes great but it is very basic,as far as cookies go. If I learned one thing, it's that some pictures don't look a thing like the recipe. It does however make a good dunking cookie. 

A very simple cake

I've made strawberry loaf, and blueberry loaf, but I have never made any kind of cake.So I decided to start off simple, with a carrot cake . It turned our wonderfully, and I think the recipe was marvellous. What I really liked the most about it though was that the recipe did't call for raisins, which I can never stand to eat in a carrot cake . 

A Better Bun

Last time I made buns they turned out really good . I just did't like the recipe, so I went and found a new recipe. It's a little bit more complicated, but it's worth all the effort. The bun had a fabulous taste, and I learned a few things. These buns brown perfectly, because of the glaze the recipe gives to put on them. I also found that if you put the buns on the middle rack they cook much more evenly. In short I learned a lot and found a great recipe. 

My Neglected Recipes

On this blog about my passion project, I have posted only when I have had the time. There for I have not had the time to post everything I have made. So I thought it would be a good idea to post some picture . Here are the other things ,that have not made it on my blog yet. 

Cherrie biscuits: I had so much fun making these. I used my moms old recipe, from her cookbook she has had since she was a kid .

Strawberry loaf : This recipe turned out better than I thought It would. I put a lot more strawberries than the recipe called for. I think the extra strawberries, made it taste really good since I love strawberries.

Blueberry loaf: I think this recipe was a success,I added extra vanilla, and blueberries. The extra ingredient made the blueberry loaf taste fantastic. 

If there is one thing I have learned It's that a little extra vanilla, and a little extra fruit go a long way. 

Gluten free blueberry muffins

 I've been baking for a little bit now ,and have tried various recipes. So I decided to try something completely new I made blueberry muffins. They turned out great. I  made a gluten free version. I just substituted rice flower for the normal flower, which worked better then I expected it to .  

I

Heavenly bisscotie

When I arrived home today , my intentions seemed pretty straight froward. Make supper,  then of course work on my passion project. I was intent on making bread but I had one small problem we were out of soy cream, and I'm lactose intolerant. So instead I decided to make hamburger buns with the hamburger patties I was making. Who needs store bought buns when you can make them. So any way the buns worked out well. I also made biscotti which to my surprise turned out marvellously. 

Simply Delicious Biscuits

Here's the scoop , I've been cooking for years since age 12 to be exact . So when I was told we had to learn something and write about it on a blog .The most natural thing of course seemed to be baking. Since I can cook, but I can't bake worth beans . I would go so far as to say, I could not bake a thing to save my life .

So I decided to start with something simple I made biscuits,they turned out wonderful.