I need a new oven. Before we moved, we bought a new gas range for the rental house. It was not the cheapest model (although not the top model either), but was a huge improvement over the old one. I baked cookies and breads and loved how everything turned out. Then, we moved to CRF and another old range. Now, I am having trouble baking anything.
I first noticed this around Thanksgiving when I made two cheesecakes to take to the relatives. The first one cooked too fast and the second one baked way to slow. I managed to get them half-way decent, but the second one had a bit of a soft center. Fortunately, they tasted alright.
Now, I am trying to bake/freeze holiday cookies and bread for my gift baskets. I managed to get the chocolate-cherry cookies (a much loved recipe found on Steph's blog several years ago) done well yesterday, but today two batched of jam thumbprint cookies have came out horrible looking. The first batch cooked to fast and the second too slow! You'd think a hot oven (the second batch) would speed up the cooking time. I am about to give up and make truffles. I mentioned to Sr that I probably shouldn't make such an effort as lots of other people will make cookies and he replied, "Doesn't seem like it anymore."
Which brings me to a somewhat related, but different topic. It does seem like we get fewer cookie/bread/fruitcake/homemade candy/etc. gifts than I remember as a child. The entire holiday season used to be filled with "Uncle Dean's Peanut Brittle", a neighbor's carrot cake, so-and-so's fudge... Of course now Uncle Dean has passed, the neighbors at my parents' home are in retirement homes and I haven't met anyone as an adult who makes & gives fudge. In fact, I really don't even know my neighbors and my (local) friends are so busy with their own rushed lives I can't even expect drop by visits with goodies like I remember from childhood. My co-workers are all guys who wouldn't caught dead making cookies. My siblings don't bake and my mom has decided she isn't participating in the holidays this year. The cookies I make and the ones I eat at MIL's gathering on Xmas Eve will be it. My child(ren) will never know the excitement of opening a tin of someone's (other than their mom's) homemade goodies. Sad.
SO, I guess I will nurse my silly oven along and try the biscotti and other cookies still on the list. Fortunately, the spiral slice and bake cookies seem to be immune to my oven's evil temperament.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
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6 comments:
I know what you mean. And not just cookies, either, but savories & dips & such as well. And I must admit that I don't do nearly enough holiday baking myself. I remember my mom making pecan tassies, mexican wedding cakes, chocolate chip cookies (year round), fudge, magic cookie bars, spritz cookies, snickerdoodles, sugar cookies and soooo many others that I don't remember them all. I'm lucky if I make a batch of spritz (though I don't have the knack with the cookie press that Mom has), a batch of shortbread, and a batch of cake mix cookies. Much less the fancier pecan tassies & mexican wedding cakes & magic cookie bars. I just don't have the time. And I regret it. *sigh*
Need to get cooking (need to finish shopping, for that matter).
I was just talkimg about this with my daughter today. When my kids were young I baked all the time, now I don't evm have time for the packaged cookies. Its sad that so many of the simple things in life have been lost to the busy lives we lead now..
I have told myself for two weeks that I am going to bake this year, but so far I haven;t been to buy any of the ingredients. Sigh
It's definitely a lack of time spent baking. Everyone is instant this and rush rush rush. If it's not that it's people's diets and health issues. There is too much instant gratification nowadays and not saving these sweet goodies for once a year. It's a shame, because I loved the homemade baked goodies we always got at the holidays.
When we lived in the 'burbs I had a big kitchen with a huge oven; it could fit 3 cookie sheets at once. Now that we're here in the country I have an itsy-bitsy oven so small that if I use my largest cookie sheet the oven door won't close all the way. And to make matters worse, it's a wall oven built into a brick wall so when it dies it's going to be a real undertaking to replace it. With this oven all my cookies burn on the bottom, even if I use parchment paper. So I don't bake much anymore because I don't see the point if it's not going to be edible.
I did throw a loaf of bread in the bread machine today. Does that count?
When I was a kid, my mother used to make holiday baskets for everyone. And I meand *everyone*: aunts, uncles, cousins, Al the postman, the newspaper boy, the garbage men...
Each year she would stay up late and listen to WJIB (a smooth jazz station that is no longer around) and the house would be filled with the smells of her baking. I would try to stay up, the warmth of the house and the smells lulled me into sleep.
She stopped doing it when she got married for the second time. I wish she hadn't, it was one of the only happy memories of Christmas I have.
I feel like the lucky one! My wife can not stop herself from baking. Like you Gina, her oven started taking a dump a couple of years ago, but fate stepped in and made things right. Not usually a gambler but for some reason I got into a football pool that year and won big money. From the winnings she got a new 36" Wolfe range and i got a Mig welder. She uses that range a lot more then I use the welder.
Cookie season is in full swing at my house and I took the bride on another supply run just yesterday!
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