Justin’s Sandwich Rolls, First Attempt

My husband is very particular about his food.  I wouldn’t say picky, he will pretty much eat anything, but when he is in control of what he is eating (instead of me), things have to be just so.  I couldn’t get him to eat a brown rice and mushroom soup the other day, though, even though two of the three kids sitting at the table didn’t really want to eat it either and I was telling them they had to.  He said, “It just doesn’t look like something I would eat.”  Gee, thanks.  So instead of eating something healthy for dinner, he went to work hungry.  Whatever, it is his prerogative.

Risen, brushed with egg wash, ready for the oven!

For his lunch though, he needs my help and he takes it.  I tend not to make it very often and I sometimes feel bad about that but I do make sure that he has everything he needs. This consists of his granola bars, fruit snacks, some kind of fruit, the kind of pickles he likes, pudding (I like to make this at home and put it into a container but I have been slacking off), chips, and cheese, plus I got him to stop drinking soda during his lunch and just drink water.  Then there is his sandwich.  We have gone through all kinds of incarnations of his sandwich:  bologna, roast beef, turkey, ham, and he will even take a tuna or egg salad if I have made some.  We have gone through different condiments like mustard, mayo, brown mustard, and italian dressing and cheeses like American (I can’t get him to stop eating it), cheddar, swiss, provolone, and pepper-jack.  So after about two years of switching it up every few months, he decided his favorite and his standard would be ham and salami with provolone and italian dressing on a roll (God forbid he puts any sort of veggie on his sandwich).

His sandwich, we were out of provolone.

Rolls can be expensive.  If I can’t find a good deal, I can pay up to $3 for a pack of only six rolls.  Usually, I can get a pack of four sub rolls which he cuts in half to make eight for about $2.  Sometimes he complains about those, though, because they can be too thin widthwise or don’t cut in half that well and you are left with a little nub or two that you can’t really use for anything.  So in order to avoid this whole ordeal, I have recently been trying to make him sandwich rolls.  First, I tried a recipe for sourdough rolls, which really were too dense for a sandwich but were awesome rolls to eat.  I would share the recipe with you if I could find it (and I’d better because my sister really liked them and I am sure she will be asking for them again).  This was my first attempt in awhile.  It started out as a Whole Wheat Burger Bun but my husband is a bit averse to wheat breads (he just won’t eat healthy!) so I took out the wheat flour and subbed in bread flour to help make them lighter and fluffier.  It worked!  Except that after a few days he was digging out the middle and saying they were getting kind of dense.  I tried to explain that it is harder for the fresh baked stuff to keep but he said that if the grocery store can do it, so can I.  (Not sure if he was being a smart ass or supportive.)  Overall he wants it “softer, but not too soft.”  Great.

So beautiful! How could he reject them?

Whatever, so next I am going to make the rolls I made for Thanksgiving but just bigger.  Those are very soft.  We shall see…  Plus I promised you the recipe anyway so stay tuned.  Also, stay tuned for Whole Wheat Sourdough as well.  I made one last week and it was very nice but I used a white flour sponge and I want to try it with a whole wheat one and see if it turns out just as well.

Whole Wheat Sourdough

I have two GeekyLinks this week both having to do with the upcoming 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who and both equally awesome 48 years of Doctor Who adventures in less than 10 minutes and Doctor Who: “The First Question” – 50th Anniversary Trailer.

Crunchy Cornflake Cookies

Okay, these are the cookies I told you about after Christmas that my daughter’s 4th Grade class raved about.  I made them with butter that time and they tasted great but they did spread out a bit and looked not so great.  I have made these cookies over and over and over again trying to have these cookies look nice and thick while using butter and not the called for shortening (or even just less of it).  Sorry folks, it just wasn’t happening.  When I finally broke down and used just the shortening, it was like the recipe was telling me “See, I told ya!” (If you read that in the voice of Chip, from Beauty and the Beast, you are my new best friend).

Three add ins. What is it with me and the multiple add ins?

Really, the only thing I changed about these from the original recipe is that the original calls for you to dip the bottoms of the cooled cookies in melted white chocolate and I decided to just add in some white chocolate chips instead.  Hello, way easier and less time consuming and just as yummy.

They don’t look “bad” with butter, just different.

These cookies are crunchy because they have corn flakes in them.  The effect is so perfect that I am going to have to make more cookies with corn flakes or other crunchy things inside!  Also, this is a cookie that my pickiest, Sarah, and my second pickiest, my husband, really like.

My GeekyLink for this week is for those of you that like to act on your Geeky impulses.  My Twitter pal @LyssaPearl (who by the way, also has a blog that I love A is for Awesome) shared it a few weeks ago.  It is a 2012 calendar for some serious geeking out.

Birthday Party Time!

I was going for "Happy 3rd Birthday Robert" but realized I started too far in, so "Happy 3rd Bob" it was!

Birthday parties here kind of tear me apart.  I am torn because my husband never has the weekends off.  Does he have to call in?  Does he have to take a personal day?  Or the worst, an unpaid personal day?  He was really bummed because he couldn’t come to mine, here at our house in August.  I just really wanted to cook for my family and have some recipes to put up on the blog (most of which I forgot to take pictures of so you never got to see, oops! and didn’t think to just post the links like I am doing here).  It wasn’t a big deal anyway, more of an excuse for the kids to get together, too.  Plus, I made them all watch the Doctor Who marathon that was on BBC America that day.  They only let me get away with that because it was my birthday (my uncle and brother-in-law hid out in my daughter’s room to watch TV).  Nevertheless, I knew he was upset.  So when he took his vacation the week following my son’s birthday we knew that was when we would celebrate it, and it would be a big one.

All for this little big guy, the one looking at himself in the mirror with a party favor and cake on his face.

I was way stressed out, but I always stress out and my husband hates it.  It was after Christmas, and I have to clean the house, and plan a menu, and get party stuff.  I needed to find time in between all that to pack clothes for five and some food and extras to take on vacation but I knew it would all be worth it.  I put all the Christmas stuff away along with most of the gifts and cleaned all of upstairs and planned the menu and had all my party supplies before we left.  We decided to only bring condiments and a few things we had on hand at home to bring on vacation and go grocery shopping when we got there.  That helped, and I was able to completely de-stress on our vacation.

My husband took this picture our first night on vacation.

Cut to four days later and we are checking out of our room about four hours early and I am starting to freak out.  My goal that day was to clean the rest of the house.  My husband worked on the yards and helped to manage the kids.  I also made three sourdoughs to use for the party.  On Friday, I woke up bright and early and went to the grocery store and along with the groceries, rented three movies to help with the kids.  I baked Robert’s party cake and baked some brownies.  Then I made a Target run.  I came home and got a veggie platter ready and another with pickles and olives and made a Potato Salad.  Then I cut out the brownies into football shapes and did the same with the cake (I got the method and look for it from Cake Mix Bible but I made a 9 inch two layer instead of a single layer 10 inch, the Chocolate Cake was my favorite Cake Doctor recipe that I have used before and the frosting was Chocolate Buttercream).  Then I started on the Oreo Truffles, after which I made then refrigerated one of three warm dips (Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip, Quick and Easy Taco Dip, and BLT Dip) that were for the party.  We set up a bit by putting the food table up and we moved some chairs around and cleaned up a bit more.  I still had two more dips to make, not to mention finishing up the cake, brownies and Oreo truffles but I was exhausted.  It was around 11pm and I set my alarm for 3:30am (the party was at 2pm).  When I woke up, I was ready to go, actually totally refreshed.

I did make some coffee still though, duh.

Minor crisis when I touch the cake layer that I had trimmed before my nap and it was hard!  I was entertaining (OK, freaking out about) the idea of starting over when it finally struck me to trim it again across the top and voilà, crisis averted!  I frosted the cake in chocolate and then I had to make white frosting for the details.  I detailed the brownies, Oreo truffles, and the cake.  I set the rest aside to use later.  I made the last two warm dips, covered and put in the fridge, and then I dipped some strawberries in chocolate.  I detailed those and I was pretty much done.  The rest was party set up.  We did go down to the wire and it would have been later but my sister and dad got there early to help.  We ordered a sandwich and some chicken for a main course and my sister brought pasta salad.  I also made some Meatballs and my Homemade Ten Pound Buns.  The latter and the three dips were the last things in the oven that day.  I was completely able to enjoy myself because I finished everything I wanted to do and the food I wanted out there was out there.  My husband had a great time too.  He gets kinda bummed if he feels people are leaving early but we had a few late partiers so he really felt it was a good party.  Robert, of course, had a blast and the next day when I asked him if he liked his football birthday party, he gave me a hug and a very enthusiastic, “Yes!”

If all the food seems bad for you and fattening, that is kind of what I was going for.  I wanted a tailgating/pre-superbowl vibe happening.  I felt kind of bad for my mother-in-law, though, she had just started Weight Watchers.

Who knew you could make so many football shaped treats?

GeekyLink time!  If you thought that Doctor Who reference up top was just fleeting well, think again.  This morning I saw 25 Celebs Who Have Appeared on ‘Doctor Who’ and I wanted share it with those of you that still do not take The Doctor as seriously as you should for the pop culture icon that he is.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake (Robert’s Third Birthday Cake)

I guess I should tell you a little bit about my little man.  He is just so handsome and so happy and just so darn well, my husband calls him “Hurricane Bob”.  That seems to describe him pretty well.  He always puts the rest of us in a better mood whenever he is not exasperating us and although he is talking so much more lately, I do thank the Lord that he is not as verbal as his sisters are (or maybe he is and I just don’t notice over the sounds of the girls ALWAYS talking).  My dad and Robert are pretty close, maybe it is because he knows he is the last of his grandchildren or just because Robert is the kind of boy that he is.  Anyways, grandpa brought over the first cake at 11am on his birthday along with my nephews that grandpa was watching that day.  The kids had a blast.  Who wouldn’t with cake for brunch, ice cream cups (the sundae kind with a chocolate or strawberry swirl and come with a wooden spoon!), and a bit of Just Dance 3 thrown in for good measure?

Brown butter bits AND vanilla bean seeds, anyone?

So the bar was set pretty high.  I settled on my theme pretty easily but kind of winged it when it came to putting it together.  I settled on a brown butter cake and I changed out some of the sugar for brown sugar and I thought the taste really resembled a chocolate chip cookie (just don’t over bake it like I did, it was only for maybe two minutes and I knew when I should have taken it out but I left it in there anyways.  I need to listen to my instincts more).  The filling was really just a dryer version of an eggless chocolate chip cookie dough that was later mixed with the buttercream frosting when that was made.  The only thing I would have changed was that I went a little crazy with the chocolate chips throughout.  I put chocolate chips in all the components of the cake.  To be fair, I did have half empty bags to get rid of.  However, next time I will probably just put them in the filling and maybe in the frosting or just sprinkled on top (so it is easier to frost mostly).

Also, this was another one of the few things that I have made that my husband just wolfed down.  He came downstairs right before work.  We sang Happy Birthday and I thought he wouldn’t have time to eat it.  However, it turns out he didn’t need any.  Before everyone was finished being served and I sat down to eat mine, his was gone.  The first thing he ate when he got back in the morning?  More cake!

My new favorite buttercream!

My GeekyLink for this week is Spaced.  It is streaming now on Netflix.  I have heard great things about this show above and beyond the fact that it stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and is directed by Edgar Wright.  It was only on for two seasons (14 episodes total) so it is completely plausible that I can finish watching these sometime soon.  I only have four episodes of Firefly to go plus Serenity (which if any “nerdy” people have issue with Zack Efron, he was in an episode of Firefly so get over it, he is OK in my book).  I also want to finish the first season of Downton Abbey (which is So Soapy and Scandalous and I am only four episodes in, I love it and I need to get caught up so I can watch the second season which is just starting to air) as well but we will see how all that goes.

Chocolate chips everywhere!