The Geekend That Was, 2/5 (Super Baking)

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First of all, welcome new followers and thank you all for all the lovely comments last week! They seriously made my week. =)

This weekend did not start out well. (WARNING: Geeky videogame blahdy-blah coming! Skip to the next paragraph for baking!) I am trying (or I should say, WAS TRYING) to complete a Mass Effect 2 playthrough on Insanity, in order to get a different game ending and finish up my last two achievements. I won't go into details, but through a mix of glitches, bad decisions and annoyingly over-powered bosses, I wasted an inordinate amount of time and have probably given up. Probably. Either that or I'm restarting my campaign. =P

My replacement Companion Cube Cookie Jar also arrived! (Ooops, still videogames...next paragraph, baking! I promise!!)

 

The first one arrived in time for Christmas, but broken.

So, of course, I had to fill it with cookies.

The Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you and cannot, in fact, speak...but if it could, it would say, "I am filled with delicious cookies!"

OK SERIOUSLY, NO MORE VIDEOGAMES NOW.

I did manage to finish Helena!! This is a big deal and deserves its own post, but here's a teaser photo.

 

SUCH A TEASE, I AM. Once again, I am amazed by the power of blocking. And also by my inability to capture a picture of this sweater that's the right color.

Saturday we went to a basketball game, although this time there was no dancing involved. We decided to have friends over for Settlers of Catan and Super Bowl watching on Sunday...and so I could finally meet the recipient of Helena. =) It was way too warm for a modeling session, but her mom was very pleased with the sweater, so I am extremely happy!

I decided to make the Cheddar, Beer and Mustard Pull-Apart Bread that had just been posted to Smitten Kitchen to go with some chili (made by Michael the master chili-maker). It had beer in it, so it seemed appropriate for football. =) The pictures at Smitten Kitchen are, of course, so much better, but here's what it looked like in my kitchen as I...

 

...slathered a butter-mustard mixture onto the rolled-out dough...

 

..sprinkled the slices with cheese...

 

...and prepared to pull-apart the buttery, beery, cheesy goodness. It was well worth the work! It was also the first yeast bread I've ever made, so I was all excited that the dough actually rose and stuff. The Dunlaps brought over a fantastic apple pie for dessert. I'm very picky about baked apple desserts, and this was one of the best I've had.

I had a salad for lunch today. =P

JiffNotes
Seriously? Bread makes you fat?