The Geekend That Was, 3/24 (Why So Late? Edition)

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Why so late? Am I talking about this update, or Spring??

Both. Yesterday was my annual eye exam, where my eyes get dilated, so I can't be on the computer. And on the way there, I saw some snow flurries. SNOW! This is not very Spring-like, March. Two weekends ago it was 75 (F), and yesterday the high was 50 (F). We are not amused.

My ophthalmologist, however, WAS amused when I told him what I'd done the night before so that I could spend my non-computer time cooking:

 

Yep. I wrote out my recipe super-large so I wouldn't strain my eyes reading the directions. The ophthalmologist tells me only an engineer would come up with this. Michael asked if wielding knives and working with open flames was really the best course of action when you can't see well, but I managed not to cut off or burn anything important. This recipe is absolutely amazing, but took me FOREVER, AND I had made the pastry for the tops the day before!

 

I also, as you can see, had some issues with the pastry dropping off the sides of my bowls. I'm not sure what happened, but I think the bowls may be to blame. Do I have an excuse to buy some real ovenproof bowls now? (In other words, Michael, if you're reading this, do you ever want me to make these again? ;) Regardless, this pastry was SO YUMMY. And it smelled AWESOME while it was baking (I think it was the sour cream). The only changes I made to the recipe were to leave out the celery (because I detest cooked celery) and switch the white beans to black-eyed peas, because I am an idiot and when an ingredient list goes to the next page in a cookbook, I apparently can't see it. My eyes weren't even dilated then.

I had much more baking success over the weekend when I made the second recipe from this month's Cookie A Sock Club, fig bars.

 

I dislike store-bought fig newtons, so I didn't hold out much hope for these. I changed my mind a little bit while cooking the filling. It smelled great! Cinnamon and red wine will do that, I guess.

 

The crust was just a little bit crisp, and perfect, when they came out of the oven. The next day, it was a little softer, but the flavors had melded a little better, so they're still great.

 

Of course, these took so long, I had to make some of my favorite cookies in the meantime. =)

 

Here's the recipe in case you missed it.

And lest you think this is turning into a cooking blog (ha! not a chance unless I'm suddenly unemployed), here is what the Sparkly Compote of Decree has been offering up for March Madness...on Friday, it was a class I took a loooong time ago (notice a theme?), Tenerife Lace Wheel.

 

That plastic canvas is just used to hold the warp threads...you don't do any stitching on it and it will be cut off once the lace is done. The warp and foundation were all done during the class, as well as one "leg" of the Greek wall design. It's kind of addicting!

 

I really could finish this off with not much work...hmmm, have I said that before?

On Sunday, the SCOD offered up another blank slip! (It likes me, it really likes me!) I did the most responsible thing I could think of with my SCOD-granted freedom and worked on the only remaining stitching on Chocolat (yet another class piece).

 

I really thought I'd get more done than this, but those cookies took a while!

Obviously, last night I could not work on much of anything, although I did knit on my Honey Cowl that's been languishing. I didn't need to be able to see to knit on it! Hmmm...I hope I don't find any major mistakes later....

JiffNotes
Forget blind taste tests, give blind baking a try! If you can't see a mistake, is it really there?