Feb 01
Snowed In - Let’s Bake!
As any Raleigh-ites know, the forecast was all over the place about the recent winter storm. I saw 2-4″ predicted. I saw up to 13″ predicted. And those were within a few hours of each other.
With the news stations predicting the storm so far in advance, and talking it up, i heard stories about the grocery store lines. Sadly, i knew i would have to stand in those lines Friday evening, because i had a huge grocery list. My weekend was going to be a cooking weekend, snow or no snow.
Despite the fact that the mob had been there before us, we were happily able to procure all the ingredients i needed, except for ground beef. Nothing even resembling ground beef was left. Of course, the recipe that requires ground beef is the one recipe i was dead set on making. Oh well, i thought. Maybe it won’t really snow or the roads will be passable by Sunday.
Outside, it was just starting to flurry. We hurried home to unload the car and settle in for a white weekend.
Saturday afternoon we took a short walk up to Six Forks Rd to check out the driving conditions. I was surprised to see that the road was still white.
Sunday was baking day: a) food for us, b) food for friends with a new baby and c) food for the upcoming bridge tournament. My kitchen was vigorously used. I ran the dishwasher four times. The end result was:
- Spinach Balls - They look questionable, these little green and brown balls. But if you pick one up and sample it, you will find yourself going back for more. With “spinach” in the title, you might think these are healthy; they aren’t. Not even a little bit.
- Cinnamon Coffee Cake - A tasty twist on yellow cake mix.
- Apple Crisp - this recipe comes from the cafe where i work. I will make a special trip to the cafe if i know they are serving this. This a dangerous dish because you can convince yourself that it’s healthy because it’s fruit. And perhaps that’s fair; it’s certainly better for you thank the spinach balls.
- Homemade Peanut Butter Cups - Dangerously good, possibly better than the store-bought kind. Easy and quick to make.
- Mexican Lasagna - It’s hard to go wrong with this dish, but you have to trust it. When assembling the ingredients, you might think is this really going to be that good? The answer is yes.
- Orange Pecan Delights - A different kind of cookie. Not your typical chocolate chip variety. The nutty, orange flavor is subtle and light.
Before i could make the Mexican Lasagna, i had to walk half a mile to the grocery store to get the ground beef. Thankfully, they had some and my walk was not in vain! Otherwise, i would have had to bring a bunch of sugary sweets to my friend with the new baby.
It was fun to get out in the snow, but i am definitely ready for Spring!