Beer bread

100th post!

http://www.recipezaar.com/Beer-Bread-73440


I used 1/4c butter, and that was plenty. Next time, I will use a little less. Also, I used salted butter, and the bread was just a little too salty, so I will cut down on the full teaspoon of salt next time.

Oatmeal raisin cookies

http://www.recipezaar.com/Oatmeal-Raisin-Cookies-35813

Wow! These were really good.

Armenian nutmeg cake

http://www.recipezaar.com/Armenian-Nutmeg-Cake-62761

I was worried the crust wouldn't hold together well, so I packed it very tightly into the pan. I overdid it, so next time I will pack the crust more gently. I used a 10" round pan, and the cake was done at 45 minutes when I first checked it. It probably could have been cooked just a little less. Overall very good -- especially with coffee.

Growing mushrooms!

For Christmas, my mother gave me a pre-planted indoor mushroom garden. The garden consists of a plastic bag filled with soil and already-growing mushroom "roots". I cut open the bag, as the directions stated, and the mushrooms matured over the course of 1.5 weeks. Tonight, I harvested the mushrooms and made a vegetable stir-fry. Delicious!

Chinese chicken salad rolls

I made this recipe for Chinese chicken salad:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chinese-chicken-salad-iii/detail.aspx

Then, I rolled up the salad into rice paper, as is normally done with spring rolls:
http://tomorrowaustin.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/vegan-spring-rolls-with-peanut-sauce/

I'm still working on my rolling technique, but these tasted great.

Jambalaya

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/cajun-jambalaya-recipe2/index.html

I would have preferred the rice to be just a little drier, so next time I will add more rice, or less broth. Overall, this was still very good!

Spaghetti Carbonara

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spaghetti-Carbonara-II/Detail.aspx


Instead of pancetta, I used cut-up bratwurst (!). I guess that makes this a "fusion" dish. It tasted absolutely great!