Today, I was again, feeling blah (almost wrote black, thanks Santorum), but also hungry. We didn't do grocery shopping this week, since we were travelling Sunday.

So there is not much in the house, aside from standard stockpiles for 2+ people.

I remembered I had a new box o' butter, some flour, and some maple syrup, so I set out to make maple shortbread. I did some research and the general consensus was 1 sugar, 2 butter, 3 flour, which is close to my original estimation of 1 sugar, 2 butter, 4 flour. The "proper" mix netted me 12 shortbreads.

So I mixed it, I baked it, I waited (not long enough), and ended up with somewhat-successful shortbreads.

They could be a bit more maple-y, and I should have left them in the oven for at least another five minutes. I ate too many and now I'm nauseated. :(

Comment! (4) | Recommend! | Categories: culinary experiment [t], tasty [t], success [t]

I was bored and feeling blah. I have/had a can of melon soda in the fridge from November/December, and I haven't wanted to drink it.

I decided to make a soda-cake. Usually it's where you take 1 can of coke and a box of cake mix and make a cake.

I went with 8 oz melon soda, baking mix, cinnamon, almond, and vanilla. I started it at 10 mins bake time.

We'll see how this monstrosity turns out...

5 mins bake time: something smells... bad. I hope it's just the oven that needs cleaning. Or maybe one of the beasts farted. But it's almost like a mildewy wet dishrag.

10 mins bake time: they smell more cinnamony, and better when I open the oven. I gave them another five minutes since they didn't quite look done.

15 mins: I'm calling them done. A stick stuck in them comes out clean, and it's not like there's anything to go bad and make me sick. They don't smell very good, but they have a nice color.

Cooling: They smell pretty nice now.

Eating: It is similar to a dry, slightly spiced, biscuit. Not that I was expecting otherwise. If I tweaked the soda/spices, it might work out pretty well. If I added some simple icing (confectioner's sugar, milk, maybe some butter), this might actually be very tasty.

Five hours later: They're not bad at all. You can taste the melon soda, and all of the other things. I will make these again with sprite.

Comment! (4) | Recommend! | Categories: culinary experiment [t], failure [t]