Category Archives: Baking

Baking, Book, Cookies, Film

Godzilla Monster Cookies?

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As you know from when I produced cookies along with the recipes in my recently-published book “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” I made two types of Monster Cookies — Bigfoot and Chupacabra Monster Cookies.  They were a HIT!  Godzilla

My Bigfoot Monster Cookies feature peanut butter, oats, choc-chips, and m&… er, a candy-coated chocolate.  My Chupacabras are focused around peanut butter, oats, dried cranberries and white chocolate chips.  I slapped a signature name on these for some savvy marketing and things were good to go.  Bigfoot was a familiar local name while Chupacabra fit with the white chocolate chips for fangs and dried cranberries for red eyes that the creature is sometimes noted as having.  Godzilla

I would like to make a number of different Monster Cookies after different beasties — cryptozoological beasties like The Loch Ness Monster and the Jersey Devil, mythical beasties like Krampus, and then today when I had a BRAINSTORM ….. in this case, I’m thinking …. FILM!  Godzilla

So here’s my question ….. What flavours would you think of for a Godzilla themed Monster Cookie?  What kind of cookie base would it have, what highlight flavours (candies, spices, etc)?

Comment below!

Baking, Cooking, Tip

Cling Wrap — A Pro Tip

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Cling wrap — ever have problems getting it to stay on your food?

Cling wrap

Here’s a pro-tip — don’t put plastic wrap on your food, put your food on your cling wrap!

Yep — all sorts of problems can follow when cling wrap gets pulled out of the box, put over food, torn off … but instead, try this…

Cling wrap - you're doing it wrong

On a clean surface clear of other items, put your box of plastic wrap down with the opening pointing away from you. Pull a large section out (+/- 2 times the size of the plate you look to cover) and lay it down on the surface, the box will ‘hold’ the other end straight for you. Next, place the plate you wish to wrap *on* the cling wrap and bring the lose end up & over the plate to start covering your food. Rip the other end of the plastic wrap off of the box and fold it over the plate & cling wrap. Repeat as necessary to get everything covered.

Done right and you will have a good seal on your food that can also help to prevent leaks.

A box of cling wrap with a slide cutter makes this easier over those with the saw blade, but with some careful attention those will work just as well.

Cling wrap righter

Announcement, Author, Baking, Beverage, Cookies, Cooking, e-Publishing, Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies, Product, Progress, Publication

…it’s still morning somewhere, right?!?

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Mmm …. pie!

Sunday afternoon on the WIBC-Facebook page I said that I had a progress announcement about my baking book — and that I was going to post this morning …. and it’s now PIE’o’clock (3:14PM) …. and I’m realizing I didn’t get to it*, ACK! I’ve been busy getting my BagpiperDon website working right so it’s as equally as awesome as my recent updates to this site. ANYWAY…

Brrr-RING!

I had a conference call with my editor, Linda, on Sunday. She is A*W*E*S*O*M*E — she’s bold, she’s brilliant, she’s hilarious, Linda Makes Work FUN! (And yes, Linda, you may quote me on that for your portfolio.) We nailed down a number of things both having to do with my book and my plans to re-release it after paper publication as an e-book. I have a check-list of the things I need to satisfy (as provided by my friend & e-publishing coach, Tom) — toward the end of my call with Linda I ran down the list and updated it.
(PSST! – Linda has a bran-new website COMING SOON – see here at CheckChick.com!)

Here’s the HURRAH Announcement …

There are 18 total To-Do items on the list, I have 11 DONE, I have only 7 more to go!

Now — real quick — what does that mean?  Simply speaking, there are big tasks and small tasks in writing and publishing a book.  Usually writing the book is a huge task — DUH, obviously!  Other tasks may take a few hours, days, or weeks, and those are considerably short …. even if that means taking two days to craft a few paragraphs for the wings or back of a book.  There’s still the final edit work to do on my book, and the other tasks are really pretty small … but they add up & take time.  For DIY boot-strappers like myself that just means nose-to-the-gumption-grindstone!

“So when is your release date, Don?”

I am hoping to publish by Black Friday, however with everything going on I think it will be closer to Xmas. As many of you know I experienced a hard-drive crash early this year and have had to re-start my project working from old back-ups, e-documents I thought I had lost completely, and most but not all of the photos I had planned to include. Having received Linda’s added involvement has been nothing short of a GIFT! The book has been coming back together, and while it’s not done Right Now it is a better book than I had written last year. Do you think that this adds to my excitement???

OH YEAH!

So, work to go!
Back At It — Don

Tom and his many abilities at TrimbathCreative.wordpress.com
Linda, my editor, at CheckChick.com and her Check Chick Facebook page

* So here’s a little insight about being a small business owner….
It’s said that in ancient times if the gods wanted to get revenge on some humans they’d make them go crazy — and to accomplish this they make them fall in love. In modern times, I think gods make people go crazy by making them think “Hey, I can start & run a small business!”  Is a small business Love?  Well, if you’re passionate about what you’re doing…. then, Yes!

Baking, Cookies, Cooking, Tip, Uncategorized

Kitchen Tips – Yours & Mine

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Do you ever find yourself in your kitchen making something tasty thinking to yourself “You know, that one thing that I do in my kitchen is a good idea and other people would benefit from knowing about it.”?  Yeah, me too.  Well, here’s your chance!

Over this past weekend while doing a little baking I thought of something I might add to my current in-process baking book — KITCHEN TIPS!  What’s a Kitchen Tip?  Well, one of my ideas — and I would hope this should be obvious — is to always keep your oven mitts or hot pads in a consistent place so you’re not scrambling for them when the timer rings.  I thought up & wrote down about another 5 and then I thought “ENGAGE YOUR PUBLIC” — so……..

WHAT ARE YOUR BAKING-RELATED KITCHEN TIPS?  Comment below ….. yes, I’m actually going to allow comments for once.  These would be suggestions related to setting up your kitchen for baking or around the process of baking (etc).  Write your tips, hints, & ideas here — they might get included in my baking book!

“Collect your cookie crumbs – they go great on top of ice cream! For best results, serve soon.” Marion C. – Milwaukee, WI”.

If I publish your idea I will try to let you know in advance.  Also, I would like to put your name & location as written above.  Now, I should also say — while I like this idea for my book, I’m not sure how I might include them.  My original idea was to disperse these notes throughout my tome but that doesn’t fit with my mental image of the contents – so these might end up as their own section instead.

Submit your ideas & you just might get your name in print!
Enjoy ~ Don

Baking, Cookies, Product

Baked Goods On The Horizon

Products I’m Considering

  • Scones – I considered scones, experimented with them (Blueberry, brown sugar, and a little lemon zest), but I have decided to shelve the idea for the time being – scones only hold (decently) for 24hrs and don’t travel well.
  • Muffins – I’m thinking of a variety of muffins.  Like some of my products I think they’re going to come out in two general classes.  Products that are ‘healthier’ and tasty and tasty products that are relatively no better than other things on the market.  Still, no added preservatives & blah blah blah.
  • Breakfast cookies – I frankly don’t know much about these, but they seem to be quite popular right now.
  • Granola – I’ve been turned on to this idea.  Sounds easy, sounds like something I can express with, sounds like something people enjoy.

GF products

  • Other Cookie Square flavours – Chocolate Peppermint, Lemon Orange, Lemon Ginger, Lemon Cranberry, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip
  • Experiment with biscotti flavours I’ve had in mind

If you have biscotti flavours or other cookie/baked-good ideas, please send them to me.

Make it Tasty,
Don