When I get an idea for a recipe or a way to tweak a baking recipe that calls for an experiment! It’s actually how a number of my recipes came to be as you can find in Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies. About half the time I try something new and it works out ‘right’ on the first try — which I consider lucky. The other half of the time I can usually get what I’m aiming for after about 3-5 tries with recipe tweaks in between.
Lately I’ve had an idea for a new cookie that is so vivid in my mind I can see it — I can nearly taste it! It’s a Celtic-themed cookie which I’ve talked a little about recently. During the past few weeks I’ve been looking for the right time to experiment with it. My delay has mostly been due to not having hot water has been out in my place, and given what I’ve thought to do …. yeah, I need to not be heating water to clean up afterwards.
Tonight I gave it a go! Well, not all of the experiment …. what I tried was the frosting. In this case, melted chocolate chips infused with coffee — and it FAILED! I appreciate failures like this near as much as times of accomplishment. What I tried didn’t work and now I know what not to do. For this I am NOT using a microwave!
I have a new idea to try and I should be giving it a go …. this Saturday? What will it be …. probably buttercream frosting … simple, easy, duh!
As you know I am working on two new books right now. One of these is a bagpipe sheet music book — which has taken priority since I am aiming to release around June/July 2019. Following that I have a new cookie recipe book, and with some luck it might get published this fall. Between the two, the recipe book includes a number of cookies I have dreamed up … some of these recipes do not yet exist. experiment
TIME FOR AN EXPERIMENT!
One of these recipes — and I’m not giving out much details until it’s perfected — is at least to say caffeinated shortbread with a cool name. I’m excited about this idea!
During a recent phone call with a close friend I shared the details and this fellow replied “Those sound so good I’d take two batches NOW!” My schedule is a bit of a juggling act right now however I want to bake the first experimental batch this week if I can.
There’s a handy thing about my shortbread recipe (which you can find in my book/e-book now available on Amazon.com) … The recipe calls for a pound of butter, 4 cups of flour, and 1 cup of sugar, which means I am able to make this as small as a quarter batch. That’s great for this experiment because I can try one idea, tweak it, and then try again without blowing through whole batches at a time.
New Years can be a bit funny — because what is it really? Another 365 days and 6 hours* past and another to go … a December 31st and January 1st is just the difference of a day … and yet it is also something many of us use as an opportunity. We look to the past to make changes or try something new with the future — and sometimes it’s not so much about the past as it is about trying something new to enjoy. So what does 2019 hold for you? I know a few of the things I’m looking toward…
(* Yes, 6 hours — this is how we get leap year AKA the bissextus or a or bissextile year)
It’s harder to show a picture of the e-book version…
This past October I published my first book — “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” — then in mid-December I followed with publishing the e-book version. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to present my book a few times during late 2018, and with the New Year I aim to get more speaking dates. I thoroughly ENJOY getting to talk with other people about baking — getting new-bakers turned on to the idea and talking with old-hats at baking to find out about their ideas!
On the heals of releasing Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies I was compelled to get to work on 2 new books — yes, “compelled“! These were not the next projects I thought I would do, but they were the two that chewed on my mind the most — I was just drawn to them…
But what are they?
I both can and can’t tell you you that…
Yours truly in my other superhero persona… (you can also find me on FB as BagpiperDon BTW)
YES, 2 books, not just 1 …. because that’s how I do things.
One of these books is an ‘official’ Highland bagpipe sheet music book for the local-chapter of a Scottish military origination I’m a part of. The aim of this is not just to create something for my group but ultimately to offer this to the national organization to become all of our ‘official’ bagpipe sheet music book ….. SO, potentially producing and publishing a book for a national (actually international) organization … it’s kind of a big deal!
As for the other book… (I’m really excited about this project!)
As a performing musician and recording artist I have learned to play certain things close to the vest. I have something in excess of 30 album ideas which I would LOVE to record — and have every intention to produce ….. HOWEVER … I generally don’t reveal those ideas to many if any people beforehand. Why? Simply because I want to make my albums — as opposed to someone hearing my idea, swiping it, and beating me to the punch. This other book is along these lines, but I will tell you this…
So far as I know there is only one other recipe book at all similar to it currently on the market &/or ever before made; it involves cookies which I am developing new recipes specifically for this project.
I may be partnering with another writer for the content of this book.
To fully and correctly publish this book I will have to learn and do things that I previously have only been familiar with however have not otherwise done.
This will probably be a coffee table book. I would like this book to have its own t-shirt. I may not make an e-book version however I definitely would like to make an audiobook version. AND it is my preference to release all of these at the same time.
AND two other things I’m working on…
Well …. not quite like this.
As an extension of being a professional musician I like to record things — and I do mean ‘things’ being not-music however are sounds I find interesting. I do this under the project name of Archive Of Resonance. I have been a busy boy over the last number of years — both getting things done and sometimes having to put a few things on the shelf. One such thing …. or moreover four such things … are AOR recordings. While there are recordings I have wanted to make*, I have captured four sets of audio which I have wanted to turn into albums …. just that finishing this work has not been a priority. By my guesstimate, each of these need about 20 hours of work. My aim is to work on these over the course of 2019, publish them, and make them available on Amazon.
(*mostly couldn’t because I lacked transportation — but that’s changed now!)
AND LASTLY …
With pivoting WIBC from production baking to writing and publishing books and other products, I knew that I would need to get an Author’s/Musician’s Day Job. I got an initial start on my job search in the fall of 2018 and will be getting back at in during January 2019. This previous start was a decent beginning — I have some leads that look interesting and a decent idea of what my skills apply to. So the future looks …… interesting!
More than that, I’d like to tell you about some great people who supported my project along the way — they believed in me and made contributions to my book — and it goes like this….
Everyone needs good food, and people connect with others over food. This makes community and it is one of the foundations of civilization — seminal to our individual humanity.
For my first book, Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies, I asked a number of my friends — each one a unique individual — to contribute recipes and chapter openings. Each person responded with gems — each one a true gift — and through these writings and these folks the sense of community was brought out in my book. I’ve been getting Thank You copies delivered to these wonderful folks, and yesterday I found that this copy reached the hands of my friend Eryn in Montana. contributions
Among other entries in Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies, Eryn shared how she flavours her coffee using essential oils — something I knew Absolutely Nothing About before she sent me her writing, which came as a complete surprise! Eryn’s contributions can be found in the fourth chapter of my book — which includes coffee, a throw-back to the 1960s with Russian Tea*, applesauce, and Blueberry Buckle. I’m glad to have gotten a copy of my book to Eryn to say Thank You for her contributions, and she seems to be happy with it too 😀
(*Russian Tea being one of her submissions as well!)
The guest writings in my book are a true gift that enhanced my book and brought out the community element — it would not be the same without these great folks! Not just Eryn but a long list of folks you can read about in the opening of my book — available now in paperback and as an e-book on Amazon.com. contributions
All the Best & Happy Holidays to you and yours
~ Don
~ The Loved & Loathed BLACK FRIDAY ~
What Are You Doing?
Are you hitting the Black Friday sales? Hiding out, staying home, and avoiding the chaos? Or are you busying yourself with something else today?
Aside from drinking coffee and enjoying some leftover Thanksgiving PIE, I’m at home working on a few future-book-projects. For the past week+, while the e-book file of my current recipe book is getting reviewed for me, I’ve kept myself busy making progress on a few future book projects. One of these calls for me to create some NEW COOKIE RECIPES — which couldn’t have me More Pleased! Black Friday
I enjoy the creative process of imagining new baked goods and bringing them to fruition — it puts me in my element. Get an idea, figure out how maybe to make it, give it a go, possibly fail, try again, and then … finally … FIND IT! For the book I am chiefly working towards, I want recipes with finished baked goods with serious visual and taste-bud POP. Cookies that delight the eye, that the hand can’t resist picking up, and makes a mouth smile from a promise fulfilled. If a cookie could have the electric ambiance of a rock concert, THAT would be THESE COOKIES! Black Friday
As you know from my first book — Make Your Darn Good Cookies, published last month on Amazon — I gratefully accept recipe submissions. If you have a cookie recipe you’d like to submit for possible publication in one of my future books — and in this case a recipe that to you looks and tastes like ROCK’n’ROLL — please run-don’t-walk to e-mail your submission to me.
Can cookies be Rock’n’Roll? OH YEAH! I think so…
Do you want to do some experimenting, too? Download my FOUR FREE COOKIE RECIPES from my recent book, go get in your kitchen, and have some FUN!
When I get an idea for a recipe or a way to tweak a baking recipe that calls for an experiment! It’s actually how a number of my recipes came to be as you can find in Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies. About half the time I try something new and it works out ‘right’ on the first try — which I consider lucky. The other half of the time I can usually get what I’m aiming for after about 3-5 tries with recipe tweaks in between.
Tonight I gave it a go! Well, not all of the experiment …. what I tried was the frosting. In this case, melted chocolate chips infused with coffee — and it FAILED! I appreciate failures like this near as much as times of accomplishment. What I tried didn’t work and now I know what not to do. For this I am NOT using a microwave!
As you know 
With pivoting WIBC from production baking to writing and publishing books and other products, I knew that I would need to get an Author’s/Musician’s Day Job. I got an initial start on my job search in the fall of 2018 and will be getting back at in during January 2019. This previous start was a decent beginning — I have some leads that look interesting and a decent idea of what my skills apply to. So the future looks …… interesting!
