Tag Archives: experiment

Announcement, Baking, Book, Cookies, Experiment, Public Appearance, Tip

Quarantine Baking

March 28, 2020 BiscottiDon Leave a comment

HEY GANG!

My April 2020 Recipe Of The Month is uploaded to my website — grab my March recipe while you still can!

As it happens, with just standard baking ingredients most of us keep stocked at home — where many of us are at right now — the upcoming April recipe is well timed. It’s simple, fun, and takes no special kitchen implements to make — coco powder, powdered sugar, and a hand mixer is about as fancy as this gets! Quarantine

WITH FOLKS BEING COUPED UP IN
QUARANTINE-VILLE…

fortune cookies — Imagine making your own custom fortunes…

I am considering posting a recipe for some big, soft Ginger Snaps I recently made. Dang if those things didn’t disappear within 24 hours… This could give everyone another activity and something tasty to take the edge off. Watch this website, Twitter @WIBakingCo, and my Facebook page for announcement of this recipe-post. Quarantine

With some luck I will be trying a modified version of this recipe later today — as a Ginger Snap Biscotti. I’ve also been looking to experimenting with making (flavoured?) fortune cookies lately ….

But things have been busy here in
The Apocalypse…

Baking has taken a bit of a back-seat lately. Everyone in the house here is dealing with some medial stuff — no, it’s not the virus or a toomah. I’m the most healthy and able person so I’m carrying a bit more of the work around here. Add to that… the pump on our well is threatening to go out any day, the well-guy has a Corona-reduced staff, so we’re working to establish temporary water supplies. ALL GOOD FUN when already juggling the adjustments that come with quarantine life (YAY!) — but we’re keeping our chins up and plowing forward. To that end…

WHILE YOU ARE DEALING WITH
WHATEVER IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW…

I encourage you to do everything you can to take care of yourself, your family, your friends, and your neighbors. Strive even to be extra-kind to everyone you meet when/if you are out & about — yes, even when you’re fighting over toilet paper. I know it’s tricky, but please do your best. This can be as simple as picking up the phone to call folks — just ask how they are. I’ve been doing this and it’s amazing the relief you can bring to someone when you present something so simple and so human. Quarantine

Since Friday I have taken to playing mini-concerts with my Scottish Smallpipes on Facebook and YouTube. A number of authors have been reading their books and musicians playing music online, livestreaming to give a little comfort and respite. So far I’ve played three times since March 20th and I plan to keep going. Smallpipes are more somber than what you’re used to seeing in parades. I’ve been playing tunes from an album I have planned and the traditional sheet music book I’m close to publishing, including Scot/Irish recipes. I play and talk about my books. I hope you’ll join me, please look for BagpiperDon on Facebook and Twitter, for announcements of when I’m going to play. Quarantine

Keep your chins up, be good to your self and do good for others, and we’ll all get through this together!

Best, Don

PS — For a limited time my debut recipe book “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” IS ON SALE on Amazon! I have priced the paperback version of my book roughly 25% off WORLDWIDE. You’re home, make something nice for yourself and your loved ones.

Also, ask for “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies” by name at your favourite bookshop.

Announcement, Book, Cooking, e-Book, e-Publishing, Product, Progress

Books & E-book Projects Moving Right Along

April 29, 2019 BiscottiDon Leave a comment

Updates On A Few Things I’m Working On!

Lately I have been busily working on a number of book projects. A few of these have bumped into obstacles, and a few of these have had some exciting break-throughs!

Here’s the latest…

Bagpipe Sheet Music & Tune History Book

As many of you know I am producing a bagpipe sheet music book. This will serve as a fundraiser item for a veteran’s organization I am a member of along with being the music collection for our small pipe band. The project features military and patriotic Highland bagpipe sheet music and the history behind the tunes. The work is going well and I am optimistic about publishing this June.

2 New Things About This Book…

To increase the page count I am planning to include some Scottish and Irish recipes. While I’m already familiar with a few of these, others have required some experimenting. Getting to try new things in the kitchen has been a culinary joy for me! As for the book … the inclusion of Celtic recipes is great because it furthers the cultural education element of the organization!

One section of this book draws on the music played Bill Millin during the WWII D-Day Invasion. Private Millin played a unique role in D-Day history; I am writing both further his story and to express the significance of this section in the book. Over the past few days I have connected with his son and grandson online. Both gentlemen are accomplished bagpipers and they are generously willing to check the accuracy of my writing*. As a Highland bagpiper it is an absolute honor to be writing about the famous D-Day piper — getting to connect with his son and grandson makes it just that much more real.
(*the facts — not the grammar, spelling, etc)

My Recipe E-Book on Smashwords & Etc

I’ve been working to get my e-book — already published on Amazon — additionally published on Smashwords. Smashwords is interesting in-that they will publish an author’s e-book not only on their site but on that of other e-book companies — Barns & Nobel, Kobo, etc.

For this to take place, Smashwords is quite particular as to how an e-manuscript is formatted. Frankly, I prefer to learn how to do things and do them myself, however right now I have Way Too Much To Do … so I’m looking for the services offered by one of the folks on Fiverr. My preference at this time is to move this project along and do-so at a price my little baking-biz can afford.

A few nights ago I looked at the Smashword instructions anyway. I quickly sorted out how to re-format the pictures in my e-book. That alone shrunk the size of my manuscript file down to half of the Smashword’s maximum! I’m checking with a number of Fiverr folks and waiting for them to get back to me about taking this on. With all the font characteristics in a recipe book, they tend to take more work than novels … so fingers-crossed that I’ll gain their support.

THE ADDITIONAL GOOD NEWS ABOUT THIS IS …

Once I have my manuscript back from whomever re-formats it for me I should be able to post that on Smashwords — obviously — and also copy that MSWord doc and re-work it into the free little recipe e-book I nearly had completed and published lately. So, while I’ve had to restart this little free e-book project having already completed it …

… Things Are Moving Right Along!

Gotta go ~ Keep an eye here along with my Facebook and Twitter profiles for announcements ~ Don

Baking, Cookies, Experiment, MAKE COOKIES PLAY BAGPIPES, Progress

Celtic Cookie Experiment – UPDATE

February 26, 2019 BiscottiDon Leave a comment

I LOVE baking experiments!

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.

microwave 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!

More updates to come 🙂

~ Don

Announcement, Baking, Book, Cookies, Experiment, MAKE COOKIES PLAY BAGPIPES, Product

Celtic-Themed Cookie Experiment

February 20, 2019 BiscottiDon Leave a comment

Donald Duck playing Highland bagpipes 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!

Fresh Scottish shortbread

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.

Oh yeah … lookin’ forward to this 😀

I Baking Experiments!
~ Don

Baking, Book, Cookies, Experiment, Real Food

Beat Your Black Friday Blues

November 23, 2018 BiscottiDon Leave a comment

~ 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!