The Adventures of a Frustrated Baker

This is the time of year that many who are into gardening are harvesting what they are hoping is the last of the goodies from their garden, particularly those who have planted more than one zucchini plant!  These crazy people have often put friendships on the line in the name of getting rid of what almost always turns out to be an overabundance of huge zucchinis.  Case in point, my in-laws last year.  I think they still have zucchini in every form you can imagine in their deep freeze...needless to say I am pretty sure they skipped out on that particular plant this season.   Anyway, for those of you who have tons of the stuff hanging around and whose neighbors are now slamming the door in your face screaming "No More!!!", I have a new recipe for you to try, zucchini corn fritters.  I found this recipe in Food Network Magazine last summer and have brought them to a few parties and dinners and they have always been a hit.  The zucchini taste k...

Originally this recipe was going to be joined with my post for the sliders, but with all the pictures I had of those and then all the ones I had for this recipe, I felt that they could each stand on their own.  So the day that I made the sliders I searched all of the whopping two grocery stores we have here in town for slider buns only to be disappointed.  I so badly wanted to use my Williams Sonoma slider press...then it occurred to me, why not make my own buns?  I had seen a recipe on another blog recently that featured hamburger buns...why not give it a try and just make them extra small for sliders?  With that decided, we headed home and  I got to work! I made these on a marathon cooking day...I was making sliders, grilling up one of the monster zucchinis from our garden, making these slider buns and zucchini cupcakes! Yeah, it was a busy day in the kitchen here.  Anyway, the great thing about making breads is that you h...

I just love sliders, don't you?  They are all cute and tiny and if done right you can pack a pretty good wallop of flavor into those teeny tiny 2 bite burgers.  A few weeks ago, we had some beautiful weather in which I decided to make these little gems.  They came to me early in the morning as I was getting up, or maybe they were the remnants of a dream, not sure that it really matters.  All I know is that morning when I woke up and saw the gorgeous sunshine, I decided I had to have sliders with jalapenos and shredded cheese mixed in.  My sister-in-law of course mightily agreed (she's got a thing for everything peppers...) since this sounded like the perfect summer meal on such a perfect summer day. Assemble all of your ingredients and throw them all into a large bowl and mix them together.  Let sit a about half an hour to let the flavors blend. Grab your slider press if you have one, and place down some foil or parchment paper for...

On my last day off I found myself contemplating the typical question my whole family wonders about from 2-5 pm...what is for dinner?!  (And who's cooking it...though on the nights I am home that is usually the easy part to answer.)  I felt that we needed to have something fun and yummy...and rewarding since about half of the family was outside slaving away to get some garden work finished before it started raining again.  Seriously Washington, I know you are known for your rain and all, but it was Memorial Day weekend...it was supposed to be nice! After much thought and consideration of how energetic I felt about cooking, I decided on pizza calzones.  They are pretty easy and fun to make, plus my family loves them.  They disappear every time.  I mean, what's not to like, its like a pizza pocket but way better! Start by making a batch or two of pizza dough.  You can also buy store bought, but it really isn't any easier to work with and the homemade...