The Adventures of a Frustrated Baker

Did anyone else get any fun new appliances for Christmas?  We sure did!  Because I love to bake I usually get something new for the kitchen every year, sometimes it is just a new spatula because I broke my favorite one, other years it's a new food processor and sometimes it's just something fun someone saw and thought of me.  This year it was actually my husband (gasp!) that received the fun new appliance, a hot dog toaster!  I know, strange..him...in the kitchen...you'd be surprised how often he ends up there sometimes. Anywho, it reminded me that last year, he gave me a pretzel maker for Christmas and as with all of my kitchen stuff that doesn't get used on a regular basis, it was shoved into a cabinet and forgotten about until it fell out as I was trying to find  a new home for said hot dog toaster. We love the big soft pretzels and often stop to get them as treats when we are shopping and need a bite to eat.  The joy of this little appliance is ...

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...