...My recipe does say to dry the noodles, but I've only done that once. I found no difference in taste or texture. I think drying is only for when you make them to store them, not when they're for tonight's dinner, but I could be wrong.
I never dry them. I just make sure I drop them into boiling broth and stir stir stir...
As far as cutting goes, most of the time I just roll them out and use a plastic cutter that looks like a big pizza cutter. There's no point, btw in trying to get perfect noodles. My goal is to get them somewhat uniform in size so they'll cook evenly. But the random cuts are just more of the charm!
( I found the metal pizza cutter going across my counter REALLLLY annoying. I think I found that cutter at Target.. it's my noodle buddy! )
You know thats really one thing I CAN'T understand using a mix for? Pancakes? I mean really? You can premix your dry ingredients and keep them in a container ready to add the eggs, milk and melted butter to when you're ready! I'm pretty sure pancakes were the first thing I learned to make as a kid!
Yep Yep!!
I think my recipe book probably has 3 different pancake recipes in it.
It's funny, people are so used to mixes being THE way to do things, I don't think mixing it up from scratch even enters their mind. You know the one that slays me??? Boxes of FROZEN pancakes!!
Well--let me elaborate. We have eaten lots of frozen pancakes, waffles and french toast over the years, but it's all come from momma (me!) making an XL batch on the weekend and freezing them herself. So much better and SO much cheaper. And I control what goes in them. 
but in one of the industry magazines (modern baking) they had a bio of carlos bakery and they said they do 100% from scratch. various other bakeries openly state whether they use all mixes or scratch/mix combinations.
Keep a close eye out in the background of the show. You'll see evidence of mixes being used. They probably do a combination.
One of my FAVORITE stories is one night hubby was watching food network (he actually watches it more than *I* do!) and it was that Diners and Dives show. They were in a mom-pop diner and they were making a big deal about their breakfast menu. The owners were saying, "Oh yes! We make EVERYTHING ourselves! It's all from scratch!" I burst out laughing and hubby asked what was so funny about that? I pointed out that if they were going to make that claim, it wasn't a good idea to be standing in front of the shelving that held a box of Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix!
THAT is the pain of the scratch baker. The pain isn't from baking from scratch, it's from people devaluing baking from scratch because they've somehow convinced themselves that opening a box and adding something to it is the same thing!
Do any of you have a great recipe for a nice fudgy brownie that you would like to share? Something really chocolaty and dense? I've been experimenting with scratch recipes, and haven't found the perfect one, and all this experimenting is getting expensive!
Do any of you have a great recipe for a nice fudgy brownie that you would like to share? Something really chocolaty and dense? I've been experimenting with scratch recipes, and haven't found the perfect one, and all this experimenting is getting expensive!
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Fudgy-Brownies
They are usually eaten with in 36 hours!
Sometimes I'll leave out the second 2 cups of chocolate chips, sometimes I put them in. You could also mix in other ones like the peanut butter or white chocolate chips. I put the butter, sugar, water and chocolate chips in the microwave and I just mixed everything together with a spatula.
I started cooking when I was 11 because my mom worked and back then mom's rarely worked. My mom believed in a big supper every night so I had to start the cooking and she would finish up and do the frying. I also started baking then. Cookies mostly. I still love to cook mostly homemade items. Since my kids are now grown, don't cook as much as I did. I do still like to cook a few meals on the weekend for the following days. My only dd would never let me teach her to cook. Her ex loved coming to my house every night, because I cooked supper every night. I told him it was the main reason he married her. (we are still very close and I still cook for him on occassion). My dil had had a mother that cooked, but it was horrible and she became a very picky eater. I have taught her a lot of things and she has found out that she does like certain foods she didn't think she liked. She actually had Thanksgiving dinner at her house last year. I had to bring my homemade dressing of course. 
Do any of you have a great recipe for a nice fudgy brownie that you would like to share? Something really chocolaty and dense? I've been experimenting with scratch recipes, and haven't found the perfect one, and all this experimenting is getting expensive!
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Fudgy-Brownies
They are usually eaten with in 36 hours!
Sometimes I'll leave out the second 2 cups of chocolate chips, sometimes I put them in. You could also mix in other ones like the peanut butter or white chocolate chips. I put the butter, sugar, water and chocolate chips in the microwave and I just mixed everything together with a spatula.
Why in the hell would that have clear fake disgusting vanilla as an ingredient?? 
Yep, y'all hit it on the head.
I made noodles yesterday.
Flour - I don't know .... whatever bowl you use about half full.
Eggs - In my big bowl of flour, I used 6.
Milk - enough to moisten it if the eggs aren't enough. using milk is optional.
baking powder - "some". Makes them "biscuity" when cooked. yesterday I used a small spoonful. Not a measuring spoon. A spoon you use to stir coffee. Kinda heaping, but not.
salt - "some"
Flaked parsley for color - "until it looks right"
Rolled out on counter pretty thin but thick enough to have some texture. Used a pizza cutter to cut them into noodles. spread flour on the top of them to absorb moisture and help them dry. Used a pancake flipper to scrape them up (otherwise the bottom of them remain sticky and won't dry). separate them and spread them out. Let them sit overnight. they should still be soft in the morning but kinda dry.
now dumplins ....... about the same recipe but no eggs, more milk, rolled thicker and no drying overnight.
NOW do you see why my kids gets frustrated?
I love this! This is how my grandma gives me recipes. Except she's starting to at least give me some ratios to use, which is pretty helpful while i'm learning. One of my favorite things from her is her creamed turkey over toast (just a white sauce with the left over turkey in it from the holiday meal) The first time she told me she said about 1/4 pan of milk, a couple spoons of flour, and some butter. I made her show me what size pan she used so i at least had some idea of where to start.
You know thats really one thing I CAN'T understand using a mix for? Pancakes? I mean really? You can premix your dry ingredients and keep them in a container ready to add the eggs, milk and melted butter to when you're ready! I'm pretty sure pancakes were the first thing I learned to make as a kid!
I have a recipe book that is from Walt Disney World/land and it has recipes from their restaurants, everything is from scratch... or so i thought. Until i wanted to try their pancake recipe and the first ingredient is 2cup pancake mix. I was so dissapointed, i wanted a scratch recipe. So ended up back in my Red and White cookbook.
Why in the hell would that have clear fake disgusting vanilla as an ingredient??
Because it's a wilton product and they promote their items. Just like if you go to another websites you will get the same thing.
Don't want to use clear vanilla, then don't. Doesn't mean the recipe still isn't a good one.
The brownie recipe I use is here on my blog:
http://2chickscakesandcatering.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/brownie-nosing/
I agree, thats why I feel like Im a bad mother. When I cook for my daughter lately its a frozen cooked chicken breast out of a bag from HEB, a box of Rice-a-Roni with water and a couple of spoons of margarine, and a bag of frozen peasall cooked in the microwave. And she thanks me for making dinner! LOL! My mom used to cook. Of course, I have memories of overcooked crumbly ground beef and rice dishes, but she also cooked fried okra, fried eggplant, beef stew, spaghetti sauce, and this awesome shrimp dish we used to have for birthdays. I used to cook more often. I dont know what happened. Well, actually, I DO know what happened, sort of. I thought I had an agreement with DH that when he quit working to go back to school he would cook dinner and clean the house. Well, he cleans the house, but he dont cook! He is the one who discovered HEBs frozen food section. Then I was the one who got lazy! Maybe I need to go on a Julie and Julia misson and just decide Im going to cook something every day. Ha! Wishful thinking!
Of all the comments about this post this one really bothered me. You are putting a meal on the table and feeding your daughter. That makes you a good mother. Would it be fabulous if it were all from "scratch" and you spent hours cooking it? Sure. But really, the important thing is that you fed your kid.
Look, I've been known to throw some instant stuff from a box or a bag together and call it dinner. I am a busy, working mother and time is a luxury. The point is, I still love to cook and appreciate when I do have time to make something from scratch. And to tell you the truth, I feel like as long as I put love into it and we stay away from the drive through (for the most part), then we are doing ok.
Yum - you got it! I was sooo fortunate that I was able to stay home with my children (I ran a daycare so I got to help raise others kids too!) The nice part of that is I got to share in the lives and raising of many other children - and took pride in helping their parents - I know people have to work, and the important thing is the TIME you take to spend with your kids. Setting down at the dinner table and sharing - it doesn't matter what is on the plate. Do not feel guilty about not "cooking from scratch".
My Grandson to this day doesn't think we have had dinner if we didn't eat it at our kitchen table! (if we go out to eat for dinner, he still thinks we have to have dinner at home!)
[THAT is the pain of the scratch baker. The pain isn't from baking from scratch, it's from people devaluing baking from scratch because they've somehow convinced themselves that opening a box and adding something to it is the same thing!
I agree - I worked hard, studied hard and paid good money to learn the science of baking. Thanks Indydebi for giving us scratch bakers a shout-out!
bakingpw, I'll bet your recipe books look like mine... comparison charts and math conversions. I love the science too, but that is also why I respect box mix baking. If you aren't into the how to's, I think scratch baking may not be fun. Those experiments have no guarantees and can be frustrating if you don't love it. Not to mention the costly ingredients in something that didn't taste exactly how you planned. I wonder how many more cakes my family may have had if I had thought to make a box cake just for fun now and then.
When I taught each of my three girls to bake, I started them with box mixes. I was so proud when my oldest one could make yeast doughs on her own by age 12. The second one still can't make a box mix (but she is a great help on individual tasks), and the youngest works with me in my bakery. Recently my scratch baker sister-in-law made her tried and true german chocolate scratch cake for a crowd and for some reason, it crumbled when she cut it. She was so worried about her next cake that she decided to make a box cake for her daughter's birthday. So I can see all sides of the debate just in my family.
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