How to Make Lemon Poppy Seed Bread (with Glaze!)
By · Comments
So it’s been a while since I’ve posted a recipe, and I think it’s high time I do so again.
Contrary to popular belief I’ve actually been doing a lot of cooking lately. In fact, I’ve been doing so much cooking that I’ve accumulated a gazillion and a half recipes to share with you. Some I’ve found online, others I’ve created from the depths of my inner self–and that can get pretty scary.
Some of the recipes I’ve found are from other blogs that I follow, and as any true honest blogger would do, I give credit to any recipes I post here that were created by someone else. With that in mind, today’s lemon bread recipe is an adaptation from the ever popular and addicting blog called Cookie Madness, written by Anna.
I’ve made this lemon bread a few times and this last time around I added the poppy seeds, which I absolutely love–and it’s not because they supposedly make you test positive for doping. Is that even true?
A few tips when making this bread:
- Do not pack your flour. You want your flour to be loose so that the bread isn’t overly dense.
- Although bread is super delicious right out of the oven, I prefer this bread after it’s cooled down and the flavors have had a chance to mix together.
- I’ve tried this bread plain and also topped with a lemon glaze, a chocolate glaze, and a regular glaze. I prefer the lemon glaze.
Alright, that’s enough mumbo jumbo for one post. Let’s get baking. As always, there’s a printable recipe at the bottom of this post. The pictures in this post are a combination of the different times I’ve made this recipe.
10 Ways to Make Cooking Enjoyable for Kids
By · Comments
For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while now, you know that I enjoy cooking with my family in the kitchen, especially with my daughter, Maggie. The best part about it is that Maggie enjoys cooking with me. This is a tradition I plan to continue for as long as Maggie wants to hang out with me. From what I hear, once they get into those teenager years, “dads” become nerdy. What kids don’t understand is that some of us have always been nerdy–but we can talk about that at a later time.
Today, I want to share with you some ideas to get your youngsters involved in the kitchen.
If you’re lucky, your kids will want to know what you’re doing in the kitchen and they’ll take an interest in it and even pitch in voluntarily. Maybe you’re not so lucky and your kids think the kitchen pretty much sucks and is just another way for you to torture them. Who knows, maybe they’re right–but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Tapatio Hot Sauce… I’m Addicted to You…
By · Comments
I enjoy watching other people eat hot stuff, but when it comes to me eating spicy hot stuff—you’d better have a pretty good bribe ready. I’ve had my share of spicy foods and know my limits. Besides the heartburn aftermath, I’ve never enjoyed eating things so spicy that I can’t taste the food’s natural flavors.
That’s why I hesitated to try Tapatio for the first time…
My brother claimed it was the shizzle and had nearly polished off a full bottle by himself. We have pretty similar tastes and that’s what pushed me over the edge. I held the bottle close to my face and inspected the ingredients: water, red peppers, garlic, salt, various spices, sodium benzoate… despite it probably being loaded with preservatives, I figured it was okay to consume. At least there wasn’t a hidden chiltepe in there. I hate those little pepper bombs of death.
How to Make Donuts in 15 minutes
By · Comments
I realize how ironic it is to post this recipe right after the “Fight Obesity” speech, but I’ve been wanting to post this recipe for a long long time. Sometimes it’s best to throw caution out the window… not always, just sometimes.
Growing up my family spent a lot of time in the great outdoors. We’d take week long camping trips high up into the mountains where we’d spend time digging in the dirt, fishing, canoeing, laughing, swimming in the lake and river, riding horses, playing horse shoes, and just chillin’. Those are some of my favorite memories. And oh, the stories I could tell, like the one time when I accidentally seared my brother’s ear with a hot, flaming stick of death… but we won’t go into details. It really was an accident…
Let’s move on. My mom is an excellent cook, and that’s an understatement. We always looked forward to dinner in the mountains because we loved eating her cast iron dutch oven cooking. Some of my favorite dishes included chicken, potatoes, bacon, peach cobbler, donuts, and bread. My two favorites were peach cobbler and donuts. (The treats, of course!)
Just the other night, the hankerin’ to eat some of those donuts again sneaked into my appetite, so I set to it. Now, the best part of this donut recipe is that it’s effortless… seriously, it’s super fast, super delicious, and easy enough that the kids can help. Hard to beat that, and when the kids have fun, it makes it even more enjoyable. My daughter Maggie helps me make these for family night on occasion. If a camp fire isn’t readily available, you can still cook these on the stove top. As always, you can print this recipe out at the end of this post.
And just for the record I can never decide if I should spell donuts like I just did or like this: doughnuts. so I’m not very consistent throughout this post.
Jamie Oliver’s TED Speech: Fight Obesity
By · Comments
This is a must watch. You don’t want to miss this.
Jamie makes some excellent points and is rather persuasive on this topic. I agree with all of his points with the exception of government being the solution to controlling fast food. If change is going to happen, it needs to come from the bottom up; change by parents; change by communities; change by mom and pop restaurants. Change that inspires and promotes a better lifestyle. If consumers demand healthier food from restaurants and schools, and step up and lead with their convictions, change will happen.
An Awesome Gift + Where I’ve Been
By · Comments
Hey folks, I can’t believe it’s been over a month since my last post. Wow! In blogging terms, 1 month or longer between posts is equivalent to shooting myself in the foot.
But before we get into that, and above all else, I wanted to send a grateful shout out to Maren, my friend from Seevetal, Germany (near Hamburg). Over Christmas Maren sent me a really really awesome Christmas package full of German delight!
