Made by MeghanI'm a writer. I also bake. And knit. A lot. My novels are available anywhere ebooks/paperbacks/audiobooks are sold online. Find more info on my blog: http://www.madebymeghan.ca
These cookies are featured in SiftingRealities Episode Four: NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE (more info in post below). Â They are super easy. Â No mixmaster needed. Â Just mix everything in the pot that you use to melt the butter.
Melt the butter, remove pan from heat, and mix all the ingredients straight into the pot by hand – easy!
Batter. Â Mixed? Â Check!
Fresh from the oven (note the parchment paper covered cookie sheet). Â These are soft, chewy cookies – YUM!
In our fifth episode of SiftingRealities, Belinda attempts to exert some sort of control over the craziness she thinks her brain is projecting… if the pills won’t work perhaps she can find away to stop the other realities from bleeding into her own…
“I’m not as judgemental as you always make me seem.” Â Ah, Marie (played by Valerie McNicol), you rock though you alone are enough to keep Belinda tiptoeing the edge of sanity!
Cookies: Fudge Yogurt Cookies
So I finally got a knitting project off the needles… Roger Socks by Anne Hansen for Michael. Â I’ve been feeling guilty because two sets of Michael’s handmade socks have recently (mysteriously!?) been felted in the dryer and his remaining pair has developed holes (as hand knit socks often do, especially when there are nails popping out of 75-year-old hardwood floors all round the house). Â The yarn is casbah, colour pewter, by Handmaiden and is, so far as I have tested, my absolute favourite sock yarn. Â I spotted this skien at Urban Yarns (blog) and, as I was reaching for it, Michael called dibs and well… seeing as I was dragging him to the yarn store in the first place and seeing as all his socks were currently ruined (and I still have 2 wearable pairs) I felt he deserved a new pair of socks.
LOVE the colour/pattern combination!!
Here is the sock against jeans (in an attempt to capture the colour). Â I adore how the pattern appears to be woven when, in fact, it is just strategically placed horizontal and vertical ribs (clever designer!!). Â The pattern is well written and very accessible. Â This is third pattern I have done from Anne Hansen (KnitSpot) and I have a bunch more queued at Ravelry.
Once the camera was in play, Parker had to get involved in the sock modelling… of course!
In other knitting news, I have two current works in progress:
This is the front side of the Kelmscott cardigan by Carol Sunday knit with mirasol qina yarn in the deep red colour way.  I am gong to LOVE this sweater (I think) once I manage to get it off the needles (I am currently working on the collar), but this pattern has definitely been a challenge and I am not looking forward to the crocheted edges, as I actually have no idea how to crochet!
I am using four strands, 3 yellow and 1 beige, of reclaimed cashmere yarn for this cabled baby blanket (pattern found in this book). Â I found the cashmere sweaters at ValueVillage and harvested the yarn. Â The blanket is going to be so pretty and soft!
So that’s my knitting update!  Oh, you can find me on Ravelry (if you are so inclined) as mdoidge.
As seen in SiftingRealities: Episode Three: ZOMBIE IN THE GARDEN (see post below for more info) Belinda, not knowing what to do with Annie once she has rescued her from the back yard, defaults to her comfort zone: baking, specifically, she bakes gingerbread cookies. Â Here is the recipe I (therefore she) uses:
The dough (ready to be plastic wrapped and chilled) and a traditionally shaped (not the one I used for the episode) gingerbread man cookie cutter:
Naked gingerbread people cooling and getting ready for decoration:
Decorated cookies (still from Sifting Realities, Ep. 3):
**Note: it took an entire bottle of red food colouring (and a couple of drops of blue) to make the icing “blood” THAT red. Â The yellow noose (middle top) is made out of string licorice. Â The cookies on the right are decorated with the more “traditional” look I usually use.
These cookies are “soft” gingerbread and super tasty… the crew eyed them all day while we were shooting and eagerly gobbled them up after we’d wrapped. Â There was some disbelief that they were whole wheat, which I take as a compliment to the cookies. Â Eliza, who plays Annie, preferred the licorice “guts”, of course.
This episode was my favourite on the page, a worry in the casting (boy, was I silly, because the cast additions: Eliza Faria, who plays Annie and Sebastian Kroon, who plays Courier/Zombie Stan totally rock), and took the longest to cut/tweak/colour but, through all that, I STILL think it is my all round favourite episode. Â I have written a number of feature films that are based in the zombie or creature genre, but this was my first time shooting/directing a zombie piece and, I must reflect, the actors did all the great work and I just directed the camera and cut it all together.
Synopsis: Belinda (CARMEN BENNETT) is disturbed to find someone other than Lise at her back door to pick up cookies. After a confrontation with this new courier (SEBASTIAN KROON), Belinda discovers a zombie in the backyard. Issue: the child Annie (ELIZA FARIA) is hiding in a playhouse. Also featured is JESSE SCARF as D.
Cookies: (ZOMBIE) GINGERBREAD. Â Recipe & pictures to come!
These are the cookies featured in SiftingRealities: Episode Two: GUN IN MY TOILET (more info can be  found in the previous post).  In the episode, Rich thinks Belinda is presenting the cookies as a peace offering of sorts, but ends up just stealing her plate of comfort food.  The macaroons in the episode are sans ground almonds.
Above: egg whites (4 in this case as I am doubling the recipe), medium unsweetened coconut, ground almonds, sugar and pure vanilla.
Whip eggs and vanilla until soft peaks form, which look something like above.
Still beating eggs, slowly add the sugar and then continue to beat until (fairly) stiff, glossy peaks form (as shown above). Â Some times this magic just doesn’t happen, make the cookies anyway, they won’t be pretty, but they’ll still be tasty!
Fold in the coconut and ground almonds, until just mixed.
Drop rounds tablespoons approx. 2 inches apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Â Bake.
And… enjoy!
Um, ya, so I made this… with a lot of help (please see the credits), but yes, this is the sort of thing that comes out of my brain…
#2. GUN IN THE TOILET – Issue: Still attempting to maintain some normalcy within the chaos of her life, Belinda (CARMEN BENNETT) chats with Lise (LACI MAILEY) as Lise picks up baskets of cookies for delivery. However, later, as she is cleaning her guest bathroom, Belinda finds a gun duct taped to her toilet and another man (Rich, played by ROB LAMPARD) in her shower. Life, once again, is anything but normal for Belinda.
Starring: CARMEN BENNETT, ROB LAMPARD & LACI MAILEY
Cookies: ALMOND MACAROONS (recipe to come!)
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In lieu of the 2nd Baking with the Director episode (which we decided to not shoot so we could launch episode 2 of SiftingRealities) here is the recipe for the cookies that are featured in episode one: MAN IN MY BED (more details in previous post). Â Of ALL the cookies I bake these are my absolute favourite. Â This is my go to recipe, for every occasion (except maybe Christmas):
The finished cookies look something like this:
And the taste? Â Like sex for your taste buds… at least according to Lise in SiftingRealities.
Belinda wakes to find a man (DAVE), who really shouldn’t be in her bed. Issue: Dave really believes he belongs in Belinda’s (or is that Linda’s?) bed. Cookies: CHOCOLATE CHIP PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
At the beginning of March, we treated ourselves to a trip to the Wick Inn in Tofino for Michael’s birthday and, there, Sunday morning, I indulged in a fresh baked croissant with house made strawberry jam. SO GOOD! Now, I can’t actually digest white flour, so this was a huge, but tasty, risk for me and, though it sat in my stomach like a heavy blob of play dough afterwards, I very much enjoyed the eating of it!
So, of course, I decide I should attempt to make some whole wheat croissants of my own.  To that end, yesterday, late afternoon, and not at all daunted with what looks to add up to about 5 hours of work, I set the yeast to proof, sift three cups of whole wheat pastry flour, and pull the butter out of the fridge… hmm, there seems to only be about ¾ of a cup of butter in the fridge… no matter I always have backup in the freezer… except I don’t this time.
I fuss around for a bit, and call Michael to complain about my lack of butter.  He offers to pick up as much butter as I would like, but I don’t want to wait the hour or so it will take for him to finish work and get home. (Yes, he IS lovely and supportive while I am crazy impatient and almost always impossible to help).  Then, done complaining, I try to figure out what I can actually make, seeing as I don’t want to waste the yeast which has now proofed so nicely.  I settle on butter horns, but only have enough butter for half a recipe, so I halve the recipe… except I use the full amount of yeast and declare it an experiment, knowing full well I am NEVER happy when I experiment bake.
In the spirit of this (doomed?) experimentation, I decide I actually want a Danish of sorts, so, while the pastry is rising, I start hunting down possible fillings… I settle on a vanilla cream filling… the kind you would use if you were making a boston cream pie.
Here is the result… the pastry is actually lovely, a feat I have never obtained, to my personal liking, with whole wheat pastry flour (I guess doubling the yeast is the trick!!).
Seems sometimes an experiment does actually have tasty results!