Seminars@Hadley Holiday Baking This document contains the transcript of the Seminars@Hadley Holiday Baking presentation. Some of the preliminary announcements have been omitted because they deal strictly with using the voice and text chat capabilities of the online chat room. The transcript has been slightly edited to improve readability. Moderator Karen Woodfork: Our presentation today is Holiday Baking: Stirring it up in the Kitchen. Your presenters today are Hadley instructors Linn Sorge and Patti Jacobson, and our senior vice president, Dawn Turco. Linn Sorge: The first thing we’d like to do is join Karen in welcoming all of you. We realize it is a Saturday morning in December and there is much to do getting ready for all of the holidays. We’re very glad to have each and every one of you with us today. I’m Linn and I teach a variety of things: Word Processing, Internet Basics and Social Skills series, to help parents and teachers and teacher’s aides and grandmas to work with their youngsters who are visually impaired. I’ve been teaching at Hadley since the fall of 2000. So I’m the youngest member of this Hadley group. I’ve been baking since I was a little girl. Part of what I want to encourage all through this seminar is if you are a grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, aunt, uncle, get your little guys involved. Get your little girls in the kitchen. It’ll get a little messy, but that’s okay. Messy makes memories. So welcome. I’ll turn it over to Patti. Patti Jacobson: Good morning everyone. My name is Patti Jacobson and I have been teaching with Hadley since 1994. I teach Independent Living, Guide Dogs, and the Food series which I’d like to put in a plug for. We actually have a course called Grains and Sweets and it talks all about baking. Plus, there are four other courses within the Food series. If you have not already taken it, you might think about taking the Food series. I was born three months prematurely and I’m totally blind, due to too much oxygen in the incubator. I started baking, or helping with baking, when I was about five years old and my mom would roll out pie dough. I’m dating myself. This was in the days when they used lard in pie dough. I would sprinkle it with cinnamon, and sugar, and nuts, and little dollops of butter, and roll it up and then she would make little indentations where I was supposed to slice, so I would slice evenly, and we could make little cinnamon rolls. I used to help make cookies and dip things in powdered sugar, and there’s just lots of stuff little kids can do. Dawn, how about you? Dawn Turco: Good morning all. Welcome as well. By day, for the last fifteen plus years I’ve been working out of Hadley central, but in the evenings and on the weekends, I’m the chief or executive chef in our house. I’m the product of a mother who knew how to cook, but didn’t care to, and a husband now who doesn’t know how to cook, and who happens to think anything I produce is just wonderful. That actually has nothing to do with my low vision. He just thinks the cooking that comes out of our kitchen is great. One of the things I do love to do is bake. As we chatted before we started today, today is one of those days that you just feel like turning the oven on and getting something of a good smell going. So, perhaps for the participants this morning, by the time you leave this seminar, you’ll be checking our your own pantries to see what you can pull out and start putting together or maybe go off to the store to buy something to follow up on the enthusiasm that we have today. We do have a full seminar today, so I will not say much more by way of introduction, but I will get us started. One of the ways we thought we might get ourselves going today is to take a look at some tips from the experts. There is a website called baking911.com that offers up ten tips for baking and we thought by going through those, you can do what we did, which is do a mental check off of the practices you currently have or the things that perhaps, like me, sometimes I kind of forget to do. So these are good reminders. After we do that, we’re going to start moving into what we three as individuals do, which I think in some cases is reinforcing to the tips, but we have obviously a special kind of angle we are looking at today with being visually impaired. Baking911 offers the following tips. Tip number 1 - Read through the recipe, and gather the ingredients, and make sure all your pans and equipment are clean and dry, and ready to go and they emphasize the importance of washing your hands. Let’s say it again, wash hands before getting going. Tip number 2 – Pre-measure the flour and other ingredients. Use the best and fresh ones you can find and prepare any of those in advance, if necessary. I have tacked on a little addition there, to use the proper measuring cups—liquid or dry. We’ll talk about that later. Tip number 3 - Use the appropriate sized baking pans and properly prepare them. Tip number 4 - Adjust oven shelves and preheat the oven. Use an oven thermometer. I’ll be honest, I don’t use a thermometer and sometime I’ll get that oven preheated before I’ve adjusted the shelves and I just kick myself any time I do that. So adjust oven shelves and preheat the oven. Tip number 5 - Carefully follow each mixing step in the recipe and do not over or under mix. Tip number 6 - Do not crowd the oven and avoid opening the oven door during baking. How tempting is that to do? With certain recipes, you may have to rotate the pan, so you have to pay attention to that as well. Tip number 7 - Pay special attention to baking times. While they say let your eyes and nose, as well as other indicators be your guide, I’ll tell you, I do let my nose and the timer help me along. Tip number 8 - Cool baking goods thoroughly before serving or storing. Be sure you have that counter space and cooling rack out and ready to go. Make sure you have a clear traffic path when you’re baking. You do not want to have to step around things when you have a hot tray of cookies in your hand. Tip number 9 - Finishing touches. Consider how you might finish off and decorate your creation. And finally, Tip number 10 - Store baked goods properly; clean container or plastic bag. So storing is very important. Those are the ten tips from the experts. Now we’re going to start in on some of our own. In response to some questions from students, we thought we’d talk about preparing for baking. So I’m going to hand off to Patti and we’re going to talk a little bit about how we shop, how we organize the kitchen, how we organize a recipe and how we handle recipes. So this is kind of the prebaking stuff. Let me release the microphone and hand it back to you, Patti. Patti: Thank you, Dawn. In thinking about shopping, that’s something I hate to do, but it’s necessary. It’s really important to keep your kitchen organized. That way you can independently go through, see what you have, see what you need. It really helps me to sit down and go through a recipe, read through it, make sure I understand it, and then make a list of what I need. I usually make a list on my Braille Sense, which is a note taker, kind of like a Braille Note. Other people make a list on regular braille paper, or in large print, or make a master list on the computer and go through and pick out what you want. When I go shopping, I’m lucky, I have a phone number that I can call and order my groceries. Then the groceries are delivered. It’s very convenient. It’s a little more expensive, but I justify that, I guess, in thinking that I would be paying for cab fare to go to and from the grocery store. So I don’t mind paying the delivery charge. Other people go to the store and do their own shopping, maybe with a helper from the grocery store. Those of you high tech people who are good at ordering online, that’s another shopping option. I’m going to turn it over to Linn. Linn, if you have more information about shopping, or kitchen organization. Linn: I live in a littler community, where we do not have anywhere we can call or have items delivered, not even using online from a grocery store. So I have to bop off to the store. I go either with a friend, or I go to the service desk, and they will provide someone to go around with me. I prepare a printed list for them, if I’m going like that. I take a pencil so as they get things they can mark them off. A suggestion, if you’re totally blind, as I have always been, I like to have everything that goes into my cart, go through my hands first. So this avoids what happened to me that taught me this. I got up to the check out counter one day and the lady said, “You must be doing a lot of baking today.” And I said, “No, not really. I’m just having some friends over and having strawberry shortcake and all that.” And she said, “Well, it must be a big group of friends.” Well, come to find out that when I asked for a quart of strawberries, my helper was a young person who wasn’t really good with fractions, and he had provided me with a flat, which was eight quarts of strawberries. Since then, my rule is that it comes to my hands, then goes into the cart. I, too, clear my decks. When I am going to bake in the kitchen, I want clear surfaces, I want everything organized beforehand. I want my oven adjusted. Sort of like getting all your ducks in row before you really begin. That makes the beginning a whole lot more enjoyable. Dawn, how about you? Dawn: Well, shopping, as a nondriver, prior to being married, I would kind of barter with friends. Every couple of weeks, I’d go for what we called the major shop and in exchange for that trip to the grocery store, which the friend was really doing anyway and was happy to provide, I always think it’s nice to do a turnaround. So we’d go to breakfast first, and I would treat. That got me out there to get those big heavy items that I couldn’t necessarily get and carry on my own at a neighborhood store. So shopping is not a big problem. Thanks to markers and keeping lists, I seldom forget something. And that becomes very important. You can’t just jump in the car and run and get something that you totally forgot. You find yourself making lists more, I think. Like the others, cleaning the deck is so important. When I have not done that in the past, on occasions, there’s that accident where you think you’ve got the pan ready to go in the oven and you turn around and there’s something on the counter you forgot to put in. It was the function of too much clutter and not double checking that recipe as you went through it. I’ve tried to kind of police myself and develop better practices as the years go on. In terms of managing recipes, as I said, my husband thinks I’m just wonderful, and when he loves a recipe I’ve tried, he marches up to the computer and puts the recipe onto the computer, blows the print up to a size he knows I appreciate, and then he puts it in a special file. So, as I go along baking, and has happened on occasion, a recipe sheet that is just sitting on the counter that I am holding with my hands and leaving nearby, it can get pretty mucked up with dribbled egg or melted chocolate, or whatever. And it’s not a problem, because we just go up and print a fresh one, if that’s what we need. That’s pretty much how I handle the recipes. If he goes to put those on, he also puts in my adaptations, because, I bet a great many of us participating today, we kind of like to add to or adjust a recipe as we go along. For example, one of the things I do is whatever amount of cinnamon a recipe calls for, I double it, because we just happen to love cinnamon. So those are my tips and my practices. Linn, or Patti, anything you wanted to add? Patti: I wanted to add that it’s not only the blind person that has a hard time getting all the ingredients in the recipe. I have a lady that used to be my secretary when I used to work someplace else, she was making cinnamon rolls and the recipe said two teaspoons cinnamon, set aside. So she did. She set it aside, and never did put it in the cinnamon rolls. I wanted to talk a little about preparing for your recipe. I think it’s important to get all of the ingredients out for the recipe and put them on one side of your work area. I put them away after I add them to the recipe. I like to keep a sink of hot, soapy water so I can get rid of measuring cups and measuring spoons as I use them. My rule for myself when I’m handling a recipe in the kitchen, I don’t allow any high tech equipment in the kitchen. I don’t take my Braille Sense in the kitchen. I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a computer in the kitchen. You just never know when something’s going to spill and your hands are going to be gooey. One thing you can get is plastic braille paper. I think it’s on one of our resources, American Thermoform. Linn, you might talk about that a little bit more because I think you know about that. I put my recipes on tape. I do keep a tape recorder in the kitchen. I keep it way over on the kitchen table, away from where I’m working. That way I can just read from my Braille Sense, onto tape, what my recipe is, but I don’t have to worry about spilling on it. Linn, how about you? Linn: I, like Patti, keep nothing high tech in my kitchen. Besides a sink of soapy water, I get a dish rag and I get it wet--not drippy, just wet--and I keep it in a certain place on the counter, like at the front right corner of a work space. So, if I’m going to grab a bottle of spice, I make sure my hands are clean, so I do not have to wash all the bottles afterward. You can even get those button towels that if you have an apron you can sew a button on where a towel could go and then you can dry your hands if you want. I use Thermoform paper from the American Thermoform Corporation sometimes. I also tend to emboss a recipe and use it like Dawn does, until it gets gunked up. Then I throw it away and get another one. On our resource list is a group called Volunteer Braillists and Tapists. They’re out of Madison, Wisconsin. Many of their books are computer- generated, so they are not plastic. But lots of their cookbooks are still on Thermoform paper. That’s wonderful, because you can take a wet rag, if you gunk up that recipe, and wipe it off and everything is back to normal. It’s a good resource. You can borrow cookbooks from them, which I like, and then you can buy them. Before I purchase anything from them, I borrow first, and then I look at the ones I want. If it’s just a few recipes out of the book I want, I just copy them for myself. Another thing I know that some of my friends do, is if they’re visually impaired, there are often fan hoods over stoves. They get good, powerful magnets, blow up the recipes, the way Dawn was talking about, to the level they want, and then hold them up there with magnets. So they’re off the counter, they’re at about face level, and they can see them. So that’s another tip if you’re visually impaired. Dawn. Dawn: I just want to add the text message Grace had when we were talking about shopping. She said don’t forget about other shoppers. When her husband gets lost in another aisle from the store, and she needs help, she just asks for help from another shopper. [Note: Dawn says the following while laughing.] Grace, unlike you, I ask my husband to wait in the car for 15 minutes because he just bugs me. It’s like “What are you looking for, what are you looking for?” and I just tell him, “I’m just looking.” It’s not that I’m going directly to the shelf and grabbing exactly what I want. I like to see what’s on the shelves. He’s quite happy to wait in the car and come in 15 minutes and say, “Okay, what do you want me to go get?” and then I send him on his way. Karen, I don’t know if there have been other text messages, or if we can take a pause and a breath at the moment and see if anyone else has a comment about their kitchen organization, or shopping, or recipes, before we get talking about our specific baking tips and we move on. Questions? Linn: I want to add one more thing before we turn it over to Karen. For all of you who are out there in seminar listening land, you should know that Dawn makes some of the best brownies those of us who work at Hadley have ever had and we can all testify to it, because we request them frequently. Also, I wanted to reiterate that I, like Dawn, do a turnaround. If I’m going to go on a big shopping trip with a friend, I encourage going out to lunch or breakfast. It makes a nice day of it. It makes it a little more friendly and it’s a little giving back. Sorry, Karen. Patti: I’m sorry. I’m interrupting before Karen, and I’ll just keep it short. In baking in general, I think it’s a good way to reciprocate--people who read for you, people who drive for you-- do some baking. Karen: I just have to add what Linn said about Dawn’s brownies. We just get some many requests for those, from students who come, and I know Dawn’s like, “Okay, enough about the brownies,” but they are absolutely wonderful. I can just attest to her being a really good cook because I’ve had a couple of her dishes. Okay, on with the seminar. I’d like to just repeat what Marie had mentioned. There were a couple of tips she had. One was she said she puts her recipes on the computer in her office and prints them off, the ones she would like to prepare. Another tip she mentioned is that she uses a larger bowl to allow for spillage when she is mixing something. I thought that was a great tip as well. Dawn: I see George has added the tip that we should be sure and be aware of the expiration dates on milk and eggs. That’s so true. Whenever I see a sign at a store that milk or eggs are extremely inexpensive, it’s definitely because the expiration dates are the next day. Those are important to pay attention to. Let’s pause and see if anyone wants to do a quick microphone question. Linn: I tend to be more safe than sorry. Maybe it’s not economical, but if I’m not sure of an expiration date, or I think well, not only for baking, but even for leftovers in a fridge, if I’m not sure, I won’t use them. Linda Perry: I wanted to say one thing that one of my wonderful students told me about. It apparently is rather new. American Printing House has some paper that they sell in different sizes— card sizes, regular paper sizes, big paper sizes—that is called PermaBraille and it feels like regular paper, but it is actually plastic. You can wash it and it does the same thing as the American Thermoform paper. It really seems to be quite good. I haven’t bought any yet. The prices she sent me seemed reasonable. So that’s American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, Kentucky. Karen: I have another comment from Karen. She says this Thanksgiving I made lasagna in a disposable pan. The problem was I did not know that there was a sheet of paper on the inside, bottom. So if you’re using disposable pans, feel the inside for paper before using. That’s a very good point. Linn: Also, if you’re using those, I advise you to rinse them before you use them. You don’t know if they’ve been in a stack in a store, in a plastic bag, and you hope that they’re clean, but just giving them a quick rinse is a good idea. Another thing about some disposable pans, is that they tend to be a little more flimsy. So if you’re going to put something hefty in it, by the way, I love lasagna, you might want to really support it. Sometimes you get in hurry and you grab something with one hand and get it out of the oven. But if you’ve got a disposable foil pan, make sure you give it support on both sides, so you don’t have a mess. Karen: Grace has a comment as well. She says that one of the things she’s doing this year is putting together gifts in a jar. She says she has given these at other times and they have been warmly welcome. It’s fast and simple. Dawn: Actually, I think we are going to have a recipe in a little bit about a recipe in a jar. We’ll get to some of our favorite traditions in just a bit. Maybe we should move on to our baking tips, starting with Patti. We’re going to talk a little bit about using the stove and the oven and how we go about measuring and so forth. Patti. Patti: Thank you. Talking about using the stove, in teaching the foods courses, I think I find that this is something that is the most difficult or scariest for my students. Especially for people who are newly blind. First of all, you need to mark your stove dials with raised markers, or braille, or notching the dials, or Hi Marks. There are different ways you can mark the stove. And actually, there’s a course through Hadley that if you’re not familiar with marking, it’s called “Using Raised Markers” and it talks about marking all kinds of different things. If you’re not familiar with marking, you might want to take that. I have a flat panel stove. The stove surface is flat. I have outlined the burners with electrical tape so I can feel where the burners are. I have marked the panel on the back of the stove where you set bake, and broil, and temperature with raised markers. I was able, through the American Printing House for the Blind, to get these little feel and peel stickers that are little arrows. I have one pointing up and one pointing down and they are for the temperatures that go up and down. Another thing that I do, this is sort of a crude technique, but it works. When you are looking for something on the stove and you’re afraid to touch the stove, put a spatula in your hand and use it like a little cane and feel on your stove for whatever you are looking for. If you are not used to using the stove, practice with it being cool. Develop some kinesthetic memory or muscle memory, learning how to put things in the oven. That way you’ll feel a lot more comfortable when the stove is on. Regarding mixing and measuring, it helps to measure on a paper plate or tray or cookie sheet. Also, it helps with mixing so that your spills will go onto that, as opposed to going all over the counter and the floor. And another thing that you can do when you are mixing in a big mixing bowl, and I agree, that’s a great tip, use a large mixing bowl, put a piece of tape on the edge of the mixing bowl. That way as you rotate the bowl, you’ll come to the tape again and you’ll know you’ve mixed all the way around, and that’s good. I’m not going to talk about baking equipment right now. I’m going to turn it over to Linn and see if you have things to talk about using the stove and measuring and mixing. Linn: I use a wooden spoon instead of a spatula if I can’t find something on a stove. My stove isn’t flat, I have burners. But I have a flat panel, just like Patti, in the back. I labeled mine with braille, on braille label, sticky backed Dymo tape kind of stuff. Everybody has their own way to do things. Some of you might use other ways. What matters is that you can function with it. Do everything Patti said, with your stove cold. You’re going to change the shelves, do it with them cold. Practice and practice until you can get from that oven to where you want those cookies to land when you’re going to take them off and put them on a cooling rack. If you have to boil something and dump the water, practice moving a pan of water from that stove to the sink and pour away from you to get rid of hot water, so steam and stuff doesn’t come at you. There are even nifty little pots that have covers that lock and they have holes in them so you can tip them and the water will come right out. When I’m working with youngsters, I always advise working on a tray. I think it’s almost essential with kiddos. It also gives a given work space. If you can say to a beginning cook or youngster, “Here is your space, and that’s where you need to work.” You can buy cafeteria-type trays from medical supply places. You can even talk to a cafeteria in your area and they might even let you have one if you talk nicely to them now and then. So working on a tray, I think, is really important. If I don’t have nonstick bowls, the ones with a rubber rim on the bottom, which helps them stick to the counter, but if I’m using ones that are not stick, just good old metal, I get a wet dishcloth, and I put it down on the counter or tray, and put the bowl on it. That will keep it from sliding more than you want it to slide. Again, I want to stress what Patti did. When you’ve used an ingredient in a recipe, I like to put it away. It removes clutter. It tells me I’ve done it. And so to me, it’s another check and balance system along the way. How about you, Dawn? And then we’ll get on to baking equipment. Dawn: I had the great fortune, about five years ago, of my husband gutting our kitchen and I was able to build it from the ground up. I’m talking everything got replaced. I had light wood floors put in against dark cherry cabinets, and a granite top that wasn’t so busy I couldn’t see what was going on top of it. I was really able to do all the low vision things I love to do in terms of contrast. Amongst that was being able to pick out new appliances. It’s amazing all that’s out there. I cook with a gas stove. I was able to find a stove that, instead of like the old one that was there when we bought the house, where I had to lean across the burners to get to the knobs, I selected a stove with the knobs up front. And not straight so I had to still lean against them and potentially altering the temperatures and so forth, they’re at an angle and they’re such that I can see them beautifully. I’m very blessed in that regard. The other neat thing about the oven I use is, again, on the stove top, instead of having the little grates that you put your pans on, independent of each other, there are two big ones that fit together. So, if in an emergency, or you just need to move something off the heat quickly, you can just slide the pan or pot off of it and not worry about it going over the edge or having spillage that way. So, I’m very lucky with the stove. In terms of the measuring and various kinds of equipment I use, we talked earlier from the pro list that you should have liquid and dry ingredients measuring cups. Yes, those are really important. I have found that I really don’t need to go to a blindness-related specialty catalog. I just go into stores, the cooking stores, and wander around and I find nowadays that I can really find bits and pieces of equipment that are wonderful for low vision people. I seldom come out with my hands empty because there’s always something new that’s going to make my life easier in the kitchen. I use oversized bowls as well. I love the ones that have the no-skid bottoms on them. That bottom, on the ones I have, is black and the bowl itself is white. So again, it’s a wonderful contrasting thing for me to be able to use. I seldom use clear glass bowls, because they just kind of get lost on my counter. I have found spatulas in all kinds of different colors, both the high heat ones and the regular spatulas. So I guess you could say it’s all about contrast and lighting for me out in the kitchen. Moving it on back to Patti. Patti: Well, Dawn has already talked a little bit about some equipment, some high-contrast equipment, but it’s important to have a well-equipped kitchen. There’s nothing more frustrating than to want to bake something and not have the appropriate bowls and pans and cookie sheets and that type of thing. And again, you don’t need specialty stores. You just go to a kitchen store and look around. I have mixing bowls that are stacking—three different sizes—small, medium and large. They fit inside of each other. I have, and I think every kitchen should have an 8-by-8 baking pan, and a 9-by-13 baking pan, if not having two of those, and also a loaf pan if you want to make banana bread or pumpkin bread. I have different types, different sizes of cookie sheets. I even have some silicone ones. And Dawn, you’ll have to tell your funny story about silicone here in a minute. I use graduated measuring cups and graduated measuring spoons. I use a tactile timer. I use, Linn’s favorite, the Ove Glove. She’ll have to tell you about that. And an electric mixer, a rolling pin, and when I roll things out, we’re going to talk about some recipes here in a little bit, but if you have to roll out or crush cracker crumbs, for example, I put them in a plastic bag and crush them in the bag. That way you don’t have a mess. So I always have plenty of bags around. Linn? Linn: I have metal bowls. Dawn was talking about glass. I have arthritis in my hands. So I need to keep weight down any time I can. Glass risks breakage, but metal is much lighter. You can get the nonskid bottoms, and that’s great. So I use metal bowls, and pretty much all the stuff Patti does. I keep my spices in bigger jars. You can use the smallest peanut butter jar, or a baby food jar. That way you can get the measuring spoons in them much more easily. I label each one. And if I have liquids, such as almond extract or vanilla, I get a very inexpensive set of measuring spoons, metal ones, and I bend them, directly above the bowl of the spoon, so that the bowl will be sitting flat on the counter, with the open part upward toward the ceiling, and the handle would be going perpendicular, or up along, from the counter to the ceiling. Then I drop that spoon into the vanilla, and lift it up right next to my bowl with my stuff in it, and dump it. That way you don’t have to pour into a spoon. So I have a bent set of spoons and a regular set. I also use Good Grips. They have bigger handles. They’re not squishy or soft, but they have a rubbery texture to them. They’re easier to hold with arthritic hands and they are bigger to hold. Also, don’t struggle if you don’t need to. Don’t be macho. If a jar is hard to open, use a jar opener. Don’t sit there and pull and struggle. Firstly, it’s going to hurt your hands. And why do it? If you’ve got a little gadget, probably cost you around a dollar, in your kitchen, use it. The Ove Glove I found a few years ago. It fits your hand and has fingers. You can get them at a lot of hardware stores now, and online, and cooking stores, but they’re not bulky. So, as a person who is blind, you can see what you are doing and you’re working kind of a mitt or mitten environment. You can’t sit there and hold something that was 450 degrees, and contemplate the winter morning, but you can certainly take things in and out and never risk getting burned. That way you can manipulate with each of your fingers, instead of always trying to feel like kind of like a klutz. I want to talk about, and then Dawn and Patti too, we have fun facts that we each were going to tell you. Mine falls in pretty handily here because it talks about the big three ingredients of baking: butter, eggs and milk. And unless otherwise detailed or noted, you should use unsalted butter, grade A large eggs, and 2% or whole milk. Now, remember when Dawn said she tweaks recipes? I am a recipe tweaker. I’ve always, “Oh, this needs a little more chocolate, let’s throw some coconut in here.” And I don’t use 2% or whole milk much, just because of the cholesterol and that kind of thing. So, yes, there is a difference in flavor, absolutely, but you have to decide whether you want that or not. And usually in a social setting it isn’t going to be enough to really notice. And who thinks, "What size egg?" Actually, according to the experts, grade A large eggs are the way to go. So now, onward. Dawn: Thanks, Linn. I saw in the text messaging some mention of silicone. That actually relates to the story Patti mentioned. I was in the cook shop not long ago and I saw all that silicone stuff. So I bought one of the sheets. It rolls up. The idea is that it is supposed to help you with your cookies from sticking and not having to use anything else underneath them. So I tried it on the last recipe that I did with cookies. And, my oven has three racks, so I tend to fill them all up. So, I used the new silicon sheet on one of my cookie sheets and I put the cookies on top, continued on with the baking process. Unfortunately, I wasn't smart enough to have tried that on the jelly roll pan I was using as a cookie sheet. Those of you out there probably know the jelly roll pan actually has a little rim all the way around. I used it on an actual cookie sheet without an edge. When I went to pull the pan out of the oven, having totally forgotten that sheet was on there, it slid completely off and the cookies flew everywhere--all over the oven, all over the floor. The cookies were pretty good in the end, because my dog ran over and was starting to eat them, even in their hot state, which I wasn't happy about. But anyway, the sheet was a bit of a disaster, but I intend to give it another try. One of our points is to know it doesn't always work the way you think it should in the kitchen, or come out as planned. And that's okay. You've got to keep trying new recipes and new equipment. I see that the clock is ticking away on our hour, so I am just going to give you the tip I have. Then we can move on to some of our fun recipes that will be on the resource list. My tip is to not use imitation extracts. I know they're cheaper, and you get what seems to be more in the bottle for a better price, but it's really best if you can fit it into your budget, to stay with the real stuff, the pure vanilla and so forth. So real, pure vanilla for that. I'm going to hand it back to Patti. Maybe you can give the fun fact and we'll move on. Patti: Okay. My fun fact. According to a Better Homes and Gardens consumer panel, this was in 2001, and you’ll have to see where you fit within this, but 84% of Americans who are baking at home are making cookies, 77% cakes, 64% brownies, 59% muffins, 58% pies and 52% breads, and another 52% desserts. I’m going to tell a little bit about my favorite recipes. We have on our resource list-- Wait a second, I lost my list. Linn: You know, while she’s looking, if all of you are thinking “Gosh, I fit into a lot of those groups,” you know, I’m one of them. [At this point Linn lost her connection temporarily.] Patti: My list of recipes. One thing I like to make is peanut butter squares. You’ll see these on the resource list. They involve no baking—if you’re a little squeamish about using the stove. They do involve some melting of things in the microwave. They involve crushing graham cracker crumbs. But I found out from Linn, and I didn’t know this, you can actually buy boxes of already crushed graham cracker crumbs. I also included sugar cookies, which involve no rolling out or using a cookie cutter with cookies. I think that’s hard to do. You just roll these in a ball and flatten with a glass and sprinkle them with sugar. I have rum balls. Again, no baking. Sugar-coated pecans. These are really good! You have to set your oven at 200 degrees, which might be a setting you don’t normally have marked on your oven. So you might have to get someone to help you set it for 200 degrees. Those are my favorites. Linn, how about you? Linn: I put several different things on our resource list. Things that I enjoy, and again, things that can involve youngsters. I am a real advocate of giving recipes in a jar. Because if you’re working with youngsters in your home, oh, look at the practice they get at measuring all the stuff that goes in the jars. And then you put a nice ribbon around them, wrap them up and they’re ready for somebody to make. So I even put a magic cookie bar recipe where you can give people the ingredients they need, all wrapped up. And when they’re ready to bake it, and at a time when it is not holiday season, and they’re not overwhelmed with all sorts of sweets, then there it is. No measuring, no fuss, no muss. They can just make it and it works. I put a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie on the list because it’s a sturdy cookie. It also smells wonderful. The batter is pretty stiff when you get toward the end of mixing, but they pack up well, they ship well, and that’s important during the holidays. Patti and I differ a bit here, only she's the wiser, I will tell you. I enjoy messing around with cut-out cookies, especially if there are little guys around. They love to decorate them. You can put sprinkles and raisins for eyes. When I roll out onto a pastry cloth, I use dowel rods on the edges. You can get them in different widths, like a sixteenth, an eighth of an inch, a quarter inch, and you put them on each side where the rolling pin is going to hit them. That way, when the recipe says put your dough to one fourth inch thick the dowel rods will help you do that. We have several recipes, each of us, on the resource list. Maybe in the next couple of weeks we'll get an email or two from you telling us that you tried one of them and what you think. And just like we do, tweak them. If you decide, and you’re one who likes to play and cook in the kitchen and bake, you may do something a little different. If you want something very simple, it's not on our list, but a student emailed it to me yesterday. She said take a nice date, get a pecan and kind of shape the date around the pecan, roll it in powdered sugar, and you've got a tasty little treat that little hands can make and enjoy eating. So I guess my favorite tradition is getting together with friends and family on an evening and doing baking, so that we end up with five or six recipes. We might have a little supper together. We use three or four of our tried and true that we love, and then always one or two new ones to try. And at the end of the evening we all have bunches of different kinds of cookies to take home and share with whomever comes into our homes at the holiday. What about you, Dawn? Dawn: Well, I would be shunned by my family if I didn't bring certain cookies with me each holiday season. I always start the cooking with this one particular recipe. We had a text message. The resource list will be posted and we have these recipes in detail. The very first cookie I start with and I can bake this one even before Thanksgiving if I want, is actually doggie treats. Now, dog lovers, you'll understand this. When you have a dog, your dog gives doggie treats to the neighborhood dogs. And so with doggie treats you want them to be hard. So you can start very early in the season and bake your doggie treats. I freeze them, although I think you don't absolutely have to do that. But it's all natural ingredients. I actually have dog bone shaped cookie cutters, because this is a recipe you roll out, but I also do little snowmen and little seasonal shapes to mix in the bag of treats my Tatum gives out to her friends. So, I have as one of my recipes, included the doggie treat favorite of hers. I've tried several, but this is the one she always goes back to. This is her most favorite. So doggie treats are on the resource list. My other recipe is actually a St. Louis tradition. I am originally from St. Louis and every Christmas morning, when we would open presents, along with opening the presents, we would be nibbling on something called gooey butter cake. Now I have put the easy gooey butter cake recipe on the resource list. I was just in St. Louis for Thanksgiving last week, and I know the bakeries there go probably to greater lengths to produce their gooey butter cake than I do, but this one is a very simple one that you mix the bottom crust right in the baking dish, the 13 by 9, and you put this wonderful topping on top. You put it in the oven. When it's all cooled off you dust it with a little confectioner's sugar and I guarantee it is just wonderful. And since I don't always have the opportunity to be with my brothers, I still bake this one at Christmas time, but I bring it into Hadley because they love to eat here at Hadley. So anything I bring in gets devoured. And so every year they get one gooey butter cake. So those are my two favorites on the resource list. We are coming up on the hour. Karen, maybe you have some things you've seen in the text messaging, or somebody with a microphone would like to add some of their traditions or favorites. Linn: Can I jump in here before Karen just quickly? There's an apple crisp recipe on there, and if you're thinking, oh, I'd love to bake a pie but I don't know if I'm ready to do crusts, try the apple crisp. It's wonderful and it has a crunchy top, and you don't have to deal with a pie crust. Karen: Yes, we are coming up on the hour; we have just about three minutes left, but yes, I did want to mention some of the comments I'm seeing in the texts. The resource list is posted there. I hope it's readable for you all. There is a lot of information there. Again, I'd just like to capture some of the questions that you all are asking. Grace was talking about her gifts in a jar. And Karen was responding with “What types of gifts in a jar are you referring to?” Another question, from Grace as well, is speaking of using raised markers, I have found that the small (and she can't think of the name of it but we're thinking it is the felt markers that can stick on the bottom of statues to prevent marks on the floor) she is saying these make some good tactile markers. I want to relay Marie's comment about the cookie sheet. She said the cookie sheet could be used as a tray as well. Jackie Anderson, she is talking about the flat silicone pot holders, which I love as well, she says are handy to set bowls on to keep them from sliding around. Karen commented that she uses two trays: one for mixing and the second tray is away from the actual mixing area. Grace is making this comment: especially in the kitchen, it is important for me. My husband just redid our one cabinet for my dishes. The shelves were all dark so she wanted it to be all light in there. So they used contact paper on the bottom shelves and the sides and on the shelves. So that's a great idea. The shelves had a little different contrast. It really has helped in seeing what is inside the cabinet. Karen also said that I have a problem with contrast. [At this point we lost Karen and Dawn took over.] Dawn: While we wait to see if Karen comes back, does anyone with a mike have a comment or a tip they'd like to share at this point? Linn: Somebody was asking about these recipes in a jar. There are many of them. If you go on the Internet and do "recipes in a jar" as a search, there are hundreds of them--chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies. What it is, you measure all the ingredients for people and you put them in a jar and then you provide other things. Not obviously eggs or butter, but, oh, let's say it needs candy bars or sweetened condensed milk, then you provide that and wrap it all up in a package. And when they want it, it's there. Dawn: And you attach the baking instructions along with the jar, right, Linn? Linn: Yes. Many of these recipes will have directions for you to do when you're getting it ready and then there's a section that says "Gift Tag Directions." And that's what you write out for the person who is going to get the jar and whatever else goes with it. Patti: I have to tell my experience with recipe in a jar. This has to go with a baking faux pas that I made. I made an egg casserole. It was really good. It took a lot of time. I took it to church for a breakfast that our Sunday school class was having. In cutting it, we couldn't cut it! It was hard! It wasn't cutting well. Well, I had inadvertently dumped the mixing spoon into the casserole and baked it inside the casserole. So anyway, my Sunday school class teased me a lot about that and for my 50th birthday, they gave me a recipe in a jar with a wooden spoon that was about two feet long. Linn: That is one of my very favorite Patti stories. [Dawn confirmed that Karen was back with us.] Karen: I have a few more comments. [Dawn agreed to take a few more.] Participant: Can you tell me something about your microwave panel? Does it have special dots to identify numbers? My microwave does not have these or a special design. Can you tell me something about it? Patti: You can use raised markers. Again, you might want to take the Hadley course called Using Raised Markers, because not only do you learn how to mark, but you get a pretty hefty supply of raised markers with your course materials to try out on your microwave. But you can put a dot, a raised dot on each of your numbers. You can also put braille with Dymo tape labels. So there's different ways you can label. I have mine labeled with raised markers. Participant: Can you talk a little more about how you use the dowel rods to measure the thickness of dough? That sounds like a great idea. Linn: Yes. You get them at any little lumber store type thing and I have mine deep enough that they'll fit along one of my cabinets from front to back. I have eighth inch and fourth inch and then I put them on my pastry cloth so they don't tend to roll so much, as they would on a shiny counter surface, and I put them maybe an inch from each edge of the rolling pin and I put the dough in the middle of that. I roll and it will never get thinner than the dowel rods on the edges. It's wonderful. And then you just kind of wipe them off with a damp cloth and use them the next time. Participant: Thank you. That's a great idea. Dawn: I think as we start to do our winding down, I just have one final thing that I do that I'll share. This is something I really struggle with, especially when I'm cooking alone, which is often the case. Even though I have a great deal of vision, I have great difficulty telling when things are done. So often in the case of baking and cookies, they warn you, don't over bake, don't over bake. Because I like to try lots of new kinds of cookies too, I don't often know when I'm over-baking. So you know, I just decided I don't care if it ruins a cookie or I lose a cookie. Sometimes I just have to go in there with a spatula and pull one off and flip it over and see if the bottom is starting to brown, because you really can't tell from the top. I have discovered that that's actually a very good thing because, of course, you know what happens with cookies that are ruined, you have to eat them. That's one of the benefits of working in the kitchen, you get to try your own product out. I want to let you know that this resource list we've been talking about, although you don't see it on your screen or have access to it on the screen today, it will get posted on the Hadley website early next week. It's actually ready to go, but we'll hold off a day or two because I'd like to invite today's participants that if you have a favorite, send it in to us, whether it be a tip or a recipe and we'll be happy to put it on that resource list before we post it. And one of the ways is to simply send it to the info line at info@hadley.edu. I'll hand it off to Linn and Patti. Linn: If I've got a lot of time, I'm with Dawn, I go in there and grab a cookie, and hey, sampling is great. But if you really are wanting to be sure, sure, sure, and you need a big batch of cookies, just put two on a sheet and try them out and keep a nose test going and do what you think is right. Take them out and see how they are, before you put in a whole batch of twelve. And yes, Phillip, remember the pralines recipe you're going to send us. Patti: Yes, we want the pralines recipe and remember, any broken cookies get to be eaten and they don't have any calories in them. Linn: I think what we hope to leave with you most today is enjoy what you do. If you're a little leery, take another step into the kitchen. And you don't have to climb the mountain all at once. You may just start with a simple recipe, then a little harder. But whatever it is, if you are baking for the holidays and for friends, you always have to put a little caring and love into whatever recipe you make and stir it up. I have a little message and I was asked about this by Dawn this morning. I'm not sure I can do this, but I'll give it a try. [Linn sings the following to the tune of I've Been Working on the Railroad.] We've been baking in the kitchen, All the live long day. We've been baking in the kitchen, To enhance our holiday. Can't you hear the timer ringing? Bread's rising early in the morn. Can't you hear those cookies singing? Eat me while I'm warm. Patti: Go Linn. That was great! Phillip: I'll be sure to send that recipe. I've never baked them so I don't know how they'll turn out. It's my Grandmother's recipe and I don't know where she got it from. You did a really good job singing that thing, Linn. Very good. Congratulations. Dawn: Thank you, Phillip. We'll look forward to getting that recipe. I'm going to thank you all for participating. It was fun chatting with you. And Linn and Patti, as always, it's great getting on the line and talking cooking with you. I know we'll do it again. Happy holidays to everyone. This is our last Seminar@Hadley for this calendar year. We will be starting up again in January. Not with a cooking seminar, but actually with one for young people on blind dating. And then later in the month we are doing a business- related one on customer service. Keep watching those news releases as we send them out and we welcome you back to a future seminar at Hadley. Again, thank you all for spending Saturday morning with us. Good bye.