Whoopie Pies & Turban Calzones

I decided to make whoopie pies last weekend since I was having a major craving for them. I'd never made them and went to my trusty recipe box for mom's standby. What I found instead was a very complicated one I'd copied out of a book and it involved getting buttermilk and non-alkalized cocoa. My handwriting was so tiny on the card I immediately knew it was NOT what I wanted.

A quick call to my sister produced the "easy" recipe for whoopie pies that I remembered enjoying so much as a kid. I lined my pans with parchment and began dropping mounded tablespoons of the batter.

My husband (who had never eaten a whoopie pie) tried to grab one of the cookie halves when I wasn't looking. I slapped his hand away and asked "What do you think you're doing?!?!" I had counted them out so I had just enough for 21 pies. He said "I want to eat a whoopie pie!" The poor sheltered thing didn't realize that there was more goodness to come in the form of blinding white filling.

The only problem I ran into was that I didn't let the cookie halves stay on the baking sheet long enough when they came out of the oven. The only group that looked right was the last bunch. I forgot about them for a minute or two and rushed to get them onto the cooling rack. They were the only ones to stay puffed instead of deflating.

I gave them out to a few people who uttered things like "OMG!" and "amazingly delicious!" so I guess they were a success after all. The cookie is cakey but not too dense, and the filling is creamy and delicious. Yay for whoopie pies!

For dinner we decided to make our turban calzones. (The way I roll the ends together and the size of the calzones reminds me of a turban I could wear on my head.) The double batch of homemade pizza dough is filled with caramelized onions, diced tomatoes, basil and cheeses. The recipe makes two, and as you can see, I can hardly get them on one cookie sheet. They taste SO good though - especially with a side salad or peas and a nice bottle of wine. We share one and refrigerate the other for another meal later in the week.

It's Spring - Let the Nest Making Begin!

I've been waiting for today for a long time! All winter long I collected up my yarn scraps, bits of raffia and Cunningham's fur and put it in a suet feeder. I decided on the first day of spring that I'd hang it up so the birds could use it to build their nests with. I'm not sure where I saw the idea (sadly it wasn't originally mine) but I love the thought that this spring and summer maybe my throw-away items will be turned into a little nest. How cool would it be to look up at a nest and see bits of yarn from the socks or hat I knit?!?

Birds love building their nests with fur so I made sure lot's of Cunningham's soft fur made it from his brush to the holder. I'm not exactly sure when the nest building begins, but it seemed like a good day to put it out there. I have it hanging next to a suet-filled feeder and right now the birds seem much more interested in that one. I captured a chickadee in mid flight as he flew from nest supplies to...yummy food.

I'll keep taking pictures every couple of weeks and track the progress. We have so many birds in our back yard that I can only imagine it will get used eventually.