Eisa update

Our little Eisa was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease last spring. She had been doing pretty well, but recently seemed to lose some of her interest in food. I weighed her and found that she had dropped yet more weight (1.75 lbs in a year, which is a lot when you were 6.25 lbs to begin with).

We took her in to the vet and came away with a hydrated pussy cat and some appetite stimulant. She seemed a little perkier, and that was encouraging.

The vet called back just now with the blood test results. We learned that Eisa's kidney levels have disintegrated quite a bit. Her phosphorus level, in particular, is really high. She's also quite anemic (side effect from the kidney disease).

We'll be adding three additional medicines - one to address the high phosphorus, one to help her red blood cells, and some fluids we can administer to keep her hydrated at home.

We know we are just treating the symptoms - you don't recover from kidney failure. But if she can be comfortable and happy and content, for whatever amount of time she has (I didn't ask about where we are on the timeline) then that is all we can ask.

Cupcakes

Minis cooling down before being frosted


Tips assembled


Icing demo


Raw materials


Coconut cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting


Sour cream citrus poundcakelets with lemon glaze


Queen Mother's cake (flourless chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache)


Spiced carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing


White wine cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream


The prettiest daisy!

Bread

Waiting for the loaves to come out of the oven


Loaves, rolls, and focaccia cooling


Beautiful challah braids


Rosemary focaccia


Decadent sticky buns


...bottoms up!


Dough to go (at various points in the rising process) for more yeasty goodness at home

Pie day

At the second session of my baking class, we began with a lecture and demo on pie and tart crust. The instructor used a bench scraper (a.k.a. pastry scraper) to integrate liquid into a flour-butter-salt mixture. This allowed her to avoid introducing body heat and building up those long glommy gluten strands that result in a tough crust.

Next, we selected from a list of recipes. I gravitated toward the blueberry white chocolate cheesecake pie (who wouldn't?!). Although this recipe initially was snapped up by someone else, it ultimately wandered back to me: the other student, upon learning that we would be serving our creations at the end of class, and that there were only enough blueberries for one, chose to switch to a different recipe. She recognized that if she made a duplicate, she'd be able to spirit her version away to a dinner party. Thus, I lucked into making the (to my tastebuds) yummier recipe!

Crust dough needs to be chilled for quite some time before it is rolled out, so we began with pre-made, pre-chilled dough. We rolled it out and filled our various pans. I trimmed my dough to the recommended overhang, deciding belatedly to flute my edges. (Ultimately, these edges looked nice enough when they went into the oven but didn't fare well in baking because I hadn't allowed extra dough for the technique. Plus one crust among many in a crowded oven is never as cossetted as a singleton would be. With foresight, space, and tinfoil, it'll be better next time.)

As we mixed our fillings, an assistant loaded in and kept a harried eye on the baking crusts.

My recipe called for a white chocolate cheesecake layer topped with a cooked blueberry layer. These would be poured into the finished crust, then chilled til cold. There was only about 10 minutes to chill it in class, so it did lose some structural integrity when it was served, but it was so delicious! The lemon zest in the blueberry topping was perfect!

When our treats were ready, we wrapped up by making raw dough to use at home, completing the process (if in reverse order). My dough is in the freezer, waiting for inspiration. I have my eye on the savoury pesto quiche someone else made in class - my second favorite recipe finished that day! :)

Cream puffs

I caught a cold, so did myself and everyone else in my cooking class a favor and stayed home. Instead, DH took my place, and had lots of fun making these delectable cream puffs!



He came back laden with these puffs, as well as some unfilled puffs for us to fill as we like, and was brimming with enthusiasm about how much fun the course is. I am looking forward to next weekend :)