I’m still cooking and baking, but decided to take a break from blogging. All is well; I’m just trying to spend less time in front of the computer.

I don’t know what makes this Hungarian, but it is different than other shortbread recipes I’ve seen. The dough (flour, baking powder, salt, butter, egg yolks, and sugar) is mixed and then frozen. After a stint in the freezer, the dough is grated into the pan – this worked great! The dough was so sticky after mixing, but very easy to handle and grate after a little time in the freezer. Half the dough goes into the pan, then a layer of rhubarb jam, then the rest of the dough is grated on top. The whole thing is baked and then topped with a “generous amount” of powdered sugar.

I went the extra mile and made the rhubarb jam. OK, it was only an extra quarter-mile or so, because the jam was so easy to make. Cut up the rhubarb, put it in a pan with water, sugar, and vanilla, and cook it for about 10 minutes. Fresh rhubarb was easy to find at my grocery store, so it was worth it to make this tasty jam. I strayed from the recipe and baked the bottom layer of dough for 15 minutes before adding the jam and the top layer. Other cookie bar-type recipes I’ve made call for baking the bottom a little bit first, and some of the other bakers commented that the bottom layer didn’t seem baked through, so I decided to pre-bake. It worked well – the crust was baked through and not over-browned.

This was quick and easy to make, even with the extra step of making the jam. I made 1/4 of the recipe in a 6″ pan (and 1/4 of the recipe still used 1 stick of butter – yikes!).  As much as I love shortbread, this didn’t quite do it for me. I liked the crumbly texture and the layer of jam, but I felt like it was missing something. My husband wasn’t a fan and thought it needed whipped cream on top. There was nothing bad about it; it just wasn’t quite as good as we’d hoped. Oh well, it was still fun to try the technique of grating the dough, and the leftover rhubarb jam will be stirred into yogurt – yum!

If you want to take a look at the recipe,  look on page 327 of Baking with Julia. Thank you to this week’s hosts: Cher and Lynette. They will have the recipe posted on their blogs today.

Loaf cake baked in the round

6″ pans, what would I do without you? I made 1/4 of the recipe, and though a 6″ round pan wasn’t exactly the right size, it was close…or at least I thought it was. When I took the cake out of the oven, I was concerned that it looked awfully low and flat. So concerned that I decided to make some lemon curd to serve with it, just in case it needed a little bit of help.

When I cut into the cake, I was happy to see that it had the texture of a pound cake, so I was pretty sure it turned out like it was supposed to. But I’m glad I made the lemon curd because it was delicious! I used this recipe from Cooking Light – it was easy and definitely something I’ll make again. I’m already looking forward to stirring the leftovers into some yogurt.

After I assembled the cake and lemon curd, I realized that I should have tasted the cake on its own first. So I didn’t get a taste of “just cake,” but I really enjoyed it combined with the lemon curd. My husband enjoyed it and said that it was like pound cake, but “not boring.” Note to self: don’t make plain pound cake because he will declare it boring!

Side note: yes, I made 1/4 of the recipe. When I first started baking with the Tuesdays with Dorie group, I thought it was strange the people were making 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 of a recipe. Now I think it’s a great idea. There are only two of us eating much of what I bake (though I do give things away when I can), so we don’t need a ton, and if I bake smaller amounts I can bake more often and we can have more variety. Plus, it keeps my math skills sharp!

Ready to get your lemon on? You can find the recipe on page 252 of Baking with Julia. Thank you to this week’s hosts: Truc of Treats and Michelle of  The Beauty of Life. They will have the recipe posted on their blogs today.

The bunnies have white outline and flood and white jimmies, and then some pink outline icing for the ears, nose and tail (I waited a couple of hours before adding the pink accents). Some have a mini-chocolate chip eye that was added when the flood was wet, and some have an eye that was glued on with pink frosting – adding the chip to the wet flood worked better. The white jimmies on white frosting idea is from the book, and it’s a nice touch.

These eggs have white outline and flood and chocolate jimmies and mini chocolate chips. I’ve tried to melt chocolate and decorate with it, but it is always a hassle, so I thought this was a good way to get some chocolate onto the cookies.

I also made eggs with pink outline and fill, and I used the wet-on-wet technique from the book to make the green dots. It’s green flood icing that goes on right after flooding the cookie. I was skeptical that this would work, but I like how it looks! These pastel colors were tough to photograph, but it looks like a watercolor effect. I had a lot of air bubbles, which I could have but did not pop with a toothpick. I’ll have to look into what, if anything, to do to prevent them.

After I made all the dotted cookies, I did a test cookie with squiggles made with the wet-on-wet technique. This would be really cute on an egg. The white jimmies are also cute on colored icing. Next time!

I also took some of the cookies and pressed mini chocolate chips into them before baking. This frosting-free version is tasty and easy.

I made my favorite cookie dough for these. It’s so buttery and good, but not the easiest dough to work with. So, when I looked through my copy of Cookie Craft and saw this tip for rolling dough, I was thrilled. Here’s my version of their tip.

Right after mixing the dough, put a portion of it on a sheet of parchment that’s the same size as your baking sheet.  Top with another sheet of parchment or wax paper and roll to 1/4″. Slide the whole thing (parchment, dough, and waxed paper) onto a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. When you cut the cookies, you can either transfer them to a new baking sheet, or you can leave them on the sheet they’re already on and just peel away the scrap dough. Since you’re not using any flour to roll the dough, you can re-roll with no worries of the dough drying out.

This method was fast, easy, and worked like a charm. If you don’t have a copy of Cookie Craft, Sweetopia is a great resource for cookie decorating information and recipes.

Be sure to stop over at Michele’s blog to see her cookies!

I didn’t count the number of crackers that I made, but you can get an idea from the photo above (that’s a 10″ x 15″ pan with shallow sides). The original recipe makes four times the amount of crackers shown in the photo above – that would be a lot of crackers and it would take a lot of time to roll and bake them. Ah, but these are so crisp and full of sesame flavor I wish I had made a larger batch!

The “project” part of the recipe is the rolling. I used a pasta machine, which worked wonderfully; it made the crackers really thin and even. See the notes and photos below for more details.

Recipe Notes

• The dough is easy to make, but it’s hard to incorporate all of the sesame seeds. The dough is pretty stiff by the time the seeds are added, and even with the dough hook, many of the seeds do not mix in. I worked the dough quite a bit with my hands and was able to incorporate most of the seeds.
• I divided the dough into balls about this size. I would call that softball size, but since I’m not sports-oriented, I thought I better show you a photo in case that’s not what a softball looks like.

• Rolling the dough in the pasta machine is easy. I have an Atlas Pasta Queen, which has settings from 1-7. I rolled each piece of dough through each setting twice, starting with 1 and ending with setting 5. Any thinner than that and the dough started to tear.

• Here’s what that ball of dough looks like when it’s rolled out and cut. I used a pizza cutter to cut the crackers.

• I baked two sheets at a time, and I had six sheets of crackers. My baking sheets are pretty small; if you are baking on half sheet pans, you may be able to bake all of the crackers on four pans.
• The second time I made these, I sprinkled just a little salt on them before baking. They were good the first time, but even better with a little salt on top.
• The seeds fly around a lot, so get ready to do some clean-up, including vacuuming, when you’re done!
• The recipe below is scaled to 1/4 of the original. The amounts are in grams and milliliters, which I think makes it easier to measure precisely.

Sesame Crackers

Adapted from The Professional Pastry Chef

5g yeast
210 ml warm water (105º-115ºF/40º-46ºC)
3.75 ml (1/4 Tablespoon) diastatic malt or honey
7.5 g salt
20 ml Asian sesame oil
85 g whole wheat flour
283 g bread flour
113 g sesame seeds (all white or a mix black and white)
Salt for sprinkling on top, optional

In the bowl of an electric mixer, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Mix in the malt or honey, salt, and sesame oil. Using the dough hook, incorporate the whole wheat flour and all but a handful of the bread flour. Knead until a smooth elastic dough develops, scraping down the sides of the bowl and adding the reserved flour if necessary. Incorporate the sesame seeds (you may need to work the seeds in with your hands).

Cover and let rise in a warm location for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375°F/190ºC. Divide the dough into 6 or 7 softball-size pieces (see this link for an explanation of forming dough into a ball). Cover and allow them to relax for 15 minutes.

Roll each dough ball to 1/16 inch (2 mm) thick. The easiest way to do this is with a pasta roller. Start with the widest setting, roll the dough through twice, and then move to the next setting. Continue until the dough is as thin as it can be without tearing. Place the dough on a baking pan lined with parchment paper; cut into pieces (a pizza cutter works well). Try to keep the pieces similarly sized for even baking. You do not need to leave space between the crackers when you bake them. If desired, sprinkle salt on the unbaked crackers and press gently to help it stick. Bake immediately so the crackers do not rise.

Bake the crackers until deep golden brown (approximately 9 minutes), rotating the baking sheets halfway through baking. Keep your eye on them while they are in the oven – they are thin and will brown quickly. Let cool for a while on the baking sheet and then transfer to a large platter or pan to finish cooling. While the crackers bake, roll out the next ball of dough, continuing in batches until they are all baked. Store in an airtight container.

My first lattice crust!

As I often do, I cut the recipe in half, which fit perfectly in my 6″ pie pan. A much better size for two people. I omitted the prosciutto and added a mix of green and Kalamata olives.  I noticed really late in the game that it’s supposed to cool completely before serving, which would have made for a very late dinner. I opted to cool it for 20 minutes, at which point it was nicely warm but not hot.

I really liked the ricotta filling; although it looked quiche-like, the filling had a lovely texture and taste that was much different from an eggy quiche. The olives gave it a salty bite. The crust was delicious, but I’d omit the sugar next time. It was just too sweet for my tastes. My husband wasn’t bothered by the sweet crust, but did remark: “It isn’t a pizza. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

Ready to give this a whirl? You can find the recipe on page 430 of Baking with Julia. Thank you to this week’s hosts: Emily of Capital Region Dining and Raelynn of The Place They Call Home. They will have the recipe posted on their blogs today.

My Top Tips

This packing and tips list is great. We didn’t travel with that company, and I don’t know anything about them, but I got some good information from their list. My favorite tip from that list was to bring handkerchiefs. My nose runs a lot in cold weather, and I tissues can get away from me when I’m wearing mittens. I brought a bunch of men’s handkerchiefs and found that they were easy to handle with mittens, nice and large, and soft on my nose. They were also handy for drying off my glasses and camera. I washed them out in the sink at night and dried them on the clothesline in our bathroom.

One tip I saw on a lot of sites is that it’s not as cold as you think, but it’s windier. This proved to be true, and I’ll add that it was also wetter than I expected. I was prepared for wind, but not prepared for being pelted by cold rain in the Falklands and South Georgia. Not exactly pleasant, but I knew this wasn’t a tropical vacation! Waterproof everything (coat, boots, pants, mittens) is a must, and the waterproof gear helped a lot with the wind.

Along with waterproof mittens, I bought some stretchy gloves that I could wear under the mittens or on their own. They kept my hands covered and allowed me to operate my camera.

Sunblock for your face and lips is essential. We forgot to reapply sunblock one afternoon and quickly burned. Someone on our trip had a miserable-looking case of sunburned lips. In Antarctica, the ice and snow and water reflect the sun and can toast your skin quickly.

This isn’t exactly a glamour trip, but some beauty products are in order, such as moisturizer! It’s dry outside and on the ship. I brought a big tube of some really nice body lotion (Bliss Body Butter) and my super-duper winter face moisturizer. Hydrate from the inside too – I brought a water bottle. They did provide moisturizer and water bottles on the ship, but I like to have my own stuff.

Space Bags. As Seen on TV! These were an impulse buy, but I liked them because they compacted my clothes and they helped me to organize my items. I will definitely use them again on future trips.

You can’t go on a trip this long without dealing with laundry. I washed some clothes by hand, both in the (tiny) sink and by putting clothes, detergent, and water in a gigantic zipper bag and swishing it around to wash it. That’s my least-favorite thing to do, but it’s worth it because laundry costs can add up quickly. We did send pants and pullover tops to the ship’s laundry.

I think it goes without saying that you should be prepared for motion sickness. I brought prescription scopolamine patches, meclizine (aka Bonine), anti-nausea tablets, and ginger candy. Everyone is different, and of course, you should talk to your doctor. I am very sensitive to motion and spent a lot of time hoping I’d be OK and wouldn’t regret the trip.  I also tried out the scopolamine patch ahead of time and knew that it had some side effects and that I didn’t want to wear the patch constantly if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.

Some days, the patch was necessary! Other days, I was fine with meclizine. On the rough days, we saw a lot of trays of tea and broth being delivered to cabins. I’m happy to report that I did not miss a meal! When there was a lot of motion, I spent most of my time sitting in our cabin reading, but I was fine with that and happy not to be ill.

You’ll need some entertainment for the airplane and for days at sea. I stocked up my iPad with a lot of books and a few movies, and we brought more movies on a laptop. On the days with rough seas, I was really happy to have a variety of books to read to pass the time. And there was some time to pass – a couple of days, we were woken up at 4am, feeling like we were going to roll out of bed. There was no way I was getting back to sleep, so out came the iPad. They did offer a lot of lectures on our ship, and we attended many of them, but there weren’t live shows or gambling or limbo contests like you would find on a large cruise ship. You do need to be able to entertain yourself.

What I Wish I’d Brought

I didn’t bring a face mask, but that would have been nice to have to protect my face from the wind.

You will need waterproof boots. Some ships provide them, but ours didn’t, so we needed to buy them ahead of time and bring them along. We got some basic knee-high waterproof boots at a local farm supply store. They worked great and were comfortable to walk in, but if I did this again, I’d get insulated “arctic” boots. My feet were cold, even with foot warmers.

What I Brought But Didn’t Need (or didn’t need so much of)

I brought workout clothes to use in the ship’s fitness room. We had about 6 days at sea, and I planned to exercise on those days. Well, those days at sea ranged from sort of rough to really rough, and after stopping in to visit the fitness room, I realized that I was doing good if I could just walk around the ship – there was no way I was going to be able to walk on a treadmill or ride an exercise bike without falling off and/or getting sick from the motion.

I brought too many instant hand and foot warmers, and too much long underwear, but since there’s no way to know how cold it will be or how cold you’ll feel, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

I always overpack snacks when I travel. I had quite a stash of granola bars, salted nuts, cocoa almonds, hard candy, and gum. Again, better safe than sorry!

That wraps up my posts on this trip. You can find all of them in my Antarctica category.

Iguazu Falls is on the border of Argentina and Brazil, and both countries have access to the falls. There is much debate over which side is best, and a lot of people insist that it must be seen from both sides. We decided to just visit the Argentinian side, and while I don’t know what we missed by skipping Brazil, what we did see was spectacular.  If you want to learn more about Iguazu Falls, check out World of Waterfalls, which is a great site with tons of information and ideas for your waterfall bucket list.

I can’t say enough good things about Iguazu National Park. The trails were well-marked, it was clean, and there were a lot of bathrooms! The employees were friendly and helpful. Though I think it’s a good thing we didn’t have any complaints.

Iguazu is actually a series of falls almost two miles long. Walkways throughout the park take you to various viewpoints, some up high and some at water level. We took a boat ride that took us right up to the falls, giving us an up-close and very wet experience. They gave us a dry bag for our cameras and other belongings, and my husband had the fabulous idea to put our shoes in the dry bag too. I was soggy after the ride, but so happy to be wearing dry shoes and socks.

The beautiful butterflies in the park loved me and landed on my shirt throughout the day. I thought it was the color of my shirt, or perhaps that I was a butterfly whisperer, but eventually I had to face the fact that I spilled jelly on my shirt at breakfast and apparently hadn’t washed it out as well as I thought! Well, now I know that butterflies like jelly and that I have no hidden butterfly-attracting talent.

The park was very serious about not feeding the animals. This sign sends a clear message not to feed the Coatis.

We did see a few Coatis, but didn’t get a good photo. We also saw this cool bird!

And this pretty flower.

We spent two days at the park, which was more than enough, but we were glad to have plenty of time to explore and to walk on the nature trails in addition to seeing the falls. When we flew back to Buenos Aires, we literally had a couple of hours to walk around the city before meeting up with our tour group to start the next part of our trip. So what did we do with our limited time in Buenos Aires? We ate gelato, of course! A while before our trip, I saw an article in National Geographic Traveler magazine that mentioned a couple of gelato places in Buenos Aires. I mapped their locations and found that one of them, Arkakao was a five-minute walk from our hotel. It was meant to be! The staff was so friendly and willing to translate the flavors, but I didn’t need too much help with that. Ice cream is the international language and I speak it fluently.

Mine is on the left: dark chocolate and coconut. My husband had raspberry and caramel. It was a sweet end to the side-trip part of our trip before heading off to another continent.

Next, I’ll wrap up this trip with some packing tips.

A half-batch of Irish Soda Bread was quick and tasty and delicious with some soup for dinner. I made a plain version, using just flour, buttermilk, baking soda, and salt, but I’m sure that many of the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers added currants, other dried fruit, and other creative mix-ins.

I stored the leftover bread in a plastic bag; the next day it was still moist, but the crust was a little soft, so I sliced it, put a little butter and garlic powder on the slices, and warmed it up in the oven. Irish Soda Bread Garlic Bread! If you don’t have time to make a yeast bread, this is a good alternative for some quick and fresh bread.

Don’t wait until next St. Patrick’s Day to make this. You can find the recipe on page 214 of Baking with Julia. Thank you to this week’s hosts: Carla of Chocolate Moosey and Cathleen of My Culinary Mission. They will have the recipe posted on their blogs today.

First up: Magellanic penguins, which we saw on Carcass Island.

I won’t leave you hanging. The other type of penguin that we saw was the Rockhopper, which were on West Point Island. I probably shouldn’t pick favorites, but since I know none of the penguins are reading this, I’ll admit that I think the Rockhoppers were the cutest. The crazy hair won me over!

Also on Carcass Island, we saw the Upland Goose.

And this guy. I made a note that it’s a rare raptor, but I don’t know the name of it. Bird watchers, you have my respect – I just can’t keep up with all the birds.

Here’s an albatross in flight. The wingspan of an albatross is about 10 feet. Big wingspan, big droppings – I’ll spare you the photo of what happened to me, but let’s just say that I’m grateful I had my hood up!

It was a nice day, yet not quite as tropical as this photo makes it look. It was pretty windy most of the time.

In Stanley, the capital, we took a bus tour of the city and spent some time walking around town on our own. There were lots of gift shops, so I bought a few things and sent some postcards.We visited the Falkland Islands museum, where I looked longingly at this trunk. Oh, for the days when there were no checked bag fees!

Our tour guide passed around this landmine, a reminder of the war between the UK and Argentina.This one was inactive, thankfully.

Here’s the whalebone arch. These are jaw bones from two Blue whales. We did see some whales on the trip, but nothing nearly that large.

Whales or not, the penguins were still the star of the show for me.

I’ve covered all of the ports of call on our trip, but there’s more to come!