Back in mid-December, I mentioned that my husband and I took a month-long trip to Antarctica, South Georgia, and the Falkland Islands in November. It would have been fun to blog along the way during the trip, but we didn’t want to advertise that our house was empty for a month, plus internet access was really expensive. In hindsight, I should have written posts along the way and then posted them when we got home. Next time I guess! For now, I thought I’d try to sum it up with some photos, starting with Antarctica.

Did you see the movie March of the Penguins? I loved watching them slide on their stomachs in the movie, and was really excited to see it in person. This is an Adelie penguin at Brown Bluff. The day we visited Brown Bluff was the only super-cold day of the trip. Before we got off the ship, we were advised to “put on everything that you own,” so I knew it was going to be bad! It was our first day in Antarctica, and I think everyone got pretty worried about the weather.

After Brown Bluff, we really lucked out with the weather. Most days were around the freezing mark, sunny, and no wind. We had a great day in Neko Harbour, which I think is one of the prettiest places we visited. It felt great to take my parka off!

Speaking of gorgeous weather, it was nice enough to go kayaking in Paradise Bay. We had to navigate through some ice, but there was no wind and the water was smooth. This was our first time in a double kayak, and after unsuccessfully trying to coordinate our paddling, I discovered the solution: let my husband do all the paddling and the steering! Heck, next time I’m not even going to bother taking a paddle; it just got in my way.

We had some rough seas between South Georgia and Antarctica. A prescription motion sickness patch got me through that…barely. Our ship’s chief engineer didn’t fare so well – he broke his hip and had to be flown to Chile on a medevac flight. The flight departed from King George Island, which is home to Chilean and Russian research stations. This Russian Orthodox church was built in Siberia, then taken apart and shipped to King George Island to be reconstructed. It’s tiny, but I don’t think they get large crowds for church in Antarctica!

A Gentoo penguin hopped up to check out a camera in Dorian Bay.

In Port Lockroy, there’s a small museum at a former British base. One of the items was a cookbook…with a recipe for Casserole of Penguin Breasts! That’s one recipe I will not be blogging.

Penguins, like this Chinstrap penguin in Dorian Bay, are no longer on the menu.

Along with all the penguins, there was a lot of ice. A ship sailing these waters needs to be able to break through some ice.

We got up close to some gorgeous scenery, including this cave-like iceberg.

These photos are just the tip of the iceberg (ha ha), but hopefully give you an idea of some of the beautiful scenery in the Antarctic peninsula. We saw seven(!) kinds of penguins on the trip – I’ll cover the other four in my South Georgia and Falkland Islands posts.

Last night I had some friends over to watch a movie, chat, and eat. While I was planning what to make and making my grocery list, I saw this recipe for Salted Chocolate Pretzel Toffee, and immediately put it on the menu. I’m a sucker for sweet and salty, and if the salty component involves pretzels, all the better. It’s so easy to make, and dangerously tasty.

I didn’t want to serve just one dessert, so I also made Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies. I saw these cookies in Real Simple Magazine and was intrigued by a variation that called for mixing in 1 cup of broken pretzel pieces and 1 cup of chopped chocolate-covered toffee bar after mixing the other ingredients (the variation was in the magazine, but is not included in the recipe that I linked to). I made the recipe that way the first time and it was delicious. This time, since I already had a pretzel dessert on the menu, I added mini chocolate chips, which was also delicious. How the heck these end up looking and tasting like cookies amazes me, but they’re good, so I’m not going to question it.

And there was cotton candy!

Last summer, my friends found out that I had a cotton candy maker, so I knew the next time I had them over, I better serve cotton candy. My husband is the expert cotton candy spinner, so we let him do the work! I don’t make cotton candy very often, but it’s a fun activity once in a while.

It sounds like this was an all-dessert gathering, but it wasn’t. Actually, the star of the show was Pioneer Woman’s Olive Cheese Bread. Oh my gosh, this was an olivey, cheesy, buttery delight. The full recipe makes a ton, so its good for a gathering, plus there’s a tip for freezing it at the end of the recipe. I sent my friends home with some extra bread and topping so they could assemble and bake their own at home.

I’m a little sad that I gave away all the leftovers of the Olive Cheese Bread, but not too sad, because I have leftover Baked Chicken Meatballs. When I was thinking about what to make, I somehow got fixated on meatballs. I’m not sure if I’ve ever made meatballs of any kind before; if I did, it was a long time ago. So where the meatball idea came from, I don’t know, but I took a look on Smitten Kitchen and decided on these. I made them appetizer size (about 1 tablespoon each) and got 30 meatballs. They tasted great!

I didn’t get photos of the savory food, but if you click over to the recipes, you’ll see photos that are a whole lot nicer than what I would have taken. I also made Baked Potato Skins with Creamy Spinach and Turkey Bacon, which I’ve written about before, and Pioneer Woman’s Sangria, which I’ve also written about. We would have had a good time even without all of the food, but I enjoyed making it and they enjoyed eating it, so I think girls’ night was a success!

What does this mean to you?

Well, not that much. If everything works like I think it will, subscribers will still see my new posts in your Google Reader (or reader of choice) or in your inbox. If you have a bookmark to my blog, it will redirect you to my new URL. And any links to my posts will still work.

Before the switch, when I left comments on another WordPress blog, my name appeared as Jill, and I think I’ll still be Jill now (at least I hope I’m still Jill!). When I left comments using OpenId (which I use for most Blogger blogs), my name appeared as jillbert. Now it looks like my name has changed to bakewithjill.com. That one surprised me, and I wish I could just be Jill in OpenId, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Why the change?

First of all, my dear husband registered the bakewithjill domain for me forever-ago, and for no good reason, it’s taken me a while to do something with it. And, back when I started my blog I didn’t understand that my user name was going to be part of my blog URL, nor did I catch on that everyone had fun blog names. Sometimes it takes me a while to get with the program.

Welcome to bakewithjill.com; I’m now with the program, at least sort of!

You know what else is awesome about this pie, besides the taste? It’s frozen, so it’s a great make-ahead dessert. Some days,  a “best served on the day it’s made” dessert just doesn’t fit into the schedule.

Recipe notes

• The original recipe calls for raw eggs, but since most of us stay away from raw eggs due to food safety concerns, I used pasteurized-in-the-shell eggs. It was my first time using pasteurized eggs, and a few minutes after putting the whites in my mixer to whip, they looked very…unwhipped. I had an oh crap moment and wondered if this was going to work. I turned the mixer off and did a quick Google search, found this information, and turned the mixer back on. With a little bit of cream of tartar and a whole lot more whipping time, the whites turned out great. Whew. This is definitely a job for a stand mixer.
• The crust uses Nabisco Famous Wafers, which are thin, crisp, chocolate cookies. If you can’t find them, use another thin, crisp, chocolate cookie. The Famous Wafers are really tasty, though, so take a look at your grocery store.

Chocolate Thriller

Crust
1 1/2 cups crushed Nabisco Famous Wafers, or other chocolate wafers
1/3 cup melted butter (salted or unsalted)

Filling
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar, divided (1/4 cup and 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 pasteurized in the shell eggs, at room temperature, separated
6 ounces chocolate chips, melted and cooled
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup heavy cream

To make crust: Preheat oven to 325° F.  Mix cookie crumbs and melted butter and press onto the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake 10 minutes; remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

To make filling: In a large bowl, using a stand mixer or hand mixer, blend cream cheese with 1/4 cup sugar and vanilla. Blend in the egg yolks, then the melted and cooled chocolate and mix until thoroughly combined. Whip the egg whites, adding 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar after a couple of minutes and then gradually adding 1/2 cup sugar after a few more minutes; continue to whip until whites form soft peaks (see notes about whipping pasteurized egg whites). Fold the egg whites into the cream cheese mixture. Whip the cream and fold it into the filling mixture (reserve a little bit of whipped cream if you want to use it to decorate the pie). Scoop filling into cooled crust and smooth the top. Cover the pan with plastic or foil and freeze overnight.

To serve: To soften a little before serving, put pie in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, or let it sit at room temperature for a short period.

Timing Tips: I whipped the cream in my stand mixer first and then transferred it to another bowl so I could wash the mixer bowl and use to to whip the egg whites. While the egg whites were whipping, I melted the chocolate and used a hand mixer to combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, egg yolks, and chocolate.

I love rum raisin anything, so the recipe for Rum Raisin Shortbread jumped out at me as I was paging through my copy of Martha Stewart’s Cookies. I must admit that it bugs me that the recipe has raisins in the title but calls for currants, but I can see that Rum Currant Shortbread doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. And the tiny currants were perfect in these petite cookies.

Along with rum-soaked currants, these cookies have coconut and orange zest (which I wish there would have been more of – the rum overpowered the orange). They’re moister than the usual shortbread and have a nice chew from the coconut. I liked them and thought the dried fruit and rum made them seem holiday-ish, yet they’d be good year-round. Mine didn’t hold their shape when baked; Michele mentioned that she added more flour, and I think she was on to something. I also goofed and used sweetened coconut instead of unsweetened, but I didn’t think they seemed overly sweet.

Twisted into a pretzel shape and sprinkled with big pieces of sugar, the Chocolate Pretzel Cookies have a cute factor of 10!

Although they have cocoa and espresso powder, they didn’t pack much of a chocolate punch. I think they’d be better dipped in white or dark chocolate, but that would take away from the “pretzel with salt” cuteness.

Thank you Michele for prodding me to try some new recipes (and for letting me select them)! Be sure to check out how her cookies turned  out.

It’s the end of an era: the last Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, selected by Dorie herself. Peanut butter cookie dough, rolled in chopped nuts, and filled with chocolate chips (as I did) or jam. I made mine tablespoon size rather than teaspoon, but there were no complaints that they were too big.

I wish I could remember where I heard about TWD. I remember being in my hotel room during my week at Pastry Boot Camp, debating whether I should join the group. Then I saw that the group was going to be closing to new members, so in November 2008, I went for it. I baked Rugelach and I wrote a post about it. I haven’t baked every week, and haven’t come close to baking every recipe in the book, but I’ve stuck with it for over two years. I’ve baked a lot, I’ve learned a lot, I’ve had fun, and I’ve made some friends along the way.

My top five list? That’s too hard. But I’ll tell you this: if my copy of Baking: From My Home to Yours was on fire and I only had time to tear out one recipe, it would be Chocolate Oatmeal Almost Candy Bars. If you haven’t made these, make them!

When one book closes, another book opens. A new group is forming to bake through another Dorie Greenspan book: Baking with Julia. Keep your eye on the Tuesdays with Dorie site for more information on joining the new group. I hope a lot of you TWD bakers are joining the new group, and I look forward to meeting new bakers!

Please take a moment to read Dorie’s lovely post about TWD. She’s got the cookie recipe posted too!

I branched out from my go-to nut recipes this Christmas and made these Butter Toffee Nuts with Sea Salt that I saw in O Magazine. Crunchy, sweet, and salty with a touch of nutmeg.  Great for giving as gifts or for serving to guests, but make some extras for nibbling!

Recipe notes

• I used pecans, walnuts, and cashews.
• I didn’t sprinkle with additional salt.
• It takes a while for the sugar to caramelize, but keep stirring and it will happen. As the recipe explains, the mixture will become dry and powdery and then will melt and become glossy. It goes quickly at the end, so take care not to burn it.
• The recipe provides amounts for a standard batch and a large batch. The large batch is really large: 6 cups of sugar and 15 cups of nuts. You would need a really large pan to make the large batch!

Thank you Laurie for hosting this recipe! She has the recipe posted today (or look on page 433 of Baking: From My Home to Yours). I also want to take a minute to thank Laurie, our group’s founder, for all she’s done over the years. I’m not sure what I expected when I joined the group, but I know I’ve gotten 1000% more out of it than I thought I would. I’m sad that it’s coming to an end, but so excited about the new group: we’ll be baking from another Dorie book, Baking with Julia!

Since TWD is coming to an end, the group is doubling up on recipes in November. The other recipe for this week is Puffed Double Plum Tart, selected by Julie of Someone’s in the Kitchen. I didn’t have a chance to make it, but check out Julie’s blog for the details.

What I did: I used all whole milk instead of a combination of whole milk and cream; I refrigerated the custard overnight before churning.

How it went: Cooking custard is not my favorite kitchen task, but all went well. Every time I make ice cream, I marvel at how easy it is! The recipe is a chocolate ice cream base with blueberry jam added after churning and before freezing.

How it tasted: The jam I used had tiny blueberries in it, and finding a blueberry in a bite of chocolate ice cream was a nice surprise. My husband liked it a lot, but didn’t think the blueberry added much; he thinks it’s hard to improve on chocolate ice cream. The chocolate ice cream itself was delicious, so the recipe is a good one to try with or without the jam.

I am finally getting back into the swing of being in the kitchen, after being away for a month. I just returned from a trip to Antarctica, South Georgia, and the Falkland Islands, where we saw lots of these:

And when I say lots, I mean lots:

The brown ones are teenage penguins

Along with some ice…

…and a lot of other things! Travel posts will be coming, hopefully before too long.

Thank you Tracey for hosting this recipe! Since TWD is coming to an end, the group is doubling up on recipes in November. The other recipe for this week is Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie, which sounds delicious. Check out Judy’s blog for that recipe.

What I did:

• I made half the recipe in a 6″ tart pan.
• I followed Dorie’s instructions to use a “mealy” apple in the applesauce – I picked Macintosh – and Golden Delicious apples for the top of the tart. Mealy sounds really terrible, doesn’t it? But the Macs cooked up into some lovely applesauce.
• I added the optional vanilla and about a tablespoon of sugar to the applesauce and thought it was very tasty.
  
• I baked my small tart for 40 minutes.

How it went: There are a few steps to this: the crust needs to freeze before baking, and then cool after partially baking, and the applesauce needs to cool after cooking. But with a little planning, it’s not a difficult tart to make. I had more applesauce than I needed, but I was happy to eat the extra.

How it tasted: This intriguing tart was delicious! It’s fresh apple flavor two ways in a crust (and I love crust). I prefer this to a custard-filled tart, and I will absolutely make it again. I also liked the fact that it doesn’t have cinnamon. I like cinnamon a lot, but it was a nice change to have an apple dessert without it. My husband also liked it a lot and said “the applesauce works.” He liked the contrast in textures of the crust, applesauce, and apple slices. I served this with whipped cream, which my husband declared essential (OK, it was Cool Whip, but whipped cream would have been even better). I think ice cream would be pretty great with this too.

Are you ready to bake your own apple tart? Open your copy of Baking: From My Home to Yours to page 304, or head over to Tracey’s Culinary Adventures; she’ll have the recipe posted today.

This would be an ugly cookie, but it's a dog biscuit!

Recipe notes:

• The recipe says to roll the dough to 1/2″ thick; I made them thinner and they still seemed pretty thick.
• Mine stuck to the pan a little bit; next time I’d bake them on parchment or a silicone mat.

You can find the recipe here on the Every Day with Rachael Ray website. I bet your dog would appreciate a special Thanksgiving treat!

One more please!

I’ve got a lot going on in November! I’ve scheduled a few posts, but I won’t be getting around to everyone’s blogs this  month. I’ll catch up with you in December!