Making do (and baking muffins), not making excuses.

Pin It I was reading through my new British muffin cookbook this morning, and I realized it's totally useless to me.  Everything is in weight measurements, and I don't have a scale (obviously).  So I wrote off the 5 pounds I'd spent on it and turned instead to my previously unexplored copy of The Joy of Cooking, which I hauled over here last summer and promptly forgot in the suitcase (it was rediscovered a couple weeks ago, along with my favorite winter coat; both presumed losses were sorely lamented).

Now THAT'S a cookbook!  Not only does it have a million recipes and variations, but it's super helpful on everything from bakeware solutions (separating a large pan with aluminum foil and weights to make it a small pan) to knife skills to candy making.  AND she doesn't just ASSUME you have fancy equipment like an electric mixer!  So advice is given on how to cream butter with the back of a wooden spoon, and how to whip cream with a whisk, and how to make truffles in the microwave (you heard!).  I seriously LOVE this woman.


And reading it really made me think: suck it up, you fool!  At least you don't have to WEIGH everything!  How much easier is it to convert butter and then use cup measurements than it would be to learn the whole weighing system?  SO much easier.  And less messy, I'd think.  As for the photos, I think I just need to play around with locations and floor lamps for better picture-taking.  My little camera can do some very nice things if I just give it half a chance.

So now, as much as I'd like to make an angel food cake, I'm going to bake muffins instead, because I do have a muffin pan and the BF requested them.  And maybe I'll go to Divertimenti this weekend and invest in something fancy, like a tube pan or a jelly roll pan, so I can delve deeper into the joyful book I've been so foolishly ignoring.

Of course, this doesn't mean I'd turn my nose up at a generous gift from someone wealthier than I...