What I did this summer: Mafia Wars

Wow, I cannot believe it's been almost 3 whole months since my last post. I'm sure you haven't been wondering what I've been up to but I'm gonna tell ya anyway because it is my blog, after all.

Though I'm still baking bread (the ABin5 way, of course!) every other day, my free time has been sucked into the time vortex called Mafia Wars on Facebook. It's kind of sick, an addiction if you will. But the game is set up so it takes up as much time as you can give it. You must do jobs, make money, buy weapons, armor and vehicles, recruit more mobsters, attack, rob, snuff, retaliate and on top of all that, make sure your mafia family has all the loot they need by gifting and trading. Holy crap, sometimes I'll sit down and hours will disappear. Sometimes I'll take a break and continue to work on my Guitar Hero Metallica skills.

I'm having a lot of fun, though!

Someone recently left a comment about my bundt cake woes, and I have to tell you, I did solve the sticking problem but forgot to post it -- sorry. Here's what happened and what I did. Apparently, using Pam on nonstick bakeware is a cardinal sin. Why? Because it burns on and leaves a sticky residue. Oh, hello. I was aware of that from frying pan use but couldn't see it on the nonstick surface of the bundt pan. Here, let me yell it out to you: NEVER PAM NONSTICK COOKWARE!!! After very thoroughly cleaning the bundt pan, I made up a mixture called baker's grease which is:

1 part Crisco
1 part veg. oil
1 part flour (use cocoa powder for chocolate cakes)

The next time I baked the Chocolate Stout Cake, it unmolded PERFECTLY. Instructions are here at the 911 Baking site. I don't know why I was such a bad, numnutz baker. All I had to do was a little research, instead of repeating the same mistake 3 times in a row and whining about it. Doh!

In other baking news, an easy way to make your ABin5 bread simply divine is to knead some dried herbs, dried minced onion, or grated cheese while shaping the dough. I particularly like oregano and feta cheese, and I'll bet kalamata olives would be an awesome addition. I sprinkle the dried onion on top of the loaves before baking and of course they burn, but I'm fond of burnt onion flavor.

Hope you're having a great summer so far.