In the Kitchen with Janet

I'm off second shift and back to first.... which means "real" first shift of 6:00 am and not the cushy engineering first shift of 7:30-8:00am. So I went form late nights to early mornings.

The one good thing about 1st shift is that you get home in the middle of the afternoon and I have used that time to do some cooking.

First up, lollipops!

I have been getting some cookbook/recipe books from the library recently and I saw this recipe for lollipops and wanted to try it out. I picked up some basic round lollipop molds and some sticks from a local cake decorating store and went to town. The result........
They turned out pretty good. Just some sugar, corn syrup, water and a dash of strawberry & banana extract in a pot heated up to 300 degrees and poured into a mold. I had some difficulty getting the suckers (heh...pun) out of the molds so the lollipop were a bit rough around the edges. I read later that you can brush oil into the molds to help extract them easier. I will have to try that next time.

Next up was something a little more healthy. Butternut Squash Risotto. I am still on my risotto kick, but wanted to mix it up a little bit. While purusing the clearance shelves at Barnes&Noble recently, I ran across a very inexpensive cookbook on just risottos. I will be trying a few of the recipes in the book over this cold, wet rainy winter we appear to be headed into.

After making a complete mess in the kitchen, the risotto turned out pretty good. Still working on perfecting my techinique, but this one was the best yet.
That's some feta cheese and sage in there with the squash and rice. Yummy!