YUM
I had been eyeing the Maple Walnut Cookie recipe in VWaV for a long time. But it has nuts in it and that is just not something I want in cookies. I decided to try it sans nuts. I made the recipe per Isa’s directions and it turned out less than cookie dough-ish and more like runny soup. I double and triple checked the ingredients, I followed it correctly, who knows what happened. These would never hold up so I added oats and flour until I had a ‘cookie’ batter. Baked ‘em and decided they weren’t pretty enough so I made chocolate ganache to drizzle on them. These might just be my new favorite cookies, well almost, I can’t forget the coveted pumpkin cookies.
I much prefer grade B maple syrup, it is so much more pungent and flavorful than grade A. Lucky for me I can get grade B in bulk at my local market otherwise I’d be broke. What is with the cost of maple syrup?
…..
and now for something as sweet as maple, although they obviously still aren’t so sweet on each other
Well not really, but I did in my dream. It was an awful mess. Can you tell I change 3000 diapers a day? In other news August has had a bad cold, this is on top of trying to move him to his own bed and 2 teeth coming in. I would have waited moving him to his own room had I known sickness was on the horizon. We did get him a futon so there is enough room for both of us which helps to calm him down. But oh…my…sweet…fucking adorable August. Good thing I have that boobmilk hormone or I might have…well let’s not go there. From shitting the bed to sushi. Yep, I made it again. I can’t stop now that I know how easy it is. What the hell was I thinking paying for it in a restaurant? Sweet mother, we should all buy stock in sushi. A 30 cent roll costs $4+ in a restaurant.
I blanched asparagus and added cream cheese, in the forefront there is smoked salmon rolls for Pete. He asked me tonight if I wished I had married a vegetarian, I told him that was ridiculous. Why would I marry someone for their eating habits? Would you? Although I do get skeeved out when I accidentally touch meat, you should see the lengths I go to avoid touching it, pure comedy.
………….
Today Pete threw August in the backpack which allowed me to make the yummiest muffins ever. Man, are these good. Sunny Corn Blueberry muffins, mine were not so sunny seeing as I had no lemon, but they hardly needed it and I don’t think I would add lemon knowing how amazing they are with out it.
These are gems. The recipe made 12 and 12 were eaten today. That good. And vegan.
And speaking of lacking sunshine, poor little August, so fussy but so asleep here, he stayed like this for over an hour while I rolled sushi.
August has 2 teeth coming in, so he has his regular fuss with a heaping side of fuss. He will not let me put him down. I made dinner like this…
It worked out fine, but fucking hell, 26 pounds is a lot of weight to haul around for over an hour. Oh well, maybe it counts as a workout? Ha.
I made Green Thai from Vegan with a Vengeance tonight.
Looks like pesto, eh? It’s not even close to pesto. It is full of cilantro, cumin, lemongrass, shallots, jalapeno….and some other shit I can’t remember now. I really thought it would be way more flavorful for all it had in it but it wasn’t. Pete said it was bold, yet he still salted it. The flavor was sort of complex I suppose, it was good, but I will definitely be changing some things up next time.
……………..
On the baking front, I made blondies yesterday. Man are these good! It is the recipe from VWaV but I omit the chocolate chips, I think the chocolate makes it too candybar-ish and competes with the raspberry flavor. These are some of my most favorite things to bake because they always turn out so pretty…see?
Sort of like sweet continents of doughy, fruity, yumminess.
Sorry, no music tonight, unless you count me singing the elephant song over and over and over and over and over….
I love capers. The person that figured out pickling the buds from a caper bush would taste delectable deserves a pony, or cupcakes, or gold, or maybe a day at the spa…something rewarding. (Patty, close your eyes, olives ahead) So I made tapenade last night. Some of my favorite things in the world are in this, kalamata olives, capers, garlic, and olive oil.
I tossed it with pasta, cherry tomatoes and onion. I left some of the tapenade out to spread on kalamata olive bread, overdose on olives? never!
It was very flavorful, but next time I won’t saute the onion and tomatoes as long, it needed more crispness to it.
…………
It is very rainy here today, seems like a good day to bake. Maybe blondies? Cookies?
Definitely a good day for some Fun Boy Three, take a listen…
What is with toddlers? Tell me because I am so close to banging my head against the wall repeatedly. I ask Owen if he wants cracker “NO!” I ask if he wants applesauce “NO!” banana? “NO! CRACKER!” I reach for the crackers and and he screams he wants a banana. I end up just putting all 3 in front of him, he pushes them all off the table. Oh. my. god. What are they? all 13 year old girls? This was my day, all day.
It’s ok though, I made Smore’s Cupcakes!
YAY ME! I did some things differently than the recipe called for. I added Ricemellow (it tastes just like marshmallow) and I used the chocolate mousse frosting. Next time I will poke holes in the cupcakes and put the Ricemellow in them, the frosting wants to slide right off the top otherwise.
But they sure are purty and they taste deliciously rich. You can see the slide happening. It wasn’t so bad, I had to use my fingers to straighten them out again and that meant I had lots of finger licking to do after….that mousse frosting is delectable, wish I could give you all a lick off the spatula, well I would give you each your own spatula because otherwise that would be kind of gross.
I made vegetable upside down casserole for dinner, that turned out really good. I forgot to take pictures with all the chaos that was in my kitchen. Maybe I’ll get one of the leftovers.
Oh and look! I figured out how to share MP3’s with you. I figure I will try to add a track off what is currently playing in my kitchen. Click below to hear.
I had this crazy dream last night. I went to see Fugazi in some po-dunk town and I was super bummed because they were playing so quietly I could hear conversations over them, anyone who has seen Fugazi knows that they are anything but quiet. I was disinterested so I decided to go upstairs where I knew Grechen was and she was reconciling with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, they were all in tears so I ducked back out. I went back to the show and traded a bunch of keys with one of the roadies, his had all these gold chains on them. After that I panicked because I remembered that I left August with Pete and didn’t leave any breast-milk to feed him…I totally flipped out and ran outside to catch a train.
On another note, I made Samosa’s again yesterday (man those take forever to make). Both the boys were down for a nap so I thought I would start the dough. Do you ever find yourself a bit overwhelmed by the beauty of food? Well that is where I found myself when I took a break from kneading, looked down and saw this.
Dough, people have been making this for so long, so so long. Bread machines have their place but there is absolutely nothing that compares to making it by hand. The texture, smell, and colors just sort of took me off guard and I just stopped and smiled at its beauty. Ok now that I totally hippied out on you lets move on to cumin.
There is absolutely no way to describe the lusciousness of cumin seeds popping in oil, let me try though. Warm, far away, that’s all I got. I could breath it in all day. It reminds me of long lazy amazing Indian meals I have eaten with good friends. Food is so cool.
Now a product plug, a must have for any cook, the chopper.
I had seen these on cooking shows forever but never saw one in a store, I finally made the decision to purchase one on-line a few months ago, I use it all the time. It is indispensable in all kinds of scenarios. It makes chopping easy, it makes getting what you chopped into your pan effortless, and it is essential when dealing with sticky dough. It really is a must for any kitchen.
And lastly an overview of my afternoon yesterday…
I love to have a beer or a glass of wine when I am preparing food that takes awhile, I put on music and have some time to myself. Maybe I need to add a soundtrack to this blog?
edited to add MP3 player, please let me know if it doesn’t work for you…
