+2kg

I really enjoyed my vacation. I got to see family, friends, meet new babies, and see movies for four dollars in old indie theaters. But mostly, I ate.
Corn muffins.
It's a Beautiful Pizza.
Mexican take-out.
Oh, with freshly fried tortilla chips and super spicy salsa.
Ethiopian food. (I found an Ethiopian restaurant in Tokyo! More on that later.)
Delicious, delicious Stumptown.

Cowberry???

I made jammy cocoa cookies to send off in batches today. I reached into the pantry for a jar of jam and came up with... こけもも.

Kokemomo? A peach of some kind? I searched my pocket dictionary, my phone dictionary, and my electronic dictionary. Finally, Jim Breen came to the rescue. As usual.
苔桃 【こけもも; コケモモ】 (n) (uk) cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea); mountain cranberry; foxberry; partridgeberry.

Partridgeberry?!? Excellent! Since I made gingerbread, coconut macaroons, cashew-cranberry chocolates, partridge-berry jam cookies are the perfect way to round out the packages.

Some random guy added me on Facebook today. I have a general preference for not adding people I've never met in real life. The last time I bent this rule is when some guy who CLAIMED to have met me lied his way into making me agree by furnishing fake details of our meeting circumstances (a party in Ebisu; I HAD been to a party in Ebisu, and there were a lot of people there). I later found out he was a LIAR with 800 friends and about as many updates per day. Blegh.

Anyhow, I didn't think I knew today's adder. When I looked at his info to try to jog my memory, he had a website link (and 800 friends). I clicked on it. And I don't know him, after all. But his photos are pretty awesome. And it's a really pretty slideshow. I would even put this on as a screensaver if I wasn't using the computer.

pumpkin cranberry muffin madness

I've been making so many muffins lately. I make these muffins all the time, and they always turn out awesome. The recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance, Isa Chandra Moskowitz's first cookbook. I love her recipes (she also posts recipes at The Post Punk Kitchen); they are so tasty and not hippy dippy and use common ingredients. Here's my mildly tweaked version.

1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup sugar (I usually use brown but white works too)
1 T. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. each cloves, nutmeg, allspice (adjust to your taste - when I make this for Japanese people I usually lighten the spices, as they don't tend to appreciate the big fall spice mix)
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup oil
1 cup pumpkin puree (I use canned, which I find at Kaldi Coffee or Seijo Ishii import store, but you could use kabocha puree and it would work well)
spoonful of molasses, maple syrup, or vanilla, if you have them on hand.
a few handfuls of walnuts or dried cranberries (optional)

Whisk the dry ingredients together (except for the nuts/dried fruit). Whisk the wet ingredients together in another bowl. Fold the wet into the dry and mix until moistened. Fold in nuts or fruit if using. Spoon into a greased or paper-lined muffin tin and bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes, checking for doneness with a toothpick or fork. It should come out clean. Devour.

banana and coconut

Somebody come help me eat all this.

Cream cheese frosting. HEAVEN.Adding coconut? GENIUS.

Oh yeah, and silicone pans are pretty stupid. Silicone spatulas? Brilliant! Silicone Silpat-style baking sheets, for going under cookies and things? Great! Floppy ass pans that bow under the weight of the cake you just baked as you're taking it out? Suck.

crunchy

Now that fall is in the air, I finally feel like baking and cooking again. Good thing, because there are so many bags of flours and bottles of vanilla and spices just languishing on my shelves, forlorn all through summer.

I have a bag of dried fruit that my boss gave me, and with it nearing expiration, this recipe grabbed me. I eat a lot of granola and granola bars for quick breakfasts and tucked into my work bag for a fast snack.

I've modified her modification, and made it as follows:

2 c. old fashioned oatmeal
1 c. chopped walnuts
1 c. shredded coconut (sweetened is what I had)
1/2 c. wheat germ, flax meal, or oat bran
2/3 c. liquid sweetener - I used the end of a bottle of pancake syrup, the end of a bottle of kuromitsu (black sugar syrup), and 1/3 c. of honey
1 1/2 t. vanilla paste (or extract, but paste is what I have open)
1/4 t. (sea) salt (Okinawan is what I have now)

1 c. chopped dried tropical fruit: papaya, mango, pineapple

I bought this bottle of honey tonight because I liked the jar.

Combine the first three ingredients and toast on a sheet pan in a 300º oven for ten minutes. Add the wheat germ or whatever you have. Add the sweetener, vanilla, salt, and mix to coat. Add the dried fruit. Press firmly into a baking pan (about 13X9 inches) that is lined with baking paper and greased (this step is important or else it's really hard to get them out of the pan, and you'll scar your pan all up trying to chip it out with various utensils and increasing degrees of frustration) and bake for about 30 minutes at 350º, until lightly golden. Cool for a few hours, then remove from pan (if you've used baking paper, you can just lift it out) and cut. The baking paper also serves as a nice dividing sheet to keep the bars separate - just cut the paper along with the bars.
These are so delicious, dang.

She lives on Drury Lane

I made a batch of nutmeg muffins that I found over at Orangette. I just happened to have some whole nutmeg knocking about on the spice shelf. What are the odds?
I've had a fair number of successes with the girl, I have to say.

These aren't too sweet, but they have an oh-so-lovely aroma and are delightful with morning coffee.

Don't mind if I do.

Kitchen sink

I wanted to make oatmeal cookies, using this recipe as a base.

But frosting? Oatmeal cookies don't need frosting.

Halfway through the mixing, I realized that I didn't have enough oats. I had about half as much as I needed. Well, let's substitute.

In went about a third of a cup of McCann's steel cut oats. It's still oatmeal, right?

After that, I shook in some organic Cascade Valley oat and flake and bran cereal that looks good in theory but is disgusting when it hits the soymilk. The bran squiggles dissolve instantly into a soggy, gluey mess. Bleck.

The cookies turned out well, though, with some chopped up butterscotch chips that were languishing in the butter drawer in the fridge. Except mine's a chocolate drawer. The chips had been semi-melted and re-hardened, and were more a block than chips. I broke off a chunk and chopped them up on the cutting board.

The only thing is that steel cut oats don't work in baking. I'm glad I only put in a third of a cup, otherwise the things would be way too hard and chewy. As it is, these are just a little bit toothy. The cereal, however, is indistinguishable. A great way to use up those flakes that are slowly going stale.

Onion pie

Sweetie pie, Onion tart. Sound like a song to me. This was good.

Smitten Kitchen sez. But I would brush the crust with a bit of olive oil next time, and use fewer onions.

Bananarama

It's been baking central over here lately.

Read food blog, bookmark, make. Repeat.

This one's from Orangette. Truth be told, I like Little Vegan Monsters' banana cake better.