Morning Glory, in all its glory. before and after.

I remember when I first had a Morning Glory muffin, about 25 years ago. I remember thinking that it couldn’t possibly be any good since it didn’t contain any chocolate chunks or cream cheese filling. Was I wrong. Where it lacked chocolate and cream cheese, it made up for with carrots, pineapple, raisins and coconut. To a 9 year old, it just about knocked my Vans off. My mom used to make these often, and then one day possibly after counting the calories they contained, she just stopped. Quite deceiving, they tote all the healthful ingredients, along with a healthy dose of fat. Oh well. I think that 20 years went by before I had another one, at a local and well known bakery in town. (I wont name names) Until this day, I always felt like with the Morning Glory, you can at least feel like you are eating something healthful, but this one was different, it was all too greasy. Yuk. So, it has been 5 years and while looking to clean out fridge and freezer, I came across all the ingredients…old shredded coconut..frozen pineapple..carrots..a stray apple..lost macadamia nuts..raisins..beckoning to me from behind the roasted chicken and the bag of ice,
‘mmm..remember the days..morning glory..’

I gave into their pleas, and I did what they asked.

I debated cutting back on the butter and oil, remembered my brownie fiasco, and thought the hell with it, I am going to go full force….and I was not disappointed.

Fun with Raisins, part 1.

What do you do when you have 4 pounds of puny, dried out raisins from Costco? (besides calling Sunmaid and complaining?)

You make Raisin Lekvar, that’s what!
What is Lekvar you ask? It is a fruit butter typically made from prunes or dried apricots, mainly used in European pastries…

I decided to try it out in the swirl of cinnamon raisin bread. Instead of having a bread just flecked with raisins, I ended up with a swirl of raisin-y jam like goodness. Fresh out of the oven with a little butter and cinnamon sugar, it truly was divine…




Stay tuned for part 2...

Please excuse my long hiatus from Whisk and Wander, as I have been fully consumed with motherhood and am just starting to figure out how to juggle the little guy with one arm and make cookies with the other...I hope to post more regularly from now on as I find both the free moment and the inspiration.


(baby in sling, cookies in the making...)

Back in the saddle…or trying.

Now that I am not working, every outing, whether a walk or an errand, I find that I need to have a treat in the form of an iced latte, bubble tea or Matcha Tea latte. I feel I deserve it, after all, I was able to motivate and successfully get out of the house with baby in tow. Don’t I get some kind of reward? In a way, it is those little things that I look forward to now. Going for a walk and knowing that a Matcha Tea latte awaits me after the first mile and a half, or going to the baby store in search for silicone binkies and knowing that, conveniently, the bubble tea place is around the corner, or just going to drop the mail in the mailbox outside of Lighthouse Roasters, and knowing that the best iced latte awaits me there. (even though I have a perfectly capable mailbox of my own at home, not to mention coffeemaker..)

Last week, I decided to fund my habits further by buying a cup attachment for my stroller, just for my lattes…how convenient is that?

When I step back and look at just how many coffee, iced tea lattes and bubble teas I consume a week, I try to justify it with the fact that I am not buying myself any clothes right now (trying to lose that extra 20 lbs..) and we are not eating out often..unless you count the quick runs to Paseo for Cuban goodness, or Herfeys for some greasy goodness and a shake..(yes, still trying to lose 20 lbs..)

I do have pangs of guilt though whenever I plunk down my debit card on these not so necessary items. (necessary items: diapers and wipes AND diapers and wipes..)

So, once again, I have taken to trying to duplicate my favorite drinks in the comforts of my own home. This time I have tackled the Matcha Latte with pretty good success. I actually think it surpasses the Starbucks version, which usually comes laden with way too much ice and nasty melon syrup, not to mention Matcha powder stuck to the bottom in undissolved chunks. Yum. You would think that a place like Starbucks would figure that out?

What I did was use one of those Japanese tea stirrers to dissolve the matcha in the milk, and then a cocktail shaker to create a somewhat frothy drink. I have to say that I was pretty happy with the result. Next time I walk, I will just have to take my own homemade matcha latte with me..after all, isnt it all about the journey and not the destination?

Matcha Tea Latte

6 oz good milk
1.5 teaspoons matcha tea powder
1.5 teaspoons simple syrup

In cocktail shaker, mix all together with bamboo whisk and let sit for a moment to dissolve matcha completely, add ice, shake and pour...

Refresher.

Now that it is feeling a bit like summer here, after what I like to call a long ‘Juneuary’, I am feeling like a nice cool beer, a frosty Caprihana and a nice glass of chilled white wine. In reality, I still can have none of these. But, I came across a lovely refresher in a cool book that my mom gave me, one that was nominated for a James Beard award, very deservingly. It is called Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson, and in it, she does what I have been striving to do lately; cooking more using whole grains. Not only is it a beautiful book, but it is quite informative too. She finds uses for the more obscure flours…mesquite chocolate chip cookies anyone? I have yet to try these using the mesquite flour, but I am intrigued.

In the book, she has a recipe for a drink called Aqua Jamaica. Sounds refreshing doesn’t it? It is made from Hibiscus Blossoms, which, randomly, I had in my tea cabinet, a little sugar and water. It was quite refreshing with a little sparkling water and lime.

If you have a hard time finding Hibiscus Blossoms, try Trader Joe’s Raspberry Infusion Tea. My second batch was made using this instead, and you will see that the tea actually contains hibiscus as well as raspberry..so, there you go!

To make:
Bring to boil 2 cups water and 3 Tablespoons sugar and pour over 4 tea bags. Let steep for 5 minutes. Then, add 2 more cups of cool water and chill. When ready, fill a glass with ice, pour tea to fill 2/3 and then top off with sparkling water and a couple lime wedges. Add sugar to taste.

The brownie not worthy of its name. (i.e. another dud)

I am not sure what I am thinking with this one. I think it started with my desire to play around with whole grains in my baking adventures, and secondly, the fact that I am 35 weeks pregnant and feeling large…not to mention an evil mirror and lighting experience I had last night in the bathroom at the Salish Lodge. (think posterior + cottage cheese)

My oven, after being kaput for 2 weeks, is now fixed, so you guessed it..the baking must go on.

While I have a few pretty tasty brownie recipes, I decided for some insane reason to make a low fat brownie tonight. I am kicking myself already, and they haven’t even emerged from the oven yet, in all of their non gooey, non chocolaty badness. I tasted the batter; something that I try not to do in pregnancy, given the raw egg thing and all…but, I couldn’t resist tonight when I noticed the extremely pale hue of my brownie batter. It was then that I had my doubts. Then I tasted it. Think of a batter, that tastes not even remotely resemblant of chocolate, then add that flavor of whole wheat which is great in breads, not so great in brownie batter.

People, it wasn’t good.

I should have known. Really. I mean, how many times do you see a dessert recipe that says “low fat,” and it actually tastes good? Well, I am sure that it happens every once in a while, but let me tell you as someone who spends most of her time baking with real butter and eggs….it happens not often enough. And, STILL, I went along with this recipe. Wishful thinking I guess..

So, to mildly defeat the purpose of the low fat brownie, I added a heaping cup of Green and Blacks Hot Chocolate Mix, which is essentially chocolate and sugar…so, here comes the fat, back into my brownies and onto my posterior. I am not even sure that this will salvage the mess that I may have just made…but, I am waiting, somewhat un-eagerly to find out….

30 minutes later…

Well, they don’t smell too bad…but…

It looks more like a cake, and not quite the fudgy, chocolaty brownies that I normally make…

10 minutes later…

Oh boy, I really hit it on this one. I think that this is the absolute worst dessert that I have ever made. It is that bad. How can the Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Baking Book publish this recipe and feel good about it? Yuk, yuk, yuk.

To think that I was so, so close to making a full fat oatmeal cookie instead, and now I have a pile of tough, chewy, not chocolaty at all, ‘if-you-can-even-call-it-a-brownie’ brownie….such a shame.

This is no brownie of mine, no brownie at all.

Chocolate Croissant, take 2.

I have been having a hard time finding a decent chocolate croissant around here. And maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough, because I know that there are plenty of good bakeries around. Instead of venturing out and risking disappointment yet again, I decided to take the matter into my own hands. If you are the most truly dedicated reader, you might be saying… “hey, you already did this post back in March 2007..” But, when I look back on photos of my earlier attempt at making the chocolate croissant, (well, I cheated and used puff pastry instead) I have to laugh since my ‘croissant’ was pretty much like the ones that I find I am complaining about…not enough chocolate for my pregnant cravings of today. This is going to change.

Making croissants is a lengthy process, so the dough that I am starting this morning, will have to wait to be devoured in the form of a tasty croissant, tomorrow morning. Yes, it is a labor of love, but I am willing to wait 24 hours. Now, I have all the time in the world, time in which I am determined to perfect these things, if nothing else. I may not have the nursery up and ready in time for baby, but I will have myself a damn good chocolate croissant. Hey, since I am officially not working, I gotta keep my hands in the dough, right?

--24 hours later---

Ah, ha. Mission accomplished. I am pretty happy with this attempt. I even had some willing friends test them out.. I think that if I did anything different, I would use bittersweet chocolate instead of the milk chocolate…next time.

And, just so you know, there will be a next time.

Not to change the gist of my blog entries, but I couldnt resist. The other day on my way to work, I saw the most ridiculous thing, or shall I say, things. These were dangling off of one of those mini subaru trucks. Obviously, the guy driving had some inferiority issues about having a mini truck, and not one of those MAXI S-1000050 Fords.

what next?

Another Sweet Craving.

I have really been craving the breakfast pastries lately, and this morning I just had to have a scone.

Every once in a while, I try to bake a scone that is reminiscent of a ginger biscuit from one of my favorite Seattle bakeries, Café Besalu. Numerous times over the holidays, I have made them, and now, while transitioning out of my job, I find that I have some extra time on my hands to make them every once in a while for my co-workers. There is something special about Café Besalu’s biscuit, a melt in your mouth quality that I am convinced may come from the flour that they use, not just the butter, or the barely touched dough.

This morning, instead of trying once again to recreate the ginger goodness, I went in a different direction with some ingredients I had on hand. The recipe I had been eyeing called for buttermilk, but I used a cream top whole milk yogurt instead, which worked out quite lovely. I threw in some plumped cranberries, raisins and a dash of cinnamon. If only I had an orange, I would have zested it to add a little brightness. The result was quite a handsome looking scone, so handsome that it trumps my less perky looking, yet supertender ginger scones.

..hmmm, looks like ginger might need a new look.

Bread of Chocolate.

I am craving a chocolate roll from my old bakery days, when we would pull them fresh from the oven, studded with chocolate chips, lightly sweetened and perfumed with cocoa. It was a nice treat, when you were feeling a little indulgent, but it wasn’t such a guilty indulgence. The dough was somewhat lean, with only a few eggs to fatten her up..along with a little chocolate. Of my arsenal of bakery recipes, this one failed to make it out alive, when the bakery doors shut forever back in 2001. And since then, for some reason, I never really thought twice about it.

(so many things to bake, so little time I guess..)

I think that my bread and chocolate craving began a week ago, when I went to seek out my favorite pastry of all time, the chocolate croissant. I was envisioning the chocolate croissant of my youth, one I have surely mentioned in the past. You know, the flaky one, brimming with chocolate on the inside, and then dipped in chocolate on the outside? Well, I was heavily disappointed when I went to bite into my bready croissant, and I found about one chocolate chip’s worth of chocolate on the inside. Come again? (I have since made my gripe clear to the bakery in question on Yelp.com) How dare you call it a chocolate croissant? If I wanted a chocolate chip, I would eaten one, AND I would have saved myself $4.00….not to mention the heartache.

Back to my bread...This one isn't quite what I remember, but with a shmear of peanut butter, anything tastes divine..

By gosh, I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I think Spring is in the air, sort of.

For over a week now in Seattle, it has actually been sunny. Today, on my walk, I actually could see Spring bulbs bursting through the soil, and I could smell the flowers. There were even some buds on the cherry trees, my favorite sign that Spring has sprung.



In my kitchen, I am feeling happy and springlike too, although I still don't have much fruit to work with at this time of year. I am over pears and apples... So, I decided to take a turn with Lemons. Bright. Yellow. Sunny. Lemons.



I have been eyeing a recipe for a Shaker Lemon Tart....

A Shaker Lemon Tart is one in which the whole lemon is used, minus the ends and seeds. I was intrugued by this, since one of my favorite things to make at work in the Winter months is Marmalade. I figured that this tart would end up being like gooey sweet Lemon Marmalade, nestled in a flaky pastry. A little sunshine. and it was.

Update:

I baked off the cookie dough from my previous post and the result wasn't half bad. Not my favorite cookies in the world, but, still tasty enough for a pregnant lady to consume one or two or three... and, to my delight, the banana flavor was a little less pronouned. (I, of course, have nothing against bananas, but there is a time and place for them, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies ain't one of them...)

Give the lady her dough.

I love chocolate chip cookies. And, what I almost love more is chocolate chip cookie dough. So, it pained me greatly last week when I whipped up a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip raisin cookies, and I couldn’t even take a bite of the sweet buttery, vanilla and cinnamon scented batter. It was a little bit of torture, since I am the type who usually sets out to make cookies and am already sick from dough-overdose by the time they come hot out of the oven.

Tonight, I really wanted some cookie dough so I decided to make a one that even I could enjoy.
In the past, I have played around with Vegan recipes, so I decided to come up with a cookie dough recipe in which I use a banana to substitute for the eggs. This works pretty well in cookies, the only downfall being that your chocolate chip dough is now heavily perfumed with banana…making it not quite the same…but, still edible by my standards.

Here is what I came up with:

Chocolate Chunk and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

4 oz butter
¾ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 small banana
¾ cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup oats
4 oz dark chocolate, in chunks
2 oz raisins

Cream the butter and sugar, add the banana and vanilla and cream till fluffy. Add the flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder(just in case you decide to bake them after all) and mix to combine. Add the raisins and chocolate and mix. Devour.

* note: I have yet to bake these so, no promises there. Maybe tomorrow.

**** Update! I have been a chocolate chip cookie fiend lately and so I made some cookie dough at work to turn into Cookie Dough Gelato. This time, I just took out the eggs from a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, and added just a touch of milk instead. the dough was pretty much identical in taste to a normal batch with eggs, and better yet, I was able to indulge :) I didnt attempt to bake these, but instead, I just folded chunks of the dough into my finished gelato. yum.

Sushi.

Being pregnant and having cravings for Sushi has left me feeling a bit conflicted. When I felt the urge, I used to just pop into Whole Foods for my quick Sushi fix, but now, I am feeling a little more paranoid than usual, and I am just not sure that the premade, sitting on the shelf, raw fish sushi is my smartest option. (even from Whole Foods!) It really bums me out, and I admit, I have bought the cooked fish variety but, even then, I felt like maybe I should avoid the premade foods section all together. (I have been reading too many pregnancy books, I know..)

Lately, now that I have my appetite back, I have been craving sushi a lot. Believe me, I am more than happy to be past the “baked potatoes only” stage.

I was feeling quite motivated last night and when the craving hit while shopping at Whole Foods, I passed right through the premade Sushi land and headed to the rice and Nori aisle instead. I decided to make my very own sushi, albeit a boring avocado and cucumber roll, but still, it was sushi.

This is definitely something I will do again..it was quite fun. (I was actually giddy, I was so excited) and easy too! (and it cost a heck of a lot less!)

The Move.



I feel like it happened so fast. One day we just started packing casually, the next, I come home to an empty house, cardboard boxes and bubble wrap. I guess this pregnancy thing got me out of all the hard moving, which took place all day while I was at work. Instead, I spent my time packing, unpacking and cleaning. T and I make a pretty good team. In the span on 2 days, we went from not all the way packed, to packed, moved out, moved in, and about 90% unpacked. Phew. And, now, I am exhausted and can definitely feel those pregnancy pinches in my slowly expanding hips.

It is funny to move into a new house, it is almost like opening presents on Christmas morning. Unpacking boxes, trying to find a place for everything…playing house with your furniture and trying to see which way is the best. It reminds me of when I was young, and my room was my very own creative palate. When I needed a change, I would move around my furniture, placing my bed at a different angle, my dresser against a different wall, and I remember feeling like it was a new room. It was exciting again. When that became old and I had exhausted all the possibilities (I think that there were two..) I would add a new hunk to my collage on my back-of-the-door cork board, or I would cement glow in the dark stars all over my ceiling. I remember looking at those stars for hours at night, starting so intensely that they would begin to orbit around each other.

On the Saturday that we moved in, the big Packers and Seahawks game was on, and our new neighbor was having a game watching session with some buddies. I know this is because for some reason, he owns no window coverings at all. I remember thinking that he must be a bachelor or just an exhibitionist. While I was in the kitchen unpacking, I kept noticing a light go on in a little room across the way. I would notice because it was dark in that part of the house, so it was obvious when the light would go on. After a couple times seeing this light go on and off, I realized that I was looking into this guy’s bathroom, with a partially clouded window. I said ‘partially’. So, I could tell when the neighbor and his buddies needed to relieve themselves, AND, whether they were standing, or, ahem, sitting. After about the third time, I felt the need to dig out a curtain rod and curtain of my own, just so I could grant them a little bit of privacy…

A couple weeks and a new roof later, and we are feeling much more settled. It is interesting how I have been noticing things more as a homeowner, whether it is the loose doorknob, the way the hardwood floors are a bit uneven in one place or the fact that our lovely vintage oven doesn’t fit half of my baking sheets..Never did I think twice about these things before, and now, I am thinking, “oh geez, at some point WE need to fix that…and that…and maybe paint this…"

All in all though, our house is like our new creative palate and instead of just changing the furniture around when we need a change, we can actually move a wall or a doorway…for this, we will keep you posted..