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..

Ho, Ho, Ho…

I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t with my family for the holiday, unless you count the time years back when my parents had traveled to Bali and M dragged me to the Midnight Mass from hell. I won’t go into details, but let’s just say the mass was less about fa-la-la Christmas and Carols and more about the homophobic beliefs of Father T. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough, and after a 20 year hiatus from the Catholic Church, I vowed that I would never go back. Suffice it to say, Christmas for me is about family and friends and sharing thanks for having such wonderful people in my life.

I have fond memories of the holidays growing up. In our house, it meant making about 15 different types of Christmas cookies. Let me see, there were the Yummy Caramel Bars and Seven Layer Bars, (my faves) the Dream Bars, the Mexican Wedding Cakes, the Buckeyes, the cookies with the chocolate in the middle, the basic sugar cookie with green and red sugar…I cant forget the FUDGE…oh man. My mind blanks, but there had to have been more. When we made cookies, we would store them in tins in the freezer and for months following, we would dive into the freezer at odd times throughout the day for a sweet treat. At night after a grueling swim practice, I would cozy up next to the lit Christmas tree with the fire cracklin’ in the fire place and my Yummy Caramel Bar in hand. I remember thinking; life doesn’t get much better than this. There was something about it all. The lights, the scent of the Christmas tree, (in the years between the plastic models) the fireplace, family, and my own Yummy Caramel Bar, plucked from the tin in the freezer.

This year, while our family is gathering to celebrate after the New Year, I am a little nostalgic being away from them on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We have so many traditions that have emerged over the years. From our eve of movie going and Indian food, to opening one gift, to the Christmas morning of taking 5 hours to cycle through the gifts under the tree..everyone opening just one per round. I need a little bit of the family Christmas here this year. I failed to put up lights or even get a tree and I am fighting a cold and feeling crappy.. but I can still make the house smell of sugar and maybe even have that cracklin’ fire in the fireplace.