Easy does it. Cornmeal Pumpkin Bread.

There is a blog life after this Gratitude Challenge, I promise. And, to prove it to you, my handful of dedicated readers who I am sure are tiring of seeing another post about how grateful I am for this and this and that, I want to let you in on something good that I made the other day. Cornmeal Pumpkin Bread. In my pantry these days are bare pickins’, so when I saw that I only had ¾ cup of flour and about 20 cups of cornmeal, I decided to stray a little bit from my favorite Pumpkin Bread recipe.



I love recipes these days that I can whip together in no time flat, without messing with my behemoth mixer and 10 different bowls. I have a hard enough time staying up on the house work, especially this week with a sick little guy in the house. I have been trying to use up misc ingredients that are lying around too, like that half butternut squash in the fridge that Z wont eat, and that almost empty can of pumpkin left from the other days coucous stew. Perfect. Many times I find that I need to get to the store for something, but today, everything just fell into place, out of my cupboards and into the baking pan. I love when that happens. Like I said, easy pleases me.



I wasn’t sure what would happen when I replaced much of the flour for cornmeal, but I was really pleasantly surprised. The same pumpkin flavor and a little earthiness and nice texture imparted by the cornmeal. This recipe may have just become my new favorite pumpkin bread.

Cornmeal Pumpkin Bread

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup plus 2 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 ¼ cup pumpkin or butternut squash puree (or a mix of both, as I did)

1 large egg

1/3 cup oil. I used canola, but an olive or nut oil might be interesting too.

¾ cup plus 2 Tablespoons flour

1/3 cup plus 2 Tablespoons cornmeal, fine.

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cloves

½ teaspoon cinnamon

350, grease a 9 in square pan, or a loaf pan.

Beat together sugars, pumpkin and egg. Drizzle in oil and beat to combine.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients and then add them into the wet. Use a spatula to combine, taking care not to overmix. Pour into pan and bake for between 45-50 minutes,

depending on your pan.

All Star.

I got my first pair of Converse when I was 12. They were high tops. And they were off white. They were the brakes for me as I sat on my skateboard and careened down the big hill that leads from my parents house. I used to marvel at how hot my heels got by the time I hit the bottom of the hill. The rubber wore thinner and thinner with each ride.

When I was 16, I had a pair of black low tops. My boyfriend had the same ones. I wore these everywhere. And he wore his too. He was the 'alternative' rock guy, the one that introduced me to Primus, the Chili Peppers and Phish. At the time, these bands were still somewhat alternative, as were black low top Converse. I felt cool. The following year, he would take me to the Haight for my graduation gift, a pair of white Doc Marten boots.

In College, after the days of the Doc Martens and the nose ring, I went mainstream with a white pair of Jack Purcells.

Now, I have a pair of brown Converse slides, you know, the ones that look like they lost their laces? I have worn these to death, the soles are practically worn through, and they still keep ticking. These are my go-to shoe, often worn without socks. Not long after I got these, I bought another pair, a pair of brown one stars. For some reason, these still sit pristine in my closet. As if I would be cheating on the slides to break them out before its time.

And yesterday, in keeping with tradition..or in starting a new tradition, I bought my son his first pair.

A gelato inspired by fudgsicles..




As a kid, I used to love Jello Pudding Pops. remember them? I have always thought it would be fun to recreate those, and this comes close.. I had some good homemade fudgsicles at a friends house last week. She shared the recipe with me and instead of creating the popsicle, I decided to take it in a different direction and spin it as a gelato. What I got was the most wonderfully textured and delish cold treat. I don't normally love to use corn syrup, but I do think that it lends its hand to the stretchy-like texture of this gelato.. I call it gelato, as it has no cream, just evaporated milk! I was going to add some cherries, but I got lazy. and wouldn't you know, I have no cherry pitter amongst my arsenal of baking tools.

Next time...

Fudgsicle Gelato.
This was adapted from somewhere, cant think of where at the moment.

3/4 c evaporated milk
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 cup water
3 Tabl brown sugar
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teas salt
1 teas vanilla
1 Tabl butter, unsalted


heat all ingredients but the vanilla and butter in over low heat to dissolve the sugar, cocoa and corn syrup. remove from heat and add the vanilla and butter. let cool at room temp. when cooled, add to ice cream maker and spin away....

To say that I liked Michael Jackson while growing up is an understatement. I was obsessed with him. I used to day dream while looking outside my fourth grade classroom window, while kicking in swim practice, while laying in bed at night, that I was riding on the Pirates of Caribbean with him. Supposedly, he had this very ride recreated for him at Neverland. (not sure if this is true, but a little girl can dream right?) It was just the two of us in a boat, gliding through the calm water. For some reason, this was my dream.

I remember in that same 4th grade classroom, hiding my absolute favorite and tattered issue of ‘Dynamite’ magazine, with MJ gracing the cover, in my desk. Every few minutes, I would open my desk and peek inside, just to make sure he was still with me. And then I would smile. This didn’t go unnoticed. Ms. Winer caught me one day, and I remember how humiliated I was when she opened my desk and pulled out the magazine, waving it around and asking, “Sara, what is this? Do you want to share it with the rest of the class?” Flushing bright red, I was speechless. But, inside I was screaming, “NO, he is MINE.” She took him away from me, for home period at least.

I remember meeting a childhood friend for the first time at a park. Awkward that we were thrust together to play without ever having seen each other before, the first words out of my mouth were, “do you like Michael Jackson?” When she replied that she did, I knew that a longtime friendship had been born.

I remember being so envious of Monica, who showed up to school for Halloween, wearing a replica of Michael’s famous red leather jacket and glove. It was the icing on her Halloween costume. I was a Michael Jackson monster, complete with afro mask and all.

And, I remember when Thriller came out. I remember sitting for hours and hours, listening to the whole record over and over until I knew all the songs and all the words to all the songs. I did this with every record and tape I bought. I had to know the words. But, this was different. I loved every song and would just sit and listen to the album, singing along to the lyrics printed on the inside sleeve, gazing longingly at the picture of him, sprawled out holding tightly onto a Tiger. I wanted to be that Tiger.

I remember the many times, driving in the well aged, rust colored 280Z with my mom, when Thriller would come on the radio. I would ask to adjust the volume, and then I would sing at the top of my lungs. Every word. I knew every single word.

These are the memories that I have of Michael Jackson, before all the allegations, the surgeries, the baby dangling. While I was aware of these things, they never tarnished my image of him. He was my idol, my childhood hero, my crush. And, today, I am crushed.

A Cool Strawberry treat. Ooh Ah.




When I think of Frozen Yogurt, it reminds me of all those times in high school where we jumped in the convertible bug and headed to the Yogurt Stop. I think my diet at the time consisted of frozen yogurt, rice with soy sauce, Diet Coke, cookies from SAGA (the cafeteria) and bagels from Bagelworks (best place ever). Ah, Carbs.

Frozen Yogurt was such a fad back then, and now it has made its resurgence more than ever with the NEW wave of frozen yogurt. This time, it is being made with REAL yogurt. Go figure.

I have been itching to make ice cream since it has been over a year since I was creating many of the flavors for Poco Carretto. Spinning gelatos was one of my favorite things to do, and oh how I miss my daily spoonfuls. Now that Seattle is having some summerlike weather, I decided to celebrate it by churning up some frozen yogurt for myself. Funny, I have the best intentions when I set out to cook or bake anything these days. It is difficult to follow through when a 10 month old is threatening to pull down your gaucho pants. This week, that same 10 month old had his first cold. So, what started out as the beginnings of a lovely strawberry frozen yogurt during his lengthy morning nap, ended up as a yogurt ice by evening when I decided to speed up the process..chilling the liquid mixture for “just a few minutes,” in the freezer, while I put him to bed. What started as "a few minutes" turned into an hour, and when I came to rescue my yogurt, it was no longer liquid, but a nice sold mass.

Ah, Crap.

I would have thawed and respun it to try to recreate the texture that I wanted and that it was supposed to be, but the yogurt was already in that metal core. This would have meant that I needed to thaw the whole core, then refreeze it..further delaying the time in which the frozen yogurt would actually reach my mouth. Yikes. So, I threw in the towel, sucked it up, got a spoon and dug in anyway. What I discovered was that even though this wasn’t the frozen yogurt I had in mind, it was a nice refreshing and icy treat, especially nice on a muggy Seattle night.


Strawberry Frozen Yogurt or Frozen Yogurt Ice (whichever you choose, or whichever chooses you..)

Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

1 pound fresh Strawberries (good ones)
2/3 cups sugar
1 cup plain whole fat yogurt. (I used the European Style yogurt from Trader Joes)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt

Quarter and macerate the Strawberries with the sugar ans salt. Let sit for an hour. Puree berries and mix in with yogurt and lemon juice. Chill in fridge for an hour. heh, or throw in the freezer if you want an icy texture. To make it like a granita, give it a stir every 30 minutes to create a jagged snow cone-like texture. You can even pour it into popsicle molds. But, if you want more of an actual ice cream texture, consult your ice cream maker.

Hummus at homeus.

It has been a fun and messy road, introducing solid foods to Baby Z. A few weeks back, I introduced hummus. He loves it, like most things so far, to my delight.
I started with a basic chickpea hummus and since then I have gotten quite creative…white bean, mixed bean, lentil…all with pleasing results. Making it at home results in a far superior product than any store will carry. For some reason, I am always disappointed with store bought hummus (with the exception of one), and now I will never go back to buying it again.

A basic Hummus consists of cooked beans, tahini, garlic, lemon and salt. I noticed that a lot of recipes add a bunch of oil, but I think the tahini lends the fat to the dip, so all it really needs is a little drizzle of good oil over the top. I add a little water when I puree sometimes, especially for Z who needs things a little less sticcccccky.

Lentil Hummus.

2 cups cooked lentils
½ cup tahini
3 cloves garlic
¼-1/3 cup lemon juice
1-2 teaspoons salt
2-4 Tablespoons water
Drizzle of olive oil over the top..

I included a range for most of the ingredients, as everyone has different tastes, and hummus is extremely versatile. Just stick everything but the water in the Cuisinart and whiz. Add water as needed. This is a good basic recipe that you can try using different beans, and adding more herbs to as well.

Super Low Maintenance Ginger Biscotti...

My life as of late doesn’t feel super low maintenance, so it’s nice to a have a biscotti recipe that is. I am talking, one bowl, no mixer required. They are actually low fat too, something that I usually don’t seek, (as I look down at my left over baby belly), even though maybe I should. I happened across a version of this recipe when I was in Kauai with my parents and Z in February. I enjoy baking for my parents, and in particular, they like my biscotti, so I decided to plop babe down to watch some Sesame Street and whip these up super quick. And super quick, they are. I had some challenges there, in the humidity that is Kauai, and my dough was super wet. But, in my haste and being all caught up in the moment of being low maintenance, I just plopped the dough on the cookie sheet and threw it, not too literally, into the oven. What emerged was a surprise. I thought that without butter or oil, these things would not be too edible. Hey, what do I know? I just love fat in my baked goods. I was so pleasantly surprised with the flavor of the ginger and the lovely crunchy texture. Perfect for dunking in that cup of Kona coffee. Sigh. Today, in grey Seattle, as I made these same cookies…(a late Mothers Day gift, Mom!)...I wasn’t at all surprised that the dough was much less wet, yet they yielded the same crisp and lightly fragranced cookie…and, once again, I am transported to the lanai, sipping my Kona coffee, biscotti in hand.

SLMG Biscotti.

½ cup crystallized ginger, chopped
1 cup flour
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1 egg white


Combine dry ingredients in a bowl with whisk. Set aside. Mix eggs together separately to combine then pour into flour mixture. Fold eggs into flour, using hands if you knead to help incorporate it. take care not to overmix. Add crystallized ginger just to combine. Lightly flour counter and roll dough into a log. Place on nonstick cookie sheet, or silpat and bake at 350, for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool slightly, then cut into biscotti into ½ cookies. Bake again, for about 10 minutes more, until nicely golden. Makes about 1 ½ dozen.