I have just completed the switch from living in Austin, Texas for my entire life to relocating to Portland, Oregon, and I am just thrilled! This explains my recent absence from blogging. I haven’t so much had time for blogging, but I’m back now, and I’ll share a few relevant photos for good measure.

First off, the drive from Austin to Portland was incredible. One of my best friends, Nic, accompanied me (because she is awesome) and we chose to take the Pacific Coast Highway (CA-1) rather than the faster interstate, and man. I am not at all sorry. A few illustrative photos of the splendor of that drive:

Gorgeous. Totally gorgeous. And now I’m in Portland and it’s been great so far! I have great roommates, I’m looking for a job, I’m making friends and spending time with old friends I’ve never had a chance to see this much of, and generally I’m happy. I’m about to get back on the makin-stuff wagon, though I’ve been doing a lot of cooking (and neglecting to photograph it). Last night, my friend Andrew and I made a delicious rosemary pasta dish with sauteed oyster mushrooms and kale, roasted delicata squash, and toasted pine nuts. It was great! I also tried this American Parmesan called Grana, I think, that’s from Wisconsin, and I have to say it was pretty tasty, especially for the price reduction. Very sharp and fruity.

Anyhow, we did visit VooDoo Donut while Nic was here, so you can look at some pictures of food other people made:

1. Berry donut!

2. Mango Tango: mango filled with Tang on top. It rules.

AND, we carved pumpkins the day after Halloween, because we are fashionably late? Or something.

For some reason that photo looks ridiculously blurry, but you get the idea. I hope you’ve enjoyed this incredibly disjointed blog post, and I’ll get back to recipes and crafting and actual topics soon!

I have done a lot of sleeping this weekend. No, really, a lot. 30+ hours since Thursday night. It’s been glorious. I’ve also made breakfast the last few days, as I am wont to do, and Friday night we had a weenie roast (har har) with our friends Meg and Ben. A weekend of food and sleeping? Yes please. And so, the culmination of this weekend of food and sleeping was a coffee cake. I’ve made it once before, and it’s truly, truly delicious – it’s a slightly modified version of the Better Homes and Gardens Fruit Coffee Cake (and let me tell you, that book will never steer you wrong).

Next time, I’m going to make a batch and a half of the coffee cake because I like to use a bundt pan and it’s not quite enough. BHG recommends using an 8×8x2 baking pan, so unless you have an IKEA springform pan with an interchangeable bottom, one of which is a bundt thinger (Liz!), just do as they suggest until I figure out the proportions. The IKEA one I use is smaller than a regular bundt pan so I suspect it’d go poorly to use the normal one.

Berry-Vanilla Bean Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

• 2c berries (I have used cherries every time; this time I added blackberries, which were fine but didn’t add much. Just don’t use raspberries)
• 1/4c water
• 1/4c sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla bean paste
• 1.5c whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4c sugar
• 1/2tsp baking powder
• 1/4tsp baking soda
• 1/4c butter
• 1 beaten egg
• 1/2c buttermilk or sour milk (to make sour milk, pour a bit of vinegar into the bottom of your 1/2c measure and fill to the top with milk; let it sit a minute or so)
• 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste (my favorite brand is Singing Dog, which they sell here in Austin at Wheatsville Co-op)
• 1/4c all-purpose flour (I used naughty white flour for this part, but I’m sure whatever you have is fine if you don’t keep more than one sort)
• 1/4c sugar
• 2 tbsp butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and butter your pan really, really well, especially if you are using a bundt pan.
2. For filling, combine fruit and water in a medium saucepan (if you are using frozen, use a bit less water) and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 5min. Combine cornstarch and sugar, and add to fruit mixture along with the 1/2tbsp vanilla bean paste, cooking and stirring until thickened and bubbly. Set aside to cool.
3. In a medium bowl combine 1.5c flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Cut in the 1/4c butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
4. In a small bowl, combine egg, sour milk/buttermilk, and vanilla. Add all at once to flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until just moistened (lumpy batter, you know the drill).
5. For the delicious crumbly topping, in yet another small bowl (shut up and do the dishes later, it’s worth it), combine the 1/4c flour and 1/4c sugar and cut in the 2 tbsp butter until, again, the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. I usually resort to using my fingers, pinching the butter into the flour mix, because the volume here is so small.
6. Spread the topping over the bottom of the baking dish and spoon half the batter over it, carefully. Spread the fruit over this and then spoon the remaining batter over the fruit. Be careful but don’t get too fussy. (Yes, you are making this upside-down. The original recipe does not call for this to be the case, but I like the more integrated, crust-like effects of the upside-down method are tastier than the crumb cake topping of the original right-side-up. It will also probably be less pretty. Just eat it. You’ll be fine.)
7. Bake at 350F for 35-45 min, or until golden. Serve warm. Thank me later.

When I was a kid, my mother made biscuits literally every weekend. Once, my dad and I tried to figure out how many biscuits my mother had made, and I can’t remember the number but it was a lot. She really, really likes biscuits. So do I.

However, once in awhile, she’d use biscuit dough to make cinnamon rolls. Sounds weird, right? Well, I’m impatient (you may have noticed a trend what with the never chilling anything or planning more than 30 minutes ahead what I am cooking) and these are delicious, and everyone who eats them wants the recipe. I’ve made my own tweaks and so, without further ado, I give you delicious quick cinnamon rolls.

Donna’s Cinnamon Rolls

• 3 c all-purpose flour
• 4.5 tsp baking powder (I added an extra 1/2 tsp this time, and it really made a great difference in texture)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 3/4c butter (heh)
• 1c whole milk

for the streusel:

• about 1c brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon powder
• 1/4c all-purpose flour
• 1/4 c butter

Preheat oven to 450F. Butter a 9-in round cake pan (I use a springform because I love springform pans). Mix dry ingredients; cut in your butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and add the milk all at once; stir until dough just comes together.

Turn out onto a lightly-floured surface and pat – don’t use a rolling pin – the dough into a rectangle that’s about 3/4inch thick.

Mix the flour, cinnamon and brown sugar together and cut in the butter; spread most of the streusel mix evenly atop the dough, reserving a bit for topping. Carefully roll up the dough rectangle, and cut into slices about 2 or 2.5 inches thick. Put the rolls into the cake pan; they should be very close but not actually touching. You want them to kind of all grow together while baking so the edges don’t get all hard and weird. I always feel like I’m chewing on one of those dough Christmas ornaments when I don’t make them this way. You should probably know I did that a lot as a child (but then again, I also liked mint so much I ate toothpaste until my mom threatened me with nothing but baking soda ever again). Top with the remaining streusel, patting a bit down atop each roll.

Put your cinnamon rolls in the oven for about 15-20 min, or until puffy and golden. Cool for 5-10 mins and be sure to cut them apart or they’ll just fall into a bunch of crumbs.

I am painting again. This belongs to Liz, because Liz is awesome.

Like soup, salad, and good bread!

So I mentioned the no-more-photos quandary to my dear friend Patrick, and he told me to quit being so fussy and just snap a damn picture. Good advice! I took a quickie with my iPhone so you can be just jealous enough to try this recipe. I rounded up the recipe for the salad from eat the right stuff and got a rough idea of what I was doing on the gazpacho from another blog, though I didn’t really follow the recipe.

Hatch Chile Gazpacho

• 1 hatch chile pepper, mild (I bought a spare to use for garnishing; you only need a 3 or 4 slices garnish for each serving, but the leftovers can always get thrown in some eggs with cheese and Cholula)
• 1/2 red bell pepper (sorry, sorry, do something with the extra half, it can’t be that bad)
• 4-5 basil leaves
• 1 green onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tbsp (ish) balsamic vinegar
• 1 slice bread (I used a roasted garlic and jack cheese, mmm), soaked in
• 1/2c stock (I use, at the suggestion of the inimitable Orangette, Imagine’s No-Chicken Broth, because it doesn’t taste like much)
• 1 seedless/English/Canadian/whateverthefuck your grocery is calling it today cucumber (the one with ridges, in plastic wrap), peeled
• 1 large tomater!
• salt to taste

Put the peppers, green onion, basil and garlic in your food processor and process until extremely finely chopped. Wee, tiny pieces. Add lemon juice, olive oil, tomato paste and balsamic vinegar; process until it starts to puree. Add the bread and stock and puree. Add tomato and cucumber; here you get to make your own choices. Sam likes hers pureed and thusly I puree it. Others like it a little chunky. This is why I tell you to wait to the end to add the cuke and tomato, because these are the things you would want chunks of. It’s like a choose your own adventure story, except the ending is always that you eat gazpacho. Add salt to taste (I used, I think, somewhat less than a teaspoon). Chill for as long as you have; I hear 2 hours is the minimum, but I don’t plan very well, so mine chilled more like half an hour. Oops. Garnish with a few slices of hatch pepper and be sure to serve with a few pieces of crusty bread!

Roasted Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Salad

• 1 large sweet potato, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1/4 tsp red chili flakes
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• olive oil
• 1/4c pine nuts, toasted (it is possible, just possible, that I forgot to toast these. Eh.)
• salad greens (I used a spring mix or whatever, I’m not picky. It’s green. Put it in my face.)
• Small log of Montchevre goat cheese (I like this brand because it’s mild and creamy and not too expensive and mmmmmmmm)
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• heaping 1/2 tsp dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 400F. Toss yer sweet potaters in olive oil with the minced garlic and the chili flakes; roast in the oven for about 30 min, until tender and slightly browned at the edges. Put on a plate to cool and put the peppers in the pan as well (add a little more olive oil if you’re worried there’s not enough left over) and roast for about 20min. See how I just saved you a pan? You’re welcome.

While the warm foods cool, mix up your salad dressing, put some greens on a plate, pinch off a bunch of goat cheese for each salad (or just a little, if you’re a wuss, but I like as much as I can put on there without seeming like I have a problem), etc. Once they’re around room temp or slightly, slightly warmer, arrange the potatoes and peppers atop the salad greens, sprinkle with pine nuts and goat cheese, and drizzle with your vinaigrette. Eat!

Okay guys. I hope you can all forgive me for this (har har) but I probably won’t often post photos anymore – I stayed away for so long because I realized I detest making everyone STOP and wait for me to take a photograph of a plate before I serve dinner. Half the reason I love cooking is that I get to share it with others and make them happy, and I end up feeling sort of neurotic and removed from that sense of community when I have to photograph everything. So, this will mostly just be recipes, but that’s okay with me, because mainly my friends and family read this anyhow.

Without further ado, this is a delicious casserole I made once awhile back and again last night. It rules. Please try it. Normally I don’t use meat subs, but they’re great in a pinch, and if you eat meat you could easily substitute already cooked chicken (I think… I’ve been vegetarian as long as I’ve been cooking).

Cheesy Chik’n and Plantain Casserole!

Ingredients:

4 large plantains or burro bananas, peeled
2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
3 anaheim peppers, diced (IT IS HATCH CHILE SEASON, PLEASE USE THEM INSTEAD! They’re hotter but oh so delicious)
Olive oil
5 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 pkg Quorn pieces
1 tsp salt
cumin to taste
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
8 oz shredded queso quesadilla (get it at the food hole, or possibly cm)

1. Slice plantains lengthwise and lay on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 10min or until they start to brown (mine took more like 20). Turn the oven down to 365.
2. In the meantime, saute peppers and onions in olive oil until soft; add garlic and saute 1 min more.
3. Add the tomato sauce, quorn, salt, and cumin. Cook until bubbly and Quorn is heated through.
4. Lightly grease a casserole dish. Lay 5 plantains slices in the bottom of the dish and layer 1/2 the Quorn mix on top. Spread the beans over the quorn, and slice any left over plaintains and spread atop the beans. If you can fit all your plantains in the bottom of the dish, that’s great too! Layer on the rest of the quorn mixture, and top with the shredded cheese.
5. Bake for 30 min at 365 degrees.

NOTE: Do not be an idiot like me. Please get some kitchen gloves to dice peppers. If you don’t, you will probably get what amounts to mild chemical burns from the raw peppers. It hurts like hell and is basically the dumbest way to injure yourself ever. Leave it to me on that front.

I had an idea awhile back, as I’ve started biking to work, and I thought I’d start posting a few pictures a week from my ride – but mainly all from one vantage: the river/the lake/the dammed-up river or whatever at Pleasant Valley. Things are always a little different, but it’s so much more obvious with photographic evidence. An exercise in being mindful of the beauty in small changes, and the beauty in everyday life. I like minutia. Here’s a few days over the last week or so:

February 27, 2009; morning

March 3, 2009, morning:

March 3, 2009, sunset (coming home later than usual after East Side Pies with Lauren):

March 4, 2009, evening:

The last one is the old abandoned power plant in East Austin. My friend Patrick once took me on a fantastic night-time bike ride and we went right up by it – it’s very horror-film in the best possible way.

The headwind coming home tonight on my bike was absolutely killer. I was pedaling all the way down the Pleasant Valley bridge over Town Lake, which is bordering on the ridiculous. I am almost convinced I am actually a sail that has developed (perhaps mediocre) consciousness.

Anyway, the long and the short of this is that I was ridiculously hungry when I got home. And what do you do on a cool Texas spring evening? Make pasta with asparagus. Clearly. I loved this combination mostly because the pasta is tossed in a lemony-parmesan white sauce infused with rosemary and garlic – a hearty winter sauce if ever there was one – and then paired with tangy, balsamic-rosemary-roasted-tofu wedges and crisp, barely-roasted asparagus. It’s the perfect dish for being in between seasons.

I’m not posting a recipe for the entire thing. It’s pasta. Improvise, for goodness sake. But the white sauce, yes, that deserves a good recipe.

2 c milk
1.5 tbsp butter
2 tbsp unbleached flour
7 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
5 or 6 sprigs of rosemary
zest of 1 lemon
salt
1/2 c finely grated parmesan cheese

Melt the butter in a saucepan; whisk in flour and continue cooking and whisking until pale gold. Whisk in the 2 c milk, the garlic, rosemary, and lemon zest, and heat to a simmer over medium heat (no higher and do not boil, it is milk after all) until thickened. This takes awhile. Not forever, it’s no choux pastry, but it’s awhile. Strain garlic cloves and rosemary out of white sauce and stir in parmesan, whisking until cheese is melted and you have a delicious thick creamy pasta sauce.

To make the rest of the pasta, I simply caramelized about 1 c of chopped onions and about 7-10 cloves garlic, minced, in a pan with the zest of 1/2 a lemon, and then let that sit around on low to med-low heat for awhile. Right at the end, I stirred in the peas and then added pasta and the white sauce, and cooked it over medium-low heat for 5 minutes or so to integrate everything.

Pasta is so easy. Yum. I am full and pleased!

So, if you think my Iron Cupcake – Coffee submission (previous post; Gingerbread Mocha Cupcakes) looked as good as I think it tasted, vote for me here:

http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/2009/03/008nuts-seeds.html

Thanks! <3

My submission for ICC:Earth this month was way last minute. I got the email that said “Whoa! The deadline is tomorrow!” and I figured, why the hell not? I haven’t done one in forever, what with getting married, getting a new job, etc. But now I have a little more time, so without further ado:

Gingerbread Mocha Cupcakes

Ingredients

Ginger Cupcakes
1/2c butter
2 in fresh ginger root, peeled and finely grated
1 3/4c sugar (I used turbinado and beat it a little extra to get the crunchies out; the molasses flavor added nicely)
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
2.5c unbleached white pastry flour
2.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 c milk

Espresso Buttercream
3/4 c butter
About 6 c powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 c espresso, freshly pulled
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 tbsp milk

High-quality cocoa powder for dusting

To Make Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 375F and place cupcake papers into your tin. Allow eggs and butter to stand at room temp. for 30 min.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl; set aside.
3. Cream butter and ginger until smooth and fluffy. Slowly add sugar (about 1/4 c at a time), beating until smooth each time. Beat 2 min more at med/high speed.
4. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, about 3 min total.
5. Beat in vanilla.
6. Add flour mixture and milk alternately, beating after each addition until well-combined.
7. Pour your batter into a pastry bag and pipe into your mini-cupcake-pan!
8. Bake at 375 for 8-10 min, until fluffy and golden, or until a toothpick inserted in a cupcake near the middle of the pan comes out clean.
9. Cool completely before frosting.

To Make Buttercream:

1. Pull 1/4 c espresso (about 2 shots; I eyeballed it) and add in the 1 tbsp milk to cool.
2. Cream butter until smooth and fluffy
3. Add 2 c of the powdered sugar and most of the espresso mixture; reserve a little for later, though I did not need it.
4. Beat until well-combined; beat in vanilla.
5. Beat in the rest of the powdered sugar, slowly, until the proper texture for frosting. Dribble in the reserved espresso mix if it’s too thick.
6. Pipe onto cupcakes.
7. Dust with cocoa powder.
8. EAT.

The table was full of dog toys, so I took photos (above) on the kitchen counter, and even some…

On my bed.

I find this amusing for whatever reason.

PS: I need a tripod. Fuzzy fuzzy photos.