A Few of My Favorite Things, in a quickbread

Today's post begins with a Guessing Game. What is this a picture of? 

The answer will come in the next post! For now, we turn our attention to a delicious new conquest:

Chocolate Banana Gingerbread

How did this come about, you ask? As usual, with the need to use up soon-to-be-gone ingredients. In this case it was ripe bananas, the last bit of molasses, and cookie crumbs (that were also used in a certain pie). I love it when things work out like this- you feel economical and thrifty while at the same time ending up with a gorgeous load of sweet baked goodness. It's kind of like the feeling you get when you manage to do two things at once, like laundry and paying bills, except better! Because this gingerbread is sure better than the mostly-dried clothes I get from my building's dryers...

I found the recipe on a blog I am only recently following: How Sweet Eats. I'm not sure if it's How Sweet It Is or How Sweet Eats- she has both. Either way, I am hooked, because her writing is hil-ar-i-ous. Go to this post, read all the way through the recipe, and tell me that you didn't laugh. "Stupid legs." She has a genius for internal comic dialogue.

I loved the combination- banana bread, gingerbread, and of course: chocolate! I stuck mostly to the recipe on this one, although I didn't have enough molasses to equal her amount (1/3 instead of 1/2 cup), but called it close enough. I substituted 1/3 whole-wheat flour for all-purpose to no adverse effect. And instead of turbinado sugar, I sprinkled the top with my ground gingersnap crumbs for an extra sparkle of spice.
The result had a gorgeous moist, practically gooey, crumb, an even crust on top, and filled the role of "Semi-Healthy Dessert" in my household to a 'T'.

Yes, infinitely better than semi-dried clothes. 

Don't forget to guess the subject of the photo above in the comments! No telling what the scale is...

Bittman, Baking, and The Best Dishes

Today, I bring you three recipes tried and news of some fun to come.

The first recipe is for "Autumn Millet Bake," the sound of which is something quite atrocious, but turned out pretty well, even with my typical tweaking tendency. I first saw the recipe at Heidi's site here, and was inspired to try something with millet: how pioneer-like! how quaint! how self-reliant! (You see how I like to get carried away with evocation)

Here were my changes:

• scaled it down by half
• used cooked squash
• didn't have sage
• added roasted corn kernels
• didn't use nuts
• added different seasoning (a disadvantage of losing my notes on this one is I can't remember which)

I don't think I managed to fully cook the millet, and I'm not sure why, but it was quite crunchy, and quite tart from the (frozen-fresh) cranberries. I had it in the morning as a whole-foods pick-me-up at work and it worked out well, providing about 4 servings (so I gather they were estimating for hungrier people in the original recipe!).

It certainly looked pretty with the colors that pop, and satisfied the belly, being made with plain foods and low in fat. If and when I try this recipe again, I would stick closer to the original and maybe cook it longer so that the cranberries had more of a chance to stew.

This next one has only one picture, because it wasn't very photogenic and it wasn't very flavorful. Strike Two (bringing the count to 1 and 2) for the Traditional Scottish Recipes book I bought in Scotland.

Third and final recipe: Italian Apple Cake, from FrenchieTBD, which stands for The Best Dishes in the title of this post. As far as I can tell, it is a defunct blog, and I often find a broken link, but some industrious fishing gets me back to the actual site and recipes. I really liked the writer's style of posting a life anecdote with a dish, so I'm bummed that she hasn't posted in a year, but what can you do: life goes on- thank goodness!

I brought this one for coworkers, and boy, was it good! Moist, as the photo shows, good browning, rich and airy crumb, and with the intoxicating scent of rum mixed in with the fresh, local apples. Ah, life is good.

And now for the news to come: I am excited to participate in the Food Blogger's Cookie Swap 2011!

I haven't decided yet what type of cookie to bake for my compatriots in the Food Blogging World, but I want it to be good! And I'd rather make an assortment of 2 or 3 types to mitigate the risk of disappointing, but we have been instructed to only use one recipe... so I guess I'll look over my recipients' blogs to see what they like!
Try this cake. You won't be disappointed.

Osmotic Pressure and Metaphorical Me

"Osmosis is the movement of solvent molecules through a selectively permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, aiming to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides."

Often I speak in metaphors which may seem out of place in the current conversation. My brain likes to dig up particularly esoteric or far-fetched descriptions for me to use when I am trying to better convey a certain feeling or state of affairs. This happens frequently at work, and while I register the lack of comprehension, I'm somewhat at a loss to replace my outlandish metaphors with more down-to-earth descriptions. Heave forbid I come off prosaic.

So here is my metaphor from today. I could feel the osmotic pressure of my Within and my Without this morning- the tug and swirl of the happiness experienced through self-discovery and creative effort over the weekend (Inside), contending with the lack of challenge and inability to focus on a long-term goal of the mundane Monday (Outside).

I just sort of floated along with it, letting myself be happy with the former rather than obsess over the latter, and you know what? About 2/3 of the way through the day, my brain started engaging and firing on different pistons, enabling some more cogent contributions to be made to work conversations. Good. Keeping the mind nimble and adaptable. Although- I am thinking maybe the forever-going-around-from-hobby-to-hobby to keep my interest in and mood up is disguising something deeper... but let that go for the moment.

What has been captivating me for the past week or two? All the old hobbies, come back in glorious technicolor: runs on Sundays and yoga on Tuesdays and writing for the novel and baking for friends and cooking for myself. Plus, a new dance course! A style called sean nos, which seems less glamorous but more accessible maybe than step dancing. We'll see. Two classes and I'm already enjoying the improv parts!

And here's a fun video that shows some of the inheritors of sean nos in the Carolinas...

Now as far as the more usual theme for this blog (FOOD), I'll leave you readers with some encouragement. "If you make it, they will come" turned out to be true for me this week:

red wine chocolate cake --- afternoon tea on Saturday with Jess
grilled corn salsa (salad) --- Sunday luncheon with Kim and Juan
and tomato-shallot Tarte Tatin
lemon rosemary zucchini bread --- brown bag lunch with coworkers (I hope- that'll be tomorrow!)

So now I'm off to grate my zucchini with my only pertinent instrument- a microplane!- to make it easier to bake tomorrow morning! :-)

And let me know: do you want more Scotland or more food? I've got both at the ready...

Halcyon Day

Today I'm here to tell a story of a halcyon day, back in June of 'Eleven.

Amid the hustle and bustle of work meetings scheduled across 2/3 of the U.S., and the big family visit east to the Capital, there was a short jaunt just for me. It was to San Francisco, CA.

Famous CA hills and rowhouses in the Mission, but note also that radio tower

Evidence of nature, in amid all the works of man. Plus, mural!

I wrestled a long weekend out of work by leaving on Thursday morning and coming back on a Monday evening in early June. I wanted to explore the city as an adult, having always thought of it as a lovely place to visit friends in, a great place to party on, but never having lived there myself. I thought it might be my next move.
So I stayed in a friend's apartment who was out of town, and I explored. I walked. A lot. Please take note of that radio tower and the camera-holder's proximity to it in different photos.

 What did I find there?
I found wide, sweeping vistas. I found color in unexpected places. I found activity and community and voices dripping with cynicism at the table next to me at Tartine. I absorbed the feel of neighborhoods, re-acclimating to the California habits of landscaping, of creativity, of disposable income.
I was delighted by the alleys (which DC has, but they're different), by the hills (which DC has, but they're really different), and by the joyful beauty (...).
I don't see much of that kind of expression in DC- joyful beauty. There is the watermelon house in my neighborhood, true, and the wonderful red-toned edifice in Dupont with the antler accoutrements, and the crazy-colored mansion on R St., sure.
But I realized I missed a certain sense of joyful liberation in how people set up their nests. I liked seeing the evidence of others' finding their true selves.

Color! Height! And a hobbit door!

 

 I mean, look at this one. The front part of the home is painted light lemon yellow and houses a gorgeous nature-inspired metal pattern (TREES), which is echoed in the trees/ bushes they chose to dot their winding entrance. And there are steps resembling individual stairs instead of something broad, brutalist, and centrally planned (ooh, maybe I have been here too long...).
It reminds me of a cross between the book Mandy and the Mission church I grew up in: a sweet, rambling style from decorator magazines, but with a direction and focus all its own. That's what I want.

 Oh my! I'm right at the base! It took several meandering hours, several questing turns, and a bit of sunburn, but I got there: Twin Peaks. Beautiful views and diverse housing stock.

See? It's the little things that make life worth living: how you choose to live is all you've got, so you might as well make it joyfully beautiful.

 For this delightful grub, simply cruise on down to 758 Valencia St. Reservations recommended, but no tie necessary, just a good appetite!

I had:

SEMOLINA-CRUSTED TOFU FRITES,

summer corn, caramelized onion, napa cabbage, apricot, applewood smoked bacon..... and it was gorgeous.

The s'more meringue concoction was not as delicious, but very tasty and very pretty. At least the chef went for joy- don't you just want to eat it all up?

Book Club bonding and blueberries

Last weekend I went blueberry-picking. This weekend I was in Houston for a Saturday meeting facilitation (read: work). While I have documentation of neither for you here, I do have evidence of the first activity.

 

It was a recipe I pulled up in a mad rush of trying to decide what to bring to my book club (which was reading this), since I had to take a shower, finish the book, and make something yummy to contribute in the space of an hour. I spent 20 minutes deciding, 20 minutes pulling it together, took a shower while it baked, and didn't end up finishing the book. Win some, lose some. Judging from the "Mmms" from the book-clubbers, I chose the right answer.

It produced a very tasty cake-y type of confection, but I would have liked more time to be able to do the biscuit-type topping instead. Next time...

Mini-Bundt Beauty

I love that scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding where the Greek mother is trying to get her mouth around "Bundt cake." And I suppose I share a feeling of Bundt cakes being foreign, since I don't own a Bundt pan, and I have no idea where that Teutonic appellation originated. Oh, wait, I have the internet at my fingertips. Still, for a long time, my banana breads have been confined to loaf pans, those humble and useful servants.
But last summer I found a beautiful purveyor or ceramics. His name is Terence Tessem, of Tessem Stoneware. I can't link to a page because he doesn't have one! I imagine him holed up in a cold drafty barn of a studio in rural Pennsylvania, emerging only to follow the Renaissance Faires during the summer months. At any rate, I bought a mini-Bundt pan and a utensil-dryer. Fanciful, you say? Not practical, I hear? Not so!

I've used the utensil-dryer since last fall, and it's a tidy way of drying silverware that leaves more counter space for other dishes drying. Excellent. And pretty too.
But the the bundt has been a little harder to sell. Sitting on the bookshelf, it looked pretty, but it also got dusty. FINALLY, today, I saw my chance. I had bananas to use up, searched my Google Reader for banana cake, and presto!- Banana Espresso Coffeecake with Chocolate Chips. I figured I could halve the recipe and use my dish and end in some deliciousness. Actually, half her batter yielded two of my-size cakes! Woo-hoo! And they are delicious, just like the normal banana bread recipe I use, but in a fun shape.
Alterations for my version:

• didn't have milk, used a dollop of greek yogurt and water
• didn't use the glaze
• halving the recipe led to a time of 36 minutes for the first crop and 34 minutes for the second (slightly less batter)

Enjoy!

Pretty Pictures from NYC

Aunt Irene's colorful, warm, and inviting living room

Aunt Irene in her kitchen, with her own art and others'

Stop on the LIRR with interesting lines

Manhattan, vu du Queens (regarde l'Empire State a gauche)

Cakes and confections...

and a clutter or congratulations, for Magnolia Bakery! (It was pretty good, but not better than Georgetown Cupcake)

At Risotteria, a specialty gluten-free restaurant for lunch. I had some intense garlic in there, topped with pork shoulder slices. I don't believe the people on the bus home appreciated my leftovers much...

Overblown-at-one-time architecture, that now just looks misunderstood.

Another beautiful facade, unfortunately converted into T.J. Maxx and others...

View down a side street, with complications.