New toys!!

I FINALLY got a kitchen scale and a food processor. They’re great so far. More colors in my kitchen!

PEARS!

Friends of mine, who live close by, have pear trees in their yard and said I should come and get some. I wanted to get enough to do some canning with, but I could only fill half a reusable grocery bag. A lot of the pears were too high and I not so cleverly decided to stop by when I was wearing clogs, which of course had to come off… I climbed up on a fence in my socks to get some out of reach, but I couldn’t really climb the trees because they were kinda small, and when you shake branches the pears would sometimes fall and then smash on the concrete of the driveway.

I’m still happy with what I walked away with and hope to turn them into something real soon, before they all get yucky and have to go to the compost. I was thoughtful enough last weekend, when my favoritist Lindsay and I made waffles for breakfast and I thought to peel and chop a couple, and put them in a saucepan with butter, cinnamon and sugar. For those of you who know I’m not much of a cook, this was a very proud moment for me.

After Kirsten and I finished the Mini Vegan Cinnamon Rolls, I made an Applesauce Spice Cake, using my very own homemade applesauce. The recipe was found in my new canning book (seen here), but altered just a teensy bit. It was supposed to be made in a 9”x9” cake pan, which I do not have, so I used my bundt pan (that I’ve had over over a year) for the very first time. The batter didn’t fill the whole thing in, so it ended up looking like a giant donut, which I kind of liked. I decided to top it with a Maple Glaze, which was a combo of maple syrup and confectionary sugar.

ALSO, this whole thing is also completely vegan, and totally yummy (a nice, fall-flavored-not so-sweet-giant-donut-cake).

Mini Vegan Cinnamon Rolls, baking with Kirsten.

I’ve baked together with Kirsten before, and mentioned her recently when I made some vegan treats at the end of the summer, but I got to spend some time baking with her last week. She mostly performs in the evenings so also has time during the day, like me, and just moved to my neighborhood so I get to see her more often. It’s such a joy being in the kitchen with her. 

We followed a recipe here from a lovely vegan food-maker/blogger, soon to by mommy, with the cutest name, It Ain’t Meat, Babe. We decided to make ours bite-sized for a party and put them in mini-muffin pans because I’d seen it before on the interweb. They were a little on the dry side, but still got completely gobbled up (with the exception of the few I “forgot” to put out because they didn’t fit on the plate nicely). 

More pictures from overnight waffles last weekend.

My least favorite thing about my “new life” (schedule, jobs, time spent, amount of money in the bank, etc.) is how much less Tyler and I see each other in waking hours. It just stinks. However, we have made a point, recently, to do one date night a week and breakfast and lazy-morning-time on Sundays. Last weekend we made overnight waffles… actually I made overnight waffles. Oftentimes when we have meals, it’s mostly Tyler with me hanging out in the kitchen and occasionally helping, mostly watching and talking, but I was so excited to make these waffles that I wanted to make them. After all, it was totally up my alley of measuring, mixing, etc. I even put them in the waffle maker. 

If you’ve never had overnight waffles before, man are you missing out. They’re so light and airy and there’s something special about the time it took to create the batter and let it grow (even though it does it all by itself) that makes them so much more enjoyable. Maybe I shall share the recipe soon.

English Muffin Toasting Bread, enjoyed as snacks throughout the week.

The last taste of summer, in a cupcake.

I made these mojito cupcakes for my friend Allon’s birthday party last weekend. Allon (pictured in the bottom right) is a tall guy, but he likes his cupcakes small. Earlier, when I asked what kind of cupcakes would he like, if I were to bake for his party… he requested one of the most lovely summer drinks, in a cupcake. I never made mojito cupcakes before, I’ve never even made my own mojito (I have, however, enjoyed my fair share), but I was excited for something new. I had made a margarita cake, back when I was taking baking classes last spring, so I decided to find some recipes that sounded good, roughly follow them and then change and add things to my liking. 

I used this recipe from The Baker Chick for the cake, except instead of the glaze, I soaked the tiny cakes in a rum simple syrup. I used this recipe from Gooseberry Mooseberry for the frosting, except I used 1/2 cup less powdered sugar. We still don’t have a food processor or blender, so I chopped the mint with a knife the best I could, which left pieces larger than I would have liked, and the frosting looking like cream cheese with chives, but tasting of lime and mint and yummy-ness; I was actually surprised with how much these little cake bites tasted like a mojito.