Weekends

I went down to Binghamton this weekend and met six day old Elliot Jane. She is very sweet, and beautiful. A very good baby. Stephanie looks good, though very tired. She and Jacques are still getting used to the new parent thing. They're doing quite well though. :)









Also, Amanda got a kitty, Zip, and brought him to visit last night. Other than using the regular camera, we had fun in photobooth on my computer.









Going back in time, last weekend I made a coffee cake. I used Sally's transcription of the original, and made a few changes. I used a blend of Almond flour (1 cup), rice flour (3/4 cup), tapioca flour (1/2 cup), and millet flour (1/4 cup). I also used the juice of one lemon plus soymilk to bring it to 1 cup for the butter milk. I would have preferred to use coconut milk, but I apparently used my last can and didn't replace it. I didn't have any dark brown sugar, so I used light, and I used Ener-G egg replacer, with a 1/2 Tbsp of flax meal for the egg replacer. I also sprinkled the top with slivered almonds in addition to the raspberries, and lacked the large-grain salt. It turned out pretty well, though after two days the top was a little soggy. I will make it again, but when it will be consumed quicker.



I made it immediately before I went to my sister's, and had been planning on taking it with me. I didn't really think about how to transport a 400* dish before it was in the oven. I lined a cardboard box with a few layers of cereal boxes from the recycling, folded up a towel and rolled the ends to fill in the longer ends of the box, lined it with foil, and had a quite successful means of carrying.

hot, hot, hot

You know it's hot when you break a sweat powdering your face. Yeesh.

Of course I would decide to bake in this weather. More about that later.

Also, I picked raspberries (five different kinds!) the day before last in the hot hot heat. If I remember correctly they are from left to right (front to back) Canby, Royalty, Prelude, Killarney, and Encore. I purchased, from the same fruit farm, some of the largest cherries I've ever seen, and some lovely Crispin apples.



Brian also almost died of heat, but was also hott (with two t's) when he dressed up as the Joker yesterday, all day, for Batman. Purple suit and all (he had taken off his jacket here.

New Bicycle, new recipe, sadly no new job yet.

So I've been looking for a new bike more suited to me, and not of the mountain variety. (I have had a mountain bike for a while; my friend Dan is purchasing it from me in a while.) I was looking on Craigslist for ladies bicycles and found a really neat bike. I went to look at it today and immediately knew that I must purchase it, so I did. It is a vintage Schwinn "Suburban." It is "raspberry" in color, and has a petal-generator powered headlight, and a rearview mirror. I am very happy with my purchase.



The headlight:


The tiny generator:


The rearview mirror (and me):


The insignia, and a close-up to try to capture the color




Tonight Helen came to visit and I made cookies. They turned out really well, though I didn't completely sub all of the ingredients, they are almost-vegan and almost-allergen free. I was making a rather large batch to take to several people and I wanted to use things that I knew would work instead of making a bunch of small batches and tweak them to make them perfect in every way. I think that they would be very easy to completely de-allergenify.

Two variations of Oatmeal Cookies:



Butterscotch chip (also known as Oatmeal Scotchies) and Chocolate Oatmeal

Notes:

*For the Butter/Shortening mix I used 1/2 cup butter (this is what added the little non-vegan and little allergenic bit) and 1 cup coconut oil (I doubled the recipe, so in the single recipe that I will transcribe that would be 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup, respectively). This is my mother's recipe, and she said that with just shortening the cookies stay in whatever shape you put them in the oven and with just butter they spread everywhere and stay very soft. A mix lets them spread but hold form enough so that they don't fall apart. I'd like to try these with just coconut oil, but I decided to use some butter this time.

*These are wheat free, but if you are gluten free, make sure that your oats are *certified gluten free*! Due to growing and processing practices, oats that are not labeled "certified" often are contaminated, though they are naturally gluten free.

*In the last step for the additives, add whatever flavorings, or a cup of chunks of whatever you want- raisins, mixed dried fruit, chocolate chips, vanilla chips....

*I made one large batch and split it before the last step so I could make the two variations.


The Recipe!

Cream together:
3/4 cup Butter/Shortening mix
1 1/2 cup brown sugar (I used light brown)

Prepare three egg replacers with the amount of water for two, so that it is very thick and foamy. Mix this into the sugar-oil mixture.

Mix in:
1/3 cup milk (whatever variety you prefer to bake with)

Blend in:
3 cups oats
1 cup flour (I used millet and was very pleased) (*If using gluten free flour, add 1/2 tsp xanthan. I used 1/4, but some of my cookies fell apart when I moved them from the cooling rack to the plate, so a little more might be beneficial.)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
blurb or two of vanilla

When this is mixed together stir in:

For chocolate: 1/4 cup dark cocoa
For scotchies: 1 cup butterscotch chips

And in other areas of my life:
Still looking for a job, health insurance, and car insurance. However, Mrs. Johnson is going to let me paint what will soon be my room, which is exciting. It is now a not-quite-pale yellow. I think that I am going to paint it a nice calm sage-y green. They have a bed frame for me, I need to purchase a mattress set though. We have also discussed rent and duties, and I'm pretty excited. At least some parts of my life are coming together. Slowly but surely it all will.

On a much more shallow excitement, Brian got advance tickets for the new Batman Movie for Friday- ooo, exciting. Also, he got his first tattoo. Though I have mixed feelings about tattoos sometimes, I like it. He does too. Hopefully he will for the rest of his life. It's in a nice subtle place- on the instep side of his right heel. It is meaningful and neat looking, yet nerdy if you know what it's from. I will post pictures of it soon.

Also, I was amused when I visited Sally's blog today and saw her version of a recipe that I came upon just hours before while I was (on a break) at work. It looks quite tasty, both in the original and in hers and I feel that I will definitely have to make it soon.

It is way past my bedtime, but laundry had to be done. Tomorrow I have to get up so early so that I can get to the bank before work.

Goodnight moon.

Cue, whiney me:

Wow I want to take a nap so much.

It's almost ninety (but there's a breeze and our apartment is staying nicely cool). I don't mind the heat, but the humidity threatens to suffocate.

I have to go back to work in ten minutes. I also have to clean up the mess from the lunch I just ate that wasn't nearly as good as I wanted it to be.

I really just want to go to sleep.

*pouts*

There are nice things though:

I talked to Brian for the first time since Thursday morning. We went our separate ways, quite literally, after our last vac appointment. He went to visit home and camp, and I went home for a doctor's apt. And both camp and home are in places of little to no cell phone reception. When I talked to him he was on the way to bid grandparents adieu and then he was leaving to come back here (to Rochester, I came back last night). Hopefully he'll get back in time to stop in to say hi before he has to go into work at three.

Amanda is coming to visit when she gets off work at three. Maybe she'll want to go to Jitters. I should be able to take a break from work about then.

Also, I joined a baking club (though when you join it seems almost like you're joining the free masons....) and made the monthly secret challenge recipe yesterday while I was home. I can't talk about it (hence "secret"), but it turned out really neat after long hours of work, and was tasty to boot! I can't wait to post about it on the thirtieth....



And I got to see my Georgie when I was home.

Now out into the scaldingly beautiful day (after I wash a few dishes) and back to work I go.

Hi ho, hi ho.

Banana Bread, cookie recipe, new things

So the other day when we got back from our weekend (well, Thursday-Saturday morning) at Jillian's, Brian went to work and Steve stayed to hang out, which was cool because he's pretty awesome. I saw that my bananas were browning quite quickly and mentioned that Brian has been asking for banana bread pretty much every time he sees bananas. I think that it was Steve that then said, "well lets make some!" So we did. We made two really beautiful loaves. He posted a picture of the whole loaves here. It was a grand time.

Recipe! (Adapted slightly and doubled from my 1950 Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book). For two loaves of banana bread.

Preheat oven to 350* F.

Generously grease two 9 or 10 inch loaf pans. (I used coconut oil for this, surprise!)

Mix together until uniform and creamy:

1 1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup coconut oil (originally soft shortening)
prepared egg replacer for four eggs (originally 4 eggs)

Stir in:

6 Tbsp (about 3/8 cup) sour milk/buttermilk
1 3/4 cup mashed banana (three large bananas)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1ish Tbsp Apple butter

Sift/whisk together ad stir in

4 cups flour (don't forget the xanthan gum if using gf flours)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

When blended, stir in 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or nuts or whatever you want)

Divide between the two loaf pans, smoothing the tops so that they are flat and even. For a slightly crunchy and shiny top like I had, sprinkle a few Tbsp granulated or raw sugar evenly over the tops.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until tests done with a knife or toothpick poked in the middle.

Cool for a few minutes, then using oven mitts remove from pans (to do this I hold the pan in one hand and turn the loaf into the other hand (with mitts on, it is still really hot!) then flip it back so that it is right side up on the rack so that I don't damage the pretty top.)

Wait as long as you possible can, and enjoy plain or with butter!

***

New things!

Yesterday I went shopping at Wegman's and wandered around for while, always a dangerous thing to do. I am happy with my extra purchases though. I got a pretty (and large) cream colored coffee mug, like the colorful ones that my roommate has, so I can stop coveting hers when I use them, and bought Brian a red one, because he also liked S.J.'s a lot. (And they were on sale.) I got a super cute (and environmentally friendly) SIGG water bottle.



The design is really pretty! This was pretty much the first one I saw, then I looked at all of the others, then I picked this one back up. :p



Also, my sister is thinking about getting a kitty, which is really exciting.

Another new thing in my life is that I've started in the formal movements to go to school part time for next year (we've moved past just thinking, people...). S.J. has talked to her parents and they are making adjustments to their house to accommodate me (her mom is really gung-ho about it now that she has gotten past her initial uncertainty and is really excited to clean out and rearrange the house), so I have somewhere to live now. I also talked to financial aid and registration. I found out that I have nine credits left to graduate. As long as I have six credits each of my last semesters, I can keep half of my PEL and there is a part time TAP that I can apply for. I also won't lose any of my loans, but will lose all of my scholarships. I have to go and ask them if I will be able to keep my on-campus jobs. I definitely need to get a real job. Also, exciting, I need to get my own insurance, because I'm going to be booted from my parents not being a full time student. Yay! Adulthood! (By yay I mean mildly terrifying....)

***

And now for that mint chocolate chip cooky recipe!



Preheat oven to 325* F.

Line two cooky sheets with parchment paper.

Cream together:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup white sugar
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp peppermint extract

In a separate bowl sift/whisk together:

2 cups rice flour
1/4 cup potato starch
2 Tbsp sweet rice flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
1tsp baking soda

Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix to combine.

Stir in:

2/3 cups chocolate chips
2/3 cups vanilla chips

Chill for 3/4 hour, then let sit on table for 15 minutes to soften again (the chilled coconut oil will make it too stiff to divide at all).

Break pieces off of the dough and form into balls. place an inch or two apart on the cookie sheets and smoosh them a little (they won't spread with these types of flour). I make ping-pong sized balls for two-bite cookies.

Bake for 14 minutes or just until firm and slightly brown around the edges.

Cookies will stay soft for at least a week (none survived past that) if kept covered.