BitterSweet

I am a firm believer that there is no better all-purpose recipe than a hearty, tried and true banana bread for just about any occasion. Graduation? Engagement? Funeral? Trust me, banana bread always fits the bill. In this case, it was a baby shower that prompted the appearance of this delicious loaf. Soft and sweet with a fine crumb, but not dense and cake like, it can even be consumed for any time of the day as well! Breakfast, dessert, with or without icing, it’s still the treat you’ll reach for.

Mine started with a very simple recipe originating from VegWeb, but you should all know by now that I just can’t leave well enough alone, so I made a couple of my own adaptations, which I’ll include for any of those curious. Yes, you may notice mine is less healthy. I’ll admit it, I made it more of an indulgence, even adding in chocolate instead of the reccomended nuts [Which could still make an excellent addition as well], but I figured that an omnivorous pregnant woman would prefer a better flavor and texture over saving a few calories. I didn’t actually have any whole wheat pastry flour anyways, and I didn’t want it to become overly dense and vertically challenged.

I must say, it did rise quite beautifully in the oven, and the whole kitchen smelled amazing. It took all the restraint I could muster not to tear into this thing as soon as it slid out from the pan. The good news is that it freezes wonderfully once covered in plastic wrap, reheating like it was baked that day. Even better yet is if you were to throw a slice in the toaster, adding an extra crispy edge.

There are so many words, and yet none are quite adequit to describe such a bread. I’m afraid my mouth will now be occupied to appreciate everything that words can’t say about such a loaf, so you’ll just have to bake up your own and find out for yourself.

When I first started knitting this, I might have admitted to feeling a bit silly - After all, what kind of crazy person knits sweaters for apples?

But I soon saw the benifits once my red Fuji apple was comfortably nestled inside.  Now, whenever I pack a lunch to take to school, I don't need to waste plastic wrap on these guys; I've got a reusable cover!  So it's nice on the environment, on top of looking cute (Which is probably its most prominent feature)!

It was knit with my favorite dirt-cheap acrylic stuff on #9 DPN.  The pattern called for 8's, but I didn't actually have any, so I figured that Fuji's [My favorite!] were rather large anyways.  The cozy did come out a little bit too big, but it still functions as intented just fine.  It might be more like an apple pouch for different varieties… But who cares!  Still cute!

You can get the free pattern so kindly rewritten at craftster.org.  It was originally brainstormed in Knittorama, but my experience with that book has been… Less than rewarding.  Thank goodness someone took the time to make it work in the round.  Why on earth would you knit this thing flat by choice?!  I don't think I really want to make anything else from that particular text until it has been amended, thank you very much.

Knit with cheapo Bernat Super Saver acrylic, and the only change I made was that I knit a couple extra rounds near the middle to elongate it a bit more. I thought the original looked a little too round, but hey, that’s just me.

Wrapping up this marathon of May birthdays is my sister’s, as she turns 19 this year. Yikes, can you believe it?

A picky eater if anything, I was excited by the propect of making the Vegan with a Vengance ‘Chocolate Raspberry Blackout Cake’ in an attempt to sneak extra fruit into her sparse diet. Raspberries were her favorite after all, and who can say no to anything with chocolate in addition?

So I set out at Stop and Shop to buy supplies; I’ve been baking so much lately, we needed to stock up on basics like flour and sugar again. But what’s this? Not a single raspberry amongst the whole selection of produce? Okay, I’m aware they are painfully out of season right now, but I had just seen pints upon pints of these in every market around! Well, no matter, I would just have to try somewhere else after dinner. I ran home and hit the ground baking - It was already getting late and there was no time to loose.

I will admit that going into the oven, the consistency of the batter worried me a little. It was so watery, I was afraid that it would be a mush of cake and pudding in the end. Luckily, I was very pleasantly surprised and they were absolutely lovely. The pans were set out on the counter to cool, and I returned to my hunt for the elusive raspberries.

The first target was Shaw’s. We even asked, in case they might be stocking invisible fruit these days, or if they had decided that they were better suited to be shelved among more similar items, like the canned soups. The employee helpfully proved a completely unintelligible answer, and since there didn’t appear to be any random hidden berries along the isles, we moved on. Trader Joe’s was right across the street, so it was a quick stop… Where they didn’t have any either. Umm… Okay…

At this point I was beginning to think that this might not work. But I had already made the layers with raspberry jam, I couldn’t just toss in some odd fruit that we had on hand. And what else would the finicky recipient eat? I was totally stuck. So onto our tiny little Stratfield Market… to discover nothing useful. Crap!!

But enough was enough. It was pretty obvious by now that we just weren’t going to find fresh raspberries. Frozen were breifly considered… but they were for decoration afterall, and frozen berries are just so… ugly. Crazily tearing through drawers and cupboards in our own kitchen, I decided that I would have to settle on something far less nutritious, but maybe in the end more enjoyable to my sister: Sprinkles. Yes, my sister is a sprinkle fiend, so just for her, I ultimately emptied an entire jar of mixed hearts and jimmy’s over the raspberry blackout cake…

She didn’t even care about the berries, the copious amounts of chocolate and sugar were enough for her. She did actually comment that the extra jam between the layers really made the cake, as did a handful of others present. It just goes to show, who knows how much better it could have been with real fruit!!

Such lovely layers… Definitely a recipe that will see many reappearances in the future. A wonderfully moist cake with a light, tender crumb. Not overly dense at all, and delightfully sweet with that touch of raspberry jam. Maybe I could make a variation using blueberry jam… Or perhaps apricot… But no matter what, next time, I’ll plan to use fruit that’s in season.

Sometimes, thats just how the cake crumbles.

[Check out those glowing sprinkles! Not the best pictures due to lighting conditions.]

Another amigurumi monkey, only with a different color scheme this time.  An accquaintance at school liked the first one so much, they enlisted me to make them an unnaturally colored marsupial of their own.

Idly browsing through our massive collections of cookbooks one day, I stumbled upon my mom’s old “Microwave Gourmet” [or something to that effect.] I’m not a huge fan of the microwave, personally… Sure, they’re wonderful for reheating, but in general, almost every dish suffers somewhat texturally in the end. I do have somewhat of a bias towards the toaster oven… I even think that some toasters out there are downright sexy. If only it were blue…

Anyway, back to this whole microwave cookbook deal. Flipping through the basic recipes, they were little more than plates of steamed vegetables and meats, nothing that really caught my eye. But then, in the very back hid a tiny section on desserts. Upon closer examination, there were pretty decent ideas lurking beneath the surface. There was even a recipe for… Brownies?! What?? Is it even possible? Why had no one told me that this could be done before?

Essentially, my whole concept of the microwave had been shattered.

There was no way to leave this thought alone; It haunted me, calling out from its pastic shell. Just try it, you know you want to… How could I possibly resist?

Digging through various vegan brownie techniques, I discovered that I didn’t have all of the ingredients on hand for any of them. Ah well, time to get creative with what’s avaliable and mix things up! A flurry of measuring and stirring ensued, yeilding quickly to a promising brownie batter. Out of the bowl and into the…. microwave.

The initial results were… Less than inspiring. The center appeared to have remained in a pudding-like state, while the sides nonetheless seemed to have cooked - More than I had honestly expected. It even pulled away from the sides of the dish, indicating solidity. A gentle poke proved that the surface was… Erm, somewhat disturbingly rubbery. Having satisified my immediate curiousity, I returned it to the microwave for another minute or two in order to thoroughly nuke the center.

End verdict? Wow, gooey chocolately goodness. So much so that my mom feels they’re closer to fudge than brownies, and decided they deserve the title of “fudgey bars” instead. The fact that there is no actual cooking on the outside allows they to be so dense and creamy, and while possessing a wonderfully smooth mouth-feel, this is not what I see as the perfect brownie. Still, this little experiment has given me a lot to think about regarding the modern innovation known as the microwave. Perhaps it deserves more respect that I’ve previously allowed.

Now, you’d think this is where it would all end right? At first I would have agreed, but then I realized I hadn’t yet fully completed my test. A few nights later I was called upon to bring baked goods to a family function… And realized it was the perfect opportunity to try out the same exact technique, but this time, in a traditional oven for a full comparison.

Ensuring accurate results, I greased up the exact same pan, mixed up the same chocolate mess, and tossed it into my trusty old oven…

..I believe I may have inadvertently found the mythical “perfect” vegan brownie. A different create entirely from its microwaved sibbling, they are near flawless. A delicate balance between cake and fudge, richly chocolate and crunchy around the crisp edges, I don’t think it can get much better than this.

Really, it’s so amazing, I’m going to have to be a greedly little vegan and keeping my golden recipe all to myself for now… But your patience will be rewarded, for the method shall be forthcoming in due time. I’m extremely proud of this one, but I still think it could use some work before I can truly deem it to be a “perfect” brownie recipe.

They're good for your eyes!

And if you can't tell there's something different about this particular root vegetable, you should get them examined! [Your eyes, not the carrot.]

Nothing special, just another flowery brooch to show off today…

Can you believe that's the closest I could come to peach beads?  Pretty pathetic, but I guess peach just isn't a popular color in general…

Yes, my crafting ventures have been fewer than usual, but hopefully I'll come out of this funk soon.  Maybe if it could stop raining for more than 30 minutes… Bleh.

Oh yes, more May birthday madness! The birthday girl in question also asked me to bring over some other vegan sweets to her little tea party on Sunday, so I have quite a bit of baking to do today… But it’ll be a fun challenge, thank goodness. I just need to figure out what to make next!

I don’t remember exactly what my inspiration was for this one, but I knew that no matter what, I wanted to find something that went well with chocolate, because I just happen to have tons of leftover chocolate ganache for some reason. This particular friend didn’t appear to be particularly fond of fruit flavors, so I tried to look in a different direction. Standard vanilla was considered briefly, but the urge to experiment soon became all-consuming when I dreamed up the thought of peanut butter cupcakes. Sure, I’d seen some “peanut butter cupcake cakes” before, but they were chocolate cakes with peanut-buttery orbs stuck in the centers.

These bad boys make no excuses. Loaded up with nothing but peanut butter, it really gives the nutty flavor a chance to shine through instead of playing second fiddle to the chocolate topping.

Of course, fate has a way of working against us…

The cupcakes were fine, but on the morning they were to be delivered, I was not exactly the most cheerful little girl around. Sleep had eluded me for all but 30 minutes before I had to run out the door to catch my train - Some how I had managed to avoid getting a single nod all night, but then mysteriously passed out on the living room carpeting right before I had to start moving again. I honestly have no idea how I even got there.

So now I was rushing around toasting up bread, packing lunch, carefully wrapping up the cupcakes because - Oh look - It’s raining yet again. In the car, I singe the taste buds off my tongue with a gulp of molten hot coffee, and then spill what remains all over my lap when we stop short. By the time we made it into the station, I was no prepared to deal with much. Knowing that this friend sometimes has an issue with making it to school on a daily basis, I worried that my efforts would be for naught.

“If she’s not here today, I swear to god, I’m throwing these cupcakes into the train tracks.” I threatened in my mother’s general direction.

My mom was slightly taken aback, “No, you won’t.”

“Oh you just wait and see.” I was a bomb just waiting to go off, and who was going to tell me what pastries I could or could not destroy?!

“No, seriously, if she’s not here, bring them back home and I’ll eat them,” she clarified with a grin.

Luckily, sleep deprivation and 3rd degree coffee burns aside, it all went off without a hitch. The birthday girl showed up just as I had made her repeatedly promise throughout the week, and I believe she even enjoyed the cupcakes. Well, I can’t be sure about that, but I’m pretty sure if she didn’t like them, she probably would have stopped at her second or third.