Santa Barbara, California

A couple weeks ago Kyle and I went to Santa Barbara for my cousin's wedding. After spending several days with my family at the beach and at the wedding we drove north up Highway 1. We stopped in San Luis Obispo, Big Sur, Carmel, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco.

The Santa Barbara Airport is tiny, mostly open-air, and beautiful.

La Super Rica. Delicious and authentic tacos, horchata, tortillas, etc.

The whole place is tiny with a tented teal patio for dining.

Santa Barbara Beach

Downtown Santa Barbara

Family at the Groom's Dinner

Flight of local beer

Farmer's market

Megan and Matt's Wedding

Watermelon Margarita Slices

We had a cookout on our patio for the 4th of July and I knew I wanted to keep it pretty classic with burgers, potato salad, corn on the cob, ruffles and chip dip, and watermelon. Somewhere online I had read about poking a funnel into a watermelon and pouring in vodka. This sounded so incredible. However, I found an ever better recipe via my favorite lady, Martha Stewart. You basically turn a slice of watermelon into a margarita. And they were so good! Totally going to be my new summer party staple. I sort of followed her recipe...I never really measure anything so I guess I just used it as a guide line. Also, I would make the simple syrup the day before and let it cool, then mix the liquor with it later. It doesn't make sense to heat it all up on the stove like the recipe calls for. Put the slices in gallon sized plastic freezer bags while everything is marinating. After you take the fruit out, pour off all the delicious, boozy juice to drink later. Mmm...this will probably revolutionize your summer.

It's been awhile

I totally abandoned my Wednesday baking ritual as you could probably tell. I still have been cooking and baking but I took a little break from the internet. It is fun to photo-document what I make and put the recipes online because if anything, I know where to look everything up in the future. So, hopefully, I can get in the swing of updating this thing again. Also, I have been extremely busy with work and now that it is summer, I have a lot of pool time I have to get in!

My birthday was a couple months ago and I got some great cookbooks from my mom...

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

The great thing about vegan cookie dough is that you can eat as much as you want! Also, I was carrying a plate of just baked gingersnaps over to my friend's house for a cookout and the cookies caught the eye of a man out walking with his friends--He said he had to have one and then gave me a dollar. Hah! My first official sale!






The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City
I devoured this book. It was amazing. David Lebovitz has a great sense of humor and I love his observations about Paris, it's people, and food. Between chapters are recipes for things like Cinnamon Meringue with Espresso Caramel Ice Cream, Chocolate Sauce, and Candied Almonds. And, yes, that is one recipe. I love this man.











Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

I have to admit I haven't actually made anything from the cookbook yet, but once I do it's going to be great! So many vegetarian cookbooks are just full of side dish recipes for vegetables and this one has really great complete meal recipes.

Tea Time Cupcakes

One of my favorite things is sipping tea while snacking on some juicy strawberries. Earl grey tea seems to be making it's way into a lot of popular dessert recipes and I wanted to get in on the action. I decided I would make strawberry cupcakes and top them with a creamy earl grey frosting. Surprisingly, it was really hard to find a recipe for strawberry cupcakes. I found a lot of recipes using box cake mix and jello mix, which is kind of gross and not what I was looking for. The other recipes where just vanilla cupcakes with strawberry frosting. After searching around some more, I decided to use a vanilla cupcake recipe and alter it.

Alright, so how did they turn out? Just okay. The cupcakes don't taste like earl grey tea at all. They are very faintly strawberry, not what I had planned. I didn't write this into the recipe because it didn't end up making a difference; I thought if I "juiced" some of the strawberries through a fine mesh sieve, it would make the batter pink and taste more like strawberry. I think I would have had to add a lot of juice to make this actually work and I don't know how that would affect the liquid ratios in the recipe. The cupcakes do taste really good, but just not as flavorful as I wanted them to be. The texture turned out well, the tops are kind of crunchy and the insides are fluffy and moist.

Okay, on to my next "fail": The frosting. I don't really like butter cream. Why did I decide to make it today? I think I was feeling kind of lazy and butter cream seemed to be the answer. My mixer isn't working properly, so the classic 7 Minute frosting was out because I knew my arm would fall off if I tried to whip it to perfection by hand. Anyway, I made the frosting with butter, a little whole milk, powdered sugar, a very small pinch of salt, vanilla, and some pink gel food coloring. It looked awesome, super smooth and creamy. It was kind of too sweet for my taste though. So then I added some earl grey tea and some finely chopped strawberries. I folded them in and something terrible happened. I don't know exactly what though. The frosting kind of...broke. I don't know if it started separating because I over whipped it, or if I should have whipped it more after adding the strawberries, or even if the liquid from the strawberries didn't incorporate. After mixing and tasting and adding and tasting, I feel totally sick. I over did it. And now I have 22 cupcakes and a ton of gross looking butter cream. Ugh.

a nice close up of my gross looking frosting

Tea Time Cupcakes
makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup finely diced strawberries
1/2 tablespoon finely ground earl grey tea (I used one teabag)
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line cupcake tin with paper liners.

2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and tea together in a medium bowl.

3. In a separate, larger bowl, cream the butter. Gradually add the sugar, creaming until light and fluffy.

4. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Fold in strawberries.

5. In a small bowl, combine the milk and vanilla.

6. To the butter mixture, add about one quarter of the flour mixture and mix well. Add about one quarter of the milk mixture and mix well. Continue alternating the flour mixture and milk mixture, beating after each addition until smooth.

7. Pour the batter into the cupcake tins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched.

8. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, then turn the cupcakes out of the tins and onto a rack to finish cooling completely.

Photographs

I was just checking Design*Sponge and reading a photographer's recipe for sangria. There was a link to his blog and I just saw these pictures of a couple who has been married for 60 years. They are too much. I don't usually get all soft on the internet, but look at how sweet these are! AHH!

Vegan Banana Quinoa Muffins

Yesterday I made muffins. This recipe for quinoa muffins looked interesting but a little boring. I added the use of whole wheat flour and made them vegan with a few changes. The muffins came out really moist and dense. The quinoa made them kind of nutty, which is awesome with the banana.

This photo is from the original recipe, with rasins and all purpose flour.
This gives you a good idea of the texture.
image from MSLO

This recipe made a lot of muffins, so after scooping the batter into muffin liners, I froze some of the un-cooked muffins. Every time I make something and tell Kyle it is in the freezer, we both have to laugh a little bit, because I am serious, it is an obsession. It is so easy to bake off a few goodies at a time, they just need a few minutes longer in the oven. Wrap the frozen muffins tightly and bake within a month or two so they don't get freezer burnt.

Also, I made the quinoa the night before, so it was cool when I mixed the ingredients together. This seemed easier and made more sense to me. I made a little extra and made awesome veggie burgers. Instead of making a yogurt sauce, I crumbed some feta into the mixture.

Something about baking vegan has been really fun, like a science experiment. So far, all of my recipe "improvements" have turned out great. It's also nice to know that I can share all of these treats with all my friends no matter what their eating habits.

Sorry, no photos...I was too concentrated on the muffins.

Vegan Banana Quinoa Muffins
makes 18 muffins

Ingredients
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or cinnamon)
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup soy milk
1/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan, bring quinoa and 1 cup water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer; cover, and cook until water has been absorbed and quinoa is tender, 11 to 13 minutes
2. Meanwhile, line muffins tins with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, pecans, pumpkin pie spice, and 2 cups cooked quinoa; reserve any leftover quinoa for another use.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, soy milk, mashed banana, and vanilla. Add milk mixture to flour mixture, and stir just until combined; divide batter among prepared muffin cups.
4. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool muffins in pan, 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container up to 5 days.

The bike is back!

Today's to-do list: bake biscuits, do a couple loads of laundry, and get an Illinois driver's license. However, it was supposed to get up to 80 degrees and I realized it would be insane to go sit at the DMV all day. So I took a much needed adventure around Chicago.

After a little bike maintenance (I hadn't ridden since November!) I met Kyle and some of his friends from work for lunch in the West Loop.

Then, I rode to Oz Park, where I sat on a hill in the sun and watched a high school baseball game--the lions won! There is a Lush store near by so I went there and bought some soap that smells exactly like the Sticky Lemon Rolls I just made. After a little bit more wandering in and out of stores, passively looking for a pair of Toms, I started my ride home. The Map Room is really close to my house and for some reason, I hardly ever go in. Riding past, I realized I should treat myself to a beer. I asked the bartender for something citrusy and un-filtered. She poured me the Schneider Wiesen Edel-Weisse and it was perfect!

I rode 8.6 miles today. It felt awesome. I kind of forgot how obsessed with my bike I am. This morning I was trying to set up my camera on a trash can to take a photo of me and my bike, luckily my landlord was walking by and helped me out; he thought it was pretty funny I wanted to take a picture in the alley.

When I got home, I opened a few more windows in our apartment. Thurston and Lucy couldn't be happier.

In a little while Kyle and I are meeting some friends for dinner at Costa Rican restaurant with a huge patio. Ahh, what a great start to spring.

Sticky Lemon Rolls

This recipe for Sticky Lemon Rolls was posted on The Kitchn last week and I have had the tab open on my browser ever since. I finally got around to making these rolls last night and they just came out of the oven a few minutes ago. This recipe was great because had never made cinnamon rolls before and I am totally crazy for lemon. They came out with the perfect texture--really fluffy and slightly crunchy on the top and bottom. When adding the powdered sugar for the glaze I just did it to taste, so the glaze wouldn't be too sweet. Also, I decided to do everything by hand and it was fun. My fancy mixer is great, but kneeding dough to perfection is very satisfying!

Sticky Lemon Rolls with Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze
Makes 12 large breakfast rolls

Lemon Roll Dough
1 envelope (0.25 ounces, or 2 1/2 teaspoons) yeast

3/4 cup milk, warmed to about 100°F or warm but not hot on your wrist
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
1/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 lemons, zested
2 eggs

Sticky Lemon Filling
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
2 lemons, zested and juiced
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft

Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 lemon, zested and juiced

In the bowl of a stand mixer sprinkle the yeast over the warmed milk and let it sit for a couple minutes. With the mixer paddle, stir in the softened butter, sugar, vanilla, and one cup of the flour. Stir in the salt, nutmeg, and lemon zest. Stir in the eggs and enough of the remaining flour to make a soft yet sticky dough.

Switch to the dough hook and knead for about 5 minutes, or until the dough is elastic and pliable.

(If you do not have a stand mixer, stir together the ingredients by hand, then turn the soft dough out onto a lightly floured countertop. Knead the dough by hand for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the dough is smooth, pliable, and stretchy.)

Spray the top of the dough with vegetable oil, and turn the dough over so it is coated in oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a towel and let the dough rise until nearly doubled - about an hour.

In a small bowl, mix the sugar with the nutmeg and ginger, then work in the lemon zest with the tips of your fingers until the sugar resembles wet, soft sand. Stir in the juice of 1 lemon. (Reserve the juice of the second lemon for the glaze.)

Lightly grease a 13x9 inch baking dish with baking spray or butter. On a floured surface pat the dough out into a large yet still thick rectangle — about 10x15 inches. Spread evenly with the softened butter, then pour and spread the lemon-sugar mixture over top. Roll the dough up tightly, starting from the top long end. Cut the long dough roll into 12 even rolls, and place them, cut side up, in the prepared baking dish.

Cover the rolls with a towel and let them rise for an hour or until puffy and nearly doubled. (You can also refrigerate the rolls at this point. Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. When you are ready to bake the rolls, remove the pan from the fridge, and let them rise for an hour.)

Heat the oven to 350°F. Place the risen rolls in the oven and bake for 35 minutes or until a thermometer inserted into a center roll reads 190°F.