PPN: It's been A While!

I say it's been a while! It isn't that I don't like Ruth or her event, Presto Pasta Nights (in fact, I love the event and read the roundups often, at least when I'm able to access her blog without my pitiful internet freezing!), it's just that I don't tend to eat pasta! I don't know why, I think it's a bit heavy on the old system. I'd rather nosh on flavourful, nutty kasha, or some black rice, than chow down a bowl of spaghetti. Until today, when for some odd reason I was hit with a craving for 2 very random things: pizza and pasta bolognese. Since I can't eat either of those things, I got a bit creative and whipped up this spectacular monster of a creation, which I happily downed with chopsticks while my kitty glared at me for refusing to share. Mine, all mine I say!

So, finally with something to submit for the "apres-birthday" roundup of Presto Pasta Nights, I give you:

Vegan Pizza Pasta
Serves 1
6 oz savoy cabbage
2 oz dry rice fettuccine
1 tbsp sea salt
1/2 cup canned pizza sauce
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tbsp black pepper
1 tsp dry basil
2/3 cup Yves' ground round

1. Steam cabbage 5 minutes, remove from heat.
2. Boil pasta according to package directions in water seasoned with 1 tbsp salt.
3. Drain and keep hot.
4. Heat sauce, adding spices.
5. Stir in Yves'.
6. Place cabbage into a bowl, top with noodles and sauce. Toss well, and serve.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 397.7
Total Fat: 1.5 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 1,261.0 mg
Total Carbs: 72.2 g
Dietary Fiber: 17.0 g
Protein: 27.0 g

Finishing the Coconut Milk (photo heavy post)

I know, I've been AWOL the past couple days. I wish I could say I had a good excuse... does laziness count? Actually, yesterday I was a bit too frazzled to think up anything to write about, since a "quick" trip Andrew and I took out to our local Walmart became a 30-minute nightmare in which my car's key refused to turn in the ignition, leaving me on the border of hysteria and Andrew verging on beating my car's steering wheel with a sledgehammer. Luckily, Andrew's muscles managed to force the key to turn (thankfully not breaking the key!) and we were able to make it home just in time to scarf down lunch and then run off to pick up my little sister!

Today, though, I can take it nice and slow. It's a snow day for us, having weathered a blizzard overnight and into mid-morning, so we're all still lounging in our PJ's while performing all the tasks we can from home. For me, that means experiment time in the kitchen! I had half a can of coconut milk left over from the birthday cake I made and didn't want to toss it (since none of us here are partial to coconut), so I tweaked a basic roll recipe and came up with a slightly sweet, soft, multigrain bun that came out of the oven smelling fantastic! While half the dough was rolled into basic balls, the other half became the base for sweet spiral buns filled with chocolate, coffee, and pecans!

The only problem I have now is what the heck to do with 20 rolls! I'm betting most of them will go into the office with my mom and I tomorrow and will "mysteriously" disappear in the coffee room, but I figure Andrew may take one too, as will my dad, since they're both such good sports about my baking exploits. They can have a bite for me, and hopefully they'll love eating these as much as I loved making them, and that they're as good as they smelled fresh out of the oven!

I'm celebrating having a snow day today, what everyday things do you like to celebrate? March's Bread Baking Day theme is just that... celebration breads... and Susan at Wild Yeast is doing the round up this time! In case you're wondering, the founder of BBD's birthday is this month too, so birthday breads are welcome! See you there!

Thai Dinner Roll Dough
Makes 18 plain buns
1 teaspoon sugar
½ cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
½ cup canned coconut milk
½ cup skim milk
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
½ cup warm water
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup 12-grain flour
3 tbsp vital wheat gluten

1. Dissolve 1 teaspoon of sugar in ½ cup of warm water. Sprinkle in the package of yeast. Let it stand for 10 minutes and then stir.
2. Heat the milks to lukewarm, stirring. Add in sugar, salt, and water.
3. Mix the flours and gluten in another bowl.
4. Add the heated milk mixture and 2 cups of the flour blend to the dissolved yeast mixture. Beat until the mixture is smooth and elastic.
5. Gradually stir in the remaining cups of flour.
6. The dough should be soft and easily leave the sides of the bowl.
7. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead the dough until it is smooth, elastic and not sticky. Resist the urge to add more flour, it will come together!
8. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Turn the dough so that the top is greased as well.
9. Cover, and let the dough rise in a warm place until it has doubled (about 1 1/2 hours).
10. Punch down dough.
11. Turn it out onto a lightly floured board, knead 1 minute.
12. Divide into 18 buns.
13. *If making a filling for them, prepare and fill the buns at this point. I used about 2 tsp margarine, 2 tbsp chocolate chips, 1 tsp instant coffee and 2 tbsp chopped pecans*
14. Cover and let rise 40 minutes.
15. Preheat oven to 375F.
16. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 174.0
Total Fat: 2.1 g
Cholesterol: 0.1 mg
Sodium: 5.8 mg
Total Carbs: 33.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.0 g
Protein: 5.8 g

I'm also in the midst of garden-planning right now, regardless of how much snow is dumped on us this month! Check out all the funky veggie seeds I've picked up in the past few weeks:
Yup, there's white-tipped radishes, purple carrots, Tuscan kale, multicoloured heirloom tomatoes, hot purple peppers, and dark-red giant beets! I can see the salads now... hope the summer sun shines for us soon!

An Ugly Birthday Cake, but Pretty Cookies!

Sometimes the most sought-after things turn out to be some of the ugliest... I mean think of truffles, rough diamonds, and oil! When I set out this morning to whip up a birthday cake for one of my friends and bakery clients, Georgiana (of cheesecake and pumpkin pie fame), I was going in completely blind... this was a recipe I had completely invented off the top of my head, with only a basic vanilla cake recipe to go by, some special ingredients and a concrete idea of what I was looking for: coconut cake. I know that there are tons of recipes out there for the treat, from the most basic to the most intense, but I had some coconut flour and wanted to use it!

Thai Milk Cake
Serves 8
1 cup flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup coconut milk
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 9" round cake pan.
2. Sift together the flours, baking powder, salt and cornstarch.
3. By hand, beat in sugar, coconut milk, water, vanilla, oil, and applesauce.
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until tests done.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 198.9
Total Fat: 7.2 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 3.3 mg
Total Carbs: 31.6 g
Dietary Fiber: 3.5 g
Protein: 3.1 g

As you can see, it's not a beautiful, high, golden cake - in fact, it looks pale and quite sad. However, from the smell of it, the flavour will be spot-on. Though it isn't the beauty queen of the birthday cake world, it doesn't really matter anyway, since I have a delicious limey "butter"cream frosting to top it! Just to go with the cake's veganism, the frosting was made with stick margarine, but you purists can use the real thing!

"Butter" - Lime and Coconut Frosting
Makes enough for one layer of a 9" cake
1/3 cup margarine, softened
zest of 1 small lime
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1-2 tablespoons coconut milk

1. Cream margarine with electric mixer. Add lime zest.
2. Gradually add sugar, beating well on medium speed.
3. Add coconut milk and beat until light and fluffy.
4. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.
5. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2-3 weeks.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 162.5
Total Fat: 8.4 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 89.4 mg
Total Carbs: 22.6 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.0 g
Protein: 0.2 g

Will I make this again? If she asks. I personally hate coconut! On a birthday-related sidebar, there's only 1 month and 2 days left until I turn 20! I can't believe it, I'll be OLD! (haha). I'm hoping for a birthday dinner at the Mongolian Grill again like last year's meal, which was awesome. I wouldn't say no to some good, fresh sushi though, or a trip to the St. Lawrence Market!

On a prettier note, check out the Spritz Cookies I made in class yesterday!! Lemony butter cookies, some sandwiched with raspberry jam and dipped in chocolate, others with chocolate or cherry centres! Beauty doesn't come easy, though, even in the kitchen... these were a total B*TCH to pipe out (and any of my classmates will agree), especially when piping isn't your forte anyway! They kind of remind me of the snarky pretty girls you see in teen movies... gorgeous to look at but so unbearable to deal with that you just can't bring yourself to! However, they smell so fantastic that I can't wait for my mom to take her share to work, or for my dad and Andrew to take theirs home, so I'm not tempted to make myself ill!

By the way, for those of you looking for a cute way to say "hi" to your loved ones this Easter, check out some of these Easter Chocolates & Candies ecards. They're free (bonus!) and it's an easy way to pass along your good wishes when your relatives and friends are far away. Thanks to Jack Morris for pointing these out to me!

Baking for the Master, and a Sticky Meme!

Well, let's see if I can kill two birds with one stone today! Since I was not really in any shape to type last night (and still, I struggle!) I just couldn't come up with anything witty or even coherent to put here! But today is another day, and this "other day" brings an event, and a meme!

Events first. Nikki from CrazyDeliciousFood has been just as embroiled in blog events as I have been the past few weeks, and so created one more: Master Baker! The premise of this one is a simple, yet perfect design slightly reminiscent of the DomesticGoddess' SHF: She picks the "star" ingredient, and we bloggers pick whatever baked goods you want. We then make 'em, shoot 'em, and send them in, where she will then pick a favourite! This month's theme is the deliciously classic, warming cinnamon.

So what could be an easier, sweeter way of breaking in this blog event than with a delicious hostess gift: muffins! These vegan, low-fat and fibre-full muffins are a deliciously classic gift that is only made sweeter with a crunchy, home-made "granola" topping! A superb, not-too-rich taste for breakfast or with coffee.

Cinnamon GRANDola Muffins
Serves 12
1 tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup low-fat plain soy milk
2/3 cup applesauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats

~Topping~
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp rolled oats
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp canola oil

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Grease 12 muffin cups.
2. Combine the oil, soymilk, applesauce, sugar and salt with a wire whisk.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the baking powder, cornstarch, connamon, flours and oats.
4. Stir the flour into the wet ingredients until all of the dough particles are just moistened.
5. Do not over mix.
6. Stir together the brown sugar, oats, cinnamon and oil until crumbly, sprinkle onto tops of muffins.
7. Bake about 20 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and cool 5 minutes before removing gently from pan.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 149.6
Total Fat: 3.3 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 113.2 mg
Total Carbs: 27.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.2 g
Protein: 3.7 g

So now that we're all nice and fed, I'll concentrate on a meme that Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy tagged me for the other day.

The rules for the meme:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post, and list their names to link to them.
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Allrighty then. Let's get started!

1. I used to eat pretty much everything and anything that came across my path, none of which was necessarily healthy. I loved food and eating (and still do). I got very sick with a still undiagnosed illness in the middle of my second year at Carleton University, forcing me to drop out and come home. My life has changed pretty much forever: I lost 30 lbs (and struggle to keep what weight I do have!), became exhausted due to insomnia, have almost constant bouts of pain in my right side (just below my ribcage) and have developed severe digestive problems with anything containing more than a few grams of fat: egg yolks, dairy, any meat but white, lean fish and for some odd reason tuna, any oils, and nuts, as well as caffeine and alcohol. Sigh... but enough bitching, I'm still here!

2. I began my university career in Political Science, with a view to become a criminal lawyer. Over my first year I switched my sights onto contract law, then gave up the Poli Sci thing all together and switched my major to Film Studies with an unforseen goal. Now, I'm working on a Bakery Arts certificate from George Brown College, with a goal to open up my own bake shoppe after it's completion and do some food and nutrition writing on the side (thanks to Ivonne and Eric for the inspiration!).

3. I live with my mom and stepdad, as well as with my little sister Teaghan and my stepbrother Dan. I spend as much time as I can with my awesome dad and his girlfriend Martha. I also have a fiance, Andrew, who just completed a Police Foundations diploma at Algonquin College and spoils me absolutely rotten. I have (essentially) two cats and two dogs, though I own none of them. They just happen to live around me: the cats and one dog at home, and my big goofy yellow Lab at my dad's.

4. I love Piers Anthony's Xanth novels. I've read them all and marvel at the under-appreciated art of the pun that he utilizes in every way possible. It doesn't hurt that they have great storylines and fantastic character casts!

5. I was raised through the Montessori system of schooling, beginning at Ellesmere Montessori until I was 7, then completing elementary school at the Montessori Learning Centre of Pickering at age 13 before going to highschool. While I was there I was under the care of one of the most influential people in my life, Verity, who taught me for 6 years. I still go back and visit every so often, along with my sister, and we're always welcomed with open arms!

Ok, so now for the tagging!

• 1x umrühren bitte - Zorra
• Wish I Were Baking - David
• The Allergic Kid - Libby
• Dhanggit's Kitchen - Dhanggit
• Almond Corner - Chriesi

Hope to see some awesome responses soon!

Battling Bread

This was the bread that almost wasn't. I miscalculated the time it would take from start to finish, and had to resort to a cold rise at the final stage. Not ideal, but duty (read: chauffeuring Teaghan home from school) calls! Also, because the dough is dense after it's initial mix, kneading it almost killed my little spaghetti arms! This started out as an idea way back in December, blossoming into reality with my bare hands yesterday. I love making breads of all kinds, yet for some odd reason I shy away from the yeasted kinds. I think it has something to do with the whole time thing, waiting for it to rise, kneading for what feels like hours, then shaping and re-proofing before an agonizing stint while it bakes in the oven. But oh, how worth it it is!

Potatoes make this hearty, textured bread tender and wonderfully chewy, while the three risings develop a flavour like no other you’ve ever had. Whether fresh out of the oven or toasted days later for breakfast, I doubt you will regret making this! Andrew had 4 slices for lunch in a grilled cheese and another 2 as garlic bread, and he loved the texture and the fact that it soaks up other flavours like a sponge. He then gave me the awesome idea for making the leftover slices into French toast, which I'm sure would make a more than adequate breakfast!

I also just realized that with this being the International year of the Potato and all, there is an awesome event taking place as well! Culinary Bazaar is hosting a Potato Fe(a)st, celebrating all things spud! The cutoff date is the 29th of Febuary, so get on boiling, baking, grating, mashing and smashing!

Whole Wheat and Potato Corn Bread
Serves 28
1 pkg active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup warm potato water
¼ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 cups warm potato water
¾ cup mashed potatoes
2 ½ cups flour
3 cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal

1. Proof the yeast and sugar in the 1/2 cup warm potato water for 10 minutes.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine the oil, salt, and water.
3. Add the potatoes, stir in the yeast mixture, and beat well.
4. Separately, combine flours and cornmeal.
5. Add enough flour to the wet ingredients make a stiff dough.
6. Turn out on a floured board and knead until the dough is no longer sticky, 10 minutes.
7. Place in a greased bowl, and turn to coat top.
8. Cover and allow to rise until doubled, about 2 hours.
9. Punch down the dough and knead another 3 minutes.
10. Cover, and allow to rise again about 30 minutes.
11. Place on a floured board and divide into 2 parts.
12. Cover the dough and let it rest 15 minutes.
13. Place into well-greased loaf pans.
14. Cover, and allow to rise in a warm place until the dough appears just above the top of the pans (about 1 hour).
15. Dust the loaves with flour.
16. Bake at 400 degrees 20 minutes, reduce the heat to 350.
17. Bake another 20 to 30 minutes, or until brown and hollow-sounding when tapped.
18. Immediately turn out of pans and transfer to a rack to cool.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 126.7
Total Fat: 2.6 g
Cholesterol: 0.1 mg
Sodium: 19.5 mg
Total Carbs: 23.0 g
Dietary Fiber: 2.3 g
Protein: 3.7 g