Cherry vs Baking: Round One

[cherry]

It was one of my good friend's birthday's the other day, and I was really at a loss as to what to get her.

"Hey," I decided. "Why don't I make her cookies? Pumpkin cookies. Yeah. I approximated a sesame noodle salad the other day, so I can totally handle baking cookies."

It should be noted that, as the next time I have a sandwich in my lunch I think I am going to set it on fire, I have been attempting to forage food. I prefer the term 'forage' to 'cook', as I only approximate recipes. "This looks good, but I think it needs more sweet peppers, and oregano instead of salt. That's about a cup, right? Ish? Wait, I have some carrots in my fridge I need to get rid of as well..."

As it turns out, this is the wrong approach to take with baking.

Things started to go down hill from the start. I had to, um, purchase every single ingredient except for cinnamon, ginger, and eggs. Baking is expensive when you don't own any of the ingredients.

"White flour can totally be replaced with brown, right? White flour is the devil. Oooh, bran. I can totally toss some of this in there without anyone noticing, right?"

"Oh, hey, I've already started putting everything together, but this recipe has oatmeal in it. They're mostly the same otherwise, right?"

"Man, there's no way I need that much oil. I'll just replace a cup of it with soy milk."

"I really wouldn't want to throw away the rest of this can of pumpkin. Into the batter you go!"

"... baking soda and baking powder can be used interchangeably, right?"

*dialing frantically* "Grandma, help! I just made cookie dough but I don't have a wire rack for cooling them ... Um. Or a cookie tray for baking them."


The upside is that they turned out to be edible! They are rather more like flat pumpkin-oatmeal muffins than cookies, but they are not entirely inedible. Plus, with the whole wheat flour, oatmeal, bran, pumpkin, raisins, and soy milk, they are actually very healthy.

A very healthy five dozen cookies. I don't even really eat cookies, people. I have five (well, three, as I've given away two) dozen pumpkin oatmeal cookies.

Comments

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha, this is why I don't bake. It's so unforgiving! Give me a nice one-pot meal any day.

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

My normal approach here seems to have failed me. The sad part? I'm still incredibly proud. They're edible! They're healthy. I'm telling everyone about them, just like I told everyone about the sesame noodle salad the other day. I did not know you could make sauces in your blender!

Learning is fun.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Share the sesame noodle salad recipe? ::bats eyelashes::

Learning IS fun, especially when it results in cookies!

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

I am at work right now, but this is what I recall:

250 - 300 g of whole wheat spaghettini/spaghetti/linguine or buckwheat noodles, whatever you'd like
1 sweet pepper
1 large stalk of celery
2 large carrots
Optional: chicken or shrimp

Sauce:
2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1-2 tbsp sesame oil (or olive oil plus 2 tbsp of sesame seeds)
1/3 cup cilantro
1/2 cup of the pasta water to stretch the sauce

Cook pasta as directed, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water to stretch the sauce.

Sliver the peppers and celery (I replaced the celery with cucumber because it's what I had), and grate the carrots.

Combine the sauce ingredients in the blender and have at it. I found after transferring the sauce to the noodles that most of the honey hadn't mixed in, so I suppose next time I'll try mixing it directly with the hot pasta water first.

Mix the sauce with the noodles, veggies and optional chicken or shrimp. Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.

I was actually pretty impressed with how it turned out. I tend to use quite a bit more cayenne pepper in my food than is actually asked for, so I had more of that.

Hey, I've been meaning to ask: do you have any fantastic soup recipes to share? Especially veggie, tomato, or bean ones? There's far too much sodium in canned soup for me these days, so I am at a loss.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds delicious! I like the idea of using cucumber better, too.

I have many, many soup recipes! I have long-cooking ones and super-quick ones and everything between.

This time of year, I like winter vegetable soup:
2 - 3 carrots
1 small onion
2 leeks
1 - 2 parsnips
2 - 3 turnips
vegetable or chicken stock, or water
3 tbsps butter or olive oil
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried sage
salt and pepper to taste

You can vary the veggie ratios however you like. You can add potatoes and remove the parsnips. You can use only onion, or only leeks, or neither. You can add yams or sweet potatoes or winter squash -- anything goes, basically.

Dice the onion and the leeks (white parts only), and saute in butter over low-med heat, stirring regularly, until golden and translucent. While they're cooking, peel and chop the veggies.

When the onions are ready, add the veggies and the herbs and cover with stock or water. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer 30 - 40 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Serve with a big salad and crusty bread.

As a variation, I like to puree this soup (blender is fine, or food processor if you have it) once the veggies are tender. Then I return it to the heat, add cream or half and half or milk, and throw in a dash of nutmeg. Milk is nice for the protein, but cream makes it incredibly rich and luscious.

heresluck offers a lot of great recipes (http://heresluck.livejournal.com/tag/recipes), very veggie-friendly. I would definitely check out the white bean with rosemary soup (http://heresluck.livejournal.com/177317.html#cutid1), which I make all the time. It's extraordinarily flexible, too.

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thank you! I keep trying to like root vegetables, as they are good for me, and this looks very tasty. (I... am not a huge fan of starchy foods. I only recently figured this out as a trigger.)

Does it freeze well? I fear that I live by myself, which has make cooking things slightly more likely to produce far too many left overs.

If you have any other soup recipes you want to hit me up with, I wouldn't object. I tend to be especially fond of things involving tomatoes and/or peppers, though I'm really quite open. I'm not full veggie -- my blood sugar/protein levels tend to get out of whack -- so I sometimes eat seafood and chicken/turkey.

Thank you for the links as well! You're always ever so helpful.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Do you like cruciferous veggies? Because the above recipe, as a "cream of" soup, works great with broccoli and/or cauliflower instead of the root veggies. Keep the onions, leeks, thyme, salt, and pepper, and leave out the sage and bay leaf. Same exact process, though broccoli and cauliflower cook faster than root veggies.

I do a lot of variations to basic bean soup, most of which involve tomato, but they're kind of winging it. I can probably come up with a recipe, though.

Peppers: roast, peel, puree, and serve as a sauce for polenta or pasta!

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

I do like cruciferous veggies. I am also trying my best to develop a liking for root veggies, because they are good for me, and variation is the spice of life. I had a fantastic one last year at a formal dinner, but I have no idea what was in it. It was orange, though, so I'm guessing carrots and/or squash.

God, I eat so many peppers. I buy multiple peppers a week. Red and orange and yellow and mmmmm. Between that and tomatoes, it can't be said I don't get my fair share of lycopene. (Though it does tend to put a bit of wear and tear on my plastic containers.)

freezing

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I don't do it. (: I keep leftovers in the fridge. I tend to make a big pot of something-or-other on Sunday and then gradually eat it over the course of the week, bringing it for lunch and such. I know I *should* freeze stuff, but it doesn't seem to be natural to me or something.


the_shoshanna posted a bean soup recipe just today that she says freezes beautifully. It looks yummy, too.

Re: freezing

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

I tend to have, um, a relatively short attention span, so for me to eat the same soup every day for a week would have the likely side effect of my never wanting to look at it again. My freezer is pretty plain at the moment -- veggie burgers, frozen fruit, frozen fish, frozen shrimp, frozen veggies -- but I suspect having things to take out and eat would be very handy.

Re: freezing

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Oh, not every day for a week! I'd get bored to death, too. More like twice a week, and factoring in P. eating some as well.

I know many soups are freezable, I'm just not your go-to girl on it.