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

[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.