Oops, I've been busy

Why hello again! It's been a little bit since the last post... I've been ridiculously busy. Sadly, the vetekran I mentioned last was the last time I was baking something. However, it turned out a lot prettier than the previous one! And was just as tasty... and I remembered the glaze this time! :)

This was after the second rise, ready to put in the oven...



And voila! The final product!



Since then, I have not had a chance to bake with this whole... having a life recently. However, I did have a chance to make some dinner for people, and that was awesome, because I love cooking dinner for people. Dinner was Chinese, and consisted of Ma Po Tofu (i.e. Mabo Tofu, Spicy Tofu, etc), Tsao Mi Fun (basically a stir fry of vermicelli), Tze Ma Chou (Sweet Sesame Rice Balls). Forgive my inability to Romanize the Chinese language... I'm horrible at it (it could have to do with my lack of knowledge of the exact way to pronounce things in Mandarin in the first place, but sh!)

Ma Po Tofu consists of soft tofu cut up and cooked with ground meat (I don't eat beef, but I used pork, but I've also used ground turkey before.) and a spicy sauce, and in this case, I used a spicy black bean paste thing (sadly, I can recognize the bottle, but don't know what it's called).



Tsao Mi Fun is a vermicelli stir fry that consists of Taiwanese cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, and carrots. Usually you add these little tiny shrimp, but I forgot about them this time around. This was the first time I made it, (and accidentally woke up my mom to ask her exactly how to cook it) so I wasn't sure about the ratio. I think I had too much vermicelli around this time because I didn't realize how much noodles make, and how much the vegetables cooked down. Still, it was tasty. :)



Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the sweet sesame rice balls, but basically, they're these frozen little balls that you get that consists of a sweet black sesame paste wrapped with a rice flour paste/dough that you just toss into boiling water and let it simmer until it floats... it's really simple, but so tasty.

Amongst all this food, there have been trips to San Francisco, Casa de Fruta, the Santa Cruz beaches, and hiking in Pt. Reyes.

My friend living in SF took me around, and we explored much of San Francisco by foot, and yes, that includes climbing up and down all the gigantic hills. Actually, I also had a chance to take one of those cable cars that you see dinging by filled with tourists, not that I should be talking because I became one of them. I took surprisingly few pictures... I have a love/hate relationship with my 50mm fixed lens currently. It's great because it's lightweight and it's got an amazing aperture. However, it makes it VERY difficult to take photographs of people, especially at a distance, and often makes it hard to frame pictures in a place as crazy as SF.

However, while walking through the Ferry Building, I couldn't resist the beautiful colors of the tomatoes and the amazing textures/patterns that the colors created.

Aren't they beautiful?



I think they're heirloom tomatoes.



I also had a chance to visit Casa de Fruta, a "fruit stand" in the middle of nowhere in Hollister, and has the most amazing variety of dried nuts, dried fruits, chocolate-covered whatevers ever! They also have a great Casa de Sweets which has a bunch of old-school candies. Overpriced, but amazing dried nuts and dried fruit! If you haven't been there, and are heading around Santa Cruz or Monterey, it's worth a trip. If you go in the spring-time, the hills will be rolling in green with beautiful blue skies.



Don't they look so good? They have some of the best flavors... it's worth a visit if you ever make it down/up there. :)

I have a couple bananas sitting in the kitchen, so hopefully the next post will be about banana bread, and will be soon. I can't promise anything, though, since it's been crazy busy, and my roommate and my other friend and I are going backpacking at the Emigrant Wilderness this coming Thursday --> Sunday! I'm excited, since I haven't had a backpacking trip since late December... maybe I can post about the "gourmet" backpacking foods that we will be eating. :P

I leave you with a note telling you to go visit the beach and run around and spin around and leap on the sand and go let the waves wash over your toes.


Photography courtesy of Ben Bracamonte.

Lemon Meltaways and Dill Bread

I'm out of flour! I know, ridiculous. But I'm out of plain ol' all-purpose flour. Oops. I do have many pounds of bread flour, whole wheat flour, and white whole wheat flour. ...I just don't have good old all-purpose flour. Oops. Consequently, I now have a(nother) vetekran dough resting on my counter made up of part all-purpose flour, part white whole wheat flour, and part bread flour. ...This'll be an interesting experiment, since I have always been shy about trying out different flours in recipes. Oh yes, and I forgot to mention last time that this recipe is from the The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas.

The past few days have been pretty filled with baking... I received an order for a batch of ginger cookies, lemon meltaways, and a cream cheese dill bread. Then, I figured since I had left-over cream cheese and the whole wheat bread was running out, I might as well make another loaf for myself.

Doesn't it look tasty?



I've discovered it's amazing with something like one of those wedges of Laughing Cow Original Swiss and slices of turkey deli meat. Yum.

After the first rise:



After the second rise:



I have decided that there is just something so beautiful about risen dough. Whether or not that is because I'm biased and it means I did it right is another matter. :P

So yeah, I also realized that the bread is giant and fits in a 9"x5" loaf pan, not my 8"x4" loaf pan, so I need to make a change of that and the amount of compensation for that... oops.

Oh yes, and the lemon meltaways! I think that this batch of lemon meltaways weren't the most lemon-y of lemon cookies. I think it might have something to do with my lemon... I realized afterwards that the lemon itself wasn't the most fragrant of lemons, which probably resulted in a less lemon-y cookie. It was still tasty, though, I think.



A close-up, to address all your food porn needs:



Don't they look good? These cookies contain powdered sugar and cornstarch in the dough, resulting in a lighter, crumbly cookie that melts when you bite into it--much like a Mexican Wedding cookie, but without the nuts.

Anyhow, my new vetekran dough should be rested enough to roll out... I made it last night in part for my roommate. We were in a car accident last night on the way back to our apartment, and he was freaking out a little. We are both okay, but just a little shaken, and no other car was involved, thank goodness. Originally, he was going to stay at home and fix the car, but I convinced him to still go into work. ...Unfortunately, that means that he's not even going to be here now when it comes out of the oven! Alas.

Oh yes, and here is the second order! (I swear I'll stop posting pictures of my orders eventually, but I just think the scrapbook paper are so cute! That, and I'm obsessed with really cool boxes and packaging, and I had a field day at Joann's and at Michael's last week... I still need to find a cheaper way of packaging, though...)

Legality, vetekran, and my first order

Thank you to all of those with your supporting words and messages! It's a relief to see so many people who seem excited about this... I know I am. :) As for negative comments that have come up... honestly, is this such a big deal? Small operations like these happen all the time, and I am not deceiving anyone and I am being upfront about the situation. If people know the situation and don't feel comfortable with it, that is perfectly fine. However, there is no reason to be so negative about it. And, in all honesty, wouldn't it be better to save your energy for something else more important?

Official "legality" is inconsistent and fickle. A person can be considered legally dead and legally alive at the same time in two different states (depending on the various definitions of "brain dead.") Our country has banned slavery, and yet, almost every banana that you eat is picked through slave labor. Each portable electronic devise that you use fuels the civil war that rages through the DRC. Every cup of coffee or bite of chocolate that you eat that is not Fair Trade robs farmers blindly. (More thoughts on my baking, eating, sustainability, and Fair Trade later.) Many pharmaceutical drugs are tested on the impoverished in developing countries with no informed consent and no compensation. And yet, these are all legal in the United States. I understand that rules and laws are in place to try and protect people, but seriously--my kitchen is a lot cleaner than a lot of places in Berkeley, let's just put it that way. There are better battles to fight.

That being said... let's jump to happier news! I received my first order on Wednesday afternoon, the day that I publicized everything. :) It was an order of a dozen ginger cookies. I had lots of fun making it all pretty with fantastically awesomely colorful scrapbooking paper... and it comes with a little card!



Close-up of the logo sealing the box! I haven't been all artsy for a while... it was fun! :)



The chewy ginger cookies in progress... icky gooey molasses!



And the final stack!



These thin, chewy cookies are slightly crispy at the edges, and chewy through the middle. They spread out a ridiculous amount... I don't have any other cookies that spread out as much as these. These delightful cookies are spiced mostly with ginger, cinnamon, molasses, and a smidgen of cloves (the cloves are optional depending on people's preferences...), and then rolled around in sugar before being baked.

I also wanted to work on something else... I haven't baked any since the light whole wheat bread, and my roommate hasn't brought anything into work (I live vicariously through him until I can finally get a job and distribute free treats there instead), and apparently, I still want to give out free food even though I'd like to charge for them. Anyhow, I wanted to make something a little more interesting than your usual boring muffin or zucchini bread (although, I have bananas that are going and zucchinis that need using soon...), so I decided to make a vetekran, a Swedish Tea Ring. It's basically a giant ring of cinnamon buns.



Unfortunately, I baked this at night and was in a rush (to eat it!), so I wasn't able to get a really good picture of it.

The dough is a little different in that the dough has cardamom in it, and requires little kneading, and the first rise happens in the refrigerator. After rolling out the dough and filling it with buttery, cinnamon-sugary goodness, you roll it up jelly-roll style, just like cinnamon rolls. Except, when you're done rolling it up, you pinch the ends together and cut almost to the edge, but not quite.



You're supposed to turn the cut faces upwards so it makes a pretty pattern, but my dough was too sticky, my baking sheet was too small, and I don't think I rolled it up tightly enough. So, my vetekran was kind of ugly and took longer to bake... and I even totally forgot to put the glaze on top (I was distracted by how ugly it was!)... but I still think it tasted great! I mean, it's bread and cinnamon... how bad could it be? :)



Yes, that is a ring of cinnamon-sugar goodness. I have another order for this weekend! :)