Pumpkin cinnamon rolls. Omigod are these good. I found pictures of them on Flickr with links to the recipe at the blog Don’t Eat Off the Sidewalk. Clink the link to go to the original recipe. Turns out they’re vegan (or were supposed to be vegan)…go figure. I had no idea these vegans were eating so well.

Anyway, I love cinnamon rolls. Particularly the ones from Cinnabon. I’ve never really been able to make good ones at home. The boyfriend made some for Christmas breakfast that were okay. That recipe was from Baking Illustrated and the main issue with them was that there wasn’t enough filling and they didn’t really reheat very well. But they did have a most excellent cream cheese frosting.

When I made the pumpkin cinnamon rolls, I chose to skip the glaze in the recipe and made the Baking Illustrated cream cheese frosting. Good choice.

As far as the actual recipe, I used honey instead of suagr and regular milk instead of soy milk…so mine aren’t so vegan. Especially once the cream cheese frosting is on them. Other than that, I doubled the filling recipe as I like my cinnamon rolls with lots of cinnamon and sticky stuff. I also added a hint of nutmeg and ginger to the filling and used slightly more dark brown sugar than the recipe called for (but I did use less granulated sugar). I also added a little more margarine than the filling recipe called for…yes, margarine again.

I think the dough for these would make a wonderful bread by itself. I may try that sometime soon.

Don’t expect too many yummy food pictures from me for at least a few days. We’re going to DC for the weekend and then the boyfriend is going out of town next week so I might not be cooking too many elaborate things for myself. Of course, I did just pick up a Thai food cookbook from the library as well as Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey…so I might get inspired.

And maybe I’ll finally finish my Chevron Scarf this weekend…it’s close. I can’t start the Koolhaas hat yet as I don’t have all the right needles for it and I’ll have to wait until next week to get them.

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Really. I’m an excellent speller. Yet I’ve managed to spell it “dilemna” for as long as I can remember. I had ABSOLUTELY no idea that it was spelled “dilemma” until I glanced at “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” on my nightstand the other day. How stupid do I feel? I honestly thought the word had a silent n.

Magic Middle cookies made by the boyfriend. I don’t think I’ve ever had these before. I should have been eating them all along as they’re yummy. They’ve got a peanut butter center and the dough itself is a little bit chocolate and a little bit peanut butter. They’re a little plain looking in person but they’re very photogenic (obviously).

I had the whole weekend off! We originally intended to go to the Outer Banks camping…even if it was going to be a little cold. Then we decided not to go. Then we decided to go. The flip-flopping lasted until about 1:00 pm yesterday afternoon when we determined that we couldn’t possibly get our act together. I really shouldn’t have been camping this weekend since I did *just* get over the flu and don’t want to get sick again.

So we stayed home and cooked. A lot. Yesterday the boyfriend made the Magic Middles and some super scrumptious white rolls with honey in them. They were both pretty near perfect. I made eggplant parmigiana and chocolate pie. Today I made potato salad, Sicilian sausage soup and pumpkin cinnamon rolls. I think we might have made too much food…but I hadn’t really cooked a thing in 9 or 10 days and I missed it.

For the record, I don’t like eggplant. I only learned yesterday that the boyfriend does like it. Somehow or another, I got it into my head to make eggplant parmigiana for dinner despite my disdain. Weird, aren’t I? My logic was that I’ve tried a bite of the dish at a few restaurants over the years and sometimes it was almost tolerable, so if I made it myself to my own exacting specifications, I might like it. I was correct. I peeled and thinly sliced the eggplant and salted it to draw out some of the moisture. Part of my dislike for eggplant may stem from having had slices that were way too thick and wet and mushy. So I solved that problem. I dredged the slices in Italian breadcrumbs with lots of Parmesan cheese mixed into it and lightly pan-fried them. The slices were then layered with a garlicky tomato sauce and unhealthy amounts of mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. I baked the whole thing until it was bubbly and golden brown. Then we ate dinner and I declared my eggplant parmigiana to be better than my lasagna…and I make good lasagna. I’ll definitely make this again and again. So…I guess I might kind of like eggplant now. It’s pretty astonishing how many things I’ve learned to like in the last few years.

Other than the cooking, I haven’t done much this weekend. We played Scrabble and the boyfriend beat me by a point despite my very strong lead at the beginning of the game. He also kind of taught me how to play poker as I’ve never quite learned. The last time I played it, I was drunk and kept trying to fold just to get out of the game. I now understand why that didn’t work.

I kind of want to knit a Koolhaas hat right now. Alison’s is so pretty and I just saw another gorgeous one on someone’s blog. I could probably use a kind of quick knit right now. Maybe I’ll go in the yarn closet tomorrow and see if I’ve got anything good for it. If I do, I’ll make it. If I have to buy yarn, I won’t. I should just finish the Chevron Scarf already. It’s so close to done yet I haven’t picked it up in a couple of weeks. A car trip might be necessary for completion…fortunately we’ve got one of those next weekend when we’re heading up to DC for a couple of days.

More tomorrow…with more pictures of the food I made this weekend.

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Since Alison and her mom have both recently asked about the lack of butter in the buttercream frostings I’ve been making, I  figured I should answer the question here.

First, as Alison pointed out, aren’t I an all butter type of woman? That answer is yes. Yes, yes, yes, hell yes. Until very recently, there had been no margarine in my house in easily 10 years. The last thing I remember making with it was Chex Mix or maybe Rice Krispies Treats…and I’ve definitely not made either of those in 10 years.

I love butter. I will spread nothing on my bread but butter. Or maybe jam. Or Nutella. Margarine on bread is gross. I don’t even like eating the “butter” at work with bread because it’s a mix of butter and margarine. I can tell. If it’s not 100% butter, get it away from my bread. I can pick out non-butter products as easily as I can pick out a breast in a bucket of fried chicken. Ask Tasha about this ability of mine…I think she eventually made me pick out chicken for her at some point in our childhood. Oops, I’m getting off the subject. Back to the matter at hand…I LOVE BUTTER!

So, how is it that I’m making buttercream frosting without real butter? It all started with the silly vegan cupcake cookbook. Obviously vegans don’t eat real dairy butter…duh, they wouldn’t be vegans if they did. For the record, these cupcakes don’t use eggs either. So, the vegan cupcake book calls for non-hydrogenated margarine (called “buttery spread” in vegan-ese) and non-hydrogenated shortening. The first several times I made these cupcakes, I made them as the recipe dictated as I knew nothing about this vegan baking thing and didn’t want to make nasty cupcakes. So I bought the fancy vegan products for pretty much the same price as real butter. $3.59 for 4 sticks (or something like that)…and wow was that “butter”cream frosting super tasty.

I also don’t have a lot of buttercream experience…I made some for the boyfriend’s birthday cake last year and it used real butter. Ridiculous amounts of real butter. When chilled, it pretty much had the consistency of butter. Amaretto and sugar flavored butter. I’m almost ashamed to admit how much butter was in that frosting…it wasn’t healthy. Sure, it was good…but it could have been much better both in consistency and taste.

The buttercream frosting in the vegan cupcakes cookbook is EXACTLY how I want my frosting to be. So, when I got too cheap to buy more of the fancy vegan “buttery spread” and shortening, I bought regular margarine. And Crisco. For the record, Crisco is now trans-fat free. So that’s a little better, right?

Being the butter lover that I am, I’m almost ashamed to admit that I’m using margarine and shortening to make wonderful frosting. But it is wonderful. It’s fluffy and light and delicious and fluffy and light. Did I mention delicious? Shame me if you will. It’s good.

I should be opposed to Crisco as well…but I’m not. I believe shortening make the best pie crusts. And possibly biscuits. And it’s better for some cookies as well.

The margarine is really the issue for me in this frosting situation. Perhaps I’ll try butter in the next batch of cupcakes I make. It could turn out great and if so, it’ll be back to butter for me. If the frosting is better with the margarine, I’m sticking to it. I can make room in my fridge for both butter and margarine, right? I will not start using margarine in my other cooking.  It’s gross…butter will still reign in everything except the frosting.

Wow, that was a mouthful.

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The boyfriend made these for me because I’m sick and requested them. In order to make them, he had to obtain the recipe. He lost his copy months ago while hiding it from me.
He claims that it’s a top secret family recipe as his mom made these when he was small and he won’t share the recipe with anyone not related. So…I’ve only vaguely seen the actual recipe and whenever he’s made them in the past, he’s kept the recipe shielded from my prying eyes. And then he lost the recipe when he stuck it someplace random so that I wouldn’t find it.
The other night he called both his aunt and his sister for the recipe. His aunt came up with it first. I was in the next room with my MacBook as she read it to him over the phone and it was very tempting to eavesdrop and type as he repeated the recipe back to her. Somehow I resisted the urge.
They’re super yummy with creamy peanut butter and chocolate chips. I told him that I was going to do some internet research and come up with the recipe on my own. I think I came pretty close with a recipe here but I’ll have to bake them to be sure.

Anyway…other than some Starbucks Frappuccinos, they’re the only sweet thing I’ve wanted since getting the flu. The poor lemon blueberry cupcakes are still in the fridge. The boyfriend ate his share and now they sit. Eating has been weird with the flu. I’m not particularly hungry but when I am, it’s for odd things. Mostly meat. Last night I ate some baked pork chops. That was it. On Saturday, I wanted a fast food burger but since fast food is out, the boyfriend went to Ruby Tuesday’s and picked up some of their mini burgers for me. They did the trick. The smell of the beef stew I made just prior to getting ill makes me nauseous…this is such a shame.

I’m much better today but not perfect. I went to work and came home early because of the sick thing and it was really really slow. I’m supposed to work tonight as well…we’ll see how that goes.

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Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes. I haven’t eaten one yet because I have some sort of funk. Probably the flu that’s been going around the restaurant for nearly two weeks. Why me? Why now?

Anyway, these are from the same Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook and are actually vegan as I had all of the vegan ingredients on hand this time…only because a friend from work had to bake an organic dessert for a grad school class assignment a couple of weeks ago and chose to make the Coconut Lime Cupcakes I made last month. She’d had one then and loved them so much that she wanted to make them herself. So she bought some of the ingredients and left them here for me to use in exchange for the use of my kitchen, supplies and expertise.

They’re lemony cupcakes with lemony buttercream frosting and a blueberry compote. I used frozen organic wild blueberries from Trader Joe’s since blueberries aren’t exactly in season right now…yes, I can find them at the grocery store but they’re not little wild ones nor are they cheap. Unrelated side note: the Tropicana lemons I used for these did not contain seeds. This made my very happy since I didn’t have to scoop them out or use the mesh strainer. Also, due to all these cupcakes, my new Microplane grater is getting a lot of use. What would I have done without it?

The pictures for these cupcakes aren’t the best ones I’ve taken…mostly because I was in a hurry. The sun was getting ready to duck behind the trees and I didn’t know when I’d be home for a daylight picture in the next couple of days (little did I know that the flu would strike after dinner and that I’d spend today at home instead of working both lunch and dinner bartending!). So…I didn’t set up the tripod and most of the pictures I took were fuzzy and/or dark…at least I got a few good ones.

Pesto Pasta Salad. As mentioned on Flickr, this is the ONLY thing for which I condone the existence of Miracle Whip. Pasta salad and pasta salad only. I stand firm on that. It almost embarasses me to buy it at the grocery store and I only buy the smallest jar they sell.

Anyway, this is long since gone. It’s not quite as good as the Pesto Chicken Salad but it’s still okay.

I’ve recently decided that I really like roasted red peppers. This week, I used a jar of them in this pasta salad, in the quiche-like Mushroom Pie and in a mango salsa I made last night to eat with shrimp tacos. Buying a jar of them was sadly far cheaper than it would have been to buy the equivalent amount of red peppers fresh. I’d gladly roast them myself if they didn’t cost $2 each.

I’ve finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and moved on to The Omnivore’s Dilemna. I probably shouldn’t be reading all these food books in the dead of winter when I can’t do too much to change my purchasing and eating habits. If it were May and the Farmer’s Market were open, I could do lots. I need to force myself to the Farmer’s Market once it is open to buy fresh produce every week.

As a result of these books, the biggest thing I’ve learned is this: corn is evil. Not corn in its pure form. That’s fine. I’m talking corn as food for every animal we eat whether they should be eating it or not and corn as corn syrup and a million other things in our daily food. Yuck.

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Meet my carrot cake and caramel buttercream frosting. I’ll have a recipe up for it soon (maybe tomorrow) but for now, this picture will have to suffice. Enjoy.

These are a couple of felted clutches I finished for that art show I did with Tasha in November. Tasha took some pictures of them at the time but I never posted those. So I took a few pictures of them yesterday when I had the boyfriend’s camera out for the carrot cake photo session. I really like both of them. I should just pick one for my own personal use rather than letting them sit in a basket in my living room. That reminds me, I’m supposed to take a couple to work to show one of the hostesses.

Meet Bento. Bento is a new database software for Macs. It was pretty cheap and it’s pretty cool. We’ve already set it up for recipes as seen above. Eventually I’ll enter everything I cook into it with the recipes. My paper file of recipes is now on its way out the door. I really love that you can include pictures. Not that I needed another excuse to take more pictures of my food. Should this bakery idea ever get off the ground, this program is going to come in handy.

Other things…

Since my dinner at Bonefish last week, I’ve decided to give up fried food. Sauteed or pan fried things are fine but I’m skipping the deep frying. That means that I’ve given up fast food, sodas and fried food since last April. I also eat substantially less meat now. The boyfriend’s food habits are definitely a good thing for me. It’s not like he’s forced me to make any of these changes. They’re all choices I’ve made on my own. They just happen to mimic his habits. I don’t really miss any of the things I’ve given up anyway and I think these changes make me think of more creative things to cook.

I eat leftovers now. I used to eat very few things leftover. Lasagna and chili were okay. Most other things were not. For example, I made Mushroom Pie last night. The old me wouldn’t have made something so closely resembling quiche in the first place let alone eat it reheated the next day. For the record, it was quite good both fresh out of the oven and leftover.

I also like salmon now. Some of my family members will recall the lengths I went to in protest of salmon a few years ago. I’ve come to realize that it’s only the farm-raised smelly salmon I’m opposed to…the wild variety is delicious. We ate it once last week and I actually requested it again just a few days later. We ate rockfish for dinner that night instead…which was just as delicious.

I’m nearly done reading “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver. First, I think that reading this book is going to make me think a little more about what things I choose to eat. Second, there are at least a half dozen passages in the book that could have been taken straight out of my childhood. Needless to say, I’ve recommended this book to my mother.

I tried stalking the boyfriend’s undeveloped lot yesterday without success. I couldn’t get all the way down the street to inspect the site as there were dump trucks at another lot and they were mostly blocking my path. Stalking progress (or lack thereof) on the lot will probably only get worse as the months pass and the house is built.

I should go. I need to go vote in the primaries this afternoon before I head off to work.

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Apparently, I wasn’t done writing for today.

After my drink and apps at Bonefish, I’ve concluded two things.

First: I’ve become cheap. This whole using a budget thing makes me think about every purchase and dammit I’m kind of mad at myself for spending $30 on dinner. That blows a huge portion of the money budgeted for eating out for the month. It’s not that far in the past that I would go out to eat many times each week and think nothing of spending $100 or more on dinner for two. If I did that now, it might have to be a special occasion.

Second: I don’t really like eating in restaurants anymore. Sure, I’m happy to have a sandwich or some soup just about anywhere. And yes, I work in a restaurant…but I eat substantially less food there these days. I’m tired of it. Actual cooked restaurant food doesn’t appeal to me much these days. Yes, I did eat fried food tonight (which I do eat very little of these days) so that’s part of it.

Less than a year ago, I didn’t think this way…look at how far I’ve come. No longer do I enjoy eating too much food that isn’t at all good for me. No longer do I want to spend money on food in a restaurant. So much for an evening out.

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These are just the most basic chocolate chip cookies you can make…directly from the back of the Nestle bag. The boyfriend wanted chocolate fairly late at night and decided he’d make cookies. I called my dad to see what his very frequently used recipe was. Turns out Mom and Dad had made them that same night…but Dad’s recipe is the Nestle one with shortening instead of butter. So that’s what the boyfriend made. Of course, my dad usually throws in some nuts. The boyfriend doesn’t like that. More details on that when I post pictures of my next baking adventure.

These pictures were taken with the boyfriend’s Canon camera again. I’m thoroughly enjoying playing with it and I used it with the tripod when I took these pictures. If I do say so myself, I did a nice job.

While I was playing with the camera, I decided to see what it could do with a knitting project. It did pretty damned well. I’ll have to keep playing with the Canon. The boyfriend said I could do so whenever I want. I’ll have to apologize to my little Sony Cybershot. It’s a nice camera but the Canon is better.

Anyway…this is the Chevron Scarf in Socks That Rock yarn that I’ve been working on for a very long time. I might finish it before winter is officially over. And I might not. I should knit more. Then I could take more yarn pictures with the boyfriend’s camera. But he might take my camera rights away if that happened.

These brownies were photographed with my Sony camera. Still a decent picture. But not a great one. These are Peanut Butter Cup Brownies…made with a Baking Illustrated basic triple chocolate brownie recipe and beefed up with 8 chopped Reese’s Cups. My dear God, these were delicious. I’ll get around to posting recipes for these things one of these days.

A new program for my Mac arrived today. I haven’t taken it out of the box yet but it’s called Bento (yes, it’s named after Bento Boxes) and it’s a database software. The plan is to use it for baking/bakery type things. Such as recipes. My paper binder of recipes and what was good and bad about them will be a thing of the past once we get the database going. Pretty sweet, huh?

Pictures of a made from scratch carrot cake with caramel buttercream frosting will come soon. As soon as I’m home during daylight hours to take pictures of it. For the record, it’s good. And I think it’s the first cake I’ve ever made from scratch.

It’s occurred to me that I’m not even sure who reads this. To the best of my knowledge, about 5 people might read this blog with any sort of regularity (and that number includes myself). Am I wrong? Post a comment if you’re reading this. I’m just curious. And I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to read this blog…it’s pretty boring.

I should go…I’m meeting a friend for drinks and appetizers at Bonefish Grill shortly. Then I’m coming home to read more of “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”…if food (especially locally grown or produced, homegrown, or homemade food) appeals to you at all, you should read it. The few chapters I’ve read are really making me want a garden…but that won’t happen this year. Other than maybe an herb garden…at least that’s something.

That’s it for today.

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The above photos were taken with the boyfriend’s very nice camera. I’ll have to play with it more often in the future as I really like the way the pictures turned out…even if some of them were a little bit dark.

This picture was taken with my perfectly okay camera. I’m learning how to use it a little better as well.

So…these are almond cupcakes. Mostly vegan…other than my use of regular margarine in the frosting and sour cream instead of soy yogurt in the cupcake batter. I didn’t have soy yogurt on hand…but I’m not sure I can find plain yogurt anyway. I found flavored soy yogurt at Ukrop’s and Trader Joe’s…but no plain. Sour cream worked out just fine. The cupcake batter has finely ground almonds, almond extract and amaretto…as well as a little strawberry jam layer baked into the cupcake. The frosting is also very almond-flavored with my addition of both almond extract and amaretto. I’m going to need more amaretto soon. I seem to like to use copious amounts of it in my baking. And the DiSaronno brand of amaretto smells so delicious that it’s worth keeping around just to smell it.

I need to get a couple of things done this afternoon…namely researching and possibly applying for individual health insurance from Anthem (effective March 1 when I stop managing) and looking at the 2008 Williamsburg Farmer’s Market application. I need to see if doing this is feasible this year, in this apartment with the small-ish kitchen. I’ve got to research health code stuff for home baking for the Farmer’s Market as well as the need for liability insurance should someone get sick from my food. God forbid that should happen.

In addition to those two things, I’ll be cooking dinner, baking some peanut butter cup brownies and watching the last 5 or so episodes of Arrested Development. I’m going to be sad when there aren’t anymore Netflix envelopes arriving with the Bluth family’s misadventures inside of them. However, I do think the boyfriend has queued the first season of House for me to watch fairly soon.

I guess that’s all. I’m off to bake and possibly roast some peppers for a pepper sauce to go with trout for dinner.

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