In the four years that I have not posted on this blog, I convocated with one bachelor's degree, began a second bachelor's degree (this time in social work and "fingers crossed" English), moved another three times, ending in an flat a hop, skip and a jump away from the condo I grew up in the downtown core, and in the process, found a boyfriend who loves food just as much as I do.

I decided to resurrect my dead blog that nobody apart from myself reads because lately I have taken to spamming my Tumblr with pictures of food and creative non-fiction sketches regarding food. So even if this continues to be a place where no one except me reads it, at least it will be better organized. That's up there on the "weirdest excuses to create a blog" list, but whatever.

On the bright side, in the last four years, Google's made this interface significantly nicer....

Hiatus really over now. (Originally submitted to The Martlet.)

To make up for the fact that I haven't written anything in here since January, have some Pink Lemonade Cupcakes to celebrate my return. (I kid, I kid.) Light and fluffy on the wallet, as well as the waistline, these delicious little cakes will bring sugary delight to your late night cramming sessions. One awesome trait of cupcakes is that they require much less time for baking than their full sized counterparts. It's very easy to while away an afternoon just decorating them, although this is by no means necessary. Cupcakes are always a welcome addition to any party or entertaining occasion.

Two unique ingredients in this recipe are buttermilk and pink lemonade concentrate. Concentrate is pretty cheap and plentiful, and often on sale. You will need one can for this recipe. Unless you particularly love buttermilk, a whole carton is not needed for this recipe. Just pour the equivalent of the required quantity of buttermilk in regular milk, and add a splash of vinegar. Let sit for five minutes, and you will have the perfect amount. Consumption out of baking is not recommended.

If you are feeling adventurous, feel free to replace pink lemonade with limeade or plain lemonade.

Cupcakes:
250 mL ( one cup) all-purpose flour
2.5 mL (1/2 teaspoon) baking powder
1.23 ml (1/4 teaspoon). baking soda
dash of salt
120 mL (1/2 cup) white sugar
60 mL (1/4 cup) vegetable oil
1 egg
100 mL (1/3 cup)thawed frozen pink lemonade concentrate
60 mL (1/4 cup) buttermilk
red food colouring

Preheat oven to 350 Celsius, and line your muffin pan with liners. You will need twelve.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.

In a bigger bowl, mix together the sugar, oil, egg, and concentrate.

Alternate additions of buttermilk and the dry mixture, until all is combined thoroughly.

Add in enough food colouring until the mixture reaches your desired shade of pink. The colour will fade in the oven, so be generous.

Drop batter into muffin liners, and bake for twenty to twenty five minutes. Let cool in pan for ten minutes. Remove, and cool on a rack.

Frost with frosting when completely cooled.

Frosting:

741mL( 3 cups and 3 tablespoons) icing sugar
120 mL(1/2 cup) butter
30 mL (2 tablespoons) pink lemonade concentrate
dash of salt
milk as needed
red food colouring as needed

Mix together icing sugar, butter, salt and concentrate. Carefully add the milk, a few drops at a time. The frosting should have the consistency of fluffy mashed potatoes. Add food colouring until desired colour is reached. Frost cupcakes.

I'm sorry about the lack of pictures; I'm in the midst of moving. I just left the Island, am spending a few weeks in Vancouver, and then moving on to the Okanagan. Pictures will definitely be sporatic.

Breakfast Adventures!

My new discovery this week was the wonderful Kraft Kitchens website. They have this fun little feature where you can type in ingredients and it will magically give you recipes that you might actually want to make without running down to the store to grab things you don't already possess.

Today, Kaydee and I were hanging around the kitchen before we headed off to do more research (library intro lab for her, oral history and Venezuelan revolutionary history readings for me), kind of hungry, and in that aforementioned state of mind where neither one of us really wanted to run five blocks down the street to get whatever missing ingredients we required. This recipe, thanks to Kraft Kitchens, was the happy result.

We modified it slightly, by using four eggs instead of six, and using veggie sausages instead of chopped ham.

We also made this amazing banana bread thanks to noabsolutes' recipe posted on bakebakebake a couple of weeks back.

Mash three bananas. Then add:

1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon. baking powder
1/4 cup oil (we replaced this with applesauce)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Pour into a loaf pan (or, if you are us, a cake pan because my loaf pan is still at my momma's) and sprinkle with a bit more sugar (if you want a fun crust). Bake between 45 minutes and an hour at 350.

We consumed both of these with some green tea. Perfect pre-studying noms.

Samosas!

Today, Kaydee and I made an attempt to connect with my Indian heritage. We popped a Bollywood film on the laptop, and made samosas.

In the filling:

frozen vegetables (mixed, there were corn, green beans and peas)
frozen hashbrowns
half a chopped onion
This awesome curry powder I found at Thrifty's
pepper
a splash of lemon juice

First, I fried together the onion in some canola oil. After it had sauteed for about five minutes, I added the curry powder, the vegetables and the potatoes, the latter of which were still frozen. I stirred it at medium heat for about fifteen minutes, and let it sit on low while Kaydee rolled out the pre-made samosa pastry.

Yesterday, I made the pastry. At the absolute minimum, it should chill for half an hour. Mine chilled for about 24 hours or so.

2 1/2 cups flour (I split this between whole wheat and white, because I tend to add whole wheat to everything)
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup water

Mix together the flour and salt together, add the canola oil, and then the water as needed. Knead until it's smooth and kind of stretchy.

When assembling, what I found works the easiest is if you cut a circle and then cut that in half. Ours were rather small (about three inches across as most, so 1 1/2 wide per half circle), but you can make them bigger. Ours were more appetizer sized. Bring the edges together, and join them together securely, using extra water to really join it together. Stuff with a little bit of the filling (see picture), and then seal in the same manner. You really want to make sure that the edges are securely fastened or else your samosa will fall apart while deep frying.

Pour enough oil in to fill up your pan about half way (don't worry, you can pour it back in afterwards), and fry the samosas until they are done (kind of crunchy, clearly fried and not just browned).

Chutney tastes fabulous with them; we did not have any, they tasted amazing anyway.

Hiatus over!

So much for updating: in mid November I was diagnosed with mono. Between the mono and the Christmas season, not much kitchen action has occurred until, well, this week.

There will be a 'real' update soon. With real pictures! For now, enjoy the new layout.

xoxo
Kirie

Madhuri's Chocolate Chip Cookies of Awesome.

When we first moved to Victoria in the winter of 1994, my momma made a bunch of different cookie recipes, took her favourite ingredients, and came up with these delicious cookies. When we moved to our downtown apartment, I once had a lemonade and cookie stand on the corner of Government and Johnson, and these sold much better than the lemonade.

We tend to freeze them so they last longer[in theory-in high school I used to eat frozen cookies for breakfast on the bus].

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees C.

Cream together in a large bowl: 1 cup softened margarine/butter,¾ cup white sugar,¾ cup brown sugar, 2 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla.

In a separate, smaller bowl, mix together 1 ½ cups all purpose flour, 2 ½ cups rolled oats[not instant!],1/3 cup wheat germ[this is optional],1 tsp. baking powder,1 tsp baking soda, and ½ ts salt.

Add the two mixtures together, mix well and add ¾ cup chocolate chips. My momma makes about 32 cookies, I found it's very easy to halve. Bake 10-12 minutes, do not overcook them! They should still be slightly doughy. Transfer to a rack to cool.

My Mama's Lentil Soup. From the Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas

This soup is idiot-proof, cheap, and easy. It's good for students [like me!] because it takes three hours to cook and lasts forever in the freezer, which is good if you are on a budget. Plus, it's vegan.

When I was littler, my family and I lived on Government St, near Chinatown, and my mama would give the street people who lived below our building [our condo was above a hair salon] containers of this soup and hot toast. It's warm, filling, and delicious.

In a large pot, add:

2/3 cup dried lentils
4 cups of water
1 onion, chopped fine
4 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery,chopped

Then, simmer it for three hours. Do not forget about your soup. Set your timer.

Sometime, your soup will get a little too thick, like more of a thick stew than a thick soup. Add some more water until it reaches whatever you consider to be a soup.

Then, add:

1 cup tomato paste [or two of those tiny cans]
garlic
thyme
tarragon

Voila. Your soup is finished. Serve with bread; my mama makes amazing focaccia to serve with this.