quick! a bread recipe.

Last week, I was recipe testing a few quick breads, trying to find the right one for gift-giving (that's about all I can tell you before Christmas - and no photos). I made one batch, tasted it, was pleasantly surprised, and then quickly ushered it out of the house with Ryan to work so that I wouldn't be tempted to eat the whole loaf.

Some of our friends who got a taste of the bread have asked for the recipe - and since it makes such a great Christmas gift (pack the dry goods in a jar), I have to oblige.

I adapted it from this Sunset magazine recipe, and it's SO easy to make. *If you don't have any buttermilk in the fridge, simply mix 1 1/2 cups of regular milk with 1 1/2 tablespoons of white vinegar, and let sit while you prepare the other ingredients. Happy holiday baking!

Chocolate Chip & Pecan Oatmeal Quick Bread

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Quick Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (see note above)
2 large eggs
1/4 cup melted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

2. Mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing

2. In a small bowl, beat buttermilk, eggs, and butter.

3. Stir wet mixture into dry ingredients just until evenly moistened (batter will be lumpy).

4. Scrape into the ready pan, and bake in a 350° oven until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.

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soup in a big, pretty pot.

Recently, with the holidays approaching, I've become obsessed with making everything pretty. And without giving too much of my holiday gift-giving away, I've become equally obsessed with the Japanese art of furoshiki, in which you wrap something in a reusable cloth (tea towels are perfect for this!) instead of gift wrap. It's so wabi-sabi, so ordinary but extraordinary all at once.

All that to say, I love tea towels. Somehow, tea towels make everything more beautiful. This amazingly gorgeous pot of mine is made more lovely just with the simple (and extremely useful) addition of a tea towel. Quick note: this trick is great for transporting any hot dish with handles! Just thread the towel through each handle, and you've got built-in heat protection with a touch of charm.

I had promised a homemade dinner to my grandmother, and when I told her I'd be bringing "super-healthy lentil soup," she may or may not have mentioned that she could order pizza.

Since we've recently converted to health nuts at our house, I decided to try this lentil soup recipe from Heidi Swanson over at 101 Cookbooks. Her recipes always incorporate whole eating, and as she says in her post about this particular soup, it's chock-full of veggie protein, a little dairy, healthy greens, and tomatoes. Indeed, super healthy. It was unbelievably easy to whip up on a weeknight and, with the tea towel lending a hand, made for safe travel over to my grandma's house.

This makes enough to feed 8; surprisingly, after doling out seconds and leftovers to my sister and aunt, the soup was all gone. I followed the recipe exactly, except that I had to use spinach as the green (forgot to buy kale or chard and the garden hasn't grown anything just yet) and served it with a little bit of sauteed butternut squash, which rounded it out for a lovely winter meal.

Yeah. Stay tuned next week when I tell you about the split pea soup extravaganza. I know you're excited! (And I promise to tell you about the season's best beer bread, too.)

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healthful eating

For quite some time, I have focused my cooking on completely natural ingredients; fresh, local, and organic vegetables; and seasonal eating. I've even been vegetarian for a year, which should just scream "healthiest eater around!!" right?

Wrong.

What I've recently learned is that while I cook fairly healthy, there's always room for improvement. A quick look at my most recent blog posts points to cheese, caramel apples, and a dinner without protein.

Don't worry, I'm not giving up the good stuff. But this weekend, we took a brave new approach to eating.

Nothing was covered in cheese, and we didn't skip meals. We ate only whole grains and looked at nutrition labels to figure out fiber and protein counts. Together, we constructed meals that included not just healthy vegetables and grains, but also legumes for a complete food experience.

Needless to say, we ate a lot of beans over the weekend.

But we might have just eaten healthier in the last four days than we ever have. I'm still learning about constructing meals, but whatever I learn I hope to pass along to you.

For starters, here's a recipe for our new favorite breakfast, only slightly adapted from the nutritionist. It's chock-full of wintry flavor, not to mention plenty of nutrients and fiber. And of course, we use organic everything to make it meet our strict house food policies.

It comes together in just a few minutes, but to speed things up in the morning (especially on work days), I like to have the dry ingredients and the pot sitting out overnight so there's nothing to hunt for in the wee hours of the morning.

Pumpkin Oatmeal

1 cup lowfat milk (or almond milk)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp - 1 tbls raw or brown sugar, to taste

1/3 cup canned pumpkin (or fresh pumpkin puree)

1 cup rolled oats (not the quick-cooking kind)

1 tbls ground flax seed

chopped pecans for garnish

In a small pot, bring the milk, spices, and pumpkin to a boil, stirring frequently. Add the oats, lower the heat, and cook for about 5 minutes or until tender. Serve in bowls with the flax seed and pecans sprinkled on top.

Serves 2.

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