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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fall, can i keep you?

We've finally hit my official vegetarian anniversary, and I must say it's working out quite nicely. The connection between mind, body, spirit, and food is fascinating; I feel totally connected in many new ways as I've taken this vegetarian journey. I think I have opened up my cooking lexicon to experience new things because of it (cous cous still is not something I enjoy, but bring on the mole, curry, and miso!).

Here are a few things that we've been eating lately. Rainbow chard (topped with cheese), wine-laced caramel apples, roasted acorn squash with brown sugar and dijon mustard.

Fall is my absolute favorite.

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AP. Like the flour.

Well, it happened. I'm a married woman. And now my initials are AP, like the flour, as one friend pointed out. (The rest of the friends didn't get it right away. AP = All Purpose. Funny, right?)

We had an extraordinarily wonderful wedding, with handmade details at every turn, and it could not have been more perfect for us if it tried. Our family and friends made it that way - their outpouring of love and support humbled and amazed us.

And then we came home. Not a lot is different, but somehow it indeed better. Ryan resumed his normal activity of building fires in the backyard and I got back into the kitchen as quickly as I could. In a silly fit of embracing stereotypical gender roles of marriage, I had my husband open a stuck jar for me and in turn called him "My hero." He pointed out my cheese factor and life was back to normal. But the day did hold one small miracle that directly pertains to this here food blog.

The Sunday we returned from our honeymoon, I tried four (count 'em, FOUR) new recipes. Are you ready for this?

All of them turned out wonderfully.

There were no kitchen mishaps; when I started to burn some sugar, I caught my mistake before it became an error and saved my own sanity. I planned things out perfectly and had dinner on the table for our friends not too long after they arrived. There was even a snack to munch on before the salad was served. My dressing was just right, the soup was well-blended, and dessert? Well, it rocked.

Then we saw a pig fly past the window.

I won't tell you how long it took me to finish washing dishes from that night. It's not important.

But what is important is that it was such an affirmation of why I love cooking. Because once in a while, a new recipe can surprise and delight you. For me, it was more than just our now-we're-married-and-we-can-celebrate-fall-the-right-way meal; it was an invitation to spend uninterrupted time on my favorite hobby and have something to show for it. And then share that with my husband and friends - what could be better than that?

Not to mention, I got to use many new kitchen gadgets, most notably the beautiful Le Creuset dutch oven in Caribbean Blue given to us by my grandmother, aunt, and cousin. I remember opening it at one of my bridal showers and my first thought being, "POT ROAST. Aww." But let me tell you, it will make some incredible vegetarian dinners too.

Here's what was on the menu that night:

Bleu Cheese Bread (thanks to the bread machine)

Spinach Salad with Strawberries, Dijon Vinaigrette, Bleu Cheese, and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Butternut Squash Soup

Pumpkin Pie with Gingersnap Crust

Photos and recipes to come soon. Here's the link to the soup, though - it was served at Adelea's on Main in Salado for our rehearsal dinner, and everyone (seriously) remarked that it was the best soup they'd ever had. My version was close to perfect, but I'm no Chef Jennifer that's for sure. :)

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canned beans.

So the last, oh, two months haven't involved a lot of cooking for me. And what cooking does ensue usually involves frozen, albeit organic, vegetables and pasta. Or rice. But pasta cooks faster, so, you know. . . usually pasta.

In fact, last night I considered it an achievement beyond the greatest realms of possibility that I actually cooked a full, healthy, delicious meal. This meal was, as one of my friends puts it, "what the rest of the world eats every day." Rice and beans.

So why was it fancy? Because I busted out the cast iron skillet to heat up the canned beans, that's why. AND I sprinkled them with cumin and chili powder. Or maybe it was the other red spice in my cabinet, paprika. I'm not sure, because a long time ago I forgot to label the jars, thinking it would be really easy to tell what was what. I'm a food writer, after all. Not the case.

And then I made guacamole, meaning I chopped up one avocado and poured in some jarred salsa. And there might have been some pre-cut lettuce involved. But still, it was the fanciest homemade meal we've had in a while, and I plated it up on our beautiful new crisp white plates and we enjoyed it immensely.

All this to say that in a month, we'll be married, and then we won't have any crazy stuff to take care of and all we will have to do is sit around on our new front porch and drink wine in adirondack chairs.

And then I can cook. With my husband.

That's got a pretty nice ring to it, doesn't it?

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routine.

It's been one whirlwind of a month, and I may have come out of it a little worse for the wear. At least, that's how I feel at the moment.

There has been much soul searching and self investigating, not to mention planning, party throwing, appointment making, furniture assembly, moving, painting, eating out, shedding of tears, and not enough running, playing, relaxing, laundry, painting, and (as I'm sure you've noticed) cooking.

So I'm looking forward to finding a routine again soon. Two days into this week, and the mornings have had a little bit of structure; I've made it out the door both days with coffee (but one day without my computer). Not to mention, that picnic table is getting quite the workout because Ryan has been out grilling a couple times a week.

What a year this one has been, and continues to be.

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