A new look and a new post

Okay, so it's highly likely that I am the only person who ever reads this blog. I know that at least two people have looked at it once, but aside from that I can only guarantee my own reading. However, I got a bit sad about the layout of this blog after looking at so many gloriously formatted foodblogs. Thus, I've "upgraded" the look, and I hope I (and anyone else who happens to stumble upon this blog) enjoy it.

My dad, as I'm sure I've established in earlier entries, is a sandwich man. My mother, by contrast is a baker. I have yet to uncover the reason why I'm not yet obese, despite being raised on homemade baked goods. I'm not complaining, mind you, just marvelling. Despite the fact that I now live three hours away from my mother doesn't seem to daunt her. She visited at least three times in October and never failed to bring food with her. She always sends up baked goods for me if something else is being dropped off at my house. Whenever I go home for a visit, I return laden with nourishing foodstuffs.

On my latest visit home, Mom packed up a good pile of food for me, including a roll of frozen cookie dough (a genius idea, I must say). Last Friday night, I was in the mood for cookies instead of dancing and booze (which is more of a typical Friday night for me). Since my cookies have been turning out oddly lately and I didn't want my dough getting freezerburn, I decided to bake up Mom's while I made a chocolate cake.

We'd recently bought some eggnog, and a cool glass of it along with a cookie made Christmas, and more times spent with food and my food-loving family, feel all that closer.

I was pretty pleased by the cookies, and decided to continue baking after the cake by making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Both went over well with the roommates, which is a bit unusual. The cookies lasted for possibly two days, and the cake under 24 hours; I guess that's what happens when I don't try to bake healthy things.

I was going to try infusing the store-bought icing taking up space in the fridge with coffee, but I figured the roommates would rather drink it than to have me destroy the coffeemaker in an attempt to brew the stuff... whoops. So I tinted it brown with cocoa and sprinkled chocolate chips on top. The roomies and I ended up gathered round the table talking late into the night devouring our sugary goodies.

I consider it a successful Friday night.

Let them eat cookies!

I sometimes wonder if pregnant women have food cravings as bad, diverse, and often as I do. Within the span of a month I can want homemade bread, pad Thai, shepherds pie, babaghanoush, nutella, macarons (which I’ve never even tasted!) and oatmeal carrot cookies. There’s no rhyme or reason.

Back in the spring, there was nothing I wanted more than some plain ol’ oatmeal cookies. So I set to work, keeping in mind one of my weird baking mantras: Everything tastes better with sprinkles and dried fruit! This might be why my roommates are bit iffy on my baking. Whoops.

I used the recipe I found in some Cookie Cookbook, which, unfortunately, I don’t have with me.

What do you do with a bag of apples?

My mom was in town one weekend for the Rolling Stones’ concert. For some reason, she decided that bringing along not just the usual baked goods, but a five-pound bag of baking apples, would be a good idea. How this thought possessed the woman, I have no idea. All I know is that I spent one hazy Friday night staying up until 4AM dicing apples and not even bothering to peel them. I baked my very first pie, and the crust was pretty much stupendous, considering how bad I expected it to turn out. I ended up eating half the pie as the night wore on… whoops!

So then I was left with piles of diced unpeeled apples taking up a lot of space in my fridge. The next morning, I made a shameful apple crisp, and an equally shameful pie. This makes me happy that my digital camera wasn’t working, since there’s no photographic evidence of my utter, utter shame.

About a week later, two plastic containers of apples remained, mocking me. What with midterm season setting in rapidly, I barely had a spare second. But the apples beckoned, and the roommates bemoaned lost space in the fridge. I was in need of a quick snack for my sleep-deprived self to grab on my way to and from classes and meetings.

It was time for apple muffins, ladies and gents. There was no way around it.
So I baked away happily, sort of following the recipe… whoops. I think they turned out not at all as I’d anticipated (the apples were very moist), but still lovely in their own right. My roommates did not share my sentiments, unfortunately, and I ended up eating most of these beauties on my own. Not that I’m complaining…

Recipe to be added at a later date…