Wordless Wednesday: Leap Smoothie

[frozen banana + peanut butter + flax milk]

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Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Quick Bread!

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

Goodness, it’s been quite dull around here! But what’s this? Today is the 27th. This is the Daring Bakers’ Challenge reveal date. I am posting on time! It’s highly possible that a pig just flew by.

Perhaps I was eager to give this Marbled Banana Bread a go. Banana + chocolate is always a winner, but this bread is special because it’s vegan! No eggs, milk, or butter were harmed in the making of this loaf, but I promise that they are not missed. The final product is very moist and flavorful, plus lower in fat and not too sweet. And my, what a looker!

The only vegan-y thing that the recipe calls for is almond milk which you can replace with any milk substitute (I used flax milk) or milk itself. All of the other ingredients are probably residing in your kitchen: ripe bananas, sugar, vanilla, oil, flour, baking soda, salt, unsweetened cocoa powder, and water. Convenient if you’re a non-vegan who has run out of eggs!

Wordless Wednesday: Cat Tuesday

This is how crazy cat roomies celebrate Mardi Gras.

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Daring Cooks’ Challenge: Patties!

The Daring Cooks’ February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax & Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients and deliciousness! We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties!

You could maybe say that I’m on an uncommitted search for the best veggie burger. So far the winner is the Garden Bean Burger at La Tuna Grill in San Antonio. They make it with refried black beans and then top it with cheddar, guacamole, roasted salsa, and tomatoes. Sounds kind of like a chalupa on a bun, right?

Naturally this challenge gave me the impetus to try to make my own black bean burgers in hopes that they’d be half as good as the ones at La Tuna. Having never made a veggie burger before (what?!), I looked up recipes and found one that used refried black beans…but by “refried”, they mean “smashed”. Probably most bean burger recipes involve smashing…

Wordless Wednesday: Made by Dad

It seemed popular in this post and worthy of its own.

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Wordless Wednesday: A big’un…

The description of the Baby Rattler donut at Gourdough’s seems rather innocent: Fudge Icing & Fudge Oreos with a Gummy Rattlesnake

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Thirt…een.

Maybe I’m obsessed with Disney princesses or maybe my almost-3-year-old niece insisted that they pose with the cake. I’ll let you decide.

One thing is certain: that was one awesome birthday week!

Jill, Julie, and Andrew came up to Austin the Sunday before my birthday. We had lunch, then made dessert! The recipe was super secret until it was time to make it: Sticky Toffee Cupcakes! YUM.

The cake part is basically a white cake with soaked dates folded in. You can’t see the toffee because it’s piped in the centers…sort of! For some reason, the toffee kept separating, which made it tricky to work with. We ended up squeezing more over the frosting, which is coconut cream cheese! On top are toasted coconut flakes. Coconut x2! Remember this.

Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Scones/Biscuits!

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

I almost said that I’ve never made biscuits from scratch, which seems crazy for a Texan who loves to bake…but I’ve made scones! Looking back at those, they weren’t too pretty, but they sure tasted good and had a light texture. Not convinced that I’d mastered scone or biscuit-making by any means, I was happy about this challenge, especially since Audax was hosting! He always provides such a wealth of knowledge and help for both the Daring Bakers and Cooks that I felt confident with his instructions.

I fully expected my first batch to be a flop, and it was. I went with the basic scone recipe and think the problem was that the dough was way too wet; I shouldn’t have used the full amount of milk. Audax did say that a moister dough makes lighter scones, but I definitely passed that point! However, the amorphous lumps were still light and I had no problem polishing them off… 

Wordless Wednesday: New day, new decade.

Hello, 30! I’ve made it to you.

There is a big ol’ blog post a’coming, but for now, I just want to say that I have some really great friends. Many thanks to them for making this week a wonderful one and distracting me from crying in a corner.

(sorry for the lack of posts!)