Dream

So I decided I have to withdraw my application from George Brown for January 2014 after a lot of angst, some tears, a heart to heart with my older sister and a realization.

The realization that just because I'm not going to pastry school straight away doesn't mean I can't learn things about pastry and baking on my own time. So I went to the library yesterday and checked out "The Pastry Chef's Apprentice" and a book on basic pastry and baking techniques by the French Culinary Institute. I want to take in as much as I can. If this stuff is a real passion of mine, I can keep the dream alive, practice and learn as much as I can before I go to school.

Then, when I get to baking school, I'll just be a total ACE, right?...Er...RIGHT? Because I don't believe in giving up, but I believe in givin' 'er. So I'll keep baking and learning, and writing essays and trying to "learn to love the skies I'm under." (Thanks, Mumford & Sons)

Take a deep breath. If things aren't alright, I've got time to make it better.

A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Muffin

In case you couldn't tell (or you don't like reading-- GIRL, GO HOME) I'm back in school and the student life. The sore shoulders from backpacks, the early morning class & coffee combo, the rambling sentences about creating a general atmosphere of my current life experience. In one of my lectures (British Literature to 1660) as her introduction, the professor told us a little bit about herself. She said that when she was working on her Ph.D her escape from the mountains of pressure was sewing.

Well I might not be after a Ph.D, but this is my first time in university and I'm already apprehensive about what's expected of me. I'm no slouch when it comes to school. I slack like the Dickens, but when push comes to procrastination, I get it all done in the end. What I'm leery of is whether or not I'll be able to get a grip on all the higher thinking. University is filled with big concepts and it's built to open up your mind and teach you things to change the way you see the world. I just want to understand it. And survive. And not ruin my future. No worries, right? 

I might not be much of a seamstress, but apart from blogging and running, one of my best escapes from the pressures of life is baking and cooking. Paper panic? Cookies. Bad day? Squash Risotto. Another part of being a student is counting every penny and putting it to good use. Use meaning, when life gives you browning bananas, you make good on your money and bake muffins.

Moist, delicious, wholesome banana muffins from the recipe your mama swears by. So, last night, I threw on some tunes, my apron and brewed some coffee in my favourite mug. (Great Gays, ASSEMBLE!)

Monsieur Smith's Mix & Match Muffins

 CAST:
1 cup oats
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp each cinnamon & nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda 
1/2 tsp salt 

2 eggs (room temp)
1 1/2 cups yogurt (I used greek, vanilla)
1/2 cup oil 
Dash of vanilla
1 cup fruit of your choice (MASHED BANANAS!)

1. Get two mixing bowls, one bigger than the other. The big one is for dry ingredients, the smaller one, wet ingredients. Sift all the siftables into the bigger bowl. Then added the brown sugar, oats, and salt. Mix it!

2. Combine the wet ingredients in the smaller of the two mixing bowls. Eggs, yogurt, oil, vanilla. Blee bloo blee blah.

3. Mash up! You don't have to mash the fruit if you use other kinds, but bananas work better in muffins mashed. So I got to work, like a boss. Fork. Measuring cup. Badassery.

 

When you've adequately expressed all your angst and rage and panic, add your bananas to the rest of the wet ingredients and stir.

4. This is where the magic happens. You see, when two mixing bowls love each other very very much....

They add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients to make muffin batter. Stir just enough to incorporate the two together, no more and no less! Overmixing makes for tough muffins.

5.  Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease 1 1/2 muffin tins. (My mama said this batter makes 12 muffins. I want to live in her world of titanic muffin tins and humongous carbs. For the rest of us, two muffin tins are probably a good idea.)

Basically, use as many tins are you need. These babies rise, but not by much. I got 18 muffins from this recipe...
6. Bake 20-25 minutes, until a knife comes out clean.

7. Bask in your glorious, oaty children.

8. Now eat them. Bek put butter on one half of hers, and peanut butter on the other. I tried mine with pumpkin seed butter. Both were amazing.

The muffins are dense, moist, not too sweet but tasty. There's nothing quite like fresh baked goods... The best thing about baking is that it also ensures you have food ready to eat when you need a quick snack or a study break.

Uhh. I got muffin else to say here...

BYE!

The Whole Food Movement

I gained 4-5lbs back over Christmas. Which says terrible things in equal parts about my self control AND the nature of the holidays themselves.

I'm not worried about the weight, it's small potatoes to where I've been and where I'm going. The long term damage is what concerns me. This once a year series of festivities obliterated my 'stop eating' function. Eating until you're ready to explode for one dinner is one thing. Spending a week like that in a bloated nap hazed coma of gluttony meant that when I returned to regular sized portions and meal times, my body went OMG NO, MOAR FOOD PLZ. I don't know about you guys, I had to retrain my body to understand what being satisfied was. (That's what she said?)

NOW that everything is more or less back in line, I'm struggling with the CHOICES in food that I have to make. It never ends! I'm finding it harder for me to choose to eat healthy over salty-sugary-everywhere-at-my-jobs snacks. It's tough to get away from packaged options in this day and age, they're virtually everywhere. They're more convenient, blah blah preservatives blah. So for my 100 billionth post-New Years resolution, I think I'd like to try and eat more wholesomely.

In first year, Josh used to come into my dorm room and scoff at the turkey bacon in my freezer. "Do you even know what this stuff IS? Why don't you just eat REAL bacon?" Studies have shown that people who eat low fat, zero fat treats and snacks tend to eat MORE. It gives them a sense of allowance. So screw reduced fat cheddar, cake mix, and cooking with only egg whites. Hello moderation, cutting back on candy and having a healthy relationship with food.

Part of this whole food movement is going to be learning to bake and cook healthier things. Variety is the spice of life, and BABY, do I like my food spicy! Combining time in the kitchen with my crazy fitness plan is going to ensure some measure of success. The word is BALANCE.

So if you guys have any healthy, wholesome, baking or cooking recipes that I just HAVE to try, hollah!

I baked this today to get back into my groove. It might not be the healthiest, but it has none of the preservatives of store bought bread and I ad libbed the oats in there for added goodness!

WHITE OAT BREAD


1/4 cup milk
5 teaspoons sugar (or 1 1/2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoons salt
5 teaspoons melted butter (or 1 1/2 tablespoons)
1 package active dry yeast
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups flour
Corn starch or nonstick cooking spray

• Mix up the yeast according to the directions on the packet. (Fleischmann's instant yeast is 1/4 cup warm water, 1 tsp sugar and then the usual 2 1/4 tsp of yeast.)

• Add the melted butter, the milk, the sugar, and the salt to the yeast mixture and stir it.

• Add two cups of flour to the mix. Start stirring, and then add the flour about 1/4 cup at a time. (This is where I added 1/2 cup of oats. FUN!)

• Add flour until the dough is still slightly sticky, but it doesn’t stick to your hands in any significant way. Also, it should largely clean the sides of the bowl, leaving just a thin layer of floury stuff.

• Knead on a floured surface for ten minutes. (It's going to make your arms hurt. TRUST.)

• Shape it into a ball and coat the inside a bowl with nonstick cooking spray, then put the ball of dough inside the bowl. Toss to coat. Cover and let rise for one hour.

• Punch the dough down. Shape it into a loaf, putting it into a greased bread pan. Wait another hour.

• Put in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. When it’s done, remove it from the oven, the pan and let it cool as much as you possibly can before eating. (Good luck!)

Bumblebees

I've been busy lately, and more or less happy with being busy. When I'm not at work, I feel creative and I want to have fun and enjoy every second with people and with writing and everything.

Let's start off with exterior blogs & writing:

Behind the Green Apron: Part II

Fashion Friday: Your Style

Shameless self promotion! OH. And I got my hands on a copy of the Comeback Issue, the first paper issue of Travis this year. I saw my piece. I saw my picture. UN.REAL.


I never thought when I was younger I'd be in a magazine... and now.... I feel small town famous.

I got down to a little baking too!

Double glazed pumpkin scones. (Simpsons fans: Mmmm....double glazed.....) I got the recipe, and believe me. THESE WERE SO GOOD. I ate THREE the day I baked them. I brought one to work for breakfast the next morning (5AM shifts or bust?), and when I got home from work , I realized they were so good my dog Jack had eaten ALL OF THEM. That was a little sad. I'll just have to try and crank those out tomorrow before all of our guests arrive for thanksgiving dinner!


UHHHHHH. I have to go to bed now. I open 5:30AM tomorrow. Thanks, Starbucks, you douche.