Gothic Granola

Leftover coffee from the almond mocha bread I made for the edit-a-thon turned into a Bundt cake.  I don’t drink coffee, and since I made 16 ounces of coffee for the bread, I saved the rest of it for another baked good.  While many recipes on King Arthur Flour’s website call for coffee in teaspoon or tablespoon amounts, I wanted a recipe that required a full cup.  I’ve also wanted to bake a Bundt cake ever since my cousin’s eighteenth birthday party in December where one of her cakes was a yellow Bundt cake with chocolate whipped cream frosting (which was obviously not VGF).  Maybe I’ll convert that cake in the near future using one of my mom’s fancy Bundt pans.

With one baked sweet potato, I made sweet potato pie for a party on Sunday.  I made the pie a day in advance because the filling is unbaked. I made this pie for a potluck birthday party given in honour of the Buddhist nun who leads the meditation group I attend near school.  She’s originally from West Virginia, so I baked the pie in my purple Fiestaware pie plate (Fiestaware’s still  made in America, folks ).  When I brought her a slice, she said “This is pretty good!”

Why is there an egg in the original recipe for “Banana-Flax Breakfast Muffins?”  The recipe has a quarter cup of ground flaxseed, which is equivalent to 4 eggs in the vegan baking world.  The egg  seems to add only unnecessary cholesterol since the chemical leaveners and buttermilk and flaxseed do an excellent job of leavening and binding, effectively replacing the role of an egg.  Furthermore,  why is there 1 cup of sugar in  breakfast  muffins?  Bananas are naturally sweet; they really don’t need the help.

Organised another one of  these  last Saturday.  I took home the leftover white rice from the Indian food.

When I was taking my walk on Tuesday or Wednesday night, I overheard a youngish man introducing his infant son to an elderly couple, “Ben.  Benjamin, like Benjamin Franklin.”  Franklin was vegetarian for part of his life, as he says in The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin … until he wasn’t.   

Burny fingers and muffins don't go well together, kids. Pro Tip: store your cooling rack somewhere other than under your oven. Why is there an egg in the original recipe for “Banana-Flax Breakfast Muffins?”  The recipe has a quarter cup of ground flaxseed, which is equivalent to 4 eggs in the vegan baking world.  The egg  seems to add only unnecessary cholesterol since the chemical leaveners and buttermilk and flaxseed do an excellent job of leavening and binding, effectively replacing the role of an egg.  Furthermore,  why is there 1 cup of sugar in  breakfast  muffins?  Bananas are naturally sweet; they really don’t need the help.

Two pies. Last week I made a pumpkin mousse pie using the Whole Foods pumpkin mousse recipe , substituting pecans and pumpkin for the cashews and squash (and using less coconut milk), in a raisin-oat piecrust .  ‘Twas mucho good.   Two words: black cocoa.

As I ate Nature’s Path Mesa Sunrise with almond milk, I realised that eating cereal is actually quite pleasurable and why don’t I do it more often?  Said I, I usually have oatmeal for breakfast, and since oats are a blank slate, they’re good for all meals of the day, and they can be ground into flour.  Cereal’s somewhat one-dimensional since it generally retains a breakfast connotation.  Or it’s dessert (hello, my freshman year of college: salad and cereal for supper.  I made being vegetarian and eating healthful meals…challenging).  

Greetings, Earthlings— If there’s anything I’ve learned at school, it’s that finals are only as good as your playlist(s).  My first of five playlists for finals was “Bloody Mary” by Lady Gaga, “No Reflection” and “You’re so Vain” (feat. Johnny Depp) by Marilyn Manson, “Mutter” and “Sonne” by Rammstein, and “Without a Face” by Rage Against the Machine.  My final finals playlist just kept growing as I worked later and later.  About 20:00 on Friday, I realised it would take me until the next day to finish my paper (which, incidentally, wasn’t due until a week later), so I figured I’d have fun with staying up past midnight in order to do schoolwork for the first and last time in my undergraduate education.  At strategic intervals, I carb-loaded, eating cereal and muffins-that-taste-like-doughnuts. 

Anzac Day was 25 April.   I made these cookies for sharing later today since have impressive street cred: they "converted" a creative writing workshop to vegan cookie advocates in Spring 2011.  These cookies taught me an important lesson when I made them in October ; I rushed the first batch and ended up with a giant cookie.  The lesson of "low and slow" was important for the driving in the snow I did the day after I made them.  Cookies are educational!

In advance of my Cinco De Mayo taco consumption, I made macadamia nut sour cream.

After I moved out of my dorm, I took stock of my fridge stash at my grandparents’ house and decided to make French toast with the bread odds and ends.  Like the bajillion-and-one vegans who have read  Vegan with a Vengeance , I call mine “Fronch Toast,” too.  However, I did not consult Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s book in the writing of this recipe. 

Morning stories.  I woke up one day this week to Michelle Branch’s  "Everywhere."   At 05:30, I realised the song was about God.  Listen to it and tell me what you think.  The next day I woke up to the Depeche Mode radio edit of "Enjoy the Silence," which is probably one of my favourite songs of the last five years of my life.