Gothic Granola

This post has two geneses: as Fall rolls around to Northern Colorado (37 degrees yesterday, what?!), TC requested an apple pie, after I made Key Lime Pie a few weeks ago. One of the two things I didn't do before I left DC was to make VGF pie with my friend Andi. This is for you, Andi, since it's unlikely I'll be back in DC to bake pie with you anytime soon.  

I really frickin' like muffins. I'm sure there's a double entendre in there, but I care not. When I first printed the recipe for these muffins, I picked it up at the printer in the Loughlin Hall basement and then sat by the laundry room to do my Biblical Hebrew homework. A dorm denizen was listening to some alternative rock over his compy speakers. After a few minutes, I raised my voice to get his attention and asked who was the artist. Surprised at being interrupted, he responded it was Arcade Fire. Being a Luddite or a traditionalist, I didn't have my compy for BH homework, and I scribbled the band name on the top of the recipe. Confession: I used most of my print quota for recipes since I printed two pages per sheet and double sided for most readings.

Avast! Happy International Talk like a Pirate Day!  Throwback Thursday, circa 2007, when I began celebrating ITLAPD by wearing my pirate shirt to school. I raise a mug of tea, stolen off a British schooner, to ye.

I am very American in the fact that I like my car. Today my car was the instrument through which I received another wakeup call.

You'll receive what you give And this is like nothing I feel like shit But at least I feel something "Disconnected" by In Flames Artistically and technically, the above song isn't hot stuff, but I appreciate the directness of the lyrics. For a rainy Monday, I made this spiced cake to warm up the space, to edge out the creeping voidness, the damp, cold snot of springtime. More specifically, the limp, clammy grip of another spring spent alone. I used to look with scorn on the coupled people I'd see holding hands around town and on Princeton's campus. Now I see I was jealous. Still jealous! A little self-care can go a long way to putting me in the right place to alleviate said loneliness, even while still alone.

I am my mother's child; when she was in her teens, she reportedly made many a baked supper. According to Uncle Jimmy, it was usually something in a crust.

When I arrived in Alexandria on Monday to cat-sit for my aunt and uncle, I arrived to a hot house and freaked-out cats: no power since Friday’s storms. The apple crisp recipe below is modified from Jon and Robin Robertson’s Vegan Unplugged: A Pantry Cuisine Cookbook and Survival Guide. I purchased the book in March and was saving it to read for a special occasion. Well, cat-sitting without power was special enough! On Tuesday, one of my bestest buds from high school invited me to a Fourth of July party in D.C. and she requested that I bring “some food or drink to placate the gods of freedom and democracy.”  However, I couldn’t use the stove since the gas burners have electric starters.  As with this episode last year , I took the Metro to my brother’s apartment in order to sleep and make cereal bars. Brown Rice Peanut Butter Cereal Bars Modified from Alicia Silverstone, “Crispy Brown Rice Squares,” in The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight,...

Pie.  I got nothin’ for ya.  I tried a new crust, which gave me some problems.  It’s the same crust recipe as for my pecan pie and pumpkin pie, but I tried messing with the flours.  Bad idea.  The crust, when I worked with it, felt dry, crumbled in my hands, and was generally weak.

Snowed in today.  Much thesis-ing, besides making sushi filled with a rice-and-lentil moosh, blending hommos, and baking & chilling coconut cream pie.   At this point, I still owe a "how to frost a cake" post and a "bread pudding" post. Good bring-to-work/class fare: I made these bars many times in spring 2011 since these are a convenient way to use up bananas fast going south or a third of a jar of apple butter or a bit of pumpkin...you get the idea.

I’m not going to tell you how to make oatmeal.  This was today’s breakfast when I assembled it on Wednesday night.  I like to make my oatmeal ahead of time and eat it all cold and stuff the next morning.  I used a little too much water, as you can see, and it almost flooded the bowl.  I was urging my oatmeal (and pear, flaxseed, and peanut butter) to absorb more water, yelling—SUCK IT!  SUCK IT UP!

After intern work on Friday, I metro’d to Trader Joe’s on the way to my brother’s apartment and bought dinner and dessert ingredients.  My parents are in the area, visiting my brother and me.  We ended up going out to dinner, which meant two OK salads for me and cider for dessert. At least I had time to make some sweet cornbread to sneak with me, for edible grains and solid dessert purposes.  

Sugar-Coated Escapism, for your reading pleasure. Well, I’m out of the dorm for the summer and am living near the big city!  For a person from the northwest corner of nowhere, this is a big deal.