Birthday Cake Cake Caaaake~

Yesterday was Matto's birthday, so in preparation for celebrating today, I made a cake! Matto being a vegan, I put my vegan baking-pants on and made this PPK chocolate cake (although the recipe says cupcakes) with a slight alteration to the mousse. Vegan chocolate chips are hard to come by in this region, so I subbed them for melted peanut butter :D I will post the recipe and the steps I took to make it below~

Chocolate Mousse Cake, PPK


For the mousse:
1 cup melted peanut butter
12 oz/350 grams extra firm silken tofu
1/4 cup plain soy milk
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the cake:
1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt


Cooking spray/vegetable shortening

Prepare the Mousse:
1. Crumble the tofu into a blender. Add the soy milk, syrup and vanilla extract. Puree until completely smooth. Set aside.
2. Microwave the cup of peanut butter, stirring occasionally and keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn.
3. Add the peanut butter to the tofu and blend until well combined, use the spatula to scrape down the sides of the blender every so often.
4. Transfer the mousse to an air tight container or a bowl covered in saran wrap and let chill for an hour.

Prepare the cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F/180C and grease a cake pan with some vegetable shortening or cooking spray.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.
3. Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla extract to the soy milk mixture and blend well.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add in two batches to wet ingredients and beat until no large lumps remain.
5. I made a small layer cake, so just split the batter evenly into two cake pans.
6. Bake 20 minutes, until a toothpick/knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

To assemble:
1. Once the mousse is chilled, use a frosting spatula to spread the mousse between the two layers of the cake. After putting the layers together, completely cover the top and sides of the cake with the mousse and keep in a cool place until serving.

Mid-Week Food Spam!

Other than thinking of how excited I am about going home for a visit in 2.5 weeks, I've been reading a health book and trying out lots of good, healthy, recipes! It's been fun (albeit expensive to be buying so many more veggies than I was before), and I think it's totally worth the extra effort some of these take. Most of them don't take any more time than my usual lazy food, and they are so much more delicious!! That, and making the salmon one yesterday opened my eyes to the fact that my oven/microwave has a "grill" function which I assume is the same as broiling.

Ham, cheese, and chive omelet with tea and vegetable juice for breakfast.

Nabe lunch. I got the idea from the morning show I watch, "Mocco's Kitchen." Has eggplant, orange pepper, mushrooms, tomatoes, onion, garlic, wakame and chicken broth in it. Nabe-ed over a flame for 10 min and seasoned~

Broiled salmon with fried onions, garlic, mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach. Love salmon <3

Yesterday, I cut squares out for the quilt I'm planning on making. Thus far, I have 30 squares each of 3 types of fabric. I need one more color and then I can start stitching it and putting on the back, etc. I'm excited to finally have a quilt again! I left this adorable one my friend made for me in High School back in the US. It had a huge strawberry on it and said いちご in hiragana underneath. I don't wanna do anything that fancy, but I'm excited anyway. Other than that, I went over to Nat-chan's house round 7:30 and watched Burlesque with her. Great movie! I liked that a lot better than Chicago and actually, I don't usually like musical movies but this one made it much more natural (not too hard with the premise). おすすめ！

Lemony Goodness

This week's baked good is brought to you by the blog, "Xai Eats A Lot." I have never made lemon bars before (or for that matter, ANYTHING that involves that many lemons and zest) and it was really easy! My oven, being a Japanese oven, bakes a little unevenly so one side of the bars were a bit firmer, and the other side were more gooey.... but I don't think that hurt them in any way (the gooey side was FANTASTIC) and I will know better next time! I think that the recipe for the lemony topping is fantastic and a nice blend of tart and sweet~ Can't wait to show these things off tonight at the combo birthday party I'm going to (5 or so people's b-days being combined into one party kinda thing)! Here is the recipe:

Lemon Bars

(shortbread crust)
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 cups flour
1/8 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. cream butter, sugar and salt until fluffy.
3. when it get’s paler that the butter’s original color, add flour and mix just until  it’s combined.
4. press the dough in a 9 x 13 inch parchment-lined or buttered and floured baking pan. make sure you cover the whole baking dish with the dough. bake for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned. let it cool and set aside. do not turn off the oven, you’ll be returning that pan back into it with the lemon filling.

(lemon topping)
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest
3 tbsp flour

1. whisk sugar and eggs until pale and thick.
2. stir in lemon juice and zest, and add flour until combined.
3. pour this mixture over the cooled shortbread crust. bake for another 15 to 20 minutes or until the lemon filling is set.
4. let it cool and cut in squares. just a note when cutting, make sure you wipe the knife clean with a damp towel everytime you slice the bars so that you’ll have clean cuts.

Looking forward to a busy weekend! Tonight is the combo birthday party in Sakawa, tomorrow will be fireworks and a dance party in Nakamura, and Sunday there is a possible beer float (depending on how I feel/weather) to attend on the Shimanto river. Nice way to spend the last weekend before school starts, I must say. :)

Yum yum yum

Crack Bars (AKA pecan/kurumi bars)
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
11/2 cup flou
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans/kurumi

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Cream butter and sugar together and blend in flour.
2. Using fingers, press the dough into a 9x11 pan and bake for 11-12 minutes.
3. Mix the rest of the ingredients and pour over the hot, baked crust. Try to use gravity to make sure the kurumi are evenly distributed. Pushing them around may break-up the crust. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Makes 20-24 bars.

Seriously though, this recipe of my mom's is like CRACK. Everyone who eats them can't get enough. I'm amazed that they even stand up to Japanese standards of dessert (because of the whole not liking too-sweet things). I think it's because the sweet isn't over whelming and they're soft (I've had lots of reactions when I bring in a tougher cookie. I guess they're just used to soft ones here). I made these Sunday for my 5th graders today. They were giving me somen for lunch so I felt like I needed to contribute. I also made a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting for Nat-chans birthday Saturday. I forgot to take a picture of that, but I'll post the recipe some time.

I was also proud to make my very own VODKA SAUCE today. At Inokuchi yesterday, I went with the first and second graders to pick tomatoes. To say I was allowed to pick a lot is an understatement... I had too many for a family of 5 to comfortably eat! SO! In addition to keeping some for salads this week, I decided to make vodka sauce (had 1/3 of a bottle laying around...). I used 1/2 an onion and 7 cloves garlic, blended them and started frying them as I blended a bunch of tomatoes (I think that the resulting blended tomatoes came out to be 4-ish cups). Added the tomatoes, 3/4 cup vodka and 1/4 cup soy milk plus lots of spices (salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, basil, corriander leaf...)! Boiled it all until it was thick, and bottled it for future use. :D

Shiyakusho Monday when an impromptu parade went down.

My 6th graders at Ioki doing suna-e (sand drawings)

My iPhone has basically turned into my main camera. I don't feel as put-off carrying it around (obviously) and going to the picture function is so much easier than turning on my point-and-shoot and waiting for it to take a picture. I'm also in love with instagram (as is obvious when looking at my tumblr photo blog). I'm able to document so many more interesting little moments because of it (which is making me think of a fun photo project I could do with it).

Friday night was another night-out with the girls. We went to Tanuki for all-you-can-drink (2500 yen for drinks and food) and then went out to a few bars (A-chan's circle bar in Hirome and York, my fav American-style bar). Once it was kinda late enough, we headed over to One Love. Luckily it was free, because the girls left after maybe an hour because there was just no one there. I was getting chatted up by this DJ guy so they left me at the club to go home. I talked to the DJ for awhile, and then talked to the bar tenders for awhile. Everyone was so young!! I couldn't believe it! They were all MY AGE (22)!! That's just unheard of around here. Anyway.... DJ man asked for my number (I blame it on the hot dress I was wearing) and we danced until 4AM where I was too tired to keep going (the random free shot of tequila at one point probably didn't help) so I went to sleep in my car until 7AM when I drove home, made a cake for Nat-chan while snoozing, and waited until noon when we were supposed to meet up and make me a table for my house! Saturday was a great day. The sky was beautiful! We built my table at Nat-chan's dad's house and then went swimming in the river. After, we went to her mom's house to have dinner and chat. It was really nice getting to get to know her mom :)  We also had cake and then went back to Ryoku-chan's place to watch Whip It. Nat-chan also opened the present I got her (2 volumes of One Piece in English) and really liked it. Good Saturday~

Thus far, this week has been really really lazy. Monday, I basically had anti-work because I got to go swimming, study, eat lunch and pick tomatoes. Nothing stressful! Also, when I got back to the BOE, there was a parade going on, and a high school girl was doing live calligraphy in front of the city office. WTF. Sometimes, feeling like I live in a circus town is really fun and refreshing and reminds me of why I came here. :) (Of course, there are those times when I wonder WTF I'm doing here.)

Almond Cookies

 

Almond Cookie Recipe:

1/2 cup butter (one stick), softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon Kahlua

1 cup ground almonds (pre-ground or ground in a blender... like I did)

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C

2. Cream together butter and sugar.

3. Add in egg and Kahlua and mix well.

4. Add cup of almonds and mix in well.

5. Add the flour slowly, mixing it in until everything is blended.

6. On an un-greased sheet, spoon balls of the dough onto the sheet and flatten them a little. They will not spread upon cooking so make sure they look nice and you don't have to worry about how close together they are. Bake for 7-8 minutes or until they get some color on top and start to brown on the bottom edges.

7. 出来上がり〜

I've been baking a lot this week... I guess it's mostly because I've been "thank you" baking for Ono since she's been helping me soooo much with my iPhone stuff. I owe her for coming over and messing with the fon wireless (with little results) as I sit and laugh at the TV (I'm so helpful!!!). So yeah. Made two types of cookies this week and a funfetti cake. I fed a lot of people (actually.... 40 people got to take part in SOMETHING I made this week...) yummy desserts so I can really only mark this as a success~ :)

Oatmeal Raisin~

 

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe:

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins

1. Cream the butter and sugars together. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy.
2. Sift in flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until well blended.
3. Slowly add raisins and oats to the mixture.
4. Preheat oven to 190 C and bake the cookies on an un-greased pan for 8-12 minutes (until browned on top). Let them sit out to cool before taking off the pan. Otherwise, I found that they fall apart.

Today was a BORING, HOT, HUMID Sunday..... but at least I got to be a little nostalgic and make some (actually quite good) oatmeal raisin cookies! I've been making a lot of vegan baked-goods recently, so it was nice using butter and eggs again (I have yet to make a GOOD vegan cookie. only good cupcakes). That, and I had to thank Ono for helping me get my new (addictive) toy, the iphone!! Yes, the picture above was taken with the iphone.... I'm worried that I will be a little too obsessed for a while... but there are too many cool things you can do with it! The camera options, I'm especially ハマっている with. :D

Dessert/Breakfast Bars

I’ve been longing for breakfast cake but really haven’t found a recipe I’ve been satisfied with. The PPK recently posted a recipe for crumb cake and memories of my mother’s coffee cakes on Saturday mornings instantly came to mind. I decided to try the recipe out, and alter it to Japan ingredient-availability. The results were fantastic (I tried making plain and blueberry flavor) and I think this may become one of my new favorite desserts to make along with sweet muffins. If you cut them into bars, they would be perfect for breakfast or a nice sweet dessert with coffee~


Breakfast Bars (25 minutes) Altered from PPK recipe

3/4 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup blueberry jam

1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup canola oil

(Makes 18 pastry squares)
(180C, 40-50 minutes)

1. Curdle the soy milk with the cider.
2. Add the bottom 4 listed dry ingredients to a bowl. This is the crumble. Slowly drizzle the oil in tablespoon at a time and mix with your fingers. You want crumbles of various sizes by the end of this.
3. Add oil, vanilla and sugar to the soy milk and whisk.
4. Sift in dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
5. Pour into a greased glass dish/pan of at least 9x13 but any size will do...
6. If you add the jam, pour in the jam and use a knife to cut it into the batter. Otherwise sprinkle on the crumble and bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.

Strawberry Muffins

Strawberries are only sold during winter and early spring over here in Japan, so I thought I might as well use them while they’re cheap and before they’re gone! Speaking of strawberries… they have these strawberry patches here in Japan where you can pay a flat rate, get a cup of strawberry-milk-cream and can tabehoudai (eat as much as you can) of the strawberries in the patch. I’ve always wanted to do that… 


Strawberry Nut Muffins (25 Minutes)

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup strawberry flavored soy milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup strawberry puree (about a pack of strawberries)
1 cup chopped walnuts
(Makes 12 large muffins, 20 cupcake-size muffins)
(200C, 25 Minutes)

1. In a large bowl, mix sugars, soy milk, puree, vanilla, maple syrup, and oil together until well blended.
2. Slowly sift in the dry ingredients and blend the mixture until smooth.
3. Add the walnuts and evenly distribute them throughout the batter. The batter should fill 12 large muffin tins 3/4th full or about 20 cupcake tins 3/4th the way full.
4. Bake them at 200C (400F) for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck into one comes out clean.

Persimmon Cinnamon and Chocolate Chip Muffins

I finally had some free afternoon time the other day and decided to make some muffins, since I haven’t really made much dessert recently that hasn’t been straight from a store (I’m kind of obsessed with kuri pudding). While looking around the vegetable/fruit area, I saw that they had started to stock persimmons! Not a fruit that I usually indulge in (and they are still pretty expensive here… but that’s why I bought two of the ‘nearly too ripe’ ones), but I thought that it would make a nice muffin flavor since it kind of reminds me of pumpkin (especially paired with some chocolate and cinnamon).

Persimmon Cinnamon Chocolate Muffins

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup persimmon puree (2 persimmons)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

(180 C, 55 minutes)
(Makes 12 large muffins)

1. Puree the persimmons.
2. Combine in a bowl with soy milk, oil, sugars and maple syrup.
3. Sift in the dry ingredients and blend well.
4. Fill the large muffin papers 3/4 of the way and bake for 55 minutes (though, I'd check periodically... my oven is known to act up a little).

White Sandwich Bread

I don’t make sandwiches terribly often here in Japan. For one, EVERYONE expects an American to make a sandwich as a bento and bring that to school… but honestly I was always a soup-in-thermos girl any way so… I like having my daily lunch of rice and veggies. Two, the bread is really THICK, waayyy too wide, and all around a little awkward.

White Sandwich Bread

1 1/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
1/4 cup AND 1/2 tablespoon maple syrup, divided
4 cups + flour, divided
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1/8 cup soy milk
1/2 teaspoon salt

(180 C, 35 minutes)
(Makes one 32cm x 16.5 cm loaf)

1. Combine the warm water, tablespoon of yeast, 1/2 tablespoon of syrup and 1 1/2 cups of flour in a large bowl and stir to get most of the flour clumps out. Cover this mixture with a towel and let it sit for at LEAST 20 minutes.
2. Once the mixture has foamed up, add the rest of the ingredients (flour, oil, soy milk, salt, syrup) and combine until the dough is thick enough to knead.
3. Knead the dough, adding bits of flour as need be, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
4. Place the kneaded dough into the tin, cover with a towel, and keep in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C and bake the bread for 35 minutes.

Chocolate Covered Mikan Peels

Chocolate Covered Mikan

8 mikan peels (200 grams of mikan peel, or 4 oranges)
1 cup sugar
water
300 grams of chocolate

1. Somehow get 200 grams of peels (eat all at once, peel all at once, or consume mikan slowly).
2. Using a knife, and some patience (as well as safety), peel as much of the pith off the peel as possible.
3. Once scraped, gather the peels into a pot and cover them with water (enough to submerge the peels) and boil them.
4. You will need to boil these peels 4 times in just water. Once the water comes to a rolling boil each time, turn off the heat, dump the peels into a strainer, put them back into the pot, and fill with more water before repeating the boiling process.
5. After 4 boils with normal water, pour the cup of sugar into the pot with the peels and boil for a 5th and final time. This time, when the water comes to a rolling boil, give it about 2 minutes to boil the sugars into the peels before turning off the heat and straining the peels.
6. Lay out the peels on a (paper) towel and stick them in the fridge to cool. They need to be cool and mostly dry before the next step. Wait at least an hour.
7. Lay them out on wax paper so that each piece of peel has it’s own place.
8. In a sauce pan, start melting the 300 grams of chocolate over low heat, continuing to poke and stir the chocolate pieces until the whole mixture is smooth and there are no lumps of un-melted chocolate. Make sure that no water touches any bit of this process. Chocolate seizes when it mixes with water, so all you’ll end up with is a dry, burnt, clump of chocolate.
9. Spread melted chocolate over the mikan peels and put in the fridge to harden.

Mango with Coconut Sticky Rice

Finally started watching the (weirdly popular) Ryomaden last night. It’s filmed awfully, the special effects are ridiculous, and the acting is worse than an American soap opera…. I’m not sure why we decided to start it, other than because we live in the area the show is about. I guess the only good thing about starting the show is that it forces me to learn a little about the lives of these historically significant people who came from Kochi… of course seeing Ryoma act like a goof IS kinda entertaining so I’ll stick with it for a little while at least.

Our show-time snack of choice last night involved a mango I recently picked up. I’m not terribly good at knowing when fruits and vegetables are at their peak of ripeness… so I wanted to eat the mango before it decided to end itself in my fruit basket and not share its sweet goodness. Unfortunately, I could have waited another day or two before diving into this mango, but I’ve never minded a little tartness when it comes to my fruit.

Mango and Coconut Sticky Rice (5 min)

1 ripe mango, sliced into spoon-able pieces
1 cup rice, steamed in cooker
1/2 cup thick coconut milk/cream
4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Creamy Coconut Topping

1 tablespoon rice flour
4 tablespoons water
4 tablespoons thick coconut milk/cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1-2 tablespoons sesame seeds or mung beans
(Makes 3 servings)

This dessert took 5 minutes to make (not including having the rice steamed in the rice cooker) and only involves two saucepans. If you don’t have two saucepans to work with, start with the rice liquid and finish with the coconut topping.

1. Turn your heat on low and add the 1/2 cup of thick coconut milk, 4 tablespoons of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the saucepan.
2. Stir and blend until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Turn off the heat and add this mixture to your just-steamed rice in the rice cooker, massaging the liquid in with a rice paddle.
4. Over low heat, drop a tablespoon of flour and 4 tablespoons of water into a saucepan. Stir until the flour and water have become one, thick, white mixture and there are no clumps of flour left.
5. Add the thick coconut milk, sugar, and salt. Stir until the mixture begins to bubble a little. Turn off the heat.
6. In a bowl, add a scoop of the coconut rice on one side, and a nice helping of mango slices on the other. Pour a helping of the coconut topping over the rice and mango pieces, and finish it all off with a sprinkling of sesame seeds or mung beans.

Tapioca Pudding

Tapioca Pudding (15 min)

1/4 cup tapioca pearls (1/2 cup once soaked in a cup of water over night)
1 1/2 cup soy milk
1/4 cup white granulated sugar
big pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

(Makes about 3 servings)

1. Although this pudding has an extremely quick creation process, it is a dessert that needs some foresight. You don’t need to soak them an entire night, but you do need to give the pearls a few hours (2-3) to absorb some water before cooking the pudding.
2. Put the pearls, soy milk, sugar, and salt into a sauce pan and turn the heat on low.
3. Cook this mixture for 15 minutes, with the heat on low, always stirring and moving the mixture so that it doesn’t form a skin.
4. Once the 15 minutes is up, turn off the heat and move to a cooler surface, immediately adding the teaspoon of vanilla and stirring the pudding well so that the vanilla is blended evenly.
5. Add to containers and cool in fridge.

Sweet and Sour Vegetables

When me and two of my friends went to Thailand over the winter holiday, we took a cooking class while in Chiang Mai. It was a 7 hour class where they took you to the local open-air market to learn about vegetables, and then took us back to their school (which had an open-air kitchen…. so awesome) to learn how to make 7 different dishes. We learned how to make masaman curry, Thai fried rice, Pad Thai, sweet and sour vegetables, coconut milk soup, fried bananas…. we made a lot of food. The school’s slogan is, “by the end of the day, you’ll feel pregnant” and by jove… they were completely right.
Me and one of the two friends that I went to Thailand with were feeling nostalgic last night, and pining for that balmy 32 degree weather (it has been hovering between 0 and 10 degress here in Kochi recently). So! We decided to take a walk down memory lane and cook up one of the recipes we learned at the cooking school. I could almost feel that sweet sweet sunshine.

Sweet and Sour Vegetables

Goma Oil (for frying)
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 head of cauliflower, small pieces
10-12 baby corn, cut into thin strips
1 small cucumber, peeled and sliced
1/2 medium carrot, peeled and sliced
1 tomato, cut into cubes
1 cup chopped pineapple
Cooked rice

Sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons ketchup

(Makes 3-4 servings)

1. Get everything cut and separated before you start cooking.
2. Make the sauce and steamed rice before you start stir frying as well. Pour all of the ingredients for the sauce into a small bowl and stir well with a spoon so that the sugar dissolves and the lime juice mixes in well.
3. Heat up the goma oil in a frying pan for 30 seconds on med-high and add the garlic. Fry the garlic for a minute before adding the onions and frying those for 2-3 minutes. The onions should start looking translucent.
4. Turn down the heat to medium and add the cauliflower,  cucumber, carrot, and baby corn to the mix and stir fry for 5 minutes.
5. Add the tomatoes, pineapple and pour on the sauce, coating all the vegetables evenly. Turn the heat down to the lower end of medium.
6. Cover the frying pan with a pot lid so that the vegetables can steam in the pan.
7. Serve over rice.

5-Ingredient Bread

Home-made bread is just the best thing ever.

Basic White Bread

500+ grams flour
7 grams yeast
2 teaspoons salt
300 ml water
3 tablespoons olive oil

(makes 2 medium loaves)
220 C, 24-35 min

1. Measure out the flour and pour that as well as the yeast and salt into a large bowl and mix.
2. Make a well in the center and add the water and olive oil, starting the mixing process with a fork before diving in with your hands.
3. Use one hand to kneed, and the other to occasionally add bits of flour until the dough is elastic.
4. Let rise for at least an hour.
5. Once it’s risen 1.5 or 2x its original size, punch it down and place it on some baking sheets or in a baking pan.
6. Bake in a 220 C oven for about 25-35 minutes, or until the outside is nice and golden brown.

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffin Recipe (adapted)

1 3/4 cups  flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
OPTIONAL: 1 cup finely chopped walnuts (kurumi)

(makes 20 muffins)
200 C, 18 min

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C (400 F).
2. Pour the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and spices into a separate bowl.
3. In your main bowl, whisk together the pureed pumpkin, soy milk, oil, and maple syrup.
4. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until smooth. (OPTIONAL: Lastly, add the walnuts.)
5. Pour into muffin papers 3/4 of the way full and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Decided to make some cupcakes for Sea's little birthday party~

Easy Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted)

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt

(Makes a dozen cupcakes)
180 C, 18-20 min

Peanut Butter Frosting

1 cup of peanut butter (I used crunchy type)
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons soy milk (add more for a smoother, thinner frosting)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F).
2. Pour the cup of soy milk and teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in there so it can curdle.
3. Prepare the dry ingredients in another bowl. Pour in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. The sugar will go in separately.
4. Add the oil, vanilla and sugar to the soy milk mix and whisk until foamy and thoroughly mixed.
5. Sift the dry bowl into the wet ingredients bowl and mix well.
6. Fill cupcake papers 3/4 full of batter, and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Slowly mix (with a fork) the sugar into the peanut butter. Add soy milk little by little as you stir.
8. Add vanilla.
9. Carefully frost the cupcakes since the frosting is thick.