Time Traveler

One of my favorite things about dying is that afterwards (at least at some point) you're able to travel in time. As far as I know this is not strictly doctrine, it is more of an obvious (to me) truth and one of the things that makes dying worth the hassle.

I really wish I could travel in time now. The fact that I'd like to travel back in time far more than I care to see the future perfectly reflects my taste in literature: give me the classics over sci-fi any day. I often imagine taking an iPhone to Molly Gibson or Lucy Snowe and making their day. Which, I realize, would be combining the classics with science fiction or, rather, science fact. And Molly and Lucy may be fictional characters but that wouldn't stop me..

I won't be visiting any of my beloved book characters any time soon but I have done some time traveling.

For our date last week Greg and I went to a little cafe for some cake. Afterward, the romantic part of our date was a visit to a large, German chain drugstore that just opened in our town. Oh how I love Rossman.

They have everything there. Everything I tell you, as this story will show. Wandering down the aisles, staring in wonder at the variety of everything they had, I rounded a corner and saw a wall full of chapstick. More chapstick than I've seen in one store in Poland ever. And one entire row was Carmex. Carmex!! I haven't seen that stuff in forEVER!! (not to be confused with "I have never seen that stuff").

I grabbed a tube and took it to show Greg. "Throughout high school I wore Carmex all day every day and I haven't seen it in forever! I think it's addicting because once you start wearing it you have to keep wearing it. Really, I think I read somewhere that it is addicting. Carmex! Honey! I'm buying Carmex!"

As we walked to the parking lot I took the package out of the bag and started reading it. We got to the car, settled in and started driving through the night toward home. I twisted off the lid and applied the goo to my lips.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Suddenly I was in a car full of friends on our way to a tri-stake dance. The Cure was playing and I had the familiar butterflies in my stomach from anticipation of one of my favorite social activities. I had visions of what the cultural hall would look like and who would be there.

Whoa. After a few minutes I was back in the car with Greg on our way home from our date. The Cure was still playing, it was still night and I still had that vague sense I was back in high school, but I knew I really wasn't.

It was weird. Not just deja vu. I actually travelled in time.

Then a few days later I bought some chocolate covered Digestive cookies. One night we sat around the kitchen table and I opened the cookies for dessert. I took one bite and

Holy. Hannah.

Evie and David were 3 and 5 years old and the warm summer sun was streaming in through the windows of our 9th story apartment. We were having a snack as part of our structured day in our tidy living room. I was an awesome mother with darling kids again! Pass the Digestives!! I could go for more of that and, again, it was so real.

Now I don't want to go all Bella and seek out this kind of thrill by buying up some of everything I've ever eaten or used in the past that has memories tied to it. I also don't want to be obsessed with the perks of the next life like Aaron who tells me many times a day, "I'm gonna get bigger and bigger and then I'm gonna die. Then when I'm a scary ghost I'm gonna FLY!!!" with all sorts of excitement. I'll wait patiently for death and its benefits to come in its proper season. For now I'll just keep building memories knowing that some day I'll love coming back here, like when I am transported upon opening a box of the kind of soap we're using right now, or something.

I found this post that I started months ago unfinished in my drafts but I think it's interesting that I mention the time travel thing after we die, just like I sort of did about being able to revisit the days of nursing babies.

What Chocolate and Charity Have in Common

Almost two years ago Annette Lyon* sent me a recipe for brownies which I made and loved. She knows her chocolate. To the point that she now has her own chocolate cookbook.

The book itself isn't chocolate, as I'm sure you probably thought, but it's filled with chocolate recipes. A couple of days ago she posted two of them on her blog. I made them today. They made big, beautiful cupcakes with rich chocolate frosting. Mmmmmm. I made Greg choose one and take a picture of it (in terrible lighting) and let him try to fix it however he liked. Here is the result.
Needless to say I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of this cookbook. And I love its title: Chocolate Never Faileth. Amen!

(I think I'll go eat another.)
*This isn't the first of her books I've been enthused about. Remember this one? Loved it, and that one wasn't even about chocolate!

Greg's Dieting Willpower is Strong Enough for Both of Us

I can't imagine going weeks upon weeks without bread of any sort, with no potatoes, no rice no PASTA!!! I should be able to though, since I've watched Greg do it for the past few weeks.

He's weird, is Greg. He's wanted to lose weight for awhile now and when we went to drop the kids off at his parents' house a few weeks ago he saw that his sister had lost weight. She told him about the Dukan diet and two days later he had bought the book. Another two days after that and he had turned his back on carbs in favor of protein, protein and more protein (alternating with days he could also eat vegetables).

So he's awesome, he's losing weight and I can't really believe he's doing so well. His also-dieting sister came to visit and when I made cranberry white chocolate scones (thanks, Kim!) she took a bite of one. Just a bite. And Greg didn't. He hasn't sampled any of the brownies, chocolate chip cookies, Boston Cream Pie, peanut butter brownies, blueberry muffins etc. I've made while he's been on this diet (I know I'm cruel, but I am not on a diet yet and I can't yet live without these things. Plus the kids and I eat them in the kitchen when Greg's not around and I bake everything in the downstairs kitchen so he doesn't smell it too much, either.).

That's another weird thing about him. He "doesn't get" why people go on a diet and then cheat. If you're going to diet, DIET, he says. If decide to do something, just do it. It's that all or nothing perspective that I respect so much about him. It is his major strength or a great contributor to many of his strengths, I think. (It's also the hardest thing to deal with in other ways, but that is another post for a never day.)

Making dinner is proving to be very time consuming these days. I'm not really the type to just switch right over to feeding the family on Greg's diet. It's heavy on dairy and fish and I'm doing low-dairy-nursing and I don't like fish. Still, I try to adapt our dinners for him. It means making most things twice.

For example on Sunday it was sweet and sour chicken. His chicken had to be marinated separately and breaded in only corn starch -- no flour, like ours was. It had to be "fried" without any oil. His sauce couldn't have regular sugar (or pineapple juice) in it and I am anti-sweetener, so the sauces had to be made separately, too.

When Greg came home in the evening and saw sauce and vegetables on the stove I could tell he needed it. He looked about dieted out and I could see the fear in his eyes that this was not a diet-friendly meal. He sat down in front of The Sound of Music with the kids and I brought him his riceless version of the dinner. He ate. He enjoyed.

Then he said something that very clearly illustrated his near desperation. He said, "If I hadn't been able to eat that dinner I would have broken my diet."

Woah.

And I have to thank him for more than loving the skimpified versions of favorite meals I'm making for him. I also seem to have dropped almost three kilos since he started his diet. As I have not been eating any more healthy than before I can only attribute it to the strength of his dieting. He does it SO hardcore that even those around him are losing weight. Now there's a diet I can handle! (the kind that requires you to be around your dieting husband. Period.)

Hence the Nesquick Bunny

On Saturday Greg took the kids (all four!) for a walk in the forest so I could have a chance to do some writing in peace and quiet.

They were walking for an hour and a half and as Greg was carrying the baby, David helped Aaron navigate the terrain and protected him from all the spiders and beetles. When they came home Aaron started calling David his David. Except that he pronounces David "Defed". We heard a lot of "Where's my Defed?" on Saturday.

They obviously came to some fields, too. Go Ev with the Nordic Walking!

Also, Aaron was a little concerned when he saw rabbit droppings scattered here and there through the forest, right in the dirt and not in a bowl. "Uh oh, cereal!" he said.

source

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You Might Too

This postpartum period has been the best one for me, ever. It has also been the worst. I have had the most support from Greg this time, taking shifts every night for the first 6 weeks (I wouldn't allow him to with the first three kids since he had to go to work and all) meaning more sleep than ever and he's given some good help around the house, too.

On the other hand, I have visited the hospital no less than three times (I think I know all the doctors there now) and visited my OB/GYN once, and still haven't been for my regular 6 week check-up (though I'm two weeks late). I've only thought "it was something serious" about 14 times, but I never died even once.

Spencer took a few hours to get the hang of nursing but has done very well since then, unlike most of the others. However, I have had other nursing related problems which are what have had me in the hospital (nothing serious, just urgent-ish after hour visits to the doctor, with plenty of physical pain and emotional stress for me).

Despite the (sometimes serious) stress and worry I've had off and on, the depression I feared would envelope me after the birth has never made an appearance. I am so grateful.

I have spent the weeks since the birth doing as little as possible. Feeding people has been my main activity and cooking and baking and nursing (when I'm not crying in pain) are things I love/don't mind doing. Besides that I have only been keeping the house tolerably clean with Greg and the kid's help, and having good food and a clean-ish house has made me very happy. Oh, that and having a SUPER sweet newborn around.

***********

So I wanted to share two recipes that I absolutely love and have made waaaay too many times in the last two months since just before the baby came. This first is a pasta dish that is so easy to make it's unbelievable. My family cannot get enough of it and I have made it once a week since I got it in a recipe exchange (these weeks super fast and easy AND delicious is EXACTLY what I need). It might not be your cup of tea but I would feel terrible if I didn't share it just in case you love it as much as we do and you never had it to resort to for those last minute meals we all sometimes have to throw together. It's made of foods that I personally have on hand at all times (pretty much). I've changed it from the original recipe but here's how I make it:

Thai Peanut Noodles

1/4 cup peanut butter (crunchy or not)

1/3 cup soy sauce

3 tablespoons water (I take it from the water the chicken boiled in)

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup sesame oil

2 garlic cloves pressed (or minced)

1 teaspoon ginger powder

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I leave this out since I can't handle heat)

1 lb chicken (I only use one small breast since we eat very small amounts of meat around here)

3/4 lb. spaghetti noodles

Bring water to boil and boil chicken (I first cut into even sized pieces, otherwise my chicken is tough on the thinner parts). Remove to cool and cook noodles in the water. In a separate small pan whisk soy sauce and peanut butter together. Stir in remaining ingredients until smooth. Shred chicken and add to sauce. Keep on low to warm sauce while noodles cook. Drain noodles and toss with sauce.

***

Then there's this dessert which is lower fat so I think I've convinced myself it's good for you. Also, there's no eggs so it's great for snacking on the dough. I tweaked this one, too by melting in chocolate, which you don't have to do. The original recipe only uses cocoa, just add a couple extra tablespoons if you omit the dark chocolate for melting.

Cocoa Fudge Cookies

1/4 c butter
5 T cocoa
25-50g dark chocolate (maybe 1/4 c chips?)
1 c sugar
1/3 c plain yogurt
1 t vanilla
1 c flour
1/4 t baking soda
1/8 t salt
milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 cup? less?)

Melt butter and cocoa. Stir in dark chocolate to melt. Stir in sugar then add plain yogurt and vanilla and stir. Mix in dry ingredients and chocolate chips. Bake in the usual way (350 for 8-10 minutes)

These cookies are much better quite undercooked (as are all chocolate cookies, IMO) and pretty much not worth eating, or at least not worth the calories, if cooked through (as are all chocolate cookies IMO).

*****

Maybe you don't care about recipes, but maybe you're like me and you try almost any recipe that's recommended to you. I just wanted to share because I reeeeally like these recipes and I thought You Might Too.

Spontaneity

Last night while listening to a classical music station Greg heard something that changed our plans for the weekend.  Well, our plans only included being home until going to church on Sunday in Krakow, but also finishing off the other half of a cake in the fridge and --  and this is important -- having vegetarian borscht tonight with the rest of the crescent rolls from last night (yesterday I neeeeeeded chinese chicken salad with crescent rolls and tonight I neeeeded borscht with them).  Oh well.  Plans change.  Apparently.

Instead we'll be taking the other half of the cake and the crescent rolls with us to Łódż (pronounced Wooch, sort of) This is where Greg's parent's live.  This is where we try to put a little culture in our lives when possible (we went to a concert last time, opera, and it's also where we almost went to the nude version of The Magic Flute) And this is where the concert will be tonight that Greg heard about last night.

Łódż is the third largest city in Poland.  It's not the prettiest of cities, as it was a manufacturing city.  Textiles.  The ooooold factories have been standing in their glory (really) unused with broken windows for decades until someone had an idea.  They turned it into this:

Isn't it pretty?  Like a really nice factory from the oooooold days that's been revamped? (they only sandblasted the brick, it was always this pretty, just sorta blackish)  Okay, so you can't really tell what it is, but they turned it into a mall.  It's cleverly named "Manufaktura" and apparently it's in the running for "Best Mall in the World" or something.  It's amazing, though none of the pictures I found really do it justice.  It's huge and there are buildings on all sides.  We go there almost every time we're in Łódż.  There are these fountains the kids can run through: 

and in the evening they dance and light up different colors to the loud music that plays in the courtyard.

In the summer they set up "beach" volleyball in the courtyard, and in the winter there's an ice skating rink.

Well, so back to the point.  In this very courtyard:

it was announced last night on the radio, there will be a concert tonight.  Not just any concert, though.  The Łódż Philharmonic will be playing the soundtrack LIVE to 2001: A Space Odyssey, which will be playing on a huge screen.  There will be 2001 seats and the show starts at 8:01 pm.  (I translated that for you, since you guys don't use army time like we do over here.  In Polish it starts at 20:01)

So Greg said "Drop everything!  Forget about your Borscht tomorrow!  We're going to Łódż!"  Then he called his mother and said something like, "Sorry it's such late notice, but some veeeeery important business has come up for us in Łódż and we'll be there in 20 hours or so. . ."  

So we'll go get the kids from school, eat some lunch (school ends at 12:15 today, 1:10 most days) and head off to Babcia and Dziadek's house (4-5 hour drive).  

I'm really excited except that I've never seen it and we recently watched 2010 (the sequel-ish)and I thought it was the most boring movie I've ever seen.  But being outside with the live music it will be awesome.  Without kids.  With Greg.  

A word about that cake.  If, of a Wednesday afternoon, you realize you reeeally want to make some special dessert, like a cake, since you've been craving a big layered one since you saw Pollyanna a few weeks ago (remember those HUGE pieces of cake they get at the fair?), and one with cream cheese in it, you might be extremely happy to stumble upon this cake.  Then you might make it, only double instead of triple layers because you have not three 8" rounds, not two, but zero.  Only a 10" springform pan.  So you bake half of it, wash, butter, repeat = two layers.  And you find that it is a veeeeery good cake.  And your son requests it for his birthday.  And your husband proclaims it delicious.  And you think it's a little sweet but exceedingly good.  So, anyway, those are some things that might happen if you are thinking about dessert on a Wednesday afternoon.  And then you might end up taking half of the cake to your in-laws with you.  Because your husband might be pontaneous.  (my S diet update is coming in a week or two. . . bet this post made you wonder how that's going)

Love and Hate

Hate:

I don't actually hate writing articles, exactly.  Sometimes they're a breeze and I can whip out as many as four in an hour (that's 2,ooo words - this happens rarely, though)  Three an hour is more like it.  But sometimes, like yesterday, I can't even do two.

What I hate is at dinner time being only halfway through my article writing because they're mostly about cappuccino and espresso makers and my research on the subject necessarily begins with this search: "What is cappuccino/espresso".  You know it's going to be slow going when you have to ask for definitions of the keywords. 

Then I hate finally allowing my starving self to go make my favorite dinner ever (Skillet Ziti with Chicken and Broccoli, so simple but I cannnooooot stop eating it) for a break, only to find that I can't start cooking until I wash about every dish in the kitchen and clean up, too.  

I also hate when I've finally got the dishes done and look down and see the SAME crushed pretzel lying on the kitchen floor that I have not been sweeping up for two days because I've been on the verge of vacuuming any minute now (for two days) and I decide something MUST be done about it right this minute, as I slowly waste away in my hunger.  Instead of pulling out the the dustpan and little broom I get out the vacuum and proceed to vacuum the entire downstairs.  Then I decide to mop the entire downstairs too, before heading back into the kitchen to finally get dinner started.

Love:

I love sneaking away from my writing occasionally to read excellent posts about good friends meeting each other for the first time and their adventures. 

I love when I'm stressfully trying to wash those dishes quickly so I don't pass out or die of starvation before I can get dinner made, and Greg comes in and tells me something that cheers me up/horrifies me.  He's been really sick and he had to go see his accountant in town.  When he went in the office he told her right away, "I'm not going to shake your hand because I haven't been feeling well since I returned from a trip to Mexico."  She literally pushed off away from her desk and started stuttering.  Greg, being the evil person that he is, wanted to continue and pretend he hadn't heard about swine flu, but thought better of it and told her he was kidding.  What a terrible joke.

I love freshly vacuumed and mopped floors.  

I love eating Skillet Ziti with Chicken and Broccoli.

Have Your Cake and Eat It Tuesday

Man, I haven't done one of these posts in a loooong time (six months?!).  And this one isn't even a real one, as I'm not sharing a recipe.  And a more appropriate title would be Have Your Cake and Eat It The Tuesday After You Get Back From America In June.  Here's why:

I had a dream last night.  I was in America for a very short visit.  I was on my last day or two and I hadn't bought any Reese's Peanut Butter Chips.

Also, I was in Poland and had just found out that they started selling Reese's peanut butter chips in a certain store here.   Greg was the manager/owner of one of them and he "helped" me while I was looking for the chips.  I searched EVERYWHERE, as I knew they'd be on some random shelf in a small pile between two products that weren't remotely related to baking.  After a desperate search (after all, I was leaving America very soon to go back to Poland -- never mind that I was already in Poland in this part of the dream) I realized that I'd have to go to a different store in the same chain.  

That one was in America.  It was about Costco sized and I did a shelf by shelf search and came up with nothing.  I went to the bakery and talked to some people working there about where I could find them.  Sitting at a table there, talking to another lady, was Steve S. from jr. high/high school who used to tease me and who I was a little afraid of, until he got a some self esteem, joined the football team and started being nice to me.  He didn't care too much about my peanut butter chips, but the lady he was talking with helped me (I have no idea why on Earth he was in this dream.  I haven't thought of him in decades, almost).

I don't really know what happened after that.  I don't think I ever found the chips.  It doesn't really matter though.  I know this all sounds very pointless, but it's not.  Not for me at least.  The moral of the story is, buy LOTS of peanut butter chips when you're in America in June.  

www.sweetstall.com

I love how a bag of those can last such a looong time.  I use them as an accent in chocolate chip cookies or brownies.  It only takes a very little bit to transform a recipe.  Good thing, too, because when I have them in the house I want to add them to everything I bake.  Mmmmm.

I really hate that there's a weight limit on luggage.  

www.gabbaideals.com

Okay, Here's What You Do

I just loved all your comments yesterday.  Who knew that two things that I've been thinking about in the last few days would be of such universal interest!  :)

So here's my brownie diet, from the beginning, because this is Lisa speaking.  In my first two pregnancies (bet those of you who asked me to elaborate never thought I'd start the explanation with "In my first two pregnancies," did you?  Unpredictable.  That's me.) I didn't lose my weight until after I had finished nursing (a year each) and then I just got thin again.  No effort or anything.  Then, during the years before Aaron came along I stayed thin and was exercising and avoiding chocolate and candy etc., right up until I gained that 5 pounds in America after my miscarriage. 

Once I got pregnant with Aaron I started eating chocolate again and stopped exercising.  I lost the five pounds I had gained in America, and didn't actually start gaining weight until my fifth month.  I was thin.  When I brought Aaron home from the hospital I almost looked back to normal (thin normal). Two months after Aaron was born, I was heavier than I'd been (without being pregnant) in eight years.  (!!!)

I was a little scared.  I didn't want to get fat, but I was too lazy to do anything about it.  Then Greg got a three week job in SLC doing translation for the church.  I decided to lose weight while he was gone.  I lost seven pounds in the first two weeks (by eating a heaping pile of veggies and a tiny bit of meat/carbs for each meal, and of course a brownie after dinner because I was being so good all day long) and kept it off.  For many months.  But the last seven or eight pounds weren't going anywhere.  

Finally I realized I needed to do something about it, especially if I want to get pregnant again one of these days.  So I started in on my no chocolate unless it's baked into something and baked stuff only after dinner plan, which I mentioned here on my blog.  After a month or two of that, I realized that it wasn't doing me any good.  So I completely bagged it and started eating dessert in the evening and then snacking on the leftovers all the next day.  After a few weeks of feeling terrible about myself I realized I was thinner than before.  I don't think I've lost more than a few pounds, but, you know how it is when you can feel on various parts of your body that the fat isn't there anymore?  That's how it is.  

Here's what I think happens: I eat brownies for dessert and then some more before bed.  The next morning I accidentally snack on them while I'm getting the kids ready for school and then am not in the mood for breakfast (why would that be?) and snack on some more mid-morning, and it fills me up until I have a late lunch.  Then a few a hours later it's dinner, and then comes dessert and the cycle starts again.  So basically, I am probably eating fewer calories overall.  Also, Aaron finished nursing later than the other kids, and I think my body may just be getting with the program (the losing-the-weight-after-weaning-the-baby program).

This is all really embarrassing and I should NOT be putting it on my  blog, but I hope it will help me to be motivated to be less of a glutton and to take a bit of control of my eating habits.  Still, it's hard, as I say, when I'm feeling thinner all the time, and unfortunately I don't have much less energy or anything, which I should on this kind of diet.  Plus, it's not this bad every day.  And if we have good fruit I'll eat that, too.  See?  Healthy!

Also, it's not always brownies.  I do make other stuff, but lately I've made them at least once a week.  I have spent the last 15 years or so in search of a good homemade brownie recipe (one that is similar to brownies from a mix--I'm one of those).  I have liked many of them, but this recipe is my favorite, by far.  It has kept me from trying out the recipe that Annette was kind enough to share with me.  And it kept me from making anything more interesting and exotic when Nathan was visiting.  I love it because it's one of the best tasting recipes IMO and it is simple and inexpensive to make, (doesn't have pounds and pounds of chocolate to be melted or require 4 different bowls).  I make them using only the pan that I melt the butter in.  Also, instead of the typical cup of butter and four eggs, it's got less of each.  Oh, and they're pretty with a perfect, crackly top. 

There is another kind of brownie that I also make repeatedly.  They're peanut butter brownies, and with some good dark chocolate filling them up, I can't resist them.  I always leave off the ganache because, come on.  I'm all about saving myself some calories and some money, and some effort and some dirty dishes (and plus they don't need it).

Now please feel free to explain why I should NOT eat like this and how bad it is for me.  Scare me out of this terrible cycle!  

And also, I'm not the only one with these backwards tendencies.  Annie wrote about how, to stay thin, she cannot exercise.  

Have Your Cake and Eat It Tuesday

Okay, so this isn't actually cake, but today is actually Tuesday, and since I came up with the name, I'm taking liberties and allowing myself the postage of recipes for any sweets without my having to change it to Have Your Cookies and Eat Them Tuesday. That really loses something, don't you think?

So these are cookies. I'll tell you all about how much I adore these cookies in a moment, but first I need to tell you about a very unfortunate side effect they have on me. When I eat them, I kick myself. And the more of them I eat, the more I love them and the more I kick myself. It's looks kind of stupid and doesn't feel great either. If you're thinking of making these, read further to see if you might be susceptible to these same side effects.

They are Chocolate Malt Sandwiches from Martha Stewart's website. I don't actually go onto that site looking for recipes, but I often find her recipes recommended on blogs I read. This one I saw at Cookie Madness. They are delicious. But then, I'm a major fan of malt. I make them and keep them in the fridge. They are so rich and sweet that even I can only eat about 4 of them in a sitting (okay, so that's basically 8 cookies, plus the filling, but whatever). Then I have to wait a full 30 minutes before I'm ready for another.

Do you know what it is about these cookies that makes me kick myself? It's not because I'm trying to keep myself from taking in the calories (heaven knows I'm not at a place where I worry about that as much as I should). So why the masochism? I'll tell you why.

When we were staying at my mother's house on our last trip to America, she had picked up a few things that I had requested from the grocery store. See, I try to get as much of the things that you can't get in Poland while we're in the States as I can. But I also have to make sure it will all fit in my luggage and not be too much for me to travel with (especially when I'm doing a marathon run of going back and forth across the country in two weeks, by myself with three children in tow). One of the things I'd requested this time was malt powder.

I love chocolate malts. I love Fuddruckers chocolate malts. I love Dalt's* chocolate malts. With curly cheese fries. After a tri-Stake dance late on a Saturday night. (I love that I wondered why my skin was never clear in High School.) They don't have chocolate malts in Poland. They don't even have malt powder. Oh, they have plenty of MALT. The kind you can drink even, if you know what I mean. But I'm not that kind of girl. So I'm left to make my own chocolate malted milk shakes. I don't do this a lot and they don't require all that much malt powder, so when I saw that my mother had bought 3 containers of malt, I thanked her kindly but was afraid I couldn't/shouldn't bring more than one back with me because of space/weight limitations. Especially considering I was already bringing 8 pounds of brown sugar with me, among other things (guess how long eight pounds of brown sugar lasts at Lisa's house? 2 months? Maybe.).

Did you read the sentence before last? Three containers of malt! I did not accept them! I am an idiot! And now I am an idiot with no malt powder because I found this wonderful recipe, made it twice, and ran out. I could make these cookies 4-5 more times if I had had the foresight to accept what was already purchased for me! Kick, kick, kick!

*I just read that Dalt's closed in 2005!! This is a travesty! I will be in mourning for the next few days. I can't believe it. I just can't believe it. I seek the comfort of family and friends who have also loved that place.
If you give these cookies to your kids, they might react this way:

Then they might start in on them like this:

They might realize that there's some filling in there. Mmmmm:

Once they realize what it is they're eating they will continue to partake, now with only a slightly confused expression:

Chomp, chomp chomp:

Remember I said they were really sweet and rich?:

Your kids might really enjoy them, too. If you're nice enough to share!

Have Your Cake and Eat It Tuesday

I don't consider myself a major fan of cake. It doesn't really fall under the category of hard core, like most of the treats I prefer. I do like it sometimes, though. And if they didn't generally require so much work to prepare and top, I'm sure I'd make them more often.

Well, today I'll share with you a cake I love. The recipe came to me through my roommate Andrea, who made all sorts of delicious treats back in the day and still does, only now she makes sure they have ingredients that are unavailable in Poland and makes them, photographs them and then blogs about them. I'm not sure why I still consider her a friend. Oh yes, the recipes I acquired from her that I CAN make in Poland, like this one!

So this treat is cleverly named: Banana Cake! Ooooh, I'm sure you've never heard of anything like that, or baked it many times, either. But this is different! I'm SURE it's different! I've never seen this cake anywhere else. Okay, probably the main thing that sets this one apart is the topping. Somehow the cake and the topping are just a winning combination (I first typed winning conversation because Evie was talking to me while I type this. Evie, out. Brain, ON. There.)

There are so many reasons why people need to make this cake. It's so much healthier than a pan of brownies (or at least it has less fat, anyway). It's as easy to make as a batch of cookies. It's another way, make that a better way, to use up those black bananas. But mostly, it's just so delicious. Okay, for those of you who aren't me (that's probably most of you) and don't like things hyper sweet, you may consider this to be a little on the sweet side, especially with the topping, but just consider it a dessert, and don't eat it like we did; for dessert last night, for breakfast this morning (it has bananas), and another little piece after lunch.
Banana Cake
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup mashed bananas
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Now for the tricky part. Mix it all together (I do it about the same way you do with cookies, mix wet, then add dry) and pour it in a greased 9 by 13" pan. Now mix together:
2 cups chocolate chips (give or take, depending on if you're me or you)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup nuts-or more (I always use chopped or slivered almonds, but that's only because I can't stand walnuts and peanuts just don't sound like the thing, here)
Sprinkle this topping nice and evenly over the cake batter and put it in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes or so.
Or, alternately you can misread the instructions and check on it after 25 minutes and be very confused at how jiggly it still is in the middle, and then get back on the computer while it finishes baking, forget about it, and finally remember and take it out of the oven about 5 minutes after the nick of time. If this happens to you, don't worry. That brown on the edges and bottom of the pan is like some heavenly carmelization. This cake is delicious any way you eat it but I like it best warm. MMMMMMMmmmmmmMMMMMmmmmmMMMMM

And if you're me (gosh, ARE YOU ME already? I'm really getting so confused) and you made it after dinner last night, you should have about this much left after lunch today.

Let Them Eat Cake...First Thing in the Morning

Muffins! Mmmmm. I think muffins are one of my favorite inventions. Cake for breakfast!! Well, it's not like the idea of a regular cake or cookies or brownies being meant for dessert has ever stopped me from eating one or three for breakfast, but with muffins I at least have the satisfaction of knowing that they're meant for breakfast. Someone, who I don't know, but I definitely love, deemed chocolate chocolate chip muffins most-important-meal-of-the-day worthy.

So I have always loved muffins. Growing up, I remember them only as a part of dinner. Onion and cheese muffins. Yum. I don't think we did breakfast muffins, though. Maybe that's why I'm a little obsessed with muffins now. Back in the day when we were living in the good ol' US I would buy muffins from bakeries and at the grocery store. Now that we live a bit too far from those bakeries, I must make my own.

I have been in constant search of good muffin recipes for years now. You may remember that I like chocolate. Particularly chocolate baked into stuff. Well, apart from the (mediocre) apple cinnamon muffins that I've always made, I have generally concentrated my efforts on finding good recipes that contain that addictive substance. Chocolate muffins. Peanut butter chocolate chip muffins. Banana chocolate chip. Cinnamon chocolate chip. You get the idea.

But there's one problem. I want my muffins to be pretty. I understand the whole "it's what's inside that counts" and everything, but I can't help judging a muffin by it's appearance. I like them to be pretty. AND I want them to taste good and be sweet enough and not to be too dry or too light and fluffy. I have found three muffin recipes that I like enough to make over and over. And I'm going to share them with you.

The first one is for chocolate yogurt muffins which I found at Cookie Madness, where Anna bakes something new every.single.day. A girl after my own heart. These are just a good, basic double chocolate muffin. I've tried probably 8 different double chocolate muffins and these are my favorite. They're pretty, just dense and sweet enough and even David, who isn't a big muffin or chocolate fan, likes them.

I also decided to grow up a bit and try using fruit in my muffins, making them slightly healthier. We had some raspberries we couldn't eat fast enough so I baked some into these raspberry-topped lemon muffins, which I found at Smitten Kitchen (where she will tell you where she got it). These were not so very pretty and a little bit more like a cupcake as far as sweetness and lightness, but my-oh-my did we like them. I don't eat a lot of raspberries plain, but I adored them in these muffins. It's a little backwards in that all the sweetness in these muffins is in the lemon part and all the tartness is in the raspberries. I loved getting a raspberry in these 20 times more than I ever loved getting a chocolate chip in any other baked good, ever. Yes, this is still Lisa speaking. Next time I make them I will quadruple (or so) the amount of raspberries. I'll make more than 12 muffins and just stuff them full of raspberries instead of just setting them on the top. Too bad it's after 11pm because I sort of need to go to the farmers market and get some and make these NOW!

And now for my final muffin. I think I saved the best for last. I found this one at Sugar Plum, where Emiline, whose name I love, makes up all her own recipes. When I first started reading food blogs, I didn't get how everyone could just post a recipe from a cookbook on their blog. Now I sort of think that it's a bit like an advertisement for the book, in a way, but Emiline feels the way I did, and only posts recipes she's written herself, which is awesome. I've made a number of them and they're really good.

So I had a jar of cherries that were about to get old and David had been begging me to let him drink the juice from them (?) and I remembered that Emiline had posted about these bada-bing muffins with ginger-oat streusel so I decided to make them, substituting my jarred cherries for the fresh ones it calls for. I also didn't have (and never have had) any crystallized ginger, so I omitted it, and used oil in the muffin instead of melting butter. They were FANTASTIC. Ugly as ever a muffin was (sorry Emiline!), but so extremely tasty. We love them. I pack these with extra cherries, too.

So if you happen to have read all the way through this post, it is very likely only because you care about muffins. So if you do, and you have a favorite muffin recipe you'd like to recommend, I would love you forever if you told me about it in the comments. And I mean forever.

They Don't Know What They're Missing

In Poland there is one kind of chocolate cake: the cream filled W Z-tka [voo-zet-kah]. Most every bakery sells this cake. There are various other cakes that might be classified as "chocolate", but the cocoa is used more as a coloring agent than for purposes of flavoring (measured in tea or tablespoons, rather than cups) and they are often smothered in fruit or nuts. Apart from the W-Ztka, if you see any dark brown cake or a cake with a dark layer, you can be fairly sure that it is made with poppy seeds, often ground ones. I know this because the first year or two after we moved here, when I was still excited about trying new things, I ordered lots of them, expecting chocolate each time. You (most likely) have no idea what it's like to bite into a cake expecting chocolate and get poppy seeds.

To me, ground poppy seeds taste almost exactly the way an old, unused attic smells. In a word, I think it tastes like dust. This isn't the hyperbole-prone Lisa speaking in her usual terms of exaggeration. I feel sure that if you offered me a cake made with ground poppy seeds, side by side with a cake that had been seasoned with all the dust that could be swept off the old bikes, broken furniture and boxes of outgrown clothing in any given attic, I would be unable to determine which was which.

Generally speaking, when I bake something and give it to Polish people, they are surprised by how sweet or rich it is (nobody has yet mentioned how dust-free it tastes). This makes sense, since all the cakes and cookies you get here are dry and not very sweet. I have learned to like many of them, but I far prefer American treats. I have been given recipes for some Polish cakes that I have liked in the past, and have been astonished at how much butter they contain. How can a cake with so much fat taste so little like a dessert? At least now I know not to let myself feel all healthy when eating Polish goodies. That piece of orzechowiec may contain raspberries, and may be twice as tall as a brownie cut the same size, but because it is so dry and crumbly, it probably has about the same mass as the shorter brownie, and still contains more than twice the fat in the brownie!

Fortunately, Greg's family loves American desserts. One of their favorites is a chocolate sheet cake, which they have had a few times in the past while they've been visiting us. The last time they came I made some brownies (the ooey gooey ones in my sidebar) and Greg's sister mistook them for the sheet cake! One is dense and fudgy and one is light and moist! One is frosted and sprinkled with toasted almonds, the other is plain with chocolate chunks inside. I suppose they're both very chocolaty, sweet and moist, and all three of those things make them different from Polish cakes, so I should be more understanding. But can you imagine not appreciating the difference between brownies and cake? That's why I think it's a crime that there is even such a thing as "cake like" brownies. BAKE A CAKE if you want cake, instead of adding extra eggs (or whatever) to turn your brownies into one.

The same thing has happened with chocolate crinkle cookies and double chocolate mint cookies being mistaken for each other. I will admit that I do stick to a theme in my baking, so that may make it a little difficult for the less discerning palate, but still. Well, to be fair,I guess if someone offered me some makowiec, and then some fancy, layer cake (and assuming, for the sake of this example, that I didn't kindly decline, and was careful not to make any gagging sounds), I might get them mixed up too. A Pole might love the glaze on one and the contrast of the layer of yeast cake in the other, but to me all I'll ever taste is dust.

*It should be noted that I have nothing against poppy seeds in moderation (in muffins, on breads/rolls etc.), and in their whole form. I should also add that Greg LOVES the taste of ground poppy seeds. He simply adores the INTENSE poppy seed cake his mother makes at christmas time. It contains ground poppy seeds, sugar, eggs, almond flavouring and little (if anything)else. Maybe a little flour. I'm not sure, as it is NOT one of the recipes I've asked for.

Health Nut

I know that I'm WAAAAY too into baking and eating baked goods, but there are some foods that are good for you that I adore as well. Mostly green stuff. Spinach, broccoli, zucchini and asparagus (the green kind, not the white stuff which is all I ever see around here and which I have no idea what to do with). I recently started using whole grain pastas. I always try to get whole grain bread. I eat lots of yogurt (Oh, you poor Americans who live in the land where "yogurt" is sugar with a little yogurt mixed in, and some corn starch or something that makes it far too jelly-y! I think I know why greek-style yogurt is all the rage!) And fresh fruits that don't make my mouth itch so much that I think I'll go crazy. There seem to be fewer and fewer of those. And I'm big into nuts and dried fruits.

But mostly, I'm into baked stuff. I bake a few times a week and we eat that stuff for dessert every night. Then, during the day, I forget about the delicious polish yogurt, the dried fruit and nuts, and the possibly non-itch inducing fruit, and head straight for the cookie jar. Well, not really, because you can't keep brownies in a cookie jar, and also, my cookie jar currently resides at my mother's house in Utah. But what I mean is that I reach for cookies or brownies or whatever it is I have most recently baked. This means that possibly 1/2 the calories I take in in a day come from junk food. No, probably not half. Please don't let it be half.

Greg recently asked me if I couldn't try making some treats that are a little more healthy now and again. It sounded like a dumb idea to me, but I love him SO much that I decided to try. One week, besides the usual chocolatey, rich treats, I made a carrot cake (with cream cheese frosting. See?! Cheese and carrots! That's what you'd give your kids for a healthy snack, and we were eating it for dessert!) Last week I came up with an even healthier treat to bake. I had made it before, long ago, and remembered it and decided to make it again. I will share the recipe with you, in case you are a health nut like me. It has oatmeal, banana, hardly any fat, and I even substituted half the chocolate chips for dried cranberries, which elevated it from a low-fat cookie to pure health food. You can go to the original recipe (it's by Nic at Baking Bites) but I'll copy it here, too.

They're not the best cookies in the world, but for what they are, they taste very good. We all liked them, and David loved them, but wished I'd used only cranberries (no chocolate). What a wierdo. This recipe is perfect if you just have one black banana and not the 25 required to make banana bread. If you let the cookies get very brown they will be cakey or dry, but take them out as soon as they start to change from white to golden and they'll be lovely. I didn't take any pictures of mine because they aren't actually physically lovely. I was referring to the texture.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter, very soft
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup mashed banana (1 small/medium)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups oats
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking sodaand salt.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars. Beat in egg and banana, followed by the vanilla extract. Gradually, on low speed or by hand, add in the flour mixture. Stir in the oats (either whole rolled oats or “quick cooking”) and chocolate chips.
Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 11-14 minutes at 350F, until set and lightly browned.
Let cookies cool for about 5 minutes on the pan before transfering them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Call Me a Liar

Well, it appears I'll be blogging about our humble dinners now and again, even though I promised not to.

This sounded like a strange combination of ingredients to me, but I decided to make it anyway (keep in mind, I'm on the very low end of the spectrum of level-of-experimentation-with-food). Oh but I'm glad I did! Again, super easy and the whole family loves it. Now I make it all the time. It came off a can of Brunswick tuna.



Does that look delicious? No, it does not. But that doesn't stop it from tasting good. And that's what we're shooting for when it comes to fast, easy meals.

Curried Tuna

2 cans tuna, drained (this sounded to me like too much, but it's not)
1/4 cup butter
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 green onions (with tops) thinly sliced
3 cups cooked rice
1/4 hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (I don't use this)

Cook and stir butter, curry powder and onions in 10 inch skillet over medium heat until butter is melted. Stir in everything else and cook and stir until tuna is hot. Now you can serve and eat it, but do not take a picture, because rice and tuna are not very pretty foods, or if you do, at least take it in the daylight.

Just This Once

I so was not going to blog about food. I'm a semi-serious food blog reader and I have no intention to try and make this one of those (see some links on the sidebar). But we also ate one of our favorite dinners tonight and it's so (fairly)easy and so (very)delicious that it almost seems rude not to share it.

It's definitely not a meatless dinner, but I would call it a "less meat" dinner. It's from a cookbook my Dad and his wife gave me, which I love. These days I don't look at the recipe, but I fell in love with it when I did, so I'll just copy it out of the book.

The first time I remember having spaghetti carbonara was in the restaurant of one of the hotels we were staying in. It was wonderful. After that I kept ordering it whenever I saw it on a menu. Occasionally it was okay, but sometimes it was very bland and once it took a few hours for all the fat that coagulated on the roof of my mouth to go away. I stopped ordering it after that. Then I found this recipe and I make it at least once a month now. The whole family loves it.


Spaghetti alla Carbonara
adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

3 large eggs
1 1/2 oz. Parmesan cheese, grated (3/4 cup)
1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
3 garlic cloves, minced
8 oz. bacon (8 slices) chopped fine
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine (I always use chicken broth)
salt
3/4 pound spaghetti
pepper

Start your water boiling, add 1 T of salt and cook the pasta according to package directions (looking at the original recipe now, I'm a little surprised, because I always use closer to 1/2 lb. of pasta! No wonder the sauce is so good and rich...). You should work on the next 2 steps while you are waiting for the water to boil/pasta to cook so that the pasta will finish at the right time.

Wisk the eggs and cheeses together ( I use any mix of whatever hard cheese I have around) and set aside.

Meanwhile, cook the bacon and olive oil in a 12 inch skillet over medium heat until the bacon is crisp, about 8 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until it is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic for the last 30 seconds or so. Remove from heat.

Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water then drain the spaghetti. Dump it straight on the bacon and garlic in the frying pan (which should still be very warm, but not hot enough to scramble the eggs) and then dump the egg and cheese mixture on top of the hot pasta. Toss around to cook the eggs (hopefully they won't scramble, it should be a creamy looking sauce). If necessary add some of the pasta water to loosen the sauce. Salt and pepper to taste.


Okay, so it doesn't sound as simple as it seems when you're making it. The actual recipe says to have a bowl warming in the oven to toss everything together, but that seems silly to me.

For dessert we had our favorite chocolate chip cookies. It's my go to CCC recipe, and I do "go to" it at least a few times a month. They're made with oil, but somehow still have this delicious buttery flavor. Plus they're lovely. I would post a picture but you can see lots of pictures if you follow the link at the bottom of the page under Foods I Loved. That recipe got either 5 stars or none (almost) some people thought they tasted like oil. That is such a tragedy. My sister tried this recipe and didn't like it either! So you've been warned. But lots of people really DO like them. For example, us. We love 'em. I always add a little less oil and omit the almond extract. I also beat and beat and beat the eggs with the sugar and oil.