Hearty Chicken Soup and Pumpkin Cran-Apple Walnut Loaf
When I saw the first cranberries of the season arrive in grocery stores, I got so excited I bought a big container of them, and proceeded to leave them in the refrigerator for weeks. I’d notice them from time to time, and briefly consider what I could do with them, but it wasn’t until the season’s first blizzard a few weeks ago when I was stuck inside all day that I finally forced myself to put them to use. Very uncharacteristically, I found a vegan bread recipe (originally Vegan Pumpkin Cranberry Apple Pecan Bread from Joy the Baker) that sounded incredible – so I decided to give it a try. Admittedly, I added a couple of eggs to bind the bread and keep it from crumbling, but apparently it’s just as good without! (more…)
(Late) Thanksgiving Feast
I know Thanksgiving was a week and a half ago, and I’d be better off posting ginger molasses chews or peppermint bark, but I’m still playing catch-up! I won’t bore you with lots of Thanksgiving stories, but I do have a few recipes I’m dying to share. I even tried my hand at a few savory items on our Thanksgiving menu, and they came out quite well, if I do say so myself 
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Honey Maple Sticky Buns
In my family, we’re all about trying new things with food — my mother is a (closet) master cook, with a serious knack for throwing a bit of this and a pinch of that together to create a surprisingly delicious dish. She rarely follows recipes, and yet still manages to create masterpieces. I stick with my recipes because I know them, and they rarely let me down, but even still I’m always trying new ones and pushing the boundaries as much and as often as I can. But also in my family, we’ve got some old stand-by’s, the treats that have stood the test of time that we know we’ll keep making forever and the day after too. These sticky buns are one of them — they take some effort, but they would never EVER betray our greedy taste buds. Given that this past weekend was our last in my childhood home, the place that has spawned many of tray of these gooey, decadent buns, I figured why not one last hurrah? (more…)
Cream Cheese Banana Bread
Have you ever bought a bunch of bananas hoping that they’ll ripen really fast so you can use them for baking? Seems a silly idea right? To buy perfectly edible and ripe fruit, and to let them go so far that they turn brown and gooey, and fruit flies begin to swarm? And yet, it’s the most perfect idea ever. On this particular occasion, I didn’t buy bananas to let them rot, I simply bought too many and they ripened faster than I’d anticipated. So when I found myself in such a predicament, I knew there was only one solution: to bake banana bread! I’d found a recipe on Fake Ginger for Cream Cheese Banana Bread that looked really fantastic, especially for someone like me who so adores a fresh loaf of sweet and fragrant banana bread. I had no occasion to bake this bread, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. And it was SO GOOD. Could it possibly be the best banana bread I’ve ever had? I’m not lying when I say… yes. (more…)
Oatmeal Wheat Boule
I bought several packets of yeast a while back, with hopes that having it in my possession would encourage me to make some homemade bread. I bought all kinds of flour, and a new cookbook, so I really had no excuse not to. Last week, I decided to give it a go, and I was pleasantly surprised! It’s such a novel idea to me, to be able to make your own bread for any occasion that may arise. I envision myself making bread for sandwiches, and bread for toast, and sweetbread for breakfast, and egg bread for sticky buns. I hope that someday this one loaf of bread will inspire me to make every kind of bread that I can ever imagine, but for now, I’ll just tell you about the one loaf that (hopefully) started it all. (more…)
