For my birthday, my ever-thoughtful in-laws got us a bread machine! It was a timely gift as I had just been pondering lately how to reduce some of our garbage, and one of our major contributors are those damn bread bags and closing tags.

I know, I know, I could just quit eating bread. But the boys wouldn’t be too happy about that, and besides, I love me some sandwiches! I could make it the old fashioned way, which I do actually quite enjoy and my bread is actually really good (thanks to Delia Smith!) but still.. I manage to not ever do it.

In steps the bread machine:

I didn’t take a picture of the first loaf, it was a disaster but will make excellent bread crumbs. This loaf was good. A little too chewy, but not bad. I like that this machine produces bread that is.. bread shaped. The machine I grew up with was circular, for some odd reason.

My idea is to slowly work through several loaves until we find a recipe that works for our current bready needs. Here’s hoping we can stop buying plastic encased bread!

My brother and I used to fight over who got to lick the bowl clean after my mom was finished with the mixer. (Mine is yellow, just like the one to the left, and I L-U-R-V-E it. I tell H even if we ever move overseas and the electrics don’t work, I don’t care, I’m taking my mixer.) Anyway, one of us would get the bowl, the other the beater. Yum.

These days, of course, I’m a germophobe and freaked out by everything they say that is bad in eggs. So I don’t touch raw batter with a ten foot pole, much less let the Boo do so. And this makes me sad. Those after-baking moments were such fun! The batter is almost always better than the finished product!

Wanting to share these moments with the boy, I was thrilled when I stumbled on an eggless oatmeal cookie recipe. So since we were bored yesterday afternoon, and it was cold and windy (and maybe rainy, it rains so much any more I don’t hardly remember), we decided to make cookies.

Let me tell you, these cookies are GOOD! Knowing the proclivities of my hubby and child, we only added chocolate chips to these, but still. Yum yum. The best part? Licking the beater clean, of course!

Sadly, the Boo did not participate in this gross display of gluttony. He preferred eating the cookies. What can I say? Sometimes the boy has some civility :)

I’ve been trying to be inspired to cool by actually reading the cookbooks I currently possess. I have to admit this isn’t something I’ve ever actually done before.

So while perusing Nigella Lawson’s How To Eat I ran across a sentence discussing the American comfort food of cinnamon toast. And she described how to make it as whipping together butter, sugar, and cinnamon.

I did a double take. Never in my life have I made cinnamon toast by blending anything. What on earth was she on about? Is it because she’s British and clearly has no clue?

Then it occured to me. Maybe *I* am the wierd one here. Maybe my mom is the one who doesn’t know how to make cinnamon toast. So I thought I’d take a look-see.

• Cooks.com instructs you to mix sugar and cinnamon in a separate container, shake over already buttered toast, then broil until sugar bubbles. I never bothered with the separate container, it’s not exactly hard to shake it out of both the sugar and cinnamon containers. The broiling part sounds interesting, though.
• Apparently there’s a cooking monkey who also bubbles his toast. Hmm.
• With the exception of my already mentioned aversion to mixing the cinnamon and sugar, allrecipes.com does it like I do.
• And so on and so forth. They pretty much all follow the above.

Hurrah! I’m not a freak. But I am intrigued by the broiling. I suddenly wish I had a toaster oven.

So how do YOU make your cinnamon toast?

I’ve been getting into a little vegetarian cooking lately. Nothing major, and not because I’m becoming a vegetarian or anything, but more as a way to fix a wider variety of somewhat healthy foods for la familia.

This was the first original meal I’ve fixed in a long time.. original meaning completely out of the ordinary:

Doesn’t it look fabulous? Look at those colors! It’s the Chipotle Bean Burgers from Vegetarian Meal Plans. They were awesome. And that was without chipotle as I couldn’t find any. I’ve fixed the black bean burgers from there too, but these were better. There’s a yogurt dressing on the burgers, on some spinach, and butternut squash for the side.

You might wonder if the Boo ate any of it. And that would be a big fat no. But sometimes he refuses goldfish and chocolate chip cookies too so I’m not defaulting my cooking quite yet! Keep offering the good stuff, I think.

I also recently obtained La Dolce Vegan as recommended by EEK! and it is equally divine. In fact I just ate some chocolate pudding from in there and Oh. My. God. I am never buying boxed again (er… if I have the two hours it takes to set :)

I am obviously not a vegan by any stretch of the imagine, but I find the book refreshing, full of good ideas, and so far I’ve not had any problems replacing the vegan ingredients with our usual faire — milk, eggs, cheese, butter, etc. That’s probably sacreligious, but what can I say? It’s working for me.

The one place I take issue with this book is in the introductory section, the author states that saying one doesn’t like tofu is ridiculous, that if you don’t like tofu it’s because your mind isn’t open enough. And I do think saying something that broadly is what’s ridiculous. I’ve tried lots of tofu dishes, I was vegetarian for several years, I’ve eaten at very good vegetarian restaurants, I’ve got a very open mind regarding food. And I’ve learned that I generally just don’t like tofu. That doesn’t mean I won’t find a recipe that I do like in the future — but so far I just don’t like it. I don’t like the texture of the smooth tofu or the texturized protein or whatever it’s called. Call me crazy if you want to, but it’s not because I don’t have an open mind about it.

So I’m on a good track I think. I have run across a few very good websites, and I’ve got a couple good cookbooks. I think I’d like one more veggie cookbook, that particularly helps with veggie sidedishes. I don’t eat a lot of vegetables because I rarely like how they’re cooked, so I really need help there.

However, until then, I’m gonna just finish up this chocolate pudding. YUM.

We recently got a rice cooker. It sings. Is there anything happier in life than a singing rice cooker?

Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy

We resisted rice cookers for a long time as “unnecessary gadgets” however I am here to tell you that you need one. It makes everything so much easier. And what’s more, the rice is perfect. I don’t even like rice that much, and I love it. It’s sticky and yummy.

And it sings. It’s happy. It sings when it starts and it sings when it’s done. It makes me giggle with glee. I love my rice cooker. Gotta love Japanese kitchen gadgets!

I have heard of the cupcake renaissance. I have been to Cupcake Royale in Ballard which is divine, plus it’s one coffee shop Boo doesn’t mind going to :) I can tell you that mint cupcake hits the spot when you’re nauseous! We visited the cupcake place in the Mall once too. I thought about making cupcakes for Boo’s birthday but didn’t get around to it.

However, I had no idea people were THIS into cupcakes. Oh my. Some of those look delicious, no?

Since I have a kid I do feel it’s my duty to explore the world of cupcakes. I mean who doesn’t like cake? And it’s perfect portion control no? Unless you eat two I suppose :) Anyway it looks like fun. We shall have to venture forth into more than boxed cake with canned icing!

I ran across a blog entry for Apple Spice Waffles and had this incredible sudden yearning for waffles! Fortunately, my lovely in-laws gave us a waffle iron for Christmas. Convenient, eh?

So yesterday I whipped up a batch of these waffles for myself and the boys. They were yummy! And coincidently, they can be vegan too if you substitute the milk. I have a friend who is vegan so I’m always sending her recipes when I find them :)

There seem to be about ten thousand different waffle recipes out there, so I think we may go through several before finding our perfect recipe. I suspect the seriously yummy part of this one was the spices and the applesauce. Now if only i had the presence of mind to make stewed apples to go with…

Why do I always feel like the last to know?

One of the more popular and perennial threads on parenting forums are healthy snacks. I don’t think we do too badly on snacks so I’ve never paid a whole lot of attention. But one blog keeps popping up: Vegan Lunch Box. So I finally decided to check it out.

Well, damn. Look at that. I’m not vegan and I would be thrilled to eat these fun treats! THAT is a mother. Damn.

Looks like there’s going to be a book as well. May have to pick that one up! Again with the inspiration!

I just stumbled across Everybody Likes Sandwiches, a blog devoted to food. The writer has excellent taste. I want to devour everything on that front page.

By the way, yes, it is another night of being up, unable to sleep, so I am instead perusing blogs. Useless, yet fun!

Does anyone else have any favorite food blogs?