Homemade Oreos

I just made this recipe for homemade oreos from smitten kitchen, http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/, and they were PRETTY GOOD! I can't lie and say they taste exactly like oreos because the cookie isn't as crispy, maybe because I made my cookie a little bigger than an actual oreo wafer, uncooked they were about the size of an oreo but they grew to be about twice that big while baking. If they were smaller perhaps they would have gotten crispier in the 9 minute baking time? Anyway, I liked them alot, I used non-hydrogenated organic vegetable shortening for the filling, no butter. I'll definitely be making these again, I love quick, easy recipes like this!

Birthday Cake!

It was my boo's birthday so I made him a chocolate cake. I actually had 3 attempts, and the last was a charm. I tried a couple of recipes, one from Ina Garten, one from my Southern Living cookbook, and I even resorted to a box cake (which was sub-par to say the least). Finally, I found this recipe on Apartment Therapy http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/dessert/recipe-dark-chocolate-cake-014696, and my oh my was I pleased! It was so easy, especially compared to the recipes I tried previously. I used buttermilk in place of the milk, and hot coffee in place of the boiling water. I halved the recipe, using 4.5" cake pans instead of the typical (2) 9" pans. I love my 4.5" cake pans, they make the perfect size double layer cake for a family of 3, about 5-6 generous servings. I used heavy whipping cream, semi-sweet chocolate morsels, and powdered sugar for the frosting, it was like a ganache but thicker and paired extremely well with this moist cake!

Mortar and Pestle

So, I picked up a marble mortar and pestle at Marshall's for 9.99. I had eyed it a few times before and considered getting one for "energy" reasons. In macrobiotics (something I have studied a bit), they encourage using manual vs. electric devices to prepare food, for "energy" reasons. To be honest, I have no idea what I believe on this matter, but I'm open to it. I tried the mortar and pestle a couple times to grind my raw cocoa nibs and it did a fine job in comparison to the coffee grinder, it just took about 5-10 minutes longer and a little bit of labor. I can see myself using this often to grind herbs and spices. Its much easier to clean than the coffee grinder and beautiful enough that I would leave it out on an open shelf, instead of deep in a cabinet somewhere, which makes it more convenient to use. Also, the extra time is not an issue if I grind stuff while browsing the internet or watching television, or just sitting around (which I do a lot of). It actually makes me feel more productive!

Sweet Summer!

There are a few things that make the sweltering summer heat not only bearable but welcome in my opinion. One of those things is cold watermelon and it just so happened to be my breakfast this morning... this is the less common yellow meat variety, juicy and sweet!
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A time to buy!

I enjoy shopping... however I am incredibly indecisive at times. Especially with online shopping because it feels much more final to me and the items aren't tangible before purchase. None the less, online shopping has become more and more prevalent in my purchasing experience due to the fact that I live in a super small town and getting some items locally is either impossible or prohibitively inconvenient.



I have filled and emptied my online shopping cart more times than makes sense and now I realize it would be better to wait until payday so I can pay down my credit card before making any additional purchases...

I am going to limit my purchases to these 3 items: citric acid, emulsifying wax, shea butter

Hopefully, I will not be strayed between now and then...

RAW chocolate smoothie

Whenever I am totally bored with preparing food, which is sadly pretty often, one thing that always perks me up is experimenting with vegan and raw recipes or even coming up with my own. I'm not religious enough to commit to either of these lifestyle choices 100% of the time, but I flirt with the idea often enough to get my husband all up in arms.



Typically, I make fresh coconut milk 1-2 times a week. I'm not sure why I do it so often because usually I am trying to figure out ways to use it before it goes bad. Today was no exception to that routine. On top of that I had a bag of raw cocoa nibs and some medjool dates that had been sitting in my cupboard ignored for longer than I care to think about.



Usually, if I have a breakfast smoothie it consists of fresh coconut milk and frozen bananas and possibly whatever other fruit I may have on hand, but I used the last of my frozen bananas 2 days ago and also I have a raging sinus infection that has been marked with violent enough sneezing sessions that I believe I actually threw my neck out during one of them, if that is even possible... The bananas come into play in that they seem to make me more snotty, so yeah I won't be re-upping on them.



So I decided to soak the dates, grind the nibs finely, and whir it up in my blender. Also, I want to note that I used 1.5 cups of the cream (the stuff that separates to the top) of the coconut milk, in hopes that it would make the smoothie thicker. I used 2 heaping tablespoons of the nibs, and about 7 pieces of dates with the pit removed.


After whirring in my blender, I finally accepted the fact that the nibs powder wasn't going to dissolve completely and while the taste of the smoothie was great the texture was grainy. I immediately added this experience to the list of reasons justifying the purchase of a $400 blender, ya'll know which one I'm talking about. No really though, I must figure out a way to make this recipe work and still maintain its RAW-ness. I'll update when I do.