Sugar Free Banana Bread / Cake for Baby Birthday

 So, uh, I don't think I ever really mentioned this specifically, but I have a child now.  And to my surprise, trying to keep [processed] sugar out of a baby's diet is not that easy.  Everything has sugar.  Even when you google "baby birthday cake" or "smash cake" or "sugar free baby cake" the options are limited and often have "alternative" sugars like stevia or monkfruit or whatever other nonsense.

With some research, I found a recipe that worked for us and that has since been approved by multiple babies AND adults.  Because I'm very anti-waste when it comes to food, I did not like the idea of giving my baby a huge cake and having a bunch of crumbs / messy food that wouldn't actually get eaten.  So I decided to make the "cake" in a mini muffin tin.  It actually works great, because you can cut off the muffin top and build a tiny little layer cake with "frosting."

This recipe made 24 mini muffins and a little 4 inch round cake (which was actually just me trying to use the extra batter).  It keeps well at room temperature for at least 2 days, but probably longer.  In the fridge, it's great for at least 3 days.  I can't speak beyond that because the cake is all gone now.

You'll find that this recipe is basically a banana bread.  If you double the recipe, it should be enough for at least two 6 inch rounds if you want to make a bigger layer cake (according to the original recipe I edited).

You'll notice that this has a good amount of "flavoring agents," aka lemon, cinnamon and vanilla.  That's because I believe that baby food should be flavorful and tasty, and that exposing our kids to strong flavors early in their life helps develop their palates and hopefully result in less picky eaters.  

You can also just use this recipe as an easy way to use ripe bananas when you have no eggs and want to avoid sugar.

Banana Baby Cake

• 2 very ripe bananas (it doesn't matter what size, baking science is not that exact)
• 3 tablespoons butter*
• 1/4 cup full fat oatmilk (what I used) OR breastmilk, regular milk, etc.
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Full 3/4 cup flour (I did not sift or level, just scooped)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F.  Melt your butter in the microwave.  Get a pastry brush and butter your mini muffin tin.  Use the remaining butter for the cake; it should be more than 2 tablespoons.  Alternatively you can use spray oils for your pan and just melt 2.5 tablespoons of butter for your cake.

Combine all the first 5 ingredients in a food processor / blender: peeled bananas, butter, milk, lemon juice, and vanilla.  Blend / puree until it's all smooth.

Pause and add your flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Take a little spatula and stir gently so that the flour is a little bit incorporated.  This just stops it from exploding / splattering all over the place when you turn on your blender.  You can skip if you don't mind flour particles in the air.

Pulse blend several times until all combined and smooth.  People are overly anxious about overmixing. You won't; it's fine.

Pour into the mini muffin tin.  I recommend using a standard cookie dough scoop for this.  One scoop per well.

Bake at 350 minutes for 10 minutes.  If you're making a 4 or 6 inch cake, bake for 20-25 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool before frosting.

PB Frosting 

Combine 2-4 tsp of natural creamy peanut butter with a roughly equivalent amount of heavy whipping cream, slowly. Once the mixture is smooth, add 1 cup of cold heaving whipping cream and beat on high till stiff peaks form.  Keep refrigerated until use.

I prefer using a no salt, no sugar, no other additives peanut butter, but you can obviously use anything.  You could also just use plain whipped cream as frosting, no PB, but I like using common allergens because exposure helps decrease incidence of allergies.  Also you can easily replace with sunbutter or almond butter.

Iceland - Eating our way through Reykjavik

It's been several months since we got back from Iceland, and I am still committed to sharing details / documenting the experience for my own memories.
The first time I visited Reykjavik in 2017, it was for maybe 24 hours, and I didn't get a chance to really explore the food scene.  This time around, I really wanted to try some different restaurants.  I went through Tripadvisor extensively, combing the restaurant lists and looking for what would be the "best."  Here were our favorites:

For breakfast type items:

           - We liked Braud and Co for their laminated dough pastries.  We loved the one with vanilla and hazelnut which was very special (I forget the name), but they also had an excellent pretzel croissant and a classic chocolate croissant.
           - We liked Deig for the fresh creme brulee doughnut, which is torched right in front of your eyes.  They also have solid bagels and hot bagel sandwiches for a reasonable price, though they didn't seem all that different from any other bagel place in the US.
           - Skip the waffles at Mokka Kaffi.  They're not bad, but also nothing special.  We have a waffle maker at home, and it makes the same quality (if not better) waffles.
           - Get coffee from somewhere that isn't your hotel.  We liked Reykjavik Roasters and Kaktus Espressobar.  Also it seemed that alternative milks had no upcharge at these places which was nice!  Espresso at both places was very smooth.  I often like my coffee with sugar, but found that I didn't need it in either case.

For lunch or dinner:

           - Fiskfelagid would be my absolute top pick.  I liked it so much that we ate there twice in the same day, before leaving the city.  Their reindeer carpaccio with flash frozen foie gras was a discovery for me.  It was like seeing the sun for the first time after a grey and wet winter.  It was delicious and creamy and smooth, balanced with acid from some blueberry compote and crunch from roasted hazelnuts.  It was a perfect dish.  The second most impressive item we had there was the Fish of the Day.  This included 3 different types of fish, all prepared in different styles with their own accoutrements/garnishes.  We had roasted ling, pan seared perch, and slow cooked cod.  It really displayed the kitchen's skills and technique.  Finally the lobster soup was also really good and different from other version we'd tried, thanks to the creative addition of chestnuts, apples, and cardamom.  And of course, the sushi was very fresh and tasty (as expected from a fish restaurant).  I should note that the free starter they served us - salmon tartar - also impressed us with the flavor (yuzu mayonnaise) and texture balance (crunchy toasted hazelnuts and crisp cucumbers).  They have baby chairs.

           - Reykjavik Kitchen was also an excellent meal, and we considered going back for a repeat meal as well.  Our two main dishes impressed us both.  The gorgonzola and lovage sauce was a discovery and went well with the perfectly cooked Ling Fish.  The lamb ribeye was also perfectly medium rare, and the pumpkin/potato gratin had a lovely sweetness.  This was also the first time I've had charred lettuce and I was surprised how good it was.  The skyr creme brulee didn't blow us away, but it wasn't bad.  Service was very, very friendly.  They have baby chairs, but tiny bathrooms without space for a changing area.

           - Matarkjallarinn was our splurge where we paid 11,400kr per person for the six course chef's choice ("secret menu" which really isn't a secret at all, since it's printed on the menu).  It was all very good, but also somehow instantly forgettable.  The restaurant is also very very dark inside at night (the lights are very low).  Note that you can get 15% off with a coupon from an Icelandic tourism website, and we had it and forgot to use it.  Blah!

           - Hisptur was our first meal in town for a late lunch, and we liked exploring that slightly off-the-main-path area.  The food was fairly salty, but also creative and tasty.  We liked their fish soup and their bread is great.

For dessert:

           - We thought Omnom Chocolate / Ice Cream was worth the long walk on a rainy day.  The ice cream sundaes have unique flavor combinations and they're very picture-worthy.  There is a parking lot there if you have a car.  Their combinations all include their chocolate bars in fun animal themed shapes.  We got the Ledublakan, which has coffee chocolate fudge, a pretzel crumble, and yuzu cream.  Their medium size was good for two people to enjoy.  The large would have been too much for us.  I wanted to come back a second time, but we ended up not having room in our daily itinerary.  Also they were not doing tours (due to Covid19) at the time of our travel.

Iceland Tips and Itinerary

 Goodness, do people besides influencers blog anymore?  It doesn't seem like it, and since I've never been one to follow/understand trends, here I am back after about two years.  I'm fairly fresh off the plane from an amazing trip to Iceland, and I felt compelled to share.

Anyone who travels with me knows that I do a lot of research when it comes to traveling.  I am particular about where I stay and what I eat.  I also like to get a lot of stuff done.  I basically want at the end of the vacation to be able to say that I did all the things I should have in the location I visited.

Now there are lots and lots of Iceland itineraries out there.  Here's the thing they never have though: mentions about how to travel with a baby.  And that's what we did.  We flew into the capital, and then roadtripped around the entire country with a child under one year old.  This meant only staying in places with free cribs,* and, against my normal nature, not trying to cram a ton of sight seeing into one day.  It was a vastly different trip than when I went to San Francisco for the first (and only) time and planned an elaborate day with a bus pass, sight seeing, eating, and a grand total of walking around 9 miles.  I don't play around when it comes to vacation.

So here it is, with all my tips for how to travel in the most budget friendly way when possible (because if you know me, you also know that I can be pretty frugal).

1) Plane: Buy your Icelandair tickets during a sale; they happen regularly enough.  If you can't survive the flight without a hot meal, pre-order to get a discount on the price.

2) Shuttle: If you're not renting a car at the airport, use Gray Line Iceland to book a shuttle at the lowest price to take you into the city (and if you book a roundtrip, it's discounted).  Reykjavik Excursions ultimately buses everyone who uses this and also FlyBus, but prices were lowest for us by booking directly with Gray Line.  The buses have wifi, which is nice for the long drive from Keflavik to Reykjavik.

3) Covid19 testing: The cheapest way to test for Covid19 to return the US is by buying a self test kit that comes with the option for telehealth confirmation.  You need to order these tests by mail so you need to give yourself time in advance to do this.  If not, Iceland is currently charging 6980kr to test.  They have multiple locations and results return very promptly.

4) Food in Iceland is expensive.  Meals for two at a mediocre restaurant can easily cost upwards of $75 for two main courses.  But the interesting thing is that there is very little difference in price between average restaurants and amazing restaurants.  So if you're going to spend the money eating out, go for that top recommendation from Trip Advisor.  I'll do a seperate post on our favorite places where we ate.

5) Groceries: If you're not looking to eat out but still want to experience Icelandic food, grocery stores are the way to go.  Remember to bring your own bag though because they charge a fee if you use a bag!  The cheapest grocery store is Bonus.  But not all Bonuses are created equal!  The smaller ones are not stocked as well and will feature less local products.  The larger ones will feature things like locally made fresh rye bread and flatbread (flatkokur).  All the ones we went to had a ready made food section where we really enjoyed the sandwiches until we wised up and realized it'd be cheaper to just... buy the ingredients.  All the grocery stores sell containers of sandwich filling.  Smoked lamb salad is a popular one, and while it sounds weird, it's delicious; smoked meat mixed with mayo, carrots, and peas.  We also liked the prawn salad with egg.  We enjoyed exploring different skyr options (coffee is an excellent flavor), but my favorite discovery of all was Koko Mjolk.  Yep, it's chocolate milk marketed by a colorful cat, but it was great.  Reminded me of Yoohoo and being six.

6) Gas/Driving: If you're renting a car to do the Ring Road, there are 2 things to know about filling up your tank:
            - Orkan is the cheapest gas station (N1 seemed the most expensive) and there are locations all around the Ring Road.  They also conveniently list all of the prices for their gasoline on their website online, so you can decide which station to hit up.  If you can find a manned Orkan gas station closest to you early in your trip and get a discount fob (note that some car rental places may give you one, but ours didn't).  This gives you about 3kr off every liter, which doesn't seem like much, but it adds up with gas prices being so high.  To put it into perspective, we spent over $450 on gas during our trip, while driving about 1050 miles in a mid-sized vehicle.  A fob would have saved us about $4.50 total.  You decide if that's worth your time.
            - You need to have a card with a pin to buy gas at most places in Iceland.  This means either a debit card or a credit card with a pin (which often you need to request in advance from whatever company).  You can opt to buy a prepaid card with a credit card, but that can only be done at manned gas stations, which are sparse on the Ring Road.
            - Costco has one location outside Reykjavik and it is actually the cheapest gas on the island.  We went here to fill up our tank before returning to the car rental agency.  You need to be a Costco member to get gas though.
            - Don't get caught speeding.  There are signs before cameras so you can mostly avoid those, but there are police who will also ticket you.  The fines are very hefty, as we were warned by our car rental agency.
            - You must turn your headlights on.  It's just the law.  You can get a ticket for not having them on.

7) Hotels: The majority of places we stayed did not have in room mini fridges and none had microwaves.  Even when we stayed a hostel with a kitchen, there was no microwave.  Also ice dispensers don't seem to be a thing, so don't count on packing your own cooler.

8) Pool culture: I'm not Icelandic so I don't want to speak for the people of the country, but there is a notion of pool culture that you'll probably hear or read about.  The pools all have geothermally heated water, so it's very nice, even when it's cold outside.  I highly recommend visiting a community pool in Reykjavik or Akureyri.  The prices are lower than the touristy geothermal baths, and if you're in a group, I honestly think they would be more fun.  There's generally multiple pools of varying temperatures and also hot tubs.  Things to know before you go to the pool:
            - Bring your own towel to save money!  You can rent a towel at the pool, but we just brought a bath towel from the hotel
            - Yes, you need to shower naked and there are generally not individual stalls except for handicap accessibility.  It's honestly not a big deal.  No one's looking; people are just trying to get clean.
            - You don't have to bring your own shampoo/soap.  A basic combo one is offered because of the fact that everyone is expected to wash before entering
            - You can bring your baby.  No admission fee, and places were very baby friendly.  I'll address this in it's own section, but the pool had high chairs so you don't have to hold your baby all the time, and the showers had a baby tub.  There were also Bumbo Seats at the Akureyri pool!

9) You really don't need cash.  Credit cards are accepted everywhere, even little hostels.  We withdrew $100 at the airport and had a hard time using it all.

10) If you want to take the bus in Reykjavik, that's the one place where cash is needed.  Fare is 495kr and buses are generally pretty clean and efficient ways to travel far in the city.  I took it twice to get to and from our car rental place and thought it was solid.  Buses generally run pretty frequently and the best website I found for figuring out routes and time tables was this.

11) If you are traveling with a very young child (i.e. under 1 year old, as we were), the country is incredibly baby friendly.  We had bought a travel high seat and found that we basically never needed it because every single place we went to had baby chair(s).  Even coffee shops and cafes in museums and the pool.  Generally it was at least two.  And they were often the Stokke Tripp Trapp chair or the Ikea baby high chair.  Obviously the hotels and hostels were good too.  As previously mentioned, we opted to only stay at places that provided a "baby cot" or crib, which was basically a pack and play most of the time.  Twice we got solid wood cribs.

April seemed to be a good time of year to travel because it is fairly low tourist season, but not too cold and the days are a reasonable length for site seeing.  There was definitely still a lot of snow, so some smaller waterfalls were frozen and Oxi Pass had terrible  visibility, but the roads themselves were fine.  We didn't see any sheep out, but we saw plenty of horses.

Our itinerary was a leisurely 18 days that started and ended with some downtime in Reykjavik:

Day 1: Land in Keflavik, shuttle to our hotel (Grand Hotel Reykjavik) which let us check in early for free.  Sleep, walk off the jet lag, enjoy from pastries from Braud and Co, and eventually eat a very early dinner at Hipster.

Day 2: Site seeing in Reykjavik. Lunch at Reykjavik Kitchen, which I highly recommend.  Dinner was leftovers from Hipster and grocery store food.

Day 3: More of the same with lunch at Cafe Loki and coffee at Kaktus.  Dinner was still leftovers from Hipster and grocery store food.

Day 4: Pick up our rental car in the morning, then head southeast to Reynishverfi Basalt Column Beach.  We ate pre-made grocery store sandwiches in the car (love the smoked lamb salad and the prawn and egg).  Early dinner at The Soup Company in Vik.  We enjoyed their Lava Soup, Lamb Soup, and Fish curry soup.  Filling enough to satisfy for the night even though we'd only snacked a little in the car.  Check into our next hotel, Hotel Katla, which we chose primarily because of the good reviews about breakfast (true) and the hot tubs/geothermal pools outside.

Day 5: Eldhraun Lava Field and Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon.  Check into Magma Hotel, which we loved.  Easily our favorite place that we stayed.  The little cabins were private but spacious, but had great views, dinner (not included) was excellent and breakfast was solid.  Also the bath products smelled really good.

Day 6: Stjórnarfoss (which we only put on the list because it's basically across the way from Magma Hotel, but it was a very nice fall, almost felt like our private place because nobody else was there) & Skaftafell National Park. At the national park, we only opted to walk to Svartifoss, because hiking with a child is hard work. Check into Hali Country Hotel. Dinner at the restaurant was fine; we mostly ate there because there weren't any other good options around.

Day 7: Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach →Hofn → Djúpivogur. This was our longest driving day. Diamond Beach was fantastic the day we went because the waves were crashing and all the ice fragments moving around were beautiful and striking. I'd probably recommend just staying in Hofn. It was a very cute town, had groceries and gas, and was lovely to walk around. We ate dinner at Pakkhaus because I'd been there once and loved it. Years later, still very good. We stayed at a hostel near Oxi Pass. I wanted to give us time to hang out somewhere with our baby and... I would not do it again. I won't name the place but it didn't have hot water the first night and communication was just really hard because it's run by one man and his wife (who does not speak Icelandic).

Day 8: Fossarfoss & Folaldafoss.  Back to the same hostel, lunch and dinner was stuff we'd bought at the grocery store in Hofn.

Day 9: We drove through Oxi Pass to our next hotel (Gistihúsið - Lake Hotel Egilsstadir). After checking in, we went to the Vok Baths. This was one of our favorite things we did in Iceland and thought it was worth the hefty price tag ($92.68 for two adults, or 5990kr per person). The baths are not cheap, but I could easily see spending several hours here. The facilities are very clean and gorgeous. There were tons of baby high chairs and the shower had wonderful bath products, including conditioner and body lotion. The floating pools are large but weren't crowded when we went, and the water is not sulfurous. There's a bar where you can get as much water to drink as you'd like, as well as other drinks (including even chocolate milk). After you're done, you can get the tisane (herbal tea) that comes free with your entrance fee. We tried nettle tea and birch tea. Then we got pizza for dinner at Askur Pizzeria. This was a solid meal, but anticipate needing to order at least one pizza per person if not more.

Day 10: Rjúkandafoss → Vogafjós Farm Resort → Myvatn Nature Baths → Hverir. The nature baths in this area are sulfurous and so there's a smell and almost silky feeling to the water. You cannot drink it, so we had to be very careful with our baby, but it wasn't too big of a problem. The biggest issue here was that it was so crowded. It was hard to not be close to people and the showers felt like they were almost constantly packed. Still, they had baby high chairs, a baby bathtub, and very nice bath products. Our order of doing things might seem weird and circuitous, but it's because we bought a package from the farm resort that gave us tickets to Myvatn. Also we were going to skip Hverir but then our baby fell asleep in the car and we didn't want to just drive back to the farm resort and have to wake her, so we stopped at Hverir (where I stayed in the car with baby because I'd already been there before).

Day 11: Krafla's Viti Crater → Goðafoss → Akureyri. The road up to the crater was closed after the geothermal power plants because of snow on the road, so our walk was much longer than anticipated. The crater was also frozen, so we couldn't appreciate the very striking blue water that shows up in photos of the area, but we enjoyed the hike nonetheless. We stayed at an apartment in Akureyri, but stopped at the Bonus on the way in to buy more groceries. Note that there's a speed camera going into Akureyri after a big downhill and in the place where the speed limit drops.

Day 12: Akureyri - We just had a relaxing day in which we enjoyed some really surprisingly tasty hot dogs at Pylsuvagninn á Akureyri (I loved the one with red cabbage - yes you read that right - as a condiment). We went to the community pool where entrance was only 1200kr. The showers only had combo shampoo/body wash (no fancy products like at the geothermal baths), but the pool set up was fantastic. You walk into a big pool with an open area where a lot of family and kids were. Then there a few lap lanes, but no one seemed to be swimming laps too seriously. To the left was a formal lap lane with the ...er... fancy enter-the-water-by-diving-like-in-competitions platforms. There was a large kiddie pool to the right. This had a very slow graded entrance to it and never got too deep. Maybe slightly higher than waist level for your average adult. We were able to just sit our baby down in the area where it was shallow and she enjoyed splashing around. The water was very nice and warm. Like bath temperature. There were also several hotter pools and a hot tub that went up 41C. There are floaties available for kids. Also the set up was generally very handicap accessible. There was an elevator for lowering someone with a wheelchair down from the locker area into the water. For dinner we went to Bryggjan which a good dinner. The langoustine pizza was interesting, but maybe not to the level that Tripadvisor reviewers seem to think.

Day 13: Reykjafoss → Kolugljúfur Canyon → Laugarbakki. The first stop was almost impossible to find because our GPS could not figure out the farm roads to get to the coordinates we entered. Finally we saw a small sign and pulled into a muddy field and then walked the short distance to the falls and then, the better park, the natural "hot pot" or geothermal pool. There were several places where hot water was bubbling up right beside the falls, and a little rock pool had been built. It was very natural and lovely. We didn't choose to lounge in the water, but there were other people there who did. There were a couple places I found in my research that looked good for food, but they were all closed when we were there, namely: Sjávarborg Restaurant, Sauðá, and Sauðárkróksbakarí. We ended up just having dinner at our hotel, where we also enjoyed the hot tubs.

Day 14: Kirkjufell. We really drove all the way out here just to see this. We easily could have combined this with Arnastapi and not been too busy in the day, but we didn't know that. As it was, we enjoyed a leisurely meal of the foods we'd bought from the grocery store, while sitting by the water.

Day 15: Djúpalónssandur beach was something I added on last minute, when I realized that we could really be fitting more in our day. The walk to the beach isn't long and there were some other labels paths/hikes that we chose not to do. We somehow narrowly missed Hellnar, and then decided it wasn't worth it to turn around, and so just continued on to Arnastpi to see the cliffs. We had lunch at Samkomuhúsið, which is solid Icelandic food, and then drove back to Reykjavik. We went to Costco for gas and bought some solid sushi for a very reasonable price. That night we went to Skuli Craft Bar, which was a nice place to hang out and queer friendly.

Day 16: We drove to the Kvika Footbaths and walked around that scenic coast area for a bit before driving to the harbor to get ice cream at Omnom. Sadly they weren't doing tours while we were there, but the ice cream we got was very good (we discovered just how good coffee and yuzu are in combo!). After some window shopping, we had dinner at Matarkjallarinn. I highly recommend this restuarant. We had their 6 course "secret menu", which was very good and honestly not that expensive for the quality and portions. Service was impeccable. There was never a moment we had to wait for water to be refilled. They were patient about explaining and repeating dishes to me when I tried to take notes.

Day 17: Breakfast from Deig, which has bagels and doughnuts. The creme brulee doughnut was very good, and the bagels were solid, but not the earth shattering thing that Tripadvisor reviews would have you believe. We had lunch at Fiskfelagid, which was so good, we'd come back there to eat dinner that night too. This was not in small part due to the fact that they had outdoor tables with heat lamps and blankets. We felt very Covid19 safe and the food was excellent. They give you granola along with bread to start your meals, and while this seemed a little bit odd to me, the granola was really good. I highly recommend their reindeer carpaccio and the fish of the day. We also enjoyed their sushi and lobster soup.

Day 18: Waffle from Mokka Kaffi, which was fine, again not the amazing thing we'd been lead to believe from Tripadvisor. Shuttle to the airport, duty free shopping (little liquor bottles and chocolate), and then enjoying the best lounge I've been to yet. Very good food, with a solid variety, and a lot of alcohol options. They had all the local spirits and beer that we hadn't really gotten around to trying, and it was possible to take tiny little samples, which we did. There's also showers if you need. Then we flew home!

More details on meals to come later.

Amish Friendship Bread

 During high school, this recipe made the rounds with all my friends' moms.  It was called Amish Friendship bread, and it involved this milk, sugar, flour starter that sat on your counter, got fed occasionally, and then got baked into this delicious cinnamon "bread", which really was more of a cake, and inevitably got shared with everyone during whatever events it was that required moms to bake.

Eventually, everyone got tired of feeding their starter and the "bread" disappeared from my life.  But I still remembered it.

Then, magically, during this pandemic, it resurfaced in my Buy Nothing groups (which, if you haven't heard of them, I encourage you to google it and then join your local one).  I got my hands on a starter and I just baked off my first batch this weekend.  It was love all over again.

I had a heck of a hard time finding consistent recipes, so here's me using this blog again for my own record keeping.

Day 1: Do nothing. This is the date that you receive the bag of starter (or the date that you make your own batch of starter / Day 10). Squish the bag.
Day 2: Squish the bag.
Day 3: Squish the bag.
Day 4: Squish the bag.
Day 5: Squish the bag.
Day 6: Add to the bag – 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk.  Squish the bag.
Day 7: Squish the bag.
Day 8: Squish the bag.
Day 9: Squish the bag.
Day 10: Baking/Feeding Day.  Pour the entire contents of the starter bag into a non-metal bowl and add: *1½ cups of flour, 1½ cups of sugar, 1½ cups of milk.  Set aside any starter you will bake with.  Divide the remaining starter into 1 cup portions in separate ziplock bags.


Amish Bread Recipe (Day 10 Baking Instructions)
1 cup starter
3 eggs
½ neutral oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
Optional: 1 large (5 ounce) box vanilla instant pudding mix (just the dry mix)
Topping: 1/4 cup of sugar + 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine the ingredients in the ways normal people combine ingredients for baking.
Top with sugar mix.
Bake at 350F for 50 minutes.

This made two not very tall loaves for me, so next time I will put all of this batter into one loaf pan.  Also this tastes great with berries baked into the middle!

*Note about Day 10: This is what I read online and it seemed like too much stuff.  So I experimented with only giving it 1 cup of each.  Now I'm waiting to see if I've messed up.

A return for cherries

 It's been a really long time.  Blogging was put on the far back burner while I dealt with residency and life, and then I wasn't sure if I would or should ever come back to it.  But the truth it, I was still coming back to this blog all the time to find my favorite recipes, and then I've been developing new ones and struggling to keep track of them on post it notes and emails to myself.

So in a fit of optimism, I will write about this new recipe I tried today, in the hopes that it will be a keeper.

We hit the end of Rainier cherry season in Washington, which always makes me sad because those cherries are one of my favorite things at the farmer's market.  The last week I bought them, I knew it was the end of the season, but I persisted in buying several pounds anyway.  Because of Covid19, I could not painstakingly hand select each and every cherry, so I got many many bruised ones that just weren't that tasty.  They were also getting to that too sweet point that they hit at the end of the season, where the tart balance just isn't there any more.  I'd never baked or cooked or done anything with Rainiers except eat them fresh, so I had to do my research.

It turns out, very few people recommend cooking or baking with them.  Because, as I said, they are too sweet.  You need a little acid to make things taste balanced.

However, I did find some recipes for cocktail cherries aka Maraschino cherries (or Luxardo cherries) which immediately piqued my interest because I. Love. Cocktail. Cherries.  I'm not a big cocktail drinker because alcohol makes me feel both sleepy and also vaguely ill, but I'll happily sip a Shirley Temple.  And so I went and bought myself a cherry pitter (did you know they make cherry pitters that pit six cherries at a time???  I'm not normally a kitchen gadget person so this blew my mind a little), cooked up a little syrup, and now I'm sitting at the counter admiring some jars of cherries marinading in sweetness.

A lot of recipes I read depended on a lot of alcohol or, conversely, no flavoring at all except water and sugar.  I decided I didn't like either of these options, so I looked for cherry juice.  I couldn't find any at Costco, and because there's a pandemic going on currently, I decided I wasn't going to another store and so pomegranate juice would work just fine.

Here's what I threw together:

- 1 cup pomegranate juice (100% juice, no sugar added)

- 2/3 cup granulated sugar

- pinch of salt

- small piece of a cinnamon stick (I smash whole sticks with my mortar and pestle)

 - two allspice berries

- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

- a dozen cherry pits, smashed (again, with my mortar and pestle)

- splash of leftover red wine that's been in my fridge for 2-3 weeks, maybe 2 shots?

- splash of bourbon, less than 1/2 a shot

- splash of honey drinking vinegar because I am fancy and have that in my fridge (it was a gift from a friend)

- 1/2 cup of water

I had already pitted about a pound of Rainier cherries.  Some of the pits I saved to cook, since that's apparently a technique (says Google and other food blogs) for infusing some bitter almond flavor.  Possibly from the cyanide.  It's fine though, just take some extra Vitamin B12*.

I let all that come to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes,** then I poured it through a strainer, and into my glass jars filled with cherries.  And tada!  They were gorgeous in their redness.  Also, I did have some extra juice, which I tasted and it is delicious.  What a way to come back to blogging.

*This is not medical advice.

**According to my brief internet research, at least 50% of the alcohol is gone.

***No pictures because this is always what has made me so slow about posting.

Chicken Liver Pâté or "French Peanut Butter"

When I was growing up, my family would very frequently go to France for the summer.  It was my birthday, the French independence Day, and my maternal grandparents and maternal aunt and cousin lived in Paris.  My parents and my sister and I would rent a room or two in the apartment building where my grandparents lived, and we spent glorious days together exploring the city and eating good food.  There is still - and always will be - a fond place in my heart for the neighborhood of Marie des Lilas.
There was a butcher shop that sold pâté de foie and jambon and we often got this to eat with a baguette; the perfect breakfast.  (There was also milk and yogurt, jam and nutella, and always my mother's favorite President butter.)  For years, as a child it never occurred to me to think about what pâté was; I just thought it as the French version of peanut butter.  It was creamy, it was savory, it was delicious on bread.  Later on, I learned that it was essentially pureed liver.  Now, my mother had always seasoned and baked the gizzard and liver that came with whole chicken when we bought it, and I had no problem eating them when I knew what they were, so this mystery now solved didn't phase me in the least.  The only thing I learned that day was that I really loved eating liver.
I still have a tremendous fondness for pâté - I can rarely resist ordering it when it appears on restaurant menu - and eating it has a sweet sort of nostalgia for me in that it reminds me of my second home; the place of my childhood summers.
For some reason, it took me years to dare to try making it own my own.  I had some strange belief that it would be difficult, or that I would somehow be terrible at making it.  Instead, I've found it to be ridiculously simple and delicious when made at home.  The hardest thing is finding the chicken livers.


Chicken Liver Pate
1 large shallot
7-8 tablespoons of butter
approximately 1lb chicken livers, preferably organic if you can get them
1/4 teaspoon flaky salt
75ml (or roughly 1/3 cup) sweet white wine
dash of allspice
tiny splash of balsamic
freshly ground black pepper

Heat a knob of butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the shallot and saute until caramelized.
Add the remainder of the butter and livers and cook until the livers are just starting to brown on the outside.
Add the wine, salt, allspice, balsamic, and black pepper and lower the heat to simmer lightly until the livers are no longer bloody when pressed.  They should still be pink on the inside.  If you're a little worried about undercooked livers (as I often am), cooking them a little longer doesn't change much.
Tip into a food processor OR use your handy dandy immersion blender to blend the livers.
Optional: (And I'll be honest, I really don't think it's worth the extra time or things to wash because it doesn't change that much of the texture)  Pass through a sieve into a serving dish.
Level out the top of the puree and chill for at least an hour before serving.  Delicious with fig jam or onion compote.

Homemade Masala Chai

"Everyone needs a place. It shouldn’t be inside of someone else." -Richard Siken


The greatest thing that I have learned in these months here in Seattle is how to take care of myself.  I have always been good about what I considered the basic things, like feeding myself, making sure I got enough fruits and vegetables, and dressing appropriately for the weather, but I often assumed that happiness and mental health were things that just happened.  That I should just let the cards fall where they may.  But in the past year, with all the tremendous changes that have happened, I have come to realize how simple and important it is to create joy, to foster a sense of peace and gratitude inside my own heart.

I left a very different life on the East coast and I followed a job.  I moved to Seattle chasing an idea, a hope that this place that I fell in love with years ago at twenty-one might become home, that it might give me something that I hadn't found anywhere else.  In settling down here, I discovered the beauty of gratitude.  I feel lucky to have been fortunate enough to find work among people that I respect and trust, to make friends that care about me and support me, to fall in love again with someone who prioritizes our partnership like it is his second nature.  My gratitude fuels my joy in the simple things.  Being so content enables me to give love wholeheartedly, to my patients, to my friends, to my family, to my partner.

Food is love - I say it now like I've said it so many times before - and as I feed my body, so too have I learned to feed my soul and to care for my heart.  On days when I am stressed or down, I do something about it.  I call the people I love; I drive to the ocean; I build a fire and lie down in front of its glow and read; I drink tea in bed and listen to music.

There's something to be said about the appeal of a hot drink on grey day, whether that grey is coming from the weather or a state of mind.  For those times, I love masala chai.  When I was growing up, my mom used to buy "Chai Tea" bags which she steeped in the microwave and then served to us with vanilla ice cream.  It was one of my favorite treats.  In college, one of my good friends was Indian, and I went home with her one weekend.  Her mother made tea for us on the stove, with real spices.  I loved how the smell of it permeated the house, and the cups, made with generous amounts of honey and milk, were a delicious breakfast treat.

I learned then that "chai" is actually just a word for tea, so "chai tea" is fairly redundant.  Most of the time, what Westerners are referring to is masala chai.  It's easy to make, and I adore having a big pot on the stove and letting the smell of the warm spices fill my apartment.  Though recipes vary, this is one that I love for its spice and heat.

Masala Chai
5 cups water
2-3" fresh ginger
3 inches of cinnamon bark, broken
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns (I generally use black, but I've read that white may be better)
3 star anise, broken
15 cloves (about 1 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
5 black tea bags (or 5 teaspoons loose black tea)
1/3 cup raw sugar or honey
1 cup milk (I've used skim and 1%, but it's your choice)
optional: additional milk for serving

In a medium pot, bring the water, ginger, cinnamon, peppercorns, star anise, cloves, and cardamom to a boil.
Once boiling, add the tea bags and steep for 10 minutes.
Remove the tea bags.
Bring the mixture to a boil again.  Once boiling, lower the heat.  Add the sugar or honey and 1 cup milk and simmer on low heat for 25-30 minutes.
Strain out the spices.
Serve with more milk if desired.
You can store your chai tea in the fridge for several weeks.  It reheats well.

Plum Torte Cake Buckle Heavenly Thing

Write this recipe down on a little sheet of paper and put it on your fridge.  That's what I did.  After I had already made it twice.  Now, that I've made it five times in the span of about two weeks, I can pat myself on the back and say, smart girl, you are.  This is one for the books.

This recipe - which I didn't even know was famous, but apparently, it is - is worth the hype, even if you didn't know it had any hype.  The plums (or peaches, or nectarines... really this is the easiest recipe ever to alter) bake up into these delicious sweet/tart pockets of jam that perfectly complement the light, fragrant, moist crumb of this cake.  Torte.  Buckle.  Heavenly thing, whatever you want to call it.

I can't say much more about this because I have already rambled on too much, but it's so easy to make, you might as well make two, because you're turning on your oven anyway, and you'll regret it if you don't.  Slice the extra one and store the slices in little ziplock baggies in the freezer.  Pull out anytime you need a snack or want to add an extra treat to someone's (aka your own, if you live alone, like I do) lunch.

Bring this to any birthday party, baby shower, picnic, or dinner party and it'll be a hit.  It's easy, elegant, and requires no additional side servings of whipped cream, coffee, or ice cream to be a hit.  But what the heck, it doesn't hurt to add them if you want.

As if typical of me, I took no pictures of this cake any of the times I made it, and now I am sitting in my apartment without enough eggs to make another cake in order to take a picture of it, so the lovely illustration above was done by yours truly for the benefit of whoever is reading this.  I hope you appreciate my artist representation.  If you want pretty pictures of this torte, go here, which the blog where I actually got the idea to make this recipe.

Heavenly Plum Thing

barely adapted from Marian Burro's recipe

½ cup salted butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, but why leave it out?)

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt  (not optional)

3-5 large plums or peaches, or 8-12 small plums (really just use your judgement here, this isn't hard)

1-2 teaspoons raw sugar (optional)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl.

Add the salt, eggs, and vanilla and beat well.  Let it all get very fluffy.

Add the flour and baking powder, and mix well.

Spoon the batter into a spring form of 8 or 9 inches.

Place the plum halves skin side up on top of the batter. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and raw sugar.

Bake one hour, approximately.

Remove and cool.

Eat.  Enjoy.

Repeat as many times as necessary.

Life in Seattle

It has been a long time since I've written here.  I honestly wasn't sure if I would come back to this blog for a while because writing has always been a personal thing for me, and the very nature of blogging is that you have an open audience.  But the truth is, writing is huge part of my mental processing and the way that I de-stress, and I missed posting here.

Life has changed so very much in the past 14 months.  The biggest change of all has been that I now live on the West Coast!  After five years of dreaming of Seattle, I finally finished school and found a job just outside of the city.  It would be an understatement to say that I am happy.
I had not imagined that I would find so much joy in my job or that it would be so easy for me - the girl who has always hated waking up early - to embrace this life of 6am alarms.  But I love what I do, and I have been wholeheartedly enjoying the process of getting to know my new home.  I didn't realize how much I craved a little bit of suburbia until I found my apartment here, tucked into a quiet neighborhood.  I drive with the windows down now (even sometimes when it rains), I walk to the grocery store, I pick and eat wild blackberries along the sidewalks when I go to the library, and I have fallen in love with a beach along Lake Washington where I swim as often as I can.

Madison Beach is a good 30 minutes drive from my apartment, which sometimes even I think is a bit far to go just for a swim, but after exploring a few other beaches closer to me, I've found that none compare.  Madison Beach is crowded enough that I never feel like anything truly bad could happen to me without at least some witnesses noticing (yes, this is how my mind works), but not so crowded that I feel like I ever have to vie for space to set down my towel.  It's also safe enough that I feel perfectly fine leaving all my things unattended on the shore while I swim for an hour.  There are lifeguards present during the day till 7pm, and there is a floating dock out further in the lake with both a high and low diving board.  The beach is long enough to make swimming laps back and forth along the stretch of it a good work out, and there are few enough swimmers with so much space that I rarely ever need to dodge around other people.  I can easily flip over onto my back and leisurely float without fear of bumping into anyone.  The biggest selling point for me, though, is the lack of seaweed.  At 5'3, I can can easily swim out to where I can barely stand and from there to the shore, all along the length of the beach, there are no green slimy monsters floating in the water or trying to wrap themselves around my legs or arms.  A huge plus.

And, truly embracing my new identity as a Pacific Northwesterner (can I call myself that yet?  Does anyone here call themselves that?), I am also now ready to hike at a moment's notice.  I always enjoyed trails when I'd go running with my dad or my sister when I was growing up, or when we went on family vacations, but I suppose hiking wasn't ever really a large part of my life until more recently.  But now suddenly I am the girl whose hiking shoes are always in her car, who has a change of clothes ready, a backpack with water, snack bars, first aid supplies, fire starting materials, and a towel (thanks for all the fish!), just in case.  This area is just so beautiful, it begs to be explored.  I have a list of hikes that I want to check off, and I have been trying to take advantage of any time I have away from work to go dive into some state parks.  Being the creature of water that I am, at the top of my list of trails were any and all that led to waterfalls.  Two of my favorites have been Twin Falls in North Bend and Cherry Creek Falls in Duvall.

Twin Falls (pictured above, top left) was breathtaking.  The falls themselves are gorgeous, but what really made the hike worth it for me was the limpid, shockingly crystal clear South Fork Snoqualmie River.  I loved swimming in it.  This hike (like many in the area) was dotted with wild raspberry bushes.  There are plenty of beautiful spots along the shore of the river where you can set down your things and swim or rest.  There were little rocky islands in the middle of the Snoqualmie that the child in me simply had to explore.  I could easily come back here, as there are multiple trails in the area.

Cherry Creek Falls  (pictured above, top right) was charming and I would love to return and maybe picnic or read there.  There is no official parking lot since these falls are essentially just in the vast backyards of some private property, so people simply park along the road.  The hike is beautiful, but somewhat confusing, as there is a serious lack of trail markers.  My friend and I got lost two or three times although I had taken care to note directions online and we tried to use my GPS.  Thankfully, some other hikers along the trail pointed us in the right direction.  We crossed a couple little streams and many wild raspberry bushes.  The falls can be easily enjoyed from above or below, and the pool of water around them is refreshingly cool but not too chilly and not too deep.  You can easily wade across the water picking only spots with depths about thigh high (for someone 5'3) to stand beneath the falls.

Some other honorable mentions are Rodney Falls (Pool of the Winds), down by the Columbia River Gorge and Franklin Falls.  Rodney Falls  (pictured above, bottom right) also has some great trails which will take you up into the hills/mountains to look down into the gorge, and much of the length of the falls is easily rock scramble-able if you don't mind getting a little wet.  A friend of mine and I both enjoyed leaving our things on some rocks, taking off our shoes (and some of our outer layers of clothes) and scrambling from rock to rock all the way up to the top of the falls.  There were little pools to dip into and while the water was cold, it wasn't freezing.  Rodney Falls was the first hike I did that required the Discover Pass (or a $10 fee), and I thought it was totally worth it.  Franklin Falls is a very short and easy 1 mile walk - I won't even call it a hike because you could probably do this in sandals - with minimal views along the way  (pictured above, bottom left), but the falls are dramatic.  You can also swim here if you don't mind extremely chilly water and crowds (as it seems to be a popular spot for families).  Franklin Falls requires the Northwest Forest Pass (or a $5 fee).

As easily as it did over five years, Seattle has stolen my heart.  I adore the farmer's markets - the $6 bouquets and the smell of roasted corn in the air, the incredible berries and slightly overpriced cookies, the vendors who insist that you try all the varieties of their peaches.  I am in love with the park on the hill, where I've driven countless times to watch the sun set, yet never actually seen it disappear into the horizon because it is always cloudy when I go and I never remember to check the forecast beforehand.  I have become enamored with the used bookstores, and am also, for the first time in years, getting back to reading for pleasure.  I have my Asian grocery stores where I can buy canned grass jelly drinks and truong vit lon, and banh trung thu.  And as always, I have my kitchen.

While I continue to find joy in cooking and baking, I'm not sure that I will keep using this blog as a way to share recipes, as part of the reason for my lack of posts was the fact that I never wanted to post a recipe without pictures, and I often forget to take pictures while I am in the kitchen.  For whoever reads this, my stream-of-consciousness rambling will still be about food and love, but also life in Seattle.

Zuni Cafe Chicken - an adaptation of the method

I have heard many stories about the Zuni Cafe Chicken: it's the best chicken in the world, it will change your life, you will never think of chicken the same way, etc., etc.  I honestly didn't understand the hype.  I mean, I enjoy chicken, but how amazing can a roast chicken be that it has an almost cult-like following?  Still, since I don't think I'll be traveling to San Francisco anytime soon and the recipe has been shared in the restaurant's cookbook and in the NY Times, I figured I could try it for myself.

Of course, I immediately ran into problems.  The original recipe calls for a small chicken, specifically, one between 2¾ to 3½ pounds.  I looked very hard for one in my grocery store, but the smallest I was able to find was a 4½ pound bird.  That's more than 25% bigger than what the Zuni Cafe recipe calls for.  I did my research, and it seems that the size of the bird is pretty integral to their technique.  A small bird can be roasted at a higher heat because there is a high skin/fat to meat ratio and the meat will also cook through in a shorter period of time.  So you need to do some changes to the recipe if you have a heavy chicken.

As for how things actually turned out?  Well, one of my friends scarfed down his plate in about 5 minutes, if that tells you anything.  In fact, he barely waited for me to finish carving the meat for my plate before he was digging in.  It was understandable though; the delicious smell of the roasting chicken had been permeating through the apartment long before the meal was ready, so we were both salivating.  The skin was blistered and golden; the meat was very moist and succulent; the pan juices were so good, they made me wish I had some bread to mop it all up.  It was a delicious dinner.  I would say this recipe is well worth the trouble.

Some basic tips if you have a large bird:

1. Season for at least 2 days before serving.  I imagine 3 days would be even better, but I honestly wasn't patient enough to do this; I did 48 hours.
2. Take a small knife and carefully, from the inside of the bird, slash the chicken breast on each side at its thickest point.
3. Bring to room temperature before roasting.  This means taking it out of the fridge up to 8 hours in advance.
4. Preheat your pan in the oven so that it gets really hot.
5. Open the oven as little as possible.  Your bird needs all the heat it can get.
6. Roast for about 40-45 minutes before flipping for the first time.  You want to see the top beginning to brown, not just yellow.
7. Roast for about 20-25 minutes before flipping the second time.  You want to see the top really caramelized.
8. Decrease your oven temperature down to 400F to finish cooking the bird, for another 10 minutes or more, as needed.  Use a meat thermometer to check for an internal temperature of 165F or stick a paring knife into the thickest part of the breast to see that the juices run clear.

The original recipe also calls for slashing the bird after it is done roasting to allow all the juices to drip out; these are used to make a sauce / gravy that is served alongside the roast chicken.  Now I like gravy as much as the average person, but I am strongly against draining meat of its juices.  So I didn't do this.  You'll have pan juices as it is, I think those are plenty.

One last recommendation?  Roast some vegetables at the same time as you roast your bird.  I particularly like roasted onions and carrots, which I tossed with some garlic and thyme.  The veggies only need to roast for about 35 minutes, given the high temperature.


Zuni Cafe Chicken
adapted from The New York Times

1 chicken, preferably under 4lbs, but if not, refer to my notes about larger birds
4 sprigs fresh thyme (or rosemary or sage if you prefer)
3 cloves of garlic, minced (my addition)
sea salt (about ¾ tsp per pound)

Remove and discard the lump of fat inside the chicken. Rinse the chicken and pat very dry (a wet chicken will spend too much time steaming before it begins to turn golden brown).
Season the chicken 1 to 3 days before serving.  Slide a finger under the skin of each of the breasts, making 2 little pockets, then use a fingertip to gently loosen a pocket of skin on the outside of the thickest section of each thigh. Push an herb sprig and some garlic into each of the 4 pockets.  Using about 3/4 teaspoon sea salt per pound of chicken, season the chicken liberally all over with salt and the pepper. Sprinkle a little of the salt just inside the cavity and on the backbone. Twist and tuck the wing tips behind the shoulders. Cover loosely and refrigerate.
Take the chicken out of the refrigerator at least 2 hours (but no more than 8 hours) before baking so that it comes to room temperature.

When you’re ready to cook the chicken, heat the oven to 475F.
Choose a shallow flameproof roasting pan or dish barely larger than the chicken, or use a 10-inch skillet with an all-metal handle (I used a skillet). Preheat the pan in the oven.
Wipe the chicken dry and set it breast side up in the pan (I actually set mine breast side down, whoops!). The chicken should sizzle.
Place in the center of the oven and watch for it to start sizzling and browning within 20 minutes. If it doesn’t, raise the temperature progressively until it does. Depending on your oven and the size of your bird, you may need to adjust the heat to as high as 500 degrees or as low as 450 degrees during roasting to brown the chicken properly. I went up to 500F on my gas oven.  Because my pan is only oven safe up to 500F, I did not continue to raise the temperature, even though I didn't really see browning until about 25 minutes.  According to the Zuni Cafe recipe, the skin should blister (this did not happen for me), but if the chicken begins to char, or the fat is smoking, reduce the temperature by 25 degrees.
After about 30 minutes (40 minute if you have a larger bird), turn the bird over; you want to see that the top side has browned and caramelized at least a little.
Roast for another 10 to 25 minutes, depending on size.  (At this point, I began to really see my bird crisping beautifully)
Flip once more to re-crisp the breast skin, another 5 to 10 minutes.  

If your bird is large, decrease the oven temperature to 400F and roast for an additional 10-20 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the bird; it should be around 165F.  Or, use a knife to test the deep part of the breast meat; the juices should run clear.
Allow to rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting into it.  This allow the delicious juices to redistribute.  (It also prevents you from burning your tongue.)

You will still have some pan juices, which I high recommend you serve with the chicken so that you can dip your meat, veggies, bread, etc. into it.  Food this good should not be wasted!