Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

A work in progress.

And some photos from to/fro/in Oregon:

Rebekah and I spent some time cuddled by the heater.

Birds and squirrels and snowfall.

Holiday decorations.

My boyfriend's mom's cats, LOLing it up.

On the way home, snowfields from the window.

Happy New Year, everyone.  Hope you had your ozoni!

Chocolate Attacks; Maims 20

It has been a weird week.  The boy was on a business (er, science) trip and I was left to fend for myself.  After a ton of adoptions at the holiday event, the shelter has been shuffling kittehs around, and my favorite community room got a couple new cats.  Every time I go volunteer there, I wish wish wish I was making enough money to be able to foster.  SOON.  Someday.

Anyway, the food.  I made black and white shortbread.  Half chocolate, half normal ol' shortbread, it is the lazy lady's version of those pretty checkerboard shortbreads you sometimes see.  

It began with Earth Balance buttery sticks.  I'm not sure why, but buttery sticks never seem to work as well for me as the Earth Balance tubs.  I combined the buttery stuff with some vegetable shortening, but even then the shortbread wasn't as "short" and non-spreading as I would have liked.  I've never had a problem with the tub form of Earth Balance though. 

Shortenin' shortenin'

Tons of powdered sugar.

Slicing the chilled dough.

I packaged a bunch of these to send to relatives and some as a thank you to my boss for a letter of recommendation.  

Then, there were bananas.  I bought some "red band" bananas from the grocery - a huge bunch for 50 cents just because they were a little spotty.  I had planned on making the same old banana muffins I usually make, but the boy had the excellent idea of making them chocolate.  And not just chocolate chip, but goddamned chocolatey.  The result was definitely not a healthy breakfast item, but it was fluffy and delicious.

I packed him a few to take on his trip to the East Coast, from which he'll be arriving in just a few hours.  It's so boring to cook just for myself, and I've resorted to eating mostly oatmeal and leftovers while I bake Christmas gifts and potluck dishes.

The muffin platform is a diverse and forgiving medium; to construct this one, I added 1/3 cup of cocoa powder to my regular banana muffin recipe and a cup or so of chocolate chips.  These muffins (to be honest, they were more like cupcakes) were very moist even though they were low in oil and fat.  Bananas.  They're professionals at keeping baked goods moist and fluffeh.

Pumpkin Bran Muffins and Birthday Weekend

Ahoy!  I still do not have a camera, but I did take some photos this weekend ... And it was the anniversary of my birth or something.  I was feeling kind of low, but it ended up being a decent weekend.  The boy took me to the newly opened zpizza near our house.  Was very tasty, and they didn't skimp on the vegetable toppings the way many pizza places do!

The boy also veered toward tradition and brought home a bunch of roses for me (d'aw).

Purty, but I was so happy just to spend some time with the boy - he was gone the rest of the weekend working like crazy.  Grad student life, eh?  Poor fella.

I was alone the majority of the weekend, so I had plenty of time to experiment with a new recipe: pumpkin bran muffins!  Oh yes...and they are low sugar (not super sweet, but you could increase the sugar for a more traditionally sweet muffin) and low fat.  I just felt like something somewhat healthy after so much greasy pizza.

Pumpkin Bran Muffins

1 c unbleached AP flour
2 c wheat bran
3 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
3 T brown sugar (increase to 1/2 c if you want these to be sweeter)

Combine all of the above, then add:

1 c pumpkin puree
1 c soy milk
1 T canola oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp cornstarch/egg replacer + 1/4 c water, whisked
(chopped walnuts or dried cranberries optional)

Mix until just combined.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Makes 12 muffins!

So delicious.  I've made three batches of these muffins so far, tweaking and adjusting... they're still a work-in-progress, but mmm!

ALSO!

I received some awesome presents this weekend... they were... kitty kisses!  I started volunteering at Irvine Animal Care, a municipal shelter that is full of cats, rabbits, dogs, and the odd reptile.  Although having a pet is not a commitment my boyfriend and I can make right now, I'm really happy to be able to help animals in need.  And it's so rewarding to work with these animals!  :3  It is easy to become jaded...believe me, I know (especially now that I'm working in the non-profit sector)!  If you have spare time, please give volunteering a try - be it with a shelter, a non-profit, helping humans, helping animals... everything helps.