The Unmotivational

How Sweet It Is Oatmeal Peanut Butter Snack Squares (with chocolate chips! and found on Pinterest)

Yum!

I don’t bake enough bar cookies. I always forget how good they are and I’m pretty sure the girls are going to think I’m awesome right around snack time. I’ve been baking a lot recently. This week I baked my tried and true pumpkin bread (with chocolate chips! Are you sensing a theme here?), banana bread muffins, and the snack bars.

Last week, I made these yummy Crusty Baguettes. They took only 30 minutes to make! Slight verge from recipe, I used whole wheat pastry dough because that was all I had. Still, and maybe even more so, easy and crusty and good!

It’s definitely autumn here in Portland. We’ve got wet, wet, wet and a little more wet just in case you missed the first three dousings. With the chill, I’ve been inspired already this week to make Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup (using our own heirloom tomatoes that finally came up around the beginning of the month!) and baked spaghetti (using Hub’s tomato sauce that we canned last month). I chose to wing it this week without creating a meal plan or shopping list.  Actually way more fun for me if not 100 times harder.

Oh, well. As you may have noticed, there hasn’t been much sewing done around here. I finally have the time to work and I am so unmotivated even going in my studio, much less sitting behind the machine, feels like a chore. Bleh! So I’m getting my creative expression out mostly in the kitchen these days.

That doesn’t mean I’m not still sewing some. I’ve started making the girls’ costumes, TinkerBell and Peter Pan, and I’ve been taking a clothing pattern, drafting, draping, and construction class so I’m currently working on making a muslin for an a-line skirt there. I also started crocheting a sweater for Q and now just need sit down and do it. Online, I’ve signed up for onegirl’s handprinted: a fabric swap (you should too!) and Jenn and I just need to make a date to do some handprinting. Anyone else interested in having a party out of it?

So that’s what I’m working on. How about you? Are you cooking anything I might need the recipe or link to? Working on any projects I need to know about?

How To: Buttermilk and Brown Sugar

As you might remember from my week of cooking, I’m not a huge fan. Baking on the other hand, I love! So after another long day at home with a sick kid, just one this time, I was more than ready for a little baking. My healthy, extremely enthusiastic, and mostly helpful baker-in-training PZ and I decided to bake one of our favorites – pumpkin bread.

I’d already pulled out the can of organic pumpkin puree, had the butter and egg out on the counter and was reaching for my flour when I realized I was missing a few ingredients. Uh-oh! No buttermilk or brown sugar! Instead of freaking out, (which is what I would have done if I’d been cooking!) I decided I was being provided with a perfect opportunity to teach PZ (and any of you out there who may not know) how to make a good substitute for buttermilk and the best, fluffiest brown sugar around.

First the buttermilk substitute. Unless Hubs has been making cornbread, we don’t keep buttermilk on hand. This is a super easy and effective substitute. To make a cup of buttermilk simply measure out a cup of regular milk and add a tablespoon of vinegar. Just let that sit for 10 minutes or so.

You’ll know its done when you can see that it has curdled. PZ had seen me do this a bunch of times so she wasn’t that impressed, but she got super excited when we made the brown sugar. Once again it is super easy and quick. Just take a cup of white sugar, I use organic cane sugar, and add a tablespoon of molasses. I always keep a jar of molasses on hand just for such an occasion. You can either mix it together by hand with a fork or do it the easy way with an electric mixer. PZ and I chose the lazy, I mean easy way.

See, she was very excited. Did I mention she was an enthusiastic helper? Well, we put it all together, added some chocolate chips ’cause that’s how we roll, and ended up with a scrumptious, not too bad for us, pumpkin bread. Yay!

Here’s the pumpkin bread recipe in case you’re hungry…

1 1/2 cups flour (I usually use 1 cup all purpose and 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry)

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 egg

2 tblsp butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350. Sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the sugar, egg, butter, pumpkin, and buttermilk and stir until well blended. (This is where I add 1 cup chocolate chips) Grease a 9×5 loaf pan and pour the batter in. Bake for approx. 1 hour or until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean. Enjoy!