Life in Lloyd
25 Feb 2010 2 Comments
in Chocolate, Cupcakes, Main Course Tags: banana, Chocolate, cupcake, pasta, peanut butter, spaghetti, squash
Hello friends!
I’ve been shipped out to Lloydminster for 2 months for my rural family rotation. It’s about a 2.5 hour drive from Edmonton. Lloydminster is not quite rural, but not really a big city either. I don’t count it as rural when there’s a big superstore, walmart, and 3 tim hortons! It’s nice out here…RPAP has set me up in a little house. I have my own bedroom, ensuite bathroom and closet…and most importantly a big kitchen! I think I might suffocate if they put me in a place without a kitchen.
There’s not a whole lot to do out in a small town. But I played cricket for the first time last week. It was fairly embarrassing, as to be expected. Ball-sports and I don’t get along very well. But I didn’t get hit in the head, thankfully. I also discovered that I have the food network. And I hauled along my waffle maker amongst other things. I’ve been baking a couple times for the nurses in Emerg. They are all really friendly and don’t complain about the cookies and muffins =)
Here’s one of my go-to muffin/cupcake hybrid recipes. I love this recipe. You can use it in a pinch, when you want to make something fast but have run out of eggs. Or if you only have one banana left and it’s rapidly deteriorating so you can’t eat it OR make banana bread. Or just make it when you feel like because they’re moist and delicious.
Chocolate Banana Muffins (adapted from theppk.com)
Ingredients
3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/4 cup granulated sugar)
1/4 cup applesauce + 1 tbsp oil (original recipe uses 5 tbsp butter – but they are so much healthier this way and super moist!)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 banana, mushed well
1 cup flour (I use 1/2 AP and 1/2 whole wheat)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (original calls for soy milk, but I didn’t have any on hand and regular is fine)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine applesauce, oil, sugars, and vanilla extractin a large bowl, mix well. Add banana, stirring well to combine. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cup and level with a knife. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with 1/2 cup milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix after each addition.
Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups lined with paper liners. (I used my new silicone muffin cups which works great, and then you save cupcake lines and don’t have to grease any cupcake tins) Bake for 20 minutes or until cupcakes spring back easily when touched lightly in the center. Allow to cool, and frost if desired.
I just spread peanut butter on top of these suckers and they are absolutely lovely. You could make a fancy peanut butter frosting, or a peanut butter cream cheese frosting. But with just peanut butter, I can pretend that they’re healthy. ENJOY!
Not living at home means I have to cook for myself. It’s been fun, but also time-consuming and takes some creativity when you’re only cooking for one person. I always used to like to make big batches of stuff in baking, but when I make normal portions for meals I end up eating too much and still have leftovers. It’s tricky! One of the things that I have found myself a fan of: spaghetti squash. Such a cool little squash, that one is.
All you do is slice it in half, pop it in the microwave for 15-20 minutes in a bowl with some water, and then pull out the shreds with a fork comme ca:
It totally does look like spaghetti! I wouldn’t say the texture is the same. It’s crunchier. But it’s a really healthy substitute and easy to make too. Then just whip up whatever sauce you want. I just stirfried veggies and junk and added some pasta sauce:
Then toss it into your spaghetti squash, and voila! Yummy and fast! If you want, you can even put it back into the shell, sprinkle cheese on top and bake it. But I’m too lazy and hungry for that…
I just use my *heart* Magic Bullet *heart* to whip up all sorts of smoothies to go with it. My freezer is full of bags of frozen fruit. Mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries. I love love love it.
So Lloyd’s treating me pretty well so far. Although I miss Edmonton a little. I definitely miss all my friendsies. And I miss the shopping! And I miss my double oven. <3
Bake-bake-bake
28 Jan 2010 Leave a Comment
in Chocolate, Cookies, Cupcakes Tags: bake sale, Chocolate, Cookies, Cupcakes, haiti, meringue
I’ve felt so bad toting around my cupcake carrier when I see my celiac classmates. I feel like I’m waving it in their faces. HAHA NO CUPCAKES FOR YOUUUU. =(
So it made me oh-so-happy when Michael ordered some Gluten-Free baked treats for Kaitlin! So happy that I went out and bought some GF oat flour from Planet Organic:
I made these little Chocolate Cupcakes with that oat flour! When whisking it together, I didn’t feel like they’d be chocolatey enough. So I added about 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips. WHOA CHOCOLATE EXPLOSION! They’re somewhere halfway between cupcake and brownie. And have a more hearty texture because of the oat flour. And they’ll rise up in the oven, but then fall when you open it b/c of the lack of gluten. But aren’t they pretty when you add some simple white chocolate to the top?
Here’s the recipe (with my alterations):
1/2 cup soy milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 cup oat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 shortening
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line cupcake tin with paper liners.
Combine oat flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa, and salt in a bowl.
(Now this step says to combine the soymilk and vegan shortening in a bowl and mix. This did not work out very well for me, so I basically added them in separately)
Mix these together with the dry ingredients. Stir until blended. I added the mini chocolate chips at this point! And then bake for about 17-20 minutes (I may have underbaked these a tad). Let cool. Decorate how you want! I just wanted them to be simple on top since I already overloaded them with chocolate, but if you didn’t put chocolate chips in, you might consider a chocolate frosting. Or a vanilla frosting.
And for fun, I made little poop-drops. Hahaha or at least that’s what they look like to me. These are tasty, but not exactly the most aesthetically appealing. I think I’ll omit the chocolate chips and use a prettier star-tip pastry bag if I ever make them again. I didn’t use the star tip because I was afraid the chocolate chips would get stuck inside!
Chocolate Chip Meringue Drops (adapted from allrecipes.com)
* 2 egg whites
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (make sure it’s real vanilla extract, I’ve been told the artificial one has gluten!)
* 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with aluminum foil or parchment paper, and set aside.
2. In large bowl, beat the egg whites on high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. (just like with the last meringue recipe! Whip it good!) Gradually add sugar while continuing to beat until they hold stiff peaks. Mix in the vanilla and cocoa on low speed, then fold in chocolate chips by hand. Drop small mounds of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Dropping them on the baking sheet would probably have made actual cookies instead of poop-piles, but I had more fun my way 
3. Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven. Turn off oven, and leave the cookies in the oven for 2 more hours, or until centers are dry. Remove from pan and store in an airtight container. I just baked them for an hour or so and then left them in the oven overnight.
Et voila! POOP!
In with the new, out with the old!
31 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in Chocolate, Cookies, Cupcakes Tags: Chocolate, Cookies, cream cheese, Cupcakes, ginger, oat
So I lied when I said there’d be enough time in clerkship to post recipes constantly. I realize it’s been 3 months since I last posted. Oopsy daisy…
Good thing it hasn’t been 3 months since I last baked! Oh no, that would be a catastrophe. Unfortunately there just isn’t enough hours in the day to bake, study, wake up at 4:30AM for surgery, AND take pictures of said baking.
But it’s New Years Eve. Time to make resolutions. I will be better at posting, promise! At least one update per rotation haha. Life just passes by too fast these days. The last post I made, I was still riding high on my Pediatrics rotation, the land of happiness. Since then, I’ve already passed through surgery AND a gastroenterology elective. I have to say, it’s been a long tiring road that’s not going to end anytime soon…but it’s also been a blast. I wouldn’t trade clerkship for the world. There are times when I realize just how much I love medicine. I love learning about diseases, and diagnosing people, and helping people. So corny, but so true.
I guess I digress, this post should be about New Years Eve food. YUM! So here’s a little something to ring in 2010: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes and Ginger Oat cookies!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
These cupcakes are yummmmy. Take chocolate cupcake batter. Add cookie dough. Bake. Frost. =)
I think if I make these again, I’ll try different combinations of cookie dough and batter. And put less cookie dough. But they’re good as is! The little tiny chocolate chip cookies on the top are the same as the dough inside.
For Chocolate Cupcake: (Adapted from Martha Stewart)
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup warm water
Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare cupcake pan with liners. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, combine flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking power and salt. Reduce speed to low and add eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and water.
Fill cupcake liners about 1/2 full.
Then…
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: The Chewy (adapted from Alton Brown)
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups bread flour (I just used AP flour)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
Pour the melted butter in the mixer’s work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Chill the dough.
Roll the dough into small balls and put into the middle of the cupcake batter. BAKE @ 350 degrees for ~15-18 minutes. Take out and let cool.
Frost with your favorite frosting! I used a plain vanilla cream cheese frosting. And then baked those little tiny chocolate chip cookies (about 5 minutes) and put them on top for decorations!
Ginger Oat Cookies
These are my mom’s FAVORITE cookies! She love love loves the ginger taste, so we add TRIPLE the amount of ginger that the original recipe calls for. It adds a nice little punch to these crunchy guys. Crystallized ginger, freshly chopped ginger, and ground ginger. How can you go wrong?
GEORGIE HENDERSON’S GINGER OAT COOKIES
Makes 34 cookies (I got 40 cookies)
3/4 cup (175 mL) white sugar
8 ounces (225 g) margarine (or butter)
1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour
2-1/2 cups (625 mL) quick oats
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons (30 mL) hot water
1 tablespoon (15 mL) golden syrup
1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) baking soda
2 heaping teaspoons (10 mL) ground ginger (I used a tablespoon of ground ginger, a 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh ginger, and 3 little discs of crystallized ginger – didn’t really measure that accurately! just toss it in!)
Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C).
In a large bowl, cream sugar and margarine until light. Add flour, oats and salt.
In a small bowl, mix water, syrup and soda. Stir into biscuit mixture along with the ginger.
Roll teaspoons of the dough into small balls and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Flatten with a fork a couple times so they are flat. Bake 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on rack.
Enjoy! Hope everyone has a wonderful 2010. I’ve had a great 2009 filled with new learning experiences. There’s been plenty of shame-based and hands-on learning, new adventures had in Mexico, China, Spain, Portugal, France, and Las Vegas, old drama, new discoveries…and wonderful friends the whole way along. I love you all. <3
