Vegan Icelandic Coffee Wreath (because it's time for a little less talking and a little more baking)

I have a great need to be in the kitchen. Baking calms me. It makes getting through the news, the oncoming winter and the holidays bearable. I have to keep busy. Following recipes and pinching and folding dough as in this recipe--it's like meditation. Yesterday I baked cookies. Last week, it was this coffee cake. People can be cruel, life can be dreadfully challenging, heartbreaking and sad, but coping by baking--I don't know why, it seems like the right thing to do now. It won't cure the ills of society, but it fills my soul and gives me perspective on life and simply getting through one day at a time, sharing food to show love--this works for me. You can mix the dough for this pastry in about five minutes before you go to bed. The next morning, you'll need about ten minutes to pull the dough from the fridge, combine the filling and roll the wreath. Let it proof for about 45 minutes while the oven preheats and viola: coffee cake. There is literally nothing in the world I love more with my espresso in the morning than this. I have to keep my paws off it all day long while it sits under the cake keeper on the kitchen counter mocking me. This confection always impresses the husband. 

(Let's be honest, it'll impress anyone.)

The aroma of almond, citrus with cinnamon and nutmeg lingers in the house for about two days after it's been baked. 

Our home smells like early winter mornings when we have this on hand, and I love it.  

Vegan Jelly Donut Muffins with Multi-Grain Goodness (baking through "Ovenly" while puppy-dancing. . . finally ran a 5k race and I didn't fall: Yay!)

The other day, DH and I were discussing our earliest food memories. Mine centered around my grandmother's homemade grape jelly. DH said one of his were these huge cinnamon twist doughnuts from a local bakery where he grew up. Then I added, Oh yeah, well, we had doughnuts, too--my favorite always had jelly inside and pink icing. Then there was the debate of whether or not having a food memory not tied to a homemade item constituted a food memory. Then we both sat there fighting off the urge to once again abandon all rational thought and have doughnuts for dinner. 

*I seem to have a running theme here lately with the doughnut obsession. I know not where it comes from, I just know that it is. 

After our conversation about doughnuts had run its course, I finally decided to bake something along the lines of said food stuffs, and turned to adapting a recipe for Jelly Doughnut Muffins from Ovenly. (Oh how I wish all cookbooks were this crave-worthy--more in a second on this.) I had some adjustments to make to go vegan with these, plus I wanted to up the health factor a bit--so I subbed in some spelt flour (my all-time favorite multi-grain baking flour hands down--except it usually does better for me when combined with AP flour), and omitted the eggs. . . obviously. Muffins are one of the most forgiving baking items you could manage. As I soon discovered once again during one of my "some-timers" moments.

Vegan Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins: Ta-Da! (Skip the trip to DD and just make some of these. . . and "The Puppy Kindergarten Nail-Biter")

I couldn't help myself. I craved the damn doughnuts from "that place". It got so bad we literally almost abandoned all rational thinking and drove there in our PJs last night. That's just crazy. We're old. We could get killed doing something like that at all hours of the night! I woke up this morning and thought about those doughnuts again then threw the gauntlet down on myself at five a.m. (up at the gawdawful hour for what else?--the obvious reason: Puppy Frankenstein demanded it). To hell with it, I'm baking, I thought. So. Happy. I. Did. The Pumpkin Doughnut madness is now tamed and all is right with the world.

 (Yes, I realize this is the second "pumpkin recipe" in a row. I. Love. Pumpkin.)

Vegan Spicy Pumpkin Bread with Ground Pepper Topping (Super Moist, Super Easy . . . and Puppy "Frankenstein" Update)

I baked pumpkin bread with one hand tied behind my back and a teething, nipping, "crazy-town" puppy rolling around at my feet. I wouldn't recommend this, but it was how my bread came together. Simple is what I'm about in the kitchen these days. Pumpkin is like my favorite veggie of all time. The ginormous display of pumpkins I nearly ran smack into at the grocery store the other day (as I navigated the aisles in a sleepy haze of hunger and loyal duty to keep the home stocked with food stuffs not related to canines) gave me the inspiration to run home and FOR ONCE bake. This bread turned out to be one of my best yet. (Of course I say that every year I bake pumpkin bread.) Lo the pumpkin bread gods were shining down on me. I love a spicy pumpkin bread--nothing too wimpy or too cake-y. I want to taste fall: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger and new this year: fresh ground pepper on top. We shared a slice this morning over coffee as I was screaming at "Frankenstein" to stop it making breakfast. 

Vegan Eggnog Coffee Cake with Toasted Pecan Streusel (Week Two with "The Boot")

If I see one more story about how to survive your in-laws (or food, travel, Black Friday, etc.,), I think I'll scream. Just reading about Thanksgiving is giving me stress. So I bake. 

We came home with a box of vegan eggnog from the store this weekend. (Oh the horrors of shopping in the electronic cart.) It was nice to sink my teeth into cake again. I'd held off baking until I'd felt my lying-around-while-my-ankle-heals-weight-gain-scare was really just that, a scare. I've so far kept weight demons at bay by nearly starving myself all day, everyday since The Boot arrived.

Gluten Free Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins (My Midlife Baking Healthier, Eating Happier--with Less Sugar AND Less Gluten Shift)

I've been experimenting with gluten free baking for the past year now. Honestly, who hasn't? I have had some terrific results. I've also had some sad disasters. A health concern recently triggered a demand for me to cut back on foods on the upper register of the glycemic index. More on this in a moment. Meantime, desperate for a little sweet, a little "bread" with my morning GF oatmeal, I came up with these gems. Sweet potatoes are a favorite of mine. I haven't met a woman who doesn't love them. Trying to get my husband to eat one is like pulling teeth. He's, to be polite, not a fan. However, carefully disguised in food stuffs, they pass. I have read the sweet potato is a sort of "wonder food" for women who are losing their minds. . . I mean estrogen levels. More sweet potatoes for me please! I wanted a moist muffin that could hold up to my ritual of slightly re-heating and then dabbing with a bit of Earth Balance margarine. And then, of course, I needed chocolate. The list of ingredients is fairly long for these, but don't be put off buy this--they are worth it. Easy to whip up though. Plus, in the end, my blood sugar thanked me. These were completely worth the trial and error it took to get here. 

Vegan Espresso Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chunk Crumble (My Own "Tara" and Why Gone with the Wind. . . Finally!)

Lordy, how long's it been since I last baked a cake for crying out loud?! My cake cravings kicked into high gear late yesterday afternoon. (So getting dinner finished sort of took a back seat. Sorry, honey.) Chocolate AND espresso are mandatory items to have on hand if you are to truly enjoy the finer points of what makes this coffee cake--well, a coffee cake.  

Vegan Blueberry Jam Surprise Breakfast Muffins: The Chia Seed Experiment (And. . . Seeing Stripes, Finishing Stripes)

Sometimes when I bake muffins for breakfast, I actually want to have them for dessert . . . and then for breakfast, too. This muffin in particular taunted me. I've had a love affair with blueberries for as long as I can remember. I make blueberry jam whenever they're in season. I smother my pancakes with blueberries, put blueberries in smoothies, use frozen blueberries on my oatmeal in the morning. If there's a scientific link between the consumption of blueberries and one keeping their "wits" about them into old age, I'd be a perfect study participant for such work. Just check back with me in about twenty years. Maybe fifteen. Okay ten.

Coffee Crumb Cake Muffins with Chocolate Swirl (Notes on A Crazy Year with A "New" Kind of Crazy on Tap)

Well. It's here. Thirteen. I needed a few days to find my center of gravity. New years always bring in a bit of dread. The numeric implications of 2013 is not lost on me one bit. I am very superstitious. I held a ritual burning of last year's calendar and sage incense burning was included. I completed a sort of "work on these things" list in my journal. I don't live and die by my lists. But a few of the items would place me in the company of Mother Teresa were I to complete them. 

Apple Butter in The Slow Cooker (And Cowboy Boots on My Feet)

Out of our element and/or out of our minds, we managed to somehow drive nearly an hour away for apples on Sunday. This was not a planned trip. What started out as a plea to DH to accompany me to the "country store" for deer corn and a salt lick (if you have to ask, you probably don't need to know), ended up as a diversion of the crazy kind. *I can't lift the salt lick--it weighs like fifty pounds--just an fyi. 

Oatmeal Raisin Breakfast Cookies (The Yellow Wallpaper and My DIY Madwoman in the Attic Moment)

I try to never drag dear husband along to the grocery store. There are several reasons for this. First and foremost would be the "impulse issues" we both have when it comes to things like chocolate glazed donuts (in the bag!) and "instant breakfast food stuff". Sunday found us both at the store to pick up a few necessities. (After our walk/hike.) Not even two aisles into the place and he stops cold in front of the Hostess display. (We both are recovering Entenmann's Chocolate Glazed doughnut addicts.) Being a little spent from the morning activity, we had no business going anywhere near food. But yet, here we were. And like a true enabler, I said the unthinkable: Well, if you must. And sort of started down the rest of the aisle when again he'd stopped, only this time, he has a box of NEW Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Breakfast Bars in his hand and says, I had these on the plane last month, they weren't that bad. Really? What pray tell might said "cookies" be made of, I ask. (You can see where this is going.) The look on his face when he turned the box on its side to read the list of nearly thirty ingredients (some undecipherable to me) was priceless. 

Crispy Jalapeno Rice Balls Over Spicy Three-Bean Chili (Sew. Bake. Dr. Who. Hike. Repeat.)

These little jewels made our little bowl of chili a great big winner in our hearts. I had very little in the reserve tank for cooking earlier last week. Just recently getting my strength back. (Even canceled guitar again as I did not want to risk exposing myself to "little people germs" just yet--and there are a lot of little people traipsing in and out of my lesson place, trust me). When the inclination for food finally found me--I headed right back in the kitchen (starving) and did what most normal recovering women might do: reach for the frying pan. This chili wasn't going down with the traditional food stuff (corn bread). I was thinking really spicy, crunchy. I had picked a boat load of jalapeno peppers that morning in the garden. (Still picking them. The only tried and true, drought-resistant veggie apparently.) Quite honestly these rice balls demand another meal pairing. They were that good. And simple. I'll forgo the usual recipe at the bottom of the post here and jump to the way these came about. Oh, and for chili--just use your favorite recipe. It matters not, just know that the crunch factor combined with a little bit of heat and the yummy must-have guacamole and viola. Dinner.