When my husband bought me a muffin pan last month, I was so excited! I haven’t made muffins in over two years since we left our rusted metal tins back in Arizona.
The very first batch of muffins I made was an old favorite, Cranberry Orange. This recipe is fantastic. It’s a little bit more work than a boxed muffin mix but so worth the effort. I especially love adding the fresh orange zest. We only have two muffins left and I can’t wait to make another dozen!
I am so excited that pumpkin season is here! Last week I bought two pie pumpkins; today my husband bought me two more. I have a very long list of pumpkin dishes that I want to try this fall. Last week I asked my husband what he wanted me to make first. “Pumpkin pie, of course!”
My beautiful pumpkin
Scooping the seeds
Ready to bake
Pie ready for the oven
Ta-Da! First pie of the year
Beautiful pumpkin pie!
This was the very best vegan pumpkin pie I’ve ever baked. I love that the recipe did not use tofu. Quite honestly, I usually have issues with the consistency of vegan pumpkin pies. However, this one was already firming up an hour after I pulled it out of the oven. Leaving it in the refrigerator overnight gave it an even better texture.
I want to play around with the recipe to see if I can reduce the sugar. 3/4 of a cup is a lot! Any ideas? I also think it needs more cinnamon. I’m looking forward to making a second pie soon. Does anybody want to come over and help us eat it?
This week was busy enough that I forgot to blog. Oops! I spent a few hours this week doing some deep spring organizing. I still have a few areas around the house where our belongings are not organized, just stacked into piles or shoved into corners. I want our house to look intentional! I’m still working through the last stack of papers and will then start sorting through our pantry.
No real adoption news this week, just some random shopping to decorate our home. I hope to post pictures once I finish the organizing.
I made a new Chinese recipe this week, Sexy Spiced ‘n ‘Ginger-ed Veg, Rice Noodles & Crispy Tofu. Whew! What a long recipe name. It was really good the first night but did not reheat well. We preferred the Lo Mein recipe from last week. However, we will definitely use the idea of including jiaozi (dumplings) in future stir-fry recipes. That was the best part!
I haven’t picked out a recipe for next week but want to find something Taiwanese. Maybe a side dish instead of an entree. I’ll have to search around and find a website with Taiwanese recipes. Happy cooking!
My love language is overwhelmingly Gifts. I love to give and I love to receive. It’s not the cost that matters, only the thought behind the gift.
My husband loves me!
Tonight he came home with this lovely wok. Since we’re going to be cooking more Chinese and Taiwanese dishes, he thought it best for me to have the correct kitchen tools.
I’ll be using it tomorrow night to try out another new recipe!
I forgot to post the link to yesterday’s delicious dish – Pork Lo Mein. We just subbed tofu for the pork. And if anyone has any favorite recipes to share, please do! I’m always on the lookout for more.
I have a new project. Each week, I am going to learn how to cook one new Chinese or Taiwanese meal. I’m hoping that by the time Zhi Zhi comes home, we’ll have a binder of recipes to cook for her, ones that she might be familiar with and that will taste like her birth country. I know that when I am out of town, I eventually long for homecooked meals, recipes that I am familiar with and love. I’m sure Zhi Zhi will have the same challenge as she transitions into our family.
Today’s new recipe was Pork Lo Mein. Of course, since we are vegetarian, we subbed tofu for the pork. It was delicious!
We’re going to take pictures of the food so that we can send them to her in our next care package. I hope she recognizes how much we already love her!
This morning I made the first smoothie of the season. Four bananas, a carton of strawberries, and a splash of water to make blending easier. It was delicious! A smoothie is not the best selection for a cold morning but the bananas were ripe and the strawberries were perfect. I split the smoothie with my husband and then toasted an English muffin. It was a great breakfast.
Today I finished a rather funny novel, The Homeschool Experiment by Charity Hawkins. It’s about a Christian woman who decides to homeschool her three young children and all the misadventures they have over the course of a school year. I wouldn’t classify it as Great Literature but it was a delightful read.
Friday was White Day in Japan. I completely forgot about it, but my husband remembered! He surprised me with this positively delightful raw vegan chocolate pie from Whole Foods. YUM!
On Sunday, I made my own Chocolate Greek Yogurt Pie. I want to try different brands of vegan yogurt until we find one that we like to eat straight from the carton. This recipe will be good, I can tell, if we find a brand of vegan yogurt that we like. Even though we were disappointed, our meat-eating friend devoured his slice and took two home!
I also tried another Orange Tofu recipe. I love orange “chicken” and had a favorite recipe but wanted to find something healthier. My old recipe contained 3/4 cup of sugar, whereas this one contains only tablespoons. We’ll be making this recipe again because it was fantastic!
Have you tried anything new recently?
I’ve been trying to break out of my cooking rut this week. We tried two new meals.
This first dish is a vegetarian eel that we bought from the Asian market. Yes, vegetarian eel. It tasted rather fishy and my husband loved it. I thought it was so so, which is not surprising because I didn’t like fish even when I ate meat. We’ll probably eat it again, though, because hubs liked it so much.
Vegetarian Eel
The second new recipe is Cold Spicy Ramen Noodles with Tofu and Kimchi. Yum! I wasn’t sure what to think of kimchi with ramen but we really, really liked it. It helps that we love kimchi and eat it on a regular basis! I will definitely be playing around with this recipe to make it perfect for our tastes. Neither of us liked the carrots but we loved the green onions and the kimchi and the tofu. Definitely a keeper!
Ramen with Kimchi
Next week I am hoping to try Spicy Orange Tofu and Peppers. I think it looks delicious!
I’ve already tried two new recipes this week and can recommend both.
Today I made Smoky Roasted Portobello Sushi. We weren’t big fans of the heart of palm but really, really liked the mushrooms. I want to try adding the mushrooms to our regular sushi rolls and see how they taste.
Yesterday I made Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal. This was my first attempt at baking oatmeal and I will be baking it again! It was incredibly good. Too bad my husband didn’t get to eat any. I took it to Bible study and there wasn’t any left when I came home.
I’m not trying any other new recipes this week. The rest of our meals are tried and true favorites: green curry, fajitas, garlic sesame soba noodles, and pizza.
We’re hoping that our daughter will want to embrace both American culture and her own. I’ve read that a lot of older adopted kids reject their home culture but I’m hoping our daughter will want to hold onto hers.
In an effort to help her ease into our family, I’m finding recipes that will hopefully taste somewhat familiar. No forcing her to eat pizza on day 1!
This is my first attempt at a green bean stir fry. The store didn’t have snow peas so I doubled the green beans. Hopefully next time we’ll be able to use both green beans and snow peas. I also think mushrooms would be a good addition.
The recipe called for vegetable broth. Instead of using a can, I found a package of hot pot seasoning and made broth out of that. There was a lot of broth left, so I made ramen today with the broth, peas, and some soba noodles.
Both dishes turned out well! Hopefully our daughter will like at least one of them. Next week I’ll try another new recipe.