Baking makes me happy

I've been doing an exceptional amount of cooking lately (recipe links below). I couldn't be happier about it. I get to share a kitchen with one of my favorite bakers/people again, which is really fun. Half my baking is for fun, but the other half, well it really just keeps me sane some days.

Baking makes me happy. When all else fails, I can hit the kitchen. When I feel like I am having trouble completing a project, or when I just cannot seem to focus, or life seems to get a little too complicated, frustrating or un-fun, baking (or cooking) can bring me back to a calm state. Cooking is my stable datum. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I love food and eat endlessly. But it's more about the act. The goddamn zen of it. When you are mixing together ingredients; when you are sifting, stirring, and chopping - this is when all the noise falls away. The world goes quiet there in the kitchen. The frustration just gets chopped and beaten out - not even aggressively, just ritually. I pull out the mixing bowls and turn on the oven and everything - everything - gets a little better. I produce something. It makes me happy. It tastes good. Shit, if I'm lucky enough it might even come out looking good too. Wouldn't that be something. Whether it's marinara from scratch, cookies, bread, or pickles, these acts settle the nerves, calm my anxiety and inject a bit of control into my hands among all the chaos of the universe. And thank the Baker for that.

It's not necessarily a solitary process. Cooking with friends and family achieves a similar zen. The difference now that it is shared. That difference means that the joy is amplified. Greatly. Sharing the process, whether by dividing up the work, creating simultaneous dishes, or simply serving as a kitchen companion, makes the whole deal ten times better. I love cooking and it's always been something I treasured because it has always brought me closer to my mother, my grandmother and the rest of my family, and been a source of sharing and learning and teaching with friends. Oh yeah, and nomming. Can't forget that part.

Lost a leg in 'Nom so we
gave him a polo mallet. : )

The tangible reward that
comes out of it all. But honestly, that's really not the best part. Even with the most decadent cake, the joy is in the act and the experience and especially the sharing of it all. That's why I bake and cook and pickle. That's why you'll find me in the kitchen when I'm on deadline and why I break into midnight cooking sessions and why I love food but am not a food snob. It's the goddamned experience; the zen first; the stable, steady, ritual of creating cookies, cakes, breads, casseroles and a million other edible delights; and the joy of sharing the whole bag with folks I care about.

This post was brought to you by Write or Die, which got me to connect my fingers to the keys and create something more than a status update.

Of late some of the nommy things I've made are persimmon cookies, pumpkin cupcakes with whiskey frosting, snickerdoodles (always more snickerdoodles!), pumpkin cookies, spaghetti squash salad (original creation), kale chips, a root vegetable casserole (original creation) and an amazing inside out german chocolate cake for momma's birthday (took almost five hours but it was soooo worth it!).

"Just Amazing Cake" - Banana Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cake, original recipe!

Disclaimer: It's only kind of cake. It's sort of bread. It's definitely delicious. I made this recipe by modifying a very basic banana bread recipe. So here we go:

1. Preheat all your ovens to three hunnerd and fitty degrees F. F is for fool.

2. Get yer 'gredients ready:
5 very ripe bananas
3 cooked sweet potatoes
3/4 cups melted butter
2 cups sugar
2 beaten eggz
2 teaspoonz vanilla
1 teaspoon molasses
12oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 teaspoonz baking soda
A pinch of salt
3 cups flour

3. Mash up the bananas and 'tatoes and mix in the butter.

4. Mix in the sugar, eggz, vanilla and molasses

5. Add baking soda & salt & chocolate chips.

6. Add in flour

7. Butter your cake dish (rectangulary) and pour in the batterz.

8. Bakebakebake for 1 hr & 15 minutes, approximately.

9. Share with fwendz.

6a.m. cooking spree

It's 6a.m. and I've already made mango gaucamole. I'm in the middle of making cheese, banana cake and pickled green beans too. I've got sweet potatoes boiling for the banana cake--this will be a new recipe all my own. I guess this is what happens when I don't get my bake on for two months.

Coffee's being drank as we speak.

The cheese will be ricotta, the product of one gallon of milk heated over a very low heat for a couple hours until it starts to boil. This is the point when I will add one cup of cider vinegar to separate the curds from the whey. I will have to find a good use for the whey...
The next step is to strain the curds through cheesecloth - I've done this before but last time I used a turkey bag (thanks 99 cent store!). The turkey bag worked out but I'm hoping the cheese cloth will work better, though it doesn't look a whole lot finer than the turkey bag as I recall. That was several months ago.

The guacamole was simple to make and now it is delicious, but I'm too enthralled in prep to be too hungry. I simply took 3 very ripe avocados and pulled off the skin, added in the flesh of one quite ripe mango, half of one purple onion finely chopped, and a few vigorous twists of ground sea salt; mashed it all together and left the pits in the bowl; they add a great rich nutty flavor! This I learned from a lady who made awesome guac for a friend's birthday celebration at San Diego Bike Polo (in Chula Vista) just a few months back. Thanks lady, sorry I don't remember who you were! Thanks Fraggle for having an awesome polo birthday!

What else, what else? Ah yes, pickles and cake.

These pickles will be very special pickles because I am pickling green beans that were grown in Pennsylvania by my father. They're quite tasty raw, but I couldn't resist the urge to pickle them. I had to go on quite a hunt today to find fresh dill, but now I have everything I need (except only two jars), so pickles are under way. I need to find more jars, though. What is my pickle recipe, pray tell? Sorry, you can't have it! But I'll share the finished product in 3 weeks time.

And cake. Banananananananana cake. The kind that Batman loves. I'm still making decisions about this recipe as we speak, but I'm excited to toss some sweet potatoes and chocolate in it. Oh man, then I gotta find someone to help me eat it...

Maya Pedal, Guatemala

Maya Pedal makes "bicimaquinas," machines powered by pedal, to do mechanized work without electricity. From donated bikes of all shapes and sizes are made grinders, threshers, pumps, blenders, trailers and more. I'd love to spend some time working with this crew.