the instagram diaries edition I

Weekend instagrams:


Left: mom and dad at breakfast
Right: cafe near the university. (My dad's birthday is three days after mine!)

Left: coconut flan made by my mom for my dad's birthday desert Thursday.
Right: homemade almond joys with sea salt and cocoa powder I made for a church function Friday night.
Left: practicing Handel aria Friday afternoon for for the solo festival Saturday.
Right: Jerome, thinking.

Left: on the way home from church
Right: flowers blooming on the porch.

carrot muffins (with spinach...)

Notice: DO NOT pay attention to this recipe! I made coconut almond truffles with sea salt today and will be sharing pictures soon! Chocolate galore! Why would you feed yourself spinach muffins?


Now that I've just told you that, let's get on to the muffins. Because they really are delicious. And even though I only put a handful of finely chopped spinach into the batter...they are relatively healthy.


 I used this carrot cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen. A few changes were made- I took out the raisins and walnuts, and forgot the ginger.  I added lemon zest.  (Already told you about the spinach.) I didn't make the maple frosting and instead opted for a topping of brown sugar, cinnamon, and oats.

I used unbleached white flour for these. If you wanted to you could you could use whole wheat flour, but to be honest I'm just not brave enough to serve someone Whole Wheat Carrot Spinach Muffins. At that point I'd just go for some seed bread and raw spinach.

After all, we could be eating that butter-heavy bundt cake I posted a few weeks ago.

Obviously these muffins would not feel at home in the vegetable family. Their sugary tops would betray their true identity- breakfast sirens enticing you with little pieces of shredded roots and leaves.

Deb (from SK) calls this "a great little recipe to tuck away in your files come January when the entire world is on a diet but somehow thinks that three cups of grated carrots makes these babies 'health' food."

I'm sure my measly handful of spinach is only encouraging this deception...

 Go here to see the original recipe. I won't bother writing out my version, because it's so simple. Don't add too much spinach. The measurements for the topping ingredients don't have to be very exact. Just make sure your topping is nice and crumbly....

alvord desert in watercolors

A month or so ago I was thinking about how much I hate painting. This naturally meant that a few days later I would be painting something. Obviously nothing spectacular, but watercolors are so much fun to play with.

I had a very nice 17th birthday on Monday. I received an iPhone from my parents, found a pair of jeans that actually fit, my grandparents came over for dinner, and we all had roasted brussel sprouts with sea salt and bananas foster. (I challenge you to come up with something more delicious.)

                              ***

 A few years ago my dad jumped into a swimming pool (in street clothes) to fish out my younger sister- who had naively followed her adventurous (then 9-year-old brother Gabe) into the deep end. The iPhone in his pocket was deemed useless after this incident and replaced. Louis received the seemingly dead iPhone and eventually resuscitated it.
So the night I got my nice new phone, Louis decided it was an appropriate time to download a free texting app on his sans-service phone. Now he texts me, begging for ice cream, insulting me, commenting on the weather- oh wait, that text was from my other brother who is now the owner of my old iTouch.

Clearly, I am doomed to a life of long, inane, hilarious conversations. Conversations, I will add, that are grammatically correct. Why yes, when the first iPhone came out I was reading David Copperfield.

weekend

Here are some weekend hipstamatics (in random order) for you all...some were taken by my mom, others by me.

Left: ice cream at Rose's in Northeast Portland last night. Not the best part of town. We only got out of the car once, to get this ice cream.
Right: the view on the way home this afternoon.
Left: Jerome enjoying the ferry.
Right: More driving.
Left: me holding "Diana," my cousin's rabbit. Said rabbit's brothers and sisters are going to be eaten in the near future. Diana escaped this fate and now has doll dresses and spinach in her future.
Right: Mercy and Susanna before bed last night.

friday

It's gray and rainy outside today. Here are some things I think are worth posting about:

These are carrot/spinach muffins. You probably couldn't guess that, from the picture. There are flecks of spinach in there. Everyone around here loved these. Next time I'm adding more spinach! I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen today, and made some changes. I'll post the recipe next week.
Feathers. I've been adding them to headbands. I love these particular ones, but can't figure out what to do with them. Earrings? Probably too uncomfortable....
One of the many headbands I've sewn. I'm still deciding whether to sell them on Etsy. I've heard a lot of good and bad things about the site, and know that it takes a lot of patience to establish a shop. I personally wouldn't buy them because I love making things myself. Still, I need to do something with the extras that I won't wear. My sister wears hers all the time so I'll probably make her another one.
So, what do you think?
Maybe I'll have a giveaway sometime...
Homework! This is Dante's Comedy. Purgatory to be exact.


I hope everyone has a pleasant weekend!

bread

My mom makes lovely loaves of bread.

Artisan Bread In Five Minutes a Day is really a wonderful cookbook. I won't bother to tell you about the details of this method - you can go to the website and read about it. It takes little time and tastes wonderful. My aunt introduced us to it last fall and we've been eating it ever since!

The loaf pictured is white, but my mom has also experimented with whole wheat and semolina flours. Enjoy the pictures! I could seriously photograph bread all day....

chocolate cupcakes

I went to the dentist earlier this afternoon and wondered why hardly anyone was there. Yes, eventually I figured out. Anyway, I'm happy now because the dentist's office will be full tomorrow and I won't have to go in! Because my teeth are clean. Or were.

I made chocolate cupcakes yesterday afternoon and they were gone by 8:00 last night. I still have a significant amount of leftover batter so I'll be baking some more this week. Here are some shots from yesterday:

I like all cupcakes. But there is no question that some cupcakes are just better than others. In my opinion, the best kind of cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes. Yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting are acceptable, too.

Baking with cocoa powder is such a wonderful experience. It smells wonderful and looks so rich and brown. In addition it has a tendency to coat your counter tops....what? You don't like that?
So here's the final product:

Yes, they are homely. (Picture quality isn't too good, either!) But when cupcakes are concerned I definitely prefer taste over appearance.


This recipe was found on the back of my cocoa powder container yesterday. It's extremely easy....

TRADER JOE'S CHOCOLATE CAKE
3 1/3 cups of flour
1 1/3 cups of unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups of sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp of salt
1 tbsp baking powder
3 cups of buttermilk
1 tsp of vanilla
12 oz. of butter (1 1/2 stick)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 9" round baking pans or line cupcake cups with paper liners. Place all ingredients in electric mixer bowl and beat on high speed for 3 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl once during mixing. Pour into prepared pans or cupcake cups. (About 3/4 full for cupcakes.) Bake cakes for about 55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean, or bake cupcakes for 20-25 minutes.

I have no frosting recipe to post on here, because I always make them up. Basically I start out with half a stick of butter and slowly add powdered sugar until the mixture starts to resemble frosting. I add just enough milk (and sometimes vanilla) to make the frosting creamy, but not too thin. Obviously cocoa powder was used this time, as well.

Never forget the sprinkles! Those are the best part:)

thoughts

I was cleaning up my hard drive yesterday and found these photos from last summer:

I'm trying to burn all my personal pictures onto disks. (Ambitious, much?) I bought a bunch of cheap Walgreen's prints last September, but there are still many un-printed photos that are valuable to me. 

I want to be that person with hundreds of printed photos. I wish I had more pictures of my parents when they were younger...not posed, necessarily. I love the idea that someday people will get to look at all the photos I've taken of my siblings just doing ordinary things.

Side note: My latest obsession is this site.  I found Hideaki Hamada's work in one of the galleries, and instantly loved it. Perfect light and color....the family is adorable, too. Also, while you're on Fubiz, check out this brilliant project. Actually, just do yourself a favor and forget I even told you about this....it will save you a lot of time!
Random observation: I love how Susanna is wearing two patterns here.

Highlights of this weekend:

Made this cake
went and saw a musical put on by my old children's theater co.
went to church
found a really, really good cupcake recipe and made it
homemade pizza with the grandparents

Yes, I know there has been a lot of food on the blog lately. It might be a new blogging obsession. This blog is getting too random for its own good.


I'm going to post about cupcakes in the next few days, but here's a outtake for you:

citrus bundt cake with raspberry sauce

 I think the smell of citrus is the best scent in the world. I love anything that smells like lemons, limes, oranges or grapefruits.
I adapted this particular cake recipe from this Blood Orange Bundt Cake. I didn't have any blood oranges in the house, though, so I just used regular ones.
On to the cake!

CITRUS BUNDT CAKE
3 cups cake flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup milk
4 large eggs
juice and zest of one orange
juice and zest of one lemon
juice and zest of one lime
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 325. Grease a bundt pan THOROUGHLY with nonstick spray (otherwise your the top of your cake will stick to the pan like mine did!)  Whisk flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time to butter mixture. Add vanilla, fruit juices and zest to the butter mixture. Add flour mixture and milk, mixing slowly. Don't overmix- otherwise your cake will have a dense, bread-like texture. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let cool partially BEFORE removing the cake from the pan.

RASPBERRY SAUCE (found HERE)
2 cups fresh raspberries
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup cold water

Combine the raspberries, sugar, and orange juice in a saucepan. Whisk the cornstarch into the cold water until smooth. Add the mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil.
Simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until the desired consistency is reached. The sauce will thicken further as it cools.
Puree the sauce in a food processor (or blender) and strain it through a fine sieve. Serve warm or cold. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

I would really recommend using a plastic citrus juicer to juice the oranges you'll need for the cake and the sauce:

first-recipe-I-see-cookies

I know I just posted about food, but since it's a week day and I'm busy with a lot of other things, these chocolate chip cookie photos will have to do.

Some cookie-related thoughts:

1. My dog stands next to me when I photograph food outside. Should I get her some sort of light-reflecting cone to wear? My pictures could always use a little lighting help, and seeing how the most productive thing Lucy does all day is rotate to different napping stations around the house....

2. Jerome likes the old Cookie Monster. And as much as I dislike 99% of children's shows, so do I. I'll gladly choose the glutton non compos mentis over the cartoon characters trying to shove carrots down my throat.

 3. One of my new life-goals is to bake cookies in a car. I'm not sure where or when this is going to happen.

4. If the title of this post confuses you, let me explain. When making cookies I always go for the first recipe I see in the google search results. Fortunately for me, they always seem to turn out ok. This particular recipe (with a few changes by me) is at the end of this post. Enjoy!

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips

3/4 cup rolled oats

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Add the flour mixture then the chocolate chips and oats. Roll cookie dough into balls and place on greased baking sheet. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. 

fruit and vegetables

Today my mom was trying out a few new fruit/vegetable smoothie recipes so I "borrowed" some of the ingredients....food photography is so fun.