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Sunday, February 13, 2011

Teff Flour

Teff is really great stuff. "Teff flour is made from the grain teff, and is of considerable importance in eastern Africa (particularly around the horn of Africa). Notably, it is the chief ingredient in the bread injera, an important component of Ethiopian cuisine" source. It's a pretty healthy flour, and I bought some to try to make injera.


And when I realized that making injera isn't something I wanted to spend a lot of time doing, I tucked the flour away and forgot about it.


Until I recently wanted to bake some bread (because baking bread is fun) and found the little bag of teff flour in the back of my pantry.


I substituted 1/4 cup of teff flour for 1 cup of wheat flour in the recipe, and the bread was delicious.









Friday, February 11, 2011

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Gingerbread Grandfather Clock

My gingerbread didn't come out quite the way I wanted it to. Not particularly surprising, but sad nonetheless. Here's some pictures:


You can see the clock face through the glass here


Here's the whole thing. Yup, tilted.


There's a pendulum in there. Even if you can't really see it through the yellow-ish candy glass.

Next year I've got to do something more simple. 5 pieces or less is my goal.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Nick's 21st Bday

We really celebrate our birthdays in this household, because celebrating other things out & about is way too expensive (like Valentines Day, for example. Never go out to dinner on Valentine's Day). My birthday is mid-May, and his is Mid-December, both times where it's really cheap to go out and do things. Perfect.

This year, Mr. Nicholas turned 21. I suppose we could have been all traditional-like and gone to a club and gotten wasted and not remembered the whole celebration but I have to be honest and let you know that I'm not into that crowd. I don't think I've been to a club in over three years, and the last time I got drunk was nearly four years ago. Not my thing, nope.

So instead of getting HAMMERED BABY we went wine tasting instead. And since it was December and the weather was coldish, there were almost no lines and prices were lower than usual. It was excellent.

We went by three wineries: Artesa, which is my favorite for the cool building and art; Sterling, my favorite for the great tour; and we stopped by Catello di Amerosa, which we are planning on going to next time (because it is so cool!).

One downside of going on couple trips: taking photos of yourself.



So we felt pretty lucky when someone offered to take our picture for us!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Cat Treats 2

I made more treats for my cat, using a different recipe.


This is cornmeal, flour, and tuna. It's like, a cup of cornmeal, a cup of flour, and a can of tuna. And my cat wouldn't eat them. That's the last time I bake for her picky behind.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Tea

Mr. Nicolas and I really like tea. Really really like it. And as a treat to ourselves on holidays and special occasions we buy ourselves new special teas :) Here's one of the last ones we bought (for Christmas :)


This is kiwi strawberry..."tea". Cuz there's actually no tea involved. It's just fruit. But it's delicious! Especially sweetened by honey :).

We get all our loose leaf tea (and "tea") from Far Leaves Tea on College Ave. in Berkeley.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Gingerbread Cookies

I made the gingerbread for my sculpture, but I had some left over, so I made cookies. To make them, I rolled my dough flat and then sprinkled peppermint and butterscotch pieces in them, rolled them up, and then sliced them.



They were pretty good, but they're the type of cookie that is constantly droopy/sticky, so if you stack them they become permanently stuck together. Lame. I have this weird idea that food should be both tasty AND pretty :p

These were made with this gingerbread recipe.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Ginger Bread Walls


This eventually became a grandfather clock (albeit not a very good one). Do you see it? I used the same recipe I mentioned yesterday, but I used stick butter instead of tub :)

It still wasn't as strong as I wanted it to be :(