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Posts tagged ‘honey’

Apr 25

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Lembas Bread for Tolkien Reading Day (Vegan, Soy Free and Gluten Free)

We’re going totally topsy turvy this week!  Vegan food!  Gluten Free!  Oh and Fantasy Friday being hosted on a Thursday but it’s for an important reason.  Today is Tolkien Reading Day!  Set on March 25th each year to commemorate the fall of Sauron, fans of the Middle Earth are encourage to read or rather re-read this epic saga.  Since I’m on a journey of my own with this vegan challenge, it seems appropriate to call upon the fellowship.  What did they travel with but the elven Lembas bread–a recipe I had yet to tackle.    I’ve seen a few recipes on the net for Lembas bread but one thing has always bothered me: they were essential just short bread cookies or butter cakes.  Hardly the sort of thing you take on a long journey.  The bread needs to be sweet and delicious but also full of protein, vitamins and fiber.  Challenge accepted!  I totally would imagine Tolkien’s’ elves as vegans…wouldn’t you?  I mean I think the Mirkwood elves in The Hobbit may be depicted as eating meat at their feast scene.  I don’t remember those details and I should try to look it up I suppose.  I’m sure I will later but for now I’m going to stick with my mental image of the elves as vegans.  I could buy that .  Except for one thing: pretty sure the elves eat honey.  Did you know honey isn’t universally considered vegan?  When I first found out, I though okay, it made a modicum of sense—honey is after all an animal product of sorts.  It’s produced by insects which aren’t really classified as animals but I can see the logic path that would leave vegans to opposing honey.

Then I thought about it some more and realized that if you consider insects “people too” you basically have to desist from eating anything manufactured.  In fact even growing a backyard garden and employing some organic tricks for pest control would mean impacting and killing the insect population should be disallowed.  At what point do you draw the line?  In a normal day any plant processing your vegan agave nectar is going to kill a thousand insects simply as a side effect of running the plant.  Bugs get in the gears; bugs get in the food; bugs get everywhere and they get filtered out.  So I can’t really get on board with the anti-honey vegans.  The issue of animal-cruelty hypocrisy has been pretty prescient lately when PETA was exposed for “putting down” up to 96% of the animals they “rescued”.  Having worked with dog rescues for years I’ve known this for a long time and wasn’t surprised.  It’s why I never, ever have supported PETA.  Bunch of money grabbing phonies.

One of the driving motivations behind vegetarianism, and veganism, is the issue of animal cruelty.  Factory farming practices for animal welfare are abysmal.  I don’t think I’m going to surprise anyone by saying that.  Most of us are happy to plug our ears, close our eyes and try not to imagine the animal that used to be alive outside that Styrofoam and plastic wrapped non-animal looking pound of protein.  Nevermind that cows are kept crammed together in their own feces and fed diets that make them ill.  Nevermind that hens are kept so close to one another they peck each other out of anxiety.  Nevermind that pigs experience such anxiety in their close captivity that they bit each other’s tails—causing horrible infections.  To combat this farms frequently cut off their tails which actually puts the pigs in more pain because nerve endings are exposed but eliminates the pesky, costly infections.   And yes pigs DO experience emotions like anxiety.  They are highly evolved, intelligent creatures despite the dirty connotations we’ve given them over time.  That being said I don’t have a problem normally with eating them because wild pigs are also really fucking MEAN.  The tiny, human bred teacup kind people keep for pets might be Wilbur-esque but the sort you find on a farm, the natural version?  They’ll eat your kneecaps before you can yell uncle.

I accept that in the natural order of things some animals eat other animals—and that I am one of those predators.  That doesn’t limit my desire to see these animals raised humanely and slaughtered as painlessly as possible.  I think of this way: torture is often seen as something worse than death.  Keeping someone in a state of constant pain and agony until they desire to no longer exist is horrible and overall we tend to object to torture more vehemently than even death itself.  I accept this because, as with the honey issue, finding a way to eliminate any negative effect of our human need to eat on other living creatures is impossible.  I’m not convinced that honey farming, especially the small scale local level, is particularly harmful to the mental state of the insects.  I do buy locally sourced honey and not just because I try to be a locavore, but because eating local honey has been demonstrated to help with allergies—local pollens and all that.

That’s my biggest problem with veganism, and to a lesser extent vegetarianism, if you examine it closely enough you will always find something that is inconsistent with this mindset.  Vegetarians who eat eggs, as an example, if they get eggs from factory farms are still supporting the slaughter of chickens.  In order to raise hens for egg laying farms will have to hatch thousands of eggs and male chickens, aka roosters, get tossed in a grinder upon hatching.  So ovo-vegetarians you ARE supporting this industry unless you buy eggs from small farms that raise their own hens and don’t slaughter baby boys.

In fact…the egg laying hen industry essentially Craster’s Keep of the food world.  Anyway that’s why I’m happy to align myself as this new fangled term “flexitarian”.   I realize that there will always be some impact from my existing and eating–but I can work to minimize that as much as possible.  For that I do applaud those who make the vegan and vegetarian lifestyle choices.  At least they are doing something…minimizing the cost.  Just don’t get too militant about it and recognize that in the end something, whether its a cow or a blade of grass, dies for us to eat.  Let’s give it the respect it deserves and avoid the nasty factory farming practices that really are just unnecessarily cruel and unusual.

Which brings me back to our geeky subject of the day!  So what do you think?  Would the elves of Tolkien’s world be vegans?  I imagine that since they are magical there are ways for the children of the wood to avoid killing even a single bug in the making of their food.  If hobbits are the hippies of middle earth, the elves are definitely the vegan no-soy latte hipsters.  Sorry Legolas.    I’ve made two LOTR/Hobbit recipes already: Beorn’s Twice Baked Honey Cakes and Sam Gamgee’s Potato Dumplin’s… but I still hadn’t tackled the most iconic of all the foods in this world: Lembas Bread.

‘So it is,’ they answered, ‘But we call it lembas or way bread, and it is more strengthening than any food made by Men, and it is more pleasant than cram, by all accounts.’

‘Indeed it is’ said Gimli. ‘Why, it is better than the honey-cakes of the Beornings, and that is great praise, for the Beornings are the best bakers that I know of”

And so without further ado I provide a recipe that is Gluten Free, Soy Free AND Vegan* It’s loaded with protein and fiber to keep you full on your journey.  My genuine original recipe and I’m incredibly proud of it because it’s INSANELY. FRAKKING. DELICIOUS.  One waybread slice is supposed to be enough to feed any man but I definitely went hobbit on these and devoured 4 or 5 though in my defense I cut them smaller than they are shown in the films.  Thanks to the high protein of the garbanzo, amaranth and almonds, this bread is not only going to taste good but it will keep you sustained both with carbs for your glycogen reserves and as a complete source of protein.

*I used honey in my version but if you are a non-honey eating vegan feel free to substitute agave nectar instead.

Lembas Bread

An Olivia Original Read more

Apr 1

Race and Beans- Sephardic for Passover

morrocanbeefpreservedlemons (4)Two more days!   Then it’s totally time for Pizza and Beer.  The perfect counterbalance to the Passover grain-free agony.  I am retaining so much water too.  I’ve gained something like 2-3 pounds in the last two days alone.  I feel so bloated and disgusting.  Oy.

morrocanbeefpreservedlemons (2)But just like two more days we’ve got two more pieces to our Seder plate to discuss.  Today is a simple one – the Zeroa or lamb shank.  The bone is placed on the plate to represent G-d’s arm as it swept over the land and protected the Jews.  Remember that blood of the lamb was what Jewish homes were marked with so their children were spared the fate of the tenth plague.  Lamb was also traditionally sacrificed each year for the holiday at the Holy Temple…until its destruction.  My understanding is that it is because of the destruction of the Holy Temple that the lamb shank on the seder plate is now ceremonial and no lamb is consumed that night.  To remember that without a temple there was no way to perform the ceremony and sacrifice.  What temple do I speak of?  Once the Jews finally reached the Holy Land they constructed their Holy Temple.  Except this structure was destroyed…twice; first by Babylonians and then later by the Romans.  The Greeks  tried to get in on the action too in between those attempts but the temple was never destroyed and was reclaimed by a group of Jewish fighters—this story actually relates back to the only Hebrew Holiday most Americans know – Hanukkah.  Anyway after the second destruction the Romans banned the Jews from Jerusalem.  Eventually Muslims conquered the holy land and a series of Christian/Muslim holy wars ensued.  A third temple has never been constructed though it is often prayed for and the subject of much debate.  The Temple Mount, which is what remains of the Holy Temple, is a highly contested religious location as you might imagine.

morrocanbeefpreservedlemons (7)Now let’s segue for a minute though this will come back around I promise you.  The holiday is finally starting to wind down and by now you may have caught a Jewish friend scarfing down a burrito bowl out with friends.  “Wait a minute!” You say now armed with the knowledge from my Matzo post “Aren’t beans and rice considered “kitniyot” and also forbidden along with grains”  Your friend might reply with something along the lines of “Ummmm I’m going Sephardic for Passover” and then continue to stuff his or her face with chipotle contraband.  No that wasn’t a sneeze though it is a lame, but incredibly useful, copout many of us will use.

See Judaism is not a race.  Judaism is a culture.  There are many races that comprise the Jewish community.  This repeated destruction of the temple and removal of Jews from their holy land resulted in centuries of diaspora – or the movement away from a homeland.  The Jewish people became a scattered people across the globe.  And it wasn’t just this one time that they were relocated either.  European history is littered with records of countries expelling Jews at various times.  We were a pretty nomadic people for hundreds of years.  Guess the desert was good preparation.

Most traditionally when people think of “Jews” they think of North and Eastern European Jews known as the Ashkenazi.  You know the type.  Big noses, skin that doesn’t tan set against dark hair and the funny looking sideburns.  The thing is that Jews are NOT a race.  They don’t have a set of distinctive and universal features like skin color.  There are African Jews, Asian Jews, Israeli/Middle Eastern and Western European Jews—it’s a global Jew-demic!  Religious practices aren’t consistent either across these various groups as centuries of separation and Talmudic study led to differing practices.  This is partly why you have so many different aspects of the religion (orthodox, reform, conservative) and also is why I consistently say that Judaism transcends religion and race—it’s a culture and it’s a big one.morrocanbeefpreservedlemons

So what are Sephardic Jews?  Sephardic Jews are those who settled in North Africa and Western Europe.  Passover for Sephardic Jews does not entail a ban on things like rice, lentils and other legumes that resemble grains.  Why?  Well think about the cultures they were exposed to.  France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco specifically are all regions where rice, beans, and these other items are largely part of the regional diet.  I don’t think rice was as essential to the Germans.  Assimilation to culture and just a different interpretation of religious text has resulted in a separate custom.  So your more traditionally Ashkenazi friend might decide to “adopt” the Sephardic label for Passover to make eating easier.  It’s not really “kosher” to do so but some years you make concessions I guess.  What I do wonder and don’t know is how this works out in Israel.  I’d love some feedback from Israeli jews.  The second largest population of immigrants to Israel, after Russian Jews (Ashkenazi), were Moroccan Jews.  Yup like Casablanca.  I wonder if the Sephardi who moved to Israel have given up this practice of eating non-grain, grainy like foods….morrocanbeefpreservedlemons (6)

Then of course there’s Quinoa.  Quinoa is for some bizarre reason not considered kitniyot.  It was explained to me by another friend like this “the Rabbis didn’t know it existed so they didn’t know to expressly forbid it.”  Erm.  Okay.  Another loophole.  Whatever if it means I get something starchy to put in my stomach other than this Matzo I’m happy!

Moroccan Lamb Meatballs

an Olivia Original

Meatballsmorrocanbeefpreservedlemons (3)

  • 2 lb ground lamb
  • 1 small preserved lemon, peel, chopped
  • 1 sweet onion, chopped
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tbsp matzo meal
  • 1 tsp coriander
  • 1 tsp roasted cumin
  • ½ tsp turmeric
  • 1 cup chopped parsley
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • ½ tsp cinnamon

Sauce

  • 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
  • 1-28 oz can crushed tomatoes
  • 2 small preserved lemons, chopped
  • 5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • ½ tsp cayenne pepper (more adjusted to desired spice)
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 Tbsp honey
  • 1 cup chicken or beef stock
  • 2-3 large sliced bell peppers
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

For the meatballs: blend together the spices and mix into the ground lamb.  In a food processor be sure to mince down the lemon and onion very fine.  Mix this into the ground lamb followed by the egg and matzo meal.  Form small meatballs – about 1 inch in diameter and set aside.  Preserved lemons are very salty so you will not need to add any salt to this mixture.

Sauce: Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a sauce pan over medium high heat.  Add the onion, garlic and the bell peppers and cook for 6-8 minutes until translucent.  Pour in the crushed tomatoes and chicken stock.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Add the lemons and spices and let this simmer for about 10 minutes until the volume reduces slightly.  Taste and add honey or salt and pepper to desired flavor.

Meanwhile in large wide rimmed pan or tagine add the other 1 Tbsp of oil over high heat.  Add in the meatballs and brown—approximately 6 to 8 minutes on one side, turn and heat another 5.  Remove from the heat until you are ready to add the sauce.  Pour the sauce into the large pan with the meatballs and return to medium heat, cover and cook for an additional 20 minutes.  The meatballs will cook and flavor the sauce as well.

After 20 minutes taste and adjust seasoning as needed.  If the sauce is too thick you can thin it out with a little more broth.  Serve over rice or quinoa.

 

Mar 27

1 Comment

Early baked bread, fails to rise, makes a Jew ask why matzo is prized?

So Olivia…why is it that during Passover you complain about not getting to eat any “Chametz”?  Why can’t you come out for pizza and beer?  And why in the world are you eating those crackers all the time that taste like cardboard?

You are not to eat any hametz with it; for seven days you are to eat with it matzah, the bread of affliction; for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste. Thus you will remember the day you left the land of Egypt as long as you live.    —Deuteronomy 16:3

Matzo Brittle!

Passover is a very holiday that is very strongly focused on the children of the family.  Much of the purpose of the retelling of the story, the ceremony itself, is about teaching the younger generation about their history.  Traditionally after the dipping of the Karpas (see yesterday’s post) the youngest child becomes a part of the ceremony.   The youngest will ask 4 questions of the person leading the seder and this guides the telling.  These are the same questions every year so it’s sort of like a recital.  I’m not sure that your five year-old is itching to participate in a religious ceremonial recital but it helps keep the kids engaged.  Which brings us to the next portion of the seder plate and the first question the child is supposed to ask:

Shebb’khol hallelot anu okh’lin ḥamets umatsa, vehallayla hazze kullo matsa.
Translated: Why is it that on all other nights during the year we eat either leavened bread or matza, but on this night we eat only matza?

You might be familiar with this funny looking cracker in the Kosher aisle of your grocery store.  Every year around easter time you might notice that boxes of it pile up in the aisles next to concord grape wine and a bunch of candles.  These giant crackers are called Matza or Matzah or Matzo…or plural Matzot.  There are a lot of spelling variations.  To keep it simple I’m just going to stick with Matzo.

Matzo is unleavened bread that Jews eat during Passover to remember the flight out of Egypt.  Remember how the Pharaoh suddenly changed his mind about freeing the slaves?  Well the Jews were savvy to this possibility, or maybe they were understandably in a hurry to just get away once freed, either way in the haste to get out of dodge the story goes that the Jews wanted to get out so badly they didn’t bother waiting for bread dough to rise.  They slapped it together, baked it, packed and left with flat loaves of bread for the journey to freedom.  This bread symbolizes both freedom and servitude for while it is part of the story of liberation, it also reminds us that we were slaves.  Thus it is known as “the bread of affliction” and also as a poor man’s bread.

Yeast, the microorganism which causes bread to rise, also is what breaks down wheat and gives bread flavor.  As such traditional Matzo is pretty damn flavorless.  Passover Matzo is made of only flour and water—nothing else.    The rest of the year you can buy some pretty damn delicious versions (sour cream and onion egg matzo is delicious) but for Passover the plain kind is all that is allowed.  Additionally no other leavened grain is to be eaten.  Grains include: wheat, barley, spelt, oats and rye.  These grains and anything produced with leavening are called “Chametz” and they are forbidden.  Thus no pizza and no beer.

In fact typically the more observant Ashkenazi Jewish households also remove foods considered “kitniyot” or “small things”.  These are any foods that resemble grain.  The idea being that even having them around mind lead someone to get confused/distracted and accidentally eat Chametz with them or someone might think you are eating Chametz.  Kitniyot includes: rice, beans, corn and lentils.  Sephardic Jews are less stringent on this matter….  (Olivia what is a Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jew?  — I’ll explain that in a few days)

There really is a lot more to the Matzo than I’m even getting into here.  It’s one of the oldest and most symbolic parts of the Passover Seder.  Still I know that this post has already gone on pretty long so now I will reward you with a tasty recipe for turning Matzo into a delicious dessert.  Which brings me to one last thing….

In order to keep the kidlets engaged and alert during Seder, there’s one last tradition I should mention about Matzo.  Matzo is considered the “Afikomen” or dessert for the Passover Seder.  Right before the youngest child asks the 4 questions, and after the eating of the Karpas, the matzo is uncovered on the table.  Typically there are three pieces and the middle one is broken in half.  The larger half is hidden by the family and the children go on a Matzo hunt after the meal to find it.    Now I’ve never found anything concrete proving this but the earliest recordings of egg hunts as part of a certain other religious holiday *cougheastercough* around this time of year didn’t pop up until the 18th century…so you’ve gotta wonder whether this played into that now mainstream practice we all know about.

Anyway plain matzo as dessert?  PAH.  Not in my house.  Nope I make this insanely delicious version of matzo – matzo brittle.  Mmmmmm.  The recipe is going to list butter OR shortening—use shortening if you want to keep the dessert parve.  Don’t know what that means?  Don’t worry about it, I’ll explain another day about Kosher laws.

 

Chocolate Honey-Almond Matzo Brittle Read more

Mar 20

Heart and Mind, Toddy and Soul

For the most part I’ve written about how content I am with my life right now.  Well not content.  That’s a bad word in my vocabulary but I’m happy with where I’m at and don’t really feel like I’m missing out on anything by steadfastly remaining in my single and selfish zone.  Then there are nights like tonight; rainy, slightly cold evenings that scream out for a good movie, hot toddies, and popcorn.  What’s a hot toddy?  Um try a delicious warm beverage made from honey, lemon and bourbon/whisky.  It’s like drinking hot tea but with alcohol!  Yup rainy, wet cold evening– I want all these things and maybe, yes, it would pair well with that unmatchable feeling which accompanies having someone special to curl up into.  I’ll admit that even I feel a slight pang of longing on nights like this.  After all I’m working so hard on developing the mind, body and soul parts these days.  Is the heart just abandoned to the manchmal?

My body is healthier, stronger, and leaner than ever.  The health aspect really is such a triumph for me.  I did succumb to illness finally but I got better in a timely fashion that indicates I’m actually a human being with a functioning immune system now.  Contrasting this against say my junior year of high school, I was out sick 1 of every 3 days on average, makes me extremely happy.  I remember the sad resignation I felt when I walked into AP Bio after missing 3 days and having my friend happily announce “We’re studying what’s broken in you!” as I walked in.  This was his humorous way of letting me know we’d moved onto the immune system portion of our anatomy unit.  I laughed but it was a really sad truth and at the time it was one I thought would define me for the rest of my life.  Losing weight and getting into ridiculously good shape, because let’s face it I’ve got a Hot Toddy Body going on right now, was a fantastic bonus to my health efforts.  Body is good.  Body is great.

Soul is coming along.  I feel like I’m getting to explore so many interests and expand my horizons.  I’m sharing them as I can with you, dear reader, in my adventure posts.   One thing that I’d say is still craving in my life is more time exploring this acting world I’ve had a taste of.  When I go back and look at the videos I’ve done that itch gets harder to ignore.  Starting in April I’ll be taking some improv courses in Berkeley with my friend Doug and hopefully participating in some stagey theater productions.  Then who knows…I’ll see how it plays out.  Some people can get a thrill, knitting sweaters and sitting still /That’s OK for some people don’t know they’re alive/Some people can thrive and bloom, living life in a living room/ That’s perfect for some people of one hundred and five /But I, at least gotta try Even if this doesn’t play out the point is that I’m really pushing myself to grow and expand outward, soaking up everything in the world that I can.

Mind is happy.  I’m happy because I’m growing.  I’m learning, stretching and exploring my various worlds every day.  I have work, hobbies, habits and I’ve been able to indulge my appetite for books in a way I haven’t childhood.  I’m taking classes now through the UC Berkeley extension to get my Clinical Trial certification – already on week three of my first semester!  It’s nice to get back to my Hermione roots with school and reading.  It’s like discovering an old friend or putting on that cozy, oversized sweater.  I was always a bookworm and teacher’s pet and I’m okay with that.  I had my reasons for being so invested in my teachers, a post topic for another day, and school functioned largely as an escape for me.  It had rules that I understood, goals I could attain, and since knowledge is the basis for transformative power I have always been damned determined to get as much as I can.  In the meantime I’m learning tons on the job and really, really finding out that I enjoy it.  It’s nice to have a career.

I don’t sleep much but I don’t seem to need it so that’s okay.

But the heart…the heart has been left alone now for a while.  I think it’s going to continue to be despite longing on nights like this.  I miss it but I’m not ready yet, if ever, again to embrace that part of life.  There’s still a lot of healing left to go there.  I was telling my friend Dallas the other day that the common analogy about relationships leaving scars is flawed.  I don’t feel like my relationships have left scars.  Scar tissue heals and stops hurting eventually but you see them constantly until you learn to stop noticing.   Once it heals though it doesn’t open up again.  That just doesn’t seem quite right to me as an analogy.  Instead I realized that all my past hurts, betrayals, cheating and manipulations are like torn muscles and ligaments.  You have to stop exercising those muscles and let them heal—a process that has no treatment plan but time.  The pain fades and you’re able to eventually use them again BUT the wound might never heal all the way.  Put your foot down the wrong way during a run and that old ankle injury flares up all over again.  I saw a photo a few nights ago that did just that.  The biggest problem with these kinds of injuries is that repeated wounds to the same ligament/tendon/whatever will eventually make it impossible to heal.  It could be that’s why tonight I’m feeling a little bit lonelier than I normally would.  I have to wonder if I’ve just pulled this muscle one too many times for it to ever work right again.  I think I want it to.  I just don’t know that it can.

Meanwhile I might not have a hunk of man cake in the house, but I do have my hot toddy in cake form and that’s pretty damn good too.

Hot Toddy Cheesecake

An Olivia Original Read more

Feb 21

I’m hot, sticky sweet…

from my head to my BUNS..er, feet

A lot of my friends, and social media acquaintances, are presumably quite sick of hearing me go on and on about my love for Bikram yoga.  I am sure I mention it in at least a third of my blog posts here but if you’ll forgive me this time I have an “I’m kind of a big deal” announcement to make.  I just completed my first 30 day Bikram yoga challenge.  Actually when I say “just” I really mean I completed it over the weekend and as of this posting I will have gone 33 days in a row.  It’s a huge accomplishment.  But even more awesome was that day 30 I was joined by two lovely ladies who I’m friends with and may have infected them with the Bikram yoga bug.  And they aren’t the only ones.  It seems I’m a walking advertisement for the yoga and since I posted a photo from a recent photo shoot I did (more on that another day) I’ve had quite a few people come to me to say they were inspired to try Bikram for the first time and/or go back to it.

FL_Style_Lounge-0362b

I lost a lot of weight and toned a ton of muscle doing this yoga.  No joke, no gimmicks, no weight lifting required.  I very rarely go to the gym and when I do it’s to use a treadmill.  I will not say I **never** touch weights but I do it usually on a whim—usually because I just feel too good to want to stop working out.  The last time I touched a dumbbell was two weeks ago.  Just to provide a source of reference.  The reason no one ever believes that yoga can build muscle is because most Americans are more familiar with a fairly passive, meditative yoga.  Bikram is nothing like that.  It is 90 minutes of stretching and compression postures utilizing isometrics in a room heated to 105 degrees with 40% humidity.  You ever try doing squats, holding your arms out in front of you, and holding it for 3 minutes?  Now do that in a HOT room.  It will kick your yoga mocking butt.  There’s no staring into crystals and sighing “Ommmmm” in that room.

Why is it so hot?  The heat relaxes your muscles and lets you get a deeper stretch than you could in the cold.  It also decreases the risk of pulling a muscle that is not properly warmed up like you more often would in a gym.  The heat also creates more of a cardiovascular strain on your system as your body works harder to cool itself down while doing the poses.  This obviously means you sweat a ton.  Now I’m not sure how much of the concept of “sweating out toxins” is valid but the increased cardiovascular energy is certainly a good thing.  Interspersed with the stretching poses there are compression postures designed to cut off blood flow to different points of your body for short periods of time.  After releasing your heart works fast to deliver blood to these areas—the theory being that the rush of blood flow helps clean out arterial walls.  It also gets your heart rate up so that adds the cardio/weight loss element of the class.  I’ve always been a fan of coiling up in small spaces.  As a little girl I used to curl up into my cubby hole in kindergarten whenever I felt sad or upset.  The compression postures are very psychologically comforting for me as a result.

In short you can get some nice tight, hot little buns with Bikram yoga.  And speaking of hot, sticky buns….  Since today is National Sticky Bun Day and the process to make these involves heat, stretching and compression, it only seems appropriate to bake and blog about them as part of my 30-day challenge celebration!

Personally I always see these and immediately think of Princess Leia.  I think I probably saw Star Wars before I ever ate my first honey bun so that image is thoroughly burned into my brain.  Unfortunately the history of the sticky bun didn’t start on the planet of Alderaan but rather with the Pennsylvania Dutch.  Well okay actually just the Germans in general who brought the pastry over with them to the new world where it took off like (ha) hot cakes. The germans called these yeast raised dough treats “schnecken” which translates into snail.  Obviously a reference to their coiled shape.  Not nearly as cool as if it meant “kick ass space princess” but I guess we can’t win it all.  Traditional schnecken dough is made with sour cream and they often get mixed up with a similar Jewish treat called Rugelach which is made with cream cheese.  You’ll find both treats in some of the older, east coast Jewish communities.  It’s also a sweet served at every Sunday breakfast at the Walden Summer Camp for Girl’s in Maine—why is this at all an interesting piece of information?  Well back when Lindsey Lohan actually had a career this was the camp setting for a certain Parent Trap remake….  Just your random bursts of pop-culture knowledge to make up for a few days of non-posting.

Pecan Honey Buns

From Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from my home to yours

  Read more

Jan 24

4 Comments

What me germy?

Ah late January.  The peak of flu and cold season.  My office is a cesspool of snifflers, coughers and tummy-achers and I can only suppose that many of you are experiencing the same thing.  Some of you might be sick yourselves and not even know it yet.  DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.  Did you get your flu shot yet?  I know that the buzz is that this season is the worst in years…but doesn’t it kind of seem like they say that every year?  I stopped keeping track.  It used to be unimportant because I knew I would get sick regardless of anything I did—chronic bronchitis was a fact of my life—but now that I’m actually entering the first full year of my life lung-infection free, I find myself wanting to know these things again.  I’m tempted to get the flu shot but at the same time I’m afraid to disrupt the delicate balance my immune system seems to have achieved.  Like the clock said “If it isn’t Baroque, don’t fix it—ahahahaha” **TRIVIA TIME: name the movie that line is from and the name of the character who said it to win a prize.**

With that in mind it occurs to me that folks still might not know the difference between bacterial and viral infections.  I forget that not everyone was awake during biology in high school, and since my field of work is in the medical field, I also forget that few people are exposed to this kind of information past those adolescent years.  For those of you who do know this distinction, well this post will be something of a DUH for you.  For those of you who would say HUH about this topic, please try to keep your eyes open.  I really think it’s useful knowledge—I mean everyone gets sick eventually and don’t you want to know about the things that are going on inside your own body?  Of course you do!  If you don’t then you should because knowledge is power and staying healthy requires at least a basic rudimentary course in all things micro-organic.

What is the difference between bacteria and a virus?

Bacteria are living organisms capable, typically, of functioning entirely independent of the human host.  They are single celled organisms with their own DNA and reproductive cycles.  They live in all sorts of environments, including some extreme locations like the inside of volcanos, radioactive waste, frozen glaciers and inside of YOU.  Thankfully not all of these microscopic buggers are bad and in fact many of them are essential to keeping the delicate digestive balance in an array of animal life on the planet.  The bad bacteria however can really mess you up.  A bacterial infection occurs when one of these bad boys gets comfy somewhere in or on your body and begins to reproduce at a rapid rate.  These suckers make you sick with the byproducts of their growth, the breakdown of your body to feed them, and generally overwhelming your body with their numbers.  Since these organisms exist independent of your own bodily organs and cells, the way to eliminate the infection is to eradicate the invaders.  Antibiotics serve this purpose.  There are a number of types of antibiotics that are essentially little weaponized pills that target and destroy some aspect of the bacteria’s biology.  Penicillin, as an example, acts by disrupting the cell wall structure in bacterial cells.  Breaking down the cell walls causes the bacteria to die.  Antibiotic resistance is something that occurs when bacteria evolve and lose or modify the specific trait our antibiotics target.  For example if the bacteria strain previously susceptible to penicillin evolve to exist without cell walls will then be resistant to the drug and it would no longer work to kill them.  When you stop taking antibiotics before all the bacteria are killed you increase the likelihood of this kind of resistance happening.  Evolution is not a magical response to the drug—for example the bacteria being targeted won’t suddenly lose its cell wall.  Instead it is one of the subsequent generations, maybe the original bacterial’s great great great great grand-cell, which will have its DNA copied over incorrectly resulting in a mutation that causes it to lose the cell wall.  This is why it is so essential to finish your antibiotics.  Even if you are feeling better, there may be a few lonely bacterial cells wandering in your system.  They will continue to reproduce and over time may produce a freak of nature that is resistant to your drugs.  So finish that bottle and kill every last sucker!

A virus is an entirely different creature and in fact is still debated as to whether or not it can be considered “alive” or not.  A virus does not exist without a host.  A virus is essentially just a protein, a line of DNA, which hijacks your cells and causes them to stop producing your DNA and start producing the viral DNA.  Once your cell is hijacked it starts producing more cells that also code the viral DNA and continue to multiply and divide.  Since it’s your own cell that is now working against your body designing a medication to target and eradicate is a problem.  You’d need some way to distinguish between the viral cell and your healthy cell.  This can be extremely hard to do, especially when viruses multiply so quickly and evolve at a rapid rate.  Since the virus actually interacts with the host DNA it can incorporate and change more quickly.  Our immune systems are still the best at targeting and destroying the invaders provided they can act quickly enough and learn what the virus looks like.  So you might be wondering then: what is a flu shot?  It’s actually a shot of the virus.  Typically a dead version of the virus, though weakened live versions called “attenuated” vaccines, are becoming more common.  The whole point is to introduce your body to the virus so it can learn to recognize it and eradicate it should you ever come into contact again in the future.  This is why occasionally someone who gets a flu shot actually winds up getting sick.  Their body didn’t get the memo for some reason that it should be killing this weakened virus which then manages to just infect the person and get them sick.

Now bear in mind, those of you who are biopeople, that this is a very high level, low detail and generalized explanation.  I’m already broaching the two page mark and I don’t want to overload my readers and scare them off with big words or boring textbook rants.  Especially since I know most of you come here for the yummies and not the germies.

Well what about GERMY YUMMIES?  A different kind of germ: wheat germ!

These were the prize for my last trivia question which was won by Chelsea in LA – she was the first to note that my “Joey for Jam” was a reference to Joey from the show Friends who goes totally bonkers for the homemade jam brewed up by Monica.  I’ve always felt that of the characters on that show, I’m the most like Monica.  Jewish.  Battle of the binge and bulge.  Type A.  Cleans to distress.  Loves to cook and bake.  Always griping about people using coasters.  Oh yeah.  Definitely the Monica.

I really like these cookies.  They have a nice lemon-honey flavor and a wholesome look/texture thanks to the incorporation of wheat germ.  You might even feel like you’re eating something good for you since wheat germ is the part of wheat that is high in vitamins and fiber.  Typically it gets removed from white breads in the milling process because it produces a slightly grittier texture when left intact.  These cookies get a healthy load of the wheat germ both in the batter and sprinkled on top before baking.  So you can eat them and feel satisfied that on top of the bad for you sugar/fats, you’re also getting folic acid, vitamin e, zinc and some magnesium.  Who knows, they might even help you fight off a cold this season!  They definitely remind me a little of cup of hot lemon tea which I always associate with this time of year and sniffles.

Honey Wheat Germ Cookies

From Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking from my home to yours” Read more

Nov 29

A scone to pick with you….

With the holidays upon us and the push to consume! Consume! Consume!  I can’t help but point out a somewhat troubling trend that has been on my radar for some time now: geeksploitation.  Has anyone else noticed that with the “rise of geek chic” it seems like the marketplace is just flooded with products that are quite easily parting self-proclaimed geeks from dollars in their wallets?  It seems like the old adage “a fool and his money are easily parted” might apply here and while I hardly think of my community as a sea of fools, I am finding it all very overwhelming.

Every day I feel like I find another slew of products themed around various fandoms that I absolutely have to have.  (Except I don’t and I don’t buy many of them)  With geeks becoming “cool” it seems that a number of these products come with high price tags.  Sometimes this is because it’s genuinely cool, unique technology that warrants a high price tag.  Sometimes it means a hoodie with a flimsy piece of fabric to make a ninja turtle mask for a 20 dollar mark up.  There are even high end fashion options running away with my theoretical money.  Take for example a line of particularly awesome leggings that come in a variety of geeky flavors and also run at 80 bucks a pop.

It kind of feels like these days a good marketing strategy is to slap a firefly reference on your product, mark it up and watch how it soars right off the shelves.  Heck even Denny’s got in the action with Hobbit themed menus and commercials that actually are making fun of the “normies” who sit down and go “hey did you know there’s actually a book based off this?”  Yeah I saw that commercial.  I hate Denny’s more for it for some reason.

The biggest offenders to my eyes are these deal a day sites for geeky t-shirts.  What is the nerd uniform if not jeans, t-shirts and maybe a cheeto stain or two.    These deal-a-day tee sites are genius because they follow the opposite model.  The shirts are priced to move with the range always extending from 8 to 12 dollars each.  It can be extremely easy to feel the immediate rush of satisfaction from the recognition of your fandom on a cool shirt and click to buy since it’s only a few dollars.  But those numbers add up.  At an average of 10 dollars a shirt, and a dozen odd websites that feature cool shirts, it is quite feasible you’d find at least one shirt a day to buy.  Heck there’s got to be at least one Doctor Who tee a day alone and if that’s your ONLY fandom, you are still talking about spending $200 a month on t-shirts.

I mean I know some of us don’t have the best reputations for self-grooming but do you really need a different shirt for every day of the damn week?

A website that I’m a huge fan of and frequent quite often has not one but two options for hobbit themed footwear—both socks and slippers.  It just feels super excessive and as the marketing strategies for holidays get nearer, it’s starting to all feel a bit smarmy.

I mean here’s this subpopulation that has been craving attention, recognition and validation for years.  Now not only do we have it, we have it in spades and suddenly instead of D&D boards being a piece of graph paper and a few tokens we’ve got custom sets for any scifi/fantasy genre or interest you could have.  Geeks are notorious collectors—something the comic book industry figured out years ago—and as more and more people realize this I’m starting to feel like we’re being used a bit for our obsessive natures with the guise of “you’re so cool now, here are cool things to celebrate that” and it’s very, very troubling.  It makes me start to wonder just how much of the geek love is manufactured for manufacturing.  Are we just being duped into spending our lunch money on things produced by the same school yard bullies that used to take it?  I mean seriously if I had something I needed to sell, like a t-shirt for example, and I wanted a bonafide way in today’s internet economy to sell it I’d just slap a “Save Firefly” reference in Ferris Bueller style on the thing and I know I’d be able to get at least 100 sold.

I don’t think geeks are exactly known for practicing great impulse control either.  I know I have a knee jerk response of “OOOOH I WANT THAT” for at least ten or so new products a day I can discover online and that’s not counting the daily parade of tees.

A hallmark of what made geeks so awesome in the past was our “do-it-yourself” tricks and projects and so I’m going to encourage my friends to do that this holiday season for gifts.  After all if you don’t do anything but gather up old, unwanted things, scribble a star trek quote and hand them out, someone is bound to love it and immortalize it in a collection.

Has anyone else started to feel like this though?  As I shop for the less nerdly on my shopping list I’m finding the market not nearly flooded with as many products.  Heck even sports fans seem to have less crap being peddled to them. Am I just being overly sensitive to my own fiscal watchdogging as I budget this holiday season with car payments, apartment hunting and new computers in mind?  Or am I worrying too much about eeeeeeeevil marketers *wiggly fingers* when the reality really is just a celebration of dorktasma?  Of course I say all this as my room is littered with cylon toasters, collectible figurines, boxes of comics and my own collection of about 20 odd shirts that I was hpyno-toad by.

I have a similar problem with shopping when it comes to baking projects.  I often get one unusual ingredient and spin a recipe off it that requires a huge shopping trip.  I probably spend more on groceries a month than most people and I don’t even eat half as much as the average American does.  As I prepare to move out on my own again I’m going to have to be budgeting more since bay area apartments are FRAKKING EXPENSIVE.  So I picked out a recipe this time that involved ingredients I almost always have on hand and require absolutely no trips to store.  These were also sent out to my last contest winner.

Honey Walnut Scones

From “Baking from my Home to Yours” by Dorie Greenspan Read more

Oct 29

2 Comments

Halloweek Day 3: Quel Rat! (loaf)

I decided that since it’s Halloween on Rollings Reliable maybe it’s time to talk about something scary.

Hmmm.  No muffins this Monday, that’s pretty unusual but not too scary.  I did make muffins but I’m going to share that recipe with you next week in favor of some more Halloween themed dishes.  I do so love this day.  I could complain to you about the traffic I encountered/dreaded heading home each day when a World Series game was playing in San Francisco.  The games start at 5PM mind you so the roads are congested during PEAK commute hours surrounding the first pitch.  Maybe more asinine than scary though no?

Okay let’s talk about something that I know for a fact everyone will find scary: online dating.

CHILLS right?  Just sends you into cold sweat thinking about it.  Either you have never done it and find the idea repulsive and creepy or you HAVE done it to discover it repulsive and exhausting. 

Here’s the thing about the difference between these scenarios; if you’ve never done online dating you probably are more repulsed by the stigma of it and creeped out by the idea of getting lured into a date only to be axe murdered.  The reality of online dating is that it’s repulsive because of the kinds of responses some people think are appropriate and creepy because you discover that instead of axe murdering, 90% of any date you go on is at best tedious and disappointing.  I admit that I have at stages in my life utilized these dating sites as a “toe in the water” kind of mechanism.

As I stated before I’m pretty content being single right now.  My life requires a lot of selfishness and I would probably be a piss poor girlfriend because there’s no way I could give as much as I’d be demanding.  I’d feel guilty about that and then the relationship would just crumble away like a dilapidated graveyard filled with buried resentments.

Bearing that in mind, I do have my profile back “online” so to speak.  Why?  Primarily because a good friend is using this one particular service and I wanted to be able to help screen potential dates and help edit profile text for maximum interest.  I’m such a yenta about getting my friends happily settled down.  I want my vicarious smoochies!! 

Having my profile back up is reminding me just how scary online dating is as a woman.  Why?  The sheer volume of meaningless, copy-pasta messages that men looking to get laid will send out is staggering.   These guys don’t even READ the profiles; they just look at photo, hit ctrl-c and then send.  It’ll usually be a line or two like “Hey there I’m Joe Schmoe and I really liked your profile.  We should chat!”  See?  Just a bland, no content, spammy message.  Then there’s what I call the Holly Golightly Gallery of Rats and Super-Rats:

  • Men who live on the other side of the world – why are you messaging me?
  • “Nice Ass” – or some derivation making up the entire message
  • “Hey Gorgeous” – or some derivation making up the entire message
  • “I know you probably get this a lot…” – and then rambling about how cute/attractive you are with no attention to content of your profile again indicating they didn’t bother to read it at all
  • CREEPY OLD MEN – I mean the 50+ who are hitting on 22 year old girls.  Ugh.
  • “Hey are you down for some casual sex?” – yup at least once a day
  • Guys who flip out if you don’t respond within 24 hours
  • Guys who won’t stop sending messages / take a hint
  • Drive by misogynists – men who will message you just to insult you based off your profile

Follow that up with the number of well, yes mouth-breathers who most likely are single for good reason, and I wind up deleting on average 19 out of every 20 messages I get to start.  Of that 5% I’ll respond maybe to half of them and even then it’s usually to politely say no thank you.  When I get a message from someone who actually took time to write an original thought down, who actually read my profile, I feel like they at least deserve a response even if it’s just to say “sorry it’s not quite clicking for me but good luck!”

The flip side to this of course is how scary the online dating world is for men.  Men who are afraid to be seen of as any of the aforementioned rats.  It seems physical proximity isn’t the only thing that makes it nerve wracking to approach women and I sympathize.  I mean look at how critical I just was.  At best if you don’t come across as a rat, you might appear to be totally uninteresting.  How to capture a girl’s attention amongst this sea of rats, super rats and scared little mice?  My advice: be genuine.  I don’t mean “be yourself” tralalalala and rainbows will appear.  I mean put in some honest effort.  If you are sending her a message, tell her why and elaborate past her looks.  In fact don’t even mention her looks.  A girl knows if you are sending her a message that means her photo already attracted you.  Move on to something about the *content* of her words and why that interested you.  Ask an engaging and thoughtful question and keep it short.  By all means don’t get needy if she doesn’t respond either.

We, as women, get a lot of messages through some universal unfairness scale on dating sites but we’re not going to forget one that’s memorable.  If you take the time to do this and she doesn’t respond, she’s not interested and move on.  Do not, by any means, send a message within 48 hours asking WHY she hasn’t written you back yet.  She may be busy and taking her time but if she’s anything like me, that is an auto-dismissal because it often heralds a bad sign. 

 

Non-rat version of the same recipe. maybe a little more appetizing to your eyes….

For now I’m keeping the account as a minor diversion.  That rare 1.5% of men who manage to not elicit a response akin to my lady parts committing nuclear suicide could be a welcome diversion for my life right now.  If nothing else I think that dating is definitely a unique skill set and like all skill sets, requires a certain amount of maintenance.  Do I want a relationship?  Nope not at all and I’m not going to force myself to go out on any dates.  It may be that I meet up with absolutely no one but you know what?  I’m betting I’ll get some great stories for you guys J  I’ll do my best though to keep it more Holly Golightly and less Carrie Bradshaw when I talk about dating okay?

In theme with these Rats and Super Rats…how about some Rat Meatloaf.  Okay it’s not actual rat, but look at how disgustingly creepified it can be.  If you are planning on hosting a dinner party this would be a great entrée.  Pumpkin in the glaze adds a seasonal flavor note.  Roast beets in the meatloaf add moisture yielding a product that is exceptionally juicy.  The red “chunks” add a great creep out factor when coupled with the overall rat appearance.  Best yet they will lose water during baking and make your glaze juices especially bright RED.  It really looks like actual rats are covered in blood and scurrying across your table platter.  Ghoulish, disgusting….perfect. 

Olivia’s Halloween Rat-Loaf
An Olivia Original  Read more

Sep 24

1 Comment

Muffin Monday: Herb your enthusiasm

Whew!  First three days at my new job and I was wiped by the time Friday was over.  The lovely mommy-to-be that I’m temping for (she really was quite sweet and adorable!) keeps later hours than I’m used to and with the commute…well I pretty much spent 15 hours of each last day getting ready for, at work or commuting.  Not fun but I knew that it was going to be like that at first and you know what?  It’s totally worth it.  So far I’m really happy with the opportunity this position is going to give me.

The only downside is that kind of commuting can definitely take a toll on your frayed nerves.  I definitely can tell that I’m a little more snappy than usual.  This weekend with my friends I think I was bit sassy.  Hopefully my sharper tongue didn’t leave any deep cuts on any egos.  We nerds are a sensitive bunch but also capable of being highly critical.  Sitting around watching Galaxy Quest can quickly descend into heated debates about Star Trek series superiority.  TNG hands down – one earl grey hot…bitch.  We get a bit worked up about our various fandoms in this group.  I need to curb that enthusiasm when it’s paired with some slightly overworked nerve endings.  I’m finding though that the exhaustion stress of being overworked but happy with your work is still better than the angry stress of being unsatisfied with your work.  Tired Olivia can still be a happy Olivia.

Plus moving forward things should level off a bit.  I am hopefully going to be able to keep earlier hours, since I am more of an early girl, and the upside to that is I’ll avoid more of the rush hour traffic.  It’s still something like a 60 mile commute and that will make for a rough few months.  It’s not actually any different than my commute for the old job but the difference is that I no longer have a company bus to take.  I’ll miss getting to spend my commute time reading rather than actively doing the driving.  My poor RSS feed is so neglected.

The one fear I have to quell is that I’ll be spending less time in the kitchen.  Baking is my therapy so I tend to ramp it up when I’m stressed but there’s only so many hours in a day and I begrudgingly have to sleep eventually.  One reason I love making muffins so often is that they are a fast and easy thing to mix up and you can play with them as much or little as you want.  I went kind of crazy at a Farmer’s Market recently, Indian summer produce is so plentiful and cheap, but it needs to get used up!

This huge bunch of basil was calling out to me and inspiring dreams of a soft crumbed sweet muffin with a surprising herbal tone.  I looked around the kitchen and saw some lemons sitting on the counter.  Aha!  Lemon muffins with some chiffonade of basil?  Delicious though not quite there yet…I needed a third note to round it out; something sweet but not as sweet as fruit.  Corn meal.  Not enough to make these corn muffins, just enough to lend a little sweet and a little flavor.  I love adding fresh corn to dessert foods as a sweetener (as opposed to processed corn syreup) and it’s just the right time of year for it too.  Last year I made those corn flavored candy-corn cookies that were actually pretty damn tasty.  At some point I’d love to make an ice cream with a corn flavor to it.  But here I digress…on to the recipe.

Lemon Basil Muffins
an Olivia Original Read more

Sep 17

2 Comments

Hey Muffin Monday: Op Op Op Rosh Hashanah Style

L’Shana Tova! Rosh Hashanah New Year’s Resolution: focus on what you need to get done now.

It’s yet another new year for the Jewish folk out there. I certainly feel like this theme of renewal ties in to my current state of affairs. Things are well, pretty crazy, to say the least. I’ve got so much to do and such little time to do it in in order to get ready for my new job on Wednesday!

I have a serious problem. Apparently when I’m already swamped with things to worry about, when I have new change happening that I should be preparing for, I can’t seem to help myself from thinking about the next new challenge I want to take on. This weekend on top of preparing for my new role (getting mentally situated and studying materials) I decided I should start planning a million other projects. Sewing projects, cosplay projects, blogging/writing projects, my Thanksgiving menu…. It’s sick. I need help. Why can’t I seem to stop trying to overload myself with things to do? I really wonder if it’s just that I work best when I’m stretched or if I use these things to escape from something. Maybe it’s that I procrastinate by planning. Don’t focus on the task at hand…think about the next one!

Living in tomorrow is unwise if you can’t control where you are today. Something I’ve learned is that even when you have a handle on current affairs, if you spend too much time mentally living in the future, you miss out on everything worth seeing along the way there. Then suddenly it’s the future and you’re not appreciating all that planning because you’re already another span ahead. It isn’t fulfilling. So I’m going to try to stay focused on the here and now for the next few days. I’ve got to or I’ll go crazy taking on too many things.

Still…one list I wanted to start formulating was a new set of 1001 things to do in 101 days. I really like that challenge and it makes you sit down and plot out where you want to be and what you want to have accomplished over a three year span. It’s not something to be taken lightly and odds are you won’t get all those things done if you plan your list as loftily as I did last time. Still I managed to get through 30% of my items which wasn’t too shabby. Let me procrastinate just a little bit at you and give you my top 10 items for my 101 list….

  1. See Bernini’s David in person – my top item on any bucket list
  2. Buy a car
  3. Full time employment *that makes me happy*
  4. Move into my own place
  5. Go to Dragon*Con
  6. Travel to Prince Edward Island
  7. Host a fabulous dinner party
  8. Organize a group cosplay
  9. Take an acting class
  10. Fall in love again

So nothing too ambitious right? I notice that most of this is about traveling and doing things with friends. A few practical items…buying a car for one thing. That’s going to be unavoidable the next few years but since it has seemed like such an unattainable thing for a while I think it should make the list. Moving is also going to be something I can’t avoid doing…but again it makes the list. I’m not going to specify where I plan on moving to yet. That will always be tied to item #3 on the list. It’s incredibly frustrating actually. I’d love to move to another part of the country but I keep finding that no one wants to relocate you so they avoid hiring non-locals. Thus if I want to work somewhere else I might have to move first and look into jobs after. It takes a special kind of courage to just pack up, move and see what happens.

But see here I go thinking about that when I haven’t even started my new contract yet! I have so much to do to get ready for this new job. Something about new year celebrations just infects me with an even greater than usual desire to plan and plot and prepare. There’s so much energy there! Wonder if there’s a way to get a job being a project starter. I think I’d be good at that….

Anyway here’s to wishing you all a Sweet New Year! It is tradition on Rosh Hashanah to eat apples dipped in honey. Typically I make a sweet cinnamon apple honey challah loaf but this year I’ve been so busy that bread baking just takes up too much time. I am skirting that by baking up these muffins instead…ah muffins, how I love thee. They come together so quickly and bake up so perky.

Honey Apple Nut Muffins
Modified from Dorie Greenspans “Baking from my home to yours”
in the book this is listed as a muffin recipe that was hastily poured into a cake pan to make a rustic cake instead. I opted for the original intention and MMMMMMM not complaining Read more

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