The end to winter break is here, and it is bittersweet. Outside, the sun is shining, and the naked trees are casting long slender shadows on the sparkling powder. Who cares if weather.com says it is only 5 degrees Fahrenheit outside? I don’t; it is still beautiful.
Saturday, I went on a long, beautiful, early afternoon run and only passed by one group of other people out (because it was pretty cold). I suited up in all of my cold gear, and with new road running shoes, I set off by foot around the outskirts of the plantations, following Forest Home road until it meets up with 366, up the hill, down Game Farm Road (such a beautiful road to run on), past East Hill Plaza, and through Cornell Campus on my way back into civilization. By the time I was done, my legs were so sore from running in new shoes and my feet were killing me, so I spun poi and danced for a bit in the Helen Newman dance studio (such a beautiful space).
I spent Saturday afternoon being lazy and just hanging out with a bunch of my girl friends in Collegetown. Karli and I finger painted, and although my friend Alex, and I gave up after painting for a little while, Karli worked on her masterpiece for a quite a while, but ended up not liking it as much when it dried. Sid, Varya, and Christine took turns playing some iPhone game that involved slicing flying fruit in half. Karli and I made some really delicious dinner, which was a vegetable curry over white rice.
I decided that it was the perfect occasion to break out my wok, and cooked some onions, garlic, sweet peppers, mushrooms, and tofu cubes together with coconut milk, turmeric, cumin, and curry powder. We used long grain white rice so it would cook more quickly because we were both starving. Dinner was delicious, and the most time-consuming part was chopping and cooking the vegetables prior to adding the coconut milk and spices. The end result was definitely work it though!
Reflecting back on my winter break, I am so happy that I had the time to do so many things which I have been meaning to do, and take some time off to myself to just relax (yoga, poi, running, etc., have all been great). I feel like I got a lot done, but there are still so many other things that I would have liked to have done too. Life is a balancing act; you have to choose what interests you the most and pursue it while still working on a handful of other things.
I made some modifications to the basic brownie recipe in the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, and brought heart-shaped brownies (I used a cookie cutter to cut out the hearts after I made the brownies) to Varya’s house the other night for Blini (Russian pancake) night. I created a new gluten-free flour blend, and am going to experiment to see what it is good for (it was definitely good for the brownies!).
Gluten-free flour blend #2:
2 cups oat flour (I used whole oats and processed them into flour)
2 cups millet flour
1 cup sweet white sorghum four
½ cup garbanzo bean flour
½ cup white rice flour
½ cup tapioca flour
1 cup potato starch flour
5 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum
Mix all of the flours & xanthan gum together until uniform in texture.
Basic gluten-free brownies (adapted from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook)
6 ounces mexican chocolate
¾ cup butter (1 ½ sticks)
4 eggs
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
¼ cup white sugar
1 ½ cups gluten-free flour blend #2
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Melt chocolate and butter over low heat on the stove, stirring to make sure the mixture doesn’t burn. When it has melted, remove from heat and let cool for a couple of minutes.
In a large bowl, beat eggs, and sugar, and beat until thick and creamy (5-6 minutes) with an electric mixer. Stir in chocolate & butter mixture, and then finally add the flour. Stir everything together and bake in a large (I used a 9 x 14 x 2-inch glass baking dish) pan/dish for about 25 minutes.
Brownies are done when they are slightly browned on top and are starting to crack. Let cool, and cut into squares or use your favorite cookie cutters to make cute shapes!
