Tag Archives: baking

orange and chocolate

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This weekend I made orange chocolate oatmeal muffins both mornings. Saturday I dropped half of them (on the floor and in the oven) and promised to make them again because they were so delicious. I have been using cooked oatmeal in my muffins for a long time and it makes the softest texture. I admit I don’t follow a recipe anymore but it’s something like this:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup or less sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, or spice
1/2 cup or more cooked oatmeal
1/4 cup oil or 2 tbsp butter
handful chocolate chips
juice of squeezed orange
zest of orange
1/3 cup or more milk

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 mins.

Change the flavors with fruit and spices. When using wet ingredients like coconut milk or pumpkin puree I will need less milk.

mid November

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Emma has been volunteering in the bonsai garden as much as she can. She used a chopstick and tweezers to remove moss, weeds and snails from the top soil of the trees.


We caught maiki in a family selfie on our outing. It’s sweet how much taller Emma is in each photo.


We had an afternoon of perfect 70° weather for a play date. These days the girls love to climb trees.

Making lots of yummy things in the kitchen, like this pot of beans that slow cooked in the oven. I have baked a lot of bread, including my favorite olive bread with rosemary and a pumpkin pie with rich coconut milk.

Baking experiments with a starter

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Hiya, Susan the baker here to report back on my new starter. This past week I have used it in blueberry pancakes, pizza dough, rolls and a rustic loaf. I am pretty happy with it over all and it is certainly fun to experiment. I honestly had the most doubts with the rustic bread round because I did not follow a recipe but it turned out perfectly edible – it made fantastic french toast anyways. The pizza dough was a success and it enhanced an already fool proof recipe. The pancakes were great. The rolls satisfied a craving for meatball sandwiches I was having. The outside was crunchy from being cooked in covered cast iron pot to begin with in the baking process and had a nice soft inside. Paired with sauce, veggie meatballs and sauteed cabbage it was my favorite meal this week.

I have been keeping the starter out on the counter and regularly feeding it as I take most of it out for baking. I have been going through a lot of flour during a time it is a bit hard to come by in the stores. I am comforted knowing I could always use it less and keep it in the fridge and the starter will stay alive receiving less attention.