chocolate zucchini bread.

Spring Break!!

I could've been blogging this from the sunny, sparkling beaches of PCB or Mexico or Cancun. Of course, if I were in any of those places, I wouldn't be blogging - I'd be letting the sun's warm rays blotting my stresses away. That blue sky breeze would be welcome, not just another hurdle to run through. And my only worry would be whether the waves would reach my chair on the shore.

At that point, I'd be obligated to play Knee Deep [by Zac Brown Band].

As it is, I'm still wearing a sweatshirt, am still hesitant to shower for fear that maybe this will be the time I dilly dally a little too long & lose an appendage to hypothermia, and would still rather stay in my warm bed than do anything else. The latter works perfectly with my recent House of Cards obsession.

cranberry walnut stuffed french toast.

Sometimes you want to forego the oatmeal and cereal for a hearty, sweet, satisfying breakfast. This definitely fills all those requirements.

review: Pepperidge Farm Caramel Apple bread!

So I was excited, because this bread was quite a journey to get, and at the time, I thought, wow! I have an epic story to tell about this bread for my blog!

But now it's one day later, and my story doesn't seem quite so epic anymore.

I'll still say it, now I've brought it up. I was returning from class, and decided to stop by the new awesome grocery store nearby before going home. I pick up green squash, black cherry Chobani, some dried lentils to use in my new teeny pressure cooker, and then what do I see?

caramelized banana bread + browned butter glaze.

Have you heard of bananas foster? Butter and sugar are roasted in a pan, then sliced bananas are added until they start to soften. At the very end, some rum is sploshed in, before the whole mixture is spooned over ice cream while still warm.

The same concept is applied to this (relatively healthy) banana bread. The bananas are roasted with butter and sugar until they caramelize a little, and then the mixture is mashed together until everything is homogenous.

That sweet sticky mixture is incorporated into the rest of the ingredients, and baked in a loaf pan till golden. Afterwards, a thick glaze is spooned over the entire loaf, so that it dribbles into every crevice.

browned butter bread pudding + salted caramel sauce.

I wanted this blogpost to consist of just one line and tons of beautiful pictures. But it's difficult to capture the process/result of what you're making when you are making these things in a dorm. And then coordinating the surprise party.

challah french toast. (+ optional steps)

Hey there! It's a fyne Sunday noon, a perfect day for french toast.

But not just any french toast, no no. What I'm talking about is a thick slice of challah bread, doused in a slightly sweet cinnamon egg milk mixture, placed on a hot pan sizzling with butter. As soon as it's cooked through, it's transferred from stove to tray. Brown sugar is crumbled indulgently atop the golden brown toast. Served on a satisfyingly heavy ceramic plate with a sturdy fork and knife. Authentic maple syrup sits in a cute little jug on the side, waiting to be drizzled (and inevitably get everywhere, making every singly surface sticky).

I live for Sunday mornings. 

almond cardamom quick bread.

This bread is wonderful. I made it yesterday, and ate two slices within 15 minutes of taking it out of the oven. Two generously sized pieces. Right after a filling lunch of whole wheat penne with steamed veggies & some Thai sauce.

I was so full, but it was worth it! No shame. No regrets.

^Good life motto, actually. That's the motto ** YOLO and we bout it errday errday errday like we sittin on the bench ** we don really play, errday errday ** what anybody say. Huh, I guess it kind of loses its effect when you need to bleep out the expletives so many times.

Yesterday was really good, actually. So was today. I ate oatmeal like I've vowed, and had super healthy lunches and dinners. My workouts are also really satisfying.. the amount of bread I ate motivated me to go for both a hike and run/walk four miles, although the bread is really healthy. I am excited to see progress!

Of course, today my mom would say that from now on, she's making all foods that I like. Tomorrow's dinner is falafel, next day's is chole. Handwo is coming at some point. I love my mom. And her cooking is without a doubt too superior to not eat, so .. I'll try to eat in moderation, still? I'll workout more? ... If nothing else, I'm definitely going to enjoy my last few days at home. Because ain't no shrikhand, date rolls, or aloo papri chaat gun end up in da busch dh.

whole wheat molasses bread.

I figure what with all the delicious things I have been eating, with zero shame, in massive quantities, I should at least have something healthy on standby. That's where this bread comes in.

I was browsing different blogs for some inspiration and came upon this recipe on joythebaker's site. The pictures drew me in - the loaf looked really nice & hearty, with a gorgeous crust. I wanted it.

And so, in literally 10 minutes, I mixed the dry and wet, added dry to wet, and quickly greased a pan to bake it in. Then I ran to watch Midnight in Paris. Have you ever seen that movie? Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, and Rachel McAdams are in it .. I like them all. And it got all these awards/nominations .. I feel like maybe, if analyzed, it would spur some great life revelations. However, surrounded by my brother who kept trying to provoke me into attacking him by poking me, my dad who was fiddling with his videocamera, and my mom, who I could tell was on the brink of passing out, I did not find it that awesome.

crispy stuffed french toast.

This is a fabulous guest post on behalf of my suitemate, Andrea Poppiti. Enjoy!

Hello blogging world!!

I'm proud to call myself a borderline creepy admirer of this wonderful blog about food and life. Andrea's the name, and baking's the game. Well not so much the baking part. But my name is Andrea, and I'm one of Yat's roommates (that's right, I get to eat a lot of the food you read about in her posts). Anyway, in all honesty, cooking is not really my forte; I consider myself to be more of an eater. But one afternoon when Yat suggested we make some breakfast before class (an 8:55 physics lecture), I just couldn't say no to the opportunity, which leads me to this guest blogpost.

bran & pear breakfast.

Hm. Bran doesn't sound too good, huh?

Well I made the bran bread I always do when I bake stuff to eat for breakfast. I find making this bread (and others that are similar, containing things like oats, flax, and wheat germ) makes breakfast extremely easy.

It takes zero thought to take a slice of this bread with a glass of skim milk. Or in my case on busy work mornings, down a glass of milk, grab a slice of the bread, grab the keys in true relay race style as I dash into the car, and then take a bite at all of the red lights and on the straight roads.

It's a scene of great elegance and grace, I assure you.

chives flatbread.

A while ago, I was in a mood in which I wanted to make a lot of things that used yeast. But since bread recipes often call for a lot of flour, I picked this spring onion flatbread to work with.

Or rather, "I picked this spring onion flatbread with which to work."

I still can't consciously end a sentence (in writing) with a preposition. Funny, just yesterday my brother was going on about weird ways of speaking. Let me clarify.

Actually, for those of you who just want to know about the flatbread, scroll on down to just before the recipe. There, you shall find a lovely paragraph describing this yum flatbread.

When I used to read food blogs (or anything, but food blogs had it the most), I used to dislike reading "yummy" and "yum," which don't give a hint to how the food was actually good. And my adjectives need to have purpose! But look, I just used yum. Maybe it's because it's early, and my mind is literally blank or maybe because it feels like forever since I've written a blogpost. But I just used yum. I. don't. know.

Ok, on to more important things.

zucchini bread: makeover.

What I like:
making & eating quick breads.
zucchini.
being healthy.
bran. (don't tell me i'm weird.)

What I like even more:
all of the above combined into one delicious loaf of bread.

What I like most:
instead of one gorgeous loaf, the above bread in five mini loaves. cute and ready for consumption in no time. yes, i partook in this deliciousness. read on to see how.

orange cranberry loaf.

Yes. I am aware that it is 82 degrees out. I did my, what is becoming more common, 4.2 mile run around noon, and got a sense of what the weather is like. I also got visibly more tan in the fifty or so minutes I was outside.

That is why, immediately after returning from my run, I made popsicles (more on that later). Right after drinking some cold water, and before taking off my shoes, showering, or even wiping my face.

Despite all that, I did, a few days ago, make what is traditionally a fall and winter staple: orange cranberry walnut loaf.

monkey bread.

Ever since being back home, I have not been particularly inspired enough to make interesting things. Yes, I have baked some new things and increased the number of new recipes in my recipe book (really just a composition book where I record a lot of recipes I have tried), but I haven't been inspired.
However, that pull-apart bread I made the other day really got me hooked to working with yeast. It's not easy, which makes me love it even more. I want to eventually bake up some loaves of good, crusty bread and experience the delight of freshly baked bread. But until then, I need to be satisfied with pull-apart loaves & monkey bread.


Yes, I made monkey bread. And trust me, in no way did I settle by making it. A couple friends came over a few days ago, and it was almost obligatory that a baked good be offered. I decided upon monkey bread for a few reasons.

orange pull-apart loaf.

I have seen recipes for cinnamon and lemon pull-apart bread before. And I was always enticed by the rustic look of this bread. I would imagine peeling away thin slivers of sweet bread laced with flavored sugar and enriched with layers of butter. However, it was not until a friend re-introduced to me a link to the cinnamon sugar version that I made this. And I was *yarely the entire long, sticky, messy process.

date-walnut bread with lots of other good things inside.

When I was younger, I used to think I was really clever that I knew what dates were and my 10-11 year old peers did not. The dialogue would continue as follows:
me: don't you just love dates?
friend: uh ... sure?
me: they're just so good.
friend: yeah, i guess. ... wait, you mean with like two people getting dinner or something right?
me: nahh bruah, the dried fruit!
friend: what?!
explanation followed.

I wasn't so snobby (or ghetto), I was actually really quiet. But I was proud of myself for being aware of this random piece of food knowledge. To this day, I enjoy knowing everything about food, although I don't flaunt it as I did in the past. And yes, to this day, my stories generally continue to lack a point and/or climaxes.

butternut squash maple flax bread.

Thanksgiving just recently passed, and of course, that calls for the use of fall produce in my baking. Butternut squash is not typically used, relative to how often we see pumpkin items. Usually, it is seen in the form of soup or roasted with spices or sugar. However, when pureed, butternut squash is a versatile vegetable that can be put to use in many different forms.

Since my favorite thing to bake is quick bread, I decided to use butternut squash in bread.

I bought pre-cut squash and boiled & pureed it. This was much easier than my last encounter with this squash; first, you have to cut the squash in half, so the bulbous round part is one half and the narrower part is the second half. Take out all the sees covered in slimy flesh. (rinse, dry, & save to roast later with some salt) Then you have to peel the thing, which requires quite a large, sturdy knife and is quite difficult, let me tell you. After your hands are raw from peeling, you have to battle the slippery naked squash to cut it into chunks. Then you have to cut those chunks into relatively uniform pieces. THEN can you boil it.

Would you go through the above torture or just buy them precut and get to the same final step? Honestly, I would buy the squash whole and peel it etc. because I enjoy the effort required to do that, but lack of time prevented me from doing that in this instance.

Regardless, this bread is quite easy to make once you have the puree. It follow the typical method: prepare the dry mix. prepare the wet mix. add dry to wet. don't overmix. put in greased loaf pan & enjoy warm fresh bread about an hour later.

Plus it's healthy, because you know how I like my bread.

Click for the recipe.