between the table and the kitchen

I don't remember when, exactly, it happened, but around the end of July I found a recipe for vegan cinnamon rolls. I mentioned this, casually I'm sure, to Daniel, who pounced on the idea. I made cinnamon rolls for Christmas a few years ago, and they were (if I may say so) pretty damn good. I was excited to find a recipe that was not only vegan but also mentioned Cinnabon in the post.

An aside: when I was young, my mother and I would go on shopping days, and we would almost always get a roll or two from Cinnabon in the morning. In college, far from my mother, I recruited one of my best friends to go on Cinnabon expeditions with me. I have similar fond memories of meatballs subs from even younger days at the mall in New York.

Anyway. I was excited, Daniel was excited, I bought all the necessary ingredients. Let me remind you: this was the end of July, maybe the beginning of August. I did not make them. I kept on not making them, for various reasons. I started a new job, so I didn't want to use my precious weeknights for such a time-intensive project. I was tired. I didn't want to be stranded by myself in the kitchen for such a long duration.

It's like I had forgotten how much I love baking.

So when Daniel suggested I start making the dough while he made dinner on Sunday night, and I felt myself warm up to the idea, I made myself do it. I ran back and forth between the table and the kitchen, with its woeful lack of counter space, proofing yeast and melting margarine and measuring flour. As soon as I had the dough in my hands, I remembered. I remembered how much I love making food, how much I love baking in particular.

We ate dinner while the dough was rising, and Michael came over to hang out. He and Daniel sat around in the living room while I flattened the dough into a rectangle, melted more butter, spread the cinnamon-sugar over the melted butter. I filled pans full of a melted butter and sugar mixture. I waved off the offers to help and finally I rolled the dough and cut it, filling three different pans full of rolls. Then into the refrigerator and onto washing some of the mountain of dishes I had made.

The next morning I slept in a little, still waking before Daniel, and tried to quietly pad around the apartment until it was time to put the rolls in the oven. It was a great way to start the holiday.







Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
Here at VeganYumYum

A note: heed the warning not to add liquid to the icing. It does, in fact, come together with a lot of elbow grease.

holding on

Despite the fact that the forecast is predicting temperatures in the 80s this week (and the week after), I am resolutely holding on to Autumn. After all, mornings and evenings are still cool, and the breeze still carries autumn with it, even with high temperatures.

So I made bread.

Even though by the afternoon the heat was in full force, I made bread with my windows open. It felt good to make something again. When Andy came back from New Mexico, he asked me what I'd been baking over the summer. "Nothing," I told him, somewhat abashedly. Aside from the complicated emotional pattern I had fallen into, there was also the fact that my time was spent hanging out with friends who were coming back, who were going away. There was no time for baking.



Bread is one of my favorite things to bake. I know that yeast scares people, but I can't imagine why. Maybe I've just been lucky - I've never really had any problems with yeast. My own patience, sure, but not actually working with yeast. You'll also remember how much I love quick breads. This bread is somewhere in between the two. It rises in the oven, getting the yeast from beer, so you cut out that step of leaving the dough somewhere to rise for an hour or two.



Plus, it makes your kitchen (or whole apartment, if you're me) smell absolutely delicious. And it tastes pretty good, too!

Cheddar-Dill Beer Bread
adapted from here

I used Blue Moon for the beer here, which is a Belgian-style white. Feel free to use whatever beer you think would go with cheddar and dill, though!

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp dill (dried)
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
2 12-oz. beers

Open one of the beers. Take a sip. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Mix all the dry ingredients and the cheese (or, everything except the beer) together in a large bowl. Slowly pour in the beer, mixing as you go. If the dough hasn't come together entirely, pour in a little from the second beer until all of the flour mixture has been incorporated. Enjoy the rest of your beer.

Pour the dough into a greased loaf pan; I used a 9-inch pan for this, which worked out well. If you've poured in a little of the second beer, remember that the bread will rise higher from the extra yeast in the beer. It's important to take this into consideration. Bake for 45 minutes.

Let the bread cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then outside the pan for another 10 minutes. Enjoy!

perfect as a Sunday can get

Sundays, I think I've mentioned before, are usually one of my least favorite days. Sundays are days full of goodbyes and gearing up for the long haul of the workweek. This past Sunday, though, was pretty much as perfect as a Sunday can get - four of us went for the best pizza in the city, then walked it off at the Zoo, and three of us continued to play a whole bunch of Mario Kart and eat a delicious dinner (which is not what I'm going to talk about, sorry, I was too busy playing Mario Kart).


Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from the day, though not for lack of cameras. We averaged a camera per person, with 2 SLRs, a baby Holga, and a digital. Three of those were mine; yes, yes, I know, I am some kind of monstrous fiend. My goal was to use up my second (!) roll of black and white film that came with my N80, and so I never really thought to pull out my digital camera.

It's funny, shooting with film again after so long with the instant gratification of digital and Polaroid has made me think about things totally differently. I've been forced to consider light and how that will effect the outcome of the photos, about ISO and aperture and other things that I am really still just learning about. It has also forced me to be patient - every roll of film I've shot so far has needed to be sent to the labs, which they say takes two weeks but is really more like three, in my experience. So I wait.


And in the meantime, I bake.

Bread, mostly, this weekend. I attempted a pumpkin ale beer bread, which smelled fantastic but was not exactly what one might call delicious. I'm not sure if it was the recipe (which seemed fairly complicated) or me, but either way, I ended up with most of a loaf of bread in the trash. C'est le pain. Luckily, I had a back-up plan.


Perfect Sunday Rolls

These really deserve a better name than that, but what can I say? I'm not great at naming food. Anyway, these are fantastic. I kind of couldn't stop eating them. I imagine they'd be good with pretty much any kind of dinner, though they, uh, also make a pretty good breakfast (with some Nutella!).

1/4 cup warm water
1 cup hot water
1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

Combine 1/4 cup warm water and yeast in a small bowl for about 5 minutes, or until dissolved.

In a large bowl, mix the butter, sugar, and salt. I find it's easiest if the butter is room temperature or softer, especially for this next part. Pour 1 cup hot water over the butter mixture and stir until dissolved. Let cool a little (by the time you're done stirring, honestly, it should be cool enough) and stir in the yeast.

Add in the egg, beating until fully mixed, then pour in the flour until a dough starts to form. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover with tin foil, and set in the refridgerator for 2 to 12 hours. (I left mine in there for about 5 hours.)

Punch down the dough and divide into as many rolls as you'll want. Shape into rounds and place onto baking pan to let rise for 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Bake for about 18 minutes. Move to a rack to cool.

second installment

Part of what I love about baking (or cooking, in general) is sharing what I make with others. This contributes a lot, actually, to why my solo meals are often uncomplicated things like, uh, cheese and crackers and olives. That, and cooking for one person always, always involves reducing recipes. But that's neither here nor there.

But I also like cooking with other people - and, well, Daniel and I make the perfect team because our names are the same. So here comes the second installment of Danielle & Daniel Make Dinner. This time our inspiration was twofold: a pizzeria in Greensboro that made all sorts of delicious pizza variations, and my own focaccia recipe. Throw in my rapidly expanding cookbook collection and it is really just a recipe for greatness.


We had the perfect set-up for making this pizza too - namely, a captive audience. Jo, of course, was there for the first installment of Danielle & Daniel Make Dinner (we are thinking about "daniel(le)" - which we figure is just pretentious enough), but this time Andy decided to join us. About three years ago, Andy's Christmas present to me was a lovely pizza dinner, made from scratch, so I was excited to present my own offering.

And well, Daniel said it best: "Sexy people make sexy pizza." (Which was, of course, followed with: "put that on your blog!" And so I have.)


Because there were four of us, we made two pizzas. The first had a tomato sauce base (Newman's bombolina, which I highly recommend), mozzerella, and sun-dried tomatoes. It was pretty good, but could have benefited from cutting up the sun-dried tomatoes and spreading them out more. Also, dousing them in olive oil before putting them in the oven, since baking made them even chewier.


And then there was our masterpiece.

Pear and Gorgonzola Pizza

There are different kinds of gorgonzola (which we did not realize until last night) - we used piquante for this, but dolce would work too. Piquante, though, adds a nice variety of taste and stands in contrast to the sweetness of the pear.

For the pizza crust (makes two):
1 1/3 cups warm water
1 package active-dry yeast
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar

For the toppings:
1 pear
gorgonzola (see above)
carmelized onions

Combine the yeast and the water in a bowl, letting it sit while the yeast dissolves, or about five minutes. Mix in the flour, olive oil, salt, and sugar for about a minute with a wooden spoon. Knead by hand for about 10 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough, flipping it to make sure the whole thing gets oiled. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and let rise for 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 475°F.

While the oven preheats and the dough rises, carmelize onions. To do so, just splash some olive oil into a pan and - on low heat - put the onions in. This is just about it - you'll want to keep an eye on them and move them around to make sure they evenly carmelize. You may want to put a pinch of salt and sugar in there (we did). This is a good time to prepare the other toppings, too!

When the dough has risen, split into two sections and transfer each to a baking sheet. If you have space, you may want to roll them out first, but it can be done by hand once on the sheet. On one, place sliced pears, chunks of gorgonzola, and the carmelized onions, making sure to evenly distribute the flavors. Brush olive oil onto the crusts.

Bake the pizza for about 15 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

balancing the scales

Tomorrow I turn 23.

I turn 23 and all I can think about is balancing the scales. Balancing what pays the bills with what I love, balancing solitude with being social. It's the latter that really gets me. You see, I love time spent alone and doing things simply because they are what I want to do. As I've mentioned before, though, too much time spent alone drives me a little mad.


This weekend wound up being pretty well-balanced, though Saturday was the unfortunate witness to the first hangover I've had in a long while. Other than that, it broke down nicely, with a dance party celebrating my dear friend Andy's 23rd birthday - plus, uh, lots of Doctor Who beforehand and also the next day (we really can't get enough). And then Sunday was for me. I just woke up Sunday morning and it felt right to have the day stretching out in front of me with no one but myself.

I've been planning this post for a while, actually, even though I had no idea what I'd put into it. Sunday, I decided, was the day to figure it out. I had eggs to use, so I made a cake, one I've made before and liked a lot. After all, it's my birthday! And you can't have a birthday without cake. While I made the cake - literally in between mixing eggs in - I made an apron out of a t-shirt. This still left me without a recipe for you, dear reader.

Let me tell you: I couldn't get bread out of my head. I had been about to trot over to the grocery store for the second time in one day to get olive oil and yeast to make said bread, but then it was raining. I decided against it; surely I would find something else to make.


Dear reader, I did not. The weather cleared up and, unable to stop thinking about bread, I headed out. Luckily I bought two packets of yeast, because I had to throw the first batch out and start again. (I always seem to be starting again.) All my mistakes turned out auspicious - ain't that always the way - because let me tell you, this bread is just hands-down delicious. I have had to stop myself from eating all of it in less than 24 hours. Plus, it photographs quite well, don't you think?


Olive Oil Focaccia
Adapted from Joy of Cooking

If, for some reason, you do not like olive oil that much, feel free to cut the amount of olive oil down to 1 tablespoon. This is a pretty forgiving recipe - I thought I was screwing something up every step of the way and wound up with a fantastically delicious bread, so don't worry if it seems like your dough is too sticky, or not rising high enough, or any of that. I thought all of this and, again, the bread turned out great.

3/4 cup warm water
1/2 pack active-dry yeast
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp oregano

Combine the yeast and water in a large bowl. Let sit while the yeast dissolves, should be about five minutes. (If you've never watched yeast work, check this out. It's pretty neat! Chemistry-art, if you will.)

Mix in flour, olive oil, salt, and sugar for about a minute - I used a wooden spoon, but do whatever feels best to you. (If you're using a mixer, it'd be best to use low speed.) Then knead by hand (or use a dough hook) for just about 10 minutes.

Lightly oil a bowl and transfer dough, making sure the oil covers all of the dough. Cover with cloth and let rise for 1 and 1/2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

When the dough has risen, transfer to baking sheet, shaping it into a round. Top with oregano (or other dried herb). Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes. Enjoy!