Author Archives: j

easter egg hunt

kcl, mkl, and pml were here and we decorated easter eggs and hosted an easter egg hunt (48 eggs) complete with egg-free candies and baskets. mkl came up with some pretty good hiding places and she made awesome hippie tie-dyed eggs. 

  

some of the more creative spots:

  • wherever the gnome is
  • in the jade plant
  • in the downspout
  • in the orange and lemon trees
  • in the thick of the ice plants and kangaroo paws and garlic
  • resting on the horizontal fence surfaces and in the carport area up higher
  • by the sprinkler heads/front steps
  • by the ev charger
  • in the divots in the garden
  • hidden by the potatoes

gluten-free buckwheat pancakes

Cookie and Kate’s Gluten Free Buckwheat Pancakes

INGREDIENTS
Pancakes
1 cup buckwheat flour (or ½ buckwheat and ½ flour of choice)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups buttermilk, shaken*
1 large egg
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Butter, for the skillet
Roasted Strawberries
1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced into bite-sized quarters or halves
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey

INSTRUCTIONS
Roast the strawberries: preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, gently toss berries with the sugar and maple syrup/honey. Arrange the strawberries in a single layer on the baking sheet. Roast for 30 minutes, stirring halfway, or long enough for the berry juices to thicken but not burn (watch the edges in particular).
Make the pancakes: in a medium mixing bowl, mix together the flour(s), sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a liquid measuring cup, measure out the buttermilk. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
All at once, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The batter should have some small to medium lumps.
Preheat your skillet over medium-low heat and brush with 1½ teaspoons of butter. Give the batter a light swirl with a spoon in case the buckwheat is starting to separate from the liquid. Using a ¼-cup measure, scoop the batter onto the warm skillet. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until small bubbles form on the surface of the pancakes (you’ll know it’s ready to flip when about 1 inch of the perimeter is matte instead of glossy), and flip. Cook on the opposite sides for 1 to 2 minutes, or until golden brown.
Transfer the cooked pancakes to a baking sheet and place in a preheated 200 degree Fahrenheit oven to keep warm. Repeat the process with the remaining batter, adding more butter when needed. Serve immediately.
NOTES
Recipe adapted from Pancakes by Adrianna Adarme of A Cozy Kitchen.
*MAKE YOUR OWN BUTTERMILK WITH DAIRY-FREE OPTION: combine 1¼ cups low fat milk (any variety of low fat milk should do—almond, soy, rice, low fat coconut) with 1 tablespoon + ¾ teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar and let it sit for 5 minutes before using.
IF YOU LOVE THESE PANCAKES: you’ll also enjoy my buckwheat crepes recipe and my other pancake recipes!
A NOTE ON FLUFFINESS: I tried forcing some extra height into these pancakes by using half whole wheat pastry flour and even folded in whipped egg whites, but neither made a significant difference. Then I took another bite and wondered why I was trying to make these marvelous pancakes something they’re not. They’re perfect just the way they are.

flowerboy coffee

a coffeeshop/boutique/flower shop/cafe/??? new to our ‘hood. we finally tried it out today and i was underwhelmed. i wanted to love it. i stepped outside of my intovert zone to be extra friendly with the staff. i received what i perceived to be standoffishness and disinterest. m didn’t like the coffee. i thought it was ok until it cooled. which explains the following photo — the most interesting thing about this visit was the blister-like bubble left over by the frothy milk:

  
and i discovered life&thyme and surfistas and a whole bunch of other small-batch publications (but too disinterested to thoroughly examine at this time).

soboro rice

we have a new favorite restaurant on sawtelle: yakitoriya.

here’s how we made it at home (march 29):

  • 8 TBSP sake
  • 4 TBSP soy
  • 4 tsp grated ginger
  • 2 TBSP sugar (use 1)
  • 4 TBSP mirin plus some (maybe 5)
  • 2.35 lbs chicken
  • N.B. was too sweet

online learning

i’m on my third week of “Seeing Through Photographs” provided by The Museum of Modern Art on coursera.org. After a slow start due to more reading and fewer videos and more work keeping me from said elective online course, i am finally caught up and starting lesson 3: Documentary Photography. so far, this lesson is my favorite because it underscores the “production” that goes into a photograph by the photographer and the choices in subject matter, color, framing, and public sharing that the photographer makes every single time s/he presses the shutter button.

the lesson resonates with me because, although i take photos for many reasons, i take photos to document the moments of life that will never happen again because recreating those moments, as far as i know, would be physically impossible. my approach to the world — my predilections, my organizational habits, my photography, and the way i conduct myself as a web developer — is to “curate the world one pixel at a time” and to record those moments for posterity. i admit it: i am a life hoarder.

pita master

i’m so glad i make bread now because i’m not afraid to try to make any bread and i have just enough knowledge to make the dough work even if i didn’t get the recipe quite right. which just goes to show you that dough is very forgiving and you shouldn’t be afraid to make dough/bread. tonight i made pita to go with m’s shawarma. whoa. mind blown. we may never have to go to zankou chicken ever again. 

  

home improvement

remember that vine we cut down in april 2013? with the help of mama bear, we finally updated the paint job on the garage where the vine used to be. we also covered other stucco patches and other exposed areas that weren’t beige (i.e., dunn-edwards pigeon gray).

vietnamese spring rolls

vietnamese spring rolls

banh mi venice makes awesome fresh spring rolls with shrimp, rice noodle, bean sprouts, lettuce, and mint with hoisin almond butter dipping sauce. m thought we could do that at home and after months of asking me to make them, she took matters into her own hands, ordered the noodles and rice paper wrappers from amazon, and we bought all of the veggies today. she even made almond butter from scratch for the homemade hoisin sauce.

here are some other websites she consulted:

kofta curry

our third day of cooking indian food (specifically from the Phaidon India cookbook). the sauce for the kofta was amazing even though it separated. we saved it by whisking cornstarch into yogurt and incorporating it into the not-quite-warm sauce.