SEITAN:
Prepare yourself for the most unappetizing picture ever:


Sliced up is better.

This was my first attempt making seitan. It was actually super easy and way more cost-efficient than buying seitan!

Elise always makes her own seitan logs and has written about how easy it is. I’ve always been intrigued so I decided to give it a shot using her log seitan recipe.

I made a few modifications/additions:

• 2 1/2 c vital wheat gluten
• 1/2 c chickpea flour
• 1/2 c nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 Tbsp minced dried onions
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt (optional)

• 2 c water
• 1/4 c Bragg aminos
• 2 tsp liquid hickory smoke

I followed her instructions, and like she said, it was super easy! Maybe 10-15 min of actual prep; 1.5 hours in the oven, and I was able to make 3 logs. It was pretty tasty too, though next time I might try to add in some chopped roasted veggies which would not only add some extra flavor but also keep the seitan moist.

BRAISED MARMALADE BRUSSEL SPROUTS WITH CHICKPEAS

Brussel Sprouts & chickpeas… two of my favorite foods! This recipe is super easy and straightforward, but also packed with flavor!

Ingredients:
1 lb brussel sprouts, trimmed and halved
1 can chickpeas
1 small yellow onion, sliced
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp orange marmalade
1 tsp cumin
2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
Salt + pepper to taste

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Blanch brussel sprouts for 3-4 minutes before removing and immediately plunging into an ice water bath.
2. In a large sauce pan, heat the olive oil. Then turn to low and sautee onions until translucent, about 10-15 minutes. Add chickpeas, cumin, orange marmalade, both vinegars, salt and pepper. Sautee for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add brussel sprouts to saucepan; combine thoroughly and sautee for 4-5 minutes before removing from eat and serving.

Have you ever made seitan before?
Favorite green veggie?

This break has been a mixture of catching up with old friends, relaxing with the family, and lately a lot of work and job applications!

Yesterday, I went with my parents to the Saturday Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building in San Francisco – gotta catch it at least once while I’m in the Bay!

Requisite Blue Bottle Coffee. My dad’s first stop while my mom & I bought produce.

San Francisco Classic. Flaked Black Pepper & Garlic Salmon with pickled onions, spinach, capers, and cream cheese atop Acme sourdough bread.

Veggie tacos from Mijita. Nothing beats the Mexican food in California… except well, Mexican food in Mexico. But you definitely can’t get Mexican food like this in Boston.

Hijiki salad from Delica, which we got alongside a spinach sesame salad and a carrot-ginger soup. The best part about eating at the Ferry Building is that you can create your own little feast – a little bit from this restaurant, a plate from that food stand… it’s great!

Raw zucchini fettucine with avocado, carrot + sesame mash, sprouted buckwheat & lentils, marinated kale, and avocado.

My sister left last week to go back to school, but to send her off, she and I went to Bumble for one last brunch:

Not-so-delicious Americano. Four Barrel coffee = disappointing, multiple times.

Colorful quinoa salad with pine nuts, beets, mint, and arugula. So flavorful and fresh!

Pantry cookie, with chocolate chips, nuts and dried fruit.

Eating with the family has included…

Korean food! Seafood pancake.

Bibimbap! Stone pot with rice and an assortment of vegetables.

Hot pot at home has been perfect for winter time… lots of vegetables, noodles, and seafood!

Asian desserts… only at home.

And of course my mainstay: toast!!! Love the fresh bread I’m able to get at home.

My homemade pistachio-coconut butter with Bonnie’s Jams Apricot & Orange Marmalade (a birthday present from my roommate!)

Avocado toast with sea salt and lemon. This is what California tastes like to me.

…I’ve forgotten about this blog of mine these past few days…

Cinnamon Bums? What’s that?

Then I made these muffins… and upon my first bite, I was so excited about how they tasted: how fluffy and light they were, how pleasantly fragrant, how delicately sweet and not cloyingly so, how satisfying the combination of flavors… so excited that I knew I had to share these with you.

And then I remembered, I have this blog, called Cinnamon Bums, where I sometimes write about food and life, both the whimsical and the significant. These muffins are both whimsical AND significant. At least that’s how they taste.

So I hope these muffins are redemptive – for the silence that’s enshrouded this blog for the past few days.

Here’s to a new year of good food, unique and fantastic flavor combinations, and my continued-but-sporadic, often kitchen-less, but always earnest blogging. I hope you’ll bear with me and stick around. Or at the very least, make these muffins. You won’t regret it.

*Don’t enjoy these in silence. I turned on some Simon & Garfunkel, made myself a fresh cup of Thanksgiving Coffee, and really, truly savored these delicious muffins.

Orange-Cranberry Pine Nut Muffins
Adapted from here
Makes 8 Muffins

Ingredients:
3/4 cup oat bran
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 Tbsp baking powder
1 orange, peeled, seeded, and sliced
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup milk of choice
1/4 cup water
2 (heaping) Tbsp coconut oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup craisins
1/3 cup pine nuts

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease or line muffin pans.
2. In a large bowl, combine the oat bran, flax seed, whole wheat pastry flour, and baking powder.
3. Combine orange, maple syrup, milk, water, coconut oil, egg, and baking soda in a blender. Blend until smooth. This will look a little bit like an orange julius.
4. Fill muffin tins to the top. Bake for 20 minutes, until slightly browned on top.
5. Let cool for 10 minutes (if you can even wait that long). Best enjoyed warm with a pat of butter, nut butter, jam, or all three!

(It’s also yellow, which happens to be my favorite color)

Bumble Cafe serves breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. I love that the menus are fairly simple but still creative. They use simplicity to their advantage, serving scrambled eggs with fresh ingredients, premium coffee, tea sets that include scones and tea sandwiches, and bento boxes that include options such as kale chips, ants on a log, edamame and miso tofu, PB & J pockets, and avocado smiles. For lunch, they have some pretty delicious-sounding salads such as a harvest grain salad with with bulgur, winter squash and cranberries, as well as colorful quinoa salad with fresh mint.

The inside of the cafe is warm and bright, full of mothers and babies!

We sat outside on the “adult patio,” where there were HUGE heat lamps – which was nice! They also gave us these colorful menus and red colored pencils we could use to mark our choices.

I ordered a large cup of coffee to start. Had high expectations for this french press coffee but sadly, it disappointed. Was a bit too watery and also acidic!

The food did not disappoint though…

My sister’s breakfast burrito, with scrambled eggs, jack cheese, and peppers. She skipped the bacon.

Both my best friend and I ordered scrambled eggs with mushrooms and caramelized onions. I added spinach to mine. The eggs came with a buttered french baguette. The eggs were simple and hearty – very rich tasting but not heavy at all! I really enjoyed this!

My other friend ordered poached eggs, which were served atop ciabatta with tomato slices and chive butter. This dish looked so pristine and perfect! The eggs were poached perfectly.

We had a nice, long, luxurious breakfast – next time I’ll come back for lunch! Kitschy and cute, bright and cheery, just the kind of cafe you’d want to go to to start off the new year right!

Bumble
145 First Street
Los Altos, CA 94022

Today I want to share recipes for two of the yummiest things I’ve made lately:
-Pistachio-Coconut Butter
-Lavender-Scented Cornbread (vegan & gluten-free!)

Pistachio-Coconut Butter
The reason this tastes SO good all comes down to the quality of sea salt and honey. So make sure to use a really fragrant, coarse-grain sea salt. Raw honey is preferable.

3 1/2 c coconut flakes (do not use the reduced fat ones)
2 1/2 c pistachios
2 tsp Philippine smoked sea salt (or another coarse-grain sea salt)
2 tbsp raw honey

1. In a high-powered blender (I used a vitamix), blend coconut until smooth. This will take at least a few minutes, and you might have to stop the blender to scrape down the sides before turning it on again.

2. Once the coconut mixture is smooth, add 1/2 cup of pistachios at a time and blend until chunky or even more until smooth, depending on preference.
3. Add sea salt and honey and blend further.
4. Enjoy as a spread on toast or lick off of spoon!

Seriously so good and flavorful. Definitely not the kind of spread you can buy at the supermarket. So worth the time to make and definitely more cost-efficient than seeking out any kind of super-gourmet nut/coconut butter.

As you may know, one of my favorite kinds of bread in the world is cornbread. I’m obsessed.

I made this quick cornbread one morning when I was craving it for breakfast.

Lavender-Scented Cornbread
(vegan & gluten-free)
Serves 2-3

1/2 c cornmeal
1/2 c corn flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 c almond or soy milk
1 Tbsp soy yogurt
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp dried lavender buds

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Prepare a 9×5 loaf pan by greasing with oil or lining with parchment paper.
2. Combine cornmeal, corn flour, baking powder, and sea salt in a large mixing bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, yogurt, olive oil, and maple syrup.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Mix well.
5. Fold in dried lavender buds.
6. Pour into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 25 minutes before removing from oven.
7. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy with pistachio-coconut butter spread above!

Favorite bread and spread?

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Adapted from Flour Bakery’s banana bread

Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour*
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
2 large, extremely ripe bananas, mashed
2 tbsp coffee creamer (I used a coconut milk-based creamer)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips 

*optional but recommended: replace 1 tbsp of the all-purpose flour with cornstarch for a lighter, more cake-like texture

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Prepare loaf pan by buttering/oiling or lining with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cornstarch if using, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
3. In another bowl, beat the sugar and eggs together until fluffy. Add oil, mashed banana, vanilla extract, and coffee creamer. Mix well.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.
5. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 50-65 minutes, or until a toothpick through the center of the loaf comes out clean. (My loaf took a little more than 60 minutes to bake through)
6. Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes before serving. Slice thickly and enjoy!

More highlights from my winter break at home:

(5) I met up with old friends at parties and out at coffee shops.
A new coffee shop called Bitter+Sweet opened nearby that sells Sightglass coffee, Humphrey Slocombe ice cream, and Satura Pastries. If none of that makes any sense to you, let me just let you know that those are probably some of the best artisan foods in the Bay Area. In other words, this coffee shop is going to drain my wallet.

Beautiful graphic design work.

New storefront. Friendly baristas.

Their signature Red Velvet Latte.

(6) I went to the movies.
3 times already. Watched Shame, The Descendants, and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I took a film class this past semester, and since then, I’ve been treating big-screen movies as an experience unto themselves. Plus I’ve realized watching movies can actually be a very thought-provoking and poignant experience. So I’ve been writing a couple reviews here and there on my other blog.

(7) I made a really delicious nut butter.
I’ve been conjuring up this nut butter in my head for a long time and I finally got around to making it. It looks like Shrek, but I can assure you it’s delicious.

Pistachio, coconut, raw honey, and Philippine Sea Salt. Recipe to come.

(8) I enjoyed family dinners – both home-cooked and out at restaurants.

Hot pot.

My favorite thing to eat for lunch: leftovers. Leftover lentil-walnut loaf, veggies, and avocado.

(9) I slept, wrote, and chilled out!
I’ve been reading movie reviews by the great movie critic Pauline Kael (who recently passed away), working on my website, writing letters to friends, and sleeping!

What were the highlights of 2011 or this holiday season for you?

Here’s to a fabulous, life-giving 2012!
Happy New Year, friends!

Turkish Stuffed French Toast

A lunch:

The Girl and the Fig – Ricotta Fig Tartine

A How-To:

Best Kept Granola Secrets

Salads:

Marinated Kale Salad with Roasted Beets

Padre’s Mexican Fiesta Salad – For Father’s Day, I made this colorful quinoa salad for my dad and also wrote about all the things we share together.

A Soup:

Lemony Chickpea Soup

Comfort Meals:

Portabello Tempeh Bake

Black Bean Tofu Tacos

Butternut Squash Shrimp Curry

Baked Goods:

The Chewiest Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever (gluten-free and vegan)

Trashy Cookies

Vanilla Bean Lavender Loaf

Other posts & post categories from this past year:
I did a lot of product reviews.

Went to New York more times than I can count on one hand.

Met up with other bloggers.

Did a survey on hormones with very interesting results.

What were your favorite recipes that you made in 2011?

Has 2011 been a good year for you?

These last couple of weeks have been spent at home, and I’ve been enjoying the much-needed R&R.

Here are some of the highlights:

(1) Went to Las Vegas for a quick family getaway.
We ate at three buffets, watched Phantom of the Opera, and I legally gambled for the very first time…

Beautiful morning light in our hotel room

Buffet food

Make your own crostini.

Appetizer plate… followed by many more plates.

Fountains at Bellagio.

(2) I turned 21 and can now buy beer along with groceries.

Empowering and delicious.

(3) I cooked.
There was a fair balance of failures and successes.

Delicious vegan lavender cornbread. Recipe to come.

Failed beer bread. Recipe not to come. (Lesson learned: don’t use sprouted wheat flour without yeast!)

(4) I went to San Francisco.
With one of my best guy friends, his girlfriend, and his family. Yep, third-wheeling it and loving every moment.

A scenic view of the Golden Gate Bridge

Land’s End. Used to be baths!

Lunch at Blue Barn in the Marina District.

Prune Oat Bar and Coffee.

To be continued…

And now, regardless of bowel movements, I eat beans. And love them too.

The Good Bean is a company based out of Berkeley, California that makes all-natural roasted chickpea snacks in a variety of flavors, including Sea Salt, Smoky Chili Lime, Cracked Pepper, and Sweet Cinnamon.

This is a good snack option for those who require gluten-free foods. The Good Bean prides itself on both the unrefined and nutrient-packed nature of the snack. According to their website, they use a specific type of chickpea called the “Desi” chickpea which have three times the amount of soluble fiber and half the amount of carbohydrates of the more typical “Kabuli” chickpeas (this was news to me; I didn’t know there were different types of chickpeas!). These chickpeas are also great for diabetics because of their low glycemic index.

I love this page especially, which compares the nutrients in a single serving the chickpea snack with the nutrients in other foods.

The Good Bean was kind enough to send me a few samples to try, one of each flavor. 3 savory flavors and 1 sweet one.

WHAT I LIKED: I really like the idea of a (relatively) unprocessed snack, especially a legume-based snack that can replace granola bars, chips, etc. It’s nice that there are multiple flavors and that there are both sweet and savory options.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: Honestly, I really didn’t like the taste of these. I wanted to like them, but they were chalky, powdery, and a bit gritty. They weren’t horrible, but they weren’t delicious either. I liked the basic sea salt and cracked pepper flavors the best. The smoky chili lime sounded very appealing to me but it just did not have the zip that the flavor promises: it wasn’t spicy, smoky, or sour enough. I liked the sweet cinnamon coating on the sweet chickpeas, but somehow, the combination of sugar with chickpeas seemed a bit strange to me.

CONCLUSION: A great and novel idea in theory. I can only speak for myself, but I probably would not buy these, mainly because I didn’t think they were that tasty. Nevertheless, I am really impressed that snacks are moving in a very health-conscious, whole foods direction that takes into account a variety of different diets.

Another bean that I’ve recently tried comes from the company How Do You Take Your Coffee?

How Do You Take Your Coffee makes chocolate-covered espresso beans, but their specialty products are what they term “scientifically irreverent and highly potent energy snacks” – an all natural energy snack called roboostas and a ginseng and taurine-infused snack called go-go beans.

I was interested these snacks because I’m a coffee-drinking, chocolate-loving, energy-needing college student… and well, if those descriptors fit you too, I’m sure you’d be interested well. I’ve always loved chocolate-covered espresso beans, so I thought these would be an interesting product to try out.

WHAT I LIKED: Believe it or not, my favorite of the snacks the company sent me were the plain dark chocolate-covered espresso beans (which actually fell apart in the package, so I wasn’t able to take a picture of them, but I say this from the ones I was able to salvage and sample). The dark chocolate had a nice rich flavor, and they were crunchy with a bitter zing at the end. I also liked the idea behind the roboostas beans – an all-natural, energy-packed chocolate bean for a quick pick-up in the afternoon.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: My problem with both the roboostas and GoGo beans were that they were more artificial-tasting than I would have preferred. Both have a candy shell (roboostas, a purple shell, and the GoGo beans, a bright orange shell) that seemed to have a lot of chemicals in them especially the coloring in the GoGo beans. I wish both of these were a bit more natural in terms of ingredients. The roboostas beans were also much too sweet for my liking, and both the roboostas and GoGo beans seemed much more like candies than “snacks.”

CONCLUSION: For a coffee lover with a sweet tooth, these are perfect. A bit like upscale M&Ms with an espresso bean in the middle. If you prefer more classic and natural snacks like I do, the dark-chocolate covered espresso beans would be your best bet.

Do you enjoy eating beans? If so, what’s your favorite kind?