The Downside of Baking

Monday was one of those days that just flew by. I started work at 8, worked until around 1 and then took a break for an hour and a half and biked to the library to check out a gardening book, and then went back to work till 5. By the time I finished work I was starving. Ryan and I were both home yesterday evening so I asked him to start dinner while I was finishing work.

A lot of the time it's just me by myself in the kitchen. I like cooking alone. A lot of times I don't even think to turn on the radio. I find cooking and washing dishes almost meditative. I like keeping my hands and brain occupied. But sometimes that can get boring or lonely. It was a nice change to be cooking in the kitchen together.

We went with a very summery meal yesterday. Last week at Frigs we picked up some bison burgers. I'd been craving one all weekend and yesterday we took out our tiny countertop grill - which really is tiny, it fit two patties exactly and that was it. I love those grills. We have a giant one that my older brother and niece got us, and this mini one that my folks got us. We just pre-heated for 5 minutes and then the burgers were both cooked in less than 15 minutes from frozen.

When I got home Ryan had already taken care of the oven fries and we tossed them in for 30 minutes. Earlier in the day I'd made up a batch of naked quinoa so I grabbed that out of the fridge, threw in the snap peas we'd gotten with our Fresh Option box this week, and added some balsamic dressing, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, paprika, and feta cheese. Mmmm....simple, but delicious.

While I made up the couscous, Ryan got all the condiments and cut up some cheese, kale, onions, etc for his burger. We had no buns so he had his on toast but I just had mine naked. Yum yum yum, this was a really satisfying meal and is making me look forward more and more to summer. There are a lot of BBQ pits in little parks dotted all around this area of the city so I'm looking forward to the day when it's warm enough that we can grab a frisbee, my hammock chair, some friends, and good eats on a lazy, sunny, afternoon.


You may have noticed this entry is called the downside of baking. After dinner Ryan and I both felt like something sweet but our home is empty of junk food. So I walked into the kitchen and thought "...butter and sugar...that's about all I have....what can I make with butter and sugar?" Naturally I turned to Four Chickens blog.

I scoured through some recipes before settling on gluten free donuts! You'll have to go to her blog to get the recipe, but these were faaaaantastic. And surprisingly easy. I took out all the ingredients, threw them into a bowl, mixed, added flour, mixed, and then refrigerated. Once the dough was cooled I heated some oil and got to work shaping the donuts. Jeanne recommends using cutters to make your donut shapes but I found this didn't really work well. Instead I opted to pull off a chunk of dough, roll it into a thick, but not too thick, snake, and then mold it into a small mini-donut ring. I molded them and then, very smartly otherwise we might have eaten them all, stuck 8 mini donuts in the freezer. Then you carefully place them in the hot oil and watch over as they cook. I mixed some brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkled it on top of the finished donuts. I think these will be making frequent appearances in our kitchen.