Okonomiyaki and the Return of the King...

For the last three weeks, Brianna and I have gotten together and watched one extended version of The Lord of the Rings on our afternoon off from work. This evening was the final installment of our adventure through Middle Earth, and we celebrated with kettle corn (we both may be little, but we sure can pack away a lot of popcorn) and dinner. Which was amazing. And easy. And from Pinterest (love). And foreign, too. To borrow words from Samwise Gamgee, "I don't usually hold with foreign food, but this Elvish stuff -- it's not bad!"

Or, you know. Japanese stuff.

Okonomiyaki, a savory Japanese pancake, literally means "as you like it." It's simple to make, quick to cook, fun to eat (because it's a pancake, but it's got sauce on it), and delicious to taste. Here's what you need:

1 cup flour
1 egg
1 – 2 cups fresh spinach/kale/nappa cabbage/ or your green of choice [minced]
3/4 cup rice milk or water
1/4 tsp salt
Okonomi sauce (or in our case Sweet & Sour sauce and Teriyaki sauce -- I have a major sweet tooth and liked the Sweet & Sour better, but they were both great)

This is your base recipe. Because this is an "as you like it" pancake, you can add whatever you want to the batter! Brianna and I added green onions and ham. Other stuff like garlic, potatoes, shrimp, fish, shallots, ginger, anything you want can be added in. After you've put in your tasties, do this:

1. Preheat pan with oil on medium heat (or do it after the batter is ready like I did)
2. Place all the batter ingredients into a bowl and stir until just combined- do not over mix (I don't know how you'd over mix it, but that's what the directions said to not do so I figured I'd leave it in for you -- in case it's important, you know)
3. Pour a large pancake sized serving out onto your pan -- about half of the batter will make one good sized pancake
4. Add any additional toppings (or stir them into the batter before pouring into the pan -- then it all gets mixed together evenly)
5. Allow to cook thoroughly on both sides (3-5 minutes, depending on toppings), add sauce of choice and serve while hot

Such a great meal. Pinterest wins again. 

And The Return of the King is just a fabulous film. It's so well done, and the feeling that you get from it is rather incredible. I'll admit it, I was moved to tears by the loyalty and love that the characters feel for each other, and that the actors portrayed so marvelously.

Fantastic evening, I must say. The whole day was great -- productive and fun. And now it's raining. Very perfect.

biscuits...

I found a recipe on a blog that I've been wanting to try for awhile. Seeing as it's my turn to take a treat to work tomorrow, I decided to try my hand at it.

I've never made biscuits before. That being said, the buttery little beauties that I pulled out of my oven were surprisingly delectable. I've had to stop my sisters from eating all of them so that I can share some for Tasty Tuesday (I know, I know -- English majors are so creative).

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 scant teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

5 tablespoons butter (yes, 5 -- but I think I might use a little less next time)

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons plain yogurt

 

Heat oven to 450. Mix together all of the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into bits, picking up the dry ingredients and rubbing the butter between your fingers. Make sure all the butter is thoroughly blended into the flour. Stir in the yogurt until the mixture forms a ball. Turn the ball onto a lightly floured surface and knead about 10 times (or 20 -- I lost count). Dough should be slightly sticky (they bake fluffier if the dough is a little stickier).

Press the dough into a 3/4 inch-thick rectangle (or if you're like me, you'll make a circle) and cut into rounds with a biscuit cutter (unless you're like me and didn't even know such a thing exists, so I used a glass cup instead). Place rounds on ungreased baking sheet. Reshape leftover dough and cut again. Bake for 7-9 minutes (7 is better than 9, at least in my oven) or until golden brown. Serve with butter and jam (strawberry is particularly good).

best Valentine's Day ever...

Today was the first time I have gone to a BYU devotional this semester. I actually had time. Two words: absolutely awesome. Read why here.

Amazing talk.
My Marriage & Family class is always good, but today was great. We talked about (guess) love and charity in the marriage/family relationship. Mostly we defined love. We also talked about the right way to use our language regarding love, and to make sure the love we express is appropriate.

In general terms, the four types of love defined by the Greeks:
1. Philos, or the love between friends
2. Storge, or familial love
3. Eros, or romantic love
4. Agape, "great love", often defined as charity but really going deeper than that

Great lesson.
Remember that 800 word children's article I had to write? I got it back today. Teacher comment:

"Georgie,

Seriously? You astonish me! An excellent article!! Thank you! Disney is a huge subject to tackle--even the creation of Mickey is still broad, but you deftly crafted an angle about spatial relationships that is focused and fascinating. The addition of your fun facts and definitions are engaging. Well done. Brava!"

Score = 100%

Day = made.
The last three weeks at work have been spent doing almost nothing but blowing up and tying balloons. I'm not even kidding, that's all we've done. So, probably 5,000 balloons later (I'm dead serious, I've prepared so many), I decided it was time to get some of my own. I picked out my balloons, blew them up, tied pretty ribbons on them, arranged and knotted them into a bouquet, and, using the very last red balloon weight in the whole store, finished off my Valentine bouquet. And...I kind of love it.

Ingredients:
3 Valentine print mylar balloons
2 clear damask printed latex balloons
3 black damask printed latex balloons
2 red with black polka dots latex balloons
2 red with white polka dots latex balloons
1 red balloon weight
lots of red, white, black, and silver curling ribbon

Super cute, right?


Happy Valentine's Day to me!

pin it...

Yep. I did it. I followed the rising trend and got a Pinterest account. Do I love it? Why, yes. Yes I do! And am I actually learning things from it? Why, yes. Surprisingly...I am! See, look what I found: a recipe for Baked Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes (or more like itty bitty muffins)! I decided to make them when I got home from work, and I DID! See?!


Now the reason why I'm so excited about this (and Pinterest as well) is because I have always been a rather non-talented maker of food, whether baking or cooking or even just opening a bag of cereal. I kind of struggle. Seeing all of this stuff on Pinterest has kind of inspired me to try my hand at learning how to do some of this stuff, especially when it comes to cooking. So far I've tried two recipes, and they both turned out really well! And there are other things to "pin" to a "board" as well, like quotes and sayings, photographs, places to travel to, clothes (a particular favorite of mine), and lots of other stuff. It's so much fun! I have so many ideas for things now, I don't even know what to do with them but PIN! Because after that, I can always come back to it later.

So, the donut holes that are really more like mini muffins. These are super easy to make, and they're actually really good. I'll share the recipe with you (I've doctored it up a bit because the first batch had a bit too much cinnamon when it was rolled, so I changed it for the second go around) and you can try it, too!

Baked Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes (yes, baked--it's healthier!)
For donuts:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/2 teaspoons allspice
1/8 teaspoons ground cloves
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned plain pumpkin (not pie filling)
1/2 cup low fat milk (not that it matters, it's just healthier that way)
For coating:
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a 24-cup mini muffin tin (you don't have to have a 24-cup one, I used two 12-cup tins and greased them with shortening to keep the muffin bites from sticking).

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the oil, brown sugar, egg, vannilla, pumpkin, and milk until smooth (I used an electric beater because I can, haha).

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Be careful not to overmix the batter (I don't know what that means, so just mix it until it looks right to you! My batter didn't have any clumps or streaks of the dry ingredients. If that's overmixed, well, they still turned out fine!)

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups (about 1/2-2/3 of the way full). Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the muffins pass a toothpick test.

While those are cooking:
Make the coating! Melt the stick of butter in a smallish bowl, depending on what you have. In a separate bowl, stir together the sugar and cinnamon.

Now that the muffins are done:
Remove the muffins from the oven and allow to cool until they can be easily handled. Dip only the top of each muffin into the butter, then dip into the cinnamon sugar to coat.


Presto! You're done! Just as a heads up, these are good with milk, hot chocolate, and apple cider. So...yeah! Happy baking! (And pinning. ;) )