pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

adapted from thekitchn
yields 16 large cookies

A growing army of cookies!

Ingredients
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Method
1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt.
2. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
3. Add vanilla and chocolate chips.
4. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Baking Bread

Sometimes, I bake… a lot. Today was one of those days.

I baked a loaf of beer bread filled with lots of Italian herbs, and two loaves of French bread. Baking beer bread is a cinch whereas the French bread took up a good chunk of the day because of how you have to wait and let it rise. Regardless, if I may so myself, they’re quite delicious. I’m thinking about turning a loaf into garlic bread for dinner to pair it with pasta and some white wine.

The other day, I stumbled into the Pearl District where it happened to be First Thursday. First Thursday is this amazing Portland event that takes place on the first Thursday of each month (hence the name). There’s art galleries that open up to the public, wine and beer, street vendors, live music, and random/cool events like this all over the Pearl.

Two small ramps were placed in the middle of a small street parking lot where skateboarders could do tricks off of. Surrounding that were booths featuring beer, grafitti artists, live music, and what not. Definitely one of the more creative/unique events I’ve seen at First Thursday.

*Photo* Updates on Life

Several days ago, I wrote Updates on Life and I just finally got around to uploading the photos that should’ve accompanied that post. Better late than never, right?

(Click on the thumbnails to view the larger version.)

On the way to Tillamook Cheese Factory and the campgrounds, we had lunch at a steakhouse. Free peanuts, beer served in mason jars, and delicious burgers.

My sister and her BF drove up to visit for a couple days and we indulged ourselves with wonderful food. One of which was my raspberry buttermilk cake, and another was some ohmyfawkinGod delicious bacon pizza. Nomnomnom? Indeed.

Do check out my Flickr because that’s where I upload a lot of my photos.

A few days ago, the BF and I headed downtown to do some errands and hang out. At one point we went to Peet’s for coffee and wait for a phone call that never came (until much later than expected). I got bored–surprise, surprise–and started doodling on the envelope of a card he was planning on mailing.

There’s a fish eating a fish, crabs, hearts, chopped up fish, sushi, hearts, and LAO. The BF crossed out the hearts and is the culprit behind LAO. Yeah, we’re 22 years old with four bachelor’s degrees between the two of us.

Vegan Brownies & Frosting?

Yes, you read that right–vegan. I’m not such a fan of vegan food but the situation called for vegan brownies.

The Situation:
1) I wanted chocolate.
2) The household is low on butter and vegan means no butter.
3) I wanted something somewhat healthier. I figured whipping up something without butter and sugar would be a tad bit healthier… Right?

I’m still waiting for the frosting to set but from the stolen spoonfuls I had while baking I know it’s going to be delicious.

Vegan Brownies + Vegan Frosting
Various recipes combined together by yours truly, me!

Info
Prep time: 15 minutes
Bake time: 20 minutes
Makes enough brownies for a 9×13″ baking pan.

Ingredients
Brownies
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups vegan sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting
1/4 cup vegan margarine
1 cup vegan powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoons vegan soymilk
1/6 cup cocoa powder (or more)
a dash of salt

Directions
Brownies
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Pour in water, vegetable oil and vanilla; mix until well blended. Spread evenly in a 9×13 inch baking pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is no longer shiny. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before frosting it.
Frosting
1. Soften the vegan margarine. (This would be a good step to do while preparing the brownies). Once the brownies have cooled, start making the frosting:
2. Using an electric mixer, cream the powdered sugar into the softened margarine. Add the vanilla extract, soymilk, cocoa powder, and salt. Mix well.
If it is too thick, add a very small amount of soymilk, and if it is too thin, add more powdered sugar.
Continue to mix until the frosting is light and fluffy.
3. Frost the brownies.

By the way, my recipe was published… here! Check it out!

Updates on Life

I’ve been (unintentionally) neglecting my blog for the past few weeks but I have been Tweeting a lot instead. It’s easie but I apologize because I know it’s not the same. Do follow me on Twitter if you can’t resist.

Here’s a few updates on what I’ve been up to recently.

+ I went camping on the coast last weekend with the roommate, the BF, and a friend. Instead of heading straight to our campsite at Fort Stevens we made an hour long detour to the Tillamook Cheese Factory for some ridiculously delicious icecream. I’ve only recently realized that kid’s sizes are perfect for me because one small serving of junk food is just all about that I can stomach. Unfortunately, I don’t always remember that and I ended up ordering two huge scoops of icecream on a huge waffle cone.  Oh, and this was right after I had a huge (but delicious) burger for lunch.

Enough about food. Camping was fun. It rained but only when we were ready to sleep; it was nice falling asleep and waking up to the sound of raindrops hitting your tent. The next morning started off a little overcast but the sun eventually came out. Played around with a toy shotgun someone bought. And by play I mean we tried to shoot squirrels with it. The boys also swam and ran around on the beach while I chose to just read. I did get a little sunburned on my nose.

+ My sister and her BF were in town for a few days. It was a laidback visit and consisted pretty much of baking, cooking and lots of eating. A Pizza Scholls (hands down best pizzeria in Portland, Ore.), chocolate krinkle cookies, Chinese food from China Town, meatloaf, garlic cheddar cheese chicken, Portland, Farmer’s Market, KFC, meatloaf, banana blueberry pancakes. Oh, and I baked the most delicious raspberry buttermilk cake ever. Mmm. I’ll share the recipe and photos for that in the very near future.

Yeah. I eat a lot. Probably too much for my own good.

+ I did, however, sign up for another month of bikram yoga. We all know how much I love bikram yoga. This is definitely something that I’d like to do long-term. I’m going to try attending more sessions from now on–maybe up it to going every weekday. Oh, I also managed to talk the BF into signing up for a month of bikram yoga with me. Haha.

+ The job hunt is going well. I’m not going to say anything because I don’t want to jinx it but hopefully I’ll be with good news soon. I’m still looking though–this time focusing more on connections and networks–because there’s no need to stop and jump for joy yet.