Applesauce and drugs

Baking is the perfect way to procrastinate and easily show off your food skillz with others. Am I too lazy to get my clothes that have been sitting in my basement drier for about 10 hours? Yes. Can I still find the time/energy to bake and then blog about it? Absolutely.

I’ve been trying these past few months to venture into the healthyish baking front. My number 1 ally?

Applesauce

Do you ever feel weird about putting four sticks of butter into your mixers when baking? Am I asking you too many questions? Well, even if I am you should know that you can actually substitute part of the butter with unsweetened applesauce. For the following recipe I went about half and half but I’ve done up to 75% applesauce. It does change the texture of the product. My cookies have turned out more soft and muffiny. But I kind of like it that way and it works especially well for cakes.

The other day, I planned to clean my room and bathroom/study for the GREs/do laundry but instead Googled carrot ginger cookies. The most reasonable find was this (including some modifications):

Carrot Ginger Cookies
1 cup white sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
½ cup applesauce
1 egg + 1 egg white (if you double recipe, just use three eggs)
1.4 tsp. vanilla (I spilled a little)
1 cup finely grated carrot (about 3 normal sized carrots)
1 1/2 tsp. freshly grated ginger root (about 1 small root)
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oat bran
3tsp. baking powder (I was supposed to do something with cream of tartar but who keeps that stuff around anyway?)
1 tsp. salt

Cream the butter, applesauce, and sugar until light and fluffy (Light and fluffy? Mmmmm….). Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Stir in the carrots and ginger until well blended. Mix the soda and salt with the flour. Stir in the flour a cup or so at a time and mix well.
Roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch (or whatever) balls. If desired, roll balls in sugar before placing on baking sheet (didn’t find this necessary). Bake at 350 degrees for 12 – 14 minutes until slightly browned and top springs back if touched.
The dough is quite soft, it helps to refrigerate it before rolling into balls.

Why the strange proportions? I ran out of white sugar, then went to brown. Only had ¾ cup all purpose flour so threw in some whole wheat. Saw my oat bran in the pantry as I took out the whole wheat and thought it deserved a chance too.

End result was pretty rockin’. The fresh grated ginger gives them some real spunk. Another good way to cut out some of the not so healthy stuff in baking is to add spices. It makes it easier to get away with a more mild sweetness so I could have used a little less sugar.

For this one, turn on “Little Secrets” by Passion Pit. It’s another upbeat, rhythmic song that will make you find yourself doing all sorts of strange things in the kitchen, whisking to the beat, lip syncing into your wooden spoon (not singing because you can’t understand the words), and/or doing the shopping cart as you get out your ingredients. The vocalist/keyboardist Michael Angelakos has a tenor that grabs your attention and the beats are amazing. I never really listened/understood the lyrics of this one (except “Higher and higher”) but in keeping with the last post, I tried to find a lyrics/food connection and looked ‘em up.

“my face blew up at such a casual sight
this miracle is of ecstatic fright
theyll rush above me to oblivion
outlining white sidewalks with halogen

oh have you ever felt so goddamn strong
how come it takes some people so damn long
he tried to squeeze the lemon juice to rain
the citrus drawing out the seasons stains…

…let this be our little secret
no one needs to know were feeling
higher and higher and higher

but i feel alive and i feel it in me
up and up i keep on climbing
higher and higher and higher”

Uhhhh okay so this is definitely a song about drugs. He’s singing about the stigma that goes along with them and how they make him feel good anyway. I suppose that these cookies are pretty delicious/addicting and thereby exhibit somewhat drug-like properties. However, if we’re going to put cookies on the drug spectrum, these would definitely be of the softer variety. They’ve got a big applesauce substitute plus I snuck some whole grains in there. They’re also not drugs, which is good.

Passion Pit’s little secret? Recreational drugs. Mine comes from a man who goes by "Musselman"

Enjoy and be safe!
Julie

Eats and beats

Many a song has been inspired by food. After all, hasn’t everyone melodically asked to have some sugar poured onto themselves? My sister surprised my father yesterday with a visit and he immediately proclaimed that if he knew she were coming he sure would have baked her a cake. Even some artists have named band after foods (see Honey Honey). And who could forget 1985’s “All You Can Eat’” by the Fat Boys? Okay, I’ll admit that I found that one from Googling food songs.

BUT songs may also inspire you to cook. Since I don’t write music, this is the angle that I’m taking for the blog. I’ll go through some of my fave eats to make which will include some so very lazy foods (see below) and certain dishes that are a bit more complex. I’ll also suggest some tunes to go with.

So let’s examine last night’s dinner:

“Baked beans with Spinach on Whole Grain Toast”





Ingredients:
Store-brand vegetarian baked beans
Frozen spinach
Bread

Heat up beans with frozen spinach in it. Toast bread.


BAM. Delicious, cheap, sort of healthy dinner. In fact, I only had time for one track which was Postal Service’s “Nothing Better,” a song with an addictive, pulsing beat and synthesizers galore. The song is about a guy trying to get back with a girl after he screws up and her telling him to hit the road. How does the song and my dinner relate? Well, she’s saying “tough beans.”

The PS was collaboration from that guy that sings for Death Cab (Gibbard) and a music producer Jimmy Tamborello. Apparently Taborello sent Gibbard the instrumentals and Gibbard just kinda did his voice thing and sent them back. The beats on the album make you want to repeat the tracks, but beware because if you get tired of it, there is no more Postal Service for you. Wikipedia tells me that their album Give Up was a one-time deal and they’re done. And don’t think you can just up and move on to Death Cab because they’re not as good!

Send me an e-mail if you'd like to contribute. And just so you know, I don’t always cook like that and I’ll certainly have more interesting recipes up in the future.

Cheers,
Julie