-- I won't be able to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair this year, and I'll miss seeing my Frankfurt friends and reading German magazines and visiting the Palmengarten and eating a LOT of baked goods. To ease my pain (just a little), I baked up a batch of Brezelbrötchen -- pretzel rolls. I wish they had turned out a little smoother and glossier (I think I should only boil one or two at a time, because I get flustered and -- I think -- leave them in the water too long), but they're very tasty. And if you're a fan of Trader Joe's peanut-butter-filled pretzel bites, just imagine a warm Brezel roll with almond butter. Oh wait, you don't have to imagine. Amazing.

-- I had the almond butter Brezel roll for dinner before heading out for my second Team Challenge run. I promise I'll write more about Team Challenge tomorrow or Friday, but for now I'll just say that I've really enjoyed the training runs. I'm not a super speedy runner, but I am more conditioned than several of my teammates, and being a strong runner in the pack is a nice change! July was a really rough running month for me, but I got my mojo back in August and am more in love with it than ever.

-- The cats are lovable and annoying in (almost) equal measure. That's averaging over both cats. Beany is probably 80% lovable, 20% annoying (and that goes to about 95%/5% as long as she stays indoors), while Birdy is... well, the opposite? But she's only seven months, and Beany wasn't the most charming when she was young, either. Birdy's sort of a jealous cat and doesn't like it when I give Beany a lot of attention. But it's not what you'd think -- she'll come over and try to steal Beany away from me. How dare Beany cuddle with me and not her!

-- I've been getting spam comments up the wazoo, lately. I thought, Hey, maybe that's the internet's way of telling me to update. It's probably not, but whatever gets me typing, right?

-- One of the blogs I read (Heather Eats Almond Butter) mentioned this brownie fudge stuff, and I had to try it out. Packaged brownie mix + pumpkin puree + oven = something edible? Yes! I really like it. Really. I still have a lot of frozen pumpkin downstairs (from last year's garden), so it's handy to find a new use for it. I suppose the fudginess of the result depends on the mix-to-pumpkin ratio; I used a smaller box mix (not the family-sized one) and less pumpkin, and I would say the finished item is more like fudgy brownies than brownie-fudge. But, you know, it's chocolate-y, so I've spent more time eating it than thinking about it.

-- Adorable cats are adorable. Birdy is just over five months old now and weighs 5.5 pounds. Beany will be four years old in September and weighs 7.5 pounds. She's a little cat, and she spends so much time chasing Birdy around. She's noticeably slimmed down since Baby Cat came to stay.

-- I've been having a creative explosion in my brain, lately. I made a little ring-bound notebook for grocery lists, found some iron-on transfer sheets and made a coin purse with the Minneapolis skyline on it, sewed a bright yellow trunk bag for my bright yellow bike, and went to Paint Your Plate with Alex and her sister and painted a mug. I should really take some pictures of all those things (well, I WILL take a picture of the mug once it's been fired). Because I've been so inspired lately, I checked my biorhythms, thinking they must be at their peaks, but no -- I should be stupid and lazy and clumsy right now. (I don't really give biorhythms any credence, but it's like reading a horoscope...)

-- My rhubarb is still going bonkers, so I grabbed a cookbook and went to town. I happened to open Nigella's How to Be a Domestic Goddess, which has a recipe for rhubarb polenta cake. I don't like reprinting recipes, but somebody's already done so here. I halved the recipe and baked it in a 6" cake pan (with a removable bottom), and I thought it turned out wonderfully. Here's a photo of what it looked like inside.

-- Yesterday, I tackled the hilliest portion of the half-marathon route I'll be running in July. I only did 7 miles yesterday, not 13.1, but it was definitely the most challenging part of the course. There's one hill that I often drive over, and I always say that my car gets tired going up it. It's hard to feel like you're even moving when the incline is so steep, but at least I know what to expect now. And running down the other side was pretty fun.

-- Are you a weather-checker? I am; I think I started my weather.com addition when I moved back to Minnesota. It always baffles me how people can move through life with no idea what the week's weather has in store. Of course, I also don't really trust the forecast, which is why checking it so often is important. At the moment, I'm hoping it will decide overnight (or perhaps in the next hour, if it's feeling kind) that tomorrow morning will actually be dry and clear.

-- I recently realized that I still have loads and loads of pumpkin puree (from last year's crop) in the freezer. I made a pumpkin version of my muffin tops, but that took only half a cup, so today I made a crustless pie. I'd printed out Susan's recipe quite a while ago, so I was happy to be finally trying it. I used buckwheat flour instead of rice and a 1/4 cup egg whites (since I'm not vegan), and you can see that the texture of mine is very different from hers (I also had to bake for 10 extra minutes before the middle was cooked). It's actually quite similar to regular pumpkin pie, I would say, but next time I'll use a different flour, as buckwheat has too much 'grit' to it. I ate a piece plain this evening, and I thought it was a bit too heavy on the nutmeg, but then I realized that it just needs some whipped cream to balance it out.

-- I bought a new box of peppermint tea today, and I performed the task that's one of my greatest kindnesses to Future!Anna: I tore apart all the two-by-two Celestial Seasonings bags ahead of time. It takes about two seconds to do them all at once (you don't even have to take them out of the box), but if I leave them attached until I use them, I swear I spend hours of my life tearing them apart and getting them caught on things.

-- This morning was dedicated to the Annual Cleaning of the Porch. I've been sitting out there for a while now (hooray for warm springs!), but I've been tsking and judging myself every time I do. Cleaning means taking out all the furniture, vacuuming up all the hair drifts and cobwebs, scrubbing the floors (they're painted white and get pretty dirty over the winter), washing the armchair's slipcover, and then putting everything back where it belongs. In addition, I also painted the top of the table I have out there white. It's the table we used to eat at when I was growing up, so it's had some wear and tear, and my mom had sponge-painted it a while back. Now it's fresh and clean, and I don't have to put a tablecloth on it (which is good, with cats).

-- Speaking of cats, the current score is Birdy 0, Bath 3. I'm not sure which will happen first: improved balance or learning not to sit on the edge of the tub.

Ack! There are too many things I want to post about! I did so much during my computerless weekend (until now, obviously), so I'll tell you about the interesting bits here. Other, non-weekend-related stuff, will have to wait for its own post(s).

-- After I got the box of VitaTops to review, I started to really enjoy incorporating them into my meals, so I was sad when they ran out (well, I have two chocolate-y ones left). I was going to order their Super Sampler (and I'll probably still do that, eventually), but I got a case of the I-can-do-that's and wanted to try to make my own muffin tops. I used the muffin top pan that had been gathering dust for the past few years (I wiped it off, first) and created Banana Cran-Bran muffin tops. Recipe here. I came up with the recipe by altering one on the package of wheat bran, so the first time I made them, I used all whole wheat flour, as it called for. They were not good (my WW flour might have been a bit stale, too), and I threw them away. But instead of giving up on the recipe altogether, I tried it again with all purpose flour and buckwheat flour (that's why the color looks a bit unusual). Amazing! I love buckwheat flour, and the banana + molasses = the perfect amount of sweetness without any refined sugar. I might use honey next time and see how I like that.

-- I went to Victory 44 last night; it's right in my neighborhood (and there isn't much else!), so I can't believe it took me this long to try it. My dining partner and I went for wine and dessert, which meant that we split their dessert selection platter. It was decadent, and it was good. The music was entirely too loud, but that's the only nit I can pick. I'm looking forward to visiting for lunch some day to try their 'real' food. If you ever find yourself in North Minneapolis, check it out.

-- I woke up this morning from an overnight sugar crash. I was starving hungry and had a terrible headache (and no, I wasn't hungover; I had only one glass of sparkling! German! white wine). And the craziest thing happened. I thought to myself that what would really make me feel better would be to have a light breakfast and then go for a run. I could almost taste the cool morning air from my bed. So that's what I did: ate a piece of almond butter toast, strapped on the ol' running shoes, and hit the parkway. And, would you believe it, I ran the fastest two miles I've ever run. Felt great afterward.

-- While I'm on the subject of running, I should mention that I ran this exact same loop on Wednesday and felt terrible the entire time. I think, from now on, pre-run breakfasts will be light (but calorie-dense) and will NOT include coffee. I had tea with my breakfast this morning, almost an entire cup, and it seemed to sit much better.

-- Today marked the first post-dinner evening constitutional of the season! I love going for a leisurely walk after dinner, so I was very happy. Tulips and other early-spring bulbs are starting to come up all over my neighborhood, and the lawns are already looking greener. It's spring!

I spent a lot of time at home this week (or, rather, left the house even less than usual), so when it came time to get ready for a Friday-evening dinner gathering, I almost wished I could back out -- inertia. Luckily, I didn't (I'm not crazy, after all), and I had a really nice time with smart and funny people. And I got to make the rhubarb crisp pictured above. I had the rhubarb in the freezer (I can't remember if it was from the garden or the farmer's market), so I just used the really simple recipe from the old Betty Crocker cookbook (I wrote it down here). A winner.

And then, today, I had lunch with my friend Alex and new friend (I hope!) Ann, who came from the internet. Or somewhere around the Mall of America, but that's not really as funny. We met at the Seward Cafe, because that's one of my favorite places to eat, and I'm also a little bit bossy. (I am a little bit bossy, but actually I just have a shortlist of places I like to eat and will always suggest, in order to avoid the whole 'I don't know, what do YOU think' rigmarole.)

I had a buckwheat pancake with some 'deluxe' on top (plain yogurt and sliced fruit), and it was so good that I will show you this picture of it, even though it's a terrible photo. Alex commented that the pancake looked like something I would make at home, except I would have cut the slices of fruit more thinly and arranged then more carefully (I also would have alternated the fruits instead of grouping them). I am predictable.

You can see Alex's miso soup in the background, along with the tahini toast I said she should get (as a helpful suggestion, not in a... bossy way). Ann got Mexicali eggs, and everybody enjoyed their food and we sat and chatted and had a good time. Meeting new (awesome) people might be my current favorite past-time. It was particularly handy that Ann's been reading twelve22 for a while, so she sort of knew ahead of time what to expect (maybe? I might make her fill out a survey to find out how my projected blog persona compares to my actual self. I mean, I might ask her.) -- but meeting people in real life gives one the opportunity to tell the same (interesting! funny!) stories that one's friends have already heard repeatedly.

Anyway, it was good for my brain to have some social time the past two days (although I did have a really nice week, despite its relative solitude). I thought I'd be able to post pictures of my bedroom by this weekend, but I still haven't bound the quilt, because I get bored just thinking of hand stitching the binding. But perhaps I will bring that to my parents' tomorrow and finish it while we watch the Viking's game.

We were talking about my house at lunch today, and I said that I've been having 'nightmares' this past week about people coming over to visit. The house is so far from its norm, due to this whole overhaul process, and I haven't bothered to take my mop bucket downstairs (it's in the bathroom), because I keep meaning to try out the new floor polish I got (fancy!). See, I can't clean, because I have to clean first. Here's another item for my list of 'Things That Wouldn't Have Occurred If I Weren't a Home-Owner': dreaming that I'm wearing ice skates in the house and thinking, 'Oh, this can't be good for the hard wood floors!'

I feel like I've been on my feet all day, and I suppose I have, more or less. I wouldn't mind crawling into bed right now, but since tomorrow is my birthday (!!), I probably won't find the time to update.

I had to do a lot of baking and candy making + wrapping today, which explains the on-feetedness. When I was over at my parents' house yesterday (for the Vikings game), my mom and I made nougat, using this recipe. The only change was substituting dried cranberries for the figs. It's quite a threatening substance, like sticky, sugary, quick-dry cement. And it's wickedly sweet. I wasn't sure it was even going to be appealing to eat until this morning, when I cut it up and tried it with the fruit and nuts mixed in for the first time. It managed to transform into something amazing overnight, and the salty pistachios and tart cranberries couldn't be any more perfect.

I also baked the layers for my birthday cake -- I'll do the icing and assemble it tomorrow morning. I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to make this year. I liked the idea of a German chocolate cake, mainly because I love the coconut-pecan filling, but I'm a little bored with chocolate cake at the moment. So I went with a buttery coconut cake for the layers. I'll post the links to the recipes I used when I do a proper cake post with photos.

As I was doing research for my cake (as you do), I looked at image search results for German chocolate cakes, trying to get inspiration, and I came across one bakery image that had a chocolate medallion at the center of the cake. It looked basically like a wax seal on a letter, only made of chocolate. And on a cake.

So, since I only had about a million things to do today, I thought I might as well try carving a stamp (using a rubber Mastercarve block) and see if I could do something similar. I cooled the chocolate in the freezer after pressing on the (buttered) stamp, but it was both too thin and too cold when I carefully removed the stamp, and it broke into several pieces. Oh well. It looks good, though, right? I mean -- my letter 'A'. Pretty good for free-handed letter drawing. I might make my own chocolate font.

-- I was struck with a need to make gingerbread yesterday. I'm sure something must have set it off, but I'm not sure what. So in between doing other things, I whipped some up this morning. I used this recipe, sorta, except with a handful of changes. I only did half a batch (one loaf pan), subbed in strong coffee for the stout, did half oil and half applesauce, omitted the cardamom -- oh, and I didn't actually boil the molasses mixture, but the coffee came straight from my Bialetti, so it was already hot. I also put in half a cup of raisins (whatever had been telling me to make gingerbread in the first place also wanted raisins in it -- weird, right?), but unfortunately, I tossed them into the flour mixture before I stirred it in with the rest of the ingredients, so I didn't realize how thin the batter would be (very thin!). Needless to say, the raisins all sunk to the bottom, and a lot of them stuck to the pan after baking. Whoops. The flavour combo (of the raisins that DID stay in the gingerbread), though, is just as I had hoped. I'm putting it in the 'win' column.

-- So, Rio gets the 2016 games. I can understand why it's exciting for a country/city to host the Olympics... the attention, the boost to the economy, etc. But I find it hard to believe that anybody LIVING in a candidate city thinks it's a great idea. I mean, obviously, lots of people do, but all I remember about the campaign for the 2012 Olympics in London was complaining. Stratford, which is the main location for the London games, was between where I lived and where I worked in London, and I am soooo glad to have got out before the craziness hit. But, you know, good for Rio.

-- I discovered this TV show that I think might really take off: Lost. Have you heard of it? Ha! I've been steadfastly refusing to watch for the past five years, or whatever (actually, I did try watching it when it first premiered but couldn't get into it). And I had been tempted to check it out when they put it on Hulu, but I wasn't ready to travel down that rabbit hole. Well, I finally bit the bullet, and it's sucked me in. I'm a Mac user; I'm watching Lost -- what's next on the list of popular culture that I've been denying myself? Will I go out of the house wearing leggings and no skirt? (Answer: NO.)

-- Back to the gingerbread: it's funny how, as it was baking and the aroma was filling the house, I skipped over autumn, Halloween, and Thanksgiving and immediately jumped to feeling Christmas-y. Molasses and ginger are powerful ingredients! I still can't believe we got gypped of pleasant, mid-60F weather, though. The high today is in the 40s. I might as well start singing Christmas carols, I guess (as if I ever stop).

Look at these! Cookies! Shaped like Minnesota! I can't get over it (obviously). I suppose, objectively, Minnesota isn't a better shape than any other state, but it's just so home-y to me. Like seeing a familiar face after traveling alone for a long time.

To make my cookies, I modified this recipe like so: omitted the lavender, added a heaping 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, used one egg + one egg yolk (instead of three yolks), and I used cinnamon sugar to dust (and definitely didn't use an entire cup of sugar, as called for in the recipe). Oh, and I mixed in a large handful of dried apple bits at the same time as the eggs.

I used three State Fair apples, cored and sliced, but with the peels on. I dried them in the oven, at 170F (as low as mine will go), for about three hours (flipping them halfway through). I didn't need them crispy -- I just needed enough of the moisture out so that they wouldn't make the cookies soggy. Once they were dry, I minced them up pretty well. The bits made the cookies slightly more challenging to cut, but only slightly, and it was easy to trim off any nubs after they were baked.

I guess I made mine a lot thinner than traditional shortbread, but that's okay. It's a really good recipe -- not at all greasy, which is my usual complaint (I'm not actually that big of a shortbread fan). The addition of cinnamon makes them a bit snickerdoodle-y, but I can't actually say how apple-y they were, since I ate mine along with an actual apple (the one in the photo, in fact).

An apple which came from my own backyard! I know it's kind of ridiculous to be astonished that I grew an apple where once there was not an apple (okay, the tree grew it), given the extent of my vegetable gardening. But I'm still sort of amazed. It was perfect -- crunchy and sweet, but with just enough tartness to be interesting. Like... a real apple.

Hello, everybody! I feel like this is the first Saturday in a while that I haven't had a brunch/lunch engagement, and it's a little hard to figure out what to do with all these morning hours. It doesn't help that I woke up extra early today. So far, I've made apple pancakes for breakfast (they demanded a repeat after the other day) and had a thin slice of zucchini cake, just to tide me over until lunch. That's pretty much it. Beany and I had a lie down on the sofa, too; weekends are hard work.

So, I made this zucchini cake for my tomato party yesterday (I think everybody had a nice time sitting out on the patio, and I managed to offload a couple dozen tomatoes), and it's really something special. I had started my search by looking for a chocolate zucchini cake that didn't go crazy with sugar or oil/butter, but then I found this Zucchini Olive Oil Cake and knew I had to try it. Luckily, about half of it was consumed during the get-together, and I was able to send some home with friends, so I'm only 'stuck' with a modest wodge of it now.

That cake is definitely going in my file of 'tried and true' recipes, and I thought I'd share some of the other stand-by recipes I've come across on the internet. These are all things that I've made more than once, and for which I'm not tempted to seek out a 'better' version.

-- Rhonda's Bread Recipe: Makes a great loaf of sandwich or toasting bread. I often sub in a cup of rye flour for the same of white.

-- Heidi's Special Zucchini Bread: A true zucchini bread. I usually cut back on the amount of poppy seeds and nix the cinnamon and curry powder, and I use all purpose flour. I love, love, love the crystalized ginger!

-- Susan's Pumpkin Spice Bread: I use the oil called for in the recipe (she also makes it without) and use an egg instead of the substitute. I've made them several times now with my own pumpkin or butternut puree, and everybody always loves it. Add chocolate chips, and you've got a super-double winner.

-- Laura's Gingerbread Cut Outs: I've made these a few years running, now. I use an egg (instead of a substitute), and I don't use black pepper. It could just be my oven, but I've found they usually only take about six minutes' baking time; any more and they get too dark on the bottom and don't stay as soft. A perfect, spicy gingerbread cookie that isn't too sweet (so stands up to lots of icing!).

-- Caramel Corn: I actually lost the link to the recipe I've used a few times (one of the smaller losses of the MacBook crash), but this is pretty similar. Adding salted peanuts is amazing. It's a good potluck recipe!

-- Rachel's Refrigerator Pickles: I posted my slightly tweaked version a while back, but I figured out that this is where I originally found it. I made some a while back and used slightly less vinegar, which I found is better to my taste buds.

-- Alton Brown's Bread and Butter Pickles: Just a good, solid recipe.

-- The Post Punk Kitchen's Tahini Dressing: I was crazy about this all last summer! According to the notes I made, I added onion powder and a pinch of cumin. Very good!

That's it for now! I hope you get a chance to try some of these.

Myriad topics to cover today:

-- I was feeling so proud of myself for clearing off the window sill (of tomatoes) to make sauce today. It's a lot of pressure, knowing there are tomatoes that will go bad if I don't do something with them in a limited amount of time. So, well done, me. Dusted the old hands off and thought I'd take a stroll around the garden, thumbs hooked in my imaginary suspenders/braces. Then I started picking tomatoes and came inside with over ten pounds of 'em. Whoops.

-- I made Susan's Seitan and Eggplant Stew yesterday, and I can heartily recommend it. I halved the recipe and soaked my split peas for quite a few hours before I even began cooking. I think my only changes were to omit the chili peppers (used red pepper flakes instead, just a dash) and the pomegranate molasses (no substitution) because I had neither. I also cut way back on the cloves, because I find that that flavour often overpowers everything else. It's a delicious dish, and I LOVE the seitan cooked in with everything. I'm thinking I'll have to try a 'beef' stew using that method!

-- My mom gifted a Cat-A-Wheel to my pet cats. Beany loves it. She's just this second gone over to curl up in it again, actually. Booty doesn't trust it at all, however; he prefers to sleep in the cat carrier, of all things. Sadly, neither the cat carrier nor the Cat-A-Wheel blend seamlessly with the rest of my decor. Imagine.

-- My friend Mo did a desktop meme, which began its life as a 'show your computer desktop' thing, but which she expanded to include her literal desktop as well. So this is my MacBook desktop (the photo was taken a couple of years ago in Minneapolis, right after an impressive summer storm had passed). Not very interesting, eh? And this is my actual desk, with the iMac. My screen saver just cycles through a folder of my photos, so that's what's on the screen. The book on my desk is Thomas Emson's Maneater (go buy it now!), which I needed on hand the week before last, when I was typesetting its sequel.

-- I spent ages picking grapes off their stems yesterday (grapes taken from my parents' yard) and turned them into juice. Today, I made jelly, except I did it all wrong. There were too many words in the instructions, words that I couldn't be bothered to process, so I missed the fact that I was supposed to measure the juice into a BOWL and the sugar+pectin+water into the SAUCEPAN, so it all wound up in the saucepan. I think it'll actually set up... mostly... but definitely not as well as last year. Live and yet still fail to learn.

Look, I come bearing a new design and a cheesecake photo. I realized after I uploaded everything that the font size is rather small, but I can fix that in about thirty seconds. Perhaps I'll have already fixed it by the time you see this.

So this is a piece of the cheesecake (made with this recipe) -- not too bad, eh? I feel as though it didn't rise enough, which made it too dense and slightly underdone at the bottom, but the flavour is good. The crust is particularly tasty -- I probably won't use the cheesecake recipe again, but I could see using the crust for a fruit tart (if I made such things).

I'm heading back up to the cabin to finish reading the rest of my submissions pile and to get through some proof reading. It seems like a good week to get away, since it's supposed to finally get a bit hotter outside. My garden could use the heat, though. It's looking good, but the tomatoes just haven't been ripening. I've only had three turn, and they all had blossom-end rot, which is pretty disappointing. I'm ready for some homegrown tomatoes!

Anyway, my goals for this coming week are 1) finish all the submissions, 2) see Funny People at the Hinckley cinema, 3) have lunch at one of the corner cafes in Sandstone, 4) get an ice cream cone and walk around. All attainable goals, I think. For now, though, I just have to shower and pack, which somehow seems like much more of a challenge!

My friend Julie is coming over tonight, and it's become something of a tradition that when we get together, we have a special dessert. Well, it's one of those we've-done-it-twice-so-let's-call-it-tradition things. The first two times, we tried different cupcakes from some nice bakeries, but I've been looking for an excuse to make a cheesecake, and this seemed like a good one.

Instead of going the usual New York style route, I wanted to find a recipe for a German Käsekuchen, and this is the one I settled on. It calls for quark, which I didn't have readily available, so I substituted cottage cheese that I pureed in the blender (FYI, in order to get in thin enough to blend properly, I had to add a few Tbsp of the heavy cream that's also in the recipe). Blended cottage cheese is pretty awesome; I think it might be the whitest substance known to man.

I'm being extremely patient and waiting until Julie arrives this evening to cut into the cheesecake, so I don't know how it tastes yet (I'll update you on that once I've tried it, of course!). It's not the most attractive thing, but it seems to have set up pretty well, at least. And I guess I could have trimmed a bit more of the crust off the top, but oh well. What kind of jerk doesn't like a bit of extra crust, anyway?

Yesterday I woke up and opened the kitchen blinds to see that the above had bloomed. I'd assumed the vine that had been climbing up the shepherd's hook in my garden was a weed, at least until the buds started forming. I had a hunch as to what it might be, then, and the flower confirmed it -- a morning glory. My neighbours plant them on their side of the fence, and I guess a seed made its way to my side and about ten feet away. It couldn't have picked a better place to grow, either!

Speaking of garden surprises, I discovered a second large pumpkin hidden under the plant's leaves the other day. My gardening method looks something like this: 1) Spend all spring breaking my back tending, tidying, and planting, 2) Coast along for the rest of the summer, doing as little as possible besides watering and harvesting. That's how things like ripe peppers or giant zucchinis can just 'suddenly' appear in my garden.

But I was looking under the leaves of the squash plants (which are enormous, both the plants and the leaves) for butternut squashes, which have been slower to form, and what did I discover but a nice, big pumpkin. There are several smaller ones, but I thought I had only one that was already fairly big -- so now I have two. I am going to adopt a seasonal style of eating from now on: salads and tomato sandwiches from June - September, and nothing but pumpkin pie from October onwards.