Harvest Apple Challah

Georgia's been having a crazy weather conundrum lately...which is, by all means to all of us here, annoyingly normal.

So some time ago we've had some March snow + flurries, and this past week we've had a clear but chilly day, a rainy/stormy day, a fairly okay but windy day, then finally, a really hot today.

Naturally my immune system freaked out, and now I have a full-blown cold.

Question: is it okay to bake things for people when you're sick? Is that just terribly gross and unacceptable, even if you wash your hands more times than you can count and when you run ten feet away from the kitchen just to sneeze, then come back?

I promise I had nothing but good intentions.

I baked this challah for a close family friend. She's also been sick and down in that place... where you live a few days in your pink fleece pajamas... and don't give a crap what anyone might say about it. She yelled at me for baking when I was sick. As in, sick and should've taken care of myself instead. NOT sick and shouldn't have dared to make food in my nasty germ-infested state.

Obviously this person is a saint, and obviously this person deserves a good bread.

This isn't our first run-in with the challah.

I've baked it before, in a classic two-braid log form, for someone very dear to me. We both loved this egg bread, and ever since then I've been on the lookout for more challah recipes. When I found this one featuring tons of apples and cinnamon and honey, I knew I had caught on to something good. Really good. Plus, seeing as how I'm trying to incorporate more whole wheat into recipes, I thought it'd be nice to sneak some in here, too, along with some ground flaxseed.

Result: this bread is some serious comfort food. Chicken soup, meet your match.

Sean's 1st Birthday Cake

Someone dear to me called and asked if I could bake a birthday cake. A little boy named Sean was turning 1, and his parents were planning on throwing a dohl party.

Dohl (read: Dole) is a major event for us Koreans. It's a term that refers to a baby's first birthday celebration, and it usually involves a lot of friends and relatives gathering together in a big party setting. Sometimes the parents dress in the traditional hanbok, but the baby almost always wears it. There's a fun little game called the Dohl-jabi, in which the parents try to predict their baby's future by what item he or she grabs. I'm told I grabbed the string, meaning I would live a very long life. Ha-ha. All fun stuff.

Dohl is major. Dohl is important. Dohl is also particularly memorable. In my dohl pictures, I'm decked out in baby hanbok with gold rings on all my ten fingers. All ten, folks. Dohl also features specialty rice cakes and fruits and plenty of food for guests. Add in dohl photo shoots, the imported hanbok from Korea, and etc., the first birthday party can get pretty expensive.

Nowadays the popular trend among Korean parents seems to be more and more elaborate dohl parties. The bigger and fancier the better, is the idea. I'm all for celebrations, but I personally don't see the point of spending a couple grand just to throw a party my child won't remember but through pictures.

Sean's parents felt the same. They were a young married couple, and an even younger parents. They didn't have much. Even I could imagine the stress behind wanting to throw the best dohl party on a limited budget. Especially with 45+ people coming and watching.

That's why I was so honored and thrilled to bake their boy's birthday cake. In my brain, it all worked out perfectly: the parents don't spend extra on a cake, I get to practice cake decorating, the baby gets his cake, and all of you get to read about what went down.

And trust me, a lot went down.

Coconut Lime Blondies

Some things just don't hit me until much, much later.

For instance, when I used to work as a writing tutor, this guy came in and waited behind four people just to get a conference with me. By the time his turn came along, my brain hurt from checking thesis statements, the clock was pushing 11 at night, and that was it, I had to stop the line somewhere.

"Can you just read a page?" he asked.
"No, I'm really sorry, but I'm not reading any more papers today. Maybe you can get some of your friends to read it for you?"
"Can you just read a paragraph?" he asked.
"No, I'm sorry. I really can't."
Then: "Can you read ONE sentence?"

And that's when I got super annoyed and sent him on his way. I wanted to yell at him, like, hey kid, I'm tired and sleep-deprived. I worked overtime. I have homework, too. What difference does a single sentence make?

A few days later I was complaining to my English professor and he gave me this really amused look and I finally went ohhhh.

Some other things I didn't "get" include Chik-fil-A (Chicken fillet, DUH), a close "friend" who secretly hated me for years, and... the exact deal with Honey Boo Boo.

I didn't get what these blondies reminded me of until a few days afterwards. Let's see...tons of coconut and chocolate that's chewy and sticky and practically addictive...

Coconut macaroons, in bar form. Except made better with tons of lime zest and crunchy walnuts.

PEOPLE. Are we getting this??

Chocolate Sweet Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!

...Or Happy Singles Awareness Day, I guess, if you're one of those people.

I'm a (sometimes) happy single who's (always) aware of her singleness and someone who loves Valentine's Day nonetheless. This day might as well be Happy Eating Chocolate Day- although Easter does prove to be a close contender for the title. But then again, roses+chocolate wins over boiled eggs+chocolate, so there's that. 

If you're like me, you bake chocolate heart cookies, treat yourself to some Moscato, and catch up on The Mindy Project. You resist the urge to shout, C'mon Mindy the character! Stop going out with random jerks! Danny's the right jerk you should end up with!!! Then you pour yourself another glass.

You also read the Valentine status updates on Facebook and predict this year's single people bitterness index. I have to say, I didn't see a whole lot of negative posts this year. Either you guys are really happy or have turned completely apathetic.

This Valentine's Day, I surprised my mother with a bouquet of red roses. She surprised me with nothing, but that was okay. I ate the last of the rice.

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was having one of those days when I knew "it's going to be all right" but everything still sucked anyway. I was tightly strung between mild irritation and steady annoyance, which basically meant I wasn't in the mood to tolerate foolishness. To anyone throwing yet another hackneyed cliche in my face, BEWARE. You've been warned.

Cookies don't actually solve anything in real life. They don't pay the bills. They don't stop the nosy neighbor from staring at you just because you're Korean also. They don't make fake friends go away into la-la land. But there's something about a freshly baked cookie straight from the oven...cooled just enough for you to break into two pieces...perfectly chewy from the caramelized sugar inside the dough...aroma of chocolate and sugar and butter swirled together like a halo around your head...

Yeah, I needed a cookie. I needed a cookie badly.

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies

Trends come and go (and sometimes stay), and the culinary scene is no exception to that rule. 

Anyone recall how molecular gastronomy was this huge thing? I mean, those olive oil caviar spheres! The herb vapors, the liquid popcorn, the disappearing pasta sheets, and my personal favorite: the foams. 

I think all that stuff is fascinating. I hope someday someone will cook up an edible gum that, after a reasonable amount of chew time, turns into a shot of fizzy liquid soda. Also, hard candy that turns cold as soon as you start to eat it would be a godsend for summer.

But at the end of the day, I'm a classic comfort foods gal. I like to try new methods, pair up unlikely ingredients, gleefully attempt a complex dish as the next baker. But sometimes you come back to the old tried-and-true. You come back to what's simple and sweet and comforting.

Classics are wonderful that way. You might have to ponder a bit before offering someone parmesan foam or frozen durian, but a classic, old-fashioned chocolate chip cookie? You know you don't even have to think twice.

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

My mom likes to tell me to "go have tea with someone."

That's her way of telling me to go out on a date. She's (secretly) afraid I'm going to die never having gone out on a single date. She's (secretly) afraid I don't have it in me to be attracted to someone.

That certainly couldn't be farther from the truth. I talked about boys before. My mother just has selective hearing and selective memory. It's like she needs to see it happen in order for all my talking to have been legit. So she tells me to go have tea with someone, because that's her way of saying "I need you out of this house and eating dinner with a nice young man."

I have to remind her that people don't go out for tea. We go to Starbucks and order lattes. She tells me her point still stands, but she won't care where I go, as long as I go out on dates like a normal person.

I'm 22. I'm not weird. I'm not an uber-conservative. I don't suffer from extreme social anxiety. It's not a religious thing. I also know I'm not the only one.

I've had crushes. I have a crush. I'm not pushing it. I'm fine with that.

I also don't know a single guy who drinks tea. But it'd be so awesome if my future guy did. I love, love tea. Green tea, black tea, white tea, herbal tea, caffeinated or non-caffeinated, I love them all.

These cookies have crushed Earl Grey tea leaves in them. I can imagine peppermint, lavender, and rose tea crushed into shortbread, as well. It'll happen. The tea date thing will happen. My mom not freaking out thing- that's going to happen, too. Eventually.

Carrot Cake Pancakes, Revisited

Hi.

How's everyone's 2013 coming along?

Are you excited? Desperate? Busy? Oblivious? Still scribbling 2012 on your checks? Yeah, I feel you on that last one.

My year started off super loud, super charged, with 60,000+ people at the Georgia Dome. From January 1st to 4th, I attended the Passion 2013 conference, where I had the most wonderful time singing praise songs, listening to Francis Chan live, getting 3 hours of sleep a night, and...possibly sneaking in a dear friend the last two days. (I'm so sorry!) I also met the coolest group EVER, and I want to send the loudest online shout out to my dream team. You know who you are ;)

But then my year literally came crashing out of nowhere. I'm not going to go into details now, but let's just say it was challenging, complicated, and crazy messed up. It's also the reason why I've been so behind updating this blog. The good thing is that it's over, and I'll move on the best I can.

So, on that note, I'm starting off 2013's very first post by visiting a recipe I wrote back in November 2011.

I practically gaped in horror as I read what I had written back for that post:

"As the name implies, these are pancakes. So don't expect to bite into a pancake-shaped version of carrot cake. These carry only the slightest hint of carrot cake, which comes alive with a drizzle of clover honey on top."

I'm sorry, but "only the slightest hint of carrot cake"???? And what's with the stern, don't-expect-much crapshoot on what's supposed a fantastic breakfast pancake?

Clearly there was something amiss with me that day. A revision was in order.