chai masala tea cake

i’m off on fridays. this is recent & i’ve turned it into a major cooking/baking day, usually starting early in the morning. i woke up to a fb recipe post by the lovely show-me-the-curry ladies for chai-tea. i have a cupboard full of indian spices-many which are whole-that i wanted to use up, so i made the spice mix. i dragged out my mortar & pestle & went to work. it’s hard work-those indian ladies do it all day long. they are all buff. then i put it all through the coffee grinder & sifted it. it makes a lot.

you can use the powder to make many things like chai masala tea cake. i had everything except walnuts, subbed pistachios, & brown sugar, subbed molases. it worked perfectly!

best served warm with a dollop of european butter!

SO good

hand-crafted pierogi

pierogi. i’ve made them a few times before but it’s been years. 4 dozen took over 5 hours from start to finish. you have to love these to work this hard. and it is hard. i respect bakers. dough can be back-breaking work if you do it right. you have to knead it for about 10 minutes, give it the proper time to sit, keep it from drying out, roll perfectly-this has to be very thin. and it’s so hard! practice practice practice. there’s nothing more to say.

i researched a few dough recipes & settled on one that i’m pretty sure will be my stand-by. pierogi & vareniki dough is perfect. & if you don’t have cake flour on hand, just put 2 tablespoons of corn starch in a one cup measure, add regular flour to the rest. i did this & it worked perfectly. and 10 minutes is a long time to knead, but you have to get that gluten going. when you start to roll, cut the dough in fours. and roll it until you can’t get it any thinner. it takes awhile. i used a 3 inch diameter serrated edged cutter.

filling is tricky. you have to stretch the dough in the air all around the dollop of potato mixture & seal well. it took me a couple of hours to do 48 of these. you can use any kind of filling out there. my favorite pierogi is potato cheese onion, so i started with a standard recipe but instead of using onion powder & garlic salt, i used real onion & garlic. the farmer cheese is important for the flavor so don’t skimp if you decide to make this flavor. here’s the recipe for potato and cheese pan-fried pierogi. it’s excellent & you can easily cut it in half. i was left with tons. however, it tastes so damn good it’s not a bad thing to have it to eat on the side.

you finally boil until they float-5 minutes

they did turn out pretty good. i’m a little intrigued to work with dough again. i enjoy the challenge. & i enjoyed the backbreaking work involved in making this beloved polish comfort food.

dehydrating 4 doggies

i’ve been trying to create the healthiest snacks for dogs. i used to have a dehydrater (i was a raw foodist for awhile) & did not know you could easily dehydrate in your own oven. so i did some research, hung a few slices of quality beef & pork on some skewers in my oven for 8 hours at the lowest temp.

i’m thrilled about this because it opens a lot of possibilities. there are so many varieties of sweet potato, which are very good for dogs. i purchased 4 kinds at a local food co-op & did a few thin crisp (for smaller dogs) and a few thick & chewy for uma type of dogs.

just slice, lay on pan & put oven on lowest heat-mine goes to 170. you can crack the door open to keep it less intense if you like. this is really awesome because the bags of sweet potato chips for dogs costs over 10 bucks, which is really pricy for what it is-a potato. i plan on concentrating on these types of treats for awhile. i would love to try all kinds of meats & fish (for my cat) to hang & dehydrate. i love having a better choice of what i choose to feed my dogs.

granola bars

someone asked me to make a healthy snack for him & his wife because he does not have a dog & wanted to purchase treats from me. i was puzzled because i don’t usually make “healthy” baked items for humans. so i decided to research some granola bar recipes & decided to use alton brown’s recipe. it is chock full of various dried fruits, seeds, nuts & oats. and not very easy to make.

the first batch looked great

but it all stuck to the pan. i had to scrape it out & turn it into cookies. so i began once again-this time adding an egg to help bind the mixture together & parchment paper so i could just lift it all out when it is cooled & cut it into squares. make sure you also do this if you choose to make this.

i basically spent several hours trying to get these right because someone would be buying them from me. i had no idea what to charge because the ingredients make this very expensive to make. so i brought 2 to him, thinking that i would gift them & see if he liked them first.

after all of that work, he never showed up to receive them. i gave them to my mgr. & the desk aid. the rest is for my husband.

i don’t like people who ask me to do something for them & then blow me off. i will not be baking for him again. that being said, i have conqured the granola bar, which can be modified in all kinds of ways. it’s a great food to have around for someone who needs a healthy snack. my husband wins this time.

kimchee guacamole

***VEGAN***

this is bill kim’s delicious kimchee chopped fine into mashed avocado. i’m wondering if he has already done this. asian latin fusion dosen’t sound like it works but it does! this guacamole is excellent!

make it into a sammie!

green apple mochi balls

i have been working a lot trying to figure out the best dog treats for the dogs i bake for. one girl has a dog i have not met before & boz choked on one. crystal turned him upside down & then cpr & it popped out. it did not seem to faze her because she’s continued to buy more treats from me.

yesterday i saw a photo of boz wearing a down hoodie looking gangsta.

“wow-he is kind of, ummm, small. how much does he weigh?”

8 lbs. whoa. my uma, who i consider quite small, is 50 lbs. the size of boz’s mouth is probably like my cat’s. with this in mind, i set out to create the right treat for boz.

this is a more simple recipe. i juiced several green apples & used brown rice flour, which is gluten-free pretty much. easy to digest. and pretty healthy. i think i hit a home run with this one. they are kind of tedious due to the fact that they are so little & take a while to roll each individually. i did try to put the dough in a pastry bag, but that did not work out. i will continue to hunt for the best solution for that. it’s also difficult to make them perfectly symmetrical. i only bake for 4 dogs right now but all of them are addicted to my home-baked treats & are always urgent to get more.

yes. i am quietly entering the dog biscuit market. underground, bike-delivered, 17 flavors sit in my freezer as i write.

green apple mochi balls

pulp & juice from 3 green apples
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
1/8 c. milk (optional)
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
3 cups brown rice flour

preheat oven to 350

cream all ingredients. add flour gradually. knead 5 minutes. roll into desired size balls & bake 30 minutes, shaking the pan every 10 minutes to brown all over the treat. dogs love crunchy things.

that’s it! super easy, super healthy, digestible, & judging from my food testers doris & uma….

DELICIOUS! light, crunchy, perfect for a mid-day snack.

figgy swirlys

i’ve been curious about figs & had some on hand. i always liked fig newtons. so i decided to make fig swirls, mainly because they are pretty.

prettier than how they taste i’m afraid. that is, unless you like cookies that aren’t very sweet. there is no sugar in the cookie. only honey in the filling. perfect with a cup of tea & laborous/fun to make.

good luck