Nouveau Boulanger!

My lovely notecard. Isn't it the greatest thing? I'm so tired right now.

Below, you can see the vast assortment of ingredients littering my counter.

break 3 eggs in a bowl and beat.
add sugar to eggs and stir.
add applesauce and stir
add vanilla AND THEN add flour slowly and stir as you add. Then add powders and spices.
Grate zucchinis into bowl (or measuring cup, whatever)
And stir until your doughy stuff gets moist.
Then pour into whatever container your cooking in. Just be sure to grease your pan or cupcake paper cups first. Cupcake-sized muffins!!!! The ones in the yellow cups are zucchini and in the pink are my experimental banana things.
Mini-muffins!!!!!!
These are my loaves in batter form. Nice, eh? The closer one is zucchini and the farther is Frankenstein's creation. Cook one hour (loaves) at 325 degrees. Mini muffins take about a half hour and cupcake size take about 45 minutes.

zucchini batter close-up.

Oh! Beautiful!!!!! Zucchini bread.

Beautiful... whatever-the-heck-it-is...

Aww... cute little muffins... The mini ones are under the bigger ones.

I am officially a member of the world of elite bakers! Well, maybe I shouldn't go that far, but I'm damn close! Today I made zucchini bread muffins/cupcakes... actually, tonight. I just made them. They're actually in the oven as I write, so they technically are not done yet. I guess I'm not as close to the elite world of bakers as I thought. Oh, well. I am confident (desperate) that they are going to turn out beautifully. As promised, I took pictures and am now featuring them on here! Enjoy these pictures and this recipe! It makes two (count 'em: 2) loaves of zucchini bread (or an ass-load of muffins). Oh, and by the way, be sure to buy enough zucchini. Yikes! I had to improvise with the other "health" batch I made for me (the other ones are for my friends) because I didn't have enough zucchini because someone (Mom!) used the third one for dinner last night. Sheesh. Just kidding. Dinner was delicious and I love you. But I really did experiment! It's going to be very interesting... I mushed a banana and just kind of plopped it in there instead of zucchini and some extra apple sauce to moisten it up a little.I guess we'll just wait and see... I used agave syrup and kamut flour in mine, you can use regular flour and sugar if you want (that's what I used in the ones I made for everyone else). In the morning I'm going to mix some yogurt and cream cheese together to make a topping concoction. Plus, I have some little daisy/toothpick things to stick in the top... so cute! Tomorrow (Saturday) is my birthday party; that's why I'm making these treats tonight and tomorrow morning! Sunday is my birthday! Ahhh! 17! They grow up so fast. And by "they", I mean "I".
Love,
Belle
3 cups flour (kamut, almond, Quinoa, brown rice)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups sugar (Stevia, agave)
3 eggs
1 cup applesauce (to replace oil)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups zucchini

Feeling a Little Crafty?

These weren't actually in this years competition; I put them in last year. The first one is a portrait of my eldest sister, and the second was my first (remotely good) painting. The painting is supposed to be of Ireland! These were already on my computer so I figured: hey, visual aids!

I am! Feeling crafty, I mean. I've been wanting to make... well, EVERYTHING! lately. Yesterday I made Valentines for three of my friends, my mommy, my dad, one of my sisters, and my three nephews. I was also feeling sentimental for the good ol' days in elementary school when everyone made cute little mailboxes or pouches for their desks and passed out those little Valentines with the cute little sticker hearts! Oh, how I miss those days! I got 1 (I repeat: 1) Valentine... one! And it was from one (I repeat: one! Too much?) of my nephews. And it was only after I had already given them theirs. But I was super excited anyway, because I desperately wanted one (well, I didn't want one. I wanted multiples! I should say: I wanted at least one.) I think the highlight of the day was when my sister, Courtney, made our mommy and me raspberry pancakes with chocolate sauce and honey drizzled on them. Uhhh... yummmm... Well, maybe not quite the highlight of the day. I really, really LOVE food! But I've got to say that if anything was better than eating the raspberry-chocolate goodness that was breakfast it was talking to... someone... about... stuff... for approximately 45 minutes. He is enjoyable to talk to (look at [but really talk to {and look at}] but it makes sense that to talk to him I have to look at him. Which I do not mind doing. Anyhoo...). It was a good day. Moving on from what was probably my least-suckish Valentine's Day yet: This Friday the art from my high school's art competition is going to be displayed in the art gallery area of the local cultural foundation! We're having a nice big exhibition with finger foods and everything! Except wine. Apparently that isn'y appropriate for a high school art exhibit...? Who knew? This will be the first- and hopefully not the last- time my art will be in a gallery. Besides the time I was walking around a gallery downtown with my big bag, in which I always keep a sketch pad. Somehow I just don't think that counts! Anyway, this long-winded babbling crap load has all been my round about way of leading into the main point of this post (and seemingly my entire existence lately): baking! Since we get to have finger foods at the exhibition, I finally have an excuse to make my zucchini bread mini muffins! Oh, the world revolves around the sun, the best time to plant corn in coastal Mississippi is February 25th to March 18th, and life makes sense again! I have never before had an urge this strong to bake! I've never even baked! Unless you count the occasional batch of chocolate chip cookies, and minimally helping my brother/sister/best friend make cake/brownies. But, all of a sudden, I just want to create! I want to make crafty little crafts [?], food, art, gifts, clothes; honestly I'd make just about anything right now. Don't quote me on that, and if anyone has any suggestions on other fun craft ideas I would freakin' love you if you would comment below unless you have a nasty suggestion or want to say something snarky. If that is the case, please feel free to comment, but also leave your email address so I can write you a strongly worded letter. Okay, moving on! I'll probably make the muffins Friday, since I have class Thursday and the showing is at night anyway, and I'll try to take pictures of the process and post it- along with the recipe- here. By the way, I made hummus on Monday but I didn't take pictures. Which turned out to be a good thing since the hummus did not turn out to be a good thing! It would've been marvelous if I had had enough chickpeas! But alas! I didn't even go to the store to get any ingredients because, for some crazy reason we had all of them just laying around the house! Except that our can of chickpeas was 15 ounces and the recipe called for 19 ounces. This set in motion the hummus apocalypse! I was a ninny and decided not to adapt the recipe to the smaller can of chickpeas. I don't know if you'd really call what I did a decision; it was more like I just glazed over the details, blacked out and woke up with a terrible and unfix-able mess. This one detail totally screwed everything up, I mean, it tasted like butt and sesame seed oil (which is lovely in small amounts but-trust me- not in large amounts!), and it turned out like butt-sesame-hummus soup... mmmm... I loved it! Alright, I wrote an essay here instead of a concise post! Now, if only I could sit down and write the THREE essays that are actually due for college! I know, it's awesome! Love,
Belle
P.S.: I'm watching the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Does this mean I am now officially my mom? Food for thought.

Will You Be My Valentine? Or Come to My Birthday Party?

Here is the finished product from wakinglife. You can easily convert this into muffins. You don't even have to change the recipe just poor it all into a muffin tin instead of a bread tin (I don't know what to call it).
Here's a vegan zucchini muffin. Click on the pic to take you to the recipe, they have recipes for tons of other vegan muffins, too.
This is some homemade hummus. Mine will be nowhere near as pretty as this, but I'll try to not destroy it.
Finger sandwiches are a blessing. They truly are.
Mmmm... yummy, biscotti is super...
Check out my sister's recipe at poorcountrycollegegirl

I have no Valentine this year sadly enough. Hrm... I haven't had a Valentine any year. But I'm okay with that! I am in a good mood today, and the fast-approaching doom that is Valentine's Day will not crush it. "Why are you in such a good mood, Bellamy?" you may be asking yourself. Well, I'll tell you: my birthday is in 14 days and my birthday party is in 13 days and it's gonna be the best! My 5th birthday party officially put me in the books for cutest b-day party ever, it was a big teaparty with a bunch of my little friends! We made big ladylike sunhats and ran around my grandparents beautiful, huge house, with its beautiful, huge garden! So, when i was trying to come up with what to do for my party this year (my 17th) I was figured that since that was such a smash hit when I was 5, then logic follows that it would be a smash hit now! Right? Well, with my friends, yes. I'm going to have little cucumber and cream cheese finger sandwiches, zucchini bread cupcake/muffin things (PROPS TO: wakinglifemakinglife for the recipe), homemade hummus (am attempting to make this!), biscotti (my sister's kickass recipe), and some lovely tea, darlings. We're having tea a bit early so after we can go out for dinner. We're going to get sushi because golly do I love sushi! and there's a cute little sushi place in downtown Coeur d' Alene. Then we'll probably catch a movie and crash at someone's house. I'm definitely keeping it low key this year because after last year's party fiasco, frankly, there is no way in hell I'm going for a repeat. Yep, it was that bad. I am confident that this year is going to be great! After the party I'll post some pics for everyone. I'll also have recipes and pictures of the baking process on here later this month. I'm new to baking, so wish me luck! Well, today in northern Idaho was windy but incredibly warm and sunny and completely out of the norm for February. No kidding, this is Twilight Zone worthy! It's usually horrendous here in February. Slushy, icky, freezing, wet, ugly, horrible weather- usually- but apparently not this year! At least for now, we've got a nice blue hole in that looming grey mass of clouds overhead! Don't worry though, I am confident that by my birthday it will be hideous. Yay! But, fingers crossed for another miracle day like today! And, yes, happy Valentine's Day, ya buncha goons!
Love,
Belle