oatmeal sandwich bread

there's something delicious and homey about a slice of still warm homemade bread, spread with a thick layer of peanut butter and homemade jam. each and every time i make bread i remember how incredibly easy it is - especially on a weekend in the dead of winter, when the hour i wait for it to double in size is easily filled with shows from my dvr or boring household chores - and how the taste is so much better than store bought bread.

and i can't help but mention how fitting it is that this, my two hundredth post, is a simple loaf of bread. considering that's how it all started.

vanilla buttermilk glazed pear cake

i'm not quite sure exactly what i was looking for at smitten kitchen when i stumbled upon this pear bread. i stopped dead in my tracks and mentally bookmarked it for a time when i had too many fresh pears and not enough time to eat them all. which just so happened to be not too long ago. what's not to love about fresh pears and a healthy dose of cinnamon coated in a smooth as silk vanilla buttermilk glaze? while deb calls it bread, i can't help but acknowledge that it made the cross over into cake.

and just as deb mentioned, this cake just keeps getting better. sure, my kitchen smelled amazing from the cinnamon the weeknight i baked it, but we were still eating mini bundts five days later. they were as good as, if not better than, those just out of the oven.

not a fan of the mini bundts? how about a loaf or a large bundt or a tube? cupcakes more your style? i bet this cake would be divine topped with cinnamon cream cheese buttercream. and i bet a slice from a warm loaf would be equally delicious smeared with a bit of butter for breakfast.

sweet and sour chicken

chinese food didn't make an appearance at our house very often growing up. once or twice a year the electric wok would be hauled out from wherever it lived and honestly, i don't even remember what was made in it.even more rare was a trip out for chinese, since our small town had one and only one chinese restaurant that i only remember going to once, and only once, in the 18 years i lived there. and for good reason, since the food was not so good.

when i moved to rochester twelve and a half years ago for school, i was surprised by the sheer volume of chinese food available. it's everywhere! and one of the first things i tried - and got hooked on - was sweet and sour chicken. this homemade version is much better than your standard sweet & sour chicken i've found at most chinese restaurants, chicken coated in a thick dough & deep fried. coating the chicken in cornstarch and stir frying it gives it a nice coating and the extra bit of cornstarch is great to thicken the sauce while it cooks. it's great chinese comfort food!

cinnamon swirl whole wheat bagels [12in2012]

bagels have been on my to make list for at least a year. i can't believe how long it took me to make them, considering how easy they are to make, how delicious they taste, and how well they freeze. my advice to you: make a large batch. it's just as easy to make 18 or 24 as it is to make 12. especially if you have room in the freezer.

i flavored half of my bagels with cinnamon sugar and left half plain for making breakfast sandwiches. it's super easy to make whatever flavor you like. fold dried cranberries, whole blueberries, raisins, chocolate chips, or other chunks in step 6. love cheese? fold it in similar to step 6. or brush the tops of the formed bagels and sprinkle with seeds before baking. with one base recipe, the variations are endless.

milk based chai concentrate

when i found out i was pregnant, i voluntarily gave up coffee to cut caffeine. and really didn't consider it a big deal. i could go without my three cups a day for a year, right? no problem.

but it wasn't so easy. the first month or so wasn't bad. sure, i craved coffee a couple mornings, but was able to make it through. and it wasn't the caffeine i missed, so much as the routine of making & drinking a steamy mug every morning. especially in the dead of winter. i also consider myself a coffee snob - life's too short for a bad cup of coffee - and couldn't find the caffeine content of the decaf version of my favorite. so i switched it up to chai. with decaffeinated black tea.

what's different about this chai concentrate from all the others out there, is that it's milk based rather than water based. for a week or two i made large batches of chai on the weekend, toting them to and from work in quart mason jars. but i needed two jars to make it through the week and was sick of carrying the jars back and forth. there's a steady supply of hot water in my office, so making the concentrate with milk was easy. and it just so happens that a quart jar of the stuff lasts me five days. perfect for work.