Refreshment for the road ahead

In about five hours, my husband and I are boarding a train to Colorado! We're visiting his parents for the weekend, and now, instead of sleeping, we are both finishing tasks that should have been done days ago. We're flitting around our house, worriedly asking questions like, "Will the cats have enough food?" "Where did I put my green shirt?" and "Is that the dryer making that high-pitched sound?"

I know we'll finish packing soon and even have time for a nap. And I'm not worried about forgetting anything important. Plus, the snacks are already packed. I have my priorities in line.

Because we're taking wonderful Amtrak and not a plane, we can sneak some lemonade on board. I've already got some in a thermos.

I promise a more fattening post soon, one with marshmallows and chocolate and real butter, but for now, I must leave you with a crisp, refreshing lemonade. It certainly travels well. Have a delicious weekend, and I will write again soon.

Also, apparently 2009 is the year of the pickle. Let's hope so!

The husband dutifully writes measurements as I mix

Spearmint lemonade with rosewater

makes one quart

• 5-6 cups water
• 3/4 cup lemon juice (or the juice of four large lemons)
  
• 2 droppers-full liquid stevia extract (about 50 drops)
  
• 1/4 cup rosewater or 10 drops rosewater concentrate
• 1/4 cup spearmint syrup*
  
• 5-10 fresh spearmint leaves for garnish
  

To make lemonade:

Pour all ingredients into a cute little pitcher and stir. Serve over ice, garnished with fresh spearmint leaves.

To make spearmint syrup:

Place 2 cups of granulated sugar and 1 cup of water in a saucepan, and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Stir the syrup occasionally until the sugar is fully dissolved. While the syrup is heating, rinse spearmint leaves - you should use 1 cup of firmly packed fresh leaves, or six "ice cubes" of spearmint.

Remove syrup from heat once the sugar is dissolved, then add spearmint leaves. Give the leaves a good mix, then let the syrup cool for at least one hour before straining the mint. Store in a clean, air-tight container.

* If you haven't saved spearmint from your garden this summer (frozen in ice cube trays, with a little water), you can find fresh spearmint almost year-round at any decent-sized Asian market. If you don't like spearmint at all, the lemonade will remain just as refreshing with your favorite kind of mint.

Seedy indeed(y)

Life is a mixture of circumstances

Recipes migrate into our lives the way people do - in wonky, unexpected ways. I would compare the way this recipe came to me to the way I befriended my friend Morgan in Seattle: it walked up to me at work, wearing a Mohawk, and it asked for borscht sauce, sauerkraut, and chili on its veggie dog. I knew immediately we'd hit it off.

Ok, maybe that's just what Morgan did, but this recipe has its own charm.

Sometimes, I work at this natural foods store in Wichita called Whole Foods Association. It's not part of the national chain, Whole Foods Market; the Who Foos in Wichita are a trio of family-owned stores. Though you can't find freshly made sushi or an olive bar at my Who Foos, you can find eight - count 'em - eight full aisles of supplements and vitamins, as well as a grocery utopia. Employees at this particular store are used to scoring free supplement samples, the occasional food freebie, and information pamphlets on, say, flax oil, but we don't often get cookbooks.

But Flax, World-class Recipes did come to me through a supplement rep named Brian, who works for a company that doesn't really sell much flax. This free anomaly contains recipes from around the world -- from Germany, England, Greece, Italy, Japan, and the American South -- and each one contains some of that super seed, flax. Since I already have a reputation for using flax in everything I cook (like pie and pizza crusts, muffins, and rolls), I loved this little book as quickly as I loved crazy Morgan.

To showcase the down-home charm you'll find in Flax, World-class Recipes, I give you an English quick seed bread, which I found nestled between recipes for strawberry rhubarb muffins and thimble cookies.

Seeds aren't just for birds in winter, man

English quick seed bread
from Flax: World-Class Recipes

• 1 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup raw, shelled sunflower seeds
• 1/3 cup ground flaxseed
• 2 Tb. whole flax seeds
• 2 Tb. poppy seeds
• 2 Tb. sesame seed (or 1 Tb sesame and 1 Tb. black sesame, as I used)
• 1 large egg, beaten
  
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 1 tsp. each flaxseed, sesame, and sunflower seeds (topping seeds)
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees while you prepare the bread. Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan and set it aside.

In a large bowl, combine flours, baking powder, soda, salt, brown sugar, and seeds. Stir well. I found mixing the dry ingredients to be the most meditative part of the whole recipe. Something about how the seeds sound as they slide into the bowl.

In another bowl, beat egg briskly, then beat in buttermilk and oil. Give those liquids a real kick in the pants before you combine them ! gently! with the dry mixture. Stir until just moistened. Pour the (thick, but not dough-like) batter into the prepared baking pan. Sprinkle the batter with the topping seeds, and bake the bread for 55 to 65 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

Let the bread cool in the pan for several minutes before running a knife along the sides and turning out on a cooling rack. Serve warm, with butter. Mmm, butter.

The Donut Whole has arrived!

This post contains no recipes, and I am sorry about that.

But rejoice! I bring you good tidings of great donuts!

I'm writing to celebrate the one week-a-versary of the newest shop in Wichita, The Donut Whole! Last Monday, my good friends Michael and Angela opened the doors on a small place with a giant rooster on the roof and leopard print carpet inside. Their donut maker broke down on the first day... and the second day...but here, on day seven, it's 8:30 pm and there are donuts everywhere!

You thought I lied about the rooster?

I can say with authority that there are donuts everywhere because I'm writing at the. Donut. Whole. via this charming medium called "The Internet." Also, I'm listening to the Beatles and drinking a latte. My husband has just consumed three donuts in under 10 minutes. It's kind of like Nirvana, and it's open 24/7.

However, you should not run here with your Keds a' fire based on my word alone. You should run here, heels blazin', because of the donuts. Here are a few pictures of the donuts I brought to my radio station last week.

Pictured: chocolate and maple glazed, root beer, vanilla, peanut-butter-and-chocolate-striped, cinnamon-hazelnut,
and coconut chocolate donuts. Yeah.

My co-workers were hesitant to eat them at first, for fear of destroying their entrancing charm. But then they did eat, and then they could not stop eating. And then they whined at me for wrecking their diets.

Close-up of the round beauties

For you localvores, the Donut Whole makes their donuts from Kansas flour, and its coffee is roasted just down the street at the Spice Merchant. These donuts are not fried in lard, but they are made with buttermilk. Daily. Hourly. I need to buy another.

Maybe you should check the store out and buy a King Midas donut. It's all I'm sayin'.

Truffle shuffle

I hope that you open a bottle of champagne more often than once a year, on New Year's Eve, or perhaps every few years, when christening a new ship or celebrating an engagement. I hope that when you do enjoy champagne, you have a real glass-full with friends, not just a silly little flute of it. (Not that I own any silly flutes.) And I hope that if you do have leftovers from your celebration, you fold the sparkling wine with cream and chocolate and make truffles.

Now, I enjoy buying truffles, especially while on trips with my girlfriends to the lovely Cocoa Dolce in Wichita, which has a particularly heartbreaking truffle with sunflower seed ganache. But sometimes, it's nice to make these things at home. So they're around. For times like midnight and snacking.

I enjoyed truffles and some leftover champagne last night while my husband and I watched Charlie Wilson's War. (Favorite quote: "And that's why you're my press secretary, Boo Boo!") Sometimes, you must devise reasons to celebrate. After all, it's January, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday is the next holiday in line, and I don't know anyone who drinks champagne on that day. Nobody should wait until Valentine's Day for good chocolates.

"Billy broke my heart at Walgreens/

and I cried all the way to Sears"-sized truffles

Chocolate champagne truffles in sparkling sugar
from Martha Stewart Weddings

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 oz semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Scharffen Berger 70%)
  
• 1/4 cup plus 1 Tb. champagne
• 1 Tb. cognac (optional)
  
• coarse sanding sugar for rolling, placed in a small bowl
  

Bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Immediately after the cream begins to really boil, pour the cream over the chocolate in a medium bowl; stir until smooth. Stir in the champagne and cognac. I skipped the cognac, as I'm not a huge brandy drinker and I didn't want to buy a whole bottle for 1 Tb. in a recipe. Instead, I added an extra tablespoon of champagne to the chocolate and a cup of champagne to my wine glass.

Refrigerate, covered, until chocolate mixture is firm enough to roll into balls, at least one hour.

Using a small melon baller or ice-cream scoop, form chocolate mixture into 1-inch balls. I do not have a small melon baller at home, since my melon-balling needs are so marginal, so I used a spoon and smooshed the truffles into spheres using my hands. I had to rinse the layer of melted chocolate that coated my hands after every seven or eight truffles to keep the slipperiness of this project in check. Taking this rinsing break also gave me an excuse to lick my hands.

Roll each ball in coarse sanding sugar, and transfer to rimmed baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate truffles at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days before serving. This recipe makes between two and three dozen truffles, depending on your need for chocolate. My truffles ended up in the two-bite size range. They melted into a silken ribbon of velvet the instant they hit my tongue, and I ate four immediately.

A stand-up fruit

My mind is made of marshmallows this week, and I blame this state of being entirely on Unified School District 353.

In the sixth grade, the clever teachers of that district gave we students these books called planners. They were filled with maps, tables, school rules, and dozens of glorious. blank. pages. From that day on, I have charted the course of my life on those small lines. I write everything in my planner -- appointments, tests, birthdays, and celebrations I make up like "November 22: eat ice cream float day."

My planner system treats me well. I remember where I am supposed to be, and when, and I look forward to far-away trips and birthdays from the moment they're penciled in. There is only one drawback to my plannerly life, and it is January. It takes an act of Congress (and they only just returned from recess!) for me to go to the one store where they sell my favorite planner before the 20th of January.

My 2008 planner is full, but I have yet to buy one for 2009, and all the dates and ideas I need to remember are floating 'round my head, instead of being pinned neatly down on paper.

Until I get to the store, I'm operating in that gray zone between planners. My marshmallow mind keeps me from accomplishing even modest tasks like taking down the Christmas tree and cooking on a regular basis. If I hadn't any leftovers, I may have spent this time eating nothing but Quik Trip taquitos and iced mochas. (And I admit, taquitos and iced mochas have been heavily involved in my weekly routine.) Instead, I got some fruit in thanks to this cranberry sauce. I've been smearing it on bread with peanut butter for sandwiches, heating some in a bowl for dessert, and schlepping this sauce on the side of my plate for most meals. I hope this cranberry sauce/salad proves to be a stand-up friend for you as well.

Cranberry salad (and my rockin' new pineapple oven mitt)

Cranberry-peach salad with g.i.n.g.e.r

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
  
• 1 cup water
• 4 cups (1 12-oz package) fresh or frozen cranberries
  
• 1 cup chopped peach chunks (about 1/2" in diameter)
  
• 2 Tb freshly ground ginger root
  
• 1 tsp. ground ginger powder
  

First, wash and pick over cranberries. In a saucepan, bring the water, honey, and sugar to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add cranberries, and return to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer for 10 minutes or until cranberries burst (this is my favorite part. Pop! Pop! Pop!)

Now, you can add all number of optional ingredients. You may stick with my add-ins above, or throw in some variations of your own. I hear that fresh blueberries add a good kick. If you do follow my recipe, make sure to stir in the ground ginger slowly to fully incorporate the spice. I'd hate for you to find a pocket of straight ginger...in your mouth.

Remove the mixture from heat. Let it cool completely at room temperature and then chill in refrigerator. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools. Get creative with this stuff. I've used it in sandwiches with provolone cheese and lettuce several times. Tasty.

Cranberry sauce base makes 2 1/4 cups (ish.)