Adventures in Baking Quarantine Edition: Soda bread (with Jalapenos)

We keep running out of bread.

It's just a Quarantine fact of life since we can't get to the grocery store regularly.  Bread is tricky at the store right now too.  Fresh bread is hard to come across in a lot of the neighborhood stores by us.  And if you do find bread, you can't really buy in bulk because if you don't eat it fast enough it can go stale or moldy.  We could freeze an extra loaf here or there, but honestly since I'm not working right this minute... I need to bake for de-stressing purposes! 

Luckily, Soda Bread is super easy to make.  It only takes a few ingredients and one bowl.  No yeast in sight.  I've made it a handful of times and it's gone really well each time.  

Typically most recipes call for Buttermilk, but with the quarantine that's a little bit difficult to come by so I found a substitution that works really well.  Milk combined with fresh squeezed lemon juice. The lemon juice curdles the milk slightly and replicates the consistency of buttermilk.  It's a great substitute.  

Since quarantine started, I've now made it three times.  

The first time was last week, and it was delicious!  I made a small loaf and it was great.  We ate some with breakfast and then left the house to run errands.  When we came home, we found it had met its demise thanks to our sweet little kitty who decided it was a hockey puck. 

Our first loaf in our new place!

all sliced up... before the cat eventually got it!  

So I had to re-bake it the same day.  It was not what I wanted to do that day but it's okay.  At least the cat was cute and the recipe is easy!  Thank goodness!   

Our bigger loaf!  

It was a success and we put the bread out of Maestro's path.  He's an incredibly curious kitty who gets into everything so we learned our lesson! 

We ate the second loaf with a bunch of different meals:

Green pepper and mushroom omelette with feta and toasted soda bread

Pumpkin Soup with a side of Soda bread

Today, I decided to make the soda bread again to go with our dinner.  We needed a little something to go with our left over steak and pepper stir fry. I even decided to add some jalapenos to the recipe!  Oh man, it's perfect!  Just a hint of spice.  

I've played with my recipe a couple of times and changed things around a bit.  I doubled the recipe to make a bigger loaf.  Here's my modified recipe!  The jalapenos are optional and can be replaced with any number of different ingredients depending on the flavor combinations you'd like.  

Soda Bread (with Jalapenos)

Ingredients 

• 2 cups milk
• juice from 1 freshly squeezed lemon
• 4 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 
• 1 -1 1/2 tsp salt
• OPTIONAL: 1 sliced jalapeno (or you can add raisins, walnuts or any other ingredient to the mix for a tasty bread!)

1. Stir the milk and lemon juice together. Let sit for 10 minutes until curdled.  

2.  Preheat oven to 400° F.  Line a  pan or baking sheet with parchment paper.  

3.  In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.  

4.  Gradually add the milk into the flour mixture until the dough just comes together.  You can use a spatula or other utensil to mix but mixing by hand also works.  The dough is quite sticky at first so keep a small stock pile of flour on hand.   

5. If you're adding jalapenos, , add them after

6.  Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead a few times.  Make sure the jalapenos are spread evenly throughout the dough.  

7.  At this point, you have two options.  You can either shape the dough into one round or you can cut the dough in 2 and shape into rounds.  

8. With a sharp knife, cut an x into the top of each loaf to release steam and help the bread keep its shape. 

It looks so beautiful going into the oven

9. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes depending on your oven and if you make one loaf or two.  Remove from the oven when golden.  Check to make sure dough is fully cooked in the center with a toothpick.  It should go into the dough smooth and come out clean. 

Perfectly baked!

10.  I definitely recommend cutting the bread while still warm.  It cuts so easily after being out of the oven for a little while (Don't burn your hands on the dough though!) Then you can eat while warm or wait for the loaf to cool and the flavors to really come together.  

We cut our loaf straight out of the oven while on face time with my Mom.  Social distancing is easy when you don't live together :(  I miss her!  We could have been baking together if not for this crazy quarantine. 

Beautiful slices

We ate a few slices each with our leftover stir fried steak and peppers with salsa and sour cream.  It was so delicious.  The bread itself is mild in flavor so it pairs well with a lot of different dishes. 

Dinner is served

The jalapenos really add to a great savory dish.  The jalapenos don't add too much spice but add a little textural element and a hint of heat.  It really matches a lot of the foods that my husband I cook together.  I can't wait for tomorrow morning!  We'll eat a few slices with our spinach omelette!  

Give it a try and let me know what you think!  What mix-ins will you try?   What do you eat your soda bread with? 

Adventures in Baking Quarantine Edition: Banana Coffee Muffins

We had a couple more overripe bananas to work with this week so I decided to make some Banana Coffee Muffins!

Baros wanted Banana Bread but we don't have a loaf pan yet so I decided to try muffins instead and add a little coffee to the mix. 

Hopefully, the muffins will also portion control us a bit... With cookies, we just eat them 1 or 2 at the time.  But then 15 minutes later, you can justify having another!  So maybe with muffins we'll behave.  (I can only hope!)


I went a slightly different route this time because we don't have much butter left in the house and I'm trying to avoid going to the grocery store.  So I used Coconut oil instead.  Maybe it's a slightly healthier version?  I'm not sure but they definitely taste good! 

I found the original recipe on a blog called Homemade Nutrition.  I'm definitely going to be checking out more of her recipes because they look pretty healthy! 

As usual I adapted the amount of sugar involved and ramped up the spices!  The original recipe called for whole wheat flour but we didn't have that so I stuck to all purpose flour. 

Banana Coffee Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 medium over ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup coconut oil (melted) 
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp instant coffee crystals
• 1 1/2 cup whole milk mixed with 1/2 the juice from a lemon (aka how to make buttermilk when you don't have any!) 
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 
• 2 tbsp cinnamon
• Crushed walnuts to taste/what you have in your house
• 1 tsp salt (in retrospect, I think the recipe calls for the salt to enhance the flavor)

1.  Preheat oven to 375° F.  

2. In a large bowl, mash the bananas (or have your husband mash it!) 

3.  Mix with oil, eggs, instant coffee, vanilla and the "buttermilk mixture".  Whisk well to combine.  

4.  Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Whisk gently until fully combined.  

5.  Place cupcake liners in a muffin pan.  The original recipe says to spray with non-stick cooking spray, but we don't have any so I skipped that.  However, I recommend spraying with the cooking spray as this batter when cooked seems to stick to the lining a bit.  

6.  Add 1/4 cup of batter to each liner.  Sprinkle with crushed walnuts.  For me, it made 19 muffins.  

7.  Bake for 14-18 minutes or until cooked through.  We don't have toothpicks so I just eye-balled it.  They rise quite a bit and look beautiful when done.  

The muffins came out moist and delicious.  I do think they need a hit of salt to bring out the flavors more but all in all they taste really good.  

I think I might make some whipped cream to put on top and that will really complement the flavors!  

And in the morning, I'm going to make some Dalgona Coffee because I think they'll match soooo well!  

Some Dalgona Coffee to drink with my beautiful muffins!

I would definitely recommend trying them.  

Adventures in Baking Quarantine Edition: Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love baking, but in the last few years I have not done a lot of it.  You know, life gets in the way.

I've made pies: apple and pumpkin.  I've made cranberry tarts.  I've made chocolate chip cookies (some were rocks... but that's another story) and macaroons.  I made soda bread once upon a time.  My favorite were the Cranberry Chocolate Chip Scones (hence why there's a post about it!).

Far and few between.  With work and life, I just couldn't get back into making baking a regular habit.  But most everything I made was generally delicious (apparently, even the rock cookies... Baros and Burak ate them all.. and no broken teeth).

In the last few weeks, since the quarantine started I have baked once or twice a week.  It's been refreshing and relaxing.

I've made:

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies  (and banana pancakes! not baking but I made them and they were delicious)
Soda Bread (twice in one day because the cat decided to play hockey with the first loaf)
Lemon Brownies
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sponge Cake (a little dense)
Banana Coffee Muffins

So I'd like to share a couple of the recipes and adventures I've tried and adapted during this quarantine.

cherry Blossoms during the Quarantine

I hate quarantine and baking is one of the things helping me keep my sanity and relax at least some of the time. That and walks.  I love taking walks with Baros.  I love cooking and trying new ways to prep things.  On sunny days, I love setting the table on the deck and eating all of the delicious with Baros.

Spinach and Turkey omelette with fresh Guacamole

Eating our red pepper omelette, feta cheese and fresh salsa outside

One of the first things I decided to make was Banana chocolate chip pancakes because we had some over ripe bananas chilling in the kitchen.  However, I made my pancake decision at around 11 pm... Not the best pancake time...

here are my Beautiful banana pancakes!

That being said, I was still feeling snacky. So I opted to make Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I was inspired by the recipe created by Lil Luna.

I tweaked her version slightly because we wanted a less sweet cookie.  Baros doesn't love super sweet American style desserts and I've been trying to watch how much sugar I consume, since I seem to be particularly effected by things like sugar and caffeine.  I did add some extra vanilla extract and a little bit of cinnamon to add some complexity to the flavor.

As this was this first time I've baked in a while I also forgot how important it is to follow directions.  When the recipe calls for softened butter, you should make sure it's softened, not melted...  We created a mini burner, and put hot water in a small bowl and a second bowl on top with a stick of butter in it.... It.... kind of worked.

I only have ONE picture of these and I don't know why!!

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 6 tbs butter, room temperature (take it out of the fridge in advance)
• 1/3 cup sugar (next time I'm going to use our dark brown sugar as I think this will add to the color and flavor)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/3 tsp salt 
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 -1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips 

1.  Preheat the oven to 350° F
2. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  (Choose a deep bowl so you don't shoot sugar and butter all over the place...  This can also be avoided by actually using room temperature butter).
3. Mix the egg, banana and vanilla into the creamed butter/sugar mixture thoroughly.
4. Slowly sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into the creamed mixture. Mix gradually.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.  I like to use a lot of chocolate, so I definitely put in closer to a cup and a half of chocolate!
6.  Refridgerate for an hour or so (if you can wait that long!).  It helps the flavors merge together and also really helps the bake if you want a soft cookie!
7.  Scoop onto a baking sheet lines with parchment paper.  Bake for 12-16 minutes or until the edges take on a light brown color.

The cookies came out wonderfully.  They were banana and chocolate heaven!  Please check out Lil Luna's original recipe as I tweaked here and there to get the cookie Baros and I would really love.

Next time, I'll switch over to dark brown sugar because I think it'll add some wonderful color and flavor.  I think it'll also change the texture a little, so I'm excited to try it out again... That is... Once I can get back to the grocery store because I'm out of chocolate chips!

I miss Pre-Quarantine days when I could just go to the grocery whenever I wanted to get whatever I needed at pretty much any hour of day.  However, in Quarantine, we're going to the grocery store once a week sometimes once every two weeks if we can manage.  I wish I was better at making grocery lists!  I always forget something, but then I don't want to go back out again and we live without it!  And all the stores around here are closing at 8:30pm so when I want to bake at 11pm, I literally have to use whatever we have because nothing is open...

Oh well.  I'm just happy that I can bake and destress!


UPDATE:  Add some cocoa powder for some double chocolate chip banana cookies that are amazing!!

Time to Catch Up in A World of Havoc

Well... It's been a bit since I've updated this blog.

It's been a busy year (literally I think it's over a year from my last update) sooo what's changed?

I guess, pretty much everything.

Last year, around this time Baros and I traveled to Turkey together for the first time.  I got to meet his parents in person and we celebrated Baros' and his father's birthdays in person all together.  I got to see his home town and the absolute beauty that is Istanbul.  We took a mini vacation within our vacation and spent a few days in Bodrum, otherwise known as a peaceful haven on the Mediterranean.

After getting back, I interviewed for a promotion and got it!  So I'm the Team Lead of my amazing squad at work.  It's been crazy and busy and hectic but very worth it.  It's probably a lot of the reason I stopped updating the blog because I was just working a lot and adjusting to my new position and all the demands that came with it.

6 weeks of training with the visiting Italians.  Eventually, I'd like to go train with them in Italy.  But I suppose it will have to wait for the moment until the world calms down.

We traveled down the shore to spend time with my Mom a few times over the summer.  We went to Philly to visit Andrea and Inch.

We celebrated Burak's birthday with a mellow visit.  We won some Broadway tickets so he could see his first musical with Baros.

I low key celebrated my birthday.  Honestly, it was so low key I barely remember what I did.  At work, they surprised me.  Baros got me beautiful roses and somehow I got even more lucky.  I won tickets to see Phantom of the Opera on my birthday. 

I went to the Renaissance Faire twice.  Once with Baros, Ang and a friend.  And once with Jeremy and co.  I love the spirit and fun loving atmosphere and can't wait to go back.  The costumes and camaraderie are incredible.

Halloween was fun.  I was a mermaid at work and organized a costume contest!  When I made it home, I de-mermaidified and we watched Hocus Pocus.  Unfortunately the weather was just crap so we couldn't go out.  I probably remember this because Halloween has always been my favorite holiday.

Thanksgiving was fun.  We spent Thanksgiving day with my brother's girlfriend's family.  We ate too much and had great conversation.  It was weird not hosting but lovely just the same.  And then the next day Mom made Thanksgiving anyway.  She can't help herself.

December was busy.  We threw Andrea a surprise Baby Shower at mom's!  It was small but so much fun.  We told Andrea it was an early Christmas lunch and actually succeeded at surprising her.  We "showered" her with love and food and unicorns!  (Well, Jeremy supplied the unicorns, but they were there).

We spent Christmas at home since I worked on Christmas Eve and chilled out with Baros' brother, Burak.

New Year's Eve was also spent at home with the boys, but we made a feast and watched the ball drop with Raki and delicious foods.  At midnight, Burak and I jumped on the couch like kids!  It was already broken so all was well.

January was mellow.

February was hard.  So very hard to process.

It started off well enough, searching for apartments and just being us.  But then, Baros' mom passed away and I don't know where the rest of February went.  It was unexpected and shocking and just about the most difficult thing I've dealt with.

There were tears and sadness and anger and confusion.  We found out on Sunday and flew to Turkey Monday.
We made it to Istanbul at 7am Tuesday morning and walked into a living room of memories drenched in sadness and regret.  We jumped into funeral arrangement and went to the morgue.  We said our goodbyes and navigated family and friends.  For me, all was done with minimal understanding because my Turkish is just not good enough.  I was the hugger, the arm, the person watching facial expressions trying to be in the right place at the right time, to not be in the way.
We went just about 38 hours without sleeping.  To the point that I was falling asleep while standing up.

It was a difficult week with trips to the cemetery and difficult/impossible good byes.  Anaconda (Nuran) will be missed everyday.  She was a wonderful person who's life was too short.  There was still so much we wanted to share with her.
The rest of February was nothing.  Just living.

March was crazy.  We started the moving process.  We took the whole month to move our tiny apartment to a larger place in the same town.  It was back and forth.  We walked about 75% of our belongings and got help from my mom and our friends Ernesto and Bihter.
We stubbornly folded our mattress in half and walked it across West New York.  We built 10 pieces of Ikea furniture! We still love each other through it all!  <3

And through it all, Corona started sneaking into our lives more regularly. It was on the news.  Suddenly, restrictions popping up.  Listening to talk of Pandemics.  Public Transit changing schedules.  New Jersey and New York practically shutting down except for Essential businesses.  Working from home.  Unpacking.  Organizing.  Trying to pretend it's just a vacation.  But people are dying and there's nothing we can do but stay home and wait it out.

I haven't seen Mom since the beginning of March and my brother since well before that.

Good news though.  We've finished unpacking.  We got our Kitty!  His name is Maestro and he's a little love that follows us around wherever we go. He's our little baby and I'm so glad we have him around us right now!  He's definitely going to be a super spoiled kitty!

The world is crazy and I guess I need to get back to writing on here so I can process the world around me.  I  need to write down the good and share some pictures from last year and from this year.  And continue documenting this journey that Baros and I are on.

Life is an adventure.  It's different and a little scarier than expected.  But we're going to get through it together as best we can.