Afternoon Delight

I've been away from my kitchen for awhile, out gallivanting on the other side of the country. While I was living the high life in New York and Boston, my kitchen in San Diego was lying dormant, the stove collecting dust. Yes, my husband was still at home while I was away, but he reverted to full bachelor mode and only used the kitchen to store empty pizza boxes.

This afternoon I made these chocolate chip pecan cookies as a little welcome home present for myself. They're a much needed comfort food because the delicious but greasy cuisine of New York left me with a heavy feeling in my stomach.

And I'm always looking for an excuse to break out the Big Red. It's serious about mixing.



There's no messing around here. Well, actually there was a small incident with the speed control that flung a few glops of cookie dough out of the bowl. But other than that I mean, there was no messing around.



The recipe is from "The Joy of Vegan Baking," by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. It makes my kind of cookie: crisp exterior with a soft and yielding interior. And we just discovered that if you eat enough of them straight out of the oven, there really isn't any need to eat dinner. A meal replacement cookie, sort of.

Good Day Sunshine

There's no better way to begin the weekend than by puttering around in my kitchen for three hours making coffee cake. Orange Pecan Crumbcake to be exact. The recipe is from the test kitchen of the upcoming brunch cookbook, The Crack of Noon, by Isa of The PPK.

It didn't really take me three hours to bake the cake; but, when I factor in the time it took to first clean all the dishes out of my sink while simultaneously watching Sandra Lee make a semi-homemade chocolate volcano cake, three hours it was. Let's break it down and demonstrate just how proficient I am at wasting time.

9:00am to 10:00am: prepare pecan crumb topping.
Why did that take an hour? Allow me to elaborate.

First, dig food processor out of cupboard. Spend several minutes shuffling last night's wine glasses around on the counter to make room for food processor. Unplug coffee grinder so as to clear a plug for the processor. Accidentally unplug the coffeemaker, mid-brew. Reprogram timer on coffee machine. Pour large mug of coffee for myself. Fill sink with soapy water, gingerly wash wine glasses. Wait, what was I doing? Oh yeah, crumb topping. Measure ingredients, add to mixer, process, done. That was easy.

10:00am-10:15am: Wander around the house looking for where I set my coffee. Find it on the bathroom sink. Ponder the many ways in which it may have arrived at that location. Dump it out, pour new cup of coffee.

10:15am-10:30am: Zest oranges!

The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of zest, so I find my microplane grater. I wash one of my grandpa's homegrown oranges and begin zesting. And zest. Sip coffee. Zest some more. Wince at Sandra Lee's annoying habit of calling her nephew "Bricer." Laugh at the kid trying not to roll his eyes at her.

10:30am-10:31am: Sean tells me our friend Nick is coming to visit tonight. Yay! Visitors!

10:32am-11:00am: Freak out and frantically try and transform our apartment from its current state of "in shambles" to something more along the lines of "acceptably presentable."

11:00am-11:15am: Give up on cleaning. Give in to starvation and get the cake in the oven, finally.

11:15am-noon: bake coffee cake. Marvel at the pile of dirty laundry waiting in my closet. Why do I have so many clothes? Why can't they just wash themselves? Watch YouTube videos with Sean of kids using power tools. Make absolutely no progress on urgent priority of cleaning house.


And there you have it, 3 hours of puttering around. But at least I have this to show for it. There it is, all glorious 9x13 inches of Orange Pecan Crumbcake.


I don't think I actually sat down to eat a piece until well after 1:00pm. A little later than I usually take breakfast, but in the true casual nature of a weekend brunch. I hope Nick likes coffee cake, because there's a lot to go around!