Now that Jeff is nearly over being sick, it’s my turn!

I’ve been a little stuffy for the past couple of days, but today I feel particularly crappy.

I’ve been spending the last hour entertaining myself by looking through our honeymoon photos and I thought I’d share a few of the ones that made me smile the brightest. (I don’t want to show too many because I’d like to do a full post on them when we reach our 1 year anniversary.)

Here’s me with my new friend Domo-kun!

He’s the official mascot of Japans’ NHK television station and he’s so cute!

Entrance to Dotonbori Street, the food Mecca of Osaka…

Yoshinoya (on the right) is like the Waffle House of Japan.  Fast, greasy food.

A plaque outside a popular restaurant with instructions for how to properly eat ramen…

Tetsu ramen was insanely good!

View of the mountainside from Kiyomizu-dera deck…

It was dizzying and breathtaking to be hanging over the edge staring out into the thickly-forrested mountains.

Staring down the Kamo-gawa river at the mist-covered mountains of Kyoto…

Jeff and I fell in love with Kyoto walking a mile down this river every day to the nearest train station.

Hopping across Kamo-gawa…

Loved the rocks carved into the shape of turtles!

We met a famous traditional shamisen player and two gorgeous local geisha at a sukiyaki restaurant…

The shamisen player’s agent caught us staring at the geisha and asked if we would like a picture!  Uh, YES!

Got lost and ended up at Shinjuku Park on our last morning…

The beauty of just the trees is enough to bring the tears for me. It was a beautiful day and a great way to end our trip.

That’s all for now! I purposefully didn’t show any photos of the all the amazing food we ate because that’s a whole post in itself!

Seeing these perked me up quite a bit. Hope you liked them too!

November 29, 2010 Alayna Discussion 1 comment

Can you guess which one of these bad boys got roasted and baked into a yummy bread today?

If you guessed the kabocha squash, and not either of those other shady-looking hooligans up there, you win!

Mmmmm, sweet and fluffy bread…

I have been racking my brain for what to do with that kabocha for weeks now. Then I remembered the vegan pumpkin bread that I made a while back and thought, “Hmm…I wonder how that would taste with kabocha instead?”

First, I made kabocha puree with the exact same method I use to make pumpkin puree.

I followed the same recipe as the pumpkin bread, but here are the ingredients again anyway:

• 1 cup kabocha puree
• 1/4 cup softened Earth Balance
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup flax meal
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Lucas took great interest in the whirring sounds coming from the stand mixer.

He was very suspicious and glared at it with malice as I added my dry ingredients to the wet.

When the batter was mixed I tossed in a few handfuls of pecan pieces, somewhere between 1/2 cup and 3/4?  I’m not sure how much really. It usually won’t affect a recipe to add as much mix-ins as you like.

Those got stirred in by hand…

The mix was scooped into a buttered and floured loaf pan.  I sprinkled a bit of sugar on top before baking it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Out came this hot, fluffy pillow…

I let it cool to the touch before turning it out onto a cooling rack.  Then, the slicing!

Yum! This one was even better than the pumpkin bread. The texture was fluffier and lighter and the flavor was more earthy and intense.

Kabocha pecan bread

A fluffy autumnal vegan snack bread with flavors of savory kabocha and nutty pecans.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients

• 1 cup kabocha puree
• 1/4 cup softened Earth Balance (or butter)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup gluten free all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup flax meal
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 3/4 cup pecan pieces

Cooking Directions

1. Cream together butter and sugars with a mixer.
2. Mix all dry ingredients together and add to the creamed butter and sugar.
3. Slowly pour in almond milk while mixing on a low setting.
4. Stir in pecans by hand.
5. Pour batter into a buttered and floured loaf pan, top with a sprinkle of sugar for added crunch.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
7. Turn out and let cool on a rack completely before slicing.
8. Store in refrigerator.

Thinking very seriously about whipping up some of that cinnamon “cream cheese” frosting that I used on my apple bars to top this with!

November 28, 2010 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 8 comments

Remember this?

Well, I gave it another shot with fewer substitutions this time. It still didn’t come out quite right, though.

Looks beautiful…

…but it just didn’t ever get fluffy like a cake should be.

See how it’s thin and chewy like a cookie?

It tasted ok, but the texture wasn’t consistent. It was doughy on the inside and really crunchy around the edges.

I’m thinking that the eggs may just be crucial to the success of this recipe. When the month is over, I’ll post the original in all its glory.  If you’d like to try to veganize it and you have some success, please tell me what you did right!

Third time’s a charm?

November 27, 2010 Alayna Discussion Comments Off on Cake, take two…action!