Three-ingredient, gluten-free, dairy-free, idiot-proof cookies

My roommate's birthday was last weekend, and although I got her a present, I felt bad that I didn't bake her a cake. Being that I love the bake so much, I thought it a shame that I didn't get the chance! 

Leslie is kind of tricky to bake for, though... she can't have gluten or lactose. I haven't had a chance to make much gluten free stuff, which I plan to do someday soon, but I thought I might combine my desire to cook from cookbooks AND make her a little belated birthday treat for the week! 

Tonight's choice? Idiot-proof Almond Butter Cookies from the Gluten-Free Bible. (The name is my own creation.)

Ingredients: (hold on to your hats!)

1 C sugar

1 C almond butter

1 egg.

Sugar, almond butter, and an egg... That's it!

Combine. Set oven to 350. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove. Cool. Eat.

I had my doubts that they would turn out well. After all, I've never attempted flourless cookies, let alone cookies with no more than three ingredients. "Where is the butter? Where is the salt? Where is the vanilla extract?!" my baker's conscience called to me. I worried that these wouldn't form a dough, wouldn't form little balls of dough, and would have to be carefully extracted from the sheet after baked.

I was wrong to worry.

Sure, they are quite flat and become a little chewy, but they are delicious! I used my own homemade almond butter, too. Which, incidentally, was some of the easiest stuff I've ever made. (1. Put almonds in food processor, 2. Turn food processor on, 3. Remove almond butter).

Once they've cooled, they're a delicious snack! 

Bread!

Part of my new year's resolutions was to cook new things, especially from my collection of cookbooks. I sure am happy to cook the same thing over and over again, kind of like how I love to reread books and rewatch movies. I approach these things like old friends, comfortable and warm. Old habits are hard to break, and while I don't exactly see mine as particularly bad habits, I see the benefit of a little more exploration. So once a week I've taken to going grocery shopping after taking a good look at my cookbooks and my new favorite haunt, foodgawker.com. (For dinner yesterday, I found an absolutely delectable eggplant curry on foodgawker. It was amazing.) 

So what about the other half of my resolution to cook from my cookbooks? Well, for Christmas, I was given this cookbook, which houses a variety of techniques or ingredients (sauce, dough, water, saute, and soup, to name a few) and although I haven't paged through the whole volume yet, there are a few things that I love already about this cookbook that make it different from others I have.

Each technique has five recipes that accompany it, and at the beginning of each section Ruhlman spends time explaining the why of cooking, the science of each step. I consider myself a decently good cook, but I don't know the purposes behind of a lot of things that I have been taught over the years. I know never to rush the onions in a dish (thanks for that tidbit, Dad!) I also know that in baking, it really does make a difference if you let the butter soften, instead of melting it in the microwave (though I rarely do this because I am so impatient when it comes to cookies!) But I've never been given reasons or facts that back up little tips I've learned over the years. 

In the explanation of each technique, Ruhlman provides both scientific and lay answers to a lot of cooking practices that I take for granted. For example,  I have been trying a variety of bread recipes for weeks now. Every week I've tried a new recipe for bread, following it exactly and hoping for the best. Rulhman's recipe for bread (in the Dough section) was paired with good reasons and explanations for why it's important that it rise twice. He explained that weighing the ingredients instead of measuring would make a difference. He told me about the proteins in the dough elongating and matching, and what each step of the process should look like. He stressed that letting bread rise the first time for two to four hours was normal, which I hadn't encountered yet, and that in cooler temperatures the rising time should be longer. There were photographs that accompanied the recipe. And then, miraculously, after a few hours...

You should probably be jealous!

There was bread! 

It wasn't dense or chewy like my previous attempts. Sure, I had to pry it from the dutch oven I'd cooked it in (note to self: no such thing as too much flouring) but despite that minor hiccup, it is perfect. It is delicious. I can't stop munching. 

I feel so domestic. I love it.

I can't wait till it's gone... so I can try again! 

Maryland, Classes, Nerdfighters, and (gasp!) Books

Let's recap a little, shall we? This blog comes to you in four parts...

I got to go to Maryland to visit my Gramma for her birthday!

You should be jealous that your grandmother isn't my grandmother! She is a classy lady.

I had such a good time! We did all of the normal things one does at a grandparent's house: we played cards, we ate good food, and we went to bed early. Duncan summed it up nicely when he said, "We talk about what we're going to eat, and then we eat, and while we're eating, we talk about what we're going to eat next." (Hah!)

January happens to have a cluster of family birthdays, so on Sunday afternoon we went to my great aunt's place to celebrate! 

I got to play with the latest addition to the family, wee little 9-month-old Juliana. 

I LOVE BABIES. (Don't know if you knew this.)

People were duly impressed that Duncan and I weren't (and aren't) at each other's throats. (He's my best brother.) 

We ate DELICIOUS brunchy food and then gathered to watch Gramma and Carol open presents.

Later, when we got back to Gramma's house, Duncan and I went outside to watch the sunset. I stole my mom's camera to take photos, because in my opinion there is nothing more beautiful than a sunset!

The sun sets over the Wye River.

Isn't my brother a handsome lad?

Mike came out to see what we were up to and he very obligingly let me photograph him, too. 

The silhouette is so flattering. I love the little piece of his glasses you can see.

And then I got to take one of my favorite photos EVER: 

Duncan is ALL LEGS. It's not exactly a forced-perspective photo, but I love the size-difference due to proximity.

The next day, we went back to Austin and I started my classes. I have a feeling that this semester will be CRAZY on the reading front. One of my lit professors assigned 120 pages of Great Expectations "to be kind" over the weekend. I shudder to think what is coming my way the rest of the semester! (P.S. It only took me five hours to read that. Ouch. But I did it!) My other professor assigned 90 pages of Sons and Lovers, which I will do tomorrow!

I did have something to look forward to at the end of my first week of school, though... and that is the "Great American Tour de Nerdfighting 2012" on Saturday! You might remember that in 2008 I roadtripped up to Plano to see the Vlogbrothers, Hank and John Green, and then again in 2010 I saw John at Book People when he and David Levithan came to town after the release of Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

This time, though, they had a totally BOSS van!

Someday when I write a book, I want a bus like this!

Ally came with me and we flashed the Nerdfighter gang sign behind the back of the van!

DFTBA = Don't forget to be awesome!

John came out and read a chapter from the book he just released The Fault in Our Stars. You may remember that I read it during the Breakathon Readathon... and I cannot say enough about how amazing it is. You must read it. (Yes, you!)

Hank came out and sang a few songs.

And then, after a short segment of John answering questions from the audience, Hank came out and Hankroll'd us. (John fed us this bit about his wife coming out to talk, and then Hank came out and sang the Rick Roll. It totally got us, too!)

It was awesome, made all the more amazing by that outfit!

Lastly, I want to share two of my favorite quotes from Dickens' Great Expectations, of which I have read 130 pages today. (My braaaaaain wants to melllllllt)

"Bentley Drummle, who was so sulky a fellow that he even took up a book as if its writer had done him an injury, did not take up an acquaintance in a more agreeable spirit." (Chapter 25)

I can't tell you how much this quote makes me giggle. If there is something Dickens does well, it is character description, because I swear I can understand exactly what kind of person this is! 

And another one: 

"I said I had always longed for it.

'Never mind what you have always longed for, Mr Pip,' he retorted; 'keep to the record. If you long for it now, that's enough.'" (Chapter 18)

I don't know that I can articulate exactly what strikes me about this quote, but I'll give it a go: It isn't that you can disregard the past, desires or dreams you have had before, because those are the guides that have gotten you to the present, but there is something to understanding and keeping in mind what you want now. It's not about being fickle, changing your mind or desperately clinging onto the dreams you've always had, it's about having conviction in those dreams. 

Breakathon Readathon: The Results

The results are in for the Breakathon Readathon. Leslie: 1204 pages Stefanie: 4902 pages Now, I don't exactly WIN anything, but I sure do feel good that I won! The Breakathon Readathon began with the wish to read stuff that we hadn't read before - that it was time to take an intellectual break from everything that we had to read for school and set out to enjoy ourselves in fun, extracurricular reading. What the readathon reminded me was that I love reading and that I really need to read more books for fun. It also reminded me that I read at an absolutely ridiculous pace. That said, I have a TON of reading to do for this semester. I am taking two British Literature classes and reading something like seventeen or eighteen books; I really need to begin doing the reading for those classes! I think I'll go grab some lunch on campus and then take myself away to begin reading D.H. Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers"! And after that, begin reading my first Dickens novel, "Great Expectations".

Breakathon Readathon Review: Pretties

I didn’t exactly commit to reading more of the Uglies series during the Readathon, leaving my last reading options open… but I didn’t exactly commit to not reading them either. So, as there were only a few days left and it was on my mind, after finishing The Fault in Our Stars I decided to return to Tally and her alternate universe. Something I have to commend Westerfeld on is his creativity, particularly in his language for this futuristic society; words like ugly, pretty, bubbly, bogus, and icy all have very particular definitions in these books, all within contextual clues, and I'd love to attempt to define them. I find great pleasure in being surprised or thrown off balance by a good book, and this series throws so many curveballs I can only cling on and hope I’m along for the whole ride! In this book, Tally spends most of the book trying to regain her former self after having been turned Pretty, and most of the book is spent in an interesting duality between being Pretty-Minded (read: vapid, self-centered, and vain) and moments of her previous Ugly-Mindedness (clever, tricky, and disobedient). Mistakes and betrayals are made, and pranks and tricks abound; I thoroughly enjoyed the ride that this book took me on, and I very much anticipate where the next book takes me!

Likelihood I’ll reread: 70%
Likelihood I’ll recommend to others: 90%

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Total Pages: 4851

I will likely be able to add a few pages more to this total by the end of the readathon, but it won’t be an entire book! There is still some time before the break is through, but I’ll post the results as soon as Leslie and I compare…

Breakathon Readathon Review: The Fault in our Stars

I have been waiting for this book for MONTHS - ever since John Green announced on his youtube channel when it was going to be released - and I have to say... it's been well worth the wait. Going in, I knew that this story would be a tough one to read. I had been staying away from spoilers on the internet (because there are plenty more people in this world who read faster than I do, and I began reading it two days after its release), but the one "spoiler" I had seen seemed to be quite universal: people cried when they read this book. I also knew that it had to do with people who had cancer... but that was it. I have only good things to say about this book, really, but the most important thing is that I cried, too. John comes to town next weekend, and I can't WAIT to hear him talk!

Likelihood I'll reread: 100% (after I've recovered a little, of course)
Likelihood I'll recommend: 100%

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Total Pages: 4481

In defense of eBooks

Being that I am an avid reader of books and lover of books, some people are a little surprised to find that I support eBooks. It's true - there is nothing better than holding a book in my hands. The weight of the book, the smell of it, the way the pages gently glow under the light of my bedside table, fanning the corner of the pages with my finger while I read; those are things that cannot be recreated in eBook format. (Although I wouldn't put it past someone to give my Kindle a book scent!) And, I will report, I have happily threatened many every spine on my shelf: I will break you.

I have some 82 books my kindle right now. Some of them are books that I love so dearly I have paid for twice, to ensure that I have a digital copy of the book wherever I go (such as The Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice, and, more recently The Hunger Games). Just in case I need to read it at a moment's notice. Some of them are books that I really don't care to have copies of taking up space on my bookshelves in my room. Because I have hundreds of books here with me, and as soon as I have more space for more bookshelves, I'm absolutely going to town but until then... I don't need hard copies of some books.  Some of the books are books that I've read in my English classes, and were free because they're classics. A number of times, I've forgotten some of my books at home, and hastily purchased digital copies of them so I have textual references for class. I have Shakespeare's complete works in there - and my light-as-air Kindle weighs a heckuvalot less than my textbook of his complete works. It makes a lot of sense.

The size and weight of books is a huge issue for travel. Last summer when I went to Oxford, I was required to bring along seven big, rather heavy editions of the books I needed for my classes. Although I didn't have much time to read other things, I did manage to squeeze in a but of extracurricular reading while I was there, and all of it I did on my kindle. Not having those extra books with me was an absolute blessing. And in a few days when I board a plane to Maryland, guess what I'll be leaving behind? Heavy books. Notice how fast I read? My kindle has literally gotten lost in my purse before.

Aside from the size, what I will say about Kindles, Nooks and other ereaders (such as those on iPads and other tablets) is that they make people want to read. eReaders challenge the format that books have been restricted to for hundreds of years, and they make reading and the reading experience a wholly different one. The novelty (haha, novelty) of reading a book in this way is enough to entice anyone to read. Kids love them, because they're a fun gadget. Guess how much I care that they're using another gadget? They're reading. And if they're totally engrossed in a book, that is a wonderful thing. They absolutely should be. For me, the medium which I use to enjoy a book is irrelevant: Am I reading? Am I enjoying a great book? Excellent. Read on.

Nothing can replace the feel of a good book in my hands, but in my opinion, the experience of reading a great story that is totally engrossing is a universal experience. Even as someone who wants to go into the publishing business, I care that people are reading, not how they are doing so.

Breakathon Readathon Review: Uglies

You might have noticed that I have taken a little break from reading for the last week... combined with the return of a few of my friends to Austin, I took a few days off to give my brain a little break. Something I was not able to anticipate was my desire to remain somewhere within a genre or type of book, because the shock of jumping so frequently was really wearing on me. When I finish a good book, I want to read something similar - a book with a similar theme, or by the same author, or about the same length, etc. Thinking of what my next read should be, I struggled, wondering what book could possibly link Leviathan to where I wanted to take my brain next. Eventually, however, I found the perfect bridge: 

This book was one that my friend Brandlyn told me to read when we were in high school. I held out - only because if someone tells me I have to read something enough I am that much more unlikely to read it. This book was the perfect bridge between where my mind was left from the Hunger Games - dystopia, man v man, man v nature - and where my mind might want to go next. I chose Uglies because it was also written by Scott Westerfeld (who wrote Leviathan) and thus provided an excellent mental bridge. The premise of the novel is that at age 16, intense plastic surgery is required to turn everyone from "Uglies" to "Pretties". Due to some unusual circumstances, the main character of the novel finds herself tossed out into the wilderness by the authorities of her city with the ultimatum: "Do this or you'll remain ugly forever." I really enjoyed the pace of the novel (I read 80% of the novel more or less in one sitting), and the book ends on a really great cliffhanger. If it weren't 1am when I finished, I would have immediately launched into reading the sequel: Pretties. Be sure I'll be reading the rest of the series sometime soon - but perhaps not during the Readathon.

Likelihood I'll reread: 60% (Strong, but I'm more interested in finishing the series)
Likelihood I'll recommend: 75%

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Total page count: 4145

Only a week or so to go left in the Readathon! I'll be posting my roommate's total as soon as we compare notes!

Meet Lily

Emma's mom invited me over this morning to meet Lily, Emma's little sister. 

The blanket I made is keeping her warm! (Even though it was like 70 degrees today)

Lily looks just like Emma!

She slept on me for half an hour. What is better in this world?

Emma was at daycare, but I'm going back next week to visit with both of them... I can't wait!

Also, let it be known... I gave back Emma's baby seat. So if anyone wants to ride in that seat now, it's open. I need to vacuum the crums, though. (Emma is a messy girl!)

And while I'm on the topic, Emma turns THREE on Sunday. Which is shocking, because just yesterday she looked like this:

This was actually one of the first days I looked after Emma in May of 2009. Ah, memories....

Memories of 2011 - a photographic representation

In no particular order... Here are some of my favorite memories of 2011.

I visited many famous graves - JRR Tolkien, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Douglas Adams,  Karl Marx, William Shakespeare... the list goes on!

The Texas Snowpocalypse occurred in the middle of the night - and Ally and I went running around campus and to the capitol building in our pajamas!

We went to visit my Gramma, who I hadn't seen in many years. Duncan and I took some lovely photos of her backyard!

At the beginning of the summer, a friend of mine took some fun photos of me, which I have used for many a facebook profile picture.

I hung curtains in my room, which has really made a difference. I love the blue and green filtered light, especially when I wake up in the morning.

I saw Siobhan! :D

I ate at the Texas Embassy in London and drank the most expensive Lone Star I'll ever drink! £4.

I studied at Wadham College in Oxford for five weeks. No big deal!

I ran the flag with APO at every home football game... and one away!

Emma swung all by herself for the first time! (She was unsure about it at first, but quickly warmed up to the idea!)

I got my UT class ring. Hook 'em Horns!

I found the world's COOLEST roommate ever!  (This is the Whole Foods parking for family of employees!)

I acquired some fancy prescription sunglasses.

 I knitted my first baby blanket.

I got to read Harry Potter for school. (For my Children's literature class!)

I got a fancy-schmancy new laptop (which I LOVE.) 

I read a bunch of classics, and LOVED them all. 

I got Toms shoes, and boy are they COMFY. Great close-toed option when flip flops aren't viable. (i.e. in December)

I played Lord of the Rings Monopoly with my family (and witnessed a showdown between Katie and Duncan that will go into the history books!)

I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 in 3D IMAX, in London, at midnight of the opening day. My friends brought wands!

I saw a play at Shakespeare's Globe Theater for the first time.

I visited the Roman baths in Bath, England.

I played on a piano in Jane Austen's house. (No big deal or anything, of course!)

I visited the Stourhead Gardens, where a scene from the more recent Pride and Prejudice movie was  filmed.

I got to see Annie and meet Sean while in London. (They are two of my favorite people!)

I got to see another of my favorite people (Kerry-Lynn) get married.

I posed with Hook 'Em on the field before a flag run.

I participated in APO history, and ran one of four flags in the pregame at the Texas Tech game.

I played with Miss Emma a lot.

I baked delicious French Bread for the first time.

I ran the flag at the Holiday Bowl.

I fell in love with little Emma even more. (Sorry, I can't help it.)

I wrote a lot.

Sometimes when Emma is eating, she asks to hold my hand. Who could resist that?  (Gratuitous photos of Emma are unceasing!)

I got Maureen Johnson to revenge sign my copy of Paper Towns by John Green, and achieved temporary internet fame on Tumblr when John reblogged me.

Finally had a class at Starbucks!

2011 was extraordinary. Here's to 2012 and all the changes it brings.