The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

Sometimes a little unplanned baking session can really work to your advantage, even in cases where substitutions are necessary. I’m the kind of person that believes in having a fully stocked pantry if I can at all times, meaning that if I am a little low on one sort of baking staple I will make sure to restock on my next trip to the store. I’m likely even a little over stocked with many different grain flours, sugars and nuts – I like to be prepared because I really love to bake and running out quickly to grab what I’m missing is really not as easy as it used to be.

The other day when the urge to bake struck I was unusually underprepared and couldn’t manage to shake the desire to make some sort of soft cake-like apple muffin, so I was forced into improvisation and completely out of my comfort zone. I’ll admit the situation wasn’t dire, I had little bits of different flours: regular AP flour, whole wheat, rye, corn, barley, oat and rice as well as about 1/4 cup of flax and a few walnuts. I routinely bake with a mix of these, but all together and completely unmeasured made me a bit nervous and the fact that I had only one single egg, almost no sugar and half the amount of oil I generally use was not going to help me. I knew that if I didn’t add in a significant amount of moisture, the result would be dry.

Fortunately, I had a can of pumpkin which to be quite honest is one of the most important pantry shelf items because of its versatility. I use a lot of this stuff both for baking and cooking it can completely save you in a situation like this. I also had some apple sauce and yogurt that was meant for baby R and a container of molasses that would substitute for some of the sugar. I was on my way, but still feeling a bit skeptical – again baking substations are really not my thing.

I have been on a pumpkin kick recently. It’s that time of year I know, but I have to admit I haven’t always been the hugest pumpkin fan. We just had thanksgiving here in Vancouver last weekend, and it was the first in a long time where the traditional pumpkin pie was not present for dessert and I have to say I really didn’t miss it. I do enjoy pumpkin pie and have really grown to appreciate pumpkins in their various forms – I especially love pumpkin risotto and pumpkin spice muffins are one of my very favourite! But I didn’t grow up eating pumpkins other than in the form of pie. My grandmother made pumpkin pie around this time of year, but unlike her apple pie I always felt sort of unattached to it. It was only later in life that I truly embraced pumpkin pie and considered it a viable dessert option. It definitely took me about 20 years to develop a taste for it. Strange I know.

Call it a strange pregnancy thing but since about 2 days following our thanksgiving dinner, I have seriously not been able to think about anything but pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cheese cake, pumpkin anything that’s sweet and it was driving me crazy. So, this morning at the grocery store I found myself loading my basket with can after can of organic pumpkin puree. Its funny because I always hear stories about super markets running out of the stuff around thanksgiving so I really went in with this panic mentality this morning. Of course I have never experienced this myself, every time I need pumpkin puree its always available and the shelves of my local grocery store were stocked full of it. But I’m glad I have it because I did promise my in laws a pumpkin pie for Halloween and I’m in the process of convincing Sat that we need muffins asap – he’s been trying to ease off the sweets which is hard to do when you’re married to someone who loves to bake.

Well I’m officially back in my kitchen and couldn’t be happier about it. I really hope to forgo such long blogging breaks in the future. In my defence, it was however quite an unglamorous and difficult summer I endured, one where the maintenance a food blog proved impossible. They really don’t warn you about these things, or maybe they do and I just didn’t listen. Either way I hold myself accountable for thinking that the transition into such major change would be smooth, uncomplicated and altogether enjoying. As it stands all of those ideas of what I thought these months would bring couldn’t have been more off base. This was extremely frustrating at the time but of course now that I am on the other side I feel that it was all worth it.

What am I hinting at? Well after almost 4 miserable months we are officially delighted to tell you that in early March we are expecting a brand new addition to our family of 3 and we couldn’t be more excited and terrified about it. Excited for all of the obvious reasons and terrified because this will be our first non fur baby and we are starting to wake up to the responsibilities that that entails. But we are delighted by the challenges that it will bring and are in a bit of a panic searching for new digs that will accommodate our new addition.

I’ve been hearing the praises of oatmeal for breakfast for many a year, starting from childhood, and have successfully managed to ignore or at least fain disinterest. While I was attracted to the health benefits and the possibility of staying full for longer than I was used to,  I suppose it was more out of a bored feeling I would get at the thought of reintroducing this into my breakfast routine.

You see, my childhood was one that was over populated by bowls of bland oatmeal. Even though there was plenty brown sugar and milk available to perk it up, it was never enough to get me excited about eating in the mornings. I remember begging my mother for anything but oatmeal for breakfast, followed by several dramatic demonstrations of my dislike once I didn’t get my way.  I also remember that I secretly thought it wasn’t terrible when I eventually did eat it, because I must confess I’ve never been one to starve myself even out of protest. Yet despite not hating it completely, like I wanted people to think, it didn’t inspire me or get me excited like I thought all food should. To be quite honest it still doesn’t.