I carry around a list in my brain… a list of things that I’m in love with.  Actively in love with, everyday… just walking around in the world.

I’m in love with fresh ginger tea, jewels big and small, my perfect black cotton dress, girls with long wavy hair that I covet, day planners, mechanical pencils, and the smell of clean laundry.

This is aside from loving the people and pets around me.  This love is separate from family and friends.  This love sometimes steps to the back of my mind and I’m left feeling a little blaaaaaahhh…. until all the love comes rushing back and I remember that I’m totally in love with my life.

I mean… think about it.  Despite its messes and disappointments… and bills, there’s a lot to be in love with… even if it’s just the smell of your new shampoo, because it reminds you of toasted coconut.

I made these pretty pink doughnuts, and shared them with friends.  I decided that this Valentine’s Day… it’s important to be in love with life.

I don’t even care how cheesy that sounds… because it feels good, and tastes bonkers awesome.

These doughnuts are made with two important ingredients.

Bread flour… which makes the doughnuts slightly more dense.  Bread flour has a higher protein content and gives these yeast doughnuts a heavier, slightly more toothsome feel.  Delicious…  really.  If you don’t have bread flour on hand, you’ll want to use a slightly different doughnut recipe.  Try this one!  (You might even want to try Doughnut Muffins! )

and

Vegetable shortening… which acts as our internal fat in the doughnuts.  Vegetable shortening is a different fat than butter.  Butter has water in it, which can make the doughnuts crack a bit during frying.  Vegetable shortening is a fat without water, so the doughnuts will be smoother.  Feel free to use butter, but the doughnuts may have a slightly different appearance.

This doughnut mixture is mixed in an electric stand mixer with a paddle attachment before it’s mixed and kneaded with a dough hook.

Yes… I said mixed a lot of times in the above sentence.  Deal.

After a bit of time in the mixer, the dough will be slightly tacky, but not stick to your fingers or the bowl.  It will feel soft and pliable… but with a bit of weight to it.

Lovely dough before the rise.

Dough gets risen in an off oven with a warm water bath.  It’s like an at-home proofing box.

Woah!

… this dough is about half as big as my cat.  I dunno.  I don’t have much else to compare the dough… or the cat to.

This is a test.

Which set will you make doughnuts out of?

Left… choose the one on the left.

This might be my favorite part of the process….

After this cute part comes the frying.  No photography around hot oil please.  It’s enough for me to not totally burn my hand just cooking the doughnuts.  Let’s not put a camera in the mix.

If this beautiful, golden doughnut isn’t enough to make you love your living… I just don’t know what else to tell you.

Dip it is sugared pink… maybe that will help with the love.

… aaannnddd coconut.

Homemade doughnuts are undeniably perfect.    These doughnuts are a play on the traditional cake doughnut, frosted pink and decorated with snow white coconut.  This version is slightly more neon and toasted, making is rustic cool.

This recipe is from my favorite doughnut shop in Seattle, Top Pot.  They’re cookbook Hand-Forged Doughnuts totally has my mouth watering.  These people are not kidding around when it comes to doughnut land.

I like coconut quite a lot.

I love coconut.  It’s important to me.

It’s so important that this is the perfect time and place to expound my love in link form.

Real Talk:  I spent the morning in the kitchen with a new coconut recipe that bonkers FAILED.  I’ll get coconut, hazelnut, and chocolate together somehow.  It’s in the future.

Coconut Almond Chocolate Biscuits. ((coconut flakes!))  With cherry jam?  Much success.

Coconut goes major healthy in this Carrot Ginger Coconut Soup  ((coconut milk!)).

Also… I’m one of those people that drizzles olive oil on everything savory.  It’s pretty.

Coconut flour is a gluten-free dream!  These cupcakes are made with coconut flour and fresh strawberries. Topped with cream cheese frosting.  Quit it!

Gluten-free Strawberry Coconut Cupcakes (coconut flour!)).

These hearty gluten-free waffles are topped with big toasted coconut flakes and soft, sweet whipped cream!

Gluten-free Coconut Waffles ((coconut oil, coconut flour, coconut flakes!)).  They don’t taste weird gluten-free.  They do taste all-the-way awesome.

Crazy thing about the coconut in the Crunchy Kale and Coconut Bowl ((coconut flakes!))… dudes will think it tastes like bacon.  I’m serious.  It’s a transformer.  This meal is a drug… a healthy, kale drug.

Coconut and cookies for breakfast!  It’s totally possible.  There’s also millet and carrots.  Get on this cookie bandwagon!

Vegan Carrot Cherry Breakfast Cookies ((coconut oil!)).

14 of the 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 thoughts going through my brainscape:

-  I’m 30.  I can’t shop at Forever 21.  First of all, I’m a Large…. and the shorts are still waay too tiny.  Secondly, I look much better in Anthropologie clothes.

-  I’m worth it.

-  Yea.  So I just stress-ate a bag of potato chips.  At least I just bought the small bag and not the giant bag… even though the giant bag was on sale.  I’m alright!

-  I wish I had claws so I could scratch my cat back.

-  At least I have scissors to give my cat awkward hair cuts when he’s sleeping.

-  I can’t sing, unless I’m alone and I’m pretending like I’m Adele… and then I still can’t sing.

-  No, sir.  Laundromat flirting is not my thing.  I see you trying to find an ‘in’.  Also… the fact that you’re wearing a bluetooth and that you brought your own wooden hangers to the laundromat makes it clear to me that you’re a serial killer.  I’ve seen CSI.  I’ve seen Dexter.  COME ON!

-  Well, if Hoarders weren’t such a mind-bending show, I wouldn’t have to watch it.  It’s really not my fault.

-  I’ll write that email… but first I’ll eat this cold burrito.

-  I’m looking at you and secretly wondering if you’re an extreme couponer.

-  Can I deep fry cupcakes?  No.

-  Some girls cry when they’re sad.  I cry when I’m bonkers angry.  That must be really creepy to people.  Like… killer creepy.

-  When did girls start wearing fake hair and fake eyelashes!?  Ladies… come on.  Can we all just work on the same playing field?  Geez.  You’re really making my hair look mousy.

-  What kind of scones should I make?  I know… sweet everything bagels…  Everything Scones!  I’m a genius.

Toasted coconut is one of my favorite smells.

I wish my hair could smell like this all the time.

Scones.  Why not just throw in everything!?  By the handful… with buttermilk.

Come on!  This is how we should live everyday.

If you don’t think this looks like a blessing from the heavens… we’re not friends.

If you don’t think this looks like a blessing from the heavens… then you’re not a ninja.  That’s a problem.

Toasty, buttery, and soft.  Studded with almonds, chocolate and coconut.  A mouthful of breakfast goodness!  Add a big dollop of cherry jam and shut.it.up!  The best breakfast everyday.

I think what I need is someone to catch a grenade for me.

… perhaps someone to throw their hand on a blade for me.

Someone to jump in front of a train for me?

Wait.  What?  Clearly I have a problem.  I can not stop listening to this silly song.

… and now I want people catching grenades.  Please.

Actually, no.  All I really need is someone to make cookies for.  … and maybe someone to push a piano around Los Angeles for me.  That would be… odd.

Just listen to the song… most of the words I’ve written will make more sense.

I’ve wanted to make chocolate chip cookies for weeks.  For one reason or another I’ve been dilly-dallying with quinoa and scones and vegan cookies.

None of these things really removed my brain from chocolate chip cookies.

Yesterday morning I woke up and browned butter.

See?  It’s literally brown.  It smells just as delicious as you might imagine.  The kind of delicious that you want to rub all of your body.  That kind.  The good kind.

Once the butter was browned, I knew there were chocolate chip cookies in my future.

I just had no idea how dang good they would turn out.  I mean… seriously.  I kinda impressed myself.

With browned butter and and AAANNNDDD toasted coconut, these cookies have depth.

If I had to use words to describe them (and I do have to), I would say these cookies are:  nutty, toasty, chewy on the inside, crunchy on the outside, studded with dark chocolate, a total high five, and a pat on the back.

And they don’t bake up super flat.  They have junk in the trunk… thick thighs… you know what I mean.

Make these.  Catch grenades.

Good morning!

I made us breakfast.

There’s not an ounce of butter in it.  Clearly I’m not feeling myself.

Grains and applesauce and fruit and nuts.  Delicious.  Wholesome.  True.

We’ll eat it and feel utterly contented.  Then we’ll have butter for lunch.  Let’s be real.

My new friend Natalie came to my house for wine and cobbler.  No biggie.

Among the many side-splitting words that came out of her mouth that evening were “breakfast” and “quinoa”.  Yes.  Perfect.

That Natalie mixes applesauce into her breakfast quinoa is only further evidence that she is rad, and I have excellent taste in new friends.

Don’t you love quinoa?  Quinoa is a grain  a seed full of magic.  It’s a complete protein… and it’s a plant!  Quinoa is full of amino acids and proteins… the sorts of things that our bodies love.  For breakfast with nuts and fruit?  Amazing.  So healthy.

Look at us putting our healthy pants on.  Just supreme.

Consider this post as more of a suggestion.

Sure, there’s a recipe to follow, but you can load this quinoa up with any fruit, nut, or milk you like.

It’s your breakfast… I certainly don’t mean to impose.

Here’s the thing about love…. allow me to speak as an authority on the subject for a moment.

The thing about love is this:  you have to fall into it with everything.  Arms flailing, smiling like a maniac, giddy beyond belief, with all of who you are.  You have to go big.  You have to leave nothing behind.  You have to risk it all.  That’s the only way it has a chance of working… right?

And even then… sometimes it doesn’t work.  And you fall flat on your face.  And it sucks.  And there’s no way that it won’t suck… so you just have to sit with the suck for a while.  And then sit with it some more…. and a little more still.

And then I suppose you separate yourself from all the suck and try again… later.  Waaaaaay later. Cause your face is sore from where you totally fell on it.

That’s how it works, right?

This helps… but isn’t always foolproof.

Know what also helps?  Cake.  Cake with milk.  So there.  Put that little gem in your brainhole.

I wanted to give you a closer look at this cake.  It really is special.

The cake base is a dense yellow cake flavored with just a hint of almond extract.  The cake batter has a lot of eggs in it.  So many eggs you might feel a little uneasy.  Not to worry.  Everything will work out.

I think the secret to this cake is pre-slicing the cake just before soaking it in milk.  I soak my cake slices for about 4 to five hours.  I’m not an overnight soaker.  I don’t like super soggy cake.

I love the coconut milk in this recipe.  Coconut milk and cinnamon and a hint of cardamom.  It’s rich… but still delightfully light… and just otherwise lovely.

Want to know what’s in my fridge?  A whole lot of ’what the heck am I going to do with that’?  Maraschino cherries.  Basil pesto.  Expired buttermilk.  Kale… lots of kale.  A bottle with less that a tablespoon of maple syrup and carrot juice.  It’s a glamorous life I lead.  Totally.

You should be thankful I didn’t reach into my fridge for this recipe.  Cherry Pesto Kale Bread sounds like a big mistake.

Instead I scavenged through my cupboards.  What did I find?  A can of crushed pineapple.  A bag of dried beans.  Shredded coconut and bananas that I had very obviously forgotten about.   So!  Yes!  Bread!  Minus the beans…. cause…  that would just be weird.

So, just in case you’re keeping score… you could go ahead and call me an ‘oh crap I’m out of eggs and butter and just about every other animal product needed for baking’ type of vegan.  Also… I totally love bacon. Worst vegan ever.

You would never know that this bread was something I threw together out of cupboard desperation.  It’s dang good.  With bananas and pineapple, you can afford to add less oil… meaning less fat.  Of course, all our dreams of low fat banana bread fly out the window when we add sweetened shredded coconut.  It’s just too good to leave out.

Moist.  Flavorful.  Fruity.  Vegan.  This just proves that we can add just about anything to banana bread and still call it delicious.  Well… except dried beans.  That will always be weird.

Need more banana in your bread?  Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread and Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.

This morning I stood under a blossoming orange tree that hummed with honey bees.  I found my way under this tree after a walk through my neighborhood on one of those mornings that couldn’t decide if it wanted to laugh or cry.

The sidewalk showed evidence of midnight rain.  The smell of rain on asphault… ooh so perfectly dreamy.  The sky, bright blue with clusters of pure white and angry grey clouds.

The air was just cold enough to chill me through my sweater and carried the scent of orange blossoms nearly a block.  That’s the scene that lead me, arms hugging my chest, to the bee humming orange tree, live with blossoms and heavy with fruit.

The scene screamed of Spring.

Standing there under that tree, it felt like life was just bursting out into the world.  What a pure expression of life and beauty that tree was this morning.

Happy Spring.

Have some life… enjoy it!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes are a spring classic.  Right?  I paired mine with Dulce de Leche Buttercream, but feel free to groove on with a classic Cream Cheese Frosting.  These beauties are unadulterated carrot yum, the kind of treat you might find at a church bake sale…. like, the best church bake sale ever!

I think I’m supposed to hate cake mix.  I think, once you get a chef’s coat, you are supposed to turn you nose up at all things packaged, pre-mixed, and all around too good to be true.  Well the truth is, I don’t hate cake mix, or at least I don’t hate it as much as I should.

I could bore you with a pro and con list detailing my love hate relationship with cake mix, but I won’t.  I’ll just say this- I love cake mix because my Mom buys it for 35 cents and then passes it along to me, with that oh-so-great-I-found-a-bargain feeling.  Cake mixes are easy beyond belief, moist every time and really hard to screw up.  But the truth is, even easy to make, 35 cent cake mix isn’t really a bargain.  It’s filled with loads of oils and sugars that I can’t even pronounce.  If I can’t pronounce it, there’s a good chance my insides that don’t what to do with it either.  So, you win and you lose.  Sounds a lot like life, doesn’t it?

I whole heartedly reject what the directions on the cake mix box tells me to do.  If I’m going to make a boxed cake, I’m certainly going to do it my way.  I’m not sure if I can make cake mix couture, but I’m sure as hell going to try.   So to my yellow mix I added lime zest, orange zest, orange juice and toasted coconut.  Hmm…. couture enough?  I don’t know.  I’ll probably have to find a skinny French model wearing a skinny French couture dress to stand next to my cake… then I’ll be able to reasonably call it couture.  Yea…. that’ll do it.

I had a food fantasy yesterday, in the middle of my Monday workday.  My fantasy involved four things: me, my uber comfy Santa pajamas, a bowl of made-by-me ice cream, and my electric blanket.  I fantasized all the way home and skipped dinner to get my ice cream going.  I had all the fixins for coconut cardamom ice cream so  I thought I’d give it a go.  I like cardamom ice cream!  At least, that’s what I told myself… for as long as I could.

So as it turns out, I’m not a big fan of cardamom in ice cream.  Even with a coconut camouflage, I just couldn’t get into it.  Of course, I didn’t know the extent of my dislike until I was situated deep within my electric blanket, with my Santa pajamas on, watching a movie.  All things considered, at that point, by life was pretty wonderful, so the  ice cream wasn’t such a tragedy.

I used an ice cream recipe that contains a cornstarch thickener rather than egg yolks.  The eggy taste is a little overpowering.  I think the cornstarch lets more of the other flavors through.

I think next time I have an ice cream fantasy that involves comfort and indulgence, I’ll try chocolate peanut butter ice cream.  Maybe chocolate chip cookie dough….. extra extra cookie dough.  I’ll just stay away from spicy ice cream, which I conclude, is just as odd as wearing Santa pajamas in late January (and all year round).