Cooking and not cooking

I just finished this article: The Joy of Not Cooking. It made me sort of sad, even though it's all true. It talks about how people spend more money on their kitchens even as they spend less time in them.

The article said the average woman in the 1920s spent over 30 hours a week in their kitchens preparing meals, while today women spend only 5.5 hours a week on average.

It talked about how we buy silly gadgets and restaurant-quality everything even though we rarely use them, which made me feel a little guilty about our ice cream maker and our little deep-fryer.

But I think the difference is, John and I don't outfit our kitchen in order to keep up with the Joneses and their granite countertops. We do it because nothing is more exciting than a date night spent at home when we bust out the fryer to make vegetable tempura to make sushi rolls. We really enjoy cooking and eating well and exploring different recipes. It's something that brings us together.

Which brings me to some recipes:

How can you not love Strawberry-Nutella homemade poptarts? I don't know. But I know I couldn't resist them as soon as I saw this:

If that wasn't drool-worthy enough, today I was reading honey & jam (one of my fave blogs), and this recipe crossed my path: Honey & Rosewater Tapioca

They look so heavenly, and the photography just adds to that. I've never tried to make tapioca from scratch. I might have to try with this recipe, though!

New Obsession: Vegan Fruit and Nut Bars

So my friend/fellow quartet member is vegan. She also happens to convince pretty much everyone around her that vegan food is amazing, because she is a really great cook. She debunks a lot of the stereotypes of vegan food (esp. with the sweet stuff; you know how vegan desserts can often taste really bland? Not hers!)

She recently shared a homemade version of those fruit and nut bars, like Larabars. Larabars are awesome, but kind of expensive. I had never really bought them, but Johanna gave me a taste of a homemade version with dried cranberries and cashews and I was so in love I immediately demanded the recipe.

Here is what I was given:

1 cup nuts (any)
1 1/2 cups dried fruit (any)
1 cup dried shredded coconut
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice
Zest of 1 lemon or lime
1/4 tsp. salt

You just pulse it all together in a food processor, press it into a  9x9 pan, stick it in the fridge to firm up a little, then slice.

I have to say, I had a hard time getting to the 9x9 pan part...I kept eating the mixture!

I had a ton of dried fruit and nuts in my pantry; I always think I'm going to just snack on them, but never do. So, this was an exciting experiment!

Cherry/Almond
1 cup slivered almonds
1 1/2 cups dried cherries (I used a mixture that had dried Rainier and Bing cherries)
1 cup dried coconut (sweetened, because that's what I had on hand)
1 TBSP lemon juice (I didn't have a fresh lemon, so I just used what I had)
1/2 TBSP vanilla extract (I have fancy Sonoma Syrup Co. Vanilla Extract "Crush" which is a mixture of Madagascar Bourbon and Tahitian vanillas)

Shameless plug? No, seriously, I love this stuff.
I can't tell you how much I love this vanilla extract.

They were so amazing, I could barely stop eating the mixture before I put it in the 9x9 pan to firm up. So, I decided to immediately make a second batch.

Thai Inspired Peanut Bars
1 cup roasted peanuts
1 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dried currants
1 cup sweetened dried coconut (again, what I had on hand, but unsweetened would probably work well, too)
1 TBSP lime juice
1 TBSP vanilla extract
A few sprinkles of toasted sesame seeds
Pinch of cardamom

The second batch is awesome, too! I added more vanilla to these because they needed a little creaminess. Johanna wanted to try a curry powder with the peanuts and lime juice and coconut (and possibly dried mango), but I wasn't that brave yet!

I briefly contemplated making them non-vegan and adding sweetened condensed milk or coconut milk (which I also had in my pantry...), but I didn't want to open a whole can just to use a teaspoon or so, so that experiment will have to wait for another day.

There are plenty of ideas that I have...walnut+cranberry; thai style with crystallized ginger, dried mangoes, lime, and peanuts; pistachio+cashew+dried strawberry; pecan+apricot; slivered almonds+dried raspberries+dutch process cocoa...the possibilities are exciting!