Homemade Granola

My first (successful) granola!

Japanese Hamburger （ハンバーグ）

My husband does not complain if I make stir-fried veggies, but he gives me a hint that he wants to have beef or pork in the dish. 


Okay, okay. 


How about this?  Japanese Hamburger

Hamburger Buns

I don't know what made me wanting to try baking hamberger buns on Sunday.  For bread baking recipes, I always check the recipes at the King Arthur Flour web site.  Beautiful Burger Buns is the recipe I tried this time. 

One of the best wedding gifts we received.  This bread machine has been working faithfully almost eight years.  I use this machine for kneading only.  I prefer to transfer the dough in to bread loafs and bake them in the oven.

I used the dough cycle.  This was after 1.5 hours from the beginning. 

Divide dough in eight pieces using my electronic scale.  You don't need to do this way, but I like to get each dough ball close to the same size. 

Flatten each dough ball with a rolling pin.  Let them raise for about one hour.

Brush the buns with melted butter.

Bake for 15-18 minutes at 375F.

I made a portobello mushroom burger.  Mmm!

Preparing ahead...

This week is going to be busy! 

As soon as I come from grocery shopping, I wash and prepare packable fruits and veggies such as grapes and celery. 

I recently purchased these BPA free plastic lunch boxes (set of four on the right) from Amazon.  There are three compartments.  I filled the smaller compartments with cut fruits and veggies.  I can pull the frozen sandwich in the morning to put in the main compartment, or fill with something else.  I hope this will save me several minutes in the morning this week.  



Flourless Chocolate Cake

To accompany the latte, we needed something chocolaty (coffee and chocolate - perfect combination, right)?

The quick easy chocolate cake recipe is Flourless Chocolate Cake.  I love King Arthur Flour products and recipes.  I actually flew all the way to Vermont to take their baking lesson. 

Here are the main ingridients.  I'm sure the recipe was tested by their bakers, but I always cut the amount of sugar in half even for a recipe I never baked before.

The original recipe calls for 3/4 cup of sugar, but I only used 1/3 cup here.

I used 1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of unsweetened chocolate to even reduce the sugar content. 

Melt butter and chocolate (in microwave for 1.5 minutes).  

Mix well.  The texture should be very silky.

Espresso powder is optional.  I used probably 1/4 spoon to enhance the chocolate flavor. 

Add sugar, eggs and a pinch of salt.  Mix well.  Add cocoa powder.

Ready for baking!

The original recipe calls for glaze, but this is sweet for us. I occasionally serve this cake with whipped cream. My husband likes to eat with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.