weekend bake off

first frost ushers in a purple time; freaky color theory

Hi. I know. I’ve been sharing some big hugs lately and it makes me laugh (through the tears) a little because the scene I ~came of age~ with in west philly was kind of anti-hug. We were like WHOA if an acquaintance went in for an embrace. It was a different time. For some reason it’s hard for me to shake that conditioning and not be awkward about accepting a hug from someone I don’t know well, even though I do want to embrace. Someone hugged me at the gym a few days ago. Powering through because the hugs are good. Sometimes Hayden and I get weird and do an eight second hug when one of us is feeling upset - it’s a Thich Nhat Hanh meditation - but it’s easy to hug your partner, so that’s just a separate hug thing. I’m definitely not on the hugging my acquaintances for eight seconds level yet. Maybe one day.

The contents of today’s newsletter:

• Buckwheat recipes. Are you interested in scrumptiousness? A flour so silky and dark it almost sparkles like the night sky? (velaris coded) A baked good made light and fluffy from a gluten free grain that’s easy to source locally and organically in the northeast? Allow me to introduce you to Buckwheat. And it’s not just baked goods, I’m also sharing my favorite savory buckwheat breakfast recipe. Hayden channeled this recipe out of nowhere for a camping trip and it is 11/10 so satisfying.

• Some photos of our first frost. leaving fiery orange behind and entering a mystical purple world - a trend laid out by autumn transitioning to winter that I find myself following.

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Hear me out - I’ve been having some thoughts about energetic attractions and aversions to certain hues. I’ve left my orange era and find myself full blown magnetized toward purple.

This is something I’ve been leaving voice notes to friends about over the past six months and I even wrote an essay about it for this email. Despite my desire to talk about this endlessly, the essay reads half baked, so I’m saving it until I can get a little more coherent. Sound off in the comments if you have thoughts about claiming colors in different times of our lives - I would love to chat about it.

Instead I will leave you with these images of the ultimate seasonal hues trendsetter, the first frost:

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The Recipes

• Pumpkin Buckwheat Muffins

• Apple Buckwheat Pancakes

• Hayden’s Beautiful Buckwheat Breakfast

I love to cook and bake. Doing so helps me make peace with our weird little kitchen that we accidentally let get shuffled down in the list of renovation priorities. In any case, it’s good to live in it before we rip out cabinets and rebuild everything because I’m slowly figuring out where we want little shelves and hooks for all the specific little needs we have (for example each of us have too many water bottle/thermoses but they are all necessary for different activities. It also drives me crazy when they are scattered around the countertops. It would be nice to have a strategically placed little shelf just for those.)

Pumpkin Buckwheat Muffins

Pumpkin Buckwheat Muffins.

I have a favorite recipe for blueberry muffins that I’m always tweaking and turning into other types of muffins. If we have hung out for an extended period of time in the last five years - you have probably nibbled on some variation of this muffin with me. Lately, I’ve been enjoying them as pumpkin buckwheat muffins. Bonus: you can use one bowl for this recipe.

Ingredients:

⅓ cup melted fat of choice (sunflower seed oil, ghee, butter, etc)

½ cup maple syrup

2 eggs, preferably at room temperature (flax eggs work well here if you avoid animal products)

1/4 cup milk (regular or dairy free) or in a pinch - water! Better to use some type of milk but I’ve made the recipe with water in a pinch and I was happy I had muffins.

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ginger

shake of nutmeg

1 cup buckwheat flour

¾ cup gf all purpose flour

(note: you can also skip the gf all purpose and go full 1¾ buckwheat flour! It’s a bit more crumbly that way and has less of a traditional fluffy cake texture, but if you are a buckwheat freak like me who loves a bran like snack, you might like it! Maybe try it both ways.)

1/3 oats (save some for sprinkling on top! and if you care to keep your recipe gf, make sure you use gf oats)

Methodology:

1. I like to do this step the day before if I can: Bake a pumpkin - it depends on the size but I usually roast a medium pumpkin for about an hour at 350 F. I always put about a cup of water in the pan to steam it as it roasts and punch a few holes in the skin with a fork. The pumpkin is done when the flesh feels super tender.

2. Once roasted to perfection, put your pumpkin pan on a cooling rack and let it rest.

3. Once cooled, scoop out the seeds, and then scoop all the cooked pumpkin flesh (not the skins) into a blender and blend until silky smooth. I use our vitamix and it works like a charm. Now you have your pumpkin puree. Whatever is leftover we either incorporate into smoothies or curries for the next couple days
   
   NOW for the muffins!
   

4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease your 12 cup muffin pan if needed.

5. In a large mixing bowl whisk together your maple syrup and oil/fat. Add the eggs in and mix until combined. Then add your yogurt (or milk) and vanilla. Whisk until combined. If you are working with a lipid that gets solid at room temp like coconut oil or butter, you may need to gently warm your mixture to get it liquid again. Whisk in the pumpkin puree.

6. Whisk in your spices, salt, and baking soda.

7. Add in your flour and oats and stir with a big spoon until just combined. The less you mix a muffin batter, the better for the end result texture.

8. ((If you desire in your heart to add mix-ins such as dried nuts, fruits, or chocolate chips - this is the point at which you would do so))

9. Divide the batter as evenly as possible between the 12 muffin cups.

10. Bake the muffins for 25 minutes, or until the muffins are golden on top and a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

11. Place the muffin tin on a cooking rack. After 10 minutes or so you might want to use a wooden knife (at least, that's what I use) to slide the muffin out of the pan and have them sit individually on the rack.

12. Enjoy! I like them with a dollop of peanut butter and jam (that’s hawthorn berry jam in the top photo of the newsletter…yum) as an afternoon snack.

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Apple Buckwheat Pancakes :)

Apple Buckwheat Pancakes

Shredded apple adds something delightful and substantial to the batter of these pancakes, but the flavor is not over powering. If you really want to add some strong apples notes, I would recommend slicing up a few apples, putting the slices on a baking sheet and baking them while you make the pancakes so you can use them as a topping. Also your whole house will smell like a fairy tale.

Ingredients:

1 cup buckwheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 large apple, shredded

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 ¼ cup mylk of choice

2 eggs

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Ghee or oil, for the skillet

Methodology:

1. Use a cheese shredded to shred your large apple. Set aside.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a small bowl, measure out your milk of choice. Whisk in the egg and vanilla extract.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined with a large spoon. Add the shredded apple at this point. Don’t mix too much - a few lumps are fine.

5. Heat up your skillet or griddle to a medium-low heat. I set my induction stovetop to 260 F and get my past iron nice and hot before I season it with ghee. Let whatever fat/oil you use get hot before you add your first pancake.

6. Stir your batter once more and then add about 1/3 cup of batter to the hot skillet. Cook until the pancake appears matte instead of glossy. When you flip it over it should be a gorgeous golden brown and full of little bubble holes. Cook until it feels done - I don’t know how to explain this - but I think you’ll just know! It should need less time on the second time.

7. Have a plate out to collect your finished pancakes.

8. You’ll need to asses the fat on the pan before each pancake, make sure there is a nice slick of oil coating the pan before you add batter.

9. Repeat the process until the batter is finished.

10. Serve immediately with baked apple slices, nut butter, and maple syrup.

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Fuel for many a river trip

Hayden’s Magical Breakfast

Hayden divined this recipe right before a multi-day kayak camping trip in the Adirondacks. I was apprehensive at first but trusted his gut feeling about this flavor combo and I’m so glad I did! Now it is a family favorite. For fans of savory breakfast.

Ingredients:

1 cup Buckwheat groats

dash Seaweed

dollop Peanut butter

dollop Kim Chi

dollop Maple Syrup

dollop Coconut Aminos

2 Eggs

Hot sauce

Methodology:

This recipe is a bit more loosey goosey. That’s baking vs. cooking for you!

1. Combine the buckwheat groats and seaweed with water (or broth tbh) in the instant pot. The ratio is 1 cup buckwheat to 1 3/4 cup water. Cook on high pressure for 12 minutes and then let naturally release for at least 5 minutes. (If you don’t have an instant pot - just cook it on the stovetop - idk that ratio of the top of my head so you’ll have to run a quick search. I am a big instant pot user so I forget these things.)

2. Fry your eggs however you like. For me, I like to make sure the whites are totally cooked but the yolk inside is runny so that I can poke it to release it as a sauce in my buckwheat bowl.

3. Once the buckwheat is cooked, make yourself a bowl of the buckwheat and seaweed.

4. Add a dollop of: peanut butter, maple syrup, coconut aminos (or tamari if you can handle soy), and kim chi (or any other effervescent fermented vegetable).

5. Mix your buckwheat bowl together. Add eggs and hot sauce (a vinegar based hot sauce is ideal but any will do the trick) on top.

6. Enjoy!!!!!

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wearing the scarf I knit during class lectures and that one really long town meeting about the dam.

Signing off from the recently finished guest bedroom!! Where I am…making myself very comfortable and indeed, writing this newsletter from under the covers. I spent all my spare time last week scraping, sanding, skim coating, priming, and eventually, painting this room. We all deal with anxiety differently. I kept thinking to myself: This is a time to gather with community - I need to get a spare room ready now! And now it’s ready.

This room was one of the worst in the house. Wood paneling nearly destroyed the walls (hundred of holes, multiple layers of paint peeling, awful texture) and people kept telling me to just cover them with 1/4 inch sheetrock. Covering it up instead of fixing it felt energetically weird to me so I dug in on my time-intensive task of repairing. And I couldn’t be happier with the results - it has a new space glow that is making it my current favorite room in the house. Of course, it’s not perfect but as I keep saying to no one in particular: if you want it to look professional, hire a professional.

Until next time. Do let me know if you bake/cook any of the recipes!! I want recipe reports.

Love, Geraldine

P.S. Do you remember this newsletter about my encounter with a Black Bear? I tried to work my writing about that encounter into a paper for my lit class and my professor crossed out the whole paragraph and wrote “This is a diversion”. How dare!!!!!!! I still got an A though. Nothing will stop me from bringing up Bears in seemingly unrelated conversations and assignments.

P.P.S. Consider leaving a little heart or comment if you have made it this far! It makes me happy and motivated to keep sharing when there is evidence people are reading and even enjoying what I’m putting out there <3