"We used to microwave..."

It was not, sadly, such a good weekend for thesis complete-structural-overhaul-ing, but it was (coincidentally?) a good weekend for cooking.

Friday night I attempted to recreate a dish I discovered in, of all places, the Walla Walla College cafeteria--a Jamaican black bean chili over baked sweet potatoes. I used this recipe, although I substituted corn since Meijer didn't have yellow squash. It wasn't quite caf quality, but it's definitely worth adjusting and pursuing. I nuked the sweet potatoes instead of baking them, and they came out fabulously--and smelled terrific as they were cooking (who knew that they were such a homey comfort food?).

For breakfast Saturday I baked another batch of oatcakes, which I'd made earlier in the week from Ter's recipe. These are lightly sweet, hearty, buttery little biscuits of goodness. Here are the measurements for the full recipe, but I quartered it on Wednesday (~9 cakes) and halved it on Saturday (~15 cakes): 4 c. quick oats, 2 c. flour, 2 T sugar, 1 t salt, 1 c. oil (or butter... I love butter!), 1/3 c. (soy)milk. Mix dry ingredients, add oil, add milk (you may want to add a little more). Form into flat cakes and bake for 20-25 minutes at 375°. Unbelievably good, especially with hot thickened blueberries and a little plain yogurt (see the steam rising?)

Finally, tonight I tried out this recipe for a vegan molten chocolate cake. It was pretty tasty, especially for lacking any eggs, butter, or fat of any sort, but still vaguely disappointing--not quite dark enough. However, I'm pretty sure it would be helped significantly by a bit of ice cream or whipped cream--removing its vegan distinction, but definitely adding some richness.

Now I have a fridge full of leftovers; hopefully I'll be better able to focus on that pesky overhauling.