Dialogue

B:  "Ooohh are you hungry?"
A:  "Not really, I had a late lunch."
B:  "Um, sorry.  I was talking to my fish."

Also, here is a picture of my friend the starfish!  Oh my, you are so pretty!

Healthy Bran Muffin Recipe + Healthy Chocolate (& Cherry!) Scones

I was a bit worried about these muffins, given the ingredient list, as it does not use any flour and instead uses all oat bran.  However, I worried in vain as these muffin were actually quite tasty and had a nice molasses and spice flavour.  I do feel the need to warn you however that it does indeed taste as though they are made purely from bran.  Who wants to be regular?!

Molasses Raisin Bran Muffin Recipe (adapted from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook; Marion Cunningham)
2 cups wheat bran
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 tbsp grapeseed oil
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Line muffin tin with muffin cups.  In large bowl, stir together wheat bran, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ground ginger, salt, and raisins.  In a medium bowl, stir together milk, egg, oil, and molasses.  Combine wet ingredients with dry ingredients and mix.  Spoon into muffic cups and bake for 17 to 20 minutes.

To be honest, these scones are too healthy for me.  You can really tell that there is not that much butter in this recipe and so the scones are more chewy versus flaky and light.  They sure don't compare to the scones I made with my friend who accidentally put in 1 cup instead of 1/2 cup of butter!  I've included the recipe however, in case you like scones but do not want to die an early death due to cardiovascular disease.


Chocolate Cherry Scones Recipe (adapted from Betty Crocker: Cookbook for Women)
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 butter
2/3 cup greek yogurt
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.  Grease baking sheet.  In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, and salt.  Cut in butter with a pastry blender (or using 2 knives) until mixture resembles fine crumbts.  Stir in yogurt, cherries, and chocolate chips.  Knead dough and shape into a ball.  Press down into a disk and cut into 12 pieces.  Bake 15 minutes and serve warm.

How to do Well in Grad School

As Aki and I were eating a dinner of leftover beef bourguignon, vegetable soup, fancy brie cheese, prosciutto, and wine, we were talking about how ridiculous it is that we are eating this fancy fare as grad students.  I mentioned that I should probably change my blog's name from "Simple Pleasures" to, I don't know, "Fancy Fare" or "Ridiculous Things we are Eating as Grad Students."  It is pretty clear that almost all of our money goes into food, and luckily none of us have expensive hobbies (Aki claims his aquarium habit pays for itself), a car, pets (other than fish), etc.  It is also handy to "grocery shop" from our parents' houses when we go to visit.  Here are some pictures of what graduate students are supposed to be eating:

Figure 1. JFO, http://cheezburger.com/JFo/lolz/View/4922463744

Figure 2. Piled higher and deeper comic strip, http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

I know that last comic is a bit hard to see, but the cabinet in full of ramen noodles.  BTW, PhD comics are pretty amazing.  I just signed up for an email subscription so that I can start my day out right!

Deli-style Lunch

I love potato salad, if you haven't already figured that out.  Actually, I guess I just love potatoes in all forms - potato latkes, potato salad, potato wedges, french fries, scalloped potatoes, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, chips, etc. 

Potato Salad
This potato salad was made with potatoes (with the skins left on), sour cream, mayonnaise, celery, bacon, gherkin pickles, green onion, smoked ancho chilli spice, and black pepper.  Is that the same as the other potato salad?  I think it is just a touch different, with sour cream, celery, green onion, and no sauteed onion. 

Sandwich
The sandwich was made from discounted Longo's onion buns, capicola, cheddar cheese, green leaf lettuce, sliced shallots, mayonnaise, and dijon mustard.

An easy but sophisticated breakfast.

This breakfast was so simple, but so delicious.  We actually had this quite a while back, but I have gotten behind on posting due to having an extremely long and bothersome cold.  All this is, is sliced tomato and cucumber (which look so bright and fresh in this picture!), a poached egg cooked runny, hot smoked salmon (as compared to cold smoked salmon which doesn't cook the salmon) which is available at Sobey's, Longo's, etc., and toasted bread with herb and garlic cream cheese.  Actually, there is a slightly fancy part of this breakfast, which is a quick homemade pretend hollandaise sauce to pour over the egg.

Quick Cheater's Hollandaise Sauce
-melt 2 tbsp butter
-add 2 tbsp mayonnaise
-add 1 tsp lemon juice
-whisk together quickly