**Update–I am so excited that this book has generated so much interest! If you’d like to own a copy, you can buy it directly from the publisher, blurb.com. I have self-published this book, so it won’t be found on a bookstore shelf. Each book ordered through blurb is printed per order and all proceeds just pay for the printing of the book. Thank you everyone for all your encouragement and support! **

woot!

These cookies were the perfect combination of sweetness, acidity and sourness (from the California apricots), a touch of creaminess from the white chocolate, and a well rounded texture from the combination of the latter two and the oatmeal. Bon appetite!

Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Apricots and White Chocolate (recipe adapted from Martha)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
8 oz white chocolate, chopped
7 oz dried apricots, preferably California, chopped (1 1/2 cups)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream butter and sugars with a mixer until light and flufy. Reduce speed to low. Add salt, vanilla, and eggs, and beat until well combined. Stir in chocolate and apricots.

Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto ungreased (but parchment is fine) baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are golden brown around the edges but still soft in the center, 14 to 16 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Transfer to wire rack, let cool. Cookies will keep covered for up to one week.——- They are really great with a cup of Earl Grey tea in the afternoon!

Imagination can make any situation better.
This is the theme behind the fifteen prints recently made by the artist collective Creative Force for Efficiency and Morale based in Portland, OR. In a limited, hand silk-screened edition, Recommendations: Winter takes the viewer through the average day in one person’s life, highlighting resourceful habits and creative gestures that help maintain morale and keep the fun in otherwise mundane tasks. Recommendations: Winter embraces frugality as a way of life and pays homage to the power of imagination to transform everyday experience.

The new Etsy shop, called Plain Made Design, is open and ready for business. There, you will find all fourteen hand-made silkscreen prints for sale.

Below are images of Recommendations: Winter‘s printed edition and recipes. Cheers!

LEFT OVER BROWN RICE CEREAL
1/2 – 1 cup cooked brown rice
1/4 – 1/2 cup milk, soy milk, or almond milk
2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
dash of cloves, nutmeg, and/or cardamom

1. Place the cooked brown rice in a small saucepan or microwaveable bowl.
2. Stir in milk, honey, and spices and heat until the milk and rice take on a creamy consistency, stirring frequently.
3. Sprinkle some of your favorite granola on top and serve.

You can use these next two recipes to “stack” your oven (as the book says!) to conserve time and energy!

PERFECT BREAD LOAVES
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 cups warm water
4-5 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 egg, beaten & mixed with a tablespoon of cold water

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. In a small bowl dissolve yeast in a 1/2 cup warm water. Stir with a fork. Set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Combine the flour and salt. Add the yeast mixture, and stir in the remaining 1 1/2 cups water. Mix the dough until it is sticky enough to knead. On a lightly floured surface, knead for 6-10 minutes; the dough should be sticky and smooth. Put the dough in a bowl, cover with a damp tea towel, and let rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about one hour.
3. Punch down the dough and divide into 4 pieces. Roll each into a ball and shape into a baguette. Transfer the loaves to a lightly greased baking sheet or use a baking stone, let rise until nearly doubled.
4. Brush the loaves with the egg water mixture. Score the loaves diagonally across the top with a sharp knife.
5. Pour 2 cups of hot water into a pan and place in the preheated oven next to the baguettes to provide moisture. Bake the baguettes for 15 minutes, and them lower the temperature to 400 degrees and bake for 5-10 minutes more, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack before slicing.

WARM UP THE WINTER STEW
2 medium sweet potatoes
2 red or green bell peppers
1 large onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon canned chipotle peppers
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 15 oz. can butter or black beans
Tortillas
Plain yogurt or sour cream

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Peel the potatoes and cut into 1 in cubes. Stem and seed the peppers and cut into 1 in pieces. Peel the onion and cut it stem end to root and end into thin wedges. In a bowl, toss the vegetables wit the garlic, oil, cumin, salt, and pepper. Spread on the prepared baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes. Stir and continue to roast for another 10 to 15 minutes,. until the sweet potatoes are tender but not mushy.
3. While the vegetables roast, puree the tomatoes, chipotles, and cilantro in a blender until smooth. Set aside. When the vegetables are tender, put them into a 2 to 3 quart baking dish, stir in the tomato-cilantro sauce and the beans, and return to the oven until hot, about 10 minutes.
4. A few minutes before taking the dish out (3-5 minutes), place the tortillas in the oven to warm. Serve the stew in bowls topped with yogurt or sour cream and the warm tortillas on the side.

Gingersnap Jammers

8 tablespoons tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup raspberry jam with seeds

Never fear, eating design has it’s place in this project as well. Literally, there are recipes in the back of the book as a few of the pages deal with those times of the day when one would naturally eat: breakfast as a brown rice cereal, a recipe for great french bread loaves, and a baked winter stew. The bread and stew can be baked simultaneously, stacking the oven for efficient use of time and energy. Conceptually, eating design deals with the verb “to eat” and eating is as part of the everyday as breathing or sleeping. As these books are part of simple solutions to everyday living, eating plays a major role in facilitating creativity throughout the day, not to mention providing that energy needed to create. Stacking functions, like perfectly fitting tupperware, is also a major theme. The book itself, is ‘stacked’ so each page leads to the next in concept, colors, and time. Just as our day gets ‘stacked’ with activities and duties, this story takes the reader through other ways to structure a winter day. The idea of stacking is hugely relevant to eating design in everything from stacking the oven for efficency, stacking a sandwich because that is how mom made it, or stacking a meal because of cultural rituals. As this book evolves, so will the language used to describe it.

I found this recipe for Swedish Braided Bread or Zopf on one of my favorite blogs, Once Upon a Cakestand. The author of the blog, Myriam, is a cookbook author who lives in Zurich and she always has amazing recipes to share. (I’ve converted her measurments in parenthesis .

RECIPE
500g zopf/challa flour – or just plain white flour (about 4 1/2 cups)
20g fresh yeast (1 packet of yeast)
2,5 dl milk (a little more than a cup of milk)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
80g soft butter, cut in cubes (about 6 tablespoons)
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out
1 egg yolk & a tiny pinch of sugar for glaze

mix the flour with salt and sugar and put in the bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook attached. add the butter cubes. now mix the milk with egg, fresh yeast and the vanillaseeds and add to the dry ingredients. start mixing on low speed, then increase and mix for about 10 minutes until you end up with a nice and smooth ball of dough. remove dough hook, form dough into a ball and let rest in a bowl – covered with plastic wrap for about an hour (or until the dough has doubled in size).

then cut dough in half and twiddle into about 60cm long and even rolls. lay the 2 ropes of dough over each other – so that they form a cross. start braiding, then pinch the ends together tightly and tuck them under. plache on sheet lined with parchment paper. let rest for 20-30 minutes.

heat oven to 220c° (425° farenheight) . mix the egg yolk with a tiny pinch of sugar and glaze the bread. bake challah/zopf in the middle of the oven (for 15-20 minutes) until golden brown on the outside and sounds hollow when you knock on the bottom of the challa.
let cool on a wire rack, then serve with raspberry or strawberry jam or loads of runny honey.

PS: if you have any leftovers – toasted slices of this challah/zopf make a wonderful base for a clubsandwich!!

The sweet potato curry is inspired from my dear friend Ms. Manty-Miller of Pleasant Eats. It is a quick, fresh, and wholly fulfilling winter stew to be had.

SWEET POTATO CURRY
1 15 oz. can of garbanzo beans (chick peas)
1 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 bunch of kale, spinach, or chard
1 yellow onion, sliced
2-4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium sized sweet potatoes
2 cups brown rice
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon curry
pinch of cayenne
pinch of ginger
salt and pepper to taste
(I encourage flavor testing as you add spices, these spice measurements are for a pretty mild curry, so don’t be afraid to get a bit adventurous with them! Maybe you like a little more cumin than curry, or vice versa, give it a try!

Put the water on to boil the brown rice.
In a microwaveable bowl, add peeled and chopped sweet potatoes with an inch or two of water at the bottom. Microwave until softer but not mushy.
In another pan, heat the oil and add the garlic and onions, cook for about 5 minutes. Add the drained garbanzo beans, the whole can of tomatoes plus juice, and spices, simmer for a few minutes. Add the sweet potatoes and water they were microwaved in. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the chopped kale, chard, or spinach to the pan and cover for two minutes just to let it wither a bit. Stir and serve immediately over the cooked brown rice. Enjoy!

These cards were made from proofs of pages from the book I am working on. It is the first sneak peak!

My friend Chelsea, (also a fellow MFA student and classmate), and I are working on a collaborative book together. We wanted the book to be a work of art in and of itself. Hand drawn illustration, special typography and font choices, all screen printed and hand bound with unusual materials used for the covers will make each book a special edition and an individual piece. We are working under a pen name, which will be announced shortly. Stay tuned for more on this lovely project!

For the meeting, Chelsea made a Peach Pie from peaches she has froze from this summers bounty. It was amazing! I literally inhaled two huge pieces and licked my fingers when I was done. Tasting those peaches in the dead of winter was truly a gift and really gave me the optimistic boost I was needing in this cold, dark climate. She didn’t use a recipe, but threw it together by making a basic pie dough, then she tossed the peach slices with big slices of ginger, no sugar, nothin’, just peaches and ginger, and baked it at 350 until it bubbled. If you have any frozen fruit from this summer’s bounty, try making yourself a pie this month. It will bring to life those long-past memories from summer and make these short winter days seem a bit more bearable.