when friends come into town...

...cooking no longer seems pointless!

A good friend of mine and Katie's from college came to visit Seattle this weekend and I got the cooking bug!

We started off with cinnamon belgian waffles:
(makes 6 servings)

2 eggs (beat well first untill fluffy, then add rest of ingredients)
2 cups flour
1 3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup veg oil
1-2 T brown sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 tsp vanilla

Then...it was time for the main event: whole wheat oatmeal bread!

1 cup oatmeal
2 cups boiling water
(mix and let sit until lukewarm)

then, stir in the following:
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup veg oil
1 T salt
4.5 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 packet of yeast prepared earlier with 1/2 cup of warm water @ 100 F (stir and let get started for 10 minutes)

-knead dough for 10 minutes, adding some flour if needed
-ball up, rub with a little veg oil and cover
-let rise 1-1.5 hours (until double size) in a warm house (~80 F) or an oven that has been pre-warmed (put on low for 5 minutes, then turn off and put dough in)
-punch down and shape into loaves or rolls (make sure to grease pans with crisco)
-let rise again 30-45 minutes and bake (rolls for about 20 minutes at 375, loaves about 20-25 minutes at 325-350)
-enjoy! soooo amazing. I brushed the top of the rolls with olive oil, which was even better.

Then, we topped it off with a little tofu stirfry with garlic, green onion, broccoli, olive and sesame oil, soy sauce...but, you're all better at stirfrys than I am, so I won't post any other details.

Happy Easter!