(Almost) Vegan Cinnamon Buns

I start my last semester EVER of college tomorrow - say wha??  On one hand, I'm stoked.  I just want to get this semester over with and be done with school already.  On the other hand, I'm also a bit anxious about this whole graduating and finally-being-an-adult thing.  I mean sure, I won't have anymore annoying papers to write or exams to study for.  But at the same time, I will no longer be able to travel and take vacations/"mental health days" as I please - I'm actually going to have responsibilities and work obligations (which I suppose I'm lucky to even have, considering most recent and soon-to-be grads still have to worry about even getting a job).

Anywho, even though I pretty much have a job for after graduation at a company I love, I'm still going to miss the travels, the escapades and the general bumming around I did over the past 8 months of glorified vacation (otherwise known as study abroad). 

Sooo....what does all of this have to do with cinnamon buns?

Yay for Chocolate! Chocolate Orange Bread and Chocolate Walnut Bars

We got our very first snow day of the season here in Baltimore today!  Though for "snow" it was a measly one inch of accumulation.  But the roads were rather icy so I was pretty much stuck in the house all day.  And you know what that means?  Mya Lwin goes on a baking binge!  Today I was in a very chocolately kind of mood (PMS?), and so I decided to bake not one, but TWO, chocolately treats!

The first is a yeast-raised chocolate orange bread.  Chocolate and orange is one of my favorite combinations of all time.  In fact, my favorite gelato when I spent three weeks last summer studying abroad in Venice was this chocolate-orange gelato from my favorite gelateria, Il Doge, which happened to be literally at the doorstep of my school.  There's just something about the combination of dark chocolate and orange essence that really works. 

Rum Spiced Hermit Cookies and 21st Birthdays

Guess who turned 21 this week?!

Yup, yours truly.  For my international readers, turning 21 may not seem significant, but here in the US, 21 means I am finally a full adult, and most importantly, I can finally legally buy alcohol! (Yeah, we're only about at least a couple years behind the rest of the world).  I celebrated my 21st this past Monday with some good friends at this Mediterranean tapas restaurant called Mezze in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore.  Between the nine of us, we ordered enough tapas to feed a small village.  But alas, we were nine hungry girls.  And for my first legal drink, I had a glass of house sangria, which was decidedly a bit on the light side, but still pretty good nonetheless.  Overall, the food was good and the company even better - what more could a girl ask for on her birthday?

Bikram Yoga & Baked Vegetarian Samosas

I'm a total gym rat - going to the gym to get my daily dose of cardio is practically an addiction.  But lately I've also been really getting into Bikram yoga, which is 90 minutes of yoga practiced in a 105-degree F room.  Sounds fun right?  (Actually the heat is awesome in the winter time...not so much during the sweltering Baltimore summers, though)  Anywho, it's rather a nice break from the intense cardio workouts I'm used to at the gym, and my mind and body both feel awesome after the hot yoga sessions. 

The session I went to this morning felt especially good, and it sort of set me on a health kick for the rest of the day.  After the class, I had a tasty Moroccan-inspired spaghetti squash and chickpea salad and a baked sweet potato for lunch.  At the grocery in the afternoon, I was totally geeking out in the produce and natural foods section.  So when dinner time rolled around, I wanted to make a healthy complement to my mom's Burmese coconut curry noodle soup (sounds good, right?), and I was inspired to make some baked vegetarian samosas after seeing this recipe for chile pea puffs.

Lemon Glazed Avocado Pound Cake

Some girls love to shop for clothes and makeup.  Some girls love a good shoe sale. 

I LOVE to go grocery shopping, and you know what makes me really excited?  Awesome weekly specials at the grocery - like getting 4 four avocados for 5 bucks.  I know, I'm strange like that...bear with me.

So yeah, back to those avocados.  I never go on my weekly grocery shopping adventure with an actual game plan of what I plan on cooking/baking that week.  I just kind of wander around aimlessly (especially in the produce section) and buy whatever strikes my fancy and/or is on a really good sale, like those avocados.  But I totally forgot about those little suckers, as they were tucked away behind the bananas and oranges in the fruit basket.  So not wanting them to go bad, I knew I had to use them up immediately...but how?

Vegan Cowboy Cookies

I don't know about you, but I'm a huge fan of oatmeal cookies.  I love the fact that they're actually filling and have some substance to them.  But until recently, I have never heard of cowboy cookies - oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut.  How the name came about, no one really knows, although I'm pretty sure cowboys have nothing to do with these cookies.

At any rate, these little suckers were a huge hit at my house.  I love that the addition of the shredded coconut - they give a nice texture to the chewy cookies.  And anything with pecans (and of course, dark chocolate) is fine by me any time.  Unfortunately, I was fresh out of pecans when I made these, so I had to sub in walnuts.  But I'll definitely be using pecans the next time (and there certainly will be a next time).

Venezia Nostalgia

This past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to study Italian language and Venetian maritime history in Venice, Italy, through a program at Towson University.  All together, there were 13 of us: our professoressa, 10 students from TU, and 2 more from other schools.   And over three magical, carb-filled, and wine-drunk weeks in Venice (and Florence and Verona, too!), we ate and drank to our hearts' content and bonded into one big happy (albeit a bit dysfunctional) family.  Oh yeah, we also learned some Italian while we were at it.

Our Venice group

 Venice was truly a dreamworld - I still long for every moment of it, and I still miss everyone in our group.  So when our professor invited us all to her house this past week for a reunion lunch, I was ecstatic.  Though not everyone could make it to the little soiree, it was still great to reunite with everyone else who were there.  And of course, what better way to reminisce our time in la Serenissima than over mimosas and authentic, home-cooked Italian food?

Ooh La La: Croissants and Pain Au Chocolat

Tackling French pastries has been on my winter break baking bucket list, and this past weekend, I took on croissants and pain au chocolat (chocolate-filled croissants).  And they turned out pretty legit, if I must say so myself.  But after making them myself and seeing first-hand how much effort goes into making croissants, I have so much more respect for bakeries that make these little suckers by hand everyday.

First of all, croissants are definitely not something you can just whip up, like cookies or cupcakes.  In fact, it was a two-day process for me.  There are quite a few steps, most of them repetitions, and a whole lotta chilling time (think: patience!).  But if done right, the ends definitely justify the means. 

Okay, so there are two elements to a croissant: the dough block (détrempe) and the butter block (beurrage).  [If you have a fear of butter, you better get over it quickly if you're going to make French pastries]  The dough block is just a combination of yeast, flour, water (or milk), and a little bit of cold butter.  The butter block is exactly as it sounds - it's just cold butter mixed with a little bit of flour.  To make croissants, you essentially encase the butter block in the dough block, and the combination is rolled out and folded over and over again, until the butter is incorporated into the dough to create those oh-so flaky and buttery layers that we all love about croissants...

Vegetarian Black Bean Chili and Vegan Sweet Potato Biscuits

Disclaimer: This will be the first of a string of entries that will soon be up.  Bear with me here - I've got a back-log of a whole month's worth of recipes from my baking binge, after all.

There's nothing I love more than a bowl of hearty soup or stew on a winter night.   But this year's winter here in Baltimore has been pretty weird.  It's January, but the temperature outside is still in the 40's and 50's degrees F.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm loving this mild weather; unfortunately, it's not exactly soup and stew weather.  But dammit I'm tired of waiting for the weather to come around.  And besides, I have a brother with a cold right now who could certainly do with a comforting bowl of soup (I know, I know, I am such a good sister.  I try.)

This chili isn't anything special - it's literally a throw-together-whatever-I-have-on-hand kind of soup.  I had a whole bunch of vegetables to use up so I just pretty much threw them together into a pot with some veggie broth, a can of black beans, spices, and some cilantro (trust me, the cilantro makes this dish).

I first sauteed an onion, a green bell pepper, and some garlic with a bit of olive oil in a large pot over medium-heat.  When the onion became translucent, I added in a few carrots and a couple of potatoes, diced, and some frozen peas (probably about a cup or so) that I had to use up.  Then add in about 1 1/2 cups of vegetable broth, some spices (I used oregano and thyme), and some salt and pepper.

And so it begins...

Ever since I returned home in December from my semester abroad in China, I've essentially been on a baking binge.  It happens when you don't have access to a kitchen for 3 months in a foreign country, deprived of your one source of comfort: baking.  But any who, this baking binge has produced some pretty delicious results, if I must say so myself.  And since I've started posting pictures of just about everything I've been making on my Facebook, I've gotten quite a bit of positive feedback from my friends and acquaintances, many encouraging me to start a recipe blog of my own. 

And so begins my very first food blog, Suan Tian Ku La (酸甜苦辣), which in Chinese, literally translates to "sour, sweet, bitter, spicy." But figuratively, it also means "the joys and sorrows of life."  My intention is for this blog to be more than just about food; I'm hoping to also share tidbits and updates about myself and my life with everyone who cares to read this.  That said, I thought the name perfectly sums up exactly what I want to do with my blog venture.  (And it also doesn't sound like every other baking/cooking blog).

You'll soon notice that most of what I make are baked goods and breakfast/brunch stuff, since that's my specialty.  But I've also been doing more and more cooking lately, so occasionally, I'll feature some savory lunch/dinner recipes.  I also like to dabble and experiment, so you'll probably see a lot of different kinds of cuisines, cooking methods, and special ingredients. 

So with that, I hope you'll join me on my baked explorations and my attempt to actually keep up a blog!