On our way home from San Luis Obispo a few days ago, we stopped at Lighthouse Field State Beach in Santa Cruz.

I’ve only been to Santa Cruz twice, once to go ride the Giant Dipper at the boardwalk, and once to go to a friend’s birthday party. This was my first time at this beach, which is apparently where all the surfers go.

It’s also where a lot of European tourists go. We heard a bunch of different languages.

I think that if I lived in Santa Cruz, the tourists would kind of stress me out. They’re everywhere (and yes I realize I am one too.)

It was a pretty big bummer to come home to drizzly fog after spending the afternoon in the sun, but fortunately we had some comfort food on hand.

I don’t know why I don’t make polenta more often…it’s so easy and so good. 1 tbsp butter, 4 cups water, 1 cup polenta, stir occasionally over medium heat for half an hour, add salt, done.

This tempeh is definitely easy too. I’ve used the same marinade for baked tofu but I like it a lot more in this application. It has so much flavor it really doesn’t need to marinate for long. I served it on top of polenta with this broccoli salad on the side.

I think my feelings for ginger are about on the same level as most people’s feelings about chocolate. I am more than a little obsessed with it. Gingerbread, pickled ginger, candied ginger, ginger tea, and of course ginger cookies – I love them all.

These cookies definitely have plenty with both ground and chopped candied ginger. They also get a lot of flavor from molasses, and a little boost from some nutmeg and cinnamon. I bought blackstrap molasses without realizing it, but it works well in this recipe (with no strong aftertaste). I’m sure if all you have is unsulphured, they’ll be great too.

Recipe:

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
2 cups flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger
granulated sugar (for rolling)

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a few baking sheets with parchment or Silpats.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the molasses, followed by the egg. Sift the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda together and stir into the butter mixture. Gently fold in the crystallized ginger.

Roll about 2 tsp of dough at a time into a ball and coat with granulated sugar. Place 3″ apart on the prepared cookie sheets (they spread a lot!) and bake for 10-12 minutes (shorter for soft and chewy cookies, longer for crisper cookies).

Let cool on the cookie sheets for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Buckwheat and molasses: two things I love together (in the form of molasses on buckwheat pancakes) but never considered baking with until Mike this recipe for it and tried it out. Yep, I’m not the only baker in the house these days! We’ve made several loaves of this since he discovered the recipe, because it’s great to have around for snacking on.

I love this bread. It’s got a nice hearty flavor from buckwheat, and a hint of sweetness from molasses. Definitely not your average sandwich bread, it’s AMAZING toasted and spread with cream cheese (or just eaten as plain toast!) It does get a little dry after the first day, but I think the texture and flavor both improve when the bread is toasted, and the dryness really doesn’t affect that.

Recipe:
(adapted from About.com)

1/2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup warm water
2 tbsp nonfat dry milk
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 cup buckwheat flour
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 egg white, lightly beaten

In a large bowl, mix the molasses and 1/4 cup warm water together and stir in the yeast. Let rest for 5 minutes, or until the yeast is foamy.
Add the salt,vegetable oil, dry milk, and remaining water.
Stir in the buckwheat flour and 2 cups bread flour. Mix until you have a sticky dough
Turn the dough out onto floured board. Knead in remaining 1/4 cup bread flour as needed, and knead until you have a smooth, elastic dough.
Put dough in greased bowl, cover and let rise in warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Fold the dough over on itself, and shape into a loaf. Place in a greased 9×5″ loaf pan, cover and let rise for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Brush the top of the loaf with egg white. Score several times with a sharp knife.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until dark brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.
Remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

There’s a lot of advice that you just shouldn’t take, and these muffins are a prime example. On my long run the other day I realized that I hardly ever bake muffins anymore, and I’m not sure why that is, because there’s really no better way to start your day. (Unless you’re eating one of those giant ones with 80 grams of fat…then I can think of a lot of better ways to start your day.)

I knew we had carrots, apples, and walnuts, which all seemed like reasonable things to include in a muffin recipe. We also had a jar of molasses, which I wanted to try and use in place of white sugar (because it’s slightly healthier – there’s some iron and calcium in it). A little googling told me that you shouldn’t replace more than half the sugar in a recipe with molasses, but I refused to take that advice. I was fully prepared for these muffins to be a disaster, but they’re not! They’re soft and sweet, and remind me of gingerbread, but with apple, carrot, and whole wheat flour, they’re a lot healthier.

Recipe:
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/3 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
2/3 cup unsulphured molasses
1 apple, peeled and grated
1 carrot, grated
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup oil

Line a muffin pan with 12 paper liners, and preheat the oven to 350 F.

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a large bowl and mix with a wire whisk.

Stir the eggs, molasses, apple, carrot, walnuts, and oil together in a medium bowl, then pour into the flour mixture.
Stir gently with a wooden spoon until mixed, then divide among muffin tins and bake for about 17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack.