Dehydrated orange cookies

I dehydrated some oranges, but instead of just slicing them thinly, I peeled them and sliced them in four, making round slices.  They took a long time to dry, but they look like and feel like cookies, but taste like orange.  Two cookies makes half an orange.  I also dried the peeling since it is edible.

So yummy, the oranges don't last long like this.

Brownies

My friend Josie found this really simple and good brownie recipe, and I made them again recently so I am posting it here now.

Josie and I made brownies a while ago, and the recipe she had was very quick and easy, the next day the page of the book she wrote it on got soaked and she couldn't read it any more, so here is a copy transcribed from pictures.

Vegan Brownies

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 cups white sugar (or other)
3/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 f
2. Stir together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Pour in water, oil, and vanilla, blend well, spread evenly in a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven, until top is no longer shiny, let cool about 10 minutes before cutting into squares.

YAY
BROWNIES!

pancake syrup

When I am making pancakes, sometimes I like to have brown sugar syrup with them, it is also much cheaper to make pancake syrup from scratch than to buy it from the grocery store.

mix 1 cup brown sugar
and 2 cups water

boil for 25 minutes.

add vanilla.

That's all there is to that one.

coffee pancakes

I tried instant coffee in my pancakes this morning, I just made it part of the dry part.

The batter was brown, and after topping with molasses I couldn't even taste the coffee.

I think it worked well enough, though I do not know if it worked for the wake up effect.

pancake syrup

To go with the pancakes that I make, I make syrup too.

Take a cup (250 ml) of brown sugar, add two cups of water, and boil the mix down until it just starts to foam, or thickens slightly to not pour like water off the spoon.

Remove from heat and add some vanilla for flavor and serve.

If it is too thick, boil it again and add some water.

If it is too runny, boil it again.

pancakes

After buying pancake mix for a while, and finding it expensive, I got a recipe for pancake mix from my mother, and an extremely tolerant recipe at that.

• First take two cups (500 ml) of flour, white or whole wheat works, rice flour does not work well, but 1/4 rice flour mixed with the rest being white or whole wheat works well.
• Add two table spoons (30 ml) of baking powder, add more to get fluffier pancakes, less to get flatter ones.
• Add two table spoons (30 ml) of sugar, I currently use Turbinado Brown sugar (raw spun sugar cane), but any sugar works.
• Add a bit of salt (1 ml), optional.
• Mix well.

Now you have pancake mix.

To make the batter just mix it with equal parts fluid including 1/8 part oil, increase the liquid to get thinner pancakes, decrease the fluid to get thicker pancakes. I usually use water for the fluid, but milk works well too, even part milk. I haven't tried rice milk in the batter yet, but it should work fine as well.

Bring a frying pan to medium heat, so that a drop of water boils on contact, and pour the mix onto the pan and cook, flipping when the bottom half is cooked.

Personally I have a few common variations that I prepare.

• Add raisins to the pancake batter, or other fruit, such as blueberries.
• Add coco to the mix, for chocolate pancakes.
• Replace a shot of the fluid with hard liquor for spiked pancakes, they go well at some parties.
• Combination of above.
• Leave out the sugar for deep fry batter.

Enjoy.