Love-shaped food

Or maybe food shaped with love? Either way, I've got it coming out my ears. I have within the last week aquired 4 heart shaped pans - 3 cake pans (2 silicone) and 1 silicone muffin pan. This was all by accident, as I wasn't necessarily in the market for heart shaped cookware. First off, two silicone cake pans and the silicone muffin pan from Target. When they have silicone pans of any kind for only $2.50, you would be an idiot to not jump on them. I don't know how I managed to contain my glee.Irresistable. As was the muffin pan:

Then on Saturday, I stumbled upon a metal Wilton heart shaped cake pan at Goodwill:

And my first task was to make some of the Lower Fat Banana Bread from V-con, in muffin form. They were made with and shaped with love.

I nixed the applesauce and just used extra banana and I added walnuts. Bottom shot:

No weekend is complete without cookies. I finally made something from The Everyday Vegan - Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - simple, but by request. I used whole wheat flour instead of grinding up oats (lazy!) and they turned out alright. There was something different about them. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but no one else noticed. They were nice and chewy.

Cue The Victory Music!

Today, I made the V-Con Lemon Bars (recipe on the PPK, too). On the outside, I am quietly excited that they turned out so well. On the inside, I am jumping up and down with the Rocky theme music playing. I just don't even know what to say. Actually, I don't know if I have ever had a lemon bar before. Now, I have a belly full of lemony jelly. I was worried they wouldn't work. For one thing, I have never used agar flakes before, and another thing, I didn't have any arrowroot so I used cornstarch instead. Here's how it started:

The crust. No problems there. Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention I halved the recipe. I didn't want a whole pan of failure on my hands, and now I regret it since they turned out AMAZING.

After cooking the goo. Sweet, sweet lemony goo.

Precisely three hours after chilling in the fridge, and sprinkled with sugar. They set very well. Actually, I checked them after an hour and they had already set quite a bit. I waited to be on the safe side. It was hard, trust me.

Perfection on a plate. Sigh.

In between all the goo-chilling, I made cookies. Surprise. Friday I bought a package of Cool Mint Oreos and wanted to put them to good use. I went with this recipe from Have Cake, Will Travel (originally from Cookie Madness). I went as is with the recipe, only adding about a 1/8 teaspoon of wintermint oil to the mix. Overall they have a nice minty flavor, and the green Oreo filling adds color. I got 15 total.

Zucchini & Pumpkin

On New Year's Day I got dressed to go to the store. I was bored since I was off from work and I had some Christmas cash in my hot little hands begging to be spent. After pulling jeans and boots on, and even going so far as to put my coat on, I realized I didn't feel like going anywhere and that it was too cold outside anyways. Thirty degrees for the high is pretty unusual here in the south, and at those temps I just want to hibernate. Anyways, to warm up I danced around the kitchen making muffins and cookies. I have been on a mission to make an un-cakey pumpkin cookie and I had a recipe I believed to be the winner of that title. I have had this little book sitting on a rack in the kitchen and I have never given it a thought until this past fall, when pumpkins were so rampant. It's called The Pumpkin Cookbook. The cookies on the cover are the ones I speak of. They are a roll out and cut cookie. I halved the recipe and got 9 cookies. My cutters must have been bigger than the ones they used, since it says the entire recipe yields 50 cookies. Here they are in all their naked glory:

I used some cutesy cutters I found at the Dollar Tree. They have a nice pale orange color to them, and only a subtle pumpkin taste. In the future I will add more pumpkin and spices. Overall they aren't too sweet, so I added a glaze to them instead of the frosting called for. They are a nice, crisp pumpkin cookie.

Up close and shiny:

I should mention that while the dough for the cookies was chilling, I made zucchini muffins. I used the same recipe as the previous Zucchini Spice Bread from here, only I left the gumdrops out this time and added the currants and walnuts as directed. These were for work, and they are a bunch of squares.

I absolutely HATE using muffin liners. I only use them when I take muffins or cupcakes to work. Sigh. These turned out very well, and moist, again.

One of my co-workers told me never to bring the pumpkin cookies again, as she could not keep her hands off them. I take that as the highest compliment.