Hopefully no one’s disappointed, but we didn’t eat any bean/shortbread sandwiches today. Heck, we didn’t even really eat any beans! In any case:
BEANS DAY AND SHORTBREAD DAY!
None of the food we had on hand for dinner would have been very good with beans, so we decided to be a little creative. Okay, it might be a bit of a stretch. Sure did taste good, though.
Mochi! Filled with red bean paste! Close enough, right?
If you’ve never had mochi, we definitely recommend it. Don’t let the soft squishy texture unnerve you. Since it’s sweet but not crazy rich like a lot of American treats can be, it’s a good one for people who can’t usually handle the overly saccharine. If you’re too scared of the bean paste for whatever reason, you can find mochi with different filling flavors such as chocolate or PB&J (although some would argue whether that’s “authentic” mochi). All in all, yummy stuff.
The other day at Target (same day we found the cherry cordials) we came across another Christmas clearance item, which happened to be a snowflake-design Nordic Ware shortbread pan (accidentally local again!). Just in time for Shortbread Day! We especially had to get it because it came with shortbread instructions and we still don’t know what we’re doing. It ended up being easy enough!
Add the floua
Knead tha dough
Put it in the thing
Fork up some holes (and then sing “Fork up some holes” to the tune of Turn Down For What)
Bake it for a while
Et voilá!
Goes great with fruit and the whipped cream you made yesterday!
Apologies to any tall breads that may have felt marginalized by today. That means you, baguette.
– SPAK
SPAK will snack. 