fortunate accident

The days surrounding breaks are the fattest, most stressful days.  In my attempts to get rid of perishable foods, I either gain an average of 10 pounds or spend hours trying to incorporate it into something.  A leftover can of pumpkin is easy though, but I didn't want to put in so much effort as to collect flour, baking powder, butter, spices, etc etc, for a bread or cupcake recipe, so I took a hint from here.  Pumpkin mochi?  Much easier.  As you can see, I only had to collect 4 other ingredients and I did all the mixing in the baking pan.  The lack of effort this took was ideal since it was late at night, and I was focused on Top Chef.  Since she didn't have an exact recipe, I sort of guesstimated.  Added, mixed, tasted, baked, tested, tasted, poured, mixed, tasted, settled.

They were stickier than intended, but popping them in the fridge for a night took care of that.

And to continue the sticky Asian theme, my grandparents also helped me make savory zongzi.  Yum.  Filled with shiitake mushrooms, peanuts, wood ear, and shrimp all tossed in hoisin sauce.  Favorite.

Wrapping them was the hardest part.

Eating them took about 5 days of spring break for my entire family collectively.  I had one every morning as a supplement to my 6 vegetable buns.  Gah, fat.

Just realized I forgot to photograph the only part that people care about... the finished filling.  Oops.