Granola
There is a lot of granola out there that you can buy but I’m always disappointed either with the flavor or the freshness or both. And most include some kind of dried fruit which I like but not in granola.
I’m pretty sure my daughter steered me to this recipe (she will have to confirm) and I’ve been making and tweaking it for several years now. It can be a nutritious snack or a simple breakfast with milk.
The recipe makes quite a bit which is great but you do need to store it in the refrigerator. So you will need to make some room for it.
The one not so common ingredient is the brown rice syrup. I used to be able to find it in Hannaford but they no longer carry it. I now have to go to Mrs. Green’s, which is in the town next to ours. Not convenient but I think it makes a difference. In a pinch though, I have substituted honey.
Granola (adapted from Orangette)
Dry Ingredients:
5 cups rolled oats (I prefer Bob’s Red Mill Extra Thick Rolled Oats but you can use Old Fashioned Quaker Oats, not the Quick Oats)
1, 8 ounce package of Diamond Chopped Pecans (I have tried many different brands, I like this one the best)
1, 7.25 ounce container of dry roasted shelled unsalted Sunflower Seeds (I use the Shoprite brand)
1, 1.87 ounce container of McCormick Sesame Seeds (in the spice section of supermarket)
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
Liquid Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce (any jarred brand in the supermarket, even the store brand is ok)
1/3 cup brown rice syrup (Lundberg Sweet Dreams Brown Rice Syrup is what I can find around me)
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons canola vegetable oil
Set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Spray 2 large rimmed baking pans with canola spray.
In a VERY large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. Stir first with a utensil, my choice is a rubber spatula, and then using your hands (clean please), mix well breaking up any brown sugar.
Combine the liquid ingredients, stirring with a whisk.
Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until thoroughly combined.
Spread the mixture evenly on the two pans. Bake for 40 minutes, switching the pans every 10 minutes.
Let granola cool for 1 hour. It will seem soft coming out of the oven but will crisp up after cooling.
Break into chunks and place in a very large container or 2 plastic one gallon ziploc freezer bags. Store in refrigerator. It keeps for a really long time. I had a small amount for 6 months that I had forgotten about and it still tasted good.
ingredients:
ready to combine:
after mixing:
spread in pans:
ready to bake: (whoa, I need a new oven)
just out of the oven:
broken up into chunks:
ready to go into the refrigerator:
yum!
SALT update
I just got this today and I really needed to share, especially since I did a post on Salt already.
I subscribe to America’s Test Kitchen and receive invaluable tips and cooking ideas. This one happened to be on salt. I found it fascinating and I hope you do too:
Scrambled Eggs
I’ve been making my son scrambled eggs lately instead of his usual fried. He told me “They taste just like Mama’s.” That’s a good thing.
I remember when she showed me how to make them: my daughter and I joined my sisters, my nieces and my Mom for a long weekend in Delaware. She was making breakfast for everyone and scrambled eggs were on the menu.
“The important part”, she said “is to scramble the eggs and a touch of milk, really well before putting them in the pan.” She used a whisk and by the time she was done they were light and airy with bubbles on top. Then she added a pinch of salt and stirred that in. “Make sure the pan is not too hot, medium low, add a nice pat of butter, add the eggs and stir slowly with a rubber spatula until just done.” They were delicious.
I was reading one of my food magazines, I can’t remember which one (seriously, I have too many) and either the editor or someone had written in about how they followed Alton Brown’s recipe for scrambled eggs and how much better they were. He mentioned beating the eggs well before adding them to the pan, the pinch of salt and stirring until just done.
So I looked it up and really the directions are very similar to my Mom’s. We differ a little about how high the heat should be. But the main thing is to beat those eggs. That alone makes a huge difference.
So here it is:
Perfect Scrambled Eggs by Alton Brown
Try them this weekend with your family and see the difference for yourself: Enjoy!
Coffeecake
Happy Mother’s Day!
I had a wonderful Mom. I still miss her very much and to this day wish I could still talk to her. She loved me unconditionally and to me that is the greatest gift that you can give your children. So before I get too sappy and cry too much so I can’t write this post, I want to share a recipe that my Mom made many, many times.
It’s a simple coffee cake, not too many bells and whistles (no nuts, apples, dried fruit, etc.) and one that uses an unusual pan. (This is exactly the pan that I have which used to be my Mom’s.) I believe the recipe is from the original Betty Crocker Cookbook. The pan and dividing the streusal in half (half in middle, half on top) is my mom’s idea.
I am going to make the recipe in the cake pan with the cutter and a regular cake pan and share the results. I certainly don’t want you to have to buy a recipe specific cake pan if you don’t need to.
So make this today for your Mom or for yourself and share it with your family!
Coffeecake
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Streusal Filling and topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, softened
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray 9 inch round cake pan with cutter with canola spray or cut wax paper circle to fit 9 inch regular cake pan. Spray bottom of cake pan with canola spray. Put wax paper circle in cake pan and spray bottom and sides with canola spray.
In a small bowl combine ingredients for streusal and set aside.
In a medium bowl, place flour, baking powder and salt and stir together with a whisk and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together thoroughly the sugar, softened butter and egg. Stir in milk. Add flour mixture gradually until just combined. The batter will be thick.
Pour 1/2 the batter into the pan, sprinkle 1/2 the streusal mixture on top. Cover with the other 1/2 of batter, spreading batter with tip of rubber spatula, over the streusal. Be gentle. Sprinkle the rest of streusal mixture on top.
Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into middle of cake comes out clean. Do not overbake.
Put cake on wire rack and let cool for 30 minutes. Loosen edge of cake by running a serving knife around edge or just run the cutting blade around if you have that special pan.
Serve immediately or let cool completely on wire rack and then serve.
Cake pan with cutter, sprayed with canola:
Regular 9 inch cake pan, prepped with wax paper round and sprayed with canola oil:
Half the batter and half the streusal:
Other half of batter spread:
Remaining streusal sprinkled on top:
Finished cake (pan with cutter):
Finished cake (regular 9 inch cake pan):
The two cakes, side by side, with their corresponding cake pans:
Slice of each cake, side by side:
Well, these are the results: I like the cake better with the cake pan that had the cutter. It tasted more like my Mom’s. My only conclusion is that the cake pan with the cutter is not as deep and is slightly larger in diameter. As you can see from the picture of the cakes side by side, the cake with the cutter is slightly more brown. I really wanted to say that it doesn’t make a difference but it does, according to my perfecting deliciousness taste buds. So, it might be worth buying this very specific pan.
I also talked to my husband about the results when he came home. He remembered that his Mom had the exact same pan and made a delicious apple cake with it. I will get the recipe from my sister-in-law and share with you all!!
MEATBALLS Updated
This is an update to a recipe I have already published.
I stumbled upon this by mistake, really. I measured 1 cup of fresh breadcrumbs instead of 1/2 cup into the bowl with all my other ingredients. (I was sipping a nice glass of Rose wine while I was measuring, not my usual norm, but hey, it was a tough week!) I was not going to take out the extra breadcrumbs. So, since I was going the experiment route anyway, I decided to use fresh minced garlic cloves instead of garlic powder and tripled the grated parmesan cheese.
Well, my husband complimented me on the meatballs that night and said they were much softer in texture.
Hmmmm.
So I waited a couple of weeks and made them again with the same changes. And the results ? compliment again! I could not leave this meatball recipe without updating it. So please look at it again and try again. I hope you are as happy with the results as I am.
FETTUCCINE ALFREDO
When our children were young, my husband would make 2 or 3 signature dishes that he had developed on his own. One of them was Fettuccine Alfredo. He would make this pasta dish and I would make the accompanying ham steak with brown sugar and pineapple. My children loved this and I loved it too: I was not responsible for the whole dinner.
It must have been during the spring, when my husband is always very, very busy, and the kids wanted the fettuccine alfredo. There was no way my husband was going to pull this off, this was a relaxing winter dish for him to make. So I attempted to make the pasta like he did: nope, failure. So then I started looking for recipes (I do not make anything without one, which can be somewhat of a draw back but that’s the way it goes, I do a lot of tweaking!) and found this one from Cooking Light.
I use whatever pasta we have on hand or what ever someone really wants. It’s not essential to have it on fettuccine. Also, this is terrible as a leftover, it does not warm up well at all. So if you can’t eat the whole recipe, save 1/2 or whatever quantity of the sauce. Do not pour the entire sauce recipe on the pasta, if you can’t eat it all.
I have done this many times: when my son wants dinner at 4:30 pm (he has night class at 6 pm), I cook only the amount of pasta for him and save half the sauce for my husband and I later. Just be really, really, careful warming it up. Do not rewarm in the microwave. Put the sauce on a burner, at medium low heat, stirring constantly and re-warm. If it boils or simmers too vigorously, the sauce becomes grainy. I have done this. It’s ok but it’s much tastier smooth and creamy!
Fettuccine Alfredo (adapted from Cooking Light)
1 tablespoon butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon flour
1-1/3 cups 2% milk
5 ounces of fresh Parmesan Cheese, grated (Stella Parmesan Cheese is my favorite!)
2 tablespoons cream cheese
4 cups hot cooked fettuccine (8 ounces uncooked) or less (if you are serving only 2 people you really don’t need 4 cups of pasta, well maybe you do……)
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook one minute stirring constantly. Stir in flour and incorporate thoroughly with butter and garlic mixture. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk, making sure everything is combined. Bring milk mixture to a simmer and simmer for 6 minutes, (this is important, it might take 6-8 minutes to bring it to a simmer over medium heat but don’t rush it by turning up the heat) stirring frequently (just leave the whisk in the pan), it will become slightly thickened. Turn off heat and add grated cheese and cream cheese and stir constantly until melted. Pour over Fettuccine, stir to combine and serve IMMEDIATELY. (Everyone should be waiting in the background with their dishes, ready to be served. It doesn’t do well to sit in the pan too long. So tell everyone: chop, chop, dinner is ready!!)
This is a simple way to peel garlic: take the clove and smash it with the side of a knife. The skin falls off and viola!, a peeled garlic clove, ready to be minced:
Mise en place:
Butter, garlic, flour:
Milk mixture simmering:
Cheeses all melted:
Served over Linguine Fini with baked pineapple and brown sugar (my son’s request):
MISO: Update
I just got my new issue of Bon Appetit and of course I’m drooling over the recipes while I’m eating breakfast and tearing out recipes and articles already. But what I really thought was interesting was a short article titled, ” 3 Chefs, 1 Ingredient”, the ingredient being Miso. So I would like to share these ideas with you in the form of links, in case you do not subscribe to Bon Appetit.
They also have a contest “Win a Trip to Paris” which I will also link you up to (you do not have to be a subscriber to enter). Who wouldn’t want to go there?
“Umami-packed miso is good for more than just soup, as these three easy and inventive dishes prove” Bon Appetit May 2012
Win a Culinary DreamTrip to Paris!
Another tip from Bon Appetit: “Miso, made from fermented soybeans, comes in several styles. White miso will work well in all of these recipe. ” (as talked about in my post, Correspondence With My Daughter: Miso)
If you try one of the above recipes, let me know how it went and whether you liked it! My first mission is to find Miso, so wish me luck!!
Breakfast Muffins
These muffins are not only moist and delicious but packed with nutritious add ins as well. Easy to take as is and eat out of hand on the road or split in two and toasted lightly with a dab of butter to be eaten at the table (or computer!).
My husband takes these muffins to work with him along with a Granola Bar and yogurt when he doesn’t have time for breakfast at home.
Breakfast Muffins (adapted from Cooking Light)
1 cup of white whole wheat flour (King Arthur is the brand I use)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons wheat germ
2 tablespoons of wheat or oat bran (which ever one you can find)
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups quick cooking oats
1/3 cup chopped pitted dates
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1 cup low fat buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup boiling water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12 cup muffin pan with canola oil.
Put the first 11 ingredients, from flour to dried cranberries, into a large bowl. Stir together with a rubber spatula and then with clean, dried hands stir together the ingredients thoroughly, breaking up any brown sugar with your fingers.
Put buttermilk, oil, vanilla and egg in 2 cup glass measuring cup and stir to combine with a whisk.
Add liquid to dry ingredients in bowl. Stir to almost combined with rubber spatula, then add boiling water. Finish stirring until just combined. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Spoon batter (I use an ice cream scoop, one scoop per muffin cup) into muffin pan and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted into muffin comes out clean (can have a few crumbs on toothpick but no uncooked batter). Cool in pans for 15 minutes and then remove muffins onto rack to cool completely.
Ingredients before mixed:
Dry and liquid ingredients all mixed:
Dry and liquid together:
Batter in muffin pan:
Muffins baked:
Moist and delicious (and good for you!):
Roast Chicken with Stuffing and Gravy
When we were young, my mother would cook almost every night a dinner (a feast, really) of meat with at least three different vegetables, one of them being a potato of some kind (my father loved potatoes, a taste he passed down to my 2 nieces, my daughter and of course my sisters and I). I think back on that with amazement. A lot of cooking. But a lot of pots and pans as well, which of course my sisters and I would be responsible for taking care of every night. I think my duty when I was small was drying. But eventually I graduated to cleaning the counters and then actually washing the pots and pans. We always sang songs while we tidied up the kitchen, I guess it would help keep us from getting grumpy or fighting, I don’t know. I vaguely remember them being songs from musicals….maybe that’s why I can’t stand them now anymore! haha!
I have not taken up the torch from my Mom, cooking a meat with vegetables dinner every night. I wanted to cook differently and since I usually clean the dishes, it needed to be more simple.
But this is a traditional dinner from when I grew up and a tribute to my Mom. I have made it many times. If you serve it with mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, broccoli with cheese sauce and cranberry sauce, it could be considered a mini-Thanksgiving dinner!
This recipe uses giblets which usually include the heart, gizzard and liver of the chicken. It’s usually packaged up with the neck and put in the cavity. I have started to see roasting chickens without this addition, so when purchasing a chicken make sure all are included.
This is a 3 fold recipe: it includes making stuffing, roasting a chicken and preparing gravy, so give yourself plenty of time.
Roast Chicken with Stuffing and Gravy
1, 6 pound roasting Chicken, with giblets and neck included (I use Perdue Oven Stuffer Roaster but what ever is available to you)
Stuffing:
3 cups of dried bread crumbs ( breadcrumbs you have made yourself is absolutely necessary)
1/2 medium onion, minced
half of Gizzard, chopped very finely
8 ounces butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon of Bell’s Poultry Seasoning (found with the spices at your supermarket)
1-2 tablespoons of chicken stock, made from the giblets and neck
Gravy:
Juice and fat from cooked turkey (what is left in roasting pan)
half of Gizzard, very finely chopped
1 cup of chicken stock, made from giblets and neck (may need a bit more, depending)
1-2 tablespoon flour
salt to taste (starting with 1/2 teaspoon)
Take out the giblets and neck from the chicken. Place in a medium saucepan and fill up pan half way with water. Set over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cover. Simmer for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, clean cavity of chicken with water, dry inside and out with paper towels. Put rack in roasting pan and put chicken on top. Refrigerate.
When hour is up, drain giblets and neck, saving stock and gizzard.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut gizzard into two pieces. Carefully remove any hard stuff or cartilage. Save one piece of gizzard for the gravy. The other piece, put in a mini-prep Cuisinart and chop very finely or with a knife chop finely. Put in large bowl. Put 1/2 onion in mini-prep and chop finely or with a knife chop finely. Place in bowl. Add to the bowl, dried fresh breadcrumbs, melted butter and Bell’s Seasoning. Stir together thoroughly but lightly until combined. Add 1 tablespoon of chicken stock. Stir again. It should be moist but still crumbly. If you think it’s too dry, add one more tablespoon of stock.
Remove chicken from refrigerator. Dry the inside cavity one more time with paper towels. Stand chicken on its end and place the stuffing lightly into the cavity. Press gently if need be to get all the stuffing in. Sit chicken back upright, breast side up. Bring the flap of neck up over the stuffed cavity and secure it to the body with one skewer horizontally. Sew up flaps on either side with one skewer (see pictures below). Place chicken in oven and roast for 2 to 2-1/4 hours until internal temperature of chicken and stuffing is 165 degrees.
Remove chicken from oven and set chicken on a cutting board. Turn off oven. Take out rack and put in sink to soak (a time saver!) and place roasting pan on 2 burners (vertically and burners are not on yet). Take out 2 skewers from Chicken and remove stuffing, placing into oven proof dish with cover. Place stuffing in oven while making the gravy.
Turn up heat of two burners to about medium. Put in about 1 tablespoon of flour into roasting pan and with a flat whisk, whisk juice with fat and flour together until thoroughly combined. If not thick enough, add one more tablespoon of flour. Cook this mixture (officially a roux) for about one minute, stirring constantly and scraping up any brown bits from the chicken. Add about 1 cup of stock and the finely chopped gizzard to roasting pan and stir thoroughly until starting to bubble. If too thick, then add more stock, 1/4 cup at a time. When the gravy seems smooth (it will be a bit lumpy from the brown bits, this is fine) and to the thickness that you like, add salt to your taste, starting with 1/2 teaspoon. I don’t like alot of salt so this is a taste preference. It’s better to add less salt than too much. Pour gravy into a serving dish (or glass measuring cup!)
Cut chicken up by removing legs first and then slicing breast meat and dark meat. Place on serving dish. Serve with stuffing and gravy (and other things too!)
Stock made by using the giblets and neck:
the gizzard: cut in 2 and remove cartilage
chopping up gizzard in the mini-prep:
Stuffing ready to combine ingredients:
what the stuffing should look like when you are done:
first skewer. A picture is worth a thousand words:
Then close up the flaps on either side of the cavity and vertically, ‘sew’ the edges together using one skewer.
Again, the picture, the thousand words:
I used to use the string method but got tired of having to have cotton string hanging around just to truss a chicken, so I developed this method. I hope it works for you.
Chicken roasted:
stuffing in oven proof dish:
This is what the juices look like from the chicken:
after adding the flour:
after adding the stock and finely chopped gizzard:
ready to serve:
Just the way my son likes it!
And the way my husband likes it!:
Bon Appetit!!
p.s. I added another page which you will see on the top of the blog titled: Blogs and Websites and Classes . Check it out!
Breadcrumbs
Ok, so I know what you are thinking. This woman is insane! But it does make a difference.
For a long time, I did not make my own breadcrumbs because I thought my mother was insane! She made them all the time, out of any leftover bread, including her homemade bread that she made on a regular basis (that’s another story). But I realized that for the few minutes that it takes, it’s worth it.
So, below is a short and sweet recipe for:
Breadcrumbs
1 loaf of Pepperidge Farm White Sandwich Bread (16 oz.)
food processor or blender
2, very large rimmed cookie pans
Adjust oven racks so that one is almost to the top and the second is on the bottom rack. Preheat oven to 150 degrees.
If you are using a food processor, you can take half the loaf and process it using the chopping blade into medium to fine crumbs. If a blender is what you have, you will need to break up the loaf in quarters or less to get the job done.
Process the bread and put 1/2 on each of 2 rimmed cookie pans. Place cookie pans on the racks and bake for 1/2 hour. Turn off oven and switch pans. Close oven door and let sit for another 1/2 hour. Presto! Dried breadcrumbs. When cool, place breadcrumbs in plastic zip lock freezer bags and place in freezer ready for any use.
If you need fresh breadcrumbs, not dried, well of course you have them sans the oven step.
Ta da!!
breadcrumbs getting processed:
all ready to go in oven:
in the oven and view of rack positions:
Perfecting Deliciousness 