Horchata.

Horchata is a drink that is made different depending on what country you're from or happen to be in, and often depending on whose house or restaurant you happen to be sitting in at the time. It can be made from almonds, cashews, tigernuts, sesame seeds, rice, and even, rarely, barley. In my home, it's made from rice, cinnamon, water, a bit of vanilla, and some milk, though sometimes cream, if I want it to be rich. You can follow exact measurements, or you can mix to taste each time you make it. My favorite part about horchata, besides of course the fact that mine tastes like drinkable rice pudding, is that it's ridiculously easy to make, as long as you have a blender, and you think ahead.

I begin making horchata by throwing about a cup of rice and one or two cinnamon sticks in a blender, and then filling the blender just shy of full with water. You don't want the blender completely filled, or when you turn it on some could leak out. (Or at least it does with my blender.) Once you've blended the mixture together for about a minute, let it sit on the counter for at least three hours. At least. You are making cinnamon infused rice milk. I usually let mine sit all afternoon, and I mix in the other ingredients about an hour before I want to drink it, so it can chill.

When you are ready, strain the mixture, pressing the rice and cinnamon mixture against the strainer to get all the liquid out. You'll need a relatively fine weave mesh or cheesecloth to strain this. Once strained, pour the rice milk into whatever pitcher you intend to serve out of, making sure there's lots of extra room. Add some sugar, (I use brown sugar,) and milk or cream. The amounts of both vary to taste, but I usually use around 2-3 cups of milk or cream, (sometimes a mixture of both), and 1/2 to 2/3 cup of sugar. Chill, and enjoy! (For the easier to read recipe, see below.)

Horchata

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked white long-grain rice 

roughly 5 1/2 cups water 

1-3 cups milk, cream, or both

1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract 

1/2 Tbsp ground cinnamon (or 1-2 cinnamon sticks)

2/3 cup brown sugar 

Directions:

Pour the rice, water, and optionally, cinnamon sticks, into the bowl of a blender; blend until the rice just begins to break up, about 1 minute. Let stand at room temperature for a minimum of 3 hours.  
   
Strain the rice milk into a pitcher and discard the rice. Stir the milk, vanilla, optional ground cinnamon, and sugar into the rice water. Chill and stir before serving over ice. 

Enjoy!

Granola Love.

I'm not a big fan of breakfast cereal. For a few different reasons, I've just never taken to much more than the super sweet, brightly colored "kid cereal". However, were I to eat that every day, (or really ever, let's be honest), it'd be really bad for me. So, for the mornings when I don't have a lot of time to make breakfast, I choose granola.

Store bought granola is expensive, and often I'm not fond of some element in the mix. Thus I've been on a search for the recipe I could make my own. I found it! This recipe has the added bonus of only taking about 25 minutes start to finish, before I can eat it, and it makes enough to store for awhile as well. I make this about every other week or so, and it keeps me and my family happy with the occasional bowl. Try it, please, and tweak it as you wish to your own tastes.

Cranberry Nut Granola, adapted from The Prudent Homemaker

(p.s. check out the prudent homemaker blog for great ideas on how to save money, stock your pantry well, and eat from it. I love it!)

Ingredients:

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil (I've used olive, peanut, and corn oils, all with great success)

1/4 cup honey

1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 t. to 1 T. pumpkin pie spice mix, cinnamon, or whichever spices you like best

1/3 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, or both (or whichever nuts you prefer)

1/4 cup coconut

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup golden raisins

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º.

Mix all ingredients, except dried fruit, together in a mixing bowl.

Spread mixture on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Bake mixture for 15 minutes, stirring once in the middle of cooking.

Remove granola from the oven, and stir. Let cool for 2-3 minutes. Add fruit in and stir to combine. When granola is cool, move to an airtight container. Will keep for 2-3 weeks. Serve over yogurt, with milk, or on top of oatmeal.

Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Muffins.

These muffins are delicious, slightly chewy and mildly sweet. They are quite easy to make, though I would recommend either doubling the batch or making another item to go with them. These are not the sort of muffins that have staying power all on their own to get you through a busy morning, but more the type that wonderfully complement some sausage, eggs or other sort of filling breakfast.

Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Muffins, found here, but adapted from Simply Scratch

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2/3 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 egg, room temperature
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a six cup muffin tin, or line with paper, and set aside.
Melt the butter and set it aside to cool.
In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar, and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a small bowl, whisk to combine the buttermilk, egg, and granulated sugar. Fold in the butter.
Fold the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir just until combined.
Fill each cup just under halfway full with batter. Spoon in a little less than 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar cinnamon mixture. (I used more than this, and still had extra to sprinkle on top.) Then spoon the remaining batter on top. Use the handle of a teaspoon to swirl the brown sugar into the batter in each cup.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until the tops are a very light golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs.
Cool for 5 minutes, and serve. Enjoy!

Kitchen Basics: How to read a recipe.

I know, I know. To some of you, this is silly. You know how to read, so what's the problem? Here's the thing — I know how to read, too. Yet, I've made so many mistakes that could have been solved if I had carefully read, rather than skimmed, the recipe in question.

For example, the other night I set out to make cinnamon rolls following a recipe I'm familiar with and have made at least a dozen times before. I managed to mess it up, badly, and didn't realize at first what had gone wrong. The first batch of dough was basically ruined for cinnamon rolls (I turned it into a pan of bars). I then made the same recipe, and the same mistake, again, and then finally realized what I'd done. I'd not miscounted how many cups of flour I'd added, as originally thought, but misread how much milk was called for.

Read the recipe.
This sounds redundant, but take the time to sit down and read every ingredient and every direction so you don't get halfway through the recipe and find you've missed something.

Re-read the recipe.
Just to be sure. :)

Estimate the time the recipe will take to prepare before you begin.
This way, you aren't a half hour from dinner and getting to the "refrigerate overnight" step. Also, beware of "Sauté onions until brown/carmelized/soft/whatever…" Sautéing onions takes awhile, and it's never as quick as the five minutes most recipes give it.

Know your measurements.
Tablespoon can also be written as 'Tbsp' or 'T'. Teaspoon can also be written as 'tsp' or 't'. Cup as 'C'or 'c', pint as 'pt', quart as 'qt', gallon as 'gal'. There are three teaspoons to a tablespoon, sixteen tablespoons in a cup, two cups in a pint, two pints in a quart, and four quarts in a gallon. Check to see if your recipe is measuring by weight; if so, have an accurate kitchen scale handy and learn how to zero it out. (For more on cooking by weight, see here.)

Misé en place.
Which means, everything in its place. Assemble all ingredients, bowls, spoons, and anything else required for the recipe, before you begin. This way you don't have to run across the room when you're supposed to be stirring, or wash a dish when something is near burning on the stove. Also, the order that the ingredients are listed in a recipe are usually the order in which they're used. Usually.

Pre-measure your ingredients.
Even if you have a full bin of flour and only need a cup, its best to measure out all ingredients before beginning the recipe so you don't find you've only got half of what's called for and have to run to the store when you've already got things cooking.

Pay attention to how the ingredients are listed. For example, if your recipe calls for '1 cup peanuts, chopped', you measure out a cup of peanuts and then chop them. If your recipe calls for '1 cup chopped peanuts', you chop the peanuts first and then measure them. 

Make sure that none of your ingredients are divided, that is to say, some goes in earlier, some goes in later. If that is the case, measure them out separately so you don't forget and dump everything in at once.

Grease the pan.
Right away. If the recipe calls for greasing or flouring the pan, do it immediately. This saves you from pouring in your cake batter, popping the pan in the oven and then remembering you were supposed to grease that pan.

---

Nearly every "or else you'll make this mistake" listed above, well, I've made that mistake. And more. The goal here is to save you from making some of those same mistakes. Can you think of any other tips? Have you made any mistakes in the kitchen that could have been avoided by reading the recipe more carefully? Please share, and remind me I'm not the only one. :)

Kitchen Basics.

I'll be beginning a new series on this site called Kitchen Basics. The goal is to teach different basic skills in the kitchen that everyone should know, but perhaps not everyone does. Please let me know if you have any requests. If it's something I'm not familiar with, then we'll all be learning something! Please know that I won't be teaching how to cook fish or ham/pork, as my family doesn't eat either.

Wild Rice Dressing.

As it gets chilly out, I tend to want to cook more. Couple that with the fact that I have a really hard time picking out side dishes for my meals, and you can end up with some very odd dinners. I've begun to keep a dinner diary to log meals, partly to keep me motivated, and partly to have something to look back at when I'm meal planning to see what worked in the past. This is one recipe that definitely worked, but was also WAY too big for my family. I was eating the leftovers. ALL. WEEK. LONG. Still, this is definitely something I'm considering making to bring to the massive Thanksgiving get-together we do most years. This would easily feed that crowd. :)

Wild Rice Dressing, from Real Simple

Ingredients:
32-ounce low-sodium chicken broth 
1 cup wild rice 
1 1/4 cups brown rice 
1 stick unsalted butter, plus more for the dish 
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped 
3 stalks celery, finely chopped 
1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves , finely chopped 
1/4 cup fresh sage, finely chopped 
1 cup pecans, finely chopped 
1 cup dried apricots or cranberries , roughly chopped 
1 tsp kosher salt 
1/2 tsp black pepper 

Directions:
Heat oven to 350° F.  
   
In a pot, over medium-high heat, bring the broth and 2 cups water to a boil. Add the wild rice and brown rice, reduce heat to low, and cover. Simmer until tender, about 45 minutes.  
   
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion and celery and cook for 10 minutes. Add the cooked rice, parsley, sage, pecans, apricots or cranberries, salt, and pepper and toss. Transfer to a buttered casserole. Cover and bake for 25 minutes. 

Glorious Morning Muffins.

When my husband and I first moved to Lincoln, we discovered that there is a fabulous farmers market here. (There's actually several, but we didn't know that at the time...) One of the things I looked forward to the most, besides the delicious fresh produce, and the honey, was this one particular muffin sold by a local smoothie shop stand. They called theirs the Morning Glory muffin, and I would purposely avoid eating breakfast so that I could enjoy this muffin that was the size of two normal muffins. Filled with carrots, walnuts, apples, coconut, and raisins, it also tasted healthy, if a bit rich. Here's the problem though. The farmers market ends in October, every year. Yes, I could drive down to the smoothie shop, but I never really want smoothies mid-winter, while I often desperately want these muffins.

Enter my bag of flour. Awhile ago I remember reading that I should check out the recipes included on the bags and cans and boxes that I buy. Many are gems, and they just get thrown away! This particular recipe came on the back of my Gold Medal Flour bag, along with another recipe, of which I have no recollection. This recipe eclipsed it in awesomeness. 

I now make these muffins somewhat regularly, though still not quite often enough, and I try to keep a few on hand for market mornings. Usually though, unless I hide them, all 18 are gone before I can set those few aside. Oh well, they're delicious. I can always make another batch.

Glorious Morning Muffins, from Gold Medal Flour

Ingredients:

2 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup milk

2 t vanilla

2 cups (Gold Medal) unbleached flour

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 t baking soda

2 t ground cinnamon

1/2 t salt

1 1/2 cups shredded carrots (2 to 3 medium)

1 cup shredded peeled apple (I don't always peel it)

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 cup raisins

3/4 cup sliced almonds (we prefer walnuts, so I used those)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350ºF. Place paper baking cup in each of 18 regular-size muffin cups, or grease with shortening or cooking spray (or butter!). 

In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil, milk and vanilla with wire whisk until well blended. Add flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in carrots, apple, coconut, raisins and 1/2 cup of the almonds. (Or all of the nuts...I don't bother saving any for garnish.)

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup almonds over batter.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan. (I removed them almost immediately with a spatula with no ill effect, but be careful, they may stick.)

Makes 18 muffins. Enjoy!

Grenadine Syrup.

Homemade grenadine. Why bother? Surely there's tons of ingredients, its a huge hassle, and who wants to mess with juicing cherries? Here's the thing. Grenadine syrup is NOT cherry syrup. So you can cut that complaint out, no cherries involved. Tons of ingredients? Nope, two. That's it. Huge hassle? Takes about ten minutes total, mostly of just stirring a pot. Simple. Why bother? Because its so good! Trust me, try it, you'll thank me later. :)

Grenadine Syrup, from Kitchen Riffs

Ingredients:

equal parts of

Pom pomegranate juice

sugar

Directions:

Combine and heat over medium heat until sugar melts and mixture becomes a bit thicker and syrupy. DO NOT LET IT BOIL. Boiling changes it's flavor and while its still useable, it doesn't taste quite as good. How long you heat it depends on what you want. Thick syrup? Keep stirring and heating till its the consistency desired. Thin syrup? Pull off the burner almost immediately after sugar is fully dissolved. Store in a tightly sealed jar in the refrigerator. Keeps for a month, if it lasts that long. Enjoy!

Blueberry Nut Crunch Cake.

I made this recipe twice in one week for two different events, and, while I intended to photograph it, it was gone too quickly. You'll just have to trust me, it looks delicious, and it tastes even better. This is also possibly the easiest cake ever to make. Seriously, I considered having Jonathan make it all by himself. (He could have, but he was 'not in the mood for baking' that day.)

You could easily substitute another fruit for the blueberries, though I wouldn't suggest changing out the pineapple, purely for the liquid content needed. Though, you may be able to try mandarin oranges in their juice...

Whatever you do, don't be surprised if this doesn't last long!

Blueberry Nut Crunch Cake, from Susan Stogsdill

Ingredients:

1 can crushed pineapple

2 to 3 cups blueberries (frozen or fresh, I usually use frozen)

1 pkg yellow cake mix (original recipe specifies Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix)

1 to 2 sticks butter, melted (one stick=more cakelike, 2 sticks=more barlike. I do 1 1/2.)

1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

DON'T STIR EVER! Grease 9x13 pan. (Or not, I usually forget to do this.) Spread pineapple in bottom of pan, pour blueberries on top of pineapple. Sprinkle cake mix on blueberries. Pour melted butter over cake mix. Sprinkle pecans on top. Bake at 350ºF for 35-40 minutes. (Might take up to 50 if you use 2 sticks of butter. Just watch it. It will also firm up a bit as it cools.) Enjoy!

Lemon Poppyseed Shortbread Cookies.

This cookie recipe could possibly be the easiest recipe I've made yet. Three ingredients before the customization, and a short baking time until nearly instant gratification. Also, this are one of the few cookie recipes I know of where the baked cookies tastes better than the dough. The only downside of these is they kind of need to be doctored, hence the lemon poppyseed. Next time I'm going to mix a bit of vanilla and brown sugar and use that in place of the white sugar. Should be great!  

Lemon Poppyseed Cookies, from Anyone Can Cook, by Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c. flour

3 T. sugar (or a mixture or vanilla and brown sugar, perhaps?)

1/2 c. butter

a generous sprinkling of poppyseeds

1/2 T. lemon peel, or to taste

Directions:

Mix the flour and sugar together, along with the poppyseeds and lemon peel, then cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or a knife. Roll out the cookies to desired thickness, very thin if you like shortbread crispy, slighly thicker if you prefer it crumbly and slightly moist. Cut in traditional rounds, simple squares, or fun shapes. Bake in a 325°F oven for 20-25 minutes or until bottoms just start to brown. Cool on a wire rack.

This makes slightly under two dozen cookies. Enjoy!

Grilled Zucchini.

Oh how I love summer grilling. Looking back at what I've posted lately, it would seem that I've only been cooking dessert, but that, I assure you, is not the case. We've been breaking out the grill often, which, while making delicious food, it is not usually especially unique and so I've remained silent. But now, now I MUST share this. Zucchini. Have you grilled this? It's not so much a recipe as an idea. Cut the zucchini into long thick planks, don't bother to skin it, and brush with olive oil. Sprinkle a bit of seasoned salt on top and let the grill do its work. SO GOOD. If you've been hesitant about zucchini in the past, or simply prefer other vegetables to it, I implore you, try this. 

Apple Hand Pies.

Happy 4th of July! My family is definitely going low-key this year, hanging out at home and watching what fireworks can be seen from our deck. Nevertheless, there's going to be some delicious 4th of July fare, grilling and such, going on. One thing that always seems to be touted as a perfect 4th of July dessert, beyond the red, white, and blue trifles, is apple pie. I love apple pie, but frankly, in July, especially in this heat wave we've been having, I don't want my oven on that long if I can help it. I had some apples to use up though, and I do really like apple pie, so I decided to see if I could make mini pies that didn't take as long to bake. Success!

Apple Hand Pies, by me! (with help from my mom's pie crust recipe)

Filling Ingredients:

Chopped apples (I used about three apples, but had some left over. You could probably make these with two.)

Brown sugar

Lemon juice

Vanilla

Butter

Cinnamon

Pumpkin pie spice/apple pie spice (I had pumpkin pie spice on hand)

salt (optional)

Crust Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

6 Tbsp cold butter

1 1/2-2 T cold water

a pinch of brown sugar and cinnamon, if you like (I liked.)

Directions:

For crust: Mix flour and salt together. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or knives. Slicing it up into small chunks first makes this easier. Once the butter and flour mixture is well blended, and resembles small peas, add in the water, a little at a time. Blend as you go, adding just enough water till everything holds together. You probably won't need it all. Set aside in the fridge until your filling is ready.

For filling: (Sorry for the generalities ahead, everything is to taste.) Chop apples into small chunks. Throw some brown sugar over top, add some lemon juice, and stir together. Taste an apple, and add more brown sugar or lemon juice as needed. Add a healthy splash of vanilla. Add some butter for flavor. (I used around 2 Tbsp, but you can use more or less, it's for taste, nothing else.) Add cinnamon and pie spice, stir everything together. Taste again, balance flavors if needed. Sometimes adding salt will help meld flavors, so if needed, add a little salt here.

Take the crust out of the fridge and roll it out thin. This may take a bit of work, this particular crust is rather flaky and doesn't like rolling much. If it gets too sticky, just ball it up and pop it back in the fridge to cool down for a couple minutes and try again. Once you've got the crust as thin as you want it, tear off palm sized chunks and place them on a greased tray. The edges don't have to be smooth or pretty, that's part of the charm with these.

Once all crust is on the pan, spoon filling into the center of each crust and fold the edges of the crust up around the filling. Bake for 20-25 minutes in a 350ºF oven. Let cool for a couple minutes on the pan, remove, and enjoy!

Cinnamon Sugar Birthday Cake.

On June 9th, Chris turned 27. On June 10th, I left for northern Minnesota for a few days to participate in a fairly young family tradition called Chick Week. (Only girls attend, for the most part...) In any case, I wanted to be sure that Chris' birthday was extra special this year, with very little packing on my part, and lots of celebrating instead!

We started the morning early, at 6:15, so that Chris could run a charity 3K race in a nearby neighborhood. He finished a full minute quicker than last year! Then we came home, regrouped, and headed out for a victory beignet at The Green Gateau, a great place for a date night, but even better for a nice brunch.

After brunch and a quick nap, I sent Chris out for a break to do some writing, and I scrambled to make a cake and get some cleaning done for the mini surprise party that night! We had some lovely friends over, Steve and Laurie, and their ADORABLE little girl Noelle over, enjoyed some great food and even better company. All in all, a great birthday!

This cake is dead simple to make, and it's completely delicious. I'd suggest serving it with some ice cream, or some barely sweetened whipped cream. Not too much extra sweet though, as the frosting is plenty sweet on its own. I will definitely be making this again. Yum!

Cinnamon Sugar Cake with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting, from Pastry Affair

Ingredients:

Cake:
8 Tbsp (1 stick) Butter, room temperature 
1 cup Sugar
3 large Eggs
1 cup Sour Cream
2 tsp Cinnamon
Pinch Of Nutmeg
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 cups Cake Flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt

Frosting:
1 cup (2 sticks) Butter, room temperature 
⅓ cup Brown Sugar, packed 
1 tsp Cinnamon
4 cups Powdered Sugar
4 Tbsp Heavy Cream
1 tsp Salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Grease 2 8 or 9-inch cake pans and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in sour cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla extract.

Gradually add in cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat until smooth. Batter will be very thick. Ridiculously so.

Divide batter evenly between prepared pans and spread out batter until level. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Mine were done at about 42 minutes.)

Cool in pans for at least 10 minutes before removing cake and allowing to cool completely on a cooling rack.

For the Frosting:

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Beat in the ground cinnamon and salt. Extra cinnamon is wonderful here. Beat in the powdered sugar and cream, alternating a cup of powdered sugar with a tablespoon of frosting until it's all incorporated. If frosting is too thick, add a small amount of cream until desired consistency is achieved. If frosting is not thick enough, add powdered sugar until desired consistency is achieved. (I found the frosting is rather thick, but it is still a nice consistency for this cake, and doesnt need too much thinning.)

To Assemble:

Put a dab of frosting on your cake plate to hold cake in place. Place a cake layer on cake plate. Top cake with ⅓ of the frosting and spread evenly. Top with second cake layer and the rest of the frosting, spreading it evenly across the top and down the sides. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon for decoration, if desired. (Definitely do this!) Enjoy!

Strawberry Pie.

Strawberries are on sale again. That doesn't entirely mean they're in season locally yet, but they're in season somewhere, and that was enough for my husband to bring home a 2 lb. container from the grocery store the other day. The thing with that many strawberries in the presence of two adults and a toddler...well, we cant make it through all of them quickly enough — they start to grow beards. I decided that this time they'd become a pie instead.

I rarely make a strawberry pie (or any pie for that matter, much to my husband's dismay) mainly because the chopping of the strawberries takes awhile, and I'd rather be doing something other than slicing two pounds of strawberries to manageable pieces. Still, the reward is worth it at least once a year...

 

Strawberry Pie, from Where's Mom Now That I Need Her?, by Betty Rae Frandsen, Kathryn J. Frandsen, Kent P. Frandsen

Ingredients:

3 T. strawberry gelatin

1 C. sugar

3 T. cornstarch

pinch salt

1 C. water, divided

3 drops red food coloring (I didn't use)

3 C. sliced strawberries

1 baked 9-in. pie shell (recipe follows)

Whipped cream (optional)

Directions:

Combine gelatin, sugar, cornstarch, and salt to make a paste with 1/8 cup of the water. Set aside.

Boil 7/8 cup of the water and gradually add the paste, stirring constantly to prevent lumping. Cook until thickened. Cool two hours.

Bake pie shell, if you're making your own.

Arrange sliced strawberries in pie shell. Stir food coloring into cooled glaze, if you like, and pour over strawberries. Chill completely. Top with whipped cream.

Pie Crust, from Gayle Van Camp

This is actually my mom's quiche crust, but I use it for everything, as it's delicious.

Ingredients:

1 c. flour

1/4 t. salt

1/4+1/8 c. butter flavored shortening (6 T.) (I use regular unsalted butter)

1 1/2 to 2 T. cold water

Directions:

Combine flour and salt in mixing bowl. Cut in shortening/butter with pastry blender till it resembles peas.

Add water, a little at a time. Form ball and roll out to fit a 9" pan. (I find this crust somewhat difficult to roll out, so I usually just press it into a pan.)

Bake crust for 8 or 9 minutes at 375°F. Enjoy!

P.S. This crust is also great when spices are mixed in and you wrap it around a peeled apple and bake for 20 minutes. DELICIOUS! But that's for another post…

Granola Bars (or loose granola).

A while back, we bought some granola bars to help tide us over for the long car ride home from wherever we were. Jonathan LOVED them. A bit later, we bought some CLIF bars to have on hand in case of 'emergency' (needing to leave right away and realizing we'd forgotten breakfast, or to help tide through an extra long meeting, etc.). Again, the one bar Jonathan had, he loved. And obsessed over. Nearly daily, he begged that his snack/breakfast/lunch/dinner/whatever could be a CLIF bar. This was getting out of hand! I decided that if he loved granola bars so much, I'd rather make them and know exactly what was in them. 

Then, for my birthday, Jonathan got me a new cookbook, and lo and behold, there was a granola bar recipe in it. It seemed destined to be. :)

Granola Bars, or Loose Granola, from The Supper Club, by Susie Cover

Ingredients:

3 1/4 c. old-fashioned oatmeal

1/2 c. flaxseed (recipe specifies golden, I used the regular that I had on hand.)

1 1/2 c. shredded coconut, preferably unsweetened (I used sweetened, what I had)

1 c. dried cranberries, chopped coarsely (ended up using raisins in second batch, ran out of craisins)

1/3 c. packed brown sugar

3 T. honey

3 T. maple syrup

2 T. canola oil (I used corn oil)

2 T. vanilla extract (yes, Tablespoons, not teaspoons!)

3/4 t. kosher salt

nonstick cooking spray (opt.)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Spread the oats (and flaxseed, though I chose not to put it in at this point,) on the prepared baking sheet and toast in the oven until lightly golden and aromatic, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, stir together the coconut and cranberries. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, oil, vanilla, and salt and cook, stirring constantly, until the brown sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture is a smooth syrup, about 5 minutes. (I frequently walked away, and there were a few granules of brown sugar left in the bottom of my syrup, but they got blended in well in the next step.)

Pour the syrup over the cranberries and coconut, add the toasted oats (and flaxseed!), and stir and toss with a rubber spatula until everything is evenly coated with the syrup and blended well.

To make loose granola, discard the parchment paper and spray your pan with cooking spray. Spread the oats mixture in a single layer on the pan and bake in a 325ºF oven, until golden brown. (Recipe says 30 minutes, but I scorched my first batch black in that time...15-20 should be fine.) 

To make granola bars, lightly spray the parchment paper with cooking spray (or not, I forgot to!) and spread the oats mixture evenly across it. Press down until everything is one large, evenly layered rectangle. Bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes in a 325ºF oven. Let cool till only slightly warm, then cut into bars. Transfer to the refrigerator and let the bars set and cool completely, about 1 hour. Then, using a thin spatula, remove bars from the pan and serve. (I removed the bars from the pan when I cut them, and packed them in a container in the fridge to cool.) Enjoy!

New Name, New Address, Same Great Taste.

There are going to be some changes around here. Don't worry, the content will remain of the same vein, it's how you get to it thats changing.

The site is renaming to Life & Sundry. The new address is lifeandsundry.com (the current address will work for a little while, but please switch your bookmarks and such to the new one). 

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Egg Fried Rice.

My first real date with Chris was to a school dance. We went on a double date with mutual friends, and we left the pre-dance dining choice up to them. They chose a local Chinese restaurant that I enjoyed and had been to many times with my family. Unbeknownst to me, at this time, Chris hated Chinese food. He was, (and still sometimes is), a notoriously picky eater, and didn't know of a single dish he enjoyed there. He wanted to impress me though, and didn't protest the restaurant choice (especially after I made known that I enjoyed going there). If I remember correctly, he discovered he liked beef fried rice that night. I ordered the chicken fried rice, which was my favorite dish there, and is my go to dish to order at any new Chinese restaurant we're trying out. Since that night, Chris has found many Chinese dishes he enjoys, as have I, but we keep coming back to our mutual favorite — fried rice.

I usually halve this recipe (it's huge!) and it barely fits in my wok. I also tend to throw in whatever vegetables I have on hand. In fact, I don't think I've actually followed this recipe to the letter yet! It's very flexible, and forgiving if you accidentally put too much soy sauce or too little ginger, or any other adjustment you may find yourself making. Fresh ginger is a wonderful thing in this, and completely worth buying if you don't keep it on hand, but ground ginger can be substituted in a pinch. Make sure to precook any larger/thicker veggies you want to use, otherwise they will end up undercooked. 

Egg Fried Rice, from Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong

Ingredients:

6 eggs

2/3 cup finely sliced spring onions (scallions)

2 T light soy sauce

1 T finely diced ginger

2 T vegetable oil (I use peanut oil)

1 small red onion, finely diced

4 cups steamed rice

1 T light soy sauce

1 1/3 c. finely shredded chinese cabbage leaves

optional other vegetables: peas, broccoli (precook), corn, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, etc.

Directions:

Place eggs in a bowl with spring onions, soy sauce, and ginger, and beat lightly with a fork.

Heat oil in a hot wok until the surface of the oil seems to shimmer slightly. Add onion and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Pour in egg mixture and leave to cook for 10 seconds before folding egg mixture onto itself with a spatula and lightly scrambling for about 1 1/2 minutes or until mostly cooked through. Add rice and extra soy sauce and stir-fry for about 1 1/2 minutes, using the spatula to break the egg up into smaller pieces. Lastly toss in cabbage and any other veggies you choose and stir-fry about 20 seconds, or until vegetables are combined and heated through. Enjoy!

Bagels.

Bagels are a lovely thing. Made well, they are chewy, lightly browned, with a lovely light texture. Poorly made, they are so tough your jaw may just wear out before you finish eating them. Now, I do not claim to be a bagel connoisseur, I have not had the famed H&H bagels or anything like that, but I do know that I do not want to wear my jaw out on food that is supposed to be tasty. On top of all that, storebought bagels, the ones that are usually the worst offenders of the toughness issue, are much too expensive per bagel for me to justify buying regularly.

Normally, I would attempt to solve these problems by making them at home. You see, though, I've tried that. Back when I was a newlywed, still trying to figure out what I needed to learn in our little postage stamp sized kitchen, I attempted to make mini bagels. After several hours in a hot, steam-filled, noisy kitchen, (our smoke alarm was ridiculously sensitive - it went off every time the oven door was opened, no matter what temp it was set to!), the only passable results convinced me that bagels simply had to be purchased, not made.

Recently, I came across a few different bagel recipes that made me rethink my stance on bagels. Many called for ingredients I didn't readily have on hand, though, so I kept putting off the attempt. Then, yesterday, I found this recipe. I decided the wait was over and the same day began the process of making what resulted in delicious bagels.

My advice to you, if you choose to attempt these, (and you should), make sure you read through the entire recipe and consider how much time they take to make. They are very time consuming, at least in the "hurry up and wait" department. You work with the dough a bit, and then put it in the fridge. Then you pull it out, shape it, and put it back in the fridge. Then you leave it overnight, and then pull it out, let the dough rest for an hour, and then you begin the baking process. Consider yourself warned, but know that it's totally worth it. Enjoy!

Ratatouille.

This is NOT a traditional ratatouille recipe. If you think I could get eggplant in any form past my guys, you don't know us very well. :) Still, this is a delicious sauce-like creation to serve over pasta, that changes it just enough that I'm not bored, and is similar enough to other pasta dishes that my guys will still eat it. Jonathan even agreed to eat one of the tomatoes! (After which he promptly declared he still doesn't like tomatoes.)

Ratatouille, from the Hy-Vee Test Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 T garlic-flavored olive oil (or chop some garlic up and toss it in when you heat the plain olive oil.)

1 med onion, chopped

1 green pepper, seeded and chopped (or any color) (:

2 cans diced tomatoes (preferably no salt added)

2 med zucchini, cut into 1-in chunks

1 tsp herbes de Provence

salt and pepper, to taste

penne, optional (this recipe is great served over pasta, but you technically can eat it on its own. We always have pasta.)

Directions:

Heat oil, (and garlic) in a large pot over medium heat. Cook onions and green pepper, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 10 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes, zucchini and herbes de Provence. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cover and simmer until vegetables are very tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. During this time, cook pasta according to package directions.

Serve ratatouille over pasta, if desired. Enjoy!