Granola for cheaters

I've always been told granola is easy to make at home but never really believed it until a couple weeks ago when I pulled out ye old Joy of Cooking to try it out myself. The first few batches were good but a bit too crisp, and one ended up on the floor after my kitchen counter gave out on me. Thankfully, with this last batch I think I've cracked the code. Based on how quickly this stuff disappears at our house, I think you'll enjoy it too!

Kitchen Sink Granola (grossly bastardized from the Joy of Cooking)

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Scatter over a large baking sheet and toast in the oven about 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes:

3 cups oats

Mix in a large bowl:

1 cup coarsely chopped almonds, pecans, or walnuts
1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cup generic cornflakes

And any/all of the following:

1/2 - 1 1/2 cup almond meal (you can find it at Trader Joe's)
1 tbsp - 1/2 vanilla protein powder, soy powder, cocoa powder, or wheat germ (I haven't tried the latter)
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 - 3 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
1 - 3 tbsp brown sugar

Add toasted oats to the (mostly) dry ingredients above.
Heat in a small saucepan over low heat for 5 minutes:

1/2 cup vegetable or coconut oil
1/2 - 2/3 cup honey
1 - 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Stir the honey mixture into the (mostly) dry mixture. Mix thoroughly with tongs or a large spoon. Spread in a thin layer on the baking sheet (use 2 pans if necessary) and toast, stirring frequently, 45 - 55 minutes, or until all the ingredients are lightly browned. (This is where I got myself in trouble the first few times... if you get obsessed with everything being brown and crunchy- it will be too well done. If you remember that as the granola dries, it will harden and lose some of its moisture, you'll be all set.) Let cool, then store in a tightly sealed container. JOC says 5 days or 1 month in the fridge. Salty says, 10 days or... if you do this right, it won't even last that long.

This stuff is excellent as a snack, over yogurt with fruit, or delicious as a simple cereal with a little low fat milk. Seriously- I may never shop for granola again. Eat your heart out hippies!

Sisterhood of the traveling [fat] pants

Okay folks. Do the math with me: 9 days divided by 9 pounds = NOT COOL. It would appear that while I gallivanted around the East Coast splinting days between siblings and palling around with the parents- I managed put on some serious weight. Perhaps they were sympathetic pounds for my sister who just gave birth? Oh wait- that's supposed to happen before the baby is born. Riiiiight.

So I'm stressing the seams on my fat pants and am resolving to get back into the gym, cut back on sweets, and generally eat more healthily. I'm hopeful I can stick to my guns but it ain't gonna be easy. When you love to bake as much as I do- it's hard to resist the sweet strains of a chocolate spice cake with hazelnut toffee sauce and toasted salt and pepper pecans or chewy molasses cookies encrusted with chunky sanding sugar (a la Not Martha). I made both this week for hospitality's sake, the former for a dinner we hosted at the house and the latter we brought to a friends house for a showing of Caprica.

The cake itself has risen to superstar dessert status in our house for its delicious decadence and crowd-pleaser promise. So, in order to free myself from the benevolent curse of being "only one who can bake it" which of course means I get to lick the spoons clean and snatch up errant crumbs, I am posting the recipe here for all to use. I guarantee you will love it. Almost as much as I do... if that's even possible.

Chocolate Spice Cake (adapted from Easy Cakes by Linda Collister)*

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (+ extra for dusting pan)
1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

a pinch of salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 - 1 tsp ground ginger (depending on your love of ginger)

1 1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup safflower or canola oil

2 large eggs, beaten

2/3 cup sour cream

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

(Preheat oven to 350 and prepare baking pan (or cupcake pan) with nonstick spray and a dusting of unsweetened cocoa powder.)

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ground ginger into a large bowl. Mix in the sugar and make a hollow in the center.

Put the oil, eggs, sour cream, and applesauce in another bowl and beat well. Add to the hollow in the dry ingredients and stir gently until thoroughly mixed.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30-45 minutes depending on the pan (less for cupcakes, more for a sheet cake or bundt cake), or until a skewer inserted in the thickest part of the cake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 10-20 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack and let cool. Serve at room temperature or slightly warm. Leftovers can be stored for about a week in an airtight container.

Hazelnut Toffee Sauce (adapted from same)

3/4 cup firmly packed moist light brown sugar

1 stick unsalted butter

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

3/4 tsp Frangelico or other hazelnut liquor

Put the sugar, butter, and cream in a small saucepan and heat gently until melted. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 3 minutes until thick and toffee-like. (I never really get to a super-thick state but it tastes delicious either way...) Pour into a heatproof pitcher and let cool. Stir in the vanilla and liquor. Depending on the final consistency, pour or spread over your cake to serve.

Toasted Salt and Pepper Pecans

1 1/2 cup shelled pecans (halved, whole, or crumbled)

1 tbsp salt

3 or 4 grinds of fresh pepper from a shaker

a few shots of canola cooking spray

Heat pecans in a nonstick pan over medium until you begin to smell the toastiness. Evenly spray the pecans lightly with canola oil spray and toss to just barely cover. Add salt and pepper and toss gently over medium heat until pecans are slightly browned. Remove from heat and transfer the pecans to a bowl. Either chop, crush, or pulverize as desired and sprinkle with wild abandon over your toffee covered cake.

Enjoy!

*This book was a fantastic find and I would recommend it to anyone- though not at the price listed at Amazon. I've had nothing but success with all of the recipes I've made, including the Citrus Summer Cake (see photo) and the tangy Lemon Curd. If you're in a pinch and need a fantastic, easy cake- I'd pick up this book.

Do a what?

Okay... I'm home a lot. I mean- a LOT these days. And with my tonsils out, riding the crazy train to oxycodoneville most afternoons- there's not much that's safe to do without supervision except watch tv. A lot of tv. And I'm finally starting to wonder what the F is up with Daisy sour cream. Their whole campaign suggests you, "Do a dollop [of Daisy]" - implying sour cream can go with virtually everything and a generous "dollop" is the right size helping.

I'm sorry- do the folks at Daisy know what sour cream is? I think they may be in cahoots with those crazy high fructose corn syrup people (or maybe they've just been drinking it straight) because one of their main suggestions is dipping vegetables and potato chips into a plain bowl of sour cream. Have we heard of cholesterol?

Just checking.

Oh, and Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee. Is this how America cooks? I mean- I guess I should be glad that people are getting into the kitchen, period- but what is up with her ingredient distribution? 70% store bought and 30% fresh? I think this just makes me sad. Most of the pleasure I derive from cooking comes from the magic of transforming basic, raw, ingredients into totally different, interesting, and complete meals. It's not even that starting with premade food feels a little like cheating because ultimately- it's not about how quickly you make it to the finish line- it's how you get there and if you enjoy yourself along the way. Don't people want to know what's in their food?

Argh. Enough ranting for the moment. It's hardly fair to welcome readers back with a big old complaint-fest. More random musings to follow. Oh, and I've abandoned the final chapter of my San Francisco trip for an unspecified amount of time. Travel notes don't seem to generate much conversation so I'm going to quit giving myself a hard time for not wrapping that up with a bow.

Bastardized Panaforte Ice Cream

...Otherwise known as, "My Culinary Last Hurrah" in anticipation of a tonsillectomy.

(Adapted from David Lebovitz' The Perfect Scoop.)

1 cup half and half
3/4 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg (fresh if you're fancy)
1 cup 2% milk*
1 cup half and half*
4 large egg yolks
3 tbsp full-flavored honey
1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest*
1/4 cup minced tart, dried montmorency cherries*
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped*

Warm the 1 cup half and half, sugar, and spices in a medium saucepan. Cover, remove from heat, and let steep for a half hour.

Rewarm the spice-infused mixture. Pour the cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. In a separate medium bowl whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly to avoid cooking the eggs, then scrape the new mixture back into the original saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat using a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens to a light "custard" and it coats the back of the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and mix it into the cream. Discard the cinnamon stick. Stir the custard until cool over an ice bath. While it cools, warm the honey, then stir it into the custard.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (overnight, preferably), then freeze it in your ice cream maker. During the last few minutes of churning, add the zest, chopped cherries, and pecan pieces.

*These ingredients have been adjusted from the original recipe. Let's hope all is well in the land of ice cream when I freeze it tomorrow afternoon. :)

Not so "home" cooking

I'm not from the South. I can't even fake a Southern accent to save my life. But it turns out I can fake it in the kitchen, at least for Mr.Mr.'s taste buds. Taking the lead from the fine folks at Kingfish Cafe in Seattle, I set about preparing some "home cooking" from someone else's home. On the menu: cornmeal grits with chicken gravy and swiss chard collard greens. A few days back I checked out the ingredients of Trader Joe's instant grits, and much to my surprise it's a whole ton of white corn, some water, and salt. Easy! So I decided to go the simple route, put a slightly healthier twist on it, and make the recipe my own.

I started with the "Low Country Cream-Style Grits" recipe in The Joy of Cooking and made adjustments for using coarse cornmeal as opposed to standard slow-cooking (an hour plus!) grits. Somehow I've managed to accumulate at least three different textures of cornmeal (I can't resist the bulk foods section) so I used all of what was left of my coarse meal and a dash of the semi-fine meal to fill in any gaps. Grits are super easy and this version takes little more than twenty minutes on the stove. I started by bringing the water, butter, and salt to a boil. After adding the cornmeal, I reduced the heat to a simmer and stirred occasionally until it became thick and soft. I added some half and half toward the end to cream it up a bit and then a little extra salt. Super easy.

I remembered the chicken gravy from Kingfish having soft, stringy bits of meat swimming atop the grits in a thin but robust brown sauce. Starting with Mr.Mr.'s homemade chicken stock and the left-over chicken bits, I added fresh ground pepper, the , dried onion, garlic powder, and two spice mixes from Penzey's. I let that simmer at a a low boil while everything else cooked. Right before serving I whisked in some Wondra as a thickener and used a fork to gently pull apart the chicken bits into thin strips.

Mr.Mr. threw together a chopped up a bunch of collard greens, the butt end of some white onion, a clove of garlic, a dash of worcestershire sauce, some butter, and chicken stock into a pot with a cover and let it steam to soften. We didn't have any leftover ham hocks so we skipped that which lightened the dish considerably.

All told, the dish was a success all around. Delicious to the last bite and not too filling despite the volume... a sure fire winner. Next time you roast a chicken, consider using the leftovers to make this simple dish.

Creamy Cornmeal Grits

3 cups water

3/4 cup coarse cornmeal

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup half and half

additional salt to taste

Chicken and Gravy

1/2 cup pre-cooked chicken

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon dry onion flakes

a dash of garlic powder

a dash of Penzey's "four s" seasoning

a dash of Penzey's poultry seasoning

1/2 teaspoon Wondra or all-purpose flour

Collard Greens using Swiss Chard

1 bunch swiss chard

1/4 cup chopped white onion

1 clove garlic, chopped

a hearty splash of worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup chicken stock

salt and pepper to taste

hot sauce optional

Enjoy!

Pump it up

Spurred by the sight of some gorgeous gourds at the local farmer's market, I recently undertook the seemingly simple task of making homemade Pumpkin Tortelli. Little did I know we would be knee deep in pumpkin filling for a week! The process itself was pretty easy (the most gratifying part of which was using the back of a rather large metal spoon to press nearly a whole pumpkin through a mesh sieve... it's like Play-Doh for epicureans!), but it took us three rounds of pasta dough to use up all the filling. And since we were stuffed to the gills with pumpkin-parmesan goodness, we elected to freeze four servings for later. All in all, I'd say that's quite a good take for one measly little pumpkin.

Here's the recipe which could easily be halved for the less pumpkin-crazed.

Pumpkin Tortelli

From The Silver Spoon Cookbook

4 cups pumpkin, peeled, seeded, and chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated (plus extra to serve)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 - 2 cups bread crumbs (I would use less, personally)

7 ounces fresh pasta dough

1/4 cup butter

8 fresh sage leaves

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Put the pumpkin in a roasting pan, drizzle with the oil, cover with foil and bake for about an hour. Pass the pumpkin through a food mill (or fine sieve), add the Parmesan and eggs, and season with salt and pepper. Stir in enough bread crumbs to make a fairly firm mixture. Roll out the pasta dough into a sheet and stamp out 3 inch rounds with a cookie cutter. Spoon a little of the pumpkin filling into the center of each round, fold in half and crimp the edges. Cook the tortelli in a large pan of salted, boiling water for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet, add the sage, and cook for a few minutes.

Drain the tortelli, place in a warm serving dish and sprinkle with the sage butter and extra Parmesan. (I added a little curl of the pumpkin peel to each plate for an extra punch of color.)

Enjoy!

Culinary dispatches from the homeland

Via a friend from the motherland (aka Maine):

"Well, it has been a while since I heard from you. I am sure you are really busy, but I thought if I sent you a note, you might respond. And then I thought, maybe if I sent a note with a recipe for Pork Cake, you would definitely respond! Here goes:

Pork Cake
Recipe from Mrs. Joseph F. Landrigan
Hartford, CT

1/2 lb salt pork, ground fine
1 lb raisins
5 C flour
1/4 lb walnut meats, cut fine
1 C molasses
1 C Lincoln Dairy milk
2 C sugar
2 Lincoln Dairy Eggs
1 Tbsp soda in 1/4 C hot water
1 1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Bake 1 1/4 hours at 350 degrees.

(That's the whole recipe. I guess if you have the balls to make pork cake, you don't worry too much about nuances like how to combine ingredients or what size pan to use.) Enjoy!"

Seriously? Part of me wants to cook this thing. Raise your hand if you think I should. It totally reminds me of the recipes I got handed down to me by my grandmothers. I imagine women relied so heavily on these standby favorites that there was nary a need to elaborate on the preparation.

Oh, and by the way- I did respond. How could I not? A girl sends you a recipe for Pork Cake and I'm pretty sure even Emily Post would agree that deserves a thank you note.

Sugar... aww Honey, Honey

Having married into the Mr. clan, I count myself among the fortunate few to have a bonafide bee keeper in the family. Not only do we regularly enjoy a variety of new honeys at the holidays and special events but we were also able to offer small jars of a lavender varietal as gifts to our wedding guests. A sweet treat indeed. But now we face a challenge. You see, while it's widely known that honey makes almost anything better from pungent cheeses to tea- we can't seem to get through it fast enough. And to add to our dilemma, Mr.Mr. won some [significantly less high quality] honey in a silent auction some time ago.

So I'm wondering: What do you do with your honey? Do you have any recipes up your sleeves, on the internet, or in a reputable cookbook that would require anywhere from a 1/4 cup or more?

Image courtesy of healthbolt.com.

She's as cold as ice

A few weeks back, Mr.Mr. and I headed north to Seattle for his sister's baby shower and we crashed with his parents like the seasoned couch surfers we are. And after a full day of mimosas, too much ranch dip, and whooping ass at at least one baby-related game, we retired for the night on warm flannel sheets with new down pillows. Before we left I convinced the in-laws to let me forage for fallen apples and pears in their yard. Unfortunately, my eyes are bigger than my stomach and fruit flies were descending on our kitchen as fall approached.

So what do you do when life hands you 20 quickly ripening pears and an army of advancing fruit flies? You make granita. Sweet, sweet, granita. Using the Pear Granita recipe from, you guessed it, my favorite- David Liebowitz' Perfect Scoop, I set to work on preserving these babies for a sweet, after meal treat. The recipe follows:

Pear Granita (makes about 1 Quart - enough for several servings)
6 ripe pears (3 lbs/1 1/2 kg)
1 cup water (250 ml)
6 tablespoons sugar (75g)

-Quarter the pears, peal them, and remove the cores.
- Dice the pears into 1-inch (3cm) pieces.
- Put them in a medium-sized, nonreactive saucepan with the water and sugar and cook over medium heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until completely soft, about 8 minutes. A knife inserted into a pear chunk should meet no resistance.
- Cool to room temperature, then puree the pears and their liquid in a blender or food processor (or with an immersion blender like Salty) until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into a low casserole dish with 2 inch (5 cm) high walls and a 2 quart (2 liter) capacity.
- Place in the freezer and begin checking in about an hour. Once it begins to freeze around the edges, take a fork and stir the mixture, breaking up the frozen parts near the edges into small chunks and raking them toward the center.
- Return the dish to the freezer, checking the mixture every 30 minutes or so afterward, stirring each time, breaking up chunks and raking the surface. If at any time the granita becomes too hard, leave it out at room temperature for a few minutes and start raking again.

I didn't take any photos of the freezing/raking process because not only did it take about four hours (kind of lame, admittedly), but it makes for an even less thrilling photo than that of an immersion blender at work on a nearly color-less liquid.

However, what results is a softly sweet, champagne-colored frost that tastes like a sno-cone's older, more mature sister that listens to Yo La Tengo and reads E. Annie Proulx stories (...but still loves her some Foreigner, of course).

Incredible inedibles

Anyone in my family will tell you that I have no problem pushing the standard boundaries of what's "edible" in the fridge and the pantry. Moldy cheese? No problem. Milk seven days past the expiration date... does it smell bad? No big deal. Homemade, frozen vegetable stock made last year and rediscovered way in the back of the freezer tundra? Sounds delicious. But- when I realized during our most recent move that I still had the packet of Chocolate Cherry Quick Bread I bought (on sale, mind you so it was likely closing in on the expiration date already) at Williams-Sonoma almost two years ago- even I thought twice.

I'm sure the nutritional value was, at this point, questionable. I'm also sure I don't give a hoot about that on a regular basis so why would that stop me with this shelf stable mix? It didn't. I added the water, butter, and eggs, and whipped that baby up as fast as you can say Tallahassee lassie. And I'm still alive and well today. While the experience proves that I am far too stingy to throw out something I paid a good $5.99 for- it also proves that expiration dates are [not always, but often] for suckers.

Okay, it's safe to roll your eyes now, family.

Aw shoot

I've been reading here and there online about sprouts. I even caught a spot on Martha Stewart a few weeks back where she showed off her fancy stacking petri dishes, like "oooh, ahhh look at me I have fancy stacking glass dishes to grow my own sprouts for my delicious homemade organic salad with cranberry sherry vinaigrette, blah, blah, blah."

Oh. Sorry. So anyway- I've never been huge on sprouts but apparently they're all the rage. And last weekend when we made our weekly pilgrimage to Ballard for the Sunday farmer's market- we came upon a vendor selling all kind of sprouts. Broccoli, Pea, and Sunflower are the few I remember but they also sold a small variety of herbs like lemon thyme, thai basil, chives and french tarragon (oh mondieu!). We were shopping with a friend of ours who recently moved into a new house so we had planned to pick up a small housewarming gift in the shape of a potted herb or tomato starter. But when the vendor offered to let us sample some of the sprouts, I couldn't resist. The sunflower sprout had a very dry, bean-like taste but the pea sprouts- oh, were they ever good. They have [logically] a very green-pea flavor but they are light and crunchy with these strong little tendrils that taste so incredibly fresh. I'm in love with our newest houseplant. We were told it was totally reasonable to cut them regularly and the new shoots would grow back in a number of days. Water once a day and allow for the excess to drain out through the perforated plastic container.

Our first true culinary application was alongside a homemade pasta dish in a simple salad. I cut the shoots into three inch bits and tossed them with small wedges of fresh tomato, dressed it with a splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and ground some fresh salt and pepper over the top. Delicious. And when the pasta left something to be desired (I neglected to sauce it properly), mixing the salad in added an extra crunch as the pea sprouts held up against the warm pasta and added a sweetness to the other vegetables.

This little plant packs a punch unlike any other and I highly recommend it as an addition to any kitchen.

In the kitchen with Salty

So you say you want to make something sweet for Father's Day? Oh, and you want it to be kind of fancy? Like fancy, impressive? Okay. Depending on your tolerance for butter-greased palms and boiling hot sugar syrups, you may want to try your hand at Fruit Galettes. It starts out simply at first... the recipe has less than ten ingredients and if you're like me, you think, "Eh? Simple." And if you're even more like me, you barely notice that the instructions for the pastry portion are three pages long. Yeah- it better be fancy impressive if you're gonna make me read three pages of roll, scrape, repeat.

The recipe I used came from a fantastic little read, eponymously named Tartine for the sweet little bakery in San Francisco. I chose local blackberries (picked last year in Magnolia and frozen) and cherries from the farmer's market in Ballard for the filling, with a touch of lemon zest for an added kick. And I rolled that butter and scraped that dough and flipped it in on itself to repeat the whole process a total of eight times all told. I even found a new trick to pit the cherries since that's one of the few kitchen gadgets Mr.Mr. and I have yet to acquire. If you cradle the cherry between your thumb and three fingers, anchor your opposite index finger against the other and slide the larger end of a chopstick into the stem cavity, a gentle poke is all it takes. Voila! ("And that, sweetie is how babies are made...")

And after many rounds of rolling and chilling, filling and crimping and baking and rotating, you have yourself some nicely browned fruit galettes. Now, I know this all sounds deceptively simple. And that's purposeful (what do you think I did with the other three pages of instructions??). If I spent all my time retyping recipes for all my invisible readers- I wouldn't have enough time to watch Battlestar Gallactica or Top Chef. So if this culinary challenge has your name [Invisible Reader #2] written all over it- leave a comment and I'll send you the whole darned thing. Bon apetit!