Walnut & Date Breakfast Oatmeal

Nostalgia & Dry Nose:

Reading back through some of my posts from 2010 this morning, and what a trip it was. Not sure if I feel better or worse. But I really regret my greediness in not posting the recipe for scented salt beads that I had found in the vintage Workbasket magazines from the 1950's, because I can't find where I put them at my parents house. My goal is to post as many recipes as possible because it's easier for me to sign on here and search my blog than it is to go through my pile of printed recipes and scraps of paper that are stuffed on top of my cookbook collection. So right now I am sniffing a cup of hot water because the room I am in is very dry. I feel rather blah this morning; I stayed up way too late last night, and went to bed with wet hair in February. Not that I wanted to, but I did it to be a good friend! I carpooled with my buddy Mark to derby practice, but practice ran super-late AND then he wanted to go for a drink with the former president of the league who was visiting from California. So I really didn't want to go out afterwards, but I knew how much it would mean to Mark, so I sucked it up and went along with it. I still had to go home and shower, then read for 20 minutes to put my brain to sleep, so I am fairly confident that I fell asleep before 3:00AM. Need to take my vitamins today! I took 3/4 of a serving of my Dr Schultz Superfoods with my Oatmeal this morning, and drank black tea instead of coffee. The only sweeteners I used were a bit of local honey in my tea and I chopped 2 Medjool Dates for my oatmeal. A nice variation, but I miss the tartness of cherries.

Walnut & Date Breakfast Oatmeal

-1 C water
-dash of sea salt
-1/2 C Rolled Oats
-2 Medjool Dates, pitted and chopped
-1 heaping T finely chopped walnuts
-Milk for topping, optional

Put the dates and walnuts into the water & salt, bring to a boil and cook your oatmeal as usual! As far as oatmeal goes I personally like my dried fruits to plump and my walnuts to soften a bit. The sweetness from the dates was distributed throughout the oatmeal and eliminated the need for anything else sweet to top it! I usually use little drizzle of maple syrup, but with the dates there was no need. Good for winter breakfasts!

Ham & Veggie "Pot Pie"

This is a recipe that I was not very confident about during assembly! I thought that sweet potatoes would clash with ham, and that it would just be one of those inevitable "blah" thrown together dishes. But at first bite, oh it was heaven. A comforting pot pie flavor, minus the high-calorie pie! The ham and Mexican-style cheese give the dish it's flavor--all it needs is fresh ground pepper. You can more or less use any vegetables on hand in the fridge--I used leftover asparagus from our Valentine's Day dinner, but since it's a quick cooking vegetable there's no need to boil it with the others. Using dehydrated onion eliminates the need to saute it first.

Ham & Veggie "Pot Pie"

Ingredients:
2 C cubed sweet potatoes (peeled)
2-3 celery stalks, sliced
2-3 carrots, peeled & sliced
2 C fully cooked ham, cut into bite sized cubes
5 stalks asparagus, sliced
1/2 T dehydrated onion flakes
1/4 C unsalted butter
3 T flour
1 C milk (2% worked well for me)
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 C shredded Mexican style cheese blend
1/2 sleeve of smashed Saltine crackers

Directions:
Place sweet potatoes, celery, carrots & dehydrated onion into large cooking pot and cover with cold water. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes or so until tender. Meanwhile cube the ham, slice the asparagus, prepare your baking dish, then start the sauce. Drain the cooked vegetables, but reserve 2/3 Cup of the broth. Whisk the flour, pepper and milk in a medium sauce pan, add the butter and heat over medium, stirring often. When it just about begins to boil stir in the shredded cheese and reserved vegetable broth. Whisk until smooth and remove from heat. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine the vegetables, ham, asparagus and sauce in the large pot or a large mixing bowl, and toss gently until everything is well coated. Spread mixture into a 13x9" glass baking pan and top with Saltine crumbs. Bake until the center is bubbly, about 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

Snow!

Large snowstorm here in CT. Has delayed my trip to Cali by a day and a half, which I am not happy about! I am so looking forward to blood oranges and other Californian delights. The weather looks like it will not be nearly as warm as it was last year when we were there. :( I actually love the snow, not driving in it, but I still get excited when I wake up to see everything coated in white. The whole rescheduled flight/airport-trip debacle has left me snowed in at my parents house.

If you look closely you can see one of my ceramic wind-bells hanging from a Shepard's hook on the deck railing. One of my most successful projects! One of these days I will have to churn out some more.

Ginger Ice Cubes

Ginger Ice Cubes - Remedy or On the Rocks?
What to do when you are feeling queasy, have eaten something questionable, or have been exposed to friends/significant others who later came down with a bug? I've been saved more times than I can count by drinking a super strong ginger infusion! The only trouble is that you may not always have fresh ginger root on hand at all times, plus it takes about 45 minutes or more to make. So I like to freeze my ginger infusion in ice cube trays and then store them in a zip-lock bag in the freezer. The only trouble is, a certain someone was nipping into my supply--apparently these are also good for Scotch on the Rocks!

Ginger Ice Cubes

Peel and slice one large ginger root; place in 2-qt sauce pan and fill with cold water. Bring to a rolling boil and reduce heat and simmer for about 45 min to hour until the water is reduced by about half. Cool, strain and pour into ice cube trays. Freeze and store in a zip lock bag, or use those nifty ice cube trays that have lids!

This will be super-strong! So whenever you feel like you need a little ginger just put one cube in a tea cup with enough water just to cover it, microwave until hot.

In the summer John likes to use my ginger ice cubes for Scotch on the Rocks, it's probably good but I have not yet come to enjoy scotch.

Forbidden Breakfast Rice Pudding

Found this recipe yesterday on the My New Roots.org blog, I knew I had a package of Boxed Goodes Forbidden Black Grains at home and so I had to try it out immediately. I redeemed all the soda cans I was saving from the cafe at work so I could buy the coconut milk on my way home yesterday. Redeeming cans is usually a sticky experience at best, and often not worth the gas it takes you to drive there, but during a snow storm after you get sent home from work early, it's really not that bad! I made this last night, so I only soaked my rice for about 1 hour, and I think I overcooked it a little--so be sure you keep an eye on it. The original recipe states serves 3-4, but with the coffee and all the pineapple I was way too overfull after breakfast this morning. I'll divide into 5 portions next time.

Forbidden Breakfast Rice Pudding


Ingredients:

1 cup / 200g black rice, soaked overnight (if possible)

1 can full-fat coconut milk (reserve a couple tablespoons for garnish, if desired)

½ cup water with soaked rice, 1 ½ cups water with un-soaked rice

¼ tsp. fine grain sea salt

½ vanilla bean (optional)

1 Tbsp. maple syrup (I used about 1/4 cup)

1/3 cup coconut flakes, lightly toasted


Tropical fruits for topping! (I used warmed pineapple)



Directions: Bring the rice, water, coconut milk, salt and vanilla bean to a boil, stir once and reduce heat and simmer until rice is tender. Cooking time could be anywhere from 20-40 minutes, and pre-soaked rice takes significantly less time! Remove from heat, fish out vanilla bean* and stir in the maple syrup. Top with toasted coconut and your favorite tropical fruits.



*Note: I rinsed the vanilla bean gently and dried it out on the stoneware cookie sheet as I slowly toasted coconut at 300F. You can still get more use out of it! I scraped some of the tiny beans into my hot chocolate mix for the afternoon.



And P.S. canned mango sucks. Oh, impulsive me, I went out on a limb and now John and I have to eat it all so it doesn't go to waste.

Hello again! & Maple Coffee Cake

Inspired by my cowoker Camille, I have decided to start up my food-blogging again! This blog was created more for my own theraputic uses than for other people to read, infact I don't share it with my friends or family. I was actually surprised to see that people had actually viewed it! I hope that someone out there tried one of my recipes and enjoyed it. I apologise for any posts that were never followed up on, ex: the doughtnut debacle! I had a malfunction with the coconut oil, then I dropped a big rock on my foot while gardening in flip-flops. Yes that was a bad idea. But the donuts rose and smelled incredible. I ended up baking them, and using them for breakfast sandwiches. I think there may be still some in my freezer.

A little back-story to the recipe: I spent a weekend in Sebastian, Florida after Christmas, and my grandfather's girlfriend Rhoda served us this decadent Maple Coffee Cake. I ended up taking pictures of all her favorite recicpes with my digital camera. Unfortunatly for me, Rhoda is one of those cooks who "just knows how to do things" so her recipe only included the ingredients, and I had trouble remembering how she told me to shape the dough. I ended up making a large spiral and baking it in a tube pan. Then I noticed up in the right-hand corner of the image: (makes 2). I made one super-gigantic coffee cake, but in this case it was good because it was a gift for my Aunt & Uncle who's house we crashed at last night after the roller derby awards party. I have now reached an age where I need to spend the night if the drive home is more than 40 minutes away. John and I did get to try some for breakfast this morning, it was very caramely gooey at the bottom and the cake itself had great texture.

Maple Coffee Cake

1 packet of yeast (I used 2> teaspoons)
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1/2 cup scalded milk (yes, it really needs to be scalded!)
3+1/4-1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup warm water
1+1/2 t salt
3 T sugar

Filling:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 T flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t maple flavoring (I omitted this)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used slivered almonds)

Place in bread machine at dough setting. Punch down well on floured surface.

Now, Rhoda's directions stated merely "roll out to 8x12inches"; which I did, and then spread the filling as evenly as possible over the dough, rolled it up and wet the edges to seal it in a ring. With sharp kitchen scissors I snipped the dough perpendicularly to expose the layers. Teh I let it rise for a good hour, and baked it in a greased and floured tube pan for somewhere between 45min-1hr at 325F. But Rhoda's incomplete directions said only: yeilds 2; bake at 350F 25-30min. I will let you decide what to do! If you want to get fancy, check out a bread machine cookbook for ideas how to shape similar breakfast/dessert breads.

This is amazing with coffee on a January morning in CT, even if you have your uncle's howling beagle named Lexi serenading you while you eat!

I Dream of Donuts!

Well, my latest vice is doughnuts. Last year it was artisan frozen yogurt; but while my new kick is considerably less expensive, it seems my snacky cravings have unfortunately taken a turn for the one of the "unhealthiest" foods on earth! So I have done some research on the best way to deep fry and decided that coconut oil is the best way to go. After having been raised on marjarine in the 1980s, it now scares me to think of all that hydrogentated soybean oil that's probably still flowing through my veins. But now the trend seems to be back towards butter and alternative oils, and since I now happen to work in this industry I managed to secure about 2.5 gallons of organic unrefined coconut oil. YAY!

I also scored a brand-new bread machince at my neighbors tagsale, so making the dough will be super-easy. I do not consider this cheating, as I have spent many hours making dough from scratch with my own two hands. Also, since I finally masterd spriral-wedging clay, I just can't seem to knead the dough any other way! Spiral-wedging does not work with glutinous dough.

The one down-side to this: it's like 90 degrees F in my house right now already today. I'm off to get started, recipes with comments to follow!