Looking forward to Spring

Looking forward to Spring

Featured Recipe:  Rhubarb Torte

Spring is just around the corner.  Melting snow, added hours of sunlight, it all means that soon enough Spring will be in full swing.  Spring in Minnesota means that rhubarb will soon be ready for harvesting.  And a bunch of rhubarb means the opportunity to make one of the best fruit desserts ever and I can't wait!  I realize that rhubarb is not your everyday fruit, but if you only make one rhubarb recipe in your lifetime, it should be this one.  This rhubarb torte has everything you want in a fruit dessert - a crunchy yummy shortbread like cookie crust, a sweet yet tart fruitiness, and a gooey custard that holds it all together.  I am a chocolate lover, but given the choice between a chocolate cake and this rhubarb torte, the rhubarb would win every time.  Really, put the oddity of rhubarb aside and make this dessert.  

This recipe is a specialty of my mother-in-law.  She grew up eating rhubarb that was grown in her own garden and has been making this rhubarb torte for lucky springtime guests for years.  No Spring family gathering would be complete without this rhubarb torte as the sweet ending. 

Rhubarb Torte

Crust:

1 cup flour

5 tablespoons powdered sugar

1/2 cup butter (do NOT use margarine)

1/8 teaspoon salt

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the above ingredients as you would a pie crust and pat into a 8x8 or 9x9 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.  

Filling:

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt 

2 cups diced rhubarb (overflowing 2 cups so almost three cups really)

Turn down the oven to 325 degrees.  Beat the first five ingredients together.  Add the rhubarb.  Pour the filling over the baked crust and bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes.  

Cool and serve with fresh whipped cream. 

Note:  This recipe is really too small.  When anyone in our family makes it, we double the recipe and put it in a 9x13 pan.  

A Great Way to Snack

A Great Way to Start… or Snack

Featured Recipe:  Maple Granola

I have a hard time with breakfast.  As a teenager and young adult, I didn't always eat breakfast.  Of course, I now realize the importance of a good breakfast and strive to send my kids to school well fed as best I can.  But my kids are growing boys and what they eat in the morning is not necessarily what I should be or want to be eating in the morning.  Greek yogurt and fresh berries is my standby breakfast, and while it is good, there was always something missing…. until last year when I discovered homemade Maple Granola.  This recipe was originally for a trail mix snack, and it called to mix the made granola with all sorts of things.  I found that if you skip all the mix-ins, it makes a great granola and if you add it to greek yogurt and berries it is like eating a dessert parfait for breakfast - sweet, nutty, crunchy, and creamy!  The bonus of this recipe is that my kids like this granola as a snack, especially my 13 year old.  And they like it as is - no chips or dried fruit needed.  It is also a very easy recipe, so I try to keep it on hand often so I have a great breakfast and the kids have a healthy homemade snack option!  

Maple Granola

4 cups old fashioned oats (if needed, use gluten free oats)

1/2 cup grape seed oil (the original recipe called for vegetable, but I like grape seed)

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup slivered almonds

3 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 325 and line a large rimmed backing sheet with parchment paper (for easier clean-up).  In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients.  Spread on the prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes.  Stir, and bake for 20-25 minutes longer or until golden brown and the nuts are toasty.  Cool completely.  Store in an airtight container.  

Note:  You can easily turn this into trail mix per the original recipe by adding anything of interest to the cooled granola.  

Comfort Food Morning And Night

Comfort Food Morning and Night

Featured Recipes:  Oven Baked Chicken and Rice and Streusel Top Baked French Toast

After nearly 17 years in the same house, my family recently moved.  Only 3 miles from our old house, it was still an all-out exhausting (and yet ongoing) affair.  We actually loved our old house - after two major renovations, it was truly our house and for the most part it worked and felt the way we lived.  Still, after 17 years and two renovations, there were some things that didn't quite work.  We also were in need of a more advantageous location.  With one teenage boy and another pre-teen boy, we felt we needed more "hang-out" space and we wanted to be the "it" after school house, so moving to within walking distance of the middle and high schools was a huge motivational factor for just such a move.  And so, we moved. 

I like my new kitchen - it is bigger and has a lot more natural light than my old one.  And I know that I will love my new kitchen as time goes on, but I miss my old kitchen.  I miss my old kitchen because I had it figured out.  I knew where everything was and had certain systems for making the food my family dined on daily.  Plus, I had the whole "entertaining" thing down to a science.  My time in the kitchen was well orchestrated and deeply satisfying because it was familiar and comfortable and well, home.  

Now, for the most part, everything has found a place in the new kitchen, and I am faced with the task of learning to cook in my new house, to make it my home, our home.  The only way to do this is to get cooking - to start making the dishes that provided warmth and comfort in the old house.  It seemed only fitting that for my first two full meals in the new house, I would turn to some comforting classics that my family always welcomes to find at the table.  Breaking in the new kitchen with some old favorites seemed liked the natural way to start.  These comfort dishes may not have come together as quickly in the new house, but they tasted just as good and it felt just as nice to gather in our new eating space laughing and eating.  Same food, different space, same homey feeling - the very definition of comfort food.  

Oven Baked Chicken and Rice

4-5 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/3 cup flour

1/8 teaspoon ground pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon sage

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter

1 generous cup rice

1/2 to 1 cup shredded carrots

1/8 teaspoon pepper

3 cups chicken broth

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix together the flour, pepper, paprika, salt and sage in a ziploc bag.  Add the chicken breasts and shake to coat. Melt the butter in a 9x13 plan in the preheated oven.  Add the chicken breasts to the melted butter.  Bake uncovered for 25 minutes.  Combine the rice, carrots, pepper and chicken broth together and mix. When the chicken is done (not cooked through, but has cooked the 25 minutes), remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.  Pour the rice mixture into the pan.  Replace the chicken on top.  Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake 45 minutes longer.  

Streusel Baked French Toast

from the Picky Palate cookbook by Jenny Flake (John Wiley and Sons, 2012)

If you are unfamiliar with Jenny Flake and her "Picky Palate" blog and cookbook, it is a great place to find good ideas for family friendly food.  This recipe is a great breakfast recipe for those leisurely holiday breakfasts, a breakfast intended to celebrate a special day or a "just because you are a nice mom" breakfast.  I have made some changes to the original recipe and I have noted those changes were applicable.  

One loaf "Vienna" Bread

8 large eggs

1 cup milk

3/4 cup half and half

3/4 cup brown sugar, divided

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided

1/4 cup flour

1/2 stick (4 Tablespoons) cold butter

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Arrange two layers of Vienna bread in the pan (I usually tear pieces to fit so I have two pretty solid layers.  The original recipe called for a baguette cut into 1/2 inch slices.)  In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, half and half (the original recipe called for heavy cream but I never have that on hand), vanilla, cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Pour over the bread.  Add the remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl.  Cut the 1/2 stick butter into the flour mixture until pea size pieces of streusel are formed.  Sprinkle this over the bread.  Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until set.  Let cook for five minutes before serving.  Serve with whipped cream and maple syrup if desired.  

Signs of Fall

Recipes included in this post:  Lentil Soup and Maple Oat Bread

Overnight, fall arrived.  In a mere 12 hours the weather went from hot and humid to cool, windy and rainy - a predicted high of 52 for the day.  In addition to the scramble to find sweatshirts, fall is announced in our house by the appearance of a red dutch oven filled with simmering soup on the stove and the smell of fresh baked bread.  I can't lie, I am not thrilled with fall's arrival this year.  Summer has been on the cool side and I was hoping for more sunny days of 70s before it was over.  On the other hand, I have been itching to make soup and fall signals that soup is now back on the table as a dinner option!  While soup can be time consuming with all the chopping usually required, in many respects soup is an amazingly family friendly food, especially for busy families.  Instead of having to think through an entire meal and all its different components (main, side, vegetable, and fruit), soup is almost an entire meal in and of itself.  Add fresh bread and some type of fresh fruit (cut up apples and peeled clementines often suffice at our house) and dinner is on the table.  Soup can also sit on the stove and be eaten in shifts if needed, or it can be ladled out all at once to be blessed and enjoyed together.  Either way it is a one-dish wonder of tastiness and nourishment that warms on a cool day and makes fall weather tolerable if not all together welcomed.  Today I made an old family recipe for lentil soup passed down by my mother-in-law.  This simple soup has been enjoyed countless times by our family.  It is a fairly fool-proof recipe in that if you can chop, you can make this soup.  We eat this soup all fall and winter… in fact my family is probably sick of it by the time spring comes, but by then soup season is over.  

And of course, nothing goes better with soup than homemade bread.  Baking bread requires an oven, and like most people, I try not to frivolously use my oven in the summer, but come fall, it just seems natural to want to bake bread.  To be completely honest, I use to find baking bread intimidating.  I still do find most bread baking intimidating, but this recipe needs no special equipment, does not require a lot of expert kneading, and turns out great every time!  It goes especially well slathered with butter and a steaming bowl of the above mentioned lentil soup.  It is also great toasted the next morning with butter, that is, if there is any left.  

Lentil Soup

1 onion, chopped (honestly, I usually skip the onion)

1 large ham hock

1 package washed and picked through lentils

5-8 carrots, chopped

5-8 stalks celery, chopped 

2 bay leaves

a few cups chicken broth 

pepper

salt to taste as needed

Combine all the ingredients in a large soup pot.  Add water to cover.  Bring to a boil, turn down and simmer, partially covered, for two hours or more, checking the liquid level and adding water as needed.  When ready to serve you can add the juice of a lemon to give it a flavor boost and a nice golden color.  (This step is often missed in our house because we are usually in such a rush to get dinner on the table that we forget this step… that is even if we had fresh lemons. The lemon adds a nice depth to the flavor, but is unnecessary for the soup to be yummy anyway.)

Maple Oat Bread

I found this recipe in the Made with Love cookbook benefitting Meals on Wheels.  This brings up my obsession with cookbooks, my husband might say addiction to cookbooks (a topic for another post).  I am most thrilled with cookbooks that offer great recipes while supporting a good cause.  If you like this recipe and you think Meals on Wheels is a good program, I recommend checking out this cookbook. 

1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats, divided

1 cup boiling water

1 (1/4 oz) package active dry yeast

1/3 cup warm water (110 -115 degrees Fahrenheit)

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 teaspoons canola oil

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon cream or milk**

Put 1 cup oats in a food processor and whirl until coarsely chopped.  Transfer to a small, heat-proof bowl and add boiling water.  Let the mixture stand until it cools down to between 110 and 115 degrees Fahrenheit.  

In a separate large mixing bowl, add warm water and sprinkle yeast over it, whisking until the yeast dissolves.  Add the maple syrup, oil, salt, cooled oat mixture, and 2 cups flour.  Beat until smooth (I use my standing mixer).  Keep stirring, adding enough the remaining flour until mixture forms a soft dough. 

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 6 to 8 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.  

Lightly grease a large bowl and add dough, turning once to coat.  Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size - about an hour.  Punch down the dough.  Grease a 9-inch round baking dish (I use a pie plate).  Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a 9-inch round loaf.  Add dough to the baking dish.  Cover with the dishtowel and let rise until again doubled, 45 minutes or so.  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Gently brush the top of the dough with the cream or milk and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oats.  Bake until golden brown, 30-35 minutes.  Remove bread from pan into wire rack and cook.  

** Note - the original recipe called for a beaten egg white, but I don't like to waste an egg, so I substitute half-and-half for this step.  

Written September 2014, posted October 10, 2014.  

Held Hostage by the Freezer Repair Tech

Featured recipes:  Maple Pancakes, Homemade Chicken Fingers

Our fridge/freezer is icing up... not a good thing to have happen when the warranty expires in three days.  So, between the hours of one and five this afternoon I will be waiting for a call from the service company saying that a senior technician is on his way.  This is a problem because between the hours of one and five I am usually doing something in the kitchen, and with five o-clock being close to when something might need to get started for dinner AND the fact that I need to prepare/cook for an upcoming long weekend at the lake, I feel held hostage by the fact that I need to stay out of the kitchen.  However, the need for a working fridge/freezer trumps all and I have to accept the afternoon "repair window."  

Not being able to be in my kitchen makes me anxious.  If the repair company could give me an exact time, I could plan around that time and actually get something accomplished - even if it is just mixing up the dry ingredients for pancake mix to take to the lake.  But without a specific time, this is not possible.  Having been through the repair process (unsuccessfully I might add) before, I know the counters need to be cleaned off and I need to be out of their way.  If I want to mix up pancake mix, it will need to be done before one o-clock.  

It also makes me anxious thinking about how I am going to get dinner on the table - quickly.  Chicken fingers come to mind.  No, not the frozen store bought kind.  The pre-packaged ones are fast and I am not opposed to using them under duress (summer home lunches is a good example), but nothing beats my recipe for homemade chicken fingers when it comes to a kid-friendly fast-to-the-table meal.  Now I have to admit that sometimes, as a grown-up, chicken fingers are not an ideal meal.  But the great thing about chicken fingers is that, while the kids can dip them in ketchup or BBQ sauce, parents can layer them over a bed of greens with fresh halved cherry tomatoes, chopped cucumbers, and whatever else is on hand that makes for a great salad.  Paired with a steamed vegetable and fruit, you have a healthy and quick meal that both kids and parents will enjoy and one that allows the freezer service tech guy free range in my kitchen all afternoon and early evening.  

 

HOMEMADE CHICKEN FINGERS*

1/4 cup butter

1 tablespoon soy sauce

crushed crackers of your choice or (see note)

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into one-inch strips

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.  In a glass pie plate (or other shallow dish) melt the butter.  Stir in the soy sauce.  Put the crushed crackers in another pie plate or shallow dish.  Dip the chicken strips into the butter mixture, then roll in the cracker crumbs.  Place chicken strips in a single layer on a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes or until chicken is done and juices run clear (I usually cut into the thickest strip to check for doneness).  

Note:  If using Ritz, I usually crush a whole sleeve.  If using Breton, I usually crush 1/2 a box.  

* This recipe can easily be made gluten free using either gluten free crackers or gluten free bread/cornflake crumbs and gluten free soy sauce.  

MAPLE PANCAKES

2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3 eggs

2 cups milk

1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

2 generous tablespoons maple syrup

splash of vanilla (or to taste)

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  (I usually mix up the dry ingredients to take to the lake for an easy "pancake" mix to use for breakfast.  It is cheaper and better than the packaged stuff and we usually have the other needed ingredients at the lake anyway.)  In another bowl combine the egg, milk, oil, syrup, and vanilla.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients just until combined.  Cook pancakes on a lightly greased hot griddle, turning when bubbles break on the top.  Cook until other side is golden brown.  

To be honest, at the lake my husband is the one making the pancakes while I sleep in.  Thank you hubby.  He usually adds more maple syrup and lots of vanilla.  We serve these with butter, maple syrup, sugar, whipped cream and some sort of fresh berries.  

Written August 27, Posted August 28

How Can You Cook In The Car?

If I had a dollar for every mile I drive carting kids to their various activities, I could probably retire.  If I had a dollar for every mile I drive carting kids to activities on Tuesdays, I would be wealthy.  Our Tuesdays during the school year are usually jam packed with activities - if I am not driving somewhere, I am waiting somewhere.  If we are lucky we get to eat a quick dinner as a family squished somewhere between activities, if not, we split up so that each child dines with a parent.  Cooking on these crazy days is always a challenge - how do you cook a meal, when you are in the car and not the kitchen?  Admittedly I am not always up for the Tuesday Taxi challenge and there are some Tuesdays when Noodles or Chipotle are the easy answer, if not the best answer.  

However, given that the Tuesday Taxi dinner dilemma has been around in our household for a few years, I have thankfully found some dinner solutions that can be largely made in advance and then quickly brought to the table, in shifts if needed.  Beef Stroganoff is one of these happy solutions and it was what I cooked this afternoon in anticipation of an afternoon of activities that will keep me out of the kitchen until dinner time.  The original variation of this recipe was shared by a family friend of my mother-in-law.  The original calls for cooking the Beef Stroganoff on the stove - not a good idea if you are not going to be home.  However, when my mother-in-law made it for us years ago (and my boys devoured it and licked their bowls) she cooked it low and slow in the oven because she was out for the afternoon.  The oven version has since become a staple in our household on busy nights when someone (or in this case something else) needs to do the cooking while I drive.  

I typically serve this over brown rice if the schedule permits me to get it in the rice cooker so it is cooked and warmed when we return home.  If not, simple (and quick) white rice or egg noodles work too.  Steamed broccoli and cut fresh fruit quickly round out the meal.  

OVEN BEEF STROGANOFF

2 pounds sirloin steak cut into one-inch (or so) cubes, trimmed of excess fat

olive oil 

6 tablespoons flour

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pepper (or to taste)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup water

1 to 2 cups sliced mushrooms (depending on family taste)

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.  Whisk/mix together the flour, pepper, salt and paprika.  Put in a large tupperware with a lid, add the cubed sirloin.  Put the lid on the tupperware and shake to nicely coat the beef.  Heat the olive oil in an oven-safe skillet or dutch oven.  Add the meat and brown well.  (The original recipe used one pound of meat, but with two boys it was not enough.   With the two pounds of meat you could do this in two batches so as not to crowd the meat which would be more "chefy" but honestly I am usually pressed for time so I crowd it all in and it works fine.)  When the meat is browned well, add the broth, water, what is left of the flour mixture from the tupperware, and the mushrooms.  Bring to a boil.  Turn off the heat, cover, and put in the preheated oven.  Cook for two to two-and-a-half hours (or three) stirring occasionally (if you can).  For the last half-hour remove the lid to thicken (or you can thicken it on the stove if needed). 

Note:  You could add sour cream before serving (1/2 cup to 1 cup), but I never do because I rarely have sour cream on hand.  

Written and posted August 26, 2014

First Day of School Cookies

Today was the first day of school for my two boys - 5th grade and 7th grade.  Our tradition on the first day of school is that the boys come home to fresh baked Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies, a small surprise (usually a book) and a note as a special way to kick off the new academic year.  While I have a couple of chocolate chip cookie recipes that are really good, for some reason I always make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies on the first day of school.  I am sure it is because I equate oatmeal with healthy eating and therefore feel very content (perhaps smug?) with making a "healthy" cookie as a special first day of school treat.  Really though, it is a cookie and it has all the characteristics of a

great oatmeal based chocolate chip cookie - chewy yet crunchy and loaded with chocolate chips so you get crispy, chewy, chocolatey yummy in every bite. 

This recipe came about by accident the year my youngest went to kindergarten and I have been making it on the first day of school ever since (and in between too).  Wanting to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I looked through several recipes and finally settled on a particular recipe.  Midway through the process, I discovered that I was short on oatmeal... what to do?  I searched my cupboards for a substitute and for some reason Rice Krispies cereal caught my eye.  In place of the missing oatmeal, I added the "secret ingredient" and hoped for the best.  

They were a hit!  The Rice Krispies sort of melted into the cookie making them chewy and crunchy at the same time without taking away from the traditional oatmeal taste and texture.  My husband said they were so good I should enter them in the state fair baking contest.  That never happened, but I have made the cookies with the "mistake" Rice Krispies ever since.  They are especially good with a cold glass of milk and even better when shared over stories about first day of school adventures (or misadventures).

Naturally, I made these in the afternoon before the kids came home from their first day of school.  

OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 cup shortening

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon hot water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups oatmeal

1 plus (mounded) cup Rice Krispies cereal

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Cream together shortening and sugars.  Add eggs, water and vanilla.  Whisk together flour, soda, and salt.  Add flour mixture to creamed mixture and mix well.  Fold in oatmeal, Rice Krispies, and chocolate chips.  Drop by rounded teaspoons on prepared cookie sheets.  Lightly flatten the cookies with a glass dipped in sugar.  Bake for 9-10 minutes until lightly golden brown.  Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheets.  Remove to wire racks to cool completely.  

Written and posted August 25, 2014