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.