Cranberry Bread

2 c all purpose flour

1 c sugar

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

¼ c butter

1 egg beaten

1 tsp grated orange peel

¾ c orange juice

1 ½ light raisins

1 ½ c fresh or frzn cranberries chopped

Preheat oven to 350º.

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda in large bowl.  Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.  Add egg, orange peel, juice all at once. Stir just until mixture is evenly moist. Fold in raisins and cranberries.  Spoon into greased 9x5x3” loaf pan. Bake at 350º for 1 hr 10 min or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove from pan, cool on wire rack.

These don’t taste like anything I’ve ever called granola.  They’re crisp, crunchy, not too sweet and the fruit bits are chewy and delicious.  This recipe is also really fun to execute because there’s clever use of one bowl, one pot, one measuring cup and one pan for different ingredients at different times.  Sound like a lot of equipment?  It is a mess (not to mention once you cut the bars and get crumbs of oats all over the kitchen) but trust me. It’s so worth it that I’m on my zillionth batch and we almost always have some on hand for breakfast and snacking.

Be sure to drain the fruit thoroughly.  If it is too wet, the bars will be crumbly (and you’ll have granola instead of granola bars).

Finely chop the nuts if you don’t feel like lugging out the food processor.

Add up to ¾ cup of other yummy ingredients like sesame seed, ground flax, wheat germ, coconut, sunflower seeds.  Avoid the kitchen sink. 

adapted from Cooks Illustrated.

Cherry Ginger Granola Bars

6 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cups rice crispies

½ cup vegetable oil

1 tsp salt

1 Cup dried cranberries

1/2 Cup dried cherries, chopped

1 Cup apple or orange juice (any juice will do, even a combo of juice and water)

1 ½ Cup whole almonds, pecans, or walnuts

¾ cup honey (or Grade B Maple syrup)

¾ cup packed brown sugar

1 tbsp vanilla

2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp ground ginger

Set oven to 375 degrees.

Combine oats, oil, and salt in a large bowl until oats are evenly coated.  Transfer mixture to a foil-lined 18 x 12 baking rimmed baking sheet. Bake, stirring every 10 minutes until pale gold, about 30 minutes.

Bring cranberries and juice to a simmer in a small saucepan and cook until very tender, about 10 minutes.  After about 7 minutes, add chopped cherries and continue to cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.  Strain through a fine mesh strainer, gently pushing on fruit to extract excess liquid.  Cool.  Remove oats from oven and lower temp to 300 degrees.

Place nuts in a food processor and process until coarsely chopped, about 10 pulses.  Remove ¾ c to bowl and process the remaining nuts until finely ground, about 20-30 seconds.  Add  the rest of the nuts to the bowl.

Combine honey and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, and stir until sugar is fully dissolved, about 5 minutes.  Stir in vanilla and spices.

Combine rice crispies, oats, nuts, honey mixture in large bowl and stir until evenly coated.  Add dried fruit and combine.  Transfer mixture to prepared pan.  Put a Ziploc bag over your hand and press the mixture into the pan.  Spray the Ziploc with pam if the mixture is sticking.  Bake 45 minutes.

Cool completely.  After 10 minutes, pick up the edges of the foil and move to a cooling rack or cutting board.  Make sure no foil sticks to the bottom of the bars.

I have a newfound love of baking yeast breads. Since I am a novice, I have endeavored to master simple breakfast breads that I can stop and start around naptimes and playtimes.  The best thing about yeast is that if you have enough time, it will cooperate with your schedule.  These are things one does not trifle with in their 20′s.  No time. Uncool.  But alas, age brings patience and wisdom and the potential power to unlock the secrets of baking with yeast.  Also possibly enough stress to appreciate working out your anxiety kneading a piece of dough.  I prefer the patience and wisdom approach.

The kids are in love with these cinnamon rolls (unlike our Monkey Bread experiment, which everyone enjoyed making but then refused to eat).  They both give a resounding “YAY” when I tell them we’ll have cinnamon rolls in the morning.  Right now this works because either I am up early with the baby or my husband is up early for work.  If everyone sleeps late, they’ll have to wait a while so the rolls can come to room temp and/or rise before baking.  I dream about these rolls and so have no qualms in saying that in the future, I may very well set an alarm at 5 am so that I can have these delicious and healthy whole wheat cinnamon rolls.

MAKES 1 LOAF or 2 Dozen Cinnamon Rolls

If you like, the dough can be made one day, refrigerated overnight, then shaped, proofed, and baked the next day. This recipe also doubles easily.

INGREDIENTS

Enriched Bread Dough

1/2
 cup milk

4
 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1
 package dry active yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

1/2 
cup warm water (110 degrees)

1/3 
cup sugar

2
 large eggs

1 1/2
 teaspoons table salt

3 1/4 – 3 3/4
 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (or 2 Cups whole wheat flour plus 1 ¾ + all-purpose flour)

Filling

1/4
cup sugar or brown sugar

1/4 raisins

¼ tsp cloves

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp ground cinnamon


2 tbsp butter for brushing

INSTRUCTIONS

1. For the dough: Heat milk and butter in small saucepan over medium heat until butter melts. Cool to lukewarm (about 110 degrees).

2. Meanwhile, sprinkle yeast over warm water in bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle. Beat in sugar and eggs and mix at low speed to blend. Add salt, lukewarm milk mixture, 2 cups of flour; mix at medium speed until thoroughly blended, about 1 minute. Switch to dough hook attachment. Add 1 1/4 cups flour, and knead at medium-low speed, adding additional flour sparingly if dough sticks to sides of bowl, until dough is smooth and comes away from sides of bowl, about 10 minutes.

3. Turn dough onto work surface. Squeeze dough with a clean dry hand. If dough is sticky, knead in up to 1/2 additional cup flour to form a smooth, soft, elastic dough. Transfer dough to a very lightly oiled large plastic container or bowl. Cover top of container with plastic wrap and let rise until double in size, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. (Ideal rising temperature is 75 degrees.) After rise, punch down center of dough once (can be refrigerated, covered, up to 18 hours). Making sure not to fold or misshape dough, turn it onto unfloured work surface; let dough rest, to relax, about 10 minutes.

4.  Roll out dough in a 10” x 13” rectangle.  Brush with butter.  Sprinkle cinnamon mixture over top leaving ¼” border along the bottom edge.  Tightly roll dough towards you using a bench scraper as needed to prevent sticking.  Pinch edge of cylinder together to seal.

5.  Using a serrated knife, cut rolls beginning in middle of cylinder to make sure they’re even.  Rolls should be 1 ½ inches thick.

6.  Place in greased 8×8 metal baking pan or 9” glass pie plate.  Refrigerate again or let rise until doubled in size (1 ½ hours).

7.  Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until edges are slightly golden.

8.  Drizzle with confectioner’s sugar glaze.

I have a long-standing pie crust deficiency in my repertoire.  But, being the aspiring hobbyist of a baker I am realizing that practice really does make perfect when it comes to pie.  I turned to two of my favorite sources to teach me the ambitious lattice top technique I used: joyofbaking.com and of course, Cooks Illustrated Best Recipe’s Summer Fruit Pie.  I’m still undecided on two things:  tapioca vs. cornstarch as a thickener and water vs. vodka in the pie crust.  I made two pies in a row (my usual method for testing a recipe before I post to decide these matters) but I will have to experiment further to get a definitive answer.  I will say that it’s best to grind up  the tapioca so you don’t get the weird tapioca bubbles because you can see them a lot more in this red pie as opposed to the opaque darkness of the blueberry pie in a previous post.

Use any homemade crust recipe you like, but I prefer a mix of butter and shortening for flavor.  (Shhhh. Don’t tell my mothers-in-law who stand behind their all-shortening recipe that goes back a few generations!)

Timeline:

• day before, pie crust
• morning, roll bottom crust, slice up strawberries and rhubarb
• naptime, complete baking
• ***cool pie for at least 3 hours before slicing or all the filling will run out***

Pie Crust

modified from Cooks Illustrated

• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1/2cup chilled solid vegetable shortening , cut into 4 pieces
• 6-8 tbsp ice water

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogenous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.
2. Sprinkle water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

Strawberry Rhubarb Filling

• 3 cups hulled and sliced strawberries (1 inch)
• 3 cups rhubarb cut into 1 inch pieces
• 3/4 to 1 Cup sugar
• 3-5 tbsp tapioca
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1-2 tbsp butter

Mix all ingredients together and let macerate 15 minutes.  Pour filling and juices into prepared pie shell and chill while you roll out and cut the lattice.  Dot the filling with 1-2 tbsp butter.  Assemble lattice top.  Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar crystals.

Once pie is assembled, lower oven racks lowest position and preheat to 400°.  Place a baking sheet on the rack below the one the pie will be on and bake at 400 for 1 hour- 1.5 hours. Cover crust with foil if it gets too dark before the filling starts bubbling.

Cheesy vegetables with a crust of parmesan breadcrumbs?  Yes, please.  This recipe can be shrunk or stretched depending on the size of your zucchinis, your baking dish, or your appetite.

Zucchini Gratin

2 tbsp butter plus 1 tbsp for topping

2 tbsp flour

2 C milk

3-4 zucchini sliced thin (3+ cups)

1 C Gruyère or Fontina, grated

1/2 C parmesan

1 C bread crumbs (any kind, even Italian seasoned works)

Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 375°.  Layer sliced zucchini (salt and pepper each layer to taste), bread crumbs, cheese, then bechamel a few times ending with the breadcrumbs and cheese.  Dot with butter and place in hot oven for 40-60 minutes or until brown and bubbly depending on the size of your slices of zucchini or how deep your casserole dish is.  To check doneness, stick a knife into the center and see if your zucchini are tender.  If your topping starts getting too brown, cover with foil and remove to crisp it the last 5 minutes.

Final step: dot with plenty of butter on top to make it brown and crusty.

Green Beans with Garlic Breadcrumbs, originally uploaded by elenamcginnis.

The critical elements of this delicious side dish include thin lovely french green beans and olive oil grissini bread crumbs.  Not all grissini is created equally so it’s important to cook with these bread crumbs like you would with wine–don’t use them unless you’d eat them plain.  My favorite are Isola brand Grissini.  The flavor and crunch is the perfect counterpart to the tender green beans.  The kids love to eat them as snacks and it’s easy to set up a breadcrumb crushing station for them to help out.

Haricots Verts with Grissini

1 lb fresh haricots verts

6 Isola Olive Oil Grissini, crushed

3 -4 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic

salt & pepper

I usually buy fresh haricot verts that you can steam in the bag.  The directions on the bag say 2-3 minutes, but 5 minutes is the minimum on my microwave to get them tender.  Steam the beans as far in advance as you need to, they’ll warm through when you combine them in the pan with the breadcrumbs.

Crush bread sticks, leaving some 1/4 inch chunks.  Melt butter and olive oil in large 12″ saute pan.  When butter is through foaming but not yet starting to brown, add minced garlic and stir to infuse butter.  Add breadcrumbs and toss to thoroughly coat.  Cook for 5-10 minutes or until they are crispy and golden.

Drain green beans completely and add cooked beans to saute pan with breadcrumbs and butter.  Toss to coat and let green beans warm through completely, about 5 minutes.  If breadcrumbs aren’t adhering to beans, add another tbsp of butter to moisten.  Salt and pepper.

This was also my first attempt at shrimp stock and I can’t believe that I haven’t done it before.  You see, we learned the hard way in our college apartment that if you just chunk shrimp shells in the trash can that you can never truly get rid of that smell.  After that important lesson, my ritual was to place all the shells in a zip lock back and immediately take them to the outside trash where it would stink until trash day and attract all manner of neighborhood beasts.  Thus the utility of shrimp stock.  Not only is it the easiest stock you’ll ever make (40 minuites!) but it’s cheap and scrumptious.  Try it.

Suggested timing:

1. Make polenta four hours before you need it

2. peel and devein shrimp, reserve shells

3.  Make stock one hour prior

4. Make sauce, 30 min prior

Shrimp and Grits

Polenta in the Slow Cooker

1 C Anson Mills Rustic Coarse Polenta Integrale

2 cans low sodium chicken broth

1 tsp salt

pepper

1/4-1/2 C grated parmesan

2 tbsp unsalted butter

Spray slow cooker insert with non-stick spray.  Combine all ingredients except parmesan and butter.  Cook on low 3.5-4 hours, stirring 3-4 times. Near the end of cooking time, stir in parmesan and butter.

Shrimp Stock

(Shrimp with shells on maintain their taste and integrity better than peeled ones.  But if you don’t get shrimp with shells, you can substitute chicken broth.)

shells from 1 lb gulf shrimp

1/2 onion, roughly chopped

1 celery stalk, roughly chopped

2 bay leaves

4-6 whole peppercorns

4-6 C water

In a medium saucepan, heat 1-2 tsp canola oil.  Add shrimp shells and cook until very pink.  Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer for 45-60 minutes.  Strain through a fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth.

Shrimp and Sauce

2-3 pieces bacon

1/2 green bell pepper, finely diced

1/2 onion, finely diced

1 celery stalk, finely diced

1/4 C  flour

1/2 C dry sherry

2-4 C shrimp stock

1 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp cayenne

Cook bacon and remove to paper towels. Reserve 2 tbsp bacon drippings in pan.  Add onion, celery and bell pepper to pan and cook over medium  heat until all veg are softened and beginning to brown (10 min).  Sprinkle flour over veg and cook raw flour taste out 3-5 min.

Deglaze pan with sherry, scraping any brown bits.  Add 3 C shrimp stock and simmer until thickened.  Continue adding stock to maintain correct consistency as sauce reduces.  Add salt, pepper, thyme and cayenne to taste.

Once sauce is completed, add peeled shrimp and let them slowly cook as the sauce simmers, 5-6 minutes.

Serve shrimp and sauce over polenta.  Pass the tabasco.

For our fancy steak night ribeyes and NY strips, our favorite rub is Montreal Steak Seasoning.  But for a flank steak, or less flavorful (i.e., thinner/leaner/cheaper) cut, spices have the opportunity to shine through.  There is absolutely no reason to purchase a $5 jar of someone else’s concoction when you probably already have these spices on your shelf.  Make sure to taste the “raw” rub before you apply it.

$1 Steak Rub

2 parts paprika

Equal parts:
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Coriander
Cumin
Thyme

1/2 part cayenne
1/2 part cinnamon

1-2 tbsp Brown sugar

SALTING:  For flank steak, let the steak come to room temp for about an hour before you plan to cook it.  We often use a salting technique that can concentrate the flavors. Sprinkle kosher salt on both sides and let the steak sit until it exudes some juices. Wipe off excess salt with a paper towel, rub with rub and grill it. If you salt ahead of time, make sure to adjust the salt in the rub recipe so you don’t oversalt.

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2  cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4  cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2  cup granulated sugar
• 2  eggs
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2  cups all-purpose flour
• 1  teaspoon baking soda
• 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2  teaspoon salt (optional)
• 3  cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1  cup raisins

Preparation

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

• Prep Time: 20 min
• Cook Time Time: 08 min

This recipe is all about the bacon.  Any vegetable with the smoky saltiness of bacon and ham hocks is good, right?  At least that’s how we think in the South…

You may be intimidated by ham hocks, but they are fairly essential to this green bean recipe and for collards. I usually buy a 4 back whenever I see them and keep them in the freezer until I can find a use for them.  They make the stock much richer than just straight bacon can and you’ll find the dish a little flatter if you skip them.  Our local Texas chain HEB always has them, Central Market has them occasionally, and I recently discovered them near the Jimmy Dean sausage section at Randall’s.  So the power of the ham hock is getting noticed.  Very promising.

Southern Green Beans with Bacon

1lb green beans, trimmed
2 ham hocks
2 cans chicken broth
4 pieces bacon, cooked ahead
1 onion, cut into large chunks

Cook in crock pot on high for 2.5-3 hours.