Pi Day

This week I was in charge of the teacher's luncheon something our school parent group does during every conference week.  We figure that since they are at the school all day and well into the evening we can at least make sure they have things to eat.  Some people brought in pasta salads, veggie/fruit trays, macaroni and cheese, cookies and other assorted nibbles.  In honor of National Pi Day I made an apple pie for the teachers to enjoy.  I adapted the recipe from Taste and See.

Apple PIe

Single Pie Crust (I love the one from Pioneer Woman's cookbook)

4 large granny smith apples (about 2 pounds)

1/2 C. honey

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. cardamom
dash of salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cornstarch

topping:  1C. flour

1/2C. brown sugar

3 TBSP. butter

1/4C. rolled oats

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Peel and dice your apples, place them into a large sauce pan with the honey and spices.  Simmer so the apples are slightly soft add the cornstarch to help thicken up the sauce.  Roll out your pie crust and add the apples.  In a bowl cut the butter into the flour and brown sugar until it is well incorporated mix in the oats.  Top the apples with the crumble.  Bake for 40 minutes  Enjoy!!!

Hostess Gift

 I'm an old fashioned girl at heart really.  I have always loved the idea of hostess gifts but very rarely do I get the opportunity to give one.  When we were invited to our ministers house a few Saturday's ago I was as excited to go and talk as I was to be able to bring a gift.  

The tag was the most fun to make and I have to say it turned out better than I thought it would.  I attached it to a jar of the Orange Honey Butter I had made the day before.  Underneath is a loaf of Oatmeal Banana Bread wrapped in plastic with a layer of Kraft paper over top (a brown shopping bag works great).  It was just so nice to be able to walk up to the door and have something to say thank you for inviting me into your home.

Oatmeal Banana Bread

1 C. all-purpose flour

1/2 C. stone ground whole wheat (or AP whatever is fine)

1/2 C. old fashioned oats with more for on top

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/3 C. buttermilk

1 TBSP. melted butter

1 TBSP. vanilla extract

2 whole eggs

1/2 C. light brown sugar

1/4 C. honey

2 medium mashed bananas (I like to leave them a little chunky)

1 1/2 C. frozen (or fresh in season) cranberries

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cardamom (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease and flour a bread pan.

In a medium bowl mix together the flours, rolled oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a measuring cup measure out your buttermilk and add the vanilla extract and the melted butter

I like to add the cinnamon and the cardamom into my mashed bananas

 

With an electric mixer beat the eggs, brown sugar and the honey until well combined it turns thick and pale in color (approximately five minutes).  Mix in the spiced mashed bananas and the buttermilk mixture.  In two batches add the flour mixture.  Do not over mix you just want to combine these things.  Fold in the cranberries by hand and pour into the bread pan.  Sprinkle with more oats on top.

Bake for 1 hour or until a tester comes out clean.  Cool the bread out of the pan on a rack. 

Treats

 This post was supposed to go up last Tuesday but we had an emergency.  Jeff came home from work early with chest pain and was afraid it was a heart attack.  We spent the day in the emergency room and then in cardiac observation.  We were so lucky it wasn't his heart, they told us his heart was in tiptop shape and the doctor told him to get out and start hitting the gym whenever he was ready.  The culprit was inflamed cartilage from having a cold a few weeks back.  I'm so grateful for something so minor (painful still but minor).  Jeff was very grateful for the Homemade Granola bars that I had made the day before.  He couldn't eat them before the stress test but he gobbled them up afterwards. 
    This treat came from watching Pioneer Woman on Food Network with Jack this weekend.  I was honestly hoping for a cereal bar type knock off.  This isn't it by any means but it is very delicious and everyone enjoyed eating it up.  The recipe is Strawberry Oatmeal Bars here at the Food Network site.  We had some homemade CherryBerry Jam down in the basement and used that instead of the Strawberry she used.  I would definitely make these again but they weren't quite what I was looking for so I guess I'll start experimenting to see what I can come up with. 
  Have a great week I'm off to the hardware store to get some taps for the Maple Trees wish me luck! 

All About Oats Today

 Today was all about oats at our house.  Well oats and laundry we always seem to have laundry to do here.  I've been trying really hard to buy fewer and fewer convenience products that I can simply make myself rather simply.  Granola bars are one of those items that my family loves but they are fairly expensive and really not all that good for you if you buy most major brands.  The other problem is that my daughter can't eat most granola bars in her classroom because they contain nuts of some sort.  So I found a recipe for a simple nut free granola on SparkRecipes.com it was very simple to make and oh my gosh delicious.  The only thing I would say is don't be in a total rush to get them out of the pan, cut them in the pan instead of trying to flip it over on to a cutting board.  The pieces were delicious but they aren't as pretty or as uniform as I would have liked.  Guess I need to get a second 9X13 so I don't have to rush to clean the one I have for the next project.  Speaking of which that was also an oat project but that is still cooling in the pan where it belongs so I've got a bit longer before I can share that one. 

 Sooooooo gooood!  I think next time I'm going to try dried cherries and apricots.

Homemade Nut-Free Granola Bars

Submitted by: BLSCT123

Easy to make granola bars that even my picky-eater loved!

Minutes to Prepare: 10

Minutes to Cook: 35

Number of Servings: 14

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup wheat germ
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup raisins (or other dried fruit)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup honey
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup oil (veggie or canola)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Generously grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, raisins (or other dried fruit) and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well with wooden spoon or your hands. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared baking pan.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bars begin to turn golden brown at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes then cut into bars while still warm. DO NOT ALLOW THE BARS TO COOL COMPLETELY BEFORE CUTTING or they will be too hard to cut.

Makes 14 - 2 inch by 4 inch pieces.

Submitted to:

Apple Pie

 

Autumn is in the air and apples are coming in at the Farmer's Market!!!  The kids and I are so excited about the delicious things we are going to make this year.  We of course had to start with apple hand pies.  Last fall I was very inspired by this blog post at A Cozy Kitchen  

I diced up two honey crisp apples and one granny smith (Miss M's favorite).  A squeeze of lemon juice, 

1/4 C. sugar, dash of salt stirred around with the apples.  In another small bowl I mixed a tablespoon of flour, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice, 

1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom and 1/8 teaspoon of clove.  Mix in the apples.  I wish that I would have used brown sugar but didn't think of it until I had already poured in the white sugar.

I totally cheated and used premade pie crust.  Pie crust is my enemy and I still can only get one in four to turn out well :(  The nifty tool came from Target it's by Nordic Ware.  The back side cuts the dough in the perfect sized circle.

I placed the dough in the pie mold and only about a tablespoon of apples fit in without tearing the crust.  Maybe if I had peeled the apples they wouldn't have been so sharp?

Out of two pie crusts I got five pies there should have been six but I tried to over stuff one with apples.  Before baking I cut small slits in the top for venting.  

They baked for about 25 minutes at 375 the whole house smelled of apple pie goodness.  We had ours with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce delicious!!
There were a ton of spiced apples left over (probably enough to make a full sized pie) so we saved them in the fridge and then used them up in oatmeal for school the next day.

Easiest Bread Ever

 I have been making this bread for over a month and I have always gotten it to turn out pretty well.  So now that I have test driven it I want to share it with you!  The recipe comes from the Hillbilly Housewife she has lots of other great recipes on her site that I can't wait to try out.  Now go grab your big bowl and let's get baking!
 


1 C. Whole Wheat flour
2 C. All-purpose flour or any mix of these two.
     (I have yet to get my  50/50 mix to turn out just right but this mix works great)
1 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Yeast
     Fork these dry ingredients together. 

 Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add
2 Tbsp. Oil (light flavored like peanut or vegetable)
1 Tbsp. Honey (doing the oil first keeps the honey  from sticking to the measuring spoon)
1 C. Warm water (warm not hot, don't kill the yeast)


Give the whole thing a quick mix with a wooden spoon and turn out on to your work surface.  It sort of looks like a real mess.  Knead for about five minutes.  Just long enough for everything to get incorporated and the dough to get elastic.  Let it rest on the counter while you wash out the bowl.  Oil your bowl before placing the dough in.  Cover with a lint free towel and let rise for about an hour or until doubled in size.

Once your dough has risen punch it down and knead for about a minute to make sure the air is all out.  While kneading shape it to fit your pan because the dough doesn't really care what shape the pan is.  My first loaves were nice and tall but very short on the sides because I didn't shape them very well at all.  Let the dough rest after kneading while you grease your loaf pan.  I like to use a little vegetable shortening it seems to make the bread release a lot easier than the oil did. 

Cover again with your lint free towel and let rise another hour or so.  Place in a cold oven at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.  It should sound hollow when tapped.  Turn it over onto your kitchen towel and release from the pan.  The bottom should sound hollow also, if not than place back in the oven for a few more minutes.  I like to let the bread cool over night before cutting.

No Knead Wheat Bread

I decided to try and make sandwich type bread not too long ago and found this recipe on the back of the King Arthur Flour bag.   It was very tasty and pretty easy to make.  The kids loved it for peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  I didn't have any rapid rise yeast like the recipe called for so I just proofed regular yeast and it didn't seem to effect the out come at all. 

Favorite Christmas Cookie

Molly's class had a holiday party on Tuesday and we were asked to bring something that represents one of the traditions we celebrate. Well crap, we don't really have any traditions except spending hours in the car going from one place to another. So I figured that I should send in some gingerbread cookies, for several years we did have a big cookie day but haven't been able to round everyone up the past year or two. Gingerbread is one of my favorite things to make and I've been doing it a long time. So here is my recipe that I've been tweaking over the years I hope you enjoy it :)

Gingerbread Cookies

8 Tbsp butter (yes REAL butter none of that fake stuff!)
1/2 C. white sugar
1/2 C. molasses (man alive this stuff smells awful!)
1 egg
2 C. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground clove
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp allspice
sprinkle of nutmeg

Beat the butter with the sugar and molasses. Mix in egg. Sift dry ingredients and mix into wet mixture. Chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll out a portion of the dough 1/4 inch thick (leaving the rest in the fridge) on a well floured surface. Cut dough with a floured cookie cutter basic shapes give the best results. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges are a little crisp. Enjoy the smell of freshly made gingerbread!

Peanut Free Muffins

If you have kids in school currently you know what a big deal the whole peanut thing is. When I was in school the only allergy I remember is having to make sure that there where vanilla cupcakes along with the chocolate cupcakes. I give thanks everyday that my two don't have anything besides seasonal allergies, I see what there auntie goes through my my nephew.
So when I was getting some snacks ready for this kids lunches I wanted to make sure that I stayed away from nuts. But really can you have a banana muffin without some sort of crunch? Chocolate chips don't count because I wanted this to be healthy and weirdly enough not everyone in my house likes banana bread with chocolate, bizarre huh? I went to a local market and got a package of nonsalted sunflower seeds. Take your basic favorite banana bread recipe and leave out the nuts. In the place of the nuts throw in the seeds. I didn't check the sunflower seeds quite as carefully as I should have because they were processed with nut oil. The overall taste was really good but the seeds were not crunchy as nuts would have been. Overall a very nice substitute.

Bright Fall Cookies

For the first time in almost four years we had to break in a new babysitter last night. Our dear sweet Alisha (co-writer of the blog) moved to be with the love of her life and that left us without a sitter. Luckily we have a niece that lives just a block or so away that was looking to take on a few more babysitting jobs. I figured that since it was her first night with the kids she might need a little bit of a bribe tool. So these cookies were born! I was inspired by Joy the Baker's Cranberry Orange Almond Oatmeal. The mix of cranberry and orange always seems to be such a bright flavor combo and then the oatmeal is just perfect for the gray nasty icky weather we had here yesterday. Hope you enjoy the recipe and it makes you smile
Cranberry Fall Cookies

3/4 C. butter softened
1 C. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
zest of one small orange (about 1 Tbsp.)
1 and 1/2 C. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground clove
1/2 tsp. salt
2 C. rolled oats
1 C. dried cranberries
1/2 C. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350

Cream together the butter, sugar, eggs, zest and vanilla until smooth. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, clove and salt. Slowly combine the dry ingredients into the wet ones. Fold in your oats, cranberries and pecans. Using a small spoon to drop these on to an ungreased cookie sheet (I like to line mine with parchment paper).

Bake 10 to 12 minutes until lightly golden. Let them cool for a few minutes on the sheet then remove to a cooling rack. These are delicious soft cookies even the next day.

Cherry Clafouti

Have you ever seen a show called the Fabulous Beekman Boys? If not you should it is fabulous! I'm not sure how I ran across it but after seeing the first episode I was hooked. This is a recipe from their website here. I'd never heard of Clafouti but it looked so yummy I had to try it. It was super simple, cheap ingredients (we had cherries on hand) and so quick to make. It tastes a lot like my brother's bread pudding. Yummy! So if you have a few handfuls of cherries left and need a quick dessert try this you won't be disappointed. And don't forget about our giveaway going on this is the last day to enter!

Sunny Cookies

A few weeks ago the kids and I made these simple cookies to celebrate the Solstice. It seems hard to believe that the longest day is already behind us and our days will be getting shorter. I hope you enjoy making these cookies and loving the long days while we have them.

Sunny Lemon Cookies

1/2 C. Butter (softened)
1/2 C. Sugar
1 egg
Cream the sugar and butter together. Add the egg in and blend well.

1 tsp. Lemon Zest
2 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
(this really makes them special instead of lemon extract)

1 1/2 C. Flour
1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1/8 tsp. Salt
Mix all ingredients together. This dough is very soft. Refrigerate for two hours or until firm.
When dough is firm preheat oven to 350 degrees.


Roll out the dough on a floured surface. I rolled mine out in three batches because this gets very warm quickly and once warm it is impossible to do anything with. Don't re-roll out your dough too much because it gets tough and it picks up too much flour and that throws off the taste of the cookies.
Place cut cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet. I did line mine with parchment paper but my cookie sheets are old and creepy looking so I always line them. You can sprinkle the tops of the cookies with granulated sugar before you bake them for decoration but they are yummy without the extra sugar.

Bake 8-10 minutes until edges start to brown. Let cool on tray for 1 minute then finish cooling on a wire rack.

This recipe is great because you only get 12 to 18 cookies from it just enough for everyone to enjoy with out having so many that you don't know what to do with them all. These cookies would be lovely with tea. My little monsters very much enjoyed them with milk :)