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tom | Share

The first rain of the season drove us inside at 10:30 this morning, but already we had "watered" the cold frame (shoveled snow into it), cleared a lot of leaves and found some green oregano. Parsley and arugula in the cold frame survived the winter, as did the new thyme in the garden. The rosemary plant looks like a gonner, but I'll let it sit for a few more weeks to see if there's anything that might come back. Some spinach and lettuce planted too late for a winder harvests is already an inch high. Looks like local harvests will begin again soon!

bridgit | Share

One of my friends had an intense day, so the kids and I decided to make her some cookies. We love to make cookies, with all the measuring and dumping and mixing, it's childhood heaven. I've been working on a low fat, low sugar recipe for a while. Cooks Illustrated created light recipe where you use all butter (no applesauce or other funny stuff), but you melt it, and somehow that means you only have to use half as much.

Well, it's a great recipe, but it has 1 cup of sugar, which is the main ingredient we try to avoid in this house, so I've been slowly reducing it. A half cup provides enough sweetness, but since sugar is important for moisture and cohesion, I have been tinkering with the recipe in other ways to compensate. I perused online for a trailmix cookie recipe and found one that included 1/2 tsp of baking soda dissolved in 1 tbsp of hot water. Wondering if that might do the trick, the kiddos and I set to work on a batch of cookies.

But wait. I forgot. We ran out of cinnamon a few days ago. Grrrrrr. What's an oatmeal cookie without a little cinnamon? Plus, cinnamon speaks to your tastebuds as if it's sweetness, thereby allowing you to reduce the sugar content without totally sacrificing flavor. What's a girl to do without cinnamon? Dorie Greenspan published the recipe for this amazing Spiced Cranberry Bunt cake in the November 2008 issue of Bon Appetit where she introduced me to Chinese 5 Spice*, and aromatic combination of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and other spices. Since then, I've used it here and there to add ore interesting flavor than cinnamon alone.

Using 5 spice, I knew I had to be choose my nuts and fruits wisely. Thinking about the fruit, nuts and seeds I had, I thought a bit of a Turkish/Middle East inspired cookie with apricots and pistachios might work out well. Of course you could always replace the 5 spice with cinnamon and have a quite traditional (only healthier) oatmeal.

Also, sorry about the lack of pictures. Imagine an oatmeal cookie, not totally flat, not a puffy little cake cookie, but a nice normal one. Now imagine it a few shades darker because of the spice and molasses. There's your picture.

*I bought my 5 spice in bulk where I could get just a spoonful for a few cents, just in case I didn't like it. I've been back for more. Twice.


Read more | bridgit | Share

I know I've done several posts about oats, but really the stuff is amazing: nutty and delicious, easy to cook and super healthy. Molly from the Orangette posted about these pancakes last month and I made them the next day. Tom and I were full after eating just 2. 2!!! We're the kind of people who eat 5 or 6 1/4 cup pancakes. Not only that, but I thought they were absolutely delicious. Tom, however, was unimpressed. I made them again a few weeks later, because I just couldn't get enough. But this time Amelia insisted on wah-wah (which is clearly the word for banana, right?), so I decided to add some banana slices*. So we got to it, pouring batter, slicing bananas and flipping in turn. Tom took a bite and said, "These are a lot better than I remember." A few bites later, "Wow, these are really good."

*Early in our marriage when Tom first suggested we make banana pancakes, I went to it, smashing up bananas to add to the batter. NOOOOO! The bananas must be sliced and laid on top, similar to blueberries. This is what Tom's folks have always done. They were introduced to the sliced banana pancake (with coconut syrup) when they were young, childless, and galavanting in Hawaii. To Tom, slices were obvious; to me, it was a pancake revolution. The bananas become gooey and caramelized and add more to a pancake than you would expect from their benign mildness.

Read more | bridgit | Share

Tom is emphatic about one thing: you must do at least 1 I-wouln't-have-done-this-except-it's-a-snow-day thing on each and every snow day. Getting caught up on laundry and cleaning the bathroom are allowed, as long as you do at least one totally fun snow day thing. For me, that means muffins. I started making these last spring and haven't made them much since, because they're really a cool weather muffin in my opinion. They've got that cozy molasses thing going for them, and I like them a lot, even with the lower sugar option.

Bran Muffins adapted from Joy
Makes 12 good sized muffins

Dry ingredients:
2 c flour (I used white whole wheat)
1 1/3 c oat or wheat bran
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

Wet ingredients:
2 large eggs
2-4 tbsp sugar
1 1/3 c butter milk*
1/4 c molasses
1/4 c apple sauce
1/4 c butter, melted and cooled
zest of 1 orange (at least 2 tsp).

1/2 c rasins (I once tried apricots, but the flavor was lost entirely)
1/2 c. walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin. Mix the dry and wet ingredients separately. Add the raisins and nuts to the wet ingredients. Mix the wet into the dry. Do not over mix, but be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl. Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Bake for 20-22 min until a toothpick come out with just a few crumbs. Let cool 2-3 min before removing from pan. Serve hot or cool on a cooling rack.

*or put 1 tbsp vinegar in measuring cup and top off with milk. let sit for at least 5 min. Or do 1/2 milk, 1/2 yogurt. I just took the extra whey from my messed up batch of yogurt (about 1/3 cup) and topped that off with milk to equal the recipe amount. The key is to have that acid to interact with the baking soda, but the flavor of real buttermilk is irreplaceable.

bridgit | Share

Assignment: 1 Full recipe Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
Hamburger or Hotdog Buns
1 Loaf Apple Strudel

I've been having fun baking with this group: it has certainly served as major motivation to make some of the recipes in the Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book that would have taken me years to try. However, not one to take assignments literally, I made a major substitution right away. We did another batch of the Master Recipe instead of the Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread. Why? We really haven't been thrilled enriched doughs, so with the cost of local eggs and honey, and the recent layoff, it just didn't seem worth it. But I was certainly excited to get on with the apple strudel bread.
WIth all these ingredients, I needed a helper.

Eli is in charge of measuring raisins and walnuts... with supervision.




Read more | bridgit | Share