2009 January

Everyday Omelet

January 29, 2009 by Rebecca 2 Comments

Today I won a battle in my semi-perpetual war to make myself prepare homemade breakfasts for my kids. And I had a major ‘duh’ moment. I made eggs. DUH! The original convenience food. Why do I not break these out for breakfast more often?

Break eggs for breakfast. I crack me up. Oh someone stop me. I’ll have egg on my face if I don’t quit soon.

A nice plate full of high-protein eggs is just the thing these wiggly worms need to eat to settle them down long enough to get math, science, language and handwriting done. Their little bodies are so busy digesting all that lovely protein that it keeps them relatively calm. (Nifty trick to remember if you want to settle your kids for an outing, church, school, etc… )

The kids wolfed down the eggs. I went through -are you ready to hear this? Really ready?- 14 eggs this morning. That was just for the boys. If The Evil Genius hadn’t already been on the way to work you could have bumped that total by about 4 eggs. And me? I’m not so much a breakfast person. High heresy I know, but I’m more of a “wide-open-IV-drip-of-black-tea” kind of person. Be what you is and not what you is not… But my kids? They require the breakfast on a daily basis. And they require it immediately upon waking. And that is where omelets come in handy.

Much has been written about ‘the perfect omelet’ and how elusive it is. I’m not talking about the perfect omelet here. I’m talking about a really good omelet that is done -start to finish- in five minutes or less. An omelet than can be made to suit the eater’s likes or dislikes. An omelet that can be a vehicle for grated cheese, leftover cooked meat and vegetables, or served pure as the egg itself with just a sprinkle of salt. In short, it ain’t what I’d serve Thomas Keller if he was visiting -assuming he felt like visiting a house with five wild honyaks and their two nerd parents in Amish country- but it’s a darned good everyday omelet.

omeletplated3

For a printable, non-picture laden version of this recipe, click here!

Everyday Omelet

Ingredients:

2 large fresh eggs
1 Tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon butter
salt and pepper to taste
meat, cheese and vegetables for filling, optional
minced herbs to sprinkle over the top of omelet, optional

Crack eggs into a medium bowl, add milk and whisk until evenly colored and loose. Set aside.

If you are making filled omelets, dice and gently heat any meat or vegetables you will be using as filling. If using cheese, make sure it’s already grated. Omelets, like stir-fries, go like a run-away train once started. If you don’t have something ready to go before starting to cook those eggs you’re better off leaving it out. Omelets wait for no man. Or woman.

In a non-stick skillet, melt the butter over medium-low to medium heat until bubbly but not brown. Add eggs and use a silicone spatula to gently push the egg around the pan, scraping the bottom, while swirling the pan to fill in the open spaces with liquid egg.

Do this just until there is not enough liquid egg to fill in any more spaces.

pict0085

Use the spatula to neaten up the edges of the omelet…

pict0081

…and allow to cook, untouched for about 1 minute. At this point you can go any of the following ways:

For a flat omelet that is firm all the way through: Slide omelet onto a plate and invert back into the pan. Continue to cook until desired doneness is reached.

For a folded, plain omelet that is firm, but not brown: Turn one third of the omelet into the center using the spatula. Slide the omelet toward the edge, so that the unfolded part is up against the lip of the pan.

blurryomeletflip

Again, use the spatula to help turn the upturned part of the omelet toward the center. Slide the omelet, seam side down, onto a plate and tent with foil for 3 minutes. Remove foil and serve.

For a folded, filled omelet that is firm: Sprinkle desired fillings over the center third of the omelet. Fold the omelet using the instructions for the folded plain omelet that is firm.

For a folded, filled omelet that is slightly custardy in the center: Sprinkle desired fillings over the center third of the omelet. Fold the omelet using the instructions for the folded plain omelet. Slide onto the plate, seam side down, and serve immediately.

If you like, and I do, you can sprinkle the top of the omelet with minced parsley or other green herbs. My eldest boys like a little marjoram on top of their omelets. But this is strictly optional. Especially for that child who ‘hates the green stuff so much’.

omeletplated2

Need some inspiration on what to use for filling in your omelet? Pick something from each category and experiment a little. It’s hard to go too far wrong with such a nice canvas…

Meats:

Diced or thinly sliced chicken
roast beef
ham or turkey
leftover taco meat
leftover sloppy joe or loosemeat filling

Vegetables:

Steamed or sauteed broccoli
leftover small-diced homefries
roasted potatoes
asparagus-any-old-which-way
caramelized onions
wilted greens like spinach or kale
shaved sauteed fennel

Cheeses:

Cheddar
mozzarella
Parmesan
Romano
Stilton
bleu cheese
Munster
Swiss

Some of my favorites:

Ham, caramelized onions and Swiss cheese.
Roast beef, fennel and mozzarella.
Taco meat, avocado and Cheddar.
Roast pork, broccoli and Munster.

Filed Under: Breakfast Foods, Eggs, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian

If I were snowed in for a week, the six ingredients I couldn’t do without would be…

January 27, 2009 by Rebecca 13 Comments

We’re looking down the barrel of another snowstorm that is due to begin this evening. The first thing I did when I saw the weather report was start a grocery list. The Evil Genius will be doing the shopping since he works right in ‘The City’ and we live in, well, ‘Far From The City’. The poor man will be wandering through Wegman’s with a glazed look on his face, muttering ominously about the prices of thyme and heavy cream.

I’m the prepared type. I like to be assured that -within reason- I can satisfy most of my food whims whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot. Or whether the weather is dumping a foot of snow in just 8 hours or not. (Rhyming feels good. Give it a whirl.)

I come from a family of contingency planners. I was discussing this with one of my bazillion little sisters (actually it’s only three, but if all four of us are in a room together we sound like a bazillion. You should see the brothers’/husbands’/fiance’s eyes…) yesterday. Christina, a.k.a. Aunt Tuna, was visiting her fiance in Beantown during the last real storm. K-Thrash, a.k.a. Kevlar (because he, too, has a name), had ventured out in the storm to procure the necessary ingredients for her to make beef stew with dumplings for him and his roomies. He returned with the groceries and Christina set about prepping. She went to the pantry to find the herbs and spices she assumed were present. As in the herbs and spices that you need to eat on a daily basis, and dang if those guys didn’t lack thyme in their pantry. Thyme was pretty crucial to that dish. Christina characterized the resulting dish as ‘something that looked like stew with dumplings but didn’t taste like it’. And I’m just obsessive compulsive enough for the idea of stew without thyme to haunt me at night a teensy bit…

K-Thrash. I would like to address you personally for a moment. Please keep my little sister in thyme when you two are married. Because, really, all you need is thyme. Thyme waits for no man. You can save thyme in a bottle. Thyme, oh give me thyme. ‘Cause thyme makes lovers feel like they got something real. (Sorry about the Culture Club reference. I’ll make you a rockin’ wedding cake to atone for it.)

I apologize for the tangent. I’m constitutionally incapable of staying on-point. The idea of this entire post was to ask you all something thought-provoking but not deep. If you were snowed in for a week, what are the six pantry ingredients you would need to stay sane? Why six? It’s a nice round number. (Actually, it’s because I was going to say five, but realized I really needed dried beans on the list.)

For the purposes of making this interesting I’m excluding salt, pepper, sugar, flour, tea and coffee, and herbs from the discussion. They’re pretty ubiquitous. Unless you’re a starving photography school grad student in Beantown, apparently.

Here’s my list:

Garlic
Onions
Canned tomatoes
Potatoes
Dried beans (black, pinto, cannellini, kidney, garbanzo, etc…)
Dutch process cocoa powder

With those five ingredients I could, with assistance from the meat stored in my freezer) turn out a week’s worth of three meals a day and dessert in the evening. I could make pasta sauce with the garlic, onions, and tomatoes. I could make fried, baked or boiled potatoes with onions and garlic. I could make chocolate pudding, chocolate cake, or brownies with the dutch process cocoa powder. Throw in some ground beef with the first five ingredients and I’d have some respectable chili or a pretty-good-soup.

What about you? What are the five ingredients you wouldn’t want to do without? What would you make with them?

P.S. Don’t tell Kevlar, but I ran out of thyme yesterday…

Filed Under: Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian

Greek Quinoa Salad

January 21, 2009 by Rebecca 8 Comments

Right. Let me get this out of the way now. This post is going to be short and sweet. Actually short and savory. My water heater has been broken since the wee hours of Saturday morning and I’m afraid that if I stay in one place too long (to type a wordy post, par example) that I might smell myself. And after five days of no shower, let me assure you it’s an idea that strikes fear deep in my pea-picking little heart.

This Greek Quinoa Salad was a natch to serve with the Garlic Lemon Chicken Breast I served last night. *recipe forthcoming when I am less in danger of succumbing to my own stink. Sorry if that’s in TMI territory. It’s light, it’s delicious, and it’s calculated to fill you up without weighing you down. I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. Quinoa equals power food and gives you more nutritional bang for your buck than pasta or rice. I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record about the quinoa but it’s wonderful in so many ways. I wish the quinoa people, whoever they are, would sponsor me so I can buy a back-up water heater.

What else is fabulous about this recipe? It is great hot, warm or cold. It uses both pickled and fresh garlic. It uses frozen spinach (*sidebar. Speaking of getting nutritional bang for your buck you’d do much worse than stocking your freezer with frozen spinach. You can boost the nutrition content of many savory dishes by throwing in a handful or two of this frozen green gold. Plus you don’t have to wash the pesky fresh spinach and chop the harsh stems from it… And there’s more, but again, I don’t want to smell me.) And it makes ample use of Feta cheese. What’s not to love? So go make some of this. Pronto.

I bit the top off of my pretty little quinoa tower five seconds after shutting off my camera.

Greek Quinoa Salad

The quantities given below are for a half batch of what I make. I tell you this stuff is great leftover and cold, but I also know that not everyone is feeding 7 souls at a meal. Feel free to double this back up.

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa, rinsed several times in clean water to remove bitter coating
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 teaspoon salt, plus 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 of a 1 lb package of frozen, chopped spinach. Do not thaw!
2-3 ounces, to taste, Feta cheese, cut into 1/4″ cubes or crumbled
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup onion, fine diced
2 cloves pickled garlic, sliced thin
1 clove raw garlic, peeled and minced or pressed
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried parsley or 1 Tablespoon minced fresh parsley
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Add the quinoa, water, and 1 teaspoon of salt to a medium saucepan that has a tight fitting lid. Bring to a boil, uncovered. Add cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until most of the water is absorbed.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… In a medium bowl (or in a mason jar with a tight fitting screw-top lid) whisk (or shake) together vinegar, lemon juice, salt, oregano, parsley, red pepper flakes and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add olive oil and whisk again (or shake) until the vinaigrette is emulsified. In other words, until you can’t see separate layers of oil and vinegar. Everything should look almost creamy…

By now, your quinoa should be about done. Add the spinach, onion, and both garlics to the quinoa and toss with a fork. A long fork. Or use a short fork and an oven mitt. This stuff is steamy hot right now! The spinach will help cool the quinoa down somewhat. Add the vinaigrette to the quinoa, spinach and garlic and toss until evenly coated. Carefully stir in the feta cubes and serve immediately or chill and serve cold. YUM!

Filed Under: Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian

Velvety Chocolate and Vanilla Custards (Pots de Crème) and a tutorial.

January 19, 2009 by Rebecca 5 Comments

Pots de crème, a.k.a. baked individual custards, are one of my favorite foods in the entire world. Just knowing that I have a few little ramekins of this heavenly custard waiting for me in the fridge helps me handle anything the day, or a child, throws my way. The Evil Genius gets almost weepy when he knows I’m making these for dessert.

There are not enough superlatives in existence to describe these dreamy custards but I’ll try anyway. If silk or velvet could become a food they would become this one. I think Lindy gets closer to the appropriate level of food-worshipping description due to these custards when he takes a bite, shuts his eyes and whispers reverently, “It’s like chocolate butter…” My kids go silent when eating these. And that silence? Let’s just say that it’s a precious and rare commodity…

The original recipe that I’ve used for years came from one of the first ‘Everyday Food’ magazines. It’s available online, but stick with me. I have some tips that are helpful for both the novice and frustrated custard makers and I have a couple extra touches that make these custards even more wonderful.

For a printable, photo-free copy of the recipe, click here.

Velvety Baked Chocolate and Vanilla Custards

You can make either Vanilla or Chocolate Custard with the same custard base. Simply omit the chocolate for a pure vanilla custard. I personally prefer the chocolate, but I know that’s not a shared universal obsession trait.

1 1/2 cups half and half
1/4 cup vanilla sugar (or plain sugar)
3 large egg yolks
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (and/or 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped into the half and half)

If making the chocolate custards, you will also need:

3 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips), melted *see note below for help melting chocolate!

Preheat oven to 325F. Put a large kettle of water on to boil. In a medium saucepan, bring half and half, and vanilla extract and bean and seeds- if using- just to a boil.

Pretty please do not walk away from this. It is ever so difficult to clean up scorched half and half from your stovetop. Really. As soon as it begins to boil, remove pan from the heat and set aside.

Add yolks, sugar and salt to a medium bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer)

If you’re the astute type you’ll probably notice that there are vastly more egg yolks in the photo below than the amount called for in the recipe. That’d be because I don’t make this without making at least a triple batch. Here you see the egg yolks for a quadruple batch plus one since my chickens are still laying relatively small eggs. Don’t hate me.

…and whisk until thickened and light.

If making chocolate custard, at this point you will add the melted chocolate to the eggs and whisk until chocolate is fully incorporated. Carefully whisk in a small amount -about a half a cup- of the hot half and half mixture. DON’T –and I can’t stress this enough– ADD ALL THE HALF AND HALF AT ONCE. Sorry for type-screaming, but this is important. When that is fully incorporated add the rest of the half and half mixture and whisk thoroughly. If desired, you can scoop any foam off the top. To make sure you have the smoothest possible custard, pour the custard through a fine mesh sieve into a large measuring cup with a pouring spout. I know that sounds wicked picky, but when you’re pouring hot anything into eggs you stand a chance of lightly scrambling just a wee bit of it no matter how careful you are. Pouring it through the sieve guarantees you a scrambled-egg free custard. Divide evenly among ramekins or small jelly jars.

Place jars in a roasting or sided-baking pan that is just large enough to hold them all. Place pan on center rack in the preheated oven.

Now you’re going to construct something very fancy-schmancy sounding; a bain marie. This translates loosely as ‘a water bath’. You are keeping the custard from cooking too quickly around the edges by applying the gentle, moist heat of steam. If you don’t believe it makes a difference, you can try baking these without the water bath but I’d prefer you took my word for it. Believe me, I’ve done it without the water bath and it just isn’t as silky and decadent.

Carefully pour water into the pan, taking care not to pour the water into the custard, until it reaches about halfway up the sides of the custard dishes. Loosely tent the pan with foil and bake for about 45 minutes or until the custard is set on the outside edges, but still a bit wobbly in the center.

Remove custard cups to a cooling rack from the water-filled pan. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 2 hours prior to serving.

*Need help melting chocolate? The easiest method is to place the chocolate chips or chopped chocolate in a microwave safe dish. Microwave, uncovered, for about 1minute on HIGH. Remove, stir well, and return to the microwave. Heat at 15 second intervals, stirring after each, until the chocolate is glossy, smooth and completely melted.

And in the interest of keeping my moral compass aimed in the right direction I should probably say that I may have eaten a couple baked custards while typing this post. And I may or may not have waited for it to cool to eat it. And life looks good right now I tell you.

Filed Under: Desserts, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes

Blueberry Love Muffins

January 14, 2009 by Rebecca 8 Comments

Dang. It is cold. At least it is cold here in my own little corner of Amish country. When I woke this morning my outdoor thermometer was shivering. I used what little brain power I have available prior to quaffing a pot of Irish Breakfast Tea to decide that firing up the oven to bake would be a very, very good idea. Courtesy of the forward thinking I had done two days previously, I had blueberry muffin batter waiting for me in the fridge so I didn’t have to measure or do anything requiring precision of thought or movement. I love muffins.

This blueberry muffin recipe comes courtesy of the King Arthur Flour website but I learned about it from a very special young friend; Abigail Santora. Abby is the daughter of my dear friend, Alison. Alison and I go way back. So far back that at our ages it might be indecent to mention the number of years of friendship we have under our belts. Abby has become quite the cook lately. The last time we stayed over at their house, Abby whipped up a beautiful batch of these muffins in under 20 minutes for the whole crew.

The key to the speed here is that you prepare the muffin batter ahead of time. It can store in the chill-chest for up to a week. That means that you folks out there who, unlike myself, don’t have to make at least 1 dozen muffins per meal can bake just as many as you need at one time. (Hey Melissa! That’s you… wink wink!) Just roll out of bed and into your fluffy bunny slippers, itch your head a bit, wander into the kitchen and preheat the oven to 375°F, throw some liners in your muffin tin, scoop, sprinkle with sugar and bake. Can you feel the love?

Make Ahead Blueberry Love Muffins

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (9.5 oz.)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (or 4 TB or 4 oz) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar (5.25 oz) or vanilla sugar (even yummier!)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt (4 oz.)
1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen (7.5 oz)
turbinado or coarse sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Line a tray with silicone muffin cups (or line a muffin tin with papers and spray them with non-stick cooking spray.)

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in one egg at a time, taking care to fully incorporate each egg before moving on. Add in the vanilla and sour cream or yogurt and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients and mix just until the batter is smooth. This is a very thick batter, so please don’t thin it out! Fold in the blueberries by hand. This is where frozen blueberries are much simpler!

At this point you can either tightly cover the batter or move right on to baking… If you’re refrigerating the batter my direction to you to preheat the oven and prepare all those muffin cups was pointless. Sorry about that.

If you choose to hold on to the batter the cooking is just the same from this point on in the proceedings.

Scoop a heaping 1/4 cup of batter into each muffin cup and sprinkle generously with turbinado or coarse sugar.

Bake for 18-24 minutes or until they’re a lovely golden brown and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Mmmmm. Love Muffins. Now that’s starting the day right!

And if any of you, like me, have a child or two or three who refuse to eat anything blue or fruit, these muffins cook up beautifully sans blueberries, too!

Filed Under: Bread, Happy Healthy and Wise, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian

Power Juicy Jigglers

January 13, 2009 by Rebecca 8 Comments

My kids ate so many sweets over the holidays that I really thought maybe they’d be tired out on them. No way, Jose! Not even close. So back into the file I keep on (relatively) healthy snacks. I suppose everyone has their own idea of what constitutes healthy eating, so just for the record let me explain my criteria:

Minimally processed. I prefer to make food from scratch both for the sake of our tastebuds and the sake of our health. With a few notable exceptions (wine, cheese, dry-aged beef, etc…) most foods taste best and contain the most nutrients when they’re fresh. I do, however, hit the fish sticks pretty hard at least twice a year. It’s a weakness.
No artificial colorings or flavorings. I’m not freaky strict about this. I’ve been known to enjoy gummi bears and the occasional Shamrock Shake, but I am of the opinion that less is more in this category. Not that everything natural is good for you (think belladonna and digitalis, par example…) In most situations, though, adding color is completely unnecessary. Unless we’re talking ‘red velvet cake’, in which case it’s positively, very, very necessary… (I’m not eating it, though. Ew.)
Use the real stuff. It is easier for the body to metabolize butter rather than margarine, olive oil (or canola, vegetable, peanut, etc…) than Olestra, sugar than High Fructose Corn Syrup, and so on. It is far better for you to eat less of the offending item.
Variety is the spice of life. Instead of worrying about the food pyramid, food octagon or fifty servings or this or that we’re supposed to calculate and consume daily, just strive for variety: Variety in color, texture, preparation style, and taste will almost ensure your health. My sister shoots for something green and something orange at every meal. I shoot for brown and not-brown. (I.E. Beef and Snow Peas on Rice, Pork Roast and Sweet Potatoes with a Salad, Venison Stew with Potatoes, Carrots and Celery.)
Anything you can do I can do better. I guess this is just the stubborn in me. I like to prove to myself that I can make nearly anything better from scratch than it can be bought in the store. It started with soft pretzels and has escalated past pickles and homemade pasta to homemade Worcestershire sauce. The Worcestershire sauce was a project for my sister’s family who deals with some pretty extreme food sensitivities. Ever try finding a Worcestershire sauce sans corn syrup or soy? Yeah. I made it in my kitchen. Not bad.
Are you a good fat or a bad fat? The good fats are in almost every meal here. Think olive oil, avocados, canola oil, nuts, salmon, and more. The bad fats, well the saturated fats, make less frequent appearances in the forms of bacon, butter, cream cheese and half and half. The really bad fats, the trans fats, (non-dairy creamer, shortening, packaged snacks, and the dreaded margarine) almost never show up on our table.

I want to make clear that I’m not going to freak out and commit ritual suicide if my kids ingest a L’il Hug and a Ho Ho at a friend’s house, but I’m going to make sure to balance it out here at home.

In the spirit of balancing out some of what they’ve inhaled the past few weeks I’m back at it in the kitchen. Want sweets, do they? Alrighty then. It’s time to bust out the classic Knox Blox with a bit of a twist. There are a great many juices from which to choose in the markets these days and many of them would work admirably here. I applied the criteria given above and eliminated 2/3 of the juice right off the bat. Look at those labels if you haven’t before. You might be shocked at how many of them have High Fructose Corn Syrup and food coloring! Most often, something labeled ’100% juice’ is a good bet. This time I chose “Apple and Eve Fruitables Strawberry Mango”. It is a blend of fruits and vegetables and is loaded with vitamins and minerals. Why not pack a snack with nutrition if you can? The best part of this is that you can let the kids eat as much as they want. There doesn’t need to be any added sugar and it’s juice, for Pete’s sake!

Who needs food coloring when it looks like this without help?

Power Juicy Jigglers

I think it probably goes without saying that I doubled this, but I’ll say it anyway. I doubled this. I’d imagine you could even triple it easily if you’re feeding even more kids than I do…

Ingredients:

4 ’1/2 oz’ Envelopes (or 4 Tablespoons) unflavored gelatine
1 cup cold 100% fruit juice or fruit and vegetable juice blend
3 cups 100% fruit juice or fruit and vegetable juice blend, heated to boiling
2 Tablespoons honey, optional (I did not use this!)

Sprinkle gelatine over cold fruit juice in a large bowl. Allow it to sit, undisturbed, for 1 minute. Add the hot juice and stir for about 5 minutes, or until the gelatine is completely dissolved. Pour into a 13″ x 9″ pan or molds and refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.

To serve, cut into desired shapes and watch the kids dive in. My kids are low maintenance here and like small cubes. Every now and then, my need to fuss with food takes precedence, and I find myself cutting the jigglers into stars, cowboys or the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Yeah. Betcha I’m one of the few folks out there who has a Yooper cookie cutter, right???

Filed Under: Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Rebecca, Recipes, Snacks, Stretching your dollars, Uncategorized Tagged With: 100% juice, fruit snacks, healthy snacks, jello alternative, juice snacks

Homemade Seed Crackers

January 8, 2009 by Rebecca 3 Comments

Sooooo… Did I mention that we had more than 30 people in our home to celebrate Ty’s birthday? (A.K.A. New Year’s Eve. Such a helpful and cooperative baby… He was our little tax deduction.) And did I mention that with the notable exceptions of the rocking hummus my sister made and the fudge from my friend Beth I made all the food? Really, what kind of catering fool would I be if I didn’t cater my own son’s birthday bash? A couple words quickly come to mind: Sane, Smart, and Aware-of-my-own-limitations, for starters…

One of the fun foods I played with for Ty’s shindig was homemade crackers based on Alton Brown’s Seedy Crisps recipe. The main thing I did differently than AB was use mustard seeds and granulated garlic in place of the poppy seeds. Did I mess with it because I thought I knew better? Nah. I did it because I was out of poppy seeds, but the resulting crackers were delicious. And when paired with some extra sharp white cheddar the mustard seeds in these crackers really sing!

They were easy to make since I took AB’s advice and rolled them out with my pasta machine. That was some seriously handy device advice from the culinary multi-tasking king. I found that the dough made it through the machine more intact when I lightly rolled over each piece with my rolling pin before sending it through the pasta machine. They baked up quickly and were done before the party with plenty of time to spare for me to run around and shove dirty socks under the couch, arrange food storage buckets in front of ginormous piles of laundry in the basement and other things like that…

Try these. Really. I bet you have everything in your cupboards or pantry and they’re so ever-loving good. And, lest I forget, they’re actually really good for you. Stick THAT in your New Year’s Resolution pipe and smoke it! They’re super tasty for lunch, too. Think about it; flavorful and seedy whole grain crackers with tuna salad. Wouldn’t that get you through your day nicely?

Seedy Crackers

For a printable copy of this recipe, sans pictures, click here!

You could easily substitute other seeds for the mustard seeds as I did for the poppy seeds. Think creatively; throw in some flax seed or nigella seeds in the whimsy strikes you.

I am not trying to scare you but you really don’t want to overcook these. Burnt seeds taste nasty. Not burnt seeds taste wonderful. Just watch them carefully while they bake. I’m just looking out for you.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup plus 1 rounded Tablespoon whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur White Wheat since I’m kind of in love with it…)
Scoop 1 TB dehydrated garlic flakes and 1/4 cup of brown or yellow mustard seeds into a 1/3 cup measure and top it off with sesame seeds.
1/3 cup sesame seeds (that is in addition to the seeds listed above)
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (non aluminum variety)
3 Tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon water

In a large bowl, use a whisk to combine the flours, garlic, mustard and sesame seeds, salt and baking powder. Evenly drizzle the olive oil over the top of the dry ingredients…

and use your clean hand to mix it. Add the water all at once and use your hand to stir it until it forms a rough dough.

Lightly flour your countertop and turn the cracker dough out.

Knead about five times …

and then divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Cover with a clean towel and allow the dough to rest for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll out until it is about 1/8″ thick. You can either lay the strip of dough onto your parchment paper as is or cut down into smaller portions. Either way, bake for 6 minutes, flip the cracker and bake for another 6 minutes. You may need to bake a little longer or a little less depending on how thick you’ve made the crackers. Just keep your eyes on them and remove from the oven when they’re a golden brown and they smell good.

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Bread, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, Rebecca, Recipes, Snacks, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian

This is for my Dad.

January 6, 2009 by Rebecca 1 Comment

My wild and crazy crew was lucky enough to be visited by my Dad-and-Val (my counterpart here at Foodie With Family) over the holidays. After five days of relief for me (“Hey! Why don’t you go share that stream-of-consciousness story idea you’re developing with Grandma? She LOVES to read!” and “Papa is outside walking the dog. Why don’t you go out with him? He looks like he could use your company. All five of you.”) and five days of Dad-and-Val wishing they had hearing aids so they could turn them down our visit came to an end. It was such a treat having them here.

When I got kitted up to go out in the near-zero temperatures to feed the chickens I heard my father snickering. Thinking Dad was reading something funny or formulating a clever pun I asked, “What’s so funny, Dad?” He replied, while pointing at my get-up, “When you were fourteen I never thought I’d see the day that you weren’t worried about how you looked in front of someone else.”

Well, Dad, this is for you. This is how much I’ve grown. I’m posting a picture of me in that gear and proving that I’ve matured to the point where I can let people laugh at me… (The truth is that my kids killed every last ounce of pride I had related to my appearance. It’s hard to remain vain when someone wipes a booger or frosting on you regardless of the audience or setting…)

And what you can’t see in the picture because (more proof of my dwindling lack of concern about my appearance) I’ve done away with full-length mirrors, is that I’m also wearing wide wale vibrant purple corduroys and knee-high chicken poop covered barn boots. How ’bout THAT?

You will note that my son has no such streak of vanity. Except for the fact that he insists on plastering his hair firmly to his head with water before church a la Dumb and Dumber. I don’t get him. But I still like him…

I still clean up okay, though…

Filed Under: Rebecca