Cinnamon Granola

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Granola with fresh berries!

One of our favorite breakfast places, First Watch, has a great Chia Seed Pudding, made with coconut milk, berries and really cinnamonny granola.

I make it at home sometimes, but it’s the granola that I make over and over again, using a recipe from Melskitchencafe.com.

Mel bakes her granola at a higher temperature, and let’s it cool completely before breaking it up. It stays in little chunks that way.

I use this granola for snacking, or on top of oatmeal or with fruit over yoghurt. It’s so good.

Ingredients

6 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans (can use other nuts, too.)
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp kosher salt (use 1/3 tsp if using table salt)

Syrup:
½ cup light olive oil
½ cup honey or agave nectar
1½ tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper or a silpat mat and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all of the granola ingredients and toss or stir to evenly combine.

In a small bowl, blend syrup ingredients until well-combined. Pour the syrup over the granola ingredients and stir until all the ingredients are evenly coated.

Scrape half of the mixture onto each sheet pan. Spread into an even layer.

Bake for 15-25 minutes, stirring once or twice and rotating pans halfway through. Keep an eye on the color – you want it to be lightly brown, without getting burned.

Leave it to cool completely. Gently break it up and store in an airtight container.

Mushrooms with Brown Butter & Sage

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This is such a delicious dish – mushrooms sauteed in brown butter and sage, seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic with a little spinach and a dollop of Mascarpone cheese. These flavors always feel very woodsy to me and I love that it feels meaty and satisfying, but not heavy.

Ingredients
8 oz pasta, any kind
4 Tbsp butter
1 tsp dried Sage, crushed
1 ½ lbs mushrooms (Costco package), washed and halved
½ tsp kosher salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
3 cups baby spinach
2 Tbsp Mascarpone cheese (Cream cheese is fine, too.)
Romano cheese grated as a garnish (Just a little)

Start a pot of salted water boiling, and add Pasta. Cook until done – but not mushy.

Meanwhile, rinse the mushrooms well. I know you’re not “supposed” to do that, but rinsing is so much quicker and any little water that they absorb cooks off anyway. For washing larger quantities of mushrooms, a basket strainer like this works great:

In a large frying pan on medium heat, melt the butter and continue cooking and stirring until the butter gets a nice brown color and smells nutty. Takes about 5 minutes or so.

Add the Sage and stir for about 30 seconds.

Add the mushrooms and toss well. Continue cooking and stirring until the mushrooms release their water, and then add the salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Continue cooking and stir occasionally, until only about a half cup of liquid is left. Add the baby spinach and stir to wilt. Take off the heat and add the Mascarpone cheese, stirring gently to combine.

Taste a mushroom and add a little salt, pepper or garlic powder if needed. Sprinkle a good-sized pinch of rubbed sage over the top, and grate a little Pecorino Romano cheese over.

Serve over pasta. Delish!

Dying Easter Eggs Blue, Naturally

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For a really fun alternative to commercially prepared egg dyes, try dying eggs using natural ingredients. One of my favorite, surprising ways to dye eggs is by using Red Cabbage. This is a great project to do with kids!

Ingredients

1 red cabbage, cut into thin slices
1 Tbsp vinegar
18 eggs (or as many as you want)

Place cabbage into a large pot and add water about 2/3 of the way to the top. Add vinegar and eggs, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 12-15 minutes and remove from heat. Let cool and remove eggs and rinse off any bits of cabbage stuck to them. (They won’t be dyed yet, but it’s easier to cook the eggs that way. Removing stray cabbage bits is important – I still had a good bit of cabbage on my eggs and I got a few blotchy spots.)

Place eggs into a large pitcher. Once cabbage water has cooled a bit, pour it through a fine mesh strainer over the eggs. Cover and store in the refrigerator for several hours for a light blue color. Keep them in overnight if you want darker. I kept mine in the cabbage water for about 18 hours total.

Carefully pour out the cabbage water and pat the eggs dry.

For more colors, try onion skins for pretty yellow and beets for soft pink, prepared the same way. You’ll never go back to commercial dyes!

Incredible Dill & Onion Dip

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Dill Seeds are well known, but Dill Weed deserves more credit! It’s the star of the show in this adaptation of the Pioneer Woman’s Dill Dip. I served it with raw veggies and as a sauce on Baked Salmon, at my brother Ron’s suggestion. So delicious!

How I fell in love with Dill Weed: My neighbor Gene has tons of dill growing in his garden and let me harvest quite a lot last fall. Drying dill weed is easy and it adds great flavor to many dishes. I often make Salmon with dried dill, salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Ree adds 2 Tbsp of pickle juice, but I didn’t have any so I just added a little vinegar. She also only uses mayo and sour cream, but since I had a lot of plain yogurt, I drained it and used about a cup.

Ingredients

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1 cup plain whole milk yogurt, drained (see note 1 below)
2 tsp vinegar
2 Tbsp dried dill (see note 2 below)
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 Tbsp dried minced onions
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl. Cover with plastic and store in the fridge overnight. Taste before serving and add salt if needed. The minced onions rehydrate and blend with the dill to make a truly delicious dip.

Note 1:

To make your own “greek” style yogurt at home you just need an empty yogurt container and a paper coffee filter. Cut a few notches in the bottom of the container, and tuck a coffee filter down around the bottom. Add the yogurt and let it drain into a deep cup in the fridge for several hours or overnight. If you let it drain until it is quite thick, you can actually season it and use it as a very soft cheese.

Here’s my notched yogurt container:

Note 2:

Drying Dill is also super easy, you can tie it as shown in the beautiful photo above by Elena Kloppenburg on Unsplash. Or you can just use a clothespin to hold it. Then just pop it in a folded down brown paper lunch bag and wait a few days. Keeping the stems intact, crush the leaves, leaving as much stem as possible. Store in a mason jar with a tight seal.

Cheesy Spaghetti Pie with Mushrooms, Onions, Peppers and Sausage

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My Mom used to make Spaghetti Pie and I always loved it. I recently stumbled across this recipe, loaded with mushrooms, peppers, onions, Italian sausage and tomatoes, all on a spaghetti “crust” and decided to give it a try. It was amazing and makes a lot – so it’s good for a larger group. For a couple or small family, I’d halve it.

Ingredients

Nonstick cooking spray
Kosher salt
4 oz dried spaghetti
1 Tbsp butter
1 large egg, beaten
1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated parmesan cheese
2 tsp olive oil
1 lb. Italian sausage, removed from casing, or lean ground beef (90 percent lean or higher)
4 cups sliced fresh button mushrooms
1 cup chopped yellow or white onion
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 Tbsp dried Onion Flakes
2 cloves garlic, minced or finely grated, or 1 ½ tsp garlic powder
One (8-ounce) can no-salt-added tomato sauce, or 1 can of diced tomatoes, drained
1 tsp dried oregano
1 cup cottage cheese, drained (could also use yoghurt cheese*)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
Fresh basil leaves, for serving (optional)

Step 1
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray.

Bring a medium pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Cook the spaghetti according to package directions until al dente, then drain. Return the spaghetti to the pot and stir in the butter until melted. Stir in the egg and parmesan cheese until combined.

Step 2
Meanwhile, in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat, heat the oil until it shimmers. Add the sausage or beef, mushrooms, onion, bell pepper and garlic and cook, stirring, until the meat is browned and the onion and mushrooms are tender, about 8 minutes. Stir in the tomato sauce and oregano and heat through, about 2 minutes.

Step 3
Transfer the spaghetti mixture to the prepared pie plate and press it into the bottom and up the sides of the plate, forming a crust. Spread the cottage cheese over the pasta mixture and top with the meat mixture, followed by the mozzarella.

*Yoghurt Cheese is just plain whole fat yoghurt with a bit of salt, that’s strained in the refrigerator overnight in a muslin cloth or coffee filter, letting the whey run off into a bowl. It’s a bit like cream cheese but tangier.

Pie Crust Recipes: Traditional Pastry and Graham Cracker Crust

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I don’t often make pie crusts from scratch, but when I do, I have the best luck with this recipe.

Traditional Pie Crust:

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3-4 Tbsp cold water

With a fork, stir together flour and salt in a medium bowl. Pour in vegetable oil and mix gently until the mix is quite crumbly.

Dribble in 3 Tbsp of cold water and gently start mixing it in. The dough will start to stick together and start to form large lumps. If it isn’t, add the rest of the water.

Lay out a section of waxed paper that is twice as wide as it is tall and fold it in half. Unfold it and dump the pie dough onto the bottom layer. Form a flattish 6″ circle. You don’t want to beat it up – just pull all the loosish bits together. Fold the top over and begin to roll it out in a rough circle.

Keep your pie pan handy, and keep rolling until your circle is roughly 1/2″ – 1″ bigger than the pie pan. Remove the top layer of wax paper and “roll” the crust around the rolling pin. Unroll the crust over the pie pan, gently tugging and pushing down so the crust is well-seated in the pan.

Fold the edges up and under themselves, cutting off any extra-long bits and adding them anywhere your crust isn’t quite long enough. Then you can either use a fork to create a ridged edge, or you can crimp the edge with your hand. It’s easier to see than read – here is a video showing how to  crimp a pie crust.

Prick with a fork all over the bottom and bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes.  No chilling – and no baking beans or whatever.  Just pop it in the oven and bake it. You want the edges of the crust to just begin to darken. You’ll also smell a cooked flour aroma.

Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Add filling.  (If you’re using the crust for a filling that needs to bake, just fill it first and follow the baking times for baking a filled pie.)

Graham Cracker (or other cookie) Pie Crust:

1 1/2 cups crushed graham crackers or BelVita Honey and Nuts cookies (3 packs of 2 cookies each)
1/3 cup melted butter
3Tbsp of sugar (1 1/2 Tbsp if you are using Belvita Cookies.)

Mix in a bowl, then dump into a pie pan, gently spreading the crumbs with the back of a spoon, going up the sides of the pan as well.  (Doesn’t have to be perfect – partway up is fine.)   Bake for 10 minutes at 350, remove and let cool before filling.

Mushroom, Leek & Cheese Scrambled Eggs

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Poked through the veggie drawer this morning, hungry for something “brunchy” yet healthy. Fortunately I had some really nice mushrooms and a leek, perfect for scrambled eggs. I made up a recipe on the fly and to my delight, it was surprisingly delicious. Thought I’d have enough for leftovers, but nope – ate the whole thing!

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 medium leek, halved and cut into 1″ pieces (be sure to wash really well)
1/4 cup diced onions
2 Tbsp diced peppers
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 kosher salt
few grinds of freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of dried basil leaves
½ tsp butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 slice sharp cheddar cheese (approximately) torn into smaller pieces

Heat olive oil on medium heat in a large frying pan and add mushroom, onions and peppers. Cook, stirring occasionally until the mushrooms have released their water and it has dried back up again. (7-8 minutes?) Add the butter, leeks and seasonings and saute for another 5 minutes.

Once leeks have softened up a bit, turn the heat way down. After a few minutes stir in the beaten eggs and start folding and gently stirring. Once eggs are mostly cooked, add cheese and continue folding and stirring until cheese is mostly melted. Check seasoning and serve immediately.

Mandarin, Feta, Pomegranate and Candied Pecan Salad

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This recipe is based on Holiday Salad from MelsKitchenCafe.com. It is such a colorful, beautiful salad that doing it on a platter (the way my dear friend Donna does it) is worth it. I made this for Thanksgiving and it was so good! In the mad rush of getting ready for Thanksgiving, I totally forgot to photograph it, but will so do soon.

6 ounces (3-4 cups) mixed salad greens
6 ounces (3-4 cups) chopped romaine
2 11oz cans mandarin oranges, drained and oranges patted dry
½ cup crumbled Feta cheese
1 cup pomegranate arils or ½ cup Craisins
½ cup candied maple pecans or walnuts (see note)

Dressing:
¼ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup olive oil
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
¼ tsp salt

INSTRUCTIONS

Dressing: Add ingredients for dressing in a jar with a lid and shake very well until the dressing is nice and creamy.

Toss salad greens in a large bowl. Add most of the mandarin oranges and toss with ½ the dressing.

Lay greens on a large platter, and place the rest of the mandarins, feta cheese, pomegranate arils and pecans on top.

Serve extra dressing in a small pitcher.

To make candied maple pecans: in a small nonstick skillet, add about 1 Tbsp of maple syrup, 1 Tbsp water, a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Heat in skillet until it’s nice and bubbly. Toss in pecan halves and swirl until they’re lightly coated. Pour out onto a silpat mat or parchment paper. Let cool and break up. The pecans should be lightly sweetened, not gobbed up with sugar.

Fast and Easy No Knead Cast Iron Skillet Bread

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I bumped into Artisan Bread with Steve on Youtube when I was looking for new bread recipes, and have been pretty addicted ever since. I am especially crazy about his turbo loaf that you bake in a cast iron skillet – since it’s ready in about 3 hours from start to finish – and has wonderful texture and flavor.

I love Steve’s videos: they’re very helpful, to the point and not video extravaganzas. He’s just a real guy baking great bread. Just look for Artisan Bread with Steve on youtube. He actually has a website, too: nokneadbreadcentral.com and has published couple of cookbooks that would be agreat Christmas gift for anyone who is interested in easy homemade bread.

I am including basic bread with sesame seeds that we really like, but you can add anything you like to the bread: chopped olives and rosemary, chopped walnuts and honey, or Feta with dill or whatever you can imagine*. I add lighter items like herbs and sesame seeds right at the start, and heavier things like cheese and olives after the first rise.

I also use Mel’s Kitchen Cafe’s trick of tossing in a handful of ice cubes on the bottom of the oven at the start of baking to add a little steam.

Ingredients:

13 oz warm water
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/4 tsp yeast
3 1/2 cups flour (Steve uses bread flour, but I’ve had great luck with AP flour, too)
1/4 cup sesame seeds divided (optional)

Warm a medium-sized metal bowl with fairly hot water for a few minutes. Then dump the water and add 13 oz. warm water, salt, yeast and about 1/2 the sesame seeds. Stir just a bit with the handle of a wooden spoon.

Add flour and stir with the handle of the wooden spoon until all the dry flour is gathered up in a nice shaggy mess. If you need to, add a spoon or so of water to help gather eveyrthing up.

Cover with a clean towel and put in the oven with the oven light on. Let rise for 90 minutes. Make sure your oven rack is in the middle.

Uncover and stir again with the wooden spoon handle to collapse the dough a little.

Once the dough is reduced, sprinkle the rest of the sesame seeds over the dough and around the edges. Turn the dough around to get sesame seeds everwhere. Then do the same thing with a spoon of flour if desired.

Spray your cast iron skillet with cooking oil, and place the loaf in the skillet. Cover with a cloth and let it rise for 15 minutes on the counter. After 15 minutes, start preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Let rise 15 more minutes.

Put skillet in hot oven, toss a handlful of ice cubes to the bottom of the oven and let bake for 40 minutes. So good and so easy!

*If you’re adding other ingredients, add them after the first rise. Just flatten the dough in the bowl and evenly sprinkle 1/4 of whatever you’re adding over it. Then just fold the dough over and repeat the process until you’ve used everything up.

Mexican Veggie Soup – Caldo de Res (Sorta)

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There is a great Mexican grocery store near us and recently, I noticed a really interesting tray of veggies in the produce section, simply labeled “Mexican Soup Mix.”

Curiosity piqued, I brought them home, along with a ½ lb. of Chorizo. (Not sure if that’s traditional, but I love how Chorizo adds flavor. You could really probably leave it out, too.)

The closest recipe I could find is called Caldo de Res, so that’s what I based my recipe on. Though this is not a classic Caldo de Res, it is an easy and delicious soup, and makes a big batch – perfect for cool fall evenings.

Really almost everything you need is in the package, including about a million extra red chiles. I am not brave enough to use all those chiles, but maybe someday! Here’s all the veggies, in case you can’t find the mix.

The mix includes a Chayote Squash, which is the green veggie on the far left. I used it like any other squash, though I removed the pit, which oddly it has. I chopped all the vegetables in small bite-sizes like for soup, so not too finely.

Ingredients:

½ lb. Chorizo
1 tsp olive oil
½ onion, rough chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 long red chiles, whole
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
½ tsp cumin
2 carrots, diced
½ small cabbage, rough chopped
1 Chayote squash, pit removed and rough chopped
2 potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled and rough chopped
1 small zucchini, rough chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
1 ear of corn, cut into 4-5 sections, or corn kernels removed
4 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup fresh cilantro chopped
Juice of one lime

Serve with:
Sour Cream
More chopped Cilantro
Grated mild cheese
warm corn tortillas
lime wedges
Jalapeno slices

Add oil to large Dutch oven and add Chorizo. Cook a few minutes until lightly browned. Add onion and cook for a few minutes until onion is softened, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and chiles and cook for a minute or two.

Add seasonings and all veggies, except for cilantro and lime. Add chicken stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes, covered.

When Chayote Squash and potatoes are soft, gently stir in Cilantro and Lime juice.

Serve in a wide bowl, topped with sour cream, chopped cilantro, mild cheese, lime wedges and Jalapeno slices.

Warm corn tortillas are delicious too, especially dipped into the broth. You can easily heat corn tortillas in the microwave.

Just lay 5-6 tortillas on a small plate and cover with another plate. Microwave for 30 to 60 seconds, until nice and warm. Keep covered when you serve.

So good!