EBTKS Granola Bars

I'm just going to come out and say it.
I'm a culinary hoarder.

I thought I would feel better saying it out loud but now I just feel kind of ashamed about it.

But, my shame is your gain.

I accumulate different oddball ingredients that I only need for one recipe and then I'm stuck with a whole lot of things like golden syrup or ground cardamom or turmeric or any variety of nuts. And then every time I open the cupboard, it's a glaring reminder of my wasteful consumerism.

Wasteful consumerism be damned, I was bound and determined to use up my really lovely ingredients and I found these granola bars to do it with. They have everything but the kitchen sink. Have no fear, I didn't use turmeric or ground cardamom in these, although that sounds like a bit of an Iron Chef challenge. Maybe I'll save that for a later post.



This recipe is really quite easy and not too time consuming and honest to pete, they are super tasty.
"Better than store bought?", you ask.

Well, if you're looking for a Kudos kind of granola bar, you're better off just buying yourself a candy bar, but if you're looking for Kashi type, slightly chewy/slightly crunchy bar, then yes, I would say these are better.

But that's just my opinion, man.

You start by toasting the majority of the ingredients. I left out the pistachios because they were already roasted, the raisins and the oat bran.


While they are toasting away in the oven you can combine the binding ingredients in a medium sauce pan over low heat. This is the glue that will hold it all together. The tasty, tasty glue.



During the toasting process things will start to smell heavenly.



I, amazingly enough, have never toasted coconut before, but after this, I might have to make it a regular occurrence.

After everything has been toasted, you throw it all in a large bowl.



And pour the binding concoction over the whole mess and quickly, but ever so carefully, mix it all together because that mammajamma is super hot and super sticky.

Spread the whole hot, sticky, and soon to be extremely tasty mess into a parchment lined pan and bake it for 25 mins.



You just have to let them cool, take them out of the pans, and cut into bars.

Now, I know when you take the pans out of the oven and smell that glorious, nutty, sweet smell, you'll  immediately want to take them out of the pan and cut them up to then stand over the kitchen sink while stuffing them into your face.

Wait, you don't have the urge to do that? You have better self control than that?

That's weird.

Well, if you did have that urge, fight it with all you've got because until they're completely cooled, they're still highly malleable and you'll just end up with  crumbly piles of granola instead of nice little neat bars. Which really is okay, if that's what you're going for.  It's not like I know from experience or anything.



Wrap them up in plastic wrap or put them in a plastic container and they'll last a little longer than a week. That is, if you have that much self control. We obviously have some self control issues to address up in here.

Enjoy!

EBTKS Granola Bars

Adapted from Alton Brown's Recipe

Like I said, the ingredients below were chosen simply to use up what I had in my pantry.
You can swap any of the nuts, seeds or dried fruit to adapt the recipe to compliment your tastes.

Makes 10-12 bars

8 Ounces Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
2 Ounces Roasted Pistachios
3 Ounces Slivered Almonds
1 Ounce Flax Seeds
2 Ounces Raw Sunflower Seeds
1 1/2 Ounces Oat Bran
3 Ounces Golden Raisins
3 Ounces Sweeten Shredded Coconut
6 Ounces Honey
1 3/4 Ounces Brown Sugar
1 Ounce Unsalted Butter
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1/2 Teaspoon Fine Sea Salt


Prepare your baking dish by either lining it with parchment paper or buttering. You can use a 9 x 9 dish or, as you can see, I used 2 large loaf pans.
Set oven racks to the 2 center positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread the oats, slivered almonds, flax seeds and sunflower seeds out on a shallow baking pan. Do the same with the coconut.

Place these two pans in the oven and toast for about 15 mins, rotating and stirring occasionally. The coconut will take less than 15 mins so just keep an eye on it and as soon as it starts to turn golden brown, remove from oven and let cool.
After oat mixture is done toasting, remove and let cool and reduce oven to 300 degrees.

While ingredients are toasting in oven, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, vanilla extract and sea salt in a medium sauce pan over low heat.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until brown sugar is completely dissolved and mixture is just starting to bubble.

Immediately add the brown sugar mixture to oat mixture and stir to combine.
Carefully turn mixture out into prepared pan(s) and press down with spatula, making sure mixture is evenly distributed.
Bake for 25 mins, rotating half way through.
Remove from oven and as cautioned before, allow to cool completely, cut into desired shapes and wrap  individually in plastic wrap or place in an airtight container for up to a week.

Satisfying Mediterranean Salad

I'm writing this to make up for the earlier cookie post.

I'm sorry. That wasn't fair.

Everyone is working so hard and diligently on their new years resolutions of eating healthier and losing weight and overall improving themselves. And then I come along and drop that chocolately, melt in your mouth confection right in the middle of your computer screen. Totes not fair.

To make it up to you (and my waistline) I'm delivering this vibrant and healthy salad to you.

Wait, did I just hear a groan? It's only January 12th and you're sick of salads already? This is not good.

Well, you are lucky, my friend. This is not just a sad lettuce and veggie salad. This salad has pasta in it.

Ok, good, there you are. I knew the promise of pasta would bring you back.



And sauteed onions and peppers. Just the smell of that would make anyone happy.



Fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. Those darn veggies.



I've just started appreciating chickpeas. They add that element of meat but they're healthier than meat. Amazing.



And the dressing is zippy and robust and the best thing... no mayo



This will leave you satisfied and satiated without feeling like you need to take a nap. Plus, it saves enough calories so you can have one of these for dessert. Sneaky, right?

Satisfying Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Adapted from Everybody Likes Sandwiches

Serves: 6 very hungry or 8 kind of hungry people

Salad:
1 Cup Prepared Orzo Pasta
1 Cup Canned Chickpeas, drained and rinsed**
1 Medium Yellow Bell Pepper, Diced
1/2 Medium Yellow Onion, Diced
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 Medium Cucumber, Diced
1 Cup Grape Tomatoes, Cut in Half

Dressing:
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Juice and Zest of 1 Lemon
1 Clove Garlic, finely minced
1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1/2 Teaspoon Honey
1/2 Teaspoon Cumin
1/2 Teaspoon Dried Dill
Salt & Pepper

Prepare Orzo as directed on package and allow to cool.

Heat the 1 Tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat and saute the onions and bell peppers until onions are slightly translucent and bell peppers have softened. Approximately 15-20 mins.

Combine all dressing ingredients except salt and pepper in small, tight fitting lidded jar, and shake vigorously.

Combine all of the salad components in large bowl and drizzle the dressing over the top. Toss, season to taste with salt and pepper and serve over a bed of baby spinach with a side of crusty bread. Enjoy!

**For the chickpeas, the canned variety are incredibly easy but I far prefer the dried, soaked overnight and prepared version. They take a little more forethought but I find them far less gritty than the canned kind.

To prepare the dried kind, soak 1 cup of dried chickpeas overnight in 6-8 cups of water.

After soaking, drain and rinse and combine in medium stock pot with 6-8 cups of fresh water over medium heat. Bring to low boil and let cook, covered, for 1- 1 1/2 hours or until chickpeas are tender.

Remove from heat and let cool. Rinse cooked beans before using. This amount will leave you with more than enough for the salad recipe. That way you can find interesting ways to use the leftovers.

Who doesn't like chocolate?

There are actually quite a few people who don't like chocolate.

I don't think you should trust any of them.

You also shouldn't trust people who don't like camping or Steve Miller Band. These are just tried and true litmus tests for trust worthy people.

If you're one of those people who doesn't like chocolate, now is the time for you to click away because this is what one pound of chocolate looks like:



Yep, that's an entire pound.



That's maybe a whole pound minus a couple of ounces.

It's called quality control. Lay off me.

It's a major weakness of mine.

You know what else is a major weakness?

Cookbooks.



This cookbook was ordered as a christmas gift for someone and K had already ordered a present for said person so it just kind of accidentally got absorbed into my collection. Ooops.

It's a pretty sweet cookbook. It has a wonderful assortment of recipes and tips and illustrations. This was an awesome mistake.

I wish I could say that I also accidentally ate 2 scoops of the uncooked dough of these cookies, but that was no accident. I poured a glass of milk and totally intentionally ate those two full scoops of dough. It was awesome.
I don't condone eating raw cookie dough. It's not safe. It is, however, amazingly delicious. I'm a daredevil like that.


These cookies are just as awesome when they're baked too.



I would suggest you bake up some of them yourself.


Thick and Cakey Triple Chocolate Cookies

From Cooks Illustrated Cook Book

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Cocoa
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Pound Semi-Sweet Chocolate, Chopped
4 Large Eggs
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
10 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Softened
1 1/2 Cups of Packed Light Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
2 Cups of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

Add the chopped chocolate to a heavy bottomed medium sauce pan over low heat and stir occasionally until only small pieces are left in the melted chocolate. Remove from heat and stir until remaining chocolate pieces have melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together butter and sugars at medium speed.
Reduce speed to low, add eggs and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
Add melted chocolate in a steady stream and mix until combined, scraping sides while mixing.
With mixer still running, add flour mixture and mix until just combined. Do not over mix.
With a spoon, mix in chocolate chips.
Tightly cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rest at room temperature for 30 mins until consistency is scoopable.

In 2 tablespoon portions roll dough into balls and space 1 1/2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets.

Bake for 10 mins, rotating cookie sheets half way through.

Let cookies cool on baking sheets for 10 mins and transfer to wire rack.

If you don't want to make all 4 dozen cookies at once, you can place the baking sheets with the rolled dough in the freezer for a few hours or at least until they're frozen solid and then place the uncooked balls in a freezer bag and put them back in the freezer.
That way you can pop them into the oven, still frozen and add an addition 2 minutes to baking time and you will have fresh baked cookie goodness whenever you want.

The post that never was

First my apologies for being checked out for awhile.

I have no excuse for it other than having a major writing block. My computer has been giving me dirty looks. I avoided even going in the same room with it for the last month. And as far as being in the kitchen is concerned, I didn't even make a single christmas cookie.

No, I take that back. I attempted to make a batch of christmas cookies but for some reason I used 3 sticks of butter instead of 1 1/2, like the recipe called for. Yeah, Yikes. I didn't take any pictures of that.

I traveled to my hometown, Duluth, MN, for Christmas and after a much needed break from reality, I find myself back in the very temperately climated and crowded city of LA.

We've had a bit of a game changer come about in the last 3 weeks. After 10 shorts months of living in LA for me and 2 1/2 years for K we have made the decision to move back to Wisconsin. We're both slightly unsure of what this will bring but we know that it will be nice to be back closer to family and friends and I will have to retire the Toms until summer, which really is heartbreaking, but life goes on.

And with that, I leave you with some  snap shots from the last few months of last year:

This is how you should always start thanksgiving day:

and with this too:

And then around mid afternoon rock some of this:

Right after you take these out of the oven:

and start what could possibly be the most ugly and delicious cake roll ever:

and then unleash the grill master on the main dish:

and then sit down and enjoy each-others company over an amazing meal:

Follow that up with definitely the most ugly and delicious cake roll ever:


I found some time to make some gifts:





The frozen tundra for Christmas:

It was actually in the 40's when we were on the lake this day. It was down right balmy.

I've never seen the ice this smooth and clear before:


I got to snuggle with all these cute little babies:


And I got to feast with all these wonderful people:


And when I mean feast, I mean FEAST:


We had to go play on the lake a little more to work all the feasting off:




But don't be fooled, there was a lot of napping too:


There was a visit to the north shore of the Big Lake (Lake Superior)



People were surfing. Only in Northern Minnesota:


I don't think I can do much better than people surfing on Lake Superior in December.

What about triple chocolate chip cookies? I'll be coming back at ya with some of those really soon. I promise.

On, Wisconsin!

Cheese is a big deal at our house.



There are no fewer than 5 different kinds of cheeses in our refrigerator as I write this. Not to mention milk, buttermilk, yogurt and ice cream in the freezer.
I'm originally from Minnesota but having spent the majority of my adult life in Wisconsin, it's safe to say that "The Dairy State" was not lost on me.

That being said, we were lucky enough to spend some time in our beloved Wisconsin last weekend.



That's my, "you're far too close with that camera" face.

K was a groomsman in the wedding of one of his high school buddies.



They are such a cute couple.



And they are so fun to see together. I wish them a wonderful, long and happy life as husband and wife.



The wedding was a blast, to say the least



I got to spend the weekend celebrating the start of wonderful couple's marriage with a group of our amazing friends, see the changing fall leaves, play with K's baby niece, experienced a little bit of a thunder storm and I did it all with my most favorite person.

Extreme weekend bliss!

After returning from the lovely fall weekend in Wisconsin, I found myself at the end of October and realized I hadn't done a lick of fall baking.



And what's more fall than a rosy ripe apple?



And there's not a whole lot that goes together better than a crispy tart apple and an extra sharp cheddar.



The trick to making a scone with a tender crumb is cold butter and very little fuss. I don't know if you could ask much more from a recipe.



The quicker you work the butter into the flour and the less you handle the dough, the lighter and fluffy your scone will be.



This recipe is about as close as you can get to baking instant gratification.



And I really don't think there is such a thing as too much cheese



And that is absolute contentment.



Cheddar and Apple Scones

Adapted from allrecipes.com

Makes 6 large or 8 medium scones

Preheat Oven to 450 degrees

1 3/4 Cup All-Purpose Flour
3 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/3 Cup Cold Butter Cubed
1 Cup Buttermilk
1 Cup Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese with extra for sprinkling
3/4 Cup Peeled and Diced Apples

Sift together first 5 ingredients into a large bowl. Cut butter into flour mixture until there are small pea sized pieces of butter. You can do this with a fork, pastry blender or your fingers.

With a wooden spoon, stir in buttermilk, just until moistened. There might be little bits of unincorporated flour in the bottom of the bowl. That's okay, just don't over work the dough.

Gently fold in the cheese and apples. The moisture from the apples will pick of the remaining bits of flour in the bottom of the bowl.

Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and pat into a round about 12 inches in diameter.
There's no need to be exact or perfect at this point. Just whack it out into 6 to 8 rough triangle shapes. It will taste better the less handling you do.

Gently transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle with a little extra cheese.
Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 15-18 mins or until light golden brown.

Cool on a rack for 10 mins. Best if served warm slathered with butter. Because of the moisture in the apples these don't keep their just baked texture very long but you can store them up to 2 days in a sealed container.

Depending on the sweetness of your apples and your sweet tooth preferences you can add more or less sugar to the dough. Because the apples I used were quite tart I used 3 tablespoons and instead of plain white sure I used raw turbinado sugar.

I would suggest a very tart baking apple that will hold up well to baking. A gala or granny smith would work just lovely for this recipe.