Blueberry Coconut Granola

Man do I love eating breakfast. I love making Saturday morning French toast or Sunday brunch poached eggs with thick cut bacon but, what about all the other days of the week. Wolfing down a bowl of cereal or grabbing a banana on the way out the door just never really satisfies the way I want it to. I have a solution for weekday rushed breakfast: Sunday night granola. Making the granola the night before takes all the pressure off weekday mornings and you can still have a special homemade breakfast.  Having homemade, crunchy- sweet granola will help a Monday feel less terrible. I found a recipe that I switched up a bit and really did the trick.  Best part is, it's so freakin' easy. 

4 Cups rolled oats

3/4 Cup sliced almonds

1 Cup of flaked coconut

1 Cup Maple syrup 

1/2 Cup brown sugar 

2 Tsp Vanilla extract 

2 Tbsp Lemon juice 

1 Tsp Lemon Zest. 

1 Cup of dried Blueberries.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Combine oats, almonds, and coconut in a large bowl and set aside. 

2. In a medium saucepan  put maple syrup, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and zest on low heat. Stir until combined and sugar has melted. 

3. Pour syrup mixture over the oats and toss the oats like a salad until well coated. 

4. For easy clean-up line a baking sheet with foil and pour the mixture on the sheet. 

5. Bake for 10 minutes and stir the granola on the baking sheet and continue to cook for another 10 minutes or until granola is no longer sticky or wet. 

6. Let the granola cool on the baking sheet and then add the dried blueberries. 

Serve with milk or yogurt and some fresh sliced fruit and you've got a pretty quick and special weekday breakfast. 

Parmesan Risotto with Roasted Aparagus

I took a quick posting hiatus but I definitely haven't stopped cooking. 

There are few things better than a homemade bowl of Parmesan risotto. I tend to make this risotto about once every other month. It comforts, it soothes, and when I add a little roasted asparagus I don't feel so bad about eating a bowl of wine, broth, and cheese soaked rice.

Here's what happened:

1 Bunch of asparagus - I only actually use half the bunch and save the rest for other dishes.

1 Quart of chicken broth. - Homemade if you have it. I often make this dish after the chicken process has begun.

1 Small Spanish onion 

2 Cloves of garlic - minced 

1 1/2 Cups of arborio rice

3/4 Cup of white wine - I almost always use Pinot Grigio for it's crisp clean taste. Use whatever you like to drink.

1/2 Cup of Parmesan cheese - grated

Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Salt and pepper to taste.

For the Asparagus: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Drizzle asparagus with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. 

3. Bake in oven on a baking sheet for 10-15 minutes depended on the thickness.

4. Take what you want for the risotto and cut into inch sized pieces.

For the Risotto:

1. Put the chicken broth in a large saucepan and set to a very low heat. 

2. In a medium heavy bottomed saucepan add two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. To the hot oil add the shallots and garlic.

3. Stir and wait about 3 minutes before added the rice. Stir the mixture together making sure the grains are coated with the oil keep stirring for 2 minutes. 

4. Add the wine stir to combine and let the rice soak up the wine. 

5. Once the wine is soaked up add a ladle-full of the chicken broth, a little more than 1/2 cup. Stir to combine and then allow the rice to do the work. 

6. Repeat this process, stirring often, until the rice is cooked al dente. This takes about the entirety of the quart of chicken broth to achieve. Towards the end of the broth start taking little tastes till you get the softness you prefer.

7. Once the rice is done add the cheese and chopped asparagus. I strongly recommend using freshly grated real Parmesan. It makes a real difference.

Congratulatory Vanilla Almond Texas Sheet Cake

My friend and roommate, originally from Texas, recently got married in his home lone-star state. We were really bummed we couldn't make it down for the wedding but we decided to throw him a little surprise party. What would be more fitting than to make him some good old fashioned Texas sheet cake. I originally had in mind (read: bought the ingredients for and started making) a chocolate sheet cake when I had the sense to ask him if he even likes chocolate cake.

"Making chocolate cake for the blog, don't you just love chocolate cake"

"No, it's not my thing"

New plan.

I quickly searched for a vanilla cake recipe and found a white Texas sheet cake recipe all over the place but I wanted a little less almond flavor.

Here's what happened:

For the Cake
2 Cups of all purpose flour
2 Cups of sugar
1 Tsp of baking soda 
1/2 Cup of butter
1 Cup of water
1/2 Cup shortening
1/2 Cup of buttermilk
2 Eggs
1 Tsp of vanilla extract
1 Tsp of almond extract
1 Tsp of lemon zest.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
Grease and flour a half sheet pan/17in jelly roll pan.

1. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, and baking soda.
2. Put the butter, water, shortening in a medium sauce pan on a low heat till totally melted and combined. Set aside till a little cooler.
3. In a smaller bowl beat the eggs, buttermilk, extracts and zest together.
4. Add all the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients stir until smooth.
5. Pour batter into prepared half sheet pan spread out evenly (It was very useful to have an angled spatula to make this cake) and set to bake for 20 minutes.

If you are like me, you are confused/concerned that the half sheet is way to shallow to bake a cake. It's not. It is a very thin sweet cake that is quick and great for a crowd.

While the cake was cooling. I made the frosting


For the Frosting:

1 Cup of very soft butter
3-4 Tbsp. of heavy cream.
1 Tsp. of vanilla extract
3 Cups of confectioners sugar.

1. Sift the confectioners sugar in a bowl and set aside.
2. With an electric hand mixer using the whisk attachments whisk the butter, heavy cream and vanilla together until smooth.
3. Adding the confectioners sugar a few tablespoons at a time continue mixing until you've used all the sugar up.

The Chicken Process : Roast Chicken and Broth

There are a few things I need to cook to make myself happy and roast chicken is one of them. Making roast chicken starts off what I call the chicken process. There are hundreds of roast chicken recipes everywhere and I'mm well aware of how similar they may look to this one but this is the one I've been making the longest. From this chicken I often make broth(recipe below) or use the rest of the bird for other things such as chicken pot pie.

1 Whole 4-5lb organic chicken
2 Tbsp good olive oil
1 Head of garlic - halved
1 Small lemon - in quarters - Sometimes I can only fit half of the lemon, don't worry, there will still be great flavor.
6 Sprigs of Rosemary
6 Sprigs of Thyme
3 Tbsp Kosher Salt
Fresh ground pepper

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

1. Wash off the chicken and its cavity and thoroughly dry the outside of the bird.
2. Sprinkle the olive oil all over the top the bird and massage under the skin of the breast.
3. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of kosher salt and grind some pepper in the cavity.
4. Put 4 sprigs of thyme, 4 sprigs of rosemary, garlic and lemon in the bird. - If you have kitchen twine tie the legs together.
5. Run your knife through the rest of the thyme and rosemary and sprinkle the herb mixture, garlic powder, remainder of the salt and pepper evenly over the bird.
6. Bake at 375 for 1 hour and 20 minutes or more if needed. Let sit for 10-15 minutes before cutting into it.

Had to take this photos with my phone as my camera was missing at the moment. Sorry for the terrible quality. 

Since I'm always cooking for two I normally just carve the breasts for dinner that night and take one leg for the next day.

For Chicken Broth:

I then take the rest of the carcass remove what I can out of the cavity and pour water in a large sauce pan till the breast bone is about covered.

To the pot add :
2 Carrots
2 Stalks of celery
1 Small onion - halved.
If you saved the neck from the inside of the bird add this too for more flavor.
Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Let this mixture simmer covered for 2-3 hours.
2. Strain the broth and store in the fridge for a week of freezer for a month. I heard a great tip of freezing the broth in ice cube trays and storing the chicken broth cubes in freezer bags for when you just want to add a little chicken flavor to a dish.

Quinoa Salad with Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette

I need to spend more time than I have right now to explain what happened with the Easter ham, so, I will post about a quinoa salad that I experimented with the other day. Due to being fairly poor, I spend a lot of time deciding on how to reinvent my left overs. This process often gets too creative and doesn't work well at all. This quinoa salad however, turned out pretty well, so I'll share. A few days prior to making this salad I made something I called a warm asparagus salad. I quickly cooked one minced clove of garlic in one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. To that I added 8-10 diced spears of asparagus, half a diced red onion and half a yellow pepper diced. I served that mixture over spring greens. As I was only cooking for two I ended up with 1 1/2 cups of veggies left over. 

I visited a good friend of mine last summer and she served a quinioa salad that involved a maple balsamic vinaigrette. It was light, refreshing and filling. Food memories stick with me a long time and here is my take on what she made that day although I can not remember what she put in it. I'll blame that on the vodka she was serving with the quinioa. 

Here's what happened: 

For the Quinioa:

1 Cup of Quinioa

2 Cups of Water

1/2 Tbsp of Butter

1/2 Tsp salt 

For the Vinaigrette: 

1/4 Tsp Ground Pepper 

1/2 Tsp Kosher Salt 

3 Tbsp Maple Syrup - Grade B 

2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar 

1 Tbsp Olive oil 

1/2 Cup of Diced carrots - I had maroon carrots on hand which added a great color.

1/2 Cup of Fresh mozerella - diced - I added this to make a little less healthy for the picky eaters to enjoy.

The vegetable mixture described above.

Salt and pepper to taste. 

1. Bring water and quinoa, water, salt and butter to a boil in a medium saucepan. Stir and then lower the heat to low. Cover the pan until all the water is absorbed. 

2. Add 5 tbsp of the vinaigrette to the quinoa and put it in the refrigerator. 

3. As soon as the quinoa had cooled I added the cheese, the mixture of left over veggies, and the uncooked diced carrots and one more tbsp. of the vinaigrette.

The quinoa salad held up really nicely alongside a London broil I made that night.

Easter Fresh Ham?

My mother, for the first time ever, decided to buy a fresh ham for Easter dinner. Trying to figure out what to do with it should be fun. All I know right now is I think I might need a bucket for this one. There will be documentation. Stay tuned.

Buttermilk Almond Scones with Maple Glaze

Whatever someone originally buys buttermilk for, they are inevitably left with at least a pint extra. I purchased buttermilk to make Sunday breakfast last weekend and started brainstorming of what to do with what was left over. I was just going to make some buttermilk cornbread but I had promised a recipe involving maple syrup. This recipe is the sweet installation of my maple recipe posts. The next entry will be savory. 

Buttermilk Almond Scones:

1 Cup of Flour

1/2 sliced almonds - ground 

3 Tbsp of Sugar

1 Tsp of Baking powder

1 Tsp of Baking soda

6 Tbsp Butter - Salted - cut into small cubes

1/2 Cup of Buttermilk 

Maple Glaze:

3/4 Cup of Confectioners sugar

2 Tbsp Heavy cream 

2 Tbsp Maple Syrup 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees 

2. Take sliced almonds and grind them in food processors. 

3. In large bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. 

4. Add sifted dry ingredients and cubes of butter into the food processor with ground almonds. Turn on until a coarse meal is formed. 

5. Return the mixture to the large bowl and add buttermilk. Stir until well combined. 

6. Turn dough over to a floured surface and form a circle about 1/2 inch thick and divide into 8 equal parts. 

7. Bake a couple inches apart on a pan lined with parchment paper for 12-15 minutes or just until they have slightly browned. 

8. While the scones are cooling whisk together all the ingredients for the glaze. 

Scones taste really great while they are still slightly warm.