Category: Recipes

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Sunday, Feb 28, 2010 | Cooking, Recipes, Spirit, Yoga | 4 comments

After the success of last week’s Chocolate Sunflower Granola Bars, which lasted most of the week and worked well for kids’ lunches and take-along snacks, I thought I’d try adapting another cookie recipe to the one-tray bar version (we all need variety, even in cookies). This bar is a little more chewy and cookie-like, and a little less seedy and granola-y. It’s adapted from the chocolate chip cookie recipe found in Mrs. Restino’s Country Kitchen.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Cream together 1 cup of softened butter with 1 cup of brown sugar, and 1/2 cup white sugar.
Next, add the following ingredients to the creamed mixture, and mix them in with a spoon till incorporated: 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use canola), 2 eggs, and 2 tsp. vanilla.
In a separate bowl, sift together the following: 2 cups unbleached flour, 2 cups whole wheat flour, 4 tsp. baking powder, and 1 tsp. salt. Add to the wet mixture in two additions, and mix till it comes together.
As usual, I kept my recipe nut-free (otherwise, I can’t send the end results in the kids’ school lunches, which totally defeats the purpose). In place of nuts, I substituted: 1 cup of oats. Stir those in, along with 1/2 cup of wheat germ, and 1 cup of chocolate chips.
Spread the dough on a greased cookie sheet, and bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 25 minutes. Cut into squares as soon as the giant cookie comes out of the oven. Let the tray rest, with the cut squares, on a rack till cool.
Kevin thought he liked last week’s squares best (more roughage to chew on), and Fooey thought these were the best. I give a gold medal to the baking method. I’ve been avoiding cookie-baking for awhile due to how time-consuming it is to drop the dough onto the tray in individual lumps, and then hang around the kitchen while baking tray after tray after tray. Both of these recipes make a substantial amount of bars that last the better part of the week. Bulk baking, baby.
:::
Yoga day was wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I am finding in this seemingly individual physical experience a collective joy that it wouldn’t be possible to find alone. I continue to reflect on the nature of awe, wonder, the body, and the spirit. I am glad. Plus, I baked four loaves of bread before leaving the house yesterday, so added to these cookie bars, and the waffles made fresh this morning and frozen for three breakfasts this coming week, it was a productive kitchen weekend. Kevin and Albus are working on supper together, while we are all glued to the hockey game. Albus’s menu: caesar salad with homemade dressing and homemade croutons, pasta with homemade pesto, and devilled eggs–for protein. Tonight we’ll be enjoying dessert, too: ice cream. Or, possibly, banana splits.
And Canada just scored the first goal of the game. I’m going to miss the Olympics.

Food, Glorious Food

Monday, Feb 22, 2010 | Cooking, Kids, Recipes | 8 comments

Here’s a new twist: Kevin cooking with the kids. Today, it was Fooey’s turn and I needed a break. So the two of them thought up the menu and made: wonton soup, and shrimp crepes with mint, lettuce and bean sprouts (from Vietnam in the global food cookbook). For dessert, which we’re eating right now: bananas fried in butter and brown sugar with mango sorbet. Good, good, and good!
Next week’s menu is already being discussed. It will be Albus’s turn. Kevin is pleased to participate in the cooking, and I am happy to pass the torch.
:::
With my spare cooking time this weekend, I made a chicken stock to freeze (and to use as a base for the wonton soup). I’ve been doing this regularly, every few weekends, making enough to freeze for adding to soups and other recipes during the week. Here’s my extremely basic recipe for chicken stock: I use the bones, skin, and gizzardy bits leftover from roasting a scrumptious Nina chicken, adding whole onions, garlic, carrots, celery, sometimes a potato or turnip, salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaves, and a few tbsp of apple cider vinegar; and of course litres of water, often coming close to filling my gigantic stock pot. After simmering for an hour or two, I let it cool, then strain everything out. The taste of this stock cannot be beat; except perhaps by the smell while it’s cooking. Which is why I keep making it.
:::
I also made whole wheat waffles, doubling the batch, and making enough to store several breakfasts’ worth for later in the week. Weekend waffle-making has become an excellent habit this winter.
:::
My final recipe success today: Chocolate Sunflower Granola Bars. This is adapted from Simply In Season’s Oatmeal Fruit Cookies, and was inspired by two different friends describing how they make cookie baking faster: by spreading the dough onto a sheet and cutting it into squares after baking. I had about 45 minutes in which to make these bars if we were going to make it to the planned afternoon family yoga outing. Plenty of time! Here’s my recipe:

Chocolate Sunflower Granola Bars
Cream together 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup oil, 1 cup sugar, and 2 tbsp honey. Scrape the bowl and beat till light and fluffy. Beat in 1 egg and 2 tsp vanilla.
In a separate bowl, combine 3 and 1/2 cups of oats, 2 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 and 1/2 cups chocolate chips, 1 cup sunflower seeds, and 1 teaspoon baking soda.
Add the dry to the wet, stirring just till mixed. You can add another sprinkling of flour if the mixture seems wet.
Spread the dough on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.
Cut into squares while the giant cookie is still hot.
(I left the cut, hot squares untouched in the cookie sheet and resting on the cooling rack for a couple of hours while Albus and Fooey and I went on a family yoga outing together, and the squares were lovely and cool and transferred nicely to the cookie container upon return. Not even crumbly!).

Hot and Sour

Saturday, Jan 9, 2010 | Recipes, Sick | 0 comments

It’s been awhile since I posted a recipe, but tonight’s was good. First, AppleApple and I ran errands together, and also got supplies for this weekend’s planned mother-child supper-making. More on that tomorrow, because by the time we got home it was late (I suffered a godawful coughing fit in the camera store, escaped outdoors, stood there on the sidewalk, eyes streaming, barely breathing, and was immediately approached by two Mormons, who offered me a cough candy, which was nice of them, but honestly.) Anyway, long story short, by the time we got home it was nearing suppertime, and our planned menu was much too complicated to start up from scratch at that late hour.
Kevin and I tried out the oil of oregano I’d purchased in desperation/hope at the health food store post-coughing fit. Powerful stuff. I felt pretty good after establishing that it hadn’t killed me.
“I need a bowl of hot-and-sour soup,” said Kevin, and I said, “I think I could do that.”
I’ve never done it before. But my pantry is stocked like January in Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. On weekends, I’ve been making chicken/turkey stock, then freezing it in conveniently sized containers. Makes a great addition to many recipes.
So, the H&S soup took almost no time to whip up, just a bit of prep, because it’s more or less instant once all the ingredients have been assembled. My version is ad-libbed with guidance from the Joy of Cooking. It was good. Nay, delicious. Yet completely unappealing to children, who ate, instead, warmed up macaroni from last night’s meal with ketchup. Yes, ketchup. “Pass that stuff made out of tomatoes,” said Fooey.
Kevin and I blew our noses and devoured the soup over thin rice noodles. And we added extra hot sauce.
:::
Hot and Sour Soup
In a large pot, bring 6-8 cups of chicken stock to a simmer. Add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of hot pepper flakes to the stock.
Meanwhile, in 1 and 1/2 cups of hot water, soak a handful of chopped dulse, or other sea vegetable (Joy of Cooking recommends dried mushrooms, but the seaweed substitutes well; use whatever you’ve got). Set aside.
In a second bowl, combine 5 tbsp cider vinegar, 3 tbsp tamari, and 1 tbsp cornstarch. Mix well. To this mixture, add half a block of chopped firm tofu (or 1 cup of shredded chicken or pork), and set aside (I topped the liquid up with boiling water to cover).
In a third bowl, combine 3 tbsp water with 3 tbsp cornstarch and mix well.
Now you’ve prepared all of your little bowls: it’s time to start putting the soup together.
Grind 1 tsp black pepper and add it to the soup.
Add the dulse and its liquid to the broth, and simmer for three minutes.
Add the cornstarch mixture to the simmering soup, and stir constantly until slightly thickened; about three minutes.
Add the tofu (or meat) mixture. Plus a small can of drained bamboo shoot sticks (totally optional; weird that these were in my cupboard; but a nice addition).
Return soup to a simmer, then stir in 1 egg, well beaten.
Remove from heat, add 1 tbsp of sesame oil (optional), and you’re ready to eat.

Recipes: Carrot Soup and non-Carrot Granola

Monday, Nov 2, 2009 | Recipes | 2 comments

On Halloween, the kids and I went out to Herrle’s Farm Market to buy pumpkins for carving, and discovered that it was their last day open for the season, and not only were there free cookies, danishes and butter tarts for customers (hello, heaven), but many items were on sale, too. So, among other purchases, including some delectable pickled sugar snap peas, we hauled home a huge bag of carrots. Usually, the kids eat so many carrots raw that they’re all devoured before I can cook with them. So, carrots became the theme of my Day of the Dead meal: carrot soup to start, and carrot cake to finish. The soup recipe is worth posting. Smooth, sweet, mild, and optionally vegan.

Ginger Carrot Soup
Peel and trim 2 lbs of carrots (or more, whatever looks good in your pot), add 4 cups water (or more, depending on how many carrots you’re using). Bring to a boil, simmer till soft. Reserve.
In a separate soup pot, saute 1-2 chopped onions, 2 cloves chopped garlic, 2 tbls grated ginger (or 1 tsp ground ginger) with 1 tbls butter or oil. Add additional seasonings: 1 and 1/2 tsp salt, plus 1/4 tsp each of the following: cumin; ground fennel; cinnamon; allspice; dried mint. (Add more or less of each according on your family’s tastebuds). Saute till onions are soft. Remove from heat. Stir in 3-4 tbls fresh lemon juice.
Now, pour/ladel in the cooked carrots and their cooking water. Puree everything together (I used last year’s Christmas gift: a handheld submersible food processing device that I stick directly into the cooking pot, hugely cutting down on the mess, and which I highly recommend.)
You can also add a cup of toasted cashews to the mix, though I didn’t.
(Adapted from The New Moosewood Cookbook.)
:::
A couple of months ago, a friend requested my granola recipe. She said my granola, as pictured on this blog, looked delicious, but hers always turned out raw-ish and sat heavily in the belly all morning. That was a small aha moment for me, because, truth be told, my granola looked pretty on the blog, but that most recent batch had effected a similar response in the gut. So I couldn’t, in good conscience, post the recipe. Till now! Last weekend, I had great success with a modified granola recipe, which even Apple-Apple will eat. It’s crunchy and sweet, almost cookie-ish, and flavoured with maple syrup.

Really Good Granola
Combine in a pan on the stove: 1/2 cup water, 1 cup oil, 1 cup maple syrup and/or honey, in whatever combination you like, 2 tsp vanilla, and 1 tbls salt (or a good deal less salt, if you prefer). Simmer till the ingredients are all melted together.
Meanwhile, in a separate large mixing bowl combine: 2 cups whole wheat flour, 6 cups rolled oats, 1 cup coconut, 1 cup wheat germ, and 1 cup flax and sunflower seeds in combination. (The coconut is definitely optional).
Now, add the warm blended liquids to the dry ingredients, mix thoroughly, and spread in a thin layer on two greased cookie trays. Bake at 250 degrees till dry and crunchy. This could take up to two hours, but check every half hour or so to stir and test, till it reaches your preferred texture.
You can add dried fruit and nuts afterward; but my kids prefer it very plain. Store in covered containers. This will last awhile … but hopefully not too long; the whole goal is to make food that disappears!
(Adapted from the More-With-Less Cookbook).

Ginger-Garlic Cold-Fighting Brew

Monday, Sep 21, 2009 | Recipes | 2 comments

Re Michelle’s request, inspired by the post below from earlier this morning, here’s the recipe for my (not at all disgusting, I assure you!) ginger-garlic-lemon drinkable stew. I swear by it.

Combine in a medium-sized saucepan: the juice of one lemon, a good two inches of peeled ginger root, five to ten peeled and crushed cloves of garlic. Cover with water, anywhere between four to eight cups, and simmer for awhile. Pour into a mug with lots of honey, and sip while hot. A sprinkling of cayenne pepper is optional in the original stew. A peppermint tea bag is also optional in your mug. I keep adding water and stewing and sipping all day.
Wishing you health!

Recipes for a Party

Sunday, Aug 9, 2009 | Local Food, Recipes | 2 comments

I like a party where people of all ages can relax and have a good time, including the hosts. And I really really really enjoy hosting just such a party. The planning! The feeding! The mingling! The half-finished conversations and the help with the dishes! My planning basics are: who, when, food, beverages, activities, seating. I’m fond of a good to-do list. If all the thinking and preparation is completed before the guests arrive, you can just let events unfold in a lovely swirl around you.

Herein, a few recipes and photographs to document Fooey’s fourth birthday party: nine children, eleven adults, zero injuries.
Yesterday morning, I started cooking a giant pot of black beans (from Nina’s buying club).
**Mini-recipe: Pot o’ Beans: Rinse and pick over six cups of black beans, cover them with water in a large pot, bring them to a boil for two minutes, then turning off the heat and let them soak for an hour. Add some whole cloves of garlic, to taste, several bay leaves, approximately one tablespoon of salt, and cook on low heat for two hours, or until done. Add more water if needed during the cooking process. Pretty effortless.**
About an hour before the guests were due to arrive, I started a large pot of white rice.
**Mini-recipe: Pot o’ Rice: Place three and a half coffee cups of rice in a large pot with a tight-fitting lid. Add approximately double the water, or add water to about one thumb’s length above the level of the rice. Add salt if desired. Bring to a boil, cover tightly, simmer undisturbed on low for twenty-five minutes (brown rice takes about forty-five minutes). Turn off the heat and let rest, then fluff with a fork before serving.**
Meanwhile, I was also frying up two generous pounds of hamburger (Nina’s buying club, again).
**Mini-recipe: Hamburger Topping: Saute one chopped onion and several cloves of garlic in a large pan with a small amount of olive oil. Add hamburger. Season with salt, cumin, and ground coriander to taste.**
Finally, I made a fresh tomato-peach salsa, which involved a lot of chopping.
**Mini-recipe: Tomato and Peach Salsa: Finely chop four large tomatoes, three ripe peaches, several green onions, and approximately one cup or half a bunch of fresh cilantro. Slip in a few finely chopped zucchinis, if you’re looking to rid your fridge of these, too. Salt to taste. Dress with cider vinegar. Add hot chili pepper flakes if you want some heat.**

The basic meal at the end of these simple recipes is served buffet-style, starting with a bowl of fresh flour tortillas (Nina’s, again!), and continuing in the following order: rice, beans, hamburger, grated cheese, chopped lettuce, feta cheese, sour cream, fresh tomato-peach salsa, hot sauce, and, finally, a giant bowl of tortilla chips for crumbling atop everything else. You can add or subtract as your own tastes desire.Now, the cake. This “bear cake” has become a family tradition, in part because it’s ridiculously easy to make and always ends up looking, well, cute. The older children no longer request it, I must add. The design comes from a book that, as children, my brothers and sister and I used to drool and fantasize over, titled “The Cut-Up Cake Party Book,” published in 1973. The authors were fond of dyed flaked coconut, and the themed party, but their bear cake design is unbeatable: bake your cakes in one square pan and one round pan, use the round cake for the head, cut a few squares out of the other cake, and, voila, teddy bear’s body with paws! Frost and decorate.

Okay, deep breath … here’s today’s confession: I use a boxed cake mix to make our birthday cakes. There, I’ve said it outloud! Aagh! But here’s why: because I used to go to a lot of fuss and bother to bake cakes for my children’s birthday parties and they weren’t measurably better than this boxed brand I discovered a few years back. It’s made by Dr. Oetker with a short list of organic ingredients, all of which I’ve heard of and which do belong in cake. I add the eggs, milk (soy milk in this case) and oil. I’m not claiming it’s the best cake ever, but it’s easy to handle, pops out of the pan, and is reliably tasty.
The same cannot be said for storebought frosting, however, so, this birthday, inspired by eating a gigantic slice of my friend Nath’s crazily delectable chocolate cake, I requested and prepared her Swiss Meringue Buttercream, from a Martha Stewart recipe. She claimed it was not that complicated. I’d say we have different definitions of complicated; but nevertheless it turned out so beautifully and spread so smoothly and tasted so rich that I will absolutely be making it again. To save time, and typing, and because it is not in any way a “mini-“anything, I’ll refer you to Nath’s blog for the recipe, with these words of caution: one and a half cups of butter.One final recipe … because this was a summertime party, with lots of adults as well as children, Kevin devised a lime-green rum punch, stirred up in a large glass container and served, upon arrival and throughout the evening, to those guests old enough to appreciate it.
**Mini-recipe: Kevin’s Rum Punch: One container of frozen limeade, three parts water, two cans of club soda, one part rum, one-half part tequila.**
Stir it up. The party’s started.