Oma Sue's Granola

Ingredients: 

6 cups rolled oats

3/4 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped nuts of your choice.

1/2 cup oil

3/8 cup honey

1 TBSP vanilla

2/3 cup raisins (optional)

Instructions: 

1 Combine oats, wheat germ, sesame seeds, brown sugar and nuts. 

2. In a separate pan, combine oil, honey & vanilla. Mix thoroughly, heating slightly for best results. Add to oat mixture & mix by hand until the oats are evenly covered with the honey mixture. 

3. Fill the baking pan about half full with the mixture. Bake at 300 degrees, stirring every ten minutes, for one hour, or until the oats are golden brown. 

4. Add raisins after baking. 

5. Cool before storing in air-tight containers. 

Famous Family Meatloaf

Ingredients

2 large eggs

¾ cup milk

⅔ cup fine dry bread crumbs

¼ cup finely chopped onion

2 TBSP finely chopped fresh parsley

1 tsp salt

½ tsp dried leaf sage or 1½ tsp fresh sage, finely chopped

⅛ tsp black pepper

1½ pounds lean ground beef, lamb, or pork

¼ cup ketchup

2 TBSP packed brown sugar

1 tsp dry mustard

INSTRUCTIONS 

• In a medium bowl combine beaten eggs and milk; stir in bread crumbs, onion, parsley, salt, sage, and pepper. Add ground meat. Using clean hands, mix lightly until well-combined. Lightly pat mixture into an 8x4x2-inch loaf pan.

• Bake in a 350 degree oven for 60 to 75 minutes, or until internal temperature registers 160 degrees.  Spoon off fat.

• Combine ketchup, sugar, and mustard in a clean bowl; spread over meat. Bake for 10 minutes more. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting into eight or ten slices. 

NB: This is the meatloaf from our kids' childhood. Lots of memories. Traditionally served with freshly made applesauce and freshly mashed potatoes. 

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Per serving (1/8 of recipe):

Calories.   ~254 kcal

Protein.      ~20 g

Carbs.         ~10 g

Fat.             ~15 g

Fiber.          ~0.5 g

Sodium.     ~450 mg

Blackberry Pie

We were given some fresh blackberries. And I like pie. So I made pie. We really enjoyed it. 

Ingredients:

3½ cups (to maybe 4 cups) fresh blackberries

½ cup white sugar, more or less, to taste, divided

½ cup (maybe a little less) all-purpose flour

1 (9 inch) double crust ready-to-use pie crust

2 tablespoons milk

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 425F (220C)

• Load one pie crust onto pie plate. 

• Save out a TBSP of sugar. Combine the rest of the sugar with the flour and the berries. 

• Put the second pie crust on top. Find a fancy way (or at least an efficient way) to seal the edges. 

• Brush the top of the pie with the milk and sprinkle the reserved TBSP of sugar on top. (This would be a good place for fancy large-crystal sugar, wouldn't it?). 

• Cut 3 or 4 modest size vent holes. Be creative with them if you feel like it. 

• Bake 20 minutes at 425F. Reduce to 375F (190C)  until filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown, an additional 25 to 30 minutes. 

• Bring it out and let it cool on a wire rack or such for at least half an hour. 

• Serving suggestion: serve with vanilla ice cream of some sort. 

• In a day or two, it should look like this:

Comment: We really loved this pie. This recipe is absolutely a keeper.

 

Atholl Brose Oatmeal Cookies

When you make Atholl Brose, you’ll have leftover whiskey-soaked oats. This is something worthwhile you can make with them.  These are really quite good.

 

Ingredients:

½ cup oats, soaked in whiskey, now ¾ cup in volume

3 TBSP salted butter, softened

¼ cup brown sugar, packed

2 TBSP granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 egg yolk, large

¼ tsp vanilla extract (bourbon vanilla is best)

⅓ cup all purpose flour

¼ tsp cinnamon

healthy pinch of salt

Instructions:

• Pre-heat oven to 325°F (160°C).

• Mix butter and both sugars until well blended.

• Add egg yolk & vanilla. Mix well.

• Add whiskey-soaked oats. Mix it together well.

• Ideally, mix all dry ingredients together separately & add to these wet ingredients. (But I just mixed them all in, and mixed really well.)

• Spoon scoops onto a silicon baking mat on a baking sheet, or use parchment. Space about 2 inches. I got 8 medium sized cookies from this recipe.

• Bake for 6 – 8 minutes. Watch carefully; these will want to spread out a lot.

• Cool on the silicon mat for a few minutes and then on a cooling rack.

Suggestion: Serve with Athol Brose. Or vanilla ice cream.

Lemon Peel Bread

Ingredients:

1 Half-batch no-knead dough

1 fresh lemon, with peel, sliced thinly, then partially dehydrated (just enough to be able to chop it finely without losing juice [flavor] all over), and chopped finely.

1/4 of an orange, peel only, chopped finely. 

1/4 cup pistachio nuts, chopped finely. 

1/3 cup cashew nuts, chopped finely. 

2 tsp monk fruit sweetener. 

2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped finely. 

Instructions: 

◾ Make the no-knead dough, according to the recipe. Note: make it a little softer or wetter than firm. 

◾ Prove the dough for an hour (until it's doubled).

◾ Mix all of the filling ingredients together and let them soak while the bread proves. 

◾ When the dough is proved, mix the filling in with the dough. Suggested: roll the dough out to a 7" (or so) square; spread filling on that square, roll the dough back up. (At this point, it might be interesting to slice the roll like cinnamon rolls, or to roll the new loaf from the end, mixing the ingredients more evenly, or to just bake it as a filled roll.)

◾ Bake at 350 for 35 or 40 minutes. 

 

Makes one medium-sized loaf.

Note: hot slices just cut off the just-baked loaf with butter: excellent.

 

Source: The idea just occurred to me as I was watering the lemon tree. 

No Knead 4-ingredient Bread

Ingredients:                    Full                      Half                  ¾         
325ml 100º warm water  [11.5 oz]              [6 oz]                [9 oz]
3g yeast                           [1 tsp]                  [½ tsp]              [1 tsp]
425g bread flour              [3 3/8 cups]         [1¾ cups]         [2¾ cups]
   (I used plain flour; worked fine.)
10g salt                            [1 2/3 tsp]            [¾ tsp]              [1 tsp]
Plus a little flour (for dusting)

• My first attempt was with half a batch. I added olives and roasted garlic and olive oil. Worked well. Tasty. 
• Second attempt, also half a batch, but the dough was too firm. Added more warm water and 2 TBSP olive oil. Accidentally gave it more time to prove. Liked it a lot!
• Updated to ¾ size later. Seems to fill a loaf pan better.

Instructions

- Once you’ve added all of the ingredients, use a spatula to bring it together the dough will be quite sticky.

-Cover and allow to rest for an hour in a warm place (on top of an active oven seemed to work).

-After the dough has rested, dip your fingers in water to avoid sticking, and bring the dough together stretching and folding each corner of the dough toward the center.

-Rest the dough for maybe 30 mins in a warm place.

-Make sure you flour the surfaces well. Tip the dough onto your work surface. Cut into 4 or 5 portions. Shape the dough as you like. 

- Free-form loaves on a floured parchment or silicon baking sheet, or in a floured or oiled baking pan.

-I shaped one piece into a small loaf, and slathered the other in oil (oil the bread pan before loading it, oil on top) and pushed some roasted garlic & green olives into the surface before baking. More oil on top.

-Bake in 400 degree (200c) oven until golden brown.

• The basic loaf [left] was fine. The oiled-up loaf with garlic & olives [above] was really nice. 

• Opinion: This dough would likely work pretty well as a pizza dough, or as a wrapping for meat rolls.

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Alternative: Split the (half recipe) dough in half, spread out to a rectangle, spread dried tomatoes, roasted garlic (both cubed), and green olives and rolled them up, placing them in an oiled & floured half-size bread pans.

Proved them for maybe 30 minutes and popped them into a 400 degree oven, which I reduced to 350 when I saw how much they were rising. They took 25 minutes to reach golden brown. 

Later filling: 

¾ cups coarsely chopped kalamata olives
6 cloves garlic, roasted & coarsely chopped
½ cup dried tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 baby red pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp Herb de Provence seasoning
¼ cup chopped parsley
¼ cup chopped cashews
1 TBSP Dukkah mixture
2 TBSP olive oil
Mix it all together & spread across dough, mixing it in. Much better.

 
Next time: half olives & half roasted garlic cloves or chunks of sun-dried tomato? [Tried it. Very nice. Next time add balsamic vinegar and chunks of feta cheese & roll the dough thinner.]

Some time I want to use the same technique, but fill it with meats and roast peppers, fajita style. Add shredded cheese before rolling up. Maybe.

Classic Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

½ cup uncooked rice
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
¾ medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 cloves garlic, minced
¾ pound lean ground beef
1 cup diced fresh tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 bell peppers, tops and cores removed
¾ cup shredded Monterey Jack (substitute a goat cheese for the dairy intolerant)
Freshly chopped parsley, for garnish

 

Instructions

Step 1: Prepare the oven. Preheat it to 400 degrees.

Step 2: Cook the rice in a small saucepan according to package instructions.

Step 3: Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, saute the onion for about 5 minutes until tender. Add in the tomato paste and garlic. Stir and continue to cook for another minute until aromatic. Add in the ground beef, breaking up the meat using a wooden spoon, and continue to cook for 6 minutes more until no longer pink.

Step 4: Stir in the cooked rice and the diced tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper, and oregano, then simmer for about 5 minutes until the liquid slightly reduced.

Step 5: In a 9 x 9 inch baking dish, put the peppers on the bottom cut side-up. Drizzle with oil and spoon the mixture to the peppers, incorporating up to half the Monterey Jack cheese. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese neatly over the tops.

Step 6: Use foil to cover the dish and place it inside the preheated oven. Bake for about 35 minutes until the peppers are soft. Remove the cover and bake for another 10 minutes until the cheese is bubbly.

Step 7: Remove from the oven and garnish. Serve warm.

Basic Banana Bread

 
INGREDIENTS

2 large eggs
½ cup granulated sugar
2 TBSP stevia powder (or more sugar)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted
1 TBSP buttermilk powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-4 medium bananas, very ripe
1¼ - 1½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup shredded coconut or coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ - ¾ cup chopped nuts (I use cashews)
¼ tsp salt (optional if using salted butter)
Cooking spray or parchment paper.

INSTRUCTIONS
• Heat the oven to 350°F. Arrange a rack so top of pans will be in the center of the [toaster] oven.

• Melt the butter in the microwave. (Word to the wise: do not over-melt! Messy!)

• Crack eggs into mixer bowl. Mix on medium for a minute or two. Add sugar, stevia and vanilla and continue mixing until smooth.

• Add the over-ripe bananas piece by piece. Mix aggressively for a while. 

• Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Keep mixing. Add a TBSP or two of milk only if the batter needs thinning.

• Add the chopped nuts & mix them in. 

• Spray the insides of two 8x4 (medium sized) bread pans with oil, then coat the oil with flour. Or line them with parchment paper. (Parchment is preferred.)

• Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

• Bake for 35 to 45 minutes. Bake until the top of the cake is caramelized dark and a toothpick or knife poked into the middle comes out clean. Baking time will vary — start checking around 30 minutes.

• Cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
 
• Remove from pan and cool another 10 minutes on cooling rack.

• Enjoy with friends.

 

Baked Salmon and Herbs

Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 portions salmon (I used Sockeye, 4oz portions), defrosted
1 slice whole grain bread. (Stale is fine.)
2 cloves garlic.
½ tsp roasted garlic powder.
2 TBSP Parmesan cheese.
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves.
1 TBSP fresh rosemary leaves.
¼ tsp salt.
Just a little hot pepper (I used Lemon Drop Lemon Pepper)

Directions:
• Line a baking tray with aluminum foil. Coat with olive oil spray.
• Combine all other ingredients in Bullet blender or small food processor. Blend until it’s not much more than powder.
• Next time: add 1 or 2 TBSP frozen butter patties late in blending.
• Place salmon on the tray. Coat with olive oil spray. Spread bread crumb mixture over the salmon, making sure to cover it all.
• Bake at 350° for 30 minutes until the fish flakes pretty easily. I added a little butter on top, since I didn’t have butter in the bread crumbs.

○ Serve with steamed veggies or roast squash.