Monday, January 31, 2011

Brown Betty~ Who does not love apples, cinnamon and brown sugar?!

One of the greatest compliments my children can give me about my cooking is to ask for it again. Brown Betty is one of those dishes. I consider Brown Betty, aka apple crisp, to be one of the go to comfort foods. Just imagining warm apples with brown sugar and cinnamon makes my mouth water.

I was taking stock of my deep freeze this afternoon to make my meal plan for the up coming week, when I found a hidden bag of assorted chopped apples. It was a toss up, make coffee cake, apple muffins or Brown Betty. I set the apples on the kitchen counter and continued with the task at hand. The oldest daughter caught site of the bag of apples. She asked, "Your making a Brown Betty aren't you?!" So a Brown Betty it would be!

My 1st cookbook!
My recipe comes from the Kraft Cookbook my Mother bought me when I was about 18. I wonder if she could ever imagine how many times I would use this cookbook and how much I cherish it. The pages are starting to be ratty and yellowed. I would not trade this cookbook for anything. It was my first grown up cookbook. My first cookbook ever was a Better Homes and Garden Junior Cookbook. I have wonderful memories cooking with my Mom and cooking on my own. I have since past this gem on to my oldest daughter.
The traditional Brown Betty recipe can be found here.
May your table be bountiful~ blair
Well this did not even make it till dinner.
Sometimes you just gotta eat desert first!

Brown Betty 
6-8 apples of your choice
1/2 C brown rice flour
1/2 C oatmeal * see note below
1 C packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 C earth balance softened
2 Tbsp brown flax seed (optional)
2-4 Tbsp water (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place apples in baking dish, No need to grease. If your apples are not golden delish you might want to add 2-4 Tbsp of water.

Combine brown sugar, oatmeal, cinnamon and earth balance. Mix well. I add flax seed to give a little nutty flavor. Bake for 40 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Serve warm. We always eat this with vanilla soy or coconut ice cream. Just to cut the sweet!

Please note:
  I cannot wait till there is smellvision on the internet!
There is much controversy over consuming oatmeal due to the possibilities of cross contamination with wheat when grown.  My children seem to tolerate oatmeal just fine. If needed, you may omit the 1/2 C oatmeal and use 1 C of brown rice flour instead.
Enjoy!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Oh my golly Udi has done it again!

Drum roll please..............
                                                  
Cinnamon Raisin Bagels and Bread!  
They are Awesome! In West Virginia we enjoyed Pepperidge Farm cinnamon swirl bread. Golly I miss that bread. The bread was soft and moist. Not too sweet with the perfect amount of cinnamon and brown sugar. Udi's Cinnamon Raisin Bread is the closest thing I have found to PF. Udi's cinnamon raisin bread makes the best french toast ever!


May your table be bountiful~blair

Friday, January 21, 2011

Quinoa, the other breakfast cereal

Little man's favorite 3 bears book!

Our son has been on a porridge kick! It may have something to do with the fact that one of his all time favorite story is Goldilocks and the 3 bears! You think?!

As far as I am concerned porridge (aka oatmeal) is an amazing cereal. It is rib sticking and packed full of good stuff. I had been hesitant to serve him oats but so far it does not seem to bother him. Never the less, I do limit his porridge consumption to once or twice a week.

I’ve wanted to provide an alternative hot breakfast rather than eggs, french toast and pancakes. Little man use to eat Cream of Rice but stopped when he developed sensory issues with food a few years back. At the present time this seems to be subsiding. Yea!! Maybe in another month or two I will be able to reintroduce this to him.

Little man LOVES rice! He could eat it all day. When I serve it for breakfast I add almond milk, honey and cinnamon.

This morning I had some quinoa left over on the stove from last night’s dinner. Little man saw it and asked for it. I thought what the heck, he eats rice for breakfast occasionally why not quinoa?  He loved it so much he had 2 bowls!
Enjoy~ blair

Breakfast Quinoa

1 cup water
1 cup milk
1 cup rinsed quinoa
1 dash of cinnamon or nutmeg
1 dash salt
1 squeeze of honey (optional)

Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a light boil. Lower heat, cook for about 35 minutes. Sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg. If you like add a squeeze of honey.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Sweet potato-tomato soup



Have I ever mentioned what wonderful cooks my daughters are? They are so imaginative and creative! Our girls throws caution to the wind and just "wings it"! I am a little too OCD to do that.  Our youngest created a pomegrante coffee cake over the holidays that was out of this world! If we can recreate it, I promise to share. 

Our family was blessed with a big batch of beautiful tomatoes.  The weather was so blustery that day. I thought about freezing tomatoes but the oldest suggested soup. MMMmm, I could use some warming up, so soup it was! The following is one of our oldest “wing it” soups.  

For those of you who have never blanched tomatoes before click here. It is so easy you may never buy canned again!

May your table be bountiful ~Blair

Sweet Potato-Tomato Soup
8-10 large tomatoes
Select Harvest sweet potato soup
2 tbsp Sea salt 
2 tbsp Black pepper
2 tbsp Cumin (dried)
1 tbsp Gran marsala (dried)
1 tbsp chiplote red pepper (dried)
large handfull basil (dried)
large handfull parsley (dried)
6 cooked baby carrots pureed
1 whole sweet onion
6 cloves of garlic
2-3 Tbsp olive oil

Add chopped garlic, carrots and onion to lightly oiled skillet cook till translucent. Blanch tomatoes. Combine tomatoes, garlic, carrots and onion to blender and liquefy. Place mixture into a stock pot bringing it to a slight boil. Add seasonings, adjust accordingly. Add sweet potato soup to mixture. Heat thoroughly.