Eating Prairie Food

Tonight's meal make me think of the Ingalls family. Clara and I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie books a lot this winter and, boy, they ate a lot of corn bread. For dinner, we stuffed ourselves on Sweet Potato {Chicken} Hash and Moosewood Cornbread. (I suppose the Ingalls would have used Prairie Hen in the hash but we used some roasted chicken breast.)

Moosewood cornbread calls for whole flaxseeds (I grind mine in the coffee grinder
) and whole grain cornmeal, which hasn't had its delicious germ and bran removed. Jim and I both agreed the whole cornmeal makes a far superior bread than the more processed stuff. Clara ate hers loaded with butter and a drizzle of maple syrup, Jim's just had butter and mine was plain.

The hash recipe came from a cookbook my mum got me for my birthday this year. Not Your Mother's Weeknight Cooking has become my go to book when I need something to make for dinner and I haven't planned ahead. I always have everything the recipes call for in my pantry. However, tonight I did plan ahead and still used the book because I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while.

Moosewood Cornbread

5 T Whole Flaxseeds (ground just before using)
1C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2t salt
1/2t baking soda
2t baking powder
1C Whole Grain Cornmeal
2 Large Eggs
1C Plain Yogurt
1/4C Olive Oil
1/4C Honey, Maple Syrup or Agave Syrup (optional but highly recommended)

1. Heat oven to 375*. Oil a 9-inch square or 10-inch round baking pan.
2. Grind up flaxseeds to a consistency similar to the cornmeal.
3. Mix flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder, stir in the flax and cornmeal.
4. In a separate bowl beat eggs, yogurt, oil and sweetener.
5. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet. Stir just until blended; don't overmix.
6. Spread batter evenly in the pan and bake 20mins or until cake tester comes out clean.

*Serves 9.

Sweet Potato Chicken Hash

2 Large Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice)
1T butter
1 small red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 chicken breast (roasted in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper at 350* for 40mins), or other cooked meat.
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 Large eggs
1 1/2 T chopped chives or scallions
1 1/2 T chopped parsley

1. Place potatoes in a saucepan with water enough to cover by 1-inch. Bring to a boil and cook 4 minutes or until barely tender. Drain well and set aside.
2. Heat butter in a large skillet over med-high heat. Add onion, and bell pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Add drained sweet potatoes. Cook, stirring for 8 mins or until potatoes are crispy and slightly browned.
3. Add cooked chicken and season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Make 4 wells in the potato mixture (3-inches in diameter each) and break 1 egg in each well.
5. Reduce heat to low and cover. Cook 4-5 minutes, until eggs reach desired 'doneness'.
6. Sprinkle with herbs and serve immediately.

*This could easily be done without the meat, adding mushrooms with the onions instead.

My new favourite cookbook and pancakes.

I have a lot of cookbooks. No, my Kalamazoo Mum has a lot of cookbooks...I have quite a few cookbooks. The Moosewood cookbooks are some of my favourites. A few weeks ago I picked up the new one called "Cooking For Heath" and we've pretty much eaten from it every night since. (I have a very lovely husband who willingly eats tofu and lentils on a very regular basis.) I thought Nigella's banana pancakes were the best pancakes until I tried the Moosewood Whole Grain Pancakes. These pancakes are seriously delicious and although Nigella's recipes are tasty I don't cook from them for their health benefits.

I made a few changes to the recipe (I love to do so) and topped them with some baked apples and they were perfect.

Here is the recipe:

Moosewood Whole Grain Pancakes (With Baked Apples)

1/4C Whole Flaxseeds
1/2C Rolled Oats
1C Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 t Salt
1 t Cinnamon (my addition and therefore optional)
1/2 t Baking Soda
2 t Baking Powder (I use the aluminum-free stuff)
2 Large Eggs
1 C Buttermilk or plain yogurt (I used Vanilla)
1/4C Olive Oil
1C Water

1. In a spice grinder, whirl flaxseeds and oats until they are the consistency of cornmeal, and place in a large mixing bowl. Add flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix well.

2. In a separate bowl beat eggs, buttermilk, oil and water. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet. Stir just until combined.

3. Warm a greased skillet over med-high heat and ladle a 1/4C of batter for each pancake. Flip after a minute or two.

Serve with Maple Syrup, Baked Apples, Cottage Cheese, strawberries, blueberries......

*(You can add more water if batter looks too thick.)
*(These freeze really well, in anticipation of being re-toasted at a later date.)

Baked Apples

2T Pure Maple Syrup
2t Fresh Lemon juice
1t Vanilla
Pinch of Salt
5C peeled and slice apples (or apples and pears)

1. Cute fruit into a 9 inch square baking dish. Add syrup, lemon juice, vanilla and salt. Mix well.

2. Bake at 400*, stirring every 10-15 mins, until fruit is soft. Around 35-40 minutes.

Granola Making Day

This is one of Clara from 2 years ago...she's always loved the granola process.


This is today.

Granola Making

Breakfast is one of my favourite meals of the day. A common breakfast for me is granola and yogurt. Clara has come to love granola too and always tops hers with another drizzle of honey.

My mum-in-law got me hooked on making my own granola. Using her basic recipe, I have adapted and created my own mixture that Clara and I eat just about every day. We have been known to eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack topped with yogurt and stewed fruit, sprinkled on muffins, in parfaits and added to cookies.

Brownies Boast Best-Ever

After the challenge of last week, these brownies seemed to make themselves.  A sweet frothy egg mixture is gently folded into the rich melted chocolate mixture and then carefully mixed with the flour.  A very simple recipe.  

Dense and rich , these have just the right amount of damp fudge in the centre and a slightly crispy layer on the top.   

Jimmy's chocolate-orange puddings were so delicious that instead of using vanilla in the brownies, I used grand marnier.   

To borrow another Jimmy-ism "we couldn't stay out of them."  Clara told me I would be permitted to make these on a daily basis and I'm sure we could eat them just about that fast.

A Perfect Meal

Jim made me a surprise meal last night to celebrate our 6th anniversary.  He included some of my very favourite foods and flavours.  The menu included: pasta primavera with zucchini, asparagus peas and mushrooms; salad with greens, toasted walnuts, pear and blue cheese; sweet toasts of almond infused soft cheese, toasted almonds and blackberries; and a luscious pudding for dessert with dark chocolate, orange peel and grand marnier.   As we ate, we listened to my new Ella album Jimmy bought me

After dinner we read from the journals we kept last year while on a road trip to Savannah, Georgia.  

It was not only delicious to taste but so thoughtfully and carefully planned.  I love seeing Jimmy so ably working the kitchen.

Thanks Love!  It was a perfect evening.

Can I even call them Croissants?

I should have know something was off when the dough wouldn't come together.  Instead of forming a nice ball it stayed in walnut size lumps.  I should have started over at that point, I think, but I didn't.   I let the dough rise for a half hour and then chilled it as directed. 

I proceeded to roll the dough out with the heaping pound of butter in it, folding, chilling and rolling, folding chilling and rolling.  All 3 times.  I had Jim help me a bit with the rolling.  It takes some serious forearm strength.  (Perhaps that was my second indication that something was wrong.)  

Everything seemed to be going fine until I tried to "stretch" the dough triangles in preparation for the stuffing and rolling.  The dough did not stretch at all, It crumbled.  But by that time I was committed to finishing them.  The hours and hours of work needed some form of completion. So I rolled the triangles out to the required size.

I made the almond paste earlier that day to stuff half of the croissants with and it turned out wonderfully.  (If anyone has any suggestions of how to use almond paste other than in a croissant I would much appreciate it.)  So I went ahead and rolled the triangles of "croissant" dough up with the luscious paste nestled inside and waited to see if they would rise.  

They didn't.  

The recipe said the dough should feel hollow and rise significantly.  Mine stayed it's original size and felt like a firm piece of fruit when I poked it.  But again, not wanting to give up, I baked them.   While they did taste deliciously like croissants, the consistency was, sadly, more like a pie crust.

I am happy that I gave it a try, but I think I will leave croissant making to the experts.   

Where did you say you bought your lovely croissants Tina?