Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins

Using up the remains of my sister's kitchen before the move, we made a whole army of cookies and a delicious raspberry pound cake. All good stuff, but nothing that seemed like breakfast this morning.

Plus, I just read an article on BBC about how sugar ages your skin. Oh mon dieu, if they're right, I'm going to look ninety soon!

Soaking the oats in buttermilk turns it to oatmeal pre-baking and helps incorporate them into the muffin batter. A great little technique. I'm wondering what else I can use it in. These muffins are not too sweet, making them perfect for a little honey or fruit preserves.

Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins
1 cup oats
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/3 packed brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground flax seed
2/3 cup raspberry, fresh or frozen

Mix the oats and buttermilk and let set 15 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add egg, sugar and oil to oat mixture and blend. Blend in dry ingredients, then gently fold in raspberries. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15-17 minutes.

Wondrous Small Cakes

This week I'm in New York City helping my sister pack up and move. In the process, we realized there were four sticks of butter in the frig that simply couldn't be wasted. So we dug this recipe out of one of the boxes and whipped up a batch of small cakes. They are an awful lot like shortbread cookies and would make an excellent crust for fruit pies or put in mini muffin pans as cups for fruit preserves or berry compote. They are highly addictive with tea. I found some delicious roasted green tea at a store in Korea town and it's the perfect pairing.

Small Cakes
adapted from The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock
Makes 12 cakes

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground ginger
demearara sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 12 muffin tins or muffin pan.
Put butter, flour, sugar, salt, and ginger in a bowl. Mix on low until blended. (I do this with my fingers.)
Spoon equal amounts of  batter into muffin tins and press gently to flatten. Top with demearara sugar. 
Bake 15-20 minutes until lightly browned. Cool for five minutes before turning onto a cooling rack.

Eagle Brand Magic Lemon Pie

My family often escapes to North Georgia for the Fourth of July. It's a little cooler up in the mountains where my grandmother lives and let's face it, any degree below the 100+ temps and killer humidity we've been having in Atlanta is welcome. Plus, the small towns around here throw the best birthday parties for America. I'm not sure how they do it, but the fireworks are always amazing. The little downtown areas come alive and every four-way stop is a traffic jam, especially this year since they just discontinued the only two red lights in town. If I listed all the food we consumed, one would easily think we were providing for a small army camped out in the hills. But no, just three petite women with healthy holiday appetites. By the second day we had run through all the planned desserts so my Granny whipped up an Eagle Brand Lemon Pie. This is a recipe from "The Dessert Lovers'Handbook" printed in 1969. In the introduction, it explains that "Eagle Brand is the 'magic' milk product...And what a wonderfully easy way of getting extra milk in your family's diet!" I just might be gullible enough to believe this, or let it make me feel a little better eating something magical!

Filling
1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice (we used 2.5 large lemons)
2 egg yolks
Combine the milk and juice. Blend in the yolks.
The original recipe calls for a pastry shell or crumb crust. We use ground Nilla Wafers in the center surrounded by whole wafers standing up for the crust. Starting in the middle, pour in the filling. Meringue
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 cup sugar

Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar in a small bowl until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Spread on top of the filling. Bake at 325 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. I like this best chilled.

Vintage Revival @ the goat farm

I've been hearing about a compound in the middle of bustling Atlanta where acres of land lay littered with broken barns and hidden gems of hide-outs. Where a pulsing vibe echos through the buildings as artists jam out in the old cotten gin and find sanctuary in their studios. Where the Vintage Revival pop-up market makes it home this weekend.

Entering the Goat Farm today and walking up the dirt road was like entering a different space far from the city. It almost forgave the 100+ degree heat and the Georgia sun. What didn't was soothed by a cold King of Pops chocolate and orange popsicle.    

Züpfe - Swiss Bread

Last night I got together with some lovely friends for a light dinner party. The hostess made a delicious cold soup that had us guessing as to the main ingredient (it was GRAPES!). My contribution was bread and as one friend said "she made it from scratch!" In one of those lovely coincidences, I had been talking with a Swiss expat friend and bread came up and he told me how he likes to make this traditional Swiss bread. Now this was rather unexpected from my bachelor guy friend, but we made a deal: if he figured out how to translate the recipe to English, I would make. So on Thursday, a recipe appeared in my inbox. I strayed quite a bit from it and was a bit worried. It smelled delicious baking, then cutting into it...it looked fine, was done inside, then biting into it...it was delicious! Very yeasty and dense but not heavy. Sigh of relief - success.

1/2 kg bread flour

4 Tbsp butter, melted

1 cup almond milk

1/2 Tbsp dried yeast

½ tsp sugar

2-3 tsp salt

1) Pour the flour into a large bowl, mixing out any lumps. Make a hollow in the center.

2) Dissolve yeast in cold milk, add sugar and salt.

3) Add milk mixture and melted butter to the flour. Mix in well and knead until it comes together. Continuing kneading for about two minutes.

4) Cover with cloth, leave to rest for one hour in a warm place. (This I did, and then popped it in the refrigerator overnight.)

5) When ready to bake, divide into two pieces and roll into snake-like strands. Make an X with the strands, folding the top two down to have four strands. Braid together. (Google reveals some lovely picture diagrams for this. I used my new-found knowledge of four-piece braiding learned through countless hours of Pinterest perusal.

     

Vegetarian Sausage Mango Mix

I love fake meats. I know some people find them very strange and they are a bit interesting. What exactly allows them to be so chewy? Even though I love them, I very rarely buy them. It's more of a treat but I recently was tempted by dog-like links begging for a spring-time grill and bought some Tofurky Italian Sausages. These things are ridiculously good. I can eat them straight out of the package (but of course don't, ahem).

What I did do with them was to add them as the star ingredient in a mish mash stir fry. I had just returned from the farmers' market with some lovely fresh produce so I combined mango, spinash, soy bean sprouts, onions, and the sausage. Over a tortilla is was quick and perfect!   

Saute half an onion

Add one Tofurky Italian Sausage, cut in pieces

When these are cooked, add one mango chopped and a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach leaves

Let cook until the mango is warm but still holding together and the spinach has begun to wilt

Add salt, pepper, cayenne. I also added Bragg's Liquid Amino.

It's ready!

Buttermilk Biscuits

Every Christmas morning, we start the day with a large traditional breakfast. The past couple of years I've been in charge of the biscuits while my grandmother makes the gravy and my mom the eggs.

Buttermilk Biscuits

adapted from Southern Living Cookbook

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 (1 stick) of butter, cold

3/4 cup of buttermilk

1) Mix the dry ingredients

2) Cut in the butter with a fork

3) Lightly stir in the buttermilk, just until mixed

4) Bake at 350 degrees 10-12 mintes or until golden

5) Brush the tops with melted butter

Enjoy!

Apple Cookies

It's holiday party time! I made these apple cookies using the last of my stash from the fall for a work holiday luncheon. A lot of my coworkers aren't big on very sweet desserts so I went for something fresh and fruity. These cookies are very soft and slightly chewy. The recipe makes four dozen so I thought I might have a few leftover cookies to bring home. But no, they were gone, every single one.

Apple Cookies

adapted from James Beard's American Cookery

1/2 cup of butter

1 1/3 cups firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 cup milk (I used almond milk)

1 cup diced apple

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1) Cream butter. Add sugar and combine well. Beat in egg.

2) Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

3) Add dry ingredients to butter mixture. Then add milk and combine until the dry ingredients and milk disappear.

4) Stir in apples and pecans.

5) Drop by the teaspoon onto buttered cookie sheets.

6) Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until a light brown.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Today, I'm thankful for....

good food....
followed by sweet things....

for beautiful things....

and wonderful family, both furry and human, relatives and friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Southwest quinoa salad

Southwest Quinoa Salad

1 1/2 cups quinoa
1 1/2 cups black beans
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups cooked corn
3/4 green pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
1 tsp coriander
juice of one lime
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
2 tsp cumin
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
salt to taste

Mix all ingredients. Season to taste. Can be served cold or heated.

I also enjoyed it as part of a spinach salad.

Sweet potatoes + collard greens

When I get lazy or busy, one of the first things that gets left behind are fresh foods. Forget going to the grocery store or planning a menu with everything before it starts to turn to the dark side and smell.

Actually, make that several meals. As a single girl cooking for one or two at a time, my trips to the farmer's market leave me with a lot of food. Those big bunches of parsley and cilantro and basil that smell so good end up sagging and turning brown in my refrigerator. I swear I put parsley on everything I ate for a week and still had a bundle sadly going to ruin.

Enter this delicious meal. It's rather quick, super easy and healthy, and perfect for lunches and freezing.

Sweet potatoes & collard greens

4 medium sweet potatoes, each cut into 6-8 pieces
1-2 Tbsp vegetable oil
5 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp sea salt
2 tsp pepper
3 medium apples
6 cups loosely packed collard greens
1/4 cup loosely packed parsley, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss potatoes with vegetable oil, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Bake until potatoes are cooked and caramelized (about 20 minutes).

In a skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Add apples and saute about 15 minutes or until soft.

Put 2 Tbsp butter and 3 Tbsp water into a large pot. Add greens and saute (about 5 minutes). Decrease the heat and add potatoes and apples. Cook for a few minutes and stir in parsley and remaining salt and pepper.

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

At the end of September, it was my turn to be on the committee to host our monthy staff meeting at work. We decided to do an outdoor meeting with a 'last blast of summer' theme.

And what better to go with that theme than homemade ice cream sandwiches?

I have to admit that I cheated a little bit. I didn't have a lot of time so I used a mix for the chocolate chip cookies and then smashed a scoopful of vanilla ice cream in the middle. Then I rolled the sides in sprinkles and immediately stuck them in the freezer.

These were a huge hit! Even my boss was licking away at the sides and chomping into the cookie!

Wisconsin Colby Cheese

A friend of mine had a layover in Atlanta over the weekend. His trip started in Wisconsin, where his brother just moved, and included touring cheese farms and discovering why Wisconsians wear cheese hats. I went to the airport to hang out with him during his layover. Not the most glamourous setting, but it was great seeing him.

And I got a little cheese out of it. Wisconsin Colby Jalapeno cheese to be exact. It was wrapped in a bag in his carry-on, and was mistaken for a C4 explosive by TSA at security. The TSA woman swabbed it and everything. Thankfully, it was just cheese. Although it may cause explosions in some people, it wasn't going to blow up the plane.


I also learned a new little fact. Colby cheese is colby cheese because it was created in Colby, Wisconsin. It reminds me of Vidalia onions, which come from Vidalia, Georgia. The European Union has protected food names. Part of it protects the product and the producer, and part of it helps consumers know what it is they are consuming. Not a bad idea I think.

Seasonal Food Map

Epicurious.com has a seasonal food map that I stumbled upon today. I love the idea of knowing what is in season where I am, and where I am going. I imagine myself using it to order fresh seasonal dishes off menus, knowing what to look for in the farmers' market, and planning menus around the seasons. Really, I'll probably just play around with it and compare what is in different states. But it does remind me of the plethora of fruits and vegetables and all the different varieties. We need heirloom tomatoes and vidalia onions and purple peppers.

twd ~ chocolate spice quickies

Whenever I have someone over for dinner, I spend as much time thinking about the dessert as the main course. I see it as the big finale. I planned an intimate dinner for two last week, and took Dorie's suggestion to pair the chocolate spice quickies with ice cream. It was delicious. The cookies are great solo, and are subtle enough in flavor to be addictive. These aren't rich, despite the spices and chocolate, which is one reason why they paired so wonderfully with Dorie's chocolate ganache ice cream.
The ice cream overshadowed the cookies a bit. I added a little expresso powder and salt to the ganache to bring out the intense chocolate.
Thanks to Jessica of My Baking Heart for this week's pick! Check out her blog for the recipe and some beautiful food pics.

Black-eyed peas with fresh tomatoes and broccoli slaw

When I visit my mom, I always grab her latest edition of Southern Living. I love the beautiful homes featured, the cities explored, and (of course) the delicious looking recipes and food pictures!

Last weekend, we decided to make a recipe from the magazine on Sunday after church. It needed to be something quick because I had a two-hour drive in front of me before my dance class in the evening.

The little black-eyed pea cakes were perfect. They are an easy, quick mix-up and fry and are balanced with the fresh tomatoe and broccoli slaw. The cakes are lightly mashed black-eyed peas, a bag of buttermilk cornbread mix, an egg, and spices. The slaw is a tangy mixture of broccoli slaw mix, sour cream, spices, lime juice, and lime zest. I can't wait to try it atop a black bean burger!

High Tea Time @ Dr. Bombay's in Atlanta

I love high tea. It makes a day feel special, and makes it totally acceptable to eat dessert in the middle of the day.

I've only had high tea a handful of times. I studied abroad in England, and we would go in between classes to a lovely little tearoom in Oxford that had something to do with Alice through the looking glass although I can't remember exactly what. I have searched for years for recipes similar to their little granola and honey bar treats!

I've been hearing about Dr. Bombay's Underwater Tea Party for awhile. It's one of those places that I've been meaning to go, but never do. So I made a date with a friend for High Tea!

It was as lovely as I had heard. It has an ecletic arrange of books, games, tables, pillows that fits East Atlanta and gives a very laid back vibe - all mish mashed in and set to some wonderful jazz music. It took a little time to get our dish of finger foods and sweet treats because the scones had just been put in the oven. But the still warm scones made up for the wait! The peanut butter scone completely took me by surprise, as its nutty flavor was perfect smothered in Devonshire clotted cream. We almost finished the entire bowl of cream. Good thing I was going to swing dance classes afterwards, except that I could barely move I was so full!

Black eyed peas with spinach and fried plantains

One of my favorite dishes in Ghana was Red Red - black eyed peas and fried ripe plantain. The peas would be doused with an unhealthy amount of red palm oil, giving rise to the name red red for the color of the peas and plantains. Unhealthy, but so delicious! It's common street food, and I would usually request no oil. I figured it was a trade-off since I ate it at least once a week.


On a recent trip to the farmer's market, I saw the plantains and immediately started craving red red. It's one of the dishes that immediately takes me back to a wonderful place. It combines something I know well from my childhood growing up in the South - black eyed peas - with an exotic, new fruit that I discovered my love for as an adult.

I let the plantain ripened several more days. For it to be sweet, it needs to be really ripe, almost black. I cut it in one-inch pieces and added some spices - ginger, chili powder, and salt - before frying. The spices help to bring out and balance the sweetness of the plantain.

While this was frying, I boiled half a bag of frozen black eyed peas and half a bag of frozen spinach. I added salt and pepper to taste, and let the peas boil down to a nice consistency.
I had to keep myself from eating the whole pan! Of course, I ate all of the plantain. There was a reason I only got one! I cut up a sweet potato into cubes and fried it to go along with the peas for lunch later in the week. It worked well but nothing beats fried plantain!

twd ~ Tropical Crumble

I've been fighting with my laptop for the past 45 minutes. It doesn't want to type. It tells me I am holding down the control button, even when I raise both hands above my head and wave a white flag.



What I really don't want to do is get on the phone with tech support people. How long will it take? Will it be under my warranty? If I keep banging around on this thing will it suddenly start working again?

I'm hoping it keeps behaving long enough to make my post. Hey, it's almost midnight.

The tropical crumble, on the other hand, was not a problem at all. It was simple and easy, and turned out to be quite delicious.



I made a few substitutions. I used almonds instead of pecans, and orange zest instead of lime. I added just a little coconut to the topping, and a smidgen of whipped cream at the end. The cream quickly melted, but blended nicely with the fruit anyway.



I've fallen off exercising lately, and finally put in a good 6 miles this evening so I didn't feel too bad about eating this straight from the oven at 10pm. It was too perfect at the park not to enjoy it! I saw a film crew doing scenes for the movie What to Expect When You're Expecting. Chris Rock was the only one I could really recognize or hear.

Thanks to Gaye at Laws of the Kitchen for this week's pick!

Something take my hunger away please!

I've been constantly hungry lately. I don't know why, and I'm not very happy about it. I like feeling satisfied with good food, and as much as I love eating, I don't actually want to do it all the time. Plus, I don't really want to gain weight. I would prefer the scale to move in the opposite direction.

So I considered what I had been eating and thought I might need a power meal...or actual food. Something with lots of good things in it, and didn't come in the shape of a bar or its own bowl. I was craving sweet potatoes, so I started there, slicing them and putting them in the over until almost done. They were easily punctured, but needed another five minutes or so to be completely tender.

While these were baking, I put on a pan of black-eyedpeas with some sundried tomatoes, salt and pepper. I added some frozen spinach because a healthy meal needs something green right?

I diced the sweet potatoes and added them, cooking for about 15 minutes to give the potatoes a chance to finish cooking and all the flavors to blend.

To finish, I added some hard cheese and devoured. I'm not sure it helped the hunger in the long run, but it certainly was good.

As I'm writing this post, I can't help but think of the situation in Somalia, and all the people seeking refuge from the famine in places like Dadaab, Kenya. God bless the women and children who are walking hundreds of miles in search of life sustaining nourishment. The organization I work for has a prescence in Dadaab, and the reports are heart wrenching but hopeful.