Monkey Lobster

sometimes you feel like a nut

 

So tasty and so easy. Lucky for me the kids that I went trick or treating with this year were not coconut fans, so I got all the Almond Joys and Mounds that were collected. I make macaroons often because I usually have the few ingredients needed on hand, they mix up so quick and so many of my friend are gluten free. The last time I made them I remembered back to halloween and decided to give them a dipping.

In a bowl mix:

• 3/4 of a cup sugar
• 2 1/2 cups shredded coconut
• 2 large egg whites
• pinch of vanilla bean and salt

I like to just mix it with my hands and then shape them and put them onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350. Almond Joy's got nuts, mounds don't.

When they cool, dip them into melted chocolate and lay them back onto the parchment paper. They seem to keep well for 4-5 days if you hide them.

ginger ale

I love fermented things. This weekend we decided to give ginger ale a try. We did a lot of research and learned a little bit about the proses of fermentation. Now we just have to wait and see if it works. There is one bottle with a balloon on it, we are hoping it will be a good indicator of weather CO2 is building up in the bottles or not. Here is our recipe:

 

1. Chop up 4oz of ginger root (or more if you want it really spicy).

2. Simmer the ginger, juice of 1 lemon, and 2 cups of sugar in 5 quarts of water for 30 minutes to an hour or longer. 

5. Let it cool down to lukewarm.

6. On the side in a small jar, stir in 1/4 teaspoon of champagne yeast in with 1⁄4 cup warm water (not hot or you will kill the yeast).

7. After 15 minutes, add the yeast solution to your lukewarm brew.

8. Let the brew sit for 10 minutes and give it a good stir.

9. Strain it into sterile jars. We ran ours through the dish washer along with the other tools we needed such as funnels, bowls, spoons and strainers. If you don't have a dish washer you can always boil the bottles. 

I am expecting for it to take 3-4 days to carbonate. This morning Elsa ran downstairs like it was Christmas morning to see if the balloon had inflated. It had not.

 

granola: my new obsession

I didn't used to like granola until I made this one. I think that my mother-in-laws granola, that I've always made a version of for Ben, turned me away (sorry Susan). Her granola is more like muesli, not very sweet, filled with saw-dust (wheat bran, oat bran, wheat germ) and starts with a bunch of oil. 

This one is quite different. A friend of mine mentioned adding apple sauce, so I started experimenting and the results were very exciting. A crispy, crunchy, appley sweet granola without any oil! The mixture starts out pretty wet but eventually gets crispy and golden in the oven. Not enough apple sauce and it's not crispy and too much you might end up with a chipped tooth. I think that this is the right ratio:

• 1 cup apple sauce
• 1 cup honey/maple/rice syrup mixture add more if you like it sweet
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbs almond extract
• 3 tbs cinnamon
• 3 cups almonds (slivered, blanched. whole)
• 5 cups rolled oats (I really like "thick" oats)

Mix all ingredients in a big bowl. Toast in a 300 degree over in two big pans, stirring every 15 minutes for 1 hour, more often towards the end. It should feel almost dry when you take it out. Add dried fruit after it has cooled if you like. I like dried cherries with this combo. I also like pecan/vanilla/coconut with dried cranberries.

1/2 cup of frozen blueberries (thawed for 20 minutes in my bowl), 1/2 cup of plain yogurt, 1/4 of granola and a cup of tea with milk and honey = satisfying breakfast. What's even better is a tea drawer full of the finest teas and a shelf full of jars of different kids of granola to chose from. Now that's living the good life.

Too much fun............

My home was packed with family and friends this past weekend. It's hard for me to accept sometimes that now we are the grown-ups, the parents, the ones responsible for making everything happen. It turns out that we eat better and have more fun than they ever did.

I remember sitting up late one night with Sara when we were teenagers, she wondered if we would ever have kids and hang out together with our families. This time she wondered if our children would hang out together without us someday.

There was lots of food and drink, dancing and singing. Turns out that printing up the lyrics to "Sweet Child of Mine" was one of the best ideas I've ever had. Feel free to ask to listen to the recording (recordings?) of us doing it on my iphone.

It was so great to settle into this new house of mine. There was a kids table, a tweens table and a teen and grown-ups table. A couple of the kids were confused about my status, they decided that I must be a grown-up because I was so tall. This made me happy. As did the breakfast that arrived with one of our guests of pickled, smoked and cured fish and an array of other items that can only be found in New York City. With so many small vultures around I thought it would be most wise to put the spread in the center of the grown-ups table where we could guard it on all side and throw small scraps to the vultures to keep them back.

sans enfant

Doing something special without the kids is a real delicacy around here, so I thought I'd archive the event.

The meal was inspired by the idea of staying in and drinking vodka and eating caviar. I was reminded that the last time we went out sans enfant with this group of friends, I fell out of my chair and onto the floor in the middle of the French restaurant. The restaurant laughed with us, not at us.

I did my best to behave this time, but you know you've had too much vodka when after licking the inside of the caviar jar you mistake your lens cap for the lid.


The short but sweet evening consisted of food, drink, lots of laughter and some old fashion booty shaking. It's nice to get away from the kids on occasion and even nicer to have such wonderful friends to do it with.

corn dog

I don't care much for the game itself, but I love to make something obscene for the Super Bowl. Corn dogs seem to fit just right.

I found a standard old cornbread recipe, made it a little thicker by cutting down on the milk and adding a little extra cornmeal, some chopped spicy peppers and a little extra honey. Then I dipped the hot dogs into the batter and laid them on some parchment paper and baked them for about 20 minutes at 425.

They were pretty good, but the home team lost the game.

settling in

Cyurs is spending a lot of time cooking in his kitchen. I love how this kid can just play and play and play.

I have managed to make some room in my studio and put away enough things to clear off a small work space. I am having some guilt about spending time crafting when I should be painting but, the crafty project is for the organization of my mudroom, which now has to live up to this article (keep reading we're in there).

Ginger Oatmeal Scones

mix

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup brown sugar (white works fine)

2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped candies ginger

Grate 1 stick of butter into the flour mixture and toss.

On one side of the bowl beat 2 eggs with a fork and add 3/4 cup yogurt and then mix it into the flour mixture. Make into balls and bake 15-20 minutes at 400.  

I double it and freeze them in small bags and pull them out at night. They get us through most of the week. MMMM scones and tea for breakfast.

 

 

celebration

This was our first Christmas in our new home. And in our family since Christmas is all about cooking, we settled more into our new kitchen, and had our first meals in our new dining room.

As wonderful as this was, it was very bittersweet for me. The last time I shared a meal with my father was two Christmas ago, we sat crammed into the middle of my kitchen, shuffling up and down as things went in and out of the oven. My father tied a ribbon on the door and said he hoped that one day he would be able to give us a dining room for our growing family. With his passing came the wonderful gift of this beautiful home.

I am learning to embrace the sadness along with the joy. The sadness helps me to remember how dearly I loved my father, and how much of my soul he is still a part of.

Hope your holiday was full of people you love.

revealing recipies

We have been making lots of yummy things in our new kitchen, and what a pleasure it is. Every year I seem to spend way too much time looking for my recipes, so with this free moment I will archive them and know just where they are next year.

Almond Crescents

1c butter

1/2c sugar

1c raw, ground almonds

1 2/3c flour

powdered sugar with vanilla bean grated into it, in a little tin

Cream butter and sugar, add almonds and flour. Pinch off walnut side piece and shape into crescent. Bake at 325 F for 30 minutes. Once cooled coat them in powdered sugar.

These cookies are AMAZING and store well if you wait to coat them before eating. Next time I will double the recipe.

 

French Almonds

1/2c butter

1 1/4c brown sugar

1c white sugar

2 eggs

1/2 pound ground raw almonds

4 tbs honey

1tsp soda

3c flour (i often end up using just a little bit less)

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and mix well, mix in almonds and honey and finally flour.

Pinch off walnut size piece and flatten slightly, top each cookie with an almond or candied cherry and bake at 350 F for 10-15 minutes. These will spread so give them enough room.

These are really tasty too, and get better after a few days. This recipe makes plenty of cookies.

 

Almond Brittle: 

Otherwise known as Christmas Candy. My husband grew up with a tin of this in his stocking every year, so I must cary on this tradition.

1 1/2 cups slivered almonds, toasted

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 ounces chocolate (chips work great)

*sprinkle 2/3 of the nuts in a buttered 9x13 dish.

*melt butter, sugar, water and bring to boil stirring constantly.

*leave it alone over medium heat until mixture reaches 300 degrees. (I usually pull it off at 275 because of the brown colour.) Mix in soda and pour into pan over nuts.

*let cool a minute or two and them sprinkle chocolate chips and let them melt. spread chocolate evenly with a fork to give a design and sprinkle with the rest of the nuts.

*once cool break into pieces.

The other cookies are gingerbread cookies frosted with icing sugar, meringue powder and water. They taste O.K. but are really fun to make and look so festive. 

The peppermint bark can be found here.

The containers are just re-used nut, oatmeal, coffee and tea containers wrapped in paper. Next year I will squirrel away all containers that comes through my home. Feel free to save any you have. I think they add such charm to home made treat gifts.

There is so much more cooking for this here new kitchen. Can't wait to share it with you.

make this

Last year I made a few different kinds bark, but this one was something special. My very good friend Alya was surprised that I made it and even more surprised that I liked it. I know that peppermint bark is the kind of thing that you buy in a tin from the drug store this time of year, but if you use the right ingredients and fill the middle with a peppermint tinted ganache, it becomes something special. If you come by my house I'll give you a taste.

Recipe found here.