Fastest Slowest Easiest Healthiest Breakfast

I have mentioned a time or two that I am not a morning person. Bluebirds do not chatter adorably on my windowsill as sunlight kisses me awake.. I stumble out of bed when to all intents and purposes it is still nighttime. That is, before 5am.
Pull on a robe and feel my way to the kitchen where my hard working commuter will already be up and making espresso. The dogs just stare at me and go back to bed, they know it is way too early to be up.

But up I am, these early mornings are half the time that I get to spend with hubby, who is gone for 13 hours a day, and I like to keep him company while he gets ready for work. As I have mentioned before, I am not capable of much thought or higher reasoning at this hour. Usually I can be found slumped at the counter drinking the espresso so lovingly handed to me. Well, I didn't say I was good company.

And I do like to have a nice breakfast ready once in a while, especially in the frigid weather, cold cereal just doesn't seem to cut it. But cook before dawn? I don't think so.
This is where the slow cooker comes in handy.

Appley Dappley Steel Cut Oats
Adapted from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook - Beth Hensperger

In a small slow cooker - add 1 cup steel cut oats and 4 cups water - this is the ratio that the oats need.
Add to it 4 apples, cored and chunked, small handful dried fruit - such as raisins or chopped apricots, and cinnamon. Stir.
Set on low, right before bed. Wake up and stir in the morning. (If too thick, just add milk)
Top with milk, yogurt, or maple syrup* if desired.

Any leftovers will get thicker, just add more liquid when you heat them up.

*Obviously maple syrup has some calories going on, make sure you are at least using the real stuff. Quebec and Vermont make the best maple syrup. It is expensive, but that means you will use less and cherish every drop.

I didn't give a time for the cereal to be done. Most slow cooker recipes say something seriously long like 8-9 hours. That seems excessive to me and likely designed for people going off to work or else huge meals made in the giant slow cookers. Mine was done in the 5 hours that I was asleep for, but could easily have gone on longer for anyone who has the good sense to sleep more at night than I do.

Delicious!

Nigella's Welsh Rarebit Muffins

The theme for this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs is Resolutions. I have to admit, it has been quite a while since I have made any. I am not sure if it is fear of failing, built on years of great intentions and lack of stamina, ennui, or general fatigue at the general idea of them.
I no longer make vows that this year will be different, that I will somehow be more perfect than the last year. Indeed I will be happy just not to deteriorate too much this year.
Don't get me wrong, I do have hopes for myself for this year... just quiet little ones and a general feeling that this year has to be better than last. Judging by the comments and tweets I have read recently, I am not alone in this.
So what to make for a Resolutions dish? Well, I have two cake domes in my kitchen - to showcase and make instantly accessible the treats that I whip up in the kitchen for hubs and chillens alike. Of course, now we don't eat much sugar and the kids are busy with their own lives.. and, with the exception of some aging Christmas cookies, the domes stand bare. Sad, I know.
So my desire is this, to find some interesting recipes and keep some good grab-and-go snacks in the domes for my hard working hubby to take on his commute or have when he gets home. This is where the Welsh Rarebit Muffins come in. Neither particularly healthy nor sweet, they are a great snack for on the road and would be delicious with breakfast eggs or a bowl of soup.

Welsh-Rarebit Muffins
Nigella Lawson, FoodNetwork.com

Ingredients
For the muffins:

* 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
* 1/3 cup rye flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon English mustard powder
* Generous 1/2 cup grated sharp Cheddar
* 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons plain whole-milk yogurt
* 1/2 cup whole milk
* 1 egg
* 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

For the topping:

2 tablespoons grated sharp Cheddar

Worcestershire sauce, for garnish

Special equipment: 12-cup muffin pan lined with 12 paper baking cups
For the muffins:

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, mustard powder and cheese in a large bowl with a fork. In a large measuring cup, beat together the remaining ingredients. Pour into dry ingredients, mixing lightly with your fork, remember that good muffins are made from lumpy batter.

Pour into muffin cups and cook for 20 minutes, then quickly take them out of the oven and put a little cheese and sprinkling of Worcestershire sauce on each one. Put them back in the oven for another 5 minutes, and then put the muffins on a baking sheet to cool. Eat them while they are still warm but not hot.

When Nigella partakes of carbs, sweets and other naughty foods they all seem to go to her.. ahem, smile.
Why, why am I not that lucky?

Moving on...
Results. We really liked these. I made them in my mini loaf tin and took 5 minutes off the time. They are quite salty, which is ok with me as I am a salt fiend. If you are not a salt fiend, cut the salt in half, at least. The cheese, self-raising flour and Worcestershire sauce are all salty in their own right.

Of Bread and Books..

Catching up with my commitment to baking through the Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, I finished a couple of loaves over the holidays - the first one being his Pane Siciliano. This bread, three loaves to the recipe, is very much like a baguette with very cute curly-cue styling. Reinhart finishes his with sesame seeds but I just added a little more semolina flour.
The bread was chewy and light at the same time, we had it for our Christmas Eve picnic with cheeses and patés and crudités. It was very tasty indeed. Another favourite from the BBA.

I love the stylized look of this loaf, easy to do and very impressive for guests.
The bread has a pre-ferment, which gives it a more complex flavour like a semi-sourdough.
It had a great crispy crust, probably the best crust I have gotten from one of Peter's breads.

So sexy!

I skipped the Panettone for now, not in the mood for fruited breads.. maybe for Easter. And I still have to do the Multigrain Extraordinaire. (Just waiting for some leftover brown rice!) The Pizza Napoletana I have made before, a couple of times, so, moving on....

The next bread was the Poolish Baguettes. Who doesn't love a baguette? These were made with a poolish, a wet preferment that gives a complex flavour and good rise. The original recipe calls for some whole wheat flour with the bran sifted out.. which I didn't do. Seemed like a waste of bran to me, especially in this day and age when people are adding healthy ingredients to their breads. The bread turned out very tasty indeed. In fact I have a little poolish left in the fridge and will be making some more today.

They made for excellent, and satisfying, sammies!

I used the baguettes for making Shrimp Po'Boy Sandwiches from Da Cajn Critter, a book I had received to review this winter.
It took me a while to find something to try in the book, I found that the majority of recipes had packaged foods in them which is not the way I like to cook. I continued to put the book at the bottom of my to-do list for this reason.
I do like the idea of this book, it is cute and quaint and the ringed binding allows it to lie flat on the counter which is nice.. but it is not a book I would buy in a store due to the overwhelming amount of packaged foods required, many of which are not available here anyway.

That being said, the Shrimp Po'Boys were delicious, (especially on my homemade Poolish Baguettes!) I just had to find out how a Canadian could find some Fish Fry. Luckily my friend and fellow blogger Katherine helped me out with a way to make my own.
This was a recipe I had always wanted to try and I am very happy with the results. I would say the book is more "family-style" recipes than authentic Cajun recipes, be prepared for recipes that contain boxed cake mixes, cans of soup, tinned mushrooms, and a fair amount of regional packaged foods that might not be widely available. Cute and fun, but not a book to buy to learn all about the culture and food of Louisiana.

Bite?

Healthy and Good Looking. Well, the food anyway.

There's nothing like a little colour to snap you out of your winter doldrums. This lunch has colour, contrast, lots of great nutrients and, most importantly, great flavour.
Nigella's Red Soup, filled with the goodness of beetroot, is accompanied by her Small Tomato Tarts - just the thing to satisfy the belly and plentiful enough to have leftovers for breakfast the next day.
These little tarts were the perfect choice for this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs theme - Small Plates. Small indeed, but delicious enough that you will want to eat two!

Small Tomato Tarts
Nigella Lawson, How to be a Domestic Goddess

For the pastry:
125g flour
60g fine cornmeal
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
115g butter
25g shortening
40-50ml iced water

For the Filling:
500g tinned chopped tomatoes
pinch sugar
50g pecorino cheese, sliced into thin slivers with a potato peeler
small handful basil, shredded
500g baby tomatoes, halved
black olives, halved and pitted

First make the pastry: pulse the dry ingredients in the processor, then add the butter and shortening, diced into small pieces. Pulse briefly until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs, then add enough iced water to form a dough, pulsing with the gentlest touch to combine. Form into two discs, wrap with clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Roll out one of the pastry discs into a rough square. Cut into 4 squares and drape into the tins, folding the edges inward. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Preheat oven to 200C.
Sauce: Empty the tinned tomatoes into a bowl, season with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar (I added oregano and basil).
Tarts: Put a thin layer of tomato mix, then 3 slices of pecorino cheese on top, then a sprinkling of basil, then tomatoes and olives and finally a grind of pepper.
Cook for 20 minutes on baking sheets and let the tarts stand for several minutes, on a rack out of the oven, before taking them out of the tin.
Makes 8 tarts.

*I used green olives as that is what I had on hand, and I added anchovies.. because I like them.

With my colourful tarts I made a red soup, a delicious way to use beets. I love the tartness that the cranberries gave the soup.

Red Soup for Souper Sundays!
Nigella Lawson, Feast

3 raw beetroot
1 large red onion
2 tbsp olive oil
150g cranberries
juice and zest of 1 orange
pinch ground cloves
1 litre vegetable stock
150ml sour cream for serving (I used homemade crème fraiche)

Peel the beetroots and onion and chop them roughly. Blitz in food processor. Heat oil in large pot and cook beet mixture on medium until sweated down, about 10 minutes.
Add cranberries, orange juice and zest, and cloves. Stir and pour in stock.
Lower heat, cook 45 minutes and puree with immersion blender - carefully!
Garnish with sour cream or crème fraiche.

Dorie Greenspan's Crème Fraiche
Cookstr.com

1 cup whipping cream
1 tbsp yogurt or buttermilk

To make , pour the heavy cream into a clean jar, add the buttermilk or yogurt, cover the jar tightly, and shake it for about a minute. Then just leave the jar on the counter for 12 to 24 hours, or until the crème fraîche thickens slightly. How quickly it thickens will depend on the temperature of the room—the warmer the room, the quicker the thickening action. When it has thickened, chill the crème fraîche in the refrigerator for a day before you use it. Crème fraîche can be kept covered in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks and (or but, depending on your taste) will get tangier and tangier day after day.

*Crème Fraiche was the challenge of the month for December on Forging Fromage, and this is the only recipe that I have tried so far. I do find it tasty but a little thin. I have made it twice now and am also looking forward to trying some other methods.

Worlds Easiest Pork Tostadas

I love my slow cooker, I really do. I love throwing food in there and having a meal hours later. I no longer fear lifting the lid once in a while and adjusting seasonings, towards the end, turning the temp from high to low or vice-versa when needed. There are so many rules they tell you about slow cookers that I just don't think are necessary. One of the great things about cooking is knowing how the dish is coming along and making little changes along the way, why should it be any different with slow cooked meals?
I love my slow cooker so much that it has spawned smaller slow cookers. In addition to my 5 quart, I have 3 quart and a 1.5 quart. I love having just the right size for my needs and even use them for warming milk gently to make yogurt and cheese.

This week I was inspired by this post on Fresh, Local and Best.
A small, boneless pork shoulder roast slow cooked with salsa and seasonings, shredded and served on a tostada. Brilliant! I totally missed where she added water, and didn't add any to mine. I used my small slow cooker, trimmed a tiny boneless pork shoulder roast and covered it in a jar of hot (spicy) salsa. I added some Mexican hot sauce on top and cooked on high for 6 hours, then turned to low. I would have done it all low for longer but only thought of making it in the afternoon.

The resulting pork was so tender, I shredded it and mixed it up with the sauce in the cooker, served it on tostadas with sliced red onion, sharp old Canadian cheddar and parsley. Simply wonderful, and I do mean simply. What could be easier? Go ahead and add seasonings in the beginning if your salsa is not already highly seasoned, I found mine was. No water was necessary. The hot sauce added just the right bite and I served more on the side. My tostadas happen to be chipotle flavoured which adds to the great flavour. Need an easy meal that tastes great? Here ya go. You're welcome!

They would be great with all sorts of toppings, shredded lettuce or cabbage, chopped tomatoes, cilantro, black olives... the world is your tostada. Hope your year is off to a great start!

Care For a Drink?

Got your bar stocked up for the New Year?
One thing that we got more into this year is muddling. Now I confess I often have muddled thoughts, but in this case I refer to muddled drinks. Take some delicious fruit or herbs and gently press them in the bottom of your glass with a muddler. At first you might want to use a wooden spoon but as time goes on you will want a proper muddler.
I got a new one for Christmas that I quite like. It is wood, not lacquered, and of a decent length. (Yes, size matters!) Too short and you mash your fingers, nobody wants that!

Here is a video on proper muddling.

Once you get into the habit of muddling, the world is your oyster. Or cocktail, as it were.
You are already fabulous in the kitchen, why not try out your culinary prowess in the bar? Thai basil anyone? There are lots of fun recipes that you can come up with using fresh ingredients muddled into a drink.

Photo from Worldwidedrinks.com

My new PUG (Pick Up Gallagher's) muddler is over 11 inches long. Donna, pay attention, we are talking wood here. Ok, Donna, we are talking muddlers here! Donna? Oh dear, we lost her.
Moving on, one of our favourite things to muddle is citrus for lager. You have had a lime wedge squeezed into a cerveza, would you be surprised to learn that citrus is great in all kinds of lager? Muddling the citrus gives you the great oils from the rind as well as the juice. The top photo shows our orange lager. Delicious and, hey, almost health-food. Ok, maybe not health food but getting closer.

A lovely drink here is a Raspberry-tini. In a Boston Shaker (the one with the glass and metal parts, behind the drink in the photo) place a handful of raspberries, fresh or defrosted. Muddle, and add two jiggers Framboise and four jiggers Raspberry Vodka. Shake with ice and strain into a martini glass. Delicious!
Not pictured - me eating the muddled raspberry slush out of the shaker. Hey, waste not want not! It is up to you if you want to strain muddled drinks or not.

Check out some more muddled drink recipes here, and here.
If you are interested in the way-cool PUG muddlers, email Chris Gallagher at jcgallagher08@hotmail.com.

And for dessert - a Banana Mudslide from The Best Summer Drinks, Ray Foley.
1/4 oz Kahlua
1/4 oz Irish Cream
1/2 oz Crème de Bananes
1/2 oz Vodka
1 oz milk or cream
Blend with ice until smooth. Um, I multiplied this recipe by eight.. we were parched..

I hope I have given you a couple of ideas for drinks this New Years, and that you have a wonderful time.
Remember the Puppy Rules - no driving! Not even after one cocktail. And really, who wants only one cocktail? Arrange for a safe trip home before you go out.
Happy New Year!

Creamiest Mac and Cheese Ever!

I don't think boys ever grow out of their love of mac and cheese, even well into their 50's. I found this creamiest of creamy Three Cheese Pasta Bake to make for hubby this week.
You have to love any mac and cheese recipe with a brick of cream cheese in it! I loved the texture of the cheese sauce, and, though high in fat, cheese does have beneficial properties as well. Plus it is just plain delicious.
I made this with whole wheat pasta but I think it would be better with regular. Whole wheat macaroni has a bit of a strong wheaty flavour. Sigh, so much for trying to be good. Being naughty is so much more delicious.
I made the recipe as-is, adjusting for seasoning when the sauce was done. The breadcrumbs are panko and I broiled the top for a couple of minutes for colour and crunch. The recipe is here and in Anna Olson's new cookbook - Fresh with Anna Olson.
Serve the pasta with a small mountain of steamed broccoli to feel more virtuous.
We all know that reheated mac and cheese is not quite the same as freshly made. My secret for awesome leftovers? Frank's Red Hot. I love that stuff! You may have your own fave hot sauce, or a couple. Use what you like.