Ultimate Oatmeal

There's nothing I like better than oatmeal for breakfast on a cold winter morning. My usual has berries and flax seeds, but sometimes on a day off I like to go crazy and make the "ULTIMATE" oatmeal. Obviously yours might have different ingredients based on your preferences, but just try it with every delicious thing you can think of. Trust me.

Ultimate Oatmeal
-frozen strawberries, raspberries & blueberries
-fresh banana sliced or chopped
-ground flax seeds
-chopped/sliced cashews, walnuts & almonds
-a pinch of brown sugar

Cook the oatmeal according to the directions (I use the 1-minute quick cook). If you're using big pieces of frozen fruit, like my strawberries, you might want to partially thaw them ahead of time or put them in the water as you boil it to get them warmed through. Add smaller frozen fruit with oats. Once oatmeal is cooked, add fresh fruit, flax, nuts and sweetener. Hold the bowl in both hands to warm yourself and enjoy.

Happy New Year!

Glazed carrots

My favorite holiday meal sidedish. And a great way to get your kids to eat vegetables...

Boil carrots until soft enough to split with fork

Drain carrots, return to pot

Add a 1-2 tablespoons of butter

Add a couple tablespoons of dark brown sugar - as much as you need to get desired sweetness

Mix altogether until butter has melted and carrots are covered with 'sugar sauce'

Enjoy!

Hash Browns

This was my first stab at homemade hash browns, and I think it went well.


There aren't too many rules for making hash browns. Basically if you're skillet-frying potatoes and vegetables, they're hash browns.
Olive oil is the best grease for the pan. Dice your favorite vegetables, and throw into the pan with cubed or grated potatoes. (The above hash browns include red pepper and tomato.) The final rule: they're not hash browns until you include chopped onions. Season to personal taste. Warm until the potatoes are tanned. Enjoy!

Veggies for Dinner

I needed a quick fix before running out the door and Matt sauteed me up some brussel sprouts with shallots and garlic (they're so hot you can still see the steam coming off of them) and a tomato salad with balsamic and Asiago cheese.


Quick, healthy and delicious!

Chocolate Christmas Trees

Made the same way as I did the chocolate ghosts, say hi to the Christmas trees! (With green food coloring, of course)



A quick and easy treat to make for Christmas, and a fun family activity!

Stromboli

From guest contributor Dena...

One of my family's holiday favorites (probably because that's the only time of year I make it). There is not an actual recipe for this, so I will just explain how I make it. I use Rhodes frozen bread dough (white). You can fill it with whatever you like. I use ham, salami, pepperoni, mozzarella and provolone. Roll it up. "Seal" up the ends. I egg wash the top for that shiny golden brown finish. Bake at 350 until nicely golden brown. This year I am going to try some veggie ones. I'll post an update if they work out.

Wine of the Week - Forest Glen 2007 Pinot Noir

Tastes of a variety of red berries, and gentle acidity. A good wine, and very affordable.

Whiskey Balls

Who doesn't like to get buzzed off cookies?

Ingredients: 1 cup vanilla wafers 1 cup chopped pecans 1 1/2oz whiskey (my preference is Maker's Mark) 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa 1 1/2 tbsp light corn syrup

Combine dry ingredients thoroughly. In a small bowl, combine whiskey and corn syrup, then stir into dry mixture. Refrigerate for about an hour. On wax paper, sift come powdered sugar. Shape dough into balls and roll around in the sugar.

Unfortunately, can't be kept out with rest of cookies to snack on. Must be kept refrigerated when not in use or will get gooey.

For your enjoyment:

Stir fry

A simple way to get your veggies. We make this a lot, with variations. You can use any veggies that appeal to you - we like to buy frozen mixed veggies, for simplicity's sake at the end of a long day, but fresh veggies would probably be even better. We got a different mix than usual this time, so no baby corn or water chestnuts for me, which is a bummer because they're my favorites. Cook the veggies up in some oil (I like to use peanut, but pretty much anything will work just fine), soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and anything else you'd like (ginger and garlic are nice additions). Sometimes we'll marinate and bake our own tofu to go in it, but this time we tried out some Tempeh-tations in Ginger Teriyaki and they were really good. Cook up some rice or udon or soba noodles and you've got a yummy, easy, veggie-filled dinner in next to no time.

Tom-n-Jerrys

And now, a drink recipe from guest contributor Paula...


This is a simple recipe for a warm, soothing drink on a cold winter's night.

3 eggs 1/2 lb of confectioners (powdered) sugar rum hot water nutmeg

Put a teapot of water on to boil. While that's heating up, separate the egg whites and yolks. Beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the yolks and continue beating until well mixed and a little frothy. Add a half pound of powdered sugar and beat until well mixed. Put a shot of your favorite rum in a cup. Add two gravy ladles of the batter. Fill the rest of the cup with the boiling water. Top off with a sprinkle of nutmeg and enjoy! Happy Winter.

(This recipe makes approximately 6 cups. Add or subtract according to the amount of people.)

Cranberry Almond Bark

A great alternative to the usual Christmas cookie. Perfect for chocoholics like me. And no baking required!

Ingredients: 1 bag of chocolate chips 1 bag of white chocolate chips Sliced almonds Dried cranberries

Melt the chips separately via microwave or double-boiler. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Alternately, spread the chips in a thin layer of stripes on the foil. Using the back of the spoon, swirl the layers across each other to create a marble effect. Top with cranberries and almonds. Be sure to insert them into the chocolate or they won't stick. Refrigerate for about an hour to harden. Break into large pieces.

Wine of the Week - Redwood Creek 2008 Pinot Grigio

With tastes of apple and melon, this is a simple, low-acid, enjoyably fruity wine.

Peppermint Coke

Just a silly little treat that I enjoy. All you need is a peppermint flavored candy cane and a can of Coca-Cola. Unwrap, and let the candy cane soak in the Coke. After only five minutes, you'll begin to taste the mint flavored Coke. Continue dipping the candy cane until the mint flavor has reached the intensity you prefer.

Holiday Sugar Cookies

I've never made sugar cookies before (gasp!) and I thought I'd give it a shot this year. So to cheer up my co-workers, I made a batch of Chanukah cookies. Step 1 - Pick up awesome Chanukah cookie cutters - dreidel, star of David, menorah. Step 2 - Find recipes for cookies & icing. Step 3 - Make & decorate.

The recipes I used were Eloise's Easy Sugar Cookies and Powdered Sugar Icing I. I found the cookie dough fell apart a bit too much when I was rolling it out, but the cookies taste great. I also used Ener-G egg replacer in place of the egg in the recipe, but that should surprise nobody. And the icing, I only did half a recipe, which iced just enough to bring to work (30 small cookies).

Then I plated them up and wrapped 'em in cellophane to bring to the office to celebrate the festival of lights. Happy Chanukah everyone!!

Pretzels of Doom

Since getting a job at our little dirt mall, I've been binging on mall pretzels. You know the ones I'm talking about. Overpriced and dripping with butter, sure to give you heartburn 20 seconds after you have that last bite. But sooooo hard to resist. So, being in a holiday baking mood, I looked for a not-too-hard recipe to try out myself. And this one from AllRecipes.com did not disappoint. They taste so super buttery (even though there's no buttter involved) and are amazingly soft and fluffy. I made mine smaller than in the recipe, so I ended up having 16 pretzels instead of a dozen. And Steve and I successfully polished off all of them within 24 hours. Soooooo good. I made another batch today and immediately stuck them in the freezer for safekeeping until Christmas eve, when I'll serve them up with some Guinness cheese fondue.

Ingredients

4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup baking soda
4 cups hot water
1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

Directions

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.

When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned

Fruit & Nuts

My fiance and I have been systematically helping each other eat more healthfully over the past two years we've been together. Part of the reason this works so well is that he spends a lot of time reading about the best way to eat and lately we've been concentrating on eating as much raw food as possible: fruit, veggies and nuts. Part of this is because I recently decided I want to be vegan... at some point in my life (though I'm not sure how long it will take me to give up cheese if I'll ever be able to do it!) and part of this is because Matt has a whole new perspective on eating for health after reading The Unconstipated Gourmet. Classy, right?


So one night we made ourselves a huge fruit platter of pear, apple, banana, grapes and strawberries and enjoyed it with a bunch of mixed nuts (Brazilian, almond, walnut, etc.).


Part of me feels guilty as an environmentalist to be eating so much fruit out of season, but my body is really craving it and I feel significantly healthier so I'm REALLY enjoying our latest adventure in eating.

Chestnuts Roasting...

...but not on an open fire. Because, honestly, how many of us have access to open fires, and the equipment to roast chestnuts over them? Here's how to oven-roast chestnuts.


The first (and most tedious) step is to cut slits into each individual shell. Cutting an 'X' rather than a single line can help with shelling later. Spread the chestnuts out evenly on a baking sheet, with the cut side facing upward. Bake at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes.


When finished baking, allow to cool for about 10 minutes (or until cool enough to handle). Shell immediately, as it is easier to remove the shells while still warm.


Best served while still warm, or store in an airtight container to preserve freshness. Enjoy!

Homemade Thin Crust Pizza

So yummy and not a greasy as delivery.

Crust (Makes two pies):
1 packet yeast 1 tbsp sugar 1 1/2 cups water 4 cups flour	Mix water and yeast in a large bowl Add sugar and flour Knead dough. Split in half. Roll out on flour to make pie. Brush on olive oil to give a golden look.

Throw on your favorite toppings, bake for ~10 minutes on a pizza cooker or at 350° in the oven, or until cheese melts (make sure all meat is precooked) and enjoy!

Here are my faves:
Basic Pepperoni Pizza: Pep, Mozzarella cheese, Sauce


Veggie Pizza: Red bell peppers, Green bell peppers, Tomatoes, Red onions, Mozzarella cheese, Sauce, Spinach


BBQ Chicken pizza: Roasted or grilled shredded chicken, BBQ sauce, Red onions, Mozzarella, Basil

Matt & May's Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

Matt and I had a non-traditional Thanksgiving at our house, starting at 10 in the morning when my parents unexpectedly showed up! Matt made my family some gorgeous omelets and a frittata that I unfortunately forgot to photograph . My mom brought a family favorite: zucchini au gratin...

And my little sister brought some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies she'd made.


After they left, friends started trickling in and Matt made a bunch of food to nosh, including a tomato bruschetta

hummus, black bean dip, toasted pita and roasted chickpeas and soybeans

squash soup

and foccaccia with homemade marinara sauce (which I almost forgot to photograph so that's why there's only two left!!)


It was a day full of good food. Hope yours was too!

Potato Soup

Here's the latest from guest contributor Paula...

This is a wonderful comfort food to warm you up on cold winter evenings. There's no specific recipe. This is just what I learned by watching my mom make it for years. First you saute onion and garlic in butter in a soup pot. When they're softened, you put in peeled, cubed potatoes. The amount depends on how much soup you want to make. You put in just enough water to cover the potatoes and boil until softened. You then add a can of creamed corn and a can of pet milk (or more of each depending on how much soup you're making). Salt and pepper to taste. That's it. Simple, easy, and oh so good. Enjoy!