Recipe Test: Grandmother's Buttermilk Cornbread

I have been using this cornbread recipe for a while. 



Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (that is 1 stick of butter)
→　I use 4 Tablespoons of butter (1/2 stick)
2/3 cup white sugar                             
→　I use 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar instead
2 eggs
1 cup butter milk                                 
→　1 Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (or white vinegar) + milk to make 1 cup of butter milk substitute

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
→　1/4 teaspoon salt

Yield: 6-8 servings

It is very easy and quick to make.  Let's begin!

Brown Rice, Lentil and Spinach Soup

Even though I live in the lentil capital of the world, I never cooked with lentils until a few weeks ago!  While I was browsing the Saveur magazine, one recipe looked really good.

The serving size is six.  Since I was not sure how the soup would turn out good, I decided to try with a smaller portion to reduce the risk of waisting the ingredients. 

Here is the recipe.

I kept the original amount for the vegetables (onion, carrots and celery)

INGREDIENTS

½ lb. sweet Italian sausage   → 1/4 lb.
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil  → 1 tablespoon
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 ribs celery, finely chopped
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
1 tsp. cumin seeds       → 1/2 teaspoon
½ tsp. dried thyme      → 1/4 teaspoon
1 dried chile de árbol   → I did not have it 
12 cups chicken broth  → I did not have it , I added 4 cups of water instead of 6 cups
1 cup long-grain brown rice, rinsed  → 1/2 cup short-grain brown rice (I didn't have long-grain kind)
¾ cup brown lentils, rinsed → 3/8 cup brown lentils
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ lb. spinach, coarsely chopped


It was super easy to cook!  It was very hearty soup.  I will make it again (and again) for sure.

Granola Bars

I was looking for a recipe for granola bars, and found this recipe.

When I cook or bake, I do not follow to a tee.  As soon as I saw the list of ingredients, I decided to omit the brown sugar.  As I consume very little sugar, my tongue does not handle sweet stuff very well.

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup wheat germ                           → Replaced with ground flaxseed
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour                      → 1/4 cup instead
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt                    → 1 pinch instead
1/2 cup honey                                    → 1/3 cup instead
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil                          → 1/3 cup oil plus 1/3 applesauce instead
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup dried sour cherries, chopped
                                                     → 1/2 cup of dried fruits (I like to use dried cranberries or raisins)
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips             → 1/4 cup or omit
3/4 cup slivered almonds                   → 1/4 cup nuts (I have tried with unsalted cashew nuts)

Serving size 16 bars

 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with parchment paper.

 

2. Add all dry ingredients (oats, flour, cinnamon, ground flaxseed and salt) in a bowl.

3. Measure wet ingredients (oil, honey, applesauce, vanilla and egg).  Note: If you do not have applesauce on hand, you may use 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup honey.

Mix all wet ingredients well.

4. Pour the wet ingredient mixture to the bowl. Mix well.

My little helper was a great help! 

5. Add nuts, dried fruits and chocolate chips.  Mix well.

6. Press the mixture to the pan.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes in a 350F oven.

7. Cool for 10 minutes and cut into pieces. 

 

Update (March 24, 2013):

• Baking in a 9x9" pan makes a thicker bars. 
• Coconut, Chocolate & Almonds: Yummy!  I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil.  I omitted vanilla.  

Applesauce

We bought 50 lbs. of apples in Hood River, Oregon at the end of the year 2012. As I often substitute applesauce for oil and sugar, I wanted to try making apple sauce!

We visited Kiyokawa Family Orchards. They had some rare apple.  The lowest price was 39cents per pound!  We should have bought more.

 

I used a few different kinds of apples for the applesauce.

 

 First, I pealed apples and chopped them.

 

Next, I cooked them in my pot.  Finally, I mushed the cooked apples.

The whole process took some time, but it was easier than I had thought. I froze half in a ziplock bag, and I canned the other half.

Oven Fries

My boys asked for some French fries. I had some potatoes. I didn't want to do clean up afterwards.

My solution was 'cook' potatoes in the oven!

First, slice potatoes to the shape you like. Then, coat them with olive or vegetable oil.

Bake the potatoes in the oven at 375F for 20 to 25 minutes.

That's all!

Crispy Oven Baked Zucchini Fries

I started browsing more meal ideas on Pinterest. Never heard of it? It is a bit difficult to describe what it is. Here is the site is about: http://m.pinterest.com/about/

I bought one zucchini specifically for this recipe:

http://pinterest.com/pin/232779874460585808/

The recipe calls for panko, Japanese bread crumbs. It is available in the international or ethnic section at most grocery stores.

I make my own. Here is how.
1. Dry sliced bread for about half a day.
2. Make crumbs in a food processor.
That's it! I usually use 8-10 slices of bread. I keep them in the freezer.

These were very good! Next time, I will increase the amount of garlic powder and paprika, and add a little of salt. Even my super picky son said good and actually ate some. :-)

Homemade Granola

My first (successful) granola!

Hamburger Buns

I don't know what made me wanting to try baking hamberger buns on Sunday.  For bread baking recipes, I always check the recipes at the King Arthur Flour web site.  Beautiful Burger Buns is the recipe I tried this time. 

One of the best wedding gifts we received.  This bread machine has been working faithfully almost eight years.  I use this machine for kneading only.  I prefer to transfer the dough in to bread loafs and bake them in the oven.

I used the dough cycle.  This was after 1.5 hours from the beginning. 

Divide dough in eight pieces using my electronic scale.  You don't need to do this way, but I like to get each dough ball close to the same size. 

Flatten each dough ball with a rolling pin.  Let them raise for about one hour.

Brush the buns with melted butter.

Bake for 15-18 minutes at 375F.

I made a portobello mushroom burger.  Mmm!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

To accompany the latte, we needed something chocolaty (coffee and chocolate - perfect combination, right)?

The quick easy chocolate cake recipe is Flourless Chocolate Cake.  I love King Arthur Flour products and recipes.  I actually flew all the way to Vermont to take their baking lesson. 

Here are the main ingridients.  I'm sure the recipe was tested by their bakers, but I always cut the amount of sugar in half even for a recipe I never baked before.

The original recipe calls for 3/4 cup of sugar, but I only used 1/3 cup here.

I used 1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of unsweetened chocolate to even reduce the sugar content. 

Melt butter and chocolate (in microwave for 1.5 minutes).  

Mix well.  The texture should be very silky.

Espresso powder is optional.  I used probably 1/4 spoon to enhance the chocolate flavor. 

Add sugar, eggs and a pinch of salt.  Mix well.  Add cocoa powder.

Ready for baking!

The original recipe calls for glaze, but this is sweet for us. I occasionally serve this cake with whipped cream. My husband likes to eat with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.





Vanilla Extract

I stopped buying vanilla extract as I would go through so much with the amount of baking I do.  After an internet search, I learned I can make my own vanilla extract.  Yippee!

All you need is vodka and vanilla beans.  I bought the least expensive vodka I could find.  I purchased the madagascar vanilla beans from Amazon.  The price changes frequently at Amazon, but the shipping is included!  Great deal.  :-)

It is difficult to see in this picture.  I cut the beans vertically.

 

Beans and vodka in the bottles (cut in half due to my bottles are short - like me!).  These bottles are kept in my pantry.

Day 3.  I wanted to show the difference. The one of the left I shook the bottle every day.  The one of the right, I did not shake it.  I will shake them once a day every day.  The vanilla extract will be ready in four to six weeks!  I'll post updated pictures later this month. 

Homemade Almond Butter

I saw Justin's Nut Butter (Classic Almond) was on sale at Moscow Food Co-op.  I'd been always wanting to try almond butter, yet I was a bit hesitant to spend 80 cents for a small packet for a taste test!

My research began.  I learned that I can make almond butter at home.  Yay!  Some people add oil and others used almonds only.  Many recipes used roasted almonds, but I decided to use raw almonds for my first experiement. 

I used 1 cup (about 4 oz) raw almonds.







About 30 seconds later...  Almonds were coarsely chopped.

After five minutes. 

It felt like rough clay.  Kept scraping every two minutes or so...

 It started to look like paste!






Scrape.  Turn on the food processer.  Stop and scrape.  I must have repeated process at least 10 times.






Oil started showing up.

 My first almond butter!  It took about 18 minutes. 

Costco sells this 3-lb bag for US$13.20.
3 lbs. = 48 oz

4 oz of homemade almond butter = US$1.10  Not bad at all!  The little packet of almond butter contains 1.15 oz.  I believe regular price is 99 cents at co-op.  I could be wrong...   










I thought that almond butter was slightly sweeter than peanut butter.  I can not wait for almond butter and honey sandwich on homemade bread.  Mmm.....