baked oatmeal with blueberries & peaches.

There’s nothing better than eating breakfast after normal breakfast hours. Unfortunately, the most delicious breakfast foods – pancakes, french toast, fried eggs, etc – are also generally the least healthy, so I don’t feel great about eating them all the time.

Recipes for baked oatmeal and baked oatmeal muffins have been floating around the internet for a while now, and I’ve been dying to try them. Because I don’t have a family to make breakfast for – and my friends are too lazy to come over for breakfast – I decided to make a batch for lunch, with leftovers to reheat for breakfast. This recipe is an amalgam of a couple different recipes found online, adapted to the ingredients in my house and my (temporarily) healthy mood. If you’re feeling saucy, substitute bananas for peaches and chocolate for blueberries. Strawberries & white chocolate? Raspberries and chocolate? Apples and caramel bits? The possibilities are endless.

I made these in a jumbo muffin tin, and so my recipe is muffin-tin-specific. However, you could just as easily make this in normal muffin tins or a cake pan. However you bake it, be sure to serve it warm in a bowl with a little bit of milk and a sprinkle of brown sugar on top! Delicious.

Baked oatmeal with blueberries & peaches

Ingredients 

• 3/4 cup fresh peaches, or thawed frozen peaches
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp honey
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a jumbo muffin tin with paper or silicone liners. Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together peaches, 1/2 cup of the blueberries, 1 tbsp honey, and 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Mix well. Ladle about 1/4 cup of the peach/blueberry mixture into each tin, then use the back of a spoon to press the mixture into all sides of the tin.

Put the tin in the oven and bake for five minutes.

In the meantime, combine the oats, 1/4 cup pecans, baking powder, and 1/4 tsp cinnamon in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, combine  1/4 cup honey, milk, egg, and vanilla extract.

Spoon 1/4 cup of the oat mixture into each muffin liner, adding more until each tin is evenly full. Then pour 1/4 cup of the egg/honey mixture over the oats. Sprinkle a small handful of blueberries and nuts onto each muffin and place the tin into the oven. Bake for 35 minutes. Serve warm.

 

fresh tomato sauce with garlic & balsamic

I was going to start this blog post with a short paragraph about how I’ve been too busy lately to blog but the truth is I haven’t. Nor have I neglected to blog because I jut haven’t cooked anything blog-worthy lately – I have. It’s just that it’s so damn hot in Texas right now, and lately when I’ve finished cooking I just haven’t felt like blogging much after. I know, that’s really no excuse. I feel really guilty depriving all my loyal followers of their favorite blog (ha!), and I’m determined to make it up to y’all by blogging (almost) daily over the next few weeks. Can you forgive me? Please? Thanks. I knew we’d make up.

Anyways, this was my project for this afternoon: fresh tomato sauce with lots of garlic and a hint of balsamic vinegar. I’ve had tomatoes coming out my ears this summer, and I’m loving it. The best part about home-grown tomatoes is that they are always delicious and sometimes quite ugly.

And maybe a little inappropriately shaped…

The point is that sometimes the ugliest tomatoes are the most delicious. This particular recipe was made almost entirely of ugly tomatoes. If you’re at a farmer’s market, ask for the “seconds” – tomatoes which are sometimes a bit bruised, maybe have a few hail marks, and wouldn’t win any beauty pageants. But real beauty is on the inside, right? Right??

Aren’t they lovely? That’s about $6 worth of seconds, and they’re just as good as any others. They’re really easy to peel too – just make a little X on the bottom of each one, throw them in a pot of boiling water for about 30 seconds, then put them in an ice bath. After a minute or so, the skins slip right off.

The most important part of making this sauce is removing the seeds – keeping them in can make the sauce a bit bitter. Just slice the tomatoes into quarters and squeeze the seeds into a strainer. Keep the juice – it’ll help to thin out the sauce if it gets too thick.

After that, it’s super easy – add any herbs or spices you like, and let it simmer in a pot for about an hour. I decided to keep it simple – just a little onion, balsamic, and garlic. After an hour I had a lovely smooth sauce ready for canning. If you do decide to can this sauce (if you want to keep it for more than a few weeks), process in a water bath for 15 minutes. If you don’t process it, it’ll last in the fridge for a few weeks.

I used about 20 medium sized tomatoes and ended up with 2 pint jars and 1 quart jar – enough for me and enough to share.

Enjoy!

patty pan & zucchini cake with cream cheese frosting.

Last night, I had some friends over for an impromptu dinner party. I’ve never done anything like this before, but it was so much fun and unbelievably easy. Here’s the secret: have a friend who is a really, really, really amazing chef and just offer to buy food & host if he cooks all the food for everyone. You’re getting the better end of the deal, believe me. Your friend will probably offer to buy the booze, and when he does, nod and say YES. Because if your friends drink like my friends, that stuff gets expensive.

My talented and generous chef friend is Aaron, who blogs at Eat Beast. Man can that kid cook. We started with seared marinated big eye tuna with wasabi aioli on a fried rice patty with fresh local jalapenos and onions.

Our main dish was deliciously rare broiled flank steak with two types of sauces – the first was a sweet orange bell pepper, shallot, and champagne sauce & the second was a green bell pepper, poblano, garlic (all local!) and vermouth sauce. All served on a bed of sauteed spinach and fresh mashed potatoes.

The poblano sauce was a really lovely green in real life – I don’t know why my phone decided to make it baby food colored. In any case, all of these recipes will be up on Aaron’s blog soon – definitely give them a try. I know I’ll be using the green sauce on chicken enchiladas within the next week.

My contribution to this little party (besides hosting, which is not even a contribution when your friends insist on doing the dishes before they leave) was the desert. A week or so ago I was given a delicious-sounding zucchini cake recipe by a friend of mine from RRR Farm in East Austin, and I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to try it out. A simple cake for a simple party – bake, frost, serve. What could possibly go wrong?

Okay, so I’m obviously not a master cake decorator. And yes, I can acknowledge that this cake is ugly as sin, especially after the beautifully-plated dishes above. But you know what? It tasted damn good, and it’s much healthier than you’d expect – only 325 calories per slice! The patty pan squash & zucchini keep it light and moist, while brown sugar & honey make it sweet without being overpowering. It may not have been the prettiest dish at the table, but by the time we got around to eating the Ugly Cake (as I began to call it) we were having too much fun to care.

And, I mean, how can you not smile when cake is served on this plate?

This cake is best served cold (I kept it frosted in the fridge for about 4 hours before serving) with friends and a whole bunch of wine. Enjoy!

Patty Pan Squash & Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (makes two 9-inch cake rounds)

Ingredients for the cake

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup good local honey
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups coarsely grated patty pan squash
• 1/2 cup coarsely grated zucchini (I used a fine cheese grater)
• 3/4 cup chopped texas pecans

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In a large bowl, whisk together oil and sugar, then add eggs, vanilla, and honey. Fold in flour mixture, then add grated zucchini and pecans. Mix well.

Pour cake batter into two 9-inch cake pans and bake for 35 – 40 minutes, or until tester inserted into center of pan comes out clean.

Ingredients for cream cheese frosting

• 6 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl until blended. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Spread frosting in between the two 9-inch rounds and on the top and sides. Serve cold.

cold food for hot days [farmer's market gazpacho & blackberry yogurt pops.]

It is hot in Austin, y’all. Like really hot. The market this morning was almost unbearable. Tomorrow is supposed to be even worse – 99 for the high, which means it’ll probably break 100 for the first time this summer. And guess who’s working a market from 10 – 2? This girl. Woo hoo!

When I got home from the Cedar Park FM this afternoon, the thought of cooking was too much to bear. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess) I’d come home with a whole bunch of ripe veggies, and I knew that I had to use at least some of them up, so I had to cook something.

I briefly considered just chopping everything up and eating it raw, but that was just a little to depressing, even for me, so I made the next best (read: coldest) thing – gazpacho.

This cold spicy soup is simple that I’m honestly not totally comfortable calling it a recipe. I literally just chopped up a bunch of veggies, tossed them in olive oil & balsamic, blended them until they were smooth, then served it (to myself, fancy!) with crusty bread and some cheese. It was cold and surprisingly filling and just about perfect.

The basic rule I’ve found online for gazpacho is 3 parts tomatoes to 1 part everything else – in my case, that translated into 4 cups of tomatoes (from McCall Creek Farms) and about 1 and a half cups of mixed cucumbers (also McCall), onions, garlic and poblano peppers (all from Simmon’s Family Farm). And yes, I know that that ratio/math isn’t quite right but you know what? It’s summer. I’m over it.

I chopped up all those veggies and mixed in a 1/4 cup of olive oil and 1/4 cup of balsamic. I didn’t add any salt or pepper here, because I didn’t want to over-season it too early. Once everything was good and mixed I stuck it in the fridge for about 5 hours. When I pulled it out, the tomatoes had released most of their juice, which had mixed with the balsamic and everything else and turned into this delicious salty-sweet liquid.

Isn’t that beautiful? I honestly almost ate it like that. Better sense prompted me to toss it in a blender and blend it for a long time. Like a really long time – longer than I expected. When I first checked after about 30 seconds, it was the consistency of that crappy salsa you get at bad Mexican restaurants – runny and chunky all at once. So I kept blending. No change. Kept blending. Still no change. And then all of a sudden it was perfect. I don’t know how long it took, honestly, but just trust me when I say it’ll be longer than you think. But it’s worth it.

The final product was cold and creamy but had zero fat except the 1/4 cup of olive oil. My 5 and a half ish cups of raw veggies ended up making about 6 cups of soup overall – between 3 and four servings. Super low-fat and healthy dinner, even if you eat the whole thing.

I also made (and I use that word loosely) some freezer pops with this super-cheap rig I picked up at Joanne’s last week. Yeah, I shop there. I know.

Anyways, these things were so tasty. I blended up some frozen blackberries from McCall Creek, a little skim milk (from Mill King), and some Round Rock honey until they were smooth, then layered the blackberry mixture with greek yogurt. It took about 4 hours for them to freeze (and a good minute under hot water to coax the frozen pops out), but they were totally worth it. I’m not going to lie – I ate two. But with a dinner as healthy and cold as this, I don’t feel too bad about it.

Austinites, I’ll be at HOPE tomorrow – some say hey if you’re around! There just might be a frozen pop (in an ice-packed cooler, of course) with your name on it.

30 minute peach & blackberry cobblers

Last Christmas, my brother bought me three mini cocottes from Le Creuset – my first pieces from a company I have always loved! My parents have had a big yellow Le Creuset dutch oven for as long as I can remember, and I was so thrilled to have my own baby versions! Unfortunately, I’ve only had the chance to use them a couple times – I just don’t really have dinner for three that often. 

BUT. Yesterday I was all torn up trying to decide which kind of cobbler I wanted to make out of the abundance of fruit I’ve got in my kitchen – blackberry, peach, or blackberry and peach. (And yes, these are the questions that occupy my time.) I had just about decided on blackberry/peach when I spotted my cocottes sitting on the top of the fridge. That’s when I realized I didn’t have to decide – I could make all three! Never mind the fact that I only had one person around to share them with.

These things are so easy, y’all. I’m not even sure this qualifies as a recipe. I’m sure my grandmother will balk at the sight of what are obviously (gasp!) canned biscuits, but I just couldn’t be bothered to make my own dough. (As if I could – my dad is the biscuit king. I won’t even try, because I know mine won’t be as good as his!)

Besides being absurdly easy, this recipe is going to be a bit vague, because I made three little cobblers and you’re going to (probably) be making one big one. So here’s what I’ll say is a basic list of ingredients:

• Fruit – As I said, we used peaches & blackberries – my favorite cobbler was the mixed, but J liked the plain peach best. Our blackberries were a bit tart, so that all blackberry cobbler wasn’t quite as good as the others. All that means is that if you use tart fruit, you’ll need lots of…
• Sweetener – I used Round Rock Honey, of course, and it mixed beautifully with the fruit. How much (and what kind) of sweetener you use is entirely up to you – I’d say start with a little bit, mix it in, try a bit, and add more if you feel like it. Trial and error all the way. Same thing with the…
• Thickener – Some recipes I’ve seen called for flour as a thickening agent, but my grandmother always used cornstarch, and that’s what I had on hand. Again, I just added a little bit at a time until it seemed like the extra liquid from my fruit was soaked up, and I could only see a few grains on the surface of the fruit. 

It really is that easy for the fruit part of the cobbler – mix it all together until it tastes and looks just right. For the topping, as I said, I used canned buttermilk biscuits. In hindsight, the flaky kind probably would have worked better.

It’s really important to cook the biscuits before you add the fruit to the pan (or cocottes, or whatever). If you don’t, they’ll be soggy. But don’t cook the biscuits completely – if you do the tops will be too hard when they’re finished. Cook about 3 minutes shorter than directed, then pull them out of the oven and split them in half. 

Put the bottom half of the biscuits on the bottom half of the pan, then ladle the fruit on top. Add the top half of the biscuits, then put back in the oven for about 5 – 7 minutes. The result?

Okay, the picture is there, so I can’t lie anymore. I definitely overcooked mine. The top was way too hard, we literally had to stab through it to break it up. In my defense, Thor was on in the other room, and at the time, a half-naked Liam Hemsworth seemed more important than biscuits. Sorry.

In any case, you can learn from my mistakes. DON’T cook the biscuits all the way. And maybe don’t watch Thor while you cook.

Enjoy!

fresh blackberry jam

Breakfast this morning was an English muffin topped with the delicious blackberry jam I made last night. Not a bad way to start the day, I have to admit.

J brought me a few pints of blackberries from his market on Tuesday, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. I love cold berries out of a bowl in the fridge, but this was more than I could eat. I considered making a cobbler with some peaches, but I knew that if I did, I’d be forced (by my own gluttony) to eat the whole thing that night, and I’m just not running enough to justify that. It’s so hot.

Then J suggested blackberry jam, something his mom made every summer when blackberries grew like weeds on their farm in Minnesota, as if making jam is the easiest thing in the world, something people just do. 

Turns out, it’s actually not that hard, and the result was completely worth it. The “extra” work – prepping and canning the jam – can be a bit time consuming, but you can knock out the whole thing in less than an hour easily. If you don’t feel like sharing the fruits (ha!) of your labor, you’ve got enough jam for toast and sandwiches to last you until next summer at least. If you do feel like sharing, well, you’ll make a few new friends.

I used three pints of super ripe blackberries, which turned out to be just about 6 cups. Pour them in a bowl and mash them up with a potato masher, or, if you’re like me and don’t have a potato masher, a very big fork.

You want the blackberries to be completely broken down – that is, you don’t want to see any full blackberries, or anything that is visibly a berry. It took me about 10 minutes, but it’s worth it; if you puree the berries, the consistency will be all wrong.

Once the blackberries are all mashed, add in 3 tablespoons of no sugar added or low-sugar fruit pectin. Using “low or no” pectin allows you to play with the amount (or type) of sweetener you add without messing up the jelling agent. I used plain white sugar, but you could use honey or sugar substitute just as easily. Or, if your berries are naturally sweet, leave it sugarless. The blackberries I used were a bit tart, so I did decide to add sugar this time. I might not next time.

Add the pectin in one tablespoon at a time, until it’s all combined and there are no chunks. Pour the mixture into a large pot on high and bring to a boil.

It shouldn’t take more than a minute to bring the mixture to a boil. Once it’s boiling, add 4 cups of sugar all at once and stir to combine. Bring it back to a boil, stirring constantly, and keep it boiling for a minute. After a full minute, remove from heat and stir for about thirty more seconds.

Ladle the jam into clean mason jars, leaving 1/4 inch headroom at the top. If you’re going to eat it right away, put on a lid and pop it in the fridge. If you want to can it properly (and save it for winter), process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. (I don’t have a proper canner, so I just used a big stock pot and a canning rack from Ball.) After 10 minutes, remove the jars from heat and set on a towel on your counter for 12 hours, or until you hear the lids pop. Hearing those lids pop – a signal that you’ve canned them correctly – is such a sweet sound, especially for a novice like me.

Using 6 cups (3 pints) of blackberries yielded almost 7 eight-ounce jars of jam for me. As you can see from that picture above, I’ve almost used up the 7th partial jar. This stuff is just so good. I’m not ashamed to admit I had an English muffin with jam for breakfast and lunch. And a midday snack. I might just smear some on a piece of toast for dessert…

Enjoy!

fresh summer salad.

I ate a big lunch late this afternoon, so I wanted something light and easy for dinner tonight. With a fridge full of veggies, salad was the obvious choice. Lucky for me, I had all the ingredients (minus one) for the perfect summer salad.

My mom used to make this salad all the time when I was younger. I think the traditional Greek version calls for kalamata olives as well as onions, cucumbers, and tomatoes, but I’m not crazy about the briny taste of black olives, and anyways I didn’t have any. So here it is – the simplest salad in the world and the perfect dinner after a long day of shopping for suits with my boyfriend. (Not as fun as it sounds.)

Ingredients below: fresh cucumbers from McCall Creek Farms and tomatoes and red onions from Johnson’s Backyard Garden. The cheese is low-fat feta from Central Market. I coated the whole thing in a little bit of balsamic and a few shakes of pepper. It was perfect.

P.S. – I spent a good chunk of this evening making blackberry jam, and it is DELICIOUS. Full blog post and recipe will be up tomorrow!