(healthy) peanut butter oatmeal cookies

part one of a two-part baking extravaganza guest blog from my cousin the almost-lawyer who clearly spends a lot of time studying!

i don’t know about you all, but something about sitting at a desk for hours on end makes me starving.  counter-intuitive, but that’s life, i suppose.  after a few too many whoopee pies and cinnamon rolls from downstairs, i decided that i needed something a little less unhealthy to cure my mid-afternoon craving.  i started with a recipe from for the love of cooking, but modified it to reduce the sugar and butter.  applesauce (i use unsweetened) is a great substitute for butter and sugar.  i also substituted some honey for the granulated sugar.  not exactly health food, but honey provides more sustained energy than sugar, so you don’t crash so quickly.  this version is very flexible—i’ve made it with quick-cooking oats, old-fashioned oats, regular creamy peanut butter, all-natural peanut butter, real butter, and margarine.  and i just about always eyeball the applesauce.

whisk together until the butter is pretty well broken-up and the whole thing looks like a mess (i omitted a picture of the mixed product because it’s really not very attractive):

1/4 c. butter/margarine, softened
1/2 c. applesauce
1/4 c. honey
1/3 c. brown sugar (packed)

mix in:
1 egg
1/2 c. peanut butter
splash of vanilla

at this point, the batter should be pretty wet and well-blended.  doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth though.  i don’t use an electric mixer for this recipe because i like it a little bit chunky.

in a separate bowl (or a big measuring cup) combine 1 c. flour & 1/2 tsp baking soda.  stir this into the wet batter.

mix in 2 – 3 cups oats.  i usually start with 2 cups and keep adding until you reach a consistency you like.  i like mostly oats, with the batter just holding them together. i’ve also made this as a more batter-y cookie (less oats) and that works too.

at this point, you could add chocolate chips or toffee or caramel if you wanted to sweeten up the cookies.  i find that the peanut butter and oats provide plenty of flavor.

scoop onto greased cookie sheets and bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes, until the peaks of the cookies just begin to brown.

after removing from the oven, let stand on the cookie sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to wire cooling racks and enjoy!

overnight oatmeal

my mother and i could eat oatmeal, oatmeal and nothing but oatmeal for three meals a day, everyday. and this sounds like an amazing new twist from a fabulous newlywed guest blogger and fellow AU pseudo-alumna. she is also a superbusy fellow federal employee, so i certainly understand the appeal of this leave-it-overnight recipe with a big, healthy impact.

i should start by saying that i am a huge oatmeal fan, though i’ve never really experimented beyond instant oatmeal with brown sugar and a bit of milk.  so when a coworker of mine passed along a bunch of slow cooker recipes, one of them for oatmeal, it peaked my interest.

imagine my excitement when i read the recipe to discover it uses steel cut oats and it cooks overnight, offering a piping hot batch of tasty oatmeal ready to eat when you wake up!

so i started by cutting up some dried apricots (i used tart California apricots) – enough to fill one cup.  as they are somewhat sticky, i found the easiest way to cut them up was to use scissors.

i also improvised a bit from the original recipe, found here, and included about 1/4 cup of dried blueberries, all in a medium bowl.

add to the fruit one cup of steel cut oats, 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt.

grease the stoneware of your slow-cooker using either butter or cooking spray. if you happen to have one of those handy-dandy slow-cooker liners, then grease that.

add the fruit/oatmeal/sugar/salt mix and spread out somewhat evenly.

pour in 3 1/2 cups of water.

now for the cooks choice.  the initial recipe called for one cup of buttermilk, but that is particularly tangy. so i chose to use up the remaining 3/4 cup of heavy cream i had sitting around with 1/4 cup of 1% milk instead – you can apparently use a full cup of the cream, milk or buttermilk.

if you don’t have buttermilk on hand and you want the tang, you can substitute soured milk. a quick way to make soured milk is to add one tablespoon of either white vinegar or fresh lemon juice to a cup of milk and gently stir just enough to mix. let it stand for 5 minutes and then it’s ready to use.

lastly, add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. i grew up in Texas, so i only use mexican vanilla. it’s much more pungent than traditional vanilla (and at mexican markets its usually dirt cheap compared to the usual stuff).

i suppose if you feel that this won’t be fiber-y enough for your tastes and you have 3 tablespoons of wheat bran on hand (not a chance in my kitchen), then you can throw that in too. stir it all up!

cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours.

so i woke up this morning, and my kitchen was filled with the smell of vanilla!

from my tasty pot of oatmeal, i dished out a bowl and added a touch of brown sugar and some milk.

yummy!  i was pleasantly surprised to find that this tastes like my mom’s cobbler – sweet, creamy, tangy.  considering that it required about 10 minutes of prep time and will provide breakfast for the next three days (at least), this will probably be incorporated into my breakfast routine fairly often. i’m interested next to try it with a variety of different fruits. because it cooks for so long and it’s a mushy texture, i think dried fruit are a must – fresh fruit will likely break down and become unrecognizable.  also, i will probably switch to buttermilk to offset the sweetness of other dried fruits.

yummy banana oat bars

i’m so pleased to have this dear family friend contribute to icf. he was raving about his homemade “power bars” so much, i demanded the recipe. upon receiving it, i decided it looked so good i had to give it a try right away. the pictures are mine, and i’ve included notes from my test kitchen, as well as his comments on the original recipe.

yummy banana-oat bars
serves: 8
preparation time: 10 minutes (more like 20 minutes if done in a truly empathic, respectful manner)

ingredients:

2 cups quick oats (not instant)
1/2 cup shredded coconut [from the icf test kitchen: i used sweetened coconut, but unsweetened would be healthier, of course]
1/2 cup raisins or chopped dates (i use chopped apricots – they add just the right degree of color and playfulness to the mix) [the test kitchen used white raisins]
1/4 cup chopped walnuts [the test kitchen left out the nuts because my sous chef is allergic. i think pecans or chopped salted almonds would be great]
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (optional) (this isn’t an option. it’s essential to the success of this endeavor. i make mine by lovingly boiling peeled apples and cinnamon into a mushy, delicious sauce that stands quite well on its own, thank you)
1 tablespoon date sugar (optional) (this is never done. instead, add more cinnamon. what the heck, i love the stuff) [me too!]

instructions:

preheat oven to 350 degrees.

mix ingredients together in a large bowl. (start by mashing the bananas in a large bowl, then adding everything else. this sequence has proven to be the most satisfying, plus the single bowl cuts down on greenhouse gases!) [and we appreciate that around here!]

press dough in a 9″X 9″ baking pan and bake for 30 minutes. (this must be done with the base of the palm to avoid unseemly fingermarks) (also, i double the recipe and bake it in a 12″ x 18″ pan instead) [the test kitchen didn’t have a 9×9 pan – or enough ingredients to double it, so i decided to try making power nuggets in my muffin pan instead. this shortened baking time by more than 10 minutes. you want them to feel firm on top and start to get brown, but you also don’t want them to dry out too much.]

cool on wire rack. when cool, slice into squares or bars and serve. (i cut into squares with a pizza cutter for a quick and judicious finale. voila!) [and i just popped mine out of the muffin tins!]

[i can’t wait til breakfast!]

non-cream, non-beef stroganoff

as many of you know, i am starting a new job this week! please be patient with me as i figure out how blogging and my new work schedule fit together.

hola lovely icf-ers!  long time no see!  that’s due to three things 1.  i gave up cooking 2.  i ate out every night 3. i got a new job.  sort of unrelated but bear with me.

you probably remember me from my homemade week, wherein i was trying to be the best wife on the planet and help keep mb and i out of every restaurant in the dc metro area.  well, that was a complete fail.

in the course of trying to achieve said new job, i was really busy and my motivation was completely zapped to run home and make a tasty warm meal for my husband and i to share. chili’s is just so much better at home cooking….don’t you agree.

yeah me neither.

so, suddenly la hubs and i realized that we were spending almost $300 A MONTH ON GOING OUT TO EAT!  plus the $250 we were spending on groceries.  we’ve called a moratorium on out to eat {and all spending that but that’s another topic for another blog} and now i’m back to being a kitchen maven.  as such i broke out my new favo cook book, tasty treats from the 1950s, and whipped up mb a tasty non beef stroganoff without sour cream.  enjoy!

ingredients
1 lbs lean ground turkey
salt to taste
1 tablespoon butter
1 (8 ounce) can mushrooms, drained
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
4 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup white wine
1 (10.5 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 (10.5 ounce) can broth
worcestershiresauce to taste

start by browning the meat and boiling the water for your noodles.  i salted the meat at the browning phase.

when the water starts to boil, cook the noodles according to the package.  i have faith that you can handle this, so i omitted pictures.

in the mean time chop your onion and mince your garlic.  i don’t chop or mince by hand.  ever.  thank goodness my cuisinart does.

then add the onion, garlic, butter, and mushrooms to the browned meat.  cook until the onions are soft. reduce heat to low.

in small bowl mix flour and wine.

add the mixture plus a can of cream of mushroom soup {blurry cam!  holler!} and broth  to the meat.

now, one would think that you should use beef broth, but let’s be honest.  chicken broth just sounds nicer.  and is only like 60 cents at the grocery store.  i don’t think this affected the outcome that drastically, but i know you’ll do what’s right for you and your stroganoff.

let the mixture simmer to thicken and add the worcestershire sauce to taste.

then, you know, taste it….

after that initial taste, i knew this needed something.  so i did what any self respecting wife does.  i add about 5 shakes of crushed red pepper.

serve to a happy husband.

wow!  this has a kick to it!  he proclaimed.

delicious!  and makes great left overs for a busy and home cooked life.

clint-chiladas

you may recognize this guest blogger’s signature texan style from her chile rellenos. i’m glad she’s back with another lone star classic… reinvented!

last weekend my boyfriend came up from texas to celebrate my birthday and valentine’s day, and to make sure i wasn’t exaggerating about all this snow.  i was excited to spend time with him and even more so because he was going to make his famous enchiladas, or clintchiladas, for me.  living in dc makes me miss texas where there is no shortage of great enchiladas, however there is something special about these- and it’s more than just the man behind them!  it’s been adapted from a neat restaurant in austin called vivo, and can be modified by adding beef, chicken, and even shrimp.

your grocery cart will include these yummy ingredients:

2 large green bell peppers
2 or 3 poblano chiles
4 or 5 jalapeno peppers
a big ol’ block of monterey jack cheese
a quart of heavy whipping cream, you won’t use all of it, but better safe than sorry
corn tortillas
olive oil

if you want really spicy sauce, feel free to add serrano peppers to the mix.  if you’re so inclined pick up any shrimp, shredded chicken, or shredded beef for the filling.

first lightly coat the peppers and chiles with olive oil, salt and pepper.  place on a baking sheet and set in the oven at 425 degrees or in the broiler for about a half hour.  keep a close eye on them because as soon as they start to blister and char the process moves pretty quickly.  at the 15 minute marker start to check them every few minutes and turn them so they blister evenly. once they are soft they are ready to be taken out. your kitchen will smell so delicious!

cut the stems off the chiles and put them into a blender.  add whipping cream a little at a time until creamy.

pour some olive oil in a pan and start to warm. while it’s heating, shred the block of cheese into a big bowl and set aside. once the olive oil is hot, flash fry the tortillas one at a time and set aside two or three.

put plenty of cheese into the center of the tortilla and roll closed.  place in the casserole  dish and repeat with the other tortillas. it’s easier to fry a few tortillas at a time and then fill with cheese versus frying all of them at once.  if you want beef, chicken or shrimp inside the filling this is the time to add it.

finally you’ll have a full casserole dish!  you’re almost there!

evenly spread the chile and cream sauce over the tortillas.  there should be plenty leftover and you’ll want to hang on to it.

grate the rest of the cheese over the enchiladas, the more cheese the better.

place dish in the oven, which is around 350-400 degrees.  keep an eye on it and take it out when the cheese is melty and delicious. i think it took about 15 minutes.

serve with refried beans, rice of your choice, and an ice cold corona. can’t you just hear the mariachis?  enjoy!

baked brie

this warm and tasty appetizer comes from my not-so-baby baby cousin. in fact, she’s in law school. but despite that – or maybe because of it – she’s also a fantastic hostess and has several yummy appetizer tricks up her sleeve.

ingredients:
1 wheel of brie
1 package crescent roll dough
apricot spread
shaved or grated ginger

i usually use pillsbury crescent roll dough for this recipe – they even make it without the break lines now (though i could imagine adorable little two-bite bries using the crescent roll size) – but that the fancy way is to use phyllo dough.

if you DO use crescent roll dough, it’s important to keep it in its tube & in the fridge until right before you need it so that it doesn’t stick to itself and everything around it.

preheat the oven to 350 degrees. leave the crescent roll dough in the fridge. mix about 1 tsp. grated ginger into about 1/4 cup apricot preserves (enough to spread over the top of the brie wheel). when blended, spread a thin layer over the top of the brie. if you can’t find a wheel of brie, use two triangles.

remove the crescent roll dough from the fridge and roll flat.

place the brie, apricot side down, in the middle of the dough and wrap the dough around the rest of the brie.

place wheel on a greased cookie sheet with the side with the edges down (so that the “apricot side” is up). bake for 25 – 30 minutes–until dough becomes golden brown.

you can substitute all kinds of toppings for the apricot & ginger: mango chutney, or brown sugar and walnuts…

serve with crackers.

brie always reminds me of 10 things i hate about you. “mmm that must be nigel with the brie”… anyone?

bacon-brownie ice cream

this daring guest blog is from one of my favorite foodie couples. before proceeding, you should know that he and i were lucky enough to get to do a blind tasting (as in, before we knew the secret ingredient) and we couldn’t put our finger on it. that’s the joy of this ice cream – you taste something different, something interesting… something a little salty… but it doesn’t scream BACON in your face. however, if you are just not that kind of brave, use the same technique with your own favorite flavor.

with the weather reports predicting the snow apocalypse leading into the weekend, k [not to be confused with ms. akp. you might remember k’s wacky garlic chopper in one of our earliest guest blogs] and i realized we needed to stock up on some essentials:  water, pasta, wine…and ice cream.  rather than buy a pint at the store, we decided to take another crack at the homemade stuff.  with three successful attempts under our belts (coconut lime, raspberry chocolate chip, and hazelnut) we felt ready to expand with something a little whacky:  bacon brownie ice cream.

we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the ease with which we’ve been able to make ice cream by hand.  to make the base, start by heating 2.5 cups of heavy cream in a medium saucepan over med-high heat.  make sure not to boil the cream.  while the cream is heating, beat four egg yolks with one cup + one tablespoon of sugar in a mixing bowl using a hand blender.  beat until smooth and pale.

when the cream is ready, beat it into the sugar/egg yolks.

return this mixture to the heat and bring to just under a boil.

at this point, you have the base for your ice cream.  the basic recipe says to pour the base into a glass bowl, let cool to room temperature, then freeze half-way, beat the half-frozen mixture, then freeze completely.  you have a couple of opportunities to incorporate other flavors and components into the base.

anything that you want to have mixed throughout, unavoidable in any bite, you should incorporate while the base is still warm.  when we made the raspberry chocolate chip ice cream, for example, we made a raspberry syrup that we then beat in with the warm base in order to give the whole thing raspberry flavor and a nice pink hue.

anything solid that you want to remain somewhat inconsistently mixed throughout the base, should be folded in when the base is half frozen.  for example, we added the chocolate chips and whole, frozen raspberries into the raspberry ice cream base once it was half-frozen.

in order to infuse the bacon flavor in the current batch, we implemented a technique that we had experimented with when making the hazelnut ice cream – steeping.  after bringing the eggs/sugar/cream base to just under a boil, we removed it from the heat and added about 8 half-size strips of bacon.

we cooked the bacon off before starting the ice cream base and it was therefore pretty grease-free by the time we added it to the ice cream.  it actually didn’t infuse as much bacon flavor as we would have liked, so we quickly cooked off four more strips, barely dabbed the excess grease with a paper towel and added them to the base while they were still hot.  that did the trick.

we let the bacon steep for about 15 minutes, tasting periodically.  when the bacon flavor was where we wanted it, we removed the strips from the base and froze it half way.

while we waited, we diced thawed brownies into bite-size bits.  after beating the mixture, we added the brownie bits and returned the bowl to the freezer until it was completely frozen.

voila.  bacon-brownie ice cream!

i gotta say, it was pretty awesome.  the saltiness that the bacon brought to the party balanced well with the sweetness of the base and brownies.  all in all, the experiment was a success.  24 hours later, half of the batch is already gone.

three-ingredient pasta sauce

one of my favorite guest bloggers is back to review a recipe from a popular food blog. i’m actually really glad she tried this one because there’s been a lot of buzz about it in the food blogosphere recently and i have to say i was curious.

i found this recipe on my favorite food blog smittenkitchen.com. [ah hem. she clearly means her second favorite food blog…] i trust whatever ms. kitchen does and if she says it’s good, it is. most of the time. while final results came with mixed emotions, i am glad i attempted it.

ingredients: 1 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes, 5 tbsp. butter, half an onion.

first, dump tomatoes in a pot. place butter in pot. place the half onion, cut-side down into the pot.

bring to a simmer and stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes with your spoon or spatula.

after 45 minutes or so, it’s done! I served mine with some parmesan cheese and sauteed zucchini.

my thoughts: this sauce was good. easy? yes. quick? fairly. tastes like? SPAGHETTI O’s SAUCE. I swear, just like when i was a kid, but the grown-up version. enjoy! (if you like spaghetti o’s)

two amys

our intrepid restaurant reviewer returns! i’m secretly hoping we can make him a regular feature here at icf. you like restaurant reviews, don’t you? this also happens to be one of my favorite washington restaurants.

two amys
3715 macomb street nw, washington dc

verdict: four stars

many places lay claim to the invention of pizza. new haven, connecticut, is one example; chicago, illinois, another. italy’s bay of naples probably has a better claim than most, and may have started spinning the dough somewhere between magna graecia and the rise of the eternal city. in fact, there is a reference to pizza in the aeneid, when iulus chides his father for taking time out from the founding of rome to pop out to papa john’s, aka the palace of king latinus, and eat the thin crusts on which the food is served. or, as vergil would have it: ‘’heus, etiam mensas consumimus?’ (what! we’re even eating the platters now?)

two amys, the pizza restaurant across wisconsin avenue from the national cathedral, takes its production of authentic neopolitan pizza very seriously. the owners use the ingredients and methods of preparation as laid down by the italian government with their denominazione di origine controllata. dough is prepared with soft-grain flour, fresh yeast, water, and sea salt. plum tomatoes, mozzarella di bufala, extra-virgin olive oil and fresh basil or dried oregano may be used for the toppings. a number of quasi-fascistic regulations govern what may or may not go on or into a given type of pizza. for example, pizza marinara is the only pizza on which fresh garlic may be used. such rigidity is both poison and cure. the lack of room for innovation might be considered stifling, but the consistency of quality in the restaurant’s offerings have made it a firm favorite of the dc dining circuit. it’s rare to find the restaurant quiet. fortunately there is an adjacent bar area in which to await your seats.

once we had obtained a table, service was brisk and the food arrived speedily. pink pepper, available on each table, helped to pique the pizzas’ flavours, of which many are subtly different. the margherita is available in classic style or with extra cherry tomatoes. the restaurant’s eponymously named pizza has cow’s rather than buffalo’s mozzarella. all were highly palatable. the santa brigida came with the classic ingredients plus rocket, or arugula as the president would have it. for the more adventurous, the vongole has a dry base covered by cockles, capers, mature grana cheese, and garlic. this was a step too far for my dining partner’s palate. we better enjoyed the abruzzese with its delicious polpettine. the variety of stuffed pizze, and the array of extra toppings seem to provide ample opportunity for personal customization. as in italian cuisine generally, the dessert options constituted a weak rearguard, excepting, of course, the ice cream. the wine list is fine, with the grotta del sole the local fizzy favorite.

in the round, two amy’s success speaks for itself. it’s always fun to eat somewhere full of contented consumers, and if you find much of modern pizza too cheesily oleaginous, this may just be the perfect antidote.

candy cane cookies

the fact that today’s guest blogger and i call each other “blah” and “stink” is in no way a reflection of how much we love each other. she shares my pension for girlie drinks and sparkly shoes, but she could also kick your ass in a marathon. (i wouldn’t even try a marathon) unfortunately, she doesn’t have much time to cook any more now that she’s getting her phd, but time at home with mama brings it out of everyone.

this recipe for candy cane cookies comes from my nana, who began making them at some point in the mid 1950s. when my mom was a kid she copied down the recipe (pictured below) which was later made into a christmas decoration (and of course, to make cookies!).

ingredients:
1 cup butter (softened)
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 egg
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or peppermint or almond extract)
2 and 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt (scant, probably more like a 1/2 t)
1 teaspoon red food coloring

mix together softened shortening, confectioners sugar, egg, and vanilla extract. you can choose how you would like your cookies flavored, i usually use peppermint extract but in this case i used our homemade vanilla extract (from my mom’s “appleton ridge vanilla company”). [it must be a mom thing. my mom makes her own, too!]

in another dish, sift together flour and salt; add to butter mixture.

divide dough into halves and separate into two dishes. blend one half with red food coloring, cover both dishes and leave in fridge for several hours (or, if you live in a cold place like maine and the fridge is full of other holiday items, on the front steps).

roll dough into balls approximately 1″ across. i like to roll out all of them first so that i can make sure i have approximately the same number of red and white balls and adjust sizes accordingly ahead of time. once you have your dough balls, roll each one into an even snake, about 6″ long. if you make them too long, they will be hard to work with and break easily.

twist red and white snakes together, move carefully to your parchment paper-covered cookie sheet. curve the top of each twisted rope to make the candy cane hook.

bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until bottoms of cookies are very lightly browned.