in my whole entire life

I have documented my tried and tested granola recipe on here before. But it was several years ago and whenever I go back and look at old posts I want to die a little. The photos (or lack thereof) and wordiness of the writing is akin to stumbling upon poetry and journals from my formative years. True story: when I was moving out of my childhood home going through stuff, my friend Erica and I found a “newspaper” that my friend Alicia and I had published when we were probably 11 (yes, in our spare time we wrote a newspaper- can someone say "Nerd Alert!"?). Anyways, we didn’t work very hard on it and it wasn’t very good. The big scoops I covered were Gossip and Sports. In Gossip News, my sister had been in trouble with my parents and in Sports News I had “gone to my first Red Sox game and eaten the best hotdog I’ve ever eaten in my whole entire life”.



That is what I covered for sports news: what I ate at the game. Sounds about right! Anyways, Erica and I laughed until we practically cried over that “best hotdog” newsflash but still…coming across your old documents is always embarrassing, whether it’s the spelling or the content or the handwriting itself. That’s how I feel with some old posts and I’m sure I’ll feel that way about some of these current day posts some day as well. Regardless of that, I made enough updates to my old go-to granola to post the new and improved version here today.



I have been itching to combine peanut butter, honey and granola since some time last year when I made a failed batch of a peanut honey granola using a recipe that I found online. It burned to a crisp in about 10 minutes. This time around I decided that I would make a simply spiced, nut-based granola with a touch of flaked coconut and that after it was done I would mix in the peanut butter and honey (because it was the honey I believe that burned). Let me just tell you: I’m sorry it took me so long to get around to this, because I just ate the tastiest granola parfait in recent memory; maybe in my whole entire life.



HOMEMADE COCONUT ALMOND GRANOLA

1 cup rolled oats
½ cup steel cut oats
½ cup raw almonds, coarsely chopped
½ shelled roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
¾ cup flaked coconut (sweetened is fine that’s what I used)
¼ cup wheat germ (optional)
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 ½ tsp. ground ginger
Pinch salt
¼ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup honey
¾ cup applesauce



Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine all of the dry ingredients (up to the brown sugar) in a large bowl. Stir together thoroughly. In a medium sized bowl stir together the honey and applesauce. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir together completely to coat.



Bake granola on parchment paper lined baking sheets for 50 minutes to an hour. Turn the pans and stir the granola every ten minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool entirely on pans. It will crisp up more as it cools.



This makes a mammoth amount of granola. And it keeps foreevvver if stored in an air tight bag or Tupperware. You can eat it simply like a cereal with milk or by the handful as a snack. Here’s how I’m using most of it up:



PEANUT BUTTER and HONEY GRANOLA PARFAITS

Dollop Greek yogurt into a bowl or glass jar. Add a scoop of Coconut Almond Granola, a tablespoon of peanut butter (preferably all natural) and top with a drizzle of honey. Include a banana if you have one around, it would be stellar in this. I didn’t have any bananas on hand, but this was delicious nonetheless.



It’s so good it felt like I was eating a loaded Pinkberry treat. Nutty, sweet, salty and tangy. I can’t WAIT until breakfast tomorrow when I can have another one.



This hearty breakfast treat would travel well: simply prepare it in a jar with a screw on lid, like a mason jar or even a recycled sauce jar.



Clamp the lid on and roll to work, eat it when you get there to start the day off on a high note.

a different kind of treat

Well, well, well….what do we have here? Some savory cookies are what we’ve got. Yeah you heard me cookies that are salty, not sweet. Oatmeal based with the tiniest bit of sugar, these hearty little nuggets are packed with salty parmesan and a little hint of rosemary.



I read this recipe one morning a little while back and within 30 minutes these were coming out of the oven. They are so easy to make and so different and delicious I was glad to have found this recipe and I think these will be holding a spot in my repertoire for a while.



ROSEMARY PARMESAN OATMEAL COOKIES
(from the kitchn.com)

1 cup old-fashioned oats
¼ cup warm water
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup sifted unbleached all purpose flour
½ tsp. fine sea salt
¼ tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. chopped rosemary
¼ tsp. freshly cracked black pepper
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
flakey sea salt or kosher salt



Preheat the oven to 350° F.



Place the oats in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle the water over them.



In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, brown sugar and egg. Pour this mixture over the oats, stir to combine, and set aside.



In another mixing bowl, combine the flour, fine sea salt, baking soda, rosemary, and black pepper. Whisk to combine well. Stir in the Parmesan.



Gradually sprinkle the flour mixture over the oat mixture, stirring until combined. For me, at this stage it was very helpful to get my hands into the dough and work it together.



Form tablespoon sized scoops of batter and place, evenly spaced on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a Silpat liner. Flatten out each piece slightly so they’re about ¼ to ½ inch thick and is an evenly shaped disk.



Sprinkle a pinch of salt on top of each. I used some nice flaky grey salt I have and I have no idea what to do with it. Maybe I should ask Michael Chiarello, since homeboy puts that stuff in err’thing.



Bake for 15-17 minutes, until the edges are slightly darkened.



Remove to a cooling rack. Serve alone as a savory snack or with cheese and crackers. The original serving suggestion with this recipe was to smear soft cheese on these and I think that does NOT sound like a bad idea at all. Though I ate most of mine straight up and they didn’t last long.



Makes a little over one dozen cookies.

stuffed up

Typically when I think of the word “stuffed” I cut to a mental image of me waddling out of Pizzeria Regina after gunning back a pizza on a Sunday afternoon. “Stuffed” food to me doesn’t necessarily conjure up images of healthy dishes either. I normally imagine something jammed full of bread cubes, bread crumbs, cheese or bacon (mmmm).

I have, however, been thinking lately about making stuffed peppers- but, not your traditional meat and rice stuffed green boats dripping with marinara sauce. When I saw these lanky red lovers on sale in the produce department I knew they were the peppers for me. I’m not too keen on green peppers anyways and I thought that these, sliced length-wise would make for some elegant stuffed peppers indeed. I decided to stuff them with onions, spinach, cheese and quinoa, for the sole fact that I happened to have all of those things in my fridge. You could likewise add some mushrooms, swap out the spinach for a different kind of green or use any kind of cheese you wanted.



SWEET RED PEPPERS STUFFED with
QUINOA, SPINACH and CHEESE

4 Red “Grilling” Peppers*
1 medium onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bag baby spinach
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
¼ cup bread crumbs
1- 1 ½ cups grated cheese (a mixture of cheddar, parmesan and feta)

Olive oil
Salt, pepper
Fresh basil (optional)



*You can use regular peppers of course, I was just inspired by these particular peppers and the fact that they were on sale.



Heat a large pot of water to boil. Split the peppers length-wise and use a paring knife to scrape out any seeds and white ribs. Once the water is boiling, add a pinch of salt and blanch the peppers for just a few minutes (2-3 tops) to soften them slightly. Remove from water and rinse with cold water. Set aside.



Bring quinoa and water to a boil in a covered sauce pan. Reduce heat to a simmer and let cook 10-15 minutes until the grains are cooked through and all the water is absorbed. While your quinoa cooks, heat a skillet over medium heat and sauté onion until translucent. Add garlic, reduce heat just a touch and let sauté for another couple minutes; add spinach in batches until thoroughly wilted, salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and set aside.



Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl combine the spinach mixture with cooked quinoa. Let cool a few minutes before proceeding. Meanwhile prepare your baking dish by giving it a light spray of olive oil and then arrange the peppers snugly in the dish, cut side up. Once spinach and quinoa have cooled a bit, add bread crumbs and cheeses, reserving about ¼ of your shredded cheese for topping the peppers with. Toss together the stuffing; add salt and pepper to taste if needed. Because parmesan and feta are so salty, it may only need some pepper, but you be the judge.



Spoon stuffing into peppers and top with remaining cheese. Bake for about 15 minutes or until cheese is completely melted. Top with fresh chopped basil and serve immediately. Yields about 4 servings.



If I were to make these over, I would consider making a simple tomato sauce to spoon over. It doesn’t necessarily need it, but it would be a delicious addition.

a fresh one

Check out this fresh guy. The contents of this blanket burrito are none other than my latest nephew, Nate. My sister labored for more days than the length of my last vacation and finally, on Thursday afternoon we got this guy out into the world.



Sorry for no post last week. I was being a worrisome sister, stress eating Reese's cups and ruining a batch of ginger lemon muffins. They had so much potential but were sincerely, so disgusting it wasn't even worth a cautionary tale. I figured that this new bundle would be better to share.

Full recipe post to come.

xo,
Aunt Jess (6 times over)

an actual thought process

An actual thought process that I had today went something like this: “wait, what’s the difference between sheep and lambs anyways?” and then I mentally pictured that query on an iphone commercial for that siri thing. This train of thought proves two things: 1. The Rise of the Machines is upon us; and, 2. I have been watching too much TV, because I’m officially an idiot.



But ANYWAYS, I was thinking about sheep, lambs and the differences between them (spoiler alert: lambs are baby sheep) because I was thinking about shepherd’s pie and it occurred to me that shepard’s pie is kind of a messed up thing. They spend their entire career hearding and protecting the animals and then they eat them in a pie covered with mashed potatoes? And here I thought hedge fund managers were the most cold hearted career out there.



A while back I was having dinner at James Gate in Jamaica Plain and they had on their menu a “Vegetarian Shepard’s Pie.” It was surprisingly good, the filling mostly consisting of eggplant, tomatoes and loads of roasted garlic. This past Sunday I decided to take a crack at making my version of said dish, and it came out pretty tasty, if I do say so myself. And we didn’t even have to kill anything, unless you count carrots, but really who does?



SLOW SIMMERED VEGETABLE PIE with POTATO PARSNIP MASH

One large onion, diced
One shallot, minced
One large carrot, peeled and diced
One bulb of fennel, peeled, cored and diced
One eggplant, peeled and diced
8 cloves garlic, divided, half minced, the other half peeled with cloves left whole
Olive oil
2 tbs. tomato paste
1 tbs. flour
1 large can or package diced tomatoes
½ - 1 cup vegetable or chicken stock
Salt, pepper
Pinch oregano
Pinch crushed red pepper
Pinch sugar, to taste

4 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
1 large parsnip, peeled and diced
Butter
Half and half
Grated cheese: parmesan, cheddar or a mix of the two (about 1 cup)



Heat a generous drizzle of oil and a small pat of butter in a large pan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, shallot and carrot to the pan and sauté, stirring occasionally until translucent and fragrant (a few minutes) add the fennel and cook the veggies until slightly caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add the minced garlic, stir together, reducing the heat slightly if it’s too hot and let cook another 5 minutes.



Add tomato paste and flour to the pan, combining completely, stirring constantly; then add the diced eggplant and then the container of diced tomatoes with their juices and the veggie stock. Season the pot with plenty of kosher salt, lots of cracked pepper, oregano and red pepper. Taste. If necessary, add a pinch of sugar (whenever I cook with unseasoned tomatoes I find it needs it). Bring to a boil and let reduce a bit; for a few minutes. Reduce heat to low, nestle the whole garlic cloves in the mixture and let cook, covered and largely unattended for almost an hour.



Preheat your oven to 375. Place potatoes and parsnips in a large pot covered with water and set to boil. Let cook until tender when pricked with a fork or knife. Drain the water off and return to the pot, adding a generous pat of butter and a splash of half and half, along with salt and pepper. Mash potatoes and parsnips to your desired consistency, adding another splash of half and half if they are dry. Since the mash will go on top of the stewed vegetables, it is okay if your potatoes and parsnip lean towards the drier side.



Transfer the eggplant tomato mixture to a large baking dish and spoon the potatoes and parsnips on top. Sprinkle with grated cheese and set to bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, or until the pie is bubbling and the cheeses have started to brown.



Serve with a big green salad, maybe some crusty bread and nothing else. This is a dish that eats like a meal. Perfect for a Sunday supper.