Monster Cookies

I made these giant cookies for SouthernDrawl about a week or so ago. He brought them to his family on a business trip and they all munched on them. They are chewy, sweet, caramelly, and quite hearty. I liked them, but found their sweetness a tad bit cloying. This is probably due to my use of multigrain cheerios, which are quite sweet compared to traditional cheerios. I am going to make them again, but with Rice Krispies or traditional cheerios.

MONSTER COOKIES

Adapted from allrecipes.com
Yields: 12 servings

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup cheerios
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Add the egg beating well to fully incorporate it. Beat in vanilla and coconut extract. Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda; gradually add to the creamed mixture.

2. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls 3 in. apart onto lightly greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Do not overbake. Remove to wire racks to cool.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: DO YOU LIKE CEREALS IN YOUR COOKIES?

Hot-Pink Shrimp “Ceviche”

I always find it funny when food has a coloring that I don’t expect it to. This is why, when I made this shrimp escabeche a little while back, the hot-pink tinge of the shrimp took me by surprise. I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, make excuses, or just pretend that I was color blind when I served it to SouthernDrawl. Bless his soul, he just thought that I had bought pink shrimp instead of white shrimp!!! I told him [after he had finished his plate] that I had actually bought white shrimp but the “dressing” had colored it with more conviction than Red No. 3.

This is delicious, tangy, light and refreshing on your palate. We both really enjoyed it, accompanied with butter lettuce and rice. Granted, it  was a little strange to serve hot rice with this cold “protein-salad”, but it didn’t work out badly. In fact, the blandness of the rice really helped soften the sharp edges of the ceviche (especially the onion) and clear out the palate.

I adapted the recipe from an Epicurious one: here

HOT PINK SHRIMP “CEVICHE” OR SALAD

Makes 6 appetizer servings, or 3 entree-servings

1 cups freshly squeezed blood orange juice
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
3 large garlic cloves
1/4 tsp (may need more) salt
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

1 pounds cooked deveined peeled shrimp*, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup julienned jicama
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tbsp olive oil

Additional olive oil (optional)
Lemon wedges

Combine orange juice, lemon juice, and garlic cloves in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add pinch of salt; boil until orange juice mixture is reduced to a little over 1/2 cup, about 15 minutes. Cool. Mix in crushed red pepper.

Mix shrimp, bell pepper, celery, red onion, jicama, cilantro, and 2 tbsp olive oil in bowl. Toss with orange juice mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and chill until cold, about 2 hours. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Keep refrigerated.)

* I cooked the shrimp for 2 minutes in simmering water. The water was seasoned with salt, pepper, bay leaves and garlic cloves.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: DO YOU LIKE SEAFOOD SALADS? HOW DO YOU PREPARE THEM?

easy herb dinner rolls

This is a variation of easy dinner rolls I mentioned a while back. I made these rolls on a whim last week, and they turned out OK. I tried tweaking the original recipe a little too much by reducing the butter and sugar, both of which are unfortunately necessary for developing the flavor and eliminating the “yeasty” taste. They did look delicious though, and slathered with a little butter or dipped into some nice EVOO, they were more than just OK.

SCOOP AND BAKE [Herbed] DINNER ROLLS

adapted from cook’s country oct/nov 2007 - my changes are in purple. I made them ahead of time.

Makes 12

In step 3 use an ice cream scoop to transfer the sticky batter to the muffin tin. I found that this hint was a crock of nonsense - the “sticky batter” stuck all parts of the ice cream scoop (CC recommended a spring loaded scoop.) I think a plain old spoon, lightly sprayed w/ cooking spray works a lot better.

2 1/4 c ap flour
1/4 c sugar (I used 2 tbsp, which is not enough)
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs - such as  “herbes de provence”
1 envelope (2 1/4 tsp) rapid rise [aka “instant”] yeast
1 c water, heated to 110*
6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened. (I used 2 tbsp butter, not enough)
1 large egg

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 200°. Maintain the temp for 10 minutes, then turn off oven. Grease a standard muffin tin.

2. Whisk 1 1/4 c. flour with sugar, salt, dried herbs, and yeast in a large, non-plastic bowl (it’s going to go in the oven!). Whisk in water, butter and egg until very smooth, about 2 minutes. (Do not use an electric mixer). Add remaining flour and mix with a rubber spatula until just combined. Cover bowl w/ greased plastic wrap and place in warm oven until batter has doubled in size, about 30 minutes. (I left mine in there for over an hour.)

3. Revove batter from oven and heat to 375°. Punch dough down. Scoop batter evenly into muffin tin. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until batter nearly reaches rims of muffin cups, about 15 minutes. (I estimate that it will take about 30 min, not 15…). Remove plastic, and bake until rolls are golden, 14-18 minutes. Serve. (rolls can be store in an airtight container at toom temp for 3 days)

Make ahead: After being covered with greased plastic wrap in step 3, the batter can be refrigerated in the muffin tin for up to 24 hours. When ready to bake, let the batter sit at room temp for 30 min. before proceeding with the recipe.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: DO YOU PUT HERBS AND SPICES IN YOUR BREAD OR DO YOU PREFER IT PLAIN?

 

Chewy granola bars

I don’t understand why more people don’t make granola at home. It is easy, inexpensive, and the results infuse your home with a warm, nutty, dessert-like aroma. Furthermore, unlike some of the highly processed bars in the grocery store, you can pronounce every ingredient in these. Maybe I’m a little biased, seeing as I suffer from compulsive-granola-making disorder. I love making granola - more so than cookies, cakes, and pies combined. I feel good about making them for my friends and loved ones, seeing as they are chock-full of fiber, healthy oils, and antioxidants. Furthermore, they do not require a lot of babysitting [like some cheesecakes], woman-power [like those darned yeast breads], hair-pulling worry [like candy-making], or architecture-like assembly [like three tier cakes with filling and frosting]. And they’re infinitely customizable and …. OK OK… so I’ll stop waxing romantic about something so unsophisticated and aesthetically unimpressive and get on to the recipe.

I like this one because it is easy, fast, and tasty. SouthernDrawl brought these to work last week, and nearly each time I called him, I could hear the tell-tale pecan crunch as he [patiently] listened to my meandering ramblings. He ate them for breakfast and for afternoon snack, and though he suggested that they could be slightly less sweet, it was the one granola bar he did not share. Now that’s what I call granola-love.

CHEWY GRANOLA BARS

Tip: measure the oil first in your measuring cup - then, when you measure out the honey, it will slip out easier.

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar [if you prefer less sweet, decrease to 1/3 cup]
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin spice
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted
1/4 cup sunflower seeds, toasted
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup honey
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup natural peanut butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp maple extract (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Cover a 9×13 pan with foil and grease it.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well using your hands. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared pan, pressing hard to compact it.

3. Bake for 18-22 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bars just begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. Do not allow the bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will fall apart. Let cool on a rack and store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: HOW OFTEN DO YOU EAT GRANOLA BARS?

cinnamon raisin french toast

It was 10:30AM on Sunday morning, and I was sleepily making french toast out of Panera’s Cinnamon raisin swirl bread (YUM YUM YUM straight off the cutting board). It was happily bubbling away in the frying pan. Scrambled eggs were just starting to curdle in another pan. Fruit salad and warm maple syrup were patiently waiting on the table. When the toast was golden brown and emitting delicious aromas, and the eggs were barely set, I plated everything and brought them to the table, which Southerndrawl was setting.

He then sits down. He looks carefully at the french toast. He squints [despite having perfect vision, the lucky cowboy]. He pokes at it, turns it around, douses it in maple syrup. Then proceeds to pick each and every raisin out of the raisin bread. Oops.

Do you think it might be possible he doesn’t like raisins?! [Right....] While I gobbled up my two slices in record time, SouthernDrawl took a painfully long time to remove, with a surgeon’s precision, each offending black speck. At the end, there was a pile of defunct raisins on the side of his plate waiting to be interred in the graveyard of despised fruit.

Sigh. Live and learn, ladies. Live and learn…

RAISIN BREAD FRENCH TOAST

Feel free to use any other bread.

1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk [I used vanilla soy milk]
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp of cognac or orange liqueur

6 slices of day old, thick-cut (3/4″) raisin bread.
1 tbsp butter, for frying

Mix all ingredients save the bread in a large “flat” bowl. Soak bread in the batter for a few seconds per side, until it has absorbed liquid but is not soggy. In a large saucepan, melt remaining butter and fry the bread slices over med-low heat, until golden brown on each side, about 3 min per side.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: DO YOU LIKE RAISINS AND DRIED FRUIT? ANY YOU CANNOT ABIDE BY?