Peanut Butter-Granola Balls

When you need a quick snack for the kids or are just craving something sweet, these granola balls are perfect.  Made with honey and natural peanut butter, they're a better alternative than Krispie squares made with marshmallows.  I love how sweet they are and the peanut butter taste isn't overwhelming.

They come together quickly as the ingredients are heated on the stove, then blended, scooped onto a baking sheet, and cooled in the fridge for 15min.  These would be perfect on a hot summer day when you don't feel like putting the stove on.  This recipe doubles nicely as well.

PEANUT BUTTER-GRANOLA BALLS
from Everyday Food Magazine, April 2007

1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup natural peanut butter

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup crisp rice cereal (I use Nature's Path Rice Puffs)

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/4 cup dried fruit (I've used raisins or dried apricots sliced into small pieces)

In a small saucepan over medium, heat honey, peanut butter, and butter. Stir until loosened and smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in cereal, oats, and dried fruit.

Drop mixture by the tablespoon into mini paper cupcake or candy liners (I scoop them by Tablespoonful onto a baking sheet lined with Silpat). Place on a rimmed baking sheet, and refrigerate until set, about 15 minutes.

Printable Recipe

Happily submitted to Frugal Fridays over at Life As Mom and Family Friendly Fridays over at Mommie Cooks!

Enjoy!

from the book "Little Verses, A Big Golden Book"
by Miriam Clark Potter
pictures by Mary Blair
1953, Golden Press Inc.

Perfect Pancakes

Who doesn't love pancakes for breakfast? These pancakes are so good you can eat them plain.  What makes these so special, is that they're very fluffy with a slightly sweet flavour.  I love the hint of allspice added to the batter.

This recipe takes a couple extra steps, as the batter is folded into beaten egg whites.  I usually make a huge batch of these, then freeze some for later.  The pancakes are easily reheated in the toaster, which makes them slightly crispy.

PERFECT PANCAKES
from Family Circle Magazine, February 2009
Servings: sixteen 4-inch pancakes


1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I replace 1/2 cup flour with whole wheat)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar (I use Stevia in the Raw)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Butter, maple or pancake syrup, and/or confectioner's sugar (optional)


Preheat oven to 180 degrees F and place a foil-lined baking sheet inside. Heat a griddle or large pan to medium heat.


In a large bowl whisk together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, and allspice. Separate eggs and whisk egg yolks in a small bowl with milk and oil.


Beat egg whites with an electric mixer on medium speed until stiff peaks form, about 1 minute. Stir milk mixture into flour mixture just until combined. Fold in egg whites in two additions until no white streaks remain.


Using a ladle, drop 1/4 to 1/3 cup batter onto heated griddle. Repeat, spacing pancakes at least 1 inch apart. Cook 1 minute or until bubbles in batter pop and remain open. Carefully flip pancakes and cook an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute.


Transfer pancakes to baking sheet in warm oven; repeat with remaining batter. Serve warm with butter, syrup, and/or confectioner's sugar, if desired.

Printable Recipe

Enjoy!


Open House for Butterflies
by Ruth Krauss
Pictures by Maurice Sendak
1960, Harper & Row Publishers

Recipe: Crispy Crunchy Lumpy Applesauce Granola

Warning - this granola is seriously addictive.  You can eat it straight outta the jar as it's perfectly lumpy.  I can't decide if it's the spice combination of cardamom, ginger and cinnamon that makes it so good, or the crunch.

Look how lumpy it is!

I adapted this recipe from the Mix-n-Match Applesauce Granola found over at Everybody Likes Sandwiches - love this blog.  I've made it dozens of times now and never realized I haven't written about it yet.  There's always a huge jar of it on the counter for everyone to dip in as a snack or on ice cream, yogurt, on top of cereal, or added to baking and more.

Staples on our counter - jars of granola, & cookies or muffins.

CRISPY CRUNCHY LUMPY APPLESAUCE GRANOLA
adapted from Everybody Likes Sandwiches

3 1/2 cups rolled oats
2 cups puffed rice cereal (I've also used Rice Chex type cereal)
1 teaspoon Saigon (or regular) cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
3/4 teaspoon of Kosher (or regular) salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup plain applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (I like pumpkin and sunflower seeds)
1 cup dried fruit (we like raisins)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper (I use my Silpat). 

In a large bowl combine oats, puffed rice cereal, and spices.  In a medium bowl whisk together applesauce and vanilla.  Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients along with chopped nuts and raisins and mix thoroughly.  Spread on a baking sheet in a even layer.

Bake for 30 minutes, then turn over granola carefully (don't break the lumps!) with a large spatual.  Bake for an additional 15 minutes then turn again.  Bake for an additional 10 minutes until crisp and golden.

Cool in the pan completely.  Store in an airtight container.

Optional - after the first 30 minutes and turning the granola over, you can turn off your oven, leave the door open, go to bed and take it out in the morning.  The granola is even more crisp and cooled completely.  I usually make a batch just before bed.

Printable Recipe

Enjoy!

1953, Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.

I purchased this book from a library sale for 25 cents.

Recipe Bomb: Maple-Bacon Quiche

As part of Martha Mondays over at Martha and Me we made Maple-Bacon Quiche.  This week's recipe was selected by Pru over at Perfecting Pru.  I joined in the fun because I'd already "perfected" the Pate Brisee crust when I made Maple-Nut Pie. 

This recipe was unecessarily complicated to make.  There were so many steps that I don't know if I ruined the recipe by making it wrong or if it was supposed to turn out this way.  It took FOREVER to make and there was a million little steps and details.  I mean, this is quiche right?  Quiche is supposed to be easy, not complicated.  I should make my easy Brocolli Quiche today just to prove how simple it should be.

Here's a summary of the number of steps involved.  Make your Pate Brise (luckily I already had one of the crusts ready in the fridge), roll it out, place in quiche dish (I didn't have a springform pan and I'm not even sure what that is anyway), prick with fork.  Place crust in freezer for 30 minutes - don't ask me why.

While crust is in freezer, cook 8 slices of bacon (this was almost the whole pack of the thick sliced bacon I had), save some of the drippings, drain bacon on papertowl and break into pieces.  Take pie crust out of freezer and bake 20 minutes with parchment on top (waiting) and a pie weight or dried beans, then remove those and bake for another 20 minutes (waiting).  Let cool completely (more waiting).

Cook onion in a little bit of the bacon grease.  Mix eggs, maple syrup (yup, it tasted gross with the eggs too), spices, and water, add onion.  Pour into cooled pie shell, add half the bacon, bake 20 minutes, add other half of bacon then cook 20 more minutes.  I'm exhausted just typing out the steps.

Once I poured my egg mixture into the prepared pie crust, the crust began to float!  I'm not kidding you.  I'm thinking to myself, after all that work I hope this is supposed to happen.  When the quiche was done it had some egg in the bottom, then a layer of crust, then the egg and bacon on top... strange, eh?  Not the mention, the crust was practically burned after all the uncessary steps and fooling around with it.

This is what we had for supper last night and everyone said they liked it - huh?  I think maybe they were afraid to tell me they didn't after they saw the mood I was in after making it.  The maple syrup was too sweet and didn't "go" with the eggs, although the thyme with the bacon flavouring was a good mix.  I think my family only liked it because it was stuffed with bacon which is one of their favourite foods.

So, this is going into my "Recipe Bombs - Don't Make These!" file.  Sorry Martha.

Enjoy!


from the book "Grimm's Fairytales"
by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm
Illustrated by Leonard Weisgard
Junior Deluxe Editions, Garden City, New York
Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
story "Clever Else"

Martha Mondays: Spinach Frittata

I had to include a picture of the Nova Scotia tartan in the background ;o)

I'm typing with my mouth full, boy this is good!  This week's Martha Monday's over at Martha and Me was selected by Karen from At Least Twice A Week.  I love the taste of the cheese, spinach and onion combination.  This was so easy to prepare and was ready in a flash!  There's no crust to worry about either.  I didn't have any Gruyere cheese so I substituted with Sharp Cheddar cheese and white onion instead of shallots.

Here's the scanned recipe.  I love love Everyday Food Magazine and have been subscribing for years.

SPINACH FRITTATA

page 44 of Jan/Feb 2010 Everyday Food

Enjoy!  Sarah

Martha Mondays: Maple Granola

I am taking part in Martha Mondays which is hosted by Martha and Me. This is a fun idea where each week we take turns deciding what Martha Stewart project we'd like to try out. It can be anything from a craft, a recipe, gardening - anything Martha Stewart! What a great concept and it's alot of fun trying the same thing as a group.

Last Monday's vote was by Maryann at Stirrin' It Up to try Maple Granola that was featured in Martha Stewart Living February 2010 issue, Page 24.

I had almost everything I needed to make this, with only minor substitutions. This was so simple to make but taking it out of the oven every 10 minutes for 40 minutes was kind of a pain. When it was done I made a dish of vanilla yogurt with some of our freshly cooled granola and it was good!

Maple Granola

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup dried unsweetened coconut chips (I used sweetened coconut flakes)

1 cup pecans or walnuts, quartered
1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup sesame seeds (I used sunflower seeds)

1 teaspoon coarse salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 cup golden raisins (I used regular raisins)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix together oats, coconut, nuts, syrup, oil, sugar, sesame seeds, salt, and nutmeg. Spread granola in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake, stirring evering 10 minutes, for 40 minutes. Add raisins (I added mine at the beginning), and bake until granola is toasted, about 10 minutes more. Let cool completely.

MAKE AHEAD: Maple granola can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Recipe: Sausage & Bread Bake

Last night I had a package of monster brats that needed to be cooked. I didn't want to do the same old thing by grilling and serving them on a bun, so I looked up something new to try.

I pulled out my "Reader's Digest Just One Pot" cookbook (linked below on Amazon.com), that my husband bought for me, and tried the Sausage & Bread Bake on page 200. The recipe called for 1lb of sweet Italian Sausage so I improvised with the Brats and used ground sage instead of sage leaves.

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley

1 pound (500 g) sweet Italian sausages

2 cups (200 g) day-old bread, cut into small cubes

4 leaves fresh sage, torn

4 large eggs

1-1/4 cups (300 ml) chicken broth or stock (see page 56)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350F (180C/gas 4)

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or flameproof casserole over medium heat. Saute the onion, celery, and parsley until softened, 5 minutes.

Add the sausages and cook until browned, 7-8 minutes. Chop the sausages into thick slices.

Drain the fat from the pan, pouring 4 tablespoons into a large bowl and discarding the rest. If there is not this much fat in the pan, add extra olive oil.

Mix in the cubes of bread, sage, and sausages. Season with salt and pepper.

Beat the eggs lightly, then stir them into the chicken broth. Pour this liquid over the sausage-and-bread mixture. Stir well.

Cover and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and cook for 15 minutes more. Servc hot.

Serves 4 * Prep 25 min * Cooking 70 min

It smelled wonderful while it cooked on the stove then baked in the oven. It was made and served with the following items bought at our local farmer's market's:

• parsley, that I grow on our back deck
• onion ($0.50)
• corn-on-the-cob ($5/doz)
• cantelope ($1)
• eggs ($2/doz), I buy these from a friend nearby

The brats were on clearance at Price Chopper for $1.67. What a deal!

Although this made for a delicious supper, I would recommend it for brunch when you have company visiting.