July 4th and Berry Season!

Hello! Hope you had a great July 4th!

We did.  Look at that cake!  Erin's strawberry-blueberry flag cake is now a tradition.  Especially eaten in Washington Park during the fireworks.

It's the tail end of strawberry season, with overlap of the next crop: raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries.

Sadly, I didn't see any berries at the farmers market this week, but I have been running into them pretty much everywhere else.

As yummy as they are straight from the crate, I've been experimenting anyway.  Mostly with the strawberries, since I don't really like them a lot by themselves (thanks to an unfortunate strike of the stomach flu immediately after strawberry shortcake about 4 years ago).

So... I made muffins!

They were very pretty, and made a lovely breakfast.  I just followed my basic muffin recipe but added 1 cup of fresh diced strawberries. (And left out the whole wheat flour to keep them light.)

I still had a bunch left over, so I sliced the really ripe ones and put them over my pancakes with some Hay maple syrup.  This was my best idea yet.  Pretty super.

I mean, that's restaurant quality.

That gave me the idea for my leftover blueberries.

As I was making the pancakes, I let the blueberries cook down in a sauce pan with some water, honey, and a little butter.

(Also notice the superb scrambled eggs complimenting my pancakes.  That's what I call team work.)

Berry season is quick... enjoy them!

Jake Moon Cafe

It's Spring!

Thatcher Park Overlook

OK, the sun isn't exactly out, but it's been warm enough to leave your coat at home, and that's about as much as we can ask for in April.

This weekend was a beautiful one, so on Sunday (which actually started out sunny) I took a road trip out to Clarksville with Capitol to Capital for a brunch at Jake Moon Restaurant and Cafe followed by some outdoor time in Thatcher Park.

Jake Moon is a cutie little diner in the country.  The outside doesn't really reflect the inside or the food, because driving up, it didn't look like much.  Even the inside is simple, but it's decorated in that hippie eclectic way that hints that you should expect something a little different.

And the food.  The food was SO GOOD.

That's mine.  I got the Bennett Hill Scramble, which is three eggs scrambled with wild mushrooms, herbs, and gouda.  I will never eat another mushroom that isn't wild.

My friends got the S.O.S. and the Red Flannel Hash (check out the menu on their website).  All were very good.  The bread is baked right here, and they also have house apple butter and orange marmalade.

I've never had orange marmalade like this before.  Look at those orange slices.  I brought home my own jar, and A took home some apple butter.  If we had known it was only $4.50 I would have bought one of each myself.


Besides making their own bread and condiments, what's even cooler (and why I'm telling you about this place) is that this little cafe makes the attempt to include some local products on their menu, such as apple cider and milk from local farms.

Definitely take the trip out to Jake Moon yourself on the next nice day, and don't forget to stop at one of the many state parks while you're out there.  I forget that I'm so close to so much nature.  Hopefully by my next trip everything will be a little greener and a little more thawed.

Recipe Win: Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

I knew I would get it right eventually.

Now, I'm not saying these muffins are perfect, but they're pretty tasty for breakfast.  And they have WHOLE GRAINS in them, so they're guilt-free, because whole grains cancel out butter and sugar, of course.  Didn't you know that?

I adapted the recipe out of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook to make it healthier and spicier.  This is pretty much the best cookbook out there for beginners, because it gives you a basic recipe for everything you could want.   I just find myself often adding extra seasoning and spices, but that's probably just because I need everything to blow my mind.

Sooo.. here we go!  I added whole wheat flour, oats, and extra "flavors"-- enjoy.

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

an adaption of the Muffin Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 15th Edition (Better Homes & Gardens Plaid)

1 squishy banana
1 c. white flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. oats
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 beaten egg
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. cooking oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. allspice (or cinnamon, or cloves... whatever you like)

Streusel Topping
1:1 flour and brown sugar mix, cinnamon, and butter


Directions
1. Grease your muffin tin and preheat oven to 400.
2. Mix flours, oats, sugar, baking powder, salt, spice.
3. In another bowl, beat egg, mash banana, mix in milk, oil, and vanilla.
4. Mix the wet into the dry,  Then spoon it into your muffin cups.  Only fill muffin cups about half way.  Then sprinkle on your streusel topping.  Bake for 15-18 minutes.




They're a little bit on the denser side because of the whole wheat flour, but that means they're good for you, and will fill you up longer, which is important at breakfast.  And bananas have potassium to energize your day.

Win.

Important Lessons:  Whole wheat flour is like cooking with cardboard flour, so do not reduce the milk or oil, and add flavorful things like vanilla and spice.  Otherwise, you get the Banana Cardboard Muffins from the Recipe Fail.  This batch came out much better :)

A Breakfast for Champions

While creating my new Recipes tab, I realized I was severely lacking in the breakfast department.  It's not that I don't eat breakfast, it's just that I don't usually leave myself time for creativity.  Creative breakfasts occur only on the weekends or for dinner.

My last breakfast for dinner, with Hay Maple Syrup. Yum!

I have realized that if I really fill up on breakfast, I tend to require far less food throughout the day, so I'm making an effort lately to give myself a better food foundation, but again, convenience usually trumps creativity, and I have another english muffin covered in peanut butter :(

Then last week my cousin Angela gave me a bag of steel cut oats to try.  Steel cut oats are very similar to regular oatmeal, but whole and less processed.  This means they take your body longer to digest, therefore, keeping you fuller longer (and you know, less processing generally means healthier anyway).

Uncooked steel cut oats.  They're round, not flakes (flakes are the result of processing).

I go through oatmeal phases, but I really enjoyed the steel cut oats!  Because they are whole grain, they have a little more texture than regular oatmeal (a little chewier, less mushy) and slightly heartier in flavor.  I just mixed in a little milk and honey to mine, and it was really tasty, and kept me full for a long time.

My steel cut oats with milk, honey, and a few date pieces.

And now the clincher:  I kept my leftovers in the fridge, reheated them in the microwave with honey a couple of days later, and they were just as yummy as the first day I made them.  Convenience!!!!  Now I have no excuse.

You can get steel cut oats at the co-op.  They take about a half an hour to cook... keep an eye on them and extra water handy.  The ratio of oats to water seems to be somewhere around 1:4, but mine kept sticking to the pot (I think I had the heat too high).  Here's a recipe from Alton Brown that you may find useful: Steel Cut Oatmeal.

I'm so over English muffins.

Breakfast for Dinner

My face is still numb from my filling at 11AM this morning.   :(

After choking and cheek-biting my way through lunch, I decided to have pancakes for dinner.

Of course, I used Bisquick.  Who doesn't?  This post isn't so much about the pancakes, but what I used on top.

Really, I've just been waiting for an excuse to make pancakes, ever since I splurged on this:

Yes.  REAL maple syrup.  And not only is it real (which tastes completely different from fake), but it was made right in Cobleskill by someone I work with.  Double awesome.









So I stirred up my Bisquick, adding some cinnamon because it's yummy.  (For the record, I used Byrne Dairy milk and Cottonhill farm eggs, as well as some flax from the co op, so there's some local in there.)

Then I fried about the best darn batch of pancakes I think I ever made.  I'm getting a hang of this cooking thing.

I highly recommend real maple syrup, and while you're at it, you might as well get it from the Hay family.  Their bottle says "The World's Best," and I think they might be right...

** Look for them to be selling syrup again around March. I also hear there's tours...