What Matters Most Now: Food and Drink

Food and Drink

DIY Easy Homemade Granola

07/05/2013

Do-It-Yourself Easy Homemade Granola

Printable Recipe

Recipe adapted from Rodale Press, Flat Belly Diet Family Cookbook

Ingredients:

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 1/2 cups sliced almonds

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup honey

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

1 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 cup dried tart cherries

1/2 cup dried cranberries or any other dried berries or raisins

dried fruit for homemade granola - whatmattersmostnow.typepad.com

I use any dried fruit that I have on hand. This day I used dried cherries, blueberries, strawberries and golden raisins.

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray. (I love using the coconut oil spray you can find at Trader Joe's.)

2. Combine the oats, almonds, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. Combine the honey, oil and almond extract in a measuring cup or separate bowl.

3. Pour the honey mixture over the oat mixture and stir well to combine.

4. Spread evenly on the baking sheet. Bake stirring every 10 minutes, for 38-40 minutes, or until lightly toasted.

5. Remove from the oven and stir in the dried fruit, cherries and cranberries. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

This recipe makes 12 servings at 1/2 cup each.

For Yogurt Parfaits:

I like to layer 1/2 cup of the homemade granola with 6 ounces of greek yogurt and a handful of fresh fruit for a delicious breakfast.

Fresh raspberry, homemade granola and Greek yogurt layered for a parfait.

07/05/2013 | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/27/2015

Fall Harvest Grape Salad with Creamy Caramel Topping and Brown Sugar Pecans

Grape season is upon us as the fall grape harvest begins and this Fall Harvest Grape Salad with Creamy Caramel Topping maximizes the deliciousness of green and purple grapes when swirled with a creamy caramel flavored topping. The original recipe includes mixing pecans with the fruit and topping. I tried caramelizing pecans and loved the extra crunch (when sprinkled on just before serving) although they can be omitted or just added as plain nuts as well.

This recipe was shared at a recipe swap at a small group gathering offshoot of a Mom's Club, years ago when my teens were babies. I loved getting together with the other women in our area and in this particular group, we would all bring our favorite recipes to an informal potluck style gathering to taste test the creations. We would have a theme each month and women would bring their favorite recipes in that category. So many of my favorite recipes today, came as a result of that group.

grape salad whatmattersmostnow.typepad.com

Grapes ready for the fluffy, caramel topping.

This portable fruit salad works well for potlucks and picnics. Be sure to allow time for refrigeration prior to transporting.

Recipe ingredients.

By the way, have you tried the new sour cream packaging that delivers sour cream in a squeezable pouch instead of the carton? I am a huge fan as it works so well for measuring or getting just the amount needed vs. dirtying a spoon or spatula.

Fall Harvest Grape Salad with Creamy Caramel Topping and Brown Sugar Pecans

Adapted from a recipe from Tara DeBoer

Ingredients:

4 pounds green grapes

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

8 ounces sour cream

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Brown Sugar Pecans:

2 tablespoons brown sugar

4 ounces pecans

Instructions:

1. Cut grapes in half (or not, if you are in a rush and want to save time).

2. Mix cream cheese, 1/2 cup brown sugar, sour cream and vanilla.

3. To make the brown sugar pecans, in a skillet over medium heat, stir constantly, coating pecans with the brown sugar to caramelize and toast the pecans.

4. Mix creamy mixture with grapes and top with the pecans.

5. Refrigerate and allow time for the flavors to meld together.

This tastes best the next day!

Sidenote: My photos do not show the Brown Sugar Pecans as my girl, Bella, has tree nut allergies and she loves this recipe, so I refrained from even making them this day for photos. Thanks for understanding.

08/27/2015 | Permalink | Comments (0)

08/04/2015

10 Summer Recipes I Want to Make This August

10 Things I Want to Make This August Before Summer Is Over:

My Easy Roasted Blender Marinara Sauce - this recipe roasts and blends tomatoes, onions, garlic, olive oil and a few sprigs of fresh basil and tastes fabulous!

Grilled Shrimp Tacos - we have become huge "street taco" fans over the past year and I think this recipe will fit the bill for satiating that craving for "street tacos".

Zucchini Crust Pizza - I have friends who swear by the cauliflower crust pizzas and with the surplus of zucchinis, I think this will be a fun kitchen experiment.

Image from My Humble Kitchen

Outrageous Eskimo Bars from Mel's Kitchen Cafe - I can't wait to try this recipe that has been in my to "taste" list forever! Who doesn't love Eskimo Bars dipped in the caramel sauce? Mel's recipe looks divine and takes ice cream bars to the next level of sheer bliss!

Bon Appetit's Sour Cherry Pie - I am a huge sucker for cherries and Bon Appetit usually nail it with their tested recipes.

Hand-held Peach Fruit Pies - I am looking for a recipe that I have been dreaming about for a while now. I spied a recipe for Strawberry Hand-held Fruit Pies a few months ago but did not save it. Any of you have a good hand-held fruit pie recipe?

Cherry Garcia Cheesecake with no-bake filling. Oh, my.

Here are the recipe ingredients transposed for a U.S. kitchen:

Ingredients:
2 cups of crushed graham crackers
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2-2/3 cup cherries (fresh or frozen), pitted and diced
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch, plus 2 teaspoons cold water
3/4 cup mini dark chocolate chips
12-ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, (powdered sugar) sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 pint heavy cream

Ganache

1/4-pint whipping cream
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Fresh cherries to decorate

Instructions:

1. For the crust. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease a rectangular loaf pan (or a leak-proof spring-form pan). Line the base and two long sides of the loaf pan with baking paper, leaving some extra paper hanging over the edges. This will make allow you to lift the cheesecake out of the pan later

Fresh Basil Pesto with plenty to freeze into ice cube trays to savor all year long. I missed doing this the past few years and ended up spending a fortune on the store-bought prepared pesto that just never tastes quite as good as homemade versions.

Fruit Leather and Beef Jerky in the dehydrator. I had great success making beef jerky out of flank steak that I marinated in Teriyaki sauce one year, so I want to experiment with some other cuts of meat and different marinades.

Homemade Fruit Sorbet - I'm flirting with trying Alton Baker's recipe for Summer Sorbet, or I want to take Serious Eats' Max Falkowitz's ratio of fruit to sugar and experiment and taste test until I get the right combo. That's a great excuse to make many versions, right? Max's versions include a Pear, Riesling and Ginger Sorbet; a Raspberry-Campari Sorbet; a Spicy Pineapple and Tequila Sorbet; and a Sour Cherry and Lavender Sorbet - so gourmet!

Do you have special recipes you make each summer?

08/04/2015 | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/28/2015

Grilled Pizza - Perfect for Camping

We just returned from a camping getaway with all four teens and the pooch. In an effort to prepare food ahead of time to streamline the camping cooking experience a bit, while still pleasing the teen palate, I researched recipes that would meet everyone's needs. We settled on a new camping menu that proved to be pretty easy but delicious!

This Grilled Pizza recipe was concocted by using a pizza dough recipe that I mixed up just prior to our departure. We only had a two-hour drive, which was perfect for the dough to rise without having to be refrigerated in between, however, it could have stayed in the cooler, if needed and then brought back to "room" temperature later.

grilled-pizza whatmattersmostnow.typepad.com

Grilled pizza station prep while camping!

We have a camping stove that has a griddle on one side and a burner on the other. Using a flat frying pan would have worked just as well.

Pizza cooking on our grill/griddle.

This dough has a slightly sweet hint to it which I loved. I used my hands to shape the dough and I didn't have anything other than a paper plate to flatten the pizza crusts with as we improvise while camping!

grilled-pizza-dough whatmattersmostnow.typepad.com

The pizza dough cooked quickly on the grill.

Homemade Pizza Dough for Pizza Crust for the Grill

1 cup flat beer or water (the beer gives it a great flavor and I think helps with the rising too)

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoons salt

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (You can use bread flour for a chewier crust.)

1 package active dry yeast (2-1/4 teaspoon)

Instructions:

1. To make by hand, dissolve yeast in warm beer (105º to 115º). I open a can of beer in the morning and let it sit out for a few hours to make it "flat". Add butter, sugar, salt, and flour. Mix until dough forms a ball and cleans sides of bowl. Turn onto floured surface and knead for 2 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover; let rise in a warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Punch down dough.

(To use the bread machine, add ingredients to pan in order listed. Use dough setting.)

2. For cooking while camping, divide the dough into 8 equal dough balls. Shape or form dough to the size of a paper plate. I used my paper plate as a preparation surface and molded the dough according to the size. I thought that the pizza dough would cook more evenly if the dough was pre-baked a bit prior to putting the toppings on, so we added each shaped pizza circle to the griddle and let each side cook about two minutes each.

3. I then set up a station and had each person come through spreading their pizza dough surface with prepared spaghetti sauce/pizza sauce, a generous sprinkling of grated cheeses (while camping it's perfectly fine to use the store-bought pre-grated cheese blend such as Italian Four Cheese. Who wants to grate cheese, let alone wash the cheese grater while camping?!?). I had salami, pepperoni and Canadian bacon as my topping options and each kid picked out what they wanted and how much.

4. The hubs had the griddle all warmed up for the pizzas and we cooked each pizza individually on the griddle. He experimented and decided that the cheese melted much faster with the lid on the griddle. Each grilled pizza took no more than 3-5 minutes with the pre-cooked crust. No one complained and our fellow camping friends were a tad bit jealous of the concoction our kids were filling up on (although we did offer some to share).

Alternative cooking option: For cooking in a home kitchen, the instructions are to turn dough out on floured surface. Roll or press into a prepared pie pan, forming a collar around the edge. Brush lightly with olive oil. Cover dough; let stand 15 minutes. Proceed with your favorite pizza recipe.

summer recipe, camping recipe, grilled pizza, grilling recipe, bbq pizza, camping pizza, pizza dough, roughing it recipes, griddle pizza

07/28/2015 | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/26/2015

Hawaiian Hibachi Huli Chicken Recipe from Sam Choy

Nothing speaks summer like this Hawaiian Hibachi Huli Chicken recipe from Sam Choy.

As far as ingredients go, the only slightly unusual ingredient is "Shoyu Sauce". Shoyu is a type of natural Japanese soy sauce that is said to have a lower salt content, that tastes slightly sweeter and is a bit thicker than soy sauce. If you don't have access to Shoyu, you can substitute soy sauce or teriyaki in a pinch.

hibachi-chicken whatmattersmostnow.typepad.com

Hibachi Huli Chicken Dinner

Hawaiian Hibachi Huli Chicken

Recipe from Sam Choy

Ingredients:

6 chicken breasts

Marinade:

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 1/2 cups shoyu

2 cloves garlic, chopped (or pre-chopped garlic)

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup ginger, minced

2 tablespoons green onions, chopped

1 tablespoons Chinese parsley, cilantro, minced

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

Instructions:

1. If using a hibachi, prepare and light coals or prepare your grill. Mix marinade ingredients.

2. Marinate chicken breasts for at least 30 minutes.

3. Grill breasts for a total cooking time of 8 to 10 minutes depending upon the thickness. You can also pan fry or cook your breasts in the oven.

This recipe goes great with steamed rice and stir-fried vegetables. We enjoy them with potstickers and fresh fruit too.

Sam Choy loved this as a potluck dish that you leave marinating in a cooler and pack a hibachi to prepare fresh grilled chicken in 45 minutes upon arrival at a potluck or picnic.

Marinating chicken

This recipe can also be frozen. When the chicken marinade is done, put the chicken breasts and marinade together in a ziploc freezer bag. Mix the two together. Freeze. When you are ready to grill, let defrost for at least an hour to let the marinade soak in. Proceed as normal.

07/26/2015 | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/07/2015

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

oh. my. goodness.

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake is one of those "go make this now" type of recipes.

Seriously.

Who knew that just five simple ingredients could be transformed into what I deem as a most delicious, warm melting brownie batter oozing inside a lightly baked chocolate brownie exterior.

I'm so excited to share a very special recipe from Carnival Cruise lines - the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake, made famous from their nightly dinner menus while sailing.

People go crazy for this dessert.

My own teenager included.

chocolatemeltingcake whatmattersmostnow.typepad.com

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

We were fortunate to take a class while onboard a cruise hosted by one of the amazing Carnival Chef's, Siva. The Chef's Table experience is one I would highly encourage anyone who gets the opportunity to try while on board a ship. Not only do you get to tour the galley (kitchen) of the ship, but you also are treated to an extraordinary 11-course meal, specially prepared and a take-home recipe. A future blog post will highlight that experience in more detail but in the meantime, this recipe was shared by our chef at the conclusion of the tasting event.

Chef Siva demonstrates the recipe.

#warmchocolatemeltingcake whatmattersmostnow.typepad.com

Adding the chocolate and melted butter to the eggs and sugar mixture.

During our cruise, I heard many remark how they couldn't miss their nightly serving of the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake and our own Connor ordered this favorite all but one night!

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

Recipe from Carnival Cruise Lines

Ingredients:

6 ounces dark chocolate (we were told that Swiss chocolate is best for this recipe but I am using dark chocolate chips in a pinch)

6 ounces butter

4 eggs, at room temperature

1.5 ounces sugar

2 ounces flour

Instructions:

1. Melt the chocolate and butter.

2. Separately, mix the eggs and sugar and whisk for a few minutes before adding the flour.

3. Grease 4 ramekins bowls or molds. Pour the mixture equally amongst the four greased ramekins.