Kale Chips

Tasting a new recipe Diane researched and baked  tonight, Kale Chips.

Just dry and place on a sheet pan after applying olive oil with salt (Himalayan Sea Salt) .  They dry out in the oven, hence the name chips.

A definite strong  flavor.  I would try then on a pizza,  or served with something else. Cheese ?  garlic ? pasta? or with tomato. Good alongside a home brew.

  I had to put some on some spent grain bread.

served with Banished Musclehead

a smokey stout

grainola cookies, light and dark

two cookie recipes, both made with https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/another-granola-cereal-recipe/.

One made with white flour the other with spent grains.

this is a modified oatmeal cookie recipe. scaled in half

1/2 cup butter (original recipe calls for shortening)

1/2 cup white granulated

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup all purpose flour (alternate dark recipe with stout spent grains from brewing)

1 teaspoon baking soda

about 1 and 1/2 cups granola mix from https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/another-granola-cereal-recipe/

preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit

grease or use parchment paper on cookie sheets.

typical cookie assembly,

beat the butter and sugars

add egg and vanilla

combine flour (or spent grains) baking soda and salt.

add to the butter mixture

stir in the granola

put on cookie sheets, rounded tablespoons, two inches apart

(is it two inches from the edge of the dough or two inch on centers?)

bake 10 to 12 at 350 degrees, mine flattened quite a bit into crunchy cookies

very tasty, the spent grain cookies have a molasses/ chocolaty taste.

 

 

recipe using spent  grains

comparison of cookies

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food shopping

some recent food prices from local markets

Sausage and cheese cornbread

Sausage and cheese cornbread
This recipe was an adaptation from cheese and cornmeal muffins, http://myfavouritepastime.com/2013/03/14/cheese-and-cornmeal-muffins/
Basically with the addition of breakfast sized sausage link, cut , and American cheese. Instead of muffins the cast iron fry pan was used as a baking pan. I don’t bake a cornmeal muffin, bread recipe often. I like the taste of cornbread but the fact that it dries out almost within hours and is very crumbly doesn’t appeal to me. So I thought that a sausage addition was needed. Besides it would be a more complete bread for sausage and bacon lovers.
So here we go….
Sift together the dry ingredients . 1 and 1/2 cups white flour, 1 cup corn meal, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 4 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 cup sugar.

cut the sausage links ( i believe 4 links as I am blogging this after the fact) into bite size pieces, or remove them from the casings, a bite size piece of sausage would be better than just ground sausage for this recipe, in any case ,fry them to brown.

it’s difficult to fry anything without some onion, just a slice of onion diced.

Mix together 2 eggs, 1/4 cup oil , 1 cup creamed corn, 1/3 cup grated cheese (all that I had available was American cheese slices , diced, at the time) and 3/4 cup milk, the chives were omitted, add to the dry sifted ingredients

add the sausage mixture to the liquids.

mix easy, this is one of those recipes that you don’t need to beat for minutes, just combine with a wooden spoon.

gently ease the mixture into a skillet, if you hold back some of the grease from the sausage and with a paper towel , coat the pan, that will serve as the non stick coating on the pan.

into the oven about 400 degrees , bake till golden and a tester comes out clean.

let cool, either serve from the pan or flip and flop it out, slice and serve. Don’t forget to butter the top !

leave the bread on the table and let pass-er-by-ers
grab a piece, good for all day snacking.

Chicken and mushrooms

An easy meal, just add a side of veggies and mashed potatoes.
Most chicken breast you buy today are very thick. Actually it would be better with chicken thighs, but breast is all I have available.
Instead of pounding the breast thin and making a racket , fillet them with a sharp knife.

Heat a skillet with a bit of oil, but first dredge the chicken in a seasoned flour, usually salt and pepper added to the flour.

At a medium high heat, brown the fillets,

while the chicken browns, add some chicken stock to a sauce pan over low heat.

as the breast fillets are browned , add them to the sauce pan.

now that all the chicken has been browned, dice a slice of onion (yes, just one slice at this time) and a clove of garlic, as you would guess, sauté them in the frypan with the chicken drippings till fragrant.

deglaze the pan with wine of choice after you sample it.

toss in some button mushrooms.

stir them a bit in the fry pan then add to the sauce pan, a bit of sage is all I’m using for herbs added to the sauce pan also.

over low heat, simmer no more than 10 minutes, let stand a while.

Plate up with some sides.

another granola (cereal) recipe

mix together

2  cups rolled oats

1 cup flaked Barley

1 cup flaked Rye

1/4 cup unmalted wheat

1/4 cup golden naked oats

1 cup coconut

1/2 cup almounds

1 and 1/2 cups raisins

2 oz chopped bittersweet baking choolate

1/4 cup toasted cocoa nibs

1 tablespoon washed raw cane sugar

2 teaspoons sea salt

eat as a cereal, make into granola bars or incorporate into a cookie recipe. (to follow).

a basic macaroni (pasta) salad

Simply put, all amounts to taste…

chop:

green pepper

white onion

cucumber

garlic

brocolli

Mix with boiled elbow macaroni

refrigerate, it can be eaten as is, or add other ingredients such as mayonnaise, herbs, seeds or a salad dressing. Balsamic vinegar and olive oil a favorite.

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