Granola

Today I am making home-made Granola. It is a recipe my mom has been making for years - and still makes for my step-dad. After many weeks of craving Cinnamon Toast Crunch I've decided to try to eat a bit healthier & cheaper and just make my own cereal. Plus, this tends to stick with me better and longer than a silly bowl of CTC. It's so yummy -like a bowl of cookie!



So, in the spirit of giving and sharing, I will be so nice to share with you below the greatest granola recipe! Enjoy!

Granola

1 C Honey
1/2 C Vegetable Oil
Stir together in a saucepan until melted. Remove from heat.
Add:
1 Tbsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Almond extract
Set aside

In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients:
9 C Oats
2 C Wheat or Oat Germ
2 C Sunflower seeds (shelled, obviously!)
1/2C Brown Sugar
7 oz Shredded Coconut (I prefer unsweetened, but to each their own)
2 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Nutmeg

Drizzle honey mix over dried ingredients & mix. Divide mix up onto 2 cookie sheets (sprayed with Pam or something similar) with 1-2" sides. Spread evenly & put in 350 degree oven for 8min. Rotate sheets top to bottom & back to front, bake another 8 minutes until edges are browning, like an oatmeal cookie. Remove from oven & stir while cooling. This is important - if you don't stir while cooling the oatmeal will form one big sheet and will be a mess! Once it is thoroughly cooled store in an air-tight container. Granola should be good for about 2 weeks in the container. You can always freeze it if you need to.

Yum!!!!!

Birthday Treats... the adventure story

I am a big fan of channels like the Food Network or Bravo, Travel Channel - anything that showcases food or cooking. Recently while watching an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives I learned about Bacon Donuts (you have to imagine the heavenly choir singing on your own when I say "Bacon Donuts"..). So, I shared this new-found-treasure with my bacon-adoring husband - immediately his eyes sort of went watery at the mere thought of bacon as a topping on a donut. It's like Homer Simpson's dream coming into reality.



**Side Note... I should have learned long ago to watch what I repeat to my husband. After watching an episode of Paula Deen where she described how she puts little pea-sized pieces of butter in with her hamburger meat to keep it "juicy" he has made this hamburger regiment number one. So much for paying extra for super lean meat! Continuing on...



So, today is my husband's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!) and I asked him if he'd like to take a treat to work to share for his special day and he immediately answered "bacon donuts." I should have guessed. Onto the google-machine I went and spliced together my very own recipe for bacon donut holes. For those of you ready to jump on the exciting adventure... please continue reading.



Bacon Donuts, adapted

Ingredients:

2 tubes of Grands Biscuits

1 tbsp cinnamon

3-5 cups of vegetable oil



Cut each biscuit in quarters, sprinkle with cinnamon & roll into balls. Heat oil to 375 degrees ("deep frying" temp) - use candy thermometer for accuracy. If the oil gets too hot the holes burn.. we learned that first-hand. Drop 6-8 holes into the oil & let them cook for about 3 minute total. They will start to turn over by themselves but it's a good idea to make sure they're evenly fried on each side. Remove & place on paper towels to remove excess grease.



Glaze:

1 1/4 c Powdered Sugar

1/4 c Maple Syrup

1 tsp vanilla

Mix together - if it comes out too thick, add a bit more syrup or a bit of milk (tsp at a time) until it is a glaze consistency. Dip each donut hole into the glaze -we chose to only dip half but that is up to you. Set on a piece of parchment/wax paper (glaze-side up) and sprinkle with chopped bacon. We used almost an entire package of bacon for this batch but that is at your discretion.



Let the holes set for about 30 minutes or so & either enjoy right away or place in an air-tight container for sharing later with friends! Makes 64 donut holes (wow! that sounds like alot!)



Enjoy!!!

(ps: sorry for the lack of pictures... I couldn't get it out of my husbands cell phone!)

Baking for good

I just had to tell everyone about the new thing I am doing - it's call Baking Gals. I saw it on another blog and thought it was PERFECT for me. I love to bake & what an awesome way to do something good with it. Not that bringing cookies to work isn't a good deed but this is a great opportunity. Oh... you want to know what it is? How silly of me!

Baking Gals was started by a clever young lady who wanted to send baked goodies to soldiers serving our country. Each month new groups are formed & you can sign up for one or a few & they designate you a soldier to send your goodies to. You can do it every month or just when you are able to fit it in. It is a great cause & I am so excited to be a part of it.

If you'd like to check it out - see: Operation Baking Gals



Or - if you have a soldier to nominate, let me know. Surprisingly enough, I really don't know any soldiers that are overseas right now. That is a blessing for me, but I know that there are many men & women all over the world serving our country - let's send them cookies!

Have a great week!

All this talk about apples...

All this crazy talk about apples got me hunting around for something appley... and when nothing presented itself... I decided to make some apple turnovers! I had read this cute vignette in Bon Appetit about a lady visiting Paris & how all she wanted was a chocolate croissant... but the bakery in her neighborhood had sold out so she ended up getting an apple turnover (which had a much cooler french name in the story) and how she fell in love. So, I made these apple turnovers.

So delicious yet not too hard either. Worth the extra work to boil & mash up the fresh Granny Smith & Gala apples.


A Tasty Treat that kicks the pants off the Apple Pie at McDonalds!

Oye Vey!

Now that we are pretty much moved in to our house.. and the parts that aren't moved in are just going to stay that way for a while.. I am back to baking.

First, I will start with the BAGELS!
Maybe it's the Jewish in us.. even though neither of us are Jewish... but Mark and I made bagels last week & I am just now getting around to posting - slow poke, I know! Anyway, here are some pictures of our process.


These are our bebes after resting & about to go under the broiler for 2 minutes.


Here are the bebes post broil, now boiling for 7 minutes. This is what makes them chewy on the inside!


Here's everyone out of the oven and resting.


We just couldn't believe how perfect these came out! They were so delicious too! Mark and I split one right out of the oven & it was delightful. I took the rest to work the next day with some home-mixed flavored cream cheese & they were gobbled up!

Next time we'll try some festive flavors but these were an excellent start!
Mazel Tov!