Homemade Clif Bars

I love Clif bars...and Luna bars, and Larabars, and so on. So I thought, why not try and make my own? A quick google search landed me a recipe to try.

3 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup soy protein powder
1 1/2 cups nonfat dry milk
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 egg whites
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup cinnamon roasted nuts, chopped
2/3 cup dried cranberries
1 1/2 bananas, mashed

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line a baking sheet with wax paper and spray with non-stick spray.
2. Thoroughly mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir in the wet ingredients until blended.
3. Put spoonfuls on the waxed paper and shape as you like (I chose bars, but round would make a nice breakfast cookie)
4. Bake for approximately 15 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown.

Next time, I'll probably switch up the nuts and fruit for a new combination.

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Onigiri: Japanese Rice Balls

Onigiri is one of my favorite Japanese snacks/meals. I used to grab a couple from the convenience store for a quick lunch--so good! There's something special about the Japanese smoked salmon, perhaps umami??

I got my Onigiri recipe from Let's Cook Japanese Food! It's a really great basic Japanese cookbook with tons of great recipes. I chose to use leftover rice from dinner, along with grilled salmon. Not as good as the authentic variety, but simple to make. The onigiri recipe is on page 142 for reference. I'm not going to cover the recipe here, but just explain what to do.

Onigiri

Ingredients

• Japanese style short grain white rice (Nishiki is a good starter brand, available at most grocery stores), cooked and cooled
• Cooked salmon, flaked

Method

1. Spoon out a small handful of rice into wet hands. Gently compact rice into a rounded triangle shape (see picture for example); this will be the shape of your rice ball.
2. Make an indentation in the rice for your salmon filling--I like a wide and deep indentation which better allows for each bite of rice ball to have some salmon.
3. Place flaked salmon in the indentation, making sure not to overfill, as this will make it difficult to contain.
4. Take a bit more rice and cover the salmon filling, reforming the triangle shape if necessary.
5. You can wrap in a piece of seaweed if you like, but I do not recommend this if you plan to store for any amount of time.

This makes a great portable snack or quick lunch while you're on the go. Pack it with a salad and this makes a great lunch.

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Fifteen Chocolate Brownies

Jamie Oliver is genius, and it's not just the British accent. I found this recipe in his book, Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook. It's got all kinds of recipes in it. I've made his sticky saucepan carrots (which are REALLY good) and his brownies. I can honestly say I've never had better brownies in my life. It's better than even the Ghiradelli mix you can buy at the store. Of course, it's not as easy as adding eggs and some oil, but almost.

Fifteen chocolate brownies (p. 384)

18 tbsp butter
7 oz dark chocolate, broken up (I used a mixture of 80% cocoa and milk chocolate)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a 12 inch baking pan with was paper.
2. In a double boiler (put a large pan over simmering water), melt the butter and chocolate until smooth. Whisk dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add to the chocolate. Finally, add in the eggs until smooth.
3. Pour batter into the baking pan and bake for 25 minutes. It is important to not over bake these brownies, so do not test with a toothpick.

These brownies are perfectly moist and melt in your mouth. I found they keep for several days without becoming dry--likely due to the under baking.

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something new

Because I'm too lazy to post a recipe, I'll leave you with a recommendation. I found a delicious beer. I like it only because it doesn't taste like beer at all. So here it is:

It is also available in a peach flavor which sounds delicious.

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a little bit vegan

I ended up buying The Complete Vegan Kitchen cookbook a few weeks ago because there were too many good looking recipes in there. Just in the past week I've made two sweet items from it: brownies and coffee cake, both with pretty good results.

Brownies

1/2 cup very hot espresso (you can use strong coffee instead)
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1. To start, preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8" square baking pan.
2. Whisk the espresso into the cocoa and sugar until smooth (this is where the "very hot espresso" is essential). Add the vanilla and oil.
3. Gently stir/fold in the flour, baking soda, and salt just until incorporated.
4. Pour batter into the pan and bake for 35 minutes.

I find these brownies to have a slightly different texture than others I've made. Not fudgy at all, but a bit crumbly instead. I do think the espresso makes an interesting twist.


Coffee Cake

1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cinnamon sugar roasted nuts, chopped
2 tbsp canola oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 vegan sour cream
2 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8" square baking dish.
2. For the coffee cake topping, mix the brown sugar, whole wheat flour, cinnamon, and chopped nuts; add the oil. If the mixture is too dry, add a bit of water until crumbly. Set aside.
3. For the batter, mix the all-purpose flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl. Add the sour cream (I used regular since it was on hand) and vanilla until incorporated. (My mixture was a bit dry, so I added a bit of milk. This again, of course, is not vegan, so I'd substitute soy, rice, or almond milk.)
4. Pour the batter into the baking dish and sprinkle the topping evenly over the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

I really enjoyed this coffee cake, and the best part was how easy it all came together.

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applesauce cookies

This recipe is from the Bob's Red Mill Baking Book. And because I am feeling particularly lazy with this recipe (I made it over a week ago and had every intention of posting it, just hadn't gotten around to doing it), I'll provide a link to the recipe online.

Bob's Red Mill actually has quite an extensive recipe catalog on their website which is great.


Applesauce Cookies: http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes_detail.php?rid=819

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cinnamon roasted nuts

I have a soft spot for cinnamon sugar roasted almonds and walnuts. I don't know what it is, though, they just have such great flavor. A friend let me try a batch she made a while back and I've been hooked ever since. She gave me her recipe as well, so I was in heaven. This past week I bought almonds and walnuts in bulk for the purpose of roasting them up, only it turns out I lost my recipe. A quick google search for a recipe and I was on my way.

Final result:

And now I have 5 cups to devour. Yum :)

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ricotta ice cream

Giada De Laurentiis is one of my favorite chefs. Every recipe of hers I've tried has been amazing. So when I watched her make this ricotta ice cream on her show a while back, I just had to try it for myself.

The ice cream base itself is really easy to make and the whole recipe comes together in no time. Here's a link to her recipe (I didn't bother making the chocolate filled cones, as I usually enjoy my ice cream in a bowl). I used 2% milk instead of whole since that's what I have on had.


The ice cream does have a strange, grainy texture to it from the ricotta cheese. It's a bit hard to get over I think, but the flavor of the ice cream with the chocolate chips goes together nicely.

I accidentally bought double the amount of ricotta cheese because I couldn't remember if the recipe called for 15 ounces or more. I think I'm going to make a blueberry ricotta ice cream next with all those frozen blueberries I've got. I'm definitely looking forward to trying that batch!

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I haven't been cooking much recently, but have made some new additions to my ever growing "to try" recipe collection and even a few new cookbooks. I'm really excited about my new book, Bob's Red Mill, which is filled with hundreds of recipes to bake. I even got it on sale, 50% off at Powell's which is amazing.

If I get with it, I'll start posting older recipes and photos I've still got around.

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Napa Crusted Pork

I really enjoy herb crusted pork for some strange reason. I've made it three times now, twice with gravy, and it tastes so good! A few days back, I decided once again to pull out this trick using herbs and oil I received from my parents' recent trip to Napa Valley.

This is a fun recipe to try out different herb combinations, fresh or dried. Here is my approximate recipe (I lost the real one). Basically, you're looking for a paste-like consistency. I have used this on a large pork loin cooked in the oven and also a tenderloin grilled outside.

Herb Crust for Napa Crusted Pork

3 tbsp. stone ground or Dijon mustard
2 tbsp. dried herbs*
1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper

Make enough of this to coat your meat, whatever size it may be.

*My herbs were a blend of thyme, fennel seed, savory, rosemary, lavender, and cracked bay leaves. I have used an Italian herb blend, as well as a blend of fresh rosemary and thyme.

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