Breaking a habit

I have an expensive habit. Granola. Store bought granola is expensive, but I eat it nearly every morning for breakfast and although it seems like it should be so easy to make a good granola at home, that has not been my experience. When I have tried, it always comes out strangely tough, or bland or bleh. So, I give the store far more money than those oats are worth. Until yesterday. I found a recipe and although I think I need to tweak it a bit (not necessarily because of the recipe - I didn't quite follow it, after all) I think it may finally break my expensive habit.

Let's start with the recipe. I found it here and it apparently an adaptation of a Nigella Lawson recipe, although I haven't seen the original. I'll paste it in, and then I'll explain what I did and what I will change.

Granola
Makes about 2 pounds (1kg)
From David Lebovitz
Adapted from Feast, by Nigella Lawson

5 cups (450g) multi-grain flakes or old-fashioned rolled oats
3 cups (375g) almonds, coarsely chopped
1 cup (125g) sunflower seeds
3/4 cup (100g) untoasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup (120g) packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried ground ginger
1 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup (180g) unsweetened applesauce (or another unsweetened fruit puree)
1/3 cup (100g) rice syrup
1/4 cup (80g) honey
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 300F (150C).

1. In a very large bowl, mix together the flaked grains or oats, almonds, sunflower and sesame seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.

2. In a small saucepan, warm the fruit puree with the rice syrup, honey, and oil.

3. Mix the fruit mixture into the dry ingredients until thoroughly dispersed, then divide and spread the mixture evenly on two baking sheets. (If you have ones with sides, often called jelly-roll pans, use them.)

4. Bake the granola for about 45 minutes, stirring every ten minutes, until the granola is deep golden brown.

5. Remove from oven, then cool completely.

Store the granola in a large, airtight container. It will keep for up to one month.


Ok, so there is it. If you read the original blog entry linked above, you'll see he states that using the fruit puree rather than oil, as most granola recipes do, gives this one the crunchiness of commercial granolas (and is the thing that other recipes have always lacked). But, of course, when I went to make it, I didn't have enough applesauce in the house, so I made up the volume with oil. It still turned out crunchy, but next time I'll use all fruit (or veggie puree. I wish I'd remembered that I had sweet potato puree in the freezer. I think that would work great.). I also increased the ginger a bit, since I love it.

I also didn't have enough sunflower and sesame seeds, so I made up that volume with pumpkin seeds. And I used walnuts and pecans rather than almonds, because, again, that's what I had.

The mixture ends up wetter than other recipes I've tried which I think is what makes a lot of difference. It's also a lot less sweet than commercial granolas, which is also nice.

So, how was it? Delicious. It's kind of annoying to have to stir it every 10 minutes, but it really is necessary to get it to cook evenly. And it gets dark really quickly at the end. I should have pulled it out a bit sooner than I did. But, I do think I will no longer be buying granola. This is really good. Kate even liked it and asked for seconds. Homemade granola with homemade yogurt. Just call us crunchy. Or granola.

Use it up

I've decided not to go grocery shopping for at least a week. Instead, we will eat what is already in this house. We have a small chest freezer and a cupboard full of food. I may give in at some point during the week if we run out of fresh fruits or veggies, but I think we have enough to sustain us for at least a week, especially because the garden is ready to harvest as well.

Any one want to join me in using up what is already in the cupboards?

Memorial Day

We finally got out of the house today to do something fun. We decided to head down to Barton Creek for a swim, and then Rudy's for bbq. The water level was a bit low in the creek, so the swimming hole we went to was a bit muddy. We could have walked further up stream to better swimming holes, but we wanted to take the shorter, shadier path. But we remembered once again that even if things don't turn out perfectly, it's still fun with Kate and Westley. And the bbq was great, of course.

mmmm, bbq

Yesterday we decided to do something new, since we have pretty established set of things we do. Some might call it a rut, even. So, we biked downtown and went to the Home and Garden Show. It turned out to be kind of crappy, but I have been to similar shows in Toronto and they are huge. This was kind of rinky. But we did try out a new bbq place afterwards for a late lunch, and that was yummy. We brought home a few bones for Westley, and Kate had been chewing on one at the restaurant. She finished it off later in the day.

Bananas. Not sure about that.

When I don't post for a few days, it seems like there is so much to say, and so I just dump it all out rather than compose a real post. Again this time, there is so much to tell. Graeme is away for a few days at a conference. We're doing ok, although I keep thinking it's Tuesday since he left on Saturday morning. I've been trying to have some social event to do each day so that I can talk to adults. Kate and Westley aren't the best conversationalists. Today we went to yoga. (Kate loves it. She laughs and squeals through most of it.) Tomorrow we'll go for a walk with some mama friends.

On to the disjointed part of the post.

Kate got a high chair on Friday. She seems to like it. It's nice to be able to have her higher up when I'm working in the kitchen. She can watch much better.


Today we tried a new food: bananas. She didn't seem very impressed.


She eats very little during our food times. A spoon full or two at the most. But it's fun. That's the whole point for now.

She wore some new foot wear today:


How's that for a random post?

What's cooking Wednesday

I really pulled out the big guns this time. Souffle. Souffle (I don't know how to get the accent on the e) has a reputation of being difficult, but it's not really. It is impressive though, so you get a lot of bang for your buck. They are a little bit time consuming, taking about 45 minutes to put together and then 45 minutes to bake. The directions seem involved, but if you know how to make bechamel sauce, then it's pretty straight forward. I'm not going to type them all out though, too much work.

The souffle I made was bacon, spinach and guyere. It was yum yum yummy.

Here is how to do it: Make a bechamel sauce with butter, flour and milk. It's nice to soften onions in the butter for awhile before adding the flour and then the milk. Once it's thick and smooth, remove from heat and stir in, one at a time, egg yokes. stir stir stir, and then cool the whole thing. While I was making the bechamel, I also cooked the bacon and wilted the spinach. Then you beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them with the cheese into the cooled egg yoke mixture.

Pour into souffle dish and cook. I cooked it the time suggested in the recipe, but it turned out to not be done in the center, so we scooped off the cooked yummy top part and popped it back in for another 10 or so minutes. Perfect. I'll adjust the cooking time for the next souffle adventure.

Three years

Today is the three year anniversary of my Mum's death. I've been trying to compose a post for today, and I nothing seems quite right. I am spending the day remembering her, although I remember her, and miss her, everyday. But I'm doing things that she would do - making chelsea buns, drinking lots of tea, spending time with Kate. I will give chelsea buns to our neighbours, which is something she used to do all the time. She was so generous, and although she called herself a skeptic, saying that she assumed the worst of people so she wouldn't be disappointed, that wasn't true. She expected a lot of people, and could see the good in nearly everyone.

She was the best mother I can imagine. I hope I do half as well.

I miss you, Mum. A blog post can't possibly express it.

What's cooking Wednesday

Bacon!

That's what's cooking. Tonight we are having the last of the bacon we have received from the bacon of the month club. Erika got us this last year for Christmas, and it may be the best present evah.

We have had six different bacons, and we think three were exceptional, while three were pretty average. But even bad bacon is good, so no one here is complaining. This bacon is one of the great ones. We usually have some of the bacon with periogies, and that is exactly what we're doing tonight.

Yum! Thanks, Erika.

Vegetables and a new year intention

I am not making resolutions this year, instead I have some intentions. I intend to run and get back in shape. I also intend to cook more meals and to not always cook the same meals. And to eat more vegetables. In order to facilitate the veggies and new meals, I signed up to get local organic veggies delivered bi-weekly. We got our first order this week, and I must admit that it didn't seem like much for the price. I understand that I'm paying for deliver, but even so it seemed a bit skimpy. Maybe it's because it's winter, I'm not sure. I'm going to ask them and find out if that's typical or if it increases in the spring. The alternative to the delivery is to make use of the farmer's market and get local veggies that way. It would take a commitment to go each week, and the delivery certainly makes that part easy, but I also need to be aware of not spending too much since we're on one income these days.

In the meantime, I fulfilled the second intention with the veggies. Tonight I cooked collard greens and also made a new recipe out of the 'Year of the Best' cookbook that Mum gave me years ago but that I've never used. It's going to be my cookbook of the month. I used the greens, sweet potatoes and an onion from our veggie delivery.

i have a whole head of cabbage. What should I do with that?

Weekend report

It's been a good weekend so far. On Friday night, we went to Sheryl and Jonathan's house for movie night. We were really late getting there though, so we didn't watch the movie instead we just ate, hung around and played Wii. Graeme played Wii while holding Kate. It certainly kept her quiet for awhile.




Yesterday, we had a super busy day. We were getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner. We cleaned the house, cleaned the yards, made the turkey dinner, started a new batch of cider brewing and got the A/C fixed. We had a bunch of dog walking friends from the neighbourhood over for Thanksgiving dinner. It was really fun, and dinner was delish. I'm cooking up extra cranberry now for our leftovers. Yum.

Kate had a better day yesterday, although that could be my view of it since Graeme was home to help. We did try out the swing, which someone had given us, and it kept her quiet and happy for about 25 minutes, which gave me enough time to get the turkey in the oven. She slept through most of dinner and afterwards, which came back to bite us in the ass when she stayed awake until 1 am. We'll try for an eariler bedtime tonight.

A good day, a bad night

Today was a fun day. After sleeping til about 10, we all (Kate, Westley and I) headed off to Central Market. Of course, since we got up at 10, we didn't really head out until noon, because nothing happens quickly around here these days when you have to feed everyone, and one of those people takes about an hour to eat. Anyway, we walked to CM, I picked up a few groceries, and then we headed for a shady picnic table. Westley wandered around and chased the squirrels, Kate nursed, and I ate take out sushi. It was very lovely. It's too bad Graeme didn't play hooky and come with us.

Then this afternoon, Kate and I went to our first post-natal yoga class. I didn't do much yoga, since she decided to nurse through most of the class, or if she wasn't nursing, she insisted on being held. But it was great to be back to yoga and we'll go again next week.

That good day followed a pretty shitty night. Kate had terrible gas and screamed for what seemed like hours (it was really onely one hour). I don't think it's related to milk anymore, since her good and bad days seem totally random. We'll keep trying things, but I don't think it's the milk. Hopefully tonight goes better.

I'll try to get some new pictures up tomorrow.

Sleep and dairy update

Last night was good - one middle of the night feeding (and one late night, and one early morning but those don't disturb sleep as much as those middle of the night ones do) and long stretches of sleep in between. It didn't quite make up for the night before, which was bad.

I had a bowl of cereal before going to bed. With milk, because it's my favourite snack late at night. I had been eating minimal dairy for 4 or 5 days. Kate had horrible, painful gas in the middle of the night and slept for shorter stretches. I was cursing that cereal. To find out if that was really the cause, I'm back to minimal dairy, and in a few days, I'll have another bowl of cereal before bed to see if that was the culprit, or if it was just the variability of life with a wee one.

Introducing the bottle

Yesterday, we gave Kate a bottle for the first time, and she had another one today. She didn't seem to mind it at all, in fact she sucked it down. But both times, even though she had enough to eat to be full, she wanted the boob afterwards. I think it might be awhile before she's satisfied with just the bottle. It will be nice when I can be gone a bit longer and Graeme can feed her, but right now I'm ok with her wanting me for now. She'll learn how to be soothed without the boob soon enough.

Oh, sweet sleep

Kate eats every three hours, on average. It can be up to four hours, and sometimes as little as two. That's from the start of one feeding to the start of the next. A feeding takes about 45 minutes, total with diaper changes and falling to sleep. So, there is about two hours of sleep for me between feedings. Last night, she fought falling asleep for quite awhile (Graeme got her to sleep (yay!) without resorting to the boob!) and then slept for four hours. FOUR HOURS. SIX hours between feedings. I know it's just an anomoly, but man, it was great. I woke up at 4 am because I had to pee. I checked her, amazed she was still sleeping. I went back to sleep until 5, when the very very full boobs which were leaking all over woke me up. She was starting to stir, so I woke her up to nurse. She ate from one boob and was totally full. I had to pump the other to relieve the engorgement.

So, it was great that she went so long between feedings, but boy, my boobs didn't like it at all.

What's cooking Wednesday

Nothing. Again. I had plans though, I really did. We got a few selections from the Soup Peddler - Zimbabwe Peanut Stew and Coq au Vin. The plan was to have the chicken. I was going to do something potato-ish on the side with a salad. But, after riding home from work, cleaning up the yard, mowing the lawn and walking the dog, and then finding that the potatoes in the fridge were bad, it all fell apart. Graeme cooked himself periogies, and I had mac&cheese (but it was the good Annie's shells and white cheddar). I did manage to cook a pot of rice to have with the peanut stew for lunch today.

Sheryl and Jonathan are coming over for dinner tonight, so I'm planning to make the Rockin' Moroccan stew that Karen posted a few weeks ago.

A delayed meme post

Karen tagged me for this meme last week, and I've been delinquent in not answering it. Is there is a statute of limitations on tags? In anticipation of 'what's cooking wednesday', I'll finally do the meme.

1. Can you cook? If yes do you like to cook?
Yes, although I find I often don't have the energy or inspiration. Although I do enjoy it. I especially enjoy preparing big meals for lots of friends.

2. When does your whole family come together to eat?
We eat dinner together most nights. On the couch.

3. What do you have for breakfast?
Cereal with fruit or granola with yogurt and fruit. And tea.

4. When, where and how do you eat through the week?
See 2 - we eat on the couch, usually between 7 and 8 pm after walking the dog.

5. How often do you eat out?
Once a week or once every two weeks.

6.How often do you order in or get take out?
Once a week.

7.Re: 5 &. 6 - if money were no object would like to do it more often?
Probably not. We might just go out for sushi more often.

8.Are there any standards that make a regular appearance at your table?
There are the fall back meals - periogies, sour cream pasta, cereal (I don't think that counts as cooking though). And our favourites - fajitas, grilled anything, spaghetti. Our meals are very seasonal, since I don't want to turn on the oven or stove in the hot months.

9.Have you ever tried a recipe from another blog?
Nope, not yet, although I probably will later this week.

10.Are there any quarrels because of food?
We 'quarrelled' about how to divide the leg of lamb the other night.

11.Are you a vegetarian or could you imagine living as a vegetarian?
I was a vegetarian for a few years in university, but now I'm an enthusiastic meat eater. I would certianly be happy eating meat only once or twice a week, but Graeme is a total carnivore and would likely mutiny if I were to try.

12.What would you like to try out that you haven't dared yet?
Nothing is coming to mind. I'm a pretty adventerous eater.

13.Would you rather cook or bake?
Bake, unless it's cooking for a big meal. I love making Thanksgiving dinner, for instance.

14.What was the most terrible mess you've ever made in the kitchen?
Nothing specific comes to mind, although when I do a big meal, every pot and surface tends to end up dirty and covered. I do my best to keep up with dishes as I cook, so it usually stays under control.

15.What do your kids like to eat best? What would your kids never eat?
Not yet applicable.

16.What do you dislike most?
Mushrooms. Ham. Yellow mustard. Caraway seeds.

Ladies who lunch

Today Karen and I left the kids with Dad and Donna and went to the Chateau Laurier for afternoon tea. We were saying that we were ladies who lunch, but without the fancy hats. Karen pointed out that you really need to drink sherry to be a lady who lunches. True. We quickly remedied the situation.

We chose the traditional tea (there is also the Canadian Tea and the Champagne Tea). It came with three types of crustless sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and some sweets. Oh, and tea of course.

It was fantastic. We've decided to make it a tradition. When I'm in Ottawa, we'll go to Chateau Laurier for tea, and when she is in Austin, we will go to the Four Seasons for theirs.

Earlier in the day, Emily created a masterpiece which I'm sure you'll see someday at the National Gallery. She calls it 'Dad':

What's cooking Wednesday

I didn't really feel like cooking tonight, but managed to scrape something together from the fridge. Pork tenderloin was on sale this week, and I got the Asian marinade. I didn't have a real plan for it, but it's generally either grill or cut into medallions. That's what I decided to do and cooked it until just done.


The laziness means I just had it with a bunch of veggies, rather than cooking rice and making a stirfry, which is what I would normally do. I was craving veggies, so it hit the spot.


I've been thinking a lot about the size/date discrepency that the midwife found, and I'll write about some of my thoughts tomorrow.

What's cooking Wednesday

I admit, I made this yesterday. But there are leftovers, which I had planned on, so I took a picture yesterday to post it today. I made this a few weeks ago by throwing together what was in the fridge when I felt like there was nothing at all. It's a new favourite. It doesn't even have a name. We refer to it as Sour Creme Pasta, but that isn't a very good name.

Start by putting the pasta water on. I used a bowtie pasta because I like how it holds sauce. Any short pasta would work though. I got a marinated Chipotle Lime chicken breast from Central Market. Any flavour would do, and it doesn't need to be marinated, a plain breast would work. I cut it and sauteed it until mostly cooked, and then added whatever veggies were around - this week it was red peppers, tomatoes, corn and green beans (which were blanched briefly with the pasta). Cook until veggies are done. If the chicken isn't marinated, you'll want to choose a sauce of some sort. Any salad dressing would do. Salsa or chimichuri sauce would be good. Whatever you have will work. When the pasta is cooked, drain it and stir into chicken and veggies. Add a few tablespoons of sour creme, and stir til everything is coated and mixed. I added a handful of chopped cilantro and black pepper. Yum. It's creamy without being heavy, and can be modified for whatever is in the kitchen.

What's cooking Wednesday

Nothing is being cooked here. We haven't gone grocery shopping in a week. I know that's typical for a lot of people, but we don't currently have a car, so we never buy a whole week's worth of fresh stuff at a time. But, never fear, the Soup Peddler is here!

Last week's menu looked so good, I ordered three things! I just couldn't narrow it down. Graeme tried the Chicken Pot Pie, which he really enjoyed once he got over the fact that it was puff pastry rather than pie crust pastry (he has a definite bias). It was tasty with big chicken and carrot pieces (remarkably, the carrots weren't soggy).


I went for the Beef Masaman Curry. YUM. Big chunks of beef and potato in a delicious curry/coconut milk sauce. I'll be having more of this for lunch tomorrow.


And finally, the chocolate macaroons. I haven't gotten the dessert option from the peddler before, but I couldn't resist. they were gooey and rich. We only each had half of one. Their 'six servings' prediction was a bit under-estimated.


Yay for the Soup Peddler!