Brussels Sprout and Gryuere Bake

Last week, James and I had a slumber party at my mom's house. He loves seeing his Ya-Ya, her black lab, Yogi, and playing with the toys she has collected for him. James favorite thing to play with is the "kitchen" that I used to play with when I was a little girl. 

My mom and dad actually found the little kitchen in an alley while they were driving around Seattle. They called the business in front of the alley and bought the kitchen for thirty five dollars. My parents brought it home, sanded it down, painted it white and put new "hardware" on it. The kitchen is made out of wood, with little china knobs, brass hinges, and glass doors.  It is simple and pretty and, in my opinion, far superior than those expensive, huge, brightly colored plastic play kitchens that are now what you see on the shelves of Toys'R'Us. 

I don't remember the specifics of the culinary masterpieces I used to imagine I was making in my sweet little kitchen, but I'm sure that, like James, I was always very busy mixing, pouring, and generally sorting through the food and dishes in the little kitchen. Of course, my mom had to stock the kitchen with all new dishes and "food" for James.

And, of course, I had to make mini-muffins for him to play with in the kitchen. 

And, of course, he had to eat them.

We left Ya-Ya's house to go meet some new friends at Gabriel Park, and then had some lunch at Grand Central. By the time we made the trek back to our home, James and I were so exhausted that we both took two hour naps. We woke up around four, groggy and in a daze.

All I could think of was food when I woke up (apparently James as well, as he was bringing me his bib and trying to climb up into his high-chair). We attempted happy hour at McMenamins, but the line was so long that we gave up and went home. Luckily, I am the meal planning type, so I had all the ingredients to make this dish.

It was gooey and hearty and extremely comforting. In the end, none of us were upset that McMenamins didn't work out. 

Brussels Sprout and Gryuere Bake

1 lb brussels sprouts

olive oil

salt and pepper

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pasta shells

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

1 cup milk

1/2 lb Gruyere cheese, grated

1/2 cup bread crumbs and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, mixed together

Preheat the oven to 425. Wash and half the sprouts. Arrange on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil (1 to 2 tbsp). Toss and arrange in a single layer, then season with salt and pepper. Roast for 10 to 15 minutes, or until just beginning to brown. 

While sprouts are roasting, fill a dutch oven about half way with water, and bring to a rolling boil. Season water with 1 tsp salt. Pour in shells and cook until al dente, about 6 minutes. Drain noodles in colander over the sink.

With noodles in colander, put dutch oven back on stove top and reduce heat to medium-high. Melt butter in dutch oven, stirring constantly. Add flour and whisk, whisk, whisk so that no lumps form. Add cheese and stir well as it melts. Add pasta and sprouts to the cheese sauce. Mix well. Top with parmesan and bread crumb mixture. Bake in dutch oven (or transfer to oven-safe dish, then top with parm/crumbs) for 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is beginning to brown. Serve hot. Enjoy. 

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Grapefruit, cheddar, and bacon salad with honey vinaigrette

Okay, here's the order of business: let's talk about the new blog look, and then about the salad.

First of all, the new look of the blog. Not my doing at all. My gorgeous and incredibly talented and creative friend, Jennifer, sent me an email a few days ago asking if she could help to make my blog pretty (everything she touches becomes more beautiful, and I'm not just saying that because she made my blog look like this) and here was my exact response: "Ummm... yes! Are you kidding? YES! That would be AMAZING!"

And so, we played a couple rounds of Pimp My Blog (does anyone get that reference?) and here we are. I may have shed a tear when I saw it.

So, next subject: the salad. I was meal planning while eating a grapefruit, and I suddenly wanted to have my grapefruit on a bed of lettuce, with a drizzle of honey to combat the tartness. Cheese was an obvious addition, but the dish quickly forming in my mind was still lacking something. I really hesitated on the bacon, as I feel it has been a bit over-used to spice up any old dish -"Chicken noodle soup... with bacon!" "Beans and rice...with bacon!" "Vanilla ice cream... with bacon!" -it just gets old. But when I made this salad, I was so glad I added the bacon. The smokiness perfectly balances the other flavors.

Oh, by the way, I found a use for the leftover ravioli filling from this recipe. I boiled some red potatoes, then mashed them with a little broth and added the filling. I also added green onions. And maybe also a little bacon.

Grapefruit, cheddar, and bacon salad with honey vinaigrette
serves two as a main dish
1/4 cup red onion, sliced
2 tbsp honey (or more if desired)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
sploosh red wine (optional)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 freshly ground pepper
2 slices bacon (I used turkey bacon)
6 cups romaine or red leaf lettuce
1/2 cup of cubed sharp cheddar cheese
1 grapefruit, peeled, sectioned, and pulled into bite-sized pieces

Place onion in a small bowl. Pour honey, olive oil, vinegar, and red wine if desired over the onions, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir together and set aside for at least a half hour.

Meanwhile, cook bacon until crispy and assemble other ingredients. Crumble bacon once cooled. Split lettuce between two plates, and top each with half the bacon crumbles, cheese cubes, and grapefruit pieces. Top salad with some red onion slices, then whisk vinaigrette welling before pouring a couple tbsp of dressing over top of the salad. Enjoy.

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Orange-Pecan Cranberry Jammers

I feel like I should catch you up to date after this post in which I bragged about all of the fun events I was looking forward to.

First was Body Worlds and OMSI after dark. Body Worlds was A. MAZE. ING. Like, the most amazing thing I have ever seen. (Okay, in the top five.) However, I couldn't take any pictures in the exhibit, so you will just have to go see it for yourself. Pictures were allowed in OMSI after dark, but I really didn't want to go all the way out to my car and get the camera after Body Worlds. But I do have some photos from the rest of my activities to share with you...

Friday night was the At First Sip book signing:

Saturday night was Zoo Lights: 

As we neared the exit off 26 for the zoo, we noticed signs along the road reading "Zoo parking full, take next exit." The signs off the next exit led us to a long line of cars that were waiting to get into the packed parking lot where people were being shuttled in school buses to the zoo. After finally parking, we entered the winding line of  teens (all apparently on dates and too cool to be wearing winter gear) and bundled children, parents, and grandparents.

It was, indeed, freezing, but we were happy to be on our way to see the lights and the animals, and James was content to watch the goings-on all around us, as well as the school buses that were quickly filled up, leading us closer and closer to our destination.

Finally it was our turn. We sat near the back of the bus, feeling like excited kids going on a field trip.

Once we got there, Lane's awesome company supplied us with hot chocolate, cookies, and tickets for the train ride, which we didn't go on because the line to go on the train was about twenty two miles long, and we would still be waiting to board.

But no train ride was needed because the lights were beautiful, the animals were not all asleep (poor guys), and the best part was that everyone seemed to be in a joyful holiday mood.

And now, to get to the stinkin' scones already. 

I was going to get up early on Sunday morning and continue our fun-filled family holiday weekend with fresh, seasonal scones. 

But I woke up to a crying child who was whining for the same reason I did the rest of the day: sore throat, headache, faucet nose. (I know, I know, I already felt sorry for myself in the last post...)

So instead of making them Sunday, I began to make these scones in the chaos after a grocery shopping trip on Monday mid-morning. The counters were piled high with groceries I hadn't put away, the floor was littered with pots and pans that I tried to amuse James with, and the scones were made in several stages throughout the rest of the day.

I did learn, however, that they can be made with a baby 30+ pound toddler on one hip.

Orange-Pecan Cranberry Jammers

basic scone recipe and directions adapted and shamelessly copy-and-pasted from Cindy's comment on this recipe

makes 8 scones

1 cup all-purpose flour 

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

2 tablespoons sugar 
1 tablespoon baking powder 

zest of 1 orange
6 tablespoons butter (cut into several pieces)
1 egg 
1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup pecan pieces

about 1/2 cup cranberry sauce

about 1 tbsp raw sugar (optional) for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400 F. Assemble ingredients.

Food processor instructions: Add first four ingredients to processor bowl. Add orange zest and butter, and process with steel blade until mealy in texture. Add egg and milk and process just until the mixture holds together. 


By-hand instructions. Blend first four ingredients in large bowl. Add zest. Add butter and mix in with pastry cutter or fork or two butter knives, until mealy. Add egg and milk until the mixture holds together. 


Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, gently knead in pecan pieces (do not over knead) and roll 3/4" thick. Cut into 8 wedges, and place on lighlty greased baking sheet, spread apart from one another so that they will not touch as they bake.

Bake about 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Let cool a few minutes before enjoying with a hot cup of coffee or tea. Enjoy.

PS They are called "jammers" because they remind me of similar scones I used to get on the weekends from Grand Central Bakery near my childhood home. I don't know if they were actually called jammers, or if that was a name my family made up.

PPS My friend, Katie, just cleared it all up. She sent me this link to the kitchen tour of the genius behind the original jammer. Grand Central Bakery does indeed call them jammers. But I should state, just for the record, the the similarity between these scones and theirs is only in the appearance as I remember it from when I was younger.

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Twenty one days 'til Christmas

At gym play group on Tuesday, James and I were minding our own business playing with some blocks when a little boy with a runny nose toddled up to us and started playing with the blocks also. A minute later, his mother bolted across the room toward us and, completely catching the poor kid off guard,  attacked his face with a Kleenex. She began to apologize profusely to me: "He just started having a little runny nose this morning... I think he is just starting to come down with a little something... it doesn't seem to bother him...." She looked a little frantic and scared, as if I was about to begin throwing punches because her son had a cold.

"Hey" I smiled, "if we never left the house because they had a runny nose, we would never leave the house." She breathed a sigh of relieve and we laughed it off. 

Thursday afternoon, James' nose started running. He began coughing during his nap, and getting fussy long before bedtime.

This morning, I woke up with the same thing, full force. Runny nose, sore throat, headache, exhaustion...

Between feeling sick and being crazy-busy (I wonder if those two things are related? Hmmm...) I haven't cooked anything blog-worthy. Just simple soups that seem to be all I want to eat when I don't feel well.

So, instead of a recipe, I will leave you with a few holiday pictures I have been taking around our home, from glowing candles, to stacks of Christmas stories, to little munchkins standing dangerously close to the mistletoe...

...to Reindeer feetsies...

...after all, there are only twenty one days 'til Christmas.

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Quick and Simple Trail Mix Bars

I just have to say: Oh my stars it is December first and sunny (and, yes, freezing) in the Northwest. This makes me happy for so many reasons.

For one thing, I have recently begun running again (I stopped when it was "too hot" about three months ago and for some reason just never started back up when it cooled down) and I have so far only run in the wind/rain/cold/dark. Which just isn't a ton of fun. But now that it is clear and dry, I will be much more excited about my 20-minute-if-I'm-lucky little jog.

In college, I ran a lot. As in four to six miles a day. Way back then, I ran because I knew it was good for my body, and to relieve stress. Those were the days. Now, I have started running letting Sadie drag me behind her because I need to get out of the house and have some time to myself. Oh yeah, and because of this and these... and a little of this as well...

I know that I eat healthy for the most part, but snacking is difficult. We all want something that won't require a lot of preparation and is available to eat right away, but no one wants to fill their bodies with the sugar and chemicals that store-bought snack foods are loaded down with.

Enter homemade granola bars. However, I have even had my struggles with these. When I first started recipe searching for granola bars, all I could find were instructions to make granola, then add sugar and fat to make it stick together. If this were a dessert, I may have been okay with that. But I don't want a granola bar to be something I feel like I can only eat once all my veggies are cleared from my dinner plate. I want a healthy, filling snack. The recipe I found and adapted is from Jessica Seinfeld's doitdelicious website. I omitted the chocolate from it and increased the dry to wet ingredient ratio because I felt the bars were a little too gooey and tasted too sweet to snack on.

The resulting recipe requires that the bars be left in the pan for a while too cool and harden before they can easily be transported as bars, but you can totally pick away at the corners while you wait. I did.

Quick and Simple Trail Mix Bars
adapted from Jessica Seinfeld's No-Bake Energy Bars
2 c oats
1 c nuts, chopped (I used slivered almonds and halved peanuts)
1/2 c dried fruit, chopped if needed (I used dried cranberries)
1/4 c sunflower seeds
1/2 c unsweetened coconut flakes
2-3 tbsp flax meal
1/2 c brown rice syrup
1/4 c nut butter (I used crunchy peanut butter)

Cover a 9x9 (or similar size) pan with a sheet of wax paper. Coat with cooking spray.
Combine the first six ingredients in a bowl. Heat rice syrup and nut butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat, stirring until well-combined and creamy. Pour the mixture over the dry ingredients and stir until evenly coated, scrapping the sides and bottom of the bowl as you go. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and press firmly until bars are densely packed into the pan. Let the bars cool for one hour before cutting into squares. Wrap individually in wax paper or saran wrap for easy transport. Enjoy.

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