I've been snacking on this tasty little trio for almost a year now, quietly wrapping the sweet little apricot around that crunchy little almond and popping it in my mouth with a little slice of some nice white cheddar. The combination of flavors and textures always transports me somewhere. Where, I don't know, but somewhere other than my desk at work. It's not really Spain (that would be manchego, quince and almonds), and it seems like Turkey would be perhaps pistachio & figs, but in any case, I've been enjoying this combination since my 9 month old was kicking around asking for more food every moment. I didn't really share it with anyone because, admittedly, I didn't really think others would like the combination. But I was having a little snack the other day, and Eli LOVES almonds and apricots, so I pulled an apricot in half and wrapped it around an almond for him (oh how kids love hidden foods). He thought that was awesome. Tom came in to see what caused the elation, and I made him one, plus the slice of cheddar. Well Tom liked that so much Eli had to have one, and so it continued until I had to cut them off for fear of “spoiling their appetites.”
While I think there are several cheeses & nuts that work, stick to UN-SULFURED and unsweetened fruits. Start with apricots. It is so fun to pull one in half and wrap it around the nut, and the taste and texture are really unlike any other, but I could be convince to venture into the figs mentioned above thinly sliced), or perhaps cherries or dates. Maybe pine nuts could work in this fruit-cheese-nut combo. I feel that waxy, coherent quality in almonds, pistachios and pine nuts is important. Brazil nuts fit the qualifications, but that lack the one bite factor that I find endearing about these. Maybe that's because it was such a secret affair for so long…

We make A LOT of brown rice. Sometimes, when I don't know what to make, I'll put on a pot of brown rice and it gives myself a time constraint: 35 minuets to figure out what else is happening for dinner. Last night I actually knew ahead of time what we were going to have: a sort of Asian rice salad. Because brwon rice takes a little while, and because it reuses and even freezes well, we make a rather large quantity at a time. I did 4 1/2 cups of water

We used the bread dough to make witch's fingers (roll up skinny little bread sticks and stick an almond on the end, point out for the finger nail, let rise an hour or more, pop in the oven, set to 350* and pull out 20 min later. The boys went nuts over these. A fun way to be goulish without increasing the sugar insanity.

We were out to dinner with some friends and their friends and the question was asked “What kind of pumpkin is best?” The result? It depends, of course, on whether you're carving, or cooking. And a friend of a friend said, “And the best pumpkin for pumpkin pie is butternut squash.” And I thought, well of course it is. A butternut squash is is so much more flavorful than any of the pumpkins we've cooked so far. But I've heard Blue Hubbard is truly THE BEST. So we bough a (huge!!!) Blue Hubbard squash at the market, sliced and roasted it, and mashed it up for use in all of our favorite “pumpkin” recipes. For E

One of my friends had an intense day, so the kids and I decided to make her some cookies. We love to make cookies, with all the measuring and dumping and mixing, it's childhood heaven. I've been working on a low fat, low sugar recipe for a while. Cooks Illustrated created light recipe where you use all butter (no applesauce or other funny stuff), but you melt it, and somehow that means you only have to use half as much.

Well, it's a great recipe, but it has 1 cup of sugar, which is the main ingredient we try to avoid in this house, so I've been slowly reducing it. A half cup provides enough sweetness, but since sugar is important for moisture and cohesion, I have been tinkering with the recipe in other ways to compensate. I perused online for a trailmix cookie recipe and found one that included 1/2 tsp of baking soda dissolved in 1 tbsp of hot water. Wondering if that might do the trick, the kiddos and I set to work on a batch of cookies.

But wait. I forgot. We ran out of cinnamon a few days ago. Grrrrrr. What's an oatmeal cookie without a little cinnamon? Plus, cinnamon speaks to your tastebuds as if it's sweetness, thereby allowing you to reduce the sugar content without totally sacrificing flavor. What's a girl to do without cinnamon? Dorie Greenspan published the recipe for this amazing Spiced Cranberry Bunt cake in the November 2008 issue of Bon Appetit where she introduced me to Chinese 5 Spice*, and aromatic combination of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and other spices. Since then, I've used it here and there to add ore interesting flavor than cinnamon alone.

Using 5 spice, I knew I had to be choose my nuts and fruits wisely. Thinking about the fruit, nuts and seeds I had, I thought a bit of a Turkish/Middle East inspired cookie with apricots and pistachios might work out well. Of course you could always replace the 5 spice with cinnamon and have a quite traditional (only healthier) oatmeal.

Also, sorry about the lack of pictures. Imagine an oatmeal cookie, not totally flat, not a puffy little cake cookie, but a nice normal one. Now imagine it a few shades darker because of the spice and molasses. There's your picture.

*I bought my 5 spice in bulk where I could get just a spoonful for a few cents, just in case I didn't like it. I've been back for more. Twice.

Read more for the recipe.
Turkish Spice Trail Mix Cookies (makes about 30 and are probably healthier than most granola bars)

2/3 c. white whole wheat (or unbleached all purpose) flour
1 1/3 c. oats (preferably old fashioned)
1/4-1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled (in a big enough bowl or pan to mix the following 7 ingredients)
1/2 c. sugar (or 1/2 c. dark brown sugar and omit the molasses, but I'm “frugal”)
1 egg, room temp
1 T. blackstrap molasses
2 T applesauce (or just do 6 tbsp melted butter)
1/2 tsp 5 spice powder (or cinnamon)
1/4 tsp powdered ginger (my ginger loving friend might have liked 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tbsp hot water
1 1/2 cups “stuff”
We did chopped apricots, golden raisins, toasted almonds, pecans, pistachios and sunflower seeds.
The variations are endless: sesame seeds, dried cherries, coconut, chocolate chips, or the classic raisins and walnuts)
2 tbsp chopped candied ginger, optional

Preheat the oven to 325*. If using raw nuts and seeds, place them on a baking sheet in the oven to toast for 15 min or until fragrant. Remove and allow to cool. The oven does not have to be preheated for this.

In the mean time, in a small bowl, pour hot water over the dried fruit

This is another situation where it would have taken ma a long time (if ever!) to make this bread if it hadn't been an “assignment” from Michelle over at BigBlackDogs, but am I ever glad I did!
This bread had a fair amount of white flour

There wasn't a lot of flavor from the avocado and tomato, especially early on, but the texture was FABULOUS. Tom made them into rolls to go with our salmon cakes (use your favorite crab cake recipe but replace the crab with salmon) for a nice Friday-during-lent meal. We shared it with friends, so we pulled out all the fixins: our pickled beets, shredded carrots and sliced green onions along with the standard mayonnaise and mustard (both from trader joes, both really good). The kids devoured the rolls and the cakes, only separately.

A few days later, we made pizza with the remaining batch. We made a regular pizza for the kids, and for us we used green salsa, chopped “moonblush” tomatoes, chopped green chilies and cheddar cheese. Our guest made some gua

About a week ago I received what felt like a flood of herbs. My mom hooked me up with some tarragon (the one thing I wanted to add to the garden this year, plus she gave us an almond bush: good job, mom), our new boarder brought garlic chives from his former garden, and Tom brought home a rosemary plant. I haven't been happy with the layout of the herb and shrub area of our veggie garden, so I took the opportunity to move some stuff while adding the new items. I also cut back the lemon thyme. The bush was huge, probably 1