Ypsi Cooks

Some might say peanut butter is the food of the gods. Slather it on good bread with a little fruit preserve, mix it with some powdered sugar and dip it in chocolate and call it a “buckeye,” stir in some chilies, lime juice and a little soy sauce and toss it with rice noodles. Yup, peanut butter is delicious. In the past week we have enjoyed it in 2 delicious forms: “growing food” dip and crispy peanut butter bars.
“Growing food” is what the kids' daycare calls “healthy food.” It seems like a much more kid oriented term. Every kid wants to be “big.” In our house growing food means low sugar (especially corn syrup), and as whole as we can get it (whole grain, or better yet, sprouted grain, tomatoes not ketchup, etc.). A while ago we concocted a new dip sure to please little ones and adults alike:

Peanut butterlicious dip:
Approximately 2 parts peanut butter mixed with 1 part apple sauce (no sugar added, of course). Add a healthy dose of cinnamon, stir vigorously and you're good to go. Serve with apple slices, whole grain crackers or pretzels, or, if feeling decadent, ginger cat cookies (a cross between graham crackers and gingersnaps). This would probably be great on pancakes, waffles or french toast.

Our Labor Day celebration called for a little less “growing food” and a little more decadence. Tom's family is known for loving peanut butter and chocolate, so when I saw Nigella Lawson's peanut butter bar recipe, I knew this was for them. Then there's my soon-to-be sister-in-law who is a calorie conscientious (and fantastic) gal. How could I make it a little less calorie dense and still have all that goodness? What if I add crisp rice? As I was stirring I thought I had made a huge mistake, but the responses I got as I cut the bars and people snatched the crumbs told me it was a success.

Best natural peanut butter tip ever: store it upside down before opening; it's MUCH easier to stir in the oil!

Crispy Peanut Butter Bars (adapted from Nigella Lawson)
1 scant cup creamy peanut butter (we use the natural style)
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 c unpacked dark brown sugar
3 cups crisp rice cereal (we made it with 2 cups the second time, because that was all we had left, and it was still good)

10-12 ounces chocolate, chopped. I use dark, but a blend of dark and milk would be good if it suits your fancy.
1 tbsp butter

9×9 or 7×11 pan, buttered

Mix the peanut butter, butter & sugars until rather smooth. With a spatula “cut” the peanut butter mix into large pea sized chunks. This will make mixing in the rice MUCH easier. Cut in the rice. This will take a bit of time and care, but it's worth it. Once most of the cereal is mostly blended in, pat into the pan and press the top so it is as level as reasonable.
Melt the chocolate & butter (1 min in the microwave, stir and repeat, or in a double boiler). Spread onto the peanut butter mixture. Refridgerate. Cut into small bars (approx. 40) Let it sit out for about 5 min. for easier cutting.

Tuesday was the first day at school for all of us and I didn't feel like spending a ton of time making dinner. So after rummaging through the cupboards and listening to the suggestions of my wonderful wife, I was able to figure something out: Mini-Polenta Pizzas.

We had a log of the polenta that looks like breakfast sausage and I cut that into round slices. I then fried them (more on that later). and then topped them with some other stuff we had: leftover chicken sausage from Labor Day, zucchini, tomatoes from the garden, and some with goat cheese, others with cheddar. Finally I popped them under the broiler for a few minutes, and they were done.

Frying the polenta didn't really do what I was hoping for. I wanted the discs to become crispy, but the crispy stuff stayed in the pan and we ended up with oily polenta.

Most of the time we need dinner quick. It is hard to find a recipe, make sure you have all the ingredients, and actually make the food all before you (or more importantly, your 2-year-old) need to eat. Tonight we do what we do most nights; we made something up. Dried mushroom tortellini with on-the-fly cream sauce.

The sauce consisted of garlic sauteed in butter, then we poured in a little cream (2TBS or so), added some frozen veggies (spinach and broccoli) that we cleaned out of the freezer, then sliced fresh yellow squash, a couple chopped tomatoes from the garden, and some oregano from the jungle in the back garden. A little salt and pepper at the table finished it off. It was pretty delicious.

I happened to post my facebook status as saying I had just processed some of our kale. Who knew that would draw the most response I think I've ever gotten (both online1. Make veggie cake (see May 2009).
2. Make Quick-a-veggie-dillas (see previous post).
3. Add it to your tomato sauce in lasagna (or in your anything).
4. Stir the kale, finely chopped, in with bulgar and some other veggies and/or herbs

We've been doing some great cooking, but it's been tough to tear myself away from school work (as teacher and student) and family life to write about it.But I want to… so many delicious things to share. Reading this blog (and having the laundry put away at 11:00 on a Saturday morning) got me a little inspired. So here goes.

We've been using this bread dough for a while now (having created our own whole grain version before the new <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312545525?ie=UTF8Apple Sticky Buns [Using 1 1/2 lbs of the Artesian bread in 5 Whole Grain Master Recipe (I replace some of the white flour with random grains: steel cut or rolled oats, brown rice flour, etc. I always replace by weight. 1 cup of flour is about 5 oz., so I just set my container on the scale and start dumpin. It couldn't be simpler).]

Caramel Topping:
5 T butter, room temp
1/4 t salt
1/3 c. sugar
1 T blackstrap molasses
Pecans

Filling:
5 apples, thinly sliced (I leave the peel on, but love peel on apples)
3 T butter
3 T sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t ginger
pinch of salt
pinch of cloves or black pepper

For the topping, cream all ingredients except pecans until fluffy (2-3 min), spread into an 8×8 pan and press in pecans (20-30 or so)

For the filling, saute the apples in butter. As they begin to soften add all other ingredients until approximately pie filling-ish (or a little less).
As the apples cook, roll out 1 1/2 lbs of dough (I do this on one of my silpats that is about 12×18 ish. I find that seems to be a good size).
Spread the apple filling (add some chopped pecans or walnuts if you're really nutty) over all the dough except the far edge so you can get a good seal). Roll it up and seal it along the long edge. Cut into 9 equal pieces and place on top of the caramel topping with the swirl showing.
Let rise for 1 1/2 hours. (For breakfast, we make the rolls the night before, put them in the fridge, and pull them out as soon as the first little one crawls into our bed in the morning). There will be some rise, but not as much as with regular, kneaded dough.
Bake at 350 for 45-50 min (I put the buns in a cold oven and set the time for 50). Let cool 5-10 min. Turn out onto a lovely platter and serve.

Crockpot Apple Sauce: core, peel and chop 25 or so mixed apples. Place in crock pot, put the lid on and cook on high for 2-3 hours. Add 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp ginger, 3/4-1 tsp of cinnamon

It's difficult to find a good cracker at a good price. I will forever love the buttery-richness of Townhouse, but at the same time I can't eat very many. My health-cosciensouness keeps telling me that they're not very healthy, loaded with tras-fats and white flour, and all that stuff. At the typical grocery store you can take a small step up to wheat-thins, but they are also loaded with fat. And salt. And corn syurp!? Kashi makes TLC crackers which are quite delicious, and quite healthy, but with the way my family consumes crackers, I'd cuickly go broke at the $3+ price point.
I've been wanting to make crackers for some time. I keep looking in my Fannie Farmer Baking Book at the cracker recipes. They look great, but I haven't gotten around to making them. But that's the great thing about joining a bread baking group: they give you homework assignments. We were supposed to make the Master Recipe and use that for a loaf (best peanut butter and jelly ever…), and epi (a fancy loaf that looks like a shaft of wheat which drives Tom nuts so I didn't make it), and crackers. My homework was crackers.

but I myself started with the 100% Whole Wheat recipe.

A few weeks ago I was reading a blog post about not really liking fig newtons as a kid, along with the recipe for a homemade version that is decidedly worth a try. Many commenters posted, sharing similar feelings about fig newtons. I on the other hand devoured newtons as a child. So, with a container of figs languishing in my dried fruit drawer, I knew had to make it. And am I ever glad I did. The cookie part itself was very good, and the with the fig filling, delicious.

The recipe originates from a gluten free cookbook and a version of it can be found here on Heidi's site 101cookbooks.com. I got the recipe from Julie at dinnerwithjulie and she adds the fresh ginger, which she lists as optional, and I think is absolutely mandatory if you like ginger at all. The ginger cookie-cake with the citrusy fig filling is a wonderful pair.

Eli and I enjoyed them with tea made from lemon thyme we had trimmed off the bush earlier that day.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8M-v7_USAtJs4Ey6vcMKFw?feat=directlink

You may have noticed that I am not the best food (or anything) photographer. Eli might be taking over. Here's a shot he set up and took after I took the one above.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/jFF49SnOZEJyeLbmUJDx6A?feat=directlink

Not bad for a 3-year-old with a camera where you can't control the flash.You don't need to use almond meal (especially if you're the mom of a kid with a nut allergy but didn't know it until your kid snuck a piece of PB