apple cider cinnamon donuts!

Donuts! These apple cider cinnamon donuts are WAY better than the bland farmer's market fare. The key is to reduce the apple cider to a rich concentrated sweet sauce. This adds a much more pronounced apple taste. And of course dousing them in cinnamon sugar glaze couldn't hurt either. 

Donut Recipe: 

1 cup apple cider

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup margarine

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk (or add 1 teaspoon of vinegar to soymilk and let sit for 10 min) 

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

oil for frying 

Glaze recipe: 

2 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 cup apple cider

1 teaspoon of sugar

Instructions: 

Reduce apple cider first. Boil one cup of apple cider in  a small saucepan until it is reduced to 1/4 cup (about 8 to 10 minutes.) Set aside to cool. 

Prepare glaze. Add the cider and cinnamon to sugar and mix well, until it resembles a thick glaze. 

Cream the sugar with the margarine. Add eggs, mix well. Add buttermilk and reduced apple cider. Mix. 

Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl. Sift together flour, baking soda and powder, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. 

Add dry to wet ingredients and mix just enough to combine. Dough should be sticky, not dry. 

Transfer dough to lightly floured surface and pat to 1/2 inch thickness. Form into donut shapes or donut holes. 

Prepare fryer. I added a standard vegetable oil to the deep fryer. Heat oil to 375 degrees. 

Add about two to four donuts at one time, depending on size of donuts and size of fryer. Turn once. Donuts only take about a minute to fry. 

Place on paper towels to absorb excess oil. Cool for a couple minutes, then dip in glaze or slather glaze on top. Enjoy!! 

boerenkool stamppot

Boerenkool. This translates from the Dutch to "farmer's cabbage." And stamppot means "mash pot." Pretty obvious what this dish is. A staple winter recipe in Holland. It's a simple blend of mashed potatoes and kale, with an option of some sort of smoked sausage. My vegetarian version has veggie bacon (Morningstar brand) . Usually I'm not a big fan of the fake meats, but this one is pretty good when you bake it in the oven till it gets super crispy and bacon-like. And mixed in with this warming potato hash, it adds a lovely salty crispy bite. 

There really isn't a recipe for boerenkool. You kinda just make it up as you go along. A couple pounds of potatoes, boiled til mash-worthy, a large bunch of kale, chopped finely (which you can either saute lightly with olive oil or add raw to the mashed potatoes), and a good amount of olive oil or butter to bring the hash together. Optional bacon or bacon-like product added at the end. 

orange glazed tempeh with onions and yellow peppers

Tempeh can be really bland. It's just fermented soybeans, after all. But it can be so amazingly good if you marinate it in orange juice, agave nectar, ginger and garlic. Chop up some chives, red onion and yellow peppers and throw it in a tortilla, and you got yourself an awesome burrito! 

1 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon minced ginger

2 teaspoons agave nectar

1/2 teaspoon coriander

2 cloves of garlic, minced

one 12 oz package of tempeh

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 lime

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Mix orange juice, ginger, agave, coriander and garlic in a small bow. Set aside. 

Cut tempeh into small bite-sized pieces. 

Heat olive oil in a medium sized pan and add tempeh when hot. Cook for five minutes on each side or until brown. Pour orange juice mixture in pan and simmer for about 10 minutes or until sauce is thick. 

Serve tempeh drizzled with remaining sauce. Squeeze lime and add chopped cilantro. 

sunday brunch

Sunday brunch time. Breakfast burrito with eggs, thyme* and paprika. Sauteed potatoes with a sprinklin of cumin seed gouda cheese and parsley. 

*parsley, thyme and potatoes courtesy of my dear friend Ellen. 

sesame balsamic bok choy with brown rice pasta

This took about 10 minutes to make. Bok choy is a mellow, simple and accessible green. I just diced them (stems and all) and sauteed with garlic and deglazed with some balsamic vinegar. Deglazing is just a culinary term that simply means adding a liquid (most often a vinegar or wine) to loosen and dissolve the caramelized bits at the bottom of the pan that form during cooking. It really brightens up the dish and gives it a lovely sweet flavor. I used a brown rice pasta that also adds a nice nuttiness and bite. 

2 heads of bok choy

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

8 to 10 oz brown rice pasta

salt and pepper

sesame seeds

chives

Fill a pot with water. Add salt and heat until boiling. Add pasta and cook for 7 to 10 minutes. While pasta is cooking, chop bok choy into bite sized chunks and add to a heated pan with garlic and olive oil. Saute for a couple minutes and deglaze with balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and chopped chives, add to the drained pasta and serve. 

pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Some seasonal autumn goodness. I didn't have any white sugar, so I used a combination of sorghum syrup, barley malt and brown rice syrup. All of these sweeteners are super high in minerals and don't give you such a sugar rush like regular ole cane sugar does. Of course, the chocolate chips in here definitely have sugar, but really, sometimes we just need a little extra chocolatey sugar high. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cups rolled oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup mixed sorghum syrup, brown rice syrup, barley malt

2/3 cup canola oil

1/2 cup canned pumpkin 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease two cookie sheets. 

Mix together the flour, oats, baking soda, salt and spices. In a separate bowl, mix together the syrups, oil, pumpkin, vanilla and flaxseeds until well combined. Add the wet to the dry, slowly. Fold in the chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoons onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for a couple minutes on a wire rack. Then eat it!

homemade crackers!

Ingredients: 

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons sea salt

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup chopped basil/parsley or other greens/herbs can be added to dough 

garnish with sesame seeds, poppy seeds or any dried herb that's handy!

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  

2. Put the flour, salt, oil and optional added greens in a food processor. Pulse until combined. Add about 1/4 cup water and let the machine run until the mixture holds up and is not sticky. 

3. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until 1/4 inch thick or thinner. Add flour as needed. Score lightly with a sharp knife into rectangles or any shape you desire. 

3. Transfer dough gently to prepared sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt, seeds or dried herbs. 

4. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Tuscan tastes

Here's just a couple photos of my food adventures in Tuscany: 

Katherine and the amazing produce

The menu cover 

garlic scape pesto

Garlic scapes are the long, thin curly shoots that spring from the tops of the garlic plants. They have a mellow garlic flavor and can be used in place of scallion, garlic or even onions. They are only in season for June and a bit of July. So get em quick! I made a simple pesto with these ones.  Adding some walnuts and parmesan and a bit of olive oil and salt. That's it. Barely a recipe really. And so good. I added the pesto to pasta one night, a frittata the next and on toast for breakfast the following day. So versatile and lovely. 

8-10 garlic scapes

1/4 cup parmesan 

1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup walnuts or almonds or any nuts really! 

sea salt

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend until pesto-like. Taste test and see if it needs more salt or olive oil (depending if you like a thinner or thicker pesto) 

Yields about 1 cup and can be stored in an air-tight container for a couple of days. Or frozen for a couple of months. 

banana cinnamon date bread

You know when you buy bananas and you don't eat them fast enough and they become past the point of eating raw, but you're too lazy to make banana bread right away? Well, freeze 'em! I had three bananas in my fridge for well over two months. They were perfectly fine. Super frozen, but fine. Run them over cold water to loosen the skin and then you're ready to make bread. I used olive oil because that's what I had on hand, but canola, vegetable oil or butter would work fine, too. For the sweetener, I used barley malt syrup which is made from soaking barley in water and then heating to prevent from sprouting, which is similar to the process of creating beer. Thus, this bread has a rich tasting, almost stout beer taste, like Guinness. 

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 barley malt syrup*

3/4 cup dates, chopped

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 3 tablespoons of brown sugar (for dusting on top of loaf)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until very much mashed. Add lemon juice, oil, barley malt and dates. (Tip: Use the same measuring cup for the oil and barley malt. The oil will help the barley malt come out easily, because that stuff is damn sticky.) Mix. In a separate large bowl, stir together the flour, wheat germ, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and mix together until just mixed. Pour into oiled loaf pan. Dust with brown sugar/cinnamon mixture and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Test with a knife to see if done. Makes 1 loaf. 

*You can buy barley malt syrup in any health food store. It's pretty reasonable and much less labor intensive than actually soaking your own barley and making syrup. Because seriously, who's going to do that?