An addendum to the best iced coffee

If you’re anything like me, the thought of drinking hot coffee when the forecast is anything above 85, sounds miserable. My head feels hot and sweaty just thinking about it.

So last summer, when just about everyone I know jumped on Pioneer Woman’s cold brew iced coffee bandwagon, I did too. It seriously is the best iced coffee ever. Ever.

This past winter when hot coffee returned to my life, I discovered caramel sauce in coffee and once again my coffee world got rocked by goodness. Once you start, you won’t go back.

Except for one problem, caramel plus cold doesn’t exactly go together. You wind up with a big lump of caramel in your coffee and it refuses to dissolve.

Hence this addendum.

Follow the instructions by clicking through the link above to the perfect iced coffee.

Then take a jar of this…

…and put it in a small saucepan like this. Fill the saucepan the rest of the way with some of your cold brew.

Turn the heat up to medium.

Start whisking it together until the caramel sauce is all dissolved and smooth in the coffee. Turn the heat off.

Return your mixture to the pitcher with the rest of your coffee.

Put ice in your drinking cup, pour the mixture in and add half and half or milk to taste.

Return the pitcher with the remaining coffee to the fridge for further coffee drinking later in the day or tomorrow. Stephen, who only very recently became a coffee drinker, said, “How’d you do that? You made it taste just like a [copyrighted major coffee chain’s blended coffee drink]!” I don’t think it is quite that sweet, but it is definitely good.

Edit:

Some specifics…
-When I make the coffee, I grind up 4 cups of Trader Joe’s Smooth and Mellow Blend whole beans (as in there are 4 cups of beans prior to grinding) and place it in my largest bowl with cold water within 1/2″ of the top. I let it sit on my counter over night.
-I strain it into a 1 gallon pitcher and it usually comes within 2″ of the top of that, so not quite a gallon.
-The saucepan I use is a 1.5 qt and after filling it with the caramel, I fill it the rest if the way with coffee, within an inch of the top.

Rigatoni with butternut squash, bacon and caramelized onions

During a recent nap time, I went through all my cookbooks, found all my favorite recipes and those I had not yet tried that sounded good based on their ingredients or the picture. And what did I do with all these recipes? I made a giant, five page alphabetical Word document index. It’s organized like this:

Recipe title (main ingredients), Publication Title page number.

Yes, I am that crazy, anal retentive, type A, overly organized, and all the other adjectives I am sure you can have fun coming up with for me.

I am so happy I did this because I found lots of new recipes and having the main ingredient list next to each recipe allows me to find them based on what is in season.

So this recipe is based on one I found in a book I have had for years that went largely ignored.

Rigatoni with butternut squash, bacon and caramelized onions
Adapted from “Rigatoni with Squash and Caramelized Onions” in Food & Wine Best of the Best Vol. 9 which is a compilation of recipe books and this one is originally from Recipes by Susan Spungen, the founding food editor of Martha Stewart Living

Ingredients
-1/2 lb rigatoni
-1 butternut squash
-2 garlic cloves, pressed
-1 tbsp butter
-1 onion, halved and sliced
-1 tbsp olive oil
-1 sprig rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
-dash or two pumpkin pie spice
-2 thick slices bacon, chopped
-1 cup stock (I used vegetable)
-1/2 cup heavy cream
-1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
-salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook pasta in salted water two minutes less than recommended time on package (it will continue to cook in the oven).

While the pasta is cooking, peel, chop and remove the seeds from your butternut squash.

Brown the bacon. Remove from pan and drain. Set aside. Add the garlic, onions and butter to the pan and brown. Add 1/4 cup water and cook 5 more minutes.

Remove the onions from the pan and set aside.

Add the oil, squash, half the rosemary, salt, and pepper and sauté until tender when pierced with a knife. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Simmer around 8-10 minutes. Add cream, bring to a boil and simmer one minute more. Remove from heat.

Combine with bacon, pasta and all remaining ingredients thoroughly, reserving 1/2 cup cheese. Transfer to a baking dish and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

Bake 30-35 min until the top is golden brown and the sauce is bubbly.

Serve with a salad of mixed greens, apple, pomegranate, green onions and sunflower seeds dressed with olive oil, salt and vinegar. You may also want a bit of warm bread at the end to sop up the sauce.

Banana Bread French Toast

Last time we were in Bakersfield, we were at our favorite breakfast place and I was trying to figure out what to order the kids that they would eat. They were hopped up on treats from Grandma and being extra picky. I saw Banana Bread French Toast on the menu and decided that would probably work.

The kids ate every bite. This was of course because it wasn’t really French Toast. Big cubes of warm banana bread drizzled with syrup and dusted with powdered sugar would probably get any kid to eat. It wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for.

But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the concept since.

So last night I made the banana bread and this morning I turned it into bona fide egg-dipped French toast. And the kids still ate this version too.

For the Banana Bread
•3 mashed bananas
•3/4 cup sugar
•1 1/2 cup flour
•2 tsp baking powder
•1/4 tsp salt
•4oz cream cheese, softened
•1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
•1 egg

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine ingredients. Pour into prepared loaf pan. Bake 55-60 min.

Let cool, slice.

For the French Toast
•3 eggs, beaten with a splash of milk
•Banana Bread slices
•butter for frying
•sliced almonds and powdered sugar to garnish, optional

Dip the slices in the egg mixture quickly and transfer to hot pan or griddle prepared with butter. Fry on each side until golden. Remove from pan, garnish with almonds and/or powdered sugar and serve.

Banana Nut Oatmeal

When I was growing up, as a quick breakfast for us girls, my parents often bought the instant oatmeal flavor variety pack. Cinnamon raisin and brown sugar were usually the first flavors gone followed by plain which we would doctor up with a ton of additions and then the banana nut/banana bread (depending on which company you bought it from), would sit and sit and sit. Nobody liked that flavor. I don’t know about my sisters, but for me it was the fake banana taste. I still hate that taste. I used to think I hated bananas because I hated banana flavor.

Anyway, the last few times I’ve had some overripe bananas I’ve made this much more natural (and way better tasting) version of those instant oatmeal flavor packs.

Ingredients:
-1 over-ripe banana
-1 cup rolled oats
-2 cups water
-1 or two handfuls chopped nuts (I used almonds and hazelnuts)
-1 handful of raisins or dried fruit (optional, I like the golden raisin and berry blend from TJs)
-couple large spoonfuls of yogurt
-couple dashes of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
-1 tsp brown sugar
-squirt of honey

Place oats, nuts, honey, cinnamon, sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat over medium low, stirring occasionally until water is absorbed into oats.

Meanwhile mash your banana in a medium bowl. Add in the yogurt and dried fruit. When the oatmeal mixture is ready stir that in too.

Top with fresh fruit, if desired.

Enjoy.

If you really want to splurge and make it sinful, add in a spoonful of Nutella. Just do it when the kids aren’t looking.

Orzo Mac N’ Cheese with Ham and Zucchini

This is somewhat adapted from a Gourmet magazine recipe that I did years ago as part of a giant family Thanksgiving that I hosted and cooked for. I worked from memory and didn’t look up the recipe. I believe the recipe may have even been called “Grown-Up Mac ‘N Cheese,” or made reference to it being such.

It made enough to fill up two casserole dishes that will feed 4-5 depending on appetites. Which is perfect because I am trying to stock my freezer right now to be ready for baby #3.

Orzo Mac ‘N Cheese with Ham and Zucchini

Ingredients
• 1 package orzo pasta
• 1 large zucchini
• 1 boneless ham steak
• handful of shredded Mozzarella
• handful of shredded Monterey Jack
• handful of shredded cheddar
• dollop of sour cream based ranch dip (I make my own using sour cream and the herbs and spices I actually recognize from the back of a ranch packet/bottle/etc. It’s the only way I can be sure we aren’t eating some weird corn derivative or another random chemical I don’t recognize. Even the “natural” brands of ranch at Whole Foods have this. Grrr!)
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 4-5 green onions

Preheat oven to 350.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook orzo according to package directions. You want al dente because it is going to cook more in the oven.

While pasta is cooking, dice your zucchini, ham, and green onions.

Drain pasta and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in all ingredients until well incorporated, reserving a little of the cheese.

Transfer to casserole dish(es) and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Bake 30 minutes or until slightly browned at the edges.

Remove and serve.

Notes:

* If you want to go veggie, the ham is certainly optional. You may need to add a little salt in place of the salty ham.
* You could probably also add in other diced veg. I am thinking a red bell pepper would have been nice (and a good way to use up one of the three giant ones I got in our CSA box today) or peas or corn. The original recipe only had ham and green onions and three different fancy cheeses. So I wasn’t being terribly creative by just adding in the zucchini.
* You could also just use one kind of cheese, I happened to have those three in my fridge so that’s what I used.
*This is great with a salad.
*I am sure with the sour cream based ranch, butter and cheese this is full of tons of calories. I don’t worry about those things. If you do, you might want to consider substitutes. Or not eat food like this every night of the week.

Red Enchilada Sauce

So I bought some pre-Mexican-marinated chicken that I grilled up last night for tacos. We had a lot leftover, like we always do when I buy or cook anything. At the risk of Mexican food overload, I decided that tonight I wanted to make enchiladas with it using some of our CSA veg.

I also decided that I wanted to make enchilada sauce from scratch because a) the kind I usually buy from TJs has several ingredients I don’t recognize, b) I had a can of organic tomato sauce that I wanted to use up, c) I figured it probably couldn’t be THAT hard to make, and d) homemade always tastes better.

So a few friends sent me some ideas and I finally found a few recipes online (after getting the search terms right, most enchilada recipes that initially come up just call for canned sauce) that I looked at too. And then I decided to wing it like I always do.

Red Enchilada Sauce
-1 can organic tomato sauce
-2 cans broth (I buy mine in one of those 1 qt tetra box things or I make my own, so you can use the tomato sauce can to measure it out and as a bonus it will rinse out all the extra tomato sauce)
-1 onion, diced
-2 jalepenos, diced (got these from our garden, yay!)
-a few shakes of salt
-couple dashes paprika
-couple dashes cumin
-couple dashes chili powder
-few dashes oregano
-some oil

Heat oil in pan over medium heat then add onion and jalepeno. Sauté until onion is slightly translucent. Add spices, sauce and broth.

Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer until slightly thickened.

Remove from heat and allow to cool for a good bit. I did not do this because I was impatient. Big mistake. If the sauce is too hot, it will explode out of your blender. Let it cool!

After it cools down some, put it in your blender and blend until smooth. This will also help thicken it slightly.

Use as you normally would in your favorite enchilada recipe.

You can make it more or less spicy by adjusting the spices and the jalepenos.

Lisa’s Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour Mix

When it comes to gluten-free baking everyone has an opinion about the right combination of flours because no one other grain seems to be able to mimic the elasticity, texture, flavor, etc. of wheat. The Internet is a really great resource for those with Celiac’s, wheat allergy or gluten intolerance. There are tons and tons of websites, blogs, gluten-free stores, cookbooks, and recipes to be found. And behind all of them is an opinion on this subject.

One baker will tell you that millet is a gluten-free bread baker’s dream. Another will say sorghum flour has a great texture. A lot of people are not fans of rice flour because of the grainy texture, which is funny because so many pre-made mixes are mostly made with rice flour (you’d think the makers of these mixes would listen, but I suspect it probably has more to do with the fact that rice is cheap). Certified gluten-free oat flour, I’ve heard numerous times, is the closest thing to wheat. Almond meal is perfect to bake with and produces the fluffiest baked goods. Some prefer to add things like flax seed meal or garbanzo bean flour to their mixes for extra protein and fiber (though just like eating regular garbanzo beans you might want to grab some Beano before enjoying a baked good that contains this flour). These are all things I’ve read on numerous websites and books dedicated to making the gluten-free life a little easier.

It has been nice having all these resources to go to since several family members have discovered varying levels of allergy and intolerance to wheat. Most recently my husband has gone gluten-free and about 6 weeks in now he is definitely noticing some benefits including the loss of 7lbs and a little pooch he’s never been able to get rid of (what some people refer to as “wheat belly”) no matter how hard he worked out or watched what he ate. I still have a stash of a few things I am holding onto and when we eat out I indulge, but for the most part our house is gluten-free now.

So the creative wheels have been turning. I needed a good mix of flours because one of the biggest obstacles, at least for me, to gluten-free baking is having to pull out several different bags of flours and pull a little from each bag. It takes up a lot of space on your counter and in your cupboards and it’s just annoying having to measure out that many ingredients.

The best stuff on the market that most people I know with wheat allergies use is probably Pamela’s mix. Unfortunately, it contains cultured buttermilk so Bean and Sprout can’t have anything that is made with it. I have had some seriously yummy treats baked with that stuff and so it is really a bummer that it won’t work for our family.

I decided today that I would take the opinions that I’ve read plus my own experience with gluten-free baking and try to come up with my very own all purpose mix that could be used as a cup for cup substitute in any recipe calling for flour that I tried. I am finally pretty happy with the result. No grainy textures, no bitter aftertaste, something that is somewhere between whole wheat and white in texture and taste, and a great elasticity in doughs and batter. So here it is, I am throwing my hat in the ring of gluten-free flour combo opinions:

Lisa’s Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Mix
-1 cup arrowroot starch/flour
-1 cup sorghum flour
-1 cup millet flour
-1 cup almond meal (I do like the blanched Bob’s Red Mill stuff better than the “Just Almond Meal” from TJ’s)
-1 cup oat flour
-1 cup potato starch
-1 cup sweet rice flour
-3 tbsp xanthan gum

Sift ingredients together (the almond meal and the oat flour had quite a few chunks, so this is important for a smooth end product) into a large bowl then use a wire whisk to combine thoroughly.

This made enough flour for a batch of muffins and a loaf of bread with some leftover. I made a second batch just before I put things away to keep in my big flour jar and have on hand for the next time I feel like baking. That way I can just take out the jar and measure out the amount of flour I need without a big production.

Gluten-free bread dough rising.

The finished loaf. I just found a simple bread recipe that used regular flour and substituted my flour mix.

Strawberry banana muffins using strawberries we got at the farmer’s market yesterday. Again, I just found a strawberry muffin recipe online and used my mix for the flour, a combo of hemp and coconut milk for the milk, and a banana instead of the egg it called for.

Scones

I made some pretty heavenly scones today. I basically just adapted and blended this recipe for Rock Cakes that I made for the Harry Potter party and my friend Cara’s family biscuit recipe. It is kind of ridiculous how delicious they are, even the vegan gluten-free version.

One thing I realized that I did “wrong” though was that I didn’t stack two together before baking to get the really tall and fluffy versions that Cara has. I was trying to figure out why mine were so thin this time around. That’s what I get for skimming through the directions and working from memory. Next time, if there is a next time that I can handle having these in my house, I will not make that mistake.

They are so super fluffy and flaky. I actually can’t believe how fluffy and flakey the gluten-free version came out. Nothing gluten-free that I have made has come out so wonderfully before.

So I am going to attempt to put it all together for you so you can make some too.

Gluten-free, vegan version ingredients
• 2 cups gluten free flour mix
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance buttery spread
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup dried fruit
• 2 over-ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup almond milk

Regular version ingredients
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup dried fruit
• 1 1/2 cups milk, buttermilk, yogurt or any combination thereof (I used 1 cup homemade plain Greek yogurt and 1/2 cup whole, raw milk)

Preheat oven to 400*F.

Sift flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and pumpkin pie spice together in a bowl. Cut very cold butter/butter substitute into cubes and then cut into flour mixture using a pastry blender until crumbly. But as Cara says, don’t overwork it or you will have flat biscuits.

Cover a sheet of wax paper with flour. Then add your liquid ingredients (for the gluten-free version this is your bananas and almond milk, for the other version this is milk, buttermilk, or yogurt) to the bowl along with the dried fruit. Mix until just moistened. Pour out onto wax paper.

Flour your hands and add flour to the top of the batter then pat out into a rectangle about 1/2″ thick. Using the wax paper, fold the dough in half onto itself, then pat back out, adding more flour to your wax paper to keep it from sticking. Repeat this process until it is possible to cut pieces and have them remain intact without sticking to the paper or your hands.

You can then either cut round, square or triangular pieces of dough from your rectangle. You will stack two on top of each other and then place them on a baking sheet or stone. I also just figured out something else I did wrong, apparently these things are supposed to touch while baking. Mine were an inch apart. Oops!

Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

Gluten-free on left, regular on right

Gluten-free front, regular back

For true scones you will want to make a glaze for them, but they are already really yummy without a glaze.

Gluten Free Vegan Rock Cakes

I am helping my sister-in-law with the Harry Potter party menu. She sent out some recipes to a few if us and we got to pick which ones we wanted to do.

One of the things I picked were the rock cakes. I guess I am not a great Harry Potter fan though because I honestly didn’t even remember what they were or where they occurred in the story. Luckily Harry Potter Wiki has my back.

“Rock cakes were a type of fruitcakes. They are supposed to look and (supposedly) taste somewhat like a rock, and even have a hard surface, but not to resemble a rock quite as closely as Hagrid’s version seemed to. Eating one of Hagrid’s rock cakes were exactly like eating a rock, as they were so hard that they could break teeth instead of being a lovely treat. Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter forcibly ate a few of these whenever they visited Rubeus Hagrid. Although they complained about the rock cakes’ hardness, stickiness, and tastelessness, they never had the heart to tell Hagrid this, as it would have hurt his feelings.”

The source listed for this information is book 1 of the series. On page 140 it says:

“The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but Harry and Ron pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons.”

Anyway, the recipe she sent me was for a drop biscuit/scone with dried fruit in it. And of course the recipe had wheat, dairy, and eggs in it. I will be making that version, but I decided to also make a wheat free vegan version. So I adapted the recipe as follows:

Ingredients:
• 4 cups gluten free flour mix
• 1 cup Earth Balance organic buttery spread, chilled and cubed
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup organic sugar
• 1 8oz pkg Trader Joe’s dried berry medley
• 3 over ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• powdered sugar and cinnamon for dusting

Preheat oven to 400*F. Sift the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Cut the “butter” into the flour until crumbly. Stir in the dried fruit.

In a separate bowl whisk the mashed bananas and almond milk together.

Combine wet and dry ingredients to form a rough dough. To avoid “Hagrid Rock Cakes” do not over mix, just mix until the flour is mixed in.

Dollop portions of dough onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet like drop biscuits. Place in oven and bake 12-15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Mix some powdered sugar and cinnamon together and dust the rock cakes with it. I do this with a mini wire mesh strainer.

Makes a little over 2 dozen.

Orange Chicken

Prior to Finding out about Bean’s food allergies and also changing our diets to have drastically less processed food, TJs orange chicken or orange chicken from a favorite Chinese restaurant was a staple in our diet. We love orange chicken, even if it isn’t “real” Chinese food.

Problem is that most recipes have wheat and egg in them for the crispy battered pieces. I have been craving this dish and decided I would attempt a version our whole family could enjoy.

I was successful. Sort of. Bean is in a really picky phase again so she didn’t eat much. Boo! Everyone else loved it though.

I will note that my orange chicken is very orange flavored. I think the TJs version has a different ratio of soy sauce to orange. So if you make this and think my version is too orange, reduce the orange and up the soy.

This is the second recipe I have mentioned gluten free flour mix. I am not using a specific brand. I just recently decided to combine all my gluten free flours because I was tired if pulling a little from each bag. If you typically use a mix like Pamela’s, I am sure that would work fine.

I looked at a few different recipes yesterday before experimenting with this one last night. Most recipes called for dipping the chicken in egg before coating it in a mixture of flour and spices. If you can have wheat and eggs, you might try that. Another trick I used to use when making fried chicken was the self rising flour which I believe has baking powder and baking soda in it. The combination of eggs and this will probably produce a more crispy chicken if that is what you are going for.

Ingredients:
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 3 tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate
• zest of one orange
• 1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
• crushed red pepper flakes
• Chinese five spice powder
• 1 tbsp gluten free soy sauce
• 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 cup gluten free flour mix
• salt and pepper
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp sesame oil
• oil for frying
• rice and green beans to serve with

So first thing I did last night was throw my rice with the amount of water the package said in the rice cooker. Then I trimmed up my green beans and put them in the steam pan that goes on top.

Then I made the sauce. I opened up the orange juice concentrate and scooped approximately three tablespoons into a small saucepan. Then I added the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger, a couple dashes of red pepper flakes, lemon juice, a couple dashes of Chinese Five Spice powder (that’s a Jamie Oliver trick right there) and about a teaspoon of the orange zest (reserve the rest). Bring to a boil over medium heat and then reduce heat to simmer, stirring occasionally.

Note to mom: we all know how you feel about spicy food, and since you were one of the people that specifically asked for this recipe, to reduce the spice in this dish, skip or reduce the ginger, the red pepper, and the Chinese Five Spice powder. Note to everyone else: if you like your orange chicken on the spicy side, increase all those things.

While that was simmering, I cut up my two chicken breasts into bite sized cubes. Then in a ziplock bag I combined the flour, remaining orange zest, a few dashes of Chinese Five Spice powder, and a few cracks from my salt and pepper grinders.

The sauce was looking pretty good at this point so I turned off the heat and set the pan aside to cool and thicken.

I tossed the chicken in the zip lock bag, sealed it and then shook it up to coat in the flour mixture.

Then I got out my wok and put about a half inch of vegetable oil (which if you look at the label is just soy bean oil, probably not the best stuff for you) and then I also added about a quarter teaspoon of Sesame oil. I turned my heat up to medium high and when it got fragrant I added in the chicken in small batches turning each piece once until they were gold and crispy on the outside and firm. I did not cut them open to see if they were no longer still pink. I just knew, but if you are paranoid about that sort of thing or don’t just know, you may want to employ that test. You can drain the chicken on paper towels or flour sack cloths if you want.

I put all the cooked chicken in a bowl. Then I added in the green onions and the sauce. I stirred it all up until it was evenly coated.

At this point the rice and green beans were done. In another bowl I dressed the green beans with some olive oil and salt.

Then I plated everything together in one big pile. It was super yum.

This made enough for all four of us, but Stephen and I had large portions and the kids did not.