Showing posts with label breakfast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label breakfast. Show all posts

Monday, September 8, 2008

Reems Breakfast of Champions-

OK, I've had a reader request for the coveted Reems granola recipe.

Background here - The go-to-brekky of choice for any Reems is a good, hearty, home-made granola. This is the breakfast for champions.. and let's face it - for those of us who need nourishment to make it no, not until lunch time, but until that mid-morning-banana-muffin coffee break.

Now I realize that there are different types of cooks out there. Those that adhere strictly to the recipe, and the rest of us - those that choose to use a recipe as a helpful guideline, some suggestions that leave much to the cook's discretion. The past few weeks I have been living without any cookbooks and with stolen, intermittent internet. This makes for fun in the kitchen. This granola recipe is Reems-based, from my memory.

GRANOLA, REEMS BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS-

Step 1-
Combine your dry stuff- again, this is a guideline, fiddle with the amounts and the ingredients-

6 cups oats (Reems oat of choice is the large-flaked here but I suppose you could use quick oats)
1 cup bran
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup coconut (optional)
a good shot of flax seed
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup peanuts or almonds or pecans etc. etc.
good shot of cinnamon

Step 2-
Your wet stuff-
This should equal around a cup and a half to two cups. Combine the following in a glass measuring cup and heat in the microwave until hot. I have substituted Rogers Syrup for honey, I have also added a very runny plum jam (my first, and to date, only jam-making attempt). I am going to try a cup of apple sauce in here at some point. You could also use brown sugar instead of the honey. If you like a richer, sweeter granola you can up the honey and the oil.

1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup water

Step 3
Combine until all the dry stuff is moistened. You can add a shot of water if needed.

Step 4
Spread over 2 cookie sheets. Bake in a low oven - maybe 250 degrees for an hour and a half or so (stir around a few times if you remember). If you like a drier, crunchier granola you can leave it in a turned off oven for awhile afterward. Otherise just let dry on the counter and then ladel into one giant container.

Step 5 (Sorry Heather).
Optional, but I feel that it would be criminal to miss this step. The raisin step. Add as many or as little as you like. For Calgarians - you may just want to add raisins in on a daily basis as I found that they dried out quickly. I love this with dried cranberries as well.

That's it. Now all you have to do is scoop yourself out a beautiful bowl of granola each morning. I eat mine with a few blueberries from the freezer, sliced banana and some plain yogurt.

Sorry about the lack of pictures here, our memory card does not like our laptop.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Brunching With Babies

In a previous post Haley wrote that when chocolate is unavailable, heaven forbid, lemon is the next best choice in the dessert world. Her observation must have fluttered through my brain last week as I dug through cupboards and recipe books. I was holding a Victoria day brunch for my siblings and their children. The bagels and eggs had been bought and the ingredients for a hollandaise sauce stood ready. I need a dessert-yes, even breakfast warrants treats-but my cocoa jar was empty. Fortunately, I found three large lemons rolling around my crisper. As the brunch promised to be filling, I wanted dessert to be a few mouthfuls of sweetness. A cake or pie seemed too heavy handed and unbrunch like. I opted for mini cupcakes. A few weeks ago Caleb found miniature muffin tins at the thriftstore in Sidney. Almost every bowl, spoon, and pan in my kitchen is secondhand. I find the older cookware to be durable. Plus it comes in funky retro colours. For these mini lemon cupcakes, I used a recipe for lemon loaf from the Moosewood Desserts Cookbooks. Then, in salute to the cupcake my mom used to make when I was little, I mixed up a batch of lemon curd, cut out the centres, and filled each cake.
1/2 cup butter (I reduced it to 1/3)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used half white, half brown for a lighter texture)
2 eggs
1 Tbsp of lemon zest
1 and 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (I used 3/4 cup butter milk to accommodate for the reduced amount of butter)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted the nuts)

Cream butter and brown sugar
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Add the lemon peel.
Separate bowl: Sift flour, b. powder, and salt.
Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk to the creamed mixture, beating until JUST combined after each addition. Stir in nuts (if using).

Pour into a loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 45 to 60 mins.
Or
Pour into mini muffin tin. Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 min.

Cool and then cover with lemon glaze.

Lemon Glaze:
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice with 1/4 cup sugar. Poke holes in cake with a toothpick. Pour glaze over.

Then, cut a circle out of the top of each cupcake, fill it with lemon curd (not glaze). Take the piece you cut out of the cupcake and cut it in half. Arrange pieces on top of the cupcake.

Lemon Curd:
Mix in a saucepan: Juice of two lemons, 1 Tbsp lemon zest, 1/4 cup sugar. Heat, stirring constantly until sauce thickens. Take off heat. Run through a mesh strainer. Optional: mix in 2 Tbsp butter in pieces (Most recipes call for 1/2 cup butter but this seems unnecessary).

Pop (into your mouth) and enjoy!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Morning Shakes


I'm on a smoothie kick. For the past week, every morning I pull out the fresh fruit and jam it into my food processor along with a scoop of yogurt and a shot of milk. A ten second whiz turns the mess to sweet, sweet nectar. I think I was initially inspired by the yummy fruit shakes at the Rebar. I looked in my handy Rebar cookbook to see what ingredients they use at the restaurant. I found that their shakes seldom include ice (which I think would degrade the blade of my beloved fruit processor) and never a sweetener. I began experimenting with different combinations. I've found that strawberries, one frozen banana, a chilled orange, a small scoop of yogurt, and a shot of milk creates an a-one smoothie. While local strawberries are not yet in season, I've been scooting to China town with my bike and basket to scoop up some low-priced Californians. They're also selling mangoes down there. I love loading up my crate with fresh veg and fruit and then bouncing back home along Vancouver Street.
Sadly, I'm starting at P.C.S. bright and early tomorrow so this will likely be my last fruit creation. At least until the weekend.