Gingered Apricot Granola

Someone asked me the other day why it is that every fall we seem to happily embrace pumpkin spice. Honestly I don't know. It's become quite a thing in recent years, and I see huge displays of pumpkin spice items in the grocery stores. Not that I'm complaining. I've fallen on the pumpkin spice bandwagon myself, but it is puzzling that we just tend to go for it in the fall months; pumpkin pie spice and canned pumpkin are available year-round.

I feel the same way about soups, stews, and homemade granola. It's not all that often that I make these things during the summer, but once fall hits, I'm making them like crazy. Homemade granola is something I absolutely love, not just as a cereal for breakfast, but also as a topping for quick breads and coffee cakes, a mix-in for salads, as a crunchy ice cream or yogurt topping, and, if it's chunky enough, to eat as a snack on its own.

Making granola is very easy once you have a basic recipe. Essentially oats, a sweetener, and a binder are pretty much all that you need. I like to experiment by building on these things, throwing in different fruits, nuts, and spices that I like, to see what I end up with.  You can seriously go crazy with all of the combinations that are available. Consider, for example, pumpkin pie spice and Pepitas in place of nuts for a pumpkin spice granola. If you prefer apple pie, make an apple pie granola using chopped dried apples, walnuts, and apple pie spice. You're limited only by your imagination, so take this recipe and run with it.

This week I came up with a maple syrup-sweetened apricot and crystallized ginger variety that is quite an eye-opener for breakfast in the morning thanks to its peppery ginger addition.

Nothing is easier than throwing this together. You can do it in a couple of minutes, bake it up, give it a stir halfway through baking, let it cool, and serve. I keep glass jars on the counter in the kitchen filled with different cereals, one of which contains homemade granola. You’re going to want to give this recipe a try.

Gingered Apricot Granola

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1 8-ounce can mixed nuts

½  teaspoon salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

1/3 cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup crystallized ginger, diced fine

1 3-ounce package Melissa’s dried apricots, diced fine

 
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Stir first 7 ingredients together in a large bowl.

Spread mixture evenly in a large shallow 1” deep baking pan and bake, stirring and halfway through baking, until golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Cool granola in pans on racks for 15 minutes, and then stir in ginger and apricots.

This post is linked to: Wow Us Wednesday, Work It Wednesday, Wine’d Down Wednesday, Coffee and Conversation, Share Your Style, Thursday Favorite Things, and Foodie Friday & Everything Else

Sirloin and Mushrooms in Dijon Cream

What. A. Week. As you all know from the yummy potato dish that I served as a part of a delightful "welcome home" meal, Mr. O-P is recovering from hip surgery.  I am recovering from his recovery of hip surgery. I'd forgotten what it is like to have a newborn in the house, but my guess is that the care, the hours, the laundry, the crankiness (don't get me started), and feeding schedule are shockingly similar. Then, as I was just about ready to collapse from the exhaustion there was a water main break and we were put under a boil order. I really do wish that I'd have found out about the boil order as soon as it was put into place, but no.  It wasn't until about 6 hours later after I had happily hydrated myself with six glasses of water that I learned that drinking the water would be bad. Ten hours later, and for the next three days, my stomach reminded me of this again and again. Did I mention that, in the midst of all of this (the very day of his surgery, actually) that we got a contract on our century home on the St. Louis side of the river after being on the market for three-and-a-half years?  Can you comprehend the timing?  But I digress.

The sun is starting to peek through the clouds; the dishes that had been stacked in the sink have been run through the dishwasher. Tainted ice cubes have been dumped and replenished, I found an app of sleep noises that has allowed me to get five hours of sleep running, and cooking has commenced. Life is slowly returning to normal.

I'm refraining from starting any dish that involves a great deal of time and trouble because I have little of the former and more than my share of the latter, so simplicity is the order of the day.  This dish is easy, goes together in about thirty minutes if you do your chopping ahead, and is satisfying and delicious. I served it over toast points, but for a heartier meal, it is heaven when served on a bed of Jasmine rice. It can also be made with a variety of mushrooms in place of the steak for a vegetarian main dish. Versatile!

Sirloin and Mushrooms in Dijon Cream

5 tablespoons butter

1pound sirloin steak, trimmed, diagonally cut into thin strips*

6 ounces crimini mushrooms, thickly sliced

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely diced**

2 tablespoons Dry Sherry

1 cup heavy cream

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

4 pieces of toast, cut into triangles

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter in a large skillet and sear the meat on both sides until nicely browned, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer the steak to an ovenproof dish and keep warm.

Add sliced mushrooms to the skillet and sauté in juices for about 3 minutes.  Add the mustard, ginger, salt and pepper.  Stir well and cook for 2 additional minutes.  Add sherry (bourbon in a pinch) and cream.  Cook at medium heat until cream reduces slightly and thickens.

Add steak to cream mixture, stir to coat, and pour back into the ovenproof dish.  Cover with foil and bake for 15-20 minutes until bubbly.

Serves four.

*Freezing the meat for a while (or, if already frozen, don't allow to thaw completely) makes slicing a breeze.

**I store fresh ginger in the freezer.  It keeps for a long time, and makes slicing, chopping, dicing, and grating very easy.

This post is linked to:

Full Plate Thursday

Be Inspired Friday

Foodie Friday

Friday Flash Blog Party

Top Recipes of 2012

With the New Year rapidly approaching, it’s time to look back on 2012 and see just what your favorite recipes were.  Here are the top ten for the year, in descending order.  You can click on the name of each to revisit them.

 

Happy New Year, see you in 2013!

Homemade Cookies  

A fun project for me, and I imagine fun for you and any kids that you may be entertaining.  The cookie stamp works on any type of heavier dough sugar cookie, and made a nice impression on ginger cookies as well.

Creole Brownies

Absolutely the BEST brownies I have ever tasted.  This is my new “go to” recipe.

Deep Butter Cake

A truly delicious, easy-to-make, bakery-quality cake.

Harvest Soup

A flavorful and delicious way to welcome fall.

Pumpkin Streusel Coffeecake Three Ways  

One of the most versatile recipes I’ve made.  The variety will please ever eater in your family.

Toffee Bars

I dream about these sometimes, they are that good.  Delicious and easy makes these almost the perfect cookie.

Koi Fish Shortbread Cookies

So much fun to make, incredibly easy to mold, I’ll be adding more of these wooden cookie molds to my collection after the first of the year.

Cherry Limeade Bars  

My son was quite chuffed to know that one of the recipes he contributed to my blog this year made the top ten.  These are delicious, refreshing, easy to make, and absolutely beautiful.

Gingerbread Scones

A spicy way to welcome even the frostiest morning, these are the most flavorful scones I think I’ve ever tasted.  Serve them with maple butter.

How to Make Candied Ginger

A fun experiment, and so much cheaper than buying it.  Candied ginger is a great item to have on hand.

This post is linked to:

Mosaic Monday

Seasonal Sundays

   

Making Apple Pie Spice

It's apple season (as Wednesday’s post will attest)!  What a great time of the year for long walks in the country soaking up all of the beautiful fall color, and trips to the farm to pick your own apples for scrumptious fall baking.

The first thing you’re going to need in order to make use of the wonderful apple recipes that are cropping up (if you'll pardon the pun) is apple pie spice.  As with pumpkin pie spice, there is no need to buy it, just create your own blend from the spices that you already have on your shelf.   The photo above provides the proportions, the written recipe is below.  This makes about 3 tablespoons.  You can double it, triple it, or even cut it in half, depending upon your projected use.  You can also put a heaping tablespoon into a pan of water, along with apple peelings, and a few cloves, and simmer it on the stove to give your home a wonderful fall scent.

Apple Pie Spice

(Makes about 3 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

Stir together and store in an airtight jar.

This post is linked to:

Seasonal Sunday

On the Menu Monday

Metamorphosis Monday

Wow Us Wednesday

Tutorial Tips & Tidbits

Banana, Coconut and Ricotta Pancakes with Ginger Syrup

I teased you yesterday with the recipe for ginger syrup, telling you that one of its delicious uses would be posted today.  Now, remember the luscious cocktail that was served in the coconut half that I showed you here?  Obviously, there was another half to that coconut, one with three holes in it for draining the water, but one that also had wonderfully fresh, moist coconut meat.  It was that meat, freshly grated in the food processor, that sent me on my quest for a breakfast recipe in which I could put it to good use.  Thanks to Epicurious.com, I found a decadently delicious recipe that is full of complex tastes and will make you feel that you’re breakfasting on a tropical isle.  The beauty of this recipe is that it, like the ginger syrup, can be made ahead, so you won’t have to labor in the morning to put a fantastic meal on the table.  I used a Cuisinart Griddler to make my pancakes, so there was no need for the butter as mentioned in the recipe.  Also, as I'm not keen on pineapple other than eaten alone, I eliminated it as a topping ingredient.  Personally, I don’t think the pineapple has a place here at all as it would have clashed rather badly, I think, with the ginger.

Banana, Coconut and Ricotta Pancakes with Ginger Syrup

4 large eggs, separated

3/4 cup whole milk

2/3 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese (about 6 ounces)

2/3 cup all purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt

1 1/3 cups finely grated fresh coconut (about 4 ounces)

6 teaspoons (or more) butter

3 bananas, peeled, sliced on diagonal

1/2 pineapple, peeled, cored, thinly sliced, cut into triangles

 Whisk egg yolks, milk, ricotta, flour, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, and salt in large bowl. Stir in coconut. DO AHEAD Can be made 12 hours ahead. Cover and chill.

Beat egg whites in another large bowl until stiff. Gently fold into ricotta mixture.

Melt 1 teaspoon butter on griddle or in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, drop batter onto griddle by 1/4 cupfuls. Cook until bubbles form on pancakes, about 2 minutes. Flip pancakes; cook 2 minutes longer, adding butter to griddle by teaspoonfuls between batches. Arrange 3 to 4 pancakes on each plate. garnish with sliced fruit; pour warm ginger syrup over.

This post is linked to:

Sweets for a Saturday

Seasonal Sunday

Sunday's Best Party

Ginger Syrup

As I stare at the above photo I’m struck by how much it looks like a specimen from one of those forensic crime shows.  It’s not.  It is a beautiful, delicious, rather healthy (ginger is, after, all one of the super foods), syrup that has a wickedly peppery kick.

After candying much of the ginger that I had on hand (you can read about that here), I decided to use the rest to make syrup.  You must try this!  I cannot recommend it enough.  It adds the BEST sweet punch to iced tea, is a rather exotic addition to homemade lemonade, can be cooked down and thickened up to use in the same way in which you would use honey (I recommend biscuits), it can be made ahead, and it also makes one heck of a breakfast topping.  With that, I’ll say no more, you’re just going to have to check back tomorrow to see the magnificent morning meal that I prepared and enjoyed beneath the swaying palm tree on the back deck.

Meanwhile, grab yourself some ginger, take ten minutes of your time, and make this syrup.  See you tomorrow!

Ginger Syrup

Source: Epicurious.com

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

2 1/2 tablespoons matchstick-size strips peeled Melissa's fresh ginger root (about 1 ounce)

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel

Combine all ingredients in small saucepan; stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Boil until reduced to 3/4 cup, about 5 minutes. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 weeks ahead. Cover and chill. Rewarm before serving.

To read more about this tasty and versatile spice, I recommend this book:

This post is linked to:

Metamorphosis Monday

Wow Us Wednesday

Tutorial Tips & Tidbits