Redheaded Kitchen

Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

Although I much more prefer Chocolate-Chip Cookies, this recipe for Reduced-Fat Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies from the February/March 2009 issue of Cook's Country magazine just caught my eye. I don't know exactly why... I don't usually choose recipes that are supposedly healthier just because they use the "better for you" version of the "non-healthy" ingredients. My diet is called "everything in moderation" diet. I'd rather eat a piece of fresh from the oven crusty bread with a pat of butter than with some chemically tasting margarine. And when I bake a batch of cookies, we usually eat a few and the rest of them gets packed up and shipped off to my hubby's work.

No, there was something about this recipe that got me intrigued. I think it was the unique technique. I've always liked the Cook's Illustrated, Cook's Country & America's Test Kitchen's sometimes almost scientific approach to cooking & baking. Every so often, I stumble onto their recipe that differs so much from the traditional one, that I just have to try it to see what all that fuss is about.

Anyway, this recipe has a couple of unusual steps. First of all, half of the raisins is finely chopped up and then plumped up by boiling it in water to create a raisin paste of some sort. And the minimal amount of butter (6 TBSP total) is melted & browned in a skillet and then the oats are toasted in it.

The process was pretty easy, although a little more time consuming than your average oatmeal-raisin cookie but you just can't rush perfection... When they came out of oven, they smelled incredible. They taste really good too. They are little bit on the crunchy side rather than chewy but that that might be because I left them in the oven a couple of minutes too long. My husband announced that they are his new favorites... Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies are his favorite to start with, but I guess there might be something to his statement because he liked them even after I mentioned to him that these are the healthy, reduced-fat kind...

 

 

 

Cook's Country Reduced-Fat Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

Source: February/March 2009 issue of Cook's Country magazine

 

1 cup raisins; 1/2 cup chopped fine, 1/2 cup left whole

3/4 cup water

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1-3/4 cups old-fashioned oats

1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

 

Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat over to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine chopped raisins and water in a small saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until water has evaporated and raisins are plump, about 15 minutes; let cool.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add oats, and cook stirring constantly, until just golden, about 5 minutes. Stir in cinnamon and cook until fragrant, about 30 more seconds; let cool.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. In a large bowl, whisk sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. Stir in whole and plumped raisins, oat mixture, and flour until just combined.

Roll 2 tablespoons of the dough into 1-1/2" balls and place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Gently press the balls with measuring cup until they are 1/2" thick discs. Bake cookies until edges are light golden and centers are just set, 13 to 16 minutes, switching and rotating baking sheets halfway through the baking. Cool 10 minutes on sheets, then transfer to wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The cooled cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

 

 

 

 

 

Newport, OR

When you hear someone say the word "beach"... the cold, windy Oregon coast just isn't the first thing that springs into your mind... But for us it's a sort of a haven. We love going there, especially in the middle of winter when there's even less people out walking on the shores of the Pacific Ocean and when ever so often a storm will leave us stranded in our hotel room with nothing better to do except to sit by the cozy fireplace, read books, watch movies and maybe drinks some cheap wine...

Newport on the central Oregon coast is the beach town of our choice for our annual December beach trip. I mentioned in my previous post, that this is how we celebrate our wedding anniversary/Clara's birthday. There's nothing better for people with dogs than a Newport beach in December...

And this year, with the temperatures below the freezing level even more so... It was the first time ever I've seen icicles out on the beach...

This trip also lets us to get our fix of the freshest seafood. There's our usual spots that we visit every year. It's a tradition... like the famous Mo's where we get the same things every year... a pound of steamers, two bowls of their famous clam chowder (although this year I was being "adventurous" and order a bowl of their Slumguillon - basically clam chowder with a lot of tiny shrimp on top) & an order of their garlic cheese bread.

We checked out the Rogue Ales Pub. It was alright. Your typical pub food but we went inside more because of the beer than the culinary treasures, but the fish & chips was pretty good.

O

One of our favorites is a tiny restaurant/seafood market called Local Ocean Seafoods. We discovered it two year and have been coming every since. The Dungeness crab season just opened and most of the people sitting in the restaurant around us were working "pretty hard" to get the succulent morsels out of the shells. We saved the tough messy but oh, so rewarding job for privacy of our home and brought home a couple of these babies in the cooler the next day. We picked this restaurant for our special anniversary dinner and it delivered... Mike had Fishwives Stew with like 6 different kinds of seafood in it and I picked the Coconut Prawns - maybe not the most exciting but I just had a craving and it was pretty darn good. But it was the dessert that was the most memorable... Pineapple-Habanero Ice Cream. Yep, you've heard right... Habanero as in the Habanero chili pepper. Sweet fruity ice cream with the kick...

And we tried out a new breakfast place too. Cafe Stephanie in the Nye Beach area. Yummy, yummy, yummy... The fresh-baked blueberry scones that come with every order wereto die for, as was the Potato Tornado - mounds of roasted red potatoes, red peppers, grilled onions and melted cheese. We highly recommend this tiny little place that serves breakfast/brunch items the whole day.

But the best thing about Oregon coast is... its spectacular sunsets! You won't get views like this anywhere else...

 

Miniature Soft Pretzels

As I'm writing this post, I am sitting in a hotel room right on the beach in Newport, Oregon. Two dogs, and a husband are sleeping in the bed behind me (I'm not quite sure how I'll manage to squeeze in!) and the sound of waves crushing onto the beach is a very welcome change from our busy life back in Portland.

Tomorrow is our seventh wedding anniversary. Yes, we did indeed get married on a Pearl Harbor Day. We got married in Slovakia and there this date doesn't have the same connection. Oh, and it's also my Great Dane baby girl's seventh birthday on Tuesday. She was born the day after we got married and has been our constant companion, our co-pilot on our road trips and just the best "first-dog-ever"!

And there is one more thing we're sort of celebrating. On Thursday, I became aUS citizen. I've lived here for almost 7 years and I finally decided it's about time to make it official! So, I sent it my application, had my USCIS interview and attended the oath ceremony, and here I am...

 

I'm also hoping this little mini-vacation will give me an opportunity to catch up on things I've been meaning to do/accomplish, like create our family 2010 calendar; look into my old math books, so I can finally take that college placement test & start working on my college degree; get our Christmas cards out; and start paying more attention to my blog. I really love how it's coming together and I'm starting to believe that I actually DO have a few readers!

The recipe for these Miniature Pretzels isn't mine. I found it in archives of Deb's awesome blog (Smitten Kitchen). I've made them about 5 times in the last 6 months and every single time they come together so easily & taste so great that it always amazes me. I had so many requests for the recipe that I just had to include them on my blog. In fact, my lovely sister-in-law Christine loves them so much, she'll "fight" everyone & anyone who tries to take a few of these scrumptious little "babies" away from her whenever I bring a basket full of them over for dinner. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a little but you get the point... :o)

 

 

 Smitten Kitchen's Miniature Soft Pretzels (link)

Roasted Delicata Squash Stuffed with Ginger-Curry Beef & Quinoa

Gosh, I can't believe that it's been almost 3 months since I last posted here. I had to think for a minute about my log-in name & password...

What happened??? Well, I've been in the rat race... loosing my job, looking for one, finding one (although temporary at this time) & getting acclimated to the completely different environment and hours (I went from railcar manufacturing company in the industrial area to a large law firm downtown). I completely fell off the wagon.

But I did cook, eat and take pictures of my creations...

Well, I'm back and I'm really hoping to stay on track with my postings.

Fall is finally upon us. Today I made the big switch... flannel bed sheets for the regular, winter clothes for my summer outfits in my tiny dresser. We haven't turned on the heat yet, although the house is at the chilly 60 degrees. Every year me & my husband play this game of how long we can go before we turn it on. You'll see us walking around in big sweaters and occasionally Mike puts on a hat. On a "good" year we can go to middle of November. We'll see how this year turns out... I'll keep you posted.

I actually like the cooler weather. It makes a wonderful backdrop to the hearty stews, roasted veggies & braised meats that I have planned out. You can make tons of it, so that means less cooking on a busy weekdays and the leftovers get only better the longer they sit in the refrigerator.

Though today's meal didn't leave many leftovers, it still heated up the kitchen and filled it with the wonderful sweet aroma of roasted squash that's so hard to resist.

Roasted Delicata Squash Stuffed with Ginger-Curry Beef & Quinoa

2 small Delicata squashes, cut in half lengthwise & seeds scooped out

1/2 lb ground beef

1/3 cup quinoa

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp dry ginger (or of course you can use fresh)

1/4 cup dried cranberries

olive oil, salt & pepper

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Rub the cut sides of the squash with a little bit of olive oil, then put them cut side down into a small pan, pour in 1/2 cup of water and roast for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat about 1 TBSP of olive oil in a skillet. Add onions & garlic and cook until softened but not browned about 3 - 5 minutes. Add the ground beef and break it up with wooden spoon. When browned, add the ginger & curry powders and about 1 tsp of salt. Cook for about 5 minutes and then add the quinoa, cranberries and 1 cup of water. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until quinoa is soft and most of the water is evaporated. Taste for seasoning.

Pull out the squash from the oven, sprinkle with salt. Fill the halves with the beef-quinoa mixture and put it back in the oven for another 15 - 20 minutes, until the squash is tender when pierced with a knife and the top is brown & caramelized.

 

 

Rhubarb Jam in your Bread Machine

One of my very favorite kitchen appliances is bread machine. I still like to make bread by hand but there is just something great about making it in a bread machine... its fix it and forget appeal. While there is nothing better to work off your aggression than kneading a bread dough for 10 minutes, on days when I'm busy running around doing 10,000 things at the same time, this "little-ish" box comes to my rescue. I haven't bought bread, except maybe the occasional crusty French baguette in good 5 years.

Among the features of almost all the new bread makers is the "Jam" option. While one batch doesn't make that many jars, it's perfect for beginner jam-makers as well as small families who just don't want to end up with shelves filled with one kind of jam. Last Sunday, I made two batches using about 2 pounds of rhubarb and ended up with 5 half-pint jars.

For the recipes I'm using my favorite bread machine cookbook, The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger. It has an awesome collection of jam, preserves and chutney recipes. So far, my shelves (or freezer) are lined with Kiwifruit Jam, Blueberry Jam, Cherry Jam and now Rhubarb Jam. A few jam recipes include a sort of a 'secret' ingredient that adds a little bit of an "om-ph" to the final product. In this case, it's dried apricots which wonderfully compliment the tartness of the rhubarb.

 

 

Rhubarb Jam

Source: The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger

 

1 lb rhubarb stalks, sliced about 1/2" thick (2 cups)

1 1/2 cups sugar

half of a 1.75- to 2-ounce box of powdered pectin fruit

1/4 cup chopped dried apricots

 

Mix the rhubarb with the sugar in a glass bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let stand at room temperature for 12 hours.

Combine the rhubarb-sugar mixture, the pectin and dried apricots in the bread pan.

Program the machine for the Jam cycle and press Start. When the machine beeps at the end of the cycle, carefully remove the pan with oven mitts. You can scrape the jam into heat-resistant jars right away, using rubber spatula. For other jars, let the jam stand in the pan for 15 minutes before transferring. Let stand until cool. Store, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks, or freeze or can.

Thai Chicken Soup with Black Rice

So, I've learned one thing yesterday... hot weather and spicy food just don't go well together...

Granted I did have a feeling that the spicy Thai chicken soup I was making might not be the best match for a 85+ degree heat inside my house but I just couldn't help myself. I LOVE spicy Asian cuisine (Thai and Vietnamese in particular) and the recipe just sounded like something I had to make, especially now when weekly trips to my favorite local Thai restaurant are out of question due our budget. Even if it meant sacrificing a few extra napkins on wiping down your forehead, it was well worth it.

Thai Chicken Soup with Chinese Black Rice

Source: Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass

 

2 cups chicken broth

1 can (15 oz) unsweetened coconut milk

2 to 3 tsp red or yellow curry paste (I used Patak's hot curry paste found easily in supermarket)

1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes, including liquid

1 1/2 lbs bone in, skinless chicken thighs or breast

4 scallions, thinly sliced (keep white and green parts separate)

1/4 cup finely diced red bell pepper

1 1/2 cups cooked Chinese black rice (you could also use brown rice)

1/4 cup chopped cilantro or basil

2 to 3 TBSP freshly squeezed lime juice

Thai fish sauce or soy sauce (optional)

lime wedges, to serve at the table

 

In a 4-quart pot, blend the chicken broth, coconut milk, and curry paste to taste. Set the pot over medium heat. Add the tomatoes, chicken, scallion whites, and bell pepper. Bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, 20 to 30 minutes, depending upon size.

Remove the chicken. When it's cool enough to handle, shred or chop the meat and discard the bones. Return the chicken to the pot and stir in the rice. Add the cilantro, scallion greens, lime juice and fish sauce to taste.

Before ladling out each portion, stir well to bring the rice up from the bottom. Serve with lime wedges.