Stained Glass Cookies

Well, hello blog. It's been a long time. I recently moved so this is my first blog in my new place! I made some classic sugar cookies for our office holiday party with a new twist. The twist is the stained glass centers! I can't take credit for this idea, I did steal it off another website but I was surprised at how easy it really is and how nice looking they turned out.

  

I modified the Best Rolled Sugar Cookies recipe from Allrecipes.

Ingredients

•  3/4 cup butter, softened
•  Just shy of one cup of white sugar
•  2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Jolly Ranchers

Directions

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. (1/2 inch works better with these cookies) Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. 

Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment paper on cookie sheets. Cut the centers out of the cookies. It's best if you can do this on the sheet so the cookies remain their original shape.

Put Jolly Ranchers in a plastic bag and smash with a hammer. (Oh, how I love cooking with hammers). Sprinkler the Jolly Ranchers in the center of the cookie, better to have more than not enough to cover the area.  

Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely. Then peel off the parchment paper and serve!

Earth Shakin' Ice Cream!

Well I drafted this blog a long time ago and you're going to know how behind I am on this with the next sentence. The day after I made the ice cream, an unexpected thing happened, an earthquake in DC!  I made ice cream for a buddy at work for his birthday. Just as a few of us were sitting down in the kitchen to eat it - the earthquake shook us all up! We just sat there stunned for a sec. The metro goes right below our building and sometimes I can feel that. I wondered just for a sec, did the metro trains collide? Then someone yelled at us to get into the door frames. That was the end of it and we all evacuated the building. My friends took the ice cream with them. I think that must be a pretty good compliment to my ice cream, if your friends take it with them when the evacuate a building.

Alright back to the oh so old blog.

I have purchased an ice cream ball, like this one. And I have to say it's fantastic. I did the inaugural "churn" a couple months back at a friend's BBQ. It was a great thing to do sitting around the table, drinking beers, taking a turn at shaking it while the food was grilling. By the time the food was ready, we had ice cream! That time, I did just vanilla ice cream. This time I made up my own recipe :)

Cookies and Cream Homemade Ice Cream
1 quart of heavy whipping cream
1 cup sugar
1 tbls vanilla
oreo cookies
1 cup of rock salt or kosher salt
1 bag of ice (or at least 8 trays)

Put the ice and salt in the ball part of the container. Pour the sugar and whipping cream together into the inside cylinder part while stirring. Add the tbls of vanilla. You can stop there if you want and just make vanilla ice cream. I put some oreos in a bag and took a hammer to them!

Then dumped the crumbs into the cylinder. Close the lid and get your work out! I had my two room mates help me cause it is a lot of shaking. Easy to put the ingredients together but it takes some muscles to make. The box says it takes a half an hour but I think it takes at least an hour.

before I started the shaking! really is cookies and cream

Periodically, you'll need to open the lid and scrape down the sides. The ice cream will form around the sides. I recommend you take the ice cream from the sides out and place in a container and put in the freezer. This will help the rest of the cream form into ice cream.

after about 30 minutes

I added more oreos, stirred it up a bit and continued to shake it up! You may also need to drain out some of the water and add more ice and salt.

look at all that ice cream!

I'm always amazed at the end that it actually does taste like ice cream. It's hard to believe that all you need is cream, sugar, ice, salt and a bit of shakin. It's even better than store bought ice cream, it's so creamy and nothing artificial. Yum!!

My Sunday Night Doodles

The other day I felt like doodling. Here's some owls.

On My Summer Vacation

Remember when teachers used to have you write a journal entry on what you did on your summer vacation? Well, that's how I feel writing this blog. I went home for a week and helped my mom design a new dress. I perfected the skill of making "yo-yos"! This is my real first craft blog to give authenticity to the "sweaters" part of the name.

How to make a Yo-Yo
Cut out a circle of fabric. Any size will do. I used a ring of masking tape as a stencil.
Thread a need, double strand.
With the wrong side face up, turn the edge in a quarter of a inch and start stitching the side. You should stitch it loosely close to the edge of the circle.

Keep turning the fabric in on the sides and stitch the needle so that you're stitching the extra folds in (it will fold in on itself because it's a circle)

When you've gone all the way around, pull the thread through and make it ruffle together. The yo-yo will fold into itself and be half the size that you started out with.

see the little blue piece of fabric in the middle

I suggest cutting another small piece of cloth and put it inside the yo-yo for an added bit of color. The smallest yo-yos don't need this because the fabric will tighten together in the middle but all other yo-yos will have a bit of a gap that is best to cover the inside of the yo-yo as it's the wrong side of the fabric. Then do the final closure and tack the ruffles down on the back with the leftover thread.

yes the pictures were taken on a beach towel, I was being crafty at the beach. It was my summer vacay!

Then we sewed them on her dress

Christmas in Summer Salad

This is my new favorite lunch sidedish. I got the idea from a buffet item at Whole Foods. I call it Christmas in Summer Salad!

It's really fast to make. All it is:

• orzo
• kale
• red pepper
• italian seasoning (like this)
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• salt 
• black pepper
• garlic cloves

I start by cutting the kale up in really small pieces. Then I steam the kale for a few minutes. After the kale is done, I use the same boiling water to cook the orzo. While the orzo is cooking, I dice the red pepper. I also pour some olive oil in a bowl and add a splash of balsamic vinegar. I love my Italian seasoning grinder! I use it on almost everything. I grind a generous amount in the oil. Then add some salt and grind some black pepper. Then I press one or two garlic cloves and add it to the oil. After the orzo is done, I rise it and let it sit a bit. Then I stir all the ingredients together.

I feel so British - Lemon Curd Tarts

I made lemon curd tarts! I always think of the UK when I hear "lemon curd." Maybe because the first time I remember hearing about it was from some British backpacker in Australia. She was going on and on how lemon curd is just the best with pancakes. And I think they way she was describing pancakes they were more like crepes than pancakes. Silly Brits. Anyways, I made some lovely tarts from my new book that simply called, tarts by Sarah Banbery.

I baked the tart shells blind. Then made the lemon curd. It was very easy, just butter, eggs, sugar and lemon juice. The pie crust was terrible to make. I don't recommend that recipe or I didn't add the correct amount of water. It was so hard to roll out and keep together. The little tart tins were helpful because I could just mold the crust into them. Then fill with the curd, top with fresh blueberries - delicious!

baked blind

with the curd!

Monsters and Boston Cream

Well it happened again. I was enticed into baking by another beautiful blog. This time it was pastry studio. I want a pastry studio, been thinking about taking real pastry classes so I can work in a proper kitchen again.

A new experiment for me, I followed the directions to a T, well almost. I didn't have cake flour (I know terrible, I've been baking enough to justify it). I also made my own buttermilk. I didn't zest the entire orange, probably about 2 teaspoons or so. I used regular cupcake pan and a loaf pan (will explain later why). And finally, I didn't use all the corn syrup, I used half a tablespoon maybe next time I'll use less.

always good to start with a little wine

For the recipe check out this website :pastry studio:
My vanilla filling was tasty but a bit lumpy, I don't know why. Maybe I heated the milk too much? Maybe the eggs were supposed to be at room temperature for that part too?

it was a bit messy

 When I cut out the middle of the cupcakes for the filling, I had lots of cake bits as left overs. I took my kerr jars and made a couple special boston cream parfaits for my roommies.

leftover cake, cream and chocolate in a kerr jar!

Alright I'm finally getting to the monster part. My friend, Marcos, designs fun creatures. It was his birthday so I decided to replicate one of his creatures in a mini-cake.

cake creature

I used the cake that I baked in the loaf pan, and cut it into smaller pieces. Then I used cookie decorating white and red frosting and made the mouths. I rolled out orange starbursts and cut them for the tummy piece. The gren hair is made from laughy-taffy, also nuked for 10 seconds and rolled out with a rolling pin. Then cut into the design. The eyes are just dots of icing. Do you see my inspiriation?

more creatures: http://www.marcosrc.com/

Mon Petit Amour

I actually made these a while back but it was such a long process, I didn't want to blog about it. I don't think I'll ever do these again. Though, I did get some rave reviews, so I may be tempted later on when I forget how long of a process it was. I got the idea from this beautiful blog, her pictures are too enticing. Oh and the blog is called, Use Real Butter, so you can imagine it's good. But, I had to change the recipe, as always, (sigh) to fit my reality (what I actually have in my kitchen) and my hopes and dreams (the ideas I come up with)....

The recipe was written for 8500 ft and was written for, in my opinion, real bakers who measure everything. Example: 3.25 oz of eggs. I don't weigh my eggs - just say 1,2, or 3 eggs please!

So I got out my trusty french pastry book, The Roux Brothers on Patisserie. I used their recipe, "Plain Genoese Sponge Cake" for the cake part. You can use any sponge cake recipe out there, I'm sure.

You make the cake in a large 11x17 cake pan. It will be very thin but that's great for the Petit Fours. Half the cake will be the bottom layer and the other half will be cut off and placed on top. In between you'll have a lime meringue buttercream and raspberry puree. You will also dress the cake with lime syrup. I thought about skipping this step, but I think it may be the secret to success in this recipe. The cake was very moist after 2 days in the fridge, I think due in part because of the lime syrup.

Lime Meringue Buttercream
4-5 egg whites (I actually messed this up and used 4 full eggs - the recipe calls for 4 oz of eggs whites)
1 cup of sugar
2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 tbsp lime zest
2 tbsp lime juice
Combine egg whites and sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk constantly over a double boiler until 140F is reached. Place on mixer with whisk and whip until stiff. Turn down whip speed to 3rd and whip until cool to the touch (this takes a while – should be cooler than your hand). Change to a normal type beater and gradually add soft butter by tablespoon pieces. Once desired consistency has been reached, add lime juice and zest.

Raspberry Puree
approx 2 cups of frozen raspberries
2 tablespoons of powdered sugar (optional)

Run frozen raspberries under hot water, let them thaw. Blend them in a cuisinart. Since they are frozen, they may be a bit tart, add some powdered sugar to taste.

Lime Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2/3 cup lime juice
Lime zest - if you have any lime zest left over from the buttercream add it to the syrup too.

Heat water and sugar in a pot until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil and turn off heat. Let cool. Mix in lime juice and zest.

Note: I only used 3 limes in this recipe. 2 for juice but 3 for the zest.


Poured Fondant Icing
2.25 cups of powdered sugar
1/4 cup water
1/8 cup light corn syrup
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp almond extract
drop of food coloring (optional)
Combine all in double boiler except coloring. Heat until all the sugar has melted. Remove from heat and stir in food coloring.

Assemble the Petit Fours

Once the cake has cooled, cut the cake in half, so that you have 2 pieces that are approximately 8.5x11. Brush the lime syrup on the top of the bottom layer. Add all the Raspberry Puree on top of it. Then add the Lime Meringue Buttercream. I think that I messed up when I made this recipe and I used the whole egg and not the egg whites. The lime buttercream didn't stiffen like it should have. So when I put the top layer of cake on it, lots of the cream squeezed out. If this happens to you, wrap it in parchment paper and stick it in the freezer. Once frozen, you can cut the cake in squares without all the filling running out.

Note: for the top layer of cake I put the bottom face up so I ended brushing both sides of the cake with lime syrup. It was tasty, I recommend this.

When cutting the squares, make sure they are at least an inch and a half big. I tried to go smaller but they didn't look as good as they wanted to fall apart. You need a good solid base. Once assembled, you can pour the fondant over top. This was a major pain! I didn't make enough fondant (note: you may want to double the recipe) and it was a mess. I instead served most of them with just a raspberry on top (glued on with the fondant icing). I think it tasted better too, the fondant is too sugary. Good Luck!

Angela's Test Kitchen - Asparagus Tarts

You might be saying, What asparagus tarts?!? But this isn't a sweet recipe, it's a savory one. My first savory recipe on the blog! A quick and easy appetizer or side dish (also vegan!)

I took the idea from a few recipes. One was from a vegan blog called Vegan Yum Yum. I was trying to come up with yummy ideas for a volunteer catering gig that I'm doing for work. The group I'm cooking for is mostly vegetarians with a few vegans. Also got this idea from a white bean dip that I used to make. I lost that recipe but it was similar to this one. Since I couldn't decide what recipe to do, I modified both recipes and put half and half on the puff pastry.

garlic on the left, pesto on the right

Pesto White Bean filling
Half a can of cannelloni beans
1 big teaspoon of pesto
a small handful of almonds
a pinch of salt
tablespoon-ish of water

Combine in a cuisnart!

Garlic White Bean filling (can also be a dip!)
Half a can of cannelloni beans
2 cloves of garlic
a pinch of salt
a splash of lemon juice
tablespoon-ish of olive oil

Combine in a cuisnart! In the future, I'd like to try adding some oregano or thyme or cumin or cayenne pepper or a mix of those! But since this was a test kitchen, I wanted to taste the garlic verses the pesto.

Roll out the puff pastry shell, lay on a lightly greased pan. I use Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets, they taste good and they're vegan. (don't believe that they are vegan? PETA says so, so it must be true) Since I made both the spreads, I spread one white bean mix on half of the puff pastry, and the other on the other half. Lay the asparagus on top. Brush olive oil on the asparagus. I only had 4 stalks of asparagus in the fridge, but ideally you'd put more veggies on it! Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes until the puff pastry is golden brown on the edges.

Now who's the winner?!

The pesto side was the most flavorful of course. It wasn't as liquidity so the puff pastry was done better on the bottom, was flaky and nice. The downside it was more dry and pasty than the garlic side. I would say that next time adding olive oil to the pesto recipe, would help. The garlic side was good, but maybe I shouldn't add the lemon juice and water so the bottom cooks better. I will also try it next time with some herbs and spices. Try it on your own and let me know what the secret ingredient should be!

Tarts for Easter!

I love Easter. Why? It's my excuse to host brunch and start drinking first thing Sunday morning. :) I purchased a French pastry cookbook from a great second-hand bookstore in Dupont called, Second Story. I've been itching for an excuse to experiment with it - the first selection, Daisy Tarts for Easter!

Tarts and Tulips

The recipe came from the book The Roux Brothers on Patisserie. I'd been looking for a french pastry book for a while. This one has some mouth-watering pictures, instructional pictures and so is well written that I've been reading it like a storybook!

Daisy Tarts:

I used frozen puff pastry dough for the base (yup, I cheated) and rolled it out really thin on a floured surface. Then I googled daisy shapes and printed one off the web. I edited the shape a bit, cut it out and then traced the paper on the dough with a knife. Careful when you take away the scrap dough, the daisy shape can be pulled out of shape very easily.

tracing the tart base

The sides of the tart are built up with Choux Paste. I used the recipe in the book, but I think next time I'll just use the same recipe I used for the cream puffs.

Trace the edges that you'll build up with the choux paste with egg wash. The Patisserie book suggested 1 egg white and 1 tbsp of milk for egg wash. Fill a pastry bag (with a wide tip) with the Choux paste and trace the outside of the daisy tart and the sections. I made some mini tarts too. Here's a pic of this stage. Don't forget to fork the puff pastry so it doesn't puff up!

Then bake at 350 degrees check after 15 minutes, could bake for another 10 minutes or so depending on the size. The oven in my apt runs a bit hot so I might suggest 375 degrees - check the puff pastry box for recommendations.

The recipe calls for filling them with Chantilly Cream. It sounds so delightful but it seems to be just french for whipped cream. The book gives two ways to make it. I made it the traditional whipped cream way but maybe I'll try the other way with sherbert syrup to see if that's any different.

Chantilly Cream
1 cup whipped cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cap full of vanilla extract
Whip ingredients together until you can make peaks in the bowl.

I also liked the idea of cream cheese filling so I made this recipe up.
Cream Cheese Filling
4 oz of cream cheese (half the package)
1/4 cup whipping cream (approximately, add until right consistency)
2 tbsps of powdered sugar (approximately, add until slightly sweetened)
Whip the ingredients until you have a creamy mix and fill in a pastry bag. This recipe makes enough for one daisy tart. The final step is to fill the tart shells with cream and put sliced fresh fruit in the sections!

the minis!

Note: I made the shells the night before and made the cream and fruit the same day. I had some leftovers the day after easter, they still tasted good but same day was better.

Easter brunch was lovely. We had mimosas, tarts, hashbrowns, candian bacon, croissants (not homemade), more fruit and a yummy vegan cramalized onion quiche that Kate made.

the easter spread!

Easter Egg Competition

Each month, my apartment building has a contest to win money off your rent. Yes, it's true! Last year, I went 4 months in a row without paying a full month's rent. This month it was an easter egg decorating contest. Here's what my roommate and I submitted!

hen, owl and penguin

Lost Magic of the Ship - Lemon Cheesecake

The first time I tried this recipe, I was cooking on the Arctic Sunrise. It seemed that everything worked so well on the ship, like magic! (or perhaps it was help from Walter) This week I tried to recreate my fantastic Lemon Cheesecake. The cake part was good but the crust got a little too well done, overall not as magical as the ship. Perhaps I should try the water bath next time?

the finished product

·          

CRUST:

• 1.5 sticks of very soft unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup shortbread cookies – I used butter cookie

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

1. In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar until smooth.

2. Add flour and shortbread crumbs and continue to beat until well mixed.

3. Press into a 9 inch spring form deep pan (bigger pan for ship size) and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

4. Allow to cool completely before next stage.

FILLING:

•    4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
•    1 cup sugar 
•    4 eggs
•    Juice from 3 lemons
•    2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
•    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, beating on low speed just until combined. Add lemon juice, peel and vanilla; beat just until blended. Pour into crust.

cream cheese! yum

1. Bake at 350 degreesF/180 C  for 55 minutes or until center is almost set. Remove from the oven; let stand for 5 minutes. Make the topping; spread over filling. Return to the oven for 5 minutes. Or just let ppl add the topping to each piece of cheesecake. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
2. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight (or for 6 hours) Remove sides of pan. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before slicing.

TOPPING: 

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 4 tsp grated lemon rind
• 1 tablespoon (ish) corn starch

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and on low heat stir until sugar is dissolved and the sauce has thickened.

Serves 10 – 12 (ship size double the recipe 25-30)

I adopted this recipe from Lemoncheesecake.org  I figured if they had their own website for this recipe, it must be pretty darn good.

Dinner for 2 - Sweet Potato Pot Pie

Yesterday, I invited a friend over to dinner, but didn't know what I was going to serve. After some googling and looking at 101 Cookbooks for inspiration, I decided to make us Sweet Potato Pot Pie along with salad and chocolate mousse!

baked in a Kerr canning jar!

Sweet Potato Pot Pie  - from one of my favorite food blogs, 101 Cookbooks
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 1/2 to 3 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)
1 tablespoon adobo sauce from a can of chipotle chilies (or more to taste) The Soviet Safeway near my house didn't have this so I had to make it on my own.
1 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen
2 cups cold whole or low-fat milk
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 box puff pastry dough (allow 20 to 30 minutes to thaw)
1 egg white

AZ's adobo recipe:
2 tbs of green chillies from a can
a dash of cayenne pepper
a dash of oregano
a dash of thyme
a pinch of sugar
a dash of ground pepper
a dash of salt
1/2 teaspoon of vinegar
I mixed all this up with a hand blender. It seemed like a spicy concoction when I made it but there wasn't any spice to the pot pie. I think either I need to get hotter chillies or add more cayenne next time. 

Directions
In a large pot over medium-high heat, add the oil, onion, garlic, sweet potato and salt. Saute, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the adobo sauce and corn.
In a small bowl, combine the milk and cornstarch, then pour the mixture into the sweet potato pot. Leave the heat at medium-high for a few minutes to bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and cook until the filling starts to thicken, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and season with more salt to taste. Pour the filling into small ovenproof bowls, each three quarters full.

Cut a piece of puff pastry dough to fit over each bowl, with some overlap. Place the dough on the bowls and fold over the edge of the dish. Brush the dough lightly with egg white (this creates a golden crust).
Using a fork, poke a few holes in the top of each pie to allow steam to escape, and bake until the crusts are tall and deeply golden, about 15 minutes. Tip: Bake the potpies on a baking sheet lined with foil in case some of the filling bubbles over. Serves 4 as a main course.

SP for sweet potato PP for potpie :)

I loved the idea of putting the pot pies in Kerr jars. But thought it might not be a good enough portion for a dinner meal, so I made a bigger one and a kerr jar one for myself just to see how it'd turn out - cute! I never baked in a canning jar before. But I got the idea from this pie in a jar recipe from not martha. PS canning jars are a lot cheaper than the normal baking ramekins.

Puff Pastry dough is amazing, I love how forgiving it is. Though, it makes it tough to keep any designs on the top of the pie. I think the reason the big potpie kept it's design was because I used too much egg whites on it in the middle. Perhaps next time I can cut out letters from the left over pastry dough and put them on top for a design.

Ella's inspired salad

Every time I go to Ella's in DC, I always have their Italian vegetable salad with grilled chicken. My favorite part are the cannelloni beans in that salad. I swear they soak them in the champagne vinaigrette before serving. This was my attempt to recreate those beans and dressing. It turned out pretty good. I might try fresh beans next time, think it would be so much better.

I made this dressing how I season most food. I start by smelling the spices and add in what I think fits. For this recipe, it started at the grocery store with me smelling the different options in the herb aisle. Fresh dill was the winner this time around.

Note: I came up with the below measurements after the fact cause I usually just dump things in until it tastes right. Those using my recipes should be in the mood to experiment.

Ingredients

3 tbs olive oil

3tbs vinegar

2 tsps honey

1 tbs lemon juice

1 teaspoon fresh dill

¼ tsp ginger

Salt and pepper to taste

1 can of cannelloni beans washes

Fresh herb salad mix

red pepper diced

carrots shaved

pumpkin seeds

I combined the first 8 ingredients until I thought it tasted right. Next time I might use one less tablespoon of vinegar because I had to add a lot of honey to mellow out the lemon juice and the vinegar. I might experiment with the types of vinegar, perhaps use champagne vinegar or balsamic. Comment on my blog if you tried something new and it worked! Then I washed the cannelloni beans and dumped them in the dressing to marinade for a couple hours. Just before serving, I put the the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. I added some beans, tossed and then added some more of the dressing. I think it would be good with a crisp green apple and pine nuts but this is what I had in my house. Enjoy!

Chocolate Mousse

I used the same recipe as I did last weekend but only added 1/2 tsp of vanilla. I also used 3/4 cups of the whipping cream and left out a couple dollops from the mousse mixture. I put the chocolate mousse in martini glasses to sit for a couple hours. From the extra dollops of the whipped cream, I added a bit more sugar (used powder sugar this time too) and had that sit for a while. Just before serving I put the whipped cream on top of the mousse and shaved a bit off a dark chocolate bar for some nice chocolate sprinkles. A fast (prep time, at least) and easy way to have a decadent dessert!

Angela's Test Kitchen - Granola

So it's been almost 2 years since I've made granola. I made it several times when I lived in Alexandria, VA. Not sure why I haven't gotten around to doing it in a while, it's really fast to get ready. Perhaps it's because it  takes a lot of ingredients that I don't normally have on hand.

This batch is for me, though I do like the idea of making jars of granola for Christmas presents. I like this idea. Hmm... Or making these jars...

  

Back to the actual granola. I got the base recipe off of allrecipes.com. This will be a theme of this blog, I'm sure. Here's what I actually did

Ingredients

• 6 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 flax seeds
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup dried cherries, cause I'm from cherry country

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
In a large bowl, stir together the oats, oat bran, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds and almonds. 

drinking a beer while making granola is not a bad idea

In a separate bowl, mix together the oil, honey, boiling water, brown sugar, salt and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir until evenly coated. Spread in a thin layer on a large baking sheet. (takes 2 sheets) I put parchment paper down first.

Now the recipe I used said Bake for 60 to 90 minutes in the preheated oven. Stir every 30 minutes, until lightly toasted and fragrant. But since I had 2 baking sheets of granola and starting making this at 9:30pm on a school night, I decided to put both of the trays in at the same time. The bottom one was already very burnt by my 30 minute check in. The top sheet was a bit too dark on the edges but not burnt. Next time, I'm going to do one sheet at a time and stir about every 10-15 minutes. The total bake time was only about 40 minutes. 

After it's baked you can add your dried cherries or other dried fruit. I'm guessing at the amount to put in. One time I made it and the fruit didn't taste the best by the time I finished eating the batch. I think I'll keep separately and add a bit to each bowl.

 the good batch

It was Angela's test kitchen tonight! Hopefully by Christmas I'll have it down just right. The granola isn't very sweet, I think some of my friends might like it that way, others might want to add more brown sugar or honey for them.

 the perhaps a bit overdone batch

I found a website that analyzes recipes and this is what it said for my granola. It not 100% accurate but I think it's interesting, none the less. The serving size should be about a half a cup.