We don’t really do the corned beef and cabbage thing. It’s not our cup of tea. But you better believe we do the Irish Soda Bread thing though. With green decorations. Made out of ribbon, yarn, coat hangers, and craft glue. Yep, that’s how we celebrate.
Want to celebrate like us? Here’s how— 1. Make Irish Soda Bread. 2. While it’s baking, make decorations for the soda bread, duh! 3. Get out some yarn, ribbon, craft glue, scissors, and a coat hanger. 4. Cut the coat hanger into 2 pieces. Wash thoroughly. Dry. 5. Cut 8 2″ (or so) pieces of green ribbon. Add glue to half of the 2″ piece of ribbon and fold over, making sure the yarn is in the center of the fold. Repeat 7 times. Allow glue to dry for about 30 minutes. 6. Cut triangles into each ribbon. Attached the yarn to coat hangers. 7. Once bread is done cooking, decorate. 8. Take pictures and eat!
In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, and beat on high speed until the mixture is thick and light-colored, about 2 minutes. Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then 1 cup of the wheat flour. Gently beat in half the buttermilk, then another cup of the wheat flour. Add the remainder of the buttermilk, and the final cup of all-purpose flour, mixing until smooth. Stir in the currants.
Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased 8″ round pan, and line the bottom with parchment paper. Drizzle the milk atop the batter, and sprinkle with the sugar.
Bake the bread in a preheated 325° oven for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Tent a sheet of aluminum foil over the top for the final 15 minutes, if it appears to be browning too quickly. Remove the bread from the oven, wait about 5 minutes, then carefully turn it out onto a rack to cool. Allow the bread to cool for at least 1 hour before slicing.
One Banana Banana Bread. I’m eating a sliver right now. It’s only appropriate, ya know? Let me tell you, the crumb topping is a nice little surprise on the taste buds. Read more
The temperature has turned to cold. Family and friends are gathered in droves. Thanksgiving is in a couple of days and you’re probably wondering what to serve all those people for breakfast. First thing that comes to everyone’s mind—breakfast casserole. Over done. High in calories (save those precious numbers for your turkey dinner). Heavy on the stomach. Try something new this year—Baked Oatmeal. If you have to, think of it as Oatmeal Casserole. Original. Low in calories. Light on the stomach. Best of all, it feeds lots of people! Read more
Dear Blog, Please excuse my absence. I had to get a ganglion cyst removed, was in a cast, and couldn’t really bake or type for that matter. But now I’m back! Yours Truly, Fauxmartha
It’s pumpkin time. Well, maybe it’s on the tail end of pumpkin time, but it’s not too late. Too late for what? Duh, roasting your own pumpkins. This year, try forgoing buying that canned pumpkin. Not that it’s bad, but this is so much better. I promise.
The best pumpkins for baking are known as cheese pumpkins or sugar pumpkins. You want to stay away from using the big carving pumpkins (pictured above in the middle). They make for a stringy and watery puree. Unknowingly, I did this last year. And it’s true—watery and stringy. This year, I went with sugar pumpkins. They are small. Decently smooth to the touch. Some may call them cute. And guess what, they’re orange. (Cheese pumpkins are not true orange. Read here to find out more about pumpkin varieties.) You can buy them at specialty grocery stores (Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, etc). I bought mine at the Farmer’s Market. The look tiny but produce plenty of pumpkin meat.
There are several ways to turn a pumpkin into pumpkin puree. Some people cut the pumpkin into chunks and steam them. Others do the same thing, but microwave instead of steam. I prefer the roasting method. In my opinion it’s the easiest and tastes the best, but others may disagree.
Roasting Sugar Pumpkins adapted from MarthaStewart.com 1. Preheat oven to 400°. 2. With a sharp knife, cut slits in the pumpkin so it can breathe while roasting. 3. Place pumpkin(s) in a baking dish with about 1″ of water. 4. Bake for about 1 1/2 hr, until skin is easily pierced. 5. Peel off skin of pumpkin. If needed, use a peeler. 6. Cut pumpkin in half and allow to cool for about 15 min. 7. Scoop out seeds. I used a melon baller to do this. 8. Throw the “meat” of the pumpkin into a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. 9. Allow to cool and add to your recipe in place of the canned stuff; or refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze.
Stay tuned to hear where this puree made it’s debut. It’ll leave you saying Whoop-ee!
Have you been sweating alot lately? Feeling like it’s too hot to enjoy the great outdoors? You want to wear your swimsuit to work? Oh wait, you don’t want to be caught dead in your swimsuit? You’ve been thinking, man, oatmeal would really help me shed those last couple pounds. But it’s just too hot to eat this time of year. Think again, my friends, think again. Let me introduce you to Swiss Oatmeal.
I first met Swiss Oatmeal on my weekly breakfast date with my sister. It was a Saturday. We pulled into Corner Bakery thinking we were just going to get breakfast and chat. Little did I know, my world was about to change. I ordered Swiss Oatmeal. It sounded so … European. How could I resist? It was love at first sight. Or should I say bite? Yep, I just said bite.
My affair with Swiss Oatmeal continued over the years. At first, I would just eat it on the weekends with my sister. Eventually I decided I needed to learn how to make it myself. Once a week just wasn’t cutting it. After much experimentation, I figured out how to make this in the comfort of my own home.
Let me tell you a bit about Swiss Oatmeal before I give away the recipe. You eat it chilled not hot. It wont make you sweat. It never sits in a microwave or a pan on the stove top. Just add water. It’s creamy. It’s healthy. It will help you shed those extra pounds. It’s similar to Muesli. It’s very very filling. It’s got all the fiber Dr. Oz has been telling you to eat. It’s sweet. It’s delicious. It has a very interesting history. It’s the easiest recipe on this blog to date. You’re about to fall in love.
Here’s what you’ll need, plus yogurt.
Swiss Oatmeal one serving
1/2 c.-ish of Old Fashioned oats water Sprinkle of Craisins Sprinkle of Currants or Raisins 1/2 Banana diced 1/4 Granny Smith apple diced Brown Sugar to taste 2 spoonfuls or so Plain Yogurt
1. The night before, place oats in a bowl. Cover oats just below the top with water (pictures to follow). Refrigerate overnight. 2. In the morning, drain the water if necessary. 3. Combine ingredients into the oats—yogurt, currants, craisins, banana, apple, brown sugar. Stir. 4. Eat and fall in love.
TIPS • We use a Pyrex bowl and cover with lid. If there’s excess water in the morning, we use the lid to help drain it out. Though, we’ve gotten so good lately that we rarely have to drain anymore. • We only make enough for the next day. • Yogurt is the paste that holds everything together. We use Mountain High Yoghurt—Plain, low fat. You can buy this at Costco or Whole Foods. Using plain yogurt allows us to determine the sweetness. • We prefer currants to raisins in Swiss Oatmeal. They are smaller in size but taste very similar. You can buy them at Whole Foods in the bulk section. • Use Old Fashion cut oats as compared to Quick Cooking oats. Because Quick Cooking oats are smaller in size, they become more mooshy overnight in water. Bleh. • Since we eat alot of oats, we buy them in bulk at Costco. • This is another one of those recipes you can make your own. There is no exact science, so experiment. Add berries, add granola for some crunch, add nuts, add flavored yogurt, add greek yogurt, use honey instead of brown sugar, add wheat germ, and the list could go on and on.
Above: Oats without water. Below: Oats with water.
I have been blog hopping left and right these days. Too bad all this hopping doesn’t burn calories. There are so many well done blogs out there. I’m jealous. The newest one I have been drooling over is Joy Ever After. Looks like she dabbles in some of my favorite things—cooking, crafting, design, etc.—so of course I love her blog. It’s inspiring. Her pictures and photography are excellent, something I am trying to beef up myself. Kevin is helping me out in this area. He got a new hefty duty camera last Christmas and bought a sweet lens with a low f-stop. Now we are trying to learn this intricate piece of machinery. Before I was using my canon point-and-shoot, on a tripod, in manual mode. It did OK. But hopefully you start to see some improvements.
So, while blog hopping, I came across this cute recipe for blueberry muffins. Cute recipe? Yep, she designed a cute recipe card for the muffins. So cute it made me want to make them this here Saturday morning. Lucky me, we had a huge bowl of blueberries in the fridge. As always, I made some tweaks to the recipe. Well, maybe alot. It all started because I didn’t have a lemon, which her recipe called for. And then I made a couple more tweaks. And a couple more. So here’s what happened….
Blueberry Muffins makes 12
1 c. AP unbleached Flour 1 c. Whole Wheat Flour 2/3 c. sugar 1 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1 c. plain yogurt 1/2 c. canola oil (or some other heart healthy oil) 1 egg 1 tsp. vanilla 2 c. fresh blueberries CRUMB TOPPING 2 tbsp. turbinado 2 tbsp. flour dash of cinnamon 1 tbsp. slightly melted butter
1. Preheat oven to 400°. Line muffin tin with liners. 2. Whisk together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt). 3. In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients (yogurt, oil, egg, and vanilla). 4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined. I did this all by hand. No need to get out your mixer. 5. Fold in blueberries. 6. Fill muffin tin with batter. I use a spring release scoop to make sure each muffin is about the same size. 7. In a separate bowl, combine turbinado, flour, cinnamon, and slightly melted butter until crumby. 8. Sprinkle mixture on top of muffins, and bake for 23 minutes or until golden brown. 9. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, and serve!
