Potluck Monday with Guest Valerie Comer!

Granola Crisps

Valerie Comer

Looking for something a little different to put out on a holiday tray? Try these twice-baked barely sweet crackers, reminiscent of Rainforest Crisps as sold in the supermarket. Or at least they're sold in mine, but not at a price I've been able to justify even once.

So when my daughter-in-law, Jen, made these crisps last year, I became an instant addict. They shot to the top of my Christmas baking list. These are soooo good.

Just so you know, these aren't something you can whip up last minute, but not because they take long to make. On the contrary, it's hard to imagine anything simpler. However, the loaf needs to freeze after the first baking. This batch makes about 4 dozen Granola Crispies.

I'm debating if I should tell you how many batches we made. Oh, fine. You'll be able to tell from the photos anyway. Besides, I froze them in several packages for the various Christmas parties we'll go to. It's not like I'll eat them all myself. Unless we forget to take them to one or more of the get-togethers? (Did I just say that out loud?)

ANYWAY, let's just jump in and I'll explain as we go. Here's what you need:

Preheat your oven to 350° F.

Into a mixing bowl place:

1 cup flour (we used 1/2 spelt, 1/4 whole wheat, 1/4 white, but you can use any flour you like)
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk (or plain yogurt, or milk soured with 1 teaspoon of vinegar)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup dried fruit (we used dry cherries, but raisins also work)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (whatever nuts you have)
1/4 cup roasted pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons flax seed, ground (Jen got this pre-ground in the bulk department)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

So, all that gets mixed together, but don't beat it till it's dead. Once the ingredients are blended, it's enough. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for about 35 minutes until it's golden brown. Pop out of the pan and cool on a wire rack, then wrap and freeze.

Okay, you don't have to freeze it, but it works best if you do, because the next step is to slice the loaf. If it's frozen, or at least mostly so, it's much easier to carve this baby into thin, even slices. I mean really, super thin. Cut the slices in half so the resulting crackers will be an appropriate size.

Lay these slices out on a cookie sheet in a single layer. The oven temperature this round is 300° F, and the time about 15 minutes. Then flip them over and go for another 10 minutes or so. Keep a close eye on your first batch, as all ovens are a little different. At the end, they should be evenly, lightly browned and dried right through.

I love cream cheese on mine, as shown in this photo. (And thanks for the opportunity to show off a couple of my favorite pottery pieces!) My husband loves smearing them with artichoke dip. What toppings do you think would be great?

Valerie Comer and her husband of over 30 years live on a small farm in Canada where they grow and preserve much of what they eat. Valerie is an avid supporter of her local food action coalition and farmers' market, where her family sells honey from their many beehives. These experiences provide the seeds for her novels of contemporary inspirational romance grounded in the local foods movement.  Valerie blogs three times a week, offering insights into her writing journey, reviewing books, and spotlighting seasonal recipes. Her fiction debuts in May 2012 with a novella in Rainbow's End from Barbour.

Potluck Monday with Guest Mindy Obenhaus!

Holiday Treats

Mindy Obenhaus

Hello! I am so excited to finally be back here at the Yankee Belle. Due do that little thing called LIFE, I haven’t been able to visit in a while and, boy, have I missed y’all. All I have to say is thank You, Lord, for comfort food.

I don’t know about you, but this is my FAVORITE time of the year. I LOVE Christmastime. The sights. The sounds. The aroma. Oh, and let’s not forget the treats. We all have those recipes we pull out once a year. Today, I’d like to share one of my faves with you. Best of all, it’s SO easy.

Peanut Clusters

Ingredients:

1 package chocolate almond bark

1 package white almond bark

12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips

1 - 4 oz. bar Baker’s German’s sweet chocolate

34.5 oz. dry roasted peanuts

Put chopped almond barks, chocolate, and chocolate chips in Crock Pot, high or low, stirring occasionally, until melted. Or, if you prefer to get it all done at once, melt the chocolates in the microwave, stirring every minute until melted. On this day, I put up Christmas decorations while the candies melted in the Crock Pot. Once everything is melted and smooth, 

Stir in peanuts.

Then drop by spoonfuls onto parchment or waxed paper. Honestly, they release easier from parchment paper, but I ran out.

Allow to harden and ENJOY.

Yes, this recipe makes a lot. However, they freeze wonderfully. Meaning they can last the entire Christmas season. Perfect to pull out and serve on a pretty plate whenever company arrives. They’ll think you slaved all day. And the combination of sweet and salty will curb everyone’s craving.

Merry Christmas, y’all and Season’s Eatings. :)

Whoopie Pies with Guest Jan Drexler!

    Whoopie Pies!                   

By Guest Jan Drexler

***Warning: No Diet Zone ahead***

What? You’ve neverheard of Whoopie Pies?  

                               

You came here to be educated, I hope. You are in the presence of a homeschool mom.

Whoopie Pies originally came from the Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The recipe has travelled, changed, been tweaked, flavored and gigantisized to the point that there are now two official versions – New England Style and Amish Style. The difference between the two is that the New England Style is made with marshmallow fluff as the filling.

That’s just crazy talk.

(Unless you’re from New England, of course.)

Back to the history lesson.                                                

Amish legend says the treats got their name because when Amish school children found them in their lunch pails, they would shout “whoopee!”

In western Pennsylvania they call them “Gobs”, and have traditionally been a favorite of miners.

…or anyone who likes their cake with the frosting on the inside where it’s less messy.

And the State of Maine has recently made them the official state snack.

(But remember, they make theirs with marshmallow fluff, so does it really count?)

Of course, the only true Whoopie Pie is the original Amish treat.                                   

My recipe is from a great book called “The Amish Cook”. It’s a collection of newspaper columns and recipes written by an Old Order Amish woman from Indiana, Elizabeth Coblentz. Elizabeth passed on several years ago, and the column is now being written by her daughter, Lovina. Kevin Williams is the editor and English end of the enterprise.                                    

I’ve tweaked Elizabeth’s original recipe a bit, but the method of making these treats is still the same. If you want the original Amish taste and texture, use lard instead of butter. Yes, they’re wonderful that way, but I don’t always keep lard on hand. So I use butter. The cookies aren’t quite as light, but they still have a good crumb and flavor. And that’s what’s important, right?

The pies consist of two parts – the cake-like cookies and the filling. If you’re short on time, you may want to make the cookies one day and the filling the next – although be sure to keep the cookies away from your hungry family until you get the filling made…

Whoopie Pies (makes about 2 dozen pies)

Cookies:

(makes about 4 dozen, you need 2 for each pie)

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup butter

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 cup, minus 1 tablespoon milk

1 cup hot water

These cookies are made like a cake. To be successful in getting the right texture, repeat the following to yourself as you’re mixing the batter: “I’m making cake, not cookies. I’m making cake, not cookies. I’m making cake, not cookies.”

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a measuring cup, add milk to one tablespoon apple cider vinegar to make one cup, and let set for about five minutes to sour the milk.
                                                                       

Stir together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt until the mixture is uniform in color.                        

In your mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar and vanilla together until creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until the mixture is smooth.                                                

Add the flour mixture and the sour milk alternately, about ¼ of each at a time, blending well after each addition. Add the hot water and blend until smooth. You now have a thick, rich, chocolate cake batter.

                                                                                                

Drop by tablespoon full, spaced apart, onto cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes, or until the top of the cookie springs back when lightly touched.   
                                 

Cool for 5 minutes before removing them to wire racks to cool completely.           

Filling:

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

¾ cup butter

1 ½ cups powdered confectioners sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Whisk the flour into the one cup milk. Heat in a saucepan over medium high heat, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes, or until thickened.

Pour into a bowl and let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, soften the butter to room temperature. Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla. Add the cooled milk mixture and beat for 7 minutes, or until fluffy.                       

Fill your whoopie pies with the desired amount of filling, and enjoy.

                                   

These are also great frozen! Just wrap each one in plastic wrap and freeze.

[Editorial note from The Belle: Oh. My. Stars. Look at that last photo!!! Is your mouth watering, too?]

Pot Luck Monday with Guest Valerie Comer!

Apple Turnovers

With Valerie Comer

Hello there! Is it still apple season where you live? Yeah, I know. Nowadays we can get apples anywhere, any time. But still, autumn and apples go together like blossoms and bees, don't you think?

I love apple pie! Not sure about you, but there are only so many slices my hips need, while hubby's hips, of course, seem immune. He loves the fact that my mom's No Fail Pie Crust recipe makes 7 open pies or 3-4 closed ones. I love the fact that, in theory, I can freeze the dough for using later. But then I forget it in the bottom of the freezer for months on end, and, well, you know how that goes.

So. The solution is (insert trumpet sound): Apple Turnovers!!

Then I freeze those babies, and I can guarantee they don't get lost in there permanently, but find their way into hubby's lunch boxes, one at a time. Yes, I can (mostly) resist them at this stage.

Let's get started, shall we? We'll do this in two parts. First, Mom's piecrust (which, of course, you can use for any kind of pie). It truly is no fail. Very light and flakey. Mmm. And second, we'll go on to the apple turnovers themselves.

Take a large mixing bowl and put in 5 cups of flour. Although I use home-ground whole-wheat flour for nearly all my baking, I use store-bought organic white flour for piecrust. I mean, even I can't convince myself that pie is precisely healthy, so I'll just do the best I can without wrecking the treat! Add 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Cut in 1 pound of butter or lard. (I think in Ruthy Talk this is the equivalent of four sticks of butter, or 2 cups). My mom's recipe calls for lard, but I don't usually have it in the house. Butter--real butter--works great, so long as it's been sitting out of the fridge for an hour or so. It should be cool, but fridge-cold is too hard to work with.

Use a pastry cutter or a couple of forks or your fingers to (gently!) crumb these ingredients together. You want those butter bits to be smaller than peas.

Now take a measuring cup and put in 2 eggs and 2 tablespoons vinegar. Yep, vinegar. It's the secret ingredient. (Not a secret any more!)

Add water to the 1-cup line in your measuring cup. Whisk together thoroughly, then pour over the crumbs.

Now you don't want to over-handle the dough, so mix it together gently, then form it into seven balls. Cover the ones you're not using so they don't dry out. Take one and roll it out on a well-floured surface. Sprinkle some flour top and bottom to keep it from sticking, but don't overdo it.

How thin? As evenly thin as you can make it without tearing it. All I can say is that after a time or two, you'll be able to feel the right thickness. Trust me.

Side Note: When I'm doing these for pie instead of turnovers, I roll the crust out on a piece of waxed paper. I lay my pie plate, upside down, centered on the crust, then slide my hand underneath, and FLIP! I can readjust the exact location of the crust, and peel the waxed paper off. Voila! Ready for filling.</i>

The day I made these turnovers I worked with my daughter-in-law, Jen. So while I was prepping the piecrust, she was prepping apples. She used this handy dandy little machine to peel, core, and slice the apples, but I've often done it by hand many times.

What kind of apples? Nearly any kind will do. We used Elstars this time, but you can use Spartans, Granny Smiths, or a local baking favorite.

When she had 6 cups apple pieces, she added 1/4 cup flour, 2/3 cup white sugar (we buy the organic sugar from Costco--it's awesome, and a decent price!), a dash of salt, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon each ginger and cloves. Mix together until the apples are evenly coated.

Nibble a couple pieces. Mmm.

I use a dessert bowl as a template for my turnovers. It's about 5" inches across. You can use anything of a similar size. Just use a knife and lightly follow the curve. I've never damaged my table, but then it's a working table in a farmhouse. So you might want to be careful where you do this. Set aside the dough from around the circles--you'll use all of it together last, not adding it back into each subsequent rolling out. (That's the fast way to toughen dough.)

Put a small amount of apple filling on one side of the dough circle, and fold the dough over it. It takes a bit of practice to get the right amount in! You want it as full as you can get it while still being able to seal the circle.

Use a fork to seal around the arc and poke 3-4 holes in the top to allow steam to escape. Arrange on cookie sheets as close together as you can without touching. Then bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the first batch and adjust for your oven. You want them golden brown and oozing yummy appleness.

You can see Jen's and mine aren't all perfect. Who cares? Not our hubbies! Once the turnovers cooled to room temperature, we popped them in the freezer. Once frozen, we tucked each into a sandwich baggie, then into a hard-sided container so they wouldn't get crushed in the freezer by tumbling roasting chickens or legs of lamb.

One last tip: label the container: Brussels sprouts. That way no one will open the container and you can dole them out one-at-a-time, just as you please.

Valerie Comer and her husband of over 30 years live on a small farm in Canada where they grow and preserve much of what they eat. Valerie is an avid supporter of her local food action coalition and farmers' market, where her family sells honey from their sixty beehives. These experiences provide the seeds for her novels of contemporary inspirational romance grounded in the local foods movement. Valerie blogs three times a week, offering insights into her writing journey, reviewing books, and spotlighting seasonal recipes. Her fiction debuts in May 2012 with a novella in Rainbow's End from Barbour.

Pot Luck Monday with Guest Edwina Cowgill!

Kids Come Up with the Craziest Words

I have this wonderful chicken recipe that I have cooked more times than I can count over the years. The name of the dish is “Creamy Baked Chicken.” But the “creamy” part isn’t really creamy. It’s not a sauce, or gravy, or a soup consistency. When my children, Kim and Kyle, were young, they decided it was “goopy.” “You know, Mom, it’s gooey but kinda soupy, too.” From that day forward I have cooked “Goopy Baked Chicken.”  (Rachel Ray was not the first chef to combine 2 food descriptions or titles for a new word. My kids beat her to it!!) This dish is so simple, it takes only a few minutes to prepare. It’s delicious enough to serve for guests. I hope it becomes one of your family’s favorite dishes.

Goopy Baked Chicken

Prep Time:  10 minutes

Cook Time: 45-55 minutes

Serves 8

Ingredients

8 boneless chicken breasts

8 thin slices Swiss cheese

1 can cream of chicken soup

¼ C dry white wine (can substitute cooking wine)

1 C Pepperidge Farm herb-seasoned stuffing mix

3 T melted butter

Directions

Arrange chicken in a lightly greased baking dish. Top each chicken breast with one slice of Swiss cheese. Mix the soup and wine and spoon the mixture over the cheese. Cover the dish with the Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix and drizzle melted butter over the stuffing mix. Bake, uncovered, in 350 degree oven for 45-55 minutes.

I normally serve this dish with steamed broccoli or cauliflower. When we have guests, Green Bean Almandine goes great with the dish.

Happy Cooking!

Edwina