Oat Cuisine

In my New Year e-mail to friends I mentioned that I was working on an article about oatmeal. The response was enthusiastic.

“Oatmeal is our friend,” e-mailed Carol Cooke, a realtor from Alexandria, Virginia. Just as passionate was Sheila Velazquez. Along with her family, Sheila is working hard to resurrect the old Rice farm on Pudding Hollow Road here in Hawley, Massachusetts. They are basically camping out (brrr!) while nurturing their children and chickens, reconstructing the historic house’s interior, and reading seed catalogues as they dream of the garden they will plant in spring.

Sheila wrote that on chilly winter mornings she enjoys oatmeal almost every day. She buys organic oats in bulk and cooks them with water, dried fruit, and cinnamon. She throws in a little salt at the very end. “So good and also a good way to use up fruit that’s getting past its time,” she added.

Sheila offered me a recipe for oatmeal pie, which she termed a sort of “faux pecan” concoction. She said of oatmeal in general, “It seems that some of the most delicious foods are also the least expensive and best for us.”

I don’t eat oatmeal every morning. Unlike the noble Sheila I always add at least a little brown sugar or maple syrup to my morning porridge. I do yearn for the warmth and comfort of oatmeal at this time of year, however. I’m apparently not alone. More Americans eat oatmeal in January than in any other month, a statistic that prompted Quaker Oats to name January National Oatmeal Month.

Of course, Quaker had a vested interest in creating a month devoted to its signature product. I forgive the company because oatmeal is indeed the perfect food in this dark and cold season. The old cliché that it sticks to one’s ribs turns out to be true. Whole grains like oats take longer for the body to process than many other foods.

The best oatmeal for health purposes is a long-cooking type such as steel-cut oats. If you’re in a hurry, old-fashioned oats take only five minutes to prepare and are still very good for you. Avoid the small packages of instant oatmeal, however. They tend to go overboard in adding salt and sugar.

Oatmeal always appears on lists of super foods. It is good for cholesterol and blood pressure. It also delivers several nutrients, as well as some protein.

Best of all, it is versatile. Broccoli is also a super food, but there are only so many ways a person can disguise broccoli. Believe me, I’ve tried! As well as making a tasty breakfast cereal, oatmeal can be tucked into fruit crisps, cookies, breads, muffins, and meatloaf. It can even be used to construct a facial mask. (Take that, broccoli!)

In this post and the next few I’ll share recipes to boost oatmeal intake this month. If you’re looking for a basic oatmeal cookie, you can’t do better than the formula for Vanishing Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies on the inside of the Quaker Oats box top. Dan Turner of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, told me how to get the best consistency with these cookies: use a Crisco stick instead of the butter or margarine called for in the recipe. You’ll find that the cookies really do vanish quickly.

The Rice Farm in Hawley, Massachusetts

Rice Farm Oatmeal Pie

Sheila Velazquez says that she originally found this recipe in Farm Journal’s Country Cookbook, published in 1972. At one time she managed a farmer’s market, where the pie was a best seller. Sheila explains that the oatmeal forms a chewy crust on the top of the pie.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark corn syrup
3 eggs
1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the spices and salt. Stir in the corn syrup. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring after each addition until all is blended. Stir in the oats.

Pour the mixture into the pie shell, and bake for about an hour, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Serves 6 to 8.

Chock-Full Oatmeal Cookies

I couldn’t let National Oatmeal Month end without at least one oatmeal recipe. This is your basic oatmeal-raisin cookie with a few extra touches to make it even more satisfying. The coconut in particular adds to the cookies’ chewiness.

These cookies offer my conscience a perfect compromise. At this chilly time of year I long to bake, particularly for my nephew Michael. I am aware that sweet baked goods are not the healthiest thing to feed him … or anyone else. These cookies still contain sugar and fat, but they are also chock full of fruits, nuts, and grains that make them healthier than your average cookie. If you use the white whole-wheat flour, the cookies are even less guilt-inducing.

You’ll note that I suggest using either butter or shortening. They both have advantages. The shortening gives oatmeal cookies a remarkable light consistency. On the other hand, butter gives them added flavor. Use whichever you like—or whichever you have more of!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (at room temperature) or vegetable shortening
1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup flour (you may use either all-purpose or King Arthur Flour white whole-wheat flour)
1-1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup coconut, firmly packed
1/2 cup toasted pecans (optional if you have a child like ours who thinks he doesn’t like nuts)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together the butter and/or shortening with the sugars. Beat in the egg, followed by the vanilla. Stir in the baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, followed by the flour--and then the oatmeal!

Gently stir in the raisins, coconut, and pecans (if you are using those). The batter will be fairly dense.

Drop the batter in smallish clumps onto 2 ungreased baking sheets. (You may line the sheets with a silicone mat if you like.)

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. The cookies should JUST be beginning to brown. They are best not overcooked to ensure maximum chewiness.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

A Sweet Sandwich

July is National Ice Cream month—and my nephew Michael pointed out to me recently that I haven’t posted a single ice cream recipe in the past 31 days. With August on the horizon, I am rushing to rectify this shocking omission.

I recently put out a call for summer sandwich suggestions on Facebook and Twitter. Most of the responses involved tomatoes. After all, at this time of year none of us can get enough of those lush red fruits disguised as vegetables. I’ll post a couple of tomato sandwich recipes soon, I promise.

One warm day, my honorary cousin Deb Parker bucked the tomato trend by reminding me of one my (and Michael’s) favorite summertime treats, the ice cream sandwich!

So I set about creating one. I wanted a cookie base that would hold up fairly well without being hard. I settled on the infamous Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. As most people know, this recipe (which is also occasionally said to originate with Mrs. Fields) is passed around the internet with a supposedly true story about a friend of a friend. (I ALWAYS suspect those stories!)

The woman is said to have enjoyed eating the cookie at a Neiman Marcus café and to have asked for the recipe. According to the story, the waitress says that she will have to charge the customer “two fifty” for the recipe, and the woman happily agrees. When her NM bill comes she finds a charge for $250 rather than the $2.50 she has been expecting—and she vows to take revenge on the high-end department store by passing the recipe along to everyone she knows. Before the internet the story and recipe were spread via letters; now they make the rounds by email.

The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie story is a classic if fun urban legend, one that Neiman Marcus has finally acknowledged by inventing its own cookie recipe and placing it on the NM web site (for free, natch). That recipe looks good, but I wanted the chewiness that oatmeal lends to the “original” recipe. So that’s what I’ve used, cutting it down a bit since it makes a ton of cookies.

Here, then, is my ice-cream sandwich recipe, thanks to whoever made up the faux NM recipe years and years ago.

You may of course use homemade ice cream. I used Snow’s, a local brand that is creamy and old fashioned–just right for an ice cream sandwich. The sandwiches were wonderful, although next time I might try to make the cookies smaller and flatter. They were extremely filling this way.

Tinky Marcus Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
1-1/4 cups blended oatmeal (oatmeal pulverized to a powder in your blender)
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, pulverized to a powder (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips
2 ounces milk chocolate, chopped into small chunks (Hershey’s will do!)
6 scoops vanilla ice cream

Instructions:

First, make the cookies. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in the egg, followed by the baking powder and salt. Stir in the flour, oatmeal powder, and nuts (if desired). Stir in the chocolate chips and chunks.

Divide the dough into 12 good-sized balls. Place them on parchment- or silicone-covered cookie sheets and bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Let them cool on the sheets for 2 minutes; then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

When you are ready to eat, place a scoop of ice cream between 2 cookies and press them together. Repeat with the remaining cookies. Serves 6 generously.

Maple Pecan Granola

Ben and Jerry aren’t the only Americans shouting “Yes, Pecan!” this January in honor of the inauguration. In keeping with my current oatmeal theme I’m making a special Obamalicious batch of oaty, nutty granola.

If I had to pick only one food in the world to eat every day, this granola might just be it. It offers a pleasing mixture of tastes and textures. Luckily, I don’t eat it every day. It’s expensive to make and rather fattening. Nevertheless, a little bit is heavenly with ice cream or yogurt or just by itself as a snack. It also makes a welcome gift. If I thought it would get past security, I would send some to the Obamas. Instead, I’m sharing it with my neighbors.

Maple-Pecan Granola

Ingredients:

3-1/2 cups uncooked old-fashioned oats (do not use instant or steel-cut oatmeal)
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup nutlike cereal nuggets such as Grape-Nuts
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 cup pecan halves
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup canola oil, plus oil for greasing the pan
3/4 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup raisins (plus as many extra as you like!)
1 cup dried cranberries (more of these are nice, too)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the oats, coconut, cereal, almonds, pecans, and sunflower seeds. Make sure they are well jumbled up. In a separate, smaller bowl or a 2-cup measuring cup, carefully whisk together the oil, salt, syrup, and vanilla.

Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients and mix the whole mess together thoroughly with a big spoon.

Generously oil a large jelly roll pan with canola oil. (Pour a little oil in the pan, and smooth it around with a paper towel.) Place the granola on the pan, and bake it until it is golden brown, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours, stirring well every 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, and cool the granola to room temperature. At that point, transfer the granola back into the large bowl, and stir in the dried fruits. Store the granola in an air-tight container (or several).

Makes about 8 cups of granola—more or less, depending on how much stuff you add.

The Golden Spurtle

Before I leave the topic of National Oatmeal Month, I’d like to point readers to the website for the Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship. Thanks to Peter Beck and to Apartment Therapy’s Kitchen section for finding this for me!

A yearly cooking contest set in Carrbridge in Inverness-shire, Scotland (of course!), this contest looks ALMOST as much fun as my annual Pudding Hollow Pudding Contest. Avid food enthusiasts will be happy to hear that they can attend both. The Golden Spurtle is scheduled for October 11, 2009, while the Pudding Contest will take place on October 31.

The Golden Spurtle web site includes rules, an entry form, and a wonderful page devoted to porridge, including something you won’t find anywhere else–a Porridge and Oatmeal Thesaurus.

Eat it up!

2008 Golden Spurtle Winners Andy Daggert & Ian Bishop (Courtesy of the Golden Spurtle)

Jody's Homely Oatmeal Cookies (Havrekaker)

Last month I announced the beginning of my monthly “Twelve Cookies of Christmas” series and asked for cookie submissions from readers.

Jody Cothey of Hawley, Massachusetts, sent in this month’s “Two Turtle Doves” recipe, which she calls Havrekaker (I have also seen it spelled “Havrekakor.”)

The recipe is Norwegian. Jody first found it in a small book from the 1940s called A Grandmother for Christmas. She has been making the cookies since she was about 13.

Jody describes these oatmeal clumps as “homely but yummy.” They are indeed yummy, and they’re homely in both senses of the world: they’re a little plain, and they speak of home.

Jody’s home is Tregellys Fiber Farm. It’s on the other side of town from the Casa Tinky and looks as though it’s in a different country.

The hills outside my door are small and cozy; the ones outside Jody and her husband Ed’s home are dramatic—more like the Andes or the Himalayas than our humble Berkshires.

The Cotheys raise exotic (mostly) fiber-producing animals and have an abiding interest in India, Nepal, and Tibet. Ed weaves lovely rugs and blankets from the fleece. The pair sell his handiwork as well as fair-trade international handicrafts in a shop called Tregellys World in nearby Shelburne Falls.

When Jody isn’t taking care of yaks, Icelandic sheep, or Bactrian camels she writes poetry under her maiden name, Pamela Stewart. Her new book of poems, Ghost Farm, is due out later this year from Pleasure Boat Studio.

I don’t know how she finds time to bake, but I’m glad she does. It helps that these cookies are very, very easy. They hold together beautifully.

Jody says, “This is a fairly stiff mixture so have a strong wooden spoon and an adequate bowl, especially if doubling the recipe.” Ed, who is a big fan of the cookies, adds that they freeze well. (We didn’t have any left over to freeze!)

A Bactrian Camel on a Hawley Hill (Courtesy of Tregellys Fiber Farm)

Havrekaker

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt
2 cups raw oatmeal
2 cups flour

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, followed by the vanilla, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the oatmeal and flour; combine thoroughly.

Drop or scoop cookies of the desired size onto greased cookie sheets. Ideally, you will have about 2 dozen cookies, but if you want them bigger or smaller, go right ahead.

Just remember that bigger cookies will take a little longer to bake, and smaller ones may take a little less time. Jody says, “Mine are small…. usually cookie size is personal, like bra size.”

Bake the cookies until they are firm and begin to get brown around the edges, about 15 minutes. Makes about 24 cookies.

What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

Frank Loesser composed the song “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” in 1947.

According to Susan Loesser’s biography of her father, A Most Remarkable Fella, the singer of the song is supposed to be asking the title question in the early spring, thinking ahead and hoping that a new relationship will last until December.

“It always annoyed my father when the song was sung during the holidays,” the composer’s daughter writes.

When a songwriter publishes a song and sends it out into the world, however, the song can be reinterpreted over and over again—and Frank Loesser has clearly lost the battle of New Year’s Eve.

His song perfectly epitomizes the mixture of reflection, hope, and sleepiness we feel as midnight looms on December 31. It’s a lovely piece—slightly jazzy and easy to sing because the melody makes the lyrics seem effortless, like conversation.

Maybe it’s much too early in the game.
Ah, but I thought I’d ask you just the same:
What are you doing New Year’s, New Year’s Eve?

I’ll definitely be singing it tonight as part of a set Alice Parker and I are performing at the Charlemont Inn. And this afternoon as I vocalize I plan to make bannocks—at least, my version of bannocks.

Bannocks are one of the traditional Scottish foods associated with the celebration of Hogmanay. This Scottish New Year holiday begins on New Year’s Eve (sometimes even earlier) and extends into New Year’s Day (sometimes even later).

Hogmanay is a major festival in Scotland these days, not unlike July 14 in France. A Scottish website, Hogmanay.net, documents many of the contemporary celebrations and offers some history as well as an opportunity to sing “Auld Lang Syne” by following a bouncing ball.

According to Hogmanay lore, the New Year will be prosperous if a dark stranger is the first person to cross one’s threshold in the New Year. The stranger is supposed to bring a token gift, often a lump of coal to keep the fire warm. The homeowner reciprocates with refreshment.

A typical refreshment offered is a bannock, an oatmeal cake that according to varying accounts resembles a scone—or a pancake—or a cookie.

I’ve never tasted an authentic bannock, and I encourage readers with recipes to send them in! In the meantime, I’m baking my version of this treat, which is distinctly scone like.

I love the word “bannock.” It sounds solid and practical. My bannocks are also solid (although not hard!) and taste pleasantly of country life.

It’s unlikely that a dark and handsome stranger will cross my threshold at midnight.

Snow is predicted late this evening in Hawley, Massachusetts, and the town tends to be geriatric so any handsome stranger who actually makes it up my steep hill will probably be silver haired. But a girl can always hope.

If no stranger shows up, we’ll eat the bannocks for breakfast on New Year’s Day.

Happy New Year to all! I look forward to singing and cooking with you in 2010…

Tinky’s Inauthentic but Tasty Bannocks

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal (not quick cooking)
1/2 cup blended oatmeal (put oats in your blender and pulverize them into a flour-like consistency; then measure out 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1-1/2 teaspoons baking power
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter
2/3 cup raisins
1/2 to 2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
white sugar for the top of the bannocks

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 325 and lightly grease two cookie sheets (or line them with silicone or parchment).

In a medium bowl combine the flour, oatmeals, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Cut in the butter; then stir in the raisins.

In a mixing cup whisk together 1/2 cup buttermilk, the egg, and the vanilla. Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients. If the batter won’t quite hold together, add a little more buttermilk.

Drop the bannock batter into 12 mounds on the prepared cookie sheets. Sprinkle a little sugar on the top of each mound.

Bake the bannocks for 18 to 25 minutes, until they are brown on the edges. Let the bannocks cool on the cookie sheets for a minute or two before serving them warm. (If you can’t use them right away, reheat them briefly before serving; they’re best eaten quite fresh from the oven.)

Makes 12 bannocks.

Avenaceous Meatloaf

Knowing that this blog and I are currently celebrating National Oatmeal Month, my college roommate Amy MacDonald recently sent me Wordsmith.org’s word of the day for January 5. The word was AVENACEOUS. It means relating to or like oats.

Amy, known to her college friends as “Our Amy” (we like to take credit for her), is one of my favorite people in the world. She’s smart. She’s funny. She’s musical. And she’s as practical and loving as they come. She has a terrific family, from matriarch Kathleen and the seven(!) MacDonald siblings down to her own kids, Caitlin and William. Until recently I was under the impression that Caitlin and William were still extremely young. Last time I saw them they were sipping drinks of such an intense blue that only children under ten could digest them–or would want to try. According to Amy’s most recent missive, however, they have somehow become teenagers.

Our Amy (glamorous earrings courtesy of Kathleen)

Obviously, Amy and I don’t get together as often as we’d like. Unfortunately (from my point of view), she lives in California. Whenever we do, we talk for hours, just as though we were still sitting on our beds at Mount Holyoke. Even when we’re apart, we think of each other often. I’m convinced that no one else would have found the term avenaceous for me. If you’d like to see Wordsmith’s full tribute to this highly appropriate word, click here.

I was going to call the dish below “Your Basic Meatloaf with Oatmeal,” but I think the new name is much classier. Classy or not, this comfort food is a staple in my home in winter. My mother Jan never uses breadcrumbs to fill out her loaf. Oats are much tastier and more nutritious as well. If you’re feeding small children, chop the onion and bell pepper into very small pieces to disguise them a bit. Adults seem to like larger chunks.

To keep from chilling your hands, take the ground meat out of the refrigerator about an hour before you’re ready to put your loaf together. Enjoy your avenaceous meal!

Avenaceous Meatloaf

Ingredients:

2 pounds good-quality ground beef (or a combination of beef with pork—or beef, pork, and veal!)
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium or 1/2 large bell pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
lots of freshly ground pepper
1 or 2 eggs
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats plus a bit more if needed
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the ground meat, onion, bell pepper, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. (Your clean hands are the best tools for putting them all together.) Blend in 1 egg and the 1/2 cup oatmeal. If it’s hard to get everything to bind together, add another egg and/or a few more oats.

Fashion the meat mixture into a rough log, and place it in a baking dish. In a small bowl, combine the ketchup, brown sugar, and mustard, and spread them over the meatloaf.

Bake the loaf from 45 minutes to 1 hour. Serves 8.

I'm Honored

Bloggers love a little recognition. So I was thrilled yesterday to learn that Mattenylou of the charming blog On Larch Lane has given me the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thanks, Mattenylou!

This award is designed to share news of fun blogs. Each recipient is asked to post seven interesting things about herself (or himself, of course) and to pass the award on to seven other bloggers.

Mattenylou very sweetly wrote to me saying that if I didn’t have time to post seven things about myself she would understand. Naturally, I responded that for an egotist like me the problem would be finding ONLY seven things to write about!

Things about Tinky (they may be of interest only to me, but here they are!):

1. Let’s start with guilty pleasures: I read category fiction. This means I love mysteries and even the occasional romance novel. (I have also been known to TiVo “Ghost Whisperer” on television; I can’t figure out why, but it’s there in my queue every week.)

2. I have had crushes on a number of movie stars, including the following (not in order): Matthew Broderick, Fred Astaire, and Walter Pidgeon. Also Walter Cronkite (maybe there’s something about the name Walter?)

3. There are days on which I would kill for a truffle.

4. I talk to my pets constantly. I am certain that they talk back.

5. When I’m really frazzled I take a walk in the woods.

6. I love my friends and my family. I wish more of them played bridge with me, however; I haven't played bridge in years! And it's my favorite team sport.

7. I would love to be better organized. Also rich and famous, but better organized actually comes first!

Seven of My Favorite Blogs

These were really hard to narrow down; I read and enjoy a LOT of blogs.

1. Commonweeder, which muses year round on gardens and community.

2. Food & Think from the Smithsonian, which mixes science, food, culture, and fun.

3. Walking Off the Big Apple, the thinking woman’s (and man’s) guide to New York.

4. History Hoydens, in which historical-romance writers talk about their research and their writing with wit and passion.

5. Sugar Apple, which blends Southern American and island cuisines to maximize color and flavor.

6. How Does Your Garden Grow, which concentrates on local eating and doable recipes in my native New England.

7. Today at Mary’s Farm, in which journalist Edie Clark shares insightful essays on country life.

Please take a look at them—and, if you like, leave a comment to tell me about some of YOUR favorite blogs. I’m always looking for new reading material.

Before I go I have to post a recipe since National Oatmeal Month is almost over and I HAVEN’T POSTED A SINGLE AVENACEOUS RECIPE this January!

This recipe comes from Jody Cothey. I’ll tell you more about her in my next post, which will feature another of her favorite foods.

For now I’ll just let you know that she and her husband Edward own Tregellys Fiber Farm in my hometown of Hawley, Massachusetts. They have a longstanding interest in Tibetan and Nepalese people and culture.

The Cotheys learned to make this oatmeal dish from Nepalese friends and eat it frequently at this time of year. In Nepal it’s sweetened with honey, but in Massachusetts the Cotheys (and I!) tweak it with a little maple syrup.

If you like bananas and oatmeal, try this combination. It is surprisingly silky in taste and texture.




Nepalese Porridge

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1 pinch salt
2/3 banana, cut into small pieces
maple syrup to taste

Instructions:

In a small saucepan combine the milk, oats, salt, and banana pieces. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the porridge reaches the consistency you like (for me this is about five minutes).

Serve with maple syrup. Serves 1 to 2, depending on appetite.

Maple-Oatmeal Bread

I have one final entry for Massachusetts Maple Month. This is one of my favorite breads in the world—slightly sweet and filling. I always make a mess when I knead bread. How flour ends up on my face, I really don’t know! Luckily, the end product is worth the clean-up work.

Ingredients:

1 cup old-fashioned oats (do not use quick or steel cut)
2 cups boiling water
1 tablespoon butter
1 packet (about 2-1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast (not instant)
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons salt
5-1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (more or less)

Instructions:

Place the oats in a large mixing bowl. Pour the boiling water over them, add the butter, and let the oatmeal stand for about 15 minutes, until it is lukewarm. After the first 10 minutes, place the yeast in a small bowl. Cover it with the lukewarm water. Allow it to bubble up for a few minutes.

When the oatmeal is lukewarm, stir in the maple syrup, the salt, the yeast with its water, and 2 cups of the flour. Stir vigorously; then add 2 cups more flour. Stir again vigorously for a minute or two; get as close to beating as you can with a mixture this heavy. Scoop up the dough (add a bit of flour if it won’t hold together to scoop), and place it on a kneading surface—a floured board or a silicone mat.

Knead the dough for 2 minutes, adding a little more flour to keep it from sticking to the surface and your hands. After those first 2 minutes, let the dough rest for up to 10 minutes; then resume kneading, adding more flour as needed. Knead for 5 to 10 minutes, until the dough feels smooth.

Place the dough in a large, greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a warm, damp dish towel. Let the dough rise until it doubles in bulk; this should take about 2 hours, depending on how warm the room is. If your towel dries out during the rising, be sure to dampen it again.

Remove the covering from the bowl, and punch down on the dough once with your fist. This lets out a lot of the air. (It’s also fun.) Cut the dough in half, and shape each half into a ball. Butter 2 bread pans, and shape each ball into an oval about the same size as your pans. Smooth the balls as well as you can with your hands.

Place the bread loaves in the buttered pans, and turn them over so that both the tops and the bottoms have touched the butter. Cover the pans with a damp towel as you did the rising bowl, and allow the loaves to rise again until they double in bulk. This should take a little less time than the first rising, perhaps an hour or so.

After 45 minutes, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. When the loaves have finished rising, uncover them, and bake them for about 40 to 45 minutes, until they are a warm brown color and sound hollow when you tap on them. Remove the hot loaves from the pans, and let them cool on racks.

Makes 2 loaves.

Thinking Ahead in 2010

New Year’s Resolutions can be tricky things. If we take them too seriously—try to turn our lives around completely—they can be dangerously difficult to maintain.

Instead of making impossible resolutions this January, therefore, I’m using the turn of the year for reflection and planning. Naturally, In Our Grandmothers’ Kitchens is coming in for its share of both activities.

This weekend I looked over many of my posts from the past year or so in an effort to figure out where the blog goes from here. I have selected several types of post that have turned out to be very popular with readers, with me, or with both.

Here they are, in alphabetical order:

Characters I Have Known such as Florette Zuelke and Sylvia Hubbell;

Comfort Food like Faith’s Tunafish & Noodles or Irish Stew;

Contributions from Friends & Readers, such as Erin’s Pizza or Mike’s Louisiana Red Beans & Rice;

Historical Figures, Events, and Places, including Susan B. Anthony and George Washington’s Gristmill;

Holidays, from Mardi Gras to Oatmeal Month (I know oatmeal month isn’t technically a holiday, but we did celebrate it last year!);

Local and Seasonal Foods, from Rhubarb to Squash;

Songs and Music, including such popular standards as “September Song” and “Moon River”;

TV and Film Figures and Foods, featuring people like Vivian Vance and Harriet Nelson.

In the next year I hope to touch on each of these categories at least once a month (which probably means I’ll get to them once every other month; I AM a procrastinator!).

I’ll also be continuing my monthly Twelve Cookies of Christmas series.

And naturally I’ll frequently have to resort to posting a recipe for What We Just Ate.

Some people might argue that each of my categories could spark its own blog. It’s always been both a weakness and a strength of mine that I have many, many passions.

This scattered interest makes it hard for me to focus at times. I think it makes me a more interesting person, cook, and writer, however.

As the year goes by I hope regular readers—and even irregular readers—will help me build up the different categories. Please let me know which of them you favor.

And of course please tell me what I have left out that you’d like to read about.

Two of the categories—Contributions from Readers & Friends and The Twelve Cookies of Christmas—will depend on you in large part for contributions. The name of this blog is In OUR Grandmothers’ Kitchens, after all. Please consider submitting a recipe (with background information) to me in the next few months.

I hope together we’ll have a delicious new year!

Paula Rice, the Senior Slicer at the Meat Counter at Avery’s, slices dried beef.

Frizzled Beef

Since I’ve spent so much time mulling over the past year recently today’s recipe naturally falls into the What We Just Ate category (although it’s also highly eligible for Comfort Food!).

My mother and I invited friends to supper Saturday night. What with snow falling outside and lots of work to do, we didn’t have much opportunity to shop or cook that day.

So we ended up with Frizzled Beef (a.k.a. chipped beef, a.k.a. S.O.S. or Same Old … um … Stuff).
Our local general store, Avery’s, stocks lovely dried beef at this time of year. The nice folks behind the meat counter will slice as much or as little as one likes.

The beef saves for weeks so it’s a great fallback food on snowy days. And it cooks up in minutes.
The recipe I used for the beef came from Gam, our neighborhood matriarch, as did Saturday’s oyster recipe. (I used to stay at her house a lot at this time of year so I guess I’m thinking of her!)

If you want to vary it, you may sauté a little onion and/or celery in butter in your frying pan before you add more butter and the dried beef.

You may also throw cooked peas and/or a pinch of thyme into the final product.

Frizzled beef may be eaten over biscuits, puff pastry, cornbread, or a baked potato. My mother and I had just baked some fresh oatmeal bread the other evening so we served it on toast. A salad and brownies completed our supper.

The guests didn’t complain about the simplicity of the meal. It was warm and tasty. And it was enhanced by candlelight and conversation. (Don’t forget those important ingredients when you serve it yourself.)

Ingredients:

1/2 pound dried beef
a pat of butter the size of an egg
flour as needed
1 egg yolk beaten into 1 cup milk (plus a little more if needed) and 3/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions:

If you are averse to a lot of salt, rinse the beef carefully and pat it dry. Dried beef is heavily cured (that’s why it lasts so long) so it can be very salty.

Melt the butter in a medium frying pan. When it is hot, add the beef and toss it around to coat it in the butter.

Dust the warm beef with flour and toss it around for a minute or two. Pour in the egg mixture. Bring the mixture just to the boil, adding a bit more milk if it looks very thick; then dish it up.

Serves 4.

Dishpan Cookies

I recently heard from Ramona Lynam, a reader of this blog who lives in Iowa and write about life, food, family, and books on her own blog, Chances R.

Ramona had just written about her mother’s “dish pan” cookies and wondered whether I could use a recipe for my “Twelve Cookies of Christmas” series.

Could I ever! I’m actually BEHIND on the series, having neglected to post a cookie recipe in August.

Ramona recently put her mother’s recipe on her blog, and I definitely urge you to try it as she wrote it up. Her cookies look lovely and chewy. Ramona thinks their name comes from the fact that a whole recipe (this is only half) could probably fill a dish pan.

I altered the recipe a bit when I tried it. Ramona, this has nothing to do with you, just with my family’s circumstances!

My nephew Michael’s nutritionist has asked him to cut back on gluten for the moment. So I decided to reduce the gluten in the cookies.

I started out with a fun new product from Trader Joe’s, peanut flour. (I’m sorry about the weird photo; the flour really looks all scrunched up like this when one buys it.)

Peanut flour is basically ground up peanuts that have had some of their fat taken out. It’s a bit lumpy so I was glad Ramona’s mother’s recipe involved sifting the flour. (Note: if you try this with peanut flour, make sure you use a fairly wide sieve. The peanut flour doesn’t go through a tiny one.)

The end result was darker than Ramona’s version and tended to be crunchy rather than chewy. It also tasted a bit like a peanut-butter cookie. We all LOVE peanut-butter cookies in the Weisblat household so this was just fine with us. Michael ate the first one and couldn't stop smiling.

If you’re thinking about playing with less gluten, or even if you’re not, I urge you to try it.
While you’re munching, think about your own mother or grandmother. Here’s what Ramona had to say about her mom:

She was the sweetest, kindest, do anything for anyone woman you could meet. Probably much like your Mom. When Dad died and we kids were out on our own, she shared her almost daily cooking creations with her neighbors. She lived 66 years on the farm she and Dad moved to after they married in 1937 continuing to raise pigs, cattle and chickens and a big garden on her own when she was widowed at age 59. I miss her every day.

Thank you, Ramona, for sharing your memories and recipe. Your mother sounds like a lovely person, and I enjoyed trying her cookies. (I’m going to try them with regular flour soon!)

Here’s a photo of Ramona’s mother, courtesy of Chances R. She obviously loved to feed everybody around……


Ramona’s Mom’s Dish Pan Cookies (altered to be ALMOST gluten free)

Regular Ingredients:

1 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar (I packed mine, but not super firm)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups peanut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup oatmeal (Ramona uses quick, but I only had regular, which worked fine)
2 cups cereal—I used rice cereal, which is ALMOST gluten-free, having only a small amount of barley

Optional Ingredients:

3/4 cup coconut
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecans or other nuts

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the oil and the sugars. Beat in the eggs, followed by the vanilla.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir them in to the wet mixture, followed by the oatmeal and cereal. Stir in any or all of the optional ingredients. I used a generous cup of chocolate chips since that was the only option I was using.

The dough will get stiff and a bit hard to stir. Drop teaspoonsful of batter onto greased or silicon-lined cookie sheets. You will probably have to press the individual clumps of dough together with your hands to make them stay together.

Bake for 8 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes before removing them from the cookie sheets.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies. Eat them quickly; like most low-gluten foods they grow stale quickly.

Thanksgiving Report: Cranberry Apple Crumb Pie

Aunt Lura (in seasonal headband) poses with the cranberry apple pie.

Like most Americans, my family can’t imagine Thanksgiving without pie. My Aunt Lura volunteered to bring a pumpkin creation to our table Thursday so our side of the family only had to make two pies.

(Of course, we didn’t actually have to make even two since we were feeding only eight people, but what is Thanksgiving without excess?)

We knew my honorary cousin Eric was coming so we baked our favorite key-lime pie. Eric is the nephew of my late wonderful semi-godmother Dagny Johnson, who lived on Key Largo, so we HAD to celebrate the Florida Keys.

(You can read more about Dagny and get the key-lime pie recipe in this post from April.)

We also wanted to celebrate our local bounty so we made another pie with two fruits native to both my home state, Massachusetts, and mother’s home state, New Jersey—apples and cranberries.

I had the not very bright idea of making the pie crust with apple cider instead of water to enhance the apple flavor. It DID help the flavor. It also made the crust much harder to manage! So I don’t suggest it. Just use your standard pie crust.

In fact, I’m thinking another time I might eschew the pie crust altogether and call the dish Cranberry Apple Crumble. (If I do, I’ll let you know how it turns out.)

Aside from the sticky crust, everything about this pie proved a success—the apple-cranberry ratio, the rich crumb topping, the contrasting textures. My family highly recommends it.

The Pie

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon flour plus 1/2 cup later
3 medium apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
2 cups cranberries
1 9-inch pie crust

1/2 cup oatmeal (regular, not quick)
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter (you could probably get by with less, but THIS WAS THANKSGIVING FOR GOODNESS’ SAKE!)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a medium bowl combine the sugar, cinnamon, salt, and tablespoon of flour. Add the fruit and toss to combine. Pour this mixture into your pie shell.

In another bowl combine the remaining flour, the oatmeal, and the brown sugar. Cut in the butter. Pour this crumbly topping over your pie.

Bake the pie for 10 minutes; then reduce the oven temperature to 350 and continue baking for 30 more minutes. Serves 8.

Huckleberry Friendship Bars

After I published my Huckleberry Friend post about Johnny Mercer the other day one of my readers expressed her disappointment that I hadn’t included a huckleberry recipe.

Amazingly, I had been so busy expressing myself as a chanteuse that the cook part of me had failed to make that connection!

So I’m rectifying the omission here. Many thanks to Cathy for the idea. I hope the students and teachers at Huckleberry Hill School like these bars.

Since I didn’t have huckleberries on hand I made the bars with the huckleberry’s close cousin, the blueberry.

Ingredients:

3 generous cups huckleberries or blueberries (you may use frozen ones, but defrost them before cooking!)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons cornstarch, dissolved in 1/4 cup water
1-1/2 cups uncooked oatmeal
1-1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) sweet butter

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with aluminum foil, and grease the foil.

In a saucepan combine the berries, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla. Add the cornstarch paste and cook over low heat , stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens. Set it aside to cool.

In a medium bowl mix the dry ingredients and cut the butter into the mixture. Pat 3/4 of this crumb mixture into a the prepared baking dish. Add the fruit mixture. Sprinkle the remaining crumbs on top. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes.

Cool the bars thoroughly before slicing them. Makes from 16 to 32 bars, depending on your slicing skills.

Johnny Mercer looks for a good huckleberry recipe (Savannah Morning News)

Sue's Meatloaf (and an Announcement!)

Sue Haas

Longtime blog reader Sue Haas of Seattle wrote several months ago to share her meatloaf recipe—but somehow or other I didn’t manage to make her loaf until a few nights ago. A friend who was coming to dinner requested something in the nature of comfort food to dispel the gloom of the weather (lots and lots of rain!). So I pulled out Sue’s recipe.

My local general store doesn’t sell veal so I used 1 pound of lean ground beef and 1/2 pound of pork. The only other changes I made (and they were minor, including the use of fresh instead of dried oregano) are noted in the recipe.

This meatloaf is tender and very flavorful. I particularly enjoyed the fresh herbs; I might throw in even more of them another time and leave the spices on the rack until winter.

By the way, in case I haven’t already bombarded you with this information, I do want to mention that my book Pulling Taffy will officially come out this Sunday and may be ordered right now from its website. (The website will also help you find the eBook and audiobook!)

In addition to talking about my final year with my mother and sharing family stories and thoughts, the book features a number of recipes—many of them from this very blog! Please consider supporting me by purchasing the book.

My mother would be celebrating this week!

And now, on to Sue’s recipe……

Sue’s Meatloaf

Ingredients:

1-1/2 pounds meatloaf mixture (1/3 lean ground beef, 1/3 ground veal, 1/3 ground pork)
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs (I used my maple oatmeal bread, which makes great crumbs)
2 tablespoons milk
1 egg, beaten
1 small onion, finely chopped (or half of a large onion)
1 to 2 garlic cloves (according to your taste), minced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 cup fresh sage, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano (I used 2 teaspoons fresh since that’s what I had)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon (sweet smoked) paprika (or regular)
1-1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup ketchup

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the meat mixture in a food processor and pulse a bit for a finer grind. Transfer it to a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix with hands.

Put the mixture into a 9-x-5 inch loaf pan and pat into loaf shape. (I used a regular baking pan and shaped a free-form loaf.)

Bake for about 1 hour, or until the center of the meat reaches 170 degrees on a meat thermometer. (I covered the loaf for the first half hour and then uncovered it to finish cooking.)

Serve with ketchup, if desired. Serves 6.

Cookie Emergency

Uh oh!

I realized a couple of days ago that the month was fast a-waning and I hadn’t yet published a “Twelve Cookies of Christmas” recipe for April.

So I had to make cookies. Naturally, my family was devastated. Nevertheless, we valiantly forced ourselves to eat them.

I recently ordered some cinnamon mini-chips from King Arthur Flour for making scones (that recipe will be posted next week). I threw some into a basic cookie recipe.

The resulting treats were lovely. The chips are so tiny that the cinnamon flavor is a bit subtle—but I love subtle! Next time I may try them in oatmeal cookies.

This version would make a tasty addition to any May Basket you might be planning to deliver to a special someone on Saturday!

Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour (I used half all-purpose and half white whole wheat)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cinnamon mini-chips

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cream together the butter and the sugars. Beat in the egg and mix thoroughly.

Beat in the baking soda and salt; then stir in the flour, followed by the vanilla and the chips.

Drop teaspoons of dough onto an ungreased (or parchment covered) cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the cookies brown around the edges.

Makes about 20 cookies. This recipe may be doubled.

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