Smart food!

Betsy heads off to Colorado today to take The Bar Exam and she asked me to make some energy bars that she could take into the test with her.  As an aside, the people that administer the bar appear to be the most paranoid people in the world.  A few of the things you can’t bring into the bar…

• Neckties
• Garments with hoods, pockets, or linings
• Digital watches
• Costume Jewelry

What’s funny about this list is that I’m sure the items on there are on there for a reason.  Some genius student probably tried to cheat somehow by using costume jewelry and got caught.  Given the ridiculous amount of information that you have to know for this test, I’m not even sure how you would cheat on it though.

I guess rather than actually study there might be people out there that will use the two months leading up to the bar to figure out how to print 1000 pages of material on the back of a Dr. Pepper label.

Anyway, so I decided to make these no-bake energy bars that are packed with peanut butter, nuts, coconut, and oats.  For people that aren’t cheating, you’ll need some good brain food!

The Bar Energy Bars (Roughly adapted from 101 Cookbooks Big Sur Bars)
Makes a 9×9 pan of bars, 12-16 bars

- 1 Cup pecans, chopped
- 1 Cup almonds, slivered or chopped
- 2/3 Cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
- 1 1/4 Cups rolled oats
- 1 1/2 Cups unsweetened crispy brown rice cereal (you could use rice krispies in a pinch)
- 1 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
- 1 Cup peanut butter
- 1 1/2 Cups water
- 1/2 Cup sugar
- 2 Tablespoons finely ground coffee
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla
- Pinch of salt

Making the Bars. These are no-bake bars, so there’s not a huge amount of prep to them honestly.  Even though they are no-bake, you still want to toast the nuts and coconut though.  It’ll add a lot of flavor to the final product.

Just roughly chop the pecans and almonds and spread them and the coconut out on a baking sheet.

Ready to roast!

Bake this sheet of deliciousness at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes.  Stir it up once or twice during that time just to make sure the coconut isn’t burning.  You’re looking for a lightly tan color on the coconut.  When your coconut is done, everything is done.

This was my finished sheet.

After 10 minutes and a few mixes.

The Crispy Rice Cereal.  The recipe I was sort of going off of, although I changed a lot of stuff, called for crispy brown rice cereal.  I’d never even heard of this.

But I found some!  At least I think this is the right stuff.  After inspecting it closely, I’m fairly certain that you could use Rice Krispies, but these are somewhat healthier for you.  The texture seemed to be about the same to me though.

Any rice cereal will do the trick.

Once your nuts and coconut are done toasting, mix the oats, cereal, chocolate, and toasted things in a large bowl!

All the dry stuff!

The Wet Stuff. The only thing that Betsy requested in these energy bars was peanut butter so I made sure to include a lot of that.  I’ve been on a homemade peanut butter kick lately so I just whipped up a batch.  Obviously, you can use anything you can buy in the store also.

I'm an overachiever.

In a small saucepan, mix your peanut butter, water, coffee, vanilla, salt, and sugar and bring it to a simmer.  It turns into a kind of peanut, coffee, vanilla, syrup situation that is pretty out of this world.

This will only need to simmer for a minute or two.  You just want to make sure everything is well-combined and the sugar is melted.

This will smell awesome.

Then pour the peanut butter mixture over the dry ingredients and stir everything together really well.  Lightly grease a 9×9 baking pan (I used non-stick spray) and pour all the bar mixture into the pan and press it down to an even layer.  They should be pretty thick.  If you wanted them thinner, you could use a 9×13 inch pan.

In the pan!

If you don’t mind room temperature bars, these are good to go now!  They’ll be best if you let them chill for a few hours in the fridge.  The nice thing about these is that they don’t need to be refrigerated really.  There’s not anything perishable in them so they can sit out for a few days without a problem.  They might get a bit gooey, but gooey can be delicious.

But the most important thing about these energy bars is that they’re packed with lots of stuff that’ll help your brain recover from hard multiple choice questions and essays!

I was very tempted to start this post by reciting the old adage that involves apples and days and keeping the doctor away (I basically just did), but I’ve never really liked that saying.

For some reason that saying always reminds me of how garlic keeps vampires away.  I can just imagine dozens of school children getting onto the bus with strings of apples around their neck.  It’s keeps the Evil Doctor away!

Of course, you would get zero benefit (as far as I know) from carrying apples around your neck on a string all day.  You have to actually EAT the darn things to get the benefits.

An Apple Routine. When I moved in with Betsy two years ago (we were living in sin!) I noticed that she literally ate an apple every day.  I mean… I liked apples, but I wasn’t quite ready to take it that far.  But then something strange happened.  Over the next year or two, I began eating them.  Every day.

It wasn’t really a conscious decision on my part, but I found myself grabbing one and going or snacking on one in the afternoon.  If I was planning a late dinner one night, I might have one to hold off hunger.  I always had some around because Betsy had to have them and so I also ate them.

Only recently did I look at my weekly grocery list and realize the amount of apples we go through in a week:  almost exactly 14.  Sometimes more!

Without even thinking about it, I became an apple a day eater!

I figure that I’ve been eating about an apple a day now for almost a year now.  After I realized this, I started thinking about some other notable things that have happened to me in the last year:

• I’ve lost 10 pounds (about 5.5% of my body weight)
• I have more energy than I used to have (hard to quantify)
• I just received a very clean bill of health at my annual physical and dental checkup.
• I’ve been working out on a regular schedule.

A Student of Logic might easily counter all of these things with the rule that relation does not mean causation.  Just because I ate an apple a day for a year and got married in April doesn’t mean that Betsy married me because I was eating an apple a day (but then again, maybe it does)!

But I think, and this is just my opinion, that there’s something to this apple thing.  Let’s do a quick review of the apple and then I’ll get to the challenge!

The Humble Apple.  It’s pretty easy to argue that the apple is maybe the most perfect single food you can eat.  Here’s a few of my favorite apple stats:

• It has low calories naturally (most people need to reduce their calorie intake).  One apple clocks in at about 65 calories.
• It has 12% of your daily recommended fiber.
• It has a huge list of vitamins and minerals. For the complete list check out the Full Nutritional Facts.
• Apples are naturally sweet so if you have a sweet tooth, they can curb some of sugar needs.
• They’re portable! You can take them anywhere and eat them on the go.

The Routine of It All. While those are some pretty hard facts about what the apple can give you, I think there’s something to be said for the routine of eating an apple a day.  Each day it’s a very small action, but over the course of the year the routine of it can build some very positive habits.

If you’re eating an apple a day, you’ll be…

• Buying a lot of apples which will put you smack dab where you want to be in the store or market: Near other fresh produce.  As any food marketer will tell you, proximity equals SALES, so by forcing yourself to wonder through the produce aisle every week you’re going to buy more fresh produce.  It’s unavoidable.
• Snacking. Snacking can be a good thing!  Most people I know that eat a lot of apples (Betsy, myself, my boss) don’t do so with a meal.  It’s easier to eat it as a snack.  Adding a good healthy snack to your day will mean you won’t be as hungry when it’s meal time.
• Cleaning your teeth. Apples naturally clean your teeth and freshen your breath.  But you have to eat them regularly to get this benefit.

The Challenge! Now that I’ve made the case for apples (like it needed to be made), here’s the challenge:

I challenge you, YES YOU, to eat an apple a day for one year.

There’s no cheating in this challenge.  Apple sauce doesn’t count.  Apple juice doesn’t count.  Apple pie definitely doesn’t count.  You have to eat a real apple every day (unless you are physically incapable of chewing apples).

You really have nothing to lose by trying it except maybe a few pounds off your waist and points off your cholesterol.

So.  Leave a comment.  Are you up for the challenge?!

I set up a Facebook Page also so you can share the challenge with others!

Photo by Krug6.

If you don't like this, I can't help you.

This dish is an example of a serious food rule: Everything is better with an egg an top.  I’m a pretty big proponent of this rule as shown by The Spanglish and my pepper porridge brunch.

I kind of came up with this dish out of the blue although I’m sure I’m not the first person that’s decided to put a poached egg on very tasty tomatoes.  I figured that the basics of a good bruschetta are pretty similar to the makings of a benedict (toast and a topping), so why not combine the two?!

It was a pretty damn good idea.

Bruschetta Benedict
Serves Two

- 1 pound very ripe tomatoes
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 Tablespoon fresh basil
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 4 Farm fresh eggs
- White vinegar for poaching
- Baguette for toast
- Salt and pepper
- Hot Paprika (optional)

Making the Bruschetta. This is actually a very simple dish to make.  But the key to it is starting with really fresh ingredients.  For starters, that means great tomatoes.

Ripe tomatoes are key.

Making the bruschetta topping is as simple as chopping up the tomatoes into pieces along with mincing the garlic and basil.  Drizzle in the olive oil and taste for salt and pepper.  This is pretty tasty as is!

I like a good amount of garlic.

The Other Ingredients. Again, the real key to this dish is getting the best ingredients you can find, because the ingredients themselves are pretty straightforward.

For the toast portion, I’d recommend a sturdy artisan loaf or a good french baguette.  In a pinch though, I could see how an English muffin would work just fine like a normal benedict dish.

To complete the bruschetta theme...

Also, don’t forget about the eggs.  Anytime I’m making a poached egg dish, I try to find really fresh eggs.  The eggs are sturdier and stick together better.  You can always tell a really good farm raised egg because the yolk stands tall and is a nice orange color.

I picked up a dozen eggs from the local farmer’s market for this dish.  This will poach up nicely.

Good lookin' egg.

Finishing the dish. Besides mixing up the bruschetta, the only parts of this dish are toasting the bread and poaching the eggs.  If you have a grill that you can easily fire up, you could definitely grill the bread which would be a nice touch, but I just toasted mine in a 400 degree oven for about 7 minutes until it as golden brown around the edges.

For the eggs, get a medium sauce pan full of water simmering over medium heat and add about 1/4 cup white vinegar to it.  The vinegar will help the eggs set up in the water.  Be sure not to keep the water at a boil or it’ll break up the eggs.

A small simmer is what your looking for.  Then just slowly roll your eggs into the water and cook for about 3 minutes for a runny yolk.  Be sure to crack your eggs into a bowl separately before you put them into the water or you run the risk of getting shell in your egg.

You’re looking something like this!

My favorite eggs are poached.

When your eggs are done, pull them out with a slotted spoon and let them drain on a paper towel.

Stack your toast on a plate like so…

Toasted bread is very important.

Then add a few large spoonfuls of the bruschetta mixture, two poached eggs, and top with a drizzle of olive oil, some basil leaves, and a sprinkle of paprika.  The paprika gives the whole dish a very savory flavor.  It’s optional but I think it really added a nice complexity to it.  Just a light dusting of paprika goes a long way here.

I want this again right now.

Of course, cutting into the egg should give you a delicious runny yolk which can act as a sauce for the entire dish.

I rule.

My favorite part of this dish is that it was a lot of food but I didn’t feel full when I was finished with it.  It wasn’t really heavy like a normal benedict dish because it was lacking the hollandaise sauce but it still had tons of flavor.

I think this could be a really awesome brunch dish for a party.  You don’t have to worry about the sauce and you can mix up a huge batch of bruschetta.  Then it’s as easy as poaching some eggs and you have a really fantastic brunch.

But seriously, this dish is mostly about the tomatoes.  Don’t try this with un-ripe, out of season things.  Your patience will pay off!

Best use for leftover bread ever.

Good fortune smiled upon me last weekend.  I live a few blocks from a local farmer’s market and I go there almost every weekend.  Last weekend it happened to be raining (not hard, but definitely raining).  I kind of like it when it’s raining a bit because it means that the market is less crowded!

I also learned that you can get a steal of a deal from any outside bakery when it’s raining.  This makes pretty good sense because baked good and rain don’t mix too well.  I picked up a baguette and two small loafs of really good bread for just a few bucks.

As I was walking home, I was kind of at a loss as to what to do with all this bread that just fell in my lap.  When I got home though I saw that Panzanella salad had won the poll for the week!  That kind of stuff never happens!

Let’s just say that I was pretty excited to let one of my loaves of bread get stale.

Tuscan Panzanella Salad (Adapted from The Capital Cooking Cookbook)
Serves 4.

- 2 Cups stale country bread, ripped into pieces
- 1/2 European cucumber, diced
- 2 Cups ripe tomatoes, diced (I used cherry tomatoes and halved or quartered them)
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, about one ball
- 3-4 Tablespoons fresh basil
- 1-2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar (I like mine vinegary)
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil (I just eyeballed it)
- Salt and pepper

The Bread.  You can use a huge assortment of bread for this salad.  Almost anything that’s a few days stale will work fine.  If your bread isn’t really stale, or if you’re using store bought sliced bread, toast the bread in the oven at 250 degrees for a few minutes to dry it out even more.

Like I said, I use a loaf of bread that I basically stole from the bakery stand at the farmer’s market.  This cost me $1.

You can use almost any bread for this.

Once you have your stale bread, rip it into pieces (or rip it into pieces and then toast it if you want it crispier).  Add the bread pieces to a bowl and drizzle in a bit of white wine vinegar.  I just eyeballed it, but I would guess I used 1 Tablespoon.  Let that marinate while you prepare your other stuff.

The Other Ingredients. The other ingredients for this are pretty standard.  Use the ripest tomatoes you can find and if you can try to find a European cucumber because they have smaller seeds, but if you can’t find one, no big deal.

Ripe tomatoes are most important.

Some of the best flavors in this dish comes from a lot of fresh basil and fresh mozzarella cheese.

Key Italian flavors.

The Chiffonade. The best way to add basil to a salad like this is to chiffonade it.  Sounds fancy.  Looks fancy.  But it’s dead simple to do.  Start by taking all your leaves and stacking them on top of each other.

Then roll them into a tight ball.

Roll it up tight!

Then chop chop chop!

The technical term is chiffonade.

Combine this with all your other chopped veggies.

Everything all chopped up.

Mix your veggies in with your bread and drizzle in the olive oil and a bit more white wine vinegar to taste.  Also taste it for salt and pepper.

Plus the bread and oil.

The best part about this salad is how some bits of bread are really crunchy and some are a bit soggy and flavorful.  The textures are really great and the fresh ingredients make the flavors really pop.

I served this salad as a side for a roasted chicken I made over the weekend.  It was a perfect side dish for the chicken and reminded me a bit of the Zuni roasted chicken dish.

With roasted chicken...

I think this is maybe my number one way to use stale, leftover bread.  Sure.  You can make bread crumbs out of it or french toast or bread pudding (Mental Note: I need to make bread pudding).

But in the hot summer, this just really hit the spot for me.

Good for a picnic!

I’ve received a few emails recently that were along the lines of… “Hey Nick.  I refuse to turn on my oven until September.  Please give me food to eat that’s oven-free.”

So to answer the call this week I’m doing a few different pasta salads and summer salads that are very quick to throw together and good hot, cold, or room temperature.  You can take these on a picnic or eat them hunched over your computer while you study for the Bar Exam (says Betsy).

The great thing about pasta salad is that you can really go crazy with the add-ins.  I completely winged this white bean salad and it turned out really nice.  Betsy and I ate it for dinner one night and then I had leftovers for lunch throughout the week.  If you didn’t know, it’s almost impossible to make a small amount of pasta salad.

White Bean Pasta Salad
Makes a lot.

- 1 pound orecchiette pasta (or your favorite)
- 4 Cups cannellini beans (about two cans or 1/2 pound dried)
- 1 Cup kalamata olives, diced
- 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, chopped
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 3 Tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
- 1/2 Cup olive oil
- Salt and pepper

Cooking the beans. I decided to use dried beans for this recipe and when I make dried beans I make a lot and then use the leftovers for various things throughout the week.  I think dried beans have a slightly better flavor and texture than canned beans, but it’s not a huge difference, especially for a dish like this that has a lot of other strong flavors in it.

So if you want to speed this recipe up even more, use canned beans.

If you’re using dried though, get them soaking in cold water for about 6-8 hours, overnight is good.

The long soak.

As they soak, remove anything that floats from the beans.

Then add them to a medium pot with 3 Cups of water per Cup of beans and bring them to a boil.  Let them simmer for about 35-40 minutes until they are tender.  Then drain them and set them aside.

I say to use 4 Cups of these guys for this pasta salad but I probably used closer to 6 Cups because I had them.  Also, these beans keep great for a week or so in the fridge or you can even freeze them for months.  Just make sure they are completely cooled before you freeze them.

Pretty simple people.

The Pasta. I decided to use this fun ear pasta that I found in the store for this version.  It was fine, but if you can’t find it, don’t fret.  Feel free to use any non-spaghetti pasta for this.  Fusilli or bowtie pasta would work great also.

Regardless of what pasta you pick, just cook it according to the package and make sure not to overcook it!  You definitely want it to be al dente.

An okay choice.

The Other Stuff. There’s some really flavorful things that I put into this pasta.

Not pictured below is the basil which is also a strong flavor.

Good simple flavors.

All of these ingredients are pretty easy to prepare.  Half your tomatoes, chop your cheese into cubes, dice your onion, and mince your basil.  The only thing that might cause you some issues is the olives.  If you can find pitted kalamata olives, use them.

I accidentally bought olives that had the pits, which is totally the pits.

If you’ve never pitted olives before though it isn’t too hard.  Just get a large knife and chop down the center of the olive.  You’ll hit the pit obviously.  Then, applying a tiny amount of pressure, roll the knife forward on the olive.  The pressure should dislodge the pit and you’ll be left with two halves.  It might take you a try or two to get the hang of it, but it should work about 95% of the time.  Sometimes you get a stubborn one though.

Just eat the stubborn ones!

Olive you guys.

Mix everything together in a big bowl!

Chopping skillz...

Drizzle in your olive oil and add a good pinch of salt and pepper.  Keep in mind that the olives are pretty salty so don’t over-do it on the salt.

All mixed up!

I thought this was even better on day two and three after the flavors melded a bit, but it was just fine on day one also!

Yes. That's the same napkin from yesterday. Calm down.

I encourage you to add more or less of any of the ingredients based on your tastes.  If you’re in a hurry, feel free to used canned beans and use whatever pasta you can find.

The flavors are classic and it’s pretty hard to go wrong.

Really good flavors.

Summer is here and that means one thing:  tomatoes!  About now is when you should start seeing really ripe red tomatoes in the stores and farmer’s markets.

This is a salad that actually adapted from a restaurant I used to work at although I’m sure my version is slightly different just because I don’t have the exact recipe.  But the idea is the same.

Instead of using a normal vinaigrette or something for this salad, the dressing is a tomato marmalade with ripe cherry tomatoes, rosemary, and red wine vinegar.  Tossing the greens in a tablespoon or two of this gives the whole salad a very rich tomato taste.

Tomato Salad
Serves 4 as an appetizer.

Tomato Marmalade:
- 1 pint ripe cherry tomatoes
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 1/3 Cup sugar
- 2 Cups water
- Pinch of salt
- 2 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

Rest of the salad:
- Greens
- Ripe Roma tomatoes (or your favorite tomato.  Heirloom tomatoes would also rock.)
- Fresh basil
- Toasted bread
- Sprinkle of sea or kosher salt
- Mozzarella Cheese (optional)

Making the Marmalade. You could make this savory marmalade a few days or even a week in advance.  It stores beautifully.  Not that it’ll last that long though because it’s very tasty.

Marmalade Ingredients

In a medium saucepan, add all your ingredients except the red wine vinegar and get it cooking over high heat.

Your tomatoes should be covered completely with water.  If not, add more water.

Cooking down...

Once this comes to a boil, remove your rosemary sprigs from the pan.  They will have given off a lot of flavor and you don’t want the large sprigs in your final product.

Once it’s boiling, move your temperature down to low so it’s simmering and let this cook down for about an hour.  After a few minutes of boiling you should be able to mush up the tomatoes which should help the cooking process.

This is after about 30 or 40 minutes of simmering:

Almost done...

Once it gets down to almost a syrupy consistency, kill the heat and add in your red wine vinegar to taste.  For me this was about 2 Tablespoons but you could use more or less.

Let this cool completely for an hour or two.  Once it’s room temperature it should be pretty thick.

Cool and slightly thick.

Making the Salad. Once your marmalade is made, the salad is pretty simple.

A few basic ingredients should do the trick.  Again, the key to this salad is getting really good tomatoes!

You could add some mozz if you wanted.

Add some greens to a bowl and toss in a Tablespoon or two of the tomato marmalade.  A little goes a long way so don’t over-do it!  Give the greens a good toss to coat everything.

A little goes a long way.

You could serve this a number of different ways, but I cut my tomatoes into wedges and added them on top of the greens along with some basil.

If you wanted to do a Caprese type thing, you could add some mozzarella cheese to the finished salad.  I also served this with a nice toasted piece of bird seed bread!

Good summer flavors!

The nice thing about this recipe is that you’ll probably have leftover tomato marmalade.  It’s good on toast or an english muffin.  In fact, if I made this again, I might just make a double batch of that stuff.  It was awesome.

If you’re looking for a good way to use some nice fresh summer tomatoes, give this a shot!

Birds love this stuff.

I bought a loaf of bread a few weeks ago.  This is noteworthy because I very rarely do this anymore.  It’s become such a normal part of my weekly routine to mix up some no knead bread that I rarely have to buy the stuff.  But occasionally, I still like to try new loafs.

The loaf I happened to pick out one day was lightly covered in a random assortment of seeds.  It was totally good.  But I figured that I could ramp up my own version of it and cram a ton of different seeds into and on top of the bread.

I wanted to make bread out of bird seed basically.

Not only did this turn out to be pretty easy, but it was maybe the best loaf of bread I’ve baked all year.

Bird Seed Bread (Adapted from the sandwich bread recipe in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice)
Makes a big loaf or probably 18 rolls.

- 1 1/3 Cups assorted seeds or grains (I used millet, poppy seeds, sesame seeds)
- 3 3/4 Cups (17 ounces) bread flour
- 1 Cup (4.5 ounces) whole wheat flour (you can use all bread flour if you want)
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons salt
- 1/4 Cup powdered milk (or 1/4 Cup whole milk and minus 1/4 Cup from water amount)
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 Teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 large egg slightly beaten
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1 3/4 Cups water, room temp

Helpful Equipment:
- A stand mixer or you can just use the old hands!

Making the Dough.  You could possibly even go crazier than I did on the seed/grain additions, but I kept it pretty simple.  I decided to mix three things into the actual dough itself:  Millet, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds.

The seed business.

As with most doughs, start by adding all your dry ingredients into a large bowl.  If you down have powdered milk handy, you can use normal milk.  Just add 1/4 Cup whole milk and subtract 1/4 Cup from the water amount.

So anyway, mix all your dry stuff together!

The dry parts.

Then add all your seeds and grains to this dry stuff.  I was a bit worried at this point that this wasn’t going to work, but too late to turn back now!

I wasn't positive that this would work.

Once all your dry stuff is well-combined, whisk together your water, melted butter, and egg in a separate bowl and then add that to the party.

If you’re using a mixer, just mix everything on low until it forms a ball.  Or, if you’re working with your hands, use a big spoon to pull everything together.  It should be a pretty loose dough, but not sticky at all.  If it’s sticky, add more flour.

Once you get it in a ball, you can either switch to the dough hook and mix on medium-low for 8 minutes or so or, if you’re using hands, turn it out onto a floured surface like so:

I used the old hands for this loaf.

Kneading the dough. People always complain that kneading dough is a lot of work, but I find it to be relaxing actually.  Sure.  It’s not as easy as flipping a switch, but it only takes ten minutes and trust me, the results are worth it.

In this case, I think I added a bit too much water to my dough, so I had to knead in probably another 1/2 cup of flour.  The dough should be smooth, but not sticky, so if it’s sticky then you need more flour!

After 10-12 minutes of kneading, you should have a wonderful ball of bird seed dough!

A little workout never hurt anybody.

In theory, this dough should pass the windowpane test, but it’s kind of hard to actually test it because the seeds break up the windowpane action.  If you knead studiously for 10-12 minutes though, you’ll be in a good place.

The first rising. Once your dough is formed, lightly oil a large bowl and add your dough.  Give it a turn to coat the dough evenly with oil.  Then cover it with a damp towel and let it rise for 2 hours.

It should easily double in size.  It’ll be very pretty.  Like this:

Check out that seedage!

Shaping the Loaf. If you’re making a big loaf like I did (which I recommend), then it’s really easy.  Lightly flour a clean surface and roll your dough out into a large rectangle.  Keep it about 1/2 inch thick.

A large rectangle of dough.

Then roll it up!  Turn it so the seam is on the bottom of the loaf and kind of tuck in the ends so you end up with smooth edges all the way around.

Like this.

The roll and tuck!

Don’t stress about the loaf forming.  Even if it isn’t perfect, it’ll be delicious.

Once your loaf is formed, lay it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Sticking on the Seeds. Sticking things onto a loaf of bread can be tricky.  They have a tendency to fall off.

Here’s the three tips to topping success:

1) Use more water than you would think to wet the top of the loaf.  It should be glistening wet, but not soggy.

2) Really press the seeds in.  Don’t just sprinkle.  They should leave indents.

3) Add the seeds before you let the loaf rise for a second time.

I have this nifty little blue spray bottle that I use for my loafs.  You could also use a brush to brush on some water or just pat down the loaf with wet hands.

Go heavy on the spritzing.

As far as toppings go, I used the same seeds that I incorporated into the dough and added some big pumpkin seeds also.  These would be a bit large for the dough itself, but they look and taste amazing on top.

Like I said, really press all the seeds into the dough.

Really press them on there.

The Second Rising.  After your seeds are stuck on, cover the loaf with a damp towel again and let it rise for another 30 minutes.

Baking.  Bake this at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.  It should be a wonderful golden brown color and sound kind of hollow if you thump it.  To make sure it bakes evenly, also turn your baking pan halfway through the cooking.

Maybe the best ever.

As with all breads, let this cool for at least an hour before cutting into it.  It’ll be tempting I know, but there’s still a lot of important things going on in there and you don’t want to mess it up by slicing into it and letting all the steam escape too quickly.

I like the pictures for this bread, but they don’t really even do it justice.  There’s something about the texture that all those seeds give that make this really wonderful.

If you’ve never, ever, baked a loaf of bread, this can be your first loaf.  It isn’t terribly hard, doesn’t require days of prep, and you don’t need any special equipment.  It’s also the best loaf of bread I’ve made all year.

Hopefully I’ve planted the seed…

A great breakfast!

I remember the first bran muffin I ever had.  It tasted like dirty rag but had the texture of cardboard.  I was told that this thing I was eating, this cardboard thing, was very good for me.  As you might guess, it didn’t matter.  It was many years before I ever tried a bran muffin again.

After trying a few more over the years though, I learned that it’s completely possible to make a bran muffin that has a softer texture, one with a moist interior.  What I’m trying to say is… it’s completely possible to make a bran muffin that doesn’t suck.

To counteract the dryness of the bran, you just need to up the liquid a bit.  Add in another egg and, in this case, some raisins.  They lend a bit of moisture to the finished muffin also.

Raisin Bran Muffins (Adapted from How To Cook Everything)
Makes 8-12 muffins depending on size.

- 1 Cup whole wheat flour
- 1 Cup wheat bran
- 1/2 Teaspoon salt
- 4 Tablespoons butter, melted
- 1/4 Cup honey
- 3 Teaspoons baking powder
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Cup milk
- 2/3 Cup raisins (optional)

Helpful Equipment:
- You’ll want a muffin tin obviously.

Making the Batter. You could definitely use normal all-purpose flour for these, but I figure since I’m making bran muffins, I might as well make them very bran-filled.  So I used whole wheat flour.  This gives the final muffin a very nutty flavor which I really liked.

Lots of fiber!

One of the ways I added a bit more moisture into the muffins (besides the extra egg) is to just barely raise the amount of butter in the muffins. The original recipe had 3 Tablespoons.  I added an extra tablespoon and I think it really helped with the final texture.

Butter. It's good for the soul.

Pulling the batter together is really easy.  Start by mixing all your dry ingredients in a medium bowl (flour, bran, baking powder, salt).  Then mix all your wet ingredients separately (milk, eggs, melted butter).  Then stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

It’ll be a pretty wet batter but trust me the bran will soak up a ton of liquid as it cooks.  Try not to over-mix your batter, just stir it together until it’s barely combined.

Then quickly stir in your raisins if you’re using them.  I highly recommend them but I guess you could leave them out.

I like mine with lots of raisins.

Baking the Muffins.  Pour the batter into prepared muffin tins.  You can either line your tins with paper or spray them with non-stick spray.  Or if you’re me, just wipe them down with a very thin coat of butter.

I also could’ve filled mine up all the way to the top.  These didn’t rise like cupcakes rise.

I sprinkled on some extra bran also just for show.

I could've filled these a bit more.

Cook these at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.  If you make them larger, they might need 30 minutes.  Try not to over-cook them though or they’ll get pretty dry.

A toothpick should come out cleanly from the center.

Yum.

Move these to a rack to cool for about five minutes and then they are ready to eat!

On the smaller side...

These will be best right away when they’re warm.  They’re fine just like that but you could also spread on a bit of extra butter… if you’re feeling feisty.

Inside a muffin!

These were definitely best right away, but I let them cool and stored them in a bag and ate them all week for breakfast.  They were just fine all week long!  I didn’t even heat them up actually.

They reminded me nothing of cardboard!

How is this so delicious? Beets me.

I can’t even believe this but I used to hate beets.  Ok.  Maybe not hate.  But I seriously disliked them.  What I’ve learned though over the years is that my beef wasn’t with beets.  It was with beet preparation!

Turns out I just don’t really like pickled beets or canned beets.

But roasted beets?  That’s another story!  Roasting them makes them kind of sweet and they have a great texture.  This is one of those salads that’s completely simple but will really impress people.

It’s especially impressive if you can do it without staining your hands!

Red and Gold Beet Salad
Serves 4

- 3 large red beets
- 3 large golden beets
- 2-3 Cups of arugula
- Goat Cheese
- Olive oil
- Pistachios, optional
- A pinch of salt, flaky sea salt or kosher salt would be best

Roasting the Beets. There really is only one step to this salad which is: Roast the beets.  It’s pretty obvious what to do after that.

The thing about beets is that they grow in the ground.  That means they are fairly dirty little things when you get them.

Dirty little things.

Even before roasting them, I like to clean them up a bit.  I’m not sure it’s completely necessary because you peel them after you roast them anyway, but I cut off the stems and bottom root and give them a quick scrub.

Then just toss them on a baking sheet!

NOTE: Don’t throw away the beet greens!  You can cook them just like you would spinach.  They are really delicious sauteed with a bit of garlic and olive oil.

Ready to roast!

These will need to roast for about 60 minutes at 400 degrees.  Yes.  That’s a long time, but these guys are sturdy!  The long roasting time really helps concentrate the flavors!

If you’re in a hurry, you can also boil the beets, but I find that they aren’t as flavorful when they’ve been boiled.

You’ll know they are done because you should be able to easily pierce through them with a paring knife.  If the beet flesh is hard at all, then roast them for another 15 minutes.

These will be really hot when they come out of the oven so let them cool for a few minutes before trying to peel them.

A knife is the best way here.

Peeling the Beets. When it comes to peeling beets, I prefer a good paring knife over any kind of peeler.  Beet skin tends to be kind of thick and it always gets stuck in my peeler.  Then I get annoyed and throw my peeler out the window.

So I just use a knife.  If you hold the paring knife in between your forefinger and your thumb you can just slide the blade around the beet, easily peeling off the skin.

You’ll be left with little orbs of deliciousness.

Luckily, the golden variety won’t stain your hands, but the red variety most certainly will.  So if you’re opposed to having red hands for a day or two, you might want to wear some gloves.  Honestly, I’m too lazy for that though.  I just wash my hands right away after I peel/slice them and the stain fades pretty quickly.

Wear gloves if you don't want to be caught red-handed.

I like to serve this on a really large platter.  Put down a good bed of arugula (you could also use spinach).  Then slice your beets and arrange them in some pretty pattern.  Remember that if your red beets touch your golden beets, your golden beets will turn red!

Great colors!

To finish off the dish, drizzle on a bit of olive oil, sprinkle it with a pinch of kosher or sea salt, crumble up some goat cheese on top, and if you’re feeling ambitious, toss on some chopped pistachios!

Nothing too complicated.

So obviously the one thing about this salad is that while it’s a really simple salad to make, it does take some time just because the beets need to roast.  It’d be perfect for a weekend dinner party though or maybe even for a picnic!

I do believe this salad could turn almost anyone into a beet liker.  I won’t be as ambitious to say beet lover.  But definitely a beet liker.

And I have to say that I killed this dish.  Everything just worked.  It’s one of my favorite kinds of dishes (good hot and cold).  It has some nice summer veggies, some chunky marinated chicken, and delicious Asian flavors.

The photo doesn’t really do it justice unfortunately.

Maybe the best noodle salad I've ever made.

This isn’t an overly complicated salad.  It has just a few ingredients so be sure to hunt out the best and freshest that you can.  Especially this time of year, make sure you find some really nice fresh snap peas to use.  It makes a huge difference.

Also, the original recipe called for boneless skinless chicken breasts, but you know me.  I try to use bone-in, skin-on when possible.  I think it’s a lot more flavorful but use whatever you like best.

Asian Chicken Noodle Salad (Adapted from Bon Appetit June 2010)
Serves 4.

- 12 ounces snap peas, strings removed, blanched
- 1 8 or 9 ounce package of Japanese Udon noodles.  The original recipe called for fresh, but I used dry without a problem
- 1 Tablespoon sesame seed oil
- 2 Chicken Breasts
- 6 scallions, thinly sliced
- 1 Cup (or more) of the below dressing
- Toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Chicken Marinade:
- 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar

Mango-Sesame Dressing:
- 1/2 Cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 Cup Major Grey’s Mango Chutney (I found this in the Jam section, but it might also be near the Indian/Asian food)
- 1/4 Cup rice vinegar
- 3 large garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 Teaspoon Dijon mustard (I left this out because Betsy hates mustard.)

Helpful Equipment:
- If you can’t grill the chicken, the best way to cook it is in a cast iron pan.

This recipe looks like it has a huge amount of ingredients, but most of them are repeats and if you have a well-stocked pantry you’ll probably have a number of them already.

Prepping The Chicken.  The original recipe doesn’t say to do anything to the chicken besides grill it but I had all of these awesome oils and stuff that go in the dressing so I decided to whip up a very quick marinade for the chicken.  It worked great.  I just marinated the chicken for about 30 minutes while I prepped some other ingredients.

You could do longer obviously if you wanted to.

I'm a bone-in, skin-on kinda guy.

The Dressing. Oh this dressing knocked me off my feet.  I’d never used the Mango chutney that the recipe recommended.  This stuff was out of this world delicious.

It’s spicy and sweet and salty and rounds out the dressing perfectly.  Track it down!

The mango chutney isn't optional.

The recipe says to blend all these ingredients together but I just whisked everything together in a bowl.  If you want a smooth dressing then blend it obviously, but I don’t mind a few delicious mango and garlic chunks in my dish.  Plus it’s a lot easier and quicker than busting out a blender.

This was more than I actually used.

Other Salad Ingredients.  Besides the chicken and the dressing, you’ll just need snap peas, scallions, and udon noodles to finish off this salad.

Nice fresh veggies are important.

The Udon. The recipe called for fresh Udon noodles but I wasn’t exactly clear on how to get a hold of those so I used some dried that I found.  I thought they worked great.  I’m sure fresh would be good also, but if you can’t find any don’t let that stop you from making this dish.

Strange pasta...

Blanching the Peas/Cooking the Noodles.  You can do both of these things in the same large pot of salted water.  Cook your peas first, then the noodles in the same water.

To prep your peas, snap off the ends and pull out the string along the side of the snap peas.  Once you have the whole batch done, give them a dip in the boiling salted water.

Let them cook for about a minute.  Don’t over cook them!  Then remove them to a colander with a slotted spoon and run them under cold water to stop the cooking.  You could also dunk them in an ice bath if you wanted.

They should be really green and still slightly crunchy.  As with most things, soggy is bad.

Don't overcook them!

Once your peas are done, you can cook the noodles in the same water from your peas!  Cook it according to the directions on your package.  I’ve cooked Udon many times now and I’ve always found that the package over-estimates the amount of time it takes to cook.  You don’t want really mushy noodles.

For example, my package of noodles said to cook for 8-10 minutes and I cooked mine for 6.  After they’re cooked, drain them in a colander and rinse them with cold water!

Mix the noodles and peas together and toss with the sesame oil which will prevent the noodles from sticking together.

Toss with the sesame oil.

Cooking the Chicken. Ideally, you could grill your chicken which would probably take 15-20 minutes depending on the size of your chicken breasts.  I cooked mine in a cast iron pan though.

If you’re using cast iron, get your pan hot over medium-high heat and then add your chicken breasts.  Sear them for about 4 minutes per side until they are nice and browned.  Then transfer the pan to a 350 degree oven and finish cooking the breasts which will probably take 20-25 minutes depending on size.

Mine came out perfectly charred and delicious.

I like a little char on mine.

Finishing the Salad. Finishing the salad is pretty straightforward.  Chop up your chicken into chunks.  Slice your scallions.  Add your chicken and scallions to your noodles and peas.  Then toss in your salad dressing and mix everything together!

Plate it up and sprinkle on some sesame seeds if that’s your thing!

Bam!

Betsy thought that this was one of the best salad dishes I’ve made in awhile.  I had to agree.  It was also awesome for lunch the next day as a cold salad.

This was a great dish to cook and a wonderful dish to eat!

Has anyone else tried this Mango Chutney?  Man that stuff is good.