Wild Rice Dressing.

As it gets chilly out, I tend to want to cook more. Couple that with the fact that I have a really hard time picking out side dishes for my meals, and you can end up with some very odd dinners. I've begun to keep a dinner diary to log meals, partly to keep me motivated, and partly to have something to look back at when I'm meal planning to see what worked in the past. This is one recipe that definitely worked, but was also WAY too big for my family. I was eating the leftovers. ALL. WEEK. LONG. Still, this is definitely something I'm considering making to bring to the massive Thanksgiving get-together we do most years. This would easily feed that crowd. :)

Wild Rice Dressing, from Real Simple

Ingredients:
32-ounce low-sodium chicken broth 
1 cup wild rice 
1 1/4 cups brown rice 
1 stick unsalted butter, plus more for the dish 
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped 
3 stalks celery, finely chopped 
1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves , finely chopped 
1/4 cup fresh sage, finely chopped 
1 cup pecans, finely chopped 
1 cup dried apricots or cranberries , roughly chopped 
1 tsp kosher salt 
1/2 tsp black pepper 

Directions:
Heat oven to 350° F.  
   
In a pot, over medium-high heat, bring the broth and 2 cups water to a boil. Add the wild rice and brown rice, reduce heat to low, and cover. Simmer until tender, about 45 minutes.  
   
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion and celery and cook for 10 minutes. Add the cooked rice, parsley, sage, pecans, apricots or cranberries, salt, and pepper and toss. Transfer to a buttered casserole. Cover and bake for 25 minutes. 

Glorious Morning Muffins.

When my husband and I first moved to Lincoln, we discovered that there is a fabulous farmers market here. (There's actually several, but we didn't know that at the time...) One of the things I looked forward to the most, besides the delicious fresh produce, and the honey, was this one particular muffin sold by a local smoothie shop stand. They called theirs the Morning Glory muffin, and I would purposely avoid eating breakfast so that I could enjoy this muffin that was the size of two normal muffins. Filled with carrots, walnuts, apples, coconut, and raisins, it also tasted healthy, if a bit rich. Here's the problem though. The farmers market ends in October, every year. Yes, I could drive down to the smoothie shop, but I never really want smoothies mid-winter, while I often desperately want these muffins.

Enter my bag of flour. Awhile ago I remember reading that I should check out the recipes included on the bags and cans and boxes that I buy. Many are gems, and they just get thrown away! This particular recipe came on the back of my Gold Medal Flour bag, along with another recipe, of which I have no recollection. This recipe eclipsed it in awesomeness. 

I now make these muffins somewhat regularly, though still not quite often enough, and I try to keep a few on hand for market mornings. Usually though, unless I hide them, all 18 are gone before I can set those few aside. Oh well, they're delicious. I can always make another batch.

Glorious Morning Muffins, from Gold Medal Flour

Ingredients:

2 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup milk

2 t vanilla

2 cups (Gold Medal) unbleached flour

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 t baking soda

2 t ground cinnamon

1/2 t salt

1 1/2 cups shredded carrots (2 to 3 medium)

1 cup shredded peeled apple (I don't always peel it)

1/2 cup coconut

1/2 cup raisins

3/4 cup sliced almonds (we prefer walnuts, so I used those)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350ºF. Place paper baking cup in each of 18 regular-size muffin cups, or grease with shortening or cooking spray (or butter!). 

In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil, milk and vanilla with wire whisk until well blended. Add flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in carrots, apple, coconut, raisins and 1/2 cup of the almonds. (Or all of the nuts...I don't bother saving any for garnish.)

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup almonds over batter.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan. (I removed them almost immediately with a spatula with no ill effect, but be careful, they may stick.)

Makes 18 muffins. Enjoy!

Grenadine Syrup.

Homemade grenadine. Why bother? Surely there's tons of ingredients, its a huge hassle, and who wants to mess with juicing cherries? Here's the thing. Grenadine syrup is NOT cherry syrup. So you can cut that complaint out, no cherries involved. Tons of ingredients? Nope, two. That's it. Huge hassle? Takes about ten minutes total, mostly of just stirring a pot. Simple. Why bother? Because its so good! Trust me, try it, you'll thank me later. :)

Grenadine Syrup, from Kitchen Riffs

Ingredients:

equal parts of

Pom pomegranate juice

sugar

Directions:

Combine and heat over medium heat until sugar melts and mixture becomes a bit thicker and syrupy. DO NOT LET IT BOIL. Boiling changes it's flavor and while its still useable, it doesn't taste quite as good. How long you heat it depends on what you want. Thick syrup? Keep stirring and heating till its the consistency desired. Thin syrup? Pull off the burner almost immediately after sugar is fully dissolved. Store in a tightly sealed jar in the refrigerator. Keeps for a month, if it lasts that long. Enjoy!

Blueberry Nut Crunch Cake.

I made this recipe twice in one week for two different events, and, while I intended to photograph it, it was gone too quickly. You'll just have to trust me, it looks delicious, and it tastes even better. This is also possibly the easiest cake ever to make. Seriously, I considered having Jonathan make it all by himself. (He could have, but he was 'not in the mood for baking' that day.)

You could easily substitute another fruit for the blueberries, though I wouldn't suggest changing out the pineapple, purely for the liquid content needed. Though, you may be able to try mandarin oranges in their juice...

Whatever you do, don't be surprised if this doesn't last long!

Blueberry Nut Crunch Cake, from Susan Stogsdill

Ingredients:

1 can crushed pineapple

2 to 3 cups blueberries (frozen or fresh, I usually use frozen)

1 pkg yellow cake mix (original recipe specifies Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix)

1 to 2 sticks butter, melted (one stick=more cakelike, 2 sticks=more barlike. I do 1 1/2.)

1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

DON'T STIR EVER! Grease 9x13 pan. (Or not, I usually forget to do this.) Spread pineapple in bottom of pan, pour blueberries on top of pineapple. Sprinkle cake mix on blueberries. Pour melted butter over cake mix. Sprinkle pecans on top. Bake at 350ºF for 35-40 minutes. (Might take up to 50 if you use 2 sticks of butter. Just watch it. It will also firm up a bit as it cools.) Enjoy!

Lemon Poppyseed Shortbread Cookies.

This cookie recipe could possibly be the easiest recipe I've made yet. Three ingredients before the customization, and a short baking time until nearly instant gratification. Also, this are one of the few cookie recipes I know of where the baked cookies tastes better than the dough. The only downside of these is they kind of need to be doctored, hence the lemon poppyseed. Next time I'm going to mix a bit of vanilla and brown sugar and use that in place of the white sugar. Should be great!  

Lemon Poppyseed Cookies, from Anyone Can Cook, by Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c. flour

3 T. sugar (or a mixture or vanilla and brown sugar, perhaps?)

1/2 c. butter

a generous sprinkling of poppyseeds

1/2 T. lemon peel, or to taste

Directions:

Mix the flour and sugar together, along with the poppyseeds and lemon peel, then cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or a knife. Roll out the cookies to desired thickness, very thin if you like shortbread crispy, slighly thicker if you prefer it crumbly and slightly moist. Cut in traditional rounds, simple squares, or fun shapes. Bake in a 325°F oven for 20-25 minutes or until bottoms just start to brown. Cool on a wire rack.

This makes slightly under two dozen cookies. Enjoy!