Pumpkin Spice Granola ~ 10.13.11

It always amuses me how I end up some places on the web. Just the other day I landed here and found a lovely recipe for Pumpkin Spice Granola. I was intrigued by it because it called for adding sweet potato puree and I just roasted some sweets the other day and had not eaten them yet. Coupled with the fact that I love making granola and haven't for some time- this recipe was sure to hit my oven in less than a day!

And it did! I love a quick recipe turnaround. Print one day and make it the next (or that night!). I did one better by reviewing it for you, on the blog. She has a lot of great recipes, so be sure to visit and try one of the many granola recipes she featured recently.

I was hoping that while it was cooking it would taste as amazing as my house smelled. The aroma was delightful and so comforting. And the taste- delicious. Not too sweet at all, in my opinion-- just right!

I appreciated the idea of letting your granola cool in the oven to let it crisp--- that didn't always happen in the past with other recipes I've tried. So, from now on... cooling in the oven after it bakes!

Pumpkin Spice Granola

adapted from Finding Joy in My Kitchen

4 1/2 cups oats (I used a combo of Steel Cut and Old Fashioned)
2 1/2 cups Rice Crispy type cereal
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice **(I made my own and recipe is at bottom)
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sweet potato puree
1/4 cup applesauce (just happened to have homemade!)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Mix the oats, cereal and wheat germ in a large bowl. Add in the spices and the salt.

In another bowl, mix the sugar, sweet potato, applesauce, syrup and vanilla.

Add the puree to the oat mixture and stir to coat.

Spread onto a large cookie sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper (you could spray with cooking spray) or baking pan. Bake for 30 min at 325 degrees, stirring every 15 minutes.

Let cool in the oven and store in an airtight container or large ziplock bag. Granola will keep for several weeks -- if it lasts that long!

**Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice mixture
(found somewhere on the internet)

To a small glass jar add:
1/4 cup ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cardamom*

print out a little label with the date and contents and you have your own Pumpkin Pie Spice!
*I searched high and low in my pantry and somehow was out of cardamom, so, know that it will taste just fine without it in your spice mixture, too. ;)

Mexican Pizza ~ 10.1.11

I've been declaring my love for *Pinterest* on my other blog, but really, it has provided the Crafty Cafe patrons a wonderful assortment of good eats over the past 2 months!

Lately, I've been craving Mexican-inspired foods. I haven't stepped foot in or driven through a Taco Bell drive thru in over 5 years and suddenly.... the bean burrito is my new best friend! LOL
So, when I saw this recipe for Mexican pizza using ingredients I almost ALWAYS have on hand... I was sold and knew it would make the list of recipes to try immediately!

But first, a good salsa is not a bad thing to have in your fridge and this homemade restaurant-style version from Ree is a winner! It's been on my to-try list for awhile, anyway, so Mexican pizza and the fact that I didn't have a jar of salsa on hand at all were the perfect reasons to give it a go!

It comes together super-duper fast, if you have a food processor. And Thankfully, I do! But if you don't, I bet a blender would do the trick.

PW's Restaurant Style Salsa

And that wonderful creation goes beautifully inside this next recipe for Mexican Pizza.

Here's the original post that I saw and my take on the recipe! I don't have exact amts b/c it all depends on how many you're making it for. I usually get all the ingredients ready so that throughout the week, I can have mexican pizza whenever I want it!

Mexican Pizza
my version

tortillas- I like whole wheat
1 can refried beans- I choose the one with least amt of sodium and opt for vegetarian - we are going to doctor these up!

couple green onions- chopped
salsa of your choice
couple tomatoes- chopped
shredded cheese- colby jack is good
optional: onion, jalapeno, sour cream, taco sauce

Preheat your oven and line a pan with foil.
Take 2 tortillas and brush them with a little canola oil.
Place in oven for about 10 min.
While the tortillas as warming/crisping-- heat your refried beans in a small saucepan. Add in a 1/4 cup water,  couple Tbs chopped onion (no, thank you), 1 tsp taco seasoning (if none, use a little cumin and chili powder and garlic powder), I added some of my fave- Adobo seasoning and a couple turns of freshly gr black pepper.
Let the beans heat on the stovetop, on low, careful not to burn.
Chop your veggies and grate your cheese- some tomato, green onions and if you'd like more heat- jalapeno

Take the tortillas out and build your pizza!
1. spread a good amt of beans on one tortilla. Add a dollop of salsa- not too much.
2. top with second tortilla and spread a dollop of salsa on that and add some chopped veggies: tomato, green onion and jalapeno
3. Top it all with cheese and put it back in the oven for about 12 min.

Remove from oven, slice and serve! Ole!

Ultimate Double Chocolate Cookies ~ 8.6.11

I have a birthday party to go to this weekend and when I found out that the birthday boy loves chocolate as much as I do.... I knew just what to gift to him. A box of homemade Ultimate Double Chocolate cookies. These are extremely fudgy chocolately. So, if you're a chocolate fan, I recommend you get yourself to the store and scoop up these ingredients in a jiffy! Luckily, I had them on hand and got right to work...

Ultimate Double Chocolate Cookies
adapted from Ghiradelli.com


1 bag (11.5 oz) Ghiradelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 oz)
optional: 1 cup (4oz) chopped walnuts

In a microwave save bowl, dump your bittersweet chips and butter. Microwave in 20 sec increments, stirring after each, until smooth and completely melted. Don't rush, or you'll burn your chips! Alternately, you can do this over a double boiler set up.

In large bowl of electric mixer, cream eggs and sugar until thick; stir in the melted chocolate. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking powder; add to chocolate/egg mixture. Gently mix in semi-sweet chocolate chips (and walnuts, if using).

Using a large sheet of plastic wrap, pour dough (yes, it's very, very soft) in a log form about 8 inches by 2 inches (eyeball it, k?). Wrap plastic around dough to form a log and place in fridge for 1 hour. I made two logs with this dough.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Unwrap dough and slice into 3/4-1 inch slices- if you like BIG cookies, just place those slices on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Knowing these were rather rich and wanting MORE cookies, I sliced each 3/4 inch slice in half and had 2 smaller cookies.

Bake 12-14 minutes or until shiny crust forms on top but interior is still soft. Cool slightly on baking sheet, transfer to rack or my favorite, brown paper bags.

Enjoy with a tall glass of milk.

S'mores Bars ~ July 31, 2011

S'mores. They just SCREAM summertime, don't cha think? I love 'em, all the messiness of them, too.

Whenever I see a recipe for something S'mores-y, I gravitate towards it like a bee to a flower. Funny that my only recipes for July are s'mores related!

I think I first saw this on Pinterest (my new love) and I knew I had all the ingredients to make it happen THAT night!

On with the recipe:

 S'mores Bars
adapted from Betty Crocker
1 pouch of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie dough mix ( 1lb. 1.5 oz)- I had two small batch sized bags that I used
1 cup graham cracker crumbs - I just had that EXACT amt (I was destined to eat these last night ;)
1 cup of butter, melted
3 cups chocolate chips (I may have used a tad mor)
4 1/2 cups mini marshmallows - I had stars leftover from July 4th
2-3 graham crackers- broken into bits

Mix together the sugar cookie mix and graham cracker crumbs.
Pour in the melted butter and mix it all together
Line a 9x13 pan with foil.
Dump in the mix and press to the edges and make it all even.
Bake at 375 for 18-20 min.
Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips on top and let them get melty (I ran and did some laundry and came back for the next step)
Smooth the chocolate all over the cookie crust
Set oven to broil and top the chocolate layer with marshmallows and then dot the in-betweens with broken up bits of graham crackers (my addition).
Broil in the oven for less than 2 minutes (otherwise you'll have what I had up there- burnt marshmallows! DON'T WALK AWAY, not even to the sink to do the dishes!!)

Let cool a bit and cut them into squares. I did the baking part prior to dinner and then as the table was cleared, popped the marshmallow topped bars under the broiler. Perfect timing.... except the part where I left them in too long.... heed my warning!

So delish with a tall glass of milk!

Summertime Frozen S'mores ~ 7.1.11

One day last week or so, I was having a hard time figuring what else to schmear Nutella on when my Magic Pop (korean rice cakes) were all gone.

Thanks to facebook and my cousin, Linda (I have gads of smart cousins ;), help was on the way. She told me to put whipped cream and nutella on a graham cracker and then freeze them. BRILLIANT!

I had cool whip. So I went with that. Whipped cream is obviously not fake. So whatever floats your boat.

I set up my graham crackers assembly line-style and smeared on the Nutella, then the cool whip, topped it with another graham cracker and popped them in the freezer. (please note  that I did eat several and licked my fingers many times during this process and I can say, they're GREAT frozen or not).

That's all that's to this.
graham crackers
cool whip
nutella

oooo, thinking that marshmallow fluff would be another good option, too!

freezer.

enjoy our frozen s'mores!

Middle Eastern delights ~ 6.9.11

{corn and black bean salsa (with edamame), falafel and hummus}

Would you take a look at that plate! I mean, wow! Doesn't it all look so delicious? Okay, I'm a total food freak, I know. Who else takes pictures of their lunch? Well, I know a few more.... but still, I had to take a picture so that I could share these fabulous foods with YOU!

The recipes I'm sharing today all hail from Lucinda Scala Quinn's show, Mad Hungry on The Hallmark Channel. I have a link to the blog over there on my sidebar, do take a look. I have another handful of recipes to share with you that I've made in the past few weeks and they are ALL from her SHOW! I made all of the recipes on her Israeli Cooking show: Hummus, Falafel and Israeli Salad. I'm sharing 2 out of 3 of those recipes with you today. That last recipe was eaten so fast I didn't have time to photograph it!

Both of these recipes today start with a bag of dried chickpeas. Sometimes they can be hard to find. I didn't find them with the other dried beans/legumes in the grocery store. Instead, they were in the International food aisle, in the Mexican section. They're my new pantry staple.

I know I've posted a great hummus recipe in the past, but this one takes the cake. The former is great if you're short on time, but if you prep your chickpeas in advance, go with this recipe made from dried chickpeas. WOW. The creamy texture was so amazing and the flavor is subtle perfection.

Mad Hungry Hummus

3 1/2 cups cooked dried  chickpeas ** recipe to follow** or 2 15.5 oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 clove garlic, smashed
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tbs tahini paste (I love Kyros)
1 tsp coarse salt
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup olive oil

In bowl of food processor, combine chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, tahini and salt. Pulse to a thick paste. With motor running, slowly add water, then oil in a steady stream. Taste and add more salt if needed (mine needed a tad bit more).

Serve with pita, chips, veggies or spread on a sandwich!


This next recipe was not a hit with the family, but I LOVED them!

Falafel
these are fried vegetarian patties. You can eat them alone or on a pita, served as a sandwich. Drizzle a little tahini over them if you'd like

1 3/4 cup cooked dried chickpeas, or 1 15.5 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 small yellow onion, minced
1/4 cup parsley
2 Tbs mint
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
juice of 1 lemon
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 Tbs sesame seeds, toasted (I left those out)
1/2 cup safflower or canola oil
For serving: pita, sliced tomatoes, red onion, lettuce, tahini

Place half of chickpeas in food processor and pulse a few times until chopped, transfer to large bowl.

Place remaining chickpeas in processor with garlic, onion, herbs, spices, baking soda, salt and lemon juice. Pulse to a thick, chunky paste, about 30 sec. Transfer to bowl with chopped chickpeas.

Add egg and sesame seeds to bowl and stir to combine. Cover and chill batter for 30 minutes. (I left mine in the fridge 2 days before frying)

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Form batter into 2 inch wide patties (I got about 10 patties in total). Place in hot oil and gently flatten. Cook, turning once, after the first side is a nice golden brown- about 4-5 minutes total. Transfer to paper towel (or bag) lined plate to drain.

Serve with pita bread, tomato slices, lettuce and red onion. Drizzle with tahini.

Cooked Dried Chickpeas
from Martha Stewart dot com


1 pound bag of chickpeas
water
1 Tbs baking soda

Soak the chickpeas in water with baking soda for 8 hours (aka overnight!). Drain and rinse. Place chickpeas in a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, simmer and cook until softened (about 2 hours). Rinse the chickpeas and use as desired.

One bag of chickpeas is enough for both of the above recipes!

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes ~ 6.3.11

Not too long ago, I posted a recipe for Blueberry syrup. This little beaut would go perfectly dressed with that syrup. So fresh. So summer. So delish.

Enjoy. These are a perfect reason to use up that last little bit of ricotta in the container. Keep this in mind.

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

(adapted from Everyday Food- originally Orange Ricotta...)

ingredients:

1 3/4 cup park skim ricotta cheese (15 oz)

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp grated lemon zest

2/3 cup all purpose flour

canola oil

confectioner's sugar and/or Blueberry Syrup

directions:

-In a med bowl, whisk the ricotta, sugar, eggs and lemon zest together. Whisk in the flour until just combined.

--Heat oil in a nonstick skillet or spray a griddle pan over med-low heat.

--Working in batches, add batter, use about a 1/4 cup (or little less) for each pancake.

--Cook until browned, 4-5 min per side.

Transfer to plate lined with paper towels (esp if you used canola oil). Serve hot with confectioner's sugar or blueberry syrup