Crock Pot Oats & Amish Style Baked Oatmeal

Oat-Cuisine
I am a big fan of oatmeal—no matter what form it comes in: whether it’s steaming from a bowl, baked in a cookie with raisins and cinnamon, or crumbled on top of apples and served with ice cream.

The good news is it’s good for you, and you can easily justify eating oats no matter what it’s iteration. I will concede that if you add too much brown sugar or butter the health benefits are somewhat diminished, but it tastes so darn good!

Because it’s winter, and it’s cold, and it’s not yet rhubarb, peach or cherry season, my love of oatmeal has been playing out on the field of breakfast. I have been trying different ways of making my warm bowl of courage, and have been pleasantly surprised at all I can do. I have found my two favorites.

Sure, you can always go the traditional salted water boiling route. It’s comfortable. It’s a known. Or you could walk on the wild side, and get wacky like the Amish do and make Baked Oatmeal with Apples, Raisins and Walnuts. Jenn Segal had me at “bread pudding-like consistency”. I’ve never met a bread pudding I didn’t like—this will be good. The downside? It’s not something you can throw together on a weekday morning.

Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oatmeal is the perfect solution for weekday mornings. There’s nothing like waking up to a hot bowl of oat-y goodness. I mess around with this recipe depending on my mood. I will add raisins, nuts, cut up apples and/or dried cranberries. Most times I leave the vanilla out and go with some combination of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. It’s a perfect way to make time consuming steel-cut oats during the week.

Amish Style Baked Oatmeal
Adapted from Once Upon a Chef
A traditional and comforting Amish breakfast casserole. There are endless variations—the recipe is easily adapted to whatever fruits and nuts you have on hand. Read more…

Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread

Knead to Know

Over the weekend, my sister was wonderful enough to take care of the kids while my husband and I went into the city to have dinner with old friends. It was really nice to be out on the town like adults. (We need to do it more often.)

My daughter loves hanging out with her aunt for a number of reasons. Mostly because it means there will usually be a project she can help out with, and this time was no different. The boys are content to lie on the sofa like slugs playing video games with their cousins. It’s kind of a guy thing….

It has been well documented that I cannot manage to bake a decent loaf of bread. I have a weird, mental block when it comes to yeast. If this were the Middle Ages I would perish. My sister, however, is the Queen of Bread Baking. And, the two of them baked some really great loaves of Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread from a recipe on the King Arthur Flour website.

Freshly baked bread is a wonderful thing. The smell of it in the air is the worst torture, but you know that you are going to have a superlatively awesome sammich—like we have been having for the last few days. Now, though I have been rationing each slice, the loaf is all gone. I am going to have to risk life and limb to try to make it myself. Even more humbling, I will need to look to my 7 year old to show me how to get it right. Sigh.

Try this recipe for Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread, and see if you have better luck that me. If not, I’m sure my first grader would be more than willing to help.

Farro with Wild Mushrooms and Herbs

The culinary world is kinda crazy.

As with a lot of things in life, there are one-hit wonders and crazy trends, and once we find the latest and greatest everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Coconut water anyone?

One thing that makes me laugh is how restaurants, producers, chefs, retailers, etc. can take something that is by no means new and make it sound like this incredibly amazing discovery. Quinoa falls into this category. The Incans cultivated quinoa for thousands of years. It’s not new, it’s just new to us.

It is the same with farro. This ancient grain is a form of wheat, and it fed the Roman empire for centuries. A year ago most people didn’t know what it was. Now it’s everywhere. You find it in salads and soups. It’s served as a savory side dish. You name it and I am sure you can use farro in it, with it or on it.

Personally, I love farro. I especially like the nutty flavor with roasted meats. And now that the season is changing, I find myself choosing farro as an easy-to-make side for most roasted meats. It’s a great substitute for plain old rice. In my opinion, it’s best to keep it simple so that the hearty flavor comes through. Sure there are tasty farro salads with mango and other exotic combinations, but sometimes less is more. Below is the first recipe I used to make farro. I occasionally leave out the mushrooms, and it still tastes good. I’ve tried others since, but this is the recipe I always come back to.

So if you wanna try something new with dinner tonight, I would recommend a little farro. Jump on board this bandwagon…you’ll be glad you did.
Enjoy! Read more…