Pepper Paints

Thursday’s Recipe – Super Easy, Home Made CrockPot Yogurt

The chef and I have been very busy in the kitchen this summer!

I have always wanted to make my own yogurt but never found a recipe that looked easy enough. Until now!!

This is the recipe I followed.

It was ridiculously simple.

Because this is unsweetened I have been using it like sour cream as well as yogurt. Over the top of grated cucumbers with lots of salt and pepper Mmmm-In smoothies, over fruit with a little maple syrup. Oh boy-a half gallon of milk’s worth of yogurt did not last long around here!!

Are there any home made yogurt experts out there that could answer some of my questions??? Like in addition to starter can I add more probiotics to make a super cultured yogurt? I am not sure if they would grow. I am also interested in making some non dairy non soy yogurts…Oh the possibilities!!

Thursday’s Recipe….2 Homemade Granola Recipes (Perfect For Breakfast, Snack or Handmade Gift)

Looking for a healthy breakfast cereal? Looking for a handmade gift? Homemade granola fits both bills! Store bought granola can be expensive and often unhealthy, but making a large batch at home can save you some money as well as allowing you to customize the ingredients.

We made two different granola recipes in the past few weeks. Both are really good and when put in a pretty jar make a great holiday gift.

The first recipe is taken from a new favorite cook book of mine, FEEDING THE WHOLE FAMILY

MAPLE BUTTER NUT GRANOLA

Makes 8 cups

Pre-heat 325

3 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 Tablespoon nut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients

In a small pan melt buter, add maple syrup, and nut butter and stir to blend. Remove from heat and add extracts

Slowly pour wet over dry ingredients.  Fold and evenly coat dry ingredients

Spread on cookie sheet or shallow pan and bake until dry and golden-45 to 60 minutes, turning every 15 to 20 minutes so that it toasts evenly.

I added some of this to a bowl of pomegranate seeds and literally thought I had died and gone to heaven!!! No milk necessary.

The next day I added dry coconut and a banana to my bowl of granola/pomegranate. Equally delicious!

The kids had theirs parfait style. (In a tall glass, layered with frozen fruit and almond or coconut milk)

The second recipe is from the files of Abby, who swears she doesn’t know where she got this recipe.

MIX AND MATCH APPLESAUCE GRANOLA

3 1/2 cups rolled oats

2 cups puffed rice cereal

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

pinch ground cardamom (don’t skip this!!)

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup plain applesauce

1/4 cup maple syrup or honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

up to 1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, cashews, macadamia nuts, pumpkin seeds…..)

up to 1 cup chopped dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, apricots, cherries, blueberries, raspberries…….)

Pre-heat 325 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper (or two smaller ones)

In a large bowl combine oats, cereal and spices. In another bowl, whisk together sugar, applesauce, maple syrup, and vanilla.

Pour wet over dry, adding nuts and stir to combine.

Spread on baking sheet in an even layer

Bake 30 minutes, turning over and baking 15 more minutes or until golden brown

This recipe was great for snacking. It was more clumpy than the first recipe. The cardamom really gives this one a warm taste.

You can find some cute glass containers at the grocery or the thrift store. Add a pretty label with the recipe and you have a wonderful handmade inexpensive gift that anyone would love to receive!

Thursday’s Recipe-Homemade Pumpkin Bagels and Maple Butter

This was a fun and fairly simple recipe to make and because it uses rapid rise yeast, they don’t take hours to prepare. And the results were delicious!!!

I suppose these aren’t “real” bagels because we didn’ t boil them-but the recipe (on tattered piece of paper from unknown origin) calls these bagels. So……….

Pumpkin Bagels

4 1/4 to 4 3/8 cups all purpose flour, divided

1 package quick rise all natural active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (120-130 degrees)

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

Combine 2 cups of the flour and the yeast. Add the warm water, pumpkin, sugar and salt.

Beat with a mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes.

Using a spoon stir in as of the remaining flour as you can.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface.

Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic-about 5 minutes.

Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Grease a cookie sheet and set aside ( or use parchment paper)

Divide the dough into 10 portions.

Real life math!

Shape each portion into a smooth ball.

Poke a hole into the center of each ball and pull to make a 2 inch hole.

Place on prepared cookie sheet. Cover and let rise 20 minutes. Pre heat oven to 375

Bake for 25 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

While you are waiting for your bagels to cook you can make your maple butter and honey butter.

For the maple butter just combine maple syrup to taste with softened butter in your mixer using whisk attachment. Whip it up  and store in the fridge so that it doesn’t separate-if it does just stir it up again. (maybe 3/4 stick of butter to 1/4 to 1/2 cup maple syrup) again more or less to taste.

For the honey butter we mixed about 3/4 stick of butter with 1/4 to 1/2 cup honey, a few drops of vanilla, and a shake of cinnamon in the mixer. More or less to taste.

When your bagels are finished baking-smear lots of these sweet, creamy butters on your warm bagels and enjoy!!!

The recipe made 10 bagels…enough for us to have homemade pumpkin bagels and maple and honey butter again this morning!!

Thursday’s Quarter Recipe

Raw Chocolate Cupcakes with Raw Chocolate Frosting

These were so rich and tasty!!! The photo does not do them justice. I am still learning indoor lighting obviously.

The cupcake recipe came from here. She has many more delicious desserts that I can’t wait to try!! But I do want to know about the safety of those silicone cupcake liners. ANybody have any info on them?

Here is the recipe:

1 cup walnuts

5 dates

Process these in the food processor and then add the following and process again

1/8 cup raw cocoa

1 t. coconut oil

1 t. vanilla

1/2 t. almond extract

1/4 t. salt

Form into balls and drop and mold into cupcake pan.

I did 1 and 1/2 recipes and it made 24 mini cupcakes. Which are just the right size for these rich treats.

Again-sorry for the bad photo!!

For the frosting I loosely followed a recipe and added some extras.

1 T raw cocoa

1T coconut butter (I used solid oil)

dash of salt

squirt of vanilla

some maple syrup to thin it out and sweeten it up

some raw dry coconut to thiken it to desired consistancy

Again I did 1 1/2 this frosting recipe.

I know some people avoid cocnut oil because of the saturated fats but it is very digestible and the body quickly metabolizes it for energy. According to “RAWSOME” :  “Coconut oil contains both short and medium chain fatty acid. In lab tests, the med. chain fatty acids have shown effective against flu, measels, sinusitis, food poisining, urinary tract infections, hepatitis c, and candida. Coconut oil is antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and antiprotozoal. It helps stimulate thyroid, normalize blood sugar levels, decrease seizures and relieve chronic fatigue.”

Sounds good to me!

If you want to add a raw recipe to this weeks Quarter recipe, leave a comment here with a link to your post containing your raw recipe! Come on play along!!!

When It Snows…………….

You should first go out and play in it.

Especially if you have really cute puppies!

Then you should make Snow Ice Cream!!

Beat 1 cup of milk with 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla till fluffy. Then add enough snow to absorb all the liquid.

This is sooo tasty! But of course I had to alter it, so I tried it with Almond milk, maple syrup and vanilla and it was Mmm Mmm good but of course that wasn’t enough! I added some shredded coconut, cocoa nibs, a few raisins and some chopped up macadamia nuts-Then it was perfect!!!!!!!!!!

Pumpkin Pie Popsicles and A Great Movie

Yes you read that right, Pumpkin Pie Popsicles!  And believe it or not, they are really good!

I cooked 2 small butternut squash (in the oven, but you could boil them too).  I scooped out the squash and added 1/2 cup pure maple syrup, 2/3 cup light cream (I used 1/2 & 1/2) and 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice.  Smash it all up really well and scoop into Popsicle molds.  I swear these are da bomb!!  This great recipe also came from this months Family Fun Magazine.

Tonight I met with my Mother Artist Group to see the movie, Who Does She Think She Is? Excellent documentary about Women/Mother artists.  It is a powerful statement of how society has and still does view women artists and how these women struggle to be a wife and mother and still answer the overpowering need to create.  Check out their site and find the screening near you.  And go see it!

And look what I came home to!