SUCH fun.
Last night I went to the Whole Foods near me that opened about 2 weeks ago. I'm super excited to have a gourmet/natural grocery store close by (though I'd rather it were Trader Joe's), but I also fear for my grocery bills. I left the store $50 poorer and I'm not sure where it went. I did buy some heavy whipping cream to make butter. Also, I loooooooooooooooove WF's bulk foods aisle. I bought all the stuff I needed to make the best granola ever. It's amazing (to me) how yummy it is, considering it's like, ridiculously healthy. There are many organic nuts involved.
Olive Oil & Maple Granola (adapted from Orangette)
Ingredients:
- 300 grams (3 cups) rolled oats
- 125 grams (1 cup) raw hulled pumpkin seeds
- 130 grams (1 cup) raw hulled sunflower seeds
- 50 grams (1 cup) unsweetened coconut chips
- 135 grams (1¼ cup) raw nuts (such as pecans, almonds, cashews), whole or chopped
- ½ tsp. kosher salt
- 175 ml (¼ cup) maple syrup, preferably Grade B, but Grade A is fine also
- 120 ml (½ cup) olive oil
Note: K and I make this on the less-sweet side. If you like sweeter granola, add up to a packed ½ cup of light brown sugar and/or use ¾ cup of maple syrup (both of which were in the original recipe). Also add dried cherries at the end, if you like. [Side note: Real maple syrup is the best stuff on earth.]
Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat.
2) In a large bowl, combine the oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut chips, pecans, light brown sugar (if using), and salt. Stir to mix. Add the olive oil and maple syrup, and stir until well combined.
3) Spread the mixture in an even layer on the prepared sheet pan. Bake, stirring every 15 minutes, until the granola is golden brown and toasted, about 45 minutes.
4) Remove the granola from the oven. If desired, season with more salt to taste. Cool completely on a wire rack. Stir in the dried cherries at this point if using.
5) Store in an airtight container. It will keep at room temperature for up to a month.
I also made the World's Best Garlic Bread. That's actually the name of it, not what I think of it, lol. Though it IS very good; I just don't think it's necessarily the best ever. It involved smoking many garlic cloves. Do you know how long it takes to peel 40 cloves of garlic (I don't have one of those handy roller thingys that takes the skin right off, though after this I might have to get one)? Usually I mince garlic so I just smash them right on the cutting board, but in this case they had to be intact. By the dozenth clove I felt like I'd been doing it for hours and would never get to do anything else.
World's Best Garlic Bread (from Smokin' by Christopher Styler)
Ingredients
- 16-32 garlic cloves, smoked (recipe below)
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
- 4 tbsps unsalted butter, melted
- 3 tbsps fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- kosher salt
- fresh ground black pepper
- 12-inch length of crusty baguette
- ½ cup red onion, sliced very thin
Method:
1) Smoke the garlic (see related recipe) and cool to room temperature.
2) Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Blend the garlic, Parmesan, butter, parsley, and olive oil in a food processor fitted with a metal blade until the garlic is finely chopped. (I used my Magic Bullet.) Taste and season with salt & pepper.
3) Split the bread lengthwise with a bread knife. Spread the garlic butter over the cut sides of both halves and set the bread buttered side up on a baking sheet. Scatter the onion slices evenly over the bread and press then gently to they stick to the garlic butter.
4) Bake until the crust is crackling crisp and the tops are lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Cool slightly before slicing and serving.
Smoked Garlic Cloves
1) Bring a small saucepan of salted water to the boil. In the meanwhile, peel 40 good-size cloves of garlic (about 8 ounces). Add the garlic to the boiling water and cook for 1½ minutes. Drain and rinse them with some cold water. Pat dry with a paper towel.
2) Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the garlic cloves and drizzle olive oil on top. Rub it all together with your hands.
3) Smoke the garlic for ~40 minutes at about 210°F with 1 tbsp of the wood chip of your choice (I used cherry). A fork should pierce them easily when they're done.
My only true ship in ASoIaF is Rhaegar/Lyanna, and there's a very quiet LJ comm for that ship. Today someone posted a fanmix based on Lyanna, from the POV of the other characters (which is pretty much the only way we know anything about her anyway). I thought it was a really cool idea and left a comment saying as much... and it turns out that the fanmix artist used to participate in D/G fandom! What a small world. Anyway, the fanmix is neat.
Woohoo, Hump Madness has begun! The matchups aren't anonymous, but the actual drabbles are, so I can at least say when I have a matchup going on. To be honest I don't expect to get very far. I haven't written a word since the last DG fic exchange and even that was a struggle. But this'll be a good opportunity to experiment with different pairings, since they're only drabbles.![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jade_okelani is also participating, but with the way the bracket is set up, she and I wouldn't compete head to head unless we both made it to the final matchup. Whew.
OK, so David Benioff, writer of the great City of Thieves book I was talking about yesterday, is married to Amanda Peet! I'm now reading The 25th Hour, his first novel. Anyway, his photos on the dust jackets for the two books crack me up because they're so different:
Olive Oil & Maple Granola (adapted from Orangette)
Ingredients:
- 300 grams (3 cups) rolled oats
- 125 grams (1 cup) raw hulled pumpkin seeds
- 130 grams (1 cup) raw hulled sunflower seeds
- 50 grams (1 cup) unsweetened coconut chips
- 135 grams (1¼ cup) raw nuts (such as pecans, almonds, cashews), whole or chopped
- ½ tsp. kosher salt
- 175 ml (¼ cup) maple syrup, preferably Grade B, but Grade A is fine also
- 120 ml (½ cup) olive oil
Note: K and I make this on the less-sweet side. If you like sweeter granola, add up to a packed ½ cup of light brown sugar and/or use ¾ cup of maple syrup (both of which were in the original recipe). Also add dried cherries at the end, if you like. [Side note: Real maple syrup is the best stuff on earth.]
Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat.
2) In a large bowl, combine the oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut chips, pecans, light brown sugar (if using), and salt. Stir to mix. Add the olive oil and maple syrup, and stir until well combined.
3) Spread the mixture in an even layer on the prepared sheet pan. Bake, stirring every 15 minutes, until the granola is golden brown and toasted, about 45 minutes.
4) Remove the granola from the oven. If desired, season with more salt to taste. Cool completely on a wire rack. Stir in the dried cherries at this point if using.
5) Store in an airtight container. It will keep at room temperature for up to a month.
I also made the World's Best Garlic Bread. That's actually the name of it, not what I think of it, lol. Though it IS very good; I just don't think it's necessarily the best ever. It involved smoking many garlic cloves. Do you know how long it takes to peel 40 cloves of garlic (I don't have one of those handy roller thingys that takes the skin right off, though after this I might have to get one)? Usually I mince garlic so I just smash them right on the cutting board, but in this case they had to be intact. By the dozenth clove I felt like I'd been doing it for hours and would never get to do anything else.
World's Best Garlic Bread (from Smokin' by Christopher Styler)
Ingredients
- 16-32 garlic cloves, smoked (recipe below)
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
- 4 tbsps unsalted butter, melted
- 3 tbsps fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- kosher salt
- fresh ground black pepper
- 12-inch length of crusty baguette
- ½ cup red onion, sliced very thin
Method:
1) Smoke the garlic (see related recipe) and cool to room temperature.
2) Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Blend the garlic, Parmesan, butter, parsley, and olive oil in a food processor fitted with a metal blade until the garlic is finely chopped. (I used my Magic Bullet.) Taste and season with salt & pepper.
3) Split the bread lengthwise with a bread knife. Spread the garlic butter over the cut sides of both halves and set the bread buttered side up on a baking sheet. Scatter the onion slices evenly over the bread and press then gently to they stick to the garlic butter.
4) Bake until the crust is crackling crisp and the tops are lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Cool slightly before slicing and serving.
Smoked Garlic Cloves
1) Bring a small saucepan of salted water to the boil. In the meanwhile, peel 40 good-size cloves of garlic (about 8 ounces). Add the garlic to the boiling water and cook for 1½ minutes. Drain and rinse them with some cold water. Pat dry with a paper towel.
2) Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the garlic cloves and drizzle olive oil on top. Rub it all together with your hands.
3) Smoke the garlic for ~40 minutes at about 210°F with 1 tbsp of the wood chip of your choice (I used cherry). A fork should pierce them easily when they're done.
My only true ship in ASoIaF is Rhaegar/Lyanna, and there's a very quiet LJ comm for that ship. Today someone posted a fanmix based on Lyanna, from the POV of the other characters (which is pretty much the only way we know anything about her anyway). I thought it was a really cool idea and left a comment saying as much... and it turns out that the fanmix artist used to participate in D/G fandom! What a small world. Anyway, the fanmix is neat.
Woohoo, Hump Madness has begun! The matchups aren't anonymous, but the actual drabbles are, so I can at least say when I have a matchup going on. To be honest I don't expect to get very far. I haven't written a word since the last DG fic exchange and even that was a struggle. But this'll be a good opportunity to experiment with different pairings, since they're only drabbles.
jade_okelani is also participating, but with the way the bracket is set up, she and I wouldn't compete head to head unless we both made it to the final matchup. Whew.OK, so David Benioff, writer of the great City of Thieves book I was talking about yesterday, is married to Amanda Peet! I'm now reading The 25th Hour, his first novel. Anyway, his photos on the dust jackets for the two books crack me up because they're so different:
| I'm so GQ suave! | I'm so dorky and lovable! |
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