Posts Tagged ‘Oatmeal Recipes’

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

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Frank Loesser composed the song “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” in 1947.
 
According to Susan Loesser’s biography of her father, A Most Remarkable Fella, the singer of the song is supposed to be asking the title question in the early spring, thinking ahead and hoping that a new relationship will last until December.
 
“It always annoyed my father when the song was sung during the holidays,” the composer’s daughter writes.
 
When a songwriter publishes a song and sends it out into the world, however, the song can be reinterpreted over and over again—and Frank Loesser has clearly lost the battle of New Year’s Eve.
 
His song perfectly epitomizes the mixture of reflection, hope, and sleepiness we feel as midnight looms on December 31. It’s a lovely piece—slightly jazzy and easy to sing because the melody makes the lyrics seem effortless, like conversation.
 
Maybe it’s much too early in the game.
Ah, but I thought I’d ask you just the same:
What are you doing New Year’s, New Year’s Eve?
 
I’ll definitely be singing it tonight as part of a set Alice Parker and I are performing at the Charlemont Inn. And this afternoon as I vocalize I plan to make bannocks—at least, my version of bannocks.
 
Bannocks are one of the traditional Scottish foods associated with the celebration of Hogmanay. This Scottish New Year holiday begins on New Year’s Eve (sometimes even earlier) and extends into New Year’s Day (sometimes even later).
 
Hogmanay is a major festival in Scotland these days, not unlike July 14 in France. A Scottish website, Hogmanay.net, documents many of the contemporary celebrations and offers some history as well as an opportunity to sing “Auld Lang Syne” by following a bouncing ball.
 
According to Hogmanay lore, the New Year will be prosperous if a dark stranger is the first person to cross one’s threshold in the New Year. The stranger is supposed to bring a token gift, often a lump of coal to keep the fire warm. The homeowner reciprocates with refreshment.
 
A typical refreshment offered is a bannock, an oatmeal cake that according to varying accounts resembles a scone—or a pancake—or a cookie.
 
I’ve never tasted an authentic bannock, and I encourage readers with recipes to send them in! In the meantime, I’m baking my version of this treat, which is distinctly scone like.
 
I love the word “bannock.” It sounds solid and practical. My bannocks are also solid (although not hard!) and taste pleasantly of country life.
 
It’s unlikely that a dark and handsome stranger will cross my threshold at midnight.
 
Snow is predicted late this evening in Hawley, Massachusetts, and the town tends to be geriatric so any handsome stranger who actually makes it up my steep hill will probably be silver haired. But a girl can always hope.
 
If no stranger shows up, we’ll eat the bannocks for breakfast on New Year’s Day.
 
Happy New Year to all! I look forward to singing and cooking with you in 2010…
 
Thanks to Pru Berry for the impromptu photo!
Thanks to Pru Berry for the impromptu photo!
 
Tinky’s Inauthentic but Tasty Bannocks
 
Ingredients:
 
1 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal (not quick cooking)
1/2 cup blended oatmeal (put oats in your blender and pulverize them into a flour-like consistency; then measure out 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1-1/2 teaspoons baking power
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter
2/3 cup raisins
1/2 to 2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
white sugar for the top of the bannocks
 
Instructions:
 
Preheat the oven to 325 and lightly grease two cookie sheets (or line them with silicone or parchment).
 
In a medium bowl combine the flour, oatmeals, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
 
Cut in the butter; then stir in the raisins.
 
In a mixing cup whisk together 1/2 cup buttermilk, the egg, and the vanilla. Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients. If the batter won’t quite hold together, add a little more buttermilk.
 
Drop the bannock batter into 12 mounds on the prepared cookie sheets. Sprinkle a little sugar on the top of each mound.
 
Bake the bannocks for 18 to 25 minutes, until they are brown on the edges. Let the bannocks cool on the cookie sheets for a minute or two before serving them warm. (If you can’t use them right away, reheat them briefly before serving; they’re best eaten quite fresh from the oven.)
 
Makes 12 bannocks.
 
Truffle2010web

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Posted in Breads, Muffins, and Scones, Holiday Foods, Oatmeal | 7 Comments »

Maple-Oatmeal Bread

Monday, March 30th, 2009

bread2web4

 

I have one final entry for Massachusetts Maple Month. This is one of my favorite breads in the world—slightly sweet and filling. I always make a mess when I knead bread. How flour ends up on my face, I really don’t know! Luckily, the end product is worth the clean-up work. 
 
The Bread

 

Ingredients:

 

1 cup old-fashioned oats (do not use quick or steel cut)

2 cups boiling water

1 tablespoon butter

1 packet (about 2-1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast (not instant)

1/4 cup lukewarm water

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 teaspoons salt

5-1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (more or less)

 

Instructions:

 

Place the oats in a large mixing bowl. Pour the boiling water over them, add the butter, and let the oatmeal stand for about 15 minutes, until it is lukewarm. After the first 10 minutes, place the yeast in a small bowl. Cover it with the lukewarm water. Allow it to bubble up for a few minutes.

 

When the oatmeal is lukewarm, stir in the maple syrup, the salt, the yeast with its water, and 2 cups of the flour. Stir vigorously; then add 2 cups more flour. Stir again vigorously for a minute or two; get as close to beating as you can with a mixture this heavy. Scoop up the dough (add a bit of flour if it won’t hold together to scoop), and place it on a kneading surface—a floured board or a silicone mat.

 

Knead the dough for 2 minutes, adding a little more flour to keep it from sticking to the surface and your hands. After those first 2 minutes, let the dough rest for up to 10 minutes; then resume kneading, adding more flour as needed. Knead for 5 to 10 minutes, until the dough feels smooth.

 

Place the dough in a large, greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a warm, damp dish towel. Let the dough rise until it doubles in bulk; this should take about 2 hours, depending on how warm the room is. If your towel dries out during the rising, be sure to dampen it again.

 

Remove the covering from the bowl, and punch down on the dough once with your fist. This lets out a lot of the air. (It’s also fun.) Cut the dough in half, and shape each half into a ball. Butter 2 bread pans, and shape each ball into an oval about the same size as your pans. Smooth the balls as well as you can with your hands.

 

Place the bread loaves in the buttered pans, and turn them over so that both the tops and the bottoms have touched the butter. Cover the pans with a damp towel as you did the rising bowl, and allow the loaves to rise again until they double in bulk. This should take a little less time than the first rising, perhaps an hour or so.

 

After 45 minutes, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. When the loaves have finished rising, uncover them, and bake them for about 40 to 45 minutes, until they are a warm brown color and sound hollow when you tap on them. Remove the hot loaves from the pans, and let them cool on racks.

 

Makes 2 loaves.

 

bread1web1

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Posted in Breads, Muffins, and Scones, Maple Syrup and Sugar, Oatmeal | 12 Comments »

Maple-Pecan Granola

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

granola-in-jar-web1

Ben and Jerry aren’t the only Americans shouting “Yes, Pecan!” this January in honor of the inauguration. In keeping with my current oatmeal theme I’m making a special Obamalicious batch of oaty, nutty granola.


 

If I had to pick only one food in the world to eat every day, this granola might just be it. It offers a pleasing mixture of tastes and textures. Luckily, I don’t eat it every day. It’s expensive to make and rather fattening. Nevertheless, a little bit is heavenly with ice cream or yogurt or just by itself as a snack. It also makes a welcome gift. If I thought it would get past security, I would send some to the Obamas. Instead, I’m sharing it with my neighbors.

 

It’s easy to make this mixture gluten free. Just cut out the Grape Nuts and add a few more nuts. (I can ALWAYS add a few more nuts!)


 

Maple-Pecan Granola

 

Ingredients:

 

3-1/2 cups uncooked old-fashioned oats (do not use instant or steel-cut oatmeal)

1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup nutlike cereal nuggets such as Grape-Nuts
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 cup pecan halves
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup canola oil, plus oil for greasing the pan
3/4 cup maple syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup raisins (plus as many extra as you like!)

1 cup dried cranberries (more of these are nice, too)


 

Directions:

 

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together the oats, coconut, cereal, almonds, pecans, and sunflower seeds. Make sure they are well jumbled up. In a separate, smaller bowl or a 2-cup measuring cup, carefully whisk together the oil, salt, syrup, and vanilla. Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients and mix the whole mess together thoroughly with a big spoon.


 

Generously oil a large jelly roll pan with canola oil. (Pour a little oil in the pan, and smooth it around with a paper towel.) Place the granola on the pan, and bake it until it is golden brown, about 1-1/2 to 2 hours, stirring well every 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, and cool the granola to room temperature. At that point, transfer the granola back into the large bowl, and stir in the dried fruits. Store the granola in an air-tight container (or several).


Makes about 8 cups of granola—more or less, depending on how much stuff you add.


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The Golden Spurtle


 

Before I leave the topic of National Oatmeal Month, I’d like to point readers to the website for the Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship, http://www.goldenspurtle.com/. Thanks to Peter Beck and to Apartment Therapy’s Kitchen section, http://www.thekitchn.com/, for finding this for me!

A yearly cooking contest set in Carrbridge in Inverness-shire, Scotland (of course!), this contest looks ALMOST as much fun as my annual Pudding Hollow Pudding Contest. Avid food enthusiasts will be happy to hear that they can attend both. The Golden Spurtle is scheduled for October 11, 2009, while the Pudding Contest will take place on October 31.


The Golden Spurtle web site includes rules, an entry form, and a wonderful page devoted to porridge, including something you won’t find anywhere else–a Porridge and Oatmeal Thesaurus.


 

Eat it up!


2008 Golden Spurtle Winners Andy Daggert & Ian Bishop (Courtesy of the Golden Spurtle)

2008 Golden Spurtle Winners Andy Daggert & Ian Bishop (Courtesy of the Golden Spurtle)

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Posted in Maple Syrup and Sugar, Oatmeal | Comments Closed

Avenaceous Meatloaf

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

your-basic-meatloaf-web

          Knowing that this blog and I are currently celebrating National Oatmeal Month, my college roommate Amy MacDonald recently sent me Wordsmith.org’s word of the day for January 5. The word was AVENACEOUS. It means relating to or like oats.

           Amy, known to her college friends as “Our Amy” (we like to take credit for her), is one of my favorite people in the world. She’s smart. She’s funny. She’s musical. And she’s as practical and loving as they come. She has a terrific family, from matriarch Kathleen and the seven(!) MacDonald siblings down to her own kids, Caitlin and William. Until recently I was under the impression that Caitlin and William were still extremely young. Last time I saw them they were sipping drinks of such an intense blue that only children under ten could digest them–or would want to try. According to Amy’s most recent missive, however, they have somehow become teenagers.

Our Amy (wearing Kathleen's glamorous earrings)

Our Amy (glamorous earrings courtesy of Kathleen)

          Obviously, Amy and I don’t get together as often as we’d like. Unfortunately (from my point of view), she lives in California. Whenever we do, we talk for hours, just as though we were still sitting on our beds at Mount Holyoke. Even when we’re apart, we think of each other often. I’m convinced that no one else would have found the term avenaceous for me. If you’d like to see Wordsmith’s full tribute to this highly appropriate word, look at http://wordsmith.org/words/avenaceous.html.

          I was going to call the dish below “Your Basic Meatloaf with Oatmeal,” but I think the new name is much classier. Classy or not, this comfort food is a staple in my home in winter. My mother Jan never uses breadcrumbs to fill out her loaf. Oats are much tastier and more nutritious as well. If you’re feeding small children, chop the onion and bell pepper into very small pieces to disguise them a bit. Adults seem to like larger chunks.

          To keep from chilling your hands, take the ground meat out of the refrigerator about an hour before you’re ready to put your loaf together. Enjoy your avenaceous meal!

Avenaceous Meatloaf

Ingredients:

2 pounds good-quality ground beef (or a combination of beef with pork—or beef, pork, and veal!)

1 large onion, chopped

1 medium or 1/2 large bell pepper, chopped

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

lots of freshly ground pepper

1 or 2 eggs

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats plus a bit more if needed

1/2 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Instructions:

          Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the ground meat, onion, bell pepper, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. (Your clean hands are the best tools for putting them all together.)  Blend in 1 egg and the 1/2 cup oatmeal. If it’s hard to get everything to bind together, add another egg and/or a few more oats.

          Fashion the meat mixture into a rough log, and place it in a baking dish. In a small bowl, combine the ketchup, brown sugar, and mustard, and spread them over the meatloaf.

          Bake the loaf from 45 minutes to 1 hour. Serves 8.meatloaf-ingredients-web1

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Posted in Meat and Poultry, Oatmeal | Comments Closed

Oat Cuisine

Thursday, January 8th, 2009
oatmealweb2          In my New Year e-mail to friends I mentioned that I was working on an article about oatmeal. The response was enthusiastic.

          “Oatmeal is our friend,” e-mailed Carol Cooke, a realtor from Alexandria, Virginia. Just as passionate was Sheila Velazquez. Along with her family, Sheila is working hard to resurrect the old Rice farm on Pudding Hollow Road here in Hawley, Massachusetts. They are basically camping out (brrr!) while nurturing their children and chickens, reconstructing the historic house’s interior, and reading seed catalogues as they dream of the garden they will plant in spring.

          Sheila wrote that on chilly winter mornings she enjoys oatmeal almost every day. She buys organic oats in bulk and cooks them with water, dried fruit, and cinnamon. She throws in a little salt at the very end. “So good and also a good way to use up fruit that’s getting past its time,” she added.

          Sheila offered me a recipe for oatmeal pie, which she termed a sort of “faux pecan” concoction. She said of oatmeal in general, “It seems that some of the most delicious foods are also the least expensive and best for us.”

          I don’t eat oatmeal every morning. Unlike the noble Sheila I always add at least a little brown sugar or maple syrup to my morning porridge. I do yearn for the warmth and comfort of oatmeal at this time of year, however. I’m apparently not alone. More Americans eat oatmeal in January than in any other month, a statistic that prompted Quaker Oats to name January National Oatmeal Month.

Of course, Quaker had a vested interest in creating a month devoted to its signature product. I forgive the company because oatmeal is indeed the perfect food in this dark and cold season. The old cliché that it sticks to one’s ribs turns out to be true. Whole grains like oats take longer for the body to process than many other foods.

The best oatmeal for health purposes is a long-cooking type such as steel-cut oats. If you’re in a hurry, old-fashioned oats take only five minutes to prepare and are still very good for you. Avoid the small packages of instant oatmeal, however. They tend to go overboard in adding salt and sugar.

Oatmeal always appears on lists of super foods. It is good for cholesterol and blood pressure. It also delivers several nutrients, as well as some protein.

Best of all, it is versatile. Broccoli is also a super food, but there are only so many ways a person can disguise broccoli. Believe me, I’ve tried! As well as making a tasty breakfast cereal, oatmeal can be tucked into fruit crisps, cookies, breads, muffins, and meatloaf. It can even be used to construct a facial mask. (Take that, broccoli!)

In this post and the next few I’ll share recipes to boost oatmeal intake this month. If you’re looking for a basic oatmeal cookie, you can’t do better than the formula for Vanishing Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies on the inside of the Quaker Oats box top. Dan Turner of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, told me how to get the best consistency with these cookies: use a Crisco stick instead of the butter or margarine called for in the recipe. You’ll find that the cookies really do vanish quickly.

The Rice Farm in Hawley, Massachusetts

The Rice Farmhouse in Hawley, Massachusetts

Rice Farm Oatmeal Pie

          Sheila Velazquez says that she originally found this recipe in Farm Journal’s Country Cookbook, published in 1972. At one time she managed a farmer’s market, where the pie was a best seller. Sheila explains that the oatmeal forms a chewy crust on the top of the pie.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark corn syrup
3 eggs
1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the spices and salt. Stir in the corn syrup. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring after each addition until all is blended. Stir in the oats.

Pour the mixture into the pie shell, and bake for about an hour, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Serves 6 to 8.

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Posted in Cakes, Pies, and Pastry, Oatmeal | 3 Comments »