Frozen, baked, and rendered delicious.

Posted on February 16, 2013

I actually began writing this post a week ago as I sat at a small table in the back of my favorite café in northern California. I snuck into town last weekend for a quick 48 hours, thanks to a dear friend’s wedding. As I wrote, I continued to get reports from my snow-drowned home 3,000 miles away in Boston, rendering me utterly grateful for the quintessentially beautiful California Saturday I’d been given. The sun shining brightly in the pastel blue sky. A clear, crisp, perfect 50-degree winter day.

Of course, I now know that “winter” is relative. We Californians have no real idea what it’s like to face an impending blizzard, or real storm of any kind, stocking up on nonperishable foods, praying you don’t lose power, hoping hoping hoping your flight doesn’t get cancelled the morning you’re supposed to fly out for a wedding. On the other hand, as a west coast transplant, my notion of winter being a transition from flip-flops to closed toed shoes still affords me the overly romanticized images of what it’s like to be housebound, curled up on the couch watching the snow fall, the city shutting down around you. A mother nature-imposed peace and quiet.

I think this weekend I might get lucky enough to enjoy one of these quiet days that have become some of my favorites. It’s snowing again as I type. And believe it or not, I think we could use it. Nemo’s three feet of snow have already become grey and dirty and half melted. As it turns out, snow in a city is only romantic and beautiful for a short while! A couple of inches of sparkling white snowflakes would certainly pretty things up again.

This weekend promises to be wonderful for yet another glorious reason, though. Monday’s a holiday! One extra delicious day to lay low and play. Sleep, cook, run, bake, catch up on errands, chores, or whatever I’ve been putting off. Maybe it’s the red-eye flight that kicked off this week that’s made me so excited for an extra day this weekend, or maybe it’s the promise of snow. Either way, you can bet I’ll enjoy every minute of my at-home downtime with some fun in the kitchen. I haven’t yet decided just what that will entail, but one of my very favorite breakfasts may be in the works.

This baked oatmeal comes from Heidi Swanson’s cookbook Super Natural Every Day, and it hits the spot every single time. It’s easy to throw together in about 30 minutes, and after another 30 minutes in the oven your house will be filled with the subtly sweet fragrance of nuts and maple syrup and berries. Berries? But they’re not in season! You say. Yes! I know! It is, in fact, not berry season, but of the many things this winter has made me grateful for, frozen berries is certainly one of them. Frozen fruit and veggies get a bad rap, unnecessarily so in my opinion. While the food movement’s emphasis on “processed food is bad” is definitely a good move, and one that is making the public more aware of the food they’re choosing to consume, this word “processed” is often defined too broadly. It’s true, frozen produce is processed, and even comes in a bag. But in general, when produce is harvested fresh, blanched, and then immediately flash frozen, most nutrients are retained. So in the dead of winter—where “real” winter happens—when the only local produce you can find is some version of a root vegetable and you just want to make some warm, soul-satisfying baked oatmeal for a quiet snowy morning, frozen berries are a delicious, nutritious, Godsend of an option.

Baked Oatmeal

Very slightly adapted from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup walnut pieces, toasted and chopped

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Scant 1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

2 cups 1% milk

1 egg

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 ripe bananas, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 1/2 cups blueberries or mixed berries, fresh or frozen

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F with a rack in the top third of the oven. Butter the inside of a square baking dish. Any size under 9 inches should work.

2. While the oven is heating, place the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast them for about 5 minutes. Watch them carefully as nuts go from toasted to burnt very quickly. They’re perfectly toasted as soon as you start to smell them. You know, that delicious toasted nuts smell!

3. Mix together the oats, half the walnuts, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

4. In another bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, milk, egg, half of the butter, and the vanilla.

5. Arrange the banana slices in a single layer in the bottom of the baking dish. Sprinkle two-thirds of the berries over the top. Cover the fruit with the oat mixture. Drizzle the milk mixture over the entire surface of the oats, making sure the milk mixture gets distributed throughout the dish. Scatter the rest of the berries and walnuts across the top.

6. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the top is browned and bubbling along the sides. The oat mixture should feel set in the middle and not move much when you rock the dish side to side. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes.

7. While the oatmeal is cooling, reheat the remaining melted butter so that it’s pourable. Drizzle the butter on top of the oatmeal and sprinkle the top generously with turbinado sugar, giving it a nice added crunch.

Enjoy!

Life is like pancakes. Better with company.

Posted on July 3, 2012

I have a confession to make. I had some whole milk sitting in my fridge for, oh, just a teeny tiny little while, waiting patiently to be used in these oh so delicious pancakes. You see, I was really craving pancakes and I really wanted to find a fun new recipe for you to try. That’s how much I love you.

But then things came up, life happened, and the next thing I knew this carton of milk was breathing its last breath, sitting on the top shelf of my fridge with one day left before its expiration, begging me to use it. Obviously. Doesn’t everything in your kitchen beg to be consumed?!

I also had this bowl of gorgeously ripe strawberries at the peak of their altogether too short summer season that I knew would be the perfect accompaniment to these crisp buttery pancakes. So I grabbed one of my very favorite cookbooks, Good to the Grain (which I’ve told you about before!), and flipped to the oatmeal pancakes recipe.

If you aren’t familiar with this book, I highly highly recommend you check it out. It’s a brilliant compilation of recipes that use various whole grain flours, like oat and rye and barley. The recipes are delicious and easy to follow, and each section begins with a brief description of the specific type of flour the recipes call for. In short, it’s afreakingmazing. And although my friends and family often have to ask me to translate the meaning of my shortened words and ridiculous phrases, I think that one’s pretty self-explanatory. Yep. It totes is.

As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed my luxurious hour in the kitchen gathering ingredients, measuring flour, whisking, stirring, singing along to the music I had blaring in the background. And of course my very favorite part — placing the food just right and snapping snapping snapping away. I have so much more to learn about food photography and many more ways to improve my own pictures, but I just love the challenge and process of capturing the perfect shot. Food is beautiful, isn’t it?!

Finally each pancake had been cooked and crisped, and I was ready to sit down for lunch. Oh yes friends, breakfast is best as lunch or dinner. I had a Skype date with my sister scheduled, which meant she had to very jealously watch me eat my fluffy pancakes from 3,000 away. I would have given anything in that moment to have her sitting next to me in person, talking about our days, sharing life, and laughing at the little things. Few people in life can understand you like a sister can, and I was reminded over lunch that day of why I truly love food. Yes, it’s delicious. Yes, it’s beautiful. But above all, it brings people together.

Oatmeal Pancakes

From Good to the Grain, by Kim Boyce with Amy Scattergood (published 2010)

Yields: 12-18 pancakes depending on the size of your scoop!

Ingredients

Butter for the pan

3/4 cup oat flour (you can get this by grinding, in a coffee grinder or food processor, one cup of whole rolled oats)

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 1/4 cups whole milk

1 cup cooked oatmeal (see step 1)

1 tablespoon unsulphured (not blackstrap) molasses

2 eggs

Directions

1. Make the cooked oatmeal by bringing 2 cups of water, 1 cup of whole rolled oats, and a tiny pinch of salt to boil in a small saucepan. As soon as it starts to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and cool on the stove while you prepare the other ingredients.

2. Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl, pouring back into the bowl any bits of grain or other ingredients that may remain in the sifter. Whisk together the butter, milk, oatmeal, molasses, and eggs until thoroughly combined.

3. Using a spatula, gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. For tender pancakes, it is important that you use a light hand while folding the batter with the spatula. The batter should be slightly thick, with a holey surface.

4. Although the batter is best if used immediately, it can sit for up to 1 hour on the counter or overnight in the refrigerator. When you return to the batter, it will be very thick and should be thinned, 1 tablespoon at a time, with milk–take great care not to overmix.

5. Heat a pan or griddle over medium-low heat until water sizzles when splashed onto the pan. Rub the pan generously with butter; this is key to crisp, buttery edges. Working quickly, dollop 1/4-cup mounds of batter onto the pan, 2 or 3 at a time. Once bubbles have begun to form on the top of the pancake, flip the pancake and cook until the bottom is dark golden-brown, about 5 minutes total. Wipe the pan with a cloth before griddling the next batch. Rub the pan with butter and continue with the rest of the batter. If the pan is too hot or not hot enough, adjust the flame accordingly to keep results consistent.

6. Serve the pancakes hot, straight from the pan.