Chewy Fruit and Nut Oatmeal Cookies

So I'm making Chewy Fruit and Nut Oatmeal Cookies this morning before work.  These have great flavor, and are nice and chewy.  The toasted nuts in them are a nice touch.

Chewy Fruit and Nut Oatmeal Cookies

1 Cup Butter

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Brown Sugar, packed

2 Eggs

2 Tsp Vanilla

2 Tbsp Molasses

2 Cups Flour

2 Cups Quick Cook Oats

1 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Cinnamon

1 Tsp Nutmeg

1 - 2 Cups Dried Fruits, Raisins, Cranberries, chopped dates or which ever you like

1 Cup Walnuts or Pecans, toasted and chopped.

Chocolate Chips, optional.  

Instructions:

Gather your ingredients and preheat your oven to 350* .

In a mixing bowl add sugars and butter.

Mix until butters and sugars are well blended and fluffy looking.

Add Eggs, Molasses and Vanilla to creamed mixture

Beat until well blended. 

In a separate bowl mix your dry ingredients, Oats, Flour, Baking Soda, Salt, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg.   I like to heap the Cinnamon and Nutmeg.

Mix with a fork or dry whisk until blended.  Slowly add to Creamed mixture a bit at a time.

To toast your nuts, just heat them in a dry pan on your stove top until they look and smell toasted.  You won't be sorry you took this step.  Do this ahead of time before you start your cookies.  This morning I used a mix of Pecans and Walnuts.

Today I used dried Cranberries and Chopped Dates in my cookies.  About a Cup of each.  You could use whatever dried fruits you want though.  

 Add them to your creamed mixture.

Stir them in.  Mix well.  Now try and resist tasting the dough.... It's good. 

Drop by the spoonful onto a greased or parchment paper lined cookie sheet. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350* until edges are slightly browned.  Remove from oven let sit on cookie sheet for 2 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool.  

Makes about 4 dozen.

Enjoy!

Company! You have to love it!

 Today I had the honor of having company over for a visit.

I had just put some super in the crock pot, and was thinking "Gee, I sure hope Forest comes by here after he's off work so I don't have to eat all this myself", when the phone rang.

It was my friend Brittany, and she had this brilliant idea of coming over with her wonderful crew and bringing some stuff to make Nacho's for a picky kind of super.  

What a wonderful idea!  Perfect!  I just put Pork Chops and Mushroom Soup in the crock pot and it's more then I can eat.  Not only that, I was in the process of making a big Greek Salad.  

Good Friends, and Good Food!  Can it get any better?

 Kinsely enjoying a cookie.

Malory is staying with Brittany and I'm so glad to see her.  We sit down to share a nice hot cup of coffee. 

Brittany makes us the yummiest Nacho's.  Poor girl had to squish into a space on my counter to work her magic.  Have I ever mentioned how small my kitchen is?  

 We even make use of the space in

front of my sink to balance the pan.  Don't they look heavenly?

Ok.  I will admit that this doesn't look like much, but is is really yummy.  What it is, is Pork Chops with Onions and Mushroom Soup.  Super easy to make.  Place pork chops in crock pot.   Over them shake salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Slice 1 1/2 onions into half rings and spread over pork chops.  In a bowl, mix 2 Cans of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, and spread over top.  Put the lid on the crock pot.  Cook on high for at least 4 hours or on low for 8 hours.  You may have to give it an extra half an our or so on high with the lid off to reduce some of the liquid at the end.  Serve over Rice.

This is so, so good.  The Pork comes out fall apart tender, and the sauce is just so awesome over rice.  A true comfort food in my opinion.  

So, here we have our Pork Chops, Brown Rice and a few pans of Nacho's.  One with goodies, and the other plain for the kiddies.

Oh yes, and the greek Salad.  Here's the recipe:  http://thekitchenexpedition.blogspot.ca/2013/08/wicked-greek-salad-recipe.html

I wish I had taken time to take more pictures, but we were to busy visiting, and stuffing our faces.  I am so blessed to have such great friends in my life.  

Forest and Malory sharing a laugh. 

Wicked Greek Salad Recipe

This has to be some of the yummiest Greek Salad I have ever made.  It is seriously good.  I'm not even hungry, but I just want to eat more.... the left overs in the fridge are calling me.

Greek Salad Recipe

Dressing:

1 Cup Olive Oil

1-2 Large Lemon, Juiced

2-4 Tsp Dried Oregano (start with 2 tsp and adjust to taste)

3 Tsp minced garlic (2 -3 cloves)

1 Tsp dried basil

2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar

1 Tsp Sugar

1/2 Tsp Salt

1/2 Tsp Pepper

Measure ingredients into a Pint Jar or a container with a lid, and give it a shake to mix it.  Make sure the lid is on really tight before you shake it...  Don't do what I did, or you will have have big mess.

Salad:

1 pack Cherry or Grape Tomatoes,  Cut in half Length ways or quartered.

1 Green Pepper

1 Red Pepper

1 Long English Cucumber

1 Medium sized Red Onion

1 small Jar or Can Black Olives, Pitted, Sliced, halved or whole... it's your choice.

1 1/2 Cups Cubed Feta

I have to be honest.  I never really measure the veggies and stuff.  I just eyeball them to whatever seems good.  Today I also halved some yellow cherry tomatoes and put them in.  Soooo yummy!  

Cut Veggies into bite sized chunks.  Put in large bowl and toss to combine veggies.  Pour Dressing over veggies and give it a good toss again to cover the veggies in the dressing.  Store in the fridge, and give it a mix before serving.

This Recipe makes enough easily for several people.  It's quite a large salad.

Enjoy!  

Pepperoni Bread Sticks

I made up some Pepperoni \Bread Sticks to take with us on our adventure yesterday.  Pepperoni bread sticks are pretty easy to make and are an awesome take along food.  They are also great for taking camping and reheating on a stick over the fire.  Yummy!

I just make bread dough in my bread machine to wrap the sticks in.   I've also bought the Pillsbury Crescent Roll dough and wrapped the sticks in that.  That's pretty good too, and quick.  

But yesterday I made the bread dough up.  Homemade is always pretty good.

To make up Pepperoni Bread Sticks you will need:

Bread Dough or Crescent dough

Pepperoni Sticks

Pizza Sauce or Campbells Tomato Basil Oregano Soup

Grated Cheddar Cheese or Sliced Cheddar

Sauteed Onions (optional)

Bread Dough Recipe for Bread Machine:

1 1/2 cup Warm Water

2 Tbsp Oil

1 Tbsp Sugar

1 Tsp Salt

4 1/2 Cups Flour

1 Tsp Yeast

Add wet ingredients into machine then the dry with the yeast on top of flour.  Set on Dough setting and press Start.   Let the machine do it's magic!  

The bread recipe makes a larger 2 pound loaf, if you just want to make bread with it.  

Once your bread dough is complete, turn it out onto a floured surface.

Roll your dough out into a nice rectangle.   Try and make it just slightly longer then the stick of pepperoni will lay.   You can roll the dough out pretty thin.  

Cut it into strips wide enough to be able to roll wrap around the pepperoni and stuff.  About 4 inches wide or so.

Put sauce down the middle.  I like to use the Campbells Tomato Oregano Basil Soup.  It has great flavor, is nice and thick and has little chunks of onion in it.  But you could just use which ever sauce you like best.

Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese.  If you have sauteed onion, now would be a good time to put it on.

Lay your pepperoni sticks on top.

Pull the bread dough up around the filling and pinch it shut.  I pull the ends up and over and pinch them too.

All made up.

Place seam side down on a greased sheet.

Spread more sauce on top.

You could use grated cheese on top, but I find that cheese slices are a little neater.

Bake for 30 - 40 minutes at 350* until the bread is browned.  Lay out on a cookie wrap to cool.  But they are great hot out of the oven.

Enjoy!

If you find that the full length pepperoni is too long either cut them in half or buy the sort sticks and make the bread size to cover them.  

Egg Rolls Recipe

Today I made Egg Rolls.  I like to make them up and freeze them to have on hand to quickly fry up to add to a meal.

Egg rolls are at the top of the  plate.  I will post the Wonton Recipe at a later date.

Egg Roll Recipe.

3 Dried Chinesse Mushrooms 

Boiling water to cover ( let stand for 20 minutes, Drain and chop finely)

1 Tbsp Cooking Oil

1/2 lbs Ground Pork

1 Garlic Clove, minced

1/2 lb raw shrimp, peeled, de-veined, chopped

2 Cups Shredded Bok Choy

1 Cup, Fresh Bean Sprouts, Chopped Big

18oz can Water Chestnut, drained, minced

5 Green Onions, Chopped

4 Tsp Soy Sauce

1 Tbsp Dry Sherry

1 Tsp Sugar

1 Tsp Salt

2 Tbsp Flour

2 Tbsp Water

12 Egg Roll Wrappers

Instead of Chinese Mushrooms I will use regular mushrooms finely chopped.  They come out good.

Heat cooking oil in large frying pan add, Ground Pork, Shrimp and Garlic.  Stir Fry until meat is no longer pink. 

Add Mushrooms, Bok Choy, Bean Sprouts, Water Chestnuts, and Green Onions.  Stir fry for 3 minutes.  

In a small bowl combine Soy Sauce, Sherry, Sugar and Salt.  Add to Stir Fry mixture and stir fry for 4 minutes until liquid is reduced.  If there is to much liquid you can get away by adding a little cornstarch in to thicken the liquid.

Cool.

Stir Flour and Water in a small bowl until smooth paste.  Use as glue on rolls.

To roll Egg Rolls, Place Egg Roll Wrap on a plate diagonal.

Use a spoon to spread some of your flour/water glue mix on the top corner.

Place some filling in center.  About 2-3 tbsp depending on how big the wrapper is.  It gets hard to roll them if you over stuff them.

Fold up bottom corner over the filling.

Fold in sides so it looks like an envelope.

 Start to roll it up keeping sides tucked in.

 And it should look something like this.  I always end up with some of the glue oozing out.

Then I line them up on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and put them in the freezer.  Once then are frozen, you can transfer them to a zip lock bag or something for storage.

Deep fry until golden.

Egg Freshness Float Tests and Other Cool Egg Facts

I actually thought that this should be in my Kitchen Expedition blog, so I moved it over from my Klew Nu Farms Blog.  These are some things that are useful to know about eggs.

So you notice that the egg production has dropped way down and your wondering what the heck is going on.  Then you move something in the barn or hen house and there is a nice big mountain of eggs, and it dawns on you... Those sneaky hens are hiding the eggs!  Or maybe like me, you keep a bowl of eggs in the fridge and add the small little ones that are for personal use to it daily.  But once in a while you get so many eggs it's hard to keep up on the use of them.

Then you're left wondering just how fresh some of those eggs are.  Yes, you could toss them.  But why toss the good ones along with the bad.  Most of the time, even our 'old' eggs are fresher then the ones you are buying off the self in the grocery store.  

Heck, you could even test it out on your store bought eggs if you are wondering just how fresh those babies are.  Have you ever used store bought eggs and went to boil them and seen them floating and bobbing around in the pot.

Fill a container up with warm water.  I use warm water.  The reason for this is.  Eggs are porous.  If you put an egg in cold water, it will contract and draw any bacteria that is on the outside of the shell in through the pores.  This is not good.  So, if you use warm water, the egg will expand, and you will notice that little air bubbles form on the shell.

Put your eggs into the warm water, and look at them.  A very fresh egg will sink to the bottom and lay on it's side.  Week old eggs will rest on the bottom but the fat end of the egg will rise up slightly.  Three week old eggs will be balanced on pointy end with the fat end sticking up.  Old eggs will be floating, bobbing along the surface of the water.  These floaters should be tossed as they aren't any good to eat.  Or if you have chickens just cook 'em up and feed them back to the chickens.

As eggs age, the air cell in the fat end gets bigger as moisture evaporates from the egg and the air cell increases, causing the egg to float.

You can see the difference a little better in this container.

Another way to tell if your egg is fresh is to crack it and have a look.  With a very fresh egg,  the white will have a cloudy look to it.  This is cause by carbon dioxide still in the egg present when the egg is laid.  As the egg ages it will become clear.  A fresh egg will have more thick egg white with a bit of the thin.  As the egg ages the thick egg white will break down and become thinner.  A fresh egg will have lots of nice firm egg white and the yoke will be siting nice and high and round.  The yoke will also sort of break down too, and become less firm, breaking when it hits the pan.

Yet another indicator is the Chalaza in the egg.  This is those little squiggly white things in the egg that often get mistaken for a partially formed chick or something left over from the rooster.  The Chalaza is actually like a twisted springy anchor that holds the yoke safe in the middle of the egg.  It is attached to the outer layers of the egg and when you crack that egg, it springs in close to the yoke.  These are not harmful to eat at all.  As the egg ages, the Chalaza breaks down and in old eggs it will barely be visible.  If you hold an old egg up to a flash light in a darkened room you would notice that the yoke will float around more inside the egg if you move the egg around.  This is because the Chalaza is breaking down.

Sometimes when you crack an egg, you will find a blood spot or a little piece of something that looks like meat.  These are not harmful either, and the egg can still be eaten.  You could just scoop out that spot with a spoon.  This happens when the egg is being formed and a blood vessel breaks. The meat spot is what happens when the blood clots.  It does not mean that the egg is fertilized or is a chick forming.  

So, maybe you are wondering just how you will be able to tell if that egg you are about to eat is fertile?  Or maybe you want to incubate some eggs and what to figure it out without firing up the incubator to test a few.  

Well, on the egg is a spot called a Germinal Disc.  If the egg is not fertilized, it is called a Blastodisc.  The spot will be small and unevenly shaped.

If the egg is fertile, the Germinal Disc is called a Blastoderm.  It will be round in shape and sort of look like a ring.

Here are some quick facts:

The colour of the egg has nothing do do with it's nutrition.  The white egg is just as nutrition as the brown egg.  Egg colour has to do with the breed of chicken. 

The colour of the egg yoke has to do with the diet of the chicken.  

Egg yokes are one of the few foods that naturally contain vitamin D.

An egg at room temperature for one day ages as much as an egg one week in the refrigerator.

The average hen (layers) lays 250 -270 eggs a year.

Eggs take about 24 - 26 to form inside the hen.  

As the hen ages, her eggs get bigger.  The shells can also get thinner.

To find out if an egg is raw or hard boiled, give it a spin.  If it wobbles it's raw.  If it spins smoothly it's cooked.

On March 21 during the spring equinox an egg can be stood on it's end.

Egg Labels

When buying eggs labels can be misleading.  Many people assume that if they are buying Free Run or Free Range egg that the chickens are living in conditions allowing them to behave like real farm chickens.  This isn't always so.  

Free Run

Free Run egg, come from chickens who are kept in large barns with no access to the outdoors.  They may or may not have access to litter or dirt to dust bathe in and may or may not be kept in crowded conditions. 

Free Range

Free Range eggs are from chickens kept in barns that may have outside access depending on the weather. conditions.  They may or may not have litter to scratch and bathe in.  The may or may not have access to nest boxes to lay their eggs in, and may or may not have perches.

Pasture Raised

Birds are raised in movable structures with access outside to forage, and graze.

Cage Free

Birds are not kept in cages, but still may live in crowded conditions with no access to go outside.  There is no guarantee on what they have been fed or medications.  

Omega 3

Omega 3 eggs means the hens were fed Fish or Flax Seed Oil to boost the Omega 3 in eggs, but since this isn't regulated  there is no way of knowing the amount.  The hens are kept in cages.

Vegetable Fed or Grain Fed

This does not mean that the animals have not been fed animal byproducts.

All Natural

There is no regulations for "All Natural".  So anyone can put this label on their eggs and it means nothing.

Certified Organic

These eggs come from chickens that are kept in the best of conditions.  The chickens are fed organic feed that is free of hormones and antibiotics.