Gettin' Crunchy

If you ask Flick, I have a little streak of hippie in me :)  Over the years I have lost my hemp necklaces, it's been awhile since I've seen Phish live, and I actually own skinny jeans.  This doesn't mean that my wiring has changed though.  Fortunately, living in Boulder makes my "hippie tendencies" seem a bit more mainstream.  We live in a place where the town picks up garbage, recycling, and compost, we have a garden full of veggies, do yoga, hike, camp, and ride our bikes everywhere without anyone so much as batting an eye.  They even charge you 5 cents if you have to use plastic grocery bags at the grocery store!  I think these things are pretty darn normal, but I also have been living in "the bubble" for about 8 years now.   

I did do something this weekend that really tapped into my crunchy side - I made my own granola bars.  Yikes, pass the petrulli oil.

The thing is, they are REALLY delicious and not at all hard to make.  I got the recipe recommendation from one of my coworkers, made a few tweaks, and voila, energy packed little snack-lets that Flick and I have been crushing all weekend.  We didn't have as many pecans as the recipe calls for so I added more sliced almonds.  Also, you can take-or-leave the coconut - I added them and like the slight coconut flavor.  I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

Peanut Butter Granola Bars
recipe adapted from Emeril

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup honey
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cups sliced almonds
1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans
1/4 cup hulled green pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/4 cup grated coconut
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and lightly grease an 8x8 baking dish (you can use a larger dish for thinner bars).

Melt butter with 1/4 cup honey in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut, cinnamon and salt.  Mix well.  Pour the butter/honey mixture over the oat mix and toss to coat well (lets now call this, granola). Spread the granola mixture in a thin layer on a baking sheet (jelly roll pan works great).  Bake for 20 minutes, stirring about every 5 minutes to ensure even toasting.  The mix will stay soft, no need to bake for longer than 20 minutes.

Cool the granola in the pan and add raisins. Place granola in a large bowl.

Meanwhile, combine the brown sugar, 1/2 cup honey and peanut butter in a small saucepan over medium high heat.  Stir constantly until the sugar dissolves and the mixture starts to boil/bubble.  Pour the sugar/honey/peanut butter mix over the granola in the bowl and mix WELL.  It is a little unwieldy to work but make sure to get all the granola mixed in (even the stuff on the bottom) - any "dry" granola won't stick in the bars.

Press the granola mix into the greased pan and allow to cool.  Cut into bars of whatever size you choose and when cool, store in an air-tight container at room temperature (for up to a week).  To freeze, wrap individual bars in plastic wrap and put in a freezer bag.
  

Salted Caramel Brownies

With a name like "Salted Caramel Brownie", I think we can let the brownie do the talking.  This whole "salty sweet" dessert movement is something I am happy to throw my weight behind.  I had my first salted chocolate about 3 years ago and haven't looked back.

The quest for a good Salted Caramel Brownie recipe started back at Christmas-time...it only took me about 8 months to finally get to making these little buggers.  I am really glad that I took a little time with these and made a couple different caramels to get just the right topping that I had in my head.  Life's too short to spend time eating "meh" desserts.

Now that's the stuff...

Flick and I are dessert-a-holics (Ellie is one in the making) and I love to bake so we are not wired to skip the sweets in our house.  I follow a blog authored by Nicole DeBoom, the founder of Skirt Sports (a pretty rad women's athletic company if you have a chance to check them out...), and she recently posted about her newly hatched fitness motivation: "Dessert Challenge".  Doesn't that sound like something worth undertaking?  The long and short of it is, as a working mom with a crazy busy schedule, she is using dessert as a "carrot" to help motivate her daily workout. 

As most of you know, not only do I love to bake, but I am an outdoor junky - get me on a bike, running on a trail, in a pool, or strapped into a pair of skis and you have one happy mama.  That being said, it isn't always easy to work up the energy or motivation to get out there when sleep is in short order, work is super busy, and the to-do list at home is taking on a life of its own.  My spin on the Dessert Challenge: I make the time to get outside and be active, I then treat myself to dessert at night, which means I get to bake more so that we have sweets (a.k.a.: motivation) around the house.  Triple win.  Endorphins, deliciousness, and making time for my hobbies - bring it!

 I know you are really here for the recipe so here you go.  The brownies are really easy to make (one bowl) and while they are baking, you can work on the caramel so the total time invested really isn't too bad...and they are pretty rich so they can last awhile too (try freezing for even more longevity)!

Salted Caramel Brownies

Brownies (adapted for 5,000ft - sea level adjustments are in parentheses)
recipe courtesy of "Pie in the Sky"

1/2 cup dutch process cocoa
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon all purpose flour (1/2 cup at sea level)
1 cup minus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar (1 cup at sea level)
1/4 teaspoon salt (1/8 teaspoon at sea level)
3 large eggs (2 eggs at sea level)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled (6 tablespoons at sea level)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or 6 oz coarsely chopped chocolate

Coat an 8 inch square baking pan with butter (I usually take a cold stick out of the fridge, unwrap the end and rub it all over the bottom and sides of the pan).  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (325 degrees at sea-level).

In a large bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar and salt.  Make a well in the middle and add in the eggs, vanilla, and melted/cooled butter.

Whisk together the wet ingredients and then begin to work in the dry ingredients.  Add the chocolate chips and using a large spoon, stir/mix until everything is well incorporated.  The batter will be thick.

Scoop the batter into the greased pan and bake for about 30 min (35 min at sea level).  This will be very dependent on your oven so you will have to use some judgement.  The brownies will look dry on top and will start to pull away from the sides.  A cake tester or toothpick should have some moist crumbs on it (it shouldn't "jiggle" like jello when you take it out).  We tend to have to cook longer in our oven so if yours is a hot one, keep this in mind.

Cool the brownies in the pan on a wire rack.

Salted Caramel
recipe courtesy of sally'sbakingaddiction

1 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons of butter (cut into 6 pieces, 1 tablespoon each)
1/2 cup heavy cream (or whipping cream)
1 teaspoon salt

Heat granulated sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula (so it doesn't stick as much).  The sugar will get clumpy and darken and will turn into a syrupy, amber colored liquid.  Keep stirring until it is all melted in, being careful not to burn the sugar.

Once sugar is melted, add the butter - the caramel will bubble up once the butter is added, stir it into the caramel until the butter is melted (2-3 min).

Slowly drizzle in the heavy cream to the butter/sugar mixture.  Again, it will bubble up - keep an eye on it and stir/let boil for about a minute.

Remove from the heat and stir in the salt.  Allow to cool down.

To pull it all together, take the cooled caramel and drizzle it over the cooled brownies.  Use as much or as little as you like.  The extra caramel can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for other uses...

The caramel will stay gooey - if you want it more firm, keep the brownies in the fridge (this is what we did).  I took some of them to work where they were quickly polished off and Flick and I managed to get through the rest of them.  Tough job, but someone's gotta do it.

Happy Friday!

Aaaahhh, the weekend.  I love Friday nights.  They are easily the best nights of the week.  No work tomorrow, the knowledge that I have two whole days to hack away at my to-do (and want-to-do) lists, and getting to spend some QT with Ellie and Flick that does not include rushing to and from daycare / work.  Bliss.

Another thing I love about weekends is the potential to maybe, just maybe, cook without pressure.  We are on a pretty tight schedule during the week (I know this is not unique to our family), so weeknight dinner can be an all out sprint to get food on the table as close to 6pm as possible.  Don't get me wrong, I love every second of it!  30 rushed minutes in the kitchen is a heck of a lot better than 30 minutes doing a lot of other things...if you are me that is.  But on the weekend...oh the possibilities.  I'll be honest, more often than not, Saturdays and Sundays get away from us and it is yet another mad dash at to pull something together that won't have us eating too late for Ellie to maintain some semblance of a normal bedtime.  However, there is at least a chance that I can get myself into the kitchen early enough to turn on the radio and calmly cook a meal...

With all this one-in-a-million talk (this should conclude the movie references) - I find recipes like the one for Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo below to be indispensable when we need something quick, tasty, and appetizing for the whole family.  The ingredients for this are not all that far-fetched so you may find that you even have them on hand in case dinner sneaks up and you need something in a pinch (mushrooms can be subbed in easily for the shrimp too, by the way).  Ellie happens to be a shrimp-a-holic so this recipe is right in her wheel house.  I find that the frozen, already peeled and deveined shrimp-in-a-bag can be a little tougher than the "ez-peel" ones we get from the fish counter (deveined and the shell is split so it comes off super easy).  But by all means, if you are down with the bag, use it.  We certainly have!  TGIF

Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo

Courtesy of Cooking Light

9 ounces of fettuccine (or linguine)

1 pound peeled and deveined medium shrimp

2 chopped green onions

2 minced garlic cloves

Olive Oil

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/3 cup half and half

3 tablespoons (or 1 1/2 ounces) cream cheese 

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Parsley for the finish (optional)

Cook the pasta according to the package directions.  Towards the end of cooking, scoop out 1/4 cup of the pasta water to use with the shrimp.

In a small bowl, combine shrimp, green onions, and garlic.  

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add olive oil and swirl to coat the pan.  Add the shrimp/onion/garlic mixture and saute for about 4 minutes or until the shrimp are done - remove from the pan and keep warm.

Turn the heat down to medium on the skillet and add the 1/4 cup cooking liquid from the pasta (if you forgot, no big deal, just use 1/4 cup water), parmesan cheese, half and half, cream cheese, and pepper.  Cook about 2 minutes or until all the cheeses melt.  Combine the pasta, cheese mixture, and shrimp mixture.  If you are opting to do so, sprinkle with parsley.  Best served not long after cooking but tastes fine as leftovers too!

Sweetness

Apparently they don't shut down your blog for lack of activity...holy smokes it has been awhile.  I appreciate all the gentle nudges (and threats of violence) from those of you who were apparently missing the occasional EZ Peas-Z post over the past year (yikes).  Seriously though, you are motivating for me and I appreciate it more than you know.

The 5 recipe a week thing I had originally set out to do turns out to be a little ambitious for this lady - so get ready for spontaneity and randomness (and a slightly new recipe format).  I am aiming to keep you on your toes so that you have to check in more regularly (or sign up as a follower for those handy emails notifications...) in order to check out the latest hotness coming out of the Flickinger kitchen.  Keep calm, they will still be easy and delicious since that is what we do here.  Again, thanks for keeping after me and it feels good to be back!

I'm drooling...trust me, it was good.

Peach Pie - enough said?  If I could only eat one type of dessert for the rest of my life, it would be pie.  If I had to pick one pie...I would be in trouble.  But peach would be up there!  Peach Pie is relatively new to me.  It is a little more time consuming than any other fruit pie which does not involve a pit (cherry pie straight up frightens me), but I assure you, it is well worth the effort.  I am really into making mason jar pies these days so I'll include both the traditional as well as the mason jar instructions.  I know it is early but I made my first peach pies of the season this past weekend and they were pretty tasty if I do say so myself.  Don't be afraid of making a crust (it's not so bad...just keep it cold!) and enjoy the sweet reward at the end:

Peach Pie
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Crust:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
5 - 8 tablespoons ice cold water

Filling:
About 3 1/2 lbs peaches (so you end up with 6 cups sliced)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
sprinkle of nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons tapioca

To make the crust:
Combine flour and salt in a medium bowl.  Cut in shortening using a pastry knife or 2 butter knives.

Sprinkle water into flour mixture one tablespoon at a time, tossing lightly with a fork.  When it starts to come together, pick it up and form it into a ball.  Divide the ball in half and flatten each half into a disc.  Wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate (it is SO much easier to work with cold dough if you are rolling it).

To make the filling:
Peel the peaches - if they are kind of hard, a vegetable peeler works just fine.  If they are pretty soft, the peels may come off pretty easily.  If it is giving you trouble, boil a big pot of water (and get an ice bath ready), make an "x" on the bottom of each peach and throw them in the water.  Poach them for 2 minutes, take them out, and put them in the ice bath.  Once they cool down a bit, try peeling them again and hopefully this helps!

Half and pit your peeled peaches and cut them into 1/3 inch slices.  If you are doing the "mini" pies, chop them up roughly.  Toss the peaches in a large bowl with the lemon juice.

In a small bowl, combine the sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and tapioca.  Toss this in with the peaches and stir to combine.

Put it all together:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

For mason-jar pies - grab your 4oz mason jars and press pie dough into each jar, covering the bottoms and up the sides.  You will want to use about half the dough.  I probably start out making 7 jars just so I don't over-do it since you can always whip up a few more if you have too much filling.
Spoon filling into the jars up to the top.  You can go a little over if you are going to bake them right away and don't need to worry about screwing  the cap on.  Go a little lighter on the filling if you are going to freeze them.
Once all the jars have filling in them, roll out the rest of the pie dough on a heavily floured surface with a heavily floured rolling pin.  Use the lid of one of the jars to cut out circles in the dough and press it on top of the pie filling in the jar (push it down in there a bit so it is "in" the jar - it can get a little messy).  Put a few slits in the top.
Place all the jars you are cooking on a foil lined baking sheet and bake for about 1/2 hour or until the pies are bubbling and brown on top.

For a traditional pie - take out your chilled dough discs and roll one of them out with a heavily floured rolling pin on a heavily floured surface.
Place the rolled out dough into a 9 inch pie plate.  Lightly press it into place so there are no gaps between the crust and the pie plate.  Pour the peach filling inside.
Ditto the rolling process with the second disc of dough (or make a lattice top if you are feeling fancy...).  Gently place the second crust on top of the peach filling.  Press the edges of the top and bottom crust together.  Make some slits in the top of the pie and rub the crust with a little bit of milk (this makes it brown up reaaaal niiiice).
Bake pie for 20 min, reduce oven to 375 degrees and bake for another 30 to 40 min or until bubbly and brown (if browning too much, cover the pie loosely with foil).  Cool pie completely if you don't want it to run (I dare you to try and cool this completely before devouring it).

NOTE: For the mason jar pies, if you want to freeze some for later, screw the lids on the pies before you bake them and stick 'em in the freezer.  When you feel like having pie, take them out, remove the lids (important!), and place them on a foil lined baking sheet.  Put the baking sheet with the pies in the oven and turn the oven on to 425 degrees and bake for about 45 minutes.  The pies will defrost nicely in the preheating oven.  Just keep an eye on them and take them out when they are bubbly and browning.  MMMM...pie.