Apple Oatmeal for a "cold" summer morning

In case you don't live around the lovely middle east coast, we had a bit of a heat wave last week. And the week before. My car thermometer broke 100 for the first time in a few years.

So this morning when I woke up and saw this:

I was all, yeeeeaaaaaah, time to make that oatmeal recipe I pinned.

We had the apple all ready for it - the burrito actually picked it out at the orchard market, and it had some nice brown marks from where he repeatedly picked it up and "put it back" in his red basket. Sweet, thanks kid.

This is an Annie recipe, and it's fantastic. I added the parts I changed, either from lack or time or hatred of a certain humiliated fruit.

Steel Cut Oats with Apples
(originally from Annie's Eats)

ingredients: 

3 cups water
1 cup (2% or 1%) milk
1 tbsp. unsalted butter (omitted, as I did not toast the oats beforehand)
1 cup steel-cut oats
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
1 apple, peeled, cored and grated
1/3 cup raisins (omitted, as I hate them)
¼ cup maple syrup

directions:

Combine the water and milk in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a simmer.  Meanwhile, melt the butter in a 10- or 12-inch skillet over medium heat.  Add the oats and toast, stirring occasionally, until golden and fragrant, about 2 minutes. I didn't toast the oats because I only had a little time before we had to get to story time.

Stir the toasted oats into the simmering liquid.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently until the mixture is very thick, about 20 minutes.  Stir in the salt, cinnamon, apple, raisins and maple syrup.  Continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until all of the liquid has been absorbed and the oatmeal is creamy, about 10 minutes more.  Remove from the heat and let stand 5 minutes before serving.
I diced the apple, because I like it with definitive pieces - they cooked very well, not mushy at all, but not too crunchy - just right!

This recipe turned out perfectly, of course, as it's an Annie recipe; I'm just glad my changes didn't screw it up! The taste of the maple syrup adds that special something. I'm so glad I got the chance to try this one. Definitely adding this to our rotation for cold mornings and fall. 

four teapots!

Mmm...bacon

So with this whole new Paleo thing I am actually trying to eat more bacon. I almost never ate bacon before, but since meats are our friends, I bought a package.

As anyone who has been in my house when there is food being prepared can attest to - I am a wuss. A big wuss. Giant one. I don't like doing anything where there is a chance of something blowing up or catching on fire. Hence, I have only cooked bacon once before in my life.

I made bacon my bitch this week when one of the girls from BotB said how she had cooked it in the oven. I thought to myself, there is no chance of anything catching on fire if everything is lined properly and the toddler stays out of the kitchen...let's give this thing a go!

Well my friends, it was awesome.

Ingredients:
Bacon

Directions:
Lay bacon gently on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Stick it in the cold oven and turn the oven to 400. Let the bacon alternately chill and sizzle for 17-20 minutes, however done you like it. Put it on a paper towel-lined plate after you take it out, because it will keep cooking on the sheet. Oh, and you can save the bacon fat for later too if you want - mmm, bacon fat potatoes. Not as good as duck fat potatoes, but it's not like I've had either so far (fear of things that may cause fires and all).

Le Bacon:

Le Bacon in use - my Paleo lunch:

I cut up cucumber slices, tomato slices, and avocado, and stuck everything between two cuke slices and ate them like sammiches. It was a fab bite-size lunch.

And in the morning, I'm making waffles.

So I got a waffle maker for Cmas, fun fun! I get to use that Donkey line more often now. And apparently my mixer. More to follow on that.

I looked up a couple recipes (DrAnnie, I heart your waffle mixes) and such, but realised I didn't have something that they called for. I can't recall what it is offhand right now, but I didn't have it.

So I used the recipe in the little book included in my WM package. I normally hate doing that, but it was the only recipe that included stuff I have in my house.

Classic Waffles
The Oster Instruction Book That Came With My Waffle Maker

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c cornstarch
2 TB cornmeal (optional) (You're absolutely right, I did not add this)
1 TB baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 large eggs, separated
2 TB granulated sugar
1 3/4 c milk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Instructions:
In large bowl, sift or whisk together flour, cornstarch, cornmeal, baking powder and salt to blend thoroughly; set aside.
In mixer bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add sugar; continue beating just until stiff peaks form; set aside.

↑ That's a picture of the egg whites, right?? My work firewall doesn't like some of my pictures so I can't tell!

Whisk together egg yolks, milk and vanilla.
(check out my three bowls ↓)


Using rubber spatula (strong with the Oster people, the English is), stir milk mixture into flour mixture, blending just until dry ingredients are moistened (there should still be small lumps; do not over mix).
Stir in melted butter. Fold in beaten egg whites until combined.


Pour batter onto hot, greased waffle maker and bake.
Makes about 5 1/2 c batter.
Waffle tip: Cornstarch makes the waffles crispier. If you don't have cornstarch, you could still make great waffles by omitting cornstarch and increasing flour to 2 cups. Bake as directed. ~ a friendly tip from the Oster people!



Yum! They were a little light at first because obviously, first time making waffles. hubs wanted his darker, so I left them in longer. They were fab, especially with real maple syrup and jam for Hubs (since he's a syrup unsnob and likes fake syrup which I didn't keep in my house until this week when I broke down and got him some only for him to say he likes the jam on top better).

Oh and also - I refused to drag out That 70's Mixer to do the egg whites thing so I beat them by hand. Never again. I woke up Sunday with "waffle-hand" and couldn't use my right arm for the rest of the day. It sucked, and I didn't realise until about noon that day why it actually hurt so much. So, That 70's Mixer will have a place of honor when my new hutch is delivered in 2-3 weeks.

Verdict: