Granola

Wow... It's been a while since I've been over here to share the happenings of my kitchen. But, in all honesty, I haven't been making too much. I've been pretty busy working and studying... My cooking has been slacking a bit and the blogging even more so.

But since yesterday I didn't have to work and had "nothing" to do (I mean, I'm sure I could have found something that I needed to do...) it was a good day for cooking. Unfortunately, only one of my little adventures is really worth recording here: my granola. (I also tried to bake a lemon-raspberry coffee cake in tin cans... My result was mostly mush. I'll work on that again another time. And dinner was Omaha steaks and salad -- pretty straight-forward, I guess. *Note: Ken's Italian dressing makes the best steak marinade in the world.)

What You'll Need:

• Oats (I just use generic brand "Old Fashioned Oats")
• Flax seeds
• Coarsely chopped almonds
• Sunflower seeds, salted
• Honey and/or Agave Nectar
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Ginger
• Natural chunky peanut butter
• Dried Fruits: cranberries (Craisins, if you will...), chopped candied ginger, chopped figs

Put it All Together:

• Mix everything but the dried fruits together. If you've ever had granola before, you'll be able to eyeball the ratio of oats to seeds and nuts. The honey/nectar just depends on how sweet you want it. I used about 2 hefty tablespoons of peanut butter. (In the end, my granola filled a quart-sized container up to the brim -- you know, the ones your wonton soup come in.)
• Spread out evenly onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake at about 200... for a while. Probably about 2-3 hours. Mix it every 20 minutes or so to allow it to cook evenly. If you crank the heat up towards the end to speed up your goldening process, just be sure to check it more frequently so it won't burn.
• Mix your dried fruits in. Don't seal it into a container until it's completely cool.

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A High Class Peanut Butter Sandwich

I recently started a new job behind the bread counter at Eataly. As a result, the amount of bread I have consumed in the past week has been kiiind of ridiculous. I thought I'd be able to resist, but when you have the opportunity to take free loaves of bread home... well... could you resist?

Right now I've got a semolina baguette with lots of seeds all over it, a bag of chocolate rolls, a cinnamon raisin loaf and one with pancetta and provolone baked right in. Sheesh. But the one that didn't last very long was the fig bread. Amazingly delicious. (Especially toasted for breakfast with a teeny bit of mascarpone spread on top instead of butter.)

One day for lunch I decided to make a grilled cheese on fig bread. Unfortunately I didn't have anything fancy -- I could have gone for some brie or jarlsberg, or even some gouda. All I had was slices of store-brand cheddar. So I thought to myself, "Well... What else goes with cheese?" And I bet your first thought would not be "Peanut butter, obviously." But think about it: Everybody loves those cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers. And that's how my sandwich was created.

Toast 2 slices of fig bread (of course, any bread would do if you don't have this amazing creation available to you) with cheese on top. Just enough so the cheese is melty and the bread is a little toasty. But before putting them together, add some peanut butter. I used natural crunchy (as always) and it made the sandwich a little messy, but what did I care? I was alone and didn't think twice about mopping up my peanut butter drips with the bread. Completely worth the mess.

So next time you have a craving for a peanut butter sandwich, try it with a slice of cheese. It'd be equally delicious on whatever bread you like and untoasted.

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