Lena's Bread

Our close family friend, Lena, is from Sweden and she makes an absolutely delicious bread with flax, rye, and all sorts of other wonderful ingredients. Here, her husband, Philip, has filmed her through each step of the process. It's especially good as a thick slick with some sharp cheddar cheese on top. It's a long process but absolutely worth every minute of work and waiting! Ingredient measurements to come!

Green Apple Cobbler (or Pie Filling)

Recently, I bought a whole bunch of beautiful Granny Smith apples. They were much to tart to eat, so I decided to make an apple pie filling to freeze so I'll have it ready for Thanksgiving. It was so tasty that I used some of it to make a mini-cobbler for dessert. Fantastic!

Ingredients:

• 10-12 medium green apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 5 cups of water
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 2 star anise
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cardamom

In a large pot, combine the water, sugar, corn starch and spices and bring to a boil. Stir constantly. Once boiling, add apples and bring back to a boil for two minutes. Reduce heat to medium low. Cover and cook for 6-8 minutes, until apples are tender.  Allow to cool for at least thirty minutes. Make sure you remove the star anise before freezing or using for cobbler.

I noticed that there was quite a bit of liquid from the apples--more than I would want in a pie, so I reserved some of that for topping ice cream in the future.


At this point you can divide the apples into a few containers for freezing, or freeze some for a later pie and use a little bit now for cobbler, which is what I did.

For the cobbler:

• 1 cup whole oats
• 1 cup white flour
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups of the above apple mixture, cooled.

Combine the oats, four, brown sugar and cinnamon. Place a few cups of the apple mixture at the bottom of a pie plate or any other heatproof container. Top with the cobbler topping, which will be powdery. Bake at 325 for 30 minutes. Serve warm and top with ice cream if you'd like!

White Bean and Chickpea Salad

I threw this together the other evening, and now I can't get stop eating it! 

• 1 15 oz. can white beans (also called Great Northern), drained and rinsed
• 1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 3 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 T. red wine vinegar
• 2 T. olive oil

In a medium bowl, whisk dressing together with a fork. Add beans and tomatoes and toss. Chill and serve!

Tamari Almonds

These are a staple in our house. Peter never goes a day without eating a handful... or two! It's essential that you use exactly 2 tablespoons of sauce per 1.5 lbs of almonds; the nuts can't absorb more than that, and if they're too wet, they just don't turn out quite right. This recipe comes courtesy of a friend of Mom's.

I usually buy the 3 lb. bag of almonds at Costco, and that way I can make two batches. Tamari soy isn't regular soy sauce. Regular soy sauce doesn't work at all for this recipe; tamari is near the soy sauce at the grocery store, and it's definitely available at Whole Foods and more specialty shops if it isn't at your regular store.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds raw, whole almonds
• 2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On an ungreased jelly roll pan, spread the almonds into a single layer. Roast them in the oven for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, measure the tamari into a large bowl. When the almonds come out of the oven, pour them into the bowl with the tamari. Stir vigorously for a few minutes until all the tamari is absorbed. Because the almonds are so hot, the mixture will steam quite a bit.

Once the tamari is absorbed, put the nuts back onto the jelly roll pan, now lined with parchment, to cool. The parchment makes it easier to remove them once they have cooled; it's not absolutely necessary but it certainly helps with cleanup! If the nuts are still wet once they have cooled, just reheat the oven to 250 degrees and then turn it off. Put the almonds into the oven to dry out. Keep them in an airtight container and enjoy!