Caper's Power Cookies

I love Caper's Power Cookies and wish I had the exact recipe. Below is what I've come up with, but they aren't as good as the Caper's version. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know! I do still really like them and find them a perfect treat to have at work and for studying.

Ingredients
1 cup raisins
1 and 1/2 cups spelt flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ginger powder or nutmeg
1/4 cup chopped nuts
1 and 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped dried fruit or chocolate chunks
1/2 cup hemp seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds (shell-less)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (shell-less)
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 egg lightly beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1/2 cup syrup (maple or rice syrup)

Method
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Oil 2 large cookie sheets. Soak raisins in boiling water for ten minutes. Drain.
In a large bowl, put flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger or nutmeg and chopped nuts. Mix well.
Add oats, drained raisins, chopped fruit or chocolate, and seeds.
In another bowl, put lightly beaten egg, apple sauce (or second egg), oil or butter and syrup. Beat until well blended.
Add to dry mixture, mix well.
Drop by tablespoons onto prepared cookie sheets. Sometimes I flatten the cookies with a fork dipped in water (my nana taught me that trick).
Bake in preheated oven 10-12 minutes, or until cookies are golden on edges and tops are set.
Cool on wire racks.

Cream of Spinach Soup

 

My nana's friend, Sylvia, used to make spinach soup and it was my nana's favorite thing to eat at lunch. This weekend I tried to recreate it. It wasn't too much like Sylvia's but it was nice and fresh tasting.  With its bright green colour, I felt like it gave me lots of energy.

 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 cubes chicken.vege bouillon
• 2 bunches of spinach (washed with the stems cut off)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp fresh nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine water, bouillon, and spinach. Bring to a boil, and cook until spinach is tender.
2. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute garlic. Stir in flour, and cook for 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk. Add chopped onion, fresh nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Stir in spinach mixture. 
3. Blend entire mixture. 

Ridiculously Simply Banana Bread

This recipe comes from one of my mum's oldest cookbooks Feed Me, I'm Hungry. Between the two of us we have probably made this recipe a hundred times.

 1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 ripe bananas, mashed (I often put three for extra sweetness and moisture)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F. Sift together flour and baking soda. Mix together eggs, oil, sugar, bananas and walnuts. Add banana mixture to the flour and stir until well blended. 

Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake in oven at 350F from 1 hour. If making muffins bake for 20 minutes.

Feed Me, I'm Hungry author writes: I've been told this recipe has saved many a marriage!

Ding-a-lings for Book Club

My grandma used to make ding-a-lings at Christmas and this year I am carrying on her tradition. I'm going to bring them to our book club meeting tomorrow night.

Ingredients

1 package butterscotch chips
1 package chocolate chips
about 1/3rd of a package of chow mein noodles
about 1/2 cup peanuts

Melt both kinds of chips in a double boiler. In a bowl combine noodles and peanuts. Add to melted chocolate and stir. Drop mixture on parchment paper and chill.

Enjoy!

Spiced Nuts for the Native Education College Artisan Fair and Bake Sale

 

This past weekend I had a table at the Native Education College's Artisan Fair and Bake Sale. The basket in the picture is filled with the things I made for the sale. Almond butter crunch (see recipe in previous post) was by far the most popular item (I even sold my plate of samples!:) The spiced nuts were the next most popular item.

The recipe below is loosely based on a few recipes I found on-line. If you like really spicy nuts add more cayenne and chilli pepper. Be careful about the garlic salt though because if your nuts are already salted it is easy to make them too salty. 

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. butter
• 2 egg whites
• 1 c. pecan halves
• 1 c. whole almonds
• 1 c. dry-roasted unsalted peanuts
• 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 3 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

Preparation:

Beat two egg whites until frothy. In a large bowl mix together half of spices and half of the Worcestershire sauce and add egg whites and nuts and stir.

Preheat the oven to 300°. Add butter to a 13- x 9- x 2-inch baking pan; set the pan in the oven to melt the butter. Remove the pan from the oven; add pecans, almonds, peanuts to the melted butter. Gently stir until well mixed.

Bake the nut mixture until it is toasted, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Remove the nuts from the oven and sprinkle the mixture evenly with the remainder of the chili powder, garlic salt, and cayenne pepper. Toss until well mixed. Transfer the warm nuts to a bowl and serve immediately, or let cool and store them at room temperature in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Makes 3 cups of spiced mixed nuts.

Mushroom Risotto

 

This risotto recipe comes from allrecipe.com. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/gourmet-mushroom-risotto/detail.aspx

 The recipe author notes that it is important to check the rice by biting into it. It should be slightly al dente or resist slightly to the tooth but not be hard in the center.

Risotto rice can be hard to find not in a box mix. I bought this risotto from Angelo Tosi's in downtown Vancouver (see previous post for more details).  

 

Ingredients

• 6 cups chicken broth, divided
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 pound portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 pound white mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 2 shallots, diced
• 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• sea salt to taste
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped chives
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. In a saucepan, warm the broth over low heat.
2. Warm 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the mushrooms, and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Remove mushrooms and their liquid, and set aside.
3. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to skillet, and stir in the shallots. Cook 1 minute. Add rice, stirring to coat with oil, about 2 minutes. When the rice has taken on a pale, golden color, pour in wine, stirring constantly until the wine is fully absorbed. Add 1/2 cup broth to the rice, and stir until the broth is absorbed. Continue adding broth 1/2 cup at a time, stirring continuously, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is al dente, about 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, and stir in mushrooms with their liquid, butter, chives, and parmesan. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Grandma Ople's Apple Pie

I got this recipe from allrecipes. com and it is so good! Cole said it is better than his mum's apple pie, which is the biggest compliment he could give because he raves about his mother's pies all the time:) It is basically apple pie filled with caramel. Between four people we ate this entire pie in one sitting!

Here is the link to the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/grandma-oples-apple-pie/detail.aspx I have also pasted the recipe below along with directions for the pastry.

Ingredients

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

Directions

1. Melt butter in a sauce pan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add white sugar, brown sugar and water; bring to a boil. Reduce temperature, and simmer 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
3. Bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes.

 Pastry (from the Tenderflake box) 
Yield: Three 9-inch double crust pies or 6 pie shells


6 cups cakes and pastry flour
2 tsp salt
1 lb Tenderflake lard
1tbsp vinegar
1 egg lightly beaten
cold water

*two tricks that have been passed down to me from Grandma Askew (my dad's grandma) and my own nana are to add a pinch of cream of tarter to the flour and to keep the water in the freezer. This will make the pastry more flaky. The other trick I have been taught is to be very careful not to over handle the dough. I was told to be very careful to touch it the least amount that you can.

1. Mix together flour and salt
2. Cut in lard with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse oatmeal
3. In a cup measure, combine vinegar and egg. Add water to make 1 cup. Gradually stir liquid into lard mixture. Add only enough water to make dough cling together.
4. Gather into a ball and divide into 6 portions and refrigerate or freeze.
5. Roll out each portion on lightly floured surface. If dough is sticking, chill 1-2 hours.
6. Transfer dough to pie plate. Trim and flute shells or crusts and bake according to your recipe.