Cook in the Kitchen #5 + Going Off Gluten Week 2

I figured these two topics are related. This will also help me avoid the egregious sin of posting twice in a day.

I made a family favorite muffin recipe this past week - raisin bran muffins! I prepared the dough on Saturday and we baked a fresh batch for Monday breakfast and this morning's breakfast. They're so much better fresh :-)

The ingredients. A box of raisin bran, eggs, flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda!

And the finished product!

Unfortunately I couldn't have any this go-around. After finishing one week of gluten-free dieting, I have noticed some slight changes that could be seen as improvements. Whatever those changes may signify, I'm going to do at least another week without gluten. Thanks to Mom, I now have some great gluten-free alternatives for breakfast, lunch and snacks: gluten-free nuts and fruit granola and gluten-free pretzels. And to get me through the Christmas treat season, we're going to make a batch of gluten-free brownies. :-)

~Mac

Cook in the Kitchen #4

Last Saturday I decided to make pineapple coconut bread.

Chopped walnuts give the bread more texture and heartiness.

They took a while to completely bake, and they may be a bit too brown, but at least they rose this time! :-) We had them for breakfast yesterday. They were OK, but I couldn't really taste the pineapple or coconut :-/ Ah well! You win some and you lose some.

~Mac

Cook in the Kitchen #3: Foiled Again!

Today, since I made muffins last week, I decided to go with bread. I made some simple cinnamon raisin bread.

Cinnamon!

And raisins! Yum yum! :-)

Our trusty Bosch mixer churning up the ingredients!

When I put the dough into the pans, I thought there was something wrong. The bread just didn't rise and get fluffy. When they were done rising and baking, they were still the same height as when they were raw! Then I realized: I had been duped once again by the dreaded gluten-free wheat! :facepalm: We had accidentally bought some a while ago and I ground a bunch of it and put it into my bread, thinking it was hard white wheat (that was the label on the bucket it was in :-P). Ah well, at least there's still the same amount of food in each loaf! We will still enjoy our "power bread" (so-called because of the massive energy in each small slice :-) )

~Mac

Cook in the Kitchen #2

Sorry I'm tardy with (what should have been last week's) post. I won't make any excuses. Anyway, here it is! I made muffins Saturday :-)

 All I remember about the recipe is that you put eggs and liquid stuff in one bowl . . .

. . . and flour and dry stuff in another bowl. (I've slept since I read the recipe, it's long gone :-) If anyone wants recipes from these things, comment and let me know.)

Then you mix 'em!

I made this an apple raisin nut cinnamon variation on the original whole wheat muffin recipe. :-)

I mixed the apple chunks, raisins, and nuts in, then put the batter in muffin pans and baked them for about 10 minutes . . . 

And BINGO! They turned out very well IMO; each one is like a little apple pie! These are definitely going to be made again :-)

~Mac

Cook in the Kitchen #1

Well, I tried to start a weekly series so I would be updating my blog at least once a week, but that (Happenings Grab Bag) failed rather miserably :-P Partly because my happenings come in bunches I guess. I still want to be blogging at least once a week, but I couldn't think of anything that I did weekly that would be blog-worthy. That is, until this morning, when I realized that I bake breakfast once a week, and I usually try something new every week. So I thought I'd give my culinary endeavors a chance at being my weekly series. Presenting Cook in the Kitchen! :-)

This week, I tried something I had never done before - making granola. It's actually pretty easy to make, even in large batches (which is a big advantage in my book!).

WI tripled the recipe so I had three sticks of butter and 1 1/2 cups of honey. Yum! :-)

Melting the butter and honey together.

Sticky goodness! I brought it to a boil to caramelize it a bit so that the granola would clump better and added some vanilla for extra flavor.

I poured that mixture over about 12 cups of oats and a few cups of pecan chips while my lovely assistant (Mom :-) ) stirred it in.

I spread the mixture out on several trays to bake. . . 

. . . and after about 8 minutes at 400 degrees, they were done! Some of the tops were a little browner than they probably should have been, but overall it was a successful experiment. It clumped better than I thought it would, so that's good.

Looking forward to breakfast on Monday!

~ Mac