Garlic Hummus w/ Chips (Part 2)

While a Wyoming Farmers Market might not have all of the lush produce you might expect at, say, a market in the NW, what we lack in frost-free days we make up in creativity! At a market earlier this month, we had a new vendor sign on to our market here in town - selling homemade, warm & freshly made corn tortillas!

By the end of the next week, I had a few leftover and decided that they would be perfect as homemade tortilla chips with the garlic hummus - CLICK HERE FOR THE HUMMUS POST. I had planned on making crackers, but this sounded so much better! And by making the chips spicy as opposed to the hummus, you can be sure not to exclude anyone with a sensitive palate from enjoying your chickpea puree.

Start by cutting your tortillas into triangles. The smaller corn tortillas work well for making chips because you can cut them into quarters and end up with the right size. Spread the tortilla triangles evenly and in one layer on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Using a can of spray olive oil (or a spritzer), coat the tops of the tortilla pieces so that they appear moist but not drenched. Sprinkle your preferred spices on top - here's the mix I used:

1 tsp red chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp of ground sea salt

dash of garlic powder

I also squirted some lime juice on top on the tortilla pieces before putting the tray in the oven. Highly recommended! I based my chips on THESE from Allrecipes.

Bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes, rotate, and bake for another 8-10 minutes or until slightly crispy...

...and there you have it!

Garlic Hummus & Spiced Tortilla Chips

Garlic Hummus w/ Chips (Part 1)

My first encounter with hummus didn't happen until my freshman year in university. As you might imagine, pureed chickpeas really aren't a specialty in Texas - so you can only imagine my hesitancy when I was introduced to it the first time on a kayaking trip down the Rideau Canal with an outdoor club. It was a little chunky, and I admit that I wasn't convinced.

Jump ahead a few years to when I finally was adult enough to own a nice food processor... hummus got a WHOLE lot better! You see, making hummus with a potato masher as a lowly college student just didn't have quite the same effect as a smooth, creamy hummus loaded with flavor. Shocking, I know.

And so I share with you a wonderfully smooth hummus recipe that will win you over without any hesitation. Delicious and flexible, hummus is a great food to experiment with in terms of flavor - from roasted red pepper and garlic to curry flavored and spicy jalapeno.

For basic hummus you'll need:

3-5 garlic cloves, minced (I always add more garlic!)

2 cans of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup tahini (check out the natural foods aisle)
1/8 tsp cumin

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil

1/3 tsp paprika

Try adding some chile powder for a little kick!

I couldn't recommend enough a good food processor for hummus. A blender will do the trick in most cases, but you still might end up with the occassional chick pea clump.

Rinsed & drained!

All mixed together... press the button... and...

Voila! A healthy snack with vegetables, on sandwiches, with crackers, and more! Sprinkle the paprika on top for a little color and something special.

Stick around for tomorrow's Part 2 - making homemade tortilla chips for your hummus from corn tortillas...

Banana Crumb Muffins

In my ongoing quest to try to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into my daily menu, there have been a few casualties... namely bananas. But not to fear - Banana Crumb Muffins are here!

As I searched through recipes for sad bananas this weekend, I stumbled upon THIS RECIPE and knew I had a winner. And since I'm pretty sure that muffins are destined to be put in cute baskets and delivered to friends and neighbors, that's exactly what I did. Even though I felt a little like a Stepford wife, I wrapped up these little warm bits of deliciousness and set off down the street. 

If you're ever having a bad day, keep this in mind:

handing a basket of fresh baked muffins to someone is one of the best feelings in the world.

With modifications from the original, here's the recipe:

Muffins:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp each baking soda and baking powder**

1/2 tsp salt

3-4 medium ripe bananas, mashed with a fork

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup canola oil

Topping:

1/3 c brown sugar

2 tbsp flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp butter

** If at high altitude, half the amount of baking soda & powder.

Preheat the oven to 375 and either grease your muffin tin or line with papers. Mix together: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In another bowl or in a stand mixer, combine: bananas, sugars, egg, vanilla and oil. Slowly add the flour mix until just combined. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Using 2 knives or a pastry cutter, cut in the cold butter until you get a lovely cornmeal texture. Sprinkle liberally over the muffins.

Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the tin for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack.

Daydreaming About... Outdoor Ovens

Just as I was finishing up the "Folk School and Fancy Free" post yesterday I came across an AWESOME how-to on Building Your Own Outdoor Cob Oven via the Huffington Post's new Food section.

Not only do I adore a DIY project that seems pretty straightforward, but I love it even more when it's relatively inexpensive!  

Check it out by clicking here.

How upset do you think our landlord would be to find one of these in the backyard? I mean, it's a bonus, right?  He he. Just another reason to take that Rustic Breads course up at the folk school :)

Folk Schools & Fancy Free

Oh how I dream of attending one of many folk schools scattered about the country. Well, one in particular - the North House Folk School on Minnesota's north shore of Lake Superior in Grand Marais. 

It all started with a conversation about Alan Scott with an apprentice breadbaker at Ontario's Organics conference a few years back in Guelph. Alan Scott is one of the premier and most well-known "ovencrafters" in the U.S. - click here to visit his Ovencrafters website - and I quickly became intrigued by the idea of having my own outdoor oven one day.

  photo from North House Folk School

If you want to know what I do on a rainy weekend morning, you might find me surfing the North House Folk School's website looking over their course calendar. Although I'm sad to say that it doesn't look like Alan teaches the oven building classes (there are several) anymore, North House does offer an extremely popular "Ovencrafting - Building and Baking In The Wood-Fired Brick Oven" course several times a year as part of their Foods and Sustainable Living tracks. For 4 days and $400 (they do have a scholarship program), you will:

   photo from North House Folk School

• Learn the history of masonry ovens
• Discover the ins and outs of oven construction
• How to mix dough
• Unearth the secrets of brick oven baking
• Build, as a class, an oven from the ground up
• Make and enjoy sourdough and whole grain breads + pizzas
• Have the option to buy the oven!

One day my time will come! For now, I will spend my rainy weekend mornings daydreaming about all of the wonderful things I can learn and appreciate as I continue to feed this insatiable hunger to learn the skills of not-too-long ago. Just look at what North House alone can offer in half day to week long courses: 

FOODS: Sausage Making - Cooking with the Seasons - Earthen Oven Building and Baking - Fish & Seafood Cooking - Flatbreads from the Woof-Fired Hearth - Green Medicines - Carving the Oven Peel - Irish Breads - Ovencrafting - Rustic Breads for the Brick Oven - Sausages for the Grill - Scandinavian Holiday Baking - Chickens for Your Space - Sourdough Breads - Swedish Potato Sausage Making - Traditional Harvest of Wild Rice - Whole Grain Sourdough Bakery

and equally many courses in each of the following areas: Basketry, Boatbuilding, Clothing and Jewelry, Fiber Arts, Knitting, Northern Ecology, Outdoor Skills & Travel, Painting & Photography, Sailing, Shelter, Sustainable Living, Timber Framing, Tool Making, Traditional Crafts, Woodcarving, and Woodworking.

Here are my all-time favorites in each category (click link for more info - all photos are from NHFS). If you must know, while the ovencrafting got me into this idea of folk schools, it is the yurt building course that haunts my dreams!

 Birch Bark Berry Basket - Workshop and Field Harvest

Cedar-Strip Boatbuilding - Build Your Own Canoe or Kayak

Making Moosehide and Canvas Mukluks

Wool Table Runner - Learning to Weave on a Frame Loom

Rustic Breads for the Brick Oven

The Fisherman's Sweater - Intro to Knitting Cables

The Cedar Hand Drum - Carving, Stretching and Drumming

Boreal Birding Immersion On The Gunflint Trail

Craft of Birch Ski Making - Make Your Own Set

Superior/Gunflint Photography - Fall Equinox 

Sail Training Trip - Apostle Islands Adventure

Nomadic Pursuits - Building Your Own Portable Yurt

Intensive Gardening - Saving Money, Eating Better

Basic Timber Framing 

Blacksmithing - Crafting the Tools of the Trade

Twig Furniture - Crafting the Twig Chair

Gardenslyod - Handcrafting Wooden Gardening Tools

Whew! I know that was one killer of a long post - clearly I get a little over-zealous just thinking about it! 

So, dear readers, I turn to you:

What skills do you want to learn? 

Do you know of other folk or craft schools?

Coconut Angel Food Cake

What better way to celebrate Mother's Day (or just a nice Spring weekend) than with Angel Food Cake? Admittedly, I have ALWAYS wanted to make an Angel Food Cake but never had the guts. Altitude would surely defeat me. Well, I can tell you know that altitude didn't hold me - or this cake - down for a minute!

The first question I think most people ask themselves is:

Do I really need an angel food cake pan?

The short answer:

YES.

Not satisfied with that answer? I'm sure Baking Bites can convince you:

Here's Why You Need An Angel Food Cake Pan

For my foray into Angel Food Cake, I used a lovely High Altitude Angel Food Cake Recipe from Allrecipes. In addition, I also added a teaspoon or so of coconut extract instead of the lemon with the plan of topping my dessert with a little toasted coconut. Yum!

I learned a lot of baking/ingredients with this recipe that I feel compelled to share! How often do we run our fingers down the ingredients column without stopping to think - why? Cream of Tartar is one of those ingredients  for me that gets a huge question mark! 

Essentially a powdered acid leftover from the winemaking process (surprise!) cream of tartar also helps create stable peaks when whipping egg whites. If you're still curious, head back over to Baking Bites for the rest of the explanation!

OK, I cheated a little bit and bought egg whites at the store - but I tell you what, my cake was still divine! 

I'm a little wary of the egg beating situation when it comes to creating a specific type of peak (for this recipe you'll make medium-soft peaks). After a little digging, I found some really helpful explanations over at The Kitchn.

And I know you don't want to sift the flour, but do it anyways! Just imagine the light and fluffy cake you have on the way...

The actual instructions are simple and straightforward:

Preheat your oven to 330 degrees.

Using a mixer, whip together 1-1/2 cups of egg whites with 1-1/4 teaspoons of cream of tartar until you have medium/soft peaks. Slowly add in 1-1/8 cups of white granulated sugar to the egg mix. Add 1 tsp vanilla and any other extract that you are using (lemon, coconut, etc). 

Add 3/4 tsp of salt and 1-1/3 cups sifted flour to the mix a quarter at a time until fully incorporated. Pour the batter into your angel food cake pan - according to reviewers on Allrecipes you might consider lining the pan with parchment paper if you think the bottom might stick. I didn't and mine turned out fine. 

Bake for 25 minutes at 330 degrees before increasing the temperature to 375 degrees. Bake for 3-5 more minutes, the cake should shrink slightly. Remove from the oven and invert the pan on a wire rack to cool. When cool, carefully remove by running a small spatula around the edge to release the cake. 

While you could easily devour it plain...

a little whipped or ice cream and fresh fruit will blow your mind.

Of course, I totally forgot about the toasted coconut - but as you can see we did just fine without it. There's always next time... and trust me, there will be a next time!

Happy Weekend!

Cinco de Mayo Rice Crispies

Need a last minute Cinco de Mayo sweet treat? I made a batch of these yesterday with rave reviews from  everyone in the office! Don't fret over the Mexican vanilla - they'll be fabulous with plain ol' vanilla extract, too. I also omitted the nuts since I only had walnuts on hand.

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE FROM BIG SIS LIL SIS

You'll need:

1/4 cup butter or margarine
Dash of salt
1 10-oz pkg regular marshmallows
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp Mexican vanilla (regular OK)
5 1/2 cups Cocoa Krispies cereal
1 cup pecans, chopped (optional)
3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

Directions:

Grease a 9 x 13 pan or line with foil or parchment paper. 

In a large stock pot, melt the butter over low heat. Add the marshmallows and stir constantly until completely melted (marshmallows will lose their shape). Toss in a pinch of salt, the cinnamon, and the vanilla and stir quickly before removing from the heat.

Mix in the cereal, pecans (if using) and 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips. Make sure to evenly coat the cereal before adding to the pan.

Press into the pan into an even layer, using your hands (slightly wet) if needed. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips across the top and let cool before cutting. 

I'm pretty sure that every holiday is made better with chocolate - Happy Cinco de Mayo!