Farro Salad with Sweet Potatoes, Feta, and Pomegranate

You guys! I officially have a new meal obsession: grain bowls. Yes, this sounds like a hippie dippy fad that is part of some misguided, new wave, vegan new year's resolution but...it's not. It's just purely delicious. I promise. I can't get enough of this meal right now, and have made it three times this month already. Don't worry, I have been balancing out this healthiness with lots of oatmeal cookies and even a pumpkin cheesecake (recipe coming soon).

The concept of grain bowls is simple: (1) start with a grain of your choice such as farro, quinoa, brown rice, or Israeli cous cous. (2) Add the green of your choice such as spinach, kale, or arugula. (3) Go to town and add toppings such as baked sweet potato, baked acorn squash, avocado, grilled chicken, feta cheese, pomegranate seeds, or nuts. Dress with a simple olive oil and balsamic dressing, or a more creative dressing if you like.

My personal favorite right now is the combo below:

Ingredients:
Farro (little blue bag from Trader Joe's)
Spinach
Baked sweet potato slices
Avocado
Feta cheese
Pomegranate seeds
Grilled chicken (optional)
Olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel and slice the sweet potato (acorn squash is great too) and toss with a bit of olive oil and salt & pepper. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until nice and soft. Cook the farro according to the package directions. Add everything to a big bowl, and enjoy!

Granola with Coconut & Walnuts

Happy New Year!!! 

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday and that 2016 is off to a great start. I've been up to a lot since Thanksgiving, including a trip to Santa Barbara for Christmas which we spent with Stuart's family, followed by a big New Year's Eve party at work for which I was responsible for the entertainment, guest check-in, games, raffle prizes, and a dozen wonderful volunteers. It was amazing and a great way to kick off 2016 in style - considering we usually do a very low-key New Year's celebration at home or with family or friends!

For holiday gifts this year for those close to me, I decided to go the homemade route. And while I have many yummy cookie recipes in my arsenal - such as these chocolate macadamia nut clusters, rugalach, or peanut butter Nutella - I decided to try something new with this homemade granola. I was inspired by two things in the making of this granola recipe. First off, I have been obsessed with this granola for a while, which my family discovered in Hawaii and which I beg my parents to bring home for me every time they are there on their annual visit. Secondly, I had bookmarked this recipe from one of my favorite blogs, and was inspired by the method of heating up the honey over the stove, which is key in my version as well to beautifully meld all the flavors together. 

Finally, this is perfectly appropriate for the "New Year" to sprinkle over your healthy bowl of morning yogurt and topped with a handful of berries. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

4 cups rolled oats
2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
2 cups chopped walnuts (or nuts of your choice)
½ cup coconut oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. In a large bowl, combine oats, coconut and walnuts and gently stir to mix well. 

2. In a small saucepan, combine coconut oil, honey, maple syrup, vanilla and salt and heat for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring to emulsify slightly. Pour the oil mixture over the oat mixture and stir until evenly coated. 

3. Spread mixture onto a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and stir well, bringing the oat mixture closest to the edges into the center and pushing the center mixture towards the edges. Return to the oven and bake for 10 more minutes, checking when 1 to 2 minutes remain. Be very careful at the end: the coconut can burn easily, leaving the granola with a bitter, burnt taste. 

4. Remove pan from the oven, place on a cooling rack and leave undisturbed until completely cool, at least one hour. Once removed from the oven, the granola will continue to cook a tiny bit more on the hot pan and the texture will become crispy as it dries.

Chicken Orzo Soup

 I have entered the zone where all I think about cooking (and pretty much all that I actually cook, if we are being honest) are soups and baked goods. Soups and baked good allll day long please!! Nothing hits the spot for me this time of year better than a hot pot of soup, plus if I'M feeling ambitious a freshly baked *something* warm from the oven. My last couple of posts have been all about the tasty baked goods side of the equation, featuring this obsession-worthy apple cake and these baked pumpkin spice donuts. Hence, I think it's time to move over to soups for a post or two. It's only fair right?? To balance out the sugar and spice and everything nice, you have to base your indulgences on a solid foundation of simmering fresh veggies and proteins.

Enter chicken orzo soup. It's basically like the chicken noodle soup of your childhood sick days grew up into a pot full of goodness and fresh herbs that you could eat all day long. Like any recipe, it's easy to swap out ingredients to fit your taste. If you don't want/have orzo, you could use a different type of pasta (although these little rice-shaped pieces of orzo fill your spoon really well, sans messy splashes). Or, you could substitute the rotisserie chicken with sausage, pancetta, or more veggies. I've adapted this from the amazing cookbook Flour, Too, whose namesake restaurant chain is located in Boston. And you can bet Bostonians know a thing or two about how to make a good winter soup. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

½ of a cooked rotisserie chicken, shredded

4-5 cans chicken stock

3 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 in pieces (or 1 cup shredded carrots)

2 celery stalks, cut into 1/2 in pieces

¾ cup orzo pasta

1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2 in pieces

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp paprika

1/8 cayenne pepper

2 tsp thyme, finely chopped

2 tsp sage, finely chopped

1 tsp rosemary, finely chopped

4 cups baby spinach leaves

Directions:

1. In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, carrot, and celery. Reduce the heat to medium-low and sweat the vegetables for about 8 minutes, stirring often until almost tender to the bite.
2. Add the chicken stock, raise the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Add the orzo, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until the orzo is cooked. Add the zucchini, salt, pepper, paprika, and cayenne. Let simmer for 2 minutes.
3. Add the shredded chicken and stir in the thyme, sage, rosemary, and spinach. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve immediately.

Apple Spice Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

So, can we all just get together for a second to agree that daylight standard time is really hard to adjust to?! I am sitting at home, it is 3:00 in the afternoon, and it feels like I should be eating dinner right now. I know everyone says this every year since the history of daylight savings, but man it's tough when it gets dark at five o'clock. Cake always makes things better, so I'm going to post about that, right after some updates about our trip to Big Sur!

We have been feeling the fall chill here in Monterey, and had to get our space heater out of the garage to survive the cold evenings and mornings. The days have still been beautiful though, and we went on a picture perfect day trip to Big Sur yesterday! It's only a one hour drive from us, so we hopped on highway one, stopped at Bixby bridge, took a little hike at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, then had lunch at Nepenthe restaurant which has drop dead gorgeous views. We got the Caprese salad, chicken sandwich, and a basket of fries. It's on the pricier side, but you have to remember it must not be easy to get all their supplies trucked in since the restaurant is so isolated. Definitely worth going to for the unique ambiance and killer views. We will be back.

 View from our table

 Great balsamic on the Caprese, which was almost a Caprese/Greek salad hybrid

 More fries please.

Yes you are correct, I wear this shirt everywhere.

When we got home, I made this amazing apple spice cake that screams "cozy fall day" right in your face. I can't get enough of anything with apples at any time of the year (see Apple Oven Cake, Apple Crisp, or Sweet Potato Apple Soup) but the spices here are spot on for a snuggly Saturday cake fix. I tweaked this from a recipe I found on Bake or Break. You should probably make it right away, preferably after inviting guests over for dinner. We had no guests visiting, so now we just have a LOT of cake to eat our way through. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

 

Ingredients:
2 & 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice or pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup milk
2 medium apples, finely chopped 

Frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, nice and soft at room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped toasted pecans, for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper. Butter paper.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and allspice. Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter, brown sugar, and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla.
5. Add flour in 3 portions, alternating with 2 portions of milk. Mix just until combined. Stir in apples.
6. Divide batter between prepared pans and smooth evenly. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until a pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 15 minutes. Then, remove pans to wire racks, remove parchment paper, and allow to cool completely.

To make the frosting:

1. Place cream cheese and butter in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat until combined and smooth.
2. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar, mixing until smooth. Add cinnamon and vanilla and mix well.
3. Frost as desired and garnish top of cake with the chopped toasted nuts.

Pumpkin Spice Donuts & Feeling Like Fall

Why hello! Somewhere in the last month or so fall took us by storm. The days are slowly cooling off in Monterey, but it is still beautiful sticking at around 70 degrees. Supposedly fall is one of the best seasons around these parts, so we shall see if El Nino kicks in early or not! At work I am organizing a pumpkin decorating contest, we have a Halloween themed employee bowling night coming up for which I of course do not yet have a costume...

In the kitchen I have embraced fall by baking pumpkin spiced donuts in my donut pan and some pumpkin pancakes (those pancakes didn't quite turn out as advertised - feel like they just wouldn't cook!). I have heard rumors of a pumpkin shortage this year due to the drought, so we stocked up on lots of cans of pumpkin at Trader Joe's just to be safe. More tests with pumpkin pancakes will therefore be forthcoming.

 These are my donuts just before they were dunked in a butter and sugar mixture. Yumm.

This past weekend we went kayaking at Elkhorn Slough at Moss Landing and saw SO matter otters and seals up close and personal! It was a great little protected place where they like to hang out. The kayak rental guy even said that sometimes the otters will jump up onto the front of your kayak and you have to splash them off! Then on Sunday, the power was out all day. That meant no hot showers, no breakfast, no coffee shops open, no grocery stores, no restaurants...luckily we took a nice long walk and discovered that the Aquarium still had power and were able to get lunch there. Whew!

This Wednesday is my birthday!! I am already feeling the love from family and am excited to be turning another year older and wiser. I was also secretly excited at work the other day when a coworker expressed shock when I said I was married - she thought I had just graduated from college. Nope nope nope, but thanks! On Friday Stuart and I will be trying out the Italian restaurant Il Vecchio for a belated birthday dinner. Saturday we are heading over to Santa Cruz for the day (I have a whole list of foodie places I want to try and look forward to reporting back), and Sunday we are doing the Carmel Wine Walk with a couple friends. Life is good!! I hope you too are stocking up on pumpkin (canned or otherwise) and enjoying these gorgeous fall days.

Pumpkin Spice Baked Donuts

(Makes 10 regular size donuts)

For Donuts:
1 3/4 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk

For Coating: (approximate measurements)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon 

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter a donut pan and set aside.

1. In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and spices together and set aside.

1. In a large bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment) whisk together oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin and milk until combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the mixture and stir until just combined, careful not to over mix.

1. Fill each donut cup with batter. The cups should be fairly full, but not overflowing. Bake for 15 minutes or until donuts spring back when gently pressed. Turn donuts out onto a wire rack and allow to cool for a few minutes.

1. While the donuts are cooling, melt butter in one bowl and combine the sugar and cinnamon in another.  When donuts are still hot but cool enough to touch, quickly dip each donut lightly in melted butter, then coat in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Serve immediately.

*Note: If you're not going to serve the donuts immediately, you can bake them up to a day in advance and store them in an airtight container. Do not coat them in the butter/cinnamon-sugar mixture until just before serving or they may get soggy.