Granola

I just finished A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg a few weeks ago and loved it! The best food journal, cookbook, diary, romance novel, or whatever else you want to call it. I can't stop re-reading it, planning meals, looking up specific restaurants she referenced and trying the recipes. I probably make the caramelized cauliflower with salsa verde about once a week. So, I decided to take a break from her recipes and try a new granola recipe I found in the June issue of Bon Appettit magazine. It wasn't until after I made it that I realized the recipe and article were written by....Molly Wizenberg!

I've been hugging trees and making granola for a while now, but this is the best recipe I've found.
Ingredients:
3 cups old fashion oats
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (I omitted this)
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I use a little more)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup assorted dried fruit (I don't care for dried fruit in my granola, so I left this out)

I added flax seed and walnuts and left out the fruit.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix first 7 ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Stir honey and oil in a pan until smooth.
4. Pour honey over oat mixture and toss.
5. Spread on a baking sheet and bake until golden, about 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
6. Let cool. Mix in fruit. Enjoy.

Ginger Cilantro Rice

This recipe is from the June issue of Bon Appetit. It is meant as a side dish but I added some roasted some brussel sprouts and carrots and made it a full meal. It's easy and really good!
Ingredients:

1 cup long grain white rice (I used brown rice)

2 inch long piece of fresh ginger, peeled, and cut into rounds (not too small b/c you will be removing them later), plus 1 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger

1 2/3 cups low salt chicken broth

1 1/3 cups chopped fresh cilantro

1 green onion, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil

1 teaspoon (or more) rice vinegar

Directions:

1. Combine rice and ginger rounds in a large saucepan.

2. Add broth, and sprinkle with salt

3. Bring to boil, stirring often.

4. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer until rice is tender and broth is absorbed, about 18 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, combine chopped cilantro, green onion, and minced ginger in food processor. Add both oils and vinegar (I didn't have sesame oil and used olive oil instead and it turned out fine).

6. Season with salt and pepper.

7. When rice is cooked, remove from heat. Remove ginger rounds, and mix in cilantro mixture.

I added chopped carrots and cooked them with the rice. Delicious.

Ring Pillow

A few months ago, Design Sponge featured really cute, handmade ring pillows, and I've been waiting for an opportunity to make one. See my first attempt below that I made last night for a co-worker. As most crafting projects I take on seem to go, it took a lot longer than I thought to make all the flowers and sew them on, but it was relatively easy.

The felt color selection was very limited at JoAnne Fabrics, so I tried to work with what they had, but I'll have to ask my New York connections to make a stop at Tinsel Trading Company to get the premium felt and pre-made flowers if I do this again!

Fabric Flower Gift Wrap

Although I'm not planning a wedding of my own, I still love to visit Once Wed for cute craft and decorating ideas. Last year there was a DIY project for fabric flower garland. I took the fabric flower idea to wrap a bridal shower gift I went to last weekend. You will need: fabric, scissors, needle and thread and something to trace the circles. Cut six fabric circles. Fold in half, and in half again. Thread through all the corners as shown.

Once you have all six flowers on the needle, pull through and pull both ends of the thread tight and tie a double knot.

When you pull the two ends of the thread together a ball will form. You may need to adjust the pedals a little bit and spread them out to make a full flower. Once Wed post suggests sewing the pedals together, but I didn't and it turned out fine.

The tissue paper wasn't big enough to cover the box, so I staggered the paper about a half inch apart and taped it between layers so the tape didn't show. Attach the flower with thread, tape, glue, or however else you like, and voila! A cute package without spending any money. Just fabric scraps and leftover tissue paper.

David Sedaris

Last night my boyfriend and I went to see the smart and funny David Sedaris. I love his books, love listening to him on NPR and always wanted to go see him live, so I was very excited to get tickets for my birthday!

First, we stopped at a really cute, new wine bar that just opened down the street and had a glass of wine and tasty mixed bar nuts. When I ordered them I was expecting a glass bowl filled with generic mixed nuts from a warehouse store, but these were delicious! I'm not sure how much of each ingredient to use or how long to toast them for, but they were a good assortment of nuts, mixed with brown sugar, cayenne pepper, salt and rosemary. The rosemary and the cayenne pepper together was so good! The dark chocolate on the plate was a perfect addition.

After the wine bar, we walked down the street to the performing arts center and there was David, happily signing books in the lobby. All 5ft. 2 of him. OK, I didn't measure, but he seemed really mini and cute and was really nice to everyone in line. I brought a book just in case I had a chance to talk to him. As I walked up to the line, the security guard told me he had just cut the line off. I begged and pleaded and asked in several different ways but he held his ground and would not let me get in line. I waited 1o minutes and asked again. He said, "If you get in line, I am not going to physically remove you, so...". I took that as a yes and got in line.

I was the last person so it was a little rushed, but I gave him my book and he asked me what my favorite animal was. I said "dog" and then felt dumb because I'm sure 38 other people gave the same response. He drew a dog, looked at it and said, "Well that isn't very good. Hmmm......Oh, I know, I'll make it a dog that is bleeding from the anus," and added red dots to the dog's rear end. He then rushed off and reappeared 5 minutes later on stage. A fork lift dropped him off at the podium. He is wacky and his sister is wackier, but I love the Sedaris'!

Templeton Rye

I realize this blog needs some work. The pictures are dark and not very good (I passed on the $900 blogger photo class by food stylist and local Long Beach resident Matt Armendariz a few months ago) , the before and after projects are few and far between, and the last few meals I've made were not blog worthy, hence the sporadic posting, but.....despite all that, I still have the best followers in blog world!

You may remember the Whiskey 101 post a while back. In the comment section I mentioned to one of my Midwest followers that we can't get Templeton Rye (only sold in Illinois and Iowa) in California. And look what showed up in the mail yesterday! Modern day bootlegging! I love it! Can't wait to try it at the next whiskey club in May!
Interesting factoid: The term bootlegging comes from the prohibition era when people would hide flasks of alcohol in the legging of their boot. Maybe everyone knows that, but I just read it and thought it was interesting.

Birthday Gifts

A couple weeks ago I celebrated my birthday with a few friends at a farmer's market picnic. Good food, several bottles of wine, an ice cream cake, and lots of cute gifts! My friends apparently know me very well! Gifts included McClure's pickles, a marble mortar and pestle, ceramic measuring cups and spoons, a personal embosser stamp and a really cute blue hand mixer! The pickles are good but very spicy! You will need some relief for your mouth mid way through eating one. I've never had a pickle that needed a chaser, but these do. Prepare a few slices of cheese and possibly a beer to help you get through it. For those of us not lucky enough to live in Brooklyn or Detroit (OK, just Brooklyn), you can now pick up a jar at some William's Sonoma stores.

I was so excited to receive the hand mixer before KitchenAid discontinued that cute blue color. I did not act fast enough for the stand up mixer in the same color though. Maybe it's for the better. The things I was making with my old mixer before it blew up were not doing my waste line any favors...compound butter, cookies, whipped cream, cream pies, etc.