After making eight or nine batches, here’s my spin on the recipe:

We like our salsa less liquidy, so I briefly drain the tomatoes, and then add in some of the tomato juice at the end.

I also dislike getting chunks of raw onion and jalapeno in my salsa, so I process them into very small pieces first

And finally, I like more lime juice than the original recipe calls for, so I use the juice of a whole lime.

My version of the recipe is after the jump.

Salsa
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman cooking website
Makes about 3 cups, give or take

1/4 cup chopped onion (I use about 1/4 of a medium onion)
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup cilantro
1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes with juice, drained and juice reserved
2 cans (10 ounces each) Rotel tomatoes, drained
1 Tbs sugar
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
Juice of one lime

In a food processor finely chop onions, garlic, jalapeno and cilantro. Add in whole tomatoes, Rotel tomatoes, sugar, salt, pepper, cumin and lime juice. Pulse until the salsa is the consistency you want, adding some of the reserved tomato juice if you feel it is a little dry. Taste and adjust for seasoning, then refrigerate for a couple of hours before eating.

Sometimes I find lemon curds to be either too eggy or really rich. This lemon curd only uses 3 whole eggs and no butter (hence the “light” part of the recipe). The lemon flavor is bright and tart. The only drawback to this recipe is that the curd doesn’t set up enough to use as a filling in a cake. But it’s perfect over ice cream or strawberries and as a filling for lemon tarts. Heck, it’s perfect straight out of the bowl, on its own.

Recipe after the jump.

Light Lemon Curd
Adapted from Alice Medrich’s Chocolate and the Art of Low Fat Desserts
Makes about 1 1/2 cups

9 oz (1 cup) fresh lemon juice, strained
5 tsp lemon zest
7 oz (1 cup) sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved, and mixture is starting to steam.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs. When lemon syrup is ready, slowly stream the hot syrup into the eggs, whisking constantly. Continue to whisk for 2 minutes.

Pour mixture back into the sauce pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until it boils. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Strain mixture into another bowl to remove zest and any bits of cooked eggs. Press plastic wrap onto the surface of the curd and refrigerate.

I found the original recipe on www.browneyedbaker.com and made my first batch exactly as the recipe was written. Then I decided to experiment a little bit.

My first change was to use chunky peanut butter instead of creamy. It increased the peanutty flavor and gave the cookies a little more texture. I also increased the amount of oatmeal because I thought the original amount (1/2 cup) was skimpy. I increased the ratio of brown sugar to white sugar and added an extra egg yolk. My final change was to double the recipe and refrigerate the cookies for a couple of hours before baking them. This batch was a keeper.

The cookies stayed on the thick side, with crunchy edges and chewy centers. Be careful not to overbake these. You want them to just start browning around the edges. The middle may look a bit undercooked, but the cookies will continue to cook after you take them out of the oven. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet.

Recipe is after the jump.

Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from browneyedbaker.com
Makes about 30 cookies

Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature. I accidentally picked up a no-sugar added chunky peanut butter that wasn’t very sweet. If you use a peanut butter that has added sugar, I’d decrease the brown sugar by 1/4 cup.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chunky peanut butter
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (I used old-fashioned rolled oats)
2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a standmixer, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract for about 3 minutes. Add the peanut butter and mix well. Add the eggs and egg yolk and beat to combine. On low speed, gradually add the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the oats and then the chocolate chips.

Use a large cookie scoop (I used a 3-tablespoon scoop) and drop dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and adjust rack to middle of the oven. Space cold dough mounds about two inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets and flatten them slightly. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden around the edges, rotating cookie sheet after 10 minutes of baking. Cool completely on the baking sheet and then store in an airtight container at room temperature.

I got the original recipe here. When I first saw it, I was smitten. I immediately ran out and bought a slow cooker (I know, I know. I’m the last person in the food blogging universe to get one). The first time I made the soup, it was a little thin and watery. Despite the onions, peppers and copious amounts of cumin, there didn’t seem to be much flavor in the soup. After the first bowl, Bryan politely declined any more.

(That was okay by me. I ate the rest of the soup for lunch for more than a week straight. And I don’t do that. Usually.)

The second time I made this soup, I made some small changes that made all the difference. I used yellow onions instead of red onions. I used yellow and red bell peppers and several stalks of celery. And, most importantly, I used two cans of chicken stock instead of water and cut down the liquid by two cups. This version was wonderful. It was full of flavor and not too thin. I have a feeling that I’m going to have to share this soup with Bryan for lunch.

Recipe after the jump.

Black Bean Soup
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from Bon Appetit

Watch your cooking time. The first time I made the soup, it took 4 hours in the slow cooker on high. The second time I made it, it took almost 6 hours on high.

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium-size yellow onions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
4 teaspoons ground cumin
1 16-ounce package dried black beans
2 chopped chipotle chiles from a can, about 2 teaspoons. I seeded mine before chopping them.
2 cans chicken stock (about 4 cups)
1-2 cups hot water
Juice from half of a lemon
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Ground black pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions, bell peppers and celery and sauté until beginning to brown, about eight minutes. Add garlic and cumin; stir one minute. Transfer mixture to 6-quart slow cooker. Add beans and chipotles, then chicken stock and 1 cup of hot water. Cover and cook on high until beans are very tender, about 3-6 hours. If soup is starting to look a little dry, add more hot water as necessary.

Transfer two cups bean mixture to blender; puree until smooth. Return puree to remaining soup in slow cooker. Stir in lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Adjust seasonings to taste.

“Please don’t throw me away.”

But what to do with it? I had about a cup of pumpkin puree leftover from Thanksgiving. Trying to find a savory recipe just seemed like a lot of hard work, and I was suffering a bit of a pumpkin hangover. So there it sat, that lonely container of orange mush. For days. A week almost. Then:

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and changed it around a bit. I added my own spices (the original recipe called for pumpkin pie spice) and used a combination of brown sugar and white sugar, instead of all white sugar. These cookies are cakey and moist; warm from the oven, they are all but irresistible. I’ve tried the recipe with different kinds of nuts, but my favorite (so far) is chopped, toasted hazelnuts.

Recipe after the jump.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Based on a recipe from allrecipes.com
Makes approximately 40 cookies

10 tbs unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin at room temperature
1 large egg at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, sat, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon and mix well. Set aside. Using a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the pumpkin, egg and vanilla and beat until mixed, scraping the sides of the bowl several times. The mixture will look curdled.

Using low speed, mix the dry ingredients into the wet just until combined. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips.

Scoop tablespoon-sized balls of batter onto cookie sheets and bake on center rack for 15-17 minutes. Cookies will fill dry and set and will spring back when lightly pressed. Let cookies cool for a minute and then move them to a wire rack to cool competely.

A couple of notes: First, I found that if I used too much fruit, I couldn’t get the muffins out of the pan. About a cup of frozen blueberries was just about right. If you want to use more fruit in your muffins, I’d recommend using paper liners. Secondly, keep the size of the fruit smallish. If you are using larger fruits, like strawberries, I would cut the fruit into small pieces. Third, I only tested this recipe with blueberries (except for the batch with mixed berries, including huge strawberries and blackberries, hence tip #2) but any fruit, as long as it isn’t too wet, should work well. And finally, I liked the texture that topping the muffins with either a crumb topping or a streusel gives. This step is certainly optional.

Recipe after the jump.

Fresh Fruit Muffins
Based on the recipe from Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Zest of one lemon
2 teaspoons vanilla extact
2 eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 cup fresh or frozen fruit
Streusel or crumb topping (recipe below)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Either spray a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick spray, or line the tin with paper liners and spray the top with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar, granulated sugar and lemon zest. Using your fingers, rub the zest with the sugars until fragrant. To the sugar mixture add the vanilla extract, eggs, melted butter, oil and buttermilk and whisk until everything is incorporated and smooth.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula until no streaks of flour remain. The batter should be very lumpy. Add the fruit and mix just until incorporated. The batter should still be quite lumpy.

Using an ice cream scoop, fill the muffin cups almost full with batter. Top each muffin with a generous amount of crumb topping. Bake the muffins for 21-23 minutes in the middle of the oven. Cool the muffin tin on a rack for 15 minutes before removing the muffins from the tin.

Crumb Topping
From Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook

Note: Half of this recipe is enough crumb topping for 12 muffins. I also increased the amount of cinnamon from 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon. If you don’t like cinnamon as much as I do, use the original amount.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
A pinch of kosher salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/4″ pieces

Combine the flour, sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl and mix. Scatter the butter over the dry ingredients, and, using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture is coarse and crumbly.

The original recipe appeared in the June 2009 Gourmet magazine. I ran across a variation here. I’ve made the cake twice. The first time I followed the original recipe and used fresh blueberries. That cake was okay. The second time I made several adjustments and used frozen raspberries. That cake was fantastic.

In my version, I cut down on the sugar from 2/3 cup to 1/2 cup. I also cut down on the leavening quite a bit. My version of the recipe is after the jump.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake
Adapted from Gourmet and Smitten Kitchen

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh or frozen fruit such as raspberries or blueberries

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment. Butter and flour the parchment.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Beat butter and 1/2 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in vanilla. Add egg and beat well. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.

Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter fruit evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.

Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.

This was my second attempt at these muffins. The first time I tried them, they came out wet and heavy. This time around, I decreased the amount of milk, oil and bananas, as well as lowering the amount of leavening. I also added some lemon juice. which you could certainly leave out. The only yogurt I had in the fridge was vanilla, so that’s what I used. If you use plain yogurt, I’d add about a half of a teaspoon of vanilla extract. If you don’t have oat flour, you can blitz oatmeal in a food processor to make your own flour.

Besides being gluten free and full of fiber, these muffins are just plain good. They are a bit crumbly, but are tender and moist from the banana. Recipe after the jump.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins
Adapted from this recipe at Half-BakedBaker.com.

11/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup yogurt, plain or vanilla
1/3 cup milk, low fat
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1 egg, large, lightly beaten
2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with liners or lightly spray with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl mix together rolled oats, yogurt and milk. Let soak for 10 minutes.

In another bowl, mix oat flour, salt, spices, baking powder and baking soda.

Add brown sugar, mashed banana, egg and oil to rolled oats mixture. Mix well.

Add dry ingredients to the rolled oats mixture. Mix well. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out dry. Let cool slightly before taking out of pan.

Well, about a thousand batches later, I am comfortable enough in my bakerhood to admit that these are one of my favorite cookies. They are tender and moist with a faintly sweet vanilla flavor. You don’t taste the ricotta cheese; it contributes more to the texture than anything else. These are so good that Bryan recently requested them for his birthday instead of a cake!

I prefer to glaze the cookies while they are still hot, as it makes the glaze more transparent. The glaze sets up pretty fast, so it is easier to have an extra set of hands manning the sprinkler.

Recipe is after the jump.

Ricotta Cookies

It is important that the butter, ricotta cheese and eggs are all at room temperature, otherwise they don’t mix well. Also, make sure you don’t overbake these cookies. They should be barely golden brown with the edges a bit browner.

2 sticks of butter, softened
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

For the Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 Tbs milk
Sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F). Line several sheet pans with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, beat butter, ricotta, vanilla and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, mixing on low speed until smooth. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.

Using a scoop or a spoon, drop about 2 Tbs of cookie dough on parchment-lined sheets, spacing cookies about 2″ apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until cookies are slightly golden and edges are starting to brown. Immediately remove cookies to a rack and spoon glaze over cookies while still hot.

For the glaze: In a bowl stir together powdered sugar and milk until smooth. Adjust the consistency by adding more milk or powdered sugar as necessary.

Makes roughly 40 cookies depending on size.

Currently cooking out of Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass.

Somehow, I managed to buy half of the ingredients for this recipe and half the ingredients for another recipe and didn’t realize it until I started cooking. I ended up with a Frankenstein recipe: the head of this recipe with the body of  Sass’ Thai Chicken Soup recipe. Fortunately for our bellies, the results were pretty tasty (cold cereal was the backup dinner). The curry paste gave the stew a gentle heat that went nicely with the coconut milk. Neither flavor was overwhelming and, in fact, it mostly tasted of tomatoes. Next time, I might try using less tomatoes and more of everything else.

I substituted red curry paste for the garam masala (an Indian spice mixture) and served the mixture over brown rice. I kept the unsweetened coconut milk, but ditched the fresh ginger and the pistachio nuts. I also cut my chicken into bite-sized pieces while Sass used whole chicken tenders.

Hmmm. It might be more appropriate to consider Sass’ recipes as inspiration, which, in my opinion, is the earmark of a truly good cookbook.

This is the last recipe out of Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way. Overall, I really enjoyed cooking out of this book, and I’ve got to hand it to Sass who comes up with some really easy ways to incorporate whole grains into one’s diet. I’ve got some new recipes that will go into regular rotation around our house, as well as an appreciation for the flavor that whole grains can add to baked goods (my modified lemon poppyseed muffins with spelt flour are killer).

And, since I really mangled Sass’ original recipes for this stew-like dish, I’m posting my version after the jump.

Chicken in red curry paste adapted from several recipes in Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass

Note: Use this as a starting point to create your own flavors. If you want something really spicy, add more of the curry paste. Don’t like curry? Leave it out and add thyme or some other dried herb. This stew would be good over any grain. I just happened to have a bag of brown basmati rice that I wanted to use up. We got two dinners out of this dish.

2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1-2 tablespoons red curry paste
1 can diced tomatoes (I used roasted garlic diced tomatoes because that’s what I bought).
1/2 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk, well stirred (I used light coconut milk)
Salt and pepper to taste

Cooked brown rice

In a large frying pan, heat up a couple of tablespoons of oil over medium or medium-high heat. Add the onion and bell pepper and saute until soft and starting to brown. Add the chicken and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the curry paste and stir until the chicken and onions are coated.

To the chicken mixture add the chicken broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then lower the  heat so the mixture is simmering. Cover and let cook for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the chicken is done.

Once the chicken is done, stir in the coconut milk and adjust the seasonings. Serve over brown rice or your favorite grain. Green peas make a nice side dish.