Yum Yum Crouton Recipe

I am slightly, slightly addicted to the croutons and crisps sold at Trader Joe's.  Sourdough bread, oven toasted with garlic and Parmesan cheese... the simplest of yum yum yummyness!  So, what's a gal to do when the craving for these hits when home with two sleeping munchkins?  Make my own of course! 

While I am sure there are plenty of recipes both in my library and on the internet that I could follow, I felt this was something I could pop together quickly, so here is what I came up with.

Ingredients:

• Sourdough bread, cut or torn into 3/4 inch squares-- about 2 cups
• 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Garlic, smashed, lots of it
• Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. On a cookie sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper, spread out bread
3. Drizzle olive oil over bread and toss with hands to coat
4. Spread out garlic and Parmesan and toss again
5. Bake for 7 minutes, take out and toss
6. Bake for 7 more minutes, take out and test crispiness.  If needed, bake 2 or so additional minutes.
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper
8. Try to let the croutons cool long enough to make it onto your salad!

On a silly but important side note:  Since Em and Ro were sleeping while I was having fun in the kitchen, I took at least 35 photos of the steps I took to make the croutons.  I'm practicing my food photography techniques and find that I am seriously lacking.  Horribly seriously.  ;-) 

My desire to improve this and other topics on the CelticMommy blog have landed me as an upcoming camper to Camp Blogaway... a boot camp for food and recipe bloggers.  I have not added many recipes on here because the photos for my food are just not as pretty as I would like... so, "Camera Mastery: settings, white balance" is one topic I will be sure to be early for at camp.  Admittedly, I am also excited to meet my fellow foodies who obsess over their own recipes and ingredients.  Soon, I will have figured out how to style my food like a model is styled for their photo shoot!

I hope you have a great weekend!

Homemade pickles

With our garden producing pickling cucumbers at a rate of 2-3 per day, I had to come up with a way to keep them!  This fast recipe does not require any special canning supplies and will make one full pint (or two half pints as seen above) of pickles that will keep in the refrigerator for about a month.

Ingredients and Supplies

• 1 clean pint, or 2 clean half pint Ball or Kerr jars... or a very very clean glass salsa or spaghetti sauce jar will work.
• Fresh pickling cucumbers, washed, about 5 or 6
• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 teaspoon dried dill or several sprigs of fresh dill
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons pickling spice  (I use Penzey's)
• 1 1/4 cups white vinegar

Directions

1. Slice cucumbers about 1/4" thick, set aside
2. Combine sugar, onion, garlic, dill, salt, picking spice and vinegar.  Make sure sugar is dissolved.
3. Put cucumbers in jar (jars) packing lightly
4. Fill jar with vinegar mixture to top.  If you are splitting into two half pint jars, you might need about 2-4 tablespoons of water
5. Cap tightly and place in refrigerator

The pickles will be ready pretty quickly... about 2-3 days.  I have already gone through one jar and put new cucumber slices in the vinegar mix.  The pickles are sweetly tangy and still give some crunch.  Yum!

Enjoy!

An Addictive Appetizer

A lot of my prep work today was making breads, pies, cookies and appetizers for tomorrow... one of which is so deliciously addictive I felt I must share the recipe with you. This is from an old Bon Appetit magazine and I've modified it a bit according to family taste.

Fire and Spice Nuts

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoon chipotle or regular chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 large egg whites
2 cups pecan halves
2 cups walnut halves and pieces
2 cups raw cashews
1/3 cup white sugar

(I've also used macadamia nuts, peanuts, almonds and even pine nuts-- just make sure you've got 6 total cups for this recipe)
OPTIONAL: Dried cranberries, chopped. About 1/2 to 1 cup.

DIRECTIONS:
Position rack in the center of your oven and preheat to 225°F.
Line two heavy large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Stir first seven ingredients in small bowl to blend.
Whisk egg whites in big bowl until foamy.
Whisk in spice mixture.
Add the nuts and toss to coat completely.
Sprinkle sugar over the mixture and toss to coat.
Divide nut mixture between prepared baking sheets; spread nut mixture in single layer.
Bake until nuts are toasted and coating is dry, stirring every 20 minutes, about 1 hour 20 minutes.
Sprinkle nuts with salt to taste, if desired.
Transfer nuts to large bowl.
Mix in dried cranberries if using them.
Cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temp for up to a week.

Here are the other recent recipe links for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, Persimmon Cookies and Basque Cake. I will continue to post more throughout the coming weeks (Cherry Walnut Bread, Chocolate Truffles, Apple Oatmeal Bread and Brown Sugar Bars to name a few.)

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!