Category: Food and Drink

Home Made Cherry Almond Granola with Chia and Pine Nuts- So Good!

FitChickSD.com
FitChickSD.com

The Husband found a super-delicious bag of granola being sold at the bike shop recently- Fit Chick may be pricy, but is definitely worth every penny. It’s delicious. Click the picture (swiped from the Fit Chick web site) to connect with ordering info if you are so inclined…

I’ve been meaning to try a granola recipe that I found and squirreled away on Pinterest, and now I have a great model to imitate- I used a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated, tweaked the ratios to make a smaller batch, and added chia seeds and pine nuts to come close to the Fit Chick bag o’ goodness.

Here’s how it went down…

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Ingredients…

Cherry Almond Granola

makes just over 4 cups

  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoon coconut oil
  • 2 tablespoon canola oil
  • 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 cup whole almonds, chopped roughly
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • 2 tablespoons chia seeds
  • 1 cup dried cherries

Mix together the first seven ingredients (syrup through the oils). Mix in the oats, almonds, pine nuts and chia seeds. Press into a 13″ x 18″ half sheet baking pan (or a cookie sheet) and bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes. Watch that the granola doesn’t get too browned! Let cool slightly, break into chunks, mix in the cup of dried cherries and try to keep yourself from eating it all in one sitting.

 

Patted into pan...
Patted into pan… I’d leave the cherries out until after it has baked, next time.
Finished granola.
Finished granola.

This was another “Holy Yum” recipe. If I were to rank it, it would be worthy of an 11 out of 10, à la Spinal Tap.

 

11/18/17 Update: I’ve continued to make and share this awesome recipe, and started adding 1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom. Wow, is that a great addition! Another change I’ve made in the recipe is to increase the coconut and canola oil from 1 1/2 tablespoon, each, to two tablespoons, each. I think it needed a bit more of the oil to help keep everything together. And I also realize now that when you bake dried fruit in a granola, the fruit turns into little tough rocks. That’s not good. I’ve learned to mix the fruit in at the end!

Where Has Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles Been All My Life?

We found ourselves in Anaheim Thursday night at dinner time and found a new restaurant- Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles.  

  • Twenty minutes waiting that was really only five.
  • Curtis the “Freaking awesome” waiter (as The Boy put it) handing me a menu from which I’d like to order one of everything.

And I was blessed with this for dinner:


This was by far the best fried chicken I’d ever eaten in my life. The waffles were delicious, too. Curtis wouldn’t tell me if there was cinnamon in the mix or not. Stinker.

New Tricks with Old Friends- Aqua Hiking and Kung Pao Calamari (Bonus! Make a Friend Try Ahi Poke)

Friends visiting us from out of town? A visit to Torrey Pines is mandatory.

Torrey Pines State Preserve this Friday… so lovely:

Stunning blue sky, green pines, and red cliffs, two days ago...
Stunning blue sky, green pines, and red cliffs, two days ago…

Southern California is experiencing a severe drought right now. So, when the friends from Indiana are visiting, what do we get for the weather? Two days of steady rain thanks to Hurricane Dolores. I didn’t snap any pictures of the ominous grey and black clouds as they rushed up on us, but did find this lovely photo online. Imagine the fog like this… just coming down in buckets:

This is the closest photo I could come up with- Torrey Pines in the fog... (photo credit to andrewharper.com)
This is the closest photo I could come up with- Torrey Pines in the fog… (photo credit to andrewharper.com)

Our hike today started with clear skies, but by mid-morning, the hurricane bands started coming up from the south. And fast. By the time we started the return hike, the skies opened up and we enjoyed (!?!) the rest of the walk along the water’s edge and the base of the cliffs in the pouring rain. At least we had the warm rain and beach to walk along!

Very VERY wet hikers make it to the car...
Very VERY wet hikers make it to the car…

By the time we made it back to the car we were soaked to the skin. I amazed that we managed to keep the cameras and phones dry. The hair dryers and styling products were a waste of time this morning. We looked (and felt) like we had jumped in a pool.

We finished the evening at a favorite fish restaurant, Bay Park Fish Company, where we talked two of the most unlikely of diners to try ahi poke- they didn’t die nor did they hate it! I had to try something new to eat since hiking in a total downpour wasn’t good enough for my New Thing o’ the Day. Kung Pao Calamari- yum. It is on the appetizer list, but with a side of rice, voilà- dinner.

Here you go, Scott, proof of your wife trying the ahi poke:

OHMYGOSH DEBBIE IS EATING RAW FISH!!!
OHMYGOSH DEBBIE IS EATING RAW FISH!!!
Kung Pao Calamari with a side of rice- delish.
Kung Pao Calamari with a side of rice- delish.

Holy Yum Cheese Tasting- Cypress Grove Chèvre “Humboldt Fog”

Got a new cheese the other day,  I’ve been wanting to try this for quite a while. There is some fabulous goat cheese in America, people, you have to try this stuff. From Capriole Goat Cheese in Indiana to Cypress Grove in Arcata, California, we have really delicious artisanal products available.

Want a good place to learn about some of these fine cheeses? Read this: “Serious Cheese: Have You Tried These 6 Great U.S. Goat Cheeses?” is a great article to bring you up to speed. The good people at SeriousEats.com can get you up to speed on chèvre in its many forms.

Tonight we tried Cypress Grove Chèvre “Humboldt Fog.” It was creamy, smooth, with a bit of the tang of a bleu but with a wonderful taste that goat cheese is known for. It was delicious.

And it gets better- you can get this cheese in Costco right now! Or at least, we can in California.

I hope you can, too, because Costco has Humboldt Fog for a great price. It is available at other fine cheese shops, check their web page for purchase info. Go get some- try a new cheese.

Cypress Grove Chèvre "Humboldt Fog" is delicious.
Cypress Grove Chèvre “Humboldt Fog” is delicious.

Mike Hess Brewing of San Diego- Orange Honey Wheat

Want to try a craft brew from San Diego but don’t care for the double, triple, or quadruple hopped varieties that this area is known for? I’m not crazy about hoppy beers, but I wanted something other than wine to go with the pan fried dorado we had for dinner tonight- yea for my freezer and The Husband’s catch o’ the day from several months ago!

Mike Hess Brewing Jucundus is an Orange Honey Wheat beer that I cannot pronounce. So what If I can’t? What I can do is drink this brew. There’s not a lot of hops, it’s not overly bitter, it is just a nice, summer brew.

The beer snobs of San Diego can sacrifice me to the High Hops Goddess for saying this, but I think that this beer tastes like a better version of the basic supermarket beers. Now, excuse me while I duck and run for cover before an angry mob forms to pelt me with local, line caught fish tacos.

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