Mammatus Clouds Over Monument

I'm clearing out the camera and found these shots I took early in the summer.  It was an afternoon of thunderstorms -- hail, tornadoes, flash flooding, and all those other things.  Oddly enough, we got almost nothing.  It all went around us but not over us.

The clouds were amazing, though.  Big poofy lumpy blobs on the underside of the very dark clouds... It was very dramatic!

These kinds of clouds are called mammatus clouds.  They are indeed associated with severe thunderstorms, though that is not the only time they can be seen.  We have seen them before.  However, this time I had a camera handy!

Recipe Corner: Orange Honey Soy Glazed Chicken

I have no idea where we found this recipe.  Online?  A cookbook?

It's easy and relatively fast.  The preparation can be done in the time it takes the oven to preheat.  After that, very little attention is needed.  The rest of the meal can be put together while this cooks.

Orange Honey Soy Glazed Chicken

1.5 lbs chicken thighs  (or whatever)

1/4 cup orange juice

3 tbsp honey

2 tbsp soy sauce (we usually use a strong-flavored Japanese brand from the regular grocery store)

< 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 to 1.5 tbsp oil

a sprinkle of garlic powder


Mix all of the above.  It can be used as a marinade if desired for about 30 minutes, but it's not necessary.

Put chicken in a pan, pour over the sauce.  Sprinkle sesame seeds on top (optional).  Bake at 350-375F for about 30-40 minutes.  Baste with the sauce a few times during the cooking.

The exact cooking time is not critical.  The chicken can cook for a while longer without getting too overdone.   Ditto for the amount of chicken.  We use anywhere from about 1 pound to more than 2 pounds.  It depends on the size of the packages in the grocery store.  The recipe works fine for other chicken parts, too.

One can easily derive many variations on this.

Recipe Corner: Classic Gingersnaps

Sure, these are probably just like most of the other gingersnap recipes out there.

But it's the one we use, and we know it works.  It makes cookies that are gloriously gingery and soft the first day, crunchy beyond that.  The tops of the cookies have large cracks all over.  The sugar adds an interesting crunch to the texture.  They are moderately irresistible.

This is from a clipping, source unknown but probably from a spice company.  We are putting the recipe on our blog in case we lose the clipping.

Classic Gingersnaps

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

350F oven, preheated.  Bake 12 minutes.  Makes ~48 cookies.

Cream the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add molasses and egg and beat well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.  Gradually add to the wet ingredients and mix well.  (We usually do our one-bowl method -- add the soda, salt, and spices to the first mixture and blend.  Then add the flour and blend.)

Put a few pinches of sugar into a small bowl or plate.  Shape the dough into one-inch balls and roll them in the sugar.  Replenish the sugar in the bowl as needed.  Place the cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake until they are done, then remove them to cool on a wire rack.

When we vary this, we might add more spices.  Someone wrote "1/4 c milk" on the corner of the recipe, so I imagine that is added sometimes, though I'm not sure why.  Sometimes we use butter for part of the shortening.  I've seen versions of this that call for vegetable oil, no solid fat at all.

Recipe Corner: Not-Quite Sugar Cookies

When we make cookies, we'll often start with a basic recipe and then play around.  We'll add stuff, substitute stuff, etc., and then see what the results taste like.  If we are lucky, we'll write down the successful variations so we can make it again.

This started out as plain old sugar cookies.  That's one of our go-to recipes.  It is so easy to make -- we can have a batch mixed together and on the cookie sheets by the time the oven preheats.  It is a great base for all kinds of additions.

The latest batch is worth writing down.  Its origin as a sugar cookie is not obvious.  I don't know how well they will keep.  I don't think we'll be finding out, since they are disappearing rapidly.

To be honest, a lot of the amounts in the recipe below are approximate.  How much, after all, is a "sploot"?  Or "add a bit more until it tastes right" or "add until the dough is the right texture or thickness"?

Not Quite Sugar Cookies (aka Yet Another Sugar Cookie Variation)

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sugar (white)
about 1-2 tablespoons molasses
1 egg
1-1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal (old fashioned oats)
1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
about 1 teaspoon almond extract (probably optional)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
"some" milk

Preheat oven to 375F
Melt the butter in the microwave (or at least get it pretty soft).
Add the sugar and mix.  Add the egg and mix.  Add the vanilla and almond extracts, then the baking soda, salt, and spices.  Mix.  Add the flour and oatmeal.  Mix.  Add enough milk to make it like a good sugar cookie dough.  I don't know how much that is, but I think it's somewhere between a few tablespoons and a quarter cup.  Maybe we'll be more careful and write down the exact amount next time.  If so, I'll update the recipe in this post.

Put small balls of cookie dough on the cookie sheets.  Bake about 10 minutes.  Remove when the cookies are done (starting to get golden on top, bottoms starting to brown, and obviously set and no longer wet-looking in the middle).

These are different in texture from regular sugar cookies.  Is it the oatmeal?  The milk?  The molasses?  The higher relative proportion of flour/oats to the rest of the ingredients?  The crumb seems more tender than the slight graininess of a sugar cookie. They have a slightly caramel-like flavor.

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The basic proportions for sugar cookies are as follows, in case we need to know.  We use the same method for mixing.  Nuke butter, add sugar and egg, add other liquids and the powdery things, finally add flour, then add any other additions such as nuts or chocolate chips.

Basic Sugar Cookie proportions:

1 stick butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1-2 tsp vanilla extract, pinch of salt, 1.5 cups flour

Those can be drop cookies as is.  Or, you can refrigerate them in a log shape to make refrigerator cookie dough.  Or, you can chill it for a while, then roll out and use cookie cutters on the rolled out dough.

The obvious variations are to use brown sugar for part of the sugar portion, to add cocoa to make them chocolate sugar cookies (or add cocoa to part of the dough and make spiral or marbled cookies), to add interesting spices, to use different flavor extracts, to add things like raisins or nuts or lemon zest or other tidbits, to make them into thumbprint cookies, to add icing (mix powdered sugar with a smidge of liquid and some food coloring), to substitute other flours for part of the regular flour, and so on.

Recipe Corner: Mint Crinkle Cookies

We keep losing the recipe -- it's written on an index card, like many of our other recipes.  Last week, the index card, covered with bits of butter and crinkle-colored dough, went on walkabout.  Eek!  So here it is on the blog, for safe-keeping.  The recipe is originally from Honest Pretzels by Mollie Katzen.  We have many of her cookbooks but apparently we don't own this one yet.

Mint Crinkle Cookies

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons peppermint abstract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
about 2 oz. of cake decoration crystals (the original recipe calls for one 2.25 oz. jar of green cake decoration crystals, but we use about half of a 4 oz. jar of colored sugar crystals, any color.  Today it is "Decors Red Sugar Dessert Toppings")


350 F oven, preheated.  It doesn't matter if it's a convection or regular oven.  We've done it both ways.  Grease a couple of baking sheets or use non-stick ones.  We use ungreased, non-stick cookie sheets.

We usually use this quickie one-bowl method for mixing the ingredients.  A fork works fine for all the mixing -- you don't need any fancy electric appliances or whisks or anything.  Use a non-metal mixing bowl if you're using the microwave to melt butter.

Melt the butter (we use the microwave).  It's OK if it's softened more than melted.  Add the sugar and mix well.  Add the extracts and the egg and the milk.  Mix after each addition or after it's all added.  Then add the flour.  Before you mix in the flour, put the baking powder and salt on top of the pile of flour in the bowl.  Mix it a bit, then mix all the dry stuff into the wet stuff.  (Sometimes, we add the salt and baking powder to the wet stuff, mix it in, and then mix in the flour.  Either way works.)  Don't overmix.  Finally, add the sprinkles and mix.

Roll small balls of the dough, maybe 1" or so in diameter, and place them on the cookie sheet.  Flatten them slightly then bake until they are light golden (i.e. done).  It takes about 8-12 minutes depending on how big and/or flattened the cookies are.

Remove cookie sheet from oven. Let it cool for a few minutes (or not, as you wish).  Then remove the cookies from cookie sheet and eat.  You can wait for the cookies to cool before eating if you'd like.  They are good warm or at room temperature.  These keep for at least a day or two.  We don't know if they last beyond that because they're always eaten by then.  They are best the day they're made.

With about 12-15 cookies per cookie sheet, we usually use two cookie sheets per batch of dough.  So that's a couple-dozen cookies, give or take a bit.  They spread a bit while cooking, but not a whole lot.  It depends on how much they are flattened before cooking.



We like these with the peppermint extract.  One of these days, we might try something else, such as almond or lemon or anise extract.  Or maybe not.  Why mess with success?

We like the little crunch of the crinkles as we bite down into the cookies.  They are always obnoxiously and artificially colored by the coloring of the sugar crinkles.  It's a bit startling, but very cheerful and appealing to small children.

Recipe Corner: Granola Variations (plus 3-minute Oatmeal)

About a year ago, we found the following online recipe for Good Morning Granola.  We liked it.  It has evolved over the past year.  So, here is the current incarnation, along with our typical variations.  Our ingredients and methods are based on the original.  But we have changed and modified it.

This granola is excellent for breakfast or for a trail mix.  It is wonderful when mixed with yogurt (or Greek yogurt) and fruit for a yogurt parfait.  It makes a good ice cream topping, too.

Breakfast Granola

Preheat oven to 350F.

Step one -- the Dry Ingredients

Mix together:

2 cups oatmeal (old fashioned, the kind used for regular oatmeal)

1 cup of chopped nuts (lately, we've been using chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, or a mix)

1 cup shredded coconut

Put all of the above on a cookie sheet.  Sprinkle some cinnamon on it, maybe about a tablespoon, though we don't always measure all that accurately.

Put the cookie sheet with the oat/nut/coconut mix into the oven and toast about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until everything is at least a little bit toasted but not too brown.  Watch it carefully after about 8-9 minutes, because it can go from lightly toasted to over-toasted fairly quickly.  When it is about done, you can smell the aroma of things toasting.  Yes, that is how we usually judge when it's time to check on it.

Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and let it cool.  Mostly, it stays out of the way while you're doing everything else.

Step 2 -- the Wet Ingredients

This can be started while the other stuff is toasting in the oven.

In a saucepan, combine:

1/2 stick butter (4 tablespoons)

1/2 cup brown sugar, light or dark or a mix

1 tablespoon molasses (sometimes a bit more than a tablespoon, but who's counting?)

1/4 tsp salt, optional  (we usually use salted butter, so don't usually add any more salt)

Stir all together over medium heat on the stove until it becomes light brown and smells yummy and is all homogeneous.   Stir pretty much continuously so it doesn't burn. Then remove from heat.  You do not need to let this cool before going on to step 3.

We have not tried doing this in the microwave yet (in a microwave-safe bowl, of course!).  The original recipe called for maple syrup, but we usually use molasses.  I imagine honey would be good, too, or perhaps agave syrup or anything else that is sweet and flavorful.

Step 3 -- Combining It All

Put the toasted dry ingredients into a large-ish bowl.  Pour the wet syrup over it and mix it all up.

Step 4 -- Add-ins!

Add any or all of the following as the mood strikes.  Mix it in well so that it too gets coated in syrup.

1/2 cup raisins (we usually use golden raisins)

1/2 cup sliced dried apricots (slice them up with scissors -- it's fun!)

1/2 cup dried cranberries or Craisins

Any other dried fruit that looks interesting, such as dates or cherries or apples.

Chocolate chips (which we don't like, but don't let us stop you!)

Seeds such as sesame seeds or flax seeds

Etc.


Now that everything is mixed, let it cool.  Store in a container.  We usually put it in a ziploc gallon baggie.  No refrigeration needed.  We know this will last at least a day or two.  We don't know how much longer because we've always eaten it all up by then.



Bonus Recipe:  Microwave Oatmeal (aka Three Minute Oatmeal)

While we're on the subject of breakfast food, here is our very quick recipe for oatmeal for breakfast.  It is very, very quick to make.

In a small microwave-safe bowl, preferably with a lid, mix:

about 3/4 cup liquid, usually a mix of water and milk in whatever proportion one likes
1/2 cup oatmeal (old fashioned oats)

Put on the lid loosely, about halfway, so that some of the generated heat is trapped but air can still escape.

Nuke in the microwave about 2 minutes until it comes to a boil.  Remove.  Stir.  Add your favorite extras.  Eat.  It really does get done that quickly.


The more milk there is (as opposed to water), the faster it will boil.  It makes a big mess if it boils over.

You can use more liquid if you like your oatmeal a bit runnier.  The original recipe on the box calls for 1 cup milk, so you can see how we've adjusted it.

Potential add-ins:  salt, raisins, granola, brown sugar, syrup, dried fruit, fresh fruit, etc.

One tested winning combo is vanilla extract, cinnamon, and brown sugar, plus or minus chopped-up apple.

This is much more filling and probably better for you than sugar- and air-filled cold breakfast cereal!  And probably cheaper to make, too!

Recipe Corner: Ten Minute Banana Bread

We found this recipe for banana bread at http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/bananabread .  It is called 10-minute banana bread, and is based on a recipe from the 1997 edition of Joy of Cooking.  It has become an easy favorite when we have bananas that are too mushy even for banana splits.  It seems to do fine at our elevation without any adjustments.

We have variations and additions, which is why this is going on our family blog.  Our recipe card is getting hard to read what with all the blips and blobs of dough and stuff on it.

Ten Minute Banana Bread

Combine:

4-5 TB (about half a stick) butter, softened
2 eggs
2-3 very ripe bananas
2/3 cup sugar (usually 1/3 cup white sugar and 1/3 cup brown sugar)
1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional, but we like it)

Add and then blend in:

1-1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder

and spices (we usually start with 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, and 1/8 to 1/4 tsp. each of nutmeg, cloves, and ginger).

Most people combine all the dry ingredients and then add them to the wet ones.  Since we are lazy and don't want to wash any extra bowls, we add them straight to the wets.  Usually we add the salt and spices and stir all the wets.  Then we dump in the flour, put the leavening on top of the flour and stir it gently to mix it with the flour, then mix the flour/leavening in with the rest of the batter.

Since this is a quick bread, don't over-mix when combining the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.

Finally, put in any interesting additions.  We use two or three from the following list:  chopped nuts, raisins, dried or fresh/frozen cranberries, candied ginger, chocolate chips, plus no doubt we'll come up with more later.

Put in a greased loaf pan and bake 30 minutes or so in a preheated 350F oven.  The time it bakes depends on the loaf pan size.  This does pretty well in one standard size loaf pan.

It can be made into mini-loaves and probably also muffins.  We find that most quick bread recipes make decent muffins and vice-versa, and also simple cakes (in our 8x8 square pan).

Here are some variations:

One can cream the butter and sugar together for about 2-3 minutes before adding the other wet ingredients.  That apparently is what the original Joy of Cooking recipe calls for.

One can substitute 2/3 to 1 cup pumpkin for some or all of the banana.

One can use oil instead of butter.

An extra banana doesn't do any harm.

Our latest variation, which turned out very well, is to add 1/3 cup of oats (the kind used for oatmeal or oatmeal cookies) and 2 TB. of molasses.  Yum.