Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups steel cut oats
• 1 cup roasted, salted almonds – chopped
• 1 cup pecans – chopped
• 1/2 a cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup dried currants

Equipment

• Big bowl and a little bowl to mix stuff
• flat baking surface (cookie sheet, roasting pan, whatever)
• Oven

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 300-325 F.
2. Mix the oats and nuts together in a big bowl.
3. Mix the honey, oils, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla together in the little bowl.
4. Pour the wet stuff into the oats and nuts.  Mix thoroughly.
5. Pour the mixture onto your baking surface.  Try to use enough surface that the layer is thin and even.
6. Bake for 30 odd minutes or until toasty brown.  STIR FREQUENTLY (every 5 min at the beginning and more frequently towards the end).  Especially from the outside to the inside to keep the outside and corners from browning prematurely.
7. Mix the dried fruit in.
8. Cool.  Store away in an airtight container for up to a month – my first batch didn’t make it more than a week.

Ingredients

• Sweet Onions, thin sliced, north/south so they make long strands – I use about a bag and a half of the Mayan Sweets you can get from Costco.  That ends up being about 20 cups (!)
• 6 cups beef broth
• 1/3 cup of butter, melted
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 jigger of booze (bourbon for me, you can use sherry or brandy if you want)
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• gruyère cheese
• baguette
• olive oil
• garlic

Equipment

• broiler
• slow cooker
• 14 in. stainless steel skillet (something you can get some good caramelization on)

Recipe

1. Add beef broth to the slow cooker with the bay leaves.  Turn slow cooker to high.
2. Add butter to skillet over med/low heat.
3. Add the onions until they cover the bottom of the pan.
4. Sprinkle with a bit of kosher salt.
5. Repeat steps 2 to 3 until the skillet is full.
6. As the onions start to cook, repeat steps 2 to 4 until all the onions are in.
7. Turn heat to low and cook for 45 min to 90 min.  Stir occassionally.
8. As the onions cook, they will caramelize.  When stirring, scrape the fond off the bottom of the pan.
9. When the onions are completely caramelized and almost all the liquid is gone, transfer to the slow cooker.
10. Deglaze the pan with the bourbon and a little bit of the beef broth.  Add to slow cooker.
11. Cook on high in the slow cooker for at least 2 hours.
12. When ready to serve, cut the baguette into toasts.
13. Drizzle with olive oil and toast under broiler until golden.
14. Remove from broiler and rub with garlic.
15. Place onion soup into ovenproof serving bowls.  You can use the “official” soup crocks or just ovenproof ramekins.
16. Top with a toast and then grated gruyère cheese.
17. Broil until cheese is all melty and yummy.  Serve.

• Mahi Mahi or other firm fleshed fish
• Shrimp – medium sized
• Bay Scallops
• Baby Clams
• Bourbon – Maker’s Mark
• Heavy Cream
• Garlic – minced
• Lowry’s Seasoning Salt
• Olive Oil

Equipment

• Saute pan

Recipe

1. Heat pan over high heat.
2. Rub mahi mahi with olive oil then coat with Lowry’s.
3. Sear mahi mahi in the saute pan until the outside is crusted but still rare – about 2-3 minutes per side.
4. Remove from pan and set aside.  Take heat down to medium.
5. Add shrimp, clams, scallops and olive oil if required.
6. Add bourbon and flambe/deglaze the pan.
7. Add cream and the mahi mahi back to the pan.
8. Reduce cream and finish the mahi mahi to a medium.

• Parsnips
• Carrots
• Honey
• Curry
• Olive oil
• Butter

Equipment

• roasting pan

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. Cut the carrots and parsnips to uniform pieces.
3. Toss with salt, olive oil.
4. Roast in oven for about 20-25 min – until tender.
5. Add butter, honey and curry to a saute pan.
6. Heat over medium until incorporated.
7. Toss parsnips and carrots into saute pan.
8. Stir until well coated and warmed.

• Maker’s Mark
• Woodford Reserve
• Bulleit
• Elijah Craig
• Jack Daniel’s (I know – not a bourbon.  We threw it in as a dark horse)
• Knob Creek
• Old Crow

We learned a couple things about the Old Crow.  Lesson 1: you get what you pay for.  Young brother picked this puppy up in Oklahoma for a huge wad of money – $8.  It tasted like it was worth $4.  Lesson 1a: Bourbon should not come in a plastic bottle (see Lesson 1 for details).  The JD was actually pretty good and everyone was surprised at how good it tasted in comparison.  My thinking is that JD isn’t that bad but it looked awesome when we drank it right after the Old Crow.

The Bulleit (Young brother’s favourite) and Knob Creek ended up in the second tier for my personal preference.  They were both pretty good but I guess I like my bourbon smooth and sweet.

Maker’s Mark, Woodford, and Elijah Craig ended up being my favourites as well as pretty much everyone else’s.  Definitely a thumbs up on any of these three if you’re looking for a recommendation.

Ingredients

• Spinach
• Assorted fruits and berries
• Salad Dressing – we usually use a balsamic vinaigrette

Equipment

• Salad bowl

Recipe

1. Of course, you need to wash your hands.  Use soap.
2. Put the spinach in the bowl.
3. Then you put the berries and fruit with the spinach.
4. After the berries, spinach, and fruit, you can put salad dressing on.

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract (use the good stuff or real bean here)
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• sugar for the crust

Equipment

• ramekins
• large baking dish that will hold the ramekins
• torch for the crust

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 300 F.
2. Heat cream to skalding but not boiling.  Take off heat.  If you’re using a bean, put it in with the cream to heat and let it steep for a good 10 min.
3. Mix egg yolks and sugar until the sugar has dissolved.
4. While mixing, SLOWLY add cream mixture to egg mixture.  You’re looking to make a custard, not scrambled eggs.
5. Add vanilla extract.
6. Pour the custard into ramekins.  You can sieve the custard mixture as you pour into the ramekins to keep the scrambled egg bits out.
7. Bake the ramekins in a bain marie (put the ramekins in the baking dish and then put boiling water in the baking dish) for 20-25 min until the custard just sets.
8. Cool.  Cover and let sit in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.  If you use plastic wrap right up against the custard, that should keep a skin from forming.
9. To serve, put a layer of sugar over the custard and then torch the sugar to melt.

• 1 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 cup milk
• 3 scallions, chopped (the boy doesn’t like onions so we call ‘em scallions)
• 1 can corn kernels (no sugar added)
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Equipment

• 10″ cast iron frying pan

Recipe

1. Put pan into the oven.  Preheat to 425 F.
2. Mix dry ingredients and sugar in one bowl (corn meal, salt, baking powder, sugar).
3. Mix wet ingredients in another (butter, eggs, milk).
4. When the pan and oven are at temp, quickly mix dry and wet ingredients.
5. Add the corn and scallions to the batter.
6. Pour the batter into the pan.
7. Bake for another 15-20 min or until the cornbread is cooked through.

• 1 Recipe for Scallion Cornbread (see the other post for the recipe)
• 1 lb Sausage
• 1 medium Onion – diced
• 1/2 tsp. Sage
• 2 cups Chicken Stock
• 1/2 tsp. Thyme
• 1/2 tsp. Oregano
• 1 1/2 cup Dried Cranberries

Equipment

• Baking Dish big enough to hold everything
• Mixing Bowl

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. Saute sausage meat with onion.
3. Add sage, thyme, and oregano.
4. Crumble cornbread into a mixing bowl.
5. Add in sausage mixture and cranberries.
6. Add in chicken stock.  Mix.  Put in baking dish.
7. Bake for 45 min to an hour or until top is browned.

So a while back, my Austin friend GB took me out to an Ethiopian restaurant. We ended up at Taste of Ethiopia.  It was my first time having Eithiopian and it was a treat!  We ordered a whackload of food that all came to the table and was served on a big piece of injera (Ethiopian flatbread).  More injera on the side that you could rip a piece off to grab some of the food.  No utensils – awesome!  Everything was really good but I think my favourite was the Kitfo – kind of like Ethiopian Steak Tartare.

When we finally (!) got to the bottom of the feast, the injera that doubled as the serving platter was there waiting for us after having absorbed all of the juices and flavours from the just finished meal.  Man, what a great dinner!  Can’t wait to have Eithiopian again!