Fruit Oatmeal Bars

These make either a great brunch cake, a fabulous tea treat, an extra scrumptious granola bar, or a pretty healthy (pretend there isn't so much butter in it) dessert with ice cream. Talk about a versatile recipe!

It was requested that I put this recipe on here after I served it to a dear friend the other day! =0) So here ya go.....

3 c whole wheat pastry flour

3 c old fashioned oats

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 c packed brown sugar

3 sticks refrigerated butter, cut into pieces

2 10 ounce jars Smuckers Simply Fruit jam

Mix all ingredients except jam. I used a pastry cutter to cut the butter in and then used my hands to blend it together well till it was crumbly. You could also try putting it in your mixer and it would probably work well. Press one half of the mixture into a buttered 9x13 glass pan. Spread with a jam. Sprinkle second half of mixture over the top and pat lightly. Bake at 350 for 30 - 40 minutes or until light brown. Cool completely (refrigerating works best), then cut into squares.

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Variations~

-you can cut this recipe in half and make in an 8 in. square pan.

-try different jams...in the pictures we used strawberry but you can make them apricot, blueberry, or blackberry....they are all fabulous!

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

These seems to be a popular new dish in restaurants around here and I've greatly enjoyed them.

You can use either regular bread crumbs with your own season of say garlic and then a bag of grated Parmesan cheese or Italian style bread crumbs with Parmesan cheese. Dip the chicken breast in egg first and then the bread crumb Parmesan mixture and then bake like you would any other baked chicken recipe (@ 375 degrees for about 45 min. covered with foil). Take off the foil for the last 10 min. to make the top of the chicken crunchy.

The "when" of pastry flour

I recently learned how to know when to use whole wheat pastry flour and when to use regular ground whole wheat flour. Pastry flour is just flour that has been ground more fine. It does not work for recipes calling for yeast. You CAN use whole wheat pastry flour in any recipes calling for baking powder or baking soda as a rising agent. Hope that is helpful to some of you, cause it sure helped me out!

Prairie Chicken

I grew up on this dish which is my mom's version of chicken-n-dumplins. You can make it in a soup pot on the stove for fast results, in your crockpot for all day convenience or in a dutch oven over the campfire to feed a small army while camping in the woods. Which ever, it's one of my favorite comfort foods. Made with these whole wheat dumplings they are bit healthier than the original.

Here's the pot and dutch oven version: (to make in the crock pot just throw it all in there together and do the dumplings the last two hours of cooking)-the pictures will be of both crockpot and skillet.....


3 c diced chicken
1/2 c butter

Saute the above until browned in the bottom of skillet (about 5-10 min.)

2 c diced onion
2 c diced celery

Add to the pot and saute for about 3 min.

Sprinkle 1/2 c flour over all and stir. Then add 1 quart chicken broth or stock while stirring (to mix in the flour).

Bring to a boil.

Add 2 c diced carrots and 2 c diced potatoes. Stir and cover 10-15 min.

Make dumpling dough-
2 c whole wheat pastry flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c butter
3/4 c milk

Add salt and pepper to the chicken pot and stir well. Then drop spoonfuls of the dumpling dough on top. (Start in the center and work your way around. Oil the top of the lid (to prevent dumpling dough from sticking to the top of the dutch oven lid) and cover. If using a dutch oven, place just a few coals on top for the oven effect (about 3-4). Let cook 30 min. or until the dumplings are cooked through. If cooking on the stove top, the dumplings may be done much sooner. Keep stove top heat at a low simmer while cooking the dumplings.

Organic Produce Delivery

I'm thoroughly enjoying our organic produce deliveries! For those of you in our area, here's a snapshot.

Oatmeal Pear Crisp

Wonderful breakfast or healthy dessert....

3-4 peeled and sliced or halved pears
about 2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup organic brown sugar
1/2 stick of butter sliced

Spray glass pan with olive oil. Lay pears at the bottom. Mix oats and brown sugar together. Spread over the pears. Layer sliced butter on top and bake at 375 degrees for about 30 or so minutes or until golden brown on top.

Serve for breakfast plain or with yogurt.
If serving for dessert, top with cool whip, whipped cream, ice cream or yogurt.

Favorite Gadget- utensil pot

So one of the times that I was moving into yet another itty bitty kitchen, my friend, Shirlie, who was helping me unpack my kitchen said, "you need to get a flower pot for all your utensils." Cool idea I thought! So, I bought myself a flower pot and stuck all of my utensils in it. Several months later she was over and noticed my utensil flower pot and started laughing....I was of course confused as to what I had done wrong when she explained, "you're supposed to paint it silly!"

So, embarrassed at my terra-cotta-bear-naked pot, I did paint it. In fact, I recently repainted it as the beginning of my kitchen face lift. I've recently been changing my kitchen from apples to cherries and so it began with my flower pot and a cherry stamp. I love how this frees up the little drawer space that I have since I have so many utensils.

Zucchini Cakes

I've been wanting to try these for a longgggg time and boy were they worth waiting for! Even my kids and hubby who all hate zucchini liked them. Husband ate two of them! We called them "Z cakes" so the kids wouldn't know what was in them. These were so quick and easy too!

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini (about 2-3 small/med. sized zucchini)
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup minced onion (I used green onion)
1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning TM OR Italian Seasoning
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
olive oil for frying

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, combine zucchini, egg, and butter or margarine. Stir in seasoned crumbs, minced onion, and seasoning. Mix well.
Shape mixture into patties. Dredge in flour.

In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Saute patties in oil until golden brown on both sides.

These are wonderful served for lunch with salad.

Variations~
if you prefer to use a different oil you can because olive oil is easy to burn.
you can use Italian bread crumbs and omit the Italian Seasoning.

Healthy Apple Brown Betty

Oh my this is good! Makes a wonderful breakfast or dessert. My husband really liked this!

4 apples, preferably Granny Smith
6-7 slices whole wheat bread
1 stick butter

1 cup packed organic brown sugar

Peel apples and slice them. Slice bread into a small dice, or tear into very small pieces. Coat baking dish with butter, then add 1/3 of the brown sugar, 1/3 of the apple slices, and 1/3 of the breadcrumbs. Repeat twice more. Slice butter and lay slices all over the top of the bread crumbs. Bake in a 375-degree oven, covered in foil, until done—about 45 minutes. Remove foil in last few minutes of baking to brown

the top.

However you've had apple brown betty in the past you've got to try this version. Don't be afraid to serve it to guests for dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Tea Series End

Hi! I'm back! Thanks for your patience with me while I took a much needed break! I'll be wrapping up my tea series today with this very longgggg post. Hope you have time to read it. =0)


Okay, first....just a few of the many tea accessories available to you. There are SO many out there that you can really have fun hunting for them and discovering different kinds. Many tea shops carry lots of different accessories.


Infuser mesh balls....these are used for loose leaf tea. You can use a large ball in a tea pot or a small ball in a tea cup for an individual serving. I also like my unusual tea ball pincher which makes scooping loose tea leaves simple and not so messy.






These are loose leaf tea strainers. They come in so many shapes and designs as well. They are used for when loose leaf tea has been steeped in a tea pot without a mesh ball or any other type of strainer. You rest the top piece on top of your tea cup and pour your tea through it. Then you move it over to the little bowl to catch any drips.















Here are some tea bag presses. They come in so many different shapes and designs but they are fun to have.

This is a really cool tea cup that comes from the China influence on tea. I got it at Cost Plus World Market. It has a built in strainer for your loose leaf teas.




















These are also called tea "presses" but they are pots made for brewing tea and sometimes used also as coffee presses. They are wonderful for a single tea service.














This little flower plate is a tea bag holder. Once you've steeped your tea bag you can remove it from your cup onto this cute little guy. I also enjoy collecting tiny china tea spoons. In some of the pictures you can see some tea napkins that I got from my sister who's sister in laws in Mexico hand embroidered. They have been making them for their church there as a fund raiser. My sister's husband preaches at their church for the mid week service and they run several ministries there. If you are interested in purchasing any of the napkins, I have a few leftover from her recent trip that I'm selling for her.


Then below are some pictures to fulfill a request to post my tea cup and tea pot collection. I like the idea because I'd like to record here for my daughter the "where" of each tea cup.

From the far left is a tea pot with a Thomas Kincaid painting on it from my husband, then a blue Christmas one from Poland, then a cream and pink lace pot, my yellow bunny pot, my stack of muffins coffee server, then my pale green with white polka dots, then my bowl of grapes tea pot, my white embossed tea pot, and then my pumpkin tea pot. All the others were from my mom.










Tea Cups: From the top right clockwise- Royal Albert rose bud cup from my mom (it's a match to the one in the next picture center), purple roses is Emilee's that I bought her on a trip having tea with a friend that I was there for her baby shower, Daddy's grandmother's tea cup from her collection (grandma A from Boston), a red floral print that I bought last summer at the cabin in a gift shop, a December cup my mom bought me for my birthday, a tiny floral print of my grandmother's (grandma S), a shamrock print cup that my mom got me for my Irish heritage, a pink and blue floral print that I got as a memento at a gift shop during a women's retreat.










Left to right- white embossed tea cup with scalloped saucer to match my white tea pot, pansy tea cup that was my grandmother's (grandma S), Royal Albert rose bud, blue and white from my mom's every day dishes when I was growing up, soft pink floral from my grandma S.












Emilee's bunny tea set

Two of five miniature tea cups that my Aunt Glennis made for me and my siblings when we were little. I have two that Emilee and Jon enjoy using for special tea or hot chocolate. They are so dainty and cute.











And I leave this tea series with a little tea bag history....




the tea bag believe it or not was an accidental invention and not only that but it was invented in the United States, not England and not China....No, the tea bag was invented right in the US as a way for people to try a "sample" of tea. These little "samples" of tea caught on so well that they became quite popular. The first tea bags were made from hand-sewn silk muslin bags and tea bag patents date back as early as 1903. First appearing commercially around 1904, tea bags were successfully marketed by tea and coffee shop merchant Thomas Sullivan of New York, who shipped his tea bags around the world. A machine was soon invented to replace the hand sewing of tea bags.


Thomas Lipton incorporated the Lipton Tea Company in 1915. Lipton Tea patented a novel four-sided tea bag in 1952 called the flo-thru tea bag.

Small Things For Tea

I've got just a few more posts for you to wrap up my tea series. This post is a list of some ideas for small finger foods you can serve with tea. Hope this is helpful.

tiny cookies (or sugar cookies cut with a tea pot or tea cup cookie cutter)
short-breads
pound cakes
brownie bites
truffles
cream puffs
chocolate dipped strawberries
mini eclairs
lemon bars
crumpets
angel food cake
baklava
apple fritters
coffee cake

fruits (Grapes are one of the most popular finger fruits served at tea. Try to find an unusual variety to serve like globe grapes for example. Fruit salad is another simple idea. Doesn't have to be fancy. Look for unique or extra pretty fruits to serve like kiwi and berries.)

Don't forget that biscotti is great for tea. You can view my biscotti series here.

Just about anything small and in the form of a finger food will work for tea as well...

Recipe for a Tea Cup Topiary

I wanted to post this simple tea topiary centerpiece craft that you can have put away and then just pull it out for a simple tea centerpiece that quickly sets the mood for tea at your table or coffee table.



Supplies:
1 old tea cup
1 in styrofoam ball
3-4 in styrofoam ball
moss
1 12 in dowel
fake rose buds or flowers
tacky glue
hot glue gun
green flower tape

Directions:

1. Brush the large styrofoam ball with tacky glue and glue the moss onto it.

2. Use tacky glue or hot glue to glue the tea cup to the saucer. (if using only tacky glue, let dry overnight)

3. Cut a small amount off of one side of the small ball so that it has a side with a flat surface. Glue the flat surface to the bottom of the tea cup.

4. Wrap the flower tape around the dowel to cover it.

5. Poke the flower heads into the moss covered ball covering it completely.

6. Stick the dowel into the small ball in the cup, using extra hot glue to secure it (if you have a very hot glue gun it will melt the styrofoam so either use a not so hot glue gun or use tacky glue and let dry over night). Try to get the stick as straight as possible.

7. Stick the flower covered ball on the top of the stick as straight as possible. Add glue to it to secure it if needed. (You can also do this step before sticking it into the cup but if you do it that way, you'll need to support the top heavy stick until all the glue is dried at the base of the cup.)

8. Once everything has completely dried for a full night, tie decorative ribbons around the stick at the base of the flower ball.