Honey Pineapple Ginger Granola

Honey Pineapple Ginger Granola

I love granola! It's perfect on yogurt, cottage cheese or with some milk. I love the combo of toasted oats, nuts and dried fruit. I don't make it enough...but that'll change because I really like this recipe for Honey Pineapple Ginger Granola! It's simple, fast, and tasty!


This granola is filled with sweet, spicy and all things in between! It has old fashioned oats, Dried Pineapple, Crystallized Ginger, Dried Cranberries, Pepita Seeds, Walnuts, and Ground Cinnamon, Ground Ginger, and Nutmeg. The secret sauce is a combo of honey and coconut oil.


This recipe is inspired by "Honey and Hazelnut Granola" that Valerie Bertinelli made on her Food Network show. She used hazelnuts and dried apricots. Also, her batch was larger (I halved the basic ingredients).

I used walnuts and pepitas seeds, along with 2 cups of old fashioned oatmeal. I never have quick-cooking oats that were called for in the original recipe, but everything turned out fine with the old fashioned oatmeal.


The nice folks at Costco sent over some products to try including Kirkland Organic Coconut Oil and Kirkland Organic Honey. I've noticed that Costco is carrying a lot more organic products, including fresh produce. I made the Carrot Ginger Soup earlier with the Coconut Oil, and I've been using it to make popcorn practically every day. I already use the Kirkland Organic Honey (comes in a three pack). When I get sick, the first thing that usually hits me is a sore throat. I always reach for my honey bear (shouldn't honey ALWAYS come in a honey bear?), lemon juice and lots of hot water. My folks use the honey as well - my dad likes honey as the sweetener in his coffee.

I chose to include dried pineapple, crystallized ginger and dried cranberries in the granola. You can have any dried fruit you want, although the crystallized ginger adds a special ginger flavor.

How do you eat your granola? I like mine on top of plain yogurt or cottage cheese!

Honey Pineapple Ginger Granola
Makes 3 cups of granola
Inspired by "Honey and Hazelnut Granola" by Valerie Bertinelli

2 cups oats (I used old fashioned oats)
1/8 cup (2 Tablespoons) walnuts, chopped
1/8 cup (2 Tablespoons) pepitas/pumpkin seeds
3 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup dried diced pineapple
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 pieces of crystallized ginger

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the oats and nuts.
4. In a small saucepan, heat the honey and coconut oil until melted. Remove from heat.
5. Add spices and salt to the honey mixture, and stir to combine.
6. Pour hot mixture over the oats and nuts and stir until everything is well coated.
7. Spread oats onto baking sheet.
8. Bake until toasted, about 25-30 minutes. Mix at half-way point.
9. Let cool then add the chopped dried fruit. Store in an airtight container and enjoy!

Disclosure: Costco sent me some products to try including Kirkland Organic Coconut Oil and Kirkland Organic Honey. I was not paid for this post. Opinions are my own.

Fresh Peach Crisp for Two

Fresh Peach Crisp for Two

It's Sunday so that means I'm at my parent's house for #breakfastwithdad. My mom heads to church and I hang out with my Dad. We have breakfast, Dad walks with his walker, physical therapy exercises and then a whirl in the wheelchair with me pushing and Cidney the Girl Dog strolling with us through the 'hood.

This morning, I made a Peach Crisp for Two. My parent's kitchen lacks many baking supplies (probably because I took all of them when I moved out more than 20 years ago!) If I do bake at my folks, I often measure things out at my house and then assemble and bake at their house. But this morning I was tired and late so I made it at their house with a single measuring cup. So, the measurements aren't perfect!

This has Peach (Fruit) and Oatmeal (Fiber) so it's totallllly a breakfast food! :) I can eat crisps all day long.


I'm sad that summer is coming to an end. Fewer stone fruits in the Farmer's Market... so until the last peach is picked, make fresh peach crisps!

Peach Crisp for Two
Ingredients:

Fruit mixture:
2 ripe peaches, peeled and cut into chunks
1 Tablespoon flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
Couple dashes of ground cinnamon

Topping:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal (I used old fashioned oatmeal)
1/3 to 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 Tablespoons cold butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix together the fruit, sugar, flour and sugar in a small bowl. Place mixture in two ramekins.
3. Using your fingers or a fork, cut the butter into the topping ingredients until it is crumbly and holds together slightly when squeezed.
4. Divide topping on top of fruit mixture.
5. Bake for 30-45 minutes (depending on the size of your ramekins), until the fruit is bubbling.

My dad and I split one of these for breakfast and I'll leave the other one for my mom and dad's dessert tonight!

Oatmeal Maple Scones from the Flour Bakery Cookbook

Oatmeal Maple Scones from Flour Bakery cookbook

Three things:
Oatmeal
Maple Syrup
Scones

Please.

Just make these! Anytime you make them is fine. I could eat them all day long...breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack.

These scones are from the totally awesome cookbook: Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe. It's definitely one of my favorites. I can tell because it is all torn up, spilled on, and written in. Written next to this recipe? My feedback in a sharpie: "Excellent!"

It's an easy scone recipe. The dough is "wetter" than others so it's simple to scoop it out onto a baking tray.

It has pecan pieces throughout the scone for a nice bite. You can add raisins or dried cranberries but I omitted the fruits.

After they cool, you make a delicious maple syrup glaze. I mean, come on. Glazes are so lovely and just a little bit decadent. Just what you need in the morning.

Scones are perfect simplicity. Who wouldn't want one of these at a brunch, or in my case, a morning meeting at work?

Hello Beautiful!
Make these today!

Oatmeal Maple Scones
(Adapted from the cookbook - Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe by Joanne Chang, page 41)
Find the book in your library or on Amazon!

Scones:
1 1/2 cups (210 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup (125 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup (50 grams) pecan halves, toasted and chopped
1/2 cup golden raisins or dried cranberries/cherries/etc (I omitted)
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg, cold

Glaze:
1 cup (140 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1-2 tablespoons water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place parchment paper on a half-sheet pan or baking tray.
2. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pecans and fruit (if you are using it) on low speed until combined.
3. Drop in the butter pieces and beat on low speed for about 30-60 seconds until the butter has broken down into pea size pieces. You don't want the butter pieces too small.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, maple syrup, vanilla and egg.
5. With mixer still on low speed, add wet ingredients to dry mixture and blend for about 30 seconds until just combined. The batter will be slightly wet.
6. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure all the flour has been incorporated.
7. Scoop out with a #16 disher or ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup measuring cup onto your prepared baking tray. Joanne's recipe says you'll get 8 scones, but I got 10 scones After scooping the dough, I pressed down slightly on the mound.
8. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until tops and bottoms are golden brown.
9. Transfer to wire cooling tray and let cool about 30 minutes. Place the cooling rack with the scones over the baking tray before glazing (I keep my piece of parchment on the tray so it catches the drips and makes clean up easier).
10. Glaze: Whisk together sifted powdered sugar, maple syrup and water. Once the scones have cooled, brush or spoon tops with glaze.

Oatmeal Jam Bars - Williams-Sonoma

Oatmeal Jam Bars

It's Chuck Williams of Williams-Sonoma's 98th Birthday today!! See this handsome photo from the W-S blog. Seems fitting to post a recipe I found on the Williams-Sonoma website. I find lots of good recipes on the site. Happy Birthday Mr. Williams - I love your stores!

Bonne Maman jams were on sale at Fresh & Easy recently for $2.99. What a great deal! I wonder what will become of Tesco's expensive failure in the United States marketplace. I hope the new owner will keep them open as they are convenient stores around town, but my dream is that Fresh & Easy gets married to Trader Joe's.

I like that F&E has name brands, unlike Trader Joe's - dude, sometimes you need to buy Diet Coke for that dinner party and Hansen's soda just ain't gonna cut it (also, as noted above, they have Bonne Maman jam). Unfortunately, F&E's store brands are inferior to Trader Joe's...TJs has excellent buyers who get such unique goods and/or convince name brands to sell under TJs store brands. Sometimes, I like the self-check out at F&E when you have less than 5 items, but it drives me crazy that no one helps when you buy $70 of stuff, and it made me really appreciate TJs efficient cashiers. I like that Fresh & Easy opened stores in more impoverished areas of Los Angeles (where there are not many grocery stores), but I didn't get their decision to stock all the stores with the same products - regardless of the neighborhood demographic. I shopped at the Compton store once and an employee asked me what the Crème fraîche and Brie were - how much of that were they selling in that store? But I did enjoy their in-store "heating up bakery" - they have ovens in the back where they bake frozen par-baked breads and then package for sale (what is that system called? it's very effective in making the place smell good and convincing you to get more carbs in your cart).

Oh, sorry. I digress.

Anyway, the Cherry Preserves is delicious. They are from France, purchased in a formerly English-owned shop in Los Angeles by a Japanese-American gal. Win.

This recipe is crazy easy. You only need a bowl and a food processor. Just measure out the dry ingredients, pop into the food processor with some butter and then you have both the TOP and BOTTOM. Love recipes like that! Open a jar of jam for the center deliciousness. It really couldn't be easier.

Of course, you can use most jams. The original recipe calls for Apricot or "other seedless jam"...but I don't see a reason to avoid seeded jams.

Baked in a 9-inch square pan, you can get from 20-36 bars, depending on how small you cut them.

As I said on my Instagram photo:  It's Fruit and Fiber....and butter and more butter.

Oatmeal Jam Bars

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma website of Oatmeal-Jam Squares, who adapted from Food Made Fast Series, Desserts, by Elinor Klivans (Oxmoor House, 2007)

12 Tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups (210 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup apricot or other seedless fruit jam (I used one whole jar of Bonne Mamam jam, Cherry Preserves.)

Directions:
1. Prep a 9-inch square baking pan by lining it with parchment paper or aluminum foil to create a sling for easy removal. Butter or spray the lining.

2. Preheat oven to 325°F.

3. In a food processor, combine the flour, oats, powdered sugar, brown sugar & cinnamon. Add the butter pieces and pulse until the mixture forms fine crumbs.

4. Remove 2 cups of the flour mixture and set aside. Place rest of mixture in the pan and press it down to form the bottom crust.

5. Spread the jam over the crust. An offset spatula works great for this task. Squeeze the reserved mixture in your hands to form small clumps and sprinkle evenly over the jam.

6. Bake until the edges are lightly browned and the jam filling is just beginning to bubble, about 30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely.

7. Lift the bars from the pan by pulling the parchment or foil sling. Cut squares on a cutting board and enjoy.

Blueberry Oat Bar - Starbucks Inspired

Blueberry Oat Bars (Starbucks Inspired)

I met my friend Stacey for coffee at Starbucks recently and she got the Blueberry Oat Bar - she said it was her favorite treat. I thought...this needs to be made in my kitchen!

Shortly after our coffee, I stopped in Starbucks and picked up one (you know, research and all). I took a few photos (see below).

An actual Starbucks Blueberry Oat Bar

This is the ingredient list from Starbuck's website: blueberries, wheat flour, brown sugar, palm oil shortening, butter (cream [from milk]), rolled oats, organic tapioca syrup, sugar, oats, water, whole eggs, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, cornstarch), rice starch, organic natural flavor, stabilizer (sodium alginate, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, calcium sulfate), sea salt, citric acid.

I like making it myself so I can avoid the palm oil shortening. The recipe is adapted from the recipe on Food.com by lilsweetie.

This is one of those easy bar recipes where the top and bottom are the same dough. It's like having a reversible jacket. Convenient.

You make a jam-like filling with blueberries, sugar and orange juice. Plan this one out - you'll need to cool the blueberry filling before using it.

The recipe calls for fresh blueberries but I used frozen blueberries with success. They aren't too sweet, a little soft (not like a crunchy granola bar or anything like that) and is filled with blueberry and oat goodness (well, and a little butter and sugar). Anyway, it's great with coffee or tea.

Recipe: Blueberry Oat Bar - Starbucks Inspired
Adapted from the recipe on Food.com by lilsweetie

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats (the original recipe calls for all quick-cooking oats, but I like the texture of old fashioned oats in the mix)
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup all-purpose flour (140 grams)
1 cup brown sugar (200 grams)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks)
3 cups blueberries (original recipe calls for fresh blueberries, but I used frozen blueberries with success)
1/2 cup sugar (100 grams)
1/3 cup orange juice (I used fresh squeezed)
4 teaspoons cornstarch (This is 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon)

Create the filling in advance as it needs to cool. In saucepan, bring blueberries, sugar and orange juice to boil; reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Whisk in cornstarch and boil, stirring, until thickened, about 1 minute. Pour into a bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on surface; refrigerate until cooled, about 1 hour or up to 1 day before using. (I found that it is best when the final product should end up like a jam consistency).

Base/Topping: In a large bowl, stir together the oats, flour, brown sugar, salt and baking soda. Cut in the butter to form a crumbly mixture. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the crumbs, and pat the rest evenly into the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 inch pan.

Spread the blueberry mixture over the base. Crumble the reserved amount of the base/topping over the blueberry mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees F until light golden, about 40-45 minutes. Let cool completely on rack before cutting. Store in the refrigerator. And try not to eat a whole tray.

Maple Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Maple Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Did I tell you about my friend Helen and her three awesome daughters Alison, Emily and Rosie? They are, without exaggeration, totally cool and rad. I've known them since the Northridge earthquake when Helen and I started working together. Yes, I date things by natural disasters. Rosie and I are in a cake decorating class right now. I've been posting photos to my instagram account (@foodlibrarian) and will post about it after the class ends.

Alison's friend Erika gave the family this recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies...with the secret ingredient of maple syrup!

Although maple syrup is an all-year yummy ingredient, I think of it as a "fall" food. Thus, welcome fall.

The recipe is delicious, but if you want to cut the brown sugar a bit, go for it. They are plenty sweet.

Recipe:

Maple Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Erika says she adapted it from a Martha Stewart recipe
1 1/2 cups (210 g) flour
1 t cinnamon
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup pure maple syrup, grade A
1 egg, room temp
2 t vanilla
3 cups old fashioned oatmeal (not instant)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven in 325 degrees.

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. Cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy with a paddle attachment in a stand mixer. Scrap down side of bowl.
3. Add the maple sugar and mix until blended.
4. Add egg and vanilla until blended.
5. On slow speed, add flour mixture. Mix until just blended.
6. Add the oatmeal and chocolate chips. Mix until just blended. Finish with a spatula, but don't overmix.
7. Scoop onto parchment paper covered baking tray. I used a smallish cookie scoop and got 57 cookies.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes (depends on your oven), turning halfway through until edges are golden brown.

Apricot Jam Oatmeal Bars (Pioneer Woman)

Apricot Jam Oatmeal Bars

Photo taken with cell phone

These were really expensive apricot jam oatmeal bars (adapted from  The Pioneer Woman's Strawberry Oatmeal Bars from her Food Network show). 

 Here's the story:
1. Get up super early.
2. Wipe the sleep from my eyes.
3. Stumble to kitchen.
4. Make these simple jam bars from the Pioneer Woman.
5. Toss them into the oven.
6. Start to clean up the kitchen. (I think I should mention here that my camera is on the countertop.)
7. Move the flour container...and knock off my camera from the countertop...and see it nose dive onto the hardwood floor.

It was horrible! I saw it in that slo-mo action...where you want to yell, "Noooooo..." but it happens so fast you are only able to yelp, "n...."

The lens came apart and I found a piece of it on the floor. Darn.

I've been wanting a new camera recently so this forced my hand. I purchased this combo:

Canon EOS Rebel T3i (body)
Canon EF 50 mm f1.4 (lens) (I upgraded from the f1.8 lens that crashed)

 

I love the new camera! It is much faster than my old one (which I bought in 2008). I'll be updating the camera page soon! 

This recipe is super simple. Just mix together most of the ingredients and press 1/2 on the bottom, and 1/2 over the jam layer. (These are the last photos taken with my old camera!)

Make these bars. Kids and librarians alike will love them! And hang onto your camera! :) - mary

Recipe:
Apricot Jam Oatmeal Bars

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman (shown on her Food Network show). Her recipe here.
1 3/4 sticks salted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for greasing pan
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup oats (I used old fashioned oatmeal)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
One 10 to 12-ounce jar apricot jam (Pioneer Woman used homemade Strawberry Jam...I used Trader Joe's Apricot Jam)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-by-13-inch pan.
2. Mix together flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry cutter/blender, cut in the butter.
3. Press half the oat mixture into the prepared pan.
4. Spread jam on top of the oat mixture.
5. Sprinkle the other half of the oat mixture over the top and pat lightly.
6. Bake until light brown, 30 to 40 minutes.
7. Let cool completely, and then cut into squares.

Mickey Mouse Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes (Everyday Food)

Guess where I'm going today?

I'm heading to Disneyland today to renew my Annual Pass. The Annual Pass rocks for a Southern California girl as you can go for just a few hours and just hang out. I've gone to DLand just to exercise and, well, negate all that with a corn dog (they have a crazy good corn dog).

This recipe for Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes is from Everyday Food of the Martha empire. You blitz half the old-fashioned oats in the food processor for a bit before adding the wet ingredients and whole oats.

I halved the recipe and really messed up! I was supposed to put 1/2 Tablespoon or 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, but used 1 1/2 T baking powder! I was wondering why the batter was all bubbly and exploding on me. It was an early morning chemical process lesson.

Even though it went all crazy, I liked the pancakes. I added blueberries to some of them. Next time, I'm going to sub some of the white flour for whole wheat flour, and throw in some chocolate chips. Oh yeah, and read the instructions!

Off to the Blue Bayou!

Recipe: Cinnamon-Oat Pancakes from Everyday Food

National Chocolate Chip Day - May 15!

Happy National Chocolate Chip Day!

I usually only hear about food related days after the fact...but today, I saw that it was National Chocolate Chip day and hit it!

These are Dorie Greenspan's Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters
(found on page 73 of Dorie's fantastic book, Baking: From My Home to Yours)

They are truly one of my favorite cookies ever! And they are one of Lee's favorites so I made them as a parting baked good to Racheal and Lee (with two bags of frozen cookies are now in the freezer).

I'm running out the door to head to Dulles! See you back home in Los Angeles soon!

Proceed with Caution has the recipe posted here when it was her choice for Tuesdays with Dorie.

Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies (from the package)

Can I begin to tell you how excited I am to have found Cinnamon Chips in Los Angeles? (I went to a big, nice (not like my janky) Albertson's).

I turned the package of goodness over and found this recipe for oatmeal cookies! I love the back of the package recipes. They rock.

Find the recipe here on the Hershey's website!

My changes to their recipe:
1. Used old fashioned oatmeal (not quick cooking)
2. Omitted the raisins
3. Added 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon to the dry mixture

Notes: The recipe calls for 1 bag (10 oz) [1 2/3 cups] of cinnamon chips. Now, if I manufactured the main ingredient, of course I would tell you to use the WHOLE bag and then more! But, since I don't work for Hershey, I'll tell you that I think you could scale back the chips a bit. They made the cookie really sweet. Perhaps if you had raisins in it, that would cut some of the sweetness...anyway, that's my opinion. Try it out and let me know what you think. I'm just glad to have found the cinnamon chips!! :)

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2-1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1-2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY'S Cinnamon Chips
3/4 cup raisins

For the how to, see their recipe online or the back of the package!!

Recipe:
Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies (Hershey's website)

Heath Oatmeal Toffee Cookies & Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Heath Oatmeal Toffee Cookies

Half a bag of the Heath Toffee Bits remained after making the Caramel Crunch Bars with Tuesdays with Dorie...so I turned the package over and found the recipe for Oatmeal Toffee Cookies!

Half the batch were Oatmeal Toffee Cookies (click for recipe) with Heath Toffee Bits, and the other half used mini-chocolate chips.

I cut the sugar from 2 cups to 1 3/4, used old fashioned oatmeal instead of quick cook oatmeal, and (of course) did not include the optional coconut flakes. The package says you should get 4 dozen cookies but I got 5 dozen because I made them a bit smaller.

My toffee cookies came out a lot flatter than the chocolate chip ones...I wonder why? Same dough, just different "bits" added in. Oh well, they were gobbled up at the library.

Here is the recipe for Heath Oatmeal Toffee Cookies on the Hershey's Kitchen website!