Pamela's Polenta

I came upon this polenta quite by accident. You see, I have never cared much for polenta when I had it before. I never quit understood what the draw was...but that all changed one afternoon - quite by accident! My daughter and I were playing around trying to figure how to make some corn chips from scratch. I was giving suggestions and she was carrying them out as I was doing another task. She made the chips too thick and when we tasted it, I declared, "polenta and it's good!" So we tweaked it a little more and this is what we came up with. When we served it for the first time the kids gobbled it up like it was mac and cheese or something! They declared how much they loved it and all the different ways THEY thought it would be good. Naomi remembered eating something similar to it in Haiti and she really liked it too. Ben was less excited, about it and said, "Yeah, it reminds me of a third world country", but when he added more toppings, he too got the polenta magic. :-) Polenta can be made in a creamy style or in a baked style. This is the baked. It is a dense corn cake, that is on the bland and buttery side. So it does well paired with things that have robust flavor. I give suggestions at the end of this recipe of ways to use it. This is a wonderful meal to serve on a hot Shabbat, because you can make it ahead and serve it warm, cold or room temperature.

3C Organic Yellow Cornmeal
1 tsp Sea Salt
3 1/2C boiling water, divided
2 tsp butter

Preheat oven to 450F
Combine cornmeal and salt.
Add half of the water and mix well.
Add butter and mixing until melted.
Keep stirring while you add the rest of the hot water, then let it sit 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, butter a 9x13 baking dish. Pour the polenta batter into the pan and bake about a half hour or so until golden.

Serving Suggestions:
1. Serve with black beans, corn and mango (or pineapple) salsa
2. Right when it come out of the oven sprinkle the top generous amount of fresh Parmesan all of over the top and serve with marinara sauce.
3. Mix in Pimentos or diced jalapeno and shredded cheddar in the batter.
4. Pour chili or bean soup over top of it in a bowl (in the winter time).
5. Mix in garlic, parsley, basil and chopped onions in the batter and drizzle with some balsamic vinegar reduction and olive oil. Served with Asiago Cheese Chips and green salad.
6. Slice it and fry it on a skillet with some eggs and salsa
7. Put it int a bowl and pour a little milk sweetened with maple syrup and cinnamon over top.

Plain Brown Rice - Crockpot

This has become my favorite way to cook rice! I get a big pot full of rice to use for dinner and later for leftovers, and I don't have to pay attention to my stove (which boils hot!). I mix in all kinds of seasoning and flavors, as the mood strikes...but I am going to share with you the staple way to make rice in your cooker.

5C Water or Broth

2C Brown Rice

2 tsp salt

1T butter or coconut oil

Grease the walls of the crock, out your rice and water in.

Cook on High for 2 and a quarter to 2 1/2 hours or Low for 5 hours

* Rice tip - No matter the amount of rice or the size of the pot or wether you are cooking it in a steamer, on the stove on in the crock remember this tip: pour your rice in the bottom and gently pour water/broth over top until it reaches 1" above the rice. You will never need to measure your rice or your water again. It comes out perfect every time!

Cream of Brown Rice Cereal

This is one of our family favorites. The kids always ask for it. I got this from Sue Gregg's cookbook "Breakfasts".

This recipe makes 1 serving so you'll need to do the math to increase it according to your needs. We actually grind a whole gallon size container at a time and keep it on hand.

1. Take 3T of Brown rice and grind finely in heavy duty blender, coffee grinder or grain mill. (makes 1/4C)

2. Pour 3/4C of water into a sauce pan and bring to a boil.

3. Meanwhile, in another bowl whisk together 1/4C water, ground rice and 1/4tsp of salt. (This is the secret to the creaminess of the cereal!)

4. Gradually whisk this mixture into the boiling water.

(Make ahead option - but not required: Cover and let stand overnight for improved health benefits. Than the next morning....)

5. Return to a boil, cover and reduce heat to very low. Let simmer until done, about 10 minutes.

If you want goodies; add them at the time of serving. This cereal is SO creamy and delicious! (nothing like the white rice store bought versions!) It doesn't weigh you down, yet it sticks to your ribs until lunch. I have notices less clammoring for snacks mid morning when I serve this ...maybe its because they will often have big bowls or seconds. ;-) But its something great to keep in mind if you are going out in the morning or have a busy schedule that will not allow for snacking before lunch!

(dried fruit, or fresh fruit of choice, a little honey or syrup, extracts, etc.)

When I make this for Shabbat, I use the crock pot or the thermos cereal method.

**We do the same thing with ground red wheat. (We use the Vitamix to grind it to a course meal. Finer than cracked wheat, but not as fine as flour. Try it!) We LOVE it. We keep a container of that on hand too!

Thermos Cereal / Crockpot Cereal

I have been using a wonderful method of cooking whole grain cereal from Sue Gregg's cookbook "Breakfasts". It is quick, easy, tasty and ideal for Shabbat mornings. (any morning really- but especially Shabbat mornings because it is pre-made) I will also add this to my bag of tricks for camping...because it is often a pain to light a morning fire for breakfast...you just make this at night when you have the fire going and when you get up breakfast is ready and you can start your day with fishing or hiking before it gets too hot.

REAL CEREAL is cooking REAL whole grains. The box stuff is a counterfeit - don't be fooled. Doing it the whole food way is easy and delicious. It is also the most nutritiously dense (greater food value) and the most economical (in bulk "organic" becomes affordable cheaper than buy the box stuff! And you can use it for bread and savory dishes for other meal times!) I can't say that say that my children's lips have never touched the box stuff...but with diligence hence forth...maybe they will forget they have. :-) Its just a matter of changing a couple habits and you will make a big difference in the quality of food your family is eating. (And in the mean time, they develop a taste for REAL food which will be habits they carry into their families.)

You'll need a wide mouth thermos (for convenience). I use a 1/2 gallon or gallon thermos similar to the one pictured above. Depending on how soon ahead I start it, or weather I preheat the thermos well or not determins whether my scereal is cool,warm or hot. The cool cereal is actually quite nice for summer time and its doesn't heat up the house. Either way it is always cooked. I do this for whole, cracked or ground grains. We like barley and spelt, and intend to try other grains as well.

OK Lets get started:

Strawberry Granola

I think this might be my favorite granola! Elijah and I created it last week when we were making our weekly batch of cereal. I wanted something different from the apple, cinnamon raisin variation we had been eating for the last couple of weeks. Boy was I pleased with this!! I store it in a big plastic 3.4 liter plastic container or a gallon jar. It makes about 20 servings or so. I think coconut oil is the magic ingrediant. Enjoy.

Strawberry Granola
10C Oats
1 1/2C Raw Honey (We like Alfalfa.)
1C Raw Sunflower Seeds (hulled)
3C Dried Strawberries, diced into small pieces (you can sub other dried fruit, like dr. blueberries, pinapple apricots, etc.)
1C Coconut Oil (plus some for the cookie sheet)
3C Dried Strawberries, diced

Mix all ingrediants, except fruit, together until evenly encorperated. This may take a lot of mashing with the back of your spoon if your honey and oil are cold...but it's worth it!

Spread evening in a single layer on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 until golden (about 20 minutes or so). Let cool mixed in diced fruit and store in air tight container in the cupboard. ENJOY!

If you try it - put your comments on the blog!

Butterscotch Granola

We want to phase out packaged cereal, even though we have only but thelow sugar high grain varieties for the last 10 years, we are ready to take it the next level of homemade/scratch living. :-) Granola is an easy way to do that. So we like to experiament with different combinations of flavors, to keep things interesting. We mixed up a very tasty combination this morning. No measuring, just drizzel and dump (and mix and taste if needed) as you go.

Oats
Butterscotch Flavoring (I use Frontier.)
Vanilla Extract
Raw Honey (I used Alfalfa)
Pumpkin Seeds
Raw Sunflower Seeds
Flax Seeds
Shredded Coconut
Peanut Oil

I toasted on a low heat (175) , checking every so often it was in for a couple hours, I think.

Then I like to add dried fruit AFTER it is baked (or dehydrated). I find it stays nicer and tastes "fresher" that way. Baking the dried fruit results in it getting too hard or dry for my liking...it also can burn if you like to do your granola at a higher temp. for a shorter time.

I added a lot of dried apples (diced) and a few golden raisins.