Breakfast Done Right

In our efforts to eat well, I am constantly replacing store bought items with things I can make at home. This route always ends up being tastier and cheaper and doesn't require a lot of extra work. I have some good recipes to share with you and I guarantee they will replace some of the items you purchase most at the grocery store. Today we're talking granola.

Our granola jar is pictured above. It's typically rattling empty because I can't keep up with making enough batches to keep it full. This granola recipe is the best. The best. And I'm going to keep this short and sweet so you can put your computer away and go make a batch.

I've made at least ten granola recipes in my search for the best one and I think I can finally rest easy with this recipe. Some recipes require way more ingredients than the average person keeps on hand. Others require such vast quantities of oil and sweeteners that they can't possibly be better for you than any store bought brand. This recipe is perfect because it is a bare bones foundation on which you can build your own perfect granola. It also only includes a teensy bit of oil and good for you natural sweeteners. And the best part? It's easy to keep your pantry stocked with the ingredients so you can bake up a batch at a moment's notice.

NOTE: I usually make a double batch and spread it on two pans to bake. I find it's easiest to throw this together before I start preparing dinner. Then I can easily stir it while I'm in the kitchen making dinner. My favorite way to eat this? In a bowl with a bit of Greek-style yogurt or milk*, a spoonful of ground flaxseed, and a handful of frozen blueberries. Now go to it!

Everyday Granola
Adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (or almonds or walnuts)
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
3 tablespoons (packed) brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt
1/3 cup honey (or agave nectar) (tip: spray your measuring cup with cooking spray before you measure and the honey will slide right out)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup assorted dried fruit (optional)

Preparation
Preheat oven to 300. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Mix first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Stir honey and oil in saucepan over medium-low heat until smooth. Pour honey mixture over oat mixture; toss. Spread on prepared sheet. Bake until golden, stirring every 10 minutes, for about 30 to 40 minutes. Place sheet on rack. Stir granola; cool. Mix in fruit.

DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 week ahead. Store airtight.

*Chicago readers: I swear, when you eat this with milk, it tastes nearly identical to the famous and delicious oatmeal shakes at Irazu. I swear. It's the best.

September 26

We strolled along the river after breakfast, each of us taking turns to cuddle Henry.

September 25

Let me formally introduce you to Henry (cheeks) Tidd.

September 24

Halfway through our road trip, we stopped in Warrens, Wisconsin to check out the famous Cranberry Festival. It was a chilly day, so we huddled behind the post office and warmed up with a snack.

Dictaphone Parcel

Dictaphone Parcel is based on a real sound recorded with a dictaphone traveling secretly inside a parcel. As the hidden recorder travels through the global mail system, from London to Helsinki, it captures the unexpected. We hear a mixture of abstract sounds, various types of transport and even discussions between the mail workers. The animation visualizes this journey by creating an imaginary documentary.

Dictaphone Parcel was awarded the Passion Pictures Prize in London, in February 2010.

September 22

I am welcoming fall with open arms.

Waiting For Superman

I hope everyone will go see this.

September 17

The best part about flying: Sky Mall

Reminds me of

Any reader of this blog knows my obsession with family photographs. As I've been embarking on a new personal project, I've been digging up old snapshots and scanning in my favorites. I love this one of my great great grandfather in his office. He was the the town doctor. My grandfather tells the most fascinating stories of traveling with his grandfather-in-law out to the country to make house calls on icy January nights. Folks that didn't have the means to pay for Doc's services would often show up at his office with various animal or crop offerings. He was an avid reader and letter writer and I now have many of his books on my shelf. I think we would have gotten along well. I really wish I would have had the chance to meet him.

Movie Night

We have been on a movie kick in our house recently. We've been picking movies at random from our Instant Watch queue on Netflix, or taking turns choosing influential movies that shaped us throughout our childhoods and early years of adulthood (see last month when Charlie made me watch Short Circuit, one of his favorite childhood movies).

We tend to gravitate toward documentaries in our house, so I thought I'd share some our favorites. You'll be happy to know most of these are available on Instant Watch, so you might want to go ahead and add them to your queue now.

The UP Series
The Up Series is a series of documentary films that have followed the lives of fourteen British children since 1964, when they were seven years old. The children were selected to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that time, with the explicit assumption that each child's social class predetermines their future. Every seven years, the director, Michael Apted, films new material from as many of the fourteen as he can get to participate. Filming for the next installment in the series, 56 Up, is expected in late 2011 or early 2012.

Touching the Void

Touching the Void is a 2003 documentary film based on the book of the same name by Joe Simpson about Simpson's and Simon Yates' disastrous and near fatal attempt to climb the 6,344 metre (20,813 foot) Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. The film combines documentary footage of interviews conducted with Simpson, Yates and Richard Hawking with a reenactment performed by actors Brendan Mackey, Nicholas Aaron and Ollie Ryall. The film was directed by Kevin MacDonald.

Following Sean

Following Sean is a 2005 documentary film directed by Ralph Arlyck, and a follow-up to his 1969 student short "Sean," which features four-year-old Sean Farrell's thoughts on marijuana, police presence, and freewheeling lifestyles. Following Sean picks up in the mid-1990's and turns Sean's story into a meditation on generational changes and legacies that are handed down as a result of choices made in heated political climates.

No Impact Man

No Impact Man is a 2009 American documentary film directed by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein. The film follows Colin Beavan and his family during their year-long experiment to have sustainable zero impact on the environment.

Man on Wire

Man on Wire is a 2008 documentary film directed by James Marsh. The film chronicles Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center. The film is crafted like a heist film, presenting rare footage of the preparations for the event and still photographs of the walk, alongside reenactments and present-day interviews with the participants.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a 2007 American documentary film that follows Steve Wiebe as he tries to take the world high score for the arcade game Donkey Kong from reigning champion Billy Mitchell.

Winged Migration

Winged Migration was shot over the course of four years on all seven continents. Shot using in-flight cameras, most of the footage is aerial, and the viewer appears to be flying alongside birds of successive species, especially Canada geese. They traverse every kind of weather and landscape, covering vast distances in a flight for survival. The filmmakers exposed over 590 miles of film to create an 89-minute piece and roughly two months of filming in one location would edit down to less than one minute of the final film.

Food, Inc.

Food, Inc. is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner. The film examines corporate farming in the United States, concluding that agribusiness produces food that is unhealthy in a way that is abusive of animals and environmentally harmful. The film is narrated by Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser.

The Boys of Baraka

The Boys of Baraka is a 2005 documentary film produced and directed by filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. Twenty at-risk boys from Baltimore attend the seventh and eighth grades at a boarding school in Kenya. The documentary follows them in Kenya and in Baltimore, before and after attending the Baraka School in Kenya.

American Teen
American Teen follows the lives of four teenagers--a jock, the popular girl, the artsy girl and the geek--in one small town in Indiana through their senior year of high school. We see the insecurities, the cliques, the jealousies, the first loves and heartbreaks, and the struggle to make profound decisions about the future. Filming daily for ten months, filmmaker Nanette Burstein developed a deep understanding of her subjects. The result is a film that goes beyond the enduring stereotypes of high school to render complex young people trying to find their way into adulthood.


If you have a favorite documentary to share please do!


Film descriptions via Wikipedia

September 15

As a kid I always wanted to live in a big city, a city that put pretty grates around their trees. Now that I live here, I find myself admiring them as we walk to dinner.

September 13

After dinner, we headed to the park and found our seats. It was the perfect way to spend a September evening.

September 12

Team Dougie represented in a big way today at the Chicago Half-Marathon. It was so much fun and I'm wondering how we'll do the whole thing next month! Very much enjoyed recouping on the couch today with great food, beers, and a Bears win!

September 6

It was wonderful to be there and to see him at the start of this new chapter.

Like Liquid Gold

Do you have a favorite tomato sauce recipe? It's a good thing to have handy when the last of the summer tomatoes stack up and you've tired of tomato salads and sandwiches.

We don't eat a lot of pasta in our house but since we've been training for the marathon, we've created a Friday night tradition of big bowls of pasta before our long runs on Saturday mornings. This is a good tradition. In fact, It might be the best part of marathon training. I recommend you waste no time and get a pot of this sauce going as soon as possible.

[If you're working with fresh tomatoes, you'll need about 4-5 lbs for this recipe. Slice a small x on one end of each tomato. Boil a pot of water, drop the tomatoes in for 30-45 seconds, and then drop them in an ice bath for one minute. The tomato skins will peel right off. Set a fine mesh sieve over a bowl. Then break each tomato apart over the sieve. The seeds will drop into the sieve and the juices will collect in the bowl below. Place the tomato pieces and juices into the bowl and proceed with the recipe below.]

Basic Tomato Sauce

2 tablespoons good olive oil
2 cups chopped yellow onion
3 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
1 cup good red wine
2 (14-ounce) cans pureed tomatoes
2 (14-ounce) cans chopped or diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook for 1 more minute. Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and cook at a low simmer for 30-45 minutes.

StoryCorps

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

September 3

Afternoons like this are ones I will always remember.

Guest Blogger: Charlie: On Eggs

I'm handing it over to Charlie today so he can tell you a little about eggs. He is master of the poached egg in our house and how he cooks them so perfectly is a mystery to me. I've learned to leave it to him, sip my coffee, and wait for my plate.

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I know I'm not the first to say it, but eggs are the best. Versatile. Helpful in the chemistry and flavor of all manner of delicious baked goods. A breakfast staple. An essential ingredient in the chicken-egg conundrum.

For my money, the best way to prepare an egg is to poach. Poaching transforms the egg into a buttery spreadable thing. It's the product of good timing and the right temperature that leaves the egg solid but not too solid.

To get a good poach I put a pot of water on the stove and bring it up to an almost-boil. A few bubbles, but nothing too serious. Then I pour in a little white vinegar and create a whirlpool for the egg by swirling a wooden spoon around the perimeter of the pot. I crack the egg into the middle of the whirlpool (where it sort of swirls around and sticks to itself as it cooks), let it go for six minutes, then pull it out with a slotted spoon, pat it dry, and pop it onto a piece of toast.

Ed.: Cutting the toast into strips makes it all the better for sopping up the yolk. Also butter + Vegemite on toast takes it to a whole new level.

September 1

Every Wednesday I look forward to seeing what has arrived in our co-op box.