Sriracha- Parmesan Popcorn

When I was really young, movie theaters were open early on the weekends so parents could send their kids off to to watch cartoons and some "westerns" and maybe even a newsreel.

It's like weekend TV today, only not everyone had a TV back then and also, children don't get the news on their favorite channels.

I don't remember any of those old movies. Just that I went with my older brother and had to share the popcorn with him.

I hated the way he doled out the pieces.

Maybe that's why, when it comes to popcorn, I am a gobbler. Stuff the stuff into my mouth without stopping until I am ready to explode.

I like all kinds of popcorn. Plain. Caramel. Chocolate-Marshmallow Heavenly Hash.

Recently I made some Sriracha-Parmesan Popcorn. Sriracha can be overbearing, especially if you just sprinkle it over or splash it on to food. But I popped the kernels and seasoned them with Carrington Farms Coconut Oil -- just one tablespoon was enough to give a hint of hot, enough to satisfy without tasting like fire.

I got the sriracha oil from a new website, Crafted Kosher, which is an absolute boon for anyone looking for kosher products that are unusual and hard-to-find, the kind of ingredients and packaged items that inspire creative cooking. Of course they also carry stock items (beans, pastas, spices, pancake and cake mixes, olive oils, soup mixes, coffee/tea, sauce/salsa, etc.) But it's so good to find so many specialty items (like Murray River Salt, Mango Vinegar, Coconut Nectar, Tandoori Masala) too, all in one place.

If you're a person who might be watching the Iowa caucus results tonight, or the Superbowl on February 7th or the Academy Award ceremony on February 28th or a movie or TV program any time, snack on this popcorn for a change.

Sriracha Parmesan Popcorn

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup corn kernels
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon Sriracha flavored vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• salt to taste

Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the kernels. Cover the pan and cook, popping the corn until all the kernels have popped. Place the popped corn in a large bowl. Heat the butter and Sriracha oil over low heat until the butter has melted. Mix and pour over the popcorn. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and salt, toss and serve.

Makes about 10 cups

Apple-Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

A few weeks ago I bought about 60 pounds of apples.

That's a lot of apples.

And even I can hardly believe that after making many pies, a few cakes, some baked apples, apple crisps and apple brown bettys, mounds of applesauce, a couple chicken-apple recipes, including a salad, all my apples are gone.

Oh no! 

I still have a pancake recipe to try! 

Hard to believe I'll have to buy another few pounds. 

But before I ran out of apples, I did get to try these Apple-Pumpkin Streusel Muffins which are gorgeous and delicious and such a welcome, seasonal treat (with cider or coffee or tea) for Hallowe'en or Thanksgiving or simply for breakfast or coffee break.

 

Apple-Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

Streusel:

• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter, cut in smaller pieces, or coconut oil

Muffins:

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup mashed pumpkin
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups chopped apples

To make the streusel: place the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl and mix to distribute the ingredients evenly. Add the butter and work into the dry ingredients with your fingers until the mixture looks crumbly. Set aside.

To make the muffins: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease 12 muffin tins. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt in a bowl and stir with a whisk until the ingredients are evenly distributed. In another bowl, combine the pumpkin, vegetable oil and eggs and blend thoroughly. Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and mix until combined. Stir in the apples. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins. Sprinkle the tops evenly with the streusel. Bake for about 20 minutes or until tops are browned and crispy and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Makes 12

Pumpkin Spice Corn Muffins

It's October, almost Hallowe'en, which means you're going to see "pumpkin spice" everything. Cake. Ice cream. Latte. Whatever.

I decided to get in on the act. Especially because I have been experimenting with mashed pumpkin for a variety of recipes and have (actually, had) loads of it in my fridge.

These Pumpkin Spice Corn Muffins are among the tastiest results.

Corn muffins are some of my favorite breakfast breads but sometimes they're too dry or too grainy. I have several good recipes though. 

Adding mashed pumpkin and autumn spices to the batter gives the corn muffins a warm and comfy flavor. In addition, the muffins are dense, moist and tender. Not dry, not grainy. 

Pumpkin Spice Corn Muffins

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1-1/4 cups cornmeal 
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2  teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup mashed pumpkin

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups. Melt the butter and set it aside to cool. In a bowl, mix the cornmeal, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon until well blended. In another bowl mix the egg, milk, pumpkin and cooled butter until well blended. Pour the liquid into the cornmeal mixture and stir to blend the ingredients. Spoon equal amounts into the muffin cups.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 10

How to Substitute Ingredients: a Lesson for Kids and Everyone Else

Children learn a lot when they cook, and not just about food. You can ask the youngest ones to hand over the red pepper, not the green one. You can show them that a pie tin is round, a loaf pan is a rectangle.

Older kids can hone their measuring skills. Some begin to understand the difference between 1/4 cup and 1/2, what a dozen means, why a cake rises.

Recently my grandchildren, ages 3 and 5, learned another important cooking lesson: when and how to substitute ingredients. 

We happened to be baking Jam Cookies. 

I didn't have the chopped dates called for in my recipe. So we changed those to dark raisins.

I didn't have dried apricots, figs or cherries, so we used dried cranberries instead.

They wondered whether they could include chocolate chips.

Of course! Just throw some into the bowl.

Finally, we used a mixture of orange marmalade, rhubarb and apricot jam because I didn't have enough of any one kind except raspberry, which I couldn't use because of allergies.

The recipe worked.

But more than that, the cookies were absolutely delicious. Even the adults gobbled them. The children were happy, they learned more than they realized.

They want to cook with me again. I love that.

Jam Bars

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1-1/2 cups quick cooking oats

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 14 tablespoons butter or margarine

• 3/4 cup golden or dark raisins or chopped dates or a mixture

• 1/3 cup dried cranberries or chopped dried cherries or other chopped dried fruit

• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

• 1-1/2 cups jam

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 9"x13" cake pan. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Add the oats and brown sugar and mix the ingredients thoroughly to distribute them evenly. Cut the butter into chunks and work into the dry ingredients (with fingers or process on pulse in a food processor) until the butter is completely mixed in and the mixture looks crumbly. Mix in the raisins, dried fruit and chocolate chips. Press the mixture evenly inside the prepared pan. Spread the jam evenly on top. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool in the pan. Cut into bars or squares. 

Makes about 24

.

Oat Topped Banana Brown Sugar Muffins

Oat Topped Banana Brown Sugar Muffins

Having company for the Labor Day weekend? 

Need a breakfast bread for the back-to-school crowd?

Brunch item?

These banana muffins will suit so many needs.

Oat-Topped Banana Brown Sugar Muffins

• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons quick cooking oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 small very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin tins. Mix the flour, 1/2 cup oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda and cinnamon together in a bowl. In a second bowl, mix the banana, yogurt, eggs and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and stir just to bend ingredients. Spoon equal amounts into the greased muffin tins. Sprinkle the tops evenly with the 2 tablespoons oats. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes 12

Banana Bread with Blueberries

When I saw purple prune plums for sale last week I realized that summer is almost over. This plum variety is usually a September fruit but everything seems to be growing earlier or quicker this year or maybe it's just that I'm growing older and life is flying by faster.

Fortunately the peaches are still lush and sweet, the tomatoes juicy, so there's that.

But fall is coming and alas, the blueberries are past prime. I bought a couple of pint boxes and found that their up-to-now summer flavor has faded.

I decided the leftovers were best used as a secondary player, not the star. And at that they were perfect.

 

Banana Bread with Blueberries

• 2-½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting the pan
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 very ripe medium bananas, mashed
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a (10-inch) 8-cup bundt pan. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and lemon peel together in a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed, beat the sugar and eggs for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Add the vegetable oil and vanilla extract and beat for one minute or until thoroughly blended. Add the bananas and yogurt and beat them in. Add the flour mixture and beat until the batter is well blended. Fold in the blueberries. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove to a cake rack to cool completely.

Makes one bread, serving 12-16

Tips on Salt Free, Plus Blueberry Muffins, salt free and vanilla-y

Salt Free Blueberry Muffins

Everyone pokes fun at the "old folks" who talk about their "conditions" and "ailments" and pills.

But it's okay because sometimes it makes serious stuff easier to handle if you can joke about it, as long as you actually take the serious stuff seriously.

So before our annual new year’s festivities, when our cousins come for a few days, we went over whether there were any new dietary restrictions.

There was: no salt. (I mentioned it last week when I talked about serving India-style shakshuka instead of the usual herrings and smoked fish for brunch on New Year’s Day.0

We joked about our conditions and ailments and pills. And understood that we weren't talking about our grandparents or even our parents, but about ourselves. 

We had become them.

When did that happen?

Don't laugh youngsters. If you're lucky, this will happen to you too. It's one of the costs of growing older.

On the other hand, from a food point of view? Not lucky. No salt is a real UGH.

Salt is the salt of the earth. It's what makes so many foods taste so good.

Food without salt is, well, not as tasty. Let's just admit it and move on.

And, moving on, if you have to cook without salt, you have to and that's that. So you have to come up with ways to make the food taste good without it.

Among the salt-free dishes I prepared over the weekend were blueberry muffins. 

What did I do to make sure they didn't taste like a box of Cheerios? (I don't mean the Cheerios, I mean the box.)

I added extra vanilla to my standard recipe. A good brand of pure vanilla extract — I bought it at Penzey’s), not imitation vanilla.

I could also have added 2 teaspoons of grated fresh orange or lemon peel but I knew this particular company would not have enjoyed that. 

I could have included 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts -- both of these nuts pack plenty of flavor, but I don't keep those nuts in my house because of allergies.

The tip here is to add powerful, flavorful ingredients that perk up the dish so you won't miss the salt.

We didn't.

Blueberry Muffins

• 5 tablespoons butter

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 cup buttermilk

• 1 large egg

• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 teaspoons grated fresh orange or lemon peel, optional

• 1 cup blueberries

• 1/3 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease 8 muffin tins. Melt the butter and set it aside to cool. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl. Place the buttermilk, egg, melted butter, vanilla extract and orange peel (if used) in a second bowl and whisk to blend the ingredients thoroughly. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix just until combined. Fold in the blueberries and optional nuts. Fill muffin tins evenly with the batter. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the muffins cool for 15 minutes. Remove the muffins and serve warm or let cool to room temperature.

Makes 8

Blueberry Almond Muffins

Although I absolutely am capable of eating one of those giant muffins that seem to be the norm in bakeries and coffee places these days, I do realize that smaller is better, healthier and less caloric. So, when I decided to bake some blueberry muffins recently, I calculated baking times and such with a recipe that yielded 8 muffins, but used it to make 10.

I also ran out of flour, so I substituted almond meal, which was lovely, and gave the muffins a vaguely sweeter, but not sugary, flavor. 

Here they are:

 

Blueberry Almond Muffins

• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup almond flour (meal)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh lemon peel
• 1 cup plain Greek style yogurt
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease 10 muffin tins. Melt the butter and set it aside to cool. Combine the flour, almond flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda and lemon peel in a bowl and mix thoroughly to distribute the ingredients evenly. Place the yogurt, egg, melted cooled butter and vanilla extract in a second bowl and beat to blend ingredients thoroughly. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix just until combined. Fold in the blueberries. Fill muffin tins evenly with the batter. Bake for about 18 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the muffins cool slightly, then remove them from the pan. Serve warm or let cool to room temperature.

Makes 10

Cream Cheese Cookies

While cleaning out/purging my files recently, I rediscovered this recipe for these Cream Cheese Cookies. It was on an old index card, in my mother's handwriting. I'd always wanted to try these, but never did because after the list of ingredients there was this instruction: "bake and freeze."

I don't remember watching my Mom bake these cookies and I had no clue what "bake and freeze" meant other than that I had to chill the dough before doing anything with it. She also never wrote down the oven temperature.

So I tried several versions. I rolled clumps of dough into 1-inch balls and baked them. I made some crescent shaped. The best ones were when I rolled the dough into two long logs, refrigerated them overnight and cut the logs into 1/4-inch slices, baked at 325 degrees.

My mother never said to dust the baked cookies with confectioners' sugar. I tried them with and without and think the cookies taste better and look nicer with that final garnish.

Glad I finally tried the recipe! The cookies are rich and tender, lightly sweet (only 2 tablespoons of sugar!), a perfect snack for a coffee or tea break.

Here's the recipe, with instructions.

MY MOTHER'S CREAM CHEESE COOKIES

• 1/2 pound butter
• 1/2 pound cream cheese
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• confectioners' sugar

Beat the butter and cream cheese together in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium (or use a hand mixer) for 2-3 minutes, until softened and completely blended. Add the egg yolks, sugar, salt and vanilla extract and beat them in thoroughly. Add the flour gradually, beating it in until a smooth, uniform dough has formed. Cut the dough in half and roll each half into a long log about 1-inch in diameter. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours, or until firm and cold. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Slice the logs into 1/4-inch slices and place the slices on cookie sheets. Bake for 23-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let cool. Dust with confectioners sugar (best if sifted over the cookies).

Makes about 60 cookies

Irish Oat Scones

I don't make scones very often because I have a difficult time limiting myself to one. I usually eat two. Or three. And then feel guilty and tell myself I will work out more. But of course, I don't do that either.

On the other hand --- tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day and even though I am not Irish, I figure, why not take an opportunity to celebrate? I love Irish food, especially the scones.

So, here's my recipe. Whatever your heritage, try these on Saint Patrick's Day or whenever.

Irish Oat Scones

• 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup quick oats
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon peel
• 3 tablespoons butter, cut into chunks
• 3 tablespoons shortening, cut into chunks
• 3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Combine the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon peel in a food processor (or large bowl). Process briefly (or mix) to combine ingredients. Add the butter and shortening and process on pulse (or mix with your fingers or pastry blender) until the mixture looks crumbly. Add the milk and process (or mix) until a soft dough forms. Place the dough on a floured board, knead briefly and press into a disk about 3/4" thick. Cut out circles with a 3-inch cookie cutter. Place the circles on the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes or until puffed and lightly browned.

Makes 8