BBB

Happy Saturday morning, all! How I wanted to sleep-in, Hadrian nudged me awake at 5 (at least he made it that long!) and despite having Andrew take him out, I couldn’t really fall back asleep. Knowing I have to fit a run in before I leave for my haircut a 9 (just a trim!) makes my brain start working…

Baklava Butter and Bran! I’ve been meaning to get these photos and recipes out since I made them LAST weekend, and since it’s now the beginning of a new weekend…well, I did my best.

I’d purchased the ingredients for Good to the Grain’s Molasses Bran Muffins awhile ago, but never got around to actually making them.

In terms of actual product, they turned out quite well. The texture was great and they were very moist. However, they are featured in the Amaranth flour chapter, and Amaranth has a bit of a, well, “dirt-like” taste to it. I mean, it’s not like you’re eating dirt or anything, but you definitely get a hint of the flavor of the flour, which is very earthy. Quinoa flour is a lot like Amaranth.

While I think of Good to the Grain (GG) as one of my very favorite cookbook (reserved for the likes of Barefoot Contessa, Foster’s Market and King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Baking), I have to offer this HUGE disclaimer: Unless you are prepared to buy a gazillion small bags of different, hard-to-find types of flour, do not buy this book. I’m definitely having a blast baking my way through it, (my goal is to make EVERYTHING) and a couple of the chapters are dedicated to widely available varieties, like whole wheat, buckwheat, spelt and rye. However, the rest of the chapters cover kamut, millet, quinoa, teff, etc… I ended up placing a huge Bob’s Red Mill order awhile back and all my small bags of flour take up the entire door of my freezer.

Anyway, I love the book but it’s definitely not for everyone. I’ve really enjoyed reading it and getting to taste the nuances of the different flours and some of the recipes are absolutely fantastic. This one, however, wasn’t all that great. It’s not that there was anything wrong with it; I just don’t know how often I’ll be making bran muffins with Amaranth flour.

Back to the goodies…

PRUNE BUTTER!

The Molasses Bran Muffins called for homemade prune butter, which couldn’t be simpler.

Recipe:

1 C orange juice

1.5 C prunes

Warm juice, pour over prunes to soften (about 15-20 minutes), then puree in a blender or small chopper.

The recipe made about 3x what the muffins needed, so I (happily) ended up with some leftover to put in a jar. I mixed a little with some goat cheese on a homemade bagel here. If you’re afraid of prunes, don’t be. They’re just dried plums (who doesn’t love plums?!) and they are awesome. I think Sunkist (or Sunsweet?) makes a version that has “cherry essence” in them or something. Not sure how natural those are, but they are like candy, let me tell you.

Baklava Butter!

OK, this one takes the cake for being the most awesome recipe EVER. If you’re a nut butter lover (ahem, Emily and Susy, this is for both of you!), make this IMMEDIATELY. You will not regret it. It’s such a snazzed-up version of regular peanut or almond butter, and (surprisingly) has fewer calories!

Recipe:

2/3 C almonds, roasted

1/3 C pistachios, shelled

1/3 C cashews, roasted

1/4 C honey

1/4 C water

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Just throw them all in the blender and pulse away! Mine came out a bit “chunky” but they were tiny pieces and I kinda liked the texture.

The Baklava Butter was featured in the most recent issue of Cuisine at Home, and since some of you are into these, here are the stats:

Serving size: 2 Tbsp, 145 cal, 9g total fat (1g sat), 0mg cholesterol, 28mg sodium, 14g carb, 2g fiber, 4g protein

I love it on toast with some orange marmalade (or a little more honey–it’s a little dry) or with a banana. Seriously incredible, people. I WILL be making this a staple in the nut butter rotation.

While I’d LOVE to do more baking this weekend, I don’t know if our tummies can take it! I just made a loaf of bread (it didn’t fall!) and I still have some muffins left over in the freezer, as well as a bunch of slices of the Honey Polenta Cornbread (from GG) that I made with beef stew last night. Andrew wasn’t a huge fan (apparently he doesn’t really care for honey, who knew??), but it was basically like a brown cornbread with a thick, gummy honey layer mixed into the top. Wonderful warm. I had a piece for breakfast and it (along with some plain yogurt) kept me full til AFTER running an errand after school–WOW!

Anyway, with all of our leftovers (and a hubby who doesn’t like to “finish things off” so as not to waste food–so unlike the father of my childhood), I don’t know that I can justify another batch of anything for at least a few days. My recipe-finding is exponentially faster than my recipe-making…sigh.

Breakfast preview

I made all sorts of stuff this weekend!

I can’t include the links for everything now (I’m at school and don’t know how to do links on my phone), but recipes will be coming!

This morning’s breakfast featured half a homemade bagel spread with goat cheese and prune butter (from the molasses bran muffins), half an orange and banana with baklava butter (WOW!) and a little plain yogurt with a sprinkle of granola for crunch.

I’ve gotta be good this week… This weekend was full of indulgent treats like ice cream, beer, burgers and fries–yikes!

I have lots to share–stay tuned and have a great Monday!

Zebb’s

We were feelin’ a night out yesterday since we’d been in all day. Well, that’s not true–I did my usual Saturday morning routine of: eating a huge breakfast, hitting up Wegmans around 8 a.m. (before it gets busy), then swimming at the gym and returning home at 11, and Andrew was at the office from 10-3–but when it was pushing 4 p.m. and both of us were still in sweats, we needed a change!

We headed out for a visit at the in-laws’ before stopping at Taste for coffee (decaf for me), then running some errands at the Verizon store (clear display covers for my phone–post coming soon to show you my new case!) and shovels at Lowe’s. You know, because we live in Buffalo now and it snows here…a lot. We’ve gotten by so far this year on a metal dirt shovel and we’ve been lucky to have a mild winter. (I think God is smiling on us transplants since we don’t have a garage for our cars–NOT fun.)

Anyway, we ended up at Zebb’s, a sport-bar-like place I drive by all the time and that Andrew frequented a bit in high school.

It’s a bar and grill and they’re known for their burgers. They also have entree’s, wings (of course) and sandwiches.

We asked to sit in the bar area and were seating long before some who had arrived before us. We also had some of the best service I’ve had in awhile, if not ever. Colin was awesome.

We both ended up with Blue Moons (the pint for me, the tall for Andrew) and a sample of Sam Adam’s Cherry Wheat because, well, I wouldn’t be ‘me’ if I didn’t have a sample of something. The cherry wheat was good, but not as good as a Blue Moon.

We got wings as an appetizer. I swear, since moving here, I’ve eaten more wings in these few months than I ever have before in my life. This is, of course, both good and bad. Good for my sense of ‘culture’ and assimilation into my new surroundings; bad for my hips. And thighs. And arteries.

I saw the “ZebbOriginalWings” and immediately wanted them, but the bleu cheese turned Andrew off, of course. Awesome Colin said we could split an order and I eagerly anticipated their arrival.

And yes, they were everything I hoped for, and more. They had enough “buffalo” flavor to fulfill that ubiquitous ‘wing taste,’ but with a kick of something more. Not spicy, just really flavorful. The bleu cheese wasn’t a dominant flavor, and Andrew was brave enough to give it a try. We just might be ordering those next time…we both ended up saving the sauce to dip our fries!

Andrew had ordered a medium on the spicy-scale when we thought we were sharing, but Colin got the impression Andrew wanted a bit more heat than me, so he went ahead and bumped Andrew’s up to HOT… Talk about great service! Andrew enjoyed his wings, but they were no Pasquale’s.

Hockey is KING here, in case you didn’t know, and a tournament was on TV. Really, all sports are pretty big here–the Bills Stadium is just a mile or so from Zebb’s–and watching football and hockey is very much a part of life here in Buffalo. Guess I’m going to have to get a t-shirt…

Zebb’s is known for their burgers and topping bar (think Fuddrucker’s), and I’m a junkie for anything a restaurant is “known for,” so I went with the smallest burger and added cheese. I mean, doesn’t cheese just make it? A burger without cheese, to me, isn’t worth eating.

Speaking of eating… I was good and only ate two of my wings in order to save room (and calories!) for my burger and fries. But the angelic behavior ended there; I DEMOLISHED my burger and fries, with mayo, no less! I must have been hungry. And honestly, the burger wasn’t THAT good. Definitely not good enough to eat it all. Next time, I’ll stick to wings and fries 🙂

Meanwhile, it was snowing outside:

When we entered, there wasn’t really any snow on the ground. By the time we left, it was blizzarding enough for us to have to drive slowly and there was about an inch or so on the ground. It may sound odd, but I love that about living here–I love that you can go see a movie and come out to a completely different scene than when you entered. (This, I’m sure, will get old after awhile. But for now, it makes me smile.)

We’re going out, again, tonight to meet friends at Pearl Street (yay!), which might just mean more indulgent food for yours truly… Good thing I did a tempo run this morning before church!