Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal Muffins

ENOUGH LAMB... let's do another breakfast item. I had a really nasty looking black banana hanging around the kitchen, and I couldn't bear to throw it out, and it was breakfast time, so I googled "banana muffin" and after a bit of searching, settled on this easy recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1 cup quick-cook oatmeal

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons molasses

1 cup mashed banana

6 tablespoons peanut butter (preferred creamy) 1 cup half milk/half 1/2 & 1/2 (the real recipe called for Buttermilk, but didn't have that, so I improvised - as all good cooks would)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease 2 12-cup muffin tins. I thought I'd be lazy and use paper muffin wraps, but after-the-fact, I'd just spray Pam on the muffin pans... live and learn.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, brown sugar, eggs, molasses, mashed banana, peanut butter and milk (combo) until very smooth - making sure eggs are fully incorporated (and if you use chunky peanut butter - it's all smoothed together).

Incorporate the "wet" mixture into the flour mixture and stir until mixed - eliminating flour streaks, but not over "mixing" the two. Basically - mix it good, but don't over mix.

Divide mix into the muffin tin/cups, filling each just about to the top of the pan/cup.

Bake 16 - 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top of the muffin springs back when lightly pressed.

Remove muffins from the tin and cool on a wire rack. (I used two types of muffin wraps - foil and paper. The foil wrapped muffins just jumped out of the wrap; the paper wrapped muffins needed to cool a bit to unwrap without tearing the muffin apart - and who wants to tear a muffin apart?)

ENJOY - maybe smothered in butter and served with a big side of bacon !

Ginger Curry Rice

I was shocked to realize that it's been nearly a month since I shared Al's yummy Marinated Lamb recipe with you, and I feel obligated to round out the meal with the Ginger Curry Rice that was served with the meal. I'm not sure when else you'd use this rice recipe, but I'm ready to bring closure to my "lamb phase" for now, and it wouldn't be complete without this side dish.

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons Butter
2 Cups chopped Onion

1/2 Cup chopped Celery

1/2 Cup chopped fresh Ginger

2 Tablespoons Curry Powder

2 Teaspoons chopped Garlic
1/2 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

4 Cups Chicken Stock
2 cups rice*

*I used a 16 ounce package of Trader Joe's "Brown Rice Medley" as my base ("a delicious blend of long grain brown rice, black barley & daikon radish seeds"), but if you don't have a Trader Joe's nearby, any 2 cups of rice will do - well, not the quick cook kind.

Chop the onion, celery and garlic - set aside. Take your fresh ginger root (yes, I also got this at Trader Joe's) and slice/peel off the outer covering, and any parts similar to "potato eyes" - I don't know what they're called, but when you peel the ginger, you'll know what I'm talking about. Set the chopped ginger aside as well.

In your favorite large sauce pan (or dutch oven), heat the butter and cook the onion, celery, ginger, garlic, curry powder and cayenne pepper until tender and a bit translucent.

Add chicken stock and bring to a boil; add rice, stir well, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 30 -35 minutes, or until rice is tender (follow the simmer time listed on your rice package - white rice will cook quicker, brown rice slower). Remove from heat and uncover - fluff - and serve with that yummy lamb!

And next blog will NOT be about lamb... unless I'm inundated with requests for more lamb. You dear readers will be the deciding factor.

Al's Marinated Leg of Lamb

Last week I tempted you with lamb left-overs, so this week I give you the lamb recipe that you'll need to try to end up with those leftovers. As promised, I give you my next "Guest Food Artist" my dear friend and co-worker, Al Laubenstein... it's only appropriate that it's President's Day, as Al was the former President of the company we worked for.

For our dinner party a several weeks ago, Al brought the main course - marinated butterflied leg of lamb, and THIS is American Idol... oh, I mean THIS, is how he made it....(in his own words)

Dinner at the Monson-Hogan’s

The menu for this gala evening is lamb, and here is how I do it. First, go to Costco and buy a boneless leg of lamb.

Take it out of the packaging and unfold it on your cutting board. One side will have a thick layer of fat called the “fell” that needs to be trimmed off, as it can impart an unpleasant taste to the meat.

It should look something like this when you finish trimming it.

Next, flip it over and take a knife and put slices through the thick parts of the meat to give the meat as uniform a thickness as possible.

Now it’s time to make the marinade:

Marinade recipe:

1 cup soy sauce

½ cup olive oil

4 cloves of garlic minced

2 good sized sprigs of fresh rosemary chopped (Surely someone in your neighborhood has a rosemary bush. I know my neighbors like me to prune it for them but just to be safe I get mine under cover of darkness)

½ tsp. Coarse ground black pepper

Put the meat in a zip-lock bag and toss in the marinade. Roll it around a bit, then put it in the fridge for a few hours. While you wait, have a few cocktails and see if you can trick Brian into cleaning the grill.
When it’s time to cook, put the meat on a piece of tin foil, fell side down, on a hot grill.

Cook for about 20 minutes without flipping the meat, and then start checking the temperature. You want the meat to be rare like a steak so take it off when the thickest part of the meat reads 125° F. Remember, it will continue to cook after you take it off the fire.

For the old school people at the table who can’t eat lamb without mint jelly, we compromised and served them a Buddha’s Eye.

Buddha’s Eye recipe (from Julia Child)

5 parts Gin

2 parts Rose’s Sweetened lime juice

2 parts Green Crème de Menthe

Make a big batch and put it in the freezer and hour before you serve it. Serve in a cordial glass. Pretty potent – one per customer.

Lamb and Brie Naan Melts

I, like all of you, wondered "what shall I do with this left-over lamb" that I had in my fridge (because, let's face it, doesn't EVERYONE have left-over lamb in the fridge?). Actually, we had a dinner party several weeks ago, and Al brought a wonderful marinated butterflied leg of lamb that we threw on the grill. Al has been promising to give the recipe and preparation pictures to me so I can feature him as a "Guest Food Artist" - but he's procrastinating, and I couldn't wait any longer to share the latest Gourmet Gibbs creation: Lamb and Brie Naan Melts.

PLEASE NOTE - I used the left over lamb within days of the original meal - I did not mean to imply that several weeks AFTER the dinner party I still had left-over lamb in the fridge and decided to make these tasty treats. The actual preparation of this meal occurred several weeks ago - it just took a while for me to post it... Just to be clear!

The ingredients are simple - or they were for me, because everything was left over from the dinner party! I had sliced and trimmed lamb, garlic naan (Indian Flat Bread) and a wonderful Brie with streaks of Bleu cheese layered through it.

Preparation is pretty simple, too. First, put your pizza stone in the oven and pre-heat to 500 degrees.

Carefully slice the naan (I cut the whole naan in half first, and then sliced open each half) - it's already a very thin bread, and I found myself slicing a few holes all the way through the one side or the other - but use another piece of naan, slice that in half, and cut or tear off pieces large enough cover any holes in your sandwich naan.

On a cutting board, lay out the naan slices for as many sandwiches as you are going to make. On one side, layer strips of lamb; on the other side, layer slices of Brie. Transfer these to the pizza stone (use oven mitts to take the pizza stone out of the oven, transfer the sandwich sides to the stone, and return to the oven). I lightly buttered the "extra" slices of Naan (that I used for hole repair) and put those on the pizza stone, buttered side up, too.

It only takes a few minutes for these puppies to heat right up.

When the Brie begins to bubble, remove the pizza stone from the oven and let the slices rest for a minute.

I added a thin layer of shredded lettuce and then put the Brie slice on top of the lamb slice.

VOILA - a delicious and somewhat exotic Lamb and Brie Naan Melt.

Sausage and Sauerkraut

Rock 'n Roll Ralphs had Johsonville sausages on sale, so I decided to create a meal around the sausage. Never underestimate the value of buying what's on sale and making your meal around that. On the same note, DO NOT clip coupons for things that you will not use. Coupon shopping can save you money - but only if you EAT what you BUY. Okay, enough preaching,

Oddly, I came up with Spicey Italian Sausage and Sauerkraut served over noodles. Don't mock me until you've tried it - it's delicious.

I used the Johnsonville Hot Italian Sausages (on a great sale, and something I knew I would use) - found in the deli section of your grocer's meat department. I bought a bag of sauerkraut (you can get it in a bag or a jar - get what's on sale - or go wild and make your own... but don't expect to see that recipe on this blog anytime soon), and the other ingredients I had sitting around the house.

Prep Stuff:
Chop one yellow and one red onion.

Slice one package of Italian sausages into bite size slices.

Sqeeze all the liquid out of the sauerkraut - till it's dry-ish - you'll know what that means when you have finished sqeezing the liquid out of the 'kraut.

Pan fry the Italian sausage until it's brown and delicious looking. No need to add oil - the fat from the sausage will release itself within minutes of starting to cook it. But luckily, it's not enough fat to worry about straining it - so just throw in the onions the pan and cook those down until they are opaque-ish.

Next, toss/stir in the sauerkraut - already squeezed of liquid - and "stir fry" until its all good and mixed. VOILA - now spoon over pre-cooked noodles, or rice, or just enjoy it on its own....

Slow-Cooked Thai Green Curry Chicken

Gourmet Gibbs is BACK! I wish that I could tell you that I’ve been traveling the world, gathering new recipes from near and far, but the truth is I’ve been a big fat lazy slug. However, I’ve still needed to eat, and I still know how to use my camera, and I’m ready to share with you, my dear 27 readers, more recipes of delicious goodness.
Since I’ve been away for such a long time, I thought we should do a recipe that cooks for a long time – SLOW Cooked Chicken. (It’s tasty, and simple, but not really what I was anticipating, I’m just warning you now.)

I had a package of chicken thighs and legs in my freezer (who doesn’t?), and they were begging to be cooked, and I had never cooked such cuts of chicken – so I wanted to experiment. I also had a jar of Trader Joes “Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce” that I’ve been wanting to try – so I made this up.
Pre-heat your oven to 275 degrees (you want to cook this long and slow – so don’t over heat the oven). You can cook this quicker if need be, but just plan on setting your Dutch oven for a full day slow-low-cook. Chop an onion and some celery

and a couple cloves of garlic.

If your legs and thighs are not already skinless (well – not YOUR legs and thighs, but the chicken’s legs and thighs), then peel off the skin (and discard). In your fabulous Dutch oven (yes, I’ve already told you this is a MUST-HAVE kitchen pot), sauté, in a little butter and olive oil, chopped onions, garlic and celery.

Arrange the skinned chicken legs and thighs on top of the sautéed veggies, and season with salt, pepper, cumin, turmeric, curry – whatever seasonings you want to use.

Next, pour the simmer sauce over the chicken – covering the chicken entirely. Cover with the lid, and put in the oven for 8 hours or so. Go have cocktails and visit with friends and just ignore your Dutch oven.

When you come home – take the Dutch oven out of the cooking oven, remove the lid, let it sit for 10 – 15 minutes, then take a fork and pull the meat away from the bones (just tap your fork against the meat and the bone will fall off – otherwise, you have not followed the cooking instructions!), and remove the bones from the pot.

Moosh the meat around in the sauce, and serve on you favorite serving base – I used noodles, but you could opt for rice, or risotto, or orzo, or toast, or just glob it on tortillas, or send a comment and tell Gourmet Gibbs what you used as your serving base.

Be careful of the kitty that wants to lick the butter used on the noodles!

BEA’S CHEESECAKES – A Holiday Tradition – PART II

Okay, now that you’ve mastered the basic recipe – let’s add in some flavor.

Variation One: Pumpkin Cheesecake – a Turkey Day staple.

Start with basic steps from last week’s post – the NY style classic cheesecake – except do NOT add the vanilla extract. When the filling is all mixed and ready to pour into the crust pan – STOP – don’t pour it into the crust just yet. Instead, pour out 1 ½ cup of the finished basic filling to a separate container – set this aside for later use. Now we’re going to turn that plain cheesecake into a delicious pumpkin surprise.
In the mixing bowl, to the remainder filling, continue to mix the filling and add:
One can organic pumpkin (do not use pumpkin filling – use pumpkin, just plain canned pumpkin). While the pumpkin is mixing into the basic filling, prepare the spices:

In a small bowl, stir together the following ground spices:
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon each of: nutmeg, all spice, ginger, cloves, cardamom, coriander, cocoa, and a dash of ground cayenne red pepper.

Gradually introduce to the pumpkin filling in mixing bowl – continually mixing, (and scraping the sides and bottom – don’t forget the beaters, either).

For this Pumpkin Cheesecake variation, Bea uses a different crust. You can use the basic pie crust out of the box crust, or your classic graham cracker crust, OR you can be adventurous and prepare the “Nearly Nothin’ But Nuts” crust:

8 oz. pecans
2 oz. walnuts.
Put your nuts in a heavy duty freezer bag and smash with a hammer until sand-like texture – try to pound any chunks – but be careful not to pop your plastic bag and have nuts go flying everywhere! Add to this 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar.

Pour this mixture into your spring form pan, and pack tightly against the bottom of the pan and up the sides – gently forming the side crust (if you press too vigorously, the sides will cave in like a sand castle being hit by a wave). The oil from the nuts should provide enough “glue” to keep the mixture together up the sides. (I personally might add just a tad of melted butter.)

Pour the pumpkin filling in the prepared crust. Now pour the reserved plain filling in the center, and using your spatula or a butter knife, make swirly designs to your heart’s content – but don’t overdo it and make it a sloppy mess.

Cook as instructed in last week’s blog (in fact, Bea cooks all three of his cheesecakes together at the same time – as long as your oven is large enough. DO NOT use two layers of racks in the oven and cook on two layers).

Variation 2. – Mocha Cocoa

Prepare the basic cheesecake mixture, except substitute Grand Marnier in place of the vanilla extract, and use ¼ cup less granulated sugar.

In a separate coffee cup (you really should use a “coffee” cup, since it’s a coffee cheesecake) - microwave ½ cup water for 2 minutes. Add two heaping tablespoons full of Folgers Instant Crystal coffee and 4 heaping tablespoons of Hersey’s Instant cocoa powder – stir together until completely combined and smooth. If you have a hunk of good semi-sweet dark chocolate lying around the house, add that, too, and stir until completely combined.

While the basic filling is mixing, gradually introduce the mocha cocoa mix to the filling, continually mixing until smooth – scrape out the coffee cup, and scrape the sides of the mixing bowl too. Add a dash of cayenne pepper while you’re introducing the mocha cocoa mix, and continue to Mix until completely and uniformly introduced and mixed.

Pour the mixture into your prepared pie crust in a spring form pan and cook as the others.

YOU too will be the star of YOUR party with these delicious cheesecakes.