Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Fruit and Cream Oatmeal

Some people consider breakfast the most important meal of the day. I used to get packaged oatmeal with fruit flavors, but now I try to eat local and minimally processed food, so I just buy a box of any kind of plain, instant oatmeal (ok, so I mainly started buying it to try and lower my cholesterol with the soluble fiber). I buy instant because I don't really have time in the morning to spend 30 minutes making Irish oatmeal. Now, I know you can make a giant batch and then portion it out and reheat it, but I don't really trust how that will turn out. Also, I like to cook the fruit with the oatmeal so that the fruit juice permeates the entire bowl of oatmeal. This way you get fruit flavor in every bite. So without further ado, here is how I make my fruit and cream oatmeal.

Ingredients:
Oatmeal (I use some form of instant, generally. Right now I have Instant Irish and Trader Joe's instant steel cut, which takes a little bit longer to cook, at 8 min. When I use that, I just start the water boiling, add the oatmeal, and make my lunch while it cooks.)
Any kind of fruit (good choices include peaches, blueberries, strawberries)
Butter, half & half, some type of sweetener (I use honey or maple syrup, depending on the fruit), cinnamon, all to taste

Cook the oatmeal according to the directions on the package. I don't microwave, because I usually just end up with a mess, and as I mentioned above, I like to put the oatmeal and the fruit in the boiling water at the same time to get a consistent fruit flavor. When it's done, just spoon it into a bowl, and add the toppings to taste.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Fresh Peas

English peas (shell peas) are in season in New England right now, although I'm not sure how much longer you'll be able to find them in the farmer's market. If you can't get English peas in the shell fresh, just buy them frozen. I thought I would pass along a tip that I learned from Mark Peel, executive chef at Campanile in Los Angeles. As you shell the peas, divide them into three groups--small, medium, and large. I like to do this in front of the TV, since it's a little tedious, but luckily all the peas in one pod tend to be about the same time, so you don't have to sort through individual peas. The peas cook at different rates, so put the large ones in first, then the medium, then the small. You'll get perfectly cooked peas every time.

Frozen Green Beans

Green beans are not a vegetable that you should buy frozen. Some vegetables, such as peas, corn, and okra (to name a few) freeze pretty well. You can buy them frozen, or buy them fresh and then freeze whatever you have leftover. Green beans are not in that category. They get really waterlogged and then come out soggy when you try and cook them. This tip is brought to you by my dinner, which hopefully will still turn out well. Also, I'll try and post it, because I think it would be really delicious with fresh beans. I know I've been really remiss in updating this blog, but I have a few issues with pictures I need to sort out. I'm also going to just start fresh and not post all the back recipes I have, because I'll never post anything new if I'm waiting to update all the backlog.