more kitchen experiments

My guys eat lots of cereal bars so I thought I would see if I could come up with something homemade so at least I know what they are eating. D's been snacking all week on my latest version of an adaptation I did of Nigella's breakfast bar from Nigella Express. I added sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds and raw almonds and cashew pieces instead of peanuts. They are crunchy and chewy and yummy. Today I googled kid's cereal bar recipes and found a no bake one and tried it.

7 cups mixed cereal ( I used cocoa krispies, multigrain cheerios and ground up mini wheats)

3/4 c raisins

3/4 c chocolate chips

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp margarine

3/4 c brown rice syrup

3/4 c nut butter (I used chocolate hazelnut butter I got at the market a couple of weeks ago)

Mix the cereal, raisins, chocolate chips and cinnamon together in a large mixing bowl. Heat the margarine with the syrup and nut butter until the margarine is melted and then pour into the cereal mixture. Mix together and then press into a 9x13 greased pan. Freeze for 45 minutes to get the mixture to stay together. Bring out of the freezer and cut into pieces. T so far hasn't had any, but D was eating them all afternoon! They are falling apart a lot so maybe I'll try freezing them again, cutting and wrapping the pieces.

Another experiment today was a large merangue. I whipped up the merangue as per Delia's instructions (Delia Smith, How to Cook, Book One), and swirled it around on a piece of parchment paper that I had traced a circle on (dinner plate size). Baked as per instructions, 1/2 hour at 275 deg F and then 4 hours with the oven turned off to dry out.

For dessert tonight, I poured sweetened blackberries over the top with whipped cream. It's all gone now but it was delish!

Not such good luck with a potato, bacon and ricotta dish I made for supper tonight - it was bland and runny and I don't think I'll do it again. The ricotta just didn't seem to go with the potatoes. I served it with turkey meatballs from orangette.blogspot.com and they were good - just a bit fiddly as they are fried, not baked so next time I think I'll do them as meatloaf muffins - put the mixture into 8 muffin tins and bake and serve with the yogurt cumin sauce. The combinations were good - I just found the meatballs fiddly. And in the middle of cooking T wanted me to come out and look at his worm. He brought it to the back door to show me - holding up his long red worm proudly. My boy!!

T also decided for some reason this afternoon, to wear his Tigger costume. It's designed for 18-24 months so it is way too small for him and he wouldn't go anywhere near it the Hallowe'en he was 20 months (when it would have fit perfectly). He wears it now, instead of putting pants on.

chard?

D came home on Friday night with a gift of a bunch of Swiss chard. I've never had it before, never cooked it before. But after a few seconds of pondering I pulled out my trusty Rebar cookbook and there it was - a perfectly, simply perfect way to cook it. Saute/steam with olive oil, garlic, chili and when wilted add a splash of balsamic vinegar. Mmmm. It tasted yummy with an aftertaste of goodness. You know when something you eat tastes like it is good for you. Bring on the chard.

Saturday the boys hung out together while I went for a hair cut. The plan was that D take T for a walk and possibly pick blackberries (they are huge and plentiful this year). When I got back, all coifed and carrying groceries (hey - two trips in one) - there were no blackberries to be found. All the berries picked were eaten. Sigh!

The market was smaller than usual on Sunday - not as many vendors and not as many shoppers but the weather was lovely. T got to paint a rock at the children's craft table which will be used as my office paperweight. I was too late to buy large organic free-range eggs and had to settle for medium. They seem a lot smaller than the large ones. Sigh. I'll just have to get moving faster next weekend and make it to the market earlier.

Sunday night I made a corn custard with smoked gouda which was very tasty. I also experimented with portobello mushrooms - oven roasted them, then topped them with a saute of mushroom stems, red onion, spinach and sun-dried tomato pesto and then a layer of feta cheese and popped them under the grill for a couple of minutes. Tasty!

I had some egg whites left over from the corn custard. Now I've always been afraid of merangues but I hate wasting food and last night I got out my Delia Smith - Basics of Cooking Book and looked up merangue. I carefully studied the pictures and read the directions, I beat my egg whites, added in the sugar and when it looked stiff and glossy, I stopped and laid out some merangue nests on a baking sheet and baked them as per the directions (into a warm (300 deg oven)), turn it down to 275 deg for 30 minutes and then turn the oven off overnight. I took them out when I got home tonight and they were good. A bit stuck to the baking sheet because I didn't have any parchment (to do for next time). I whipped up some cream and we had mummy pavlova - merangue nest with sliced strawberries and whipped cream. Yum! T being unadventurous chose to have chocolate pudding over mummy pavlova - oh well.