Samosas, not Samoas.

I often get asked to bring appetizers to my in-law type gatherings. I think it all started when I was put randomly in charge and as I looked for a good holiday type appetizer I came across a recipe in like Good Housekeeping or Family World or something like that and it was a huge hit.

The recipe was for a shallot, fig and goat cheese thing on crustini, so everyone, except my husband's youngest sister loved it, and ever since then I'm often designated to something to keep the kids out of the main meals.

My father in law, my husband, his brother, his oldest sister and his younger sister to an extent are all ingredient pickers. They march into the kitchen, hang out and grab things off the cutting board or straight out of the pan. It can be aggravating as you cut enough of something and they all march through and take one or two, and then you need to cut more!

They also eat pasta. Dry, hard, raw, uncooked pasta. And dough. I'm making bread, muffins, cookies, doesn't matter, everyone needs a scoop of dough. To make matters worse my brother in law's girlfriend is also a dough eater, another person, just munchin' down my dough.

Over the years I have tried to come up with the perfect samosa recipe. I love these little fried dumplings, and while I know, yes fried things are delicious, I really like these. They're salty and spicy and you dip them in sweet chutney. So marvelous. I've tried everything for the wrapper from philo dough to strudel dough and tortillas. I worked with a gal for a while who was from India, or nearby and she made the best samosas, and she said she just used tortillas, but they never work for me. They don't fold, they don't work right. I have decided that the thing to do is to make your own tortillas and then instead of dry frying them, deep fry them.

As it turns out, whether or not this is correct, it IS delicious. I tried a couple variations on my dough, and I've come to the conclusion that you do need some masa, and really you should head for pie dough, and not for a mixed dough.

I normally don't fry anything. I fry maybe once every two years. This year is special as I've had things fried in my house twice now. I don't like to fry mostly because of the smell and the mess. I like my subway tile pristine, and the top of my stove to be gleaming white. I strongly dislike all the tiny droplets of oil that get all over everything, including the floor. However once in a while you have to fry, but it's really not a regular option in my kitchen, what with the lingering smell and all. Oh, another point of contention. It's not healthy. I don't give a rat's batooskie what the article in Cooking Light said. I've read them all and they all say 'if properly done, deep fried food's really not that bad for you.' WRONG! No, you've taken that item and submerged it in hot oil. There is NO WAY that food is now good for you. You notice the choice of words "not that bad". That's right, it's still not good for you, just less bad. If you have a fry daddy at home, perhaps you should reevaluate your cooking methods to something that doesn't involve you 'saving your frying oil.'

I was watching Paula Dean, who I love, and she spent a long time about how to care for your frying oil. I was kind of confused, because oil goes rancid after a few months, and with the infrequency of my frying, well why am I saving it? No, I just buy new oil every time. Another thing I dislike about frying: what do I do with the oil when I'm done? How do I get rid of that? I feel like it should go into compost, or I should contact someone who makes bio-diesel. "Hello, I have two cups of used cooking oil, would you like it?"


Normally when you make samosas you also make mint and tamarind chutney. I love these two chutneys, they are amazing. Tamarind chutney is also really easy to make, however on this day I did not have tamarind hanging about. I did remember that my mom had given me a chutney (peach and mango) that she had made a few years ago, and she told me it would 'be good with chicken'. I don't think she thought it was very good. Or she doesn't know how to properly apply the deliciousness contained within the jar. I opened it up, tested it, and was like hooray! Winner! It was sweet, yet had lots of cinnamon and strong spices in it. Not spicy hot, so the proper application for samosas. I apologize for not being able to tell you what she did, I can only tell you that it was great.

You might have to make the dough mixture more than once. Also you are going to need a tortilla press for this. I know you can magically pat out tortillas by hand, but I am not a magical Hispanic lady who's been doing it all my life. I am in fact a gringo, and need tortilla press help. One hint for your press, get a ziplock bag and cut it open, then press the dough into that. It works really well, and makes the whole process totally painless.

Patty's Samosas

Ingredients:

3-4 russet potatoes
3 Tbs garham masala
1 tsp. turmeric
2 green Thai chilies
1 sweet onion, finely chopped
2 Tbs. butter
2 Tbs. grapeseed oil
1/2 C. organic green peas
1 Tbs. kosher salt

3 C. King Arthur All purpose flour
1 C. tortilla masa
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 C. grapeseed oil

Oil for frying

Method:

Get your oil ready, it should bubble when you drop a pinch of dough in it.

In a large pot of water put your peeled and diced potatoes and turmeric to boil until the potatoes are soft and tender. Drain and set aside. In a pan bring the oil and butter to melt, and when the butter is no longer foaming add the garham masala, chili, onion and salt. Cook for a minute then add the potatoes and lightly mash. Stir in the peas. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a bowl combine the flour, masa and baking powder. Stir well and add the salt and oil. Then add just enough water to bring the dough together. Be careful not to over mix, think pie dough. Knead the dough maybe once or twice to ensure it's mixed well.

Pinch off a bit of dough about the size of a golf ball. Place this in the tortilla press and press flat. Peel off and set on a floured surface. Place a Tbs of potato mixture in the middle of your dough and shape to a triangle. Pinch up two sides to halfway down, then pinch up the remaining side to form a triangle.

Repeat.

When you have six or so triangles place into your hot oil, over medium high heat, think like placing pieces of pie, so you can fit six or so pieces in your pan at once. Cook for 5-7 minutes on the first side, or until they are crispy and golden brown. Turn over and cook for a further five minutes. Drain on towels and serve warm with chutney.

What am I going to bring?

We all go to BBQ's and pot lucks and parties where we're supposed to 'bring something'. It's always really helpful to be told 'oh whatever you bring will be fine.' When you people say this there is the potential to end up with six kinds of chips, fourteen dips and no salad. It's always a good potluck when you have tons of plates and no food.

There is also the problem of bringing something that everyone likes, everyone makes, and no one will remember what you brought. Potato salad is one of those things. It's popular and easy to make, so it often falls into my radar of something to bring.

Most potato salad is really bad. People are making it with a plain base and when you eat it you think to yourself, gosh, this tastes like mush. There's no crunch, no flavor, and the potatoes are almost always over or under cooked.

I say to you break free! Tell that hostess or host to stick it up their wazoo, you're not going to bring chips! You will not bring the mundane! So in searching for the not mundane, yet tasty potato salad you might run across some that don't include mayonnaise. WTF? Who came up with that idea? A light vinegar dressing? You know what, potato salad isn't good for you. If you're trying to lose weight, don't eat tons of potatoes. Starches are not the dieter's friend and we all know it, you just want to kid yourself into thinking that what you have made is somehow 'healthy' and what we all want is mayonnaise laden potato chunks.

Well now, we've got ourselves painted into a corner, we must use mayonnaise, it can't be healthy, but must be fun and original. Well I did have a little brain wave a while ago, and I made a blue cheese potato salad that was delightful. I think the only thing it really needed was probably grapes, so if you make it, add grapes.

Now I know some people go on and on about bacon. Bacon, bacon, bacon. Put it in everything, it makes everything better. I try to steer clear of using bacon to make my food better because when you use bacon, it's all you taste. The true mark of a good cook is that you can make food taste good without resorting to a food that masks all other flavors. I did not put bacon into my potato salad and I would advise against it. When you go to a BBQ there are already lots of strong flavors happening, the potato salad doesn't really need more. Honestly too, blue cheese is a strong flavor and you're going to ruin the subtle flavors you're trying to meld. You can't just go around mixing tons of strong flavors together and hope to get something truly remarkable every time.

I came up with this on a whim. I don't really like blue cheese, but every once in a while, and in the proper context, it is good. I don't mind a little bit, and I prefer a milder blue cheese.

Now to make truly good potato salad you need to make your own mayonnaise. My mom has always used Miracle Whip (gross), and I grew up in a house where there was always salad dressing and mayonnaise avaliable. My mom would throw both of those and a large variety of other condiments into the bowl. I don't do this, as when you make your own mayonnaise you don't need to be adding mustard to create the dressing, it's in the dressing you already made.This is a much better process, there's less mixing, so your potatoes won't end up mushed and there is even distribution of all your many many condiments. I think my mom's really just complicating the process. And making inferior potato salad. Sorry Mom, but it's true.

I actually didn't use all of this dressing when I made the salad, and later used it to make a wrap, I marinated flank steak in a garlic rosemary marinade and then put the thinly sliced steak, a piece of provolone cheese, lettuce and a garden fresh tomato and a bit of the dressing on a FlatOut wrap and grilled it all. It was delightful and healthy. That's the beauty of your own mayonnaise, you can use it for all sorts of things and it tastes so good! And since you're making it yourself you know it's made of good healthy things and not chemicals and crap.

This might seem long and complicated, well, shut up! If you want quality it will take effort, you can't just half ass all of life.

Blue Cheese Potato Salad

Ingredients:

3 lbs. baking potatoes, such as Yukon or russet
1 small sweet onion
1 C. raw pecan halves
2 Tbs. grapeseed oil
3 Tbs. organic sugar
1 C. organic dried cranberries
2 C. red grapes
3 hard boiled farm fresh eggs
2 raw farm fresh eggs
1 Tbs. kosher salt
1/3 lb. mild blue cheese - divided
2 C. grapeseed oil
3 Tbs. yellow mustard
1 lemon
several dashes organic Worcestershire sauce
two dashes Tabasco sauce

Method:

Cut your potatoes into small chunks, not too small, boil in chicken stock (or water) until they are firm, yet tender. This should only take about four to six minutes. Immediately plunge into an ice water bath to stop cooking. Set aside.

In a large frying pan heat 2 Tbs. of oil and the sugar. Coarsely chop the pecan halves and stir into the pan. Toss these until the sugar melts and the pecans are coated. Turn out onto foil and allow to cool completely.

Coarsely chop the boiled eggs and finely chop the onion. Put the onion, cooled pecans, cranberries, grapes, eggs, and 1/2 the blue cheese - crumbled - into a large bowl. Toss together

In your blender put two raw eggs, mustard, the juice from 1 lemon, Worcestershire, Tabasco, 1/2 the blue cheese, some salt and pepper, and a little of the oil. Turn the blender on and slowly pour the remaining oil in until a thick mayonnaise forms. You may not need all of the oil, or you may need a little more. If you feel that your mayonnaise is done, but not real thick, let it rest in the fridge for a bit and it will thicken up.

Taste your mayonnaise, it might need something stirred in, more Worcestershire, more Tabasco, maybe more lemon. Adjust as needed.

Lay out your potatoes to dry on a cloth, carefully pat dry or let drain for several minutes. Sprinkle with 1 Tbs. Kosher salt. Add the potatoes to the mixture in your bowl and toss. Pour over dressing and carefully stir, being careful not to mash the potatoes.

Remember that raw eggs will kill you, don't be stupid, this shouldn't just hang out in the sun.

Something smells fishy

Once upon a time we went fishing with Joe. Well, really we went fishing with Joe and his dad. Joe's dad was a tug boat captain, and is now a harbor pilot, you don't get much more nautical than that. He has the Pudget Sound memorized! If anyone knows where the elusive fish hide, it is this man. He's better than the fish finder, that's for sure.

When we went, we caught many a fish, and only have a little left. The reason we still have fish left is because Joe and his dad package whole fish together. Giant fillets, stacked together. This means that we can BBQ it, been there, done that, or I have to make a ton of food, and my hubby doesn't really like fish very much. I think if they packaged less fish in one pouch it would be less intimidating.

I made civeche, and that was good, fun, but I think I prefer whitefish to salmon. I'm not going to tell you about it, except that I used a hot pepper from my garden and an onion that I grew myself.

If you don't know, I will tell you what civeche is. It is raw seafood mixed together with spices and vegetables and lime juice.

If you are going to make civeche make sure everything you use is very, very fresh. There's no real wrong way to make it, it's just raw seafood throw together with some other basic ingredients. I know it sounds weird, but when you put the meat into the lime juice it really does cook. Chemistry, it's cool. Just because there's no heat being applied doesn't make the meat uncooked. It looks cooked, it has the same texture, and when it's hot out, it means that dinner is really easy to make.

I made this great civece salad, my husband didn't like it. It's everything the dieting woman needs, low cal, low fat, easy, tasty... it isn't very filling on it's own as it turns out.

The next day, I made something that I reserve for low carb times: coconut curry. Coconut milk is so bad for you it's mind boggling. In one cup there can be as many as 750 calories, depending on the brand you buy. If I make anything with coconut milk I make sure that I use a light type and I don't put much in. I also make sure that I'm not carbo loading as that's a recipe for bigger pants.

That aside, I do love curry. I make mine with a paste that I purchase pre-made at one of the many pan Asian grocery stores I love so near and dear to my heart. It comes in a plastic tub and costs about a dollar. You open them up and move the paste from a sealed bag to the tub for storage. It's great, the flavor is good and it's easy to adjust the amount of spice/flavor. They come in all sorts of varieties too, maussauman, red, green, yellow, panang, etc.

I found out that salmon makes for great curry at a wonderful little restaurant called Ruby. They make the best cocktails, fresh and tasty. The food is also quite good, with a pan Asian flare.

When you look at the photo you might notice that I have my curry on noodles, these are shiritaki noodles. Traditional in Japan, they are normally made from yams and have a very low calorie content. This particular type, from House Foods, have a little tofu in them. There are 40 calories in one pouch of noodles. I can have my dinner and feel like I'm really getting a normal sized portion for a very small number of calories. You can get them most places now, I've even seen them at places like QFC, a Kroger chain. The real trick to using these is to drain, rinse, and boil them for a bit, and drain them well again before you cook them in your sauce.

Being that I had a giant pile of fish to finish up, and I can grow my own onions I went to work at made a great green curry.

Salmon Curry

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs salmon, cut into cubes
1 diced onion
minced garlic
minced ginger
1 bunch beet greens cut into strips
2 carrots cut up
1 C. shredded cabbage
2 potatoes cut into cubes
1 C. light coconut milk
1 C. water
1-3 Tbs. green curry paste
salt and pepper

Method:

Spray your pan with cooking spray. Cook the onion, garlic and ginger for 5 minutes.
Add the coconut milk, water and curry paste, cook this for 5 minutes, turn the heat to medium and add the vegetables and salt and pepper. Cook for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are almost tender. Add the fish and stir in. Cook 15 minutes or until your fish is firm, and done. Serve over rice, serves 4.

Stolen Desserts

So lately my husband decided that we needed an upgrade. This means that he removed all of my programs from the computer. I have no way to edit my pictures now, and MS has decided to be bitches and not add any sort of software with which to edit pictures. I think there was one in our MS suite, but apparently I don't get even that any more. I don't know what I'm going to do, as asking for the software back hasn't gotten me anywhere!

Anyhow, I have been cooking. The diet marches slowly on, and I still have a major sweet tooth. I do love sweets, and really I prefer chocolate. Though sometimes berries can ... kind of... do the trick. The reason to eat sweets with berries is because they are healthier for me than eating tons of chocolate. I have several basic recipes that I make that involve sliced berries with Splenda and a touch of sugar and non-fat, sugar free pudding.

I have heard all you hippies out there who say that artificial sweeteners are bad for me; that they still raise blood sugar, and did you know that started out as a pesticide? You know what, I don't care. I don't. I like sweets, eating sugar makes me fat, and honestly you can stick in your... well you get the idea. So I use Splenda, I tried Stievia and my husband and I agreed that it's really bad. It tastes like plastic. Splenda has it's issues too, if you use too much you get a weird taste, so I usually use it in moderation. I did make some jam this year that has a very low sugar content and then I added Splenda to it, to help with the sweetness, and I don't think my husband can tell. It tastes fine. I mean, it's not as good as some of the other jams I've made, and the blueberry is better than the raspberry, but for all that each tablespoon of my jam only has 15-20 calories in it, depending on the berry flavor.

Not all to long ago my mother in law brought over a dessert for a dinner party we had. It was defiantly not a healthy dessert, though it was trying to masquerade as one. Let me tell you about it. It had a pie crust (not healthy), a layer of sweetened cream cheese (high fat, and sugar), a giant pile of raspberries (OK, those might be healthy), and a sauce made from simple syrup, three tablespoons of sugar jello and two tablespoons of full sugar jam. In the simple syrup you put a cup, a cup of sugar. I can't tell you that it was bad, because it was fantastic, but it was also loaded with hidden fat calories and lots of sugar, which goes right to my thighs. Oh did I mention we covered it in whipped cream?

I want to be clear about this, I am guesstimating the number of points/calories here, but there seem to be 7 points (without whipped cream) in one slice of this pie. That's 350 calories, a meal for me. So while that's OK once in a while, I need something sweet that I can eat when I get sweet cravings, which is pretty much all the time.

I haven't perfected this yet, but I am willing to share with you what I did. I made one with blueberries, and one with strawberries, and that's only because raspberry season is over. I like the blueberries better, but the pictures are strawberry so that's what you get.

I think if you read the recipe you can see where I'm going with this. You could also do something with angel food cake in cups, that would work too. Really the basis for all low cal, low fat desserts include berries and nonfat, sugar free pudding. Or Jell-O, take your pick. This recipe only has 3 points per serving, if you cut it into 8 slices, that's 150 calories, 200 less the previously mention one.

Creamy Strawberry dessert

Ingredients:

1 C. water
1/3 C. organic sugar
1/3 C. Splenda
1 tsp. sugar free lemon jello
4-6 C. strawberries, quartered
1 C. graham cracker crumbs
1 Tbs. melted butter
cooking spray
1/2 C. low fat buttermilk
1 C. non fat organic milk
61 g. sugar free jello mix (vanilla)
1 tsp. good vanilla

Method:

In a bowl use your fingers to mix the butter into the graham cracker crumbs, being sure to distribute the butter evenly. Press into the bottom of a pie pan, and spray with cooking spray. Bake the crust in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Set on the counter and cool completely.

In a small saucepan heat the water and sugar to boiling, remove from heat and add the Splenda and jello. Mix until dissolved and let cool until just warm.

Whisk together the milk, buttermilk, vanilla and pudding mix. Pour the pudding into the cooled pie crust and top with the berries. Pour the cooled syrup over the berries and let cool in the fridge for about 4 hours. Serve with non fat whipped cream (it exists, and it's not weird).

Dol sot leftover roast

We still have roast. I bought a giant roast, 10 lbs for a party and I slow cooked it. The party was a small one, and there were only 8 people there. I forced roast beast on everyone I could and my roast was maybe 1/3 of the way gone. I still had like six or seven pounds of roast left after the party. I did cut it in half and stick half in the freezer, so we can take a break from eating roast.

I'm getting the first leftover half almost gone, which is still like three pounds of roast to get through. Why did I do this you ask? Because it was so economical! I got this giant roast for not even twenty bucks! As the party was a murder mystery game party, I also wanted something that I could cook and then not mess with during game play. We had a simple menu: Roast, mashed taters, and salad. I also provided a veggie tray, chips and dip and my husband made blueberry pie. I felt like a genius of not over prepping and finding things that I didn't have to cook during the party. So it's a two pronged answer I suppose, one it was cheap, two, it was easy to cook. If you don't know how to cook a roast there is something wrong with you. I looked at a whole bunch of recipes and they all said the same thing: put roast in oven, wait. Well of course I knew that, I was just looking for a better way to cook a giant roast than throw it in the oven. I ended up with directions from America's Test Kitchen. I used the rub I had left over from the brisket, and voila! Roast.

Needless to say we've been eating a lot of roast. It was a lean roast, so I think the slow cooking helped to keep it moist. That's nice for left overs, and I cooked it on the rare side, so the leftovers can be heated, without drying out and overcooking. I think if you're planning to have leftovers you really should try to cook your meat more rare, they hold up better in leftovers when they aren't cooked too much in the first place.

Last night I made dol sot bi bim bap. It's a Korean dish of veggies, meat and rice served in a special hot stone bowl. The stone bowl keeps the food warm and cooks it a bit, it also crisps up the rice into little crispy bits of yummy rice. This dish is involved. It takes lots of prep time, and I learned last night that white rice crisps up better than brown. I was going to use white, but I found that we are out, so I used the brown rice, and well... it was still good, but I didn't get the little cracker like rice bits.

Korean food is amazing. It's really good, and very healthy. Traditionally the Koreans don't fry, and they eat a lot of vegetables with every meal. Of course you can go seek out the things that aren't healthy in every culinary culture, but on the whole they eat very healthy food.

I do in fact own the bowls you need for this dish, I love it that much. I asked my husband for some for Christmas, and he did find a similar bowl at Uwajimaya, that's used for Japanese cooking, so I'm sure you can find something too. If you don't have a bowl like this there are alternatives: you don't have to use the bowl, you can just make bi bim bap, cook your egg to sunny side up and serve on a plate. The other option is to use a small cast iron pan.

Traditionally you wouldn't use the vegetables I used. I went out to my garden and used those vegetables. It doesn't really matter what you use, as long as you season the vegetables properly. I have two Korean cook books and went on a month long cooking quest to learn to do it right. We ate nothing but Korean meals for a whole month, and now I'm rather confident that I can make fairly good Korean food, even if I don't always use traditional vegetables. Last night, being on a diet, I did use a fat free egg substitute, and it worked out fine for my egg. It wasn't as rich, but that's kind of the point. If you would rather do that, by all means, feel free.



Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap

Vegetables:

1 Beet - baked
1/3 lb green beans, cut into small bite sizes
3 inches of peeled and grated daikon radish
6 mushrooms - quartered
1 bunch of beet greens
1 bunch green onions - sliced
sesame oil
salt
Splenda or sugar
Korean red chili flakes
garlic
Kimchee
4 oz. roast
2 farm fresh egg yolks
2 C. rice

1/2 C. Korean fermented red chili paste
2 tsp. garlic
2 Tbs. rice wine vinegar
2 Tbs. soy sauce
2 tsp. splenda

Method:

Put your stone bowls into a 425 degree oven.

Peel and slice the beets into small bite sizes. Set aside. Bring a large pot of water to boil and add the green beans for about five or six minutes. Drain and put in cold water bath. Be careful not to overcook your beans. Allow the beans to dry and toss them with a 1/2 tsp. sesame oil and some salt. Set aside. Put the daikon into a bowl and sprinkle with 2 tsp. kosher salt. Allow to sit for 15 minutes. Rinse with water and squeeze dry. Add 1-2 tsp. splenda and a shake or two of red chili flakes, toss together. If you like you can also add green onion. Set aside. Heat a pan to medium high, add 1/2 tsp sesame oil, and spray with cooking spray. Add 1 tsp. minced garlic, a pinch of salt and the mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms until they are limp, for about 7 minutes. Set aside. Remove the stems and middle vein from the beet greens. Finely slice them horizontally.In the same pan add 1/2 tsp. sesame oil and spray with cooking spray. Add 1 tsp. minced garlic and a pinch of salt. Add the greens and saute for 5 minutes or until wilted. If your beet greens are older, cook them an additional 3 minutes.Set aside. Slice roast into small pieces, that would be easy to pick up with chop sticks. Set your kim chee into individual serving bowls.

To make the sauce mix the chili paste, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and splenda together in a bowl until smooth.

Remove bowls from oven and set on gas stove at medium heat. Spray with cooking spray and divide rice between bowls. On top of rice, being careful of arrangement, divide the little dishes you have made between the bowls. Brown should not be next to brown, and green should not be next to green. Be sure to add some green onion in one spot. On top of all this place one egg yolk and serve.

To eat, break the yolk open and stir together the whole bowl. Add the sauce and keep stirring.

Muffins of the English

I know I haven't been posting, it's a problem for me. I have things to do and really we've not been having very exciting food. I bought this giant roast for a dinner party and I knew there would be left overs, but it's roast, it's not like it take a genius to figure out how to slice it into sandwiches. My husband rarely complains about roast sandwiches, and it's been hot so I haven't felt like cooking anything complicated at all.

I have to lose some weight, I've been trying and doing a fair job of it, but I'm done futzing around now. So I've started tracking my points on WW (Weight Watchers), because if I go on a rigid diet I'll fail. I like the WW because I get the chance to eat what I want, in moderation, and I can exercise to make up for my indiscretions. This isn't an ad, it's just the tool I use to lose weight. So I only get 20 points for the day, along with my weekly bank I can eat around 25 points a day, that's not a lot of food (in theory only 1250 calories if I eat 25 points). I am amazing at making very low point meals, I have to be, otherwise I wouldn't get to eat anything.

I got my husband to join up to, for solidarity, and he's so good at the program. I am proud of him, and I know he makes a lot of sacrifices, but sometimes it feels like it just happens so easily for him. I struggle and work out and I'm hungry and I don't lose weight, while he's over there at a maintenance weight, still losing a bit. It's not fair, and it's harder when I work so hard and my weight goes up.

Anyhow, I decided that I want some English Muffins, now the low fat, high fiber ones you get at the store are gross. They're all stiff and toast weird. Also how come the health ones never come in good flavors? They're like 'Ultra Flax Flavor' or 'Double Fiber and Grit'! Gross, and just because I'm on a diet doesn't mean I don't want my food to taste good. I like English muffins, and I like cinnamon raisin in flavor. However one cinnamon raisin muffin has like five points in it. That's a meal for me there and I don't have anything on it at all! It's just the muffin, no egg to go with it, no jam on top. I have made English muffins before, and they're super easy to make, but I don't make them in rings. I had a cook book that was my grandmothers, I gave it to an aspiring vegan, as it was a super health conscious book. That book made the muffins like they were little rounds, and not from a batter. This works just fine. You don't need the stupid rings, and there is no chance of scratching your nice non-stick griddle surface with them, when you don't use them.

I also use whole wheat flour, as it's supposed to be good for you, and I like the grainyness of whole wheat. I use a high quality flour, and so should you. If you're going to be using whole wheat you want it to be well ground and from a good tasting wheat. Otherwise you're just making super gritty breads that don't taste good. I've used several brands and I have settled on King Aurthur's white whole wheat. You can almost certainly find it locally, and though it costs more, it is some of the nicest whole wheat flour you'll ever find. If you don't like whole wheat, my husband doesn't, but also understand that white flour really isn't good for you I do have a suggestion. I often will buy two bags of flour, one white whole wheat (it has a mild flavor) and one of regular. Mix them together and use that flour as you would regular flour. Also, if you buy bleached flour you should stop. Don't do that anymore. Unbleached only, no exceptions.

You might notice that my directions are for a food processor. I love my food processor. They're great for making bread, sometimes I look at the bread makers and then realize that after the food processor, I don't really need one. Also they do other things, so that's a tool that multitasks. If you want directions for how to make bread by hand: welcome to the interwebs.

This makes 16 muffins, keep some out for the next few days and freeze the rest and thaw as needed. I also like to make them for crowds of people, as most people have never had a fresh English muffin, and they are fantastic hot off the griddle.


Ingredients:

2 tsp. yeast
1/3 C. warm water
3 C. white whole wheat flour
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/3 C. Splenda
3 Tbs. cinnamon
2/3 C. lowfat buttermilk - if you need a substitute use some yogurt and milk mixed together, at least half yogurt.
2 Tbs. grape seed oil
1/3 C. organic rasins

Method:

Mix the yeast with the water and set aside for 5 minutes. In your food processor mix the flour, cinnamon, splenda and salt together. Pour in the yeast mixture, oil and about 1/3 cup of the buttermilk. Turn on the food processor and slowly add the remaining milk until the dough comes together in a soft clump. You'll be able to tell a soft clump by looking at it after you make enough bread in the food processor. Until then, use your finger and poke. Knead the bread in the machine for about sixty seconds. Add the raisins and knead until combined.


Turn the dough out into an oiled bowl. Let rest for 1-2 hours, until double in size. On a floured surface roll out the dough and cut with a biscuit cutter into 16 rounds about 3 inches across. Set the rounds on a floured surface for 20-40 minutes. Heat a griddle to 325 degrees. Cook your rounds for 3 minutes per side, until they are puffy and golden to dark brown. Remove from heat and cool on a towel.