Great Goodness Granola

So over the Juy 4th holiday, I had the family up from Cleveland and Chicago to enjoy the lake and spend some quality time together. We really ejoy eating, so there’s always a bunch of food that we are stuffing our faces with. Once in a while you need a good gut reset with some crunchy, sweet and savory granola on top of a scoop of yogurt is how we like it best.

It’s not an exact science. I actually really just do a little of this and alot of that. What do you like in your granola? Or maybe you need to focus on your dislikes?

  • Oats, we use Gluten Free for personal reasons
  • Nuts, unsalted. I like using chopped almonds, pecans or walnuts. Cashews, peanuts, macadamia, hazelnuts, etc. are all good too.
  • Grains and seeds, flax seed and chia seeds are tops for me. Sesame seeds, black or white are also a nice touch.
  • Dried shaved coconut, if you like it and I know that’s a touchy subject.
  • Maple syrup or honey for sweetness
  • Fats, Butter or Olive Oil depending on your preference
  • Seasonings and herb blend, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, tumeric, ashwaganda, moringa, curry, coriander, salt, pepper, paprika, not all together, but try a few mixes of your favorites. Some folks like cinnamon and nutmeg only. I always add a little salt.
  • Add ons post roasting, these items are best included or served after the granola has baked in the oven and had a chance to cool a bit.
    • Chocolate chips, Butterscotch or peanut butter chips, or other chocolates. If you add the chocolate after you bake the granola and it’s still warm, it melts and adds this clumping action to some of the oats which is also a great treat.
    • Dried fruit, cherries, blueberries, raisins, mango, ginger, apricots, or even apples. The key is if they are big, chop them a bit more to bite size.
  • First things first, get a giant bowl and add all the dried ingredients. I don’t use a measure cup, what I do is add mostly granola, then I add any of the rest of the ingredients I like. The goal when it is mixed up is to get a bite of the add ins with a majority of the scoop being oats.
  • Secondly after you’ve mixed all the dried stuff up, get another bowl for your wet ingredients.
  • I use about a cup of oil and a third cup ish of sweet stuff on a 10 cup batch. When you mix the wet on the dry, everything should be coated a little bit. It doesn’t need to be sloppy wet, but it needs to have some moisture in order to brown nicely.
  • Bake the granola on cookie sheets in one layer at 375 degrees. Make sure you take it out and stir it around a couple different times during the baking process. It can burn easy whe it’s close to being done. I usually bake it between 30 and 45 minutes.
  • There are other folks online with more exact recipes. But it’s honestly just an easy throw in what you like and brown lightly kind of breakfast snack item that I make alot of and store in an airtight container for constant consumption and ease of use.

Wild Rice Mushroom Soup

Wild rice mushroom soup

1 tablespoon butter 

1 tablespoons olive oil 

Onion diced

Couple garlic cloves minced

Celery ribs (2ish) diced

Bunch asparagus chopped small

Package of button mushrooms sliced

1/2 cup wild rice

1/2 cup white wine

5.5-6.5 cups chicken broth(better than bouillon)

Dried mushrooms (chanterelle chopped small)

Parsley

Pepper, salt, thyme, to taste

If it doesn’t appear thick enough, make a cornstarch slurry to thicken it … or conversely thin with more broth/water

Sauté each vegetable building on the flavors, add broth and cook for 50-75 minutes until rice is done.

What is a cornstarch slurry? Add water and cornstarch and mix, I use one or two tablespoons to 1/4 cup of water. Mix well so there are no lumps or there will be lumps in your soup. Add the slurry off the heat and then stir continuously on low heat until it thickens. You can add more if it’s not quite the right consistency… but careful as it can get away from you quickly.

Grandma’s potato salad

Grandma’s potato salad from the 60th Crawford reunion July 30, 2022

Potatoes
Cucumber
Hard boiled eggs
Pickles
Ham
Celery
Onion
Paprika
Pepper
Mustard
Mayonnaise – salad dressing
Milk
Way more hard boiled egg mushed up in the sauce
Salt maybe some sugar

This is the kind of cooking that is done by taste without a real recipe. Put as much of each item in as you like, and flavor to taste.

High maintenance perfect cup of coffee

High maintenance coffee routine at our house with pour overs helps limit our intake of the highly addictive caffinated beverage. Seriously, I enjoy the cup I’m drinking more because I created it and smelled the beans along the way from being ground to the actual brewing.

Our pour over kit consists of a Boudin kettle to heat our water, a burr style coffee grinder from OXO (we had 3 from Bodin and all three went in the trash), a scale, two pour over baskets and number four coffee filters. I also have a great coffee bean from my local favorite roaster in Royal Oak, Desert Oasis Coffeehouse Roasters. When we are in Cheboygan, we get our beans from the Cheboygan Coffee Roasters.

Brass Collapsible Coffee Pour Over Basket for Travel

For Travel, we use these small light weight collapsible baskets. You can almost always buy a filter whereever you visit, but if not. These are a pretty good option to bring a long for the first few days while you get your bearings on a location for a grocery store. If I know the hotel doesn't have a kettle to heat water in the room, I travel with one of these small kettles. It also works great in our van.  Does require electricity and it is specifically for USA - 220 Volt plugs.

Lucky Peach inspired cafeteria style Zucchini pizza

focaccia dough:

1/2 tsp active dry yeast

1 1/2 cup warm water

2 cups all purpose flour (additional for kneading)

2 cups ok flour

2 tsp kosher salt

3 tsp olive oil

topping:

1/2 cup olive oil (plus more for pan)

2 medium zucchini grated (I slice mine paper thin with a salad shooter)

3/4 cup grated pecorino Romano cheese


step one:

Make the focaccia dough by combining the east and water in a bowl. Let it set aside for five minutes to bloom. Stir and flour, salt and oil until a shaggy dog forms and needed on a flowered surface for about two minutes. Shape the door and Ball put it in an oil bowl and let it rise for 24 hours. Sometimes I leave mine for three days…

step two : brush the 1/2 sheet pan with olive oil, punch down the dough and stretch it to fill the pan. Let it rise at room temperature for 20 or 30 minutes until puffy.

step three while the doors rising, prepare the topping heat, the olive oil in a skillet and hit the zucchini after a minute season with salt and cook string occasionally until the zucchini has released it’s liquid into the pan after about eight minutes

Lucky Peach Inspired Sesame Cucumber Salad

I love this book and the vegetable recipes are inventive and tasty.

My cucumber salad interpretation:

Ingredients:

two cucumbers

one scallion

sesame seeds

unsalted peanuts

sesame oil

olive oil

rice vinegar

pepper & salt

Chop the cucumber into fourths long ways, then cube it… then smash it and add a little salt. (the one pictured, I just sliced it)

Dice the scallion and smash the peanuts.

Drain the cucumber and add all ingredients together in a bowl to taste

Other herbs that work well in this are corriander/cliantro, parsley, hot chili flakes, or other fresh chili peppers.

Chill in the fridge.

Serioulsy this easy, this delicious.

For You My Friends, May You Live a Long Healthy Life

If you’ve been to the Kayser Cafe or our new location Casa de Arcoiris, you know that we both pride ourselves on healthy eating, clean fresh food, homemade preparations and shortcuts to actually make this do able in a busy life. I want to see our friends live long healthy lives full of great food, fun times and fond memories surrounding food (and music and travel). Jake and I keep each other in check and make sure neither of us give in too much to temptations… and they are everywhere.

Junk food galore. Obviously we make a decision to not have it in our house very much or very often. That being said, it’s still on the tv, commercials, pictures, smells from the neighbors baking and grilling, in the supermarket, the only options at a convenience store, and on the boulvard in the restaurants. High calorie low supplement food, things with little vitamins, but highly addictive ingredients that actually don’t help you in the long runn.

Follow along here as I share recipes that have helped us. I’ll put the receipe first and the story second. That way, you can get to the point of actually cooking what I hope will help change your habits.

I’m reading a few books on the topic of brain and body health right now… and have read a few others along the way.

Consider checking these out:

Eat to Live by Joel Furhman

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Ruben

Undo it! How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases by Dean Ornish, MD

Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age by DR Sanjay Gupta