Bran Muffins

My family has few formal traditions.  How we celebrate birthdays and holidays varies a lot.  There is one weird Grinde Family Tradition that has been a constant in my life: Bran muffins on Christmas morning.  I have no idea how this started, probably by happenstance one year and it just stuck.  You see every December my mother spends most of her evenings in the kitchen making chex mix, cookies, fudge, whiskey caramels, and Irish Cream to distribute to our neighbors, friends, and her co-workers.  The other thing she makes is bran muffing batter and puts it in quart mason jars, attaches a label with baking directions and puts them in the fridge until she delivers them.  She always keeps one jar for us, and opens it on Christmas morning, spoons in into muffin tins and bakes in while we open gifts: a homemade breakfast while avoiding having to get up extra early to prepare something.

Everyone's seen those muffin mix dry ingredients layered in jars, where you have to add an egg, some oil and water.  Those are great, they are beautiful and a very practical gift but my mom likes to give away muffin batter so people don't have to add anything, just bake it.  She got this idea from the Colo United Methodist 1983's Cookbook, my maternal grandmother's sister's church (we all know that church cookbooks are the best cookbooks).  The recipe for Bran Muffins states that the muffin batter can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 weeks.  My mom has stored the muffins for up to a month before that batter starts to get weird, so I wouldn't recommend keeping it for more than 4 weeks. 

This has perplexed me (as well as Melissa : I sent her this recipe and she wondered the same thing) because the recipe's leavening comes only from baking soda, which would react immediately with the acidic buttermilk to create carbon dioxide.  So if I was just reading this recipe (and not have seen it create beautifully raised muffins after a month in the fridge a hundred times)  I would think you would need to put it in the oven right away to not lose the carbon dioxide. The recipe does specify that after removing the batter from the fridge you should NOT STIR it, just spoon it from the jar into the pans and bake.  This must be the secret to not dislodging too many pockets of carbon dioxide and getting perfect muffins every time.

No matter why the tradition was started or the magic of how the muffins work: they are delicious.  The muffins are always tender and moist, perfect right out of the oven with butter and jam.  On Christmas morning or any day these muffins never disappoint.

Bran Muffins

from Colo United Methodist 1983 Cookbook, p.57

2 cups boiling water

2 cups Kellog's All Bran (Bran Buds)

1 cup shortening

3 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 quart buttermilk

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon + 2 teaspoons baking soda

5 cups flour

4 cups Kellogg's All Bran (Original)

Pour hot water over Bran Buds and let sit for 5 minutes.  In a large mixing bowl (use the biggest one you have; this makes a lot of muffins) cream together shortening and sugar; mix in eggs, milk, and the soaked bran buds.  Stir in salt, baking soda, flour, and All Bran until the dry ingredients are all moistened.   Spoon batter into quart mason jars or large tupperware containers (this recipe will fill 4 quart mason jars + plus about 1 cup of leftover batter) and refrigerate for up to 1 month.

When ready to bake do not stir the batter, just spoon into greased muffin tins and bake on 400 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean.

Just for clarification (there are so many bran cereals out there) these are the cereals you are looking for to make this recipe:

Oatmeal Cake Cookies

A couple years ago my friend Melissa introduced me to Peas and Thank You, the food and life blog of Sarah Matheny, and I have loved it ever since. Sarah was an attorney (and is married to one) but once she had kids she decided to stay home with them.  Her blog is filled with healthy and flavorful vegan and vegetarian recipes.  Last summer, when I was working for The Soyfoods Council writing recipes for them I took a lot of inspiration from Sarah, especially in her unique uses of tofu.  In addition to being an incredible cook Sarah is also a woman of faith who doesn't shy away from sharing stories on her blog about what God is teaching her.  She often talks about She Reads Truth; a movement to get women reading the Bible daily.

I have always struggled to have a daily devotional.  I'm in the Word on Sunday mornings at worship and in preparations for the Bible Study I lead; but other than that I have been less than faithful in regularly reading the Bible and meditating on its wisdom.  So after months of seeing Sarah post on her blog about She Reads Truth I finally got signed up.  Everyday I get a devotion sent to my email including a scripture reading.  Each day I'm reading through the devo and journaling about the topics it includes.  I'm only 11 days in, but I am loving it...and keeping up with it. Hooray!

Today I was flipping through Peas and Thank You: Simple Meat-less Meals the Whole Family Will Love and found the recipe for Anytime Cookies (if you have the cookbook, it is on p. 201, last Christmas Melissa and I gave this cookbook to each other, it was pretty funny).  It is a fairly standard oatmeal cookie recipe just veganized, no butter or eggs, and healthified, lower sugar and some whole wheat flour (spell check says "veganized" and "healthified" are not a real words: whatever).  It sounded great, so I modified it slightly with different mix-ins and used chicken eggs rather than "flax-eggs."

This recipe is super simple to mix up just with a spatula or spoon, there is no need for a hand or stand mixer because the recipe uses oil instead of solid fat so you can skip creaming the fat with the sugar: just stir them together.  The dough is softer than normal cookie dough and spreads some while baking, once baked the cookies come out of the oven rounded and cakey.  Yum.

Oatmeal Cake Cookies

adapted from Anytime Cookies by Sarah Matheny

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil

1/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup Craisens

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

1/2 cup pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and lightly coat 2 baking sheets with cooking spray.  In a medium bowl stir together sugars, oil, milk, eggs, and vanilla.  In a large mixing bowl stir together flours, oats, soda, cinnamon, and salt.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until incorporated.  Add Craisens, chocolate chips, and pecans: stir until evenly distributed.  Scoop cookies onto prepared baking sheets and bake cookies for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.

Makes 24 large cookies.

Butternut Squash Mac&Cheese

Every year the students of the Culinary Science Club volunteer their time to help at the Beer, Wine, and Food Expo at HyVee Hall in Des Moines.  In return for our help we get a free glass for tasting all the  alcohol we want to try.  It is a wonderful thing.

Me and my friends: Lauren, Krissy, and Celia at the Expo

Krissy and I got to spend our time volunteering at the Local Stage, where Kristin, a food, exercise, and travel blogger from IowaGirlEats.com  was presenting about Butternut Squash Gnocchi and paired it with a beer sauce.  It was incredible.  If you scroll to the bottom of this post you can see Krissy and I looking sharp in our Chef coats in the background.  For the most part we just stood there being in awe and excitement about getting to be around a beloved blogger...and the gnocchi, but sometimes we helped pass out samples.

After this event I have been constantly on IowaGirlEats.com getting tons of inspiration from her recipes.  One that caught my eye was Butternut Squash Mac&Cheese.  I've made pumpkin Mac&Cheese before, but with canned pumpkin, this Mac&Cheese was made with a fresh squash and retained some of the texture in the final product.  Sounds Good!!

This is my version:

Check out that beautiful 9x13" pan!  I got it for my birthday from a good friend and it is changing my life!

Look at all those chunks of butternut squash!!  DELISH!!

Butternut Squash Mac&Cheese

3 cups milk (because I'm lactose intolerant I made this with unsweetened almond milk, but whatever milk you have on hand is fine)

2 cups diced onion (I LOVE onion, so I used 2 cups, I won't be offended if you use less, but even with 2 cups, the onion flavor by no means overpowers the squash and cheese)

5 cups finely chopped butternut squash (about a 1.5# squash, peeled and deseeded will yield 5 cups)

8 oz. whole wheat pasta (about 2/3 of a 13.25 oz. box), boiled in water for only 8 minutes

1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt (Lawry's)

1/2 teaspoon salt free seasoning (Mrs. Dash)

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon thyme leaves

2 Tablespoons flour

1/4 cup water

8 oz. shredded sharp cheddar

8 oz. shredded pepper jack

Preheat oven to 400F and grease a 9x13", pour pasta (that has been boiled for 8 minutes) into the pan.  

In a large saucepan, preferably nonstick, bring milk, onions, and butternut squash to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer for 10-15 minutes or until squash is tender.  Use a potato masher to break down squash as much as you want.  

In a small plastic container add seasoning salt, salt free seasoning, garlic powder, thyme, flour, and water.  Close lid tightly and shake container until no flour clumps remain.  Stream flour slurry into milk, stirring constantly.  Stir and simmer for 2-5 minutes more or until sauce is thickened.  Stir in 6 oz. of each cheese and mix until cheese is melted.  

Pour the sauce over the noodles in the pan and stir gently to combine.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes until bubbly and the cheese is starting to brown.

Beef Shoulder Tenders

My good friend Krissy had an internship with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association this past summer and learned all kinds of wonderful things about beef.  When school started up again this fall Krissy paired up with Nancy Degner, Executive Director of the Iowa Beef Industry Council, to make a presentation for the Culinary Science Club about Umami, the 5th basic taste: savory. They gave us samples  of beef with sauces such as red wine mushroom and a balsamic reduction, which are all fully of the savory, brothy, and meaty flavors that are Umami.  But this beef was like nothing I had had before.  It was tender and flavorful and not over cooked, it was utterly divine.  It was a shoulder tender, also know as a shoulder petite tender.

Shoulder tenders are from, quite obviously, the shoulder, or the chuck.   Cuts from the chuck are not known for their tenderness, and need low, slow cooking melt the collagen between all the individual muscles that make up a shoulder blade steak or pot roast. Well the shoulder tender is just one muscle, teres major, that has some marbling and no collagen, so it is as tender as a Filet Mignon, without being so expensive.  The shoulder tenders are usually 7-10 oz. a piece and cost 5.99-6.99/pound. This cut is relatively new on the market, because it takes a lot of skill and know how to extract the teres major from the other muscles in the chuck (I could name all these muscles, because I am currently in the class Foods of Animal Origins where we have to memorize almost all the muscles in all food animals, but I won't bore you with that).  I can only get shoulder tenders at Fareway, a grocery store with knowledgeable butchers.  So if you can't find them in the meat case at your grocery store just ask one of the friendly meat department staff and they can probably order you some.

After Krissy and Nancy introduced me to shoulder tenders I have been obsessed.  They are simple to prepare and positively delicious.  I couldn't wait for my brother to come home for Thanksgiving so I could make them for him.  And boy did he love it.

This is how I prepare shoulder tenders:

2 shoulder tenders (about 1.5#)
2 teaspoons Lawry's Seasoning Salt
1 teaspoon course ground black pepper
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 onions, sliced thin

Preheat oven to 450F.  Liberally season all sides of shoulder tenders with seasoning salt and pepper. Melt butter in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat, add oil.  Place shoulder tenders in skillet and turn heat up to high.  Sear tenders on all sides, until dark golden brown, about 3-5 minutes.  Place skillet in oven and cook for 10-20 minutes depending on how done you want the tenders.  When desired doneness is reached (at least 145F) remove from the oven and place tenders on a cutting board and tent with foil (while they are resting the temp will rise ~5 degrees, just keep that in mind).   Add the onions to the skillet (don't drain the skillet!) and cook, stirring often, until onions are softened and browned, about 10 minutes.  When the onions are done, slice the tenders 1/2" thick and serve with onions.

Baked potato and homemade Apple Nut Rolls: optional.  Impressing whomever you make shoulder tenders for: inevitable.

Apple Nut Rolls

I love the holidays because I get to spend all day in the kitchen using pounds of butter and no one can give me the stink eye about it, because cooking with Paula Deen amounts of butter is what you're supposed to do during the holidays.

Apple Nut Rolls are my mom's go to yeast roll recipe, and for good reason, they are fabulous. She got the recipe from her college roommate's mother, Mrs. Zorn, who made them all the time, much to the delight of her family and friends.

For Thanksgiving tomorrow my family is heading to my Grandparents' in Ames, and my grandma put me in charge of the cranberry sauce, rolls, and a pie.  I was going to make a pie with tofu in it, but Fareway didn't have any tofu and I wasn't going to make a trip to HyVee just for tofu, so I ended up making a peanut butter pie with cream cheese instead.  Although Iowa is the leading producer of soybeans, we sure don't seem to be very hip on tofu. Bummer.

If you know me at all, you know I don't like to follow recipes...they are merely for inspiration.  So when making the rolls today I just made it up: some milk, yeast, sugar, salt, and flour.  Well I used too much whole wheat flour, evidenced by the picture below.  The rolls barely rose at all.  Bah humbug.  They still taste good (probably due to the inordinate amount of butter I brushed on them before baking) so I'll bring them to Thanksgiving tomorrow anyway, but I wanted my family to have quality rolls too, so I begrudgingly went to my mom's recipe box and pulled out the recipe for Apple Nut Rolls.

Mrs. Zorn's rolls always come out a little crusty on the outside and fluffy on the inside.  Applesauce gives them the perfect sweetness and walnuts add an interesting crunch, not to mention how beautiful they are, as evidenced by the picture below.

Apple Nut Rolls

by Mrs. Zorn

1 packet (2.25 teaspoons) rapid rise yeast

3/4 cup milk, scalded

1/4 cup water

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup melted butter

1 egg

1.5 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

4-5 cups flour

Whisk together yeast, milk, water, applesauce, sugar, butter, egg, and salt.  Stir in walnuts and flour by the cupful until a dough forms.  Pour onto your clean counter and knead in remaining flour until dough is firm and no longer stiff (knead at least 10 minutes).  Let rise in a greased bowl, covered with a tea towel until doubled in size, about an hour.

Punch down dough, and form into 20 rolls, place in a greased pan, cover with tea towel and let raise for 30 minutes more.  Bake at 375F for 20-30 minutes until golden brown on top.

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dip

The theme at the last Culinary Science Club meeting was peanut butter.  I wanted to bring something with peanut butter, but also pumpkin because it had just started to feel like fall.  So this is what I came up with.

1 cup peanut butter, melted

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1 (8 oz.) tub whipped topping, thawed

Whisk together peanut butter, pumpkin, spice, vanilla, and sugar.  Fold in whipped topping.  Refrigerate for at least an hour.  

I served this dip with gingersnap cookies.  This would also make a awesome mousse for filling a pumpkin jelly roll cake, or a trifle.

Butternut Squash Soup

 I love fall; how cool breezes blow through the trees as their leaves change from green to gold, how all the farmer's markets are brimming with squashes, and how my birthday is right in the midst of fall. :)

This recipe was inspired by a beautiful butternut squash I got from Table Top Farm
at the Ames Mainstreet Farmers Market.

1 butternut squash (about 2-3 pounds)
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 large apple, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 Tablespoon butter
½ teaspoon lawrys seasoning salt
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 cups red wine ( I like the flavor of red wine better than white, but the red wine makes the soup a duller orange color, so if that is an issue for you, use white wine)
1 can coconut milk
1 cup vegetable broth

Preheat oven to 400F. Slice butternut squash in half lengthwise, and remove seeds. Use the teaspoon of oil to coat the flesh of the squash. Place squash on a baking sheet flesh side up and roast for 25-30 minutes or until tender.

Meanwhile saute onion, apple, butter, seasoning salt, thyme, and pumpkin pie spice in stock pot until onion and apple are golden brown. Add to food processor and puree til smooth, add back to stock pot. Add wine to puree and simmer until reduced by half.

When the squash is done: scoop flesh of squash into a food processor and puree until smooth.

Add coconut milk, vegetable broth, and pureed squash. Bring to a simmer for at least 5 minutes.

If you would like the soup thinner just add more wine or broth. If you have a hand blender eliminate the food processor steps and just puree the soup after all the ingredients are in the pot.