Granola Bars

I was watching Good Eats on the DVR last week, and got intrigued by an episode where Alton made granola bars (and protein bars, too) so I decided to give it a shot. Here's the recipe, and they turn out really well. I used craisins and dried apricots for the fruit, and the one thing I'd change is to replace the sunflower seeds with sunflower seed kernels.

Tracy's had some good days, but mostly bad days lately. She's feeling really tired and sick.

Cooking

Recently, our house has experienced a sudden burst of culinary creativity. This is entirely a positive thing, although our food bill has gone up, some too. I was trying to figure out why this phenomenon has occured, when I realized: Afton is the answer!

Since she's almost 1 year old, we've mostly got her off of baby food. This is fine, except that it means we need to feed her real food, (not ramen!). Thus, I find myself cooking dinner while Tracy's at work, instead of feeding Afton a jar of baby food and microwaving a bag of popcorn for myself. Being myself, I am inclined to experiment (I always spell it expirement and have to correct myself. I don't know why!) with the food, to attempt to obtain maximum flavor.

I present to you, a compilation of recent meal menus:

Sunday dinner: Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans.
Earlier this week: Meatloaf, peas with mushrooms.
Sometime last week: Mashed potatoes, grean beans.

Tonight's dinner is going to be pork chops that I brined, according a recipe from the Food Network's website, cooked in the Scoresby family rice and porkchops tradition. Yummy.

Sunday Recipes

It's 11:20 Saturday night. Tracy isn't back from work yet, Afton's asleep, and Tomorrow is Fast Sunday. I was watching the Food Network, and decided to prep dinner for tomorrow. I'm modifying both recipes to my needs; we'll see how they do. I made the dough for the cobbler and the potatoes for the pie tonight.

I also stole the dough for the peach cobbler from Alton Brown's peach-rhubarb cobbler. (Must attribute my sources!)

Joe's Shepherd's Pie:

1/2 lb ground beef
1 pound ground sausage
1 14. oz. can green beans
1 14 oz. can whole corn kernels
1 4 oz. can mushrooms
chopped dried onion
mashed potatoes
shredded cheese

In a medium to heavy pan, brown the beef and pork. Add the dried onions, and some garlic, if desired. Once browned, drain, and mix in the mushrooms, also drained. Mix in the vegetables.

In whatever size casserole pan/dutch oven/whatever this fits in, place the meat and vegetables on the bottom, cover thickly with the potatoes, and top with shredded cheese, if desired. Bake at 400 until the mashed potatoes and cheese are golden brown.



Peach Cobbler

2 cups of flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter
1/4 stick shortening
Sliced fresh, or canned peaches
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup sugar

Mix the flour, sugar and salt. Cut in the butter and shortening just until mixed. Place in a stand blender and blend at the lowest setting. Slowly sprinkle water (1 to 3 tablespoons) until the mixture starts to come together and can hold a shape. Place in a ziploc bag, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

While the dough is chilling, mix the peaches with 1 cup sugar and the cinnamon to form a nice syrup.

Tear off about 1/3 of the dough from the bag. Take this part and pinch off pieces. more or less cover the bottom of a 9x9 pan with them. Spoon or gently pour the peaches on top. While still in the bag, roll the dough out into a sheet. Cut the bag open, and place the dough on top of the peaches, pushing it in. Bake at 375 degrees 25 to 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.