Tiffany Haugen

Another guest blog post from my son, Braxton.Looking for an easy make-ahead, healthy, hearty breakfast? Look no further than the quick and portable, breakfast in a jar, Overnight Blueberry Oatmeal & Chia Yogurt Parfait. The inspiration of this recipe came from The Hungry Girl blog.Overnight Blueberry Oatmeal & Chia Yogurt Parfait

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1/2 cup milk*
• Dash of salt
• 3/4 cup plain yogurt
• 2 tablespoons vanilla syrup*
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1 pint mason jar
• *Any milk type product can be substituted – almond, hemp, soy or coconut milk
• *Any sweetener can be substituted or it can be left out – sugar, honey, agave or stevia.

In a small bowl mix oatmeal, chia seeds, milk, 1 tablespoon vanilla syrup and a dash of salt. Put half of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of a mason jar. Add a layer of blueberries. In another small bowl, mix yogurt with the other tablespoon of vanilla syrup. Put half of the yogurt mixture on the blueberry layer. Add another layer of blueberries. Add the rest of the oatmeal and another layer of blueberries. Add the yogurt and top with remaining blueberries. Put a lid on the jar and let sit overnight in the refrigerator. Keep refrigerated until ready to eat.Recipe recap: Breakfast can become a complicated endeavor rather quickly. Mornings are often when the weight of the day’s tasks take shape, and life without coffee or food is rather unpleasant. That’s why for our time in the kitchen this week, we decided to take on the project of making morning nourishment a little easer for all parties involved. Prior to going to bed, we placed the aforementioned contents into a jar, allowing them to take shape and come together overnight. When visiting the fridge the following morning in a state of mass disillusion (a little sleepy), a quaint jar of pretentious Greek yogurt mixed with blueberries and oatmeal was looking back. The meal was surprisingly good, mixing quite the array of flavors together nicely. With each bite came the freshness of the blueberries, the tartness of the yogurt, the fullness of the oats all encapsulated in homemade vanilla syrup. If there was an area for improvement it would be in how the meal was organized in nature. The bottom of the cup was far too packed with texture-heavy oatmeal, it all but took the joy of the last bites away. With that said, this is a rather easy fix by putting a layer of yogurt and berries in first, and is one I will surely tend to in the next go around. 

This is how we create recipes when we don’t want to go shopping. This guest blog post is Kazden’s version of our favorite salad… we call it Yard Salad because almost everything in it is from the backyard.

Here’s Kazden… There’s nothing like the taste of freshly picked produce. I came up with this salad based on several salads I have seen my mom make over the years. On this sunny, spring day in the middle of April. Here’s what we had growing in our garden, pots and raised beds.

We picked collard greens from our raised beds.

We picked mustard greens from our garden canoe.

Some collard flowers for garnishing, these are growing like weeds.

The asparagus in a raised bed just started coming in a few weeks ago and it’s growing fast!

A tip when using chives is not to use the ones with buds, the stem is tough. You can however use the chive flowers as a garnish, once they have opened up. These grow like weeds too, we put them on everything!

Herbs make a flavorful addition to many dishes and taste great in salad, here’s some parsley. It keeps reseeding itself in some of our flower pots.

A little mint goes a long way, I only used about 8 leaves for the salad. We had lots of types of mint that overwintered in pots.

Here we have all of the ingredients, washed and ready for chopping.

Before chopping, get rid of the tough stems on the greens. You can remove the stem of the greens like this, with a knife.

Or you can use this handy tool, an herb stripper we got from Chef’n.

Stack and roll up the leafy greens in preparation for the chiffonade.

When doing chiffonade be careful not to cut yourself. This technique is great for any leafy greens because then they are not so tough. It is also good for all the herbs.

Thinly slice fresh asparagus.

Finely chop the chives.

Chiffonade the mint leaves.

From the pantry, these are some of the flavors I thought would go well on this salad.

Yard Salad

• 6-8 cups chopped greens (mustard, collards, kale)
• 10-12 cherry tomatoes
• 1/4-1/2 cup chopped fresh herbs (mint, parsley, chives, cilantro, basil)
• 2 tablespoons hemp hearts (seeds)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic glaze
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses
• 1 teaspoon ginger syrup
• Juice of one mandarin orange
• Juice of one lime
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

In a large bowl, mix greens with all of the above ingredients. As you mix the salad, the greens will become more tender. The salad should sit and marinate at least 15 minutes before serving. It is also good the next day if kept refrigerated.

Back to Tiffany…

This is a great time to do a few quick product reviews.

Trader Joe’s Balsamic Glaze: Love, love, love this product! I have been using it on salads of all types for almost a year now. It is so flavorful that there are times that balsamic glaze and a drizzle of olive oil are all I need on a salad. A friend suggested pairing this with pumpkin seed oil and that too, is a delicious combination.

Chef’n Kale, Chard, Collard Greens and Herb Stripper: At first I wasn’t convinced this was just a gimmick but it really does work well with some greens. I didn’t like it with smaller herbs as I usually just chop them up stems and all. It works well with rosemary but so does my hand. If doing a lot of greens, this would save time.

Shun Premier 5 1/2″ Santoku: This is the perfect size for a beginning chopper. Easy to handle, sturdy and sharp, I reach for this knife often, as do my boys. Teaching proper knife skills to kids can start at any age, the sooner the better.

Another post from guest blogger, Braxton:

While enjoying the streaming giant, Twitch, this week, I stumbled onto a food broadcast under the Creative category. Running for multiple weeks, the broadcast has highlighted many famous chefs over the decades, beginning with black and white shows of Julia Childs when she first got going. It’s been a really neat way to watch how the world of culinary arts has evolved over the years, transcending tastes to remember for generations. This week’s recipe came from a segment of Jacques Pepin’s show, Fast Food My Way. Chestnut Cream Parfait looked like a simple but delicious recipe. Right after the segment, we ordered the same French-made, chestnut spread Jacques was using off of Amazon.com. I took some liberties with the recipe since I couldn’t find it online, but everything tuned out quite well just going off of memory.

Parfait is all about layering. I wanted sweet, creamy and crunchy elements so I picked out biscotti for the crunch inside the parfait and almond cookies and candied almonds for a crunchy garnish. For quality cookies, you can always count on Trader Joe’s. Putting the parfaits in shot glasses makes for a decadent dessert that is enough to satisfy without being overly indulgent.

Chopping biscotti to crumble into the parfait. Having a sharp knife gets the job done quickly. My knife of choice here is Shun’s Classic 6 1/2″ Nakiri Knife.

Next up, candied almonds were on the chopping block.

IT’S ME!

Whisk heavy cream (about 1 cup) until peaks become firm, stir in a bit of vanilla for flavor (about 1/2 teaspoon). Depending on how many parfaits are making, measurements may vary.

When tackling parfait, it’s important to have all your makings in front of you, ready to layer all at once.

Apply the first layer of chestnut spread with care, making sure not to cover the edges.

Once patted down, continue to add the remaining layers, chestnut cream, whipped cream, crumbled biscotti and repeat. Top with candied almonds and garnish with another biscotti or an almond cookie.

Looking good, but not quite finished…

Melt chocolate chips in a bowl with a little bit of cream in the microwave. Put it into a baggie, make a tiny cut, and squeeze out with vigor over the shot glasses.

BOOM!

Parfaits can be served immediately or refrigerated up to 5 hours before serving.

Another guest blog post brought to you by Kazden Haugen.

While talking to one of my friends, they suggested that I attempt to make Cauliflower Pizza. They said they made it and their whole family really liked it.  Of course I accepted this challenge and when I got home, I looked up a recipe online and I made some. Here is what happened…

First I gathered all the ingredients required for this recipe, its a fairly simple recipe so we had most of the ingredients on hand.

Once you have all the ingredients together you finely chop cauliflower in a food processor. The food processor is a great gadget for chopping and slicing up lots of foods at once.

After grinding it up, microwave it for about seven minutes or until it is tender.

Form it into a ball and drain in paper towels by pushing on it. Keep a towel under it because there is a lot of liquid.

It will look like this, you want it kind of dry.

After the cauliflower has cooled you add 2 eggs and mix.

After it is drained press it on a cookie sheet in the shape you want your pizza.

Bake at 425 for about 10-15 min. I think we should have cooked it longer because it was a little soft. The better tasting parts were the sides where it got a little crunchy.

Then add toping of choice and cook for another 10 minutes or until golden brown.

This is the recipe we used from POPSUGAR.

Another blog post by Braxton Haugen…

The liquid side of culinary arts has always been an undertaking I’ve I found myself fascinated with. Gourmet meals, lavish desserts, and creative snacks, get their fair share of coverage in the culinary media, but what of the drink in which you’re washing everything down? While coming up with ideas to attack in the kitchen, the brainstorming process landed us with a fascinating project to undertake, Kompot. Kompot is a tasty beverage that is typically compiled of various types of fruit. It may be served hot or cold, and requires very little work to end up with a great end product. As you’ll see below, we took some liberties with the recipe, adding a little bit of our own imagination into the pot. Techniques used in this recipe were a little internet research, chopping, slicing, boiling and straining. It was an interesting experience in the kitchen – one I’d recommend trying out if you so desire to explore the beverage side of culinary arts.

Ingredients are in place, collected from the cupboard (figs, prunes, dried pears and honey) and the fruit bowl (apples, oranges, lemons and pineapple).

Slicing a blood orange to toss in the pot for color and flavor.

Mixing, mixing, mixing… smells so good!

While bubbling, a cinnamon stick entered the picture.

For the first round, we opted to try our Kompot warm.

Garnished with some of its ingredients, our favorite way to consume Kompot was on a warm day over ice.

Recipe Collaboration: Kompot or Russian Fruit Punch

• 1 gallon water
• 1/2 cup sugar or raw honey
• 6-10 large figs
• 6-10 large prunes
• 2 apples
• 1/2 cup dried pears
• 1 mandarin orange
• 1 blood orange
• 1 lemon
• 1 pineapple core
• 3 cinnamon sticks

Cut apples into eighths, slice oranges and lemon and chop up pineapple core. Bring all ingredients to a boil in a large stock pot for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit 15-20 minutes. For clear juice, pour through a strainer. For a fuller bodied juice (but depending on the fruit used it could be cloudy), let cool and refrigerate overnight, straining the next day. Kompot can be heated for a warm beverage or served over ice. Keep refrigerated.

We did a few experiments trying to get a more fermented beverage. First, we strained some of the liquid into a quart jar and added an additional tablespoon of raw honey. We also made a ginger-citrus-honey drink by mixing bottled water with a tablespoon of raw honey, 2 mandarin oranges, 1 sliced lemon and an inch of sliced fresh ginger. 48 hour report: So far none of the fermentation jars have any kind of fizz to them.          

72 hour report: Still no detected fermentation. The ginger-citrus-honey drink has a slight bitterness from the citrus rinds. We are drinking this as-is and will try it again using different fruits and another brand of raw honey as this honey may not have had enough bacteria to promote fermentation.

Not only is the Kompot good on its own, but it adds a wonderful fruity sweetness to hot or iced tea.Kompot Resources: The Kitchn, Natasha’s Kitchen, great video with Laura Miller, and Enjoy Your Cooking. Once you make this one time, you will want to try all kinds of combinations.

Living in SE Asia for four years changed my palate considerably. Growing up, spaghetti and tacos were about as ethnic as we got in my family. After living overseas in my early 20’s and traveling extensively on my summers off as a teacher, my view of food changed exponentially. But after living in the spice-belt, my go-to favorites, got a lot more flavorful.

It’s a blessing to be part of a homeschool group that celebrates international flavors. We have regular international dinners where the kids choose a country to learn about and share a dish or two. One of Kazden’s favorite foods is Singapore Noodles. We collaborated in the kitchen to come up with our version of Pineapple Rice using the flavors of Singapore for his last international dinner of the school year. It was a terrific success and tasted as great as it looked. We actually made it twice in one week!

Pineapple Fried Rice

• 1 pineapple
• 2 tablespoons peanut or coconut oil
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 1/2 cup diced purple cabbage
• 1/3 cup diced red bell pepper or 1/4 cup diced pimentos
• 1/3 cup diced pineapple
• 6 cups cooked, cooled rice
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon tamarind puree* or 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

To prepare pineapple, cut in half and cut around the inside of the fruit, leaving about 1/3”  of fruit next to the rind. In a large skillet or wok, caramelize onions in oil on medium-high heat. Add celery, cabbage and peppers, cooking until tender. In a small bowl mix remaining ingredients except the cilantro. Add the diced pineapple and rice to the vegetables and pour in sauce. Mix until all ingredients are combined and heated throughout. Lastly, add the fresh cilantro and scoop into pineapple halves.

*To see how I made my own Tamarind Puree, see the previous post.

Kazden’s wrap up…

We do a lot of Asian cooking so we had all of these on hand.

Making Pineapple Fried Rice was more difficult than I expected. There were many ingredients put into this. It required more taste testing as we went along more frequently to see what we wanted to add more of. For more salty we added fish and soy sauce. For sweet we added more pineapple and juice. For hot we added chili sauce and for tartness we added tamarind and lime. We were really happy how this turned out the first time and were disappointed that we didn’t write down the ingredients exactly how we put them in. This is ironic because we just learned about how we should write down everything we do when making up a recipe in Culinary Arts class. The second time we made Pineapple Fried Rice, we added more seasonings at the beginning and measured each time we put one in. This was a fun and educational experience, now I know exactly what my mom does when she does her job of recipe development for companies she works with or for original recipes she creates.

First we cut the pineapple in half using a large knife. Pictured above is the Shun Classic Produce Knife.

Once we cut them in half we carved out the middle.

Save some of the fruit to add to the rice.

Then I diced some onions. Pictured above is the Shun Classic Nakiri.

When I’m cooking with onions I like to caramelize them so they are sweeter.

Once the onions cooked for a bit we added the remaining veggies.

Then came the spices, flavorings and the fresh cilantro.

Fill the pineapple with rice and it’s ready to serve.

For more information on this knife, visit Shun.

Nakiri is simply Japanese for “vegetable knife.” Once you get the Shun Classic Nakiri in your hands, you’ll soon see why both professional chefs and good cooks around the world choose this beautiful and extremely useful tool whenever they have fruits or vegetables to prepare. With its straight blade, edge, and spine, the nakiri isn’t rocked like a chef’s knife. Instead, use a simple push cut and enjoy the clean, swift work it makes of vegetables of all kinds. For daily salad preparation or slicing vegetables for stir-fry, it can’t be beat. Finely dicing onions is fast, easy, and with the Shun Classic Nakiri’s blunt end, safer, too. (Info from Shun website.)

For more information on this elegant, functional knife, visit Shun.

The Shun Classic Produce Knife is designed for preparing larger fruits and vegetables, especially those with thicker, tougher skins or rinds, such as melons, squash, or pineapple. This beautiful, mirror-polished knife offers a large 12-in. blade that can cut handle just about any large fruits, vegetables, and even proteins, with ease. The long blade enables you to cut all the way across even the largest produce, while the straight edge makes up-and-down chopping easy. (Info from Shun website.)