Breakfast with Chips!

No, it wasn't with Ponch or John from the California Highway Patrol.... and it wasn't breakfast with a bag of Doritos either.

Today we had a healthy breakfast thanks to CHIPS, the Coronary Health Improvement Project in Itasca County. Five folks from CHIPS showed up in our kitchen and served us with not only a healthy meal, but a tasty meal!

We had Biscuits and Gravy, Joyce and Arthur's bread, fruit & Rice Pudding. And best of all, we created a little community in our kitchen and in our conference room, people talking about changing eating habits, feeling better - both physically and mentally. Here's some of the recipes from the feast today. Look here for more!

Biscuits and Gravy

"Buttermilk" Drop Biscuits 3/4 cup plain soymilk or rice milk 2 tsp fresh lemon juice 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 3 Tb canola oil 1 Tb frozen apple juice concentrate (or other liquid sweetener) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pour soymilk into small cup or bowl and stir in lemon juice. Let it sit for 10 minutes to sour. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Place oil and juice concentrate in small cup and beat with fork to combine well. Add this to flour mixture and cut it in with fork until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add soymilk and stir batter with wooden spoon. The batter will be thick. Mist the baking sheet with nonstick spray and then drop dough onto it by larkge rounded spoonfuls to make 10 biscuits. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes until golden. Transfer to a cooling rack. Best served hot or warm. (From Vegan Vittles) "Sausage" Gravy 1 cup water ½ cup raw cashews 2 cups water 1/3 cup flour ½ tsp salt 1 tsp chicken or beef-style season (vegetarian options include McKay's and Bill's Best) 1 tsp soy sauce 1 Tb nutritional yeast flakes ½ bag Morningstar Farms Sausage or Griller Crumbles (vegetarian soy product) In a saucepan, bring 1 cup of water to boil. Blend the remaining ingredients, except sausage crumbles, until creamy (best to add flour at the end of the blending). Take blended mixture and add it slowly to boiling water, stirring with a whisk until the pot returns to a boil. Stir in crumbles and serve hot over biscuits. Alternate Biscuit Recipe 1 cup whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 Tb baking powder 3 Tb Smart Balance or Earth Balance, cold 1 cup soy, rice, or skim milk Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix flours and baking powder. Quickly cut in Smart or Earth Balance while cold. Add milk and mix lightly with a fork. Do not overmix. When mixture has almost come together, pour out on a floured board. Gently press about ½" thick (may need to flour the top a little if it's sticky). Take a cup dipped in flour and cutout biscuit rounds. Reshape scraps to get another biscuit or two out of the dough. Spray a shot of Pam where each biscuit will sit on a baking tray, and put in hot oven for about 15 minutes. Best served hot out of the oven. Makes about 10 biscuits. Rice Pudding 3 cups cooked brown rice 3 cups soy, almond, or rice milk 4-6 oz. coconut milk (optional) 1 Tb cornstarch 1½ Tb maple syrup Zest of ½ lemon Zest of ½ orange 2 tsp vanilla (less if you use vanilla soymilk) ¼ tsp nutmeg ¼ tsp cardamom ¼ tsp cinnamon 1/3 cup raisins 3 Tb sliced almonds 1 tsp sugar Combine everything in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Sprinkle the top with almonds and sugar. You may then, if you wish, broil the mixture for about 8 minutes to toast almond and sugar topping. This step may be skipped. Best if chilled thoroughly before serving.

The Big Questions in Life

When a recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of egg whites, what do you do with the yolks? Throw 'em? Drink 'em? Make creme brulee?

John and I just got done making a angelfood birthday cake in the KAXE kitchen for his daughter's birthday party tonight. If you had been there, this is what you would have heard:

What are stiff peaks?

What the hell does "cut through batter twice with a knife" mean?

Are you going to wash the dime?

Surely you're not going to throw away 11 egg yolks?

I put the cake upside down on a pop bottle?

John's mom, my inspiration in baking, always baked a dime for good luck in her cakes, so John will be doing the same for his daughter Meg.

Here's the recipe we used:

EASY ANGEL FOOD CAKE
Printed from COOKS.COM
1 1/2 c. egg whites

1 1/4 c. sifted cake flour

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/4 tbsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. almond extract

In large mixing bowl put egg whites and let set to room temperature about 1 hour.
Sift flour with 3/4 cup sugar, sift 3 times and set aside. Beat egg whites, medium speed with salt and cream of tartar until forms soft peaks. Gradually beat in remaining sugar, 3 tablespoons at a time. Beat after each addition. Beat at high speed until it forms peaks. Then at low speed add extracts. Sift in flour mixture 1/4 at a time, mixing at low speed 3 seconds after each addition or until mixture is completely blended.

With rubber scraper gently push batter into ungreased 10" tube pan. Cut through batter twice with a knife. Bake on lower rack in oven 35 to 40 minutes at 375 degrees, or until cake tests done. Let cool completely, about 2 hours. Invert tube pan over bottle to cool.

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!

P.P.S MT "nothing goes to waste" Head took the 11 egg
yolks. No worries.

Potato Wild Rice Soup

Here’s the recipe for the soup from today’s lunch at 91.7 KAXE:

Butter, 2 T
Chopped onions and/or shallots 2/3 cup
Carrots about 5, peeled and diced
Potatoes, peeled and diced—lots!—enough to fill soup pot 2/3 full (we used reds today)
Dried celery tops, about 3 T (you can use a stalk of chopped fresh celery)
Cooked wild rice, 3-4 cups
Shredded gouda cheese from Green Pastures Dairy, 2-3 cups
Milk, 2 or more cups depending on the soupiness you desire
Dill weed, about a teaspoon
Salt to taste

You can vary the quantities according to how much soup you want and how you like it. This recipe made a big pot of soup for about 12 people!

Brown the shallots or onions in butter. After they soften, add the carrots and allow them to caramelize a little too. Add potatoes and celery and just barely cover them with boiling water. Cover the pot and bring it to a boil. Turn down the soup and allow it to simmer until the potatoes are well cooked, about 25 minutes. Breaking down the potatoes gives the soup some body.

Add salt and taste the soup. Stir in the wild rice. Reheat. Stir in the cheese. Reheat. Add milk and dill. Warm up the soup again, but don’t boil it!

Holtan Wrecks KAXE Kitchen in Soup Face-Off

Yes, it's true! Producer Heidi Holtan made a colossal mess in the kitchen in a vain attempt to win KAXE's first-ever soup throwdown.
She omitted that fact in her blog post below. Here's what happened:
On Thursday the staff realized there was no food scheduled for lunch on Friday of KAXE's Great Moments pledge drive.
Fresh from a weekend watching the Food Network during down time at the NFCB conference, Heidi and I agreed to create soups from ingredients found around the station. We could each bring an ingredient from home. Don Boese (a founding member of the local gourmet club) would judge the soups!
I brought a jar of home-canned tomatoes.
Heidi brought boullion cubes. She also claimed the entire contents of the KAXE freezer for her own.
I scrounged some garlic and part of an onion (left over from Chef Charlie's visit the previous day) from the fridge and asked Scott Hall if I could use some of his peanut butter. He said yes.
Heidi stole a frozen White Castle hamburger from Rev Dave. Rev Dave had written clear instructions on his burger box (something about death to transgressors) indicating that he did not want to share.
I browned the onions and garlic, seasoned them with curry powder and red pepper flakes (liberated from a puddle of honey in the lazy susan in the cupboard), added the tomatoes, a little water, peanut butter and a can of coconut milk (from the back of another cupboard--it had been there for a year, maybe more).
Heidi thawed the stolen hamburger in the microwave, whizzed it in the blender, added water and boullion, heated it up, and whizzed it again.
During the second whizzing, the burger water WHOOSHED out the top of the blender, across the counter, and splattered the walls! The entire kitchen was a disaster!
As you probably read in Heidi's blog post below, judge Don Boese liked the burger soup and declared the contest a tie.
He faulted the crunchy peanut butter in my soup and, although I thought the curry powder might curry favor, it did not. The soup was a bit spicy for Don. "They should be eaten together," he asserted. "The mild, all-American flavor [of a pulverized and watered down White Castle hamburger] is complemented by the spicy flavor of the peanut butter soup."
Was the curry powder too overwhelming? Will the kitchen ever recover? Should we find another judge?
We'll find out during the next KAXE food throwdown!

Chateau Blanc Recipe from the KAXE Throwdown

If you didn't hear the KAXE Cafeteria Soup Throwdown last Friday, Maggie and I were given the following instructions:

Make a soup from the ingredients currently in the Kitchen

Bring 1 ingredient from home

Wow the judge (Don Boese)

My ingredient from home was Beef Bouillon cubes. And I came up with what turned out to be a surprisingly good soup. Some call it the White Castle Soup, I like to call it the Chateau Blanc Soup. *

Here's the recipe:
1 frozen white castle burger (SORRY DAVE!)
1 beef bouillon cube
3 cups of water
day old French bread
butter
1/2 cup onions
2 tsp red pepper flakes
dash of salt

Cut crusty french bread into bite size pieces. Heat butter, onions and red pepper flakes in a sauce pan. As it gets hot and bubbles, add french bread and fry up until browned. Set aside.

Follow directions on the white castle box for thawing/cooking in the microwave. Plop burger in a blender. Puree for 1 minute. Add to pan you cooked the french bread in.....add water - continue to stir. As it begins to bubble, put back in the blender to further puree (it was a little tough getting the bun completely pureed).

Put back in sauce pan and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Serve with breadcrumbs sprinkled liberally on top. Pay no attention to the terrible color and tell no one what you put in it! you'll be surprised by the reaction! Don Boese reacted "It is very American! Surprising!"

The only negative thing to come out of the 1st ever KAXE Cafeteria Throwdown was that no winner was declared. Don said he thought the two soups complemented each other so well he couldn't choose!!! Maggie and I will have to go head to head once again to find out WHO the KAXE Cafeteria Head Chef will be! Stay tuned for more....

*I don't recommend trying this one at home.

Cooking in the KAXE kitchen

The sun is just coming up over the Mississippi River in Itasca County - the frosted trees and the steam rising is so breathtaking that it's almost haunting. It's as if there's a protective bubble over everything. I didn't relish getting up so early and getting out into the nearly 20 below morning to come to KAXE - but I can't wait for what's going to be happening in the kitchen - there's rumor of Finn biscuits with cardamom and puff pastry.

Iron Range cookbook author Mona Meittunen Abel is going to cook with us in about an hour and a half...her cookbooks are not just recipes, they are stories of life on The Range. "To Mom with Love: Ethnic Recipes and Family Favorites" and "To Dad with Love: Ethnic Recipes and Family Favorites." Mona is also looking for stories and recipes from kids or about kids in this neck of the woods. Email her your submissions....

Here's a recipe from "To Dad With Love"

SARMA BALLS

Sister-in-law Tammi Meittunen's recipe. She brought these to our Meittunen reunion this summer and they were a hit.

1 lb each of ground beef, ground pork and ground ham

1 c. minute rice, uncooked

1 egg

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 c. water

1 onion, chopped

1 bag sauerkraut

1 can chicken broth

Butter

Mix first 3 ingredients and shape into meatballs; place 9x13" pan. Saute onion in butter, add garlic. Remove from heat and add sauerkraut, chicken broth and water. Pour mixture over meatballs and bake covered for 1- 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees.

Mona will be signing books at Howard Street Booksellers in Hibbing on Saturday and at the Village Bookstore in Grand Rapids from 12-2.

-Heidi

Moravian Spice Cookies from the KAXE Kitchen

Penny and Dan were in for Between You and Me on Saturday and made Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies and Moravian Spice Cookies. Penny got the recipe from The Food Network and passed it on....

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon finely ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg yolk
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, pepper and mustard together in a medium bowl.

Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until just combined and lightly fluffy. Beat in the molasses and egg yolk. Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix together on low speed until dough is just combined and still crumbly, about 3 minutes. Give dough a few turns with a spatula to bring together.

Lay out wax paper on a clean work surface and put about 1/3 of the batter on top. Lightly press down and top with another sheet of wax paper. Using your hands or a rolling pin, gently pat into a rectangle. Roll out with a rolling pin until dough is as thin as possible without breaking, no thicker than 1/16 inch thick. This is the key to these cookies: they really can't be too thin. Gently peel back the layer of waxed paper and then replace it loosely.

Transfer rolled batter to a flat baking sheet and freeze until firm and can easily be peeled away from the waxed paper, about 30 minutes. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Cut dough using a small (2- to 3-inch) fluted round cookie cutter and return to the freezer for 15 minutes to set. Transfer frozen cookies to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake until crisp and lightly, evenly colored (but not brown), about 10 minutes.

Busy baker's tips: Store baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 10 days. The dough can be frozen, between sheets of waxed paper and well-wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 2 weeks. Baked cookies can be wrapped in plastic wrap then aluminum foil and frozen for up to 1 month.

Cook's note: Don't be intimidated by how many cookies this recipe makes. This dough freezes well, and you can roll out far in advance -- so when you need cookies, you can cut and bake as needed, which is a great holiday timesaver.

Copyright 2007 Television Food Network, G.P. All rights reserved

Add your cookie recipe to the blog, or email us!

LEFSE in the KAXE Kitchen!

Carol Bauer (John's mom) will be in the KAXE kitchen tomorrow to teach us about the tradition of making lefse...Maybe you aren't from around these parts, and didn't get to partake in the family tradition of lutefisk (yuck!) and lefse (yum!) at Christmastime. Remember when Grandma Holtan would have all those plates of bars? And how that one year Cousin Randy took all the cornflake wreaths? Wait, maybe that was just in my family...

We've been talking about CLOSE TO HOME during this fundraiser - what foods remind you of home? Are there Minnesota foods?

Tune in to tomorrow's morning show for the lefse extravaganza, and of course, Maggie's update on her local diet and Don Boese's European Reflections and Classical Corner.