Cranberry Baked Oatmeal atop plain Yogurt with drizzled Honey and Lemon zest.

Two winter storms have come and gone, leaving only the wind.  Despite every last button fastened, the January cold finds us while the wind brushes the ice off the tall banks of accumulated snow.  On almost any late morning in winter, we might see the same sky: translucent and dimly lit, dirty and grey.

I spoon another copious bite of baked Oatmeal from my bowl: familiar food in new form.    Have you ever eaten something both because you like the way it tastes, but crave it because of its texture?   Baked oatmeal feels dry, yet chewy, and when you put your spoon through the center, the hearty oats break apart through the mantle of almonds and goo as you mine for pieces of fruit and nuts in between the rolled oats.  I come up with a red cranberry, sour like a cherry, bitingly tart unlike other berries. It’s a c-r-a-n-berry, a berry that only makes you salivate if it’s paired with a little sweetness.  Bake them with oatmeal in a small size muffin pan and they’re like small cakes, easy to re-heat , a warm comforting morning meal.

Baked Oatmeal with Cranberries and Almonds

• 1 cup organic thick cut rolled oats
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup sugar in the raw
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 sea or kosher salt

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup apple sauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup melted butter or canola oil

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  Combine all wet ingredients together and whisk.  Stir the dry ingredients into the wet.  Prepare a six muffin pan with oil (I used an olive oil spray), then fill each individual muffin well with the prepared oat mixture until it’s almost, but not quite, overflowing.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven until golden brown, approximately 40 mins.  If your goal is to have perfectly formed cake mounds, allow the oatmeal to rest in the muffin tins for about an  hour before serving.  This is step is not necessary if you use eggs, add 2 eggs if using.  I’ve made this recipe with and without eggs.  I decided to leave them out of the recipe since  I didn’t feel that it was necessary for a good result.  Serve plain, or with your favorite yogurt.

Fage with Honey and Lemon Zest

Flavoring plain yogurt with fresh fruit juice, such as a lemon with zest, in combination with honey or maple syrup is surprising in it’s simplicity and delicious.  

Plain Yogurt with Drizzled Honey and Lemon Zest

• 1/2 cup Face or your favorite organic yogurt
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest

Mix the yogurt, lemon juice, and lemon zest together in a breakfast bowl.  Top the yogurt with the Baked Oatmeal. Drizzle the dish with honey, molasses or maple syrup.

Finished!

Salad Greens with Burrata cheese and fine Walnut, Apple Vinegrette

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As soon as I exited the plane and left behind the easy five hour journey from NYC to Los Angeles, it was one fair welcome after the next.   Almost immediately a kind soul with an arresting smile helped load my luggage into our rental car– not a bad way to start a week-long vacation.   Silly perhaps, but whether it’s lost luggage or ease in finding a cab, I can’t help but see the moment after arrival as some type of superstitious omen of the trip to come.

My friend, who met me at the airport in a freely wheeling rental car, is an ardent food lover and relatively new resident to LA.  Assuredly acquainted with the food scene, and not one to forget how to treat a guest, she invited me to a favored restaurant in downtown LA, a place founded in the land of  reality television with a reality television chef to go along with it.  I scoured the menu for something unusual that wasn’t one lump of meat with small fat rounds enveloped by sweetbreads, not that that might not taste interesting in the hands of a skilled chef, but in general, I find that it costs more than I can afford.

It was apparent which entrée I ought to try from this restaurant — my choice at a new-to-me restaurant is rarely a salad, but it was on this occasion. On the plate, micro salad greens nestled with the smallest, most perfectly formed beets — of a red so deep it was purple — with tiny root tails that tasted of fine dirt.   The cheese, burrata “butter” cheese, delicate and billowing as Burrata cheese is a surprise in a well formed ball.  Purposefully made by encasing fresh mozzarella around cream, I used my fork to cut into the cheese, the cold cream deliciously oozing over the greens and the beets.

Strangely this was my only sunny day during this trip to Southern California and I spent most of it at the Hollywood farmer’s market.  The market — the city’s largest — proved as wonderful as I had hoped.  My friend and I spent a good part of our day at the market, squeezing oranges, tasting tomatoes, and watching people mill about as they decide on their next meal. I found candy chioggia beets, the one out of three varieties with thin, penciled in pink and white striped circles: perfect if you’re creating meal for Dr. Seuss.

Another memorable find was a walnut oil that I sampled with a small piece of whole grain bread.  The oil was nutty and decadent.  Later, at home, we paired the walnut oil with Fuji apple cider for the vinaigrette, which was lavishly spooned over the burrata cheese.   On top of our salad greens and beside the cheese;  sliced avocados, and pan-toasted walnuts.

Thanks for your help with the meal C., that was a great dinner.

Summer salad Greens with Burrata Cheese,  Chioggia beets, and  fine Walnut, Apple vinaigrette

• 4 medium beets, trimmed and washed

• 6  tablespoons walnut oil
• 2 tablespoons fugi apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• fresh ground black pepper

• 1/2 lb micro salad greens washed
• 1lb burrata cheese
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1/3  cup walnut halves, chopped into pieces

Pomegranates & Blueberries with Greek Style Yogurt

Who would expect to find fresh blueberries, in season, in November and from the Bronx no less? Yet there they were and I found they were plump and delicious.

Pomegranates are found in our grocery stores in November as well. They come from the southern part of the United States, and from places like Arizona and California. I reasoned that they didn’t need a passport. They look just like red rubies, and taste just as beautiful, dark and lusty; and as all lusty things should taste, very tart.  Breakfast would be a  spoonful of these two together, pomegranates and the blueberries grown in the Bronx, dark honey, and thick Greek Style Yogurt.

 Last year at around this time, I went to visit my mother in the south, Florida, I was eager to introduce her to Greek Style Yogurt, it was relatively new to me. I was sure that all the probotic and good bacteria goodness would alleviate all our ills, well maybe?

Though yogurt is easy to make at home, I don’t think most of us would take the additional step to buy cultures, sanitize the jars, set the cultures to the yogurt, etc. The main reason why Greek style yogurt is so nice is because it’s strained, which gives this an appropriately thick consistency. Should you find difficulty in acquiring Greek style yogurt you can get similar results with other “American Style” yogurts by straining the out the excess liquid with a cheese cloth for a few hours. This base will give you a tangy yogurt cheese that is great to use is this dish or most anything calling for cream cheese.

Plain flavored yogurt, a blank canvas for the juice from the fruit, granola, or whole grain topping. The plain yogurt is slightly sour, made sweet by an appropriate amount of raw, dark bamboo honey; each ingredient is brought forth not by an excess of sugar but from sweetness of fruit.   

To cut open a pomegranate, some will tell you to do this in a large bowl filled with water, to dissect the fruit in this manner. Yes, this will allow for full access to the seeds, free of the skin and juice. However, so much of the pom juice is lost, when cutting into a pomegranate I tend to do this over the bowl I’m using so the juices will run over, and you will catch some of this for the parfait.

Pomegranates s & Blueberries with Greek style Yogurt

• ½ cup Greek style plain yogurt
• ¼ cup favorite granola or whole wheat cereal
• 1tablespoon honey
• ¼ cup pomegranates
• ¼ cup blueberries

A layer each ingredient starting first with the yogurt, fruit, then granola and honey. Do this early in the week and make additional servings, wrapped tightly it will keep 4 days in the refrigerator. Better yet, add the granola just before eating, add to the mix of fruit and yogurt.