Bob's Red Mill Pan-Baked Granola #sponsored

I have always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with granola. I love the concept of it--nuggets of seasoned oats and dried fruits held together with a bit of sweetness and fat--but have found that commercial granolas were usually too sweet, processed-tasting, or just boring. So once in a while I make a pan of it at home, adding just the right amount of maple syrup or brown sugar and coconut oil and seasoning it to my liking (which usually involves cardamom).

When Bob's Red Mill contacted me with an offer to send me flavors of their new Pan-Baked Granola, I agreed. In general, I really like their products and when given the choice between brands of this or that, I tend to choose Bob's Red Mill. I figured the granola was probably quite good, but still perhaps not what I was looking for in a breakfast cereal.

Damn, I was wrong. This pan-baked granola is GREAT. At least to my palate; as with everything, YMMV. It comes in four flavors: Maple Sea Salt; Coconut Spice; Lemon Blueberry; and Cranberry Almond. It's made just the way I would make it, in small batches, using maple syrup, brown sugar, and coconut oil, and the flavor combos are right up my alley. My favorites are the Lemon Blueberry (lemon flavor granola! It works!) and the Coconut Spice (I love all things coconut). I enjoyed eating the granola the traditional way, as a breakfast cereal with milk, but also sprinkled on yogurt and eaten straight from the bag. Ok, which is maybe the most "traditional" way of consuming granola.

Though we ate it before I could experiment further, I'm thinking this pan-baked granola would make a nice streusel-style topping for muffins or as an addition to an apple crisp. I'm going to re-stock my pantry and do some granola-based winter baking pretty soon. 

Thanks, Bob, for hooking me up with my new favorite cereal! 

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Avocado Leaf Tea

I drink a lot of tea, particularly during the cooler months. Once I've had my morning cup of coffee, I switch to a milder beverage, preferably one with less caffeine. Too much of that stuff not only makes me jittery, but also gives me heart palpitations. Rooibos is my go-to, and while I really enjoy it, sometimes I am looking for a different flavor profile.

Then I discovered tea made from avocado leaves. I know! Though avocado toast doesn't thrill me, I do find the beverage made by steeping the leaves of the avocado tree rather exciting. For one thing, it's actually quite delicious--smooth, and non-tannic--and naturally caffeine-free, which is a huge plus. And it is purported to have all sorts of health benefits. Avocado leaves contain flavonoids, polyphenols, terpenes, and serotonin, substances which have been known to reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, and stroke, help kidney function, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, elevate mood, promote alertness and memory retention, reduce stress, and aid in forming healthy sleep patterns. All the things.

I realize I'm making a cup of tea sound like a miracle cure, but there is strong scientific evidence that tea made from the leaves of Persea americana Mill can control blood pressure and help reduce the formation of kidney stones. Avocado Leaf Tea (the brand name, so easy to remember) has information on their web site, along with links to health studies that corroborate this.

I brought home a few samples of Avocado Leaf Tea from the Fancy Food Show last year. It was summer and I don't drink as much tea then so put them away and forgot about it. When I stumbled upon the bags recently and made a pot, I realized how much I liked the stuff. So I ordered both the natural and lemon flavors (flavored with lemongrass and honeybush, a relative of rooibos) which have become my brew of choice recently. And they don't have me bouncing off the walls, like my recent experience with a couple of pots of Earl Grey.

If you're looking for a healthful tea beverage, I recommend you try Avocado Leaf Tea. The folks who own the company are really nice too, and I like to support and promote nice people who make good things.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Best of 2019, Part Two

Though I ended up making most meals this year, I wasn't particularly creative. Mr Minx gets home from work about 90 minutes after I do, which should leave me plenty of time to cook. But once I walk home from the bus stop, then take the dog for his walk, I am not really in the mood to get creative. It's great when I've remembered to defrost something pre-made, like a quart of Cajun Kate's gumbo, or some chili, but most of the time I'm ordering Indian food and reheating it. I feel like I'm in a real culinary rut. I have done a decent amount of baking this year, despite being on Whole30 from about May on. I can't eat the goodies that come out of the oven, and Mr Minx shouldn't, so I've been passing them on to a friend with a sweet tooth. He gets snacks (but hopefully not diabetes) and I get to bake, so win-win.

I do end up cooking every Sunday though, and have tried the vaguely creative thing here and there. Like the golabki I made in July. I'd never made them before, and I don't remember my Grandmother making them at all (though she apparently did before I was born), so I didn't have a go-to recipe. My cousin Dianne had sent me a few, so I took what I thought were the best parts of all of them and then added my own spin. I think they turned out pretty well, and the recipe made enough that I was able to put three more dinners-worth in the freezer for other times.

I always think my crab cakes are pretty good, and was able to make those a few times this year. I like using leftover meat from steamed crabs, but have even stooped to using imported crab. The best ones, of course, use the meat from Callinectes sapidus, as these did.

For Valentine's Day, my sweetheart made me a heart-shaped meatloaf. Mr Minx's meatloaf is the best. He uses the recipe from The Joy of Cooking, but adds a festive tunnel of cheese. Doesn't this look great?

Shakshuka is a hot thing these days. Typically a tomato-and-bell pepper stew, it's often topped with eggs and served for brunch in the US. I am partial to the Lebanese version, shakshouky, which contains eggplant but not tomatoes and pomegranate molasses. In the dish pictured, I combined the two recipes to make my own, delicious, thing.

Some years ago, I had a creamy tomatillo soup at SoBo cafe. I reverse-engineered it in 2014, and then I made it again in 2019, this time adding toasted pumpkin seeds and sauteed shrimp. And perhaps too much yogurt, but it was still a great light dinner on a hot summer night.

Last, but certainly not least, as they are my primary substitute for pasta these days: zoodles. I bought a spiralizer so I can make them myself, but sometimes I resort to using a Y-peeler to cut thin pappardelle-like strips from green or yellow squash. Topped with fresh ripe tomatoes from the garden, toasted pumpkin seeds, fresh pesto, cheese, and parsley, zucchini noodles are like the best cross between a pasta dish and a hearty salad. I hope to eat a lot more of them in 2020.

And that's it. See? Boring and mostly uncreative. But tasty.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Best of 2019, Part One

2019 was not a good year for me. Even food-wise, I think it was a bit lackluster. Not for trying though...Mr Minx and I ate most Saturday dinners in one or another of our favorite restaurants. Though we had lots of good food, little of it was truly impressive.

Rather than go through posts by month, I'm grouping these by area. The first few items were eaten in New York, and the rest in the Baltimore area.

I love Korean galbi (thinly sliced bone-in short rib, marinated and grilled) and was surprised by the version served at Samwon Garden in NY. Rather than the somewhat chewy Korean-style cut, these ribs were western style and had been braised to fork-tenderness. So delicious.

Pretty much everything we ate at Don Angie was great, but my favorite dish was the tonnato vitello, a cold dish of spicy veal tartare flavored with bits of celery, topped with a veil-like slice of tuna crudo. The flavors and textures were marvelous. Somehow it didn't even seem like we were eating a dish of chilled raw meat covered with more chilled raw meat.

At White Bear, a little hole in the wall on Prince Street, we had the crowd favorite #6 dumplings, chili oil wontons. (Literally every customer that came in after us, along with the three already waiting for their food, ordered this dish.) With just the right amount of heat, these tender and juicy dumplings were a good introduction to our dumpling tour of Flushing.

Even better were the lamb and carrot dumplings in the New World Mall. I can't even describe how tasty these plump morsels were. They were seasoned so well, they didn't need any sauce at all.

My new favorite breakfast spot in Manhattan is Pondicheri Cafe. The saag and egg toast can beat the pants off avocado toast any day, even if the accompanying kale salad tends to get stuck in my teeth. The sourdough bread, well-toasted and buttered before being topped with spicy spinach sauce and a perfect sunny-side-up egg, is alone worth the price of admission.

Back in Baltimore....

We dined at Cosima twice this year. I cashed in my OpenTable dining points for a gift card to Cosima, and we used it in March. I am never disappointed in their pizza cape sante e pancetta. In fact, it might be my favorite pizza in town.

One of the many reasons 2019 sucked so badly was the demise of Grace Garden. I've eaten there dozens of times over the years and blogged about the place ad nauseum. It was my favorite restaurant. And the crispy eggplant, which was crunchy, soft, sweet, and spicy all at the same time, was one of my favorite dishes.

Another favorite (though maybe I shouldn't use that word--it's bad luck) place is Hersh's, where the pizza is always close to perfection, with a thin blistered crust and flavorful (and often unusual) toppings. We only got there once this year, but we were not disappointed.

We also found ourselves at R&R Taqueria in Perry Hall an awful lot. It was one place that we knew my Dad would enjoy. In fact, his last meal outside of the hospital before he passed in November was at R&R. He loved the spicy tacos, like the chicken tinga, and he always added extra hot sauce, always remarking on the heat factor but never breaking a sweat. Me, I enjoy the tacos, but when I tried their fluffy tamales bathed in a not-too-spicy mole sauce, I fell in love.

We had quite a feast at Sullivan's steak house in 2019. Though the steak was well-cooked and tasty, I really enjoyed the decadent white cheddar and bacon au gratin potatoes. I'm not a potato person, but I thought about this dish a lot this year.

La Cuchara has the best happy hour in Baltimore. Hands down. Argue with me if you will, but it's a fight you cannot win. Who else serves generous pours of very good wine for $5 and offers half price appetizers? And I don't mean chicken fingers and onion rings. I mean these scallops. Three fat beauties, perfectly seared and still a tad raw on the inside are already a bargain at $15 if you order them while sitting anywhere other than the bar at a time other than 5-7pm or 9pm-closing (or all evening on Sunday). During Happy Hour, they are $7.50. Three scallops anywhere else will cost nearly $30. Let's go over that again. If you eat at the bar anytime between opening and closing, except between 7pm and 9pm, you can get all primeros and pinxtos for half price. Recently, Mr Minx and I had 4 glasses of wine, generous plates of lamb meatballs, shrimp with preserved lemons, and roasted carrots with chanterelle mushroom puree, plus two orders of cheese and potato croquettes, for $52. On a Monday night. Beat that.

I can eat the lemony calamari alla plancha from Birroteca all day and not get sick of it. Always a favorite. I need to give a shout-out to restaurant owner Robbin Haas, who also passed away this year. He was a good guy.

Then there was Fogo de Chao. We got to eat there twice this year, on their dime, and we were amazed at how good everything was. We used to frequent a churrascaria in Rockville called Greenfields. They were good, but Fogo blows them out of the water. (They're closed anyway.) Every cut of meat that we tried at Fogo was juicy and perfectly seasoned. The pork ribs were a favorite, but all the varieties of beef were impressive too. Can't wait to go back. I'd even pay for my own food.

Fogo also served my favorite dessert of the year, a warm creme de coconut served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a flurry of lime zest.

La Calle, in the downtown business district, serves some mighty fine salmon. I had it for lunch three times in 2019, and every time it was perfectly cooked (salmon should be super moist and fatty-textured, "blubbery" is the way Tyler Florence describes it) with a crisp skin. I should really try the tacos there, but then I'd have salmon FOMO.

Last, but not least, was the pork belly tostada from La Food Marketa. Big-ass slabs of juicy and super porky pork belly on top of a thin and crispy round of fried masa. What else does one need? I'm also a fan of their octopus, which I ate at least twice last year, and pretty much everything else on the menu. That goes for Chad Gauss' other restaurant, The Food Market, as well.

I'm sure there were other tasty things eaten last year that I've forgotten to mention. But also a lot of mediocre stuff. Here's hoping that 2020 is at least as good as 2019 and hopefully a lot better, cuisine-wise and with everything else.

Check out next week's post, which will feature some of the best things I cooked at home.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.