I am sure you all probably know by now that my husband and I are Latter Day Saints and as such we don't drink alcohol at all. I do use it in cooking from time to time, but it is just not anything that we drink as a beverage. I was really intrigued when I recently was contacted and asked if I would like to try some FitBeer, Low Calorie Premium Beer that is Alcohol Free. I said . . . why not!
FitBeer started with a family of beer lovers. Father of six, Jim, a recovered alcoholic, found himself drinking non-alcoholic options that are either too sweet, too boring or packed with caffiene. (I can totally sympathise with this. A friend recently gave Todd a bottle of non-alcoholic wine as a gift and it was totally disgusting. I didn't even save it for cooking. It got washed down the drain.)
Jim's children set out on a journey to help him find a great beer. This journey ultimately took them to the heart of the Bavarian Hills. They discovered a 500 year old Brewery who rose to the opportunity of crafting the ultimate alcohol-free beer for their new friends from the UK, with the end result being FitBeer, which not onnly has a taste which is complex and rich in flavour, but is also brimming with health benefits.
FitBeer is a classic, artisan lager, that is alcohol-free. Crisp and rereshing in taste, it has a perfect balance of subtle hops and pleasnt malt flavours, with a gentle carbonation and a delicious nectar finish. Just look at the head on that! Made with 100% natural ingredients, all sournced within 20km of the 500-year-old Bavarian brewery.
As well as being only 66 calories a bottle (less than half of its alcoholic equivalent), FitBeer is also Vegan, rich in Vitamin B12 and full of folic acid. It is also an isotonic beverage which means it's perfect for hydating you afer working out or even while working out. It is also a Great Taste Award Winner for 2017.
For more information and for details on where to buy this, do check out their web page at FitBeer.
Many thanks to them for sending us couple of bottles to try out!
Note - Although I was sent free product for review purposes, any opinions are my own. (or Todd's in this case!)
Feeling your oats is one of the nicest ways to look after your heart and
to start your day in a nutritiously tasty way. I reckon I have oats in
at least one form or another every morning. As tasty meusli, mixed with nuts and fruit, or as granola, or sometimes, (don't die of shock) as oatmeal cookies! Naughty me, I know!
The most comforting and delicious way of all however . . . and one of our favourites is as oatmeal porridge, and I don't mean the instant kind. I mean the good old fashioned cook-it-from-scratch kind. That our favourite way to get our days off to a good start, especially this time of year when the days and mornings are getting a lot cooler!
Porridge oats are grains of oats that have been rolled flat until they
are about to lose their shape completely and turn into a coarse flour;
in other words as fine as possible while still retaining their shape as a
flake. This means that they are fairly powdery and will therefore
absorb liquid quickly, which is why you only have to cook them for 2 or 3
minutes to get porridge.
Jumbo oats are coarser. They are rolled flat
but that is all and because they are not broken down so much, they
retain their shape.
Porridge oats go pastey when they get wet but jumbo
oats stay firm. Jumbo oats will break down like porridge oats, but they
need cooking for much longer. Jumbos are much better for things like
biscuits and flapjacks where a crisper or firmer texture is required.
Rolled oats and oatflakes are just 2 other words for the same thing and
both words can be used for either porridge or jumbos depending on which
part of the country you are in. A classic example of a word meaning one
thing in the north and the opposite in the south.
Oatmeal is a meal (a
coarse flour). It comes in varying degrees of coarseness ranging from
the roughest, usually referred to as pinhead, which is an oat grain cut
into about 8 pieces; to completely smooth which is just like a wholemeal
milled from wheat.
Porridge to me, is the perfect breakfast . . . not too hot, not too cold . . . and cooked just right. We had porridge every morning when we were up in Scotland, but it was salty. They like salt on their oats up there. It was okay, but I prefer mine a bit sweeter than that and so does Papa Bear.
*Perfect Porridge*
Serves 4There is nothing like a tasty bowl of porridge oats to warm the tummy on these cooler mornings. I find a bowl of this keeps me going for more than half the day. It's most comforting and quite nourishing.
1 1/2 pints of whole milk (3 1/2 cups)
225g porridge oats (2 3/4 cups)
1 TBS golden syrup
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
pinch salt
7 fluid ounces single cream
75g sultanana raisins (1/2 cup)
Brown sugar to serve and additional milk or cream
It may take a while to cook the perfect bowl of porridge, but believe me when I tell you it is worth every minute of time and effort taken. This is delicious. Plain and simple. I hope you will give it a go, perhaps this weekend when you have a bit more time to indulge! Bon appetit!
I really love carrots. I think they are one of my favourite vegetables. I know . . . I say that about everything. I guess I am just a foodie through and through. I really do like carrots however. Did you know that carrots with blunt rounded ends tend to be sweeter than pointed ones? An old lady at a farmers market in Alliston, Ontario told me this once, many moons ago. I don't know if it is true or not, but I've been buying blunt ended carrots ever since, and I could swear that they really are sweeter. Like as not, it has something to do with the variety of carrot more than anything else.
This recipe today is a particularly delicious way of preparing this lovely vegetable. You do have to julienne them however, but that is really not such difficult thing to do. To julienne carrots you cut them into 3 inch lengths, trim one side off so that the carrot lies flat, and then cut them into thin slices lengthwise. You then stack the slices and cut the slices into match sticks.
You can buy julienner, but I find they make too thin a strips. I prefer to do it by hand. When I was in Culinary school I was told I had great knife skills. I dunno about that. I have never minded this type of thing however. It is a type of mindless activity that has never bothered me. You could also use a mandoline cutter. The longest part of this recipe is the cutting of the carrots. Once you have that done, the rest of it goes together rather quickly.
The juilenned carrots are cooked first in some butter for a few minutes. You then add some chicken stock, honey and dill, cover and cook them for a few minutes longer, until they are lightly glazed and crispy tender.
Dillweed and carrots have a special affinity to one another. They are beautiful taste partners . . .
Its just a tiny touch of honey, but it really enhances the natural sweetness of of this beautiful vegetable. If you are not fond of the flavour of dillweed, then you could use some freshly grated nutmeg instead. Nutmeg also goes very well with carrots.
Altogether, this is a simple recipe with elegant results. I think you are going to love these. For a special occasion, a holiday meal, or even for those occasions when you just want to serve a vegetable that is a tiny bit more than ordinary.
*Dilled Carrots*
Serves 4
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the carrots, stirring well to coat. Saute, stirring often, for about 3 minutes. Add the dill, stock and honey. Cover and cook over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes until the carrots are nice and tender. Remove with a slotted spoon and arrange in a serving dish. Delicious!
I know Thanksgiving is coming up this next weekend in Canada. These would make a brilliant addition to the Thanksgiving table! Bon appetit!
One thing I really miss over here is good fresh sweet corn. They tend to husk corn before they sell it here, and any corn afficionado knows that you just don't do that. Corn shouldn't ever be husked until just before you cook it, and it should be cooked as soon as possible after picking.
As soon as you peel that husk back the kernels start to dry out. Even peeling a little bit of it back will start that process. Good corn should have tight bright green husks and a fresh looking silk that is golden in colour and not brown. We tried growing our own corn over here one year and out of a whole packet of seeds, we got four ears . . . not one longer than four inches. We just don't get the warm temperatures and sunshine over here in the UK that you need to grow good corn.
The frozen corn is pretty good however, even the mini cobs you can buy, and of course there is tinned. Available as niblets, creamed and baby corns. I can't really complain.
This is a delicious side dish casserole that makes good use of two kinds of tinned corn. The corn niblets and creamed corn. Oh, I do so adore creamed corn. I could sit and eat it just out of the can with a spoon. It really shines in casseroles like this old fashioned corn bake. This is a real family favourite.
Two kinds of corn, cooked noodles, cheese and onion . . . some seasoning and a topping of buttered cracker crumbs. You can not get much simpler than this or tastier. You could also turn it into a main course casserole by adding cubed ham, corned beef or sliced hotdogs. It lends itself beautifully to all of these.
*Corn Casserole*
Serves 4 - 6
When we lived down in Kent we were surrounded by Orchards filled with apples and pears. This time of year we were welcome to help ourselves to the windfalls, which I was most grateful for! This was a cake I loved to bake with the results of our pickings.
This is a moist and tasty cake that goes down well with hot drinks . . . perfect for breaktime . . . with a buttery crumb . . . not too sweet . .
. topped with the chopped fruits . . . and then with a moreish oaty
sweet and buttery crumble topping baked on top.
It looks gorgeous dressed up with a light dusting of icing sugar on top of that buttery oat crumble topping.
It begins with a rich creamy cake batter that you spread into the pan. This then gets topped with chopped fruit, in this case pears and apples, which have been peeled, chopped and stirred together with a bit of lemon juice to hold their colour . . .
A buttery oaty crumble topping is sprinkled over the fruit and then the whole thing gets baked until the cake is risen and the fruit softened and that topping all crisp and scrumptious.
I like it served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top . . . Todd he likes his with custard and I admit it is absolute bliss with a dab of clotted cream or even single cream poured over . . . However you choose to enjoy it, I'm quite sure you will agree that this cake is a little taste of autumn heaven!
*Windfall Crumble Cake*
Makes one 9 inch cakeFor the cake:
For the crumble topping:
Mix the chopped fruit with the lemon juice and set aside.
Stir
together the flour, spices and sugar for the topping. Drop in the
butter and rub it in until you get a crumbly mixture. Stir in the
oats. Set aside.
I really hope that you will give this tasty cake a go. I think that you will agree with me that this is a mighty fine cake indeed! Bon Appetit!
I wanted to bake us a special treat today as we will be watching our church's bi-annual General Conference and I usually like to make it with a special treat. I had seen a photo on Pinterest for some Baked Glazed Strawberry Donuts that looked absolutely Divine.
Doesn't that look good . . . all moist and strawberry-like. Wouldn't you just love to bit into that. It looks so moist and delicious and pink, and well rounded also. I decided to go for it. I made the recipe exactly as written, with very disappointing results, and I am a very experienced baker.
They were rubbery and tasteless. I did add 1/4 tsp of ground cardamom, but that would not have affected the results that much. I added a crap-load of red food colour also in an attempt to get them as pink as hers look, but even after all that the most I could achieve is what you see here. They were not as rounded as hers. I don't think this recipe is meant to make 10 donuts at all. At best it will only make six. Try as I might, there is no redeeming these. If you are looking for a good baked donut, these are not the ones.
Is it wrong of me to expect realism and truth?
Just asking because I really do want to know.
Lets talk.
Todd picked all of our pears last weekend and I have been rushing to try to get them all used up. I did give a bag of them away to a friend, so that was good. We have one pear tree, a Conference Pear Tree and it always bears a lot of fruit (Its self-propagating)
Conference pears are a European variety of pear that are good for eating, but are also very good for cooking with because they hold their shape well. They are not too sweet, and can seem somewhat hard when it comes to eating them out of hand. I don't mind that, but Todd likes his pears to be soft.
Today I used some of them to make a delicious tea bread. Now by tea bread I don't mean a bread that is made with tea. I mean a bread that is meant to be enjoyed with a cup of tea, or that you might see served at a "Tea."
They are served cut into thin slices and buttered or not, as you prefer. My boss's husband down South, loved my Banana bread and often wanted it toasted and buttered for breakfast. Simply put, tea breads make good eating no matter when and no matter how.
This one is stogged full of grated pear, which helps to keep it moist. In fact there is no other liquid required in the recipe with the exception of some oil and some egg.
It also uses a mix of plain and whole wheat flours. I have also used toasted cobnuts, which is a very autumnal and historic nut here in the UK, but you can use Hazelnuts which will also work fine.
* SpicedPear Tea Bread*
Makes one 9 X 5 inch loaf
Spread
the cobnuts (hazelnuts) in a single layer on a baking sheet. Toast for
15 minutes stirring occasionally. Invert the toasted nuts onto a clean
tea towel. Roll up and rub the tea towel vigorously to remove the
skins. Chop the nuts finely, but not too finely. You want small bits,
but not powder.
All about Cobnuts
Nuts are an ancient, natural and nutritious food which have been grown in Britain since time immemorial. During the Tudor period their cultivation on a properly managed basis was evident and formed the foundation upon which the Victorians planted a large number of cob nut orchards, called plats, resulting in some 7000 acres being grown by the turn of the century.
The predominant nut grown was the Kentish cobnut, a type of cultivated hazelnut, bred in 1830 by a Mr Lambert of Goudhurst in Kent. The Kentish cobnut is a larger nut than a hazelnut and has a different and distinctive flavour of its own.
A Kentish cobnut is a type of hazelnut, just as a Bramley is a type of apple. Unlike most other nuts, cobnuts are sold fresh, not partially dried. They are usually in season from the end of August through to October, but stored nuts may be available from selected outlets through to Christmas.
In the photo above you can see a fresh cobnut on the left and a older seasoned/dried cobnut on the right. Each has a very distinct texture and flavour. The fresh green ones are very crunchy and have an almost vegetable-like, fresh flavour, which makes them great for using in things like salads. You can also roast them.
At the beginning of the season the husks are green and the kernels particularly juicy. Nuts harvested later on are ripe, have brown shells and husks, and the full flavour has developed. If you would like to know more about them or buy some you can find out more at Potash Farm.
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