Raisin Oatmeal Bread

My oven is fixed!!! Hear the birds singing?? Oh no, that is just my kiddos wanting brownies,  hee hee.  I decided to celebrate my oven's return by baking like a mad woman. This is the first of several recipes I "baked" yesterday.  Raven loves a healthy breakfast so I try to mix it up a little for her.  You can only eat fresh fruit and have hot tea so many mornings in a row.  This is a pretty good raisin bread if you ask me.  Ask Ransome and he will tell you raisins are from the devil, funny kid he is.  If you are a lover of raisin bread, bake this and then toast it and slather it with some butter.  This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Needed:


1 1/2 cups warm water
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup honey
1 t cinnamon
2 T yeast
1 T sea salt
1/2 cup corn oil
2 1/3 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup raisins


Mix water, milk, yeast, honey, and salt together.  Add to it oatmeal, whole wheat flour, and all purpose.  Mix until well blended.  Now add in oil, and cinnamon, knead for 5 minutes.  Now with your hand knead in raisins.  Let rise for 2 hours.  Now divide dough in half and place in two loaf pans.  Let rise for 1 hour.  Bake at 350' for 40-50 minutes.  Remove from oven and butter top.  Remove from pans after 20 minutes.  

Foodbuzz and Newman's Own Video--Finally

Hold your biscuit and cup of tea.  What's Cookin?? finally made the cooking video and posted it on YouTube. Check it out!  Thanks Foodbuzz and Newman's Own for this opportunity!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4wo036oPfA

Foodbuzz/Newman's Own Video Day

Send good vibes my way today as I make my very first cooking video!!!

And the news is........

What's Cookin was selected by Foodbuzz  and Newman's Own to make a video featuring my recipes using Newman's Own products.  As if that is not great enough Tulsa Kids Magazine has asked me to write their food section for July, August and September!!!  I am sooo excited  and scared!  Me on video?????  We shall see how it turns out.  All of you will be the first to see and hear all about it.  Thanks for reading my blog.

Exciting News!!!!!!

Let me catch my breath and I will tell you my GOOD NEWS!!!!  Stay tuned......

Flaky Biscuits

I just love flaky biscuits but who doesn't?  The trouble with flaky biscuits is that you must work with very cold ingredients and work fast.  Hot fresh biscuits on a cold Beaty's Creek morning is a warm and a great way to start any day.  You can make your dough ahead and have it waiting for you in the morning or better yet, make them and then freeze them so all you have to do is pop them in a preheated oven.  This is What's Cookin on  Beaty's Creek this morning.  By the way, how many weeks until morel season???


Needed:


1 3/4 cups flour 1 T sugar 
2 1/2 T Rumsford baking powder 
1 t salt 
1/2 t baking soda 
8 T very cold butter-cut into small pieces
3/4 cup buttermilk 

Mix all dry ingredients with a wire whisk.  Now coat butter with flour mixture, (this really helps to get your flaky biscuits).
Blend butter into your dry ingredients by hand or with your Kitchen Aid Mixer  until you have very small pieces of flour coated butter.  Now add in your buttermilk and stir until flour will hold together when mashed in your hand.

Now sprinkle flour over your board.  I used a granite slab and I LOVE IT! I will be writing more on the wonders of granite when I do a new pie crust recipe in a few posts to come. Anyway plop your dough out on your board and roll out to about a inch.  Now fold over dough onto itself until you have three layers. Now roll those three layers out into an inch slab again.  Repeat this process two times and then roll a final time so your dough is 1 inch thick. Now cut out your biscuits. I continue to make biscuits with the left over dough until I have only small pieces left and Raven eats those, she loves dough.
Once cut out,  place in a greased cast iron skillet ( I use bacon grease for mine). Bake at 450' for 12 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve as soon as they are out of the oven!  So good with gravy or butter and honey!


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Pumpkin Carob Chip Granola Bars

Raven likes a healthy breakfast so I am always trying new things for her. She loves soft granola bars but hates all of the additives that are in the store bought ones. I messed around with this recipe a bit until I arrived at something acceptable for everyone. She loved them and even Ransome ate several so I call it a success. It has been super cold on Beaty's Creek and I have kept my oven going just to feel a little more warmth. It was -27 degrees one week ago with 27 inches of snow on the ground. Today, the snow is gone and it is 70 degrees, can you believe that??? Crazy Oklahoma weather that I love, Oh yeah! Fix these granola bars for your family and don't bother telling them that they are healthy either. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Needed:

3 1/4 cups old fashioned oats
1 t cinnamon
1 t salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup honey
1 cup carob chips



In a large bowl mix oats, cinnamon, and salt together. Now add in brown sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, and honey. Mix until soft. Now add in your chips and stir. Press into a well greased 8x8 pan and bake at 350' for 30 minutes. You want to take them out when they are still a little soft. They will firm more as they cool. With a sharp knife cut into bars after 5 minutes of cooling.