Overnight Oats

We’ve got an infant at home.  Baby Eve. We are all in love with her and she returns the sentiment by being a sweet baby, a good eater and even a decent sleeper for her age.  But like any 7 week old, she sleeps all the time and seemingly never. So I am up, sometimes, at 1:30 am, 2:30 am, 4:30 am and again at 5:45 am when the big kids decide to come downstairs with breakfast requests inexplicably early.  Of course. Last night was one of those nights. I found myself awake at all of the above mentioned hours as well as at 3:30 am (while Eve was sleeping! Why????) when I found myself craving cold oatmeal more than sleep (crazy) and wishing I had overnight oats in the fridge. More puns. Overnight Oats. An actual name that feels more like a taunt.  Not much I can do about its name, or the lack of sleep, but I can refuse to let my 3:30 am craving go unsatisfied again. So today I prepared three days/nights worth of overnight oats.  

There's our girl. Sleeping like a baby.

I won’t pretend there is a recipe for this. I happened to organize my kitchen cupboards yesterday, thank you maternity leave, and IKEA, so I actually knew what was in there and what needed to be used. I got out three mason jars and set to work.

For these, I threw together the following in unknown quantities:

Steel cut oats - for chewiness

Quick cooking oats  - for softness

Unsweetened grated coconut - for texture and sweetness

Chia seeds - for “superfood-ness”

Hazelnuts - for fat and protein

Pepitas - see above

Spices - Cinnamon, Cardamom, Allspice, Nutmeg

Kosher salt, a pinch

Maple syrup, to taste

Milk, enough to cover and absorb all the oaty goodness

Two kinds of oats and coconut. 

Chia seeds. I'm feeling super already.

Layers of good stuff. 

And last, the milk. All done. 

Once everything was in the jars, I stirred them up and put them back in the fridge, for a day or three.

My assistant was in charge of making sure the ingredients were thoroughly mixed together. 

In the morning(s) I stirred in some plain yogurt and fresh fruit and enjoyed my oats cold, summer style.  I wonder what my father-in-law would think?

“Coldcannon” in the Heat of Summer

Summer in Chicago. The heat and humidity doesn’t exactly leave us longing for heaping portions of butter-laced potatoes, sausages, lamb stew or other such Irish specialties (as much loved as they are around here at other times of the year).  That being said, certain classic Irish flavor and ingredient combinations are always welcome on our table.

This salad is one of them.  I call it Cold-Cannon - get it? It’s a salad using the same ingredients as Colcannon but it’s cold. Thus, COLD Cannon.

Kidding.  Well, all that is true but really I’m just making fun of Paul again. Puns aside, the combination of greens, green onion and potatoes works as well here as in Colcannon, which is also delicious. Lentils add some protein and heft but can also be left out. I like that this dish can be eaten cold, at room temperature or warm (there goes it’s punny moniker) and gets better as it sits, making it an excellent candidate for a picnic, potluck or make-ahead side. It’s also vegan and gluten free.  Effortlessly so. Summer needs more dishes like this.

Roasted New Potato Salad with Kale, Lentils and Green Onions

Serves 4

1 1/2 pounds small new potatoes, cut into bite size pieces (if necessary)

Vegetable oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2-3 cups kale, chopped

½ cup cooked French lentils

Juice from one half lemon

2 teaspoons red wine or sherry vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons dijon mustard

1 tablespoon capers, drained and coarsely chopped

2-3 green onions, roots and wilted outer leaves removed, finely chopped

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Lentils and Vinaigrette.

 Make vinaigrette. In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, chopped green onion and capers. Slowly whisk in olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat the oven to 375°F. Place potatoes on sheet pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with vegetable oil.  Toss potatoes in oil until they are lightly coated. Roast for 30 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Remove from the oven and toss with vinaigrette, lentils and chopped kale while still warm. Top salad with parsley and eat warm, cold or at room temperature.

I put the chopped kale in the bowl with the dressing and added the potatoes straight from the oven so that the heat would wilt the greens just a little.  Then I mixed the kale and potatoes until they were evenly coated with dressing before addng the lentils and parsley . 

I put my camera away and ate this immediately.  

Happy Heatwave! 

Ice Cream

So we've been making a ton of ice cream around here this summer. Way too much. I currently have five flavors in my freezer. Five. Somehow there's not that much left in any of the (five) containers as our consumption rates have been similarly excessive. I have a bunch of 'reasons' for this:

1. I’m on maternity leave (huh? I know, I’m reaching but I usually don’t have this kind of time);
2. the heat (though it hasn’t been so hot lately);
3. we don't have to go out for ice cream (but we still do);
4. it's fun for the kids (though they aren’t always home when I make it).

Ok. Let's call a spade a spade.

I LOVE ice cream. I can never get enough and I don't really discriminate when it comes to flavors. I like them all. Once I put the bowl of the ice cream machine in the freezer, it's summer home, I can't control what happens next.

As you can see, this is not the ice cream that's the subject of this post. This is the ice cream that I am eating while making more ice cream. Shameless. 

When I saw Clodagh McKenna's recipe for brown bread ice cream, ice cream with little bits of caramelized brown bread in it, I had to try it. Now I want to get one of those bicycles with the coolers in the front and sell my ice cream at all of the summer festivals. Wouldn't that be fun(ny)? Maybe I could pedal off all of the extra calories.

This idea is genius. Make breadcrumbs out of stale bread. Coat them in butter and brown sugar and toast them in the oven. Flavor your custard style ice cream base with the caramelized crumbs. And save a few to use as a topping. The Bailey's (or any alcohol) helps to keep the ice cream from freezing too hard in the freezer but you can leave it out and just set the tub on the counter for a few minutes before scooping. Leave it in if you feel like you need an excuse not to share with your kids.

Brown Bread Ice Cream

For the Vanilla Custard Base

I use a vanilla custard base recipe that I have adapted to fit perfectly into the little ice cream machine I bought when I lived in Japan. You can use this recipe and instructions on the process of making the custard base. To that, I add Bailey's and the caramelized brown bread crumbs, making some extra crumbs to top the ice cream with.

1 batch of custard base (see above)

1-2 tablespoons Bailey's

For the Caramelized Brown Bread Crumbs

3 slices stale brown bread, toasted

2 tablespoons salted Irish butter

1-2 tablespoons brown sugar, loosely packed

To make the bread crumbs, toast the bread and break it up with your hands into small pieces or place bread in a ziptop plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin until coarsely ground.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Melt butter and mix with breadcrumbs until somewhat evenly coated.

I just tore the bread into small pieces with my hands. The texture is just a matter of personal preference.

In a bowl, mix the buttered breadcrumbs with brown sugar. Sprinkle the buttered, sugared bread crumbs onto a parchment lined baking sheet, spreading them out evenly.  Bake for about 10 minutes, stirring halfway through.  The sugar should be melted and the crumbs should be crispy and browned. Remove from the oven, let cool and store (you can make these up to a few days ahead) until you are ready to churn the ice cream.

Look! It's like brown bread granola. Exciting.

Definitely store these somewhere out of the way while you wait for your custard to chill.  I put them on a high shelf in the kitchen along with my other - less tempting - dry goods to prevent these little nuggets from getting consumed before churn-time.

Once your custard base has chilled, add 2 tablespoons of Bailey’s to the base and churn in your ice cream maker per the manufacturer’s instructions. Remember to place your ice cream container in the freezer ahead of time to pre-chill it. This helps minimize melting when you transfer your churned ice cream to the freezer.  A couple of minutes before the ice cream is fully churned, pour two thirds to three quarters of your brown bread crumbs into the machine and allow them to be dispersed throughout the ice cream. Reserve the rest to use as a topping.

This is how my ice cream looks when it's ready to take out of the machine. My machine starts making this loud clicking noise when it's finished. I have no idea whether or not that's typical ice cream machine behavior or not. Now I'm talking about my ice cream machine like it's my fourth child. Yikes. 

After the machine is done churning, remove ice cream and place in the freezer in your pre-chilled container to freeze more thoroughly. This usually takes at least a couple of hours though I also love the soft serve consistency of ice cream straight from the machine (I don’t discriminate when it comes to texture either). Scoop, top with more caramelized brown bread crumbs and enjoy!

Off to the freezer to firm up. 

We liked the contrast between the brown bread crumbs that were churned and frozen into the ice cream which were kind of chewy and the ones we sprinkled on top that were crunchy. 

Dinner on the driveway.