Living in a Cereal World

I've reviewed raisin breads here, over this way, and here, too, so I thought I'd include links to those before mentioning the latest raisin bread, Martin's Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Potato Bread. Now if you've never had regular potato bread, it's yellow, thick-sliced, and has kind of a sweet aftertaste. So why not shrink it down and add raisins? Works for me. With the additional sweetness of raisins and the cinnamon swirl, this one would even make a great French toast--if you don't mind raisins with that. **** Also, in addition to the two cereals I have yet to try from my January list, there's two more new products I have to look out for now: Great Grains Protein -- Honey, Oats, & Seeds (I've never had any Great Grains cereal before but I was intrigued by this one--but not the hazelnut cinnamon; I'm not a fan of hazelnuts) and something new from Kellogg's called Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory -- chocolatey almond. I'm a sucker for

Yeah, I cut recipes out of the paper, but my local paper doesn't post them online so I have to link to them where I can. Spring Gnocchi with Asparagus and Shrimp. Had this for dinner last night as a break from red-sauced pasta. This was the first time I'd had gnocchi in something other than soup, and I may have overcooked it a teensy bit but it was still good. I was worried about a lack of flavor since it really isn't saucy but my worries were unfounded--mostly because I used a little too much pepper. I never think to mention these things in order: I cut the recipe in half because I didn't need to feed six people. Even halved it could've fed four. Both gnocchi and shrimp can be really filling. So I forgot to halve the pepper, dumped it all in there, and then scooped some back out. But it recovered nicely. If you're looking for a simple spring dish with a nice, bright flavor, give this one a try.

Just a couple of things that I thought didn't warrant their own entries... 1. I meant to include this in my Cinnamon Jacks review but I hadn't bothered to search for a commercial. I wasn't looking for this one especially but it had the jingle I remembered from my childhood. I remembered the line about "cinnamon-crunchy Apple Jacks" and that is why I questioned the need for Cinnamon Jacks. Then I noticed the back of the box says "brown sugar-y cinnamon" so I guess that's the key difference there. Okay, then, Kellogg's. 2. I just realized the other day that Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch basically replaced Oat Cluster Cheerios Crunch. It makes sense. There wasn't a need for three Multi-Grain-based Cheerios. 3. I opened a box of Fiber One Caramel Delight last week and something about it seemed...different. Mostly the texture. Was it always ridged? Something is off.

Pepperidge Farm has this new limited edition Blueberry Swirl bread, so I thought I'd make french toast with it. It's actually been out at least a month now but I decided not to mention it until I was ready to write this entry. So anyway, this is a super basic french toast method. I think my mom said she learned it in Home Ec in high school, so you can imagine how long ago that was (no, I'm not going to say). All you need is 1/4 c. milk, 1 egg, and a tablespoon of sugar. I think salt might be optional but I never use it, so... Beat all these ingredients together in a dish that's wide enough to fit a slice of bread--any small piece of bakeware should work. Then heat a frying pan (I find a 12" can fit three slices of bread at a time), add a little bit of butter and make sure it thoroughly coats your pan. Then add bread slices one at a time to your batter, making sure both sides of the bread pick/soak up a decent amount. Add to the frying pan and brown on both sid

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I could spend a good deal of time in the cereal aisle at Target. It may not be the biggest aisle (compared to other stores) but there's so many Archer Farms products that sometimes it's hard to choose. I knew, however, that it had been a while since I'd tried their take on French Vanilla Almond. I like to alternate with Cascadian Farm granola because of the Archer Farms granola texture. I don't know how they get it so airy and crunchy at the same time. If you don't like an overpowering flavor then French Vanilla is definitely the way to go. There's also nice-sized almond slices--although maybe you might like a few more; your bag may vary. I still don't know why they went to the traditional bag-in-box packaging but I'm used to it now. The resealable bag is a nice touch, keeps things fresh.

Do I really need to finish the sentence? This isn't my usual zucchini bread; I thought I'd try something different for a change. Actually, I could've sworn I my made other one last year but a search yielded nothing. I guess I'll have to make it later this year to compare. But back to this one: one medium-ish zucchini equaled roughly 1 3/4 c. shredded. It's so hard to judge zucchini size though; some of them are longer and thinner, while others are what I'd consider "regular" size--the same as a yellow squash. And I wasn't totally sure about the directions--I chose to add the dry ingredients and beat in increments (out of fear of overmixing the batter). It did sink slightly in the middle and had a few sticky patches but it was thoroughly baked inside. And tasty. I had to freeze half of it due to the size. I have to say, though, I was expecting it to be a little bit "breadier." I wasn't disappointed but I wouldn't toast it like

It'll be a while before I try another new cereal, so like the title says, here's a occasional granola review: The Cascadian Farm granolas are all oat/rice based, and then flavored or with add-ins. Why do I like this one? Well, I think my love of cinnamon is already  on the record. And the raisins switch up the texture a bit, although they can get chewy. Oh, I should mention I only eat granola with yogurt. Or occasional sprinkled on a fruit cup. But not like cereal, with milk and the whole nine yards. Anyway, I would recommend this or any of the other flavors of Cascadian Farm granola. They must have  something to appeal to your taste buds.

Do you ever see a recipe on TV and think to yourself, I'd like to try that now? As opposed to collecting and tucking away yet another dinner option. That was me last week; these are the porkchops. It wasn't as much of a glaze as I thought it would be but it did thicken up the longer it sat. Actually, the first thing I wanted to say was that if you don't like Dijon mustard, you won't like this. Even with the orange juice and honey to cut it (ha--cut the mustard) it's still a very strong flavor. And like most skillet porkchop recipes, we still can't figure out how long to cook it. But it was certainly worth trying again, maybe with the wild rice recipe that goes with it.

I had buttermilk leftover from last week's pancakes, so I had to do something with it. Enter buttermilk biscuits. Apparently I've made these once before but I don't remember doing it. They're really easy to make (as long as you don't mind getting your hands dirty). And they were surprisingly light and fluffy considering their outward dry/overcooked appearance (they weren't; I was just worried for nothing). We managed to get a dozen out of the dough, so you can guess what I'll be eating all week.

I questioned the need for Cinnamon Jacks: didn't Apple Jacks already have a cinnamon flavor? And yet, here we are. Visual notes first: the cereal is shaped to resemble actual jacks--smart move. And they're two different colors, not unlike the original, except one is reddish and the other is sort of tan--as if the intention was the colors of cinnamon and Red Hots. The taste? At first, it tasted like Apple Jacks with something missing but the more I chewed, the more the cinnamon flavor came through. I probably won't buy this again but I'm currently mixing it with Quaker's Whole Hearts, which is a surprisingly good combination.

So I had the brilliant idea to make a lemon meringue pie for Easter. But I'd also had the brilliant idea to make buttermilk pancakes from scratch that morning. Yeah...my lower back is still sore from all the standing and stirring. But my pie turned out almost perfect. I should say first that I don't think lemon meringue pie is a pie for beginners--at least I would've screwed it up if it had been the first pie I'd ever made. You really have to make sure to get as much egg white separated from the egg yolk as possible; I had to pick several strands of cooked egg white out of my pie filling. And like I said before, there's a lot of stirring involved until it comes to the right consistency. The flavor was spot on; I used three lemons to get just the right amount of juice and zest (although according to my research, your number of lemons may vary). And my meringue turned out right, too--stiff peaks and everything. The only thing I didn't quite do correctly was