Living in a Cereal World

This week's Lent challenge yogurt is  Pina Colada Yogurt Parfait . I buy the pineapple coconut and toasted coconut vanilla flavors of my yogurt occasionally, so obviously I was going to try this one. And I have to say, it is so much better . The pineapple is more intense, the toasted coconut doesn't lose its toasted flavor once it gets yogurt-soggy, and the vanilla of the yogurt still  manages to come through. It's worth it to take the five minutes to toast the coconut. After Lent is over, this is becoming a regular option for me.

Two weeks ago I woke up early one morning and realized what I should give up for Lent: flavored yogurt. I was so excited I couldn't get back to sleep. I know, food nerd. And the kind I eat doesn't even have that much sugar but still, I like to challenge myself. I combed my recipe files for ideas and also searched online and I decided to start with this one:  Orange Yogurt . Now I've learned that I can't really eat a whole tub of yogurt. I'm better off buying and combining singles to make half of a recipe. Also, I can tell the difference between orange-flavored yogurt and what I made, which tasted like a real orange (of course) and wasn't as sweet. Instead of following the thickening instructions I just bought Greek yogurt, which I guess wasn't readily available when this recipe was originally written. I also didn't add the raisins because I didn't want them sitting in there all week; I just added some to each serving. I'm sure now that I'

Yes, cod lends itself to a lot of puns. My brother went with "What if cod was one of us?" And why were we making cod puns? Because we had  Chip-Crusted Fish Fillets  last night. My mom had this years ago with a friend of hers and came home raving about it but it didn't sound appealing to me. Probably because I haven't eaten potato chips in years and couldn't imagine eating fish covered in them. But it's Lent, and the grocery stores always have great seafood sales this time of year, so I figured it was a good time to try cod. I'd also never baked cod before. I've only had something resembling cod in fast-food fish sandwiches (and even those I stopped eating a long time ago); this was way  better. Have you ever seen a cooking show where the fish was described as "buttery?" That's the best word I can use for this cod. It wasn't dry, it didn't have any bones, it just melted in your mouth--as much as fish can. And like the recipe say

It was bitterly cold and windy here yesterday (actually, it's still cold); thankfully we didn't lose power so I was able to make these  Chunky Dried Apple and Cranberry Muffins . (They're on the back of the Market Pantry Dried Apples bag but not on Target's website!) You may remember that I bought the dried apples for  Pumpkin Apple Oatmeal ; I don't think I noticed this other recipe at the time. But at some point I did, of course; it was simply a matter of waiting for the right Sunday to make them. So last week the request came down for cranberry muffins and I thought, I have just the recipe. Let me say, they get big. Really big. I'm assuming that's due to all the baking powder but it's not an unwieldy muffin; in fact, they're actually pretty light when you pull them apart. Nobody wants a dense muffin, right? You're not eating pound cake for breakfast. My one concern was the consistency of the dried apples. Would they be too  dry? Too chewy?

The first time I had this last week I didn't really get enough to form an opinion so I had to wait 'til now for a full bowl's thoughts. Basically: it's pretty good. The ratio of Cheerios to grains isn't overwhelming to either side. It has a maple flavor that I sniffed out immediately but didn't taste as much--a good thing, since you know I like my sweetened cereal on the subtle side. The back of the box helpfully points out what's what: spelt is the one that reminds me of Honey Smacks, and when you account for the maple flavor both the spelt and the Kamut taste like the Honey Smacks/Golden Crisp family, too. The quinoa is cooked into a granola cluster, which is a good idea. I could see it being intimidating or off-putting to people who've never had it before; as a bonus, you have three different textures going on in this cereal. I hope this one sticks around for while; there's only so much you can do to update Cheerios.

I've made biscuits before, but they've always been your typical soft, fluffy biscuits (just off the top of my head: classic  Baking Powder Biscuits ,  Yogurt Biscuits ,  Southern Biscuits ). But no flaky biscuits, because I've never liked peeling those layers in the cooked canned version. On the other hand, I'll give a Cooking Light recipe a try:  Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits . I never really thought about how you accomplish those flaky layers; it turns out that it involves multiple folds. It works, though; if you cut them perfectly round--which I did for maybe half of them--they get a nice height and  you can see several layers separating. Perfect for splitting and covering with whatever fruit spread you have on hand. That little bit of honey is a nice touch, too, but you absolutely must  use parchment paper. Unless you really enjoy scouring cookie sheets. ******* Also, yesterday I finally tried the last suggestion on the Cream of Wheat box: fresh fruit. Well, thawed-f

It's pretty much right there in the title, but that wouldn't make for much of an entry, would it? You know, it's been years since I've bought a box of Kellogg's original Raisin Bran and I wonder how the flakes would compare. These flakes, while seemingly regular bran flakes (unlike the crispy coated ones in Raisin Bran Crunch) still have some sweetness to them. I don't know if that's from being boxed with sweetened dried fruit or they still have some sort of non-obvious coating. Also, I can't tell if the dried cranberries--or raisins, for that matter--are sweetened or not. Either way, they have plenty of flavor to my taste buds. Basically, if you've had the Cinnamon Almond or Omega-3 Flaxseed varieties, you'll know what to expect here. It's a solid, welcome addition to the Raisin Bran lineup.

This was  the one flavor of Real Medleys oatmeal that I liked, so when I noticed last week that they'd made it into a granola I thought, that is a great and obvious idea. I should try it. So I did today, which is a really fast turnaround for me. Anyway, the first thing I noticed was that there's a really nice ratio of berries to granola clusters. The granola itself is not too dry but not weirdly sticky, either. It's right in the granola sweet spot, so to speak. The berries are freeze-dried, so they still look like berries, and there's three kinds: blueberries, strawberries and raspberries (I didn't realize those were part of it). I'm definitely adding this to my regular list of granolas and I'll probably try the other flavor--Chocolate Cranberry Almond--as well, even though I'm not crazy about chocolate in my granola.

Well, yes and no. Either or both. Thomas' Limited Edition Banana Bread English muffins are a little bit of everything. (Obligatory disclaimer: not a paid endorsement!) First of all, I was surprised there would even be a limited edition flavor this time of year--I was tipped off by my sister, otherwise I wouldn't have even thought to look--and second, banana bread? Unlike the aptness of pumpkin spice, apple, and cranberry in the fall, banana bread doesn't scream "middle of the dead cold winter." But I am not complaining, because they are very, very...good. They have all the spices and flavor of banana bread but in the form of an English muffin. I can compare this to actual banana bread because I made one last week. So if you have a taste for banana bread but don't feel like making it/are not a baker, you need to try these.

So it's cake-baking time again. My usual gift at birthdays. I set this  Pear Streusel Cake  recipe aside a few months ago thinking it would be perfect for my mom: no icing, not too big, and of course, pears. What I failed to remember was how much work would go into it. Not that I'm complaining; I only undertake baking like this on weekends when I have more time. Also the finished product was definitely worth it. First I made the streusel and set that aside. Then I peeled and sliced my pears: Anjou, which looked better at the grocery store and were just the right amount of ripe after four days on the counter. Then I made the cake batter. I'm still not great at dividing batter; my pear layer was closer to the bottom of the cake than the original recipe's picture. But otherwise, it's a beautiful cake, especially with the powdered sugar dusted on top. And the different layers complement each other nicely, with the crunch of the streusel, the seriously moist cake (real