Steel Cut Oats 3 ways

1 cup steel-cut oats
3 cups water
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt

(optional)
Spices like cinnamon, nutmeg or ground cloves
Maple syrup or brown sugar
Fruit such as berries, chopped apples, or chopped bananas

Basic Stovetop Steel-Cut Oatmeal

Boil the water. Add the steel-cut oats to the pot, along with a pinch of salt, and bring back to a boil. Stir (traditionally done with a wooden spoon.) Reduce the heat to medium low and cook uncovered for about 20 to 30 minutes. Start checking for doneness at about the 20-minute mark. For chewier oats, cook less. For more done oats, cook more. Do not stir the oats as they simmer. Allow them to rest in place as the water cooks them. Turn the heat lower if the oats seem to be drying out too quickly.

Add the milk to the oats. Stir the mixture well using a wooden spoon. Let the oatmeal simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the oatmeal from heat. Spoon into bowls for serving. Sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, maple syrup, or fruit.

Baked Steel-Cut Oatmeal

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium pot on the stove over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the steel-cut oats. Use a wooden spoon to toss the oats with the butter. Toast the oats, stirring occasionally, for about three minutes or until brown.

Pour 3 - 3 1/4 cups boiling water into the pot with the oats. Stir the water into the oats with a wooden spoon. Stir in milk, salt, and optional ingredients such as cinnamon, apples, raisins, craisins, other dried fruits, etc. Scoop the mixture into a buttered glass baking dish. Place the dish in the preheated oven. Bake the oatmeal for 50 - 60 minutes. Check on it after 30 minutes to make sure it isn't burning. The oatmeal is ready when the top has browned. Serve with cream, fresh apples, or the toppings of your choice.

Overnight Steel-Cut Oatmeal

Butter your slow-cooker insert or crock. If you don't butter your crock first, you'll have a tough time extracting the oats from the slow-cooker in the morning. Place the steel-cut oats, salt, milk, and water in the crock pot or slow-cooker. Optional: Place the apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and/or nuts in the crock pot or slow-cooker as well. Mix all the ingredients together until incorporated.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and turn the setting to low. Let the oatmeal cook overnight. If possible, check for doneness after five hours.

In the morning, remove the container from the slow cooker and stir the oatmeal. Spoon into bowls and stir in the toppings of your choice.

Chicken Enchilada Pizza

1 pkg (13.8 oz/283 g) refrigerated pizza crust or bread dough from your bread machine

1/2 medium onion

1 jalapeño pepper

8 oz Colby & Monterey Jack or marble cheese blend (about 2 cups grated), divided

2 cups diced cooked chicken breasts

1/2 cup mild green taco sauce3 garlic cloves, pressed

1/2 cup grape tomatoes

1/2 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 425°F. Lightly brush baking stone with vegetable oil. Spread dough on bottom of pan, stretching and pressing dough to cover bottom. Bake 12–-14 minutes or until crust is golden brown. (If using dough from bread machine, you may have enough enough for 2 pizzas. If you use it for one pizza, you may have to cook it longer to cook it thoroughly.)

Meanwhile, coarsely chop onion and jalapeño. Grate cheese; combine onion, jalapeño, 1/2 cup of the cheese, chicken, taco sauce and garlic pressed; mix well.

Remove pan from oven . Sprinkle 1 cup of the cheese evenly over crust; top with chicken mixture and remaining cheese. Bake 6-–7 minutes or until crust is deep golden brown and cheese is melted. Remove pan from oven to cooling rack.4

Slice tomatoes lengthwise into quarter. Coarsely chop cilantro. Sprinkle tomatoes and cilantro over pizza. Cut pizza into 12 rectangles. Serve.

Quick Apple Cream Cake

4 medium Gala apples
Juice of 1 lemon (2 Tbs.)
1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar, divided
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1 frozen pound cake, thawed
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 egg yolk

Peel, core, and slice apples. Put in large micro-safe bowl, add lemon juice,  flour, 1 cup brown sugar, cinnamon and butter to bowl (do not mix). Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH 3-4 minutes or until butter is melted.

Remove bowl from microwave; mix just until combined. Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH 2-3 minutes or until sauce is thickened.

Meanwhile, cut pound cake into sixteen even slices. In small bowl, whisk together cream cheese, sour cream, cornstarch, remaining ¼ cup brown sugar and egg yolk until smooth.

To assemble cake, arrange eight of the pound cake slices to fit evenly in bottom of 9 x 13 pan.  Spread half the cream cheese mixture evenly over pound cake. Pour half of the apple mixture (being sure to incorporate sauce) over cream cheese layer; spread to cover evenly.

Repeat layers with remaining pound cake, cream cheese mixture and apple mixture. Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH 4-5 minutes or until mixture is heated through.

Remove from microwave; let stand 2-3 minutes.

Easy bread pudding

6 small sandwich rolls- preferably 3-6 days old
4 eggs
1 cup of milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Grease or butter a casserole dish generously and preheat over to 350 degrees.
Tear rolls into small 1" bits. These don't need to be uniform, and don't stress if some are bigger than others. Place into casserole dish.
In a large bowl, mix eggs, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and milk.
When well mixed, pour over bread in casserole dish.
Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown and puffy.
Serve hot with syrup or on its own- bread pudding will deflate the longer it is out of the oven.

Baked Polenta Layered with Mushroom Ragú Recipe

I don't know if I will ever get around to making this, but it looked so good I had to save the recipe.

Polenta pasticciata is a layered baked dish, just like lasagna, but made with warm, fresh polenta instead of pasta. You can fill the layers of polenta with all manner of good things—cheeses, vegetables, meats, or sauces, or a combination of everything. People absolutely love it for the complexity of flavor, and because it can be prepared in advance.
Recipe created by Lidia Bastianich

Photo: Marcus Nilsson

Ingredients

• 1 batch (about 10 cups) Basic Polenta, freshly made and hot, with or without freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (it will be richer if you include it, but just as good without it)
• 4 to 6 cups Mushroom Ragú
• 2 Tbsp. soft butter for the baking dish, or more if needed
• 1 to 2 cups shredded Muenster or dry-packed mozzarella, Italian Fontina, cheddar, or a soft cheese of your liking
• 1/2 to 1 cup grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400° F, and set a rack in the center. Make your polenta in a large bowl, then put plastic wrap over the top, to keep it warm and to prevent a skin from forming on top. Be sure to assemble within 1/2 hour, while the polenta is still warm and soft with no lumps.

If necessary, heat the filling sauce to quite warm. If it is too dense for spreading, thin it with some water.

Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking dish or a 12-inch cast-iron skillet thoroughly. Use more butter on the bottom, in particular, if you want to unmold the pasticciata onto a platter.

Pour in half the polenta (approximately 5 cups), and spread it evenly in the bottom of the pan. Scatter 1/3 cup or more shredded Muenster or other soft cheese all over the top, then sprinkle on 2 to 4 tablespoons of grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano. Pour or ladle 2 cups of the warm sauce over the polenta and cheese, and spread it all over—use 3 cups sauce if you want a thicker layer.

Pour on a bit more than half of the remaining polenta (about 3 cups) and spread it, and top with shredded soft cheese and grated hard cheese in the amounts you like. Pour in the remaining sauce, and spread it evenly, reserving a cup, if you have enough and plan to unmold it.

For the top layer, spread all the rest of the polenta, and another 1/4 cup sauce on top of that. Sprinkle on more shredded soft cheese and grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano. If you're making a thin pasticciata in a big pan, or want it to have a beautiful deep-golden crust or gratinato, use enough cheese to really cover the top. Do not compress the cheeses, though. (See note below.)

Set the pan on a cookie sheet, and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or more, until the top is deeply colored and crusted, even browned a bit on the edges. Let the pasticciata cool for a few minutes before serving. If serving portions from the baking pan, cut into squares (like lasagna), or wedges if you've used a round skillet or pan, and lift them out with a spatula.

Polenta

8 cups water, or as needed
2 fresh or dried bay leaves
1 Tbsp. coarse salt, or as needed
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups coarse yellow cornmeal

Directions
In a small saucepan, bring 4 cups of water to a simmer; keep this "backup" water hot, covered, over medium-low heat. Bring the remaining water, the bay leaves, and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil in a 3-to-4-quart cast-iron saucepan, over medium-high heat. When boiling, add the olive oil.

Scoop up a small handful of the cornmeal, and, while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or flat-ended stirrer, let it sift slowly through your fingers into the seasoned boiling water. Let the cornmeal fall a pioggia—like rain—into the water. Sift the remaining cornmeal into the water a small handful at a time, stirring constantly, paying special attention to stirring the corners of the pot. It should take about 5 minutes to add all the cornmeal.

When all the cornmeal has been added, the mixture should be smooth and thick and begin to "perk," with large bubbles rising to the surface. Reduce the level of heat to medium-low, and continue stirring until the mixture becomes too thick to stir easily, about 4 minutes. Add enough of the "backup" water—about 1 cup—to restore the mixture to a smooth stirring consistency. Stir until the mixture is again too thick to stir easily. Continue adding water and stirring like this until the cornmeal is tender, about 20 minutes after the cornmeal was added.

When the cornmeal is tender, stir the polenta without adding water until it is shiny and begins to gather around the spoon as you stir it, 5 to 10 minutes. (The polenta should be thick enough to stand a spoon in.) The polenta is ready to serve at this point, or you can choose to cook it an extra few minutes to intensify the flavor. To continue cooking, reduce the level of heat to low, and stir the polenta constantly for 5 to 10 minutes. You may need to add a small amount of water during this extra cooking if the polenta begins to stick or become too thick.

Pour the polenta away from you into a ceramic bowl. Let it stand 10 minutes before serving. To serve polenta, scoop it onto plates with a large spoon, dipping the spoon in water before each scoop. (An ice-cream scoop can be used in the same fashion; it makes nice round mounds of polenta.)

Mushroom Ragú Recipe
The mushrooms you can buy at the supermarket will make a fine sauce, but if you have fresh wild mushrooms it will be even better. In either case, dried porcini provide the key flavor in this sauce. It is a sauce that freezes well, so freeze whatever extra you may have made.

Ingredients
1/2 ounce dried porcini (about 1/2 cup loosely packed pieces), soaked in 1 1/2 cups warm water for a few minutes, until reconstituted
2 1/2 pounds small, firm, fresh mixed mushrooms
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary, a tender stem about 4 inches long
1 sprig fresh sage with 4 big leaves or more smaller ones
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 Tbsp. butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 cup finely chopped shallots
1/2 tsp. salt, plus more to taste
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 cup dry Marsala
4 cups hot chicken or vegetable stock
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Squeeze out the soaked porcini, and slice them into pieces about 1/4 inch wide. Strain the soaking water, and keep it in a warm spot. Clean, trim, and slice the fresh mushrooms into moderately thin slices, barely 1/4 inch wide. Tie the sprigs of fresh herbs together with a piece of kitchen twine, or enclose the leaves in cheesecloth.

Put the oil and butter in a large skillet, and place over medium heat. When the butter melts, dump in the onion and shallots and half the salt, and stir well. Heat to a slow sizzle, and cook for 6 minutes or more, stirring often, until the onions are soft, wilted, and shiny, without any browning.

Pour all the mushrooms into the pan, and spread them out. Sprinkle in the remaining salt, drop in the herb bouquet, then toss briefly and cover the pan. Raise the heat a bit, and cook, covered, for about 3 minutes, shaking the pan now and then to sweat the mushrooms.

Uncover, and continue to cook over fairly high heat, stirring frequently, as the mushrooms shrink and the liquid evaporates, 5 minutes or more. When the pan is dry and the mushrooms begin to brown, clear a spot, drop in the tomato paste, and toast it, stirring, for a minute or so; then stir it into the mushrooms.

When everything is browning again and just starting to stick, pour the Marsala all over. Stir constantly as the wine thickens and evaporates. When the mushrooms again start sticking to the bottom, pour in the warm mushroom water and 2 cups of the hot stock. Bring to an active boil, stirring up any caramelization on the pan bottom. Lower the heat to keep the sauce bubbling gently all over the surface, and cover the pan. Cook for about 20 minutes, occasionally stirring and adding stock to keep the mushrooms nearly covered in liquid; expect to add 1/2 cup or so at a time. Adjust the heat to keep the sauce simmering.

Uncover the pan, and cook for another 20 minutes, continuing to simmer the ragú and adding stock as needed. When the mushrooms are thoroughly tender and the sauce has just thickened, remove and discard the herb bouquet. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Sugar cookies

1 Cup Butter, softened
¾ C Vegetable Oil
1¼ C Sugar (plus ¼ cup)
¾ C Powdered Sugar
2 T Water
2 Eggs
½ t Baking Soda
½ t Cream of Tarter
1 t Salt
5½ C Flour

Frosting:
½ cup butter, softened
¾ C Sour Cream
5 Cups powdered Sugar
1 t salt
¼ C Milk
Food Coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cream of tarter, and salt. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, vegetable oil, sugar (1¼ C), powdered sugar, and water. Slowly add in flour mixture until combined. Roll the dough into golf sized balls and place onto a non stick cookie sheet. To give the cookies a rough edge, dip the bottom of a glass into the ¼ cup sugar and press onto the cookie ball to flatten the cookie. You still want the cookie to be thicker so don’t press them to thin.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the bottom is lightly brown. The cookies stay soft so do not over bake.

To make the frosting: Cream together butter, sour cream, and salt. Add the powdered sugar. Add in food coloring (a few drops of the color of your choice), and the milk to the desired consistency. Spread over cooled cookies and store in an airtight container.

Makes two dozen. 

Polenta at the table

8 cups water, or as needed
2 fresh or dried bay leaves
1 Tbsp. coarse salt, or as needed
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups coarse yellow cornmeal

Directions
In a small saucepan, bring 4 cups of water to a simmer; keep this "backup" water hot, covered, over medium-low heat. Bring the remaining water, the bay leaves, and 1 tablespoon salt to a boil in a 3-to-4-quart cast-iron saucepan, over medium-high heat. When boiling, add the olive oil.

Scoop up a small handful of the cornmeal, and, while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or flat-ended stirrer, let it sift slowly through your fingers into the seasoned boiling water. Let the cornmeal fall a pioggia—like rain—into the water. Sift the remaining cornmeal into the water a small handful at a time, stirring constantly, paying special attention to stirring the corners of the pot. It should take about 5 minutes to add all the cornmeal.

When all the cornmeal has been added, the mixture should be smooth and thick and begin to "perk," with large bubbles rising to the surface. Reduce the level of heat to medium-low, and continue stirring until the mixture becomes too thick to stir easily, about 4 minutes. Add enough of the "backup" water—about 1 cup—to restore the mixture to a smooth stirring consistency. Stir until the mixture is again too thick to stir easily. Continue adding water and stirring like this until the cornmeal is tender, about 20 minutes after the cornmeal was added.

When the cornmeal is tender, stir the polenta without adding water until it is shiny and begins to gather around the spoon as you stir it, 5 to 10 minutes. (The polenta should be thick enough to stand a spoon in.) The polenta is ready to serve at this point, or you can choose to cook it an extra few minutes to intensify the flavor. To continue cooking, reduce the level of heat to low, and stir the polenta constantly for 5 to 10 minutes. You may need to add a small amount of water during this extra cooking if the polenta begins to stick or become too thick.

Pour the polenta away from you into a ceramic bowl. Let it stand 10 minutes before serving. To serve polenta, scoop it onto plates with a large spoon, dipping the spoon in water before each scoop. (An ice-cream scoop can be used in the same fashion; it makes nice round mounds of polenta.)

Polenta at the Table
For immediate serving: You may also serve the polenta hot directly from a board in the traditional way: Pour the hot polenta into the center of a wooden cutting board, keeping the polenta in a long, high mound. Let the polenta stand a few minutes, until it is firm enough to cut. Cut the polenta with a string stretched taut between your index fingers, or with a thin knife. Gently transfer the slices to plates.

To chill the polenta for baking, grilling, or pan-frying: You can begin to see the true versatility of polenta when it has been chilled until firm and cut into shapes for baking, grilling, or pan-frying. To serve polenta this way, pour the hot polenta—either freshly made for this purpose, or remaining from a batch made to be eaten hot—into a baking pan or mold to a thickness of about 1/2 inch. (One whole recipe of Basic Polenta makes enough to fill two 9-by-13-inch baking dishes to a depth of about 1/2 inch.) Cover with plastic wrap applied directly to the surface, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled and very firm, 4 to 5 hours. Invert the polenta onto a cutting board and cut it into any desired shape for baking, grilling, or frying.

To bake: Place the polenta pieces on a lightly oiled baking sheet and place in a preheated 375° F oven until lightly browned and crispy, about 20 minutes. Turn the polenta once about halfway through the cooking.

To grill: Lightly brush both sides of the polenta pieces with olive oil. Place on a hot grill, and cook, turning once, until well marked and heated through, about 2 minutes per side.

To pan-fry: Heat a small amount of olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the polenta slices, and cook, turning once, until golden brown and crispy on both sides, 8 servings.