a few recipes to try

I'm being asked for recipes on FB, and since I've only made these things precisely from recipes I've found elsewhere, I'll crosslink them here (with comments) and hand out this link. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Baked Steel Cut Oats, via Nichole Joyce. I keep trying to talk Nichole into cooking for me full-time. I like to eat, she likes to cook, and she's working on eating more fresh and local fare as well as nourishing fare. Through her I learned about (and was promptly intimidated by) Nourishing Traditions, a cookbook that advocates a certain style of eating to maximize nutrients and minimize artificial "food." I'm working my way through it and it makes a ton of sense, but implementation (other than buying full fat dairy products, and using more butter!) is proving daunting for me. Trying Nichole's recipes is a great blend of "I know that meets the 'nourishing' requirements AND I know I can make it!"

I fed this to Rob with low expectations. He doesn't care for oatmeal due to the texture. Using the steel cut oats is the trick - it's got a texture that's not oatmealy, is chewable, and the whole shebang is very very tasty. I have another recipe that I want to try, but I'm a bit nervous about the rolled oats it uses. Unless it has a cake-like texture, I might be eating that one alone (Baked Oatmeal, from Alexis Croft), but with apples and cinnamon in it, I might not mind having to consume what is practically apple pie. For breakfast. Talk about your nourishing!

We are topping the baked steel cut oats with a generous dollop of my new favorite recipe to use up rhubarb: Rhubarb Curd, also from Nichole. I'm a curd newbie, but after making an inordinate quantity of rhubarb jam last year (not recommended: it loses too much of the rhubarb flavor), I needed a new way to quickly use up the two rhubarb crops I find pressed upon me. Rob likes eating rhubarb raw. This is crazy talk, and I can only make so much strawberry-rhubarb pie.

Enter rhubarb curd. Anything with that much butter and eggs HAS to be good! I've slapped it on breakfast and shortbread so far, and even had a spoonful just off the stove. I'm excited to share with others until I look at my (empty) first jar and realize how quickly we're going to go through this stuff.

I think B and I will go for a hike today. Not only to walk off the curd, but to work off the half-and-half that we pour over the oats (and curd). Heavenly!