CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT CHEWIES

I came across this quote on my friend Stacey's blog this week and I just love it.

In How to Be Here, Rob Bell writes this:

You and I were raised in a modern world that taught us how to work hard and be productive and show up on time and give it our best…

We learned lots of very valuable skills, but we weren’t taught how to be here, how to be fully present in this moment, how to not be distracted or stressed or worried or anxious, but just be here, and nowhere else—wide awake to the infinite depth and dimension of this exact moment.

I have my head down these days trying to keep everyone fed, rested, clean and happy. But I do feel that these days, in our times, stopping and seeing is so encouraged. It doesn't mean I do it, but it may be quote on Pinterest or line from a self help book or a loved one with a terminal illness that puts things back in perspective. It's advice I'm choosing to, or trying to, listen to because I am happier when I do.  The exhaustion, the 3am rocking, the mess and the tantrums, the baby smiles and the toddler phrases that make us laugh. It all feels like too much for my tender heart - both the hard and the really good of it. These are the days. 

I saw those virtuous candy bars on My New Roots a few weeks ago and while they look perfect, I used her general idea to come up with something a little quicker. That cookie layer would be perfect, but these still feel like such a treat drenched in dark chocolate. They remind me of these truffles but without the cocoa and a little nuttier inside. They are soft, so I keep them in the fridge and actually prefer them cold but I am not one to turn down a treat at any temperature. 

CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT CHEWIES //Makes about 16

You'll have to use your judgement based on the juiciness of your dates. Notes are in the recipe to compensate for dry or super juicy ones. We are going for the texture of a Lara bar inside - chewy and a wee bit crunchy. You can use all hazelnuts, but I wanted to pair them with a fattier nut for creaminess. 

1 cup toasted and skinner hazelnuts
1 cup cashews or macadamia nuts
8-9 pitted Medjool dates
1/4 cup real maple syrup
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup rolled oats
2 Tbsp. coconut flour

6 ounces dark chocolate

toasted hazelnuts, flaky sea salt and cocoa nibs, for topping

In a food processor, pulse the nuts until just sandy. Add the dates, maple, salt, vanilla, oats and coconut flour and pulse a few more times to combine. The mixture should start to come together in a fall. If it is still too wet, add a few more tablespoons oats or flaxmeal. If it seems dry and crumbly, add a splash more maple or warm water. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Line a baking tray with parchment and spread a thin coat of coconut oil. Dump the nut mixture and form a rectangle about 3/4" thick. Pop it back in the fridge to chill another 15-20 minutes. 
Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a large mixing bowl in the microwave or double boiler. Put a baking rack (rubbed with a bit of coconut oil) over a piece of parchment to collect drips. Cut the chewies into 2" squares. Bathe them one at a time in the chocolate bath, coating both sides, and set them on the rack. Sprinkle the tops with a bit of chopped hazelnuts, cocoa nibs and flaky sea salt. Pop them in the fridge to firm up and enjoy. Keep them in a covered container in the fridge.

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PEAR AND HAZELNUT MUFFINS

Pear & Hazelnut Oat Muffins

The holiday week came and went and after one more party to ring in the New Year, I think we're just about toasted. A week full of good things, albeit it busy and expensive and generally full. We're so lucky that both families are close and we have friends here we've had for decades, but it makes for a very social season. There is a Rainer Maria Rilke quote that continues to pop into my head when I think about loving Hugh well. “I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other.” He is an introvert, one who recharges by being alone, depleted by too many parties and get-togethers and I want to nurture this need while it may not be one that functions the same way in me. Our home, because we work here often as well, doesn't exactly feel the sanctuary it may for most people who return there after a day away at work. So we've gone to the sea the past few early evenings, just the two of us, to take a breath and get out. I can see Hugh's spirit lighten there, something I will try my entire life to give to him, by way of trips to the sea or otherwise. What a huge responsibility we have to love people - to not just show up, but to be present and aware of someone else. I'm not just speaking of marriage, but the truth of it welled up in me as I thought back on the whirlwind of a week. As my sister beyond spoiled our family for Christmas with her phenomenal taste and generous gift giving skills, or how we all drove 4 hours round trip on Christmas day, ate lunch a la gas station mini mart, to spend one hour with my grandma who wasn't feeling well, that a few people gave gifts to our baby boy in my tum who is merely the size of a large heirloom tomato (so I'm told, though he seems to be taking up a lot more real estate), and that his dad was able to feel him kick (or high five as he's claiming it to be) for the first time on Christmas morning and told every person he saw that day about it. We give gifts and time and words and hugs and infrequently stop to feel how truly huge it is, really. What you give, how you give it and to whom. I hope to be more thoughtful about this in 2014.

These feelings of the giganticness of life are on par for the year's end. This evening we'll go to our ritual new years spot and talk goals, likely shed tears relating to how we fit into said giganticness and admit how in even looking forward to a new year, I may be seized with impotent fear. The small things within the big things are what this beautiful life is built out of and I hope to see and experience the minutia of the day to day when the big things feel like too much.

My friend Megan of A Sweet Spoonful has a charming cookbook that came out today and these muffins are from it's pages. It's a breakfast cookbook but so much more than that as you'll see when you get drawn into her storytelling and impeccable granola recipe that truly extends beyond breakfast to one of my favorite ice cream toppings. I chose these muffins due to the pears I had in perfect condition to be grated, but the book is filled with a variety of breakfast ideas. I appreciate how these recipes seem to have come so naturally from her life onto the printed pages of a cookbook. Congrats, Megan, I'm excited to try more recipes!

Anything can happen, anything can be. - Shel Silverstein

The loveliest new year to you all.

Pear & Hazelnut Oat Muffins

Pear & Hazelnut Oat Muffins

PEAR AND HAZELNUT MUFFINS // Makes 12 standard muffins

Recipe barely adapted from Megan Gordons Whole Grain Mornings

I halved the recipe with success, hence why you see six muffins in the photos. I do believe these could be made gluten free with a quick swap of the flours, you just won't get as much of a dome. I'd go equal parts almond, oat flour, brown rice flour to equal the 1 1/2 cups and just expect they'll be more crumbly, but this doesn't bother me. Maybe throw a splash of flax meal in there too for binding support and make up for the fact that these flours aren't quite as absorbent as wheat. Can you tell I'm big on precise baking? I also think the whole thing could work great in a loaf pan with a longer baking time.

• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup unbleached all purpose
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 2-3 firm pears
• 2/3 cup natural cane sugar or muscavado
• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 heaping cup toasted and chopped hazelnuts

Pear & Hazelnut Oat Muffins

Preheat the oven to 425'. Butter a standard 12-cup miffin tin (or line with papers. I wish I'd done the former).

In a bowl, combine the oats, flours, baking soda, baking powder, cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Mix well and set aside.

Core the pears and grate them into a bowl using the large holes of a box grater. You should have a heaping cup of shredded pear.

Put the sugar in a large bowl. Melt the butter and stir it into the sugar until well combined. Whisk in the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and shredded pear until you have what resembles a loose batter. Add the flour mixture and fold it in gently, being careful not to overmix. Reserve 1/2 cup of the hazelnuts but stir the other half into the batter.

Fill the muffin cups nearly to the top and sprinkle the remaining hazelnuts. Put the muffins in the oven and immediately decrease the heat to 375'. Bake until the tops are golden brown and feel firm to the touch, 25-27 minutes.

Let the muffins cool for 10 minutes before removing them from the tin. Serve warm or room temperature. They will keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container.

Pear & Hazelnut Oat Muffins

WINTER GREENS + CRISPY QUINOA SALAD

sprouted kitchen

We had an impromptu dinner at a friends house on Monday. There was a group text started in the late morning to have dinner that evening on a friends patio. They have a gorgeous view and the weather had warmed up a bit. Nothing fussy or elaborate, just grilling up a big piece of salmon, rice and I planned to bring a salad to share. There were chips and salsa. There are always chips and salsa at a backyard dinner now that I think of it. I crave this kind of thing - the patio dinners with friends. Going out to eat is pleasant, but it's meals with people I love that I soak right up - in a home, dirty dishes and all, mine or theirs, all of it. We drank wine, lingered around the table and laughed. I haven't practiced much of my mantra about the communal aspect of food, which is why I'm recently making more of an effort to have people over for dinner, or to gather some way, in any sense of the word. You see, when your identity is defined by cooking and blogging and writing books and recipes, people assume you make really good food all the time. But the thing is, a lot of the time I mess up, and it's not always good, and I've tried my hand at short ribs for Hugh or guests FOUR times and I can't get them right. So passively, I've let my errors every now and then back me into a corner of not having people over as often as I'd like. Some nights we have breakfast tacos for dinner, and you can't have people over for dinner and feed them breakfast tacos... except you CAN! I just learned that this week, inspired by a dinner with people whose company I truly enjoy. I am going to have people over and it doesn't have to be expensive or a grand effort, just an act of generousity with the intention of spending time together over a meal. It's an uncomplicated plan, really.

If you come to my house for dinner, there will be vegetables. I cook them much better than I do short ribs. I know I'm a little spotty when it comes to cooking meat, but I can make salad. I made a big batch of this dressing to have on hand, and then kept everything pretty and simple to go along with a protein of choice. Maybe some grilled shrimp or get a fresh fish filet at the market. The salad is just right - the easy, likeable sort. The perfect salad to share.

sprouted kitchen

WINTER GREENS + CRISPY QUINOA SALAD // Serves 6

When cooking quinoa for this salad, especially to help it crisp up here, you want to use a 1/1.5 ratio of quinoa to liquid when cooking. For example, I cooked 1/2 cup rinsed quinoa in 3/4 cup vegetable broth. You want a drier, slightly undercooked quinoa before you fry it up so it gets crispy. 

• 1 Tbsp. coconut oil
• 3/4 cup cooked and completely cooled quinoa
• 1 head butter lettuce
• 2 cups arugula
• 3/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
• 1 cup pomegranate seeds
• // meyer lemon yogurt dressing //
• 1/4 cup meyer lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced or grated
• 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. dried italian herbs (mine is a mix of oregano, parsley + basil)
• pinch of pepper
• 1/3 cup whole milk greek yogurt or sour cream
• 3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

sprouted kitchen

sprouted kitchen

Heat the coconut oil over high heat in a frying pan. Once it's hot, add the cooked quinoa and saute for about 2-3 minutes until dry and crisp. You want the steam to release and hear the crackling, add a bit more oil if needed. Set aside to cool completely. 

Prepare the dressing. Whisk the lemon juice, garlic, vinegar, honey, salt, herbs, pepper and yogurt in a bowl. Whisk in the oil, taste for seasoning and alter as you wish. This can be made up to a week in advance. 

Toss both greens in the dressing to coat, top with the crispy quinoa, hazelnuts and pom seeds and serve immediately. 

sprouted kitchen