Happy Friday

Only a few more hours of the work week. I know you will make it. Hope everybody has had a good week. I have been busy trying to set up online shopping of my website and a "buy" page directly from this blog. You can see the link on the right side. It is an unbelievable amount of work behind the scenes to get all this up and going. But I have the time right now ,and I know it will be worth it in the end. So please bare with me if it seems like I am not getting much done that fast. if you have never built a website or done a blog. you have no idea . I understand why people would pay $1500 to $5000 or more to have a website built for them. Anyway, I'll ramble some another time.
Have a great day!
Kent

Pineapple Almond Shake

Description
The almonds in this invigorating shake make it a terrific source of protein, and blanching your own almonds is a great kitchen activity for kids.


Ingredients
1/4 cup blanched almonds
1 cup roughly chopped fresh pineapple
1/2 cup ice, crushed or cubes
1/2 teaspoon pure maple syrup
1/4 cup rice milk or soy milk
1/2 cup pineapple juice


Instructions
Grind the almonds in a blender to a fine powder.

Add all the ingredients and blend until smooth.

Pour into 3 large drinking glasses.
(If you want to make more, repeat the recipes. Most blenders will accommodate only enough for 3.)

Chocolate Crisps

Here is a diabetic friendly snack!


When you need a chocolate fix, these rich-tasting morsels will do the trick
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg white
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 ounce finely chopped unsweetened chocolate, (1 1/2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Confectioners' sugar, (optional)

Preparation

1.Preheat oven to 300°F. Coat a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
2.Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Swirl the pan until the butter is lightly browned, about 1 minute. Transfer to a medium bowl. Whisk in sugar. Add egg white, flour, cocoa, unsweetened chocolate, vanilla and salt and whisk until smooth.
3.Drop the batter by heaping teaspoonfuls, about 2 inches apart, onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake until set in the center, 12 to 15 minutes. Immediately transfer the cookies with a spatula to a rack to cool. (If the cookies begin to stick before all are removed, return the pan briefly to the oven.) Dust the cookies with confectioners' sugar if using.
Nutrition
Per cookie: 38 calories; 2 g fat (1 g sat); 3 mg cholesterol; 6 g carbohydrates; 1 g protein; 17 mg sodium; 23 mg potassium.

1/2 Carbohydrate Serving

Exchanges: 1/2 other carbohydrate

The rise of naan

A sandwich is a sandwich. But a naanwich, well, that's a phenomenon that has popped up all over the nation as Americans warmly embrace the South Asian clay oven bread known as naan.

No longer restricted to Indian restaurants or ethnic grocery stores, the airy and supple flatbread is now proffered in the bread aisles of Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and even many large grocery chains. Meanwhile, Sabri Naanwich shops serving their trademarked dish have risen all over Canada, and chefs in this country offer several non-trademarked versions of the inevitably named sandwich.

Still, the mainstreaming of naan (which rhymes with John) comes as a mixed blessing to Indian culinary authority, teacher and cookbook author Julie Sahni.

On one hand, "it shows the growing familiarity with Indian culture," she said. But on the other hand, some packaged versions in the bread aisle "can be just horrible -- dry, bready and so expensive, nothing at all what naan was ever supposed to be like."

Indeed, this clay-oven bread, which came to India from Central Asia with the 16th-century Mogul emperor Babur, is supposed to puff up like a crisp, tender pastry quilt and emerge from the oven in less than a minute. Pulled apart and devoured hot, naan should taste "like a dream and need nothing else on it," Sahni said.

But can that dream be re-created at home?

The answers are yes and no. Sahni and her fellow Indian cooking expert Monica Bhide agreed that commercial versions can cook up nicely. "I especially love the Pillsbury frozen naan," Bhide said.

Scratch versions, however, can be a bit more complicated. Even though they are fairly easy to assemble, some require long rising times, and no one seems to agree on how best to duplicate the intense radiant heat of a tandoor, the traditional clay oven. Various suggestions include using a pizza stone, bricks in the oven, a hot toaster oven, a cast-iron pan, a barbecue grill or a broiler.

We tested a few recipes and cooking methods and found that the fastest and tastiest recipe came from Madhur Jaffrey's "Indian Cooking." It includes a combination of yogurt, yeast, egg and baking powder to create a fluffy, elastic dough that rose in about an hour.

"You can't compare it to bread from a tandoor," said Jaffrey, who shares her recipes and food memories in her recent memoir "Climbing Mango Trees." "But I worked hard to develop a recipe to make a dough that is smooth and silky to make the bread stretchy and chewy, as it should be."

Naan

Prep: 25 minutes

Rise: 1 hour

Cook: 4 minutes

Makes: 6 large breads



Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's "Indian Cooking." If you would like a darker bread, place 3 to 4 inches from a heated broiler for 30 seconds after the bread is baked.



Ingredients:

2/3 cups hot milk

2 teaspoons each: extra-fine sugar, active dry yeast

3 ¾ cup flour

1 teaspoon each: salt, baking powder

2 tablespoons vegetable oil plus more for bowl

2/3 cup plain yogurt, lightly beaten

1 large egg

Melted butter, optional

Put milk in a bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of the sugar and all of the yeast. Stir to mix. Set aside until the yeast has dissolved and the mixture is frothy, 15-20 minutes.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon of sugar, the yeast mixture, 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil, the yogurt and the egg. Mix; form into a ball of dough.

Knead dough on a clean work surface until smooth and satiny, about 10 minutes. Form into a ball. Pour about ¼ teaspoon of oil into a large bowl; roll the dough in it. Cover the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap; set aside in a warm, draft-free place until the dough has doubled in bulk, 1 hour.

Heat oven to 500 degrees. Heat a heavy baking tray (or an upside down cast iron skillet) in the oven. Punch down the dough; knead it again. Divide into six balls. Keep five covered while you work with the sixth. Roll ball into a tear-shaped naan about 10 inches long and 5 inches wide.

Remove the hot baking tray from the oven; slap naan onto it. Put it immediately into the oven for 4 minutes. It should puff up. Keep the naan warm by wrapping it in a clean kitchen towel; repeat with remaining dough. Serve hot after brushing with melted butter, if you like.

Nutrition information

Per serving: 377 calories, 17% of calories from fat, 7 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 40 mg cholesterol, 65 g carbohydrates, 12 g protein, 492 mg sodium, 2 g fiber.

Glazed Lemon Bread

Glazed Lemon Bread Recipe


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Tip: eggs rise better when they are at room temp. If you are pressed for time and have cold eggs, put them in a bowl of warm water (not hot, warm) for a few minutes before using.



Ingredients

4 ounces (1 stick, 8 Tbsp) butter, softened*

1 cup minus 1 Tbsp granulated sugar

1 Tbsp honey

2 eggs (room temp)

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 teaspoon baking powder

Glaze



1/4 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tbsp honey

* Do not soften butter in microwave. Either leave a stick of butter on kitchen counter for an hour, or place between two pieces of wax paper and rollout with a rolling pin to soften.



Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 4x8-inch loaf pan.



2 Beat the butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and honey, continue to beat until creamy, a few minutes more. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition to incorporate. On low speed, slowly beat the milk in. Mix in lemon zest.



3 Sift together the flour, salt, cardamom, baking powder. Add to the wet ingredients, beating until smooth.



4 Place batter in prepared pan and bake for 1 hour at 350°F.



5 While the lemon bread is baking, prepare the glaze. Heat the glaze ingredients - lemon juice, sugar, honey - in a small saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved.



6 Once you have removed the bread from the oven, poke holes all over the top with a thin skewer (this will help the glaze penetrate). Spoon the glaze over it while the bread is still in the pan and is still hot. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan and slicing to serve.



Makes one loaf.