Oatmeal Cookie Day!

So, apparently today is national oatmeal cookie day. We have one of those, maybe two.. I've noticed some of these things wind up with duplicates because someone wasn't paying attention.. anyway, as luck would have it, I've been planning on trying to come up with a cookie recipe to use up some of our supply if bottled carrots. They made such lovely dog cookies that they really just needed a wee bit of tweaking to make decent people cookies.
So here is my first ever attempt at cookie recipe creation. It might go through some refinements over the next few months, but it's a pretty good start, and it's pretty simple.

Oatmeal Carrot Pumpkin Cookies

3/4 c pureed carrots
3/4 c canned pumpkin or home made pumpkin puree
1 c certified gluten free oats (I am using Bob's Red Mill brand)
1 egg
1 1/4 c sugar
1/2 c coconut flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 c chocolate chips

Combine all ingredients and mix well, adding chocolate chips last.

Drop by spoonfuls onto your baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes








Remove to a wire rack or plate and allow to cool. Store in an airtight container, refrigerator or freezer.

St Patrick's Day Pot Roast

So today is St Patrick's Day. My family never really did much to celebrate this day. I do have some Irish in me, but, growing up, we never did much more then maybe put some green food coloring in things.
After I grew up and went out on my own, I started doing a bit more. I'm still no fan of corned beef, but I love colcannon and some lightly steamed cabbage wedges with my roast beef. And I loved soda bread. There are oodles of recipes for gluten free soda bread, but this year I gave it a skip. Since I married 10 years ago, I only make colcannon on the years my hubby's not home for the holiday, as he can't stand it. Doesn't like me messing up good potatoes by putting "weeds" in them. We do compromise and sometimes I will make potato cakes or something instead. I do occasionally make colcannon and the like for myself anyway, but this year I'm going fairly simple. This is partially due to our financial situation right now, and partially because I accidentally glutened myself earlier this week and have been dealing with massive headaches and fatigue all week, so simple is better..
So our Sunday dinner on this holiday weekend, is going to be a very simple pot roast.

3.5 lb beef shoulder roast
1/2 c beef stock
1/4 c Worcestershire sauce
1/4 c sherry
1 small onion, chopped
carrots
potatoes
salt
pepper
additional seasoning as desired
cabbage wedges, mushrooms, optional
*additional root veggies if desired
 

I started by putting my roast into my roasting pan and adding a nice dry rub of salt, pepper and, by request, some steak seasoning.  Then added my liquids around and to the bottom of the pan.
Sometimes I will brown my roasts first, today I didn't because I was honestly just feeling too lazy to do it.. :)

Then I quartered several potatoes, cut up some carrots and a small onion and added them to the pan. Add as many root veggies as you'd like to fill the pan. I then scattered about 2 handfuls of dried mushrooms, crumbled, to the top.
I will be adding a small wedge of cabbage to the top of this later, but that won't need nearly the cook time that the rest of this all will.



I placed the lid on the pan and put it in the oven at 300 degrees and let it cook for about 3 hours or so. I put the cabbage in for about 10 minutes at the end.
When everything is done, remove veggies to serving plate and move roast to it's serving plate and allow to rest for 5 minutes or so. While meat is resting, you will have time to make gravy from the drippings! Place about a tablespoon of corn starch into a small bowl and add a small amount of the liquids from your pan. Whisk together until starch is fully dissolved. Add this back into the pan and place your roaster over medium heat. Whisk together and bring to a boil, stirring frequently until it has thickened.
Slice everything up and serve.

Pot roast with potatoes, carrots and cabbage. Covered in onions and gravy. Yum!

Hubby thought this was one of the best roasts ever. The Teenager wasn't home this evening, so we will be waiting on her input until later.. unless hubby goes back for thirds.. or fourths... He skipped the steamed cabbage and just had cole slaw.

Experiment gone to the dogs...

We have a bunch of bottled carrots that I did a while back. It was the first time I'd done bottled carrots and we had quite a few of them. My hubby LOVES carrots, so I wanted to set as many by as I could while we had access to a large quantity. I pickled some and they turned out lovely. Everyone loves the pickled carrots. However, for some reason I still haven't figured out, the "regular" bottled carrots turned out rather bitter. And kind of mushy.
I hate to just toss the lot of them, so every once in a while I will pull a pint or two out and try to find something I can use them for. So far I haven't had much luck, but I decided that it was time to try again. Money is tight so I need to see what I can do with what I have, and that includes those silly, stupid bitter carrots.
I had an idea about doing a carrot soup. I wanted to try it on a small batch so as not to waste other items if it went south. I'm glad about that, because it so very much did not work. I was going for a creamy carrot ginger flair, but even after adding honey, and then more honey, it was still bitter and I decided I'd had enough of messing with it for the day.
But I still hate to just throw things out. Especially when I can still make use of something. And we have dogs who would just love it if I made them some carrot ginger treats.

First, I need to say, I do not have exact measurements for this. I was experimenting an had planned, if this worked at all, to do a "proper" batch tomorrow and take measurements, and pictures, etc. But after this failed today, I thought that it would be good to show how I still managed to turn it into something positive.

So, for the "failed soup", I used:
1 pint bottled carrots
1/2-1 cup of rice milk
1 tbsp of canned pumpkin
1-2 tsp pureed, bottled ginger
2-3 tbsp honey

(I was going to use some broth and other things, but it just wasn't going there and I wasn't going to waste things I might need later..)

To this concoction, I added:
2-3 tbsp powdered whole eggs
@2 cups quick cooking oatmeal

Mix this all up and place by spoonfuls onto a baking tray or stone.

I let these bake for about 15 minutes.

Then let cool. Store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.

Little one on the left is Gir, Moki in the middle, and her son Petey on the right

Kikkoman up front on the left, Gir, Moki, and Petey not looking at me. He'd the shy one..

Be followed around, stared at, beggered and pestered by a seriously happy bunch of doggies.
Kikkoman was following me around trying to get a second one while he was still holding his first in his mouth. They are still watching me now wanting more...

It's (false) break up season here, which means melting, which means mud. 4 dogs = blankets on furniture..

I think they approve. So, just keep this in mind. You cooking failures can almost always still be turned into a win with a little creativity.
(I will also admit that I tried these.. and they're not bad. A little more tweaking and they'd be pretty darn good cookies for people, too.)