Flour Too's Steel Cut Oatmeal with Pear Compote

I found this recipe in my Flour, Too cookbook, and I really enjoyed it.  Aaron didn't love it, but the rest of us did, and Aaron really liked the candied pecans.  This is one of those satisfying breakfasts for me, I could eat oatmeal every day :), and this is my first time trying steel cut oats, and I really enjoyed them.  For five servings, each serving was 506 calories.  Here's what to do:

Pear Compote:
4 pears, peeled and chopped
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1/2 t vanilla
pinch of salt

Crunchy Pecans
2 T sugar
3/4 c pecans, chopped finely

Oatmeal
2 c whole milk
1/8 t salt
1 c steel-cut oats
dash of nutmeg
1/4 t cinnamon

Combine the pears, brown sugar, vanilla and salt in a small pan and cook until the pears have softened and broken down, about 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a pan, bring milk, water, salt and oats to a boil over high heat, then stir, and reduce the heat to medium low and simmer, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes.  Also meanwhile :), in a small saucepan, mix together the sugar, and 2 T water and bring to a boil over high heat.  Let it caramelize and turn brown, then add in the pecans, stirring until all the pecans are covered.  Spread on a plate and let cool.
When ready to serve, divide the oatmeal, top with the pears, and break up the pecans and divide them among the servings.

The Perfect Scoop's Butterscotch Pecan Ice Cream

So this was a calorie bomb treat, but it was sooo worth it!  The boys picked this Butterscotch Pecan Ice Cream from The Perfect Scoop cookbook, and it was great.  We had it in a sundae, per the author's suggestion, with blondies and hot fudge, and the ice cream with the sundae was fabulous.  The ice cream is a custard base, with brown sugar for the butterscotch, and buttered pecans added in, and I added a little brown sugar to the buttered pecans to give it a little sweeter flavor.  I'll just feature the ice cream, and the other elements you can make on your own, or mix things up.  Each serving, about .5 cup of ice cream, is 293 calories, and we gave this a perfect 10, it is so delicious.  I'll be using decimals rather than fractions today, and maybe for a while, because somehow our keyboard was changed to a Spanish keyboard, and I can't find the slashes.  Somehow my baby is smarter than me, sigh...

5 T salted butter
.75 c packed brown sugar
.5 t salt
2 c heavy cream
.75 c whole milk
6 large egg yolks
.5 t vanilla
1 recipe buttered pecans

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan, then stir in the brown sugar and salt until well moistened.  Whisk in 1 cup of the cream and the milk, and keep warm.
Pour the remaining cream into a large bowl and place a fine mesh sieve over the top.
Whisk together the egg yolks, then temper the yolks.  Return the mixture to the pan, and cook, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens.  Pour the custard through the sieve, and mix in with the cream.  Then add in the vanilla.  Cool, and churn and freeze in your ice cream maker.  At the end, fold in the buttered pecans.  Freeze before serving.

Buttered Pecans

1.5 T butter
1.5 c pecan halves
.25 t coarse salt
1 T brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350.
Melt the butter in a skillet, remove it from the heat, and stir in the pecans, brown sugar, and salt.  Bake for 12 minutes in the oven and cool completely.

Italian Cream Cake

"This was a triumph. I'm making a note here huge success. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction." That's for all my Portal friends out there :)

But seriously, today is my dad's birthday!!!  We had a great dinner out, and then had this cake from The Pioneer Woman called Billie's Italian Cream Cake.  I changed the walnuts to pecans, since I can't stand walnuts, and I find pecans, in baked goods, to be pretty good.  This cake is amazing.  So great.  I love the nuts and coconut in the frosting, and the yummy moist cake.  The calories on this are out of control, but man does it taste good.  My parents, Owen, Noah and I all gave the cake a perfect 10, and Aaron, the cake hater, gave it a 7 :).  The calories for 1/32 of the cake are 401.  Ouch!  Still, birthdays are special, and this was a great cake.  Thanks Pioneer Woman!!!

Tomorrow we're having some chicken and green beans.

Sticky Sticky Buns

We had a birthday celebration for my mother today, and she doesn't like cake, so my father put me in charge of making the "birthday cake," and after remembering, fondly, our mutual love of Cinnabon, I decided to make her some goody sticky buns.  In the Throwdown cookbook they are called Sticky Sticky Buns, and they are divine.  I had never made brioche before, and I am now a changed woman.  Brioche is what all sweet rolls should be made out of, don't even bother worrying about the calories.  These buns are delicious.  My dad said out of 10 they were a 15.  My mother, myself and Noah gave them a 10, and Owen and Aaron (who does NOT like any kind of roll like this) gave them a 9.  So in other words, these were awesome.  The brioche recipe I linked to is a double batch, so either cut it in half or double the goo and filling ingredients.  I cut these way smaller than the recipe called for, the said to make 8 sticky buns and I made 20, so yeah, a lot different, but my sticky buns were only 340 (only!) calories, while the original recipe for 8 sticky buns was around 900/roll.  I think I'll stick with the smaller rolls :).  I didn't mind the large amount of proofing time, it was worth it.  These are special occasion food for us, since we can't eat all of them, but if you want some, call me up and I'll make you some and save one or two for myself :).

Tomorrow we're having some pork, potatoes, rolls, and corn from my dad's garden (thanks Dad!), and some cookies for school next week.  The donuts will have to show up later this week, we aren't having them tonight.