Elle's New England Kitchen

And I’m here to prove it! I was recently contacted by Katharine Schuler from U.S. Mills. She wanted to know if I would be interested in trying some of their products. One of them is Uncle Sam Cereal—we buy that pretty often at Trader Joe’s, so I said yes, please! She asked what I’d like to try, but I left it up to her—though I did add that I have four kids, so if she could tuck a few kid things in there, that would be great. My kids get so excited when a package arrives, but so bummed when there’s nothing in it that they think is cool.

Katharine packed a box so full of stuff, it was like a puzzle. I don’t think I could have ever repackaged it if I had to, hehe. But I was so surprised, and the kids were thrilled! U.S. Mills doesn’t just have cereal, they have cookies, graham crackers, 100 calorie graham cracker snack packs, hot oatmeal---if it’s for breakfast, they probably have it. Have a look around their site—I’ll bet you see something you want to try, or have already tried and had no idea it was from them.

So I had all of this cereal, and aside from eating it in a bowl, I knew I could find something else to do with it. I had a quick look at the recipes on the site, and messed around with a couple. I’m happy to report my experiments were successful!

You all know how much I love muffins—they’re an excuse to have cake for breakfast. So I went with those first. And came up with these Chunky Monkey Muffins. What’s not to love about banana and chocolate? Nothing! And adding a healthy dose of good for you Uncle Sam Cereal was perfect. Gave them a little crunch, and the kids loved them. They were like “Cereal? In a muffin? Have you gone nuts, Mom?” But I knew they’d love them. And I was happy they were getting some good grains into their systems.

Chunky Monkey Muffins
Makes 2 dozen

To print this recipe, click here!

3 1/2 cups Uncle Sam Cereal (Original)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 smallish bananas (1 cup total mashed banana)
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Combine wet ingredients in a medium bowl.
Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff, fold in chocolate chips.
Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.
Bake for about 18 minutes, until tester comes out clean.
Cool in pans for a few minutes, then remove to a rack to cool.

Look who was hoping I’d drop a muffin…sorry, Hamilton!

A couple of days later, while looking at the bounty of cereal in the pantry, I decided it was time to try something else. The Erewhon Raisin Bran said “Ooooh! Pick me! Pick me!” So yay, it was the lucky cereal of the day. And it had a recipe on the back for Apricot Nut Bread. I didn’t have dried apricots, but I did have dried figs, and just about everything else it called for, so I got to work and came up with this Fig Nut Bread. It’s very moist and dense, almost like a gingerbread that’s studded with raisins, figs, and nuts. It very much reminded me of Morning Glory Muffins, in fact! It was totally delicious.

Fig Nut Bread
Makes one loaf

To print this recipe, click here!

1 1/2 cups Erewhon Raisin Bran
3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp Cake Spice
1 egg
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup agave or honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup diced dried figs
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350.
Pour the boiling water over the figs and set aside.
Grease a loaf pan.
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
In a medium bowl, blend the egg, oil, agave, vanilla and applesauce together.
Add to the dry ingredients and stir; fold in the figs (and any leftover water from the figs) and nuts.
Pour into loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

SO the moral of the story is…get out and look for these cereals and other good things from U.S. Mills. And stop looking at cereal like it’s only good for eating in a bowl with cold milk. Although that’s cool, too.

But start thinking outside the cereal box!

And they have nothing to do with each other, but I've been meaning to post them for a while now. I took a look at my last post this morning and almost fell off my chair when I realized it was posted last Wednesday! That's almost a week! Where has the time gone? I guess part of it is because my husband had a three day weekend last week. We were busy with a day trip (zoo) on Friday, and then the hours and days seemed to flow together and before you know it, it's Tuesday.

I hate that the summer seems to be flying by. And what do you see in every store? Summer stuff on clearance, and big displays of back to school stuff. God, I used to hate that when I was a kid. It always gave me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Summer went fast enough, and to see retailers pushing it in our faces made me so mad, hehe. I always feel badly when my kids have gotten down to their last one or two weeks of summer, and you can just see it in their eyes. It's looming ahead and they know it. Poor kids, hehe.

Anyway, the recipes. One is for Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread. It's the one I always make, and my kids love it--it's really moist and nice and chocolatey. But I call it "Chocolate Bread" for the benefit of my two youngest kids. They don't know they're eating a healthy dose of a green vegetable, but I do. My two older kids are sworn to secrecy. They don't mind that it's in there--they love the bread! This one was found in the Food Network Kitchens book. They add cinnamon and cloves, but I prefer it without. And so do the kids, in fact. So I've gotten rid of them. Tossed 'em to the curb. (The spices, not the kids.) This also makes two loaves. I love recipes like that, especially with a big family. We can make one loaf disappear just by looking at it. And it also freezes well, so you can put one away for later, too. Also, I think you could substitute plain yogurt for some of the fat in this and it would be great. I'm going to try that this week, and I'll let you all know how it goes. If you want to add the spices (1/2 tsp of cinnamon and a pinch of cloves), sift them into the dry ingredients.



This one is posted for Ben at What's Cooking? for his I Love Baking bi-weekly blog event. Send him your baked goodies!




Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread
adapted From Food Network Kitchens
Makes 2 loaves

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (NOT dutch process)
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup oil
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups zucchini, unpeeled and shredded
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped (they call for finely chopped, but I like to leave some larger chunks, too)



1 Heat oven to 350°.
2 Butter and flour 2 loaf pans.
3 Whisk the flour with the cocoa and baking soda in a medium size bowl.
4 Beat butter and sugar in a medium bowl with a mixer on med high until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
5 While you're mixing, drizzle in the oil, then the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6 Stir the vanilla into the buttermilk.
7 Mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour.
8 (Like this--flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour) Scrape the sides of the bowl when needed.
9 Fold in the zucchini and chocolate.
10 Divide batter into the 2 pans.
11 Bake until tester comes out clean, about 55 minutes.
12 (be careful, the tester may look chocolatey from the chocolate in the bread--don't over bake) Cool in pans on rack before removing and slicing.





The next recipe is so simple, you don't even need a recipe. Its from Heidi at 101 Cookbooks. If you're not reading that blog, you should be! Amazing food, gorgeous photos, wonderful writing--it's got it all. The recipe is for Lori's Skillet Smashed Potatoes.

You take small potatoes, boil them for a bit, then drain and smash them with the bottom of a glass or a custard cup, and then cook them in a skillet until they're all crunchy and golden brown. A sprinkle of coarse salt and whatever else you like, and you're done. (Herbes de Provence is so good on these...) (hahaha! Spell checker thinks I should change "Herbes" to "Herbies!" Doesn't sound very sophisticated that way, does it?)

They are SO freaking delicious. Like candy. It's hard for me to leave them alone before we even sit down to eat. "What? No, really, we only had ten potatoes to start with! Uh-huh. It looked like more? Way more? Well, what do you know, I'm doing the cooking!"

Go check out the recipe at Heidi's blog and please, please try these. You won't be sorry!

Prepare for Potato Porn...

After being boiled and smashed.

And shown here, with a grilled steak...

It really is a humble little bread, isn't it? It isn't a grand dessert, given a starring role on restaurant menus. But it's delicious, just the same--for a snack, or yeah--for breakfast! It's the kind of thing you picture your grandmother or your mom making, and it brings you right back to their kitchens--or at least for me, it does. And I don't know about you, but when I get a craving for banana bread, I've got to have some.

The only thing standing in the way of banana bread is my kids, the little monkeys. They eat all the bananas! I've had to start hiding some from them, just so we can have banana bread or these muffins, which we all go crazy for.

This recipe is from an old friend, and it's definitely our favorite. This is the one my husband asks for when he gets a craving for banana bread. And even better--it makes two loaves. I love getting more for my work, don't you? You can freeze one, if you like--just wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, then foil, and I throw it in a freezer bag for good measure. It's a moist bread, buttery and tender, and just right.

If you have buttermilk and want to use that instead of plain milk, it's delicious that way, too. The original recipe calls for three cups of sugar, but I cut it down to two and a half cups. And add nuts if you like! I'd add nuts, and a lot of them if the kids didn't find them so revolting. What is it with them?! I ended up adding some walnuts to the top of one loaf, anyway. One of my favorite ways to have a slice is to pop it in the toaster, and then put peanut butter on it. Because peanut butter makes so many things better. It's right up there with bacon, cheese and chocolate for their food enhancing capabilities.