6 Grain Red Bean Pilaf with Grilled Garlic Jalapeño Chicken

 Healthy, whole-grain, budget-friendly meals are one of my specialties! This recipe uses Triticale, Red Wheat, White Wheat, Barley, Oat Groats, or Rye interchangeably. If you use all of the grains, it is very colorful and has a more significant nutrition range, but there's no wrong way to make this! I know it will surely be a hit at your dinner.

6 Grain Red Bean Pilaf

1 1/2 cups Whole hard red wheat, white wheat, oat groats, barley, rye, or triticale
3 cups Organic Red Beans, canned, drained
2 Tbsp. Montreal-style Steak Seasoning
3 Tbsp. Garlic, minced

Directions:

• Add 6 cups water to the grain in a 4-quart slow cooker on high for 1 ½ hours to cook the grain. Drain the grain well.
• It should make about 5 cups. After the grain is tender, add the remaining ingredients and cook for 30 minutes more on high.

You can use any combination of those whole unrolled grains or one grain by itself, as long as it equals 1 1/2 cups of uncooked grain. The cooked amount of grain will be 5 cups.

Grilled Garlic Jalapeño Chicken

Marinade:

4 Jalapeño, seeded and chopped fine
3 Tbsp. Garlic, minced
1/2 cup Olive or Avocado Oil
1/2 cup Lime Juice
2 tsp Sea salt
1 Tbsp. Black Pepper

8 Chicken and leg thighs

Directions:

• Combine the first six ingredients and whisk well.
• Retain 1/2 cup of the marinade for drizzling over the chicken after cooking. In a gallon-sized Ziploc bag, combine the chicken with the remaining marinade and place in the fridge overnight (up to 3 days).
• When ready to eat, bake in a covered cast iron dish for 20-25 minutes until the internal temperature is over 165 degrees.
• Finish cooking on a BBQ grill or a stove-top grill pan. Serve over the 6 Grain Red Bean Pilaf.

There you go! Make a delicious and healthy whole-grain meal today!

Always My Very Best,
Chef Tess 

An Evil Think Tank (ETT) with the Professor... Fresh Raspberry-Chocolate Crumble Bars

Last week I got to go see my family for my mother's birthday and family reunion. It was the first time we've all been together in 3 or 4 years and it was epic. Among the grand events of the weekend, I got to do an Evil Think Tank with my darling brother John the Professor. He got that name from being...a real professor. Plus he's a super-smartie-pants-sassy-dude and I don't know if he'll ever stop being an older brother who is great at teasing me. We've been friends for years though I have to admit that in my teen years he had to drive his snot-nosed little sister to school every day. I know for a fact that a lot of people thought I was his girlfriend...and not because he was kissin' on me (that would be gross). They thought I was his girlfriend because I was so freakishly adorable and certainly way out of his league. Geesh. Actually  Professor John is a genius.John has written two Books! Composite Materials: Fabrication Handbook #1 (Composite Garage Series) and Composite-Materials-Fabrication-Handbook- #2 If you're at all smartie-pants-design inclined you should visit  John's Amazing Blog.

As of today, John is now the master-genius Evil Think Tank Guy. Yes. We're having matching T-shirts made. Be afraid when we walk down the street my darlings. It is a scary sight to behold.

Hello. Yes we're cool.

So Professor John had his little kiddos with him and his stunning way-out-of-his-league wife Queen Charlotte. She's seriously the most beautiful chick I know. So it comes as no surprise that their daughter  is just breathtaking. Here she is overlooking the gardens that my dad grew.

Then she started skipping. Why don't I have daughters? Boys don't skip. They punch each other and talk about bodily functions. My niece skipped...and then sat down and asked my brother to sit cross legged like a princess.

 Sorry sista'. He's not going to ever sit cross legged and act like a princess. I tried for years to get him to sit like a princess and he would pass me on the street the very same way he is here...{ Yes, he's saying in his very boy-mind,"I can't see you girlie-girl-princess with your legs crossed."}.

So all the girls sat down and crossed our legs like a group of princess chicks. It was cool. Oh...my nephew was in on that action. I'm okay with that.

 Here lies the fundamental difference in a nut shell between boys and girls.

Boy nephew (I call him "The Extra Miles" because he's just so busy!)

Me: "Extra Miles...what are you doing?" 
Extra Miles: "I'm covering a hole."
Me: "Um...why?"
Extra Miles: "Because that's what you do."

After I stopped giggling to myself I realized that it was just the age old truth coming together.

Truth: There is no reasoning with a boy. They have their own set of rules and logic. However, I decided that it wouldn't stop me from having some Evil time with my brother creating in the kitchen. Queen Charlotte picked up some beautiful fresh raspberries at the farmer's market while the Professor looked at cars. Further proof that girls are cooler than boys. ( Just kidding John...or am I? )

After eating an inordinate number of fresh berries...we decided it was to our best interest to make some dessert. I will not mention any discussion that my boy-brother had about bodily functions and too many berries. I will mention that I punched him in the arm. I will also mention that he still thinks I'm freakishly adorable and totally out of his league.

Chef Tess Fresh Raspberry Chocolate Crumble Bars
2 cups pastry flour
3 cups 6 grain rolled cereal or oatmeal
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla or rum extract (I opt for rum most often...no comments

filling:
1 cup fresh raspberries (or frozen)
1/2 cup sugar
2T cornstarch

1 cup chocolate chips

Directions: Combine the first 7 ingredients until crumbly and thick and press half of the mixture into the bottom of a 9 by 13 inch baking pan. In a small saucepan combine the berries, sugar and cornstarch. Stir and cook over medium heat until berries release juice and cook into a thick jam-like mixture. Remove from heat. Allow to cool 5 minutes. Spread raspberry mixture over the crumble mixture in the pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips in your mouth over the raspberry mixture and then top with remaining half of the crumble mixture. Look at the Professor...

 There are many different layers of good and evil at play in the world. We just happened to capture all of them in one dish.

 Bake at 350 degrees 30-35 minutes. Remove from oven. Eat immediately with ice cream. Show a little restraint and take a nice picture for your blog. Eat a bar and cry because my stinky-genius smarty-pants brother is still so cool and freakishly, unquestionably... out of my league.

Our next exercise in pure evil was this double chocolate raspberry cobbler with fresh whip cream. Evil. Wrong...and total Perfection. I could share that recipe...but then I'd have to kill you and blame it on my brother.

Instead I'm just going to confess some age old truths:

• Boys will always be smarter and cuter when they bake with their snot-nosed little sister on any given day in July.

• Girls will always be perfect and totally out of their brother's league...especially when they sit cross legged like a princess.

•  Family will always be the most important thing in life.

•  My mom has the best kids in the universe.

Chocolate, like family, is forever.

There ya go.

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend Chef Tess

Simple Cake Mix 6 Grain Jam Crumble Snack Bars

You know what I love about summer? Nothing in Arizona. Well... not the life-sucking death-heat of the Sonora desert or the way my albino  (remember the Albino on Princess Bride?) skin  that turns bright pink the second I walk out of my house. I can tell you that there are days when I think I will burst into flame the second I walk pass the portal of my front door. Yes...I'm violently sucked into a brilliant vortex of white light and space aliens. "Take me to your leader Albino-Scum!"... I'm pretty sure I've watched too much of the Twilight Zone...and X-Files.  I also randomly imagine hairy long-nailed monsters on the wings of my airplane when I travel. Just for the record. I don't like window seats. I do however love those tiny bags of peanuts. They're so cute.

There is a perk to living in the surface of the sun valley of the sun. Phoenix is perfect for summer solar cooking. I love it! See. I DO love something about the heat. I pop my bad-boy Solar Oven on it's cart and wheel it into the yard, pointed the direction of the sun. Here it works likes a crock-pot and I can basically forget about dinner until it is time for dinner. Huge perk for me working full time now. Today however, I decided at 4 AM that it was cool enough in the house to bake some snack bars for the boys. They are home on summer vacation and I wanted them to have little fun goodies to wake up to. Yes...I do wake up that early almost every day. Yes. I know I'm crazy. That is what works for me to be home with the kids and still use the test kitchen. Ironically...I used to do that before I had kids but at a bakery. Somehow it seems more fun when I can still be in my PJ's and bake. Go figure. I haven't yet had any of my fuzzy-neon-pink cupcake-jammie material end up in the cookies. Now...that's funny because today I made jam bars. Not to be confused with jammie bars. Those are fuzzy. These are delicious.

I use my homemade cake mix and the evil-delicious blueberry confection known affectionately by me as Spiced Blueberry Amaretto Jam. You don't have to make your own homemade cake mix or jam. I'm not checking your cupboards. You make what works for you. One box of regular cake mix will work. I also use all natural granular erythritol instead of sugar in most of my baking. It is zero calorie and no carb. It's great for diabetics and for those watching their sugar.

Chef Tess 6 Grain Jam Crumble Bars
4 c  homemade cake mix (or 1 box store bought)
1 c granulated sugar (or all natural granular erythritol )
2 c  6 grain rolled cereal
¼ c  whole flax seed
 ½ c brown sugar
1 egg
1 c melted butter (no substitutions on flavor)
2 c unsweetened jam (I used Spiced Blueberry Amaretto Jam)

Directions: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Yes. These can be baked in a solar oven. Pre-heat it to 350. That will take about 15 minutes.  In a large bowl combine all ingredients except the jam. The mixture will be thick. Reserve 1 ½ cup for the topping.     Using fingertips press the remaining mixture into the bottom of a 9 by 13 inch pan so it reaches all sides. 

  Spread the jam over the crust mixture in a thin layer.

  Pinch off pieces of the reserved mixture and scatter over the jam.

Bake until light brown and bubbling, 35-40 minutes. It will take 45-55 minutes in a solar oven. Allow to cool 30 minutes before cutting.

If you don't wait for them to cool before you cut them, they will just fall apart in mounds of hot buttery delicate grain-confection laced with jam. It's really hard to resist at that point but...ya know. Do what you want. I'm not checking your closets either. 

Yield 24 bars. Let's be honest. It makes 6 bars for a teenage boy.  There you go.

Always My Very Best,

 Your Friend Chef Tess

6 Whole Grain Bread 101--Secrets to Tender Whole Grain Bread

I'm teaching a bread class this morning at the Honeyville Farms store in Chandler Arizona 

Bold Better Bread Workshop

Saturday July 9th at 10:00 AM

I will cover all you need to know about grain, ingredients, tools and baking  used in professional bake shops that you can do at home! You won't want to miss this informative and zany-fun class!

 Come prepared to laugh and learn! Perfect for beginners and experienced bakers alike.

Honeyville Farms Retail Store - CHANDLER, AZ 33 South 56th Street Suite 1| Chandler, AZ 85226 Phone: (480) 785-5210

I want to share a recipe that I really love for whole grain bread. It's made with rolled cereal in the dough and the quantity of cereal is high enough that if you didn't know better and didn't follow my directions...you'd end up with something totally nasty. It's the way I process the cereal and the way I work the dough that makes for an amazing tender loaf of whole grain bread. Because we use the rolled grain with all the fiber, it's a slower impact on your blood sugar. I make it often for that reason. I adore bread. I want to eat it without guilt. I've really come to adore the 6 grain rolled cereal.  It's composed of Red Whole Wheat Flakes, White Whole Wheat Flakes, Barley Flakes, Oatmeal, Rye Flakes, and Sunflower Seed. It's really just full of Mother Nature's best whole grains.   

My original recipe makes 4 loaves.

You will need:

Step one:

In a 3.5 Gallon Food Grade bucket or large bowl

6 cups Honeyville 6 grain rolled cereal (or just rolled oats)

5 cups warm water (not to exceed 110 degrees)

1 cup instant dry milk or soy milk 

1 cup honey

1/2 cup  olive oil

1T  instant yeast (1 tsp for a longer 4 hour raise)

Allow yeast to activate and grain the chance to absorb moisture 30 minutes. Look...this is the method that works. I tried it cooking the cereal first and what ended was not pretty. It was a gum ball. The uncooked cereal soaked in the liquid ended up a fluffy loaf of love. I don't make the rules...I just report them. 

In a separate container combine:

6 cups whole wheat bread flour

2 tsp salt 

1/2 cup Honeyville farms Vital Wheat Gluten 

Mixing the gluten with the flour first will keep the gluten from globbing together. Spell check loved the word "globbing".  Here's something totally random...I just typed "globbing" 7 times...just to see the pretty spell check in action...now that's a quirk I need to get fixed. That's not funny cute quirk...that's like OCD-I-need-a-vacation/intervention-quirk...

The gluten helps give added structure to the whole grain bread that's more difficult to accomplish usually with this much grain used in conjunction with this amount of flour. It's a dead on winner for lower blood sugar bread though...and I'm a big fan.

Stir 3/4 of the flour mixture into the grain water mixture until a thick paste is made.

The dough will appear very moist.  Wait 5-10 minutes and allow the flour to absorb water before adding any more flour (if any). This will make a very moist bread.

Knead consistently in the same direction for 7 minutes by hand (or 300 strokes).

Kneading dough in a bucket is ideal in that you have a straight sided container to tell when the bread has doubled in volume. Also, if you were in a camping situation or emergency situation where you didn't have access to a kitchen counter it would give you a sanitary place to prepare the dough. After kneading for the 300 turns, take a minute to wash your hands. 

Touch the dough with your clean hands. If it doesn't stick to your fingers, it is done. You may not need to even add more flour.

There will be visible amounts of whole grain throughout the dough.

Roll dough into a ball.  Place lid on the bucket and allow to raise until doubled in volume, about 1 1/2 hours.

Open your solar oven and place it in direct sunlight or preheat your regular oven to 375 degrees.  Oil 4 NorPro 10" Loaf Pan  

Divide dough into 4 balls. Again, in a camping situation, this may be done directly in the bucket if the bucket is turned on it's side.

To form a loaf with good structure and nice shape, take the dough and pat it out flat on a surface that has been lightly coated with water. Yes. Water. When working with whole grain, I use water on my counter tops. Don't fall off your chairs. It works. It adds moisture...and it gives a turbo tender loaf. Is turbo-tender a real word descriptive? I don't know...I've seen whole music montages dedicated to that subject on AFV.

Fold the dough into thirds.

Turn a half turn.

Roll into a tight loaf. Yes...I always do the extra foldie-thing first before I roll my loaves. Yes...I know that's "different" than how most people do it. I'm not *most* people. I'm extra turbo-tender. {See me use that word-age again? ...Scary isn't it?}

Place in the oiled loaf pan.

Lightly cover the top of the bread with oil. You may also top with seeds if desired. I like to use a combination I use for my "everything" bagels.

It is ready to put into your hot solar oven after raising 45 minutes to an hour.  

You can bake it in a regular oven or solar oven at 375 degrees 40 -45 minutes.

One of the best tricks I've found for knowing this bread is done, is by using an instant meat thermometer. When the dough reads 170 degrees or hotter, it is done. Shall we have T-shirts made? Ones that say, "Stick me with a fancy thermometer...I'm done." I think they'd sell (in my kitchen only).

There you go. Make some whole grain bread in your solar oven or ding-a-dang regular oven too...and then send me some pictures for BFFF !  What the heck-fire is BFFF? You should probably go to the link that I keep posting for BFFF and see...Xoxo! Smooches! I  hope to see you at the bread class today!

Your Friend, 

Chef Tess.