Savory Oatmeal Recipe Challenge

First week of the "come up with a recipe based on a theme and this week's theme is savory oatmeal" challenge is over, and Amy is the big winner--oh wait, make that whiner. She's so afraid she'll lose (though she definitely wants a prize if she does win) that we have dropped the competition aspect and now it's just a big recipe sharing extravaganza. If you come up with a recipe, let me know and we'll all have a big linky party. Amy's entry is up on her site, the Grody Gourmet.

My entry: Savory oatmeal pancakes with zucchini, cream cheese, and prosciutto. I wish I could say the kids just gobbled it up but they did not. They took one polite bite (well, all but one...) and then moved on to bean burritos. I thought it was actually pretty good and really easy on the budget (use bacon instead of prosciutto), though I did eat a bean burrito as well.

For the pancakes:
1/2 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal (1/3 dry steel cut oats), cooked and cooled
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1Tbsp. melted butter
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp. grated parmesan cheese

Mix all wet ingredients including oatmeal, add dry ingredients, and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Lay a few pieces of prosciutto onto a cooling rack over a cookie sheet, and put it in the oven along with the pancakes, to kill two birds with one stone. They'll take about the same time to bake (the proscuitto is done when it's crisp, like bacon). Crumble prosciutto and set aside.

Dice 2 medium zucchinis and 1/2 small onion and saute in 1 tsp. olive oil until tender crisp. Add 1/2 tsp. dried or fresh basil and salt and pepper to taste. Lower heat and add in 2 Tbsp. cream cheese, stirring until it melts and coats the zucchini mixture. Mound this on to the pancake and crumble bits of prosciutto on top.

I waited until my recipe was completely done and photographed before Googling "savory oatmeal" and wow, there are a lot of people who had the same idea. Here was the one I'm most likely to try, from Martha Stewart.

Creamy Tomato and Yellow Bell Pepper Soup

This recipe is a showstopper, and would not have happened if I hadn't passed a farmstand with the best looking tomatoes. Pretty impressive considering it's only April. I bought a few pounds of them with the idea of making soup on this cold, rainy day.


When I search for a recipe, I always start with Epicurious. The recipes have reviews at the bottom from people who are clearly better cooks than I, because they say things like, "Add a teaspoon of ras al-hanout" or "I served these with quenelles and they were to die for." Huh? In any case, I take their advice on adjusting the recipes and they always come out great.

Roasting the tomatoes and garlic

For the creamy tomato soup, I found this recipe, which required a trip back out for yellow peppers but the result was worth it. Wowie zowie it was pretty, and really let the fresh ingredients shine without adding a lot of other ingredients. The only adjustment I made on the tomato soup was to use fresh basil in place of dried oregano, and I didn't worry about pushing anything through a sieve. Really, do recipe writers have nothing better to do with their lives than push things through sieves? Just use the immersion blender (oh, immersion blender, how I love you) and you'll be fine.

Why did my husband have to point out that the garnish looks like a strawberry? Now that's all I see.

I served these with cheese toasts, also from Epicurious.

Cheese Toasts

1 egg, separated

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Pinch of cayenne

1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese

1 teaspoon minced scallion or shallot

4 slices sandwich bread, lightly toasted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the yolk with the mustard and cayenne, then stir in the cheese. Whisk the white until it holds soft peaks and fold it into the mixture along with the scallion. Spread the mixture on the toasted bread and bake until puffed and golden, about 5 minutes, while you reheat the soup. Serve the soup piping hot, with a piece of cheese toast, cut in half on the diagonal, and fresh pepper ground into each bowl.

Flowers...and a Mystery

Aren't these flowers pretty? They smell even nicer. And guess what? They might be hot. As in stolen. I may have purchased stolen merchandise.

In my town, you can point your car any direction, start driving, and eventually run into a farm stand, or at least a house with a table in the front yard with homegrown lemons (or strawberries, persimmons, or pomegranates) piled high, along with a strawberry basket to put your money in.

So back to the flowers. I was driving to my daughter's school when I passed a farmstand--actually, just a table with a pop-up canopy over it, next to a field. On the table was one bucket filled with sweet peas (my favorite flower) and a box that said, "Honor system: $3 per bunch."

But the guy was sitting there, so I said hello and handed him $6 for two bunches of sweet peas. He gave me a third bunch for free. How nice of you, I said. As I got in my car and looked in the rear view mirror, I saw him stand up and walk away, down the street.

Was he going for a lunch break? Or going to spend the $6 he just made from someone else's flowers? I guess I'll never know but if it was a scam I have to admit that I slightly, just slightly, really just the teensiest bit, admire his ingenuity. (But if you ask me in front of my kids I'll act horrified and deny that.)

Back of the Bag: Sopes

We eat a lot of Mexican food here in Southern California, and masa is a staple in my house.

Sopes are kind of like tostadas, but the tortilla part is a lot thicker and softer, like a flat cornbread. Once I ate at a place that called the thick tortillas "huaraches" which means sandals, but hopefully you will like these a whole lot better.

To make "huaraches":
Combine 2 cups masa, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1 1/4 cups water. Mix thoroughly for about 2 minutes to form a soft dough.

Divide masa into 20 portions and roll into balls. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent drying.

Preheat ungreased griddle to high temperature. Place a ball between two sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap. Roll out or flatten ball to form a 3" diameter circle (if you have a tortilla press your life will be much easier) and about 1/2 " thick. The thickness is more important than the diameter.

Cook sope for one minute on the preheated griddle. Turn and cook the second side until lightly browned.


Heat 3/4" oil in a frying pan and fry sopes until lightly golden and drain on paper towels (I skipped the frying step to keep it healthy but if you can spare the calories, they'll definitely be more delicious).

Top sopes with anything you want: keep them traditional with refried beans, cooked chicken, chopped tomatoes, onion, cheese (if you live in an area that sells queso fresco, I highly recommend it), lettuce, and sour cream. Or go a little wacky and use soy chorizo cooked with onion and potato, and cheddar cheese--this also makes a great breakfast.

Friendly Competition: Oatmeal

Amy and me on my wedding day, many moons ago.

Starting a new feature with with my friend Amy of The Grody Gourmet --a weekly (I hope) friendly (I hope this even more) cooking competition.

Here’s how it will go:

1. Each Monday, we will announce an ingredient or type of dish that will serve as that week’s theme.

2. On Friday, Amy and I will post our two (one each) best recipes on our blogs.

3. On Sunday, we'll make both dishes and have our families choose a winner. Our judges are husbands and children ranging in age from 8-16, and with a wide variety of pickiness.

This week's theme: savory oatmeal. Want to join in? Let me know and I'll post your recipe on Friday as well. We'd also love for readers to weigh in with their opinions of the finished dishes.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary

I am as big a David Sedaris fan as the next guy. When he's funny, he's hysterical but this book is nothing like his usual stuff. He normally writes essays about his experiences in ordinary situations-- Jesus Shaves is my all-time favorite. So I eagerly anticipated his latest offering, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary. As soon as I could, I put my name on the waiting list at my local library. I was number 32. When my name finally came up, I forgot to pick it up. It was reshelved and I was charged $1 for being irresponsible. I put my name back on the hold list: 16, not bad. Again, my name came up and this time I rushed right down and picked it up.

I had heard nothing about this book: not a single synopsis nor review, so I was surprised that it was a collection of Aesop-type fables. This could be good, right? David Sedaris making animals say the "f" word is a guaranteed laugh riot. Except that it wasn't. The stories are told in such a disturbing manner--and before you tell me that I'm just too shallow--yes, I get the messages. You should not pretend to help people just so you can use them, yeah yeah yeah. But really, does the message of selfishness really need to end with a bird plucking out the eyes of a baby lamb?

I have reviewed this book without reading any other opinions, so I may get blasted if everyone loved it. I'm sticking by my review. It was an uncomfortable read.

Janet's rating: A rare "did not finish the book" because it was just that bad.

Leftovers: Ahi Tuna Cakes

Fresh fish is delicious but what do you do with the leftovers? Warming it up results in a tough, dry piece of yuck so in my house it usually sits in the frig for 2 weeks (Why do I save it in the first place? Catholic guilt, I guess.) before becoming $10 per pound garbage.


I still had several pieces of grilled fish after my ahi sandwich meal, and decided to create a high-falutin' tuna cake. Here's how to do it: chop up a mirepoix, or "holy trinity"--for you non-foodies, this is a combination of onions, celery, and carrots, to equal about 1/2 cup. Mix them in a bowl with 4 filets of flaked cooked fish, 2 Tsp. dried oregano, 2 tsp. dried basil, (though fresh would have been better), 1/4 tsp. cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste.


For the binder, melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a pot, then add an equal amount of flour--this makes a roux (You learned two new French words today!), and cook it for a couple of minutes to get the raw taste out of the flour. Add about 1 cup of skim milk and whisk til thickened, adding salt and pepper to taste, then stir it half this sauce into the fish mixture. Keep the rest for later.

Form the fish into patties, whatever size you want, and dip them into a plate filled with Panko Japanese bread crumbs--find these in your Asian section and then use them for everything breaded. They are far superior to the bread crumbs in those cardboard canisters.

Saute the fish cakes in a little olive oil until browned. Back to that reserved white sauce: thin it with a little more milk and serve the fish patties with the sauce poured over the fish.