Amish Baked Oatmeal

When my sister Ruth got married in August of 2001 I went the Washington D.C. area for her open house.  We stayed with her in-laws, Mike and Jeanne.   Jeanne is a total doll  and served us one of her special breakfasts, Amish Baked Oatmeal.  She shared the recipe with me and said that she serves it on special occasions.   In keeping with the "special occasion theme, this is a new Christmas tradition at our house.   My husband likes it so much that he doesn't always want to wait for Christmas so after our recent Christmas Breakfast  in July I thought I'd share with all of you too.

Jeanne apparently got the recipe from the wife of a Mennonite minister who had grown up in a family that was old order Amish, 
I think this must have been their family recipe.

Amish Baked Oatmeal

Ingredients 

1 stick butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons pure vanilla

2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup oil

1 cup milk

3 cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

Optional:

fresh or frozen fruit

brown sugar

milk

Directions

Mix the butter and sugar by hand until well mixed. 
Add the eggs and mix well, add vanilla 

Add the baking powder and salt, mix in.

Add the oil and milk and mix well.

Stir in the Oats.

The batter will likely look a bit lumpy and not combined.  That is normal.

Pour into a 2-quart casserole or other similar sized baking dish.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

Tips and Hints

• Best served warm, you can reheat in the microwave if needed
• You can serve it with fresh or frozen (thaw first) fruit and a bit of milk.  My very favorite with this is frozen raspberries that have been thawed so they are a bit "juicy"
• You can also serve it with brown sugar on the top.  
• Jeanne said this will keep several days in the refrigerator, but it never lasts that long at our house.

Corn Fritters with Lime Aioli

Recently, seemingly out of the blue, my family has been asking for corn fritters.  I thought this was pretty random, but happy to oblige I found a couple of corn fritter recipes, saw the basics and invented my own version.  The Lime Aioli dipping sauce is from KSL's Studio 5 with a slight variation. 

Corn Fritters with Lime Aioli

Ingredients 

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup corn meal

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1-2 Tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup milk

1 Tablespoon melted butter

2-3 diced jalapeno 

2 cups frozen corn

oil for frying

Method 

Mix the flour, corn meal, salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes together.

Separately, mix the eggs, milk and butter.

Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until well combined.  

Stir in the jalapeno and corn.  

Mix well.

Heat your favorite frying oil to about 325.  Carefully drop the batter in with a small cookie scoop.  Fry for about 2 minutes or until golden brown.  

Lime Aioli 

Ingredients

1/4 cup mayo

1/4 cup sour cream

juice and zest of 1/2 lime

1/4 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon dill weed

Method

Combine all ingredients together, blend until smooth.  The coolness of the aioli offsets the both the thermal and capsaicin  heat of the fritter.  

Hints and Tips

• If you like less heat in your food you can cut back or omit the jalapenos and red pepper flakes.
• Fritters can be placed in a warm oven to maintain heat if you want to wait  a bit to serve them.  (After all who really wants to be standing over a deep fryer while everyone else parties)
• Fresh corn can be used in place of the frozen, but I'd steer clear of canned, as the texture and flavor are not the same.

Hot Spinach Artichoke with Parmesan Dip

Who doesn't love a good spinach artichoke dip?  But buying that stuff is expensive and you can't always run to Chili's when a craving hits.  So of course, I did a bit of Google-ing and found a few recipes.  With a big shout out to Alton Brown for his basis and some tweaking of my own I have developed a Hot Spinach Artichoke with Parmesan Dip that is stellar!  We all like it far better than any from any restaurant. 

Hot Spinach Artichoke with Parmesan Dip

Ingredients  

8 ounces cream cheese

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup Miracle Whip

1/4 cup Alfredo sauce 

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 1/2 cup fresh spinach

1 1/2 cup artichoke hearts

1/2 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Directions

Use a food processor to roughly chop spinach and artichoke hearts.  You'll want to do these separately from one another.

Warm the cream cheese in the microwave, on medium for about a minute or until it is very soft. (Don't use high as that will "cook" it).

Stir the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sour cream, Miracle Whip and Alfredo sauce.  Stir until creamy and well blended.  Add the garlic and red pepper flakes. Mix until well blended.  Add the spinach and artichoke.  Mix well.  Stir  in the Parmesan cheese.

Turn mixture into a casserole dish.  Sprinkle with the additional cheese.  Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until hot and bubbly.   

Serve with your favorite chips, crackers or bread. 

Hints and Tips

• You can substitute mayo for the Miracle Whip if you prefer the taste.

• Add extra red pepper flakes if you like a bit more of a kick, you can also reduce the amount if you are wimpy about spice.

• For a pretty browned finish to the top of the dish sprinkle with a bit of additional Parmesan cheese, then at the end of the baking process broil for about 7 minutes until the top is to your desired brownness. 

• NEVER use the powdered Parmesan in the green can.  You can grate your own or use the pre-grated cheese in a bag.