Nothing funny about feldspar

Based on a recipe from my rice cooker manual/recipe book. I was looking for a pudding I could make in the rice cooker, and this was the only recipe I found that didn’t involve extra bowls and aluminum foil. I, of course, added the chocolate and reduced the sugar from the original.

* 5 slices of bread
* ½ stick butter
* ¼ cup sugar
* ⅓ cup cocoa (I used Droste)
* 1 cup milk
* 3 eggs
* ½ teaspoon vanilla

Tear the bread into bite-sized bits and put into rice cooker pot.

Heat the milk, butter, sugar and cocoa in a pan over medium heat until the butter melts. You could do this in the microwave, but be careful not to overheat the milk.

Beat the eggs with the vanilla. Slowly add to the milk mixture.

Pour the sauce over the bread and stir it a little so most of the pieces get some liquid.

Set the cooker to White Rice and push start.

Serve warm.

This year’s New Year’s dinner.

* 1 onion, chopped
* 4 smoked pork chops (I used rib cuts, about 3/4″ thick)
* 1 jar of good sauerkraut (I drain mine)
* 1 largish sweet potato, peeled and sliced into 1/4″ slices
* scant 1/2 cup chicken broth (not needed if you don’t drain the ’kraut)

* ~1/4 cup flour
* salt & pepper (be generous)

Preheat oven to 375°F

Put some flour, salt and pepper in a large ziploc bag, and shake each pork chop, one at a time, so they’re lightly coated. Set aside.

In a Dutch oven (or other very large skillet with a lid — this amount filled my 6qt Dutch oven about half way), sauté the onions in your favorite fat over medium high heat. I used schmaltz, but bacon fat or vegetable oil would work too. I wouldn’t use olive oil, it’s not the right flavor.

When the onions are starting to brown, brown the pork chops for about a minute or so each side. You might have to do them in batches — if so, just set the partly done ones aside until you finish the rest.

When the chops are browned, place them back in the pot, overlapping as little as possible. Dump the sauerkraut on top, and spread it out evenly (or as close to even as you can). Arrange the sweet potato slices on top of the sauerkraut, again, avoiding overlapping if possible.

At this point I added about 1/2 cup chicken broth, poured in carefully along the side of the pot, because I wasn’t sure if there was enough liquid left in the ’kraut.

Put the lid on (it should fit tightly), and place in the preheated oven for about an hour. It’ll probably take at least 40 minutes, but I wanted to be certain the potatoes were cooked through. DON’T check the progress until you’re 99% certain that it is done. You don’t want the steam escaping — it’s what cooks the food.

I served it right out of the pot. You could take each layer out and put them in separate serving dishes, or put the potatoes in one dish (maybe even mashed?), and the ’kraut on a plate with the chops and onions on top.

Next time I might brown the sweet potatoes a little first. But all in all, it was faboo.

* 4 cups Concord grapes, washed and stemmed
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 3 Tbsp. tapioca
* 1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Pie shell, unbaked

For topping:
* 3/4 cup flour
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1/3 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350°F. (If you’re using a metal pan, increase by 25°F).

Separate the skins from the pulp. Set the skins aside. Cook the pulp on top of the stove (boiling a bit) for about 5 minutes (until most of the pulp is burst). Strain the pulp into another bowl (try to get everything but the seeds).

Add the skins back to the pulp, then stir in the sugar, tapioca and lemon juice. Let stand while you make the topping (or at least 10 minutes).

Blend together the topping ingredients using a pastry cutter.

Pour the grape goop into the pie shell, then evenly distribute the topping on top of the goop. Bake for at least 50 minutes, until the goop seems to be thickened (slowly bursting bubbles) and the topping is browned a bit.

Cool before serving.

(Note: most recipes call for 1/4 cup of flour instead of tapioca. I have never had good luck with flour as a thickener, and have always been happy with tapioca. So there.)

The guts of the pie was very fruity and grapey — not at all too sweet. The topping, on the other hand needed much less sugar (and much less topping, frankly). Overall, an A-, I’d say. Next time I might try an oatmeal crumble topping. One could also use a lattice crust, but I’m too lazy for that

(adapted from this recipe)

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Grease and flour a Bundt pan (I suppose you could use 2 loaf pans)

Blend together the dry ingredients in a large bowl:

* 3 cups flour
* ½ teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1½ tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
* ½ teaspoon salt

In a mixer, combine:

* 1 cup brown sugar
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 3 eggs
* 2 cups roasted butternut squash

Once the wet stuff is well-combined, slowly add the dry ingredients. When it’s mixed, fold in

* 2 cups granola (I make one similar to this one, but different, of course )

Spoon the batter into the pan. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove it from oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Cool completely on the rack before slicing.

In the end you get a large, dense, cakey bread, which is very, very tasty. (Plagioclase likes it with butter on it.) I’ll probably never be able to do it the same again, but I’ll be sure to try.

This is one I made up when I had a *ton* of leftover roasted butternut squash. It is autumn, after all!

About 2 cups roasted butternut squash, smashed up
About 2 ounces of crumbled blue cheese (say maybe a ¼ cup)
About a teaspoon of dried sage
pepper and a little salt (not too much, the cheese can be salty)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Blend everything together, and put into a small, greased casserole. Sprinkle panko breadcrumbs on top. Bake for 30 minutes or so (it’s pretty flexible — I started in a 400°F oven and then reduced the temperature, and it could probably come out as soon as it gets heated through).

I think this would be an excellent make-ahead dish for Thanksgiving. I hope I remember it!