Chicken Tikka Masala from Brennan Hamrin

Ingredients

* 1 cup yogurt
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
* 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
* 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
* 4 teaspoons salt, or to taste
* 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
* 2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 2 teaspoons cinnamon 
* 2 teaspoons paprika
* 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
* 1 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
* 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
* 2 bell peppers chopped
* 4 Carrots chopped

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, 2 teaspoons cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, ginger, and 4 teaspoons salt. Stir in chicken, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
2. Pan fry the chicken.
4. Melt butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic and jalapeno for 1 minute. Season with 2 teaspoons cumin, paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg and 2 teaspoons salt. Add Carrots and Peppers and saute a few minutes. Stir in tomato sauce and cream. Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 20 minutes. Add chicken, and simmer for 10 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter, and garnish with fresh cilantro.
Best served with rice and naan bread.

Whole wheat oat bread

Makes two to three 1.5 lb loaves (I made two).

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk (I used soy)
1 1/2 Tbsp granulated yeast (1 1/2 packets)
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp salt
1/2 cup honey
5 Tbsp safflower oil (or canola oil)
2 2/3 cups whole wheat bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour (ground from hard winter berries)
2 cups oat flour (ground from oat groats)
3 T flax meal

1. Mix the yeast salt, honey, and oil with the lukewarm water and milk in a 5-quart bowl
2. Using a spoon, food processor with dough attachment, or a stand mixer, mix in the whole wheat flour and flax meal without kneading the mixture.
3. Cover the mixture, and allow it to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flatten on top); approximately 2 to 3 hours.
4. Although the dough can be used after it has risen and collapsed. Refrigerate it in a lidded, not airtight container and use over the next 5 days (I used my tea container). After the five days, put the dough in the freezer for up to 1 month.
5. On baking day, lightly grease a 9x4x3-inch nonstick loaf pan. Using wet hands, scoop out a 1 1/2-pound (cantaloupe-size) handful of dough. With wet hands, quickly shape the dough into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.
6. Drop the loaf into the prepared pan filling it slightly more than half-full.
7. Allow the dough to rest for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Flour and slash the top of the loaf using the tip of a serrated bread knife.
8. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) for 5 minutes, if not using a stone; otherwise, preheat the oven 20 minutes before baking time.
9. Place the loaf on a rack near the center of the oven. Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door. Bake the loaf for 50 to 60 minutes or until deeply browned and firm.
10. Allow to cool completely before slicing in order to cut reasonable sandwich slices.

Spicy Sweet Mac and Cheese

Macaroni and Cheese is my ultimate comfort food. So over the last several years I have worked on getting a good recipe.
 
Ingredients:
2 T. Melted butter and more for baking dish
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I make my own by using old sandwich bread that was frozen)
2 lb. (4 cups) grated cheese

• I use tillamook vintage white cheddar, dubliner white cheese, parmesan,  gorgonzola 
• mild cheddar can also be used if you don't want to spend the money on the more expensive ones.

16 oz penne or your favorite pasta
2 1/2 milk
16oz cream cheese
Gorgonzola
1/2 cup Parmesan
1 Tbsp. Sriracha (depending on how spicy you want- I usually put more)
3 Tbsp. Honey (to taste)
Pepper
Salt


Butter 9x13 baking dish . Toss melted butter with bread crumbs and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese in a small bowl.

In large pot of boiling water cook pasta.

Bring milk to boil over medium heat and add cream cheese in cubes, stir till melted. Then gradually stir in remaining cheese. Add a little gorgonzola here.

For sweet and spicy: add sriracha and honey and pepper to taste to cheese sauce then mix with pasta.

Mix all together and put in baking dish

Bake at 350 for 10 min then sprinkle with bread crumbs and gorgonzola and bake for 10 more min.

Hair of the dog chili (aka: Best Chili Ever)

This one won a chili cook off!

1 onion chopped
3 green chili pepper's chopped (or a large can of green chili's_
couple pounds of ground beef
package of your favorite sausage (we used andoullie chicken sausage last time) with casing removed and sliced into rounds
2 12oz cans of: black beans, kidney beans
3 cups corn (frozen works great)
2 cups mushrooms sliced
2 32 oz. cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup bourbon or to taste
1/4 cup diced jalapenos
4 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup sugar or honey
all these to taste- I don't measure
sriracha sauce
cumin
coriander
paprika
oregano
basil
chili powder
cayenne
taco seasoning

Saute onions and peppers until translucent. Add garlic, cumin, coriander, paprika, oregano, basil, chili powder and taco seasoning, cook until the fragrance of the herbs increase. Then add the ground beef. In a separate pan cook the sausages till browned. Put everything else in the pot and simmer for hours. Serve topped with cheese and cilantro. Tortilla chips are a mighty fine addition as well.

We meant to add bacon to it this last time but forgot... next time! I think it would be amazing!

Pumpkin Ginger Scones

Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar plus some for dusting
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup flax meal
2 tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
5 Tbsp butter divided
1 egg
1/2 cup pumpkin
1/4 heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger
1 tsp vanilla or hazelnut or both

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Combine sugar, flour, flax meal, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Cut in 4 tablespoons butter with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat egg in small bowl, add pumpkin, heavy whipping cream, vanilla and ginger. Beat until well blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture, stir until soft dough forms.

Turn out dough onto well floured surface, knead 10 times. Roll out dough into with a lightly floured rolling pin. I rolled mine out to be about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and then I used a pizza cutter to make triangles the size I wanted. Place triangles 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Brush triangles with butter, sprinkle with sugar. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Serve warm with butter. Makes 15-20 small scones.

Frittata

2 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion
2 medium potatoes
1 small sweet potatoes peeled and thinly sliced
salt and pepper
8 beaten eggs
1 cup of fennel turkey sausage
1/2 cup mushrooms sauteed
3 tbs gorgonzola
1/2 cup parmesaen

Heat the oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, then arrange the potatoes over the onions. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and cook without disturbing for 10 minutes, until tender. Test with fork, if not done, cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir the potatoes and onions to mix. Sprinkle sausage and mushrooms over potatoes and onions then pour eggs evenly over the potatoes, sausage and onions. Cover and cook for 12 minutes.
Carefully place a large plate over the tog skillet. Wear a pair of oven mitts while you turn the plate over. Slide the uncooked side back onto the skillet . Sprinkle with cheese and cook uncovered for 4 to 6 minutes.
Serves about 4.

sweet potato, carmelized onions, gorogonzola and pepper sauce pizza

pizza dough
makes one 10" pizza
3 tbs hot water
3 tbs milk
1 1/4 tsp yeast
2 tbs olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbs whole wheat flour (I sometimes add part flax meal)
5/8 cup flour (plus more for kneading process)
1 small potato cooked and mashed

Mix water and yeast together. In a separate bowl mix milk and potato together. In a separate bowl, mix salt and flours together. Add wet ingredients to flour mixture along with olive oil. I use a mixer with the kneading attachment to knead my dough but roughly you want to knead for about 10 minutes. Add more flour as needed so that the dough is not sticking to you or the sides of the bowl. Then let rise for an hour and half so that it doubles in size.

Preheat oven to 500 with pizza stone in oven

pepper olive oil sauce
1 tbs cracked pepper
6 tbs olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp salt

Heat 3 tbs olive oil with the cracked pepper in pan to medium heat. Let simmer for 10ish minutes then strain the olive oil from the pepper. Then mix together a fresh 3 tbs of olive oil, garlic and salt with the strained pepper.

Pizza toppings
pepper olive oil
1 sweet potato sliced and baked
1 red onion chopped and caramelized
3/4 cup fennel sausage
top with gorgonzola, mozzarella and parmesan

I make mine on parchment paper for easy transfer and cleanup. Bake on pizza stone for 10 minutes then check it will probably take 15 but every oven is a little different.