Sunday Quick Hit: Site Updates & Mini-Recipe

Happy Sunday everyone! I know we said yesterday that we were taking today off - but we have a couple of quick things to share with you today. First, a mini  recipe. This morning, Maggie brought forward a great idea. "What happens if we added brown sugar and maple syrup to the oatmeal?" Well, we went ahead and tried it and found out that the result is fantastic!

The Recipe: Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal
Original Recipe By: (Concept) Maggie (Execution & Amounts) Tyler

What You'll Need:

1 Cup Oatmeal
2 Cups Water (Or Milk)
4 Tsp. Brown Sugar
4 Tsp. Maple Syrup

Mix your oatmeal and water together and put your pan on medium heat. Unlike yesterday's recipe, where you could leave the oatmeal alone for a little while, you'll want to keep your attention on the pot the entire time. (This is due to the smaller quantity of oatmeal in this recipe - it cooks faster.) Within two minutes, your pot should be bubbling nicely.

*Bubble* 

Add your brown sugar and stir in well. 4 Tsp. seems to be the right blend of great sugar flavor without overpowering the dish. You are free to add more to your flavor preferences, however. After about a minute, the brown sugar should be fully melted into the oatmeal.

Brown sugar - up close and personal 

Add your maple syrup and stir in as well. Let the whole mixture simmer for a full minute and then serve. The end result is a delicious and smooth oatmeal. A great addition to this recipe would have been chopped almonds or even chopped walnuts (nether of which we had at his time) or even sliced bananas.

Tasty start to the day

Site Update:

You may have noticed on the side bar by now, but early last week we added a new feature to the blog. We are now on twitter. You can follow us at Outofculinary (no 'the' twitter has a name size limit and adding the 'the' made it one character too long. This was our compromise.) We are using this to update things about the site, as well as lead to clues to the new recipes, and to share culinary experiences as they happen. We can use this to update about the site a lot more quickly and frequently than any of our other methods. It's a great way to follow and stay in touch with the blog.


Cook's Illustrated, Where Have You Been All Of My Life?

This may be my favorite magazine...EVER

This weekend, I made a discovery. A little magazine called 'Cook's Illustrated'. It is written by the folks at PBS who make the "America's Test Kitchen" television program. They share things such as kitchen tips (I.E. using bottle corks to store kitchen knives) recipes (that they test up to 40 times, until the find the perfect, fool proof method of cooking something) and product review. (You may recall a couple of weeks ago, when I asked for recommendations on canned tomatoes? Cook's Illustrated has a full review of every brand of canned tomatoes in their August 2010 issue - the best brand? Hunts.) The biggest find (for me) came in the June 2010 issue. "How to grill perfect tuna steaks".  It turns out the key to a perfect tuna steak is to make a vinaigrette composed of oil, vinegar, mustard and honey - that allows the outside to brown and keeps the natural waters of the tuna IN the fish. In addition, the key to a good tuna steak is to cook the outside 1/4 inch ONLY. The inside is supposed to be pink and even COLD (Cold!). So, that information may have been a few days too late - but it is certainly going to help when I take a second shot at the tuna steak in a new recipe. Needless to say, we will be opening a subscription to this magazine.

That's all we have for you today. Just a few mini-posts, all rolled into one surprise Sunday post. We're back tomorrow with a list of our ingredients for the week. Be sure to check in then to see what we have up our sleeves. Until then -

~Cheers