Peach & almond oatmeal crumble

I made the easiest, tastiest desert last night. It golden brown was a peach and almond crumble using oatmeal instead of flour.

I used an 8x8 pan, which the original recipe had said to grease but I forgot and it still came out fine. Preheat the oven to 350.

Ingredients:
-- Approximately 3-4 cups of sliced peaches, with or without skin or even canned, however you prefer, essentially enough to cover the bottom of the pan and layer maybe an inch deep (you could really use just about any fruit I suppose)
-- if you used fresh peaches squeeze 1/2 a lemon over them
-- 2-4 Tbsp agave syrup, or sugar (optional, depends on how sweet your peaches are)
-- 1 T flour (or other starch to thicken, like tapioca star
Ch)
-- 1 tsp cinnamon
-- 1/4 tsp cardamom (optional)
-- 2 T finely chopped crystallized ginger (*optional)

Combine peaches, flour, cinnamon, and whatever optional ingredients you want in a bowl. Spread in bottom of 8x8 pan.

To make the crumble topping, combine the following in another bowl.

1.5 cups oats (I used quick oats)
3/4 - 1 c slivered almonds
1/3 c melted butter (or coconut oil)
1/4 - 1/3 c brown or blond sugar (or agave syrup, maple syrup, or light honey)
1/2 tsp salt

Plop the oatmeal crumble topping on top of the fruit somewhat evenly.

Preheat oven to 350 (325 if using all agave or honey in the crumble topping. Bake for about 40 minutes - or until the top browns a bit and fruit bubbles out of the corners of the pan.

Enjoy as is, or with fresh whipped cream, vanilla ice-cream, or yogurt.

Leftovers can be stored covered in the fridge, and re-heated - or eaten right out of the pan.

Brown sugar whole wheat shortbread, Mmmm

You can't tell from this photo, but these were surprisingly tasty
little morsels. This was the first time I ever tried my hand at
shortbread and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Then again,
with all that butter and brown sugar how could it be bad?

Anyhow, Joel was supposed to bring in treats for his weekly staff
meeting today and I was out of eggs, flour, and sugar. A quick online
search for the ingrediants I did have on hand (namely brown sugar and
whole wheat pastry flour) turned up a few recipes for shortbread, so I
gave it a whirl...

Brown Sugar Whole Wheat Shortbread

1 cup light brown sugar (the recipe called for dark brown)
1 cup regular salted butter, softened (I think next time I would use 3/4 cup)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

1) Cream brown sugar, butter, and vanilla together until light and fluffy

2) Add in flour in two parts. Mix on low until very well combined.
(It's not like regular cookies where you barely mix the dough, you
really want to make sure the butter is worked into the flour, or,
supposedly, your bars will be super-crumbly.)

3) Scrape the mixture into a buttered cookie sheet (mixture will be
crumbly, but not dry.) Press evenly into pan. Lightly score bars where
you would like to cut them, and then prick all over with a fork.

4) Bake for about 25 (to 30 minutes?), until top is puffy and firm.
Cool pan on a rack for several hours (or overnight), then cut.

Breakfast cookies... for dinner!

In an effort to avoid sitting around stressing about my defense, I
whipped up some banana bread walnut chocolate chip cookies from a new
breakfast blog I found. I modified the original recipe, using only
brown sugar (rather than half white). They were kind of part oatmeal
cookie, part banana bread, part chocolate chip cookie, all
deliciousness.

http://xobreakfast.com/post/3226640679/banana-bread-walnut-chocolate-chip#

Banana Bread Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from Martha Stewart via XO Breakfast)
Makes 2 or 3 dozen?

1 c. all-purpose or spelt flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. rolled oats
1 tsp. coarse salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 c. (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp.
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1.5 tsp. vanilla
1-2 ripe bananas
8 oz. (1 c.) chocolate chunks or chips
1/2 c. ground walnuts

Preheat oven to 375ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix the flours, oats, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl. In a
larger bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until light and
fluffy. Stir in the egg and vanilla, then mash in the banana.

Add the flour in three parts, folding the chocolate and walnuts in
with the last third. Scoop cookies onto the parchment paper (I used a
1/4 c. measure for big puffy cookies). Bake until light golden brown,
about 12-13 minutes. Cool on rack.

Joel thought they were a little soft at 12 minutes, so I think next
time I would do 13.

Anyone else want peppers & eggs

Mmmm, peppers and eggs. It just brings me back to childhood. Only I always seem to have to do my peppers separate from my eggs, otherwise they get all funny. How did they always seem to get it just right growing up?