For many the beginning of autumn means pumpkin spice in everything. I’m more simple, plain old cinnamon is fine by me. The smell of apples and cinnamon. Pumpkin and cinnamon. Chocolate and cinnamon.
Okay, I might have a little addiction! But really, what’s the harm in a little more cinnamon?!
For some reason we were all talking about coffee ice cream at the dinner table recently. I don’t recall if the conversation began talking about coffee or ice cream. No matter the origin, it came about that the boys haven’t had coffee ice cream yet.
I know what you’re thinking, another granola recipe?! Yes, another granola recipe. What can I say, we LOVE our granola. What isn’t to love, salty, sweet, crunchy, nutty, oat goodness.
The boys have been scavenging for snacks lately and then it dawned on me. We didn’t have granola. I try to keep it around since they eat it all the time, yet somehow life got busy and we haven’t had any for a while. It was time to make a new flavor combining my beloved dark chocolate gingerbread granola and the boys’ favorite vanilla almond granola.
In our house granola is good any time of the day. It all starts at breakfast, either plain or with yogurt and fruit. Then for Sean’s second breakfast. Ya know, after big brothers have left for school and he’s hungry again before he goes to school.
Josh and I were meant to find each other, we’re both condiment people. Especially mustard. When our fridge was on the fritz a couple years ago I had to move everything to the fridge in the garage. In the process I found a lot of condiment jars. Call us the King and Queen of Condiments!
If you have a good selection of condiments you can cook anything, right?! After finding lots of half empty jars I managed to narrow down the collection to what we use most. With three growing boys in the house I can only sacrifice so much fridge space to condiments.
One of the mustards we use often is a Bavarian sweet and spicy mustard. It’s great on sausages like bratwurst or weisswurst. It takes a homemade soft pretzel to a new level. Since we’ve been eating more German food lately I figured it was time to make our own mustard.
Then Josh found this Shock Top twisted pretzel wheat beer. Combine a beer mustard with a sweet and spicy Bavarian mustard and this is what you’ll get. Plus I only need room for one jar in the fridge, not two. Score for me!
As with everything else you make from scratch, you can customize this mustard. If you aren’t into a big kick cut down the horseradish or even omit it. Want it sweeter, add more honey. Try using different beers for a different flavor. Dark beer, IPA, wheat…whatever you have in the house and want to drink the last couple ounces of. As for me, it’s time to go to the German meat market for more sausages. No need to buy the expensive mustard though, I’ve got my own.
1 c. beer
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
1/4 c. yellow mustard seeds
1/4 c. black mustard seeds (brown would work too)
1/4 c. ground mustard powder
2 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbs. honey
1 tsp. prepared horseradish
Pour the beer and cider vinegar in a small bowl, add both mustard seeds. Cover and soak overnight.
After 8+ hours of soaking add the rest in the ingredients and whisk to combine. Blend the mustard to desired consistency using an immersion blender, food processor or blender. I like mine with some whole mustard seeds left. Pour in a jar and store in the fridge.
Yields: A little less than a pint
Last week we shared some big news with the boys….we’re going to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. That’s right, watch out Europe, the boys are coming! Josh took the day off work (already planned for other reasons) and he went to the German Meat Market here in town. Among the sausages bought he also got some authentic Bavarian pretzels. We gave the boys pretzels for their snack when they got home from school and had them make the connection to figure out where they were going.
The rest of the weekend was spent eating other German food, practicing German vocabulary and talking about travel in general. Jack is my worrier so he wasn’t thrilled at first, fearing the plane could crash over the ocean. After more talk about all the food they could eat he is warming up to it!
Sunday morning after having weisswurst for breakfast the guys were all outside. Josh was working in his garage and the boys were playing in the yard. I took advantage of the quiet and poured myself some prosecco with pear liqueur. After all, we had breakfast and not brunch so I didn’t get my morning bubbly yet!
Feeding My 3 Sons 