Merseth Morsels

Do you like to try unusual recipes? Do you experiment with food to make it healthier? Have you ever wanted a recipe for homemade peanut butter cups? If so, follow this link to a new blog called Merseth Morsels.

I went to college with Megan Merseth and her husband Jeff a decade ago in Mankato, MN. Thanks to the miracle of Facebook, we've gotten back in touch, and when Megan started her new blog this year, I was quick to follow it. We have quite a bit in common -- we're both stay-at-home-moms with two-year-old sons, and she has a 4 month old, while I'll be having my second kid any minute now. And we both love to cook and bake! But Megan is much more into healthful cooking than I am, which is what fascinates me about the recipes she shares on her blog.

I asked Megan some questions about her approach to food and the recipes she shares on her blog. Here's what she responded:

My journey to truly nourishing real food started back in 2005 after starting to use some "health" products from a well-known company. It was my first step toward a lot of eye-opening research, as I realized the food I was eating was contributing to my less than excellent health. A lightbulb also went on when I was able to connect BBQ sauce (which has Worcestershire sauce containing soy sauce in it) to these itchy red bumps I would get after eating it. Ever since then, I've been abstaining from soy products as much as possible, and if you've ever looked at the ingredient label of anything, there aren't many things without soy in some form. Soy comes under many names, as I've discovered.

Soy is the only "dietary restriction" I try to cook around, although when I'm cooking for my brother-in-law, he doesn't do dairy, so I use olive oil or coconut oil instead of butter. I also stay away from as many refined foods as possible. That includes white bleached flour, white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, and most anything pre-packaged or processed. I will either soak whole wheat or rye flour in an acidic solution overnight or use sprouted grain flour. I usually use real maple syrup or raw honey instead of white sugar.

I also own a copy of the cookbook "Nourishing Traditions" and follow a couple of "real food" blogs which is where I get most of my cues about what constitutes truly nourishing food. I use the term "nourishing" because I strive to make food that truly feeds the body instead of just giving it empty calories. I don't want to jinx anything, but we've had a pretty healthy winter thus far, and I attribute that to taking fermented cod liver oil, drinking raw milk, and eating organic citrus by the box.

Besides all this, I just love to cook and try new things in the kitchen. I'm thinking of making some fermented foods soon, perhaps some fermented marmalade! It's still an on-going learning process for me, though. I'm always reading, trying new things. Never a dull moment!

I live in Minnesota with my two boys ages 2 years (Judah) and 4 months (Andrew), and husband (Jeff) who is a vicar (sort of like a student teacher position, part of his schooling) at Our Savior's Lutheran Church, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod. I teach part time as an adjunct faculty member of the music department at Bethany Lutheran College, Mankato, giving voice lessons.

Megan posts some truly fascinating -- and yummy-looking -- recipes on her blog, as well as amusing stories about her sons, complete with cute pictures. If you think the pictures I've posted here look tasty, please check out Merseth Morsels! You won't be sorry you did.

Gingerbread Carrot Muffins

I got this recipe from the 3rd edition of What to Expect When You're Expecting. They're supposed to be good for reducing morning sickness, what with all the ginger in them. I haven't had morning sickness, but I thought these might be great to take along to the birth center since we have to provide our own food there. I know muffins usually freeze well, so I've made these up now and I'll toss some in the freezer to take along when the time comes.

I'm not a huge fan of fresh ginger, so I left that out, though I did use the ground ginger. I used wheat germ and chopped pecans, but I didn't toast the nuts cuz grating the carrots was enough work as it is.

These turned out really yummy -- Daniel and I had them with lunch, and he ate a whole one and then asked for more. I think I would rename them Apricot Carrot Muffins if I made them again, since without the fresh ginger it's the apricots and carrots that really stand out.


Gingerbread Carrot Muffins
(Makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed or wheat germ
1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup finely chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts or pecans (optional)
1 cup white grape juice concentrate
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp minced peeled fresh ginger
1 cup grated carrots

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Line a standard-size 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the whole wheat flour, flaxseed or wheat germ, oats, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and baking soda. Add apricots and nuts (if desired) and stir to blend.

In another bowl, combine the juice concentrate, eggs, oil, vanilla, and fresh ginger and whisk to blend. Add the juice mixture to the flour mixture and stir gently just until the batter is smooth and well blended; be careful not to overmix. (It took me about 25 strokes to mix the two.)

Gently fold the carrots into the batter. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups, dividing evenly. (Cups will probably be very full.) Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, 18-20 minutes.

Transfer the muffins to a wire rack and let cool completely. The muffins can be stored in an airtight container for 3 days or frozen up to 1 month when individually wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in a freezer bag or container.

Note: Not a fan of ginger? Leave it out and substitute another teaspoon of cinnamon.

Cranberry Orange Tea Bread

This is a great recipe for the holidays, when cranberries are readily available in the stores. I've had this recipe for several years -- I have no idea where I got it, maybe in an advertisement or something. It's also found here at motts.com. It says to make it as a loaf, and I've done that, but this time around I made 24 mini-muffins and 6 regular muffins. This doesn't rise a lot, so fill your muffin cups almost to the top if you make those instead of bread.


Ingredients:

2 cups flour
3/4 cup dried cranberries OR 1 cup whole fresh berries
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup cinnamon apple sauce
1/4 cup butter or margarine -- melted
1 egg
2 tsp grated orange peel

Directions:

Combine flour, cranberries, sugar, and baking powder in large mixing bowl. In separate bowl, mix together remaining ingredients. Blend applesauce mixture into flour mixture until just combined. Spoon batter into greased loaf pan or muffin tin lined with paper baking cups. Bake at 350F 45-50 minutes for loaf, 16-20 minutes for regular muffins, 12-16 minutes for mini muffins, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan before removing loaf to cool completely on wire rack. Loaf makes 12 servings.

I use whole cranberries because I like things that are tart and tangy. If you prefer sweeter bread/muffins, you'll probably want to use sweetened dried cranberries (like Craisins) instead.

I made the 24 mini-muffins to send to a friend of ours who is serving in Afghanistan right now. Happy Veterans Day! I can never say 'thank you' enough to those brave soldiers who have put their lives on the line to defend ours, both in the past and today. You are my heroes.

Quick French Onion Biscuits

We made these biscuits to go with a ham the other night, and they were amazing! They're quick, easy, and tasty -- what more could you ask for? We found the recipe here at BettyCrocker.com.

Quick French Onion Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups Original Bisquick mix
1/4 cup milk
8 oz French onion dip

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450F. Stir all ingredients until soft dough forms. Drop dough into 6 mounds on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown. Serve warm. Yum!

Ginger Snaps

I just made my great-great-grandmother's Ginger Snaps today. I'm sending a care package to a friend who's serving in Iraq, and she requested I send her lots of cookies, so I baked up a batch of these for her. Don't they look yummy? I made them into Easter shapes, butterflies and eggs and crosses, because the package should reach her in time for Easter.


Ginger Snaps

1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
1 cup Karo dark syrup
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp vanilla

Put sugar, shortening, syrup, and vinegar in a pan and let it come to a boil. Pour into a big mixing bowl (really big, so it doesn't overflow during this step) and add baking soda. Let cool. Sift in flour, salt, cinnamon, and ginger. Add vanilla and mix. Roll out, adding a little more flour if it's too sticky. Cut out, placing at least 2 inches apart on cookie sheets (these spread a lot). Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. Cool on sheet for 30 seconds before transferring to wire racks. Makes 5 dozen cookies.

Easy-Peasy Apple Dumplings

I made these last night for the first time, and they're very yummy! Though my hubby thinks we should have baked the apple quarters for a few minutes before wrapping them, as the apples were still pretty solid and not always easy to cut. So you may want to try that. But here's the recipe:

Easy-Peasy Apple Dumplings

2 apples -- cored and quartered
1 can large and flaky biscuits (8-count)
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 stick butter
dash cinnamon

Boil water, sugar, butter, and cinnamon for ten minutes., stirring occasionally. Spread each biscuit out to at least 6" diameter, wrap one apple quarter in each biscuit, pinching edges shut. Place on greased baking sheet. Pour sugar mixture over dumplings. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

See? Easy-peasy!

Not-so-skinny Dipping

Once in a while, I want to give a batch of cookies a touch of elegance. Dress them up a little, especially if I'm giving them as a gift. What do I do? Why, I dip them in chocolate, of course! They turn out looking seductively tasty... probably because they are! For example, I transformed these humble pistachio sugar cookies into ambrosia:


If you'd like to try this yourself, here's my recipe:

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 (1.55 oz) bars Hershey's chocolate -- broken in pieces
1 Tbsp shortening

Stir together over low heat in a small saucepan or double boiler. Stir continuously until melted. Cool for a few minutes, then dip desired items and place them on waxed paper to cool.

You don't have to stop with cookies, either -- I've dipped dried fruit and pretzels in this too.

Stir-Crazy Cake

Every Sunday, after our church service, the members of our congregation gather in the basement for "Fellowship," a time to visit and get to know one another. Every week, two families bring treats for Fellowship and are in charge of making the coffee, etc. (We Lutherans are quite devoted to our coffee, you know.) This week was our first time bringing treats, so yesterday, I made a really yummy bundt cake for it. Unfortunately, the cake didn't come out of the pan in one piece, and it wasn't remotely fixable with frosting or any other means. So I made a Stir-Crazy Cake to take instead.


This is probably the tenth time I've made a Stir-Crazy Cake in the past six years. I think it was the first cake I baked after I got married -- I remember my husband found the recipe online and said it looked so odd he wanted me to try it out. And odd it is, but it is also super yummy, and the quickest, easiest from-scratch cake I've ever made. So I thought I'd share the recipe, in case you'd like to try it too. It has a crispy topping, so it doesn't require frosting. And it makes very few dirty dishes, because you mix it up in the same pan you bake it in. So here's the recipe:

Stir-Crazy Cake

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup baking cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup oil
2 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups cold coffee
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

Put flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, cocoa, soda, and salt into an ungreased 9" x 13" metal baking pan. Stir until combined. Form 3 wells in flour mixture. Pour oil into one well, vinegar in one, and vanilla in one. Pour cold coffee over all ingredients and stir with a spoon until well mixed. Do not beat. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over batter. Bake at 350 for 35 min.

If you're like me, you'll look at the batter and think, "This is way too liquidy to be cake batter. The cinnamon-sugar stuff on top is all sinking in -- it'll never form a crispy topping. It's a funny color, and it's got little bubbles in it. And there are no eggs! How can this be a cake?" But when you take it out of the oven, you will breathe in its rich, chocolatey aroma and hardly be able to wait for it to cool before you cut yourself a slice.