Fresh Strawberry Bread

Market Basket has been having a great sale on strawberries lately.  I keep buying the most gigantic containers and then struggling for what to do with them. I can only eat so many! When my aunt and uncle were visiting, I remembered that my aunt lives strawberry anything, so I found this recipe that I had pinned a while ago for fresh strawberry bread.  It was quick and say and sounded like it would have great texture and moisture - both cream cheese and buttermilk are in there, along with butter, to keep this bread decadent.

And of course there are the strawberries.  I chopped them into pretty large chunks to let them be the stars of the bread!  They add great flavor and color to the bread.

It was extra glorious right out of the oven (I caught my mom and uncle picking pieces off far before it was ready to be cut!), but I bet it it would be just as good toasted and spread with some butter or cream cheese. You could totally serve this for dessert, or cal it breakfast.  I love things like that.

Recipe:

fresh strawberry bread
from My Baking Addiction 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups strawberries, rinsed, dried and chopped

Instructions:

1) Grease and flour a 9x5-inch pan.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) With electric mixer, cream butter, sugar and cream cheese until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.

3) In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Blend flour mixture with butter mixture just until blended.  Add buttermilk and only stir until just combined.  Do not overmix.

4) Carefully fold in strawberries. Dough mixture will be thick.  Bake for 50 - 60 minutes.  Let cool for a bit before slicing if you can wait :)

Big Soft and Fluffy One-Hour Dinner Rolls

I am enjoying my first snow day of the school year today!  It's my first snow day with just me and my dogs and we are loving it.  We may or may not still be in pajamas at 1:30 PM.  And yes Pop wears pajamas.  Don't judge me for any of this paragraph.  On to the food!

Jesse claims that soup by itself is not a meal.  I strongly disagree, but I can throw the guy a bone on pea soup night, I suppose.  He agreed that adding bread to the dinner counts as "not serving soup by itself," so I decided to make some dinner rolls.  I think soup and bread may be one of the most amazing combinations in history, so this was a win-win.

To add to the winning: I made these rolls so much quicker than you'd expect (although, with the words one hour in the name, maybe you did expect it).  The secret is a rising period in a slightly warmed oven after brushing them with a little water to keep them moist.  Normally I agree with the "good things take time" mantra, but these rolls are an exception.  Although they are so much quicker than many breads, they are so fluffy, soft and buttery, and just a tiny bit sweet.  They make a perfect addition to any soup (or dinner of any kind!)  I will definitely whip up another batch of these babies soon.  If you're a yeast amateur, these rolls are a good place to begin and build up your confidence; they are very easy.  Imagine - you could be eating (and smelling!!!) hot homemade rolls an hour from now.  Of course, that would require getting off the couch on your snow day, and I know that's real tough.  My goals include a shower and putting on real clothes... but baking bread is in there somewhere :)

Recipe:

big soft and fluffy one-hour dinner rolls

from Cooking Classy

yields 16 rolls

Ingredients:

3 3/4 - 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon rapid rise yeast

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup cool water

2/3 cup milk

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced into 1 tablespoon pieces, plus more for brushing over tops

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together 4 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt.

2) To a medium microwave-safe bowl, add water, milk and butter and heat microwave on high power until it reaches 115 degrees on a thermometer, about 1 minutes 15 seconds.  Stir to partially melt butter; you want it softened but not totally melted.  For me it took a bit less than a minute and I had to wait for it to cool a little!

3) Pour milk into dry mixture in bowl of mixer, along with lemon juice.  Set mixer with a hook attachment and then set mixture on low speed.  Gradually increase to medium-low, kneading until smooth and elastic while adding additional flour as necessary.  Dough should be lightly sticky but manageable.  

4) Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and rest 5 minutes.  Meanwhile butter a 13x9-inch baking dish.

5) Drop dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Shape into an evenly level square, about 9x9 inches.  Cut into 16 equal portions.  Shape dough into 16 balls and place shaped dough balls into prepared baking dish.

6) Dampen hands with water and brush tops of dough with the water so they don't dry in the oven.  Transfer to oven, close, and turn oven off.  Allow rolls to rise for 20 minutes without opening the oven door.  Remove from oven after 20 minutes and preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Allow rolls to rest on counter while you wait.

7) Bake for 14 - 16 minutes until tops are golden brown.  Remove from oven and run the top of a stick of butter along tops of rolls just to coat.  Serve warm.  Store in an airtight container.

Dinner Rolls

Things are just crazy around here these days.  I am feeling a little better about life in general, but I still have my moments. My house is looking and feeling great after some hard work by my mom, Rachael and Sam.  It's nice to relax here.  I feel really busy lately, but maybe that's just a combination of being back at work, trying to see lots of friends, and hauling two dogs around who move at vastly different speeds.

No matter how busy I feel, I had to find the time to talk to you about these dinner rolls.  I believe that they are the best rolls I have ever made.  Italicized to show emphasis.  But for real, these are the softest, tastiest, most amazing little crescents of bread.  I ate so many the night I made them, it was embarrassing.  Then I continued to eat them for the next few days; they kept surprisingly well in an airtight container (homemade bread doesn't usually stay soft very long).

I am sincerely wishing that I had some right now, actually.  The good news is that I could make that happen if I wanted; these are not difficult to make.  Yes, they're yeast rolls so there are 2 periods of letting the dough rise.  They might not be quick, but they aren't hard.  The hardest part is rolling the crescents to make them pretty, as opposed to how mots of mine looked.... not so pretty.  But still tasted amazing, so who cares?  Make these the next time you want to really impress people at dinner.

One note - the recipe suggests running a stick of butter over the rolls when they come out of the oven.  I felt like they tasted buttery enough without that extra step and calories, but hey, if you want to go big or go home, go for it!

Recipe:
dinner rolls
from How Does She
makes 48 rolls

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons yeast
2 cups warm water
9 - 10 cups all purpose flour
at least 1 cup butter, softened

Instructions:

1) Scald 1 1/2 cups milk, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup butter (cut into small pieces) in a microwave safe bowl for about 2 minutes.  It's okay if there are still some cubes of butter floating around.

2) Stir in 1 - 2 cups flour into the hot mixture to cool it down.  Add 1 egg and 1 tablespoon salt. Let cool 2 more minutes.  Meanwhile, in a measuring cup, dissolve 2 tablespoons of yeast in 2 cups of warm water and 1 tablespoon sugar.  Let sit for a couple minutes until bubbly.  Add the yeast mixture to the milk mixture.

3) Using a fork or wooden spoon, gradually stir in 7 - 9 cups of flour.  Add 2 cups at a time and stir in between.  The dough will be dense and sticky and may be hard to stir; you will have to change to stirring with your hands at the end.  Don't add too much flour.  Smooth the dough out and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Leave in a warm place and let it rise until it has doubled in size, about 1 hour.

4) When your dough is close to raising completely, butter 2 cookie sheets and set them aside.  Cover your work space with flour.  When dough is ready, dump it out and divide it into 4 balls.  Try to make them even but they don't have to be perfect.  Using one ball of dough at a time, roll the dough into a circle.  Once it is rolled out, spread the top with butter from edge to edge. You will use about 2 tablespoons per circle of dough.

5) Cut the dough into quarters using a pizza cutter.  Then cut each quarter into 3 pieces.  You should end up with 12 triangles from each circle of dough.  Roll each triangle of dough starting with the wide end of the triangle.  Tuck the tail of the triangle under the roll and place it on the buttered cookie sheet.  You should be able to fit 24 rolls per pan, 3 rows of 8.

6) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Place the pans of rolls in a warm place to let them rise.  Once they are touching and full in size, cook one pan at a time in the oven until they are golden brown, 10 - 15 minutes.  When they are done, you may choose to run a stick of butter over the tops of the rolls for a buttery glaze.

Beer Bread

This is the last recipe I made before my life took a downward spiral.  It makes me feel a bit stressed to write about it, going back to this time in my head.  But please, don't let that take away from this beer bread.  Because, if there is a lesson to be learned from this, it's that a good beer bread can even be good when your life is sort of falling apart.  And it's so easy to throw together (one bowl, 5 ingredients) that you could even make it while scream crying and having anxiety... you know, should you ever find yourself in that situation.  Hypothetically.

The story behind the beer bread is that Mark was cleaning out the garage and throwing out all the bottles of beer we had left over from last summer.  I begged him to find me some that weren't skunked to bake with, because the thought of all those wasted bottles was stressing me out.  He managed to dig up two bottles that weren't frightening, and I made bread with one.  With the other, since I only own one bread pan, I made beer bread mini muffins.  I brought both to my mom's for a little party they were having. They made a dip to go with the muffins, but it wasn't so good so I won't be sharing.  What is your favorite beer bread accompaniment? I need a good beer bread go-to dip.

I decided to make beer breads/muffins because I wasn't sure how else to use oldish beer, but while I was looking up recipes I saw all sorts of interesting things, including beer bread with cheese, beer pizza dough, beer cakes, brownies, you name it.  Have you tried any of these?  What do you make with beer?

For me, the bread made awesome sandwiches (it was totally amazing with the tempeh bacon I made for the vegetarian BLTs) and really good toast too.

Really, it's too easy not to make the next time you have an extra bottle of beer.  No excuses.
Recipe:

beer bread
fromHalf Baked Harvest

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
12 ounces of beer
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with nonstick spray.

2) Add the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and a pinch of salt to a mixing bowl.  Pour in the beer and stir with a mixing spoon until just combined.

3) Pour the batter into the loaf pan.  Bake for 45 - 50 minutes or until the top of the bread is lightly browned and the middle is set.  Allow to sit 15 minutes before serving.

Peaches and Cream Streusel Bread

I love the town that I live in.  My house is amazing.  My family is here.  The schools are great.  And one of my - and Mark's - favorite parts about Westminster is the farmer's market!  For a pretty small town, we have a really great farmer's market all summer.  Sadly, it ends for the season tomorrow, but Mark and I try to go every single Friday.  We load up on fresh fruit and vegetables grown around here, and have been known to buy breads, dog treats, even ice cream made from milk and cream from cows here in town!  How cool is that?  We think it's pretty awesome. It was great to have a constant supply of tomatoes all summer without having a garden.  And don't get me started on my new addiction to ground cherries.  Have you ever tried one?  Find some, stat!

Anyway, last month the market was full of peaches.  And I don't just mean any peaches - I mean the biggest peaches I've ever seen.  Mark obviously got too excited about them and bought the biggest ones he could fit in a bag.  I realized once we got them home and started eating them that perhaps I don't love peaches as much as I thought.  I love the inside, but that skin... ugh.  So itchy and scratchy. I started peeling them to eat, covering my whole kitchen with peach juice.  Then, as I had expected, we started losing the race against time.  We had too many peaches and not enough people eating peaches!  I knew I should probably find a way to bake with the giants we had left before they rotted.  So, lo and behold the peaches and cream streusel bread.

First of all, peaches, cream, streusel, bread.  What's not to like there?  Nothing, that's what.  Now let me tell you a little more.  The topping is crunchy and sweet and even spiced with some cardamom.  There are sliced peaches laid across the top, and lots of diced peaches inside the bread, along with sour cream to keep it moist for days, and cinnamon to spice it up a little.  Yes please.

Unfortunately,  I didn't even get a bite of this bread.  I made it for Mark to take to his classroom staff for one of their Tuesday morning meetings.  I had planned on stealing a piece by the time I had a free second to visit his room, and when I got there, every last crumb had been devoured.  It got rave reviews from his staff, so I will have to take their word for it. But maybe if you try this out, you can save me a bite :)

Recipe:

peaches and cream streusel bread

from Girl Versus Dough

Ingredients:

for streusel topping:

1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

3 tablespoons light brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon cardamom

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter diced

for bread:

2/3 cup sour cream

6 tablespoons light brown sugar

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup peeled and diced fresh peaches

1/4 cup peeled and sliced fresh peaches

Instructions:

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease the bottom and sides of an 8-by-4-inch loaf pan.

2) In a small bowl, combine rolled oat, brown sugar, cardamom, and cinnamon.  Cut in cold butter with a pastry cutter or fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Place bowl in fridge while you prepare bread.

3) In a large bowl, whisk sour cream, brown sugar, oil, vanilla, and egg until smooth.  In a separate large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Add sour cream mixture to flour mixture; stir until just combined.  Fold in diced peaches.

4) Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.  Top with sliced peaches and streusel.  Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Tent loaf with foil halfway through baking if peaches are drying out too much or top is browning too quickly.

5) Cool bread 10 minutes in pan, then carefully remove from pan and transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

Cornbread

On the night when I invited family over for the BBQ turkey meatballs and cheddar-corn quinoa, I also made this cornbread to go along with it.  I figured barbecue and cornbread seem like they go hand in hand!  I liked this recipe because it has a little cheese in it (and jalapeños, but I obviously left that out).   Also you make it in the food processor, which I think is kind of fun.  Yes, that is my idea of fun.

This is more a savory cornbread than some of the sweet ones I've seen, which is more my style anyway.  In fact, Elly from Elly Says Opa calls it "the best cornbread."  Having really only made one cornbread before (it had rosemary in it and was pretty sweet), I can't really say if this is truly "the best" or not, but I can tell you it's pretty good.  It's a little cheesy, with some bites of corn kernels, and a great soft, moist texture (I can't stand when cornbread is dry and crumbly).  Lately, both Daisy and Mark have been obsessed with cornbread (Mark eats it for breakfast, and Daisy refuses to take her cough medicine in anything other than cornbread), so having a good recipe in my repertoire is a must!
Recipe:

cornbread
from Elly Says Opa

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed–or to your spice preference–and minced

Instructions:

1)  Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl until combined; set aside.

2) In food processor or blender, process sugar, thawed corn kernels, and buttermilk until combined, about 5 seconds. Add eggs and process until well combined (corn lumps will remain), about 5 seconds longer.

3) Using rubber spatula, make well in center of dry ingredients; pour wet ingredients into well. Begin folding dry ingredients into wet, giving mixture only a few turns to barely combine; add melted butter and continue folding until dry ingredients are just moistened. Fold in cheddar and jalapenos.

4) Pour batter into prepared baking dish; smooth surface with rubber spatula. Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes; invert cornbread onto wire rack, then turn right side up and continue to cool until warm, about 10 minutes longer.

Maple Syrup Raisin Bread

After a long two weeks of kitchen renovations, I finally finally got to cook and bake again.  I had no groceries - like, my refrigerator was bare, and I'm not exaggerating: we emptied it to move it.  So I scanned my Pinterest for recipes that may call for what I happened to have in the cabinets, and voila: maple syrup raisin bread.  Only 7 ingredients, nothing too crazy.

It's a quick bread, and what I loved about it was that it has no sugar in it.  It is sweetened only by a half cup of real maple syrup, and studded with sweet raisins!  It is fairly healthy, I tell myself, due to the lack of sugar, butter and oil, and thus could be toasted and slathered with butter and simply devoured without guilt.

The best part?  This is a quick bread.  It's so simple, it's crazy. You could be eating it in just over an hour, hot and fresh out of the oven.  I know you have all the ingredients.  Get in there and appreciate the fact that your kitchen isn't being renovated!  :)

Recipe:

maple syrup raisin bread
from Mostly Homemade Mom

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 egg, beaten
1 cup raisins

Instructions:

1) Spray a loaf pan with oil and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.  With a large wooden spoon, stir in milk, maple syrup, and egg; mix well.

3) Stir in raisins.

4) Spread into loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour.

One Hour Skillet Focaccia

Note Tracy's Parmesan-less bread in the bowl ;)

The same day I made the amazing bruschetta, I also made this bread - mostly because the name got me excited.  One hour skillet focaccia - usually bread takes much longer than an hour because it has to rise.  This bread shortens the amount of time by letting it rise in the oven that has been preheated to 220 degrees and then turned off.  You don't want to bake it yet, but letting it rise in such a warm place speeds up the process.

I was mostly just excited to use my new skillet, too.  I've never had a cast iron skillet before and I bought one in the beginning of the summer at the outlets in the White Mountains.  I'm such a dork.  Mark bought tons of clothes and shoes, and I bought a skillet.

Anyway, this really was a one-hour bread.  It rose up quickly and beautifully, and only bakes for 20 minutes, which was good because everyone was getting excited to try it.  The bread came out puffy and chewy, but it was a little bit dry if I'm to be honest.  The recipe calls for you to brush the bread with melted butter, Italian seasoning, and Parmesan both before and after baking.  I did it before but not after, and I wish I had just done both.  Sometimes extra melted butter is all it takes - and it was only 3 tablespoons total!  Regardless, much of the bread was eaten and it went perfect with the pasta dish I made.  One hour for fresh baked bread?  There's no reason not to make it the next time you have pasta on the stove!

Recipe:

one hour skillet focaccia
from Crunchy Creamy Sweet

Ingredients:
for the dough:
3/4 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt

for the Parmesan butter brush:
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Instructions:

1) Place water and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir until sugar dissolves.  Sprinkle yeast over the water and stir a few times.  Let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.

2) Turn the mixer on low speed and add 1 cup of the flour and the salt.  Mix until combined.   Add oil and mix well.

3) Gradually add as much of the remaining flour as you can (it can be only 3/4 cup) and mix until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

4) In the meantime, preheat the oven to 220 degrees and when it's ready, turn it off.  Keep the door closed.  Grease the skillet.  Place dough on a floured surface and fold the dough a few times until it's smooth and not sticky anymore.  Shape into a ball.

5) Roll dough out to the size of your skillet.  Place in skillet, and stretch dough up the sides. Cover with a kitchen towel and place in the oven for 20 minutes.

6) Take skillet out of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.  Make indentations in the dough with your fingers.

7) Mix melted butter, Parmesan and seasoning in a small bowl.  Brush dough with half the butter.  Bake skillet with dough for 20 minutes or until golden brown.   Brush with remaining butter.  Let cool until safe to touch and slice.  Serve.

Banana Bread with Pecans

I am one of those people who buys bananas with the plan to let them turn nice and brown!  I'm not really one for grabbing a banana and eating it, but I do like banana bread (and banana doughnuts.... and banana muffins.... and banana cream cupcakes.... okay you get the point).  I especially liked the idea of a banana bread with pecans, because my mom always asks for nuts but I'm not a huge walnut fan, but pecans are a different story.

When my bananas were finally overripe, my timing wasn't perfect;  in fact, I was in my nice new clothes ready for my engagement shoot with Mark!  But I wasn't about to let a little photo shoot stop me from baking (yes I also made cinnamon rolls  dressed up for the shoot as well; Susie said I may be the only bride-to-be rolling out dough in an apron with her hair and makeup done!).

This bread was actually kind of fun to make.  I always like it when a recipe seems different from others, whether due to interesting ingredients or interesting steps; this recipe was cool because of what you actually do with the bananas!  Two of the bananas are whipped with sugar in a mixer to create a light, fluffy banana cream (I probably could have stopped at that point and happily eaten that), and then the other two are roughly mashed and folded into the dough.  This means that the whole bread has a really good banana taste, but there are also some banana bites in there as well (Kenzie and I loved the bites; Mom hated them.  Go figure).

The end result is a gorgeous bread that makes your whole house smell delicious.  It was moist and fluffy and full of pecans and banana flavor... and we scarfed it down pretty quickly.  It was a great pre-photo shoot snack :)

Recipe:

banana bread with pecans
from Tyler Florence on the Food Network

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
confectionary sugar, for dusting (optional)

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9x5" loaf pan.

2) In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside,

3) Mash 2 of the bananas in a small bowl with a fork so that they still have a bit of texture.  With an electric mixer fitted with the wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas together with the sugar for a good 3 minutes; you want a light and fluffy banana cream.

4) Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla.  Beat well and scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated; no need to overly blend.  Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula.  Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.  Give the pan a good rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out.

5) Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.  Don't get nervous if the bread develops a crack down the center of the loaf; that's no mistake, it's typical.  Rotate the pan periodically to ensure even browning.

6) Cool the bread in the pan 10 minutes or so, and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.  Suggested serving method: toast the slices of banana bread, dust with confectionary sugar, and serve.

Italian Bread!

Oh man, do I love vacation!  I have been cooking and baking like nobody's business and it's only Monday!  Yesterday, Tracy, Gary and Kelsey came over for the afternoon.  They are having a really tough week, so I knew that I wanted to really cheer them up with some great food.  I planned out a long grocery list and lots of exciting meals for the week, shopped, and then came home and then got right to work.  I made mostly repeat recipes: fluffernutter cookies, which Mom and Alex had been begging for, and which everyone was devouring at the most insane rate (they're all gone today!); strawberry shortcake cookies, which was my attempt to give Kels her request for shortcake when I feel too strongly that it's a summer dessert (most of those went too!); and Mexican lasagna for dinner, which got rave reviews from everyone.  Gary even took my turn getting logs in return for my cooking!  The whole meal went great, actually, and I got lots of compliments on everything.  In fact, Kelsey said that she usually eats food at a meal according to how much she likes things, but she was having trouble deciding which part was her favorite!  However, besides all those great recipes, I made something else yesterday that was a new one for me, and I am so excited to share it today, because it was awesome.

It is no secret that I love bread.  I love eating it, I love making it, I love smelling the yeast activating  (is that weird?).  And I have made a lot of breads this past year.  But one thing I never made is Italian bread, which strangely enough is one of my favorites.  I recently pinned two different recipes for it, and when Tracy requested homemade bread, I knew it was the right time to give one of them a try.  And I am thrilled that I chose the one that I did.  This is my new go to bread recipe.  Yup, that's right, folks.  The bread lover has found her favorite bread recipe for your everyday bread to go with dinner. It was really easy, only needed to rise for an hour and a half, and it was delicious: salty, soft, with the most gorgeous brown crust.  I am so happy about this bread!

Another great thing about it is that it makes a lot of bread.  The loaf is rather enormous.  Okay, it is plain humungous.  And you slice it down the middle before you bake it to let it "bloom," and so it spreads out ever larger.  It ended up growing the size of the sheet I baked it on! 

Two things you don't want to forget to do: first, don't skip the egg wash.  I skipped the sesame seeds, but the egg wash really helps it to brown up beautifully.  Second (and this was a tip from the blog I got the recipe from), put a pan in the oven when you preheat it.  Then, when you put the bread in, pour a couple cups of water into the pan.  This lets the steam out right away and helps to keep the crust moist and perfect. 

This bread will be made again soon in the Tucker house.  Most of it went yesterday, and it is still pretty good today, which is kind of rare for breads.  And it is soooo good!

Recipe:

Italian bread
from Browneyed Baker

Instuctions:

2 cups lukewarm water (~100°F)
1 package active dry yeast
5 to 5¾ cups bread flour
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2½ teaspoons salt
1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Instructions:
 

1. Stir the yeast into ½ cup of the warm water. Let proof as you measure out the dry ingredients.

2. Combine 5 cups flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the yeast mixture, remaining water and olive oil. Using a dough hook attachment, mix on lowest speed of electric mixer  until a dough starts to form, adding more flour as needed. Knead on low speed for 7 minutes. Transfer dough to lightly floured surface and need by hand for 1 to 2 minutes, or until a smooth, firm, elastic dough is formed.

3. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and spray the dough with a thin coating of cooking spray. Wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to proof in a warm, draft-free place for 1½ hours or until doubled in size.

4. Remove the plastic wrap, punch down and flatten the rounded dough with the heel of your hand. Roll the dough up tightly, sealing the seam well after each roll. The dough should be elongated and oval-shaped, with tapered and rounded (not pointed) ends.

5. Preheat the oven lined with a baking stone or unglazed quarry tiles (or not... I just threw in a pan that I planned to pour water in later) to 425°F.

6. Place the dough on a baker's peel heavily dusted with flour, or alternately on an inverted baking sheet (I just used a baking sheet, not inverted). Allow the dough to proof, loosely covered with a floured canvas cloth, for 30 minutes, or until doubled in size.

7. Brush the dough with the egg white and sprinkle the sesame seeds over the top. Using a razor blade or sharp knife, slash the dough lengthwise about 1/4-inch deep, keeping the blade at a 45 degree angle.

8. If you are going to use the water pan trick, put the bread and the water in the oven.  If not, spray the dough generously with water from a water bottle and place in the oven on the baking stone. Immediately close the oven and bake for 3 minutes. Open the oven door and spray the dough again with the water bottle. Close the oven door and bake for an additional 3 minutes before spraying the dough for a third time (the spraying of the dough will ensure a crisp golden brown crust).

9. Bake the dough for a total of 45 minutes, or until a hollow thud is heard when tapping the bottom of the bread. Allow the bread to cool before slicing.

Beastly Yeast

Today Mark and I went to lunch in Providence and met up with my mom and sisters at the Wrentham Outlets.  I had no interest in this place whatsoever because I hate shopping, but that was before I noticed all the cooking and baking stores!  In a whirlwind of shopping, I ended up witha lot of great deals on some fabulous things, including a spoon spatula, a cupcake corer, a frosting decorator, an avocado knife - and, my favorite purchase: a Le Creuset Dutch oven set!  I've wanted a Dutch oven for a while, but they can be pricey.  This one was on sale, and it even came with 4 little individual-sized Dutch ovens!  Not sure what I will do with them, but they are very cute.  They're all blue and beautiful and very exciting.

When we got home, I immediately set about looking up the recipe I've been wanting to try out once I got a Dutch oven: Dutch oven bread.  It actually bakes in the pot!  The real name is blooming herb bread, because you slice the top with a big X, and it "blooms" while it cooks and kind of looks like a flower.  Also, you can choose any herb you want to flavor it.  We had chives leftover from my potato casserole, so I tossed those in.  The only thing that was a bit weird about the recipe was that everything was in ounces... including butter... but I found out that 4 ounces is one stick, so that was okay.  Then the butter was supposed to be mixed with the herbs, but it never says how much herbs!  I just winged it and put in what looked like an acceptable amount.  I whipped up the dough quickly, and then waited for it to rise... and waited... and waited.  It's been an hour and a half now.  The recipe says to let it rise for 1-4 hours, which is quite a range, but by this time, it should look at least a little bigger!  I have made enough bread by now to know this.  I have a hunch that my yeast went bad; it was in a foil packet that I poured into a jar and kept in the fridge for a couple weeks.  I Googled non-rising bread dough, and cool temperatures or bad yeast are the culprits. To rule out cool temperatures, I am snuggling up with my bowl of dough for now.  If it rises, perfect, and if not, I blame the yeast and try again tomorrow!

Recipe:
blooming herb bread

Football Food

Today I let Kenzie choose two things for me to make for the big football game.  Obviously I do not care at all about thegame, the sport, the team, or the outcome, but I figured it would be fun to try to make some "football food."  Kenzie chose some weird things,  but I said I would try them... and thus we have what feels like my least successful cooking day so far!  : /

So, one of the two items Kenie picked for me was a cranberry orange yeast bread.  You know me and yeast - I love making yeast breads!  - and I really like cranberry and orange together (in fact I made the cranberry orange quick bread a couple weeks ago!), so I was excited.  Also I was excited to use my new citrus zester from Tuck and Linda for my birthday - and let me just say it was amazing.  It zested the orange but didn't let me take anything off other than the top orange part - no pith! - and it was sooo sharp.  Loved it (and while I am on the topic, I am in love with my pastry board.  Thank you Tracy!  It is a joy not to have to take out my fluorescent pink ruler now!).  Then it was another enjoyable dough to knead because I had to heat up the milk, oil and water, and there might be nothing more fun than kneading warm bread dough :)  The only issue in the beginning was that the recipe called for slivered almonds, and we didn't have them.  I planned to chop up some whole almonds, but  when I went into the cabinet, the opened bag that we had in there had been discovered by moths.  Damn those little creatures!  We have another whole new container of almonds still out on the counter, but they were salted.  So, I decided that almond extract (which might be one of my favorite smells) would have to do.

I think I am being too hard on myself, because really, the bread came out well.  It is delicious and has a good consistency... and yet... not perfect.  It is supposed to cook for 20-30 minutes.  I checked it with 8 minutes left on the timer and noticed that the crust was already golden brown, so I figured that it was done early.  We cut off a few slices and they were pretty good - but then the middle was still a little doughy.  I absolutely loathe making mistakes so I got mad!  I preheated the oven to put it back in, and of course while I was waiting, Delilah jumped up and nibbled a hunk of it!  Talk about adding insult to injury.  I cut off the part she touched and still put it back in the oven, and it's fine now, but I was not happy that I made a mistake.  Lesson learned: this bread is not done until the time is up, regardless of how it looks!  I got so depressed, I refused to take any pictures of it :)

Then came the weirdest recipe I have ever done: corndog muffins!  Again, we can blame Kenzie for this weirdness.  Basically I had to make a recipe for corn bread, and then pop a cocktail weenie into each muffin.  I don't love hot dogs, but corn dogs intrigue me, so I agreed to try it... and I wish I didn't.

Obscene Corn Dog Muffins

First of all, the corn bread that the recipe made was not the greatest.  It was a "healthy" one, multigrain and regular flour - but it was nto very tasty and didn't seem so corn bread-y.   If I ever made these again (which I probaly won't), I would definitely find a different corn bread recipe!  It's really bad when the hot dog is the best part of your baked good...

Then, the hot dogs were supposed to sink into the corn bread to make a normal-looking muffin... but they never sank!  They stayed on top, and looked rather obscene (see photo at right!)!

To make matters worse, they stuck to the wrappers. Epic fail.  I will try to console myself by remembering that all I did was follow the recipe... not my fault if it was a gross one! These corn dog muffins are going to be mutt muffins very soon.  Hmph.

Recipes
Cranberry Nut Yeast Bread
Corn Dog Muffins

Day of Doubles

Today I made three different things, but two of them ended up making double batches of each,  so we have ended up with 5 baked goods!

First, I had found a rosemary garlic bread recipe on Pinterest last week, and I immediately knew that I had to make it.  Rosemary is one of my favorite flavors  (and smells), and I have had rosemary bread before and found it absolutely incredible, so I was excited to give it a try to myself.  It makes enough dough to split into two loaves - and that is a very good thing, because one loaf is already gone!  :)  It was delicious, and the perfect bread consistency.  The crust is crusty  and the inside is soft, chewy, and very  flavorful!  I will not be embarrassed to admit that I had three slices.  This is a definite make-again bread; it wasn't too hard, and it's "delish delish!"

Then my mom went scrambling through my dad's old cookbooks; she and Kenzie were craving cinnamon rolls and Mom said that Dad used to make them from time to time, so she went to look through these books.  I think it is hysterical that we can tell which recipes Dad used by how dirty the page is!  Apparently he was a very messy chef and got his cookbooks all dirty (not something I inherited, luckily, since I mostly use my iPad as a cookbook!).  Sure enough, in a Pillsbury book, we found a very messy page for cinnamon rolls.  Looking closer at the recipe, I found out that you make one dough but then only use half of it for the rolls; the other half can be used in a few different recipes so that you end up making one dough but two different breads!  I decided to use the other half to make a cinnamon and fruit braid - and the braid recipe has you breaking your half of the dough into halves again to make two braids! Hence this being the day of doubles (two rosemary breads, and two braids). 

I did the braids first once the dough was ready.  Basically you just fill the dough with cinnamon, sugar, walnuts, butter, and some kind of jelly (it called for peach or apricot, but I used raspberry per Mom's request).  I needed a little bit of Mom's help to braid correctly (you know me and making things look good), but they are both beautiful!  They look much more difficult than they really were (and I love Wow Factor!).  And they are delicious!  In fact, both Rachael and Mom claimed this was my new finest (back off, cinnamon raisin swirl bread!).  I think it means something that I made two braids, and only one is left!

Then I made the cinnamon rolls, but I think I did a really bad job breaking the dough in half in the beginning, because I definitely did not end up with as much dough as I needed!  I am going to have to retry this recipe because my rolls were miniature.  I haven't tried them, but they are cute - and they actually look good, besides being tiny!  I never managed to get that cinnamon swirl bread to look good, but these cinnamon rolls actually look like cinnamon rolls!  You will see these again... they need more attention than I gave them today after baking 4 others breads! 

It was quite a busy day; as if going through an entire 3-packet set of yeast (there has got to be a better way buy it) wasn't enough, I also cleaned out and organized our horrifying pan cabinet.  I even got my mom to choose a few ridiculously old and useless things to throw out (i.e. cancerous non-stick pans with the non-stick stuff peeling up).  It is going to make life a lot easier the next time I need to grab a baking sheet or a muffin tin (hey, I found a silicone mini muffin tin in there, by the way!  I see mini muffins in my future...)

Before...

And after!

Recipes:
Rosemary and Garlic Bread
From The Pillsbury Cookbook: The All-Purpose Companion for Today's Cook (except by today, it means 1989 ;)  ):

• Basic Sweet Dough 
• Cinnamon Rolls
• Easy Fruit-Filled Braid

Basic Sweet Dough Recipe
6-7 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 packages active dry yeast
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 egg

1) In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, sugar, salt, and yeast; blend well.
2) In a small saucepan, heat water, milk and butter until very warm (120-130 degrees).  Add warm liquid and egg to flour mixture.  Blend at low speed until moistened; beat 3 minutes at medium speed.
3) By hand, stir in an additional 2 cups of flour until dough pills cleanly away from the sides of the bowl.
4) On a floured surface, knead in 1-2 cups flour until dough is smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes (this is the best bread to knead because it is warm from the hot water and milk!).  Place dough in a greased bowl; cover loosely with plastic wrap and a cloth towel.  Let rise in a warm place until light and doubled in size, anout 45-60 minutes.
5) Punch down dough to remove all air bubbles.  Divide dough in half; shape each half accorind to the variation desired.


Cinnamon Rolls
Makes 20 rolls

1) Generously grease 13x9" pan.  On lightl- floured surface, roll out 1/2 recipe Basic Sweet Dough to 20x12" rectangle.
2) Spread with 1/4 cup softened butter.  In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon; blend well.Sprinkle over dough.
3) Starting with 20-inch side, roll up, jelly-roll fashion.  Pinch edges firmly to seal seams.  Cut into 20 1-inch slices; place cut-side down in prepared pan.  Cover; let rise in warm place until light and doubled in size, about 35-45 minutes.  Heat oven to 375 degrees.
4) Bake 25-30 minutesor until golden brown.  Remove from pan immediately.  In small bowl, combine 3/4 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon softened butter, 1-2 tablespoons milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla; mix well.  Drizzle over warm rolls.  Serve warm.


Easy Fruit-Filled Braid
Makes 2 braids

1)  Grease 2 cookie sheets.  In small bowl, comgine 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped nuts, and 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon; set aside.
2) Divide 1/2 recipe of Basic Sweet Dough in half again.  In lightly floured surface, roll each half into a 12x6" rectangle; place on prepared cookie sheets.  Spread each with 1/2 tablespoon softened butter, 3 tablespoons apricot or peach preserves (or really whatever you have - we used raspberry), and half the cinnamon-sugar mixture lengthwise down the center third of the rectangle. 
3) Cut 1-inch-wide strips along both sides of filling.  Fold strips at an angle across filling, alternating from side to side.  Cover; let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.  Heat oven to 350 degrees.
4) Bake for 25-30 minutes or until deep golden brown.  Remove from cookie sheets immediately to cool. 
5) In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 3-4 teaspoons milk until smooth.  Drizzle over braids.

Armenian Dream Couple: Pita and Hummus, or Bridget and Mark

Yesterday I decided to make pita bread.  It was something I had been wanting to make for a long time, because I love pita bread and I was intrigued by the blogger writing that store-bought pita is comparable to cardboard, and once you make your own, you'll never go back!  Since I had yesterday off for work, it seemed like the perfect day for some yeast work.  And by the way - I am absolutely flying through yeast these days.  There must be a better way to buy it than those tiny packets!  I need a good solid bucket or something!

So anyway - Mark came over at 1:00 and I assigned him to make his Dad's hummus recipe to go with my pitas.  There is absolutely no hummus better than Edward Ajemian's!  It must be an Armenian secret.  Luckily, I've been let in on the secret - and you are about to be let in as well.

The pita bread bakign went smoothly.  It did not take too long to let it rise, and the fun part is baking them one at a time on a pizza stone in a 500 degree oven.  They puff up like balloons! It was really cool.  The recipe I found is for whole grain pita bread; I learned that most recipes call for whole grain flour as well as a white flour, because whole grain makes everything too dense and tasteless.  This recipe called for whole wheat flour as well as bread flour.  I had bread flour left over from the bagels, so that was just fine.  I also learned that bread flour makes better bread because it has a higher gluten level.  I'm a bread expert!  Now I just have a large amount of whole wheat flour to use up... better start looking for new whole grain recipes! 

The only problem was that the recipe only made 8 pitas... and they are already gone today!  I wish I had a giant Kitchenaid mixer.... (MOM!).  Anyway, the pitas were definitely delicious - and much tastier and thicker than the pitas from stores.  I'm hooked!

Mark did a fabulous job recreating his dad's hummus.  With me making pita bread and Mark making humms, I said that we were the Armenian dream couple!  It was a delicious snack that turned into dinner for us :)  So without further ado, here is the Famous Ed Ajemian's Hummus Recipe:

 Ed Ajemian's Hummus Recipe:
1 can chick peas
splash olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic
dash salt
juice of 2 lemons
4 tablespoons tahini

1) Drain chickpeas; save 1/2 cup of the juice.

2) Combine all elements in a food processor.  Use only 1 clove of garlic if they are large cloves; add more lemon  and/or salt to taste.  Blend to the consistency you prefer; I don't want it too smooth.  I like to remember that it used to be chick peas!

3) Voila!  Enjoy your authentic middle eastern hummus, preferable with homemade pita bread!

Recipe:
Homemade whole grain pita bread

Mark's hummus, and my pita! Just another match made in heaven...

Texas Roadhouse Ain't Got Nothin' on Me!

As a huge carboholic bread-lover, as someone who always fills up on bread at restaurants (much to Mark's distress), and as someone who would probably die if I had Celiac - I can definitely say that this is one of my favorite things that I have made so far!  Yes: I have mastered the art of the Texas Roadhouse Roll!  Because let's be honest: no one actually goes there for the steak (who wants to look at your dinner raw and bloody!?); everyone goes for those hot, round little rolls, and the amazing sweet butter....

And so I decided that this was something to tackle.  I had found the copycat recipe on Pinterest, and Kenzie and I agreed that trying it out was a must.  I had planned on making soup today, but we have so much leftovers from our football party last night that we didn't need another meal - but as my mom said, this family can never have too much bread!

Besides the minor debacle of realizing that we had no eggs, and rushing to Cumberland's in my pajamas, the baking went really well.  I have begun to love making bread.  The smell of yeast is so addictive, and I adore kneading dough.  It's a good thing we have been having so many Play Doh sculpture contests lately - I think it is coming in handy!  These rolls only had to rise for about an hour and a half, which isn't too long; you know it's a quick recipe when we're eating fresh rolls by 1:30!  They came out beautifully too: smooth, golden, and so pretty!  And I keep insisting (to myself) that they aren't that bad for you; there are only 3 tablespoons of butter in the rolls, and even though I was supposed to brush them with melted butter as they came out of the oven, I didn't.  However, the fact that we smother them with butter probably doesn't help :) 

Speaking of the butter... of course, I made the Texas Roadhouse butter too!   You just mix a stick of butter with a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 cup of honey.  Even if you aren't up to making the bread, you really need to try the butter.  I can imagine it being amazing on any kind of toast, pancakes, etc..!

So this is definitely one of my favorite things.  It was easy to make, it made the house smell amazing, and when you bite into a hot, fresh roll smothered with cinnamon honey butter... there is just nothing sweeter!

Recipe:

Texas Roadhouse Rolls with Cinnamon Honey Butter

Heaven on a platter!

When Life Gives You Flat Cookies...

Well, I took a few days off from the kitchen, and I certainly made up for that today.  I don't think I sat down from 12:00 till 7:30 tonight!  I think I overdid it....

Today is a football game.  I think it's important, or something... I really could not care less.  Everyone was talking about it and I knew we were going to have lots of people here, so I planned all week on making a few things for today.  Little did I know that everyone else in New England also planned on cooking today!  Stop and Shop was absolutely ridiculous; there weren't even any carts left.  I had to use the old lady walker!  It was crazy.  But I needed my baby spinach and sweet potatoes for the chili-esque vegetarian meal that I wanted to make :)  It's called slow cooker honey beans with spinach and sweet potatoes...and that was my first task of the day.    It was also my first experience using a slow cooker!  It was a little scary, throwing everything in there and not stirring it... or doing anything... but the "leave it alone" thing appealed to me as someone who likes to bake.  While I was nervous at first, now I think I need to use the Crock Pot more often!  The only problem was that, in doubling the recipe, it took longer than the 6 hours that it was supposed to, but the end result was delicious!  It's a bit like chili because of the cumin, but the honey in it (and the sweet potatoes) gives it a hint of sweetness too.  Of course, Kenzie made full-meat chili, so not too many people have partaken, but my mom and grandmother both tried it and loved it!  Wahoo!  Lots of leftovers for tomorrow now :)

Then, my mom left to go visit my grandfather in the nusing home.  My uncle Gary came in to pick her up, and he asked how my cooking resolution is going.  I said it was going well, and he said he had seen my blog entry about the cinnamon raisin bread, and wondered if there was any left.  There wasn't, but I started to get the idea to surprise him after their visit with the bread!  It's not hard, but it does take a while because of the yeast.  I also had wanted to try this bread again, because it didn't look as beautiful and swirly as I had wanted it.  Well, round 2.... still not to beautiful or swirly.  But, on the bright side, the consistency of the bread is much better - lighter, fluffier.  It's still quite a hit, even if it isn't swirly  :)

Then came the part of the day that didn't go as well...the whoopie pies.  This was mom's request, which was okay, until she said that she wanted me to double it.  Normally that's fine, but we have the smaller-size mixer, and I knew that ingredients were running low!  I knew it wouldn't all fit in one mixer, so I would have to make two batches.  I had Kenzie pick up extra flour at the store, but didn't get to notice that I was going to need more cocoa powder.  Uh oh... I ended up being about 1/4 cup short on the second batch.  I figured that wouldn't matter too much... and, well, it matters.  Apparently.  I guess changing the ratio of wet - to -dry ingredients was a bad idea, because while the first batch looked nice and whoopie pie-ish, the second batch looked like whoopie pancakes :(  And you know me when I mess up  - I am horrified, grouchy, embarrassed, and depressed.  But, I tried really hard not to freak out, and so when Mom gave me the idea of making a trifle with the flat ones, I decided to give it a shot.  I broke up the flatties, layered it with chocolate pudding and extra whoopie pie filling, and, voila!  Whoopie trifle!  Nick and Ross have both tried it and gave it good reviews.  The whoopie pies themselves have been raved about.  So, even though they all may not have come out exactly as I wanted, I still made it work!

The Whoope Trifle!

So, life lessons that I learned today:

1. Don't try too many things at once... even with my newfound confidence, making cinnamon raisin bread, honey beans, and a double batch of whoopie pies is a little overwhelming!
2. Plan ahead... because you might think that 1/4 cup of cocoa powder won't matter, but it really does.
3. Make the best of things... as I like to say, when life gives you flat cookies, make a trifle ;)

Recipes:
Slow Cooker Honey Beans and Spinach
Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread
Whoope Pies







"Bridget: your finest!"

The title of this post is what my mother said to me as I sat here trying to come up with a title!  I figured that anything being my finest - especially according to my picky mother - is important!

Today was another looong Monday, and tomorrow is Kenzie's appointment, so we have all been in a bit of a blah mood.  I got home and found that Mom had made us chicken soup to settle our stomachs, so I didn't have to worry about that.  Kenzie claimed to be in need of a "warm homemade bread," so I told her to find a recipe and I'd do it.  Hence: cinnamon raisin swirl bread!

Not the prettiest... but the tastiest!

Any kind of bread with yeast takes a long time, so I think in total it took me 3 and a half hours, but most of that time was waiting for it to rise (I think a total of almost 2 hours!) and baking it for 45 minutes, so I guess it wasn't so bad after all; just not a recipe to start late at night!  Mine is also definitely not as pretty as the recipe, but hey, I am not an artist (ask my students).  If you pretend not to notice that the cinnamon swirl isn't so swirly, then the bread is perfect!  Warm, crunchy crust, soft inside, plump raisins, gooey cinnamon swirl.... like I said, Mom called it my finest! 

In other news, I definitely want a pastry mat with round and straight measurements like the recipe blogger used, so that I can stop whipping out our ancient fluorescent pink ruler ;)  And my birthday just so happens to be in 2 days....

Recipe:
Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

Dinner for Two

Tonight I was brave, because I made not one, but two different things, and one of them was something that only my mother and I would eat.  It's always risky to cook something that your whole family hates but it just sounded too good for me!

The first thing I made was herbed focaccia.  I hadn't planned on making this in addition to my main course, but I figured that it would help prevent my family from being mad at me for cooking a dinnfer featuring goat cheese and mushrooms :)  It came out GREAT.  I can honestly say that it was a ton easier than making bagels.  It only took a few minutes to mix up the dough, the kneading was quick and easy, and it only had to rise for a half hour before baking it for 20 minutes.  When it comes out, the secret to good focaccia is to brush it while it is still hot with olive oil and sea salt: mmmmm!  I can proudly say that it's almost half gone already.

Then it was time to make dinner.  I realized that I bake a lot more than I cook,  but I enjoy eating the end result of cooking more than baking, so I have tried to focus on cooking lately.  I made whole wheat penne with portabello mushrooms and goat cheese. I love all of these things, but my sisters would never go near mushrooms, never mind goat cheese.  Mom was a little iffy about whole wheat penne, but I think I made a believer out of her.  It took me a while (typical) but I am really happy with how it came out.  I even added peas and took out the parmesan (the goat cheese was more than enough cheesy flavor) - I always feel so chef-y when I do things like that.  Mom and I sat down alone for dinner and we both thoroughly enjoyed.  Rachael did complain bitterly about the smell of mushrooms, but I tempted Kenzie into trying a little saucer of pasta.  She even tried a mushroom! She still hates them, but she said the pasta was good :)

I amreally getting sad that tomorrow is my last day of vacation for many different reasons, but one is that I will have less time for my cooking resolution.  I don't know how working mothers do it, because when I get home from work, the last thing I want to do is stand up some more in the kitchen and think about anything!  I will have to really focus on my resolution to keep it up - at least till February vacation... yes, I am already counting down!

Dinner for two...me and Mama :)

A close up of the herb focaccia!

Recipes:

Herb Focaccia

Pasta with Portabello