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.

Tomato Bruschetta with Ricotta and Basil

Okay folks, I've found it: this is literally the best appetizer recipe you will ever find, and thus the only one you will ever need (slight exaggeration but not really).  If you like bruschetta (and who doesn't?), this is the greatest bruschetta ever (no exaggeration there).

Alright, I need to calm down, but that is how excited I am about this tomato bruschetta with ricotta and basil.  Easy to make, beautiful, and absolutely delicious: these little guys are honestly such a great accompaniment to any Italian meal.  I made a double batch of them one night when we had a bunch of aunts and uncles and my grandmother over to visit, along with some pasta and bread (recipes to follow!) and they were such a hit.  Betsy said she didn't remember the last time she ate something that good.  And every single one was devoured!

Really they're that good.  The thin layer of whipped ricotta just tastes so amazing and creamy, it's hard to believe it is only made from ricotta, salt, pepper, and olive oil.  The tomatoes are salty and fresh and juicy, but the ricotta prevents them from getting the bread soggy.  No one could believe that there was actually no garlic in them; they are so garlicky, but that's only because you rub each toast slice with a garlic clove!  Add the chopped basil on top and... well my mouth is watering.  Just make these, soon, and you won't be sorry.

One last note - I left out the red wine vinegar and the 3 tablespoons olive oil from the tomatoes, solely by accident, but I thought they were so perfect, I find it hard to imagine them tasting any better with the vinegar.

Recipe:

tomato bruschetta with ricotta and basil

from Sweetpea's Kitchen

yield 12 toasts

Ingredients:

1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered

salt and pepper

1/4 teaspoon sugar

7 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 loaf ciabatta bread, sliced crosswise into 12 1/2-inch-thick pieces (I bought pre-sliced at Price Chopper!)

1 garlic clove, peeled and halved

1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta cheese

3 tablespoons chopped basil

Instructions:

1) Combine tomatoes, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and sugar in a bowl and let sit for 30 minutes.  Transfer tomatoes to a fine mesh strainer and allow to drain.  Return tomatoes to bowl along with 3 tablespoons oil, vinegar, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; toss to combine.

2) Adjust oven rack to about 4 inches from heating element and heat broiler; broil bread slices until golden brown on both sides (or just pop them in the toaster if you're lazy like me!).  Brush both sides of each with oil (I didn't) and rub with garlic clove.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3) In the food processor, puree ricotta, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper until smooth, about 1 minute.  With processor running, slowly add remaining 3 tablespoons oil until incorporated.  Spread ricotta mixture evenly on toast slices.  Top toasts with tomato mixture and sprinkle with basil.  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.

Vegetable Sushi Bowl

Rachael is probably the person least likely to go to a sushi restaurant since she hates literally all seafood - and yet, she loves going out for sushi.  She never orders fish, of course, but she loves vegetable sushi. And who wouldn't?   Rice, vegetables, soy sauce - what's not to like?  So when I saw a recipe on one of my favorite blogs for vegetable sushi bowls - basically deconstructed vegetable sushi - I knew I had to try it for her.

These bowls consist of brown rice with lots of fresh raw vegetables - like carrots, cucumber, and avocado (not to mention some cooked edamame).  To make them extra sushi-like, there are also strips of nori, which is the green seaweed that sushi is wrapped in (don't skip this in your bowl; I promise it tastes better than "seaweed" sounds, and without it you're just eating vegetables on rice.  It's not the easiest thing to cut, so I recommend using kitchen shears.  Add sesame seeds that you briefly toast, and a sauce made from fresh orange juice, soy sauce, white wine vinegar, and sesame oil... aren't you loving these bowls already?  So much fresh, healthy flavor.

We ended up having lots of people here for dinner the night I made these (and doubled it), and everyone loved them (including vegetable sushi queen Rachael!).  To make it easier to serve everyone, I mixed it all together in a big bowl and stirred it up.  I recommend doing it that way - it was pretty, and most importantly, it was tasty and healthy!

In other news.... I am mourning the loss of summer :( Back to work tomorrow.  Waaaaaah.

Recipe:

vegetable sushi bowls
from A Couple Cooks
serves 4

Ingredients:
2 cups brown rice
3 carrots
1 cucumber
1 avocado
2 green onions
sesame seeds
a few sheets of nori paper
1/2 cup edamame (frozen and thawed is okay)
3/4 cup orange juice (fresh is best)
3 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons sesame oil

Instructions:

1) Make the rice according to the package instructions (or in a rice cooker).  Brown rice takes about 45 minutes.

2) Toast the sesame seeds: over low heat in a dry skillet, toast the seeds for several minutes, stirring frequently and watching closely, until lightly browned.

3) Make the dressing: in a small bowl, add orange juice, soy sauce, white wine vinegar, and sesame oil.  Whisk vigorously to combine.  Set aside.

4) Slice the nori paper into thin shreds.

5) Prepare the edamame according to the package instructions.

6) Peel and shred the carrots.  Thinly slice the green onions.  Chop the cucumber into thin strips, and the avocado into strips or chunks.

7) When ready to assemble, place rice in a bowl.  Top with vegetables, seeds, and nori.  Drizzle with dressing.

Roasted Tomato Almond Dip

5 minutes, and 5 ingredients.  That's all you need to make this dip.  If that's not reason enough to whip out your blender, look at the name of it: roasted tomato almond dip.  So you get the sweet flavor of roasted tomatoes (but don't worry, you use a can of fire-roasted to speed things up!) with a hint of nuttiness (not to mention protein).  This dip is delicious.

Now, it says to serve it with grilled bread, and I recommend that.  I was lazy the day I made it, and I just grabbed stale crackers from the cabinet to eat with it.  Even with stale crackers, the dip was amazing; I can only imagine how good a toasty piece of good bread would be.

I'll confess that my family was a bit unconventional when it came to suppertime; we liked the dip so much that we actually made pasta and ate it as a sauce!  That's how good it is.  When's the last time you made a dip that was so delicious, you wanted to eat on top of spaghetti?

Recipe:

roasted tomato almond dip
from A Couple Cooks

Ingredients:
3/4 cup roasted almonds
1 15-ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup olive oil

Instructions:

1) In the bowl of a food processor, combine all the ingredients except the oil.  Process until the nuts are finely ground.

2) Scrape down the bowl.  Then, with the food processor running, add the olive oil in a steady stream until a paste forms.

3) Serve with crackers or grilled bread.

Blueberry Custard Tartlets

I have officially met Mark's entire family now; it only took 4 years!  The truth is, I met the Armenian side early on (and adore them all) but apparently the Albanian side doesn't get together all that often, so I didn't meet them until a couple weeks ago.  Mark's parents held a party for me and Kaz to meet Evelyn's cousins and their families, and it was a blast.  They were all easy to talk to and told me great stories of baby Mark (such as his severe childhood anemia and his failure to walk at 18 months... okay now I'm nervous).  Anyway, I agonized over what to bring to the party.  I almost brought my spinach pies, but then I remembered that spinach pies are an Albanian food; I didn't want to attempt to beat them at their own game, so I settled on a dessert.  My sisters had picked a billion blueberries the week before, so blueberry custard tartlets seemed the perfect recipe for a hot summer party.

They were a bit time consuming, since you have to make the custard, the tartlet dough, and the blueberry sauce, but the main issue was the dough (the other 2 parts were easy enough).  It was really dry (there's no liquid in the recipe!!!!  Butter, sugar and flour only!) , dry enough that I added milk, and it was still hard to work with.  I had to really work hard to get the dough into the mini muffin cups, and even then they came out looking nothing like the picture.  I felt better reading some of the blogger's comments - I was not the only person to have these problems.  The cups themselves were dry and crumbly and quite difficult to get out of the pan.

Note the phyllo cups in the background, crumbly shortbread cups in the foreground!

I started panicking - even after I made them up and Kenzie said they were amazing.  I decided to use some of the leftover phyllo dough from the spanakopita to make phyllo cups, and use them in addition to the tartlet cups.  It was time consuming to butter, stack, and slice all over again (I thought I was done with phyllo!) but the cups came out of the oven just fine (just a sprinkling of sugar, bake at 425 for 10 minutes in a muffin cup).  I filled them and the tartlets that survived the transfer from pan to serving dish with the custard, topped them with blueberry sauce, and off I went.

My tartlets got lots of compliments; I do think the phyllo cups may have gotten a little soggy as the day wore on, so maybe they weren't the greatest idea, but if you were going to eat them right away, go for it.  The cups, while they made me nervous, seemed to go over the best (go figure).  I think that maybe a sugar cookie crust would be the best idea: they'd be solid and hearty enough to hold the fillings without going soggy or being too difficult to work with.  Just make sure to poke holes in the bottoms with a fork before you bake!

Recipe:

blueberry custard tartlets
from Yammie's Noshery
yield about 2 dozen

Ingredients:
custard:
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons corn starch
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

shortbread crust:
2 sticks butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour

blueberries:
1 1/2 cups blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons corn starch
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons lemon juice


Instructions:

1) Bring the milk for the custard to a simmer.  Meanwhile, whisk together the sugar, eggs, yolks and corn starch together until smooth.  When the milk is simmering, whisk half of it into the egg mixture.  Then add the egg/milk mixture to the rest of the milk; don't just dump the egg mixture into the simmering milk or you'll have scrambled eggs).  Bring it back to the heat and cook, whisking constantly until very thick.  Whisk in the butter and vanilla.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate; make sure the plastic wrap is touching the top of the custard to prevent a skin from forming.

2) To make the shortbread, cream the butter and sugar and then add the flour, mixing until just combined.  Press into mini muffin tins.  You'll want them to be pretty thin so you can fit the fillings.  Poke to bottom of each one with a fork to prevent air bubbles.  Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until golden brown on the edges.

3) For the blueberries, whisk all of the ingredients together and cook over medium-high heat until thickened.

4) To assemble, fill cooled crusts with custard and top with cooled berries.

Check out that dessert table! (and my tartlets on the left!)

Spanakopita, or Spinach and Feta Phyllo Triangles

Along with the baba ganoush, I was in charge with making the spinach pies for Anne's niece's bridal shower, as I mentioned yesterday.  The baba ganoush was quick and simple.  These spinach pies were not!  Ha.  But they were worth it, and really they weren't that bad; I'm sure that tripling any recipe would take a long time.

I worked on these babies for two days; I made five or six trays' worth (well over 100 little triangles).  The good news is that they can be refrigerated if you want to put them together ahead of time before baking (they can also be frozen; I have two trays of frozen ones in the freezer right now!) so they are very doable for a party (or a shower).  And they are really delicious.  Anne said her party devoured two trays of them quickly, and when I baked a tray here for us, they were scarfed down in seconds.

Now, they are definitely not an everyday kind of thing to make and eat: first because of the sheer amount of time it takes to make the filling, prepare the phyllo dough, and fold the triangles, and second, because of the butter.  There is a lot of butter in these little pies; they must be special occasion only food!  Basically you take one thin sheet of phyllo dough and brush it with melted butter.  Add another sheet of dough, and add more butter.  Repeat one more time; then use a pizza cutter to divide it into thin rectangles, add the filling, and fold them up into triangles - then brush with more butter!  It's no wonder they are so delicious.

Butter time!

As for the filling, it's made with spinach and feta, obviously, but also parsley, scallions and dill, which really makes the flavors pop.  The dough is delicate ate flaky, and the filling is cheesy and herby and spinachy... they're just really good, and make it very hard to eat just one.

I worked on these for so much time that I think I could fold them into triangles in my sleep.  Since you may not have this knowledge yet, I recommend going to the blog I got the recipe from and checking out the step-by-step directions.  Once you figure it out, they go quickly!

Recipe:

spanakopita, or spinach and feta phyllo triangles
from Sprinkles of Parsley 

Ingredients:
1 package phyllo pastry
1/3 cup olive oil
1 bunch scallions, chopped
2 10-ounce packages frozen spinach, thawed
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch dill
1/2 pound crumbled feta cheese
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 pound butter

Instructions:

1) Chop scallions (keep these separate from the herbs), parsley and dill.  Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and saute scallions until soft.  Add spinach and saute until wilted, stirring constantly.  Strain the liquid from the spinach mixture into a small bowl.

2) Transfer spinach liquid to a small saucepan and heat over high heat until it reaches a boil.  Boil until the liquid is reduced to 2 tablespoons.  Transfer spinach mixture to a bowl and add and add the 2 tablespoons of spinach liquid, parsley, dill, and feta cheese.  Mix until combined.  Beat eggs in separate bowl, and add to mixture; stir until combined.

3) To prepare phyllo dough, carefully roll it out on a clean surface.  Place the sheet of plastic the dough came wrapped in over the entire surface and cover with a damp towel.  Always make sure to keep the towel over the plastic to avoid letting the dough dry out - but don't let the towel touch the dough or it will make it soggy.

4) Take one sheet of phyllo and lay it out on a clean surface (I used my pastry mat).  Brush the entire sheet of phyllo with melted butter.  Then lay a second sheet of phyllo over the first and brush with more butter.  Then cut your phyllo into 4 long strips; it is easiest to cut it in half and then cut each half again.

5) Spoon one teaspoon of filling onto the edge of each rectangle.  Lift your bottom right corner over the filling and evenly fold along the left side to create a clean edge.  Press down gently so the top is flat.  Then flip up, then to the right, to the left, up again, and continue the steps until you reach the edge of the phyllo.  Try to keep the edges always lined up to create a clean triangle.  When you reach the end, tuck any remaining dough under and placed on a grease cookie sheet.  Brush triangles with melted butter on both sides and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

The lovely bride eating a spanakopita :)