Sabbath Supper

Thinking of Garlic

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:44:00 +0000

1/23/12: Chicago-Style Garlic and Butter Pizza

When it came time to figure out what to have for Monday lunch, garlic kept on coming to mind. Probably caused by the chicken vesuvio I have planned for later this week; that recipe sure has the garlic!

So, yes, garlic. The recipe that jumped out at me was for a Chicago-style pizza that has a garlicky pizza crust to boot. Annemarie gave me this recipe late in 2010 and I made it for the first time about a month ago. Not too sure where she found it, but it really is an extremely flavorful pizza crust and doesn't take that much work to put together. May have a lengthy preparation time like all yeast doughs, but that is fine with me during these long winter days.

So here is the recipe for those who want to try it out:

Chicago-Style Garlic and Butter Pizza Crust

Yield: One 13x9 pan

1 (2-1/4 tsp.) package active dry yeast
1-1/4 cups lukewarm water
3-1/4 cups flour, plus more for dusting (What I Did: I used 1/2 all-purpose and 1/2 bread flour)
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. butter, melted
1 garlic clove, ground to a paste (What I Did: I used 4 large cloves, minced them, and grounded them to a paste by sprinkling them with salt and smashing them against the cutting board with a chef's knife)
pizza toppings, your choice (What I Did: My toppings were homemade pizza sauce--tomato sauce, dried basil, salt and pepper, sugar--mozzarella cheese, sliced bell peppers lightly sauteed, and pepperoni)

Directions:

1. In large bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water. Add 1/4 cup flour and the sugar, stir together. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.

2. Stir the remaining 1 cup lukewarm water, 3 cups flour, cornmeal, and salt into the yeast mixture. Combine the butter and garlic; mix into the dough.

3. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until soft and elastic, about 10 minutes. Lightly grease a large bowl, add the dough and turn to coat. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

4. Deflate dough then knead for 2-3 minutes. Grease a 13x9" baking dish and press in dough to cover bottom and 2 inches up the sides; let rise for 20 minutes. While waiting for dough to rise, preheat over to 400F.

5. Top pizza dough with your favorite toppings and bake for 30 minutes.

I am not only a sucker for garlic but for peppers as well. Can you tell? :)

Project Cookie for Christmas 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:12:00 +0000

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It is the day after Christmas and we've been happily "sampling" the seven different cookies we baked for the season. When we were baking them the days leading up to the 25th, we were scratching our heads at some moments. I mean, we've baked all of these cookies for Christmases past (with the exception of one), and we wanted to make sure they came out the same way they did previously.

So questions arose like "did we use shortening or butter?", "how long does this dough need to chill?", and "how many times the recipe did we use?"

To help ourselves when future cookie baking beckons, I am writing down here what we did this year with all the nitty-gritty details. Because all in all, I think each cookie turned out well and I would like to repeat our results.

1. Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe: used the recipe on the back of the morsel package
How Many Times the Recipe: used 1 recipe
Yield: made little less than one tin
Shortening or Butter: used room temp. butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: dropped by spoonfuls
How They Turned Out: cookies were somewhat thin (1/2" thick) and were soft and chewy
Side Notes: none

2. Cherry Surprise Balls

Recipe: old family recipe -- blogged about it here
How Many Times the Recipe: 2-1/2 times
Yield: little less than one tin
Shortening or Butter: used room temp. Crisco butter flavored baking sticks
Was Dough Chilled: chilled in fridge for 1 hour
How Were Cookies Formed: formed into balls by hand after dough was chilled
How They Turned Out: came out perfectly round and with a shortbread-like texture. No flat bottom.
Side Notes: best indicator when these light cookies are done is when their bottoms turn golden brown. Cookies will remain soft until completely cooled. Did raise oven temp. to 350F.

3. Snowball Cookies

Recipe: old family recipe -- blogged about it here
How Many Times the Recipe: 1-1/2 times
Yield: little less than one tin
Shortening or butter: slightly soft butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: formed into balls by hand; used flour to prevent stickage
How They Turned Out: turned out round and with a shortbread-like texture. No flat bottom.
Side Notes: cookies are done when edges are slightly brown. Kept dough in fridge when waiting for first batch.

4. Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Recipe: Quaker Oats recipe
How Many Times the Recipe: 1 recipe
Yield: one full tin
Shortening or butter: slightly soft butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: dropped by spoonfuls.
How They Turned Out: cookies did not spread much, remained tall. Crispy exterior and chewy interior.
Side Notes:

5. White Chocolate Cherry Chunkies

Recipe: a Paula Deen recipe -- blogged about it here
How Many Times the Recipe: 1-1/2 times
Yield: little over one tin
Shortening or butter: room temp. butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: used small ice cream scoop
How They Turned Out: cookies spread moderately. Turned out chewy and slightly crunchy.
Side Notes: used dried cherries instead of candied. Used 6 oz of dried for 1-1/2 times the recipe.

6. Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipe: from a cookbook of mine, A Year of Cookies by Lorraine Bodger
How Many Times the Recipe: 2 times
Yield: little over one tin
Shortening or butter: room temp. butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: used small ice cream scoop and pressed down each cookie with a fork
How They Turned Out: cookies spread moderately. Turned out to be slightly crunchy.
Side Notes:

7. Drop Sugar Cookies

Recipe: created by Tiffany from the Bake-off Flunkie blog.
How Many Times the Recipe: 1-1/2 times
Yield: one full tin
Shortening or Butter: cold butter cut into small pieces
Was Dough Chilled: no, but dough was set aside at room temperature for 15 minutes before forming the cookies
How Were Cookies Formed: used small ice cream scoop
How They Turned Out: cookies spread moderately. Had a slight crisp exterior and a chewy interior.
Side Notes:

How to Make Chicken Vesuvio--Step by Step

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:07:00 +0000

12/15/11: Chicken Vesuvio

This recipe has a lot of history and not only in the Italian culinary world, but in my family's as well. It has been a special meal choice for the folks here for decades! Our version includes multiple heads of garlic, lots of white wine, and a few secrets.

I've been cooking the family meals this past year and a couple weeks ago I attempted this dish for the first time. At the start, I didn't even have a vague idea on how to pull this thing together, so I spent my time bombarding my father with Vesuvio-ly questions, (which he took just fine. . . He likes to talk about food), all morning long. In the end it turned out to be very, very yummy!

The dumb thing I did, or should I say didn't do, was write down exactly what I did. I mean, here I was hunting down every possible nugget of information on this recipe and I didn't write down a thing. Yeah, stupid me. And I was feeling really stupid today when I wanted to give this Vesuvio a try again. Start from scratch once again!

Didn't remember much at the beginning but after talking about it with my father (again) it sort of came back to me. Anyhow, I managed to come close to what I did before and now I am writing it down here for reference. Not going to make the same mistake twice!

Chicken Vesuvio

Serves: 6-8*

Cooking time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

16 chicken drumsticks
20 medium to large red potatoes or Yukons**
6 tbsp. butter
1-1/2 tbsp. dried oregano
1 tbsp. garlic salt
20 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups white wine
2 chicken bouillon cubes
Vegetable oil
salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. In two large casserole dishes or steamer trays, pour some vegetable oil to coat the bottoms. Add drumsticks to pans and season them with salt and pepper. Place pans in oven, uncovered. After 30 minutes turn oven temperature down to 375F.

2. In small saucepan, melt butter. Add oregano, garlic salt, and minced garlic to butter. Saute garlic on medium-high until fragrant: about 1 minute. Add 2 cups of wine to garlic mixture and bring to a boil. Once boil is reached, add bouillon cubes and stir until dissolved. Remove pan from heat.

3. Wash potatoes and slice them into halves or quarters, depending upon their size. The potato wedges in this dish is unusually large in size so keep them big!

4. Once chicken has been cooking for 1 hour it is time to add the potatoes. Nestle the wedges underneath the drumsticks to allow the potatoes to soak up the chicken juices. Next, pour the wine mixture over the chicken and potatoes, cover, and return pans to oven.

5. After 30 more minutes of cooking, stir the chicken and potatoes so that everything is immersed in the sauce. Add some water to bring sauce level half way up the pan contents.

6. Cook for another 20 minutes. Remove cover, raise oven to 400F and cook for another 10 minutes. The last 10 minutes at this high temperature helps with the browning of the meat and vegetables. And there you have it. . . Enjoy!

*roughly two drumsticks per person
**I used a type of white potato that has yellow skin. It is called Kennebec (which we grow at the farm), and it is a starchy potato that holds it shape well while still having a smooth, buttery texture.

How to Make Chicken Vesuvio Step by Step

(condensed written recipe is found above)

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Add some vegetable oil to two large casserole dishes or steamer trays. Place chicken drumsticks in pans and season with salt and pepper. Place pans in oven, uncovered. After 30 minutes turn oven temperature down to 375F.

2. Now to make the garlic wine sauce, which includes garlic salt, dried oregano, butter, white wine, minced garlic, and chicken bouillon cubes.

3. In small saucepan, melt butter. Add oregano, garlic salt, and minced garlic to butter. Saute garlic on medium-high until fragrant: about 1 minute. Add 2 cups of wine to garlic mixture and bring to a boil. Once boil is reached, add bouillon cubes and stir until dissolved. Remove pan from heat.

4. Wash potatoes and slice them into halves or quarters, depending upon their size. The potato wedges in this dish is unusually large in size so keep them big!

5. Once chicken has been cooking for 1 hour it is time to add the potatoes. Nestle the wedges underneath the drumsticks to allow the potatoes to soak up the chicken juices. Next, pour the wine mixture over the chicken and potatoes, cover, and return pans to oven.

6. After 30 more minutes of cooking, stir the chicken and potatoes so that everything is immersed in the sauce. Add some water to bring sauce level half way up the pan contents.

7. Cook for another 20 minutes. Remove cover, raise oven to 400F and cook for another 10 minutes. The last 10 minutes at this high temperature helps with the browning of the meat and vegetables. And there you have it. . . Enjoy!

How Tempting the Carrot Can Be

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:14:00 +0000

10/5/11: Cream of Carrot Soup

There's been lots of tempting fruits and veggies on the farm the last month or so. Lots of great baking apples, sweet potatoes, sugar pie pumpkins, and winter squash. These are the type of veggies I like: ones that take a long time to bake but end up sweet and comforting. And they warm up the house to boot!

Another vegetable that has been on my mind is the carrot. We planted numerous rows of these this year (500 feet long rows, I should add), and we've been harvesting bushel after bushel ever since August.

Up to a couple days ago, I only roasted carrots in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil and s&p. Carrots, plain and simple. But during the last part of September I was looking for a different recipe, and I found one via one of our good customers at the farm stand: Suzanne.

She gave me a recipe card for a Cream of Carrot Soup. Ah, very intriguing, don't you think? (She gave my sister and I a couple more cards which we will be giving a try soon!)

Suzanne was telling me that she came across this recipe when she was visiting the Fernwood Nature Center in Niles, MI. There she tried this soup for the first time and thought it was really delicious.

Before I get to my carrot soup experience, let me write out the recipe for you as Suzanne wrote it:

Cream of Carrot Soup

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 ham bone
6 cups water
1-1/2 lb. carrots, peeled and diced
4 stalks celey, cubed
4 medium red potatoes, cubed
2 bay leaves
2 cups half and half
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Place ham bone and water in large pot. Bring to a boil. Remove any scum, then add carrots, celery, potatoes, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 2 hours, or til vegetables are soft. Strain mixture and save water. Discard bay leaves. Puree vegetables using some reserved cooking water in blender, food processor, or using stick blender. Remove any ham from bone and puree if desired, (I would chop up and add unless you desire a very smooth soup). Add remainder of cooking water you saved, then re-heat to simmer. Add half-and-half and salt and pepper. Serve HOT!

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I planned on making this soup for two weeks but just couldn't find 2-1/2 hours of time to make it happen. But when last Wednesday rolled around and I needed to stay home to freeze some green beans, I thought I could work on the soup at the same time.

I am very pleased to say that I followed the recipe precisely--I even had the ham bone, bay leaves, and half-and-half. Let me tell you, that doesn't happen too often for yours truly!

So the soup turned out to be wonderful; I could taste the carrot and it had a smooth texture because of the potatoes. And the ham bone gave it full-body, rich flavor similar to that of split pea soup. Since it was so good and simple to do, I think the humble carrot has found a new place to put up his feet. ;)

Sweet Cakes for a Sweet Gal + Thoughts on the Sweet Chic Cookbook

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 18:36:00 +0000

What I think is harder than being a daily blogger is writing up a post after a long (and in my case, very long), duration of blog silence. And that is where I'm at today. It is harvesting time at the farm and there are lots of fruits and veggies to pick, but that little ol' thing called "Time" is hard to come by these days.

Cooking for me over the past couple of months has been sort of on-the-fly, usually coming up with a meal plan the day before. Very much unlike my Winter and Spring meal calendars where I was all set a month in advance. But I'm making it work, anyway!

What is the real disappointment I've found with all the craziness of the harvesting season is not finding time to bake. Baking takes a little extra time and so I haven't been breaking out the baking powder and measuring spoons much.

Now enters Sunday. Sunday, August 14 to be exact. Ah, yes, that's when I found some time to bake using a new cookbook I just received a couple weeks ago. It is called Sweet Chic and this is what I made:

That is a chocolate cupcake. But wait.

Now it is a cupcake with chocolate frosting. Now that's better. :) And oh look, there's more:

The Sunday I made these was my sister Catherine's birthday and so I made 3 dozen worth and had milkshakes, too:

I was one proud baker after making these cupcakes. They were extremely moist (probably because the recipe uses solely vegetable oil instead of butter), and the frosting was chocolatel-y and not too sweet. Catherine loved them (yay!) and my Papa, a cake and frosting connoisseur, thought they were excellent. Sigh. What reviews! I'm blushing.

The Sweet Chic--Stylish Treats to Dress Up for Any Occasion cookbook, written by Rachel Schifter Thebault, has a very interesting approach to baking. The book is divided into three sections: cookies, cakes/icings, and confections, like truffles and bark. A good portion of the recipes provided are basic in nature, such as CCC (Chocolate Chip Cookies), chocolate brownies, sugar cookies, chocolate cake, vanilla cake, buttercream frosting, chocolate truffles, etc. Complete with clear photos for most of the recipes! I'm a sucker for the photography.

What the author did to give her own twist to the book was to supply you with ideas to create special variations of the basic recipes; allowing you to dress your desserts up or down. Dress up or down? Hmm, sounds like fashion, right? That is the exact metaphor the author is using for this book. Each subsection is given a fun fashion nickname like the Scoop Cookies are the Basic T. Fun! So now I can take the basic recipe, Devil's Food Cake, and make mini S'mores Cupcakes, Rocky Road Cupcakes, and even Individual Mud Pies.

When I first glanced through the book I thought, "Oh, another cookbook with lots of basic recipes. I probably could easily find all of these with a quick google search." But after getting comfortable in bed and reading it thoroughly, I knew I found something special. I have the habit of deciding to bake something out of the blue, so I don't give myself much preparation time. You can usually find me running around for a peanut butter cookie or a fudgy brownie recipe just minutes before I get into the kitchen. And once I find it (usually off the internet), I need to alter it a bit because of pan size, yield, and then I cross my fingers that I got the recipe from a good source.

Sweet Chic helps so much in this recipe-finding turmoil I usually find myself in. I just go to one of the book's basic recipes, find the variation I want, maybe change the yield, and then simply execute. The book has all the usual desserts I make on a weekly basis so it is all in one place.

So this is how it panned out last Sunday. First, I knew I wanted to make cupcakes. Looked in the cake section of the book. Found chocolate mini cupcakes. Hmm, no mini cupcake liners on hand. So just doubled the recipe. Simple. Next, frosting. Found chocolate frosting made with a melted chocolate base and sour cream. Sounded good so I chose that one. DONE!

If I had to do it my old way I would be going through my huge recipe binder for 10 minutes at the least. It is so helpful to have a cookbook at the ready!

Mary's Potato and Cheese Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:12:00 +0000

4/27/11: Potato and Cheese Soup

My recipe searching usually ventures down one of three roads: internet, magazine, or cookbook. AllRecipes.com, sure. TastyKitchen.com, been there. Cook's Country magazine, yep. And we mustn't forget our dear Betty Crocker cookbook.

So where did the Potato and Cheese Soup recipe come from? I am happy to report that it didn't come via the sources above. It came from Mary H. from California (the Quilting Bibliophagist), who is my sewing/quilting buddy. Whenever either of us have a sewing or quilting related question, we email each other for advice. One of my emails strayed off into the realm of cooking and I asked her if she had any good, easy, and quick recipes she could share. And that is how the Potato and Cheese Soup was found! Here it is:

Potato Cheese Soup

8 cups of peeled and sliced potatoes
4 cups water
3 teaspoons salt
1 large onion, sliced
1 tablespoon oil
10 sprigs parsley
3 cups milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 to 4 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoons pepper (or to taste)
2 pinches of garlic powder

Cook the potatoes in the water with the salt until tender. While the potatoes cook, saute the onions in the oil until soft. (I use a nonstick frying pan. If you're using a regular pan, you might have to use a little more oil.) When the potatoes are done, puree the potatoes, onion, and parsley in a blender. If you wish, you may leave some of the cooked potatoes un-pureed.

Be careful. Do not fill the blender more than half full at a time. You must also use a blender which has a glass container, not a plastic one, to puree the hot soup. If you run out of cooking water while pureeing your batches of soup, just add a little of the pre-measured milk. If you do not have a blender, you will need to chop the onions instead of just slicing them, and you will need to finely chop the parsley and either mash the potatoes or run them through a food mill. This all takes more time which is why I love using the blender.

Return the potato puree to the pot. Add milk, pepper, garlic powder, and butter. Stir. Add cheese. Heat and stir over a very low flame just until the cheese melts. Caution: High heat will cause the cheese to become a rubbery mass. Check the seasonings and adjust if necessary. (A thick pan is ideal for soups like this. I have a soup pot that is made of porcelain covered cast iron which I love. It's also great for rice or beans.)

If you need to prepare this soup very quickly, wash your parsley and slice your onions the night before and store them in the refrigerator in a tightly-covered container or zip lock bag. Peel and slice your potatoes and store them in the 'fridge covered with the water so they don't turn grey.

I like to serve this with cornbread or whole wheat Irish Soda Bread. Or just regular whole wheat bread. Adding a salad to the meal makes a little more well rounded nutritionally, though my husband was perfectly happy just with soup and bread. And potatoes are very nutritious anyway. Serves 5-7.

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I tried to stay true the recipe as well as I could. The only thing I changed was using dried parsley instead of fresh. So this is how the kitchen time unfolded:

I cleaned the potatoes:

Peeled them:

Measured the amount of potatoes by using my large, 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup. No home should be without it. :)

Placed the potatoes into our 6 quart pot. (Oh, by the way, I doubled the recipe. That's the reason for all the potatoes! I had freezing leftovers in mind.)

While the potatoes were coming to a boil, I sliced the onions thin:

Pureed everything together and then added the milk, cheese, and seasonings:

The end result was a creamy, flavorful bowl of soup that everyone loved--even the soup haters. Yay!

And because bread and soup is like Astaire and Rogers, I made some biscuits using my tried and true recipe.

Even though I made this soup way back in April, I wanted to say a thank you to Mary for sharing this recipe with me. I will be making more once our new red potatoes are ready to harvest, which is not too far from now come to think of it. There is only a few weeks between the time our potatoes from the previous year are spent and the time we harvest the new crop. But how long those weeks seem!

What about you? What is your favorite potato recipe of all time? How about soup? Send some recipes to me at herlittleway at gmail dot com.

The Colorful Side of Brown Food

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 12:00:00 +0000

3/30/11: Quesadilla Casserole

I remember watching an Iron Chef America episode when there was a discussion of "brown food." Oh, there is nothing wrong with brown food in most cases--nicely browned pork cutlets or a dark, rich chocolate ganache is always a good thing, but not all dishes should showcase that shade. And that is exactly what happened during the episode's judging. A dish came out and it came with a very unappetizing shade of brown, a brown similar to a cardboard box.

So the three judges searched for their inner Andrew Zimmern stomachs and went in with their forks. Mind you, I do not recollect who was challenging who, what the secret ingredient was, or which tie Alton Brown was wearing, but what I do remember is the look on their faces. They loved it and the dish went over with flying colors.

A very similar scenario happened in my house. I made this Quesadilla Casserole, a recipe I found in the October 2009 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray, and I substituted the black beans with refried beans because I was out of the former. Yeah, you can see where this is going. The casserole came out browner than brown.

But because of my Iron Chef capabilities (yeah, right), the dish turned out to have great flavor. I guess brown food isn't all that bad.

When I made it again and decided to make it just as flavorful but add a bit of color, I did this simply by making a couple cups of homemade enchilada sauce and using that as a layer. I also made sure I used a can of black beans; they add color and contrast to the casserole.

So here is the casserole all spruced up:

What about you? Have you been cooking any Mexican inspired dishes? Which is your family's favorite that you cook again and again?

Home Cooking

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 11:52:00 +0000

In all appearances, my dear old Sabbath Supper has been totally neglected since the last post was published, which was. . . Let's see. . . In APRIL! Gosh, how did that happen? Did I stop cooking or something?

Au contaire! There has certainly been lots of home cooking and baking around these parts but because I've been diligently working on my crafting blog (St. Gemma's Art and Needlework), all last month to try to achieve my May-Every-Day enterprise, Sabbath Supper fell to the wayside. It is a very sad thing, too, because talking recipes and ingredients is something I enjoy and I've already found that I'm forgetting some important tips from past recipes I did. I try to write down notes and such right in the cookbook or recipe print out, but sometimes I feel tuckered out once the dishes are clean and not one scribble of guidance is left.

So the May-Every-Day project has come and gone and now I will be able to concentrate some of my energies on posting to this blog.

Before I left Sabbath Supper alone and forgotten, I did put some future posts on file but didn't have the time to finish them. Now I will. Expect to see them today and tomorrow! Here are a couple sneak previews of what is to come:

Homemade Hamburger Buns

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:41:00 +0000

3/15/11: Homemade Hamburger Buns

You should never let the name "hamburger buns" lead you into thinking that these circular buns that are split in half are just used for hamburgers. No siree! My family does sometimes use them for the ordinary hamburger but we have found a million and one other uses for this bread vehicle. Sloppy Joes, BBQ pork, turkey, and beef, chicken patties, steak-ums, sizzlers, pulled pork, fish fillets, and more.

That is why after my success with my homemade hot dog buns, I decided it was high time to try the faithful old hamburger bun.

So after using the exact same recipe that I used for the hot dog buns, here is what I came up with:

They were as soft and wonderful as the hot dog version. Very happy about this! So now I've been cutting way back on our hot dog/hamburger bun buying and keeping our freezer full of home-bakery freshness:

English Muffins for the First Time

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:02:00 +0000

3/15/11: Homemade English Muffins

They always say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I don't mind this bit of advice, whatsoever, for breakfast foods tend to be my favorites. Eggs, toast, bacon, French toast, waffles, pancakes, bagels, and of course English muffins; when they make the scene, you know I am not far away.

I've tried making many a breakfast dish from scratch but up till a few weeks ago, I never gave English muffins a try. To me, they have always sounded a bit tedious and I didn't like the idea of a yeast dough being grilled. Scary sounding, don't you think? So when one evening came along when there wasn't a real need to make a full meal, I decided to give these muffins a try.

The recipe I chose to use was published in the Early Spring 2009 issue of The Baking Sheet. I wish I could type out the recipe here but it is copyrighted material. However, I noticed that the King Arthur's Flour website has some English muffin recipes available. So take a look at their Breakfast Sandwich Muffins and this English Muffin recipe. They may not be exactly like the recipe I found in the Baking Sheet, but the latter one does come close.

The making of the dough was very easy to execute, the only part that needs skill is the frying. I used a small non-stick skillet for the frying since I was making such a small recipe. (I would have used the king-sized griddle we have if the whole family was attending.) When frying, there is a need to keep the burner on low heat. So the muffins do take a while to thoroughly cook. I do, however, like my muffins to have a crispy exterior, so near the end of the cooking time I turn up the heat and allow them to form a crust.

I do not own special English muffin cutters so I did as the magazine suggest and use cleaned tuna cans. Works perfectly fine!

So here are the muffins. . .

I had my muffin with a smidge (OK, maybe a big smidge), of blackberry jam and a fried egg. They were wonderful! This makes me wonder. . . Do I love breakfast because of the inclusion of butter and jam in almost every single dish? Could be. ;)

The Secret of the New Fudge Cake's Fame

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:24:00 +0000

3/4/11: New Fudge Cake

Haven't seen a post on Sabbath Supper in awhile, huh? Now don't think that I haven't been cooking, for I certainly have! I actually have four future posts lined up. The problem lately, I think, has been the cooking. Once I've finished cooking lunch and dinner for the day, I just don't feel like thinking about food again and writing about it. You know what I mean?

But I've come to realize during the last couple weeks that I need to post more often. Forgetfulness in past meals I've made has created difficulty in preparing them again and I without posting, I sort of lose sight of how cooking can be fun and like an adventure. So that's my two cents on the situation and I hope to begin a posting spree for this month of April. :)

And now let me bring to you a long lost cake of mine. His name is New Fudge Cake and he is a chocolate cake with swiss meringue buttercream filling and a chocolate fudge frosting. Sounds a bit familiar? Same combination of cake and frosting was used for our past Christmas cake. It was such a good cake that there was an apparent need for another!

Here is New Fudge Cake #2:

So about now you are wondering about the secret of this cake's fame, right? Well, the answer can be summed up in one word: swiss meringue buttercream. OK, that's three, but you get the picture. :)

Strawberries and Cake for February

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 13:53:00 +0000

2/18/11: Sponge Cake Served with Strawberries

I was just going through my Sabbath Supper photos and saw a folder named "Sponge Cake and Strawberries." Oops! I forgot to post about this dessert I made all the way back in February. So without further ado, I bring you my account of sponge cake and strawberries that should have been made public a month ago. :)

The sponge cake recipe came from the good ol' Betty Crocker cook book of ours. I chose the recipe entitled: "Fluffy Sponge Cake" because it was calculated for a 13 x 9 pan and also because it uses all the egg yolks and whites. It is not always easy for me to use up the leftover yolks or whites quickly, so it is a good idea to have recipes like this one on hand. Find the recipe below.

The strawberries are actually our own which we froze with sugar last year. Learn how to freeze your own by reading this previous post.

Here is the recipe written out for you:

Fluffy Sponge Cake

Yield: One 13x9 pan

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

1-1/2 cups cake flour OR all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

6 tbsp. cold water

1 tsp. grated lemon rind

1 tsp. lemon extract

6 egg whites

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

Directions:

Grease your pan BUT ONLY THE BOTTOM.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks until thick (at least 5 minutes). Beat sugar in gradually. In a separate, smaller bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat dry ingredients into egg yolk mixture alternately with water, lemon rind, and lemon extract.

In a large bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff. Gradually and gently cut and fold the egg yolk mixture into the beaten whites. Pour batter into pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Serve with strawberries.

In Memory of the Pillsbury Dough Boy

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:21:00 +0000

image source here

I don't normally do this here at Sabbath Supper but I wanted to share with you a little snippet about the Pillsbury Dough Boy's Funeral. My younger sister just sent it to me today and it proved to be one of the most hilarious news articles to date! Enjoy! :)

"Dear friends, It is with the saddest heart that I pass on the following.  Please join me in remembering a great icon.  The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and complications from repeated pokes in the belly.  He was 71.

Doughboy was buried in a lightly-greased coffin.  Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs.  Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Cap'n Crunch.  The grave site was piled high with flours as long- time friend, Aunt Jemima, delivered the eulogy, describing Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded.  Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers.  He was not considered a very "smart" cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes.  Despite being a little flaky at times, he -- even still, as a crusty old man -- was considered a roll model for millions.  Toward the end, it was thought he would rise again, but alas, he was no tart.

Doughboy is survived by his wife, Play Dough; two children, John Dough and Jane Dough; plus they had one in the oven.  He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.  The funeral was held at 3:50 for about twenty minutes."

Source found here.

Cooking Lesson -- How to Make Kolache Step by Step

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Ah, Kolache! This delightful Czech pastry has a cream cheese or fruit filling and is one of the undisputed favorite desserts of my Papa. What better time to make this delicious favorite than Fat Tuesday? I was thinking about doing Paczki, a Polish pastry, but it requires deep frying and I didn't feel like tackling a pot of hot oil. It takes me awhile to build up enough confidence to take on such an ordeal!

So Kolache it was. And this time I am going to do something different. I am going to share with you a step-by-step cooking lesson on how to make cream cheese filled Kolache, from start to finish. I just recently bought a digital camera for myself so I wanted to give this a try!

Ingredients:

1 cup shortening
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups scalded milk
4 egg yolks, beaten
1/2 teaspoon lemon or almond extract
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup fruit preserves (or you can use cream cheese filling; recipe is below)

Cream Cheese Filling Ingredients:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese at room temperature

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Cream shortening and sugar together. Add a little bit of hot milk to eggs to temper them. Add the eggs to the creamed mixture along with the salt, flavoring, and the remaining milk. When lukewarm, add yeast to mixture. Let stand 5 minutes. Add flour, beating well. Knead down into bowl. The dough will be slightly sticky. Let rise 1 hour.
Cut off small balls of dough. Roll into rounds in your hands, and place on greased cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Let rise 15 minutes.
Make a depression into the center of each roll. Fill with fruit preserves or cream cheese filling.
Bake at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) until brown. Watch carefully. Cool on wire racks.

Yield: 38 Pastries

Recipe above is an adaptation of this recipe from AllRecipes.com.

---------------

Now, let's see it done step by step. . .

Note: When I was taking snapshots of the Kolache making process, I was doing two times the recipe. So that is the reason for the large amount of dough!

Step 1: Separate eggs. Beat eggs a little with a fork. Tip: Using cold eggs makes for much easier separating. Tip #2: What can you do with the leftover egg whites? My sister used them in an all-egg-white omelet the same day. It was delicious!

Step 2: Cream shortening and sugar together.

Step 3: Add milk to a sauce pan and heat on medium high until you have scald milk. Remove from heat. Tip: Don't know when the milk is ready? Wait until you see a bit of steam and there is some foam on the side of the pan. Never bring it to a boil! Scald milk should look like this:

Sort of resembles buttermilk, doesn't it?

Step 4: Add a little bit of the hot milk to the egg yolks to temper them. Then add the tempered eggs to the creamed mixture along with salt, flavoring, and rest of the milk. Mix until combined.

Step 5: When the mixture is lukewarm, add the yeast and mix.

Let mixture stand in a warm place for five minutes to activate the yeast. Yeast will start to bubble and foam a little bit:

Step 6: In another bowl, add the flour and make a well with your spoon.

Pour in half the liquid mixture and start incorporating.

Using your spoon, push the dough down into the bottom of the bowl and try to make a level top. This dough is really loose and sticky.

Step 7: Cover bowl with plastic wrap that was sprayed with oil on side towards dough. The oil we prevent the dough from sticking.

Let dough rest in a warm spot (like on the top of an oven that's on warm), and leave for 1 hour.

Here's the dough after the resting period:

Step 8: Spray your hands with oil and tear a golf ball sized piece of dough from the bowl. The rest of the dough will start deflating. . . Don't worry, this is natural!

Plop the dough down on a baking sheet lined with non-stick foil. Try to leave 2 to 2-1/2" space between each pastry for these will rise in the oven.

Step 9: Let the pastries rise for a 2nd time by leaving them in a warm place for 15 minutes.

Step 10: While you are waiting, make the cream cheese filling. Cream together cream cheese and sugar. Beat in vanilla.

Step 11: After rising, make an indentation in the middle of each pastry.

Fill each indentation with 2 tablespoons of cream cheese filling OR jam of choice.

Step 12: Place in a preheated 450 degrees F oven. Kolache is a pale dough and 450 is a hot oven. Could spell burnt pastries if you don't watch these! When I bake them, I place the baking sheet on the middle rack for 3 minutes then move it up to the highest rack for 7 minutes more. I also turn them a couple times. I know when they are ready by the slight browning on top.

Here is what they look like:

Warm, soft pastries with a delicious creamy filling. Uh, maybe I should have saved writing this tutorial for another day; Ash Wednesday is perhaps not the right day to talk about Kolache! ;)

----------------------

So what did you think of my tutorial? What would you have done differently? Do you have any advice that could help make it better? Have any suggestions for future tutorials? Comment or email me; thanks a bunch!

Baking Bread for the First Time

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 13:34:00 +0000

2/11/11: Grandma's Oatmeal Bread

If my younger sister, Catherine, was asked, "What is your favorite food?" She would say, "BREAD!" She adores bread in every shape or form and loves recipes that include whole flours or oats. She made bread in the bread machine before but she has never done it from scratch, and that is what she set out to do earlier this month. And I came along for the ride.

She chose Grandma's Oatmeal Bread from the Holiday 2009 issue of The Baker's Sheet, a magazine that is published by King Arthur's Flour. I wish I could write out the recipe here but it is copyrighted. Best thing to do is buy the back issue here.

The recipe includes rolled oats and molasses which I think is a great combination. Catherine did very well with following the recipe, the only problem that arose was the slow rising. The kitchen was probably too cold that day! Anyway, here is Catherine's first ever bread from scratch:

Scrumptious!

So is Catherine willing to make bread from scratch again? She says: "I'll stick to the bread machine." At least she gave it a go! ;)

Sweet Victory

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 13:01:00 +0000

2/08/11: Dulce de Leche Bars

I'm not sure why, but I always find it easier to write about desserts. Maybe it is because I cannot write a post without a picture and dessert photography is a piece o' cake compared to main entree dishes! I should try to change this habit and make sure I take some snapshots of dishes outside the realm of sweet.

So earlier this month I was planning on making Smitten Kitchen's adaptation of Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares, but realized that we were out of graham crackers. Oh dear! And earlier that day I made some dulce de leche (sweet milk in Spanish), out of two cans of sweetened condensed milk. What will I do with it now?

A quick search on the internet brought me to Land O Lakes' website and their Dulce de Leche Bar recipe. Sounds good doesn't it? Knowing that we had all the ingredients, I whipped up a batch and then frowned over the leftover dulce de leche sitting in the double boiler. Leftovers. . .

Now what about frosting? Aha! Frosting! So after mixing together an 8 oz. package of cream cheese (for my family are lovers of cream cheese frosting), a few tablespoons of dulce de leche, and a tad bit of milk, I made my very own frosting for this cake. And the verdict? Sweet victory of course! The bars had a golden brown color and were tender, moist, and sweet; not cloyingly sweet, however. And the bars made a good contrast with the thin layer of frosting on top. Perfect match.

To dress the bars up a bit, I drizzled some dulce de leche over the top of the frosting.

Jam and Cake. . . Scrumptious!

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 21:43:00 +0000

2/4/11: Blackberry Jam Cake

Doesn't that recipe title sound so scrumptious? For me, putting together jam and cake (two of my favorite things), sounds like perfection. That title is actually what drew me to baking this cake last Friday. I found the recipe in the Nov/Dec 2010 issue of Cook's Country magazine that we subscribe to (check out what America's Test Kitchen changed with this cake, an Appalachian staple, here). I wish I could post the recipe here but copyright issues, ya know.

Anyhow, let me explain this cake to you a little bit. The actual cake is spiced with cinnamon, allspice, and cloves and it also has delicious blackberry jam added. The frosting that the magazine had teamed up with the cake was Caramel Miracle Frosting. And also chopped pecans were added to the side of the cake.

Let me tell you, I like frosting. And I like trying out new ones. So the Miracle Frosting was right up my alley! It is a cooked frosting that starts with a mixture of brown sugar, cornstarch, and flour. Then a load of butter is added and mixed until light & fluffy.

Did I make any modifications to the recipe? I didn't make a Caramel Miracle Frosting, I just made the 'original' version which has white sugar instead of brown. I also omitted the pecans and I used blackberry preserves instead of jam.

Both the cake and the frosting turned out very well and this cake is a great contender for birthdays! (I have two requests already!)

So are there any notes I should leave for myself? Yes.

1. There didn't seem to be enough frosting to cover the entire cake, probably should do 1 1/2 times the recipe next time.

2. I probably need to go a tad bit less on the amount of preserves used for the filling. It sort of leaked to the sides making it harder to frost.

So here it is. . .

Lemon Meringue Pie from Scratch

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:55:00 +0000

1/28/11: Lemon Meringue Pie

Last Friday my younger sister and I were trying to figure out a dessert to make for dinner. We chose a rather risky one: Lemon Meringue Pie. Because this pie is such a classic (it is right beside chocolate chip cookies, pound cake, and blueberry muffins in the realm of baking in my opinion), you would think that it is an easy recipe to execute. Not so. Especially for a person who has failed in the past with the meringue part!

We used Annemarie's Betty Crocker cookbook for the crust, the filling, as well as the meringue topping. The filling and meringue recipes worked out well, but we weren't happy at all with the crust recipe. There just wasn't enough dough to work with and we actually had to go back and make another batch. Next time I should use our traditional go-to recipe for a double pie crust and simply cut the recipe in half.

Now for the filling and meringue part:

Lemon Meringue Pie

Yield: Two 9" pies (my family likes their pie!)

Ingredients:

Two 9" pie shells that have been blind baked

3 cups sugar

2/3 cup cornstarch

3 cups hot water

6 egg yolks, slightly beaten

6 tbsp. butter

8 tbsp. lemon juice

3 tbsp. grated lemon rind

Meringue:

6 egg whites

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

12 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. flavoring (optional)

Directions:

In a saucepan, mix together the sugar, cornstarch, and hot water. Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil 1 minute. Beat a little of the hot mixture into the egg yolks to temper them. Then move warmed egg yolks to the cornstarch mixture. Boil 1 minute longer, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Continue stirring until smooth. Blend in butter, lemon juice, and lemon peel.

Onto the meringue! In a large, clean bowl, beat white with cream of tartar until frothy. Gradually beat in sugar, a little at a time. Continue beating until stiff and glossy.

Now to assemble the pie. Pour filling into the pre-baked pie shells and smooth top. Spoon the meringue on top of filling in large dollops. Try to smooth out--while not disturbing the filling below--and make fun swirls or peaks with your spoon.

Move pies to a 400F preheated oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until meringue is golden brown.

---------------------------

So that's the recipe but I do want to write here some things I would change next time. First off, Papa and Annemarie said that they would like more meringue on top as well as a stronger lemon flavor. So for next time, I will maybe use 5 eggs per pie and add the extra yolks to the filling; Annemarie said that the extra yolks won't harm the recipe. All they will do is make the filling slightly thicker. She's made this pie before so she should know!

And I will add a couple more lemons to the mix to get a real pucker sensation!

You may notice here that this meringue is darker than what you are used to. That is way my family likes it even if it causes "weeping."

Ciabatta Bread Pizza

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 01:58:00 +0000

1/24/11: Ciabatta Bread Pizza

Meal details: Pizza with a Ciabatta bread crust, homemade pizza sauce, and a pepper, pepperoni, and cheese topping.

Defining moments: First time for us to try out Ciabatta bread, which, by the way, is an Italian bread that is usually used when making panini. The interior of the bread has very large holes so it a great candidate for soaking in flavors like olive oil.

Recipe sources: No recipe was needed for this pizza. Annemarie came up with the concept last Fall and we've been waiting to try it out since. We actually prepared our bell peppers for the freezer in a special way (cut them into ring shapes), just for this pizza.

The pizza sauce was concocted by me, so read on to find it!

What I learned: I created a very tasty recipe for the pizza sauce. I made Sloppy Joe's the Saturday before (I used this recipe here), and I kept a pint of our tomato puree and about a cup of canned tomato paste. On the day of this pizza's creation, I combined these two ingredients with some spices, sugar, and apple cider vinegar. I'll write it out here:

Homemade Pizza Sauce

Yield: Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients:

2 cups (16 oz) tomato sauce
1 cup (8 oz) tomato paste
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp. white sugar
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. dried basil
1 tbsp. garlic salt

Instructions: Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan and cook over moderate heat. Reduce until consistency resembles apple sauce. I recommend tasting at this stage and adjust seasoning if necessary. When it comes to a tomato-based recipe, you usually need to change something in your ingredient lineup.

Now how exactly did I put this pizza together?

I cut the ciabatta bread loaves in half lengthwise and brushed them with a 1/4 cup of olive oil. I then placed them in the oven for about five minutes at 425F; just to crisp up the cut side. I then smeared my pizza sauce over the entire surface of the bread and followed it with lots of shredded mozzarella and monterey jack cheese. On top of the cheese, I fanned out some pepperoni and bell pepper rings evenly. I moved both pizzas to the oven preheated at 425F and I baked them for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese was golden brown and the peppers were sizzling.

Any modifications? Created this recipe.

How it tasted? Very, very, very, very, GOOD! The ciabatta bread made a terrific, crunchy crust and the sauce was zingy and had distinctive tomato flavor.

How about a 2nd time? Oh yes, definitely. And maybe next time I will use homemade ciabatta bread--sounds interesting, huh?

My Old Kentucky Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:00:00 +0000

1/07/11: Kentucky Pie

This recipe came from the Holiday Baking 2009 Issue of Cooking with Paula Deen. I, by no means, had the intention of baking this pie when I was browsing the magazine. I was much more interested in the buttermilk pie that was featured on the same page. But it so happened that a) I wanted to bake a pie that day, b) I wanted something chocolate-ly, and c), I wanted something with nuts. So that is how I gravitated towards this pie recipe, which I never heard of before.

Kentucky Pie has a truck load of nuts and chocolate--and then some. I should know about the nuts because me and my sister had to crack all of them by hand. What a job! Pecans are not that easy to crack, there is a required skill for sure. The best way to crack them we found was to crack both the top and the bottom off first, then crack the nut lengthwise. But you need to make sure you crack it BETWEEN the two inner pecan halves. Otherwise, you break the halves into a million and one pieces. :)

As you can see, this pie is not for the faint of heart:

Get a load of all that chocolate! I think I've died and gone to heaven. Here is some more cocoa goodness coming your way:

It was a really decadent pie for sure and I would battle those pecan nuts anytime to make this pie again!

Did I Forget Something?

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:44:00 +0000

12/25/10: Christmas Cake

In answer to my post's title: Yes. I completely forgot to post about the cake I baked and decorated for Christmas! How on earth did that happen? Anyhoo, here it is now:

So what recipe(s) did I use?

I used the New Fudge Cake recipe from Annemarie's Betty Crocker cookbook. Here is a scan of the page:

For the cake's filling I used Swiss Meringue Buttercream from this source. The chocolate frosting came from the Sour Cream Cake I did before. And finally, the white frosting I used for piping (as well as the roses) is from here. Whew! Lots of different recipes this time!

What decorating techniques did I use?

I used two 13 x 9 cakes, stacked them on top of each other, and cut the top layer to make it resemble a tiered cake. After the carving, I piped a shell border at the base of the cake, piped roses using a specific rose tip, and made decorative "facades" around the sides of the cake using a template that I received for my birthday last year. For Christmas I received some liquid dyes (Wilton brand) that can be mixed with frosting, and that is what I used for the colored roses.

How did it taste?

This might actually be my favorite cake as of yet. The actual cake was very moist, chocolate-ly and held up well to being stacked. And the chocolate frosting was just as good as I remembered. But the real attribute of this cake was the Swiss Meringue Buttercream that I used for the filling. Papa said that it reminded him of an expensive torte he had long ago. It was so delicious!

Homemade Hot Dog Buns

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 00:10:00 +0000

12/29/10: Hot Dog Buns Straight from Our Kitchen

My family likes to include hot dogs in our weekly meal schedule because of two reasons: they are inexpensive and they only take a half an hour to cook. I like hot dogs a lot (especially Chicago-style!), so I don't mind this tradition whatsoever!

There is one thing, though, when it comes to this meal choice: the buns. If you don't buy them on sale, they cost way more than the hot dogs themselves. Is there any way to make them here at home?

Annemarie and I've tried making hamburger buns before (see my attempts here and here), but never gave the hot dog bun a try. So I searched the internet looking for some recipes, photos, videos, and inspiration and didn't really find a recipe for a soft bun. I really wanted to find a bun that would remind you of Wonder Bread or something in that field of bread texture.

My sister is the one that found the right site. J. Timothy King's blog to be exact. His post on making hot dog buns with the bread machine sparked my interest and I literally went straight to the kitchen after learning about it!

So I took out my bread machine's recipe book, found the recipe for White Bread, followed the directions for a one pound loaf, and selected "Dough" (#6). I used the dough cycle before when I made cinnamon rolls, read about it here. Find the White Bread recipe I used at the bottom of this post.

I removed the dough from the pan and divided it into six equal portions using my dough cutter. I formed each piece into a ball then rolled it into a log that was 6" in length. I placed the formed buns on a cookie sheet lined with non-stick foil and spaced them 1/2" to 1" apart. I covered them loosely with plastic wrap and placed them in a warm area (on top of a warm oven in my case), to rest for 45 minutes. After they rose I moved them to a 375F preheated oven and baked them for 10 minutes, or until they were lightly golden on top.

This is how they turned out:

I was very impressed when they came out of the oven! And they were perfect with the hot dogs. They were soft but they weren't like the Wonder Bread buns, I think they were better. :) As you can see, I made sure the buns were close to each other when baking. I thought it would result in softer buns if done this way. After examining the buns that were on the end of the lineup (the buns that would have more contact with the oven's radiating heat), I don't think it is necessary.

Buns without a bread machine? On 4-23-11 I tried making these buns without the use of the bread machine. They raised perfectly fine and I couldn't detect any difference in bun size or texture. The real key to doing any dough outside the machine is to find a warm spot in the kitchen. If it is warm and there are no drafts, you're all set.

Now for the White Bread recipe that I used to make these:

Simple and Easy Homemade Hot Dog Buns

Yield: 6 buns

Ingredients:

3/4 cup + 1 tbsp. warm water (about 110F)

1-1/2 tbsp. granulated sugar

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. dry milk

2-1/4 cups bread flour

1-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

Directions:

When using a bread machine. . . Add all the ingredients to your bread pan in order they are written. Select Dough Cycle. Once cycle is done, follow instructions for "Forming Buns."

Without bread machine. . . In measuring cup, combine water, sugar, and yeast. Wait until yeast begins to foam; about 5 minutes. In medium mixing bowl, add oil, salt, dry milk, and flour; stir to combine. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in yeast mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until fully incorporated. Turn out onto dusted surface and knead for five minutes; dough should be smooth. Oil a large bowl with non-stick spray. Form dough into a ball and place in oiled bowl. Invert dough so oil is on top. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot in kitchen that is free of drafts.

Allow dough to rise for 40 minutes. Deflate dough and let it rise for additional 20 minutes. Once dough is finished rising, follow instructions for "Forming Buns."

Forming Buns:

Deflate dough and separate dough into six equal pieces. (I do this by cutting the dough in half and then the halves into thirds.) Take a piece of dough and form it into a log that is about 6" to 8" in length. Lay the logs on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and cover them with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.

Allow the buns to rise for 45 minutes. Remove plastic wrap and place cookie sheets in a 325F preheated oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until buns are light brown on top.

Tips for you:

Want buns with more chewiness? Add 1 tablespoon potato flour to each cup of flour for the recipe. It really makes a huge difference!
Bread flour is not always inexpensive compared to all-purpose. Try using half bread flour and half all-purpose when you are making the dough. I've done this numerous times and haven't seen a real difference in flavor or texture. What I have noticed, however, is that they're easier to form; probably due to less gluten.

We Call it "Spaghetti Bread"

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:50:00 +0000

12-17-10: Spaghetti Bread

If anyone was to ask me, "What is comfort food for you?" the first dish that comes to mind is our homemade spaghetti sauce. Our spaghetti sauce, in all its goodness, consists of our tomato puree combined with our farm grown peppers, onions, and garlic as well as spices such as basil, marjoram, oregano, etc.

My family has been having our own spaghetti sauce almost every single week of the year for as long as I can remember. Every time I think of this meal I think of two things: my Papa (who pulls all the listed ingredients together and makes the masterpiece), and our farm's bounty. Two very comforting things for me! Now, I could give you the recipe for this sauce, but there really isn't one (it seems to be evolving every single time it's made), and even if I do concoct a written recipe, it wouldn't be like ours. I would need to send you our puree and veggies to make it legitimate!

Now, there is something else that is as old as our spaghetti tradition, but it hasn't had a very good reputation. It is called Spaghetti Bread. Spaghetti bread is a yeast bread done in the bread machine that has dried herbs and grated cheese added. If done right, it is absolutely perfection with a spaghetti dinner. But perfection has been reached few times with this bread. Almost every time we attempted to wrestle this recipe, we would find a deflated loaf at the bottom of our bread machine. Let me tell you, it is enough to bring tears to your eyes.

We came up with a lot of theories on the cause of these mishaps: too much water, too little, acid in the spices, too much salt, etc. etc. etc. So we kept on trying new versions of the recipe, taking out some of this, adding some of that. . . But nothing worked until a couple Fridays ago.

My Papa thought, "Why not use the wheat setting on the bread machine and add the garlic, cheese, and spices at the time the machine alerts you to add addition flavorings, such as raisins and cinnamon?"

Sounded good to me! I gave it a go, following his specific instructions, and it turned out perfectly. It was one of the tallest Spaghetti Breads we ever saw.

See what I mean?

This is what I did from start to finish:

Spaghetti Bread

Yield: 1 pound loaf

Ingredients:

9 oz. warm water (about 115 degrees F)
4 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
2 1/2 tbsp. sugar
3 cups bread flour
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Dough Flavoring Ingredients:

1 head garlic
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp. basil
2 tsp. Italian seasoning

Directions:

To bread pan, add water, yeast, and sugar. Stir and proof for 10-15 minutes. Next add bread flour, oil, and salt. Set machine to "Whole Wheat" setting (#3) and "Medium" (A).

Now to make some garlic puree. (I learned about this technique from The Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day cookbook.) Take garlic, with the skin and stem still on, and wrap it in one layer of aluminum foil. Place garlic foil packet into 375 F oven and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven, open packet, and allow garlic head to cool. Once cool, cut off the stem and squeeze garlic from skins. The garlic now resembles a paste and can easily be incorporated into the bread dough.

Combine cheese, spices, and garlic in a small bowl.

Machine will beep 1 hr 26 min after you press the START button on the machine, (or when bread time display reads 2:34), that is when you should add the garlic, cheese, and spice mixture to the bread pan.

All in all, it takes 4 hours for the machine to make the bread.

Garlic Puree Technique--Up Close. . .

Bread Machine Setting--Up Close. . .

Now, I suppose you can easily do this without the help of a bread machine, but I haven't given it a try yet. If I ever do I'll come back to this post and document it.

And here is one final glimpse of perfection. . .

;)

A Special Saturday Lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 16:39:00 +0000

12/18/10: Breaded Pork Cutlets with Harvard Beets and Mashed Potatoes

Meal details: Last Saturday I pulled together a nice menu for lunch. It included pork cutlets breaded with simple bread crumbs and egg, beets braised in beet juice, sugar, and vinegar, and home-style mashed potatoes.

Defining moments: I have never made pork cutlets before nor Harvard Beets. Entirely new to me!

Recipe sources: I had no printed recipe for the pork cutlets, I was actually told how to do these by Annemarie. She loves pork cutlets and is really the reason behind me choosing cutlets for Saturday! So I can better remember how to make them later, I will write the recipe down here.

Annemarie's Breaded Pork Cutlets

Ingredients:

8 pork cutlets
1 1/2 - 2 cups canola oil
3 cups plain bread crumbs (I used the Panko variety, but Annemarie typically uses the finer type)
6 eggs, beaten with a fork
2 teaspoons salt

Directions:

Fill a large, deep skillet with 1/4" to 1/2" of oil and start heating oil on medium-low heat. Place bread crumbs and eggs in separate pie plates. Take a single pork cutlet and dredge it in the crumbs, dip it in the beaten egg, then return it to the crumbs. Make sure the cutlet has a good coating.

Check to see if the oil is at the right temperature by sprinkling some bread crumbs into the oil. If it starts to crackle and pop, the oil is ready. If it spurts up at you, it is probably too hot. Gingerly slide the cutlet into the oil, taking care not to spatter. Allow first side to brown, then flip. When second side is brown, remove cutlets to a cookie sheet lined with paper towels. Total cooking time is between 15 and 20 minutes. Do second batch, if necessary. To keep the pork cutlets warm, cover them with aluminum foil and place in a warm (200 F) oven.

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The Harvard Beets recipe comes from allrecipes.com. Find it here. Our mashed potato recipe--a staple in my house--is very straightforward. Here is the simple recipe that we use:

Simple Mashed Potatoes

Servings: 8

Ingredients:

3 pounds potatoes (about one cookie sheet worth)

1 stick butter

2 tablespoons salt

Directions:

Wash potatoes and cut them into halves. We leave the skins on, we love the flavor and texture that they add. Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with 1" of water. Heat to boiling and boil until potatoes are fork tender. For us, it usually takes fifteen minutes to reach boiling point and thirty minutes to cook.

Once fork tender, drain potatoes in colander and return to pot. Mash with potato masher or use an electric, handheld blender. Stir in butter and salt.

What I learned: I am very glad to have chosen these three dishes for Saturday because I have never made them before (in the case of the cutlets and beets), or haven't made them much (speaking of the potatoes). The cutlet recipe is truly remarkable, I think, because there are no fancy ingredients evident at all. All simple, pantry staples: bread crumbs, eggs, and salt. And it isn't that hard to execute, either. May be a bit difficult the first time when coating the cutlets, but you quickly get the hang of things. And, as you will find out later in this post, the results are perhaps the true remarkable facet of this recipe!

I like the beet recipe a lot, too. Very accessible ingredients: beets, beet juice, vinegar, sugar, and cornstarch.

Since we still had some beets from our past farming season, I used them for this recipe. I boiled them until they were fork tender and I kept some of the boiling liquid (beet juice) to use for the sauce. By adding cornstarch to the beet juice, I was able to make it thick and smooth.

Any modifications? No.

How did it taste? Everyone loved the pork cutlets, they were tender, crispy, and flavorful. The mashed potatoes--a tried and true side dish--was superb once again. The beets were OK. They weren't as tender as I wanted them to be; they still had a bite to them. Now, I'm not totally sure what this was caused by. Perhaps I didn't boil them long enough? Or maybe they are past their "expiration" date? I'm not sure.

How about a 2nd time? Yes.

The Sweet Side of Sour Cream

noreply@blogger.com (Rebekah) — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 19:08:00 +0000

12/17/10: Sour Cream Chocolate Cake with Fudge Frosting

Recipe details: Cake recipe is pretty typical, but the addition of sour cream and the fact that you do not need to alternate between dry and wet ingredients (like this one), makes it more special and easier to prepare.

Defining moments: This recipe calls for cocoa powder and I went and used the King Arthur Flour's Double Dutch Dark Cocoa Powder for the first time. My parents gave me a gift card to use on kingarthurflour.com so that's how I got my hands on such a delicious sounding ingredient.

Recipe sources: The recipe comes from Hershey's. Find it here.

What I learned: I've made cake before so I didn't learn any new techniques this time. However, I did find that this cake, along with the fudge frosting, is very easy to do. The frosting isn't your normal buttercream, it is richer and not cloyingly sweet. It almost aways seems like the cooked frostings are so much better. Is it just me?

I should note here that I made two types of frostings. One had grocery store cocoa (I think it is from Gordon's?), and the other had King Arthur Flour's dark cocoa.

Any modifications? No, I made no changes.

How did it taste? I thought it was perfect for a lighter cake and I believe everyone agrees with me. I say, "...for a lighter cake," because I LOVE dense cakes. :) Both kinds of frostings were so yummy. But which one was the favorite? Most everyone thought the dark cocoa type was lacking flavor (or maybe not enough contrast to the dark cocoa cake?), so the grocery store variety won this round.

How about a 2nd time? Yes, definitely.

It is self-explanatory but the pan to the left is grocery store cocoa frosting, and the one to the right has the King Arthur Flour's dark cocoa.

I love shots like the one above.