Garlic Rosemary Croutons

I’ve always thought that homemade croutons sounded so elegant and delicious, but I never attempted to make them. There must be some secret to making them so delicious and impressive, right?

No! They are SO easy!

Since we’re getting into the time of year where we’ll be eating a lot of fresh salads, since our Community Supported Agriculture share usually gives us a ton of leafy greens during June, (now that I know the secret that making croutons is super simple), I’ll be making a bunch of variations on these. I’ve finally been cajoled into tweeting, so if you want to follow me at @measuringspoons you’ll be able to keep up with what I’m up to, including quick little tips and variations on a crouton recipe. :)

What prompted me to finally try making croutons was having a ton of extra bread lying around. Charlie had to organize a BBQ for his job a week or so ago, and we ended up with a whole lot of extra hamburger and hot dog buns. I have some in the freezer, but one bag had been left out in anticipation of grilling, but then we’d had lots and lots of rain. Instead, a crockpot full of soup with some croutons was in order, so I served these over my Crockpot Creamy Corn Potato Soup. I have some left over for some giant salads this week, too.

Ingredients

4 hamburger buns (or other bread)
1 tablespoon dried rosemary, finely ground with a mortar and pestle
olive oil (use the spray if you’ve got it)
garlic powder
coarse salt
fresh ground pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350*F. Using a bread knife, cut the hamburger buns (or bread) into small chunks. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange the bread chunks in a single layer on the baking sheet. Spray them lightly with olive oil. Use a spatula to flip the bread chunks over and spray the other side of them with oil, then sprinkle garlic powder (a little if you like a little, a lot if you like things really garlicky) and the rosemary evenly over the bread chunks. Season with salt and pepper.

Alternatively, if you don’t have the spray oil, you can just toss the bread chunks in a bowl with oil, then lay them on the sheet and apply the spices as directed.

Bake for about 12-17 minutes at 350*F. Because oven times vary, yours may need a little more or less time. The croutons are done when they are crispy and browned. Be sure to store in an airtight container.

CSA plant sale goodies!

Yesterday we went to the CSA plant sale to pick up some seedlings from Farmer Rich. I wrote a post last year about it, and about how I think it’s cool to buy from our local farmer instead of a big box store. It was nice to chat about what we’re growing, how the weather affects it, and just talk with the guy who grows the food I eat.

Mostly I like to get Farmer Rich’s herbs. I haven’t had the best luck with herbs, and his are so, so healthy. We do get herbs in our weekly share, but it’s usually just one herb, and I like to have the little herb garden so I can just walk outside and snip off whatever I need.

This is the variagated mint. Isn’t it beautiful the way the leaves change from green to yellowish and then back to green?

Here’s the mint potted in an old colander.

Here’s the herb garden in a new window box we picked up today…

In there we’ve got oregano, lemon basil (which smells so good that I got two, one to keep in the house), sage (not pictured, I put it in after this photo), thyme, rosemary, and parsley.

I also got eggplants again, and Tita Leonore asked for a pepper plant (we’ve both had serious woes with germination of peppers this year), so I got a golden pepper plant. And, when we got there, we had an impulse buy: brussels sprouts! They weren’t listed on the online order form, and I can’t wait to see them grow. They are so cool looking.

My peas are being actual peas! Despite the fact that I thought they were all going to die because they got so drowned in the storms, they are producing.

You can see that some of the plant got damaged from the overwatering, but if you look in the left half of the picture, you also see a peapod!

The carrots are also getting very serious. We are so tempted to pull one and see where they’re at. We’re going out of town this week, so that will alleviate some of the temptation for a bit, and I think when we get back it will be time to check one out.

There’s more work for me to do out there, but it was hot and I didn’t want to wear myself out. Next time…

Winter BBQ for the win!

So, if I haven’t made it obvious by now, my partner Charlie loves grilling. And when he got a fancy grill for his birthday last May, there was joking talk of shoveling the snow off the deck in the dead of winter and grilling even then.

Well, I didn’t underestimate that sentiment, but I don’t think anyone expected that it would be this much snow, since we’ve had a metric ton. But, he had a hankering for grilled food, and he had the day off for the Lunar New Year, so today, I was treated to a winter BBQ!

Here’s Charlie out on the deck.

(“Smile for the camera, Charlie!” gets us a thumbs up with an oven mitt in lieu of gloves.)

And just to give you an idea of how much snow is on the deck, this is the vantage point of the photographer (me!) from the sliding glass door, trying to keep the cat inside (who for some reason thinks he wants to go out – he doesn’t).

(Charlie ultimately decided to just wade through the snow in his boots instead of shoveling off the deck. It was that kind of day. If we have company for the next winter BBQ, we’ll probably clear it off.)

Anyway, while Charlie was outside in thirty degree weather, I was inside marinating tempeh. Because of some fun (and thankfully temporary) medication switches, I’m really trying to watch my sodium this week, so I decided to step in and make my own marinade. Charlie does an amazing job at this and is usually in charge, but is occasionally a bit more heavy handed with the soy sauce than I’d choose to be.

I pulled out my balsamic vinegar for most of the flavor, then brought in just a bit of soy sauce for balance. And, I was sure to measure so that I knew what I was getting in to (whereas our normal marinade making experiments are usually… “a little of this and a little of that”).

Ingredients

1 brick o’ tempeh (ok, an 8oz package), sliced into 4 “cutlets”
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
a squeeze of fresh lemon – perhaps a teaspoon
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 sprigs fresh rosemary

Directions

Mix the vinegar, soy sauce, oil, lemon, and garlic powder thoroughly in a shallow dish wide enough for all of the tempeh to lie flat in. Let the rosemary, however sad and leggy it may be from lack of adequate sunshine at this point, sit in the bowl for a few minutes to release some flavor. Get the tempeh good and soggy in the marinade, let sit in the fridge for five or ten minutes (or longer, but that’s all I had since the grill was already going) and then flip over, ensuring an even coating. Refrigerate for a few more minutes, then grill until warm through and the edges begin to blacken.

Buying seedlings, but not from a giant corporation.

I’ve decided to buy some seedlings.

*gasp*

I know, I know. This whole time I’ve been talking about starting everything from seed. It’s better to start from seed because then you don’t risk bringing in the diseases and pests that might be hanging around your local Lowe’s or gardening center. Besides, the seedlings at our local Lowe’s looked pretty badly taken care of the last time we were there.

So, what put it in my head to buy seedlings, then?

Well, it’s almost June. June is when our CSA deliveries begin! Yay! We’re excited to have the fresh vegetables come in while my tiny seedlings are still attempting to grow. I went to our CSA’s webpage the other day to see if they’d decided on a start date for our deliveries yet (they haven’t – it all depends on the veggies) and what did I find but the annual heirloom tomato sale.

I’m not really interested in growing tomatoes. We get a ton of gorgeous tomatoes once the share starts coming in, and our friend Justin has been working on growing his tomatoes for months already, so his are going to be fabulous. We’re going to do some veggie swapping with him for sure, assuming that I’m able to get some veggies out of my seedlings.

A little poking around on the website made me realize that they have other seedlings, too, not just tomatoes. Obviously, these are people whose growing practices I support – I can’t wait to eat the food they grow this summer! It’s also a way for me support the farm a bit more since they do so much for the members. We really have one of the best shares around this area, in my opinion.

I am, of course, also a little nervous still about how small some of my seedlings are still, especially the herbs. I’m hoping that they’ll all prosper and be awesome, but buying some seedlings is another way for me to guarantee that we’ll have a crop of veggies in our backyard this year. Charlie and I talked it over a bit, and at the terrific price the CSA was offering – $3.00 a seedling/set of seedlings, depending on the plant, with a 16.5% discount if you buy at least $30 worth, we decided to go for it. (I don’t really know what they’re supposed to cost, but for super organic plants that are leaps and bounds ahead of mine, that are also contributing to the well-being of all the happy veggies I’ll get all summer, it seems quite fair.) They’ll come in 3″ pots and they’ll already be 6-8″ tall!

So what did I buy? Mostly herbs! Our thyme and marjoram are doing ok, but not fantastic, and our rosemary is doing pretty well if not a little spindly. I was planning to start the other herbs from seed outdoors when it got warm, but since the other ones have come up so damn slowly, I decided to secure my awesome herb garden a bit more. I bought five basil seedlings (large leaf Italian variety) – we’re going to be making some awesome pesto to put up for later in the year, two Greek oregano seedlings, one extra German thyme seedling, just in case, and two moss curly parsley seedlings.

And, since I couldn’t help myself, I decided to get two black beauty eggplant seedlings. We grill those suckers all the time in the summer, and probably will even more frequently since Charlie just got a brand new fancy grill for his birthday. I think I’m going to grow those in containers, but I need to do a little bit more research first. I’m hoping that Farmer Rich will be at the pickup on Saturday to give me a bit of advice!

The downside is that we missed the date for the pickup that’s near us, but the upside is that we get to go for a nice drive in the “country” and possibly stop in to see our friends Teresa and Mikey, who live not too far from the plant pickup location and are moving all the way to Texas next week.

Busy, sick, but still growing! (& a calamity explained…)

I’ve been so busy, and then so sick, lately, that I have totally ignored my blog and practically ignored my seeds. I’ve definitely ignored my Gardening for Dummies book, and I need to read more in that to figure out what to do now that my seeds are turning into something!

Charlie and I do a lot of fundraising for AIDS Walk NY, so you’ll see some baking posts coming along soon about those. And then, after our huge yard sale to raise money for AIDS Walk, I was so run down that I went and caught strep throat in addition to the big ol’ flare that I was having of my chronic stuff. Charlie has been diligently putting out my seed tray in the morning, watering the lil guys, and bringing them back in at night, though.

So far, I have not killed off an entire crop of anything. The catnip refused to grow to begin with and I have no idea why, and so did the rosemary, but I had very very few seeds left to plant. I’m not worried about the rosemary because we have a plant started already that’s doing quite well. The other herbs… I admit that I don’t really have any idea what’s going on with them besides that they’re not dead, and that if they were not labeled, I could not tell them apart at this time.

However, the scallions are doing fine, the broccoli finally came up after I re-sowed them again, the kohlrabi are starting to get tiny, tiny true leaves, and my melons are doing fantastic!

I should be proud, right? I’m a new gardener! I’ve never done this before! I even had a huge calamity!

[What calamity?]

Well, you see, I had patiently sowed all of my seeds one Sunday afternoon. I’d saved up my spoons to do it because I knew it would take some energy and I knew it would be asking a lot of my arthritic hands. We prepared the kitchen table so that I could work without the wind blowing anything away. We laid out my peat pot, a spray bottle, and my friendly watering elephant, Harold. (Harold looks like this, but it’s not actually Harold, so you’ll have to see Harold in action another time…)

I carefully planted each seed so delicately. I used a chopstick to pick up those tiny seeds and to drop them into the little homes I’d made for them. Once they were all done, I put the plastic dome on top to keep them warm and humid, and I lovingly taped the packages of seeds closed for the next time I’d want them – perhaps another round of broccoli and kohlrabi in the fall?

Everything was set where it was supposed to be. I’d expressed my concerns about the cat, but was assured… “No, no,” I was told. “He’ll be fine. He’ll leave them alone.”

I went to bed.

The very next morning there were hushed whispers and shuffling about the house. No one wanted to tell me what had happened.

But I knew. I knew that the cat had knocked over my seed tray. He spilled everything out. He ruined the spoons I had wasted and could not get back, and I had to save some more to do it another day. And it was days before I had the energy to do it all over again.

This, I swore at the cat, was worse than the time that he puked on my new flip flops. I mumbled at him some more as I refilled the trays with the organic seed filler. I conceded that although this was bad, it was not as bad as when I had just moved in with Charlie, and he, the cat, had left a dead baby bird on the floor of our bedroom, and I was the one to discover it.

Yeah… that was worse than having to re-do the seed trays, even if there wasn’t really enough rosemary left to plant, even if I might be short on seeds in the fall, and even if we do have rogue seeds popping up in odd places from time to time… and it’s usually thyme.

Coming soon: Why did I go organic? And how the hell did I manage it with the service I got at Lowe’s???

Lentils for Lamb Shepherd’s Pie

Finally updated with a picture! It’s not the most gorgeous thing to photograph, but it tastes amazing!

When our vegan friend Milo from California was living in New York for a few months, he came to our house often. We made some righteous rice and beans on numerous occasions, and maybe had a stirfry once or twice, but we were looking for something more innovative one night, so I came up with this. I remembered seeing a jar of red lentils in my cabinet at the time, so I figured I could substitute them for the meat that’s usually found in a traditional shepherd’s pie.

When we made this originally, I did most of the research, and Charlie did most of the cooking, and we all (me, Charlie, my sister, and Milo) did lots of eating. This recipe was delicious, and the portions were hearty. We all had seconds, and Milo and my sister each took a portion to work the next day. It was great for us for four hungry people and leftovers, so if you want a less serious amount, I’d suggest cutting it in half. The yield was about two 9-inch square casserole dishes.

One of these days I’m going to try to convert this recipe for my crockpot, because I think it would be amazing, even if it came out a little… less neat? Heheh. I’ll update when I do.

Here’s what it looks like during the assembly process.

Ingredients

1 cup of red lentils, soaked in cold water for 40 minutes
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 medium carrots, chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
1/2 package sliced mushrooms
1 small can of corn (or 1 cup of frozen corn)
[1Tbsp of finely chopped fresh parsley - we didn't have this ingredient, but I'm sure it's tasty]
1 28oz canned of whole tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon of dried rosemary
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
1 1/2 cups of water
1 1/2 tsp of sea salt
2 Tbsp olive oil

Special equipment: baking casseroles or ramekins

6 large yellow potatoes, peeled and quartered
1-2 tablespoons earth balance
1 tsp of sea salt
Cheddar cheese for grating (optional, ours was vegan)

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 350F.

Drain the lentils. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Add the celery, carrots, and corn. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the salt and chopped tomatoes to the mixture. Stir well and then simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the water and the red lentils, then lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until liquid reduces. (The recipe called for 25 minutes of simmer, but since we made our mashed potatoes vegan, they were a bit drier so we wanted our lentil mixture to be wetter, and this adjustment came out just fine.)

Add the herbs and stir well. Taste the mixture and add more salt if necessary.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes until soft (about 20 minutes).

Drain the potatoes and then add olive oil and salt. Set aside.

Once the liquid from the lentils has reduced, spoon them into the ramekins and then gently spread the mashed potato on top. Grate on the cheese, if using, and then bake pies in the oven for 20 minutes or until the potato has formed a crust. If not using cheese, cover with aluminum foil for the first 15 minutes of cooking so the potatoes don’t dry out too much.

Remove the pies from the oven and then serve. To reheat the pies, simply put them in the oven for 10-15 minutes on 350F.

Serve with a mixed green salad.

Make-Ahead Mac&Cheese with Herbs and Chard

I’ve been trying to get ahead on making meals for the freezer again, for nights when I’m not feeling well, for nights when Charlie and I are tired, for nights when Charlie doesn’t get home from school until ten o’clock at night. I’ve reached out to some of my friends to help me fill my freezer, but there is a space sometimes between good intentions and executions, so I’m trying to get at least a few in there on my own.

So yesterday, in my infinite wisdom of completely overdoing things and being far too tired after, I decided to make some meals, even though I’d already prepared a variation on Mock Morrocan Lentils and Rice for dinner (and leftovers), and even though I’d already made cinnamon raisin yeast bread in the morning.

I went with macaroni and cheese, since it’s delicious and comforting, and we had cheese and pasta in the house. I don’t feel that a meal is complete without a vegetable, though, so I had to throw something in there. Usually, for us, it’s broccoli, but we were totally out of that. I did, however, have some dark green chard with bright red stems that came in this week’s farm share.

I wondered if it had been done before, and some googling told me that it had. I only looked at one recipe, and it suggested that I boil the chard first. I was going for simplicity, though, not to mention that I just hate when veggies are wimpy, limp, and lacking nutrition. The gooey sauce that I make will surely soften the chard just from being on it, and the time in the oven should take care of the rest. I risked it and just heaped it in, shredded into small pieces.

I’m guessing that this is going to make about 4 generous servings (two nights of dinner for Charlie and I), or, more likely, 4 regular servings plus two lunchtime portions, especially if it’s served with a salad or something.

Ingredients

1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon sage
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cups chopped, de-stemmed chard (or spinach, kale, or similar dark greens)
1 box whole wheat rotini pasta
2 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded*
4 oz jack cheese, shredded*
4 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded*
*I often don’t bother shredding, as it’s time-consuming. I’ll just quickly cut up a block of cheese into small chunks or strips.

Directions

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Keep warm.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly, for about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk, and cook for 5 minutes or until thickened, whisking constantly. Stir in about 3/4 of the shredded cheese, continuing to stir until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth. (If the cheese isn’t melting, turn up the heat a tiny bit at a time.) Add the thyme, rosemary, garlic powder, sage, and fresh parsley, and stir over the heat for another minute or two.

Remove from heat. Add the salt and black pepper and stir, then add the pasta and stir until coated.

Now, take your freezer containers of choice, and lightly grease them. I recommend disposable pie pans, since I was able to get a huge stack of them for a couple of bucks one time, and I still have a ton left.

Scoop a bit of mac&cheese into the bottom of the pan, just so that it covers the bottom. Then, take half of your shredded chard (approximately a large handful) and plunk it down in the middle of the mac&cheese. Now, pile more mac&cheese on top, completely hiding the chard. Take the remaining shredded cheese or cheese chunks and poke some into the mixture and spread some on top. Repeat with the second pie pan.

(If you’re not making yours ahead, you can just put it all in any old oven-safe casserole dish that you lightly greased.)

Cover it tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil and plop it in the freezer.

When you’re ready to eat it, let it thaw for a while, then pop it in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot all the way through. I recommend leaving the tin foil on until the last 10 minutes or so, otherwise your top cheese might be burnt and your top pasta might get dried out.

Tobarnut Soup

Tobarnut Soup is Tomato, Barley, and Butternut Squash Soup.

[I should have posted this weeks ago! Oops!]

We had some tomatoes that were accumulating from our farm share, despite the fact that there has been a terrible blight that has affected the tomatoes in our area this season. Somehow, farmer Rich has managed to get us a variety of tomatoes, including some lovely heirloom tomatoes which we really enjoyed. I had about four large tomatoes (three red and one yellowy-orange) and two small yellow tomatoes, so I was plotting a tomato soup. When the butternut squash arrived this week alongside a few of the large tomatoes, I started imagining putting the two together. I’ve got a great creamy tomato soup recipe that I’m sure I’ll post here one day that I finally got around to posting, but for now, I’ve decided to combine tomatoes, roasted butternut squash, and barley for another slow cooker soup.

It may seem like our house is overrun with soup these days, but I like to put the soup in little individual containers and put them in the freezer. We’ve also had pretty much the entire household with some kind of cough and sniffles, though we’re not sure if it’s allergies or what. Either way, soup has been a very welcome meal.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium butternut squash
2 tablespoons flour
3 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
3/4 cup barley
1 tablespoon fresh basil
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 teaspoons fresh parsley
1 bay leaf
1 cup light cream or milk (optional)
1/4 cup or so grated parmesan cheese (optional)
Salt and pepper

Directions

Cut butternut squash lengthwise and place face up on a lightly greased baking sheet. Roast the butternut squash in a 400 degree oven for about 30-60 minutes (depending on the size and shape of your squash) or until soft enough to scoop.

Let cool, then scoop out the part with the seeds and discard. Remove the skin. Mash the flesh, either with a fork, a potato masher, or a blender.

I’ve made this soup twice now, and the first time I made it where I blended the tomatoes before they went in, and the second time I didn’t. If you want a very smooth soup, you should do this, but otherwise, don’t worry about it – being in a slow cooker will break it down a bunch.

Toss the olive oil, onions, and flour together in the bottom of the slowcooker. Ideally, you’d do this in a medium sized pot, heating the oil on medium heat, then adding the onions, cooking for about 3-5 minutes or until soft, then adding the flour, stirring constantly, cooking about one minute, not allowing it to brown. But, since this is a slowcooker, and I was in a hurry and didn’t want to wash another pot, I just threw it all in and it worked out just fine.

Add the onion mixture to the slow cooker. Pour the chopped (or blended) tomatoes over the onion mixture and stir well. Add the mashed butternut squash. Stir well.

Stir the barley, basil, rosemary, bay leaf, and parsley in. Add a bit of salt and pepper, but you may need more later.

Set the slow cooker to “low” and check on it in about 5-6 hours.

When the barley is soft, probably after about 6 hours in the slow cooker, be sure to remove the bay leaf, then add the parmesan cheese (optional). Add the milk or cream*, if desired, and stir. Taste to adjust for more salt and pepper if needed.

*The barley tends to soak up a lot of liquid even once the soup is done cooking, so for my freezer portions, I omitted the milk, and I’ll add it back when I heat the soup.

Fragranced Whole Wheat Bread

Served here with butter and honey, and raspberry jam, and tea.

I’ve made brownies and cookies and cupcakes galore in my new KitchenAid Mixer, but I haven’t baked bread since before I herniated some discs in my back in July, as I was slowly easing my way back into baking, and baking bread was usually part of an all day baking fest for me.

The other day, however, I finally got around to making some. We were supposed to go visit our friends Kai and Sarah in the city on Saturday, and I was going to bring a loaf for us to have with dinner, or just for them to have, but unfortunately, I ran out of spoons, and Charlie was tired, too. It was a rainy day, and we’d been trying to finish getting our room organized and reassembled after painting it a few weeks ago. Sadly, our dinner date didn’t happen, but the bread did.

Well, I will definitely be making bread a lot more frequently now that I have this mixer! I knew that getting it would help me when my hands hurt, but I never imagined how much. The dough hook does a wonderful job of kneading the dough for you, saving my arthritic hands from doing a whole lot of work. Of course, you can still make this recipe if you’re kneading with your good ol’ hands attached to your body. It will just take you a few minutes longer than it took me.

A few notes about the recipe:

• Since this recipe calls for scalded milk, I suggest trying something interesting like an herb infusion. There’s instructions how to do that below.

• While you could use entirely whole wheat flour, that can make a reall dense loaf. The bread flour has a higher gluten content, making it a bit chewier, and adding a bit of white flour makes the loaf slightly lighter.

• Why do I have to scald the milk? Can’t I just dump it in?

KitchenSavvy tells us that there’s some evidence that some of the proteins in milk might make your bread not rise as well, so it’s better to go ahead and do it. Besides, then you get to add the yummy herb infusion!

Ingredients

*Makes two loaves. I made one round in a 9″ pie tin, and one traditional loaf shaped.

5 teaspoons active dry yeast dissolved in 4 tablespoons hot water

2 2/3 cups milk
1/2 cup oil (optional… I’m fairly sure I forgot this and mine turned out great, though your bread will last longer if you include this)

1/2 cup molasses (honey is also ok if you don’t have molasses)
5 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 cup bread flour
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
a few stalks of a fresh herb (optional – I used rosemary)

Directions

First, scald the milk by heating it in a heavy-bottomed pan on low heat. If using an herb, add it to the milk now. Stir it occasionally until it is steaming and small bubbles appear around the edges, but don’t let it boil.

Strain the milk and let it cool.

In your stand mixer (or a large nonmetallic bowl), combine the yeast/hot water mixture, whole wheat flour, bread flour, white flour, oil, molasses, salt, and cooled, scalded, strained milk. If using a stand mixer, use the dough hook to knead for about 4 minutes or until the mixture is smooth. (If kneading by hand, knead for about 6-8 minutes.)

Divide the dough into two parts. Place in two separate lightly greased nonmetallic bowls and cover with a slightly damp towel. Let the dough rise for about 60 minutes in a warm location.

Lightly grease the container (such as a loaf pan, but I also used a 9″ pie pan), then shape each loaf into each pan. Cover loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap. Let rise for another 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F for 20 minutes, then tent with aluminum foil. Bake for another 15-20 minutes depending on the shape of the loaf, for a total of 35-40 minutes. King Arthur’s Flour recommends the nifty trick of testing it for doneness by removing it from the pan and tapping it on the bottom. If it sounds hollow, it’s done!

Cool on a wire rack and store in a plastic bag.

Autumn’s Arrived Risotto

I’m digging into the archives since this time last year I was unemployed and cooking all the time, so lots of great fall recipes were developed during that time.

I absolutely love butternut squash, and I tried it with my first attempt at risotto ever. I didn’t really look at a recipe for it, I just received instructions over the phone and went with it.

*Note: This makes so much risotto. You’ll probably want to cut the recipe in half, unless you’re planning to drop off take-out containers to everyone you know (which is what I had to do, in addition to eating risotto all the time for a week…). You can also make Arancini di Riso with the leftovers.

Ingredients

6-8 cups broth (I used 4 cups worth of Trader Joe’s Butternut Squash and Apple Soup, and 4 cups of vegetable broth from bullion)
5 tbsp butter or soy butter, divided into 4 Tbsp and 1 Tbsp
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cups butternut squash, peeled, and finely diced
2 cups arborio rice
1 cup dry white wine (such as Sauvignon Blanc, but we used Pinot Grigio since that’s what I wanted to drink)
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
2 teaspoons dried rosemary (fresh if you’ve got it, increase to about double)
2 teaspoons dried thyme (fresh if you’ve got it, increase to about double)
Fresh black pepper and salt

Directions

When you’re ready to go with the risotto, make sure everything is prepped. Keep the pot of stock warm on one burner, then, in a large pot, toss in your the larger quantity of butter, and cook your onions and butternut squash on medium-high heat until the butternut squash is not rock hard, about 5-6 minutes.

Add the risotto, and cook for about a minute, stirring continuously. Next, add the wine, though you may want to do it a little at a time. With risotto, you want to add a little bit of liquid at a time and then stir it until all of the liquid is absorbed.

Once the wine is absorbed, add the stock, one small ladle at a time, stirring constantly. Once the risotto is no longer clear and appears fluffy, you can taste it to see if it is the texture that you desire. I prefer it a bit al dente, but others like it softer.

When you’re nearing the end stages, add the rosemary and thyme, and stir until it’s distributed. At the last moment, add the parmesan cheese and remaining butter, then salt, if necessary, and pepper. Serve with more cheese and pepper.

Epic Brunch with Bo and Bendi

Today’s brunch: Cereal Coated French Toast, I-Think-I-Was-Dreaming Sweet Potato Browns, Raspberry Sorbet Bellinis, Vegetarian Bacon.

As I mentioned in my last post, we had Bo and Bendi as visitors last night, and Sunday was to be a day of Epic Brunch and either movies or board games.

Charlie slept very late today, so Bo and I left Bendi to entertain himself and ran around to different stores gathering the ingredients we’d need. Since then, we’ve been cooking and drooling in anticipation of the wonderful creations that are about to happen.

Cereal Coated French Toast

We saw this on a TV program one time on the Food Network. The owner of a cute little restaurant somewhere far away from here made it, and it was far away enough that we would never end up there, so we decided that one day we would have to make it ourselves.

I’m usually not a fan of french toast because most places make it too eggy, and honestly, if I wanted eggs and toast, I would make an omelette with a side of toast. So, if you want your french toast to be eggy, you’ll want to add an extra egg to this recipe.

Ingredients

5 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 loaf thick sliced soft white bread
4 cups quasi-crushed Honey Graham Oh’s
vegetable oil for cooking

Directions

Beat eggs, milk, and vanilla together. Stir in cinnamon.

Heat a pan to medium before adding the fat. This allows the pores of the pan to open up to accept the oil so that things don’t stick. Once the pan is hot, add a little bit of oil, coating the pan.

Dip a slice of bread in the egg mixture, coating thoroughly. Next, dip the bread in the crushed cereal (you may want to use a separate plate for this so the rest of the cereal doesn’t get soggy in the process). Transfer the slice to the pan and cook on each side until brown, probably about 3 minutes per side.

We’re serving with blueberries on top! You may want to serve with whipped cream.

I-Think-I-Was-Dreaming Sweet Potato Browns

These, I think, actually came to me in a dream. Last night, before bed, we’d talked about making the french toast and vegetarian bacon, and sometime in my sleep I came up with the idea of making hash browns, too. Usually Charlie makes some delicious oven potatoes, but in my dream, I imagined sweet potato hash browns, of the shredded variety. When I awoke and proposed my idea, Bo was all about it, and we modified it a bit to include a variety of white potatoes and sweet potatoes, with rosemary and paprika. Instead of frying them, which is higher in fat and usually turns out very messy, we decided to bake them in the oven.

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato, peeled and shredded
1 large russet potato, peeled and shredded
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons rosemary, ground with mortar and pestle
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with a sheet of parchment or sprayed lightly with olive oil.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mixing thoroughly so that the potatoes are coated in the oil and egg. Form patties about 1 1/2 inches across,

The patties will be somewhat loose, but the egg will help bind it together. Transfer it back and forth between your hands a few times to smush it together.

Bake until the edges are brown, flipping once in the middle, possibly adding 2-3 minutes of low broil at the end for extra crispiness.

Makes about 24 patties.

Raspberry Sorbet Bellinis

Ingredients

Extra Dry Champagne
Ciao Bella Raspberry Sorbet, or other premium fruit sorbet of your choice

Directions

Bo likes to stir up the puree and then top it with the champagne, but I like to let the sorbet just melt into my glass, in hopes of getting a mouthful of cool, undissolved refreshment. So for my version, pour a glass of champagne, and top with about a tablespoon of sorbet. Let the sorbet melt into the bubbly for a delightful brunch treat. Fancy glasses optional – we served ours in these glass mugs that we got at a garage sale in Virginia for ten cents each.

Beer Beet Risotto

I knew that today was the day I would finally use the beets from our farmshare, and I would make beet risotto! My friends Anne and Neil have made me beet risotto before, and it’s delicious, even though I’m normally fairly intimidated about beets.

Don’t be intimidated about beets, by the way. Sure, they gooze pink stuff all over your hands and your knives and your counter, but they taste somewhere between a carrot and a parsnip and a squash and all those other root vegetables. They just look awesome. Yeahhh, the presliced ones in the NYC deli salad bars… I frown on those, too, but if someone offers you something like beet risotto made from farm share baby beets! Don’t turn it down!

Anyways, today was the day, though, and I went home from work determined. I realized when I was on my way out the door, however, that I didn’t have any wine in the house, and that I didn’t have time to stop and get any (I was on borrowed time with the car I was driving).

I stopped in at the convenience store on the way home, hoping that they might be classy enough to have wine, but alas, they weren’t. They did, however, have a wide variety of beers for me to drown my wine-less risotto sorrows in.

Hark! I bought a six pack of Yeungling, and after I had it in my hands, I considered subsituting the beer for the wine. Beets are very earthy, and so is beer. I decided to run with it, thinking it crazy and brilliant, and when I googled it when I got home, it turned out that this person had similar thoughts.

By far the best part of this recipe, as I learned from Anne and Neil, is that you get to make these with the leftovers, which are these sort of risotto balls with breadcrumbs and cheese stuffed inside, then fried! Ohmygod doesn’t even cover it!

So here’s what I did tonight… (and got super intense colors from!)

Ingredients

1 cup risotto
1 bottle of beer (I used Yeungling)
4 cups of vegetable stock
1 onion, finely chopped
4-5 garlic scapes (again, they came in our farm share – if you don’t have scapes, feel free to sub about 2 cloves of garlic)
about a cup and a half of beets (mine were baby beets from the farm share – I’ll tell you how to prepare them later)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish (optional)
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary (our farm share herb of the week)
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 large pinch of nutmeg
salt & pepper to taste

Directions

So, the first thing you need to do is roast the beets. Set the oven to 350. Wash the beets and trim off any stems, but don’t bother peeling them – they’ll be much easier to peel after they’re cooked. Put them in a foil packed and cook them for about an hour.

This is where I did all my prep work because once you start cooking risotto, you don’t really want to stop stirring it. So, I did all my chopping, etc.

When the beets are done (you can stick a fork in them easily), let them cool, then pull the skins off. Chop them into small pieces, about 1/4 inch thick.

When you’re ready to go with the risotto, make sure everything is prepped. Keep the pot of stock warm on one burner, then, in a large pot, toss in your olive oil, and cook your garlic and onions on medium-high heat until the onions are soft, about 3 minutes.

Add the risotto, and cook for about a minute, stirring continuously. Next, add the beer, though you should probably do this in two or even three doses. With risotto, you want to add a little bit of liquid at a time and then stir it until all of the liquid is absorbed. After the beer is in there, it’s probably a good time to add the beets. Watch closely as they turn your pot from white to pale pink to a shocking fuschia.

Once the beer is absorbed, add the stock, one small ladle at a time, stirring constantly. Once the risotto is no longer clear and appears fluffy, you can taste it to see if it is the texture that you desire. I prefer it a bit al dente, but others like it softer.

When you’re nearing the end stages, add the nutmeg and tarragon, and stir until it’s distributed. Pull the leaves off the sprigs of rosemary and discard the stem. Stir the leaves into the pot. At the last moment, add the parmesan cheese, then salt, if necessary, and pepper. Serve with more cheese and pepper.