Quick post to share a wonderful recipe I found online. With only 3 Tbsp of oil in 2 loaves, I thought for sure this would be too dry, but it wasn’t! I did add an extra banana that I had frozen. I only had a cup of blueberries, so I threw in a cup of raspberries. I forgot to add the pecans to the batter, so I spread them over the top and pushed them down a little.
They baked much faster than the time in this recipe, so check them super early
I just love the movie “Big Night”. It just makes me happy. I decided to have my own big night with the “kids”. Olivia had never seen the movie, so we started early, and made “A Long Day, and a Big Night” out of it!
The kids arrived with a bouquet of daffodils! For me? Why, yes!
I started with my homemade ricotta cheese.
All you need is a gallon of whole organic milk, and 1/3 cup plus two Tbsp white vinegar
ABOVE: Curds and whey
We invited the kids to take a ride with us up to La Conner to see the Daffodil fields in bloom. I knew it would give the mixture some time to completely separate out the curds from the whey.
ABOVE: Last year’s daffodils in La Conner
ABOVE: Sean and Oliva in La Conner
La Conner is a lovely little town. I blogged it last year too.
ABOVE: Squinting eyes and in mid-sentence. Yes, I’m usually in mid-sentence.
“Good Lord, what is that big bright thing up there in the sky?”
ABOVE: Mark pointing out the mussels to Sean and Olivia.
PLEASE CLICK BELOW IF YOU’D LIKE TO SEE THE VERYPICTURE HEAVY FOOD POST (20 MORE PHOTOS TO BE EXACT)…
I really love Buff Orpingtons, and I wish I had started my flock with the Buffs. Sunday we drove to the feed store just to “look” at the chicks. We left with these little gals. They are just adorable.
Last night I had to move them from the garage into the den. I realized Mark had used the wrong lamp socket with the heat lamp bulb for the chicks. After a midnight hunt in the shop, we had no luck locating the porcelain socket–which is really important to prevent fire. I knew the chicks couldn’t stay in the garage and have enough heat from a 100 watt light bulb, so I brought them in and hung the lamp with a simple 100 watt light bulb–so far, it has worked very well. The brooder is about 90 degrees. I was awakened by chick peeps on and off throughout the night. Today I feel like the mother of newborns. Thank God breast feeding isn’t required. I’m exhausted!
I’m not naming any of these gals until I’m quite certain there are no cockerels in the bunch.
For those who followed my first time experience with the original flock, you will remember my son, Sean, naming one of my girls “Sean Jr”, and “she” turned out to be a little rooster! Needless to say, Sean is not allowed to name any of these chicks. I think it was a curse!
More chicky butts than faces in this photo, but they were trying to stay warm until we set up the lamp!
In food news:
I tried a no-knead recipe for a Ciabatta bread. I found the recipe here at “Food Wishes” an excellent food blog! He even made a video showing how to make it– step by step.
I had only one problem–my bread stuck to my pan–big time! I mean it was like I had super glued the stuff down–ripped off half the crust trying to get it off the pan. I’ve made a lot of bread in my lifetime and never had that happen before. I’m baking it again, and this time I’m going to oil the pan and then add the cornmeal–maybe I’ll slip some parchment down too!
That said, let me tell you, this bread tastes GREAT! Look at the texture…amazing stuff, without the kneading. Granted kneading can be a wonderful meditative experience, but when you don’t have time to, try this one.
Ciabatta Bread looks like a fluffy slipper–it is flatter than a regular loaf of bread.
It is thicker than this photo seems to show. I really enjoyed it. The crust was crispy and the interior was just right.
Oh, I do have a bread stone in the oven and I used my convection bake setting for half the time–which may be how I created a super glue base? If you have a clue, please clue me!
NOTE: The following post is from an Easter 2007 blogI posted on my Live Journal. I want to share it here with new readers, and to remind some of my regular readers of some Easter Dinner ideas.
I have included the Easter Egg Bread and the Almond Pear Tart recipes. I will get the other recipes up, as time permits. In the meantime, you can find the Flourless Chocolate Cake and the Mandarin Sorbet in Giuliano Hazan’s cookbook.
Easter 2007
This Easter I ended up making too many desserts. I look through cookbooks all of the time, and when I see things I want to make, I tell myself I should wait until a holiday. I don’t think I’ll wait anymore.
ABOVE: Italian Easter Bread
I have wanted to make this bread for years, but never made enough time to squeeze it into an Easter menu. It is time consuming, but it was worth it. I served it the next day, and I would recommend only serving this the same day you bake it. EASTER EGG BREAD RING (Italian/ Greek)
5 eggs
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon KOSHER salt (use Kosher-otherwise it may be too salty)
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup mixed candied fruit
1/3 cup chopped blanched almonds
1/2 teaspoon anise seed
2 tablespoons melted shortening
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon whole milk
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons multicolored sprinkles (jimmies
Color the 5 eggs with egg dye. In a large mixing bowl, blend the white sugar, salt, and yeast well with 1 cup of the flour.
In a saucepan, combine 2/3 cup milk and butter, heating slowly until liquid is warm and butter is melted. Pour the milk into the dry ingredients and beat 125 strokes with a wooden spoon. Add eggs and 1/2 cup flour or enough to make a thick batter. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes. Stir in enough flour to make a ball of dough that draws away from the sides of the bowl.
Turn out onto a floured board and knead for about 10 minutes, working in additional flour to overcome stickiness. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and put in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Meanwhile, combine the fruit, nuts, and anise seed.
Punch down the dough and return it to a lightly floured board. Knead in the fruit mixture, keeping the syrupy pieces dusted with flour until they are worked into the dough. Divide the dough in half.
Carefully roll each piece into a 24-inch rope–the fruit and nuts will make this slightly difficult. Loosely twist the two ropes together and form a ring on a greased baking sheet. Pinch the ends together well. Brush the dough with melted shortening. Push aside the twist to make a place for each egg. Push eggs down carefully as far as possible. Cover the bread with wax paper and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Bake the bread in a preheated 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in a twist comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool.
Once the bread is cool, drizzle the icing on top between the eggs, and decorate with colored sprinkles. To make icing: mix together confectioners’ sugar, 1 tablespoon whole milk, and vanilla.
I decided to do two baking sheets of roasted veggies. It was a way to have an assortment of vegetables and cook them all at once. The tray not shown had baby reds, zucchini, carrots, sweet onions, garlic, and herbs.
The Pear Upside Down Cake is truly one of my favorite cakes. The recipe calls for almond paste and fresh Bosc pears. This is the second time I’ve made it and one I’ll make again and again.
I also made my first flourless chocolate cake. The recipe is from Hazan’s book and this is a cake only a true chocolate lover/ worshipper can eat. I used semi sweet chocolates from Germany.
“Rich” is an understatement.
ABOVE: Mandarin Orange Sorbet (made with Prosecco)
If you like sorbet, you have to try this recipe –again Hazan’s–for Mandarin Orange Sorbet. It calls for a cup of Prosecco and fresh squeezed mandarin oranges. This is a new favorite of mine!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend–holiday or no.
WINTER VEGETABLE SOUP-Garnished with cranberry goat cheese and scallions
I enjoy food. I seriously enjoy eating a great meal. How I define a good meal, depends on my mood. Sometimes a slice of pepperoni pizza and an Italian chop salad is a great meal. One of my favorite meals is spaghetti and meatballs–just like my Great Grandma DeFranco used to make–oh, is that ever a great meal!
As the depth of winter reaches in and tries to snuff out my light, I know I need to eat more vegetables. I don’t know if anybody else experiences this, but I know I do.
There are times when I’m going forward with my day, minding my own darn business, when all of a sudden I have a beet attack! Seriously, I crave beets. Not only that, but once I get my hands on some beets, I eat them so fast I have to remind myself to stop and breathe! Obviously, something in my body is craving the nutrients of the beet, and I need to pay attention to it.
Every now and again, I get these little whole food cravings: carrots, curried soups, sauteed spinach with pecans, chard with garlic and crushed peppers, fruit salad, pomegranates, sweet potatoes with butter–the list goes on and on.
In the middle of writing this, I have succumbed to another craving–avocado with oranges and vinaigrette. I just sliced up an entire avocado, chopped an orange, mixed them together and sprinkled them with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and salt and pepper. See? I feel better now.
I was having a vegetable soup craving the other day, and I found a recipe at Epicurious.com that looked quite appetizing. I cooked it last night and served it with my homemade honey wheat bread. It would also be wonderful with a roast chicken dinner.
This soup is vegetarian, but you can replace the vegetable stock with chicken stock, which I did.
Leave off the goat cheese and you have an amazing vegan soup.
This soup calls for: 1 c. chopped: turnip, sweet potato, butternut squash, granny smith apple, carrots, and onion(I doubled and added 2 cups of each)
Also, 3 Tbsp olive oil ( I doubled it to 6 Tbsp) 5 cups chicken stock (I doubled and used only 8 or 9 cups) 1/4 cup maple syrup and cayenne pepper to taste. I used 1/2 tsp for the double batch–it was indeed spicy!
I thought buying organic vegetables and maple syrup was going to put me over the top and make the cost too high, but I ended up with enough vegetables to double the recipe! I didn’t double the maple syrup, as I found it sweet enough with the 1/4 cup. For less than $12, I had a huge pot of vegetable soup that will last us all week.
I might experiement with this soup by adding curry and coconut milk or cinnamon and cloves.
Of course, no soup is complete without a great loaf of homemade bread!
Allow me to start, by saying, I’m not a fan of wheat bread. I’m a white bread gal. Seriously. I’m trying to acquire a taste for wheat bread because I’m told it is so much healthier than white bread. I’m not about to give up my Artisan bread or baguettes, Italian bread, or any white bread for that matter. I am, however, open minded, and I have wanted to try this bread recipe every since I watched the documentary, “How to Cook Your Life”. I went right out and bought The Tassajara bread book too!
This is the first Honey Wheat bread I’ve ever loved! I’m not kidding, I love this stuff. Now, granted, I did add two cups of regular white flour–yes, I know that is cheating, but there is a whopping 6 cups of whole wheat flour in this recipe as well.
These babies were bursting out of my large bread pans!
The next day, it still sliced and tasted beautiful!
Want to see the Tassajara Wheat Bread process and read the extensive instructions with photos? Click below…
Yesterday I made Alton Brown’s Soft Pretzel recipe, and Mark and I love them!
These are the best soft pretzels I’ve ever eaten, and I’ve eaten a lot of soft pretzels. These are nothing like the mall or movie theater pretzels. They have those nice cracks and a lot of flavor.
These are fun to make, but they do take some time. You dip them into a bath of boiling water and baking soda before baking. It makes them nice and moist.
I used sea salt because I didn’t have “pretzel” salt on hand, and it worked great. I kept two plain and brushed them with butter and dipped in cinnamon and sugar–very yummy!
After watching (and enjoying) the documentary, How to Cook Your Life featuring Zen Priest Edward Espe Brown, I couldn’t wait to buy the Tassajara Bread Book!
I found out it had been updated over the years, and I was lucky enough to find the latest edition.
I’m excited to bake some of the recipes, and since the weather is cooler this week in the Pacific Northwest, I may give it a whirl.
In case you haven’t heard of the film, here is the trailer:
Oh, and in keeping with my thrift shop nerdiness, I found this very cool retro Salton electric bread warmer, and I can hardly wait to use it. I’ve sold a few of these on Ebay, but I have never found one that had a blue and white checkered cover. Usually they have the God awful gold, orange, or brown colors.
This will be nice for keeping muffins, bread, and rolls warm on the buffet…
Last week I didn’t feel like cooking a big meal, so I threw together a pot of soup. I made up a recipe using a few things from the garden and my pantry. I think I’ll call it Angelnina’s Garden Soup. Sometimes I make a huge batch of marinara sauce and freeze it in individual containers. I pulled out a pint to use as a base in the soup–I make my marinara pretty darn spicy with crushed red peppers. I also used 2 qts of chicken stock (If you don’t have any homemade, grab a few boxes at Trader Joes). In a little olive oil I cooked a little onion, celery, carrots, and potatoes before tossing them in the pot. I was grabbing things left and right from the garden and pantry: kale, escarole, zucchini, yellow squash, garbanzo beans–everything went right into the pot! I boiled some pasta and added freshly grated parmesan reggiano .
As with many soups, it tasted better the next day.
I served the soup with bread from the book “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes”. I’ve posted photos of the basic recipe, but a few days ago I baked these two loaves of the Italian Semolina Bread. I gave one to my son, Sean, but I haven’t heard back from him yet on whether he liked it or not. Mark and I love it!
I baked my second loaf today. I haven’t cut into it yet, but the crust is even better looking this time. I made a few changes: I slit after rising–I had to let it rise for almost an hour this time. I set my oven to convection bake at 425 degrees for 45 minutes prior to baking. I still used the pizza stone and cup of a boiling water for steam. After fifteen mintues of convection at 425 degrees, I quickly switched my oven to regular bake cycle at 450 degrees for another fifteen minutes. I can see the crust is crackling (I shouldn’t have kept tapping it Looks like a winner. I’ll let you know how it tastes later.
Be sure to click on “UPDATED SECOND LOAF” link on bottom of page to see how the second loaf turned out!
I’m still in a state of shock this morning. I found a book at a thrift store titled, “The Splendid Table“ by Lynne Rosetto Kasper. I had heard of the author on NPR. I was excited to find such a great book at a thrift store and I couldn’t wait to take it home and comb through it. I always go online and look up the books I buy and check out the author’s bio. I came across her web site which recommended a recipe for artison bread in five minutes. More research led to the book I will be purchasing today:
If you enjoy great bread–run to the bookstore NOW! The recipe allows you to mix flour, salt, yeast, and water to make a dough that rises for a few hours on the counter and then goes into the refrigerator to use at your leisure for up to two weeks. I have only made my first loaf, and there is plenty of dough leftover-I predict a few more loaves of bread and maybe a pizza in the next week or so.
When you’re ready for fresh baked bread –simply load your hands up with flour, cut off a grapefruit size piece of dough from your container of dough, form it (if you haven’t made rounds before, you may need to see a video for this part) and place it on a pizza peel you have covered in corn meal to rise for about 40 minutes (I allowed mine to rise 60 minutes in the warmest part of my home). Preheat your oven to 450 degrees for 20 minutes (or halfway through the rising time) with a pizza stone on the middle rack and a broiler pan on the bottom rack–to be filled with a cup of very hot water when you slide your risen bread dough into the oven onto the stone. Slit the top of your risen dough with a serrated knife (dip knife in flour to keep it from sticking), sprinkle some flour over top, and bake! 30 minutes later, you should get something that looks like the photo at the top of the page.
Adapted from “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007)
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough
Cornmeal.
1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).
2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.
3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.
4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.
Yield: 4 loaves.
I made a sandwich today and the bread is just like the great artisan breads you buy at the bakery!
NOTES FROM ANGELNINA: Make sure you use the pizza stone and add the hot water right after you slide dough oven. I do not have a pizza peel, so I used a small flat edged cookie sheet which I practically piled cornmeal on to make sure it wouldn’t stick no matter what ( I mean heap it on!). Then I grabbed my baker’s scraper just in case it needed a shove–it didn’t and slid right off. Again, I had loads of flour and cornmeal on the bottom to ensure proper fast slip off pan. Some people use parchment paper, but I haven’t tried it yet.
I used Gold Medal Bread Flour–so far nothing beats this flour for me, so I didn’t want to take a risk.
ABOVE: Mark pointing out the mussels to Sean and Olivia.
More chicky butts than faces in this photo, but they were trying to stay warm until we set up the lamp!
Ciabatta Bread looks like a fluffy slipper–it is flatter than a regular loaf of bread.
