I make bread. With my hands. Some people are put off by hand made bread because they think it’s difficult.  I disagree.  It takes time and patience, but the end result is well worth the wait.  So, I’m sharing the bread with you.  It’s called heavy white bread because it will make your butt heavy.  I’m sorry to break it to you.  But let me share one more thing…. Once you taste it you wont care.  Your butt could get as big as the state of Michigan and all you’ll be able to concentrate on is the taste.  Who cares if your rear takes up 3 zip codes.  Try the bread.

This is what you’ll need:

• 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 6 cups bread flour

Take your bowl of warm water and dissolve the sugar, add your yeast and give it a good stir.

Patience is the most important requirement for making bread.  If you rush it you’ll ruin it.  Yeast is a very finicky character.  Give it time to “proof” (I have no idea whatsoever what that means).  In layman’s terms let it sit in the bowl till it becomes really frothy like this.

Once you reach that point add your salt and oil and give it a good stir.

Grab a large bowl.  This is where we’ll be adding our flour and making the magic happen.  Make sure it’s big enough.

Pour your yeast in and with a measuring cup add your flour one cup at a time stirring constantly.

At first it will just look like lumpy soup, don’t be discouraged I promise it will get better.  You’ll be adding flour over and over and suddenly the dough will come together and stick.

At that point you’re ready to get your hands in there.  Wash them… set your spoon aside… and get your hands in there!  Mix everything together until your bowl is mostly clean.

Your bread will need some loving kneading so pour it out of your bowl onto the counter.  Scrape the bowl to get every bit you can of the stickings (I just now made that word up, but it fits) onto the counter.  Now knead for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth.

Like this.

Grab your giantest bowl.  Spray it with some baking Pam or rub crisco on it, or pour canola oil in a smooth it around whatever you want, but grease the bowl.  If you forget the whole game is over.

Swirl your dough around in the bowl so the outside of your dough is slippery.

Now cover it with your prettiest yellow towl and walk away.  No I guess the towl doesn’t have to be yellow…. blue would also work nicely, or a nice olive green.  Let the dough double.  Depending on how cold it is out it might take an hour or 2 or you might need to turn the oven on and heat the kitchen with it.  (don’t do this if your husband is home.  they get really REALLY mad at you… something about bills and electricity and blah blah blah)

Your dough will double.  Dont believe me?  Scroll up and look at the before shot.

Drop your dough onto the counter again.  Punch it down and knead it again for a bit.

Divide your dough into 2 or 3 sections.  For fluffier bread go for 3.

Set your dough into your bread pan, or onto your baking stones.  Remember to grease them first!  Very important! You’re going to leave it here through the baking process so whereever you place it dont plan on moving it.  Allow the dough to rise once more, be CAREFUL putting it in the oven.  After about an hour of rising the dough is like a giant air bubble.  If you pop it the game is over.

Bake at 350 for 30 or so minutes or until the tops are nice and brown.  For a special touch brush the tops of the bread with butter 5 minutes before the bake is done.  This makes the tops soft and yummy.

Droolage right! Now cut yourself a slice and enjoy.  Your butt will thank you.

Zucchini bread is a phenomenon in our house.  I’ve never seen anything devoured so quickly.  I’d like for you to experience it’s goodness so I’m sharing it with you today.  As breads go this is by far the easiest to make.

Here’s what you’ll need.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Spray your pans with pam or oil them or make them not sticky somehow.  I like to use Pam “baking” because it has flour in the mix and leaves my pans nice and clean without icky aftertaste.

Measure out your flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Take all your dry ingredients and sift them together in a bowl.

Set the sifted ingredients aside and in a separate bowl mix together your oil, vanilla, eggs, and sugar.

Now you have two separate bowls of nothing… combine them and you’ll have something amazing.

While those two lovely bowls are sitting aside grate yourself a few zucchini.  Measure as you go so you dont grate too much.

Now you’ll need to slowly combine your dry and wet ingredients.  The majority of your moisture for this bread will coem from the zucchini so do not be suprised if your batter is very tough to mix.  I actually blew out the motor of a mixer the first time I doubled this recipe so I would suggest you dont do that.

Once it’s all mixed together scrape the bowl together and add your zucchini. Your batter will really mix easily once you get the zucchini going.

Once you have a lovely batter add your walnuts.  Now I would say these nuts are very optional.  It all depends on my mood… sometimes I just want them and sometimes I just really dont.

Once you’re all mixed up pour into 2 bread pans and bake at 350 for 60 minutes.

This might seem like a long time, but it isnt.  Depending on your oven you might only need 40 minutes so the first time you make it keep an eye on it. It shoulndt jiggle in the middle (I wish I didnt jiggle in the middle) and you should be able to insert a toothpick and remove it clean.

The result is amazing yummy zuki bread.  Let it sit in the pan for 20 minutes.  Then it’s all yours baby!

Snow is falling here by the foot so I am stuck inside with Scott and Connor for another day.  Scott is uncouncious in our room and Connor is playing with his toys so I had a moment to make dinner this morning.  “Dinner in the morning?” you may ask… yes!  It’s called a crock pot and they are a life saver.  Wednesday nights are my work nights so they are typically slow cooker nights around here.  Something that can just sit in a pot until Scott comes home.  Works for me!  Next time you have time to cook in the morning but not at night (or even the night before and set it in the fridge and put it on in the morning) try this recipe.

Slow Cooker Yummy Roast (not unique I know… blame somebody else)

You can find an allrecipes link to it HERE.  I have made some minor changes (as usual) but you’ll get the general recipe.

Here is what you need!

• 3 potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 1 onion, chopped
• 6 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces (or a handful of baby carrots)
• 2 pounds boneless round steak
• 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 3/4 cup beef broth
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
• a whole bunch of spices

The recipe calls for 3 potatos peeled and cubed.  I had monstrosly huge potatos on hand so I only needed two.  This recipe will feed 4 normal humans so put half of the amount of potatos 4 normal humans could eat.  Peel them and then slice them into 1″ cubes, toss them into your crock pot and turn it on low.  Don’t worry, they wont burn, crock pots don’t heat up that fast.

Chop an onion and add it to your pot as well.  Grab a handful of baby carrots and toss them in as well.  These veggies wont dry out because your meat and our gravy mix will make them nice and tender.

Now grab yourself a new cutting board and knife.  We’re going to trim the fat off some meat.  I buy my meat from a meat market so it isnt the trimmed lovely you buy at the grocery.  It’s just fresher.  But even your grocery meat might have a bit of fat.  Round steak is cheap and the long slow low heat cooking you’re going to subject it to will leave you with a tender juicy piece of meat. Once you have your meat “defatted” slice it into a handful of chunks and put it on top of your veggies.

Lets mix up some gravy to top this yumminess off.  Mix together your onion soup, mushroom soup, and beef broth.  Add to this a couple of cloves of crushed garlic.  Whisk it together and pour it over your meat.

After your mix is on just cover and walk away.  Stir every few hours and 7-10 hours later you’ll have yummy roast.  As you can see Scott loves it.

Tagged: cooking ]]> http://mamasmusing.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/slow-cooker-roast/feed/ 0 stephlmacp 0013 0023 0034 0043 0053 0064 0073 0082 0103 015 0112 0122 0132 0141 016 085-copy http://mamasmusing.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/julies-chili/ http://mamasmusing.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/julies-chili/#comments Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:46:19 +0000 stephlmacp http://mamasmusing.wordpress.com/?p=482 ]]>

Years and years ago when I was just a youngin’ in the kitchen my friend Julie had us over and made this chili.  We’ve been hooked ever since.  It originally came from this recipe, Julie altered it quite a bit and I altered it more .  So now it is only sorta that recipe.  Here’s how it goes.

Gather together:

• 2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1 (46 fluid ounce) can tomato juice
• 1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2(15 ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 giant onion chopped
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 3-5 cloves garlic minced or crushed

You’ll see in my photos for this recipe I omitted some of the ingredients.  For example… I completely forgot the oregano, salt, sugar, and even the ground cumin I normally put in.  Chili still tasted great… I just didnt feel like having those ingredients this time   The original recipe also calls for chopped green pepper.  Scott hates green pepper in chili so I get rid of it.  Julie hates chopped onion so her recipe calls for practically none of it.

So here we go.

First you need to cook yourself some hamburger.  I always love this part because I get to drag out my heavy and delicious cast iron skillet.  It makes the world go round (if your world is a giant ball of beef that is).  So cook up some beef.  If you have your onion and garlic chopped already throw them in.  I was chopping while cooking so I saved mine for later.

Doesnt that look yummy?

Now open some cans of beans.  I love pinto beans, I think they are yum.   So I put twice as many pinto beans in my chili as black beans.  Black beans are very friendly and Julie likes them better… but this isnt Julie’s Chili (just ignore the title of the post ).   Pour your beans into a large pot.  This is where you’ll be simmering your chili.

Mince or press some garlic

Once your beef is done cooking add it to your beans.  (make sure the burner is not yet on or you’ll be burning your beans as you’re reading this… that sound you hear??  It’s your smoke alarm.)

Now add your garlic to the bean/meat mixture.  (that sounds yummy… lets say it again… beans and meat, beans and meat, beans and MEAT!)

Now chop yourself an onion.

And add it to your mix as well.

Lookin good lookin good.  Next you’ll need to grab yourself that large can of tomato sauce.  Add it to the mix along with your giant jar of tomato juice.

Now you have a pot of yummy goodness and you just need to add your spices.  The great thing about chili is you can throw the whole spice rack into the pot and it will taste amazing.  The most important things though are the chili powder (I never use a 1/4 cup, but Julie doubles it… so go with your tastebuds and stir and taste and add and subtract as this is simmering) and of course you need Cayenne Pepper.

Once when I made this I could not for the life of me find the pepper, so I used a heavy dosing of “Franks Red Hot.”  Scott loved it.  Get creative, this isnt my chili, we’ve already established it isnt Julie’s Chili, its your chili.

When you have it all in the pot give it a good stir and set it on the stove at Medium-High.  Cover and bring to a boil of sorts.  Once its at a slow boil set the pot to Medium if you’re in a hurry or Low if you’ve got time and let it cook away.  If on Medium let it cook an hour, if on low let it cook until you’re ready to eat.  It can simmer for 2 hours or 4 or whatever.  It only gets better the longer it sits there.  I always double the recipe so I can freeze half of it for another day.  Scott takes individual sized portions with him for lunch.

There you are!  Have some shredded cheese and oyster crackers ready and you’re set to go!

Everybody just take a second to go “yum.”  These cookies taste just like butter pecan ice cream.   And I love them.  If you are on a diet stop reading right here and go to another site… these are NOT diet cookies.  But they are delicious.

Here’s what you’ll need.

3 1/2 ounces pecan halves, toasted (1 cup)

8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup confectoners’ sugar, jplus more for dusting (about 2 Tsp)

1 TBSP pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour, sifted

Preheat your oven to 325.  Break each pecan half into 2 or 3 pieces.  Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until pale.  (It will seem like you have to mix for a long time before you get it nice and creamy).  With mixer running add vanilla dn salt, then reduce speed to low.

Gradually add flour, beating until just incorporated.  Stir in pecans until discributed evenly.  Co ver dough and refridgerate until firm 15 minutes.  (You can chill it overnight, but make sure it’s at room temp before baking)

Drop tablespoon scoops of dough onto baking sheets, 2 inches apart.  Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, utnil edges of cookies are gold, about 15 minutes.  Let cool on sheets on wire racks for 5 minutes.  Transfer cookies to wire racks and let cool.  Dust with confectioners’ sugar just before serving.

(I would have pictures of this process, but I’m forgetful)

Here’s a photo of the finished product and again… DELICIOUS.

Recipe by Martha Stewart Living Magaine -  Recipe also available HERE

Tonight Martha didnt let me down.  Not that she ever has.  I pulled a recipe out of her January issue of Living (and by pulled out I do mean ripped the page out of the magazine to add to my recipe binder…. sorry Emily) for a yummy chicken dinner.  So on page 118 of January’s issue of Living I found “Chicken and Israeli Couscous with Tomato and Lemon.”  I would insert a link to the recipe here, but Martha’s site didnt have it where I could find.  Sorry Martha.  Back to the cooking! Here’s what you’ll need.

1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

1 Cup Israeli couscous

1 1/2 pounds chicken (boneless chicken breasts, or 4-6 chicken thighs)

1/2 Medium onion, thinly sliced

4 Roma or plum tomatoes cut lengthwise into 6 slices

3 garlic cloves, minced (1 TBSP)

4 strips lemon peel (2 inches each)

pinch of saffron

1/2 cup dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1/2TSP course salt

1 cup frozen peas (or if you’re like me and think wasting an entire bag of frozen peas to take 1 cup use the whole bag)

1 lemon quartered for serving

So here it all is

If you’re smart you’ll pour yourself a glass of wine to make the cooking more fun.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add couscous, and cook, stirring for 1 minute.  Transfer to a bowl, and return skillet to heat.

After the couscous has cooked transfer it to a bowl.  Add chicken and cook, smooth side down until browned, 3-5 minutes.  Flip, and cook for a couple minutes more.  Transfer to a plate reserving the drippings in skillet.

Add the onion (which you’ve sliced into really really REALLY thin strips).  Cook stirring frequently for 3 or so min.

Add tomatos, garlic, lemon peel and saffron, cook stirring frequently until tomatos begin to break down. (About 2-3 minutes)

Return chicken to skillet.  Add wine and cook for 4 minutes.

Add broth, salt, and couscous, and stir.  Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occassionaly until chicken is cooked through and couscous is tender (if your chicken is extra thick cook 16 minutes or more).  Stir in peas and cook till warm through (2-3 minutes on medium).   Serve immediately with lemon.

(Editor’s note:  Tonight I went to reheat this meal to eat it again.  It does not reheat well.  And in our house every meal is eaten at least once as leftovers… so for us having this meal a bust as a reheat makes it not something we’ll make again)