Zaatar foccaccia

Ever since my bout with anemia last summer, making bread has become a chore. Because of this, gradually I have made less and less bread. But, today, with zaatar spices in hand, I wanted to make bread again.

Among my first summer entries, you can find a garden herb pesto/fresh tomato foccaccia that is a family favorite. I adapted this from a recipe from VegList, a veg*n email loop I belonged to in the dark ages before Yahoo groups.

Today, I have transformed that basic foccaccia into a zaatar and sunflower seed variation.

The DOUGH
About 1 teaspoon yeast
1.5 cups warm water
Mix and let rest 15 minutes.

Add:
1 pinch fresh ground salt
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup unbleached white flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rye flour

Stir with a wooden spoon.

Add another cup white flour and a little wheat flour.
Add a handful of flax seeds
Add a handful of roasted sesame seeds

Kneed.

Coat with olive oil and let rise abot 1.5 hours until doubled.
Lightly oil and flour a big cookie sheet.
Press out the bread.
Brush with oil. Coat with liberal zaatar and sunfloer seeds.

Let rise another 45 minutes. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I swear I've typed this recipe before but I feel like doing it again even so. I'm making American-style cinnamon-raisin bread. It's a good day for it, about 80 degrees and very humid.

So humid that I mixed some honey into the yeasty water, went downstairs to check the laundry and the yeast had puffed up and almost out of the measuring cup by the time I got back.

The original Betty Crocker 25th Anniversary Cookbook recipe for
Cinnamon Raisin Bread
- 6 to 7 cups unbleached or all purpose white flour
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 tablespoons shortening
- 2 packages regular or quick acting dry yeast
- 2 1/4 cups very warm water
- 1 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Mix 3.5 cups flour with the sugar, salt, shortening and yeast in large bowl. Add water. Beat on low one minute, scraping bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed one minute. Stir in remaining flour, one cup at a time, to make dough easy to handle. Stir in one cup raisins.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead about ten minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl and turn greased side up. Cover and let rise 40 to 60 minutes until dough doubles. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.

Grease 2 loaf pans. Punch dough down and divide in half. Flatten dough and make a rectangle 18 x 9 inches.

Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over the rectangle. Flatten or roll into 9 x 9 square. Roll dough tightly, beginning at the open (unfolded) ends to form a loaf. Press with thumbs to seal after each turn. Press each end with side of hand to seal. Fold ends under loaf. Place seam down in pan. Brush loafs lightly with margarine. Cover and let rise in warm place 35 to 50 minutes until double.

Place oven rack in lowest position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 425. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until loaves are deep golden brown and sound hollow when tapped.

Cool on wire rack.

My variations:

My ingredient list:
- 3 plus cups of unbleached white flour
- 3 plus cups of whole wheat flour
I used local honey instead of sugar

Instead of mixing the yeast into the dry ingredients, I put the yeast in 1 cup of the warm water, added the honey and then let it sit while I assembled the rest of the ingredients.

I used almost 2 tablespoons butter instead of shortening.

I could glaze with cornstarch and water instead of butter. I used a mixture of walnut oil and water. I glazed with this, coated with old fashioned oats, and coated again.

I used a mix of brown sugar (light and dark), cinnamon, maybe white sugar and nutmeg for the spice filling.

Pasta with spinach in herbed lemon butter sauce

Since last week's pasta in lemon butter sauce was so popular I opted to try and repeat the experiment.

I started with the Le Creset skillet, a tablespoon of butter, 1/2 a clove of garlic, juice of one lemon, two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, handful of fresh parsley from the garden, and several tablespoons fresh chives from the garden. I stirred over low while it all cooked. I believe I added another tablespoon or so of butter to balance the lemon juice.

Next I added about 1.5 cups chopped spinach leftover from the omelet the other day and increased the heat. Then I added slices of Trader Joe's chicken sausage with apples. Let that cook until the sausage browned and the liquid started to dry up.

I made some whole wheat rotini, put them back in the pan with another two tablespoons of butter and a trickle of extra virgin olive oil. Then I mixed it the spinach mixture from the skillet. Voilà, c'est prêt.

Multigrain Biscuits (experiment)

• almost one cup unbleached Wegmans all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup corn meal
• 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup rye flour
• 1/4 cup flax seed

(for a total of about three cups "flour")

• 1 generous tablespoon baking powder

mix thoroughly. Add:

• a tad more than 1/2 teaspoon iodized sea salt

fold in:

• 6 tablespoons butter

Add:

• one cup soy milk

Knead. Cut with bottom of glass once pressed thin. Mine made 19 biscuits. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
based on:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/06/brown-biscuits.html

Mommy's PB&J sampler

The other day we were pressed for time so I made my daughter this PB&J sampler for lunch.

Bread: from the freezer, one of my homemade wheat baguettes.

Jellies:

• one little sandwich was PB & grape smuckers
• one little sandwich was PB & my mother-in-law's strawberry jam
• the last little sandwich was PB & wegman's seedless red raspberry jam
  

Multigrain Dill Bread

I'm experimenting again. I've been debating whether or not to make bread and what pushed me over the edge was the realization that the fancy French butter I bought for the holidays isn't getting any younger.

When I went to Wegmans the other day, they had this huge bunch of fresh dill for $1.99. I bought it, used some for my crab egg rolls, and now used some for this bread. The rest I put in the freezer. Dill is one of my favorite herbs.

Okay, so the bread... Thus far mixed in one bowl:
(For a real recipe, click on bread and you'll see my previous efforts.)

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup rye flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup flax seed
• 2 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 teaspoon iodized sea salt
• 1 heaping tablespoon fresh dill
  

In the other bowl:

• 2 cups warm water
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 tablespoon yeast

Mix about 3 cups of the flour mix into the yeast, stir with a wooden spoon and place in a warm draft free spot for about 3 hours until doubled in size...

More later...

It came out lovely, though I should have used more dill. Served with Italian Wedding Soup and French butter.

Soup and crackers

Still no homecooking, but I hope to get inspired before this evening. It looks like lunch will be at 2 p.m. today so we opted for a light lunch not to interfere with dinner.

V-8 Tomato Herb soup and whole wheat Toasted crackers...

We've never tried the soup before and the crackers are the last pack left from Nana's birthday party...

Bread, bread, bread

We need bread. Bread to eat (we have cream cheese and brie in the fridge), bread to freeze (Thanksgiving approaches) and bread to let get stale (homemade stuffing... Yeah, I make the bread and let it get stale for stuffing, which is more like make large loaves instead of small and let the family munch until it starts to get stale, then freeze until the day before Thanksgiving).

If you follow my link to my bread baking, it will take you to various shapes, sizes, experiments and successes. I base my bread on a recipe found on the internet, in the French style for its relative simplicity.

The ingredients as stated are simple:

• 4 cups flour
• 1 Tablespoon dry active yeast
• 1-2 tsp salt (I use iodized sea salt)
• 2 cups warm water
• Oil for the bowl

Now this morning, I have already attempted a HUGE batch. Step one is to mix the salt and the flour in a bowl. In one bowl I have:

• 4 cups unbleached white flour from Wegmans
• 1 tsp iodized sea salt

In bowl two, I have a multigrain sort of experiment going. This is a fun way to experiment because failures simply become Thanksgiving stuffing. This bowl contains:

• 2 cups unbleached white flour from Wegmans
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups rye flour
• 1.5 teaspoons sea salt
• about 1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted
• about 1/2 cup flax seeds

Step two is to mix two cups warm water with the yeast and half the flour. I started a big bowl with 2 cups warm water, 1 tablespoon yeast, and 1 tablespoon honey. In a second bowl, I added 3 cups water, two tablespoons yeast, and 1.5 tablespoon honey and I'm letting it sit while I type this...

Now to add the flour. The recipe calls for mixing half the flour into the liquid and incorporating with your hands into a dough. Then, cover with a dish towel and set at room temperature for three hours. I always add more than half the flour mixture. Half the flour mixture seems to make soup. I add and stir with a wooden spoon until it starts to transform into more of a sponge, then a runny dough, and I stop there. This usually takes about 3/4 of the flour.

More in three hours...

Three hours later... I have four large bowls rising now. I had an incident with my multigrain batch. I had divided it in half because it was too big for the bowl and I forgot to incorporate the rest of the flour... Traditionally, you take the very wet dough and incorporate the rest of the flour and then some and need for ten minutes, aiming for not sticky, supple and elastic. But my last loaf, I got it perfect and then realized I had forgotten the last multigrain batch of flour. Adding some warm water allowed me to get this flour in, but now I worry that I handled it too much and it won't rise nicely.

Once you have some nice dough balls, you place them in a clean oiled bowl, cover them and return them to a nice warm spot to rise for an hour. I stick everything inside the oven to protect them from drafts.

In an hour, we'll do the final knead, shape, preheat the oven and do the final rise.

Time to shape... The knead at this point takes about five minutes, then you shape and put on cookie sheet, cover and let rest about 20 minutes while the oven preheats to 450 degrees. You also need to place a bowl of water in the oven to try and get the crust 'right.'

Now today I made all that dough and got not quite the yield I expected: 3 small loaves of multigrain, 1 not quite medium loaf of multigrain and 2 fairly nice sized medium white loaves. I even did a very diluted egg wash on them, more wash than egg (and cooked the remaining egg and water for the tortoise. So, we'll see how it all turns out.

You bake the bread for about 25 minutes, and you're supposed to remove the bowl of water after the first 15.

**This multigrain bread is as good as the bread I like from the bakery that I call 'magic bread.'

Curried Vegetables with whole wheat pasta

I lost two days?!?!? How did I lose two days?
Okay, let's not talk about that. But I will admit that I was chagrined to note that I spent $200 on dining out in the month of April. Not good. My grocery budget was $220, which normally would be good had I not splurged so much with the take-out/dining. My job is seasonal and I don't work in June and July. Basically, I could have saved that money and used it to buy groceries in June. I'm mad at myself.
Anyway...

We all came home starving today and my in-laws had served my daughter crappy grocery-store bakery-made pizza for lunch for the second time this week. She had an apple for breakfast, some grapes mid-morning and no other real food that I know of so I needed something fast and full of vegetables.
Curry popped into mind.
I've never made curry.
But that's never stopped me before.
I whip out my vegetarian cookbooks, but quickly feel like I'm looking for a proverbial needle in a haystack. With a hungry family, that's not a good feeling. I grab the laptop and google "curry pasta sauce." Get several hits. Like this one:

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/pasta-with-low-fat-curry-sauce.html#

INGREDIENTS

(as originally listed)

8 ounces dry pasta
3 tablespoons slivered almonds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1/2 cup diced tomato
1 1/2 teaspoons mild curry powder
Pinch cayenne, or to taste
1 cup frozen peas, rinsed briefly in hot water to thaw
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Okay, I look around my kitchen. I have:
13.25 ounces of whole wheat penne pasta
1/4 cup slivered almonds
olive oil
cumin powder
one can diced tomato with garlic
curry powder
[I forgot to look for cayenne]
frozen peas
frozen cauliflower, carrots and broccoli
1 cup soy milk and 1 cup dehydrated milk which I add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to so it "cooks" more like buttermilk.

1. Prepare pasta.
2. While pasta cooks, toast almonds in skillet and set aside.
3. Thaw vegetables.
4. Put spices and tomatoes into skillet. Add a drizzle of olive oil as needed to keep from burning.
5. Add vegetables. Drizzle with olive oil and heat until hot.
6. Reduce heat and stir in milk, simmer until a consistent temperature.
7. Drain pasta. Combine pasta and sauce.
8. Sprinkle almonds on top.