Husband Hamburgers

Because husband got unexpectedly called into work, I didn't have a chance to eat properly. This led to a mild mommy meltdown. Husband saved the day with burgers from the ground beef I bought earlier. While he cooked them, child and i went to Aldi and, among other things, got English muffins for buns. I thought the texture would be delightful and it was.... Airy and crispy.

We dressed them with spring mix and ketchup for the little one and Archer Farm's buffalo blue cheese dip for the grown-ups.

Husband sprinkled some of my country herb blend on each one.

English Muffins

Ever since a friend and I were discussing bread and converting plain recipes into English muffin style bread. I'm hoping to make chicken soup today, since I have some leftover chicken and my daughter has been asking for chicken soup... Bread would go nicely.

At King Arthur flour, I found two versions of a recipe.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/english-muffin-toasting-bread-recipe
presents this:
This yeasty, coarse-textured bread makes the best toast ever, a perfect partner to fresh summer jam or preserves. A purely mix-it-slap-in-the-pan-bake-and-eat-it loaf, it's earned a place of honor in our King Arthur test kitchen Hall of Fame.

* 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 tablespoon instant yeast
* 1 cup milk
* 1/4 cup water
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil
* cornmeal, to sprinkle in pan

Directions

1) Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and instant yeast in a large mixing bowl.

2) Combine the milk, water, and oil in a separate, microwave-safe bowl, and heat to between 120°F and 130°F. The liquid will feel very hot (hotter than lukewarm), but not so hot that it would scald you. As a reference point, the hottest water from your kitchen tap is probably around 120°F (unless your tap water is so hot that it burns you).

3) Pour the hot liquid over the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.

4) Beat at high speed for 1 minute. The dough will be very soft.

5) Lightly grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan, and sprinkle the bottom and sides with cornmeal.

6) Scoop the soft dough into the pan, leveling it in the pan as much as possible.

7) Cover the pan, and let the dough rise till it's just barely crowned over the rim of the pan. When you look at the rim of the pan from eye level, you should see the dough, but it shouldn't be more than, say, 1/4" over the rim. This will take about 45 minutes to 1 hour, if you heated the liquid to the correct temperature and your kitchen isn't very cold. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 400°F.

8) Remove the cover, and bake the bread for 20 to 22 minutes, till it's golden brown and its interior temperature is 190°F.

9) Remove the bread from the oven, and after 5 minutes turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool. Let the bread cool completely before slicing.

This is the bread machine recipe from King Arthur, I like the look of this better:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/english-muffin-bread-recipe


For those of you who don't feel like doing a lot of rolling and cutting, here's an English muffin bread developed for the bread machine. It makes a mild-flavored, light-textured 1 1/2-pound loaf, perfect for toast.

1 teaspoon vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter or vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast

Program your machine for basic white bread, light crust. Midway through the second kneading cycle, check the dough; it should be soft, smooth and slightly sticky. Adjust the dough's consistency with additional flour or water, if necessary (as this recipe was developed in the dead of winter, when flour is at its driest, you may find you need to use more flour -- or less water -- in the summer.) For a true English muffin effect, remove the dough after either the final kneading or before the final rise and roll it in cornmeal. Place the dough back in the machine to rise and bake. Yield: 1 loaf.

Nutrition information per serving (1/2-inch slice, 45g): 80 cal, 1.5g fat, 3g protein, 16g complex carbohydrates, 1g dietary fiber, 1mg cholesterol, 225mg sodium, 56mg potassium, 9RE vitamin A, 1mg iron, 55mg calcium, 37mg phosphorus.

I did work with the traditional recipe, but I tried some of my own twists. I doubled the recipe and divided the dough into three loafs instead of two. I used half unsweetened soy milk and half two percent milk. I used 3 cups whole wheat flour and 3 cups unbleached white flour. I used local honey with a touch of sugar instead of just sugar. And I added a pinch of baking powder. One of these days I will learn to follow a recipe.

I would love to try this:
(and reading her entry is very enjoyable) but I don't want to deal with grams today.
http://www.shesimmers.com/2010/03/english-muffin-bread-soft-loaf-of-nooks.html

While my bread didn't look as nook and cranny-ish as I would have liked, it tasted like an english muffin.

Daddy's tuna

On Monday when I got home from class, my husband made tuna on toasted English muffins (in the freezer from the buy one, get one free sale) and melted cheddar with spring mix (from the tortoise's stash) and tomato from the garden...

Picnic Lunch: Tuna melts and orange-mango smoothies

You can always recognize a good cookbook in someone's kitchen. It's dirty, warped and maybe even unidentifiably sticky. I have Italian cookbooks, Chinese cookbooks, vegan cookbooks, vegetarian cookbooks, French cookbooks, chocolate cookbooks, casserole cookbooks, even a pasta cookbook.

Nava Atlas' The Vegetarian 5-ingredient cookbook is one of those tomes that is on its way to dirty stickiness. I don't actually use it that often, but after flipping through it looking for the orange creamsicle smoothie recipe this morning... Well, there are several recipes that piqued my interest that I had never noticed before. I love that every recipe is five ingredients (or less.) I think that speaks well to the harried nature of our lives and blends with a "this is what I've got on hand" situation.

I "got hungry" for Atlas' smoothie when I bought those YoBaby smoothies the other day and made the wisecrack that I knew I could make them at home. And they'd taste better. And I knew making them (with the blender, the blender!) would thrill my daughter. So, we made the smoothies and packed them with hot sandwiches for my daughter's picnic with Daddy. (I have class Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 to 12:15 p.m.)

Smoothies first...

Orange-Vanilla Creamsicle Smoothie

makes one to two servings (I automatically double.)

From Nava Atlas' 5-ingredient Vegetarian Gourmet

In blender combine (or stir if you want a lumpier consistency):

1. 1 cup fresh orange juice
2. 1/2 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
3. 1/4 cup seltzer or sparkling water (optional)
4. dash of vanilla extract (optional)
5. ice (optional)

I did not have any "bubbles" on hand, so we skipped them. And I added probably less than 1/4 cup mango sorbet. And doubled the orange juice and yogurt. As expected, it was a hit.

For the entrée of this lunch, I toasted English muffins, added some cheddar cheese and melted it, and then piled on the tuna (which I make with Nayonnaise because I think mayonnaise is nasty). I popped the lid on and wrapped the hot little sandwiches in foil with the home of getting them to my husband warm. When I asked if I succeeded, he shrugged. An attempt at portable hot lunch, when you're on a tight schedule is not worth the effort and stress. But it was fun for today.

Bob's and eggs

Car problems have delayed my friend Shannon (which is probably a good thing since we are recovering from icy conditions).

I have caught a cold. My husband has a delayed opening at work, so we started the day with some Bob's hot cereal with some maple syrup. 

But by 9 a.m., I was starving so my husband made me (at my request) an egg sandwich on an English muffin with cheddar and my French honey Dijon mustard. Egg sandwiches are one of my favorite comfort foods... which during my pregnancy and gestational diabetes diet translated into one egg on one slice of bread and mustard. Not the ooey gooey, cheese-laden mess I prefer.

As for the hot cereal, Bob's multigrain cereals are another favorite in this house. Not cheap, compared to oatmeal, but full of some many yummy grains and textures.

I took a photo of the fried egg because my husband did some a pretty job. During the preparation of this sandwich, my daughter had a snack of an apple, two slices of cheddar and a small piece of her great-grandmother's chocolate. She did not join me for eggs, neither did her father.