Showing posts with label bread. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bread. Show all posts

Sunday, June 17, 2012

boozy bread

First of all, happiest  father's day to my awesome Dad, who is the most patient dude around. I wish I were home to celebrate with the family, but long distance calls and gifts will have to do this year (not quite as cool as attending the US Open together last father's day...!). 


love you, and your 80s aviators!


This weekend was the worst kind ever for productivity. After a couple of boiling hot, oppressively humid weekends, this weekend saw two straight days of highs topping off in the 80s and no noticeable humidity. That make for the kind of days when you just want to give your city a big hug and take a million cliche monument+blue sky photos. It's almost enough to make you forget that weekend track work on the metro made your 20 minute trip last for an hour, or that you just spent 50 bucks on one round at a pretentious bar. These are the good days, the days you don't quite worry so much about your dead end job and your mortgage.  


the only photo I snapped on this gorgeous weekend (but you totally get the idea)!


Anyways, naturally the long days with perfect weather make things like living at the pool and/or on a rooftop bar far more appealing than the 200 pages of international relations theory reading that needs to get done before work tomorrow.


So after two days in a row of (responsible) roasting in the sun, instead of coming home and reading, I came home and tried a new banana bread recipe. Normally this one is my go-to, but this one was introduced so convincingly on a blog I read that I wanted to see if it was better than mine. Like I said a few weeks ago, I need to be more conscious of trying new versions of recipes. May be a disaster, but I also may find my new go-to.


The whole adventure nearly was a disaster, as my little sun-fried brain full-on melted the butter instead of softening it. I decided "hmm, might as well see if you can cream melted butter and sugar." Ahem, I think the recipe says "soften" for a reason, because my experiment was a grainy, gritty failure. Into the trash it went, and out came another 1/2 cup of sugar and another 1/2 stick of butter (I was making a half batch). Then, my hand apparently had some butter left on it, because I nearly hurled the entire batch of batter into the sink instead of the prepared loaf pan. Somehow it all made it in to the oven, and not my garbage disposal. As it was baking, it smelled like the most amazing mix of bread and bourbon EVER. 


The loaf itself is still cooling, but I snuck a few crumbles, and it's pretty amazingly tasty. In a very admirable attempt to further delay reading for class tomorrow, I also penciled in some laundry time and decided to make the red wine risotto from a successful Monday dinner past (one new recipe a day is plenty, thanks!).      


mine never does end up looking like this snapshot from the recipe...

Maybe now I'll get on to that extremely compelling reading...after I sit on the roof deck for a while...

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

nostalgia wednesdays: bread

There was this phase when we had not one, but two bread machines in the family. We had one at our house, and there was also one at the OBKB Lodge in Georgia. I can't remember when exactly this was, but I remember it fondly as the time before I worried about things like boys, wrinkles, and mortgages.

For a while there, we were making fresh, homemade bread pretty often, if for no other reason than to test out the various recipes that came in the little booklet with the machine. I think we made everything from sandwich bread to pizza dough to cinnamon rolls with that thing. I don't remember much about the mechanics of the operation, but I do remember the drool-inducing scent of the bread as it was baking away in the little white machine.

I've made rosemary olive oil bread a handful of times, and foccacia bread once, but the scent just isn't quite the same for some reason. But a couple Sundays ago, in my worry-propelled flurry of activity, I made whole wheat bread in an attempt to put something on my pantry shelves that would feed me until the move. Almost as soon as it started baking, the smell immediately transported me back to the bread machine days. 

The recipe was super-simple to make, and everything happened in the bowl of my Kitchenaid, which is good, because Kitty the Kitchenaid Stripper was feeling neglected after Fiona got all the love when I made toasted almond gelato for (F)easter dinner a couple weeks ago. 

The bread comes out on the denser side, it is whole wheat + flax after all, but it's been perfect for snacking, and for healthy(ish) breakfasts. I had been subsisting on pastries and granola bars during the busy cycle at work, so yes, I consider wheat bread healthy(ish). And at least for me, the nostalgia factor is totally worth the hour or two time commitment on a rainy Sunday. 

Oh and yes, I still have so much to tell you about my new place, which I've started thinking of as "the nest" given its strategic position amongst several courtyard trees, making my nosiest neighbors a whole slew of chirping birds. But for now, there's work to do, so I'll leave you with a preview of the new, DC-based Little Kitchen That Could, which is, in fact, the littlest kitchen to date. I might be the only one, but I'm pretty excited about the adventures to come, in and outside the kitchen...

    

Monday, April 9, 2012

(f)easter dinner

Saturday was the much-anticipated (F)easter dinner with coworkers. We served salad, rosemary olive oil bread, two types of pasta (made by Trader Joe's, not me, sadly, after my failed experiment), bolognese sauce, pesto sauce, tiramisu, and toasted almond gelato with espresso (known as "affogato"). I'm not kidding when I say that every so often, I just need to make a ton of time and labor intensive food! It's an urge that strikes rarely, but when it hits, you're best served to just get out of the path of the oncoming apron-clad little blond girl and just let her go to town.

I'm happy to report that everything turned out well, despite the general haze of exhaustion through which it was all prepared. My pesto succumbed to the horrors of oxidation, so the thin top layer of it was a lovely brown color, but the rest was unscathed, and it all tasted just as pesto should. I highly recommend Ina Garten's pine nut and walnut recipe. As far as I know, I'd never made pesto from scratch before, so that and the gelato were the only two new things I added to my repertoire this weekend. As much as I like to try new recipes, sometimes the classics are just calling your name. 

But I digress. As much as we all enjoyed everything, I have to say my absolute favorite was the affogato. I had gotten in my head about a week ago that yes, yes we did need two desserts, and that gelato + warm espresso just had to be one of them. That was the end of that discussion. The toasted almond gelato recipe came to me entirely by accident, but I'm so, so happy it did. I'm not sure I could imagine a better flavor to meld with the espresso. I must say, Williams-Sonoma has yet to lead me astray, and this recipe was no exception. 

So because I'm sleepy, and have about a million billion jillion house-related things to tackle in the next 2 1/2 weeks, I'll stop rambling, and leave you with a slew of photos from the feast. Recipes appear at the bottom, and on the LKTC-tested recipes page!  

bolognese

pesto

tiramisu sampler (to make sure it tasted ok, and that none of the eggs were bad before I served it to a group of people!)

the pan of tiramisu for the crowd

the espresso for the affogato, percolating away in my stovetop machine, which was saved from the garbage by this trick

since I didn't manage to capture the affogato, I offer Williams-Sonoma's photo instead

We all had a great time stuffing ourselves silly, and given that (F)easter dinner was the night before, you guessed it, Easter, and we are a group of many religious views, we had some amusing discussions on the tenets of (and misconceptions of) different beliefs. Perhaps my favorite was my coworker who asked me to explain the Holy Trinity, and when I did so, said "oh, I thought the holy spirit was Gabriel!" 

Anyways, hope you had as enjoyable of a weekend as I did. And if you're also feeling a strange but prominent desire to spend a day in the kitchen, here are the recipes I used. I promise the day will quickly slip away between whisking and kneading and mincing and simmering. And also that you'll have a meal that is entirely worth it. Enjoy!  

Recipe Roundup:

ps-many thanks to Neha, who remembered at the last minute to photograph everything!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

selection sunday

Look, it's in the 60s and the first day of springing ahead and all that comes with it, and yes, I should definitely be outside. But I had an exhausting weekend, and, it's selection Sunday. Therefore after spectating at a St. Patty's day 8k, having a bottomless mimosa brunch, and watching a few basketball games with good friends/good beer, I think it's ok to park my behind on my couch, watch the brackets unfold, and consume some carbs to offset all that day drinking. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. 


And, to be fair, I haven't exactly just been sitting around, I've also been cleaning and trying my hand at making sorbet. Since I won't know for a few hours how that went, I think I'm finally ready to talk about the traumatizing focaccia incident from last weekend.


In anticipation of a potential (Italian-centric) dinner party my friend and I may be throwing, I wanted to make a test batch of focaccia. Serendipitously, I found a new blog that I really like, and the author happened to have made just that. You'll have to drool over her photo (below), because I was far too shattered by the relentless screeching of the smoke alarm to properly photography my own loaf. 



I think I let mine bake just a few minutes too long, and didn't flatten it out enough in the original shaping of the dough stage, so it was darker and puffier than Technicolor Kitchen's take. I also used dried sage in lieu of fresh, because that's what I had on hand, although I honestly don't think that had a significant or negative impact on the flavor. I've thought about giving it another go, and most likely will, but perhaps in someone else's less alarm-prone kitchen.

Now it's time to fill out a bracket, and try (in vain, I'm sure) to bank up some energy for the marathon week (month?) ahead. Happy March madness, everyone!

  

Thursday, December 8, 2011

friendsgiving, finally

Has it really only been 2 1/2 weeks since Friendsgiving? Surely not. Surely everything that's happened in my life in the past 2 1/2 weeks actually took place over a longer period of time, right?

I suppose "contemplate the time warp that has become my life" is not the point. No, the point is, I'm finally getting around to describing the gloriousness that was Friendsgiving. In case all you care about are pictures, let's start there, ok?

(Oh yeah, one thing before we get going. We decided to name the turkey Walter, so hopefully that clears up any confusion with the subsequent captions/narration)

Getting ready to make four(!) batches of rosemary olive oil bread

wearing plastic gloves and drinking some (fortifying) wine before brining Walter

coating Walter in herb butter prior to roasting

all 20 pounds of Walter, ready to roast

LOOK AT HOW GORGEOUS THIS TURKEY LOOKS!!

weary hostesses, still in cooking attire despite the 25 or so guests in the living room

fairly self explanatory, but: gravy, cranberry sauce, and bread!

from left: turkey and smoked gouda mac n cheese, apple sausage stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and bacon green beans

we finally made it out of our cooking clothes and in to our cocktail dresses
 
And now, if you are at all interested, the abbreviated narrative...

Our Friendsgiving was born from one of the many whims I've had lately in an attempt to stay busy and get in the holiday spirit. It was an idea I'd heard about from various friends over the past few years, and sounded fun, so my coworker/good friend Neha and I (pictured above) decided to give it a shot.  After all, we're always looking for an excuse to throw on a cocktail dress.  

The week of the party, despite my major aversion to the place, we went to Costco with a coworker and loaded up on obscene quantities of things like cranberries, green beans, carrots, cheese and turkey. Later in the week, we hit Harris Teeter for things we didn't need in bulk.

Neha and I devoted Friday night to baking bread and doing (not enough) prep work, and then cooked all day Saturday. Friday night, I burned the sweet potato biscuits I've made flawlessly half a dozen times now, so that was frustrating, but constituted our only major disaster, so I'll take it. 

Saturday we got a leisurely start to the day, taking our time buttering up Walter, and picking up a few last minute things. Around lunch, we suddenly realized "oh CRAP, people are coming over starting at 5, and we have so so so much to do!" So, we kicked things in to overdrive, and started chopping, sauteing, and prepping like mad women. We basically ceased any form of chatter, and only spoke when we had questions about a recipe or needed a tool the other was using. Sounds a bit Top Chef-ish, I know, but it worked out well, and we both agreed that cooking and hostessing together was an enjoyable experience. 

Despite the flurry of cooking, we were still in our aprons when the guests arrived, frantically stirring the gravy and setting up the warming trays. We plied the everyone with plentiful wine, and trays of hummus and carrots (mercifully put to good use after we nixed the planned glazed carrots dish due to lack of time and sanity). No one seemed to mind our apron-clad, frenzied selves with the smell of turkey floating around the apartment and glasses of wine in hand.

Once everything was as good as we were going to get it, we instructed everyone to fill a plate and find a place to sit. Then we snuck off, shed the aprons, tossed our cocktail dresses on, joined the party, and piled plates with delicious food.

Even a few weeks later, it still makes me cheesily happy to talk (err, write?) about Friendsgiving. Despite the stress of cooking an entire Thanksgiving meal for the first time in our lives (and for 25 people!), we had a great time. And having friends from all aspects of our lives come together for the occasion was a really nice way to kick off the holiday season.

Next year, though, we're going to do a few things differently. Yes, this brings us to the "if you decide to throw your own Friendsgiving" portion of the post. If we invite that many people again, we're going to aim for a potluck style meal in which we provide only the protein and the booze. All of our side dishes were edible, and dare I say delicious? But the size of apartments in this city does not allow for adequate prep space, oven capacity, or availability of tools, making cooking multiple dishes for two dozen people a real challenge.  And, literally everyone we invited really wanted to bring something, so I don't think the transition to a group-sourced meal will dissuade people from attending our second annual Friendsgiving next year.

Speaking of booze, provide plenty (even if you don't drink and/or some of your guests don't, the rest will make up for it). Gracefully accept in advance that you are not Martha Stewart or staring in a sitcom, and as such, your meal is not going to be ready promptly, nor will your guests all show up at once. No one will lead a revolt due to those factors, but a full glass of wine will squelch any impatience they might feel until you pull the golden turkey out of the oven triumphantly (and a presentable apron will make you feel a little less self-conscious about greeting your guests in leggins and a t-shirt) 

Oh and for the love of all things turkey, make sure you take the neck out of the bird before you roast him.

One last thing. Here are all the recipes we used (they're also on the "LKTC-tested recipes" page): 

Thursday, December 1, 2011

an ode to pumpkin recipes

I'm awfully tired. There's "I just didn't get my full eight hours last night," and then there's how tired I am today. I looked so worn out this morning, in fact, that my usual 7am coffee buddy walked past my desk, and said "well I was going to ask if you wanted to get coffee, but you look like you NEED it."

Point is, my ability to articulate myself has been compromised, as it's taking all I've got right now to keep my head up at work. So, I'll be brief in my praises of pumpkin. 

Recently I've tried two new pumpkin recipes, one for bread, and one for gelato. A friend of mine is deploying, and gave me about a dozen cans of pumpkin that he won't be able to use while he's away. Hence the seasonally appropriate kick I seem to be on, here.

Anyways, the bread was light but full of spicy goodness (as in, lots of good spices, not lots of crushed red pepper, because that would just be disgusting). I read most of the notes attached to the recipe, and followed the common suggestions of cutting down the sugar to 1 cup (a mix of white and brown, too), and upping the spices. I made a normal size loaf, and a baby loaf, and tossed a handfull of chocolate chips into the latter. The baby loaf was far more popular than the plain one, so if/when I make the bread again, I'm including the chocolate chips, no question. Wild woman right here.

The gelato was something I originally tried a couple weeks ago before Thanksgiving. I not only had the excessive pumpkin supply on hand, but a lot of leftover milk and cream from Friendsgiving. So I gave the recipe a shot, adding the spices suggested at the end of the basic instructions. It was delicious! So rich and creamy, and just the right amount of pumpkin and spices. I made it again at our family Thanksgiving celebration, and it came out grainy, which was disappointing, but it's entirely my fault for being beyond impatient and not letting the cream/egg/sugar/pumpkin mix cook long enough on the stove (cooking on an electric stove is such an adjustment for me).

And in case you're wondering, somehow I haven't ballooned by 20 pounds this season. I think I have my coworkers, the ever-willing guinea pigs, to thank for that...

ps-I have no cloves on hand, so any recipe that includes those, just assume I've left that spice out, and that the world did not stop spinning, nor was the dish a failure.
pps-recipe page updated to include these beauties

Monday, November 7, 2011

something old, something new


So, my lazy Sunday was a semi-success. I did pass a somewhat excessive number of hours at Starbucks, watching a few episodes of tv on Hulu, sipping my overpriced drip coffee, marveling at the relentless deluge of customers, and generally ignoring all of the things stressing me out in my life right now. 

But then, around lunch time, I gave in to my "must stay busy" tendencies and popped in to Whole Foods to pick up the ingredients for this pasta with roasted red pepper sauce recipe. I walked home, picked up my apartment a bit (no, really, HOW does it get so messy every week?), and made my bajillionth loaf of banana bread ever. Yum. 


{Side note...in composing a list of LKTC-tested recipes, I came to the realization that I haven't actually tried all that many new recipes. I think that's partially by virtue of the fact that I've done a lot of group meals in which I provide just a dish or two, and partially due to the fact that I'm a creature of habit (a pattern I've also noticed in the places I choose to eat out and/or go to happy hour)}

So I hesitated to make my bajillionth loaf of banana bread, but the nearly expired bananas staring me in the face made the decision fairly easy. I consoled myself that the roasted red pepper pasta sauce would be the "something new" to balance the trusty old banana bread recipe.  

After I made the bread, cleaned the kitchen, and avoided the raging temptation to cut in to the warm, chocolate chip-filled loaf, I got started on the sauce. 

I bought a pack of three small red peppers at the store, and from outside the pack, they looked perfect. Once I opened them, however, I realized one was all moldy at the top, so I settled for two (while cursing Whole Foods and swearing to call them up and complain...which I never did end up doing). I threw them on a cookie sheet and subjected them to whatever passes for "broil" in a gas oven. 


They say impatience is one of a cook's biggest enemies, and I have to agree...I pulled
these out before they were sufficiently charred 

mmmm, toasted pine nuts!

the aftermath of peeling and de-seeding steaming hot peppers

pureed peppers and pine nuts, yum!

garlic, olive oil, onions...aka my idea of heaven

 
the finished product!

So, I have to say this wasn't my favorite pasta sauce, but I blame myself. I didn't roast the peppers long enough (see: lack of patience), and my pine nut to roasted pepper ratio was off. I also used too many onions for what is a pretty thick sauce. It was by no means gross, it just didn't look anything like the Pioneer Woman dish (which is where I got the recipe), and I'm a raging perfectionist. 

I'm convinced I'm cursed. I never can seem to master two kitchen feats in one day. Then again, maybe that's what I get for refusing to embrace the lazy Sunday concept.  

Monday, July 11, 2011

a belated birthday dinner, part three

Still with me?  Almost done, I promise. This is the last time I'll author three consecutive posts about carbs and/or sugar.  Actually, scratch that.  That's a promise I probably can't keep.

Now that you've heard all about the latter half of the meal, I suppose I'll tell you about the first bit. 

I've been looking for a reason to make this rosemary olive oil bread again ever since the first Sunday dinner.  At that dinner, four loaves disappeared in the time it took me to turn from the stove to the counter and back again. Which was actually an overwhelming relief, considering how flagrantly I had misread the recipe. 

Luckily this time, I knew I needed to start four hours in advance, not two.  And, I used...you guessed it...the handy KitchenAid. I am here to tell you, there is a world of difference between kneading something for ten minutes and letting a dough hook knead something for ten minutes.  My muscles were already shot from kneading the pasta dough, and I had a plethora of dishes to attend to, so I let the KitchenAid knead away, and I attacked the kitchen.  After maybe 15 minutes of prep, the dough went into an olive oil-coated bowl, and got a nice little saran wrap covering.  



Now THIS is what I mean when I say I want to see some results if I'm required to sit around waiting for hours (disclaimer: it looked way more impressive before I peeled the saran wrap off):


Then I formed "four equal pieces" (which, if you look closely, you'll note are anything but equal).  I'm about as skilled with the equal division of dough as I am with the formation of the dough into little loaves.  Why is it so complicated? I don't know.  But somewhere between "divide into four equal pieces" and "fold the sides to make a free-form square," I just kind of fail.  Which leads to more flying by the seat of my pants. 




Which I would say worked out alright, because I think the bread looks just delicious once it's been sliced.  You can't totally tell that each of the four loaves was a little different in size.  Or that I hadn't a clue what I was doing when I made the dough to loaf transition. 


And this was the perfect excuse to use Allie's matching cheese plate, appetizer plates, and dipping bowls.  Because she wanted to use all four, we even had a variety of oil options for our bread.  I could eat all of these things (sans tomatoes) ALL DAY LONG. 


The bread was also totally strategic on my part.  I needed to distract everyone while I was finishing up the sauce for the basil pasta.  I decided some sort of white wine/cream sauce would go well with basil pasta.  Problem was, I'd never made such a sauce.  But in the spirit of stubbornness and slight invincibility, I searched for a well-rated recipe, and decided to just give it a shot.  We could always order pizza if it was disgusting.

I used this Food Network recipe, and it was so/so.  I'm not a huge cream sauce fan, and I think it could've used a little spice (which I totally meant to add, but forgot in the slight chaos that ensued when I was supposed to be coating half-cooked bread in olive oil and rosemary while heating garlic, olive oil, shallots, and wine).  But it wasn't gross.  Ringing endorsement, I know.  At least it looks pretty!


So that is the end of the belated birthday dinner saga.  An overall success, but with some room for improvement. And down-sizing.  No one needs to eat leftover pasta and chocolate peanut butter squares for a week...

Monday, March 28, 2011

"it's ok, i'm ready to be fat"



Recently, possibly after plentiful wine, Allie decided she wanted to try making gnocchi from scratch.  When we studied in Venice, I pretty much lived on gnocchi alla bolognese from one of the neighborhood restaurants, so my immediate reaction was "OOOH, I'LL MAKE BOLOGNESE" (yes, that obnoxiously.  see: wine reference).  


There are not many dishes with a high degree of preparation, attention, and involvement that I had even attempted prior to this Lent.  Bolognese is one major exception.  Shortly after returning from Venice the second time, our family friend Sonya made bolognese, and I promptly could not shut up about how authentic it was.  I demanded the recipe, and actually tried it a few times for my "I'll eat pretty much anything" family down at the lake.  


Despite their accommodating attitudes, I think they were all a little surprised by authentic Italian bolognese.  In a lot of American-Italian restaurants, it's served as tomato sauce with ground beef.  In Italy (or very authentic restaurants stateside), it is ground meat (usually pork, beef, and/or veal) with carrots, celery, onions, chicken stock, wine, tomato paste, and milk.  It is heaven.  It is something stratospherically beyond heaven when you put in on top of fresh made gnocchi.  


So what I'm trying to say, really, is that I was pretty stinking excited about this Italian feast we were plotting.  We got a few girlfriends in on the action, and they seemed happy to be our food critics.  


Everything I contributed to Sunday sauce night was time and labor intensive, but once and a while, I need that.  I started by making tiramisu, which, in case you don't read cooking magazines (like I now do, crazy, right?), involves whisking several different ingredients into "stiff peak form," and let me tell you, when you have teeny muscles, that's some slow going.  But tiramisu is to dessert what bolognese is to sauce for me--they are really in their own league of deliciousness.  


(the final tiramisu product)


Once the tiramisu was in the fridge to set, I moved on to rosemary olive oil bread.  If you're double checking to make sure you're reading the proper blog, yeah, I hear you.  Homemade bread?  So not my thing. I routinely live off of easy mac and cereal.  I do not knead dough for 10 minutes straight.  In more typical Jenny fashion though, I epically mis-read the recipe, and didn't realize the dough needed to rise for FOUR hours, not two.  Luckily I caught my error at 2pm.  Still felt like one heck of a dumb blond though.  


As the tiramisu set and the dough for the bread rose, I cranked up Allie's stove for the bolognese.  I practically burned out my mini-food processor mincing onions, carrots, celery, and garlic, because I decided to double the recipe.  Four or so hours, 3 cups of wine, 3 cups of chicken stock, 2 pounds of ground meat, and probably a pound of minced vegetables later, we were almost there. 


(early in the bolognese process)


While I was worried that the rosemary olive oil bread might be a flop, it emerged from the oven golden on the outside and just a touch doughy on the inside.  Either my friends are excellent actresses, or it was delicious, because all four loaves flew out of the basket.  (Which is fortunate, because there was enough red wine flowing to pickle your liver, we desperately needed some carbs at this point). 


(the second round of olive oil bread)


The gnocchi alla bolognese turned out beautifully as well, and I was pleased with the tiramisu.  By the time I brought out the dessert, there was little space to spare in our stomachs, so Allie and I will be eating leftovers for a few days. (the title of the post, by the way, came from my friend Alicia when we were dishing up hearty portions of gnocchi--now that's my kind of dinner guest)  


(the spread)


Aside from stepping on some unfortunate ingredients (mascarpone, pork) and an egg separation mishap, I really had a good time just hanging out with Allie cooking all day.  Obviously spending all day in the kitchen isn't something I plan on making a habit out of, but it actually served as surprisingly effective frustration relief.  


Best of all, the Sunday night dinner thing already seems to be evolving into a bit of a tradition for the four of us who got together last night, and I'm sure the circle will only expand.