Homemade pizza

     I'll tell you, sometimes it is hard being me.  What am I talking about you may ask?  Well, I mean living up to the reputation of being the best pizza maker ever!  At least, that's what Scott says.  I will have to admit, my pizzas are pretty darn good.  So, how do I make them?  This is where my bread machine really comes in handy...
     I don't remember if I have stated my opinion of bread machines on this blog.  Knowing me, I probably have.  Anyways, if you don't remember, I think that bread machines make good bread (certainly better than what you can buy at most stores) but not as great as truly homemade bread.  A big part of that (I think) is that the rising time is shorter.  The longer a bread dough rises, the more flavorful it will be.  However, bread machines are certainly a time/effort saver (not that it really takes that much effort to make bread if you have a food processor).  One thing that the bread machine does make really well without cost to flavor (as far as I can tell) is pizza dough.  So, here's the recipe for bread machine pizza dough:

Note: This will make enough dough for a 15" circle.

Ingredients:

1 1/8 cup warm water
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
3 1/3 cup AP flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast

Procedure:

Add all ingredients to bread pan in the order given.  Set on "dough-only" feature (mine has a pizza dough setting).  When done, remove to floured board, if using immediately.

     After all this (non) work, you have a beautiful lump of pizza dough ready to go.  Now, if I were super talented I would throw it up in the air and spin it to make a pizza shape.  However, I am not that talented or coordinated so I just put it on a pizza pan, flatten it out, and roll it with a rolling pin.  The thing about working with dough that you have to remember is to give it time to relax.  When you start to work on dough, the gluten in it gets "elasticy" and it will start to go spring back so you can't roll it any more.  When this happens, let it rest for a few minutes and then try again.  I just roll it as far as I can and then go and prep ingredients (chop, cook, etc.).  After a few minutes have passed by, I repeat the process.  Eventually it will let you roll it all the way to the outer edges of the pan.  Now, since I don't do it throw it up in the air style, it tends to lead to a very thick crust (which I happen to like).  It is almost like toppings on bread.  Put whatever toppings on it you like.  I like to take a whole bunch of leftover stuff, slice it thin, and put it on.  I have used regular tomato sauce, pizza sauce and pesto sauce for a sauce.  You don't need to use too much, just put a little bit on and smooth it out with a spoon.  Shredded mozzarella is a good cheese to use.  I once made a pizza with a mozzarella base and goat cheese as extra.  Yum!  Top it with whatever you want (spread the toppings out evenly).  Put it in a 500 oven for 8-12 minutes or until the crust looks golden brown and the cheese is bubbly.  Let cool, slice and enjoy!

Here are a few pizzas I have made


My newest pizza.  Pizza sauce, chanterelle mushrooms, garlic, sliced ham and manzanilla olives



Pizza with thinly sliced sausage, black olives and artichoke hearts.

This one has pesto, chicken, olives, artichoke hearts, mozzarella cheese and goat cheese on it.

     Enjoy!  Let me know if you make one or if you want a non-bread machine recipe for pizza dough!

Baked apples

     After the success of last week's (or was it the week before?) applesauce, Scott and I decided to buy a whole bunch of apples at saturday's farmer's market.  I decided to buy a variety of apples (as recommended by Mark Bittman) and cook them all up.  There are many possibilities for this many apples.  One of them is baked apples. 
     Baked apples are delicious.  If you have never made them, I recommend going out and making them now!  They are a delicious very "desserty" snack that also happens to be good for you.  I am also fortunate that I own an "apple baker", a piece of pottery that allows you to bake the apples from the inside out.  Now, if you don't own one, please don't despair.  It is very easy to bake apples in the oven without some fancy piece of equipment.  Here is how I did it (keep in mind I only have two apple bakers).

Baked Apples

Ingredients:

2 apples (I believe I used Braeburn but am not 100% certain)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 cup melted butter
chopped walnuts
2 tbsp water

(Whoo! I had to do a little math there as the recipe is for four apples!)

Procedure:

1) Peel and core the apples.  The instructions don't mention peeling, but I thought the ingredients would stick better to the apples if it was peeled.  From the final result, I seem to be right...
2) Mix together the sugar, flour and cinnamon. (The flour in this recipe will turn the juice into caramel).
3) Roll apples in the melted butter and then in the sugar mixture.  Put on the post of the apple baker.
4) Put on the nuts and add the water.
5) Bake at 350 for 35-40 min (I baked it for about an hour and it turned out really well!)
6) Enjoy!


 Yum!  Here are the pictures:

Here is the apple baker.  It is hard to tell, but there is a post in the middle
that goes through the apple to bake it from the inside out



Close up of cinnamon/sugar/walnut/caramel goodness..

Leftovers crustless quiche and sourdough attempt #2

     Before I start this blog, I would like to give a big thanks to my friend Keri.  She posted this recipe for her crustless quiche and it sounded so good that I had to try it that day.  My beloved husband (to be) went to the grocery store and picked up more eggs so we could make it.  It is a very simple recipe, it used a lot of stuff I just had hanging around the fridge and best of all it was delicious! 
http://kiwikeri.blogspot.com/2011/01/crustless-quiche.html

Some ingredients that go well in this dish are:

rice of any kind or flavor
lentils
broccoli
bacon
any leftover meat
hash browns even frozen ones
yellow squash
mushrooms
quinoa
or anything else you can think of


HOW TO MAKE CRUSTLESS QUICHE:


1. preheat over to around 375
2. pull out all leftovers and assorted veggies from fridge
3. cut all veggies into small pieces trying to keep sizes uniform
4. put all your veggies into a glass pie pan, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt pepper, other seasonings ex. turmeric, Italian seasonings, garlic or garlic powder, etc. and stir until evenly coated
5. add meats and cheeses and stir again
6. fill pie pan close to full with yummy nibbles
7. Crack lots of fresh eggs, add a splash of milk (I use rice milk) and whisk. Usually requires 8-12 eggs
8. pour eggs into pie pan until all veggies and meat are covered with egg. You may need to crack more eggs if you have a lot of goodies in your pan.
9. cover with foil and carefully transfer to oven.
10. bake until mostly solid, then remove foil and bake until a knife comes out clean or the eggs in the center look fully cooked

     So, what did I put in it?  Leftover enchilada filling (chicken, cheese and onion) and leftover bread filling (corn and olives).  I ended up having to bake it for about 40 min uncovered and 20 min covered.  I am not sure if that is the right timing or not, as I also had bread baking in the oven as well.  It came out very good, but would have been better with green chiles and more cheese (what wouldn't have?).  But that is something to try for next time... I definitely think this is going to become one of my regular recipes.

     Which brings me on to the bread I tried to make.  I tried to make a Cornmeal sourdough bread with green chiles, corn and cheese.  Because of the sticky disaster that happened when I tried to make it by hand last time, I decided to try a recipe in my bread machine.  Long story short, I found out what happens when you put too much stuff in the bread machine.  It spilled all over its container into the bottom of my machine and even pushed the top up!  I had to finish baking it in the oven (thus the competition with the crustless quiche).  The bread came out well, but I didn't really taste any sourdough or green chile taste.  Scott said that it looked like a roast chicken when it came out.  What do you think?

Leftovers quiche

Green chile cheese cornmeal sourdough



Do I really look like a roast chicken?



Our dinner plate (with the ubiquitous salad)



Happy eater (while watching Julia Child)



Homemade applesauce

     "So what do you want for Christmas, little girl?"  "I want a food mill to make applesauce!"  And that is indeed what I got!  Thanks to my mother's birthday/Christmas gift, I finally got a food mill of my very own.  It arrived last week and it took me until today to figure out how in the world to put it together.  Not that it is really that hard as it only consists of three parts; the main frame, the disc with the holes and the spinney part (love my technical language?).  I was playing around with it today and it finally just fit together!  I knew that I could finally make the recipe I have wanted to make for a while now: Applesauce!

Applesauce
makes about 2 quarts
Time: About 1 hour

Ingredients:
5 lbs apples, preferably a mixture of varieties, washed
Sugar if necessary

Procedure:

1) Cut the apples in half or, if they're very large, in quarters.  Don't bother to peel or core them. Dump them into a pot with about 1/2 inch of water on the bottom.  Cover the pot and turn the heat to medium.

2) When the water begins to boil, uncover the pot.  Cook, stirring occasionally and lowering the heat if the mixture threatens to burn on the bottom, until the apples break down and become mushy, at least 30 minutes.  let sit until cool enough to handle.  Taste the mixture and add sugar if necessary; usually it is not.

3) Pass the mixture through a food mill, discarding the solids that stay behind.  Freeze or refrigerate.

     It really is that easy!  And that delicious!  I used a mixture of apples, most of which I bought at New Leaf's (a local natural food store).  I used Pink Ladys, Honeycrisp and two random red apples from work.  At first, I was obsessed with poundage and then realized it didn't really matter how many apples I used exactly.  Since they were small apples, I cut most of them in half, put them in the pan and started cooking.  I'd say it took about an hour rather than a half an hour for them to cook down to very mushy, but I was using a stock pot (the narrowness of it probably delayed the cooking time).  Then I put the food mill over another pot, poured some of the mixture in it, and turned.  It was super easy!  And, as Mark Bittman said, it didn't require any sugar!  Yum!  I can hardly wait to tell Marie (who make applesauce every year or so and peels and cores the apples by hand).  She'll flip!




The apple "mush" in the pot




Putting it through the food mill




The homemade applesauce




Can you see the steam?




Of course, you have to enjoy it afterwards!  Yum!



Dinner for Derek and Lynelle

Last night we had over two dear friends, Derek and Lynelle.  They are the couple that Scott used to live with and whom I got to know quite well over the years of our dating.  We ran into them at a mutual friend's party and invited them over.  This is why I was preparing all that chicken stock last week.  They finally came over last night and we had a lovely time.  I cooked one of my favorite dishes from my southwestern cookbook along with a new recipe that I had never tried before.  What are the recipes?

Green Chile Enchiladas

Ingredients:
12 corn tortillas
Vegetable oil
4 cups cooked, skinned, and boned chicken breasts, diced (I just used my left over chicken)
1 1/2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp AP flour
1 cup chicken stock or broth
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
2 mild long green chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese

Procedure:

1) Heat just enough vegetable oil in a frying pan to lightly coat each tortilla and turn each tortilla in the hot oil just until soft.  Equally divide the chicken, Monterey Jack cheese and onion and place on each tortilla.  Roll up the tortillas and place in a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish.
2) Melt the butter in a cast iron skillet, briskly stir in the flour and cook over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring of whisking constantly.  Then add the chicken stock and stir well.
3) Add the milk, garlic powder, cumin and green chile to the pan, bring it to a rolling boil, then reduce the heat and cook over low heat until warmed, stirring to blend everything.  Pour the sauce over the rolled tortillas.  Sprinkle with the grated Cheddar cheese and bake in a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes or until the casserole is hot and bubbly.  Serve at once.

Red Chile potatoes

Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, cut in half lengthwise and sliced
4 large white potatoes, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp ground mild New Mexico red chile, or to taste

Procedure:

Melt butter in a frying pan, add olive oil, and saute the onion for 2 to 3 minutes.  Add the potatoes, salt, pepper and ground red chile.  Saute, for 20 to 30 minutes or until the potatoes are done through and lightly browned.

     Where to start?  Well, let's start with the green chile chicken enchiladas. I used the leftover chicken from when I had made chicken stock so it was already all torn up, measured and ready to go.  I also modified the recipe slightly and cooked the onion a little bit before I mixed it up with the chicken.  I also rewarmed the chicken in with the cooked onion.  This is the third or fourth time that I have made this recipe (maybe even more times) and I have found that if you don't cook the onion ahead of time it doesn't cook through in the oven.  Then you get a raw onion taste in your enchiladas and you mix out on the deliciousness of cooked onion.  Mmmm....  This was also the first time in all that cooking that I actually didn't set off the smoke alarm while cooking the tortillas.  Maybe it was because I had it on lower heat.  Maybe it was because I had the vent going on high the whole time.  Either way about it, I am very glad that it didn't go off.  I realized after the fact that somehow or another I hadn't cooked enough tortillas (although I swore I counted them up correctly!) and so I microwaved a few to get them soft and added them in.  The sauce was easy to make, too.  Just one word of note:  If possible, please use actually New Mexico green chiles.  They make a difference.  The canned ones suck!  I used about four or so to give it that good taste.  Oh, and I used a Monterey Jack already shredded blend from the Grocery store.  So good!  Derek and Lynelle really enjoyed them too!  Lynelle was impressed that I had made my own sauce!
     The potatoes came out great as well, although they were nothing fantastically special.  Just your normal potato kind of dish.  I didn't read until I put the recipe up that you were supposed to slice the onions, so I just roughly chopped them up.  I was very grateful to the food processor when it came to slicing all the potatoes, though!  I also only used half an onion as that was what I had left from the enchilada recipe.  Since I didn't have any red New Mexican chile powder, I used 1/2 Cayenne pepper and 1/2 Chile powder.  It turned out delicious!

Cooking dinner

Green chile chicken enchiladas



Red Chile potatoes



Our dinner plate

Lynelle and Derek enjoying a good meal

Scott happily eating his food

Sweet potato fries

     This is going to be another of those multi-blog posts, as I have made quite a few things in the last few days.  So, I'll go in chronological order starting with:

Sweet potato fries

Ingredients:
4 medium baking potatoes or sweet potatoes (I obviously used sweet)
2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt

Procedure:

1) Scrub and dry potatoes (peeling is optional).  Cut into thin sticks or wedges and place in large container with a tight lid.  Pour oil on potatoes, cover, and shake to thoroughly coat fries with oil.

2) Sprinkle salt on fries and mix.  Spread fries in a single layer on baking sheets.  Bake in preheated oven at 425 F until golden brown and fork tender, 30-45 min, stirring and flipping fries ever 5-10 minutes.  Serve immediately.

     So before I start talking about the recipe itself, I should mention that I first learned of this recipe from Leah this past Christmas break.  She was the one who first introduced me to the Simply in Season cookbook.  As I looked through the Simply in Season book, I realized this was the recipe that Leah had made, only she did it a little differently.  Now, on to the recipe.
     It turned out okay.  Leah herself said that sometimes this recipe turns out great with the fries nice and crispy and sometimes it turns out okay, with the fries cooked but more mushy.  I definitely had one of the more mushy experiences.  We still had cooked fries (some were burnt) but none of them had the crisp texture I was looking for.  It honestly came out so mediocre that I am double thinking of ever trying this recipe again.  However, as I said earlier, Leah did things differently.  When she did it, she just cut up the fries and then poured olive oil over them on the baking sheet mixing them around so every one would get evenly coated.  When I did it, I followed the original recipe and mixed it in a bowl.  The two tablespoons of olive oil were not nearly enough to cover the fries, so that could be part of the problem.  I made them in three batches.  On one I just sprinkled salt.  On the second, I sprinkled half with cayenne pepper and half with curry powder.  On the third one, I sprinkled garlic salt and a garlic cheese mix.  Unfortunately, they all came out pretty mediocre.  At least they were semi-what healthy. 
     The other difficult thing about this recipe was cutting up the sweet potatoes.  Scott got a type of sweet potato that I had never seen before.  It was more whitish like a regular potato than brown.  It was also really difficult to cut through.  I have been aware for some time that I need to sharpen my knives.  This brought that realization to the fore.  I have tried over the past few days to sharpen knifes using a sharpening wheel and then a butcher's steel but had no luck with either.  I am sure it is just my incompetency rather than the sharpeners themselves.  Or maybe I just have bad knives....

The first two batches of sweet potato fries

These ones were flavored just with salt and turned out a little crisper

This was the Cayenne pepper/Curry powder bunch.  They were much softer.

Peanut Apple Salad

I love recipes that use up leftover ingredients.  Especially when those are leftover ingredients from other recipes that you have made.  I have been inspired by our friends (and ex-wolfies) Jason and Leah when we go and visit them over the Christmas break holiday.  One of the ways that they have inspired me is to introduce me to the cookbook I used for this recipe, Simply in Season by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wart.  Simple premise for a cookbook: eat local and eat those foods that are in season.  We are fortunate here on California that a lot of those foods that would be out of season anywhere else are still in season here.  However, it is still difficult to get some foods (how I miss the days of summer fruit in the middle of winter!).  Anyways, I ordered this cookbook as a Xmas present and stumbled across this recipe for Peanut Apple salad.  It uses up leftovers I had from making the red beans and rice (coconut) and the winter bean soup (celery).  I didn't have any raisins (and I don't like them) so I skipped that part.  Anyways, here's the recipe:

Peanut Apple Salad

8 apples, chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup peanuts, pecans, or walnuts
1/4 cup shredded coconut

Combine in large bowl.  Set aside.

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar

Combine then pour over salad.

I know- sounds weird- peanut butter and mayonnaise?  But it works.  I think the sugar helps bind the tastes together and the milk gives it a creamy consistency.  I think it could definitely benefit from something like raisins as it is very crunchy without them.  Not bad, but I think raisins or another dried fruit would provide an excellent contrast in textures.  Enjoy!



Simple and delicious




Plus it is healthy for you, too!



I think I should change my blog name to In search of the perfect sourdough bread recipe

So, this all started when I got some 20 year old sourdough starter from my co-worker/friend Marie.  I have been feeding that baby every week for about a year now.  I call it my little pet.  In case you are wondering, sourdough starter is basically water and flour that you have let sour (or ferment) with the yeast that is in the air.  It looks a little bit like pancake batter and you feed it with flour and water each week to keep it alive.  Yes, it is alive!  The older a starter is, the more flavor it gets.  Some sourdough starters are over 100 years old (think San Francisco)!!!  Alas, despite my love and care, I just can't seem to make sourdough bread.  It never comes out sourdoughy enough for me.
Now, I can make bread.  I love making bread.  Any other bread I make comes out delicious and complex with a complex taste and wonderful texture.  Well, today's attempt came out with a wonderful texture but the blandest taste that I have ever tasted in homemade bread.  I thought that observing the sourdough bread master (Marie's husband, Mark), I would finally get it right.  No luck.  I jokingly called today's dough the sourdough monster as it kept growing and bubbling and getting everywhere!  I had to call my wonderful fiance down to help at one point as I was covered with sticky sourdough and couldn't get the dough to do anything!  It stuck to the board, stuck to my hands, went on the floor, counter, stove, etc.! Even when I finally (finally!) put it in the oven, it refused to cook through.  It was so massive and giant that it still came out doughy when I took it out the first time.  All this was (as I mentioned in my previous blog) going on while I was trying to make chicken stock.  When it did finally bake through, it just tasted bland.  The crust and texture was great but it tasted of nothing but flour and water!  And not very delicious flour and water!  Ah well...

My sourdough monster



I may look delicious, but I taste bland...

 p.s. I am not even going to include a recipe in this blog, as there is no point!

Homemade chicken stock

So, with my brilliant mind (but still lacking money), I decided that buying a whole chicken would be cheaper than buying 4 cups worth of chicken breast.  The reason?  To make green chile chicken enchiladas tomorrow for some friends of ours.  The outcome?  Chicken stock!

Quickest Chicken Stock

Makes 3 quarts

Time: 40 minutes to 1 hour


Note:
This stock has three distinct advantages: One, it takes less than an hour to make. Two, it has clear, clean flavor---not especially complex, but very good. And three, it gives you a whole cooked---but not overcooked-- -chicken, for salad or any other use.

Ingredients:1 whole (3- to 4-lb) chicken, rinsed and patted dry with paper towels

1 cup roughly chopped onion (don't bother to peel it)
1 cup chopped carrot
½ cup roughly chopped celery
1 sprig fresh thyme or pinch dried thyme
½ bay leaf
Several sprigs fresh parsley
1 tsp salt, plus more if necessary
I also added in a whole garlic head


Makes: About 3-1/2 quarts (14 C) water


Procedure:

1) Cut the chicken up if you like, it will speed cooking. Combine all ingredients except the water in a stockpot; add water. Bring just about to a boil, then partially cover and adjust the heat so the mixture sends up a few bubbles at a time. Cook just until the chicken is done, 30 to 60 minutes.
2) Strain, pressing on the vegetables and meat to extract as much juice as possible. Taste and add salt if necessary.
3) Refrigerate, and then skim any hardened fat from the surface. Refrigerate for 4 to 5 days (longer if you boil it every third day, which will prevent spoiling), or freeze

My thoughts on this?  Pretty easy, although it took a bit longer than I expected it to.  It was a bit difficult to try to make this and sourdough bread at the same time (more on that later), but I finally cooked it.  Don't overly boil it, Mark Bittman says.  It was also difficult to figure out how to drain the stock of all its materials when I didn't have a container large enough to fit all the stock.  I used a mixing bowl in the sink, which then got hot and became difficult to lift out.  Ah well...  My stock is currently sitting in the fridge waiting for the fat to rise to the top. 
The final final result?  Our friends postponed until next week and so now I have all this stock and cooked chicken for nothing!  Well, I suppose I can freeze the cooked chicken and stock and it did get rid of a lot of leftover celery I had hanging around....

The cooked chicken removed from the stock



Starting to remove the meat




These were all the vegetables that were left over after the stock cooked



Home made chicken stock



The chicken and its carcass



What to do when you have little money but a lot of time on your hands...

Cook, of course!  You may have realized that I am writing more blogs than usual and making a more than usual amount of food.  A large part (in fact, the major reason) is that my job gives us five weeks off between fall season and spring season.  That has its perks (we get to travel back east) but also its drawbacks (5 weeks of no pay!).  It is for this reason that I have been trying to make a lot of bean dishes, as this seems the quintessential no money food.  Today (well, technically, yesterday) it was red beans with rice.  Fortunately, I still have a lot of dried beans on hand so I haven't had to buy that many ingredients.  Not that dried beans are that expensive.  Still a little bit worried about cooking dried beans?  That whole having to soak them beforehand part?  Don't be!  According to Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (my favorite cookbook in the whole world!), that's a lot of bogus.  And, after cooking this recipe where I didn't soak the beans and last recipe where I did, I can definitely agree with him.  All it really seemed to take was a little more time...

Ingredients2 cups kidney, pinto, or other beans, washed and picked over
1 or 2 meaty smoked hame hock(s), 1 chunk of bacon or salt pork, or 1 meaty ham bone
1/2 lb sweet Italian or spicy Cajun sausage
1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
4 or 5 sprigs thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup chopped tomatoes (canned are fine; don’t bother to drain)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Minced fresh parsley or cilantro leaves for garnish
1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice (I used brown)
3 cups canned coconut milk, warmed
Chopped parsley or cilantro for garnish
Tabasco sauce (optional)

Procedures:


1.) Put the beans in a large pot with water to cover. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil; skim the foam if necessary.  Add the ham hock(s) and turn the heat down so the beans simmer. Cover loosely stir occasionally; add additional water if necessary.

2.)  Place the sausage in a large skillet and turn the heat to medium.  Cook, turning occasionally and pricking the sausage a few times to release its fat.  When the sausage is nicely browned, remove it; don't worry about whether it is done.  Cut into small chunks.

3.) Cook the onion, pepper and garlic in the sausage fat, stirring frequently, until the pepper is softened, about 10 minutes.  Remove with a slotted spoon.  Return the sausage to the skillet and cook, turning occasionally, until the chunks are browned all over.  Return the vegetables to the pan, along with the thyme, bay leaves, allspice, and tomatoes.  Turn the heat to medium low and cook, stirring, until the tomatoes break up, 20 to 25 minutes. 

4.) When the meat in the beans is very soft, remove it.  When it is cool enough to handle, chop all the meat and return it to the pot vegetables and tomatoes into the beans. Cook until the beans are cooked through and completely tender (keep tasting and checking; this is the secret of cooking beans, at least for me, not to quit until they’re done). Discard the bay leaves, if you used them, and season to taste with salt and pepper. s, along with the sausage and vegetable mixture. Cook, until the beans are very tender.  Remove and discard the bay leaves.  Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary. Garnish and serve, passing Tabasco or other hot sauce at the table.


5). Put 3 cups of the bean and meat mixture into another saucepan, one that can hold at least double their bulk comfortably. If the beans in the saucepan are swimming in liquid, cook them gently until they are moist but not swimming in liquid.

6.) Add the rice and warmed coconut milk to the beans and vegetables. Cover and turn the heat to low. Cook for about 20 minutes, or until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed. If necessary, uncover and raise the heat to medium-high; cook, stirring, until the liquid is absorbed. Season with salt and pepper, garnish with parsley or cilantro, and serve. A dash or two of Tabasco tastes very good with the coconut milk.


If you are reading carefully, you may notice that this is kind of two recipes turned into one.  That is exactly what it is.  It does give you leftover red beans and meat, which I actually found to be a lot more flavorful than the red beans and meat.  I think I kind of failed in "Don't turn this into a bean-flavored meat dish, because it should be the other way around; the meat is the seasoning." but who could resist adding in that extra sausage?  Oh, and another word of advice. Don't try to get the coconut milk straight from the coconut unless you have a blender!  Scott couldn't find canned coconut milk, so he went out and bought a whole coconut at the store.  Waiting for all the milk to drain out of that tiny little whole was exacerbating.  I only got about 2 cups from it.  I used water for the rest, which perhaps explains the lack of flavor.  However, I found that a little bit of cholula hot sauce put on the red beans and rice made it quite flavorful.  It took a wee bit longer to cook the whole thing than he said.  I attribute that to the use of pure dried beans and brown rice instead of white.

Red beans and meat

Close up (with fresh bay from the Farmer's market!)



Enjoying the leftover red beans and meat



Now it is red beans and rice

Dinner for game night

     On sunday, January 9th, I had over some friends for a game night.  Scott and I had been introduced to two great games ("Munchkin" and "The Settlers of Catan") by our wonderful ex-wolfie friends back east, and wanted to continue the tradition here in CA.  Still having the New England cold dinner menu in mind (not to mention the "I have no money" menu), I decided to make Bean and Vegetable soup with homemade baguettes on the side. 
      One thing I really am starting to notice about soup is that you don't really have to follow the recipe exactly.  Just kind of make your own thing up and as long as you have delicious ingredients everything will come out fine.  This soup recipe called for a lot of things that I hadn't made/cooked with before: turnips, a boquet garni, slab bacon.  I used some of them (turnips) and substituted the rest(boquet garni and slab bacon). 
     I also had my first cooking disaster in a while- the pepper disaster!  Or pepper calamity?  Pepper overload?  Anyways, on an impulse, I decided to add in a little bit of ground pepper to the soup.  Not too out of the ordinary, right?  Well, my stupid grinder (one of those store-bought ones) broke so that more than half of the peppercorns went *plop* right into the soup.  Now, I don't know if you have ever eaten a whole peppercorn before but let me tell your right now that it is not a very pleasurable experience.  I was freaking out with the idea of company coming over (who had never eaten my cooking!) biting right into a whole peppercorn.  So, I first started out trying to fish them out with a spoon (my tablespoon measurer to be exact).  Fortunately, a lot of them floated towards the top.  Then, after about five minutes of this and a very slight cursing breakdown, my fiance came to the rescue.  First, he used a slotted spoon to just get the solids out and then hand pick the peppercorns out.  Then, I had the brilliant idea of using the colander and dumping all the solid ingredients out.  Alas, the peppercorns were too large to fit through the holes in the colander, so I basically ended up going through every single ingredient, throwing out the peppercorns and putting it back in the pot.  This took about 45 min or an hour or so in total.
     Oh, and just as a side note before I go onto the cooking part.  What is slab bacon and where do you get it?  I looked it up on wikipedia, and it seemed to be a very fatty cut of bacon similar to salt pork but not cured.  I couldn't find it anywhere.  Mind you, I did only look in Safeway (this was cooking on a budget!) but I haven't seen it in other stores either. 
     Side note number 2: Pay the extra money for organic carrots.  Just do it.  ::shudder::  Regular grocery store carrots left a bad taste in my mouth that stayed there for about thirty minutes.  Ick ick ick  Of course, part of this was because I didn't peel them (I get lazy) but that never makes a difference with organic/farmer's market carrots. 
     Okay, now onto the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup dried beans
1/2 lb slab bacon (I just used regular bacon)
1 boquet garni (I used Italian seasoning)
12 cups chicken stock (I used more)
1 bunch leeks
2 small turnips
3 large celery ribs
2 medium potatoes
4 medium carrots
1/2 head green cabbage
1/4 lb green beans
2 garlic cloves

1. Prepare dried beans (basically, pick through for stones and bad beans and then soak overnight).
2. Rinse the slab bacon, put it in the saucepan, and cover with cold water.  Bring to a boil, simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Put the beans, pork, and boquet garni into a large pan; add all but 2 cups chicken stock.  Boil for 10 minutes.  Cover pan and simmer for 1 hour.
4. Prepare leeks, dice turnips, celery, potatoes, and carrots.  Shred cabbage and cut up beans.  Prepare garlic (i.e., mince).  Add all to pan.
5. Add rest of stock; bring back to boil.  Simmer until meat is tender, about 1 1/2 hours.
6. Remove and discard boquet garni; remove pork.  Discarding fat, cut meat into small cubes (this was hard to do with bacon so I just chopped it).  Replace in pan; season to taste.  Server very hot.

     Oh, and in case you want it, here is the baguette recipe.  I won't say much except that it was very good, delicious with the soup (as I thought it would be) and came out a lot better than the last time I made it.  I think I am finally starting to get the hang of baguette making!

Easiest and Best French Bread


Ingredients

3 1/2 cups (about 1 pound) bread or AP flour, plus more as needed
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. instant  or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 cups water


1. Place the flour in the container of a food processor fitted with the steel blade.  Add the salt and yeast and process for 5 seconds.  With the machine running, pour most of the water through the feed tube. Process about 30 seconds.  The dough should be in a defined but shaggy ball, still sticky; you would not want to knead it by hand.  If the dough is too try, add water 1 tbsp at a time and process for 5 to 10 seconds after each addition.  (If it is too wet, which is unlikely, add another tbsp of flour and process briefly).

2. Dump the lump of dough into a large bowl.  Cover loosely with a plastic bag, plastic wrap, or towel.  Let sit for 2 to 3 hours at room temperature.  If you would like to let the dough rise for a longer period of time, which will help it develop flavor, refrigerate for up to 12 hours; bring it back to room temperature before proceeding.

3. Sprinkle a very small amount of four onto a counter or tabletop, cut the dough into 3 or 4 equal pieces and shape each into a ball, sprinkling with a little more flour if necessary.  Cover with a towel and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes.

4. Spread a large, heavy piece of canvas or cotton on a table or counter top and sprinkle it very lightly with flour.  Or use baguette pans, sifting a little bit of flour onto them.

5. Press each dough ball flat, then fold it over onto itself twice; seal the resulting seam and, using your hands, roll the dough into a long snake (as you did with clay when you were a child).  Do not use too much flour or the dough will slide all over  the counter top and you will not be able to roll it.  Place the loaf, seam side up, in a fold of the cloth or seam side down in a baguette pan.  When all the loaves are formed, cover with a cloth and let rise for 1 to 2 hours at room temperature; the loaves will be about 1 1/2 times their original size.

6. About 30 minutes before you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 450.  When you are ready to bake, sprinkle each loaf very lightly with flour and slash the top several times with a razor blade.  If the dough has risen on a cloth, slide into onto floured baking sheets or gently move into onto a plank of wood measuring about 4 x 15 in, then slide the bread off the plank directly on to a baking stone.  if the dough has risen in baguette pans, place them in the oven.  Spray the inside of the oven to create steam, then put the loaves in the oven.

7. After 5 minutes, spray again.  Bake 25 to 35 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the internal temperature of the bread is at least 210.  Remove, spray with a bit of water if you would like a shinier crust, and cool on a wire rack.

Picture of the soup boiling

Jeremy's friend Seth joins us for dinner and games

Jeremy, a fellow wolfie, enjoying his meal

Who is that handsome man?

Look who stopped by!

My delicious baguettes...  mmmmm

     I guess I should also mention the game night was a success.  We decided to play munchkin, I drank a little too much wine and Seth won.  We plan to do it again!