Apple Cider Pitas

They go well with my pumpkin soup.

Arugula Rolls Take 2

I guess I've been neglecting this blog.  Sadly, kitchen experiments have fallen by the wayside in favor of my newer hobby, photography.  I'm having my first show this coming Friday, and I'm super excited.  I've been pretty busy getting ready for it though!

http://gmcdphotography.zenfolio.com/

https://www.facebook.com/gmcdphotography

Staying busy with photography doesn't mean I haven't been cooking, it just means I haven't found the time to document everything I've made.  Tonight was a whirlwind in the kitchen, as I'm looking ahead to a busy and disorganized week, and have no idea when I will have time to cook again before next Sunday.  I made crock pot pulled pork, tuna salad, baked chicken thighs, carrot soup, and arugula rolls.

Arugula Rolls Take 2

garlic

onion

mushrooms

kale

red wine

arugula

cheese

bread dough

preheat oven to 450

For the bread dough: Combine 2 tsp yeast, garlic powder, ginger powder, a dash of salt, 1 tsp sugar, 6 oz hot water, and a bit of olive oil.  Add 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour.  Knead in white flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Cover and let rise for 30+ minutes.  Punch down dough, add a bit more flour if necessary.  Roll out the dough into a large rectangle.  

For the filling: Chop some garlic, 1/4 of an onion, and a few strips of bacon (chopped), and cook til browned.  Add chopped mushrooms and kale.  When the mushrooms are almost done, add some red wine.  Let it cook for awhile, then spoon out the wine.  

Construct the roll: Spread shredded cheese and arugula on the rolled-out bread dough.  Add the cooked ingredients on top, sprinkle on some more cheese.  Roll up the dough.  Spread some cornmeal on a baking and lay the roll on the cornmeal. Sprinkle some cheese on top.  Bake for 15 minutes.

Baguette

Since I finally bought an immersion blender and got to make my favorite soup, I wanted to make some bread to go with it.  Last time I made a variation of this carrot-ginger soup, I had some white bread from a local bakery, and they went really well together.  I didn't feel like going out and buying bread, so I decided to change my bread recipe and make my own white baguette.  I normally put at least 1 cup of whole wheat flour in my bread, but this time I did only white flour.

So. Delicious.  

I've decided that maybe using whole grains is overrated.  

White Baguette

3 tsp yeast

7 oz hot water

garlic powder

ginger powder

1/2 tbsp salt

1/2 tbsp sugar

3+ c white flour

1-2 tbsp olive oil

Mix together everything but the flour and stir.  Add 1 cup of flour, mix well.  Add flour roughly 1/2 c at a time, kneading as you go, until the dough is no longer sticky.  Cover and let rise for an hour or so, then divide into 2 loaves.  I ended up adding more flour after the first rising because the dough was super sticky again.  I let the loaves rise for about another hour, then baked them at 425 for 20 min.  

pre-bake beautiful white loaves

 Perfect combination.

I just ate half a loaf of bread...it was so good!

Stuffing Muffins

I always throw the ends of bread loaves into the freezer.  Sometimes they turn into stuffing, sometimes bread pudding.  I got a new roommate recently, and it's been getting hard to close the freezer door.  I had almost 2 loaves worth of bread in there, so I figured it was about time to do something with it.  I didn't manage to use all of it, but I did manage to use of some of it!

Ingredients

garlic cloves

fresh ginger root

1/4 yellow onion

2 slices of bacon

2 small carrots

big handful of cranberries

1 egg

veggie stock

c 3/4 loaf of dried bread

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350.

Chop the garlic, ginger, and onion and saute in some olive oil.  Chop the bacon and add it when the onion starts to brown.  Grate the carrot and put it in a big bowl.  Chop the cranberries and add them to the bowl. Add the garlic/ginger/onion/bacon mixture.  Beat the egg and add it.  Add c 1/2 c of veggie stock.  Mix well.  Break the bread into roughly 1 inch pieces and add it.  Stir well until all of the bread is moist.  Add more veggie stock if needed.  Grease a muffin tin.  Shape the stuffing mixture into 12 balls and put them in the muffin tin.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  

Pita Bread

A few weeks ago, The Beeroness posted a recipe for pita bread.  It had never occurred to me before to make a pita bread, but I loved the idea.  I have made bread and rolls that work for sandwiches, but I haven't loved any of them for sandwiches.  Pita bread is great for sandwiches though, so I was excited to try it out.  Also, I got to try using the dough hook attachment on my mixer for the first time.  Wow was that so much easier and less messy than kneading bread by hand...

Ingredients

1 c whole wheat flour

1 1/2 c white flour

1 envelope rapid rise yeast

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp ginger powder

1 tsp salt

1 c Killian's Irish Stout

Directions

Combine the dry ingredients in the mixer.  Heat the beer in the microwave until it reaches 120 degrees.  Add it to the mixer and mix it until smooth.  It only took a few minutes in my mixer.  Cover the dough and let it rise for an hour (mine ended up rising for more like 2 hours because I was busy).  Knead the risen dough with a little bit of flour, then divide it into 8 chunks.  Flatten each chunk as thin as possible.  Heat a non-stick skillet, and cook the pitas one at a time.  Cook for a few minutes on each side.  

Rip a pita in half, and carefully slice each half open.  

Fill it with some yummy chicken salad.  

I'll be having pita sandwiches for lunch this week!

Awesomeness Bread

It's probably been over a year now since the day I was stumbling around on StumbleUpon and found this recipe for Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread on Joy the Baker.   I saved the page, and planned on making it...someday...  I had no idea it would take me this long to get to it.  Every now and then, I have gone back to that page, read through the recipe, thinking I would make it, and then changed my mind for whatever reason.

Tonight, as I was lying on the couch reading, and realizing that I was not going to fall asleep any time soon, I decided it was time to finally try the recipe out.  Of course, since I'm me, I didn't quite follow the original recipe.  You can use the link above to find the original.  Here's what I did:

Awesomeness Bread

Ingredients (Dough)

1/3 c heavy cream*

1/4 c water

1/2 stick butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1/4 c sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 c whole wheat flour

2 c white flour

2 eggs

*the original recipe calls for milk, but when I opened my milk bottle it was...not pleasant.  

So I used cream instead.

Ingredients (Filling)

1/2 stick butter

1/4 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1+ tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 square of chocolate (86%), grated

Instructions

Heat the cream, water, and butter in a small saucepan until the butter is almost melted.  Remove from heat and continue stirring until the butter is completely melted.  In a bowl, combine the yeast, sugar, and salt.  Add the heated liquids, stir til combined.  Add the vanilla, cocoa powder, cinnamon, the wheat flour, and 1 c of the white flour.  Stir well.  Beat the eggs and add them.  Stir/knead with wooden spoon until well combined.  Add another scant cup of white flour.  Knead until smooth.  Cover and let rise for 1 hr. 

Preheat the oven to 350.

After an hour, knead a few tablespoons of flour into the dough and roll it out.  Melt 1/2 stick butter on the stove until it begins to brown.  Spread it over the rolled out dough.  Mix together the remaining filling ingredients, then sprinkle them over the dough.  Cut the dough into rough rectangles and stack them up.  Turn the stack on its side and place in a loaf pan. 

(I lined my loaf pan with tin foil for easy post-bake removal)

There was a whole bunch of filling left on the cutting board after I put the dough in the loaf pan, so I gathered it up and sprinkled it on top. Yum. 

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the top is turning brown.

Look at all that oozy chocolaty goodness on the bottom...

Hybrid Cornbread

I knew I was making Sloppy Joes for dinner last night, and I planned to make some sort of bread to go with them.  I was thinking about making Cider Rolls, but then it occurred to me that I have not made cornbread in a long time, and that it would probably go quite well with Sloppy Joes.  So I set out to make cornbread.  When it came time to add the cornmeal, I discovered that I only had 3/4 cup left, and my recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups.  Since I already had most of the batter thrown together, it was too late to change my mind.  So I used whole wheat flour as a substitute for the missing corn meal, and hoped for the best.  It worked out pretty well.  Hooray!

Hybrid Cornbread

preheat oven to 425

mix together:

2 tbsp melted butter

1 c milk

1 egg

mix together separately:

3/4 tsp salt

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp sugar

3/4 c flour

3/4 c cornmeal

1/2 c wheat flour

Dump the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until just combined.  Grease a 9x9 pan and pour in the batter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean)

Tastes like...cornbread.  The substitution of wheat flour for some of the cornmeal does not significantly diminish the cornbread taste.  

And it is excellent as a Sloppy Joe base. 

This picture is from last night's dinner.  Tonight, I added an avocado on top.  Major deliciousness. 

Wheat & Flax Rolls

3 tsp yeast

7 oz hot water

1/2 tbsp salt

1/2 tbsp sugar

garlic powder

oregano

basil

1 c whole wheat flour

1/3 c milled flax seed

1/2-1 c white flour

Mix & knead the dough.  Coat with olive oil and cover with a towel.  Let rise for 1-2 hours.  Divide into 8 rolls.  Place the rolls on a baking sheet and let rise while the oven preheats to 425.  Bake for 15 min. 

These rolls go well with Brussels Sprout Soup.  

Also, they are delicious toasted with Muenster cheese on top.

Arugula-Mushroom Rolls

It's been a fabulous weekend!  Yesterday the temp got up above 70 and I got to spend some quality bonding time with my horse.  Today, it was in the mid-60s and I had a really great 10.6 mile run.  I intended to run 5 or 6, but it was so nice outside, and I felt good, so I just kept on going.  It feels great to be back to a good running schedule.  I'm at 2 weeks above 30 miles each now.  

A run like today's needs a good carb & protein loaded dinner, and this one hit the spot.

For the dough:

3 scant tsp yeast

6 oz hot water

1/2 tsp salt

garlic powder

onion powder

crushed rosemary

1/2 c wheat flour

1 1/2 c flour

Let rise in a warm place.

Once the dough has risen, place it on a floured surface and use your fingers to spread it into a large rectangle.  Flip is over occasionally so that both sides get some flour on them.  Spread some pesto on the flattened dough, then grate some cheese on top.  Cover with sliced mushrooms, add some more cheese, cover with handfuls of arugula. Add more cheese.  Roll it up and place on a greased baking pan. 

Grate some cheese on top.

Bake at 450 for 20 min.

Makes a wonderful meal with some home-made meatballs.

Top with avocado if you're addicted like I am.

Here's a link to my first attempt at Arugula Rolls.