Meal Prep 9/3/18 : When life gives you bread that won't rise

...turn the dough into crackers!  

Leeks were on sale this week and caught my eye, so I decided to make potato-leek soup for lunch.  I had made rosemary bread a few nights ago with fresh rosemary from my garden and it was soooooo good I decided to make bread to go with the soup.  For protein, I took some of the leftover pulled pork barbecue from our wedding out of the freezer.  I also sauteed some brussels sprouts and cauliflower for extra veggies.

  For some reason, the dough refused to rise.  I have never had this happen before, so I have no idea what went wrong.  I did open a new jar of yeast, but I hope it's not full of dead yeast!  I guess I'll find out next time... I even tried mixing more yeast/warm water into the dough (using a different yeast) but that didn't work either.  Some google research revealed that I might be able to save the dough by turning it into crackers, so I decided to try it. 

I pulled a big handful of dough off, rolled it out, and used a very thin knife to cut it into rectangles.  I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper and placed the crackers on it.  They were very sticky!  I sprinkled them with pink sea salt and garlic powder, and baked them at 450 for 12 minutes.  For the second batch, I floured my work surface first, and then rolled out the dough.  No more stickiness, but the crackers were completely coated with flour.  I found the parchment paper was completely unnecessary with the floured crackers. 

Thankfully, the crackers came out pretty delicious, so that unrisen bread dough did not go to waste!  And instead of bread with our soup, we will be eating tasty crackers.  Maybe someday I'll make crackers on purpose...

pre-bake sticky crackers

post-bake cracker deliciousness

Cumin-Rosemary-Ginger Pork

This is the first time I cooked pork in the oven instead of in the crock-pot or on the stove-top.  I had originally intended to stick the 1 1/2 pound tenderloin in the crock-pot to make some of my delicious apple-cider cinnamon pulled pork, but I never quite got around to getting out the crock-pot.  So, I decided to use the oven for once.

I coated the pork with ginger, cumin, and rosemary, and stuck it in the 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Then, I flipped it over and cooked it for another 30 minutes.

I had some for dinner along with zucchini spaghetti (sauteed in olive oil with garlic and ginger) and quinoa. 

It was delicious.  

Lemon-Oatmeal Cookies

Lemon-Oatmeal Cookies

(sorry...I was in a hurry and didn't take any exciting pictures)

1/2 stick butter

1/4 c vegetable oil

1 egg

1/2 c brown sugar

1/4 c white sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp lemon extract

1/4 c quick oats
1/2 c wheat flour
3/4 c white flour

1 tsp crushed rosemary

Bake at 375 for 8-10 min

Tastes like Broccoli

Turns out brussels sprouts are edible.  Who knew?  And, they taste kind of like broccoli.  I might not have waited 26 years to try them if I had known they tasted like broccoli.  I mean, I'm not a huge broccoli fan but I do find it to be edible, and it's certainly not my least favorite vegetable.   

I heard recently that brussels sprouts get a bad rep because they get boiled frequently, and boiling makes them nasty.  Apparently they are really good roasted.  Since I didn't feel like waiting 45 minutes for them to roast, I sauteed them instead.  

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts

10 brussels sprouts, cleaned and quartered

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp minced fresh ginger

garlic powder

ginger powder

pinch of crushed rosemary

Brown the garlic and ginger in olive oil.  Add the brussels sprouts and saute for a few minutes.  Add garlic and ginger powders if desired.  Add pinch of rosemary.  

Lemon-Rosemary Cupcakes

Yet another adaptation of the amazing Rosemary Olive Oil Cake.  The last adaptation I made was absolutely delicious and a big hit among the friends I shared it with (Olive Oil & Beer Cake).  Today's adaptation was very similar to that one, but I cut the recipe in half, used lemonade instead of beer, and made mini-cupcakes instead of cake.

Lemon-Rosemary Cupcakes

1/2 c lemonade

1/2 c olive oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 heaping tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1/4 c whole wheat flour

1 c flour

1 tsp crushed rosemary

makes approx. 30 mini cupcakes

Bake at 350 for 15 min 

Delightfully light, airy, and refreshing.  

These cupcakes are coming with me to a birthday party for one of my friends. 

Olive Oil & Beer Cake

A few months ago I made a Rosemary Olive Oil Cake.  It was yummy, but way too sweet for my tastes.  Tonight, I was itching to bake something, but couldn't decide what, so I organized my recipe box while I was thinking about it.  I came across the recipe for the Olive Oil Cake and decided it was time to try it again.  However, the original recipe called for white wine, and I don't have any right now.  But I did have a bottle of beer that I didn't particularly want to drink.  So I decided to substitute beer for wine.  I also changed the flour and sugar types/amounts from the original recipe.

ingredients listed in the order that I added them to the mixing bowl

1 c Shock-Top Raspberry Wheat Beer 

1 c olive oil

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1+ tbs crushed rosemary

1/2 c brown sugar

1 c white sugar

1/2 c wheat flour

2 c white flour

pour batter into a 9x9 pan

bake at 350 for 50 min

I had to cut the cake into 4 pieces in order to remove it from the pan

 For my taste-test...I ate the pieces that stuck to the pan

Delicious.

Guinness-Rosemary Chocolate Truffles

Guinness-Rosemary Chocolate Truffles

Recipe adapted from the Beeroness. 

A lovely blog with lots of delicious and beer-filled recipes.  

Ingredients

1 c Guinness

7 oz chocolate, 70% cocoa

1.75* oz. chocolate, 85% cocoa

crushed rosemary

*I only made 13 truffles today.  The 1.75 oz was a bit more than I needed for 13.  I would say there is enough filling chocolate left for another 13 or so.  So if you are making all your truffles at once, try 3.5 oz.

Directions

Boil the Guinness until it is reduced to about 1/2 c. Remove from heat and add the 7 oz of 70 chocolate.  Stir until melted.  Pour into a bowl, let cool on the counter for a bit and then cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.  It probably only needs to chill for a couple of hours, but I chilled mine overnight.

Use a melon-baller to scoop out chunks of the chocolate and then use your hands to roll them into balls.  This is a very messy step.  I had no idea my hands were so warm...but the chocolate was melting and making a big mess.  I ended up making about 13 truffles and then putting the rest of the chocolate back in the fridge to re-chill.  I'll make the rest of the truffles some other day.  

Melt the 1.75 oz. of 85 chocolate in a glass measuring cup in the microwave for 1 minute, then stir until completely melted.  Dunk the truffles in, one at a time, and use a fork to turn them/get them evenly coated/fish them out and lay them on wax paper.  Sprinkle the truffles with some crushed rosemary.  Or anything that your heart desires, really.  

I'm sure some of the truffles I make will be coated in bacon bits.  

Yum. 

Chill in the fridge.  

Eat. 

Enjoy.

You're welcome.

I had some coating chocolate left over so I poured it over my last slice of pumpkin cheesecake.

As a disclaimer...if you don't like dark chocolate, you WILL NOT like these truffles.  They are a bit bitter.  Try some chocolate with less than 70% cocoa if you aren't a milk-chocolate hater like me.  

Olive Oil Rosemary Cake

I came across this recipe a few months ago, copied it down, and set it aside.  Unfortunately, I did not write down the source.  I thought it was saved in my "favorites," but I can't find it anywhere.  And a google search did not reveal any websites I recognized.  So, I can't give credit to whoever I got the recipe from.  Oops.  

Strangely for me,  I didn't add or omit any ingredients from the original recipe.  The only thing I did was cut  the recipe in half so that it would fit in my 9x9 cake pan.  

Here's the recipe (after I cut everything in half):

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1/2 c olive oil

1/2 c white wine

1 1/4 c flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/8 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

1+ tbsp rosemary

bake at 350 for 30 minutes

I mixed the dry ingredients in a glass bowl, and combined the wet ingredients, minus the eggs, in a liquid measuring cup.  Then, I mixed the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  I beat the eggs separately and added them last.  I greased the cake pan with butter. 

In case you were wondering...this cake is delicious.

Ginger-Rosemary Sorbet

If you like ginger and have a sweet tooth...this is the recipe for you!  

It's too sweet for me, but I think it will go well with lemonade.

1 c water

1/4 c brown sugar 

1/2 c white sugar*

1 chunk of ginger root, chopped up small

pinch of dried rosemary, ground up

1/2 tsp salt

*my plan was to use all brown sugar...but then I discovered that I only had 1/4 c left. oops.

bring everything to a boil, simmer for a minute or two, then let cool

throw it in the food processor to grind up the ginger and rosemary as much as possible

pour into a pie plate

Throw it in the freezer.  Stir as often as you can while it is freezing.  

Mine went in the freezer around 7 PM, I stirred it 3 or 4 times before going to bed at 9.  

Unlike many of my sorbets, it was not frozen solid by morning...probably because I used too much sugar. 

Rosemary-Chocolate Heaven

In cookies.  

Does it get any better?

I used my basic chocolate-chip cookie recipe, but added approx. 1 tbsp of dried rosemary.

Cookie Recipe

1 egg

1/2 stick of butter, melted*

1/4 c vegetable oil

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c brown sugar

1/4 c white sugar

1/4 c wheat flour

1 c white flour

bake at 375 for 8 minutes

makes 24 cookies

*if you have a mixer you don't need to melt the butter...I melt it because I mix by hand

Yay Pictures!

contemplating the impending yumminess

the conclusion

best. cookies. ever.