Foodie Field Trip- Graziano Brothers

Have I ever said how much I HATE shopping? The mall is so depressing to me. I never go there. The worst part of the holiday season- shopping. Back to school time- shopping. Mindlessly shuffling through the giant tomb of consumerism just sucks the soul out of me. 

Unless it's foodie shopping. Ohhhhhh ya. Then I am alllll about hitting the store. Not just the everyday grocery store. Foodie shopping. Gourmet groceries. Unusual produce and ingredients. Ethnic foods. Kitchen equipment. Spices and herbs. Oils and vinegars. Wines. Cookware. Knives. All the knives. Now you're talking to my heart, folks. My foodie friend Mary was in town for the weekend. We met for sushi on Friday evening and decided we better hit Graziano's in the morning so she can restock cooking supplies for her Missouri home, and I can stock up on a few things too. A few things- ha! Who are we kidding here?

So Friday night over dinner at Sakari Sushi Lounge and sake bombs Mary, our friend Angi and I munched on fabulous sushi rolls and discussed the upcoming Chocolate Affair in Hannibal. Angi and I are planning a road trip for the event- yay!! Girlie Foodie Field Trip!- and the discussion turned to Graziano's. For those of you who aren't familiar, Graziano Brothers is a landmark food store in Des Moines. Founded in 1912 by Louis and Frank Graziano, two brothers who had emigrated to Iowa from San Morello, Italy, and made their way to Des Moines. Louis opened the grocery store while Frank remained employed by the railroad company until the store was well on its feet. The grocery store sits just south of downtown Des Moines in an area that was once known as Little Italy and has supplied Des Moines with authentic Italian groceries, pastas, breads, homemade sausage, meatballs, imported deli meats and cheeses, bulk spices and herbs and some of the best olives on the planet for over 100 years.

The quaint store facade is suited perfectly for the old time feel of the store. Not a huge store, they have a small collection of shopping carts at the door. You'd think you wouldn't need one here, but if you know me...... ya, you do. The first items in the door are the bulk spices on the right, olive oils on the left. This is where Mary and I began our stock-up shopping. Graziano's house blended Italian seasoning is the best thing I have ever tasted. Herbs, garlic and bits of crushed red pepper are the perfect seasoning for any Italian dishes from pasta to pizza sauce. I grab the usual size bag for our house, it's priced at $3.25. I kid you not, there is a good 3 cups of seasoning in this bag, easily enough to last us a year or more. At home I transfer it to an airtight container to keep it fresh. I also grabbed a bag of crushed red pepper, again easily a year's supply, for $3.45. You just cannot get a better deal anywhere.

We love mushrooms at our house and in the same section of the store you will find beautiful dried mushrooms, like porcini, portobella, and woodear. I grabbed some porcini and woodear because, well, you just might need them, and at $2.75 and $1.15 respectively, I just can't say no. I also snuck a nice bag of sun dried tomatoes, soft and raisiny, not dried and crispy into my shopping cart. I am often searching the supermarket for sun dried tomatoes and most of the time find just the oil packed kind. That's not usually what I want for cooking and baking. Sun dried tomatoes that are packed by themselves like this are excellent in breadmaking.

Continuing down the aisle, Angi had lots of questions. Recommendations for a pasta sauce? Type of olive? Recipe ideas? For a first timer in the store she was suitably impressed by the variety and selection, especially when we got to the meat and cheese counter. Italian sausage was bought by all, and Angi grabbed some of the extra hot sausage. Mary tried a couple different imported salamis and cheeses that were new to her, Angi got several of the hot pepper cheeses and I went with the traditional famous Italian sausage and provolone cheese- sliced to order every time. It's hard to beat the Iowa classic Italian sausage sandwich especially with the best sausage hands down.

The pasta aisle was like an amusement park for food lovers. Every shape, every size. Every pasta you can possibly imagine in sizes from one pound packages to giant bags I'd guess to be 5 pounds or more. I grabbed some fusilli and some cavatelli as my mind had trouble focusing on just on or two types. I am not kidding when I say it's so easy for any self respecting foodie to go absolutely freakin bonkers in here. In the same aisle I was just as tempted by several different kinds of arborio rice and risotto mixes and seasonings. Bags of wandas tempted me, but I resisted. Italian cookies and candies also beckoned to me, but I was strong. After all, I did have a giant tub of Graziano's olives in the cart- a whole quart container for $4.75.

South Union bread is sold here, and the aroma of that freshly baked bread was so welcoming. Italian rolls, breads, focaccia, loaves, so so many options. I did not get out of that aisle without a focaccia in my cart. I can't wait to eat it.

At the front of the store there are several large frozen and refrigerated cases containing fresh mozzarella, Italian sodas and beverages, more sausages like salami and others, marinated peppers and......more olives. Different types of olives. Yes, again I fell victim to the lure of olives. This time I grabbed some castelvetrano olives. If you ever get a chance to try these you simply must. In the frozen case you can find prepacked Graziano's Italian sausage in one pound hunks, pasta sauces from some of the local Italian spots, and housemade meatballs- even miniature meatballs. I grabbed a pound- they will be awesome with the cavatelli! Here again, pasta is king with probably 20 or more varieties of handmade ravioli, lasagna, cavatelli, pastas, manicotti, and the whole reason for coming here in the first place- cannoli. Oh. Em. Gee. Creamy ricotta cheese, just the right amount of sweet, chopped pistachios, bits of bittersweet chocolate and that crunchy cannoli shell. You bet I got one!

Also at the front of the store is this amazing piece of history- this beautiful and old old old butcher block. How I'd love to sit around that table with an espresso or macchiato and talk about the old days with the many people who have labored over that surface, kneading bread, rolling pasta, cutting wandas, chopping, singing, feeding their family and sharing the love. It had to be a prominent part of someones home kitchen at one time. The top is worn with years of use- Mary and I wondered about the many generations of cooks who stood beside this table and thought about all the meals prepared by hand. Kind of gives me the shivers to think about all that table has seen over the decades.

I'm happy to say Mary and I got Angi off to a good start with some Italian marinara sauce, delicious olives, some giardinera she picked out, and her sausage and cheeses. I'm pretty sure she will be back. I KNOW Mary and I will! Now........ off to go cook something............

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 55: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

A Visit With Dad Results in a Crusty Bread Experiment

It's finally autumn weather. Here in Iowa you would think we'd have a normal four seasons experience but we have some of the goofiest weather. It's mid October and we have still had days in the 80s, near 90s. But that appears to be in the rear view mirror now. What a wonderful week of cool breezy days, a little slight nip of frost, leaves blowing in the breeze, red, yellow and orange. Misty autumn rain and foggy mornings. All the smells I love so much. The kind of day you want to pile on a sweater and rake. Make chili. Watch football. Bake something.

My day started out with a lovely visit from my dad. You would have to know my dad to really get it. Larry is a character. We talk about all sorts of things. What he is up to, other old dudes at the V.A. that Dad is hanging out with these days. His new shoes. How the Vikings are doing. These visits are priceless times with my dad because, as we all know, human life is very fragile. In a perfect world our parents will grow old and pass on, and I know that eventually that will happen. In the meantime I am just going to continue to enjoy time spent with Dad and his kooky stories about bunions, hearing aids, and terrible football.

One thing Dad has always done is advise me on which new authors- usually Minnesota authors- I need to be reading. We share a love for John Sanford novels and he always has me on his mind when he is picking up books at the library sale or a book exchange at the V.A. This weekend he had a different book for me by an author I did not know. The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz. Apparently this is a continuation of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books with a new author taking over for the prior author and Dad insisted I'd love it. So, read it I shall. My dad also always brings me some weird food item. Sometimes it's a big bag of macaroni, or a sack full of canned tomatoes. It might be a 20 pound hunk of chicken of the woods. You never know what to expect. Today it was a big bag of dried cranberries. This could be fun!

I am always up for baking something- that's no secret. I began to wonder what in the world I was going to do with 3 pounds of dried cranberries. My bakers brain immediately began to come up with ideas. Cookies of course, but I had no oatmeal.....cake?? Maybe apple cranberry cake? Oooooo quick bread!! Nooooo, I have all this yeast. I flipped through some of my recipes and wondered where I could incorporate some of these tasty little bits with ingredients I have at home to avoid going to the store. Flour? Check. Whole wheat flour even- check. Honey, pecans, check, check. In the freezer I still  have some of the crystallized ginger I made a while back. This was coming together like a perfect plan. Borrowing the same technique as the Skillet Bread Nathan and I made a few weeks ago I was able to come up with a delicious crusty loaf of fruity nutty healthy bread.

Cranberry Ginger Pecan Skillet Bread

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

1 cup chopped pecans

2 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger

4 tablespoons honey

1 packet yeast

2 1/2 cups warm water

butter for skillet

In a large bowl combine the flours. Add the cranberries, pecans and ginger. Toss to coat the fruit and nuts well.

I looooove craisins. They are so sweet and tart and taste
like fresh cranberries. These are way better than raisins.

In a large measuring cup measure the warm water. Stir in the honey until dissolved, then add the yeast. Allow the yeast to bloom and become foamy. 

Mix the water into the flour and fruit mixture and stir until combined. Cover with plastic and allow to rise in a warm place for about an hour and a half.

Generously butter a cast iron skillet or Dutch oven. I used my regular skillet- about 10 inches. Gently remove the dough from the bowl and place in the skillet. Dough will be sticky and soft. Form into a round disk, it doesn't have to touch the sides of the skillet. It will rise to fill the skillet. Again cover loosely and allow to rise another hour. Make sure to CHECK the dough about halfway through both rising times. The temp in your kitchen will affect the rise of the bread and if it's nice and warm it might rise faster. You want the dough to double in size. It may take as little as 30 minutes each time.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the skillet in the oven and bake the bread for 40 minutes. Remove to a rack and cool- the bread will pop right out of the skillet. It's absolutely delicious served warm with lots of melty real butter.

In case you haven't caught on, I am absolutely hooked on these easy breads. No-knead doughs just couldn't be easier, and this is a fun and easy recipe to make with kids. I love the crunchy crust of the bread and the dense texture- it's not a fluffy bread like the sliced white bread you get at the store, but more like the rustic artisan breads you find in bakeries. They look impressive with their round shapes and look like something you spend a ton of time slaving over. Your secret is safe with me. Trust me, try one of these loaves, especially warm from the oven, and you'll be hooked too.

Nathan's Bake Shop Special- Skillet Bread

My recent experiment with the pitta con sarde has reignited my passion for baking. In a big way too. Nothing too easy like cupcakes and pies- and believe me, I was tempted to go there- but breads. Yeasty soft and pillowy doughs and crusty crunchy crusts. Herby savory loaves, spicy cinnamony rolls of heaven, vanilla glazes and melted butters. Bread is such a homey and comforting food and usually the first casualty of carb-cutting when people change their eating habits. 

We made one for dinner and one to go home
with Nathan

Some people are lucky enough to share their passion for food with close friends and family, and I'm happy to say I am among them. I've always loved cooking with my family. My oldest daughter and I used to hit the farmers market, the corn stand and the grocery store and then spend the day freezing veggies and meatballs. Year after year my kids and I made holiday treats and cookies and later my dear friend and almost sister Jessica and I held holiday baking marathons. My friend Katie and I often have all day cooking events- with and without kids. Some of the most precious times in my life are times spent cooking with my grandson Nathan. Our unlikely tradition began with a pan of nachos and has grown into something really special. Whenever we have a weekend together we plan to make something fun and tasty. Recently Nathan came to spend the night with me. Life has been a little chaotic for this young man recently and he needed a break from the daily grind and spend some time with Gramma.

We always start our plans with "what are we going to cook?" We had some trouble deciding this time! It's the end of summer, not quite autumn, still warm out, not cool and breezy, too early for chili and stew. We had a tough time choosing and finally decided on fried chicken, but we knew early on we would be baking some homemade bread.

Living in the city I certainly have no problem locating beautiful breads. I don't have to do any baking, but where is the fun in that? Cooking, baking, and writing about it are hobbies to me just as much as knitting and painting and woodworking are hobbies to other people. I spend lots of hours reading cookbooks and watching cooking shows- always in a quest to learn new techniques, discover more flavors and interesting foods. Bread cookbooks have become my latest obsession and all that reading gives me ideas and inspiration and reason to play in the dough.

Like many people, for years I used a bread machine to make bread at home. I could grab a ready to go boxed mix or I could pull a book off the shelf and throw the ingredients into the machine and let it do all the work for me. Certainly this was a convenient way to have home baked bread but it didn't really challenge me or test my baking ability. I got a hot, fresh, but oddly square loaf. I was always yearning for something a little more handcrafted. When The Chef and I left the lake house and made the migration back to civilization, we left the bread machine behind as well.

Exact measurements are so important.

Cooking with Nathan is as much a learning experience for me as it is for him. He learned that the bread rises and become fluffy and filled with tiny air pockets because of that living thing in an envelope called yeast. I learned that the envelopes are really full of thousands and thousands of teeny tiny zombies that come back to life when you add warm water. Nathan learned about cast iron skillets, and why we oil them after using them and how they last for many many years. I learned that mixing bread dough by hand is actually way more fun than breaking out the Kitchenaid, especially when poofs of flour floof all over the counter and make you bust out laughing. 

We talked about different kind of pans, like loaf pans and muffin pans, and different kinds of bread, like banana bread and cinnamon bread and bread with strawberries and peanut butter mixed in the dough (Nathan's recipe) and why baking bread in a skillet is actually a pretty cool way to make bread.

Which brings me to this fantastic recipe. You might remember the Dutch oven bread recipe a while back- this one is a similar style, also baked in cast iron, but not in a covered Dutch oven. The dough in the Dutch oven bread is a no-knead bread, which is the easiest thing ever invented, and is so versatile. It looks like a sourdough loaf if you use white flour. Add some herbs and grated cheese and you get a savory loaf packed with flavor. Want a cinnamon bread? Mix up a small dish of cinnamon sugar and add the dough to the skillet in small amounts, sprinkling with cinnamon sugar mixture to make a swirled sweet loaf. 

Cast Iron Skillet Bread

4 cups flour (all purpose or whole wheat)
1 packet active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups warm water
olive oil, for the skillet
topping of choice

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, salt and yeast. If you are adding any herbs or grated cheese to your bread, this is the time to get it in the dough. Whisk it in thoroughly. For dried herbs, use about 2 teaspoons, fresh herbs, up to 1/4 cup minced. Grated cheese, keep it at 1/4 cup for dry grated cheese like Parmesan or 1/2 cup for cheddars and similar cheeses.

Mix in the warm water til the dough forms.

It looks a little rough, but trust us, it turns out perfect.

Pour the water over the flour and mix in with a wooden spoon and mix it in well. The dough will look a little rough but that's ok. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest and rise in a draft free spot for an hour.

Brush your cast iron skillet (I use a 10 inch skillet) with a little olive oil.

Our bread dough didn't slash so we just left it and
sprinkled on some flaked sea salt.

Flour your hands and sprinkle a little flour over the dough in the bowl. Use your fingers to work the dough out of the bowl and place it into the skillet shaping into a round loaf. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and allow the dough to rise one more time for half an hour.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Uncover the dough and brush with a little additional olive oil or melted butter. Slash the top decoratively and sprinkle with seeds, bits of grain such as hemp seed or oatmeal. I like to sprinkle a little flaked sea salt on top too for extra crunch.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the crust is deep golden brown. Remove the bread from the skillet and allow to cool on a rack. Slice and serve while still a little warm.

Baking bread like this is so easy and doesn't require all kinds of kneading and shaping and multiple rising and specialty pans. Just basic ingredients and that old cast iron skillet. It's not unthinkable to have freshly baked bread on the table for dinner, even on a weeknight, and where many bread recipes are an exact science, these easy recipes do allow some room for playing- with flavor and textures. This is also a great way to get kids interested in their food and learning to make some of the basics we take for granted from scratch. It's fun and better for all of us.

Disclaimer- this recipe is a close variation of numerous published recipes, none of which I own or claim to have written. This particular combination of ingredients works perfectly for me, and I have shared it with you.

Artisan Baking- Herby Beer Bread

You cannot claim to be a baker if you cannot bake a decent loaf of bread. You just can't. But the world of bread is so much more than the sliced white sandwich bread we're all used to. Bread baking is a very diverse art form with a skill level for everyone. Today we are going to bake a truly delicious quick bread. I know, "artisan bread" sounds all snooty and high-falutin' and quick bread generally is not thought of as snooty- but believe me, play with the right ingredients and flavor combinations and that is artistry if you ask me.

Beer bread is one of the easiest breads to make- very basic ingredients can be transformed into a warm loaf of deliciousness in just about an hour. No special equipment needed, no expensive mixes required. Flour, baking soda, sugar and a beer. That's it. If you have self-rising flour it's even fewer ingredients! The best thing about beer bread is it's a blank canvas. You can go wild with your favorite flavors and make just about any kind of bread your heart desires. Since we grow so many herbs in our garden, it's so easy to pull a few off the shelf and come up with something to match the meal we're cooking.

Today's bread is going to be a delicious combination of sweet and savory. Sweet caramelized onions and garlic, savory Guinness Extra Stout and thyme will round out the flavors. So let's get to it-

Herby Beer Bread with Caramelized Onions and Garlic

3 c. self rising flour (or 3 cups regular flour and 3 tsp baking soda)
1 tsp salt
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c Parmesan cheese
12 oz can or bottle of Guinness Extra Stout
1/4 c. melted butter (NOT margarine)
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4-5 cloves fresh garlic, minced
2 tb minced fresh thyme or 2 tsp dried thyme
olive oil, butter
1/4 cup additional butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients in bowl. Set aside.

In medium skillet add a tablespoon of olive oil and a couple tablespoons of butter, when melted add onions. Cook and stir over medium low heat until thoroughly caramelized. Add garlic for the last 5 minutes or so, to just cook the rawness out. Don't let the garlic brown. Stir in thyme.

Slowly pour in beer. Mix just enough to moisten, don't overmix. Add most of the onion mixture. Spread batter into greased loaf pan. Spread the remaining onions over the batter. Pour melted butter over top.

Bake approximately 45 minutes to one hour. Let cool for a few minutes before removing from pan.

Beer bread is a quick bread, a lot like muffins, and is best served fresh from the oven, warm with loads of melty butter. Leftovers make good grilled sandwiches too. I hope you enjoy this version and are inspired to try your own combinations. This one had those super browned bits of onion on top-reminded me of onion buns. Yum!

Today we're bundled up in the house on The Chef's day off, watching movies while the oven warms the house and a big pot of yummy pasta sauce simmers away on the stove. We will be enjoying our warm bread with big bowls of rigatoni tossed with The Chef's delicious pasta sauce and venison- I can't think of a better way to stay warm on a cold winter evening.

Bread Making 2.0

After the bread failure last time I broke out the bread machine I decided it was time to set out and find the perfect bread recipe. I found a totally new recipe this time and it wasn't quite PERFECT but it was much much better than the last bread making experience.

I started my search online. I have a bread making cookbook SOMEWHERE in my Room of Doom in a box, but finding it would be just about impossible. So an online search was my only option. The website www.food.com had a great and simple recipe and I had every ingredient on hand, so that's what I went with.

Country White Bread

1 cup water, plus more
1 tb water (70-80 F)
1 large egg
4 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
3 1/4 cup bread flour, plus more
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp yeast


I layered the ingredients in my bread machine as the manual says, flour in the middle, sugar, salt.
In a small bowl I beat the egg lightly and mixed in the oil and poured that on the side of the flour
mixture in the pan. Then I added the water all around and made a small indentation in the flour
and added the yeast.

Then setting my machine on the white bread cycle, I walked away and enjoyed some of the
beautiful sunny day on the patio.

Three hours later I had pretty nice little loaf of bread to go with dinner !!

Sunday Funday ?? More like Sunday Work Our Butts Off Day

Most Sundays around the lake house are our lazy days- lounging around, playing in the kitchen, maybe some football games..... today however, for some reason we were up early and hard at it all day. We started off with a quick assessment of our garden veggies and discovered yet another tomato hornworm had decimated one of our cherry tomato plants. ^%$#@!  We plucked him off and drowned him in a bucket of water (thankfully we had almost an entire day of rain yesterday so our rain buckets were full !!)

The Chef has thawed a 2 lb package of ground venison given to him by the other chef he works with and decided, perhaps as a welcome to the newborn Meatball Baby Lorenzo LaValle, that venison meatballs were on the agenda. Since I was going to finish up the canning of veggies already in the house, including a case of tomatoes from the Amish farm, some wax beans, and the last of the carrots, he decided on his famous red sauce and snagged a nice potful of the blanched, peeled and seeded tomatoes I had been working on.

While the Chef worked on his amazing meatball recipe, I prepped veggies for the canner, picked herbs, and set up the dehydrator with thyme, rosemary and sage as well as 3 trays of the tomato skins, which will be dried and then ground into tomato powder, which adds a real flavor punch to soups and sauces.

We were working away when inspiration struck us- HOMEMADE BREAD !! I searched online and found a basic white bread recipe and then made some additions and alterations to come up with Italian Herb and Cheese Bread, but the recipe called for a little too much yeast- the loaf fell, but even though it's a little dense, it still has pretty good flavor and we're gonna eat it anyway.

Now, let's talk meatballs. The Chef and I are not hunters but we do love game meats so we often trade what we grow/can/bake with folks who do hunt, so we have this amazing venison.  Since the Chef had never worked with venison before, it was a total experiment for him, but one of the most successful to date.

Joe's Venison Meatballs

2 lbs ground venison

4 beaten eggs

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper

1 1/2-2 cups dry breadcrumbs

4-5 cloves garlic, minced

freshly cracked black pepper

salt

pinch red pepper flakes (to taste)

2 tb minced Italian parsley

1-2 tsp finely minced oregano

Mix all ingredients will well combined. Set aside, covered, to allow meat to rest, crumbs to soften and flavors to meld, for at least 1 hour.

Roll into meatballs using about 1/3 cup mixture for each ball. Place on baking sheet.

Joe drizzled the meatballs with garlic infused olive oil and bake at 375 degrees about 25-30 minutes until meat is completely cooked (we always make a "test meatball"). Remove from baking sheet and add to pot of red sauce. Allow to simmer at least an hour, or if you're an all day sauce person, let em simmer in deliciousness. Serve with pasta of choice.

Disaster Bread

I've decided to go ahead and give the ingredients I used for the bread since it DID taste pretty good, next time I am going to use less yeast, so if you want to give this a try, make that adjustment.

3 1/2 to 4 cups flour

1 package active dry yeast (remember, one package was too much and likely caused my fall)

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 tb butter

3 tb sugar

2 tb mixed dried Italian herbs (I used Penzey's Tuscan blend)

2 cloves fresh garlic FINELY minced

small palmfull parmesan cheese

In the bread machine I added the ingredients in this order: flour, sugar, herbs, garlic, butter, cheese, made a well in the center, added the yeast, poured the warm water around. I set the machine for classic white bread (3 hour cycle) and let it do it's thing, adding a couple extra Tb flour to help the dough form a ball. When the baking cycle started I drizzled with melted butter and more parm cheese.

It looks totally fine at this point, rose well, punched down, rose again but when the baking cycle kicked on, my bread fell,

but after we got it out of the machine, we cut it and sampled and while it was a little dense, it still had good flavor and was ok to eat. I'll try it again with about 2/3 of a package of yeast.

Now we're both sacked out on the couch, FULL of our delicious dinner, tired from all work, watching, what else ?? Food shows on tv .....gotta love life with a chef........