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 !!

Settling into fall

Tomorrow is the FIRST Football Sunday of 2012. It's also the Chef's day off. Which means COOKING. The canning marathon is pretty much done for the year. I may do a few more tomatoes if I come across some, I may not. I might try potatoes on a boring weekend day. I might not. But for the most part, I'm ready to put everything away for now and just enjoy some fall weather.

Soon the leaves with be changing, cool nights will keep us chilled, a first fire in the chiminea will happen, and before long those cold, windy, blustery wall days will whisk our leaves away and send the garden to it's demise. I won't be too heartbroken about that either. It's been a terrible year for gardening. The excessive heat and drought conditions made it nearly impossible to keep things alive. Thank God for the Amish farm up the highway with their pick-your-own produce or we might be in dire straights in the middle of the winter.

A drive around our lake today showed some very sad sights. The water level at the main boat dock is probably 5 feet lower than it should be. There are places you can walk across the lake without getting your shorts wet, it's become so shallow. We need not only rain but a pretty significant snowfall to bring the water level back to where it should be. The oppressive heat kept the fishing poor this year. Just hasn't been a very good summer this year.

So as we're winding down the summer and looking forward to fall, it's time to reflect on things we're thankful for. I have much to be thankful for. I have the most incredible, caring and generous children any mother could ask for. They have spouses and partners who are just more kids as far as I'm concerned- and just as loving and kind. I have 3 amazing grandchildren that are growing too fast !! I have a caring father and sister I can't imagine living without. My friends are the best friends any person could ask for. My job is amazing. My furkids are wonderful and so much a part of our family. I have a roof over my head and food in my cupboard. We have a military that keeps us safe from terrorism and protects our rights, with such personal sacrifice most people can't imagine. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, and I try to be thankful all year long and not just one day.

And with that, I'll say goodnight and God bless all of you and with you many years of happiness and prosperity and love.

The Baker and The Chef

Holy Hot Sauce, Batman !!

Things are going to get verrrrrry interesting around here this weekend. My foodie friend Paula, who makes some of the hottest pepper sauces on the planet, has graciously sent me some samples of her hottest sauces, one with ghost chili as the primary pepper and the other with Trinidad Scorpion chili as the main ingredient. I am going to put some serious thought into how to best use these to get the best flavor, most impact, and the best possible review, so stay tuned for that update !

Until then, I hope you'll enjoy the jalapeno salsa I've been making this summer. Last year I made a salsa that was awfully heavy on the vinegar and we didn't love it. Didn't hate it, just didn't LOVE it. So this year I searched and searched for something a little different, a little more like commercial salsa but with plenty of HEAT because we love our hot peppers around here. I found this recipe on the University of Wisconsin Extension website and it turned out PERFECT.

10 cups tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

5 cups diced peppers (I used 4 cups diced jalapenos WITH seeds and 1 cup diced red bell pepper)

1 cup chopped onion

6 cloves garlic, mined

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 Tb salt

1 Tsp cumin

1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro (I used parsley)

Combine all ingredients in large saucepot, bring to boil. Boil gently for 10 minutes.

Ladle hot salsa into pint or half-pint jars with 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe rims, fix seals and rings. Process in boiling water bath for 20 minutes.

The Chef and I love this salsa so much we made a first batch and have already eaten 3 jars! I think this recipe is going to be a family favorite.

Church Cookbook Food and Memories

As I've gone through my canning adventures this year, I've tried to find some new things to make and not just stick with the same basics. I came across this recipe in a canning group that I belong to on Facebook and it reminds me so much of coleslaw my grandmother used to make. Unlike the creamy, mayonnaisey coleslaw many of us are used to, this one is a sweet and sour vinegar dressing. It kind of reminds me of Perfection Salad, which is something my grandmother made for every family occasion. I call these dishes "church cookbook food" and many of them I have great memories associated with.

Grandma's Vinegar Coleslaw

1 medium head cabbage, shredded
1 large carrot, shredded
1 green pepper, finely chopped
(or use 1/2 red, 1/2 green)
1 small onion, finely diced
1 tsp salt

I resisted the desire to break out the fancy slicing attachments for the Kitchenaid, opting instead for the trusty Wusthof and board for slicing cabbage.

Sprinkle salt over vegetables, allow to rest 1 hour.

Drain any water from vegetables

Syrup:
3 cups vinegar
3/4 cup water
6 cups sugar
2 tsp celery seed
2 tsp mustard seed

Bring syrup ingredients to boil for one minute. remove from heat.

Pack vegetables in jars, cover with syrup. Wipe rims, adjust lids and rings. Process in BWB 15 minutes.

Like pickles, I think this is a recipe best left to mellow and mature for a few weeks before opening jars. Hopefully I can wait that long !! I can't wait to try a little of this slaw piled onto a pulled pork sandwich.

These old classic recipes are starting to make a comeback as more and more people get into canning and food preservation arts. I know alot of die-hards wouldn't even consider canning an old fashioned recipe that's no longer considered safe by Big Brother but for me......if Gramma fed her family, it's good enough for me.

Jelly Belly !!

Lots of jam is coming out of this kitchen right now, partly because I have too many bags of fruit in the freezer and also because I have alot of jelly jars for some reason.

Anyway, the other night I thought I'd so a little experimenting so I came up with Cherry Peach Jam and here is how the jam came to be:

I had cut up peaches and cherries in the freezer so I thawed 2 cups of each to make 4 cups of fruit. I placed the fruit in a saucepan and added about 1/4 cup of lemon juice and a box of powdered pectin, bringing it to a boil. Then I added 5 cups of sugar (winging it from instructions for Bing cherry jam and peach jam, trying to hit the right balance) and bringing back to boil, then boil hard for 1 minute. Ladle into hot jars, seal and BWB for 10 minutes. I thought I had some pics of the finished jars, but honestly, they look like every other jar of jam. I think I'm going to try this one more time with 75% peaches and 25% cherries and see if I can get that nice coral color.

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........

You say tomato........

I say AVALANCHE !!!!!!

The chef spent his day off yesterday at the Amish farm. The plan was about 20-30 lbs "just to start with" but he kinda went crazy and brought home over ONE HUNDRED POUNDS !!!!

So today, in spite of feeling quite under the weather, I started to tackle this Himalayan pile of tomatoes. I got about 15 lbs in, washing,

blanching,

peeling, cutting up......and felt wiped......

So into the fridge they went, hopefully tomorrow will be a better day to work on getting some batches into quarts and in the canner.