Monday, September 29, 2008

Sandwich Day

It started this morning with Kevin. I toasted the apple bread I made yesterday for his morning breakfast. Out of the blue he wants a toasted ham and cheese on apple bread. Hummmm. Sounded pretty good to me. I've made apple and peanut butter sandwiches on waffles before. This could be good too.


I used real butter on both sides of the bread, tavern ham, and chedder cheese. Kevin had two sandwiches and Bob, later, had one too.

Bob stayed home from the office today because he's traveling tomorrow. I coerced him into being lazy yesterday so we ran around like crazy today. After running around doing some errands, earlier in the morning, we raced home for lunch around 1pm. I was STARVING. I had just bought baby spinach and a few small eggplant a couple of days before at the grocery store and knew there was some way to use them at lunch today. I was craving eggplant chips again and wondered how to use them this time around. Again, I roasted them, sliced very thin, in a 375 degree oven for about 25 minutes, swooshed in olive oil and salt and pepper. I smell another sandwich!

I made a vinaigrette dressing from equal parts (1 1/2 tbs.) balsamic vinegar and Dijon mustard, 1 tbs. fresh chopped oregano, 1 tsp. fresh ground pepper, and 1 tsp. fresh chopped garlic. I whisked olive oil into the mixture until thick (1/4 cup).

I then stuffed whole wheat pita's with baby spinach, tomatoes, and the eggplant chips. I drizzled in the dressing and Yum!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Lazy Sunday: (APPLE CHUNK BREAD FOR THE BREAD MACHINE)

Man I love Sunday's! Just change out of your pajama's into your sweat's kinda day. I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and applied deodorant. I consider myself clean. Since it was a day where I farted around in the kitchen I wanted to make something I never made before. I found Apple Chunk Bread, yet again, from the old bread machine recipe book from Sam's Club that's a hundred years old. I had all the ingredients so I gave it a try. This is a combination of some of the printed ingredients and my variation on the instructions.

Apple Chunk Bread for the bread machine:

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups milk (room temperature)
3 tbs. vegetable oil
1 tbs. plus 1/2 tsp. Splenda for baking or 2 1/2 tbs. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. yeast
1 1/2 medium peeled, diced apple

Topping:
2 tbs. Splenda
1 tbs. ground cinnamon
sprinkling of poppy seeds

Directions:

1. Layer ingredients in order, in bread machine pan, as listed above, starting with milk and ending with yeast. Start dough cycle on machine.

2. When machine stops kneading the dough and is at 50 minutes stop and pull dough from pan.

3. Preheat dryer to high or find dry area to set your formed dough. On a floured surface knead dough into diced apples. You may need to add bread flour occasionally to keep from sticking to the board.

4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Form dough into football shape. Place on greased aluminum foil or parchment paper on cake pan. Cover with oiled (sprayed) plastic wrap and allow for expansion. Let rise for 90 minutes (in dryer or dry spot) until doubled.

5. Whisk 1 egg with a splash of water until blended. Blend 2 tbs. Splenda with 1 tbs. cinnamon until incorporated. When bread is finished rising, brush with egg mixture, sprinkle with Splenda/cinnamon mixture, and poppy seeds to taste.

6. Place in oven and reduce temperature to 350 degrees. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until evenly browned and sounds hollow when thunked on the top.

7. Allow to evenly cool before slicing. Chill a good chardonnay to eat with later.


Post Script: The next morning Kevin requested a grilled ham and cheese on his apple chunk bread. I thought it was such a marvelous idea that I grilled one right up for him. It was wolfed down so fast I didn't get a picture (Kevin would've freaked). Needless to say it was a rousing success.

Fish eyes: (COUSCOUS SALAD WITH BLACK OLIVES)

That's what my dad called black olives. I used to have an aversion to them, half based on my dad's distaste and half because I thought they looked gross. Later, as I matured (form your own opinions), I discovered that I liked black olives. Certain black olives like Kalamata and Nicoise. I'm not trying to sound like a smarmy foodie, I just know that I don't like the presliced, canned black olives. Fish eyes. Ick.

So, when I found a recipe for Mediterranean Couscous, I thought, wow, I can put a dent in the spaghetti sauce jar of olives I got from my sister-in-law. She gets them bulk. And I mean bulk. But they're great and I won't turn down yummy black olives. Dinner last night was couscous with black olives, juicy burgers I managed to grill in between the rain drops, and Macaroni Grill Chianti (cheap and tolerable). Here's my version of couscous salad.

Couscous Salad with Black Olives:

Ingredients:

1 (14 1/2 oz.) can chicken broth
1 1/2 cups whole wheat couscous
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1/4 cup roasted red pepper, diced (from a jar)
1 (14 oz.) jar artichoke hearts drained and chopped (reserve liquid)
1 (10 oz.) can chickpeas (drained)
1 cup drained, brined, kalamata olives
1/2 cup celery, small dice
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbs. fresh chopped mint
1 tbs. fresh chopped basil

Dressing:

1/4 cup bottled Italian dressing (your favorite brand)
1 tbs. Dijon mustard
1 tbs. balsamic vinegar
fresh cracked pepper

Directions:

1. In a medium heavy saucepan bring the broth to a boil, remove from the heat, add the couscous, stir quickly with a fork, and cover for 5 minutes.

2. After 5 minutes, empty the couscous into a large bowl and fluff with a fork. Add 2-3 tbs. reserved artichoke hearts liquid while stirring with fork. Continue to fluff every few minutes to cool the couscous to room temperature.

3. Add the remaining ingredients to the couscous bowl except dressing.

4. Mix dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until well incorporated. Pour over couscous mixture and stir well.

5. The salad can be served at room temperature or covered and refrigerated to allow the flavors to blend a bit better.



Now don't judge the recipe based on my poor photography. I enjoyed this room temperature and I did not rinse the olives because I wanted the saltiness. This will probably serve 6-8 people. I'm going to use the leftovers in pita pockets or perhaps mixed in with some pre-seasoned ground lamb.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

I'm such a cheater and I know it: (CORNELL BREAD FOR THE BREAD MACHINE)


This recipe was found in a bread machine cookbook that I've had FOR YEARS. I bought it at Sam's Club, when I used to shop at Sam's Club. I don't shop there any more because I was tired of having a gallon jar of olives for the rest of my life. Plus, I spent waaaay too mucho peso for "lunch supplies". I'm getting off track here.



Since my son Kevin wants to turn into He-Man (he's all of 15 and plays football) he wants to eat more protein and drink those shitty nasty "energy drinks". I won't buy the drinks but I'll help with the protein part. I saw this recipe for high protein bread and thought I would give it a try to have with his sandwiches at lunch. I've made it before and since we're out of bread (and poor) I thought I would make it again. I like making the dough in the bread machine and then forming it for final shaping and baking outside of the machine in the oven (hence the "cheating" statement). I know this sounds weird but I "proof " my bread in the dryer. I have a dryer rack and I place the molded bread on it after I "pre-heat" the dryer on high cycle for a few minutes prior. Sounds crazy but it works. Makes the bread rise and that's all that matters to me. When I become more sophisticated and own a proper proofer and oven I'll change.


After an hour and a half beating around in the bread machine I removed the soft-as-silk, lucious dough, formed it into a log, and squeezed it into a loaf pan.

After proofing the dough in the pan in the dryer I placed it in a 375 degree oven and baked it 40 minutes. Good grief I love it when the house smells of baking bread. The bread was a little lopsided but like anything else with a slight defect, I love it even more.

I sliced it up this morning for Kevin's sandwich and YUM! Like a dork I tasted a wee bit of the soy flour while making the dough, and yick. But, when mixed with the other ingredients there's no yick. The bread is quite dense but amazingly had a great rise before baking. There was no additional rise when in the oven so I'm glad I got out of it what I did. I am NO expert in making bread (and I'm sure there's few out there who would cringe at my technique, or lack of one) so I'm glad when I have a success!


Cornell Bread (for the bread machine):

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups water
2 tbs. vegetable oil
2 tbs. honey
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup soy flour
1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk
1 tbs. vital wheat gluten
2 1/2 tsp. yeast

Directions:

1. Place all the ingredients in the bread machine pan, layering, starting with the first (water) through the last (yeast).

2. Press the machine's dough cycle and watch for any extreme dryness or wetness of the dough and adjusting the dough to either one (the weather is a factor) by adding a slight amount of bread flour or water.

3. After the dough cycle is finished, without too much manhandling of the dough, form into a log and place into a greased loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with oil, but not too firm to allow expansion.

4. Place pan in a draft free, warm, moist area to allow to rise. Like I said before, my dryer is the BOMB for making bread rise. I preheat the dryer for a few minutes and place the pan on the dryer rack.

5. After about 90 minutes place pan into a preheated 375 degree oven for 40 minutes. I use a glass loaf pan so I can see the browning on the sides of the bread.

6. When the bread is an almond-brown color and sounds hollow when thunked on the top it's done.

7. Cool completely on a wire rack and resist slicing for a couple of hours or overnight.

This makes a "large" loaf which I estimate slices about 12 nice sized pieces of bread. We've already consumed 7 pieces already this morning.



Tuesday, September 16, 2008

EGGPLANT CHIPS

I was trying to copy another recipe with eggplant and really liked how different mine turned out. My final product actually resembled eggplant chips and geeze I really liked them. I used small eggplants and a mandolin for slicing them super thin.

Then I sprayed them with an olive oil spray and seasoned with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Into the oven they went at 375 degrees. The total time was approximately 20 minutes.


Here's a close up. My guys really liked them and the sky's the limit on how you could serve them. I made a light drizzle of pesto and olive oil and they were delicious! Easy and on the healthy side.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Feels like Monday


It's only Tuesday but I'm a little thrown off. I almost forgot I was volunteering this morning. I'm sooo glad I remembered because I would have felt like an ass if I hadn't shown up. Labor Day weekend was very enjoyable especially since Bob was home. I made my s'mores recipe and it really wasn't that hard to do. There were a few "tweeks" since the original recipe for the graham cracker balls were a smidge too oily when being rolled (and burned like hell in the palms of your hands). I cut the butter to 1/4 cup and then they were too crumbly. So I added 1 Tbsp. whipping cream and that seemed to solve the crumble problem.


The chocolate cups were a bit too big and the sides melted when I drizzled melted chocolate over my finished confection. I would would definitely use marshmallow whipped topping on top of the finished dessert too. Not enough marshmallow on the inside of the graham ball for me.


I also made some chocolate dipped pretzel rods which my nieces gobbled up. Well, one ate the entire thing and the other sucked all the chocolate covered sunflower seeds off. When she was done the pretzel rod looked like a poo stick. She had chocolate all over her face which later wound up on mommy's nice white towels in the bathroom. I wasn't sure, for a split second, what the hell was smeared all over the corner of the bath towel when I went to use the bathroom.

Bobs going to be late this evening and Kevin's flexible when it comes to food. I was going to make a recipe I found on Lucullian delights for eggplant but I guess I'll wait until Bob's home for dinner. I was so excited when I saw the smaller eggplant in the grocery store today.....I just knew I would be doing something fun with them. And thanks to Ilva I can't wait to start, tomorrow night.