Grand Finale Feast!

The Menu: Chicken & Vegetables Stir-Fry in Garlic Black Bean Sauce; Home-grown Salad; Apple Crumb & Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

half-cooked broccoli, green pepper, carrots, and scallions

searing chicken

adding black bean garlic sauce to half cooked veggies and seared chicken pieces:

 

testing broccoli

lovely, overflowing container garden (mixed greens, arugula, baby spinach, and scallions)

the best kind of salad is that which was alive 10 minutes prior!

ice cream before & after freezing:

 apple crumb with homemade vanilla ice cream!

The Recipes:
Stir-Fry. See recipe from 1/30 here.
Apple Crumb. Similar to recipe from 1/30, except we decided that a change in proportions of the ingredients was necessary. The new recipe is: Scatter sliced apples in greased baking dish. Stir together 1.5 cup flour, 1 cup packed brown sugar, 2 cup oats, ½ cup melted butter, ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional), and plenty of cinnamon until crumbly. Whisk together ½ cup white sugar, ½ cup cold water, 1 tbsp. cornstarch ( =2 tbsp flour), and 1 tsp. vanilla extract in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until syrup is clear, and all sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Pour hot syrup over the fruit, then scatter crumble over fruit mixture. Bake at 350 until the top is brown and the crunch is bubbly, about 1 hour (or 30 minutes, or less, or until you're dying to dig in already). Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Ice Cream. Mix 2 c heavy cream, 2 c whole milk, 3/4 c white sugar, and tbsp. vanilla. (Optional - refrigerate until cold.) Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer directions.

Thanks to everyone who was part of the Cooking Circle this year - it was marvelous!

Epic Enchiladas & Extraneous Experimentation

The Menu: Epic Enchiladas, Brownie Pancakes, and Gooey Nutella Brownies

We had no shortage of problems involving eggs tonight. This was one of many:

Note to self: listen when people tell you brownie batters spreads and won't make good cookies:

Our abused friend, eye patch, nose patch, and scar:

The Recipes:
Epic Enchiladas. See post from April 24 here. We did the beans slightly differently this time: four 14.5 oz. cans of pinto beans instead of three, and put in extra scallions. We also added a bit of water towards the end to keep them from getting too thick. It was nice to not have to skimp on the beans when filling enchiladas.
Brownie Experiments. Mix together 1/2 butter, 1 c granulated sugar, 2 egg whites, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 c flour, 1/3 c cocoa (ours are so dark because we uses Hershey's special dark cocoa), 1/4 tsp. baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt.  Mix in a cup of Nutella, or whatever else you like, and bake in crazy shapes.

Bread Baking Extravaganza!

Bread Making Guides (feel free to download & share):

Bread Baking Ingredients Handout

Bread Baking Steps Handout

Making the 6-part dough ring

"The 5th one goes all the way over, the last one goes in the middle..."

The finished baked ring braid:

 

The Pretzel Master and his Masterpiece:

Nothing beats a fresh Vienna loaf straight out of the oven!

Delectable pretzel bite

Crackers! (we had at least 100 but they disappeared pretty quickly :))

Resources.
Good video on kneading bread: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWj8oHMPFm0&feature=fvw
Illustrated procedure for making pita bread (includes helpful comments at the bottom): http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pitabread
The pretzel recipe we used, with pictures: http://www.imafoodblog.com/index.php/2009/01/26/bread-baking-day-authentic-bavarian-soft
Not the recipe we used, but a good illustrated procedure for making crackers: http://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2010/03/29/worth-their-salt-gourmet-soda-crackers/
For a nice illustrated explanation of proofing yeast: http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Proofing-Yeast/Detail.aspx

The Recipes:

Hearty Honey Oat Whole Wheat Bread. Mix together 3 c whole wheat flour, 1 c rolled or old fashioned oats, 1.5 tsp. salt, 1 tbsp. instant yeast, and as much wheat germ, flax seed, oat bran, wheat bran, etc. as you want (if you use more than 1/2 c or so, start subtracting flour). In a separate bowl, mix together 1.5 c warm water, 1/3 c honey, and 2-3 tbsp. olive oil. Mix wet and dry ingredients thoroughly, and knead for 25-30 minutes. When developed, form the dough into a ball and cover it with a generous layer of olive oil. Place in a warm place to let rise. When it's 1.5-2 times its original size, punch it down, and shape/braid/slash it. Let rise again while the oven preheats. Bake at 375 for 15-? minutes (if you know how to know if the bread is finished cooking, please leave us a note in the comments!). If desired, rub the baked bread with olive oil and put back in the oven for a couple more minutes to make a nice golden finish.

Pretzels. Mix 1 lb. (4-4.5 c) flour, 2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. sugar, 1.5 c warm milk, 1/6 c (1/3 stick) melted butter, 1.25 tsp. yeast. Dough may be very dry, but give it while of mixing and kneading before adding water. Cover with a light layer of spray oil and let rise (may take 2-3 hours). When doubled in size, divide dough in to pieces (their size depends on the size of the pretzels you want). Roll each piece of part way and then go back and roll more; letting the dough rest like this in between getting stretched is a big help. Form the pretzels (we also made pretzel drop balls), and let them rest some more while you boil a large pot of water (shallow and wide is best) with 1/3 box baking soda. Stretch each pretzel before boiling by putting your fingers in the big top loops and swinging, so gravity can stretch the pretzel (this helps the pretzel keep its shape when it puffs up in the water). Boil each for at least 15 seconds, then lay on a salted cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt (and cheese if you want) and bake at 372 for 20-25-? minutes.

Pita bread. Mix together 3 c flour (we used whole wheat), 1.5 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. yeast 1/3 c honey, 2 tbsp. olive oil, and 1.25-1.5 c room temperature water. Knead for about 10 minutes, then form dough into a ball, cover and oil, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Gently deflate and form into balls. Let the balls rest for 20 minutes, then roll them out. Preheat the oven to 400, placing inside a baking stone or cookie sheet. Cook the pita bread a few at a time, as many as will fit on the pre-heated cookie sheet. Bake for 3-6 minutes, or until they're satisfactorily brown and poofy.

Basil Whole Wheat Crackers. Mix 1.75 c whole wheat flour, 1.5 c all-purpose flour, 0.75 tsp. salt, 1/3 c olive oil, 1/3 c honey, and 1 c water together until just mixed. Roll out (as thin as you possibly can) on a floured surface and cut into the desired shape. Sprinkle with sea salt/kosher salt, and if desired, garlic powder and dried basil (use more garlic and basil than you think you need because a lot will fall off). Prick the crackers with the tines of a fork if you want little holes in them. Bake at 15-20 minutes at 350, or until dry, crunchy, and brown. Remember that they will get harder when cool, so don't wait for them to get really hard if they're burning. Ours never got completely crunchy but they were delicious nonetheless.

Here's how we feel about our bread:

Come bake bread Sunday!

Our bread baking extravangaza is this Sunday!

We'll be making hearty whole-wheat, pretzles, and whatever else our stomachs desire! Drop into the lounge for a few minutes or a few hours (even if you haven't officially rsvp-ed).

Epic Enchiladas

The Menu: The most epic enchiladas ever, aka filled with homemade refried beans, chopped tomato, scallions, and cheddar cheese; and s'mores lasagna for dessert.

before above, and below: after

The Recipes:

Refried Beans. In your biggest frying pan, saute the dense white part of scallions in olive oil for a few minutes. Pour in 3 14.5 oz. cans of drained (do not forget to drain them!) canned pinto beans. Stir/cook for a few minutes, and then get out the mighty potato masher. Admire the potato masher's versatility (it's good for making banana bread, mashed potatoes, and refried beans! Who knew?) before going to town on the beans. Keep the heat on and keep stirring as you mash. Add water if things get to thick, and salt to taste. We kept the heat on low and kept stirring until it was time to fill our tortillas. Next time we'll mostly leave the heat on--once the pan's mostly empty, things dry out too much if you keep the heat on.

Epic Enchiladas. Preheat oven (we used 350). In a bowl large enough you can comfortably dip your tortillas in (the key is big and shallow; a cake pan might even work), stir together the contents of an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce and a 14 oz. can of enchilada sauce. (We used this combination to make the enchiladas fairly mild; use all enchilada sauce for a spicier dish. Having extra sauce isn't a problem - read on.) Dip both sides a tortilla (we used whole wheat flour tortillas) in the sauce, then lay on a clean, flat surface to fill. Spread refried beans, followed by chopped tomato, chopped scallions, and plenty of shredded cheddar cheese. Roll the tortilla up (the best you can; more filling makes it harder to roll but also taste better), and place in a large baking pan (something like a 9x13x2). Continue with the rest of the tortillas, until they're all filled and rolled. If they don't fit in the pan, either make the enchiladas get cozier, or get another pan. Drizzle your leftover sauce over all the tortillas, then sprinkle over the top the rest of your other ingredients (the tomatos, scallions, cheese, etc.). Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, until the cheese bubbly. Serve steaming, cut like you would lasagna.

S'mores Lasagna. S'mores lasagna is built on the same concept as normal lasagna, except infinitely unhealthier. Start with an ungreased baking pan (another 9x13x2). Put in a generous layer of graham cracker crumbs (you either buy them as crumbs or smash existing graham crackers). Add a thick layer of chocolate chips, and put the pan in a hot (350ish) oven for a few minutes, until the chocolate gets pretty soft. Take the pan out and add a layer of marshmallows. Back in the oven, until the marshmallows get pretty soft, and repeat the process: more graham cracker crumbs, more chocolate chips, melt them somewhat, more marshmallows, melt them, until your doctor and/or dentist make you stop. If you want, smash the marshmallows down somewhat with a fork before adding the next layer of crumbs. When you're out of ingredients or your pan's full, put the whole pan in the freezer for about half an hour. (You could skip this step, but freezing the "lasagna" has two important functions: it makes the lasagna crunch like real s'mores, and possibly more importantly, takes away some of the shock of eating pure sugar, so you can eat more s'mores and feel less sick. :P) Store in the fridge to maintain some of the crunchiness, but to prevent them from being inedibly hard should they survive to the next day.

Rosemary Chicken & Vegetables Over Quinoa

The Menu: Rosemary Chicken & Vegetables Over Quinoa (& Lickety Split Cookies)

The Recipes:
Chicken & Vegetables. Preheat oven to 400. Wash and cut orange and yellow bell pepper, zucchini, and carrot and mix in large bowl (we had about 16 cups). Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on very liberal amounts of ground black pepper, garlic powder, and rosemary; and mix well. Saute minced garlic in olive oil for a few minutes, until fragrant (we used about 12 cloves). Add cut (we used approximately bite-sized pieces), cleaned, and rinsed chicken and cook with rosemary until done on the outside. Add vegetables to the pan and bake for 15 minutes. Carefully remove from oven, dump everything back in the big bowl, mix it up, and add some more spices (do not discard the cooking juices!). Add about a half cup of water, and bake for 10-15 more minutes. Cover the pan if needed to prevent the chicken from drying out. Serve hot with cooking liquid over quinoa.
Quinoa. See post from April 3rd. To rinse, we sloshed quinoa around with a couple cups of water in the saucepan, and then poured onto a towel over a bowl. By squeezing out the water and carefully scraping the stuck quinoa off the towel, we were able to rinse and drain it pretty well.
Lickety-Split Cookies. Mix the following as fast and as loudly as you can in a big bowl, and cook on greased cookie sheet at 350 until done: 1/4 c butter, 3/4 c brown sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 c flour, 3/4 c whole wheat flour, 1 cup oatmeal, 3/4 c chocolate chips.

Chiocciole in a Tomato-Cream Sauce

The Menu: Organic whole wheat Chiocciole in a Tomato-Cream Sauce

Chiocciole (pronounced key-oh-chee-oh-lay) means snail in Italian; look closely at each end of each piece. The pasta almost doubled in size while cooking, and became nice and big. Check out a zillion amazing pasta shapes here: http://www.food-info.net/uk/products/pasta/shapes.htm.

 

The flash did a good job highlighting all the steam boiling off.

The Recipes:
Chiocciole. We used organic whole wheat, so it took about 20 minutes to cook thoroughly. Taste periodically, also testing for texture, to avoid overcooking.
Tomato-Cream Sauce. In a sizeable saucepan, saute a large onion, chopped well and many cloves of fresh garlic in olive oil over medium heat, making sure nothing burns. After 10-15 minutes, add 2 28 oz. cans diced tomatoes, 2 tbsp. dried basil, 1.5 tsp. white sugar, 1/2 tsp. dried oregano, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper. Bring to boil and continue to boil 5 minutes or until most of the liquid evaporates. Remove from heat; stir in 1/2 cup cream. Reduce heat and simmer 5 more minutes. (Adapted from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/tomato-cream-sauce-for-pasta/detail.aspx)

Green Stir-Fry with Quinoa

The Menu: Scallions, Broccoli, Green Pepper, and Chicken Stir-Fry with Quinoa.

The Recipes:
Stir-Fry. Briefly cook cleaned and cut up chicken in hot oil until cooked on the outside. Remove from pan, and add cut and washed scallions, broccoli, and green pepper, and minced garlic. Drizzle with soy sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, etc. Add back chicken and mix well. Add more soy sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper to taste. (Be careful with the soy sauce - it will make the food very salty very fast.) 
Quinoa. Follow package directions (Boil 1 cup of rinsed quinoa with 1.25 c water, then simmer 12 minutes).

Farewell Michelle!

The Menu: "Powerhouse" Vegetable-Lentil-Barley Soup and Lemon-Lime-Orange Punch

This is how we test punch:

 

Well miss you, Michelle!

The Recipes:
Punch. Mix approximately equal parts of Sprite and Orange juice; serve over ice.
Vegetable-Lentil-Barley Soup. See post from January 23.

Enchiladas & Cuban Black Beans (Hispanic Food Night)

The Menu: Enchiladas & Cuban Black Beans

Frying tortillas

Covering with sauce and filing

and sprinkling with cheese

 Thanks to Dr. Green for helping with baking soda chemistry magic to get the stains out of the counter.

The Recipes:
Cuban Black Beans. Saute cubed onion and sweet pepper in olive oil for a few minutes with plenty of minced garlic. Add tomato sauce and oregano and cook for 5-10 minutes. (This part is the soffrito.) Add black beans, more garlic powder, oregano, and a few bay leaves to taste, and cook for as long as possible (45 minutes will do but if you can put everything in the crock pot for a couple hours it'll be even better!) Optimally, serve over brown rice.

The beans were SO good we couldn't wait to make them again a few days later. If anyone would like to learn how, don't hesitate to let me know!

Breakfast for Dinner!

The Menu: Banana, Blueberry, Chocolate Chip, Apple Cinnamon, & Banana-Chocolate Chip-Blueberry Pancakes & Fruilt Salad!

The Recipes:
Fruit Salad. Mix washed and cut strawberries, banana, apple (we used red delicious), orange, grapes; drizzle with lemon juice; mix well.
Pancakes. Thanks to Kevin for donating pancake mix! For blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes, simply add to pancake once in greased pan. For banana, mash banana and mix into batter. For apple cinnamon, dice apples (we used granny smiths) and mix into batter with ample cinnamon.