Day of baking

I have no idea what came over me.  I woke up with the desire to cook.  And so I did.  It began with breakfast.  My in-laws were here so I made breakfast.  Bacon, eggs, and http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/04/basic-breakfast-potatoes/

Basic Breakfast Potatoes

Prep Time:

 20 Minutes

 

Cook Time:

 30 Minutes

 

Difficulty:

 Easy

 

Servings:

 6

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 whole (to 5) Large Red Potatoes
• 1 whole Onion
• 1 Tablespoon Vegetable Or Canola Oil
• 1 Tablespoon Bacon Fat
•  Salt And Pepper, to taste
•  Red And Green Bell Peppers, Diced (optional)

Preparation Instructions

Place potatoes in a large pot and cover entirely with water. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are fork tender. When they are ready, place the potatoes on a cutting board and dice them into 1-inch pieces.

Next cut up an onion into a large, rough dice.

In a large skillet heat oil and bacon fat over medium-low heat. Put the onions in the skillet and sauté until they start to turn brown. (You can also use red and green bell peppers diced up. If you do, throw them in at this point).

Next, throw in the diced potatoes. Stir well and then slightly press/pack then. Now you will cook them without stirring for several minutes. You want the pan to be hot enough to crisp the potatoes but not hot enough to char them. (Optional step: sprinkle a bit of flour over potatoes as they cook). Cook for several minutes and then flip them with a spatula. Salt and Pepper them as they cook. Cook until desired brownness.

After breakfast, we to our loca MarketStreet and prepared for a feast.  Dinner was chicken on the grill, and a variation of the following recipe.  We added sweet potatoes and eliminated the parmesan.  

http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2008/11/the_best_brocco.html

The Best Broccoli of Your Life

NOVEMBER 10, 2008 | BY ADAM ROBERTS | 210 COMMENTS

• 1M+

You know you’ve done something right with broccoli when the person you made it for describes it to someone else the next day as “better than biting into a steak.”

Those were Craig’s words and they were a marked change from the first words he uttered about the broccoli, before he bit in: “You made broccoli for dinner? Broccoli and sweet potatoes?”

Then he did bite in and his eyes lit up. “Oh my God,” he said. “This is the best broccoli I’ve ever had in my life.” Later he said: “If parents made this broccoli for their kids, kids wouldn’t hate broccoli. They’d beg for it.”

So what did I do to the broccoli to make it taste so good?

I can’t take any credit. The credit goes to that formidable force in my foodie life; namely, The Barefoot Contessa. From the very beginning, when I used to go to book stores and copy recipes out of her books on little index cards that I kept in my pocket, Ina Garten’s recipes have proved to be that perfect combination of simple yet sophisticated; she maximizes flavors in ways that are both ingenious and incredibly replicable. Anyone can do an Ina recipe yet when you taste the finished product, it doesn’t taste that way; it tastes like it was made by a pro.

I’m going to have a hard time this week not posting all of the recipes from her new book, Back To Basics. In the past few days alone, I’ve made her roasted pears with blue cheese and walnuts; her roasted sweet potato wedges (which I wrote about in the previous post); and from her “Parties!” book, her butternut squash soup and her roasted pork loin. As you can tell from these recipe titles, The Barefoot Contessa loves roasting.

Specifically, she loves roasting vegetables at a high temperature until they caramelize. That’s the basic premise of most of her vegetable recipes in most of her cookbooks and that’s precisely what makes her broccoli recipe the best you’ve ever had.

Normally, broccoli gets squishy when you cook it. Not this broccoli; it develops an amazing brown crust in spots. Then you toss it with lemon juice, lemon zest, and Parmesan cheese and you’re in heaven.

Seriously, this recipe is so easy I can recite it without looking at the book. (Ok, I’m lying, I’m about to open the book just to double check….)

You preheat the oven to 425.

Take 4 to 5 pounds of broccoli (I just got two large bunches), cut into florets (but relatively big ones.) Here’s the key that she doesn’t mention in the recipe: dry them THOROUGHLY. That is, if you wash them. I saw an episode of Julia Child cooking with Jacques Pepin once when Pepin revealed he doesn’t wash a chicken before putting it in a hot oven: “The heat kills all the germs,” he said in his French accent. “If bacteria could survive that oven, it deserves to kill me.” By that logic, then, I didn’t wash my broccoli; I wanted it to get crispy and brown. If you’re nervous, though, just wash and dry it obsessively.

Now, it’s easy. Put the broccoli on a cookie sheet. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. (She says 5 Tbs olive oil, 1 1/2 tsps kosher salt, 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper, but I just eyeballed it.) Now add 4 garlic cloves that are peeled and sliced and toss them in too.

Roast in the oven 20 to 25 minutes, until “crisp-tender and the tips of some of the florets are browned.”

I shook the pan around a bit as it went, but not sure that’s necessary.

When it’s done, take it out of the oven–and here’s where it gets really good–zest a lemon over the broccoli, squeeze the lemon juice over the broccoli, add 1.5 Tbs more olive oil, 3 Tbs toasted pine nuts (I left those out), and 1/3 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. She also has you add 2 Tbs julienned fresh basil, but I left that out too.

You won’t miss it: the magic combo of the crispy broccoli, the garlic, the lemon and the cheese will make this the best broccoli of your life. I guarantee it; you will go ga-ga over it. I’m so ga-ga over it that I would seriously consider a trip right now to the store just so I could make this for lunch. Broccoli for lunch? After trying this, you’ll never want to eat anything else for breakfast, lunch or dinner ever again.

I also made a loaf of bread in my breadmaker.  Winner winner bread for dinner!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/100-whole-wheat-bread-for-the-bread-machine-recipe

For 1 1/2 lb. bread machine
1 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
3 to 3 1/2 cups King Arthur 100% White Whole Wheat or Traditional Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 cup sunflower, sesame or flax seeds, or a combination (optional)
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

Put all of the ingredients into the bread pan in the order listed. Program for basic white bread, and press Start.

To make bread by hand: Mix the water, oil and sweetener in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, seeds, gluten, salt and yeast; add to the liquids gradually, stirring until the dough holds together. Knead on a floured surface until smooth and just slightly tacky — about 8 to 10 minutes. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled in volume, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Punch down the dough and shape it to fit a greased 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan. Let it rise until doubled, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 35 minutes, or until a digital thermometer inserted in the center of the loaf reads 190°F. Remove the bread from the oven, remove it from the pan, and cool on a rack.

And lastly, we knew tomorrow would be crazy with church and family, so we made the rolls ahead of time.  Woo hoo!  If it's titled World's best dinner rolls, I'm sold.

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/10/worlds-best-dinner-rolls/

orld’s Best Dinner RollsRecipe by Our Best Bites

Ingredients:

2 c. whole milk (if you’re in a pinch, you can use 2%, but whole is best. Don’t use 1% or skim)
½ cup + 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) butter
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 packages active dry yeast (or 4 1/2 tsp.), preferably bread machine yeast
2/3 cup warm (105-115-degree) water
8-9 cups all-purpose flour
3 beaten eggs

Instructions:

Combine milk, 1/2 c. sugar, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until butter melts. Remove from heat. Allow to cool to lukewarm. I usually rub some ice cubes along the sides of the pan or pop the entire pan in a sink full of ice cubes to cool the mixture down because this step can take forever. This step is really important because if the mixture is too hot, it will kill the yeast.

While the milk mixture is cooling, dissolve the yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes. If the yeast hasn’t bubbled, you’ll need to repeat this step–moving on with yeast that hasn’t been activated properly will only end in heartache for you and hate mail for us.

In a large mixing bowl, combine 3 c. flour and milk mixture. Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Add yeast mixture and beat on high for 3 minutes.
Add beaten eggs. Why should you beat your eggs first? Same reason you should combine your dry ingredients before adding them to moist ingredients when making cookies and cakes–it ensures everything is well-mixed and can be evenly-distributed through your dough or batter. If you add the whole eggs, your dough may not be as consistent.

Stir in as much remaining flour as needed to make a soft dough. This dough should be very soft–it will be coming away from the sides of the bowl, but it will still stick to your finger when you touch it. Don’t worry, it will firm up during the rising process. Part of what makes these rolls so good is that they’re so soft and light; if you add too much flour, they will be heavy and dense. Place the bowl in a warm place and cover with a clean towel; allow to rise 1 hour.

Punch down dough. Lightly flour your work surface and turn dough out onto surface. Divide in half.

Spray 2 9×13 glass pans with cooking spray. Roll first portion of dough into a rectangle and then cut it into 12 equal-sized pieces. I like to use a pizza cutter because it has a blade on each side, so it cuts right through dough without sticking to the blade. This dough should be very easy to work with, almost like playdough. Shape each piece into a ball and place in prepared pan. Repeat with remaining dough in the second pan.

Cover with a clean cloth and allow to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes. When dough has about 15-20 minutes to go (depending on your oven), preheat oven to 375.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden-brown.

When done, remove from oven. Rub a stick of cold butter over the tops of the rolls. You must now eat one. Now. While it’s hot.

Then pop the rest into a bowl and no one will ever know that you cheated. Makes 2 dozen rolls.