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Archive for the category “baked”

15 Feb 2012
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Roasted Acorn Squash

I know it is not peak season for acorn squash, but I wanted to add some variety to our dinner vegetables. I often just cut the squash in half and bake with some butter and brown sugar in the middle, but I am trying to cut down on added sugar while increasing nutrients. This roasted version has three advantages: 1) it makes the squash almost finger food, which gets more inside of Little B, 2) the skin is soft enough to eat along with the flesh, and adds more nutritional value to the dish, and 3) it adds a bit of sweetness naturally to an otherwise savory meal. I made this batch of squash at what used to be a house at a lake near where we currently live. The old house has since been replaced and is now owned by other family members. Although Big D’s grandparents have both passed, some of their well used equipment continues to be used on a regular basis where the family lake house once stood. I used some wonderfully blackened cookie sheets that are older than me – they belonged to Big D’s grandmother. They did a beautiful job of evenly cooking the squash. I know Grandma Seals enjoyed watching me use them.

Roasted Acorn Squash

2 acorn squash
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400F. Cut squash in half lengthwise, remove stringy membrane and seeds, then horizontally make slices about 1/2 inch wide to create “C” shaped pieces. Grease a large cookie sheet with 1 Tbsp of the olive oil. Place squash pieces on sheet in one layer. Sprinkle remaining oil on slices. The best way to evenly distribute the oil is to get messy – pour it on your hands and wipe the top of each piece with your oiled fingers. Sprinkle slices with cinnamon and salt. Bake in oven for about 25 minutes, until squash is tender (a fork slides easily into the thicker pieces) and just starting to turn golden brown. Do not be deceived – it may not look done, but it really will be. Serve immediately.

Posted in baked, cinnamon, Lake House Kitchen, vegetables
14 Feb 2012
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Vegetable Curry Bake

I originally planned to make a chicken curry soup in the crock pot yesterday. Unfortunately it rained. When it rains Little B and I usually go outside and splash around in puddles and follow the path the water takes from the ditches to the creek. Don’t worry grandmothers. We don’t go cavorting when there is lightning or thunder, and we watch the flowing water from above. Our rainy adventure took much longer than originally planned, so there was not enough time before dinner to cook the soup slowly the way I like it. I will do it another day. There was time to layer up a casserole and get it baked, and my hankering for curry was humming away, so I checked out the fridge and pantry. I am working on improving my ratio of vegetables to meat, in that I want to eat mostly vegetables and a moderate amount of meat. I love meat, but it is loaded with calories. I don’t ever expect to completely remove meat from my diet, but eating less of it could not hurt. The following is an attempt at improving the veggie/meat ratio without leaving me hungry an hour later.

Vegetable Curry Bake

3 medium potatoes, sliced thin
1 1/2 cups broccoli, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups cauliflower, roughly chopped
1 cup baby carrots, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 – 3 8” smoked sausage links, sliced lengthwise and then into bite-size pieces
1 large yellow onion, sliced to a medium julienne
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp curry powder
1/2 cup broth (beef, chicken or vegetable)
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease a 9”x13” baking dish. Use half the potato slices to make a layer on the bottom of the dish, completely covering it by overlapping the slices. Lightly salt and pepper the potatoes. Add a mixed layer of the cauliflower, broccoli and baby carrots, topping with the chopped garlic. Sprinkle half the curry powder over the vegetables. Sprinkle the sausage slices on top of the vegetables. Add another layer of potato with the remaining slices. Finish with a layer of onions. Pour the broth over the onions, making sure it gets evenly distributed. Drizzle the olive oil over the top, along with some salt, pepper and the rest of the curry powder. Cook covered for one hour. Uncover and sprinkle with cheese. Cook an additional 30 minutes until brown on top. Let rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Posted in baked, casserole, potatoes, Seals' Kitchen, vegetables, wheat free
13 Feb 2012
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Eggy Breakfast Muffins

Eggs are quite quick and easy to cook. I love eating them in all ways and forms of preparation. My favorite of all time is Eggs Florentine with classically poached eggs, barely wilted spinach and crisp home fries on the side. When I was growing up our family Sunday brunch usually fell near one of two extremes. The first was a champagne brunch at the club, where I was summarily denied anything more than a sip of champagne or a soaked strawberry until I was ‘of age’. The second was a feast at home after we returned from church and changed into our play clothes. My mom and dad often split the cooking. Me and my brother set the table and stayed out of the way. The kitchen was square and they did a little dance moving between the sink, stove and fridge. While mom made fruit cups dad would whip up waffle batter and crank out a pile of them a foot high. The waffle iron made huge waffles with little divots. I much prefer them to the big divoted belgian waffle irons. Other times he made SOS (mildly put, creamed beef on toast) or mom made drop biscuits while dad cooked up the most perfect fried eggs. He would gently fry them in oil. He never flipped them, but splashed oil from the pan over the top to cook the upper half. We also often set the table with boiled egg cups – the eggs were boiled just enough to cook the whites and leave most of the yolk runny. The pointy end went in the cup and we snipped the top off, using little spoons that just fit into the egg to scoop out buttery bites.

Growing up Catholic we observed the tradition of fasting before Mass. Even though we went to the first service at 8:30, it still meant the earliest we would eat at home was about 10:00. I was always famished by then, since the rest of the week my stomach received breakfast by 7:30. When my stomach is grumbling first thing in the morning it is almost torture waiting for the yummy bits to cook that accompany eggs – the bacon or potatoes to crisp, the sausage patties to sear, the making of Hollandaise sauce or the baking of biscuits. One solution to my desire for instant gratification is to resort to carbohydrate loaded, oily fast food breakfast sandwiches. Another is to buy those frozen things that heat up fast, but are rubbery on the outside and cold on the inside. My third and favorite solution is baking little quiche-like ‘muffins’ – they can be eaten immediately, or pulled from the fridge or freezer and microwaved while retaining their moist and savory goodness. The content of each batch of muffins I make varies and is directly impacted by the content of my kitchen. They always have eggs and cheese, but the meat and veggies change constantly – leftover roast chicken and broccoli are popular additions, as are grilled pork chops and potatoes. Muffins with salmon, dill and asparagus are wonderful. On top of everything else, Little B adores cracking eggs, whisking them into oblivion and stirring them up with the filling. I rarely deny her an egg experience.

Eggy Breakfast Muffins

9 eggs
6 ounces frozen spinach
1 cup cheese, grated
4 ounces ham or cooked sausage, small dice
1/4 cup black olives, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder

Heat oven to 375F. Grease a 12-hole muffin pan. In the microwave cook the spinach for about two minutes in a covered dish. When it cools squeeze as much liquid out of the spinach a possible. Chop finely. In a medium sized bowl add the cheese, meats, spinach and olives. Stir together. Crack all eggs into a separate bowl. Add salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder and parsley. Whisk the eggs until whites and yolks are well blended. Pour egg mixture over the cheese, meats and vegetables. Stir everything together until all is coated with egg. Spoon mixture into muffin pan until it is evenly distributed – they holes should be 2/3 to 3/4 full, depending on pan size. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until they start to brown on top. Remove from oven and let muffins cool in pan for about five minutes. Run a knife around the edge of each round to separate them from the pan, then gently lift them out onto a serving dish. Serve immediately. They also do well heated up in the microwave after being refrigerated or frozen.

Posted in baked, breakfast, eggs, Seals' Kitchen, vegetables, wheat free
12 Feb 2012

Big D’s Gluten Free King Cake

Do you know how fun it is to eat a huge cinnamon pecan King Cake? How about doing it in front of someone who cannot eat it? Someone who would get sick if he did, but who also adores cinnamon rolls? No fun at all. After making a traditional King Cake the other day I decided to make one Big D could eat without worrying about wheat. Here is what I came up with and I must say, it came out gangbusters good! It is smaller and flatter than the humongous one I made with wheat, but it was plenty for him to be a complete part of the celebration. We had people over this morning for coffee and cake – they preferred this wheat free version to the wheat version. I bet I will be making it again. Let the good times keep rolling!

Big D’s Gluten Free King Cake

Pastry:
1 cup warm water (about 110F)
2 ¼ tsp (1 pkg) active dry yeast
1 ½ cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
1 ½ cups brown rice flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 Tbsp white sugar
2 tsp salt
½ tsp vinegar
2 eggs, room temperature
Filling:
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
1 Tbsp brown rice flour
½ cup pecans, finely chopped
1 Tbsp cinnamon
¼ cup butter, melted
Icing:
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 Tbsp milk
¼ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp purple decorating sugar
1 Tbsp green decorating sugar
1 Tbsp yellow decorating sugar

Grease a large cookie sheet with butter. Set aside. Place on the counter a piece of wax or parchment paper. Spray it with oil or cooking spray. In a bowl combine all the dry Filling ingredients together. Add melted butter and stir until crumbles form. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F. To make the pastry add yeast to warm water and wait until it proofs. In a stand mixer using a flat paddle, place eggs and vinegar and whip until blended. Add yeast/water mixture and continue mixing. Add baking mix, flour, gum, sugar and salt and stir on low speed until completely combined, scraping down sides as needed. Spread the dough out on the wax/parchment paper in the shape of a rectangle, roughly 22” x 10”. Make sure it is as thin and even as possible. Spread filling on the dough, leaving about 1” around the edges without filling. Using the paper as a a guide gently roll the dough into a tube. Transfer the tube by rolling it off the paper onto the cookie sheet and coax it into a ring, gently connecting the ends together. Place ring in oven and bake for about 45 minutes until browned on top.

While the bread is baking make the icing. Mix together confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and milk. Set aside. While the cake is still warm drizzle the icing along the highest point of the bread, encouraging it to drip down the sides. Before the icing hardens sprinkle colored sugar over the icing, alternating colors in the order of purple, green then gold. Allow the cake to cool and the icing to set. Transfer to a serving dish.

Posted in baked, cinnamon, Seals' Kitchen, seasonal, wheat free | Leave a Comment
11 Feb 2012

Egg Bake

When I was a single working girl I loved making these eggs for breakfast. They would warm me up on winter mornings when I was not feeling it for oatmeal. I would set it up and start it baking right when I woke up. By the time I was ready for work my breakfast was ready too! If I wasn’t running late I would sit and enjoy every bite before leaving home. If I was running late I would snap a top on it and take it with me, enjoying it at my desk while my slower-than-molasses computer booted up.

My married version of this dish is a little different – I triple the recipe, which works wonderfully, and bake it in a small casserole dish. Big D may or may not be interested – he is not a big breakfast eater – or even be awake to decide. It also may be a morning when Little B decides she does not want any other food touching her eggs. After I eat my share eventually – following the preparation of eggs ‘without all that red stuff on them’ – the leftovers will go in the fridge. Microwaving the eggs to reheat may make an explosive mess. It tastes okay cold, but is just not the same. I end up not making it much anymore.

When I made it today I was by myself in the house. I curled up on the couch and loved every bite. I was not hurrying to leave for work, but it still warmed me up on a cold day. It tasted as good as it always did.

Egg Bake

1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
4 eggs
1/2 cup grated cheese
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried parsley
Pinch garlic powder
Pinch onion powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350F. Open the can of tomatoes, but don’t pour them out. Add oregano, parsley, garlic and onion powders, as well as salt and pepper. With a spoon mix up the spices with tomatoes in the can. Divide tomato mixture between two 12 ounce oven-proof ramekins. Break two eggs into each ramekin*. Top with cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes until eggs are cooked to desired doneness.

*Since I was usually cooking for one I placed the second ramekin with tomatoes (before adding eggs and cheese) in the fridge. The next day I could quickly add the eggs and cheese and continue preparation.

Posted in baked, breakfast, eggs, Seals' Kitchen, tomato, wheat free | Leave a Comment
10 Feb 2012

Mardi Gras King Cake

The bands are playing, the krewes are parading and in less than two weeks it will all be over. Mardi Gras is in full swing down in New Orleans, among other places. I miss that city. A while back Big D, Little B and I lived in New Orleans. It was only for six months but it was an amazing six months. We got there right before Halloween and left in April – experiencing the most festive and moderate weather months available down there. I know this to be true. I have also been down there in August. You might as well not take a shower in August, because as soon as you step outside the wet heat leaves a sheen of moisture on your skin. While living there we enjoyed as many celebrations as we could – art festivals, music festivals, food festivals, buskers, as well as the general mystery and charm of the streets. Our rental was half a renovated shotgun house in the neighborhood of Holy Cross, a sub-district squeezed between the Lower Ninth Ward and the great Mississippi River. The neighborhood was briefly under water during Hurricane Katrina and gradually coming back to life when we arrived. Unless we wanted to live on junk food from the local convenience store we had to drive a few miles to find groceries, and of course there were the culinary delights of Marigny and the French Quarter a few blocks away. A lot of the restaurants and stores that were open before the hurricane were either not returning or there was so much damage to the structures that they moved further away. We want to return for another stay, but have not figured out how to do so just yet. As I said, our time there was quite festive.

While most of the country goes into a celebratory slump following New Years, New Orleans keeps on going. Christmas decorations come down, making way for the colors purple (justice), green (faith) and gold (power) of Mardi Gras, and the parties roll on. I did not make a King Cake while we lived in the Crescent City because 1) there were so many delicious looking options available at the local bakeries, and 2) we were under the delusion we could be content eating a low carbohydrate diet, so who would eat a cake if I did make it? We have now come to our senses and enjoy exploring all foods, constantly striving for moderation, so I am diving in and making a huge, beautiful celebratory pastry.

The King (and sometimes Queen) Cake is one of the many and varied traditions of Mardi Gras. They are extremely popular sweets. Many bakeries make most or all their revenue for the year during Mardi Gras by selling King Cakes. Families often have recipes they pass down through generations, but what I found most common commercially was a loosely braided or rolled brioche fashioned in a wreath shape, filled with pecan, cinnamon, cream cheese or fruit. They were usually covered with a white icing sprinkled with colorful colored sugar. A bean or plastic baby is traditionally baked into the cake – whoever gets the piece of cake with the trinket is expected to meet obligations particular to their group. The obligations vary widely. Sometimes there are strong references to Christian stories regarding the Magi and Christ Child, to others it means the holder of the trinket may have the next baby, other times it means the person provides the next king cake or hosts the next party (which start happening at the beginning of of the Mardi Gras season, January 6th). In other circles it means you will have good luck for the year, or you are King/Queen for the day and get treated like royalty. In New Orleans many Mardi Gras Krewes use trinkets in the cakes to select the king and queen for the annual Mardi Gras season. Regardless of the obligation, the bearer of the cake needs to make sure they tell connoisseurs there is a wonderful little choking hazard in their sweet delight. Most cakes sold by bakeries provide the trinket outside of the cake or not at all for fear of someone choking…liability liability liability…

My recipe is a conglomeration from numerous sources. It is hard to actually credit someone, so I will claim it as my own based on research and experimentation and give the closest credit I can give – two sources, here and here. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

King Cake

Pastry:

2 packages active dry yeast

2/3 cup warm water (about 110F)

¼ cup butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 cup milk, room temperature

2 eggs, room temperature

5-6 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup white sugar

2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 ½ tsp lemon zest

2 Tbsp oil or butter

1 heat resistant trinket

Small coffee can, mason jar or similar sized heat resistant container

Filling:

¾ cup brown sugar

¼ cup white sugar

1 ½ cups pecans, chopped

1/3 cup flour

2 Tbsp ground cinnamon

½ cup butter, melted

Icing:

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

3 ½ Tbsp milk

¼ tsp vanilla

½ tsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp purple decorating sugar

2 Tbsp green decorating sugar

2 Tbsp yellow/gold decorating sugar

Combine yeast and water in a small glass bowl and wait about five minutes until the yeast reaction starts – it foams or bubbles. In a mixing bowl with a bread hook attached combine the water/yeast mixture with the butter, milk and eggs. Mix until combined and smooth. Add lemon zest, flour, sugar, nutmeg and salt. Mix slowly until dough forms, then mix at medium speed until a ball forms and sticks to the bread hook, pulling off the sides. You may need to add more flour for the balling to occur. Place dough in a bowl greased with oil or butter. Flip the dough so it gets coated with the grease. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel, then place in a warm, draft-free place for about two hours until it doubles in size.

When the dough is almost done rising you can make the filling. Combine together all filling ingredients except butter. When the dry ingredients are well combined add the butter and mix until crumbs form. Set aside.

Grease a large cookie sheet and set aside. Place risen dough on a floured surface and roll it into a 24” x 10” rectangle. Spread filling on top of the dough, leaving about an inch along all edges. Add the trinket (I used a green bean, since I did not want to risk Little B choking on something harder). If your trinket is not heat resistant you can wait until the cake is baked and add it by pushing it into the bottom of the cake before serving. Roll dough tightly along the longest edge, until all filling is enclosed in the roll. Grease a small coffee can or other heat resistant container and place it in the middle of a large greased cookie sheet. Curve the roll of dough around the container. Connect the ends of the roll and press together, using a bit of water on your hands to seal them together. Let rise again in a warm, draft-free place for 30-45 minutes. When dough is almost done rising preheat the oven to 375F. Bake cake for about 30 minutes until golden brown.

While the bread is baking make the icing. Mix together confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and milk. Set aside. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven remove the can. While the cake is still warm drizzle the icing along the highest point of the bread, allowing it to drip down the sides. Before the icing hardens sprinkle colored sugar*, alternating colors in the order of purple, green then gold, over the icing. Allow the cake to cool and the icing to set. Transfer to a serving dish and enjoy!

*If you have a hard time finding purple decorating sugar like I did, but you can find or make purple food coloring (liquid or gel), here is an easy solution. Just mix some sugar and the food color (this works for more than just purple. Heh.) until you get the desired shade. Let it sit on the counter for about an hour until it dries and clumps. Loosen the clumps and you are good to go!

Posted in baked, bread, cinnamon, Seals' Kitchen, seasonal | Leave a Comment
10 Feb 2012

Pizza Amore!

Big D and I have promised each other a pizza night for quite a while now, but things kept getting in the way. Then what do I do? I have a pizza party when out of town and he is stuck at home! Evil me! So last night we had our pizza night at home. Since Big D is sensitive to wheat and I am still working on improving my gluten free baking skills, we relied on a Bob’s Red Mill mix for the pizza crust. Here at home we are not equipped with a barrage of pizza making tools (my old pizza stone finally cracked after about ten years of good service and we use an ulu instead of a pizza cutter), so we relied on a cookie sheet for the baking. Little B jumped right in, stood on her learning tower (by the way, these things are awesome for safe learning in an adult sized world!), and helped top the pizza. The result was a successful experiment with plans to tweak our next attempt, because boy to we like pizza! The miniscule imperfections were mostly our fault, but we are okay with that, because there will definitely be a next time…

Gluten Free Pizza

1 package Gluten Free Pizza Crust, prepared

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

3 links hot Italian sausage, casing removed, broken up and cooked

10 baby portabello mushrooms, sliced and sauteed in 1 Tbsp butter

3 ounces pepperoni slices

5 cloves garlic, finely diced

2 Tbsp dried thyme

4 Tbsp dried oregano

5 ounces mozzarella cheese

3 ounces Parmesan cheese

4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese

1/3 cup coarse corn meal

Salt to taste

This is what we did:

Heat oven to 425F. Sprinkle corn meal on large cookie sheet (17.25”x11.5”). With wet hands (and keep a bowl of water close by to re-wet hands) press pizza crust dough out to edges of sheet. Bake for 7 minutes without toppings. It will puff up and start browning on the edges. Remove from oven and add desired toppings. We did tomato paste, garlic, herbs, some cheese, salt, pepperoni, mushrooms, sausage, more cheese, more herbs, maybe more salt. Return to oven and bake for 15-18 minutes until cheese in the middle is melted and bubbly. Slice in squares and eat!

This is what we are going to do next time:

The crust in middle of the large rectangular pizza we made was cooked, but thick. Next time we will make two smaller, thinner pizzas (freakishly similar to the instructions on the mix packaging – go figure), knowing that the middle may rise higher than the edges. Also, the dough was substantial and held its shape when we ate it, which excited us, but we thought it needed more flavor. We plan on adding salt and herbs to the dough before we leave it to rise. We cooked the pizza for 14 minutes, but think with thinner crust it could cook longer and brown safely without burning. Yes, we were afraid it was burning and took it out early, but low and behold, it could have cooked longer.

 

Posted in baked, pizza, sausage, Seals' Kitchen, wheat free | Leave a Comment
09 Feb 2012
1 Comment

Pizza Pizza Pizza!

I returned home yesterday after visiting my in-laws and my mom. My brother was there too! What a treat! To commemorate our last evening together we made a total mess of the kitchen making pizza. One obstacle regarding the pizza crust was a lack of a recipe. The one I have relied on for years was at home (what I get for having not yet scanned all my old recipes), and the one my brother usually used was not at mom’s place either, so my brother dug around online and found this one, which worked great. Mom’s pizza stone got a good workout making FIVE pizzas and Grandma Heflin’s 80 year old cedar rolling pin did a darned good job on rolling out the dough. When the dough was ready and the toppings prepared we stuck Little B on a stool and had her help us with topping the pizzas. She loved throwing, er, placing the vegetables and pepperoni all over the place, especially in big piles. We had to make a couple of adjustments before they went in the oven, like reducing the pile of five cheese slices, but we all had blast. My brother was the work horse for the evening, watching the baking times, transferring the pizzas from the stone, and making sure everyone got what they wanted, or didn’t want, on the pizzas. Here is what we did. These things are fun and fun is good, to quote Dr. Seuss.

Pizza Pizza

2 batches pizza dough (makes about five 12-inch pizzas)

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 small can tomato paste

2 Tbsp plus ½ cup olive oil

1 clove garlic, crushed

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 bell peppers, cut into strips

10 baby portabello mushrooms, sliced about ½ cm thick

1 bunch basil, washed with stems removed

1 large can black olives, sliced into rings

½ large white onion, sliced thin julienne

5 ounces turkey pepperoni (or the fatty kind if you are not trying as hard as I am to justify eating pizza)

2 pounds buffalo mozzarella, sliced about ½ cm thick

1 cup corn meal

1 cup flour

Place pizza stone in cold oven. Turn oven on to 450-475F, depending on your oven. In a bowl mix together diced tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Smush some of the tomatoes, but leave some chunky. Roll out on floured surface 1/5 the dough into a 12 inch round. Transfer the round to a pizza peel (or the back of a cookie sheet) that has been sprinkled with corn meal. Spread a thin layer of olive oil (about 2 Tbsp) on the crust. Add about 1/5 of the tomato sauce*. Layer other toppings (mushrooms, pepperoni, olives, onions, basil) as desired, topping with 1/5 of the cheese. When oven and stone are hot, sprinkle the stone with corn meal then slide the pizza on to stone and cook for 14-16 minutes. If the first pizza does not brown on top you may need to raise the oven temperature.

While the first pizza is cooking, make sure you have transition stations set up (this is where the dishes and clean up time increased exponentially) – one platter for setting on the table, one surface for receiving a pizza just out of the oven, and one for a prepared pizza ready to go in the oven. If you have a pizza peel the pizza transfer from oven to cutting board is a breeze. If you don’t have a peel (like us), make sure you have the thickest oven mitts you can find, or check your grilling/fire pit supplies to see if you have at least one high temperature glove to help handle the stone. We had to remove it from the oven to slide it onto the cutting surface. It is really hot! If you don’t have a pizza stone the whole cooking time and transfer issue is completely different than what is described here, and I have faith you can figure it out. Good luck!

This baking method and timing melts the cheese, browns the surface a bit and cooks the crust, but it does not completely cook the vegetables until limp. We like ours a bit crispy. If you want your vegetables cooked a little more it may help to blanch or saute them before you start making the pizzas.

*On one of the pizzas we used a wonderful pesto instead of the tomato sauce. It was from Humble House Foods who sell at the Pearl Farmers Market. Amazing pizza results and the most delicious pesto ever!

Posted in baked, bread, Mom's Kitchen, pizza, sauces, tomato, vegetables
01 Feb 2012

Beer Bread

Last night I made an eight hour road trip with the Little Girl. We finally landed at my mom’s house about 10pm. She had made a wonderful smelling chicken vegetable soup that would just not fit in my stomach that late (yes, 10pm is now late for me). To make up for delaying her planned soup dinner I used her kitchen for making of beer bread, to go along with the soup for tonight’s dinner. Mom loves the stuff and it is really easy to make. She has a huge, well stocked kitchen. She loves sitting by and watching my brother and I invade it to create all types of delectable dishes. As a result mom has bread pans. I can make an actual rectangular loafy looking, well, loaf of bread! I have no such pans at home. I just don’t think about buying them until I am ready to make bread, so I end up with strange shaped loaves or rolls or muffins. Is it really that hard to run to the store and get pans? No, but the challenge of doing without while still succeeding is something that intrigues me. And where bread pans are concerned, totally doable. Not this time, though. I used chives and garlic tonight, but it can be made with just about any combination of herbs or flavors to compliment the meal being served.

Beer Bread

3 cups self-rising flour*

¼ cup sugar

12 ounces beer

2 tsp diced garlic

½ bunch fresh chives, chopped (about 1/3 cup)

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease rectangular bread pan. Stir together flour and sugar until blended. Add beer and stir. When beer is partially blended add garlic and chives. Finish stirring until dry ingredient are combined. Drop dough into pan, press down to fill corners, and cook for 50-60 minutes.

*If you do not have pre-packaged self-rising flour in your pantry you can substitute it with the following proportion of ingredients: 1 cup all purpose or whole wheat flour, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt.

Posted in baked, bread, Mom's Kitchen | Leave a Comment
30 Jan 2012

Chicken Enchiladas with Cilantro Cream Sauce

My tex-mex run is coming to an end. I promise. I am ending it (for now) with a pleasant flourish. When offered enchiladas there is usually a choice between cheese, beef, chicken or spinach. I usually want chicken/spinach enchiladas, so I just go -harumph- and choose between the two, or abandon both and go for cheese. I am not complaining. It is not a curse to have four good options to choose from. There just has to be a choice made, or I resort to a combination plate that mixes them all, which also means mixing the sauces and not really getting a pure, committed bite of any one enchilada from a crowded plate. I do not usually ponder the nuances of enchilada purity, but I live where there exists only mediocre Mexican restaurants, so my mind wanders to places it normally wouldn’t. Here is my solution for being surrounded by mediocrity:

Chicken Enchiladas with Cilantro Cream Sauce

1 pound cooked, shredded chicken

4 ounces roasted green chiles, chopped

1 cup cooked spinach, well drained and chopped

8-10 ounces shredded cheese blend (such as monterrey jack, mild cheddar and asadero)

Dash of salt

10 corn tortillas

1 bunch fresh cilantro (leaves only), chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 lime, juiced

1 cup heavy cream

¼ cup sour cream or Greek yogurt

1/2 cup chicken stock

2 tsp oil or butter

Preheat oven to 350F. In a small bowl combine heavy cream, sour cream, chicken stock, lime juice, garlic and cilantro. Stir together until well mixed. Set aside. Grease shallow baking dish with oil or butter. Spread a thin layer of the cream sauce in the bottom of the dish, leaving enough to cover the top of the enchiladas. Combine together chicken, chiles, spinach and about half the cheese. Season with salt to taste. Warm the tortillas right before rolling to make them easier to work with. Place in a tortilla about 1/3 cup of the filling, roll it up and place it seam side down in the dish. Repeat with all tortillas until pan is full. Pour sauce over filled tortillas. Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top. Cover with foil and bake for about 20 minutes. Uncover and bake another 10-15 minutes until enchiladas are a golden color on top. Remove from oven and let cool about five minutes before serving.

 

Posted in baked, chicken, lime, wheat free | Leave a Comment

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