Yeast Bread

Bread is incredibly intimidating to me--not the eating of bread, of course, but the baking of bread. I confessed my fear of yeast in my post about beer bread. Yet, despite my love of being able to store-buy all the bread I want, I wanted this blog to be about trying new things and cooking things I love for the people that I love. Tony's food love has always been bread. (I'm pretty sure that if Tony had to choose between me and bread, I would need to be afraid.) So it only seems like a natural progression that I should begin making bread.

There are two things about making my own bread that I always found intimidating. First, the yeast. The process of not killing the yeast seems like a delicate balance. The water should be warm, but not too warm. It should bloom, but not too much. It just seems like such a tenuous stasis to maintain. Second, the kneading. Over-kneading can cause the bread to be tough and inedible. It just seems to me as though there are so many ways to screw it up.

Somehow, I came to the conclusion that making Tony feel special by making him fresh bread was more important than letting my fear keep me from trying something new. Love makes you do crazy things--like experimenting with yeast. I should confess that I still did this a little bit of the lazy way. I decided that since I have the serious, professional series KitchenAid, that I might as well use that to my advantage. I found a bread recipe that allowed me to use my mixer without really requiring me to do any kneading. You can find the recipe that I used here.

I was actually a little bit surprised at how hands-off this recipe really was. It was just a matter of making sure that I stayed on track with my time. I used the KitchenAid as recommended in the recipe and watched diligently for the ten minute mark to make sure that I wasn't  going to be over-kneading. The recipe mentions that you may need to add some extra flour, and sure enough, I did. I probably added about a quarter of a cup, and that was just the perfect amount.

This recipe called for a double rising process. So it rose initially, and then it was punched down, separated into two loaves, and rose again. Then, I baked it.

I was a little bit nervous because the rising processes didn't seem to create as much of a rise for me as it did for the blogger that I got this recipe from. I suppose I just figured that the worst that could happen was that I screwed it up, and that was pretty much what I was expecting from making bread anyways. The good news is that I proved myself wrong and ended up making some really delicious bread!

The bread ended up being a really moist and spongy bread. It was a little bit sweet since it's made with honey and coconut oil. It was easy to cut, and though it looks dark brown on the outside, it did not develop a crunchy crust. It was heavenly with a little bit of butter, and Tony and I ate it with dinner. Tony actually said that it's one of the top three breads he's ever eaten, which is high praise from the King of Carbs.

This experience really changed my mind about making bread at home. It turned out really wonderfully, and it wasn't a difficult recipe to follow. I'm not saying that I'm going to embark on a three day croissant-making endeavor or anything, but I'm not afraid to use yeast anymore. Tony has expressed an interest in making baguettes, and I think I'm finally ready to try that with him.

Healthy Breakfast Smoothie

I hate morning. I literally hate it. I have a hard time getting out of bed, motivating myself to put on makeup or even clothes. I don't even have the strength to make coffee. I do, however, understand the importance of eating breakfast. And the problem with my current morning routine is that it involves going to a gas station to buy coffee and purchasing something crappy and terrible for breakfast while I'm there because I'm hungry. Yes, I am aware that I fail as a responsible adult and at making good life choices.

Right now, I'm trying to focus on the things that I can do to try to make my life a little easier. I don't think that I can ever make myself a morning person, but I can try to find breakfast solutions that will make my life go a little more smoothly (see what I did there?). I ended up taking my search to Pinterest again because who doesn't use Pinterest to solve their domestic conundrums? It's like an index of everyone's best ideas. As lazy as I think I am, there's always someone on Pinterest who's lazier and got the job done in three less steps than I was willing to max out at.

I was intrigued by the idea of overnight breakfasts, and I've been looking at freezer presets for my week to try to make my life easier after ten hour days at work. Of course, in my search, I stumbled upon an idea of presetting green smoothies in freezer baggies, then just adding them to a blender with the rest of the ingredients that couldn't be frozen. It's brilliant!

So here's what the baggies contain:

• 1 T almonds
• 1 T chia seeds (bought in bulk at Whole Foods--we priced them other ways, but this was the smartest way to go)
• 1/4 cup quick oats
• generous handful of frozen fruit (my baggies alternate. I bought frozen peaches and strawberries and bananas. I just threw them in each so that I'd have a mixture and a little bit of variety. It's whatever you like. Just having the fruit is the important part.)
• a large handful of kale from which stems have been removed

In the morning, I remove the baggie, stuff it into my single serving blender, and add a scoop of protein powder and a cup of vanilla soy milk.

It's not exactly pretty, but I was actually really surprised at how delicious it was. Mine is a little brown-looking because the only protein powder that we had was chocolate flavored. Had I known that before going shopping, I'd have purchased a different protein powder. Tony got this powder as a Christmas gift, but he hasn't really been using it. So now it's more or less a matter of just using it until it's gone so that I can buy something that isn't pre-flavored. I did taste the smoothie before adding the protein powder, and it was still really delicious.

It's the flavor of the almonds that comes through the strongest, which I found really surprising. I've been drinking this for the last two morning, and it's been good both times. The first time, the fruit was banana, which gave the smoothie great flavor and texture. This morning, it was a peach smoothie, which was good too. The kale is almost non-existent in the flavor profile, which is good because, up until this point, I haven't much cared for kale.

There are two things I've discovered along the way so far. First, chia seeds can get stuck in your teeth. And when chia seeds meet moisture, they develop this odd, slimy exterior. It's not so fun to discover this for the first time in your own mouth. Second, frozen peaches do not blend particularly well. I'm contemplating my next round not being quite so inclusive of the peaches. I'm not really impressed with their contribution to the smoothie process.

I have two major goals this year: become more frugal so all my extra money can go to paying off debt and saving for a house and get more comfortable in the kitchen to help accomplish the first goal. Obviously, I want to be more kind to my body, but that's more of a subgoal at this point than a main goal. I want to tie that subgoal to the second main goal. These smoothies fit in to all three. This is a cheaper breakfast than stopping at a gas station. It's more nutritionally significant because it's full of fiber and healthy calories. These will also help me cut down on my caffeine intake. It was something Tony and I could do together because he helped me set up two weeks worth of baggies and prep them for freezer readiness. I'm really hoping that I can find more projects that will be as rewarding as this one. I'm really excited to see how I'll feel in two weeks after having consumed these for a while.

Turkey Burgers

Recipes and I are sometimes friends. I say sometimes because I can tend to be a little editorial with the recipes that I'm using, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. I have common sense about it. I don't omit or modify any recipes I'm baking with because we all know that that can devolve into disaster waaaay too quickly. But when it comes to just creating a dinner, I pretty much just do what I want and let the recipe serve as a general guideline. When cooking for Tony, this is kind of a necessity because there are so many things that he just doesn't like.

In my recent search for recipes to keep our kitchen interesting, I've been looking at methods just as much as I have recipes. If it's something that I can take a general idea of and modify to my own tastes or purposes, I give it a try just based on that method. It was using this technique that I created last night's turkey burgers. They consisted of the following ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 a medium-sized onion, chopped
• approx. 1/4 cup basil, chopped
• 1 egg
• Italian breadcrumbs, added until correct texture achieved
• garlic powder
• salt and pepper

I just kind of threw the ingredients together in a bowl, mixed until it was the texture I wanted, and the formed them into patties. 

I wish that I had a grill and could have grilled these. Since I didn't, I just made due with pan frying them in a little bit of olive oil. They were still good this way, but I feel like they might have been better if I could have even just thrown them on George Foreman grill or something. Alas, we do not have one (Generous benefactor round two?). I feel like despite this shortcoming, they turned out really great.

They had a really wonderful texture. They stayed moist and didn't dry out, even despite the pan frying. The flavor of the basil paired really well with the turkey, and it came through really strongly even with all of the other flavors happening there. It surprised Tony, and he almost didn't recognize it in there because it was so unexpected that he couldn't place it. The only thing I would do differently is to use a food chopper to get the onion chopped a little more finely. It added spectacular flavor that we definitely wouldn't want to lose, but the pieces were still a little big (as you can see in the picture of the burger patties) so it detracted a little bit from the texture. 

This was the first time we've experimented with mixing and pattying out own turkey burgers, but it's an experience I think we'll be repeating. The results were positive. It's a healthier alternative to eating processed burgers from a chain or even using ground beef which can be a lot more fatty. Since it was relatively inexpensive to produce, we will be adding this to our dinner rotation.

Leek Soup, Beer Bread, and Deviled Eggs

Wednesday was my day off, and I wanted to cook. I felt like making easy things and using some ingredients before they went bad. I don't really think there's a great deal of continuity to the food that I made, but it was food. Since this is a blog about food, I figure it works. I don't know that there's a great deal of pride on my part in what I made, but it was something to do.

First, let me just say that this blog has had me scouring Pinterest to find interesting recipes. Tony and I have a tendency to be bored pretty easily by food. In my search to find interesting recipes for our dinner routine, I've also realized that I need to probably step up my game if I'm interested in writing about what I make. Tony has a deep and abiding love of bread, but I've been historically been afraid of making bread that involves yeast. The rising and punching down and kneading process is pretty intimidating to me. I plan to branch out and try making something new next time I have a day off. For now, I'm sticking to my comfort zone.

In light of the fact that I'm a big yeast wuss, I decided to try making beer bread that I found a recipe for online. The recipe was fairly simple, and we had some beer that's been in our fridge since we moved in (calm down, we've only been here for six months) that we were probably never going to drink. It was really easy to make, and it turned out to be a really good bread. It was sweet and the outside was just a little bit crunchy, while the inside was still moist and soft. I still have two cans of beer left in my fridge that will probably also end up as bread, and it's probably the best future I could give them at this point.

I found myself really craving deviled eggs, so I made some of those Wednesday as well. This is what I mean when I say that there's no continuity with the foods I made. Those eggs had nothing to do with the dinner I created. I just wanted them, so I made them for myself. Maybe it's just the time of year. This is the first year that I find myself without Easter plans, and we always have deviled eggs for Easter. As deviled eggs go, these were simple. I only made them with mayo and mustard, no relish. In fact, I have never really seen the perk of adding relish to deviled eggs, and I don't ever plan to start.

They tasted better than they looked.

For dinner, I decided to get rid of the leeks that had been just waiting in the fridge. If you haven't put two and two together yet from the forgotten beer and previous posts, our fridge tends to be the place that left-overs go to die. I had almost forgotten that I had bought leeks to make leek soup, so I was a little bit surprised that they were still in usable condition. Either I have a really great fridge or modern science has done amazing things to leeks. I prefer to attribute it to the fridge because I don't really want to know what kind of chemicals are required to keep produce from spoiling indefinitely.

My leek soup consisted of chicken broth and leeks. I boiled the leeks in the broth until soft and pureed them together. This turned out, somehow, to be a harrowing experience. I discovered in the process that my blender's base piece has a giant crack and is leaking all over the place. I managed to get the soup taken care of, but I lost some soup along the way. As it turns out, I'm in the market for a new blender. Any generous benefactors out there? (Is anyone even reading this?)

I almost forgot to take the picture before the bowl was empty!

Leek soup is a really good soup for a light meal. It's not too heavy, and yet it manages to be satisfying. The soup had that light onion flavor that only leeks have. It doesn't overpower, like onion itself often can. Much as I love a good French onion soup, it can be a little intense and it's definitely not for everyone. Leek soup is like French onion lite. It tastes fresher and brighter.

It's pretty clear that I'm no Martha Stewart. There was no connection with my dishes on Wednesday. It's probably good that these endeavors are restricted to the internet and my tiny apartment kitchen because otherwise some TV chef would be screaming in my face about my inadequacies. That said, I was satisfied with everything I produced, and that's really the main idea in cooking for oneself, isn't it?

Chicken Piccata Revisited

Tony's mother and stepfather came over on Monday. It had been a while since he'd seen them--the last time they came over was when I made the Dijon pork roast in January--and since his mom likes to maximize her time with him, we invited them to stay for dinner. We'd planned to make chicken piccata again, so we just made more of the chicken this time. Luckily, I had pulled out the whole bag of chicken from the freezer already on the assumption that I'd make a portion of it for piccata, put the rest in the fridge for the next day, and use the rest for Tuesday's dinner. Tuesday we just had something else instead (in fact, that's a long story for my next blog).

This time, I managed to take a picture!

Unlike the last time his parents came over, they really liked this dinner. Marcus, Tony's stepfather, would probably be satisfied with eating just about anything that we'd give him. Pam, Tony's mother, is not so easy. Tony comes by his picky ways honestly because he gets them from his mother. Last time, when they came over for our pork roast, she said the meat was too tough. Needless to say, when I entertain, I put a great deal of effort into the food that I prepare. It was a big blow to hear that. This time, dinner was enjoyed by all parties, so this was much more of a success.

We paired the piccata with asparagus and salads to make sure everyone would have enough to eat. Pam had never had capers before, and she found them really enjoyable. It was really rewarding to watch people dip spoons into the serving dish to douse their chicken with more sauce and capers. Pam had also never eaten asparagus that she actually liked before because it usually tastes like dirt to her, but she was fond of the way I prepared it. My asparagus was coated in olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder, oven roasted, and then tossed in lemon juice and Parmesan. I thought that pairing the lemony asparagus with the lemon in the piccata would work really well together and it did. All in all, my Monday night dinner was a success.

I will say the most amusing part of the whole process actually happened at work for me the next day. I had told my coworkers that his parents were coming for dinner. The next day, I was telling my coworker, Brandon, that I'd made piccata. His response was, "So, you made dinner? Because you worked." I nodded and Brandon said, "My wife sits at home all day, and she doesn't make dinner. You work a ten hour day, go home, make dinner for him and his parents. I just can't."

That's right. I'm amazing. Be jealous of Tony.

Pork Chops and Dijon

Before we begin, a confession: I had every intention of writing this last night. Somewhere along the way, my brain died. I got a paragraph written before I finally accepted the fact that the rough day I had yesterday slaughtered my creativity. To be fair, it was the kind of work day I dread. I'm a customer service representative for an insurance company, and to say that the level to which people do not understand the services that they pay for is astounding would be the understatement of the year. I have a rare opportunity to educate people into being better consumers, but sometimes it comes at the price of all of my patience being spent by the time I walk in the door, drop my purse, and greet my dog. So now, coffee and breakfast in hand (Yes, it's avocado toast. Yes, I am a one-trick breakfast pony. Judge me now.), let's begin

One of the most fabulous combinations on planet earth is Dijon mustard and pork. Dijon mustard has been one of my father's favorite compliments for pork roasts for a long time. We had a great deal of memorable Sunday pork roasts that began their short lives as Dijon mustard, herbs, and several delightful hours roasting away. Dijon and pork have history for me, so it's surprising that it's taken me this long to utilize it in cooking. In fact, I had not even purchased Dijon mustard as an adult until earlier this year!

Here's the thing about my relationship with mustard: I don't always love it. I like certain kinds of mustard in moderation and on certain foods, but the tanginess can often make my tongue hurt a little bit. As you can imagine, this makes me somewhat picky about the when, what, and how of my mustard consumption. Before you ask, yellow mustard is always in my fridge, and I do include it on the usual mustard-bearing foods (hamburgers, hot dogs, tuna salad--if you believe in the New York way, which is the right way, just to be clear). I just tend to prefer that it be used sparingly. Some mustard combinations make no sense to me at all. (Pretzels? Really? No. A soft pretzel begs for cheese, you heathens.)

That said, I made a successful pork roast back in January that was Dijon glazed, so I thought that last night for dinner, I'd repeat the process but with pork chops. I wanted to have the flavor combination that comes with rosemary, Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, garlic powder, pepper, and parsley again, but I didn't want to make a whole pork roast. It's just not practical for us to make large roasts since our fridge is a veritable left-over oubliette. So I opted to experiment a little bit and just use my mustard mixture on pork chops which I then cooked over medium-high heat in a pan. There wasn't really any measuring--a lot of my experimentation with foods is more intuitive. I threw together a mixture of the aforementioned ingredients, tasted it, liked it, used it.

The results where actually really good. The mustard mixture ended up looking slightly lumpy from the heat in the pan, but it tasted wonderful. The interesting thing about this mixture is that the vinegar tends to keep the meet from firming up in the way a pork chop normally would when pan-frying, so the texture ends up being just a little softer. I'm actually quite fond of it because one of the things I look forward to in a meal is a variety of textures. 

We had our pork chops with boxed rosemary herb potatoes, similar to au gratin style boxed mix, and salad. Like I said, by the time I got home yesterday, my creativity had been sapped from me. We're lucky I manage to feed myself at all on days like the one I had yesterday. I will say that coming home after a long day and spending a little time in the kitchen creating something does help to take some of the stresses of the day away. It was nice to unwind by creating something that I could enjoy. This is what I understand about Julie Powell and Gabrielle Hamilton. This solace that can be found in cooking. It's good.

Kumato Tomatoes and Simple Creations

The simple things in life are always the best, aren't they? A night of doing nothing with the people you love. A cherished moment of peaceful silence. Standing in the warm rain. The same is true, in my opinion, of food. Complicated recipes and ingredients that I can't even pronounce have no business in my kitchen. I have a busy life, and I just don't have time for things like that. I'm a big fan of fresh veggies and fruit because if I don't have to cook it, it saves me time. (Yeah. That's right. Laziness as a motivation for healthy eating. You heard it here first.)

The really great thing about my relationship with Tony is that we motivate each other to try new things. He eats new things, I cook new things. It's kind of a win-win scenario. Since Tony's a little picky, it can be hit or miss. Recently, we had a miss.

Let me explain. Tony dislikes tomatoes. I feel like this is a terrible thing because tomatoes are one of my favorite foods. Sometimes, I like to just eat sliced tomato with salt and pepper. Tony's jihad on all of the foods I like can make it tough for me to cook (I repeat: HE DOESN'T EVEN LIKE CHEESE!), so I recently got him to try tomatoes again. He'd only ever tried one variety, so I thought maybe if we tried it again with a different variety, he could change his mind.

I chose Kumato tomatoes. I'd had them at a dinner party a few years ago, and I loved them. They had such a unique flavor. I remember being really impressed about them. Being such a tomato fan, I was eager to find a way to use them in my repertoire, but they can be expensive so I was never really able to justify to myself their purchase. Until now. So I'm not entirely sure if choosing Kumato tomatoes was for Tony's benefit or for mine, but either way they were going to be consumed.

He was nervous when he got a look at them, but to be fair, Kumato tomatoes do look a little unconventional for tomatoes. They've got this sort of green/red/purple hue. The packaging for the tomatoes that I purchased describes them as brown, but I don't know that I'd say they're brown. The thing I like about them is that they're a little bit sweeter than your average tomato. They have this extra little dimension of flavor. The thing about some kinds of tomatoes is that they can be quite bland if you have them on the off-season--or even during the regular season, if we're being honest. Kumatos are still really flavorful because they're just a more flavorful variety of tomato.

The way that I served Tony Kumato tomatoes was in bearing the principle of simple foods often being best in mind. He only like mozzarella cheese, but he's only had the shredded kind. So I thought we might try killing two taste birds with one stone, and I made him a Kumato caprese to go with the frozen skillet pasta meal we were having for dinner. (Don't judge me! We are busy, lazy people, dammit!)

It was your standard, run-of-the-mill caprese salad. Fresh mozzarella that I sliced and layered with slices of tomato and basil. I then drizzled on some olive oil and balsamic and added just a dash of salt and pepper.

He didn't care for the caprese, but I'm happy to report that it wasn't because of the tomatoes. He seemed a little bit surprised that he didn't hate the tomatoes, actually. The downfall of my foray into the world of caprese with Tony is that he didn't like the fresh mozzarella (he prefers the dried out, shredded, terrible variety), and he doesn't care for balsamic vinegar (which I didn't know). The sweetness of the Kumato tomato was what he really enjoyed. It adds an element to caprese that's really pleasant because it meshes well with the other flavors.

While it didn't work out this time, the simple act of having a meal with the man I love was really what I enjoyed about this experience. It's that kind of simplicity that I think people need more of. Or maybe that's just me. It's definitely that kind of simplicity that I need more of. And, to make a case for simplicity in food, I'm going to just leave this picture of my avocado toast right here...

Multigrain toast, avocado, Kumato tomato, lemon juice, salt and pepper.