The Lebanon Strawberry Festival

Today is the first day of the Lebanon Strawberry Festival.  I will be having a booth there.  Last year it rained and was miserable for Thursday and Friday.  This year I had much higher expectations… but alas, today it’s raining.  Well, I can still have high expectations, right?

Come check it out if you’re in the area.  If not, I’ll post some photos tomorrow.  There is a carnival, vendor booths, both crafters and commercial, karoke, bands, the worlds largest strawberry shortcake, a parade on Saturday, SO much to do and see.  It’s their 100th anniversary, so it should be a good one…. with or without sunny weather!

http://www.lebanonstrawberryfestival.com/

I hope to see you there!

Artisan Bread – Sticks

I made my bread sticks today.  I took some of my bread dough and rolled it out pretty thin.  I think too thin.  I cut them into strips and put them on my baking stone to raise.  I didn’t allow them to touch.  I think that in the future, I will allow them to touch.

dough on the stone, waiting to raise

I let them raise for an hour and then drizzled them with olive oil and added Parmesan cheese.  Then put them in the oven at 450º for 15 minutes, then took them out long enough to sprinkle mozzarella cheese on them.  THIS is why I think I should have let them touch!  Cheese all over the board!  I popped them back in the oven for only about 2 – 3 minutes.  Just long enough to melt the cheese.  And served them next to a bowl of marinara sauce.  Ooh wee!  This was Tas-Ty!

Mozzarella and Parmesan make these breadsticks cheese-erific!

Hubby and I discussed it tonight.  I’m going to stop making so much bread goods for a while.  We really don’t need the carbs EVERY night like this.  So I’ll start working on something a little better for us.

Why is it that all the good stuff is not good for you?

Artisan Bread Update

I’ve been making my 5 minutes a day artisan bread for only 6 days now and I have to say…. we are loving it!  The first batch made with the original recipe from Simple Crusty Bread Adapted from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books,2007) was just much too salty for us.  So I have since changed their recipe.  My only change has been the amount of salt from 1 1/2 Tablespoons to only 1 teaspoon:

Time: About 45 minutes, plus 3 hours’ resting and rising

6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough
3 cups water
1 1/2 tbsp. yeast
1 TEASPOON kosher salt
Cornmeal

In a large bowl, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100ºF.) Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature (about 70 degrees) at least 2 hours (and up to 5). Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks.

When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on the dough. Cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-sized) piece with a serrated bread knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch the surface, creating rounded top and lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with  cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes.

Place a broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450ºF; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes. Dust dough with flour and slash top with serrated knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour 1 cup hot tap water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes.  Cool Completely. Yields: 4 loaves.

Since making this one change, I have done so much with this bread.

One day I cut off a piece, flattened it out with my hands, and spread a bit of Olive Tapenade on to the surface, topped this with some fresh grated Parmesan Cheese, Rolled it up, and followed the rest of the directions.

With some more, I rolled it out into a rectangular shape and topped it with a mixture of brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and freshly grated nutmeg.  I then rolled it up from the long side, I found that it rolled easier when I rolled it towards me.  I cut them into 1 1/2 inch pieces with a bread knife and put them in a bread pan…. Cinnamon Rolls!!!  Top with cream cheese frosting and ooh, la, la!

Last night, I took some of the dough, made it into a ball and made my slices in it before it raised.  It ended up looking a little funky, so I lightly brushed olive oil onto the top and sprinkled toasted sesame seeds on top.  I think it probably should have had an egg wash to really attach the sesame seeds, as it was, they just fell right off when we tore into it.  With making the slices before raising, it seemed to make it more flat on top, but still spread out well on the tray. Also, with using the olive oil on top, the top was not as crusty, and hubby liked that more.  So I may be doing that more often.

Tonight I’m going to try making bread sticks!  I’ll let you know how it goes.  But really, I just wanted to update you all and let you know of some of the many things you can do with this bread!  The possibilities are (maybe) endless!!

Memorial Day

Certain times of the year get me really excited about cooking.  And with the end of May, the unofficial start to Summer, I begin working on flavored lemonades, flavored teas, Salads of all kinds, and grilling EVERYthing I can!

Today I’m enjoying a tall glass of watermelon and strawberry lemonade.  For this I simply cubed up some watermelon and some strawberries, added them to my pitcher of lemonade and let it set.  Yum-my!

Also, today I found a recipe for a KFC CopyCat Cole Slaw from Budget101.com:

KFC Cole Slaw

6 cups Cabbage — chop
1 cup Carrots — shred fine
1/4 cup Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Pepper

Pour the following over the top, then stick in the fridge for 20-30 min)
1/2 cup Milk

In the meantime, mix the following
1 cup Mayo
1/2 cup Buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon Celery seed
3 Drops hot pepper sauce
3 tablespoons Dry minced onion
Combine all & stick it in the fridge until ready to serve.

KFC Copy-Cat Cole Slaw

I tasted it right after I made it and it didn’t taste too bad.  It needs to sit a while.  The recipe doesn’t say so, but you really need to let it sit for an hour or more for the flavors to marry and get really tasty.

Is this recipe good?  Yes.  Does it taste just like KFC’s version? No.

I think a better recipe for the KFC cole slaw, (which, again, doesn’t really taste the same, but is much closer) is the one that Top Secret Recipes has.  Check them out here for the recipe (it’s Free, but they don’t want it freely distributed):   http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/recipes.asp

Also, I am in the search for the perfect Potato Salad, here’s what I’ve come up with so far…

Sheela’s Not-Quite-Perfect Potato Salad!

Cut up into bite-sized pieces about 6 potatoes (depending upon how much you want to make), and cook over a medium heat until fork tender, drain and set aside to cool.  Also cook up about 6 eggs (I REALLY like hard cooked eggs), allow to cool.  Peel, and cut into bite sizes and add to the potatoes.  When both the potatoes and eggs are fully chilled, in a separate bowl mix together:  1 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 cup buttermilk, 2 tablespoon dijon (or other spicy mustard), 1/2 cup pickles (here I’m finding conflicting suggestions, I’ve heard dill pickles by a few, sweet gerkins by a few others, and still others suggest bread and butter pickles, so my thought is to use the kind you like to eat!) of your choice, freshly ground pepper and salt to taste, & 1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon paprika.

This yielded a fairly tasty potato salad, it wasn’t extraordinary, but it was good to eat.  Sorry, no pictures, it was eaten right away and we have no leftovers.  This implys that it was actually better than it was… it was by no means the best potato salad I have ever eaten, it just really did go well with our steaks!  LOL!  I’ll keep trying to find the perfect potato salad!

Beer Bread – Bread Pudding

This past weekend I made some whole wheat beer bread with some left over wine I had (Willamette Valley Vinyards Riesling).  It turned out better than using beer, in my opinion.  The sweetness of the wine gave the bread a sweeter taste.  And I’m all for sweet!

Well, this morning I knew I needed to use up the leftovers or toss them.  And Oh, how I hate to waist food!  So, I got this great idea to make bread pudding with it.  For some reason, if I use it in an experiment and it flops, I don’t mind tossing it out at that point.. go figure!

This morning I got out my trusty Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook.  I love this book.  I actually have 4 different volumes of it, the newest was printed in 2002, the next was the one I grew up with and it was printed in 1969, the other two are older, but I don’t know how much older, just “older”.

Better Homes & Gardens Cookbooks

But I digress… I do that sometimes.

BH&G (2002)  had a recipe for Bread Pudding:

Bread Pudding:

4 beaten eggs

2 1/4 cups milk

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel (I used dried from Spice Islands)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 cups dry French bread cubes or regular bread cubes (6-7 slices bread)

1/3 cup dried cherries, cranberries, or raisins

1~ In a large bowl beat together eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, orange peel, and cinnamon.  In an ungreased 2 quart square baking dish toss together bread cubes and dried fruit; pour egg mixture evenly over bread mixture.  Press mixture lightly with back of a large spoon.

2~ Bake uncovered, in a 350º oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until puffed and a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool slightly.  If desired, serve warm with Caramel Sauce or Bourbon Sauce.

Just out of the oven!

They don’t mention that it sticks to the baking pan either!  But it does!  Perhaps that’s why they tell you to cool it slightly.  I, of course, had to have some the minute it got out of the oven.  But later, after it had cooled, it was very easy to slice it and take it out of the pan.

With a bit of Vanilla Sauce too!

It’s VERY tasty.  But I’ll have to get rid of most of it, of course, because I simply can’t have all these goodies hanging out around the house.  So off to take some to my parents house!  I’m sure they would like some Beer Bread – Bread Pudding!

Artisan Bread

From one of my yahoo groups came an email about making Artisan Breads in just 5 minutes a day.  The email referred to an article writen in “The Week” magazine, so I went to their website, searched through their archives and came across the article.  Got the recipe for “Simple Crusty Bread” from there.  Here it is:

Simple Crusty Bread
Adapted from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, 
by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, 
2007)

Time: About 45 minutes, plus 3 hours' resting and 
rising

6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for 
dusting dough
3 cups water
1 1/2 tbsp. yeast
1 1/2 tbsp. kosher salt
Cornmeal

In a large bowl, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups luke-
warm water (about 100ºF.)  Stir in flour, mixing 
until there are no dry patches.  Dough will be quite 
loose.  Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let 
dough rise at room temperature (about 70 degrees) 
at least 2 hours (and up to 5).  Bake at this point 
or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks.

When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on the 
dough.  Cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-sized) piece 
with a serrated bread knife.  Turn dough in hands to 
lightly stretch the surface, creating rounded top and 
lumpy bottom.  Put dough on  pizza peel sprinkled with
 cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes.  

Place a broiler pan on bottom of oven.  Place baking 
stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450ºF; heat 
stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.  Dust 
dough with flour and slash top with serrated knife 
three times.  Slide onto stone.  Pour 1 cup hot tap 
water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap 
steam.  Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes.  
Cool Completely.  Yields: 4 loaves.

Resting and Rising

Sounds simple enough, huh?  Well, except I don’t have a pizza peel.  I decided to use a plastic cutting board that I’d gotten at WalMart (3/$2.00, good quality kitchen item for sure! haha!), and it stuck!  So I had to get a spatula out to take it off the cutting board thing and put it on the stone.  I do have a stone!  Of course, I forgot to slash the top, I was just too excited about making my first “Artisan Bread”!  And if that weren’t enough… I set the timer and forgot to press “start”!  LOL!! I think it ended up being in there for about 40 minutes instead of 30, but it came out of the oven and looks pretty good and doesn’t look burnt at all!

Out of the oven!

It had a wonderful crusty crust!  I LOVE crusty bread!  This was so great I kept poking at it and hearing the crust crunch while I made dinner (pasta with marinara and steamed veggies).

After eating it, I think that next time I will make sure that I make the slashes in it as well as turn the timer on.  It seemed a little heavy in the center.  A little too salty for my tastes too.  So I think that I’ll decrease the amount of the salt.

It just made a small loaf and probably should have been enough for about 6 pieces, but hubby and I ate it all tonight!  A little too salty or not… we loved it!!  And there’s plenty left in the fridge for more tomorrow and Thursday and Friday too!    Now I’ve just got to decide upon what to make with it tomorrow night!

Chili Dogs… It’s what’s for dinner!

Tonight, hubby asked if we could have chili dogs for dinner.  I mentioned this to a friend today and she said, “oh, that’s easy, just open a can of chili and microwave some dogs.”  Do people really do this when they want chili dogs?  I was shocked!

My chili is “cheater chili”, but still, it’s not from a can.

Cheater Chili

Chef Sheela's Cheater Chili

Cut into bite sized pieces, 1 onion, 2 stalks celery, 1/2 red pepper.  Toss into a deep fry pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  Saute until crisp/tender, remove to a dish.  In the same fry pan, add 1 pound ground beef and fry until well done, add in 1 package of your favorite chili seasoning (told you we were cheating!), return vegetables to the pan and add 1 can petite diced tomatoes.

If you’re a purest, stop and simmer here.  But, if you like beans like I like beans, add one or two cans of beans, I used red beans in the picture above, but don’t be afraid to try black beans, pinto beans, or any combo of beans.  Play with it and see what kind you like.

Now, turn down the temperature on the chili, add a lid, and go shred the cheese.   Pepper Jack is a good one for a topping.  When you have all your toppings ready for your chili…. It’s done!

And that’s why I call it “cheater chili”, it takes virtually no time and it looks like you’ve spent a long time on it.

The other thing I tried tonight for the first time was something different on our hotdogs.  I’d heard of doing it before, but never done it myself.

First, boil your hotdogs…  Bring a pot of water to boil, make sure it is enough to cover your hot dogs. Once boiling, add the hot dogs and turn your water down to medium-high. Cook for 6-7 minutes.

Next, place the individual hotdogs a few at a time into a hot saute pan with 1 tsp. oil and fry until they begin to color up.  Keep turning them and be careful!  Once they start to get some color it doesn’t take long to get them too dark.  (you know, burnt!)

Well, I did it.  And these were REALLY good!  I was amazed.  The hotdogs don’t seem to pick up the oil either, maybe they’re too waterlogged to take up the oil, I’m not sure.  But they sure were tasty.  I think when the weather warms up, we’ll try this on the grill too!