Super Simple Crusty Bread

This is by far the easiest bread I've made and I don't think bread is all that hard to make. Time consuming, yes, hard, no. Other than waiting, this bread isn't even that time consuming. After reading about this bread, I've also discovered that I'm about 6-10 years late in the food blogging world. It's generally called no-knead bread and supposedly it appeared in the NY Times for the first time.  It's made its rounds over and over again and yet somehow I seemed to have missed it. Maybe that's because I wasn't baking as much bread as I do now, who knows. The point is, I'll be making this bread a whole lot more from now on.

It's perfect for dipping in olive oil and making panini or just as toast with melted butter on it. I'm starting to salivate. I'd be noshing on a piece right now if we hadn't finished it the other night with dinner. I do think this bread is best eaten the day you make it or the next. As with most homemade items without preservatives, it goes bad quickly. Plus it loses that outer crustiness. Unless you warm it up in the oven or toaster, like I did. (I put it in the toaster at 200° for about 12-15 minutes to warm it up and it turned out great.)

I don't own a cast iron pot, (the key to crusty bread) so I borrowed one from a friend, but I'm definitely going to be checking out the sales, because I must purchase one to make my life easier. I've read all different ways you can "make" your own using a pizza stone, crockpot insert, pot of water, terra cotta pot, etc. The list goes on. I honestly just don't want to bother with that. Although I do have a Pyrex that I might try. As long as what you are using can withstand 450°, you can use it. The other important thing here is that it must have a lid. The lid creates steam and therefore makes the bread crusty. Or at least that's what I read somewhere on the internet and we all know that everything we read online must be true.

It takes a whopping five minutes to put this bread together. Then let it sit. 12-18 hours. I find it's best to make it at night and then bake it the next day. The smell of freshly baked bread wafting throughout the house is fantastic. So far, I've only made it twice and both times it turned out great. I really want to add in some extras like rosemary and garlic with parmesan on top. Or cheddar and jalapenos. Maybe get a little fancy and add lemon zest, nutmeg and gruyere. I tend to go savory with a bread like this, but I guess you could also go sweet and add cinnamon, sugar and currants. Regardless what you add, I have a feeling it will be fabulous.

My boyfriend has already decided that I need to make this bread at least two days a week. He's a bit of a carb-aholic. He also said that of the tortillas, white bread and chips.

So how do you make this wonderful bread? I've read different resting times and different amounts of yeast, but this is what I did and it worked beautifully. Please let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

Super Simple Crusty Bread
Yield: One loaf
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 12 - 18 hours including proofing

Ingredients
3 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups water
1 3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

Directions
In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and yeast. Add water and combine until shaggy. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a dry, warm environment for 12-18 hours. Dough will be full of bubbles and very wet.

Lightly flour a work surface and turn out dough. Work into a ball and cover for thirty minutes minimum. I used plastic wrap, but some like to use a flour sack. The flour sack will help it retain it's shape better.

Heat oven to 450°. Heat pot for about 30 minutes and carefully remove it. After dough has rested, drop it into the pot and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from pot and cool on wire rack. 

Enjoy!

Roasted Vegetable Panini

I'm not a big meat eater. I never have been and I never will be. I don't like burgers. I know for all of you burger loving fans out there, it's an atrocity. And for all of you vegans and vegetarians, you're probably loving it. But I never understood that whole burger craving. I crave peanut butter and chocolate. Never a burger. They always smell good, but I never like the taste of them. To me they are like coffee. The smell and the flavor are completely different. Once my former husband thought he could convince me that I would like them if he put all my favorite fixings one them, grilled mushrooms,  onions, and cheddar cheese. I took one bite and said that it would be great if the ground beef patty weren't there. I do like chicken, but sometimes I just don't want meat. Any meat at all.

In walks my vegetable panini. Not only is this an easy panini that can be made several different ways, but the house smells great while they are roasting. If you haven't noticed my most sensitive senses are my sense of smell and taste. My boyfriend is always commenting that it's not normal that I can smell garbage that is sealed in a plastic bag in the trash can or someone smoking a cigarette on the highway with the windows rolled up in the car in front of us. It's my spidey sense. I can't help it. As you know your sense of smell goes along with your sense of taste. I think I might be one of those super tasters.

Back to making the panini. First things first is deciding what veggies you like. I prefer eggplant, zucchini or squash, onions, mushrooms, red peppers and tomatoes. Unfortunately I didn't have all of those ingredients on hand, but I did have several. I had never put roasted tomatoes on a sandwich before, so I wasn't sure how it was going to taste. Wait, let me back up. I've used the oil packed kind and the dry packed ones from the store, but never ones I actually roasted. Usually when I make roasted veggies, I don't add tomatoes. Well, from now on it's a must. It totally made the sandwich. Without them, it would have just been blah.

Roasted Vegetable Panini

Yield: depends on how many vegetables you roast
Prep time: 20-30 minutes
Cook time: two hours 
Total time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Ingredients

Roasted Vegetables

Eggplant
Grape tomatoes
Zucchini/ squash
Onion
Red Pepper
Portabella mushroom
Garlic
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Rosemary
Oregano
Sage
Salt and pepper

2 Slices of bread of your choice (I used a garlic loaf, but a sourdough would be great)

Basil pesto
Mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 250°.

2. Slice the vegetables and place on a cookie sheet (or two). Try not to over lap. Sprinkle on spices and olive oil. Bake for two hours.

3. Spread pesto on one side of a slice of bread. Top with vegetables, cheese and other slice.

4. Grill over medium heat until golden brown and cheese has melted or put in your panini press.

Enjoy!

White Fish with Sun-dried Tomato Pesto

Years ago friends of mine made this for dinner. I'm not sure if it came out of a cookbook or something he just came up with on his own. Either way, it was good. I immediately asked for the recipe. I've made several different versions of it depending on what I had on hand and depending on the type of fish I've had. I've made it with and without the parsley, used a packaged basil pesto when I didn't have fresh basil on hand, and one time added a bit too much garlic. I think I tasted that version for days. 

The pesto  recipe makes enough for 4-6. Even when I cut it in half, it makes at least enough for 3-4. It calls for you to add the fish stock to the pesto. Because it makes so much, I usually just put it in half and save the other half for sandwiches or panini. I almost never have leftover fish, but I almost always have leftover pesto. You could always quarter the recipe, but that's too much math for me. 

I've used tilapia, flounder, cod and bass for this recipe and it always turns out good. Tilapia is cheap and can be found in almost every grocery store. Honestly sometimes I think it tastes like dirt and without a good cover I really don't like it. This pesto magically turns it into something absolutely delicious. It also doesn't take that long to make and it feels like a gourmet meal. I paired it with parmesan roasted potatoes and garlic asparagus. By far, the bass was the best. It was also the most expensive. 

If you are trying to add cold water fish to your diet, which some doctors recommend three times per week, this is a good option. It's also great for company, since it seems so fancy.

White Fish with Sun-dried Tomato Pesto
Yield: 4-6
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min

Ingredients: 

Fish
4-6 fillets of white fish
3-4 stalks scallions or one medium onion, sliced
Zest of one lemon or orange
1/4 white wine
1 teaspoon fresh oregano
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter

Pesto
1 cup hot water
1/4 extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes (I prefer oil packed, but dry packed works too)
1/2 cup roasted almonds
1/2 cup chopped basil
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup fish stock

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. 

Fish

2. Rinse fish and pat dry with a paper towel. Place in a baking dish. Top with onions/scallions.  Sprinkle with oregano, salt and pepper. Zest the lemon/orange on top. Add wine and olive oil. Break butter into bits and place on top of fish. Bake until flaky. 

Pesto

3. Blend extra virgin olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, almonds, garlic and hot water until pulverized. After the fish is done, add fish stock and stir in basil and parsley. 

Either make a bed with the pesto and place fish on top or place fish on the plate and top with the pesto. 

Enjoy!

Grilled Chicken Avocado Sammie

This is one of my favorite sanwiches. Chewy bread with a quick homemade sundried tomato pesto and fresh avocado really make this sandwich mouth watering. Add some mozzarella cheese and it's a little piece of heaven in your mouth.

I say grilled, but really it's more like pan fried chicken. It's too cold for me to grill, but this weekend it's supposed to finally warm up. I'm ready for spring. Better yet, give me low 80's with low humidity. If you can, grill the chicken. It makes it that much better.

I think the messier the sandwich the better it is. It always seems that way anyhow. On a napkin scale, I think it was a solid three. The ripe avocado has a tendency to slip out just as you are taking a bite. Of course you could always use a softer bread, but I really like the chewiness of this bread. A ciabatta would work really well.

I sliced the chicken thin or you can pound it out if you need to get rid of some aggression. Sprinkle with oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, rosemary, sage, salt and pepper. Cook on medium high heat until golden brown.

The pesto can't get much easier. Blend the sun-dried tomatoes with a few fresh basil leaves until pulverized in a blender, food chopper or bullet. I use my bullet almost every day. I love it for pestos, smoothies, grinding spices and even egg shells for the garden.

What I did:

Grill the chicken with the following spices:
Oregano
Onion Powder
Rosemary
Sage
Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper

Blend about 5-6 oil packed sun-dried tomatoes with about three to four large fresh basil leaves until pulverized in a blender. (This is enough for one to two sandwiches depending on how thick you spread it on the bread.)

Spread the pesto on the bread, then the mozzarella (use the fresh if you can..it's so much better), chicken and about a half of an avocado.

Enjoy!

The Best Homemade Granola, Period.

Granola is expensive to buy and it's so easy to make at home. Plus it makes your house smell so good. I've experimented with several recipes and this is by far my favorite. I like it nutty, just like me. It seems to keep well in an airtight container for a few weeks. At least that's all it seems to last in our house.

I love to put it on organic vanilla yogurt. It's also a good way to add flax into your diet. It has more omega three's than salmon (per serving) and a good amount of fiber in it to keep you feeling full longer. If you like coconut, then you'll like using coconut oil instead of vegetable oil or butter in this recipe. It gives it that slight coconut flavor without being overpowering.

Ingredients

5 cups of oats
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup chopped raw almonds
1 cup coconut
2 tablespoon ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut oil
2/3 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350°. Toast the oats on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes stirring at 5 minutes. While the oats are toasting, heat the coconut oil and maple syrup on low until coconut oil is liquid. Take off the heat and add vanilla. Put the oats in a big bowl, add nuts, coconut, flax seeds, salt and cinnamon. Pour the wet ingredients on top. Mix well. Put everything back on the cookie sheet and bake for 25 - 30 minutes stirring every 10 minutes. Let cool and store in an airtight jar.

Enjoy!

5 Minute Pizza Sauce

This is the easiest, tastiest pizza sauce you can make in under five minutes. Not to mention cheaper than that stuff in a jar. And, you know what is in it. A plus for me, since I mostly try to avoid processed food when at all possible. I try to buy organic when I can, aka when the budget allows. 

This is generally my go to pizza sauce when I haven't made my oven-dried tomato pizza sauce. I'll try to post that one soon. That's also easy to make, but takes about 2 hours to bake. If you have fresh basil, you can add a few leaves to the sauce or tear the leaves and put them on top of the cheese. Don't you love the smell of fresh basil? 

Easy Pizza Sauce

makes enough for two 12" pizzas

1 cup fire roasted tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

pinch of garlic

Using a blender, on high, blend until well combined. About a minute. 

Enjoy!

Summer Salad

It's cold outside. Really cold. Like most of the US, we are experiencing the polar vortex. It's the coldest day on record here in NJ. I'm not fond of winter. Not even in the slightest. It's only January and I'm ready for spring.

In order to try and fool my brain into thinking that it's not as cold out as it really is, I made a salad I usually only make in the summer. Mostly because that's when fresh strawberries are in season. I added fresh romaine lettuce, fresh pears, fresh strawberries, feta cheese and pecans. I topped it with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. As always, I hardly ever measure, so I'm doing my best to get the correct measurements.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp oregano
a pinch ground sage

Mix together until the sugar is dissolved. Pour over salad.

Enjoy!

Banana Nut Muffins

Banana bread is one of my favorite non chocolate items, but it can be dense. However, these muffins are really light and moist. I used some really old nasty almost black bananas. I should have taken a picture of them. They may have looked gross, but they sure did make some delicious muffins. When my bananas are getting to the point of getting too brown for me to eat, I usually freeze them for smoothies, but they also work really well for banana bread, muffins and pancakes.

I made regular size muffins and some mini muffins. I baked the mini muffins for 18 minutes. They were the perfect size for my uber picky toddler. I didn't even think he would try them, but he ate one and liked it. They were pretty darn delicious.

Banana Walnut Muffins

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup softened butter
3 oz. softened cream cheese
2 old bananas, mashed
1/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325°. Lightly grease muffin pan or use paper liners. I'm a fan of liners myself. Less clean up. Cream the brown sugar, butter and cream cheese. Add bananas, sour cream and egg until combined. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nuts. Don't over mix. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 23-25 minutes. Test with a toothpick. Makes about 18 regular muffins.

Enjoy!

Romantic Meal for Two

I made this for an at home date night. It was great with a glass of white wine, candlelight and superb company. I love one bowl meals where everything is all put together and the tastes all combine in your mouth. 

I love seafood. Mostly crustaceans. Scallops. Shrimp. Crab. Lobster. Mmm... I prefer dry packed diver U-10 scallops, because I'm a food snob. I can admit it. I like to eat good food. What are dry packed U-10 scallops you ask? Well, besides expensive and extremely hard to find, even for someone like me who lives about an hour from the ocean, they are large scallops that divers collect from the sea instead of using nets and dredging from the bottom of the ocean. Those scallops tend to be grittier. The 10 simply means that there're about ten scallops per pound. Dry packed means that there are no chemical additives. Sodium Tripolyphosphate (STP) is commonly added to keep the scallops white and to plump them up. It's also commonly used in detergents. I don't know about you, but I don't want to eat something that's in dish soap. Be sure not to buy scallops with STP. 

I bought 10. Four for me and six for my boyfriend. It was plenty. The great thing about this recipe is that you can change what you have on hand. Add a sweet potato or a regular potato.

I do a lot of improvising when I cook and I never measure anything. So please forgive me if you have too much or not enough of something. I think when I made this the first time I had tons of veggies leftover which was actually perfect since I used them for dinner the next night. They reheated nicely. 

Recipe
10 U-10 dry packed diver scallops
1 sweet potato or pumpkin
1 turnip
1 small baking potato or winter squash
1/4 sweet onion
1/4 fennel bulb
1/4 cucumber, peeled
1 clove garlic
1/4 c. dry white wine
1/4 -1/2 c. heavy cream
1 tsp thyme leaves
salt and pepper

Rinse and pat dry the scallops and set aside. Peel, de-sead and dice the potatoes and/or squash, turnip and cucumbers. Set the cucumber aside for later. Boil the potatoes, squash and turnip until fork tender. About ten minutes. While those are boiling, dice the onion, fennel and mince the garlic and sauté on low heat until soft in a little olive oil and a pat of butter. Drain the veggies and add to the sauté pan with the thyme and salt and pepper. Turn up the heat and brown the veggies slightly. Add cucumbers last when everything is browned. They are there to add a nice crunch. While those are browning, add the scallops to a saute pan on medium high heat and sear 2-3 minutes per side in a little oil/butter combo. Remove the scallops from the pan and deglaze with the white wine. Add the white wine reducing slightly. Place vegetables in a bowl, add the cream sauce and place scallops on top. Serve with a glass of wine. 

I hope all this makes sense. Please feel free to ask me any questions if it all seems like a garbled mess. 

Timeless Felt Christmas Ornaments

I made these ornaments years ago. Like about 20. I think they held up really well and were really easy to make. I cut the shapes out of felt, stuffed them with polyfill and blanket stitched them closed. The eyes are peppercorns and I made the noses out of orange Sculpey (which was a new product if I remember correctly). I hot glued most things except for the mouths and buttons. The reindeer mouth is an upside down heart with a circle on top. They are fairly easy to make and cheap to boot.

These are great to give away as ornaments or decorate a package with them.

Merry Christmas!

BBQ Chicken Cheddar Pizza

I make homemade pizza dough all the time. At least once a week. It's so easy and so cheap. It's great for lunch or dinner. I'll do a pizza dough post soon. I normally make the usual, margarita. But I had some rotisserie chicken left from lunch and I thought it would make a great bbq pizza. I was right. It was super easy and sooooo good. I love caramelized onions, but my boyfriend, not so much, so I just did half. Sorry for the crappy iphone pic.* I actually took it to send to a friend of mine, not thinking about posting it. This recipe is so good, I had to share.

I recently made this pizza again on my new pizza stone and desperately needed to to retake this picture. That iphone pic is just awful, but the pizza was just as delicious.

Ingredients

Pizza dough - homemade or store bought

Cooked chicken (I used leftover rotisserie)

BBQ sauce

Shredded cheddar cheese

Caramelized onions (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

If you want to add the caramelized onions, make those first by slowly browning some sliced onions in a little olive oil in a frying pan. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Roll out your pizza dough to desired thickness. (I prefer thin, my boyfriend prefers thick, I go somewhere in between.) Mix the chicken with the BBQ sauce in a bowl. How much should you use? It kind of depends on how much chicken you have and how much you want on your pizza. Use your judgment. You can always add more. Sprinkle the cheese on top and add the caramelized onions. Notice they are only on half. 

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes 

Enjoy!

Cheap Bath Toy Storage

The bath toy storage bags seemed to get slimy pretty fast and at $14.99, I wasn't about to buy another one any time soon. even if it were really cute. So I bought a lingerie bag for $1.49, cut two holes in it and hung it on the shower caddy. I guess you could hang it up with suction cups if you don't have a shower caddy.

A Quick Way to Fix a Cake

From disaster to success.

My sister was make a star cake and had a bit of a problem as you can see. So how were we going to fix it? Easy. We still had some cake that we had used to cut the star out of, so we mixed that with some icing - cake pop style - and molded it around the star points. Voila! Fixed.

Make an Easy Heart Scarf

Valentines was coming up and I thought I would make a scarf with hearts on it. I've seen some fabric painting projects on pinterest and I thought I would try one of my own. I wanted red paint and white scarf. I was lucky and found a plain white scarf on sale at Michaels for $5.00, half price, not to shabby. I got the paint at AC Moore. They only had metallic so I got that. I don't think it made much difference. I didn't have a heart stencil, so I made one from a heart punch and the lid from some nuts. That worked out nicely. I used a cheap foam brush and got to work. I measured every four inches or so and marked it with a pencil. If I did it again, I would do every other row of hearts upside down. It took about 2 and a half hours, a little longer than I thought it would take mostly because I wiped the back of the stencil after every heart. Otherwise, I would have ended up with red paint everywhere. I have another fabric painting project in mind and I think I will start on that in a few weeks. I'll take a picture with it on, so you can see what it looks like.

How to Make an Old Sweater Look New Again

I bought a sweater last year and within a few washes it looked like it was 10 years old. I still wear it, but lately I've been thinking that I see nicer stuff at Goodwill. At least that was the case until I was introduced to the sweater shaver. I did one side and you can see the huge difference it made. I've been doing all my sweaters, wool socks, the lining in my jacket. Maybe slightly obsessed, but it just works so darn good.

Oven Dried Tomatoes

I made this a while back and just haven't posted about them yet. Not only did the house smell great, but they were awesome. I used a few pints of grape tomatoes that I got on sale. I've done this with grape and cherry and they both turn out great. You cut the tomatoes in half and put face up on a cookie sheet. I added fresh garlic, basil, salt, pepper, and oregano. I poured olive oil on top and baked at 250 degrees, for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours. You can add them to your favorite pasta dish or put them in the blender and they become the base for pizza. The pizza sauce is soooo good. (I'll post my homemade pizza recipe later.) My two year old son is "helping" me type this. Sorry for any errors.