A Good Day - Saturday

Last night, before I went to bed, I put together a no knead dough recipe (From the Merlin Menu), in hopes that I would be having fresh bread in the morning.

The bread consisted of:
2 1/4 tsp of yeast - whisked into 1 1/2 warm water and rested for 5 minutes or so.
In another bowl I combined 2 c Flour and 1 c Whole wheat flour and a tsp of salt.
I mixed these together till it formed a kind of ball - This took very little effort, and no more flour. I then covered and let it rest.

I woke up this morning, to a big, soft, sticky dough, full of bubbles. I scraped it onto my counter that was full of flour and I folded the dough over on itself 6 times (The dough was quite tender - I wish all my dough felt like that). Then I placed it in a bowl (The same size of my dutch oven) lined in parchment paper and let it rest for another hour or so.

Seeing as I had an hour to kill - I took a trip to the Peterborough farmers market to purchased some goodies. On my buy list was honey crisp apples, some beets for Teegan (because she loves them), a free range chicken (which will be roasted tomorrow) and the prize of the day mushrooms.

One of my favourite stands at the market is the mushroom stand. The gentleman who runs it, grows all of his own mushrooms in a little town north of Peterborough. So far I have been able to purchase, portabello, shitake and oyster mushrooms - but if you don't get there early enough, you won't get any!

So being inspired by all the mushrooms - tonight for supper I made Mushroom Soup

Here's my recipe:

Add some oil or butter to your pot (as much or little as you like)
brown - a bunch of chopped green onion and garlic
Then saute about a pound of chopped mushrooms (till soft)
Add 4 cups of stock (veg or chicken) and simmer for about 20 minutes
Add 1 cup of cream (however thick you like).
Season with salt and pepper and lots of dried thyme

It's quite easy and quite nice.
Perhaps someday when I live somewhere different with better natural light (or for that matter light), I will make this again and take another picture, because this one does not do it justice.

Once home, I turned my attention back to my bread. I preheated my oven and dutch oven to 425. I gently place the dough into the dutch oven (with the paper) and baked with the lid on for 20 minutes before removing the lid and baking for an additional 15 to 20 minutes. The smell in my house was amazing. Once the bread finished, I wanted to launch right into it, but I know it's better to let the bread rest (I only made it 15 minutes, instead of the suggested hour). It was great with a bit of peach jam.

My only issue with the bread, is that I didn't end up eating it till 11 am. If only I could drag myself out of bed at 6 and prep it then, I may have been eating it by 9.

Falafel

Initially, I had a love/hate relationship with Falafels. I didn't much care for their taste, but for some reason whenever I got an opportunity to order them I would. It took me a few pitas, but my love grew and my hatred disappeared.

I attempted to make some about a year ago - and to my disappointment, things didn't work out the way I envisioned. The falafel balls disintegrated to nothing in the oil. Initially I thought that my oil had gone bad, but that wasn't the case. My falafel's were to moist and sticky.

So This go round, I wasn't going to make the same mistake.

1 c dried chick peas - soaked overnight
1 can broad beans
1/2 c cilantro
1 small onion
4 to 6 garlic cloves
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp salt

Dry off the chick peas and bean - then throw them into a food pro with everything else. Pulse till everything comes together and is a fine chunky, form-able texture. Roll it out into ball, a bit smaller then golf balls (1 good heaping Tablespoon). Deep Fry till a nice golden brown - a few minutes depending on size.

My pics of the final product didn't turn out to well, so they will sadly not be shown.

I made a nice "whole wheat flat-bread - (recipe here) - I used all WW flour" and ate it full of tahini, banana peppers and the falafels. It was quite nice.

What have I done with the Cinnamon Cranberry Dutch Oven Bread?

I toasted it, and had it with beet borscht. 

I also need to point out that, that carrot looking thing is actually a potato!

Oh, look it's a waffle - or is it?!

It's actually french toast - cooked in a waffle maker. It turned out quite nice, and seemed to take no time at all. I stole the idea from a bunch of Mennonite Girls who can Cook.

Cinnamon Cranberry Bread

Once again - HERE - is the site I found this interesting looking bread.

The recipe goes as such:

1 cup warm milk

4 tsp yeast (approx)

1/4 c brown sugar

1/4 c melted butter

1 egg

Mix all of this together and let sit for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile -in another bowl combine:

3 c flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

some ground nutmeg (1/2 tsp)

1 tsp salt

Oh - I guess I forgot to tell you 1/2 c to 3/4 cranberries (Personally I thought 1/2 a cup worked fine) - or any other dried fruit you would prefer.

Once the yeast has sat for 10 minutes or so - add both bowls together and knead till ball is smooth, and tacky but not sticky (you will have to add more flour, do it progressively). If you are lucky enough to have a kitchen aid mixer - mix everything in there, however it is you use that fancy technology - perhaps I will learn that technology someday.

Let the bread rise overnight - or for 6 hours or so. Once that period of time is over, knead it a few times on a floured surface and place into a dutch over lined in parchment paper - for an hour or until it approximately doubles in size. Then bake (covered) in a preheated 450 oven for 25 minutes and then an additional 10 minutes with the lid removed (this will give the bread a nice crusty brown color - but keep an eye on it).

The Results: The bread is Amazing (Soft, chewy and a nice sweetness in the background). I am currently eating a slice and I am reminded of eating a really good piece of raisin bread (My Dad would love it), but better (but that could because it's still warm). There were a few negatives though - the dough didn't rise as much as I would have liked, but it did fill out a bit in the oven. And the bottom of the bread is verging on being burnt (OK, it is burnt). I attribute this to my inconsistent oven, which doesn't like to keep a consistent heat (no fault of my own of course!), next time I may bump it up a rack or perhaps try a lower temp.

You don't need a dutch over to make this bread - but you will need an oven proof pot of some sort.

Left Overs

It was left overs for supper tonight.

Which included:

Chicken Tika Marsala:

Instead of writing the whole recipe out - Here's the link - The recipe is courtesy of Jamie Oliver. I borrowed one of his cookbooks from the neighbor upstairs and this is exactly it - the one on his website isn't quite the same and not as easy to follow.

Curried Yellow Pepper Soup: Place ingredients into a pot in this order - when done puree.

1. Saute till caramelized (5 min).

1 c chopped onion

Oil

2. Saute till hot (5 min).

1 c chopped apple

1 c chopped carrot

3. Time for spice (5 min).

3 yellow, orange or red peppers (you could try roasting them too).

1 T grated ginger

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp cardamom

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cayenne (more if you like it spicy)

4. Liquid (cook everything till your content or about 30 minutes on low)

4 c veg or chicken broth

1 can coconut milk

5. Finish

1 T Lime Juice

Salt

This is one of my new favourite soups and though I think it more of a summer soup, it would work to take a chill out of your bones. Our friend Shez made it for us a few months ago, and I couldn't leave that night without writing out the recipe. SO GOOD, even better the second day.

I also made a focaccia:

1 c of lukewarm water
2 tsp yeast
1 tsp honey

2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt

Let the yeast mix sit for 5 minutes. Then mix everything together and begin to knead. You will need to add about another cup of flour, but do it progressively. Knead for about 5 to 8 minutes. Once done let rise for about an hour and bake at 450 till cooked through.

I baked my loaf in my new dutch over. Apparently you can cook some pretty cool looking breads in it. Here's one (click here) I am going to try next week.

New Toy (Dutch Oven)

This morning I found myself wandering around Costco, while waiting for for my new tires to be installed. When I got to the kitchen section (my favourite), I noticed that the Kirkland Dutch Oven was only 45 dollars (As opposed to 65). I walked over to it to investigate a little more closely - I had looked at it in the past, but could always justify not buying it;
1. We would have to haul it back to S'toon in spring (in our small car).
2. I have a soup pot and a baking dish that works as a roaster.
3. We don't really have the money, cause we just bought 4 tires.

But this time I bought it - what had changed?

My soup pot that I bought 6 months ago chipped on the inside in 2 places. It was A Pastel Coloured Tivoli bought from winners (and still to this day they can be found at every winners in a variety of shapes and colours). Upon a little investigation, I found out that this is not a rare occurrence. So don't buy them! The really unfortunate thing is, I only needed the pots to last me a year!

Oh well - now I have a new toy, which I am quite fond of (soup pot and roaster).

I bought a nice big chicken this afternoon, and after cleaning it up and freezing parts for another day, I decided to make some stock for a soup tomorrow.

Today's Chicken Stock:

1 chicken carcass
3 carrots chopped
celery seed
thyme
half an Onion
a few bay leaves
Top off with water and simmer for a few hours.

Avocado Growth

It's been about 2 Weeks - and my Avocado has grown close to 6 inches. There are a few leaves forming on the top, which excites me. 

Here's the best picture I have of it.