Bread

I have been wanting to make bread for a long time, but I have always been intimidated by the rising and waiting and smushing and waiting some more all before baking and waiting. I'm not very patient. So after seeing a very simple recipe for white bread on This blog, I decided to give it a try. She found the recipe in a cook book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I plan on checking the bookstore for this book this weekend because I just can't wait for it to be shipped to me. Anyway here way go, Homemade bread!

The Nice people at this blog have typed out the recipe so I don't have to! Check it out.


Here are the pictures from my break making experience.



Mixing the yeast with warm water.



The dough!

I forgot to take pictures of the dough rising. Ooops.



The refrigerated dough.



Two formed loaves on a pizza peel covered with cornmeal. Rising one last time.

I forgot to take a picture of them after flouring the tops and slashing the pattern. Again Ooops.



The finished product. So Yummy! Not to mention bread baking is about the best smell ever. It makes you feel all cozy inside.



Yum.

Zesty Lemon Pie

This recipe was on the cover of Southern Living Magazine in August I think.



Lemon Ice Box Pie
Southern Living, August 2010


Total: 6 hours 20 minutes
Yield: Makes 8 servings
Ingredients

* 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
* 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
* 3 tablespoons butter, melted
* 6 egg yolks
* 2 (14-oz.) cans sweetened condensed milk
* 1 cup fresh lemon juice
* 1 cup whipping cream
* 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
* Garnishes: lemon slices, fresh mint leaves

Preparation (with pictures of my pie)

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Stir together first 2 ingredients; add butter, stirring until blended. Press mixture on bottom and up sides of a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. Bake 10 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack (about 30 minutes).





While the pie crust cooled I juiced my lemons.




2. Whisk together egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and lemon juice. Pour into prepared crust.







3. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack (about 1 hour). Cover and chill 4 hours.

Apparently I don't believe in wire racks because my pictures say I didn't use one.



4. Beat whipping cream at high speed with an electric mixer until foamy; gradually add powdered sugar, beating until soft peaks form; dollop over chilled pie. Garnish, if desired.

*I made this pie just for my husband and myself so I made whipped cream in my ISI cream whipper and stored it in the refrigerator so we could have fresh whipped cream with every slice. I knew if I put it all on top when I made it it would go flat by the time we ate the whole pie. So if I make this to serve to more than two people I would prepare the cream and dollop as instructed, however for the two of us making it in the cream whipper made more sense.

A cheesecake project pt. 2

Over the weekend the hubs and I tasted two more of The Cheesecake Factory's offerings.

Chocolate Coconut Cream Cheesecake - YUCK! Now I don't like coconut so I figured I wouldn't be too thrilled with this cheesecake, but the hubs loves coconut and he threw almost half of it away because he said it just wasn't very good. It was creamy and had a nice texture, until you got some coconut shavings stuck in your teeth. It was just bad. Definitely the worst flavor yet.


Tiramisu Cheesecake - This was good. If I am ever at The Cheesecake Factory and feeling Italian, I'd get this again. I love Tiramisu so I was excited about trying this. It was a great balance between the creamy cheesecake and traditional espresso soaked plateful of delicious.

Only 16 flavors left.

Taco Salad

My husband and I love Mexican food, from barely Mexican texmex to the more authentic mom and pop places that claim to have the real deal. This dish leans pretty far into the texmex court.

My fake it till you make it Taco Salad:

Ingredients:

Ground Beef
Taco Bell Seasoning Packet
Lettuce
Fritos Original Corn Chips
Salsa
Tomato, chopped
Mexican blend cheese
Sour Cream
Any other taco topping you like.

Brown ground beef, season with Taco Bell taco seasoning packet as directed.

Put lettuce into bowl or on a plate, top with salsa, tomatoes, taco meat, cheese sour cream and any other toppings you like. Add Fritos on top like croutons. And done!

Key Lime Pie

Key lime pie is my husbands favorite dessert. He can eat a whole pie all by himself, and he will if I let him. Key lime pie is very easy and very yummy. I use the recipe right off the Nellie & Joe's Famous Key Lime Juice bottle. I know that's cheating a little to use bottled juice. So if you want to squeeze all those tiny key limes, knock yourself out.

You will need:

1 9" graham cracker pie crust (store bought or home made, I've used both)
1 14oz can Sweetened Condensed milk
1/2 C Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Juice
3 Egg yolks (whites not used)

Combine milk, egg yolks and lime juice. Blend until smooth. Pour filling into pie crust and bake at 350º for 15 minutes. Allow to stand 10 minutes before refrigerating. Just before serving, top with freshly whipped cream and garnish with lime slices if desired.

This time I decided to make my own pie crust. It's super easy. I buy the graham cracker crumbs and use the recipe on the box. It's just crumbs, sugar and butter.

Angel Food Cake

I love Angel Food cake! It is so good and because it's half air and has no frosting it's not as bad for you as most other cakes. I use a version of my moms recipe which she has used for my whole life. This is a crowd pleaser and can be dressed up in so many easy ways. Add fruit on top and whipped cream or cut the cake in half and pull out some of the middle and fill it with sherbet for a chilly refreshing twist.

This time I just made plain angel food cake, no fruit, no whipped cream, no frills just cake.


Angel Food Cake

1 cup Cake Flour
1 1/4 cups Powdered Sugar
12 egg whites (yolks not used)
1 1/2 tsp Cream of tartar
1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/4 tsp Almond extract
1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Sift the cake flour and powdered sugar together three times.



In the largest bowl you have beat egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, vanilla and almond until they from soft peaks. Beat in the sugar a couple of spoonfuls at a time until stiff peaks form.



Sift the dry ingredients over the whites in fourths using an up and down motion and turning the bowl often.



Bake in an ungreased tube pan for 30 min.



After removing the cake from the oven flip the pan upside down onto the little feet and let the cake cool completely. I like to put a piece of parchment paper down on the counter under the cake just in case it's fluffed up enough for it to touch. If it's really fluffy and the little feet aren't tall enough you can set the pan on top of a wine bottle or set the little feet on top of coasters to give them a little extra height.



After the cake is cooled use a knife to cut around the inside and outside edges and then remove the cake from the outside ring. Then use the knife to cut the cake from the bottom of the pan and place on a cake plate, garnish as desired.

I was so excited about eating this cake I completely forgot to take a picture of the finished product. But I make this cake a lot so I'll update this next time I make one.

What's for lunch?

As I think I've mentioned I pack my husbands lunch almost every day. It usually consists of leftovers or a sandwich and a salad, or sometimes just a big salad and some snacks. He works long days, between 9 and 11 hours, so I try to make sure he has a few things he can keep at his desk to munch on through out the day.

I don't take my own lunch to work because of my "office" situation. I need that break to leave my desk and see a different set of walls for a little while. My husband works in a large office with a break room so he usually eats in there.

Today for his lunch I packed a Greek salad with lettuce, banana peppers, tomatoes, feta cheese, pepperoncinis and Greek dressing, we were out of kalamata olives which are his favorite part. Tortilla chips and white bean salsa, green grapes, two prunes, a low fat mozzarella cheese stick, a strawberry banana yogurt, a chocolate chip chewy granola bar and a pacific cooler caprisun juice.