For the Love of Bread

I don't know about you but I have a love for bread. The smell of bread baking in the oven makes my day. The joy of taking it out of the oven and slicing it and watching the steam come out of the hot, irresistibly yummy bread. I don't care if it is banana bread or fresh baguettes....I love bread. Sweet or savory.

So I thought I would share a savory bread recipe that I created a couple weekends ago when I had no homework and it was raining outside. When it is raining I either want to be at Barnes and Noble or I want to be cooking/baking something. Even though I could be cleaning my room or working out....I chose to bake some bread. Now looking back on it, I should have worked out, then should have  baked some yummy not so good for you bread. OH well. It has oats in it and dried friut...just say its healthy and don't think anymore about it.

Here are your ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Dash of nutmeg

1 cup quick cooking oats

3/4 cup honey

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1/2 cup fat-free milk

2 cups fresh cranberries (or 1 cup dried)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and oats.

In a large bowl, mix together honey, vegetable oil, eggs and milk. Mix in flour mixture until just moistened. Stir in cranberries and pour into prepared baking dish. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Enjoy!

It's Easy Being Green

Lately in Oklahoma, the weather was been awesome. It was 72 degrees the other day and today it's a mild 62 and I'm loving it. This weather makes me wish the Farmer's market was open. Since the weather has been so nice, my family and I have been grilling things outside on the grill. Every time my dad grills something, it makes me think of SUMMER! I cannot wait! Even though this school year has been great and all, I'm ready for a nice long break!

I love the green color

OK so back to the food, lately I have discovered brussel sprouts. They are so cute and little, but they can be intimidating. If you don't cook them the right way, you will end up eating a very bitter little brussel sprout. I found a recipe that sounded great and I thought to myself, I have to start somewhere and improve from there. I ended up making them with grilled chicken. These little guys were AMAZING! They had just the right sweetness to them and I should have made more!

Roasted Brussel Sprouts
A Molly Woodward Creation

• 1 1/2 -2 lbs. of brussel sprouts, trimmed and cleaned
• sea salt and pepper, good amount
• about 4-5 Tbs. of olive oil

Preheat your oven to 400.

Cut off the ends and yellow-ish leaves.

Make sure your brussel sprouts are trimmed and washed. Take a cookie sheet or a glass container and lay all the little brussel sprouts out on it. Drizzle with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Make sure all the brussel sprouts are coated with everything. Pop in the oven for about 30-40 minutes. Check on them and when they start to turn dark, pull them out and gobble them up.

They should look like this when they are done!

This recipe is SUPER easy and really yummy. The good thing about this recipe is that you can serve it in a salad, pasta, or just as a side dish. It is excellent and worth the try. Don't be scared, they are Delicious!

A Little Adventure

A couple weeks ago my mom and I went to the Asian market! Sounds exciting doesn't it?! Well it is! We were on a mission, a mission for RICE PAPER!!! My mom and I have looked EVERYWHERE in Edmond for rice paper and we hadn't found any! I wanted to recreate these spring rolls Target sells in the deli section. I discovered them a couple months ago and I crave them all the time now! I found a recipe and all I needed was the rice paper, so we were at our braking point until my dad suggested the Asian market! I got so excited and a couple of hours later my mom and I found ourselves in the middle of the biggest, who knew it was there, Asian market. The market was HUGE and I couldn't believe this magical place was here this whole time. I felt like a kid in a candy store. My mom and I were lost, so we asked this really nice old Asian man, whos barely spoke any English, to help us find the rice paper. He quietly walked over one aisle and pointed down this whole aisle with rice paper and rice noodles. I almost peed my pants I was so excited!

Classic Spring Rolls
yields 8 spring rolls

20 large cooked shrimp, cut in half
1 package of lettuce

Thia basil

cilantro

rice noodles

lime juice

8 rice paper sheets

Dip the sheets in the water one at a time. First put down the cut in half shrimp(about 4 per roll), then the lettuce, Thia basil, cilantro cooked rice noodles, and lime juice. Roll the little sides in, then the bigger sides. They will stick and so you need to do it right the first time. Repeat these steps until you are out of sheets.

Dip you spring rolls into sweet chili sauce (at target in the Asian aisle) or soy sauce.
These are SUPER easy and very yummy of course!

New Look to the Normal

My family and I love to try new foods and experiment with new flavors. One of our favorite go to appetizers or snack is Boudin. If you have never heard of boudin, I want you to drive right now to Walmart and get some. You can also order it off websites, the ones online from Louisiana are better, but not everyone is patient enough to wait that long. Boudin is a highly seasoned  link sausage of pork and rice that is a typical element of Louisiana Creole cuisine. It comes in a casing that you eat it out of. You can grill them, poach them, or in this case FRY THEM! We normally poach them with some water in a skillet and turn the burner on medium-high heat and wait til it is heated all the way through. If you do it this way, you might need to keep an eye on it and had more water.

My family and I were watching a cooking show and they were talking about boudin and they said the ways to cook it and one of the ways was to fry it! My dad insisted we try it, so we did and I feel like my life has changed forever. In Oklahoma frying almost anything is normal, which might be the reason that we are up there on the obesity chart! So my advice is to not eat this everyday! haha but once you try it, you will want it every day.

Fried Boudin
thanks to my dad for preparing it :)

Boudin unprepared.

Take your boudin and cut it about an inch in diameter or each piece. As seen in the picture to the left.

 Prepare your egg wash with about 4 eggs whisked together in a bowl and then some plain bread crumbs in another bowl. No need to add any salt or pepper because the boudin is already seasoned to perfection. 

Ready to fry!

 

Get your cast iron skillet hot with oil. Dip your boudin in egg wash then the bread crumbs and stick in the skillet. Cook for about 3-4 minutes, take out of the skillet, let cool and ENJOY! I like to put a little bit of hot sauce on top of mine before I eat them!



Done!



Heaven!

Appetizer Idea:

Once you get the boudin out of the skillet put a toothpick in the top and put of a platter and serve to your hungry guests. They will thank you forever for this discovery!

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

My dream is to go to New York and eat New York food. When I say "New York food" I mean bagels, street food, and all the other food New York has to offer. My Dream is going to come true next November! I get to go to New York with my school and I'm super pumped! I have been looking forward to this since my freshman year!
Since I still have a while before I get to go, I decided to experiment and make NEW YORK BAGELS! If you don't know, New York bagels aren't like your everyday (panera) bagel. They aren't as though on the outside, the are more "tinder" and yummy! Once you have had a New York bagel, you will never go back.
I went searching and searching for recipes on bagels and I finally found one that I felt like I could accomplish! Keeping in mind that I never have made bagels in my life, so this was an experience!

NEW YORK STYLE BAGELS!!!
sophisticatedgourmet.com- check it out!



Pic credit- sophisticatedgourmet.com

 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups of warm water(you may need 1/4 cup more, I did!)
3 1/2 cups of bread flour or high gluten flour(will need extra for kneading)
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

PREPARATION:
1.  In 1/2 cup of the warm water, pour in the sugar and yeast. Don not stir. Let it sit for five minutes, and then stir the yeast and sugar mixture, until it all dissolves in the water.

2. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast and sugar mixture.

3. Pour half of the remaining warm water into the well. Mix and stir in the rest of the water as needed. Depending on where you live, you may need to add anywhere from a couple of tablespoons to about 1/4 cup of water. You want to result in a moist and firm dough after you have mixed it.

4.On a floured counter top, knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Try working in as much flour as possible to firm and stiff dough.

5. Lightly brush large bowl with oil and turn the dough to coat. Cover the bowl with a damp dish towel. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in size. Punch the dough down, and let rise for another 10 minutes.

6. Carefully divide the dough into 8 pieces. Shape each piece into a round. Now, take a dough ball, and press it gently against the counter top moving your hand and the ball in a circular motion pulling the dough into itself while reducing the pressure on the top of the dough slightly until a perfect dough ball forms. Repeat 7 other dough rounds.

7. Coat a finger in flour, and gently press your finger into the center of each dough ball to form a ring. Stretch the ring to about  1/3 the diameter of the bagel and place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet, repeat with the remaining dough.

8. Bring a big pot of water to a boil and drop the bagels in, they should float to the top. Boil them for 4 minutes on each side. Take them out and put them on a baking sheet. This is where you would add whatever toppings you want. Let them bake 350degrees in the oven for about 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and cooked all the way through.

OK so I know what your thinking, there are too many steps and I can't do it. YOU CAN! It isn't hard, there are just a lot of steps to follow! BUT......IT IS WORTH IT!!! SOO my pictures go deleted off my camera so I took some off this blog I follow!

Like a Good Neighbor

I hope everybody had an excellent Christmas/New Years! Mine was fantastic and I'm back in school and hating it!

When New Years comes by many people as you know make New Years resolutions. I made one for myself and it is to get through P90X. I finally got the courage to order it this week, so it is on its way as we speak(or blog chat). I'm nervous to see whats its like. I don't mean to sound narcissistic but I work out and I would say I'm fit, but may people say its harder than it seems.....

So enough with the healthy plans....on to the real stuff, FOOD!

Over the break I get really bored toward the end because THERE IS NOTHING TO DO! So when I'm bored I do what everyone does...bake something! I wanted to make something yummmy, but I didn't want to eat it so I decided to take it to our neighbor! I decided to make a peanut butter pie! My neighbor informed me that this pie is AMAZING and I trust her because it smelled like heaven and I took a lot of will power for me not to stick a fork into it and just start eating it!

The Giving Pie

peanut butter pie

1 9in. pie crust

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 TBS peanut butter (creamy or chunky)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup peanut butter M&M's
2/3 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350*

Place prepared pie crust in a 9in. greased pie pan and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl combine sugar, flour, peanut butter, and butter. Mix well.

Add eggs, vanilla. Mix until combined. BY HAND stir in the peanut butter M&M's and chocolate chips. After you have mixed the two final ingredients, pour the batter into the prepared pie crust.

Bake for about 45 min. or until the middle is firm. DO NOT over bake it! The pie will look a little darker on top, but DO NOT let it go in the oven for too long! Let it set for at least an hour.

Serve with some ice cream or put in a basket and deliver it to your neighbor!

It looks like a cookie on the top,yum

Try a random act of kindness, make this pie and deliver it to someone you think needs it. You wont believe how good it feels to do something good for someone else!

A Reason To Celebrate

       Okay, I don't know about you but I feel like this year has flown by so fast. I'm already half way into my harder than hard junior year and I'm freaking out a little bit. My teachers, parents, and any other person who asks what grade I am in keeps reminding me what I need to do before next year......ACT score, college, grades, A PLAN of some sort, the list goes on and on. The one thing that gets my mind off of all those things is... you guessed it FOOD!

   My Brother Keith's birthday was the 18th and mine was the 20th and since they are so close to Christmas, Keith and I never give each other birthday gifts. This year we decided to make/buy our gifts. Keith LOVES yellow cake, so I decided to bake him a birthday cake from scratch. Keith bought me a cake that I love and dream about all the time, I was very happy!

Yellow Birthday Cake

yum yum

Yield: Two 9-inch round, 2-inch tall cake layers, and, in theory,

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (480 grams) cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon (5 grams) table salt
2 sticks (1 cup, 1/2 pound or 225 grams) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups (400 grams) sugar

2 teaspoons (10 ml) pure vanilla extract

4 large eggs, at room temperature

2 cups buttermilk (475 ml), well-shaken

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circles of parchment paper, then butter parchment.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just Incorporated.

Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. (I like to drop mine a few times from two inches up, making a great big noisy fuss.) Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely, about 1 hour.

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

Yes, it’s true: A chocolate frosting recipe without any butter, whipped eggs and barely a modicum of added sugar. Oh, and you don’t even need an electric mixer to make it. What are you waiting for?

Only cooking note: Be sure that your sour cream is at room temperature before you make the frosting. Makes 5 cups of frosting, or enough to frost and fill a two layer 9-inch cake

15 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/4 teaspoons instant espresso (optional, but can be used to pick up the flavor of average chocolate)

2 1/4 cups sour cream, at room temperature

1/4 to 1/2 cup light corn syrup

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the chocolate and espresso powder, if using, in the top of a double-boiler or in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is melted. (Alternately, you can melt the chocolate in a microwave for 30 seconds, stirring well, and then heating in 15 second increments, stirring between each, until the chocolate is melted.) Remove from heat and let chocolate cool until tepid.

Whisk together the sour cream, 1/4 cup of the corn syrup and vanilla extract until combined. Add the tepid chocolate slowly and stir quickly until the mixture is uniform. Taste for sweetness, and if needed, add additional corn syrup in one tablespoon increments until desired level of sweetness is achieved.

Let cool in the refrigerator until the frosting is a spreadable consistency. This should not take more than 30 minutes. Should the frosting become too thick or stiff, just leave it out until it softens again.