BeBa

Bailey made this tonight with my guidance (but all her labor!). Her first experience with chopping onions and potatoes. This is her Grandma’s traditional recipe – a family comfort food favorite.

German Potato Soup with Dumplings

Ingredients

7-8 large potatoes, peeled and diced
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
1 can evaporated milk

1 cup flour
1/2 cup water

Directions

1. Cover diced potatoes and onion in pot with 1/2-inch water. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, approximately 15-20 minutes depending on size off the dice.

2. Mix flour and water to form a stiff dough. You can also put 2-3 eggs in a bowl and add flour until a stiff dough is formed. We like the dumplings either way.

3. With larger diced potatoes, blend or mash potatoes to thicken. You can skip this step with smaller dice potatoes.

4. Add can of evaporated milk (you can also use regular milk or heavy whipping cream in a pinch) and stick of butter to the pot. Bring back to a simmer.

5. Drop small pieces of dough into soup and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve.

Here’s what’s for dinner tonight (with bread and lima beans). Recipe adapted from this recipe at Southern Food on About.com – I really find a lot of good recipes there!

Looked like something yummy to do with the five pounds of bone-in country-style ribs I got on sale.

After typing this up, I realize this would be even simpler and even less mess if you skipped the dredging step. Just season the pork with a little salt and pepper before browning it. Mix all the other seasonings in with the tomatoes and pour over the browned pork to simmer.

I’ll try that next time and report back, because I suspect the trade-off in convenience is worth the tradeoff (if there is one!) in flavor.

This would also adapt well to the crockpot. If I make this in the crockpot, I wouldn’t add any additional water, and might even skip the diced tomatoes.

Spicy Skillet Country Ribs

Ingredients

2 pounds boneless country style ribs
1 tablespoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Cayenne to taste
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried leaf thyme, crumbled
3 to 4 tablespoons brown sugar, divided
1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium sweet onion, sliced
1-12 oz. can diced tomatoes, plus 1 can water

Directions

1. In large bowl, combine allspice, ginger, pepper, salt, thyme and 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar. Mix to combine well.

2. Dredge pork in the spice mixture (or shake together in a Ziploc bag); place in hot oil in one layer. Cook, turning frequently, until browned on all sides.

3. In same large bowl, mix together the remaining brown sugar, tomatoes, water and sliced onion. I also added a few tablespoons of Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce to the mix.

4. Pour mixture over the pork and simmer briskly for about 5 minutes, or until liquids are reduced by about 1/4 to 1/2.

5. Cover and cook for 1.5 hours, until pork is tender.

Serves 4-6.

Easy crowd-pleasing dessert – a perfect recipe for baking in dutch oven when camping, too! Of course, you can use any fruit pie filling.

Cherry Pineapple Dump Cake

Ingredients

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oatmeal
1-20 oz. can cherry pie filling
1-20 oz. can crushed pineapple in juice
1 package yellow cake mix
1-1/2 sticks butter, cut in pats

Directions

1. Mix together the brown sugar and oatmeal in a bowl. Reserve.
2. Spray a 9×13 cake pan with cooking spray. Dump in the cherry pie filling and spread evenly over the bottom. Dump in the pineapples and juice, spreading evenly, followed by the cake mix and the sugar/oatmeal mixture.
3. Evenly distribute the butter pats over the top of the sugar/oatmeal mixture.
4. Bake at 350F for one hour. Serves 10-12.

The kids LOVE this one – especially served as a beans and rice dish. Recipe adapted from this great recipe source.

Crockpot vegetarian black bean chili

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup chopped onion
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper or cayenne
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 to 3 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried leaf oregano
1 bay leaf
1 can (28 oz.) diced or crushed tomatoes in juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 cups water
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Prepared black beans – 2 cans, rinsed and drained, or 1 bag soaked, rinsed and drained
Optional: 2 can white bean, rinsed and drained

Directions:

1. Saute the onions, garlic and red pepper in oil for one minute. Stir in chili powder and cumin and cook two minutes longer.

2. Stir onion mixture into the crock pot with all the remaining ingredients (except the canned beans, if using). Stir well and cook on low all day. Stir in any canned beans an hour before serving.

We like it over steamed rice with grated cheddar, sour cream and fresh lemon wedges. Salt/pepper to taste.

I used to dislike meatloaf as a kid, but recently I gave it another try. I realized the issue for me was big chunks of onion in my meatloaf. I like the onion flavor, but prefer not to crunch into a hunk of it. It’s a texture thing.

Anyway, I found this recipe which I thought looked pretty tasty. Turns out I didn’t have any breadcrumbs in the house – so I put it to my Twitter friends: Meatloaf with oatmeal or yucky? The resounding feedback was firmly in the oatmeal camp. It improves both the texture and the nutritional value. I have to agree – it was delicious. My first meatloaf in years turned out wonderfully! Very flavorful, with a tender texture. I agree that serving this with buttery mashed potatoes and corn makes the perfect all-American meal.

You can halve this recipe, but this is the amount required to feed my hungry family (and almost isn’t enough!!).

Perfect meatloaf

Ingredients:

1 cup oatmeal
3 pounds lean ground beef
2 cups milk (or less – add slowly and evaluate the mixture as you go – my first loaf was a little too wet)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup onion, chopped VERY fine
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground sage
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 cup barbecue sauce or ketchup

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix all the ingredients except the barbecue sauce together, then divide the meatloaf mixture into two ungreased loaf pans.

3. Spoon barbecue sauce  or ketchup on the top of the meatloaf and bake, uncovered, for 1 hour.

I often joke with Scott that I’m really NOT that great of a cook. My food is good because I’m a good recipe-picker.

The Internet helps so much with that, especially when you can review hundreds of consumer reviews as part of the evaluation process. These reviews also include useful tips and recipe modifications that may better suit my preferences.

To that end, now that I’m making bread dough all the time (and it makes an awesome pizza dough, too) I was on a quest for the perfect homemade pizza sauce. I found this little gem: Exquisite Pizza Sauce by Angie Gorkoff .

4.5 stars and 641 user reviews can’t be wrong, yeah?

Here’s my adaptation:

Sweet and Spicy Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 6 fluid ounces warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic (or 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients in bowl and allow at least 30 minutes for flavors to blend.

2. Spoon and spread 4-5 tablespoons of sauce onto each pizza crust. Add cheese and toppings. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with herbs like oregano or basil. Bake in oven (convection, if you have that option) preheated to 450F for 10-15 minutes.

Makes enough sauce for two pizzas. We like to double the recipe, heat up the extra and use it as a pizza or breadstick dipping sauce.

Homemade pizza tips

1. One of the commentators at All Recipes offers this suggestion – brilliant! If you make pizza regularly, mix up the following dry ingredients:

• 2-1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2-1/2 teaspoons dried marjoram
• 2-1/2 teaspoons dried basil
• 2-1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 4 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• salt to taste

When you’re ready to make pizza, add one tablespoon of this mixture to the regular recipe.

2. Did you know that if you carefully sprinkle the shredded cheese on the bare edges of the pizza crust, that will anchor ALL the cheese to the crust so that it won’t slide around (and right off the slices) when you slice the pizza? Scotty taught me that one just tonight. He worked his way through college at Pizza Hut, so he would know.

It all started with my brother-in-law, who brought bread to our Thanksgiving feast this year. (When Andrea said, Jay will bake bread for the meal, I was like, “really? Jay bakes bread??”)

It was a delicious loaf of white bread with molasses. And he told me I needed to try it for myself – he sent me an email right that moment with a link to the recipe for a simple crusty bread that requires no kneading and no lengthy rising times. (Adapted from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day). I watched this video, and couldn’t get over the simplicity!

And so began my obsession.

That gorgeous loaf on the right was my third batch of dough, where I sprinkled some rosemary into the dough while mixing it up. These loaves turn out so beautifully, my kids gather around the cooling rack to admire the freshly-baked  bread whenever it comes out of the oven. It’s almost like a shrine!

It pleases me that even as a VERY busy working and otherwise multitasking mom I can bake bread for my family nearly every day. Especially when they react so favorably, as if it is the greatest gift that MOM! Bakes bread! For us!!

Finally, a food I make that they can truly appreciate.

If that’s not revolutionary…

The method
The dough you mix up with this no-knead bread method has a high yeast and high water content (it’s also called “high moisture dough”). The extra yeast aids a faster rise (saving time!). The high moisture content breaks down the gluten in the wheat flour – a task normally accomplished with kneading.

My first time
I was so excited to put this bread in the oven and watch it bloom and bake. The whole house smelled just amazing. Bailey and I were in raptures (she thinks homemade bread every day is quite luxurious).

I can’t get over just how easy this is! I messed it up my first batch in a couple ways and it still turned out PERFECTLY. I used bleached flour before realizing that was a no no. Besides adding chemicals, bleaching removes some of the protein and that throws off the recipe because the dough will be too wet.

I read that AFTER I mixed up my first batch of dough with bleached flour and of course I fretted about it all night.

However, it turned out PERFECTLY. My future loaves might be better with other flours, but this was still quite amazing. The crackly crust is divine.

I made four loaves of bread with bleached flour they were tasty!

The texture with the unbleached is definitely different (not quite as dense), but everyone was still in raptures about the bread I made with bleached flour.

I’ve read elsewhere online that this recipe is incredibly forgiving and found that to be true!

I also did a crappy job portioning out those first loaves and forming them (see photo above), but I already feel much more practiced about that.

Like sourdough?
One of the cool things about this dough is that you make a large batch (enough for 4 one pound loaves) and refrigerate it for UP TO 2 WEEKS! The longer it’s refrigerated, the more it ferments and the more if achieves sour dough tang (without any starter maintenance!). You don’t stir it, knead it nor mix anything further into it.

One of the tips they have in the book to get even more sourdough-y goodness is to NOT wash your dough container when you make a fresh batch. Just scrape it down and incorporate the aged dough remnants into the fresh dough mixture. They call it the lazy sourdough shortcut. How inspired is that?

Oh, and I’ve read some people mention that between day 10 and 14 it does start to lose it’s rising ability. Tired yeasties. That’s when it’s a good time to roll it out into pizza dough!

I’m trying to imagine this dough lasting anything like 2 weeks around here, though. I might have to make bigger batches at one time!

Challah fun

Make sure to also spend some time on the authors’ website. After browsing the many recipes and variations in the book, I found myself anxious to try a different bread. The next dough I mixed up was the challah.

I found this recipe on the authors’ website: Braided challah filled with spinach, feta and pine nuts

It was amazing – Scott is becoming more seriously impressed with this method.

Since making the challah I’ve also made the Broa (Portuguese cornbread), the Vermont cheddar bread (will use more cheddar next time), the chocolate bread, which I then made into chocolate bread pudding (which has a super chocolate-y custard – divine!) and onion pletzel (don’t forget to sprinkle with kosher salt – that makes it!).

I feel like I’m cheating to make such easy bread and have it look/taste so awesome!

Tips and hints
For more analysis, discussion and variations with the 5 minute bread method, don’t miss this cool interview with the book’s authors.

There is much discussion there about how to get higher, airier loaves of bread, and the positive impact of longer rising times during the second-rise stage. The longer rise has definitely improved my breads.

Also, using parchment paper to transfer bread to the baking stone has greatly simplified the process (as if it was ever complicated!). I set the bread out to rise on a cookie sheet covered with a piece of parchment paper. When its time to put the bread in the oven, I slip the loaf onto the pre-heated baking stone, parchment paper and all. After about 15-20 minutes – when the crust is good and firm – I slip the parchment paper out so the bottom crust can bake directly against the stone. This is a particularly superior method for transferring pizza and pletzel and other flatbreads to the baking stone.

Man, I HATE that question.

Here’s one way we’ve tried to resolve it.

What are you making for Thanksgiving??

We’re having:

Turkey
Sausage and apple  stuffing
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Cornbread souffle
Old fashioned green bean casserole (I have a particularly good recipe for this)
Cranberry sauce
Waldorf salad
Pumpkin bread (already a loaf in the freezer from earlier baking spree)
Pie that Scott’s sister is bringing