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Monthly Archives: February 2008
The Daring Baker’s challenge for February was hosted by Breadchick Mary over at The Sour Dough and Sara over at I like to Cook. Drum roll please! It was Julia Child’s Pain Francais. (click here to see more photos of this challenge)
When I first read the recipe given to us by Breadchick and Sara, I was scared, very scared, 15 pages of instructions! WOW, this was going to be the mother of all challenges for me thus far. I was sure I was going to use this as one of my two I could bail on. Then I stared reading other comments from fellow DBs and I became inspired, should we say very inspired or just DAMN INSPIRED! I could not wait!
There was only one weekend in the entire month that I could do this and we were kind of busy – friend in from Hawaii, errands, dinner with friends – but, I knew I could make it work. So, Saturday rolled around and I did errands, worked, picked up the house, blah blah blah and dinner time hit! “Damn, I forgot the bread and now I had plans on Sunday with the friend!!!” But, I was confident that I could make it work ……
I got up early Sunday, started the lengthly process. So, far very good! The first rising was perfect and right on my tight schedule! Got it all ready for the next round of keeping warm and headed out for lunch and shopping with friend. It was hard to cut it short and fast because of a loaf of bread, so it ran a little late. Got home, still perfect! All was working out so well. I was very confident and very happy. Proceeded with the remaining steps and then molded the dough with my new pastry canvas and tucked it all in next to a warm heater and headed out to dinner! We had a fantastic dinner with friends but once dessert ended I started watching the clock and thinking about my perfect little breads at home. Again, I did not want to bolt over a pan of bread, so I held out as long as I could and finally told L. we had to leave. Then they started talking about after dinner drinks – NO!!! Thank god the host decided to kick us out since it was a school night!
Got home and all still looked perfect! I could not believe I had done it and still had a day of fun without sitting at home waiting for all the rising to take place. Now was time to unmold the beauties and get them ready to bake! Only 30 minutes until I could call it a wrap and head to bed!
Well, let’s just say – never be over confident when baking bread, especially this bread! They collapsed! They were flat baguettes! The color as beautiful! The texture was fantastic! The flavor was well, very french! But, something happened when I unmolded them – lost all their air, they were flat!
Moral to the story ….. Never be over confident until they come out of the oven! Was it a challenge – of course! Was it fun – definitely! Will, I make them again – on our next rainy weekend!!
We had some left over dough from a Jamie Oliver night – tossed it into the freezer, thawed today and then let it rise for a couple hours tonight, while we were at spin class. It came out wonderful! Topped it with some caramelized shallots and garlic which I added some crushed fennel seeds and chili peppers to while it cooked. I topped the crust with a very small amount of mozzarella and then tossed the shallot mixture and some arugula over the top. The finishing touch was some pancetta, crushed pepper, sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil!
Was fantastic!
We are back on our spin schedule, which means we need to come up with a couple easy meals for Tuesday and Thursdays. Not only did we get home late but there is nothing really left in the fridge since we were playing in Yosemite last weekend instead of doing house stuff.
I was able to toss a a couple cutlets(who knew Lil’s cutlets would go so far) into the freezer, from the other night; before, L. devoured them. At least we had some protein to work with. As well we had a half of a head of butter lettuce in the fridge and some frozen pizza dough left over from the HHDH #17 challenge. What did I come up with, you are asking yourself?
I rolled the dough out very thing, topped it with some fennel seeds, olive oil, sea salt and crushed pepper and baked it into a thick and crispy cracker. While the pizza was crisping away, I tossed in the chicken cutlets to warm them up. In the mean time, I tossed a salad together of lettuce, red onions, chick peas and made a light dressing of olive oil, red vinegar, and lemon juice. Once everything was cooked and warmed, I chopped up the chicken and tossed it into the salad. Simple and easy and ready in 30 minutes.
We received a very nice gift from a business colleague in Austria – two bottles of Klug-Voltl Gelber Muskateller Wine and a bottle of Kernöl Oil, otherwise known as pumpkin seed oil.
In keeping with the RSBC superfood challenge, we used the Kernol oil as our pumpkin – after all, it is made from pumpkin. Does this count? To start off our meal I tossed together a salad of red butter leaf lettuce, thinly sliced red onion, toasted hazelnuts and then I drizzled the Kernol oil over the top. The oil is rather rich in flavor and texture, instead of the usual balsamic vinegar, I squeezed some Meyer lemon over the top as the acid part of the dressing. Tossed it with some sea salt and crushed pepper. The oil is not only rich in flavor and texture but also very nutty, it definitely complimented everything in the salad. It was very good!
Not sure what to serve with the wine, so we opted to make some of Lil’s chicken cutlets. This time I threw fresh rosemary, thyme, garlic and a chili pepper in the food processor with the bread crumbs and made a very fragrant breading. The flour mixture I added some smoky paprika, salt and pepper to it. The different layers of the wine (pear, melon, a little green apple as well as a bit of mineral) really complimented the cutlets. We really enjoyed this meal full of new and exciting flavors!
We thought the crispness of the wine would also be perfect for a summer picnic – guess what we will be doing with the next bottle! Thank you Rainer!
In keeping up with the RSBC Challenge, I ran 3xs and we both biked 15 miles.
I have been on the “I am 40 fence” for the past year, yesterday around 7 am (birth time – it really is not your birthday until that time) I jumped over the fence and I am officially in my 40s. WOW! I do not feel 40; but, then again, what is a 40 year suppose to feel like? We laugh about how we take more vitamins now and how we have to exercise like a crazy person to drop those 5 pounds; otherwise, I am not 40.
I am lucky that I have a supporting family, fantastic friends and a man who is always there for me! I think Jen over at Use Real Butter really summed it up when talking about doing things for the one you love; L and I feel the same exact way. Now for a birthday, I feel that, this day is yours and only yours and you should definitely do what you enjoy. We did spend the day at the office working – we are starting a business together – which is exactly what I wanted to do. Then he surprised me by telling me he was going to cook dinner for me. Now this is BIG! He never cooks and when he does it is the one thing he knows how to make, his signature dish, Chili. While, I LOVE to cook, I was welcoming this evening of relaxing! And he seemed very excited to surprise me with an evening of food by Laudalino.
Let me set the visual for you – we have a tiny one bedroom apartment, maybe 450 sq feet in total, and our kitchen (kitchen part is no more than 20 sq. ft.) is part of the living room/dining area, so there is no where to go relax unless I want to go for a run in the garage, leave the house for awhile or take a nice glass of Lillet into the bedroom and work. I took the Lillet and left him in the kitchen to have fun! It was humorous when our friend D. stopped by with flowers and gifts, to have her come into the room I was confined too; but, we laughed as we (L and I) always seem to make it work!
While I am sipping and chatting with D. there was the occasional dish falling or pots being banged in some strange matter but not once did L. ask for help. I was becoming even more impressed, he was doing it! I was so happy and surprised to come out and find the table set (with candles even), a small gift (a little journal, a “love” journal) and a wonderful meal of his ever so famous chili right down to all the extras – avocado, sour cream, cheese, onions, corn muffins and a nice bottle of wine. It was really fantastic! I was very surprised and very happy – My MAN did this for me! I was very touched by his love for me!
We did laugh during the meal as he started a whole new food craze last night – instead of Euro/Asisan food it was Euro/Mexican food. He made the chili not only with beef but Italian sausage. The “cheddar” cheese was actually a hard orange cheese from France – very flavorful and rich. The wine was very full bodied Italian. As well he admitted to how tired all this prepping and cooking left him (notice him falling asleep during dessert) and that now he knew why I was so tired at the end of the night. Puzzling?!
It really is the little things that matter the most. The fact that he put all this effort into making my day special, was the best gift of all! We will be taking Chez on the road to Yosemite this weekend, for the rest of the birthday celebration and to just chill, read some books, shoot some photos and completely reconnect; so, until next week …. have a great weekend!
Come dine with us soon!
I was bumping around the world of food blogs today, when I should have been working, when I stumbled upon Sunita’s World. Sunita hosts a monthly event about spices we have never taken part in this; but, after I began reading about it, I became interested. I saw that the current month’s challenge involved Star Anise, now I was not sure what I would make with it as I usually just use it as a prop in photos, then I suddenly remembered that I used it in our Japanese Pot Roast and since we ate out last night we were dining on this outrageous meal again, tonight! Let me tell you after sitting in the fridge for a day, the flavor really blended even more, it was even more fantastic. You have to try this recipe!
So, here you have our entry for Sunita’s very fun event!
While, we have only joined Meeta in one of her Monthly Mingles – we had a great time. I was not going to do this months only because it was a “one-dish” meal and what comes to mind for us involves a crock pot food or casserole type meal, neither appealed to us, so we decided to sit this one out.
I was getting ready to put away my February issue of Food and Wine, when I decided to take one last flip through it. There on the cover was the topic, “the Ultimate One-Pot Meal”. I slowly turned to page 101, thinking it was going to involve a crock-pot or would be a casserole. So happy to see it was a nice slow braised meal cooked in one-pot and in the oven. The perfect meal for the lazy Saturday night we were planning.
FW gives you four options and we chose the Japanese style. We did use a few potatoes instead of the Daikon. As well I cooked Udon noodles instead of the egg noodles they suggest. The pot-roast was very easy to make and while it is cooking the house smells truly incredible. Great way to get the mood going for a “lazy but romantic” evening.
While the roast was slowly cooking we used up the left-over bubbly from our pre and Valentine’s dinners. We added a couple splashes of Bonny Doon Framboise and garnished with raspberries. What a great way to end your day and start your evening!
Then it was time to really chow down on the pot roast and buttered udon noodles. The roast was very tender and the carrots and potatoes were not over cooked, a slight crunch to them still. The broth was very flavorful – the saltiness of the Soy Sauce, and the sweetness of the Mirin and the Star Anise (which I almost did not add as I like to photograph with them) brought a very interesting flavor, a little spicy and not overwhelming, very exotic, definitely worked very well together – we loved it! Served a hunk of crusty bread with it and we popped open a lovely Bordeaux from the Loire Valley. For dessert we had a couple meringues left over, which, I made with my sweet little 4 year old friend, E. for Valentines – she is all about pink and love – I topped them with raspberries and drizzled deep dark chocolate over the tops.
Truly a great evening with the one you love!
Happy to report that we are still doing the challenge with Chou over at Balance. We did much better this week and are beating down the cold, that we both seem to have now! I got in three power walks as well as a run – felt great! L. got in a spin class and some bouldering. Next week should be a better week!
As for the cooking portion of the RSBC challenge, the food was Quinoa or Beets and it had to be a dessert. Well, since I could not figure out a way to add a beet to dessert and for that matter, L. does not really like beets, I went with Quinoa. We love Quinoa – we actually eat it a lot; but, mostly as a side with dinner, not a dessert. This was a challenge. I found one recipe on the Food Network for a pudding . Figured it would be somewhat like rice pudding so I went with it. It came together easy enough, smelled good, looked good and tasted okay. I put it into some cute little bowls, put it in the fridge to chill while we had dinner with some friends and half way through dinner I just had second thoughts – thank god I did not serve it, it was terrible!!! Oh well, guess we will stick with Quinoa as a side with dinner. Great challenge, though, Chou!
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