Roasted Garlic and Sun Dried Tomato Bread

A big shout out to the Wandering Coyote at her very good cooking site ReTorte for a dynamite bread recipe. It was easy. Everything worked just as it should and best of all….it was a huge hit!

I used these oil packed sun-dried tomatoes


Chop them finely.........



Mix them into the roasted garlic



The recipe calls for whole wheat or multi grain flour. Our market did not have the multi grain available and I used King Arthur brand whole wheat. I have just recently started seeing the King Arthur brand availbe where I shop. My cousin Gail once sent me a catalog of their baked goods, flours and great looking cookware. Love to browse through catalogs like that.



Mix the flours in carefully.............




Let the dough rise for 2 hours and then look!
Mine actually did rise up properly. I'm so thrilled with it because bread making isn't my strong area.



After the dough doubled it looked like this!



Our senses were teased by tantalizing scents of warm roasted garlic and sun-dried tomato, wafting through the kitchen as the bread baked, making our taste buds work overtime. When the bread came out of the oven it was beautiful. Hard as it was to wait, we managed to avoid cutting into the bread for 10 whole minutes. Certainly it needed longer to sit and cool……but that was never going to happen…oh my.



I was actually very pleased that the bread making, kneading, rising, the entire process went smoothly - even before I popped a buttered morsel of fresh bread into my mouth. That was a bonus as just a few days before I tried to make bread and it was a miserable failure. The leaden mass that would have been French bread dough and was…well, it was just sorry.

My bad – I had the water too hot and killed the yeast. But this bread was a snap and extremely flavorful.

I took this from ReTorte and she credited the magazine Canadian Living and their Test Kitchen.



Butter it up and taste the warm garlicy bread.......

Picadilla....A Hearty Cuban Meal

This is a recipe my SIL Barbara shared with me many years ago. It’s a family favorite and easy to make. It plates up quite attractively, makes a great dinner and we usually have enough leftover for a good lunch too!


Here are some of the ingredients you'll need.......



¼ cup olive oil

1 large clove garlic

1 onion, chopped fine

1 green pepper, chopped fine

1 ½ pounds of ground beef and ground pork mixture

Salt and pepper to taste

A large can tomato sauce (about 15 oz. can)

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon basil AND oregano

Roughly a ½ cup white wine

Sliced olives (I use a healing half cup)

Heat oil in pan and saute garlic, green pepper and onion. When they are softened add the meat and cook until browned.

I use a spatula to chop the meat up into a fine consistency as it cooks. Be sure to drain the fat out of the pan after the meat is browned. I hold my sauce pan lid tightly over the pan and drain the fat off into a coffee can or any grease catcher you might use.

Slice the olives and add as many as you like, per your taste.....



Mix in the tomato sauce and all other ingredients........simmer a half hour on low to medium heat. Stir occasionally.



We usually serve it over yellow rice but used white rice this last time as I wanted to get the rice cooker out. Let it do the work and have fewer pans to clean later.

When Barb gave me this recipe she suggested variations such as adding potatoes and/or raisins. She adds chopped jalapenos and sliced olives. The heartburn we’d suffer with too many jalapenos would be incredible so we don’t generally add those.

Serve with maduras (fried plantains)



And a side dish of Spanish olives.......



Red Stripe beer is a good match with this dish.



Bonus!

Part Two - Using the leftovers.........

Take a package of refrigerated crescents rolls (or make your own dough) and roll out into rectangles. Spoon a good helping of the leftover picadilla onto the dough and make a packet.



Bake for 14 minutes at 375 degrees. You have a good hot lunch with minimal fuss.



Paired with a cold glass of iced tea mixed with lemonade.



Thanks Barb!!

Memorial Day Maple Ribs and Chicken!

Thanks to Nigella we have a good meal all ready for Memorial day. This is a day we honor our men and women from past and current military service to our country.

It's also the unofficial start of summer and I think it's actually an unofficial law in the United States to grill. Whether you use charcoal or gas, you need to grill on Memorial Day.

Because we have been experiencing daily late afternoon downpours of rain accompanied by thunder and lightening, we may have to grill lunch (burgers) and have the ribs cooked in the oven.



So, to cross off another of Nigella's recipes and to have ribs on Memorial Day....here is a grand way to cook them that is easy as it is tasty.


You will need the following ingredients:

12 pork ribs (we're using baby back ribs)
8 or 10 chicken thighs - skin and bone still on



1 1/2 cups apple juice
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 cinnamon stick broken in half
6 unpeeled cloves garlic




Any brand of cinnamon stick will do......



Look...I found a purple garlic.



Put the ribs and chicken in large freezer bags or a dish you can cover. I use freezer bags as it's easier to mix the marinade and super easy for cleanup.





Add all the remaining ingredients and squelch and mix together. Seal the bags.
Leave to marinate in the fridge for up to two days.



I turn the bags every few hours or when I'm in the fridge for a drink or whatever. This will allow the meat to sit in the maple marinade if you turn the bags.

Next day.........

Take the meat out of the fridge. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.



Pour the contents of the freezer bags into a roasting pan. Be sure the chicken pieces are skin side up.



Place in the preheated oven for and hour and 15 minutes by which time everything should be sticky and glossy brown.


Here is a shot of it baking........



Plate it up nicely, piling the ribs, chicken and stray garlic cloves on a platter.



Serve with a sauteed combo of cauliflower, carrots and broccoli.......



We never were able to grill as the storms were so heavy, lots of lightening and plenty of rain. But this dinner was worth the wait. It was a wonderfully sticky, fun and tasty meal enjoyed with family.

Happy Memorial Day to all who celebrate this one.

Lemon-Lime Garlic Roasted Chicken

With Feta Stuffed Plum Tomato



This is an adaption from Ina Garten's recipe. She has some wonderfully simple recipes and while she must have been quite good writing nuclear energy policy in her previous job, she is probably far more appreciated in her current career. Here's to the Barefoot Contessa (raised glasses clicking)
Everyone likes a a tasty meal, don't you think so?

I didn't have the called for number of lemons but I did have lime available so I modified. Why not?

The recipe calls for:

1 five pound roasting chicken
salt and pepper
1 large bunch fresh thyme
4 lemons (I needed to substitute one lime)
3 heads garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 pound sliced bacon


Cut up lemon/lime and garlic. You'll note from the photo I that did not read the directions and pulled the garlic cloves out individually so...next time I'll do it correctly and we'll have lovely melty garlic.


Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Remove chicken giblets and wash chicken, pat dry then season liberally with salt and pepper.

Stuff the cavity with thyme, leaving a bit to garnish the the chicken dish. Place 1 lemon, halved, and 2 halves of the garlic.



Ready for this.......cover it with bacon! Yes, wonderfully thick-cut slabs of bacon. I used maple bacon.



Roast the chicken for 1 hour. Remove bacon slices and set aside.



Continue roasting the chicken for an additional half hour or until juices run clear. Carve and plate up.



Served with plum tomatoes stuffed with feta cheese.



If I had sliced the garlic properly we would have had fat hunks of butter soft garlic to spread on the baguette. See the white and tanned garlic cloves? They were near perfect. Alas........we have some melty garlic but the others could chip a tooth. Those over baked worthless hulls had to be tossed out as they wouldn't even make the grade to be included in soup.



Despite being short the quantity of lemons I needed it worked out well. The taste was very good and I have put some of the chicken in soup for our lunch. The bacon that was set aside also made it into soup and the flavors all mingled very well.

Quesadillas Revisited

A few months back I made these tasty chicken quesadillas from a recipe I borrowed at ReTorte. They were a big hit but when I made them, I had forgotten to snap some photos of the end result. I remembered this time ;-)

You'll need:

Chopped mushrooms

Sliced and diced onions

1 clove minced garlic

Sliced red bell peppers

Vegetable oil

Shredded roasted chicken - about ¾ cup

Loads of mozzarella cheese

Large tortillas

Sour cream

Slice up your ingredients............



I sautéed the vegetables until they were tender. Added roughly half a package of taco seasoning mix and two teaspoons vegetable oil. Mix it up.

Add shredded chicken and mix some more.

Heat frying pan (I used a non stick pan) and I place done large tortilla in the pan. Topped it with a bit of veggie and chicken mixture. Added probably too much mozzarella cheese and placed another large tortilla on top.

As it warmed and browned, I kept checking the bottom with a non stick spatula. When I was ready to flip the tortilla I placed a small dessert or bread plate on top and carefully maneuvered the overflowing tortilla onto plate. Now carefully flip it in the pan so the other side can be browned.




Afterwards it occurred to me I could have just folded a tortilla over instead of making that huge one. No danger of the filling coming out that way. Duh….

Remove from pan, slide it on to a cutting board and slice so you have six pieces.

Here it is again..............



Coupled with a cold Sprite and some cold roasted rotisserie chicken pieces – you have a great meal.

Even after that filling meal, my sweet tooth cried out for attention around 9:30.
Pitiful.....
For dessert we split a Fat Boy ice cream sandwich.

They really are too big and so Doug and I have taken to splitting one. If you are on Weight Watchers, the entire bar is 5 points.

Book Review - Alice Hoffman

This was my first Alice Hoffman novel and I think I would like to read more of her work. I'm giving it a favorable review but not sure what genre to classify this one. It's not a mystery. It's not chick lit. It's not serious literature or a classic. Just a snapshot of typical suburbia in 1959/1960 in a small community in the United States.

Seventh Heaven centers around a community on Long Island in the late 1950's time period. The small town had been built up on a former potato field, all houses cookie cutter perfect and identical. In the beginning of the book it mentioned how men would come home from work and wander into the wrong home, looking around perplexed as they clapped eyes on their neighbor's wife and unfamiliar sofas. Then back out to find their own place and dinner waiting to be served by apron wearing stay-at-home moms.

The book explores relationships in the late 50's suburbs of several families. Nora Silk, one of the main characters, shakes things up without trying, simply by being divorced with two children and moving into the vacant house on Hemlock Street. The other wives, in their almost daily gathering to drink coffee, swap gossip and talk about their children, regard Nora from the safety of their living room gathering place. Nora is on a ladder cleaning the windows of her new home. The sharp-eyed married ladies note she isn't wearing a wedding ring and this sets you up for how
Nora will be treated. More like how she won't be treated as she is basically ignored. Certainly it didn't help that Nora wore stretch pants and spike heels (not while she's on the ladder cleaning !) - yet Nora is the kindest of the lot.

Besides the story weaving around Nora and her children being the outcasts of the neighborhood, the story revolves around other families..... such as the McCarthy boys, Ace and Jackie, and their patient father dubbed "the saint" by his sons. Jackie gets into trouble with a surprising twist to his character transformation. The Hennessy family - Ellen and her cop husband Joe, who live across the street from Nora. Joe starts reevaluating the twin beds and his relationship with his wife Ellen after watching Nora Silk as she walks, mows her own grass and does chores. Their son Stevie makes it his job to torture Nora's son, Billy, in and out of school.

The Shapiro kids - Danny who could get into any college he wants due to his good grades and financial ability; he drifts into another world after discovering marijuana. His sister Rickie is on the fulcrum of duty and desire when it comes to
life and boyfriend choices.

Donna Durgin, who walks out on her young children and husband because her life feels too empty. And the tragic death of a character in the very beginning that helps shape the personalities of some of the youth who knew her.

The way the characters are portrayed are some true to life examples of this time period. Some issues are never resolved. Yet I found it a satisfying ending - a snapshot of a year in the life of the families on Hemlock Street.

If you grew up in this time period or you were an adult in 1960 I think it will strike a chord of authenticity. One or two of the characters are bound to remind you of one of your neighbors. Growing up in a similar small suburb outside Philadelphia, I find some of this rings true.

Nice work Alice Hoffman!

Nigella's Breakfast Smoothie

Back in March when I wanted to take on Nigella Lawson's cookbook Nigella Express, I started working through her many great, yet fattening, recipes. Well, between vacation time and just getting busy I have neglected her.

Last night we wanted dessert and decided to modify Nigella's Go Get 'Em Smoothie from the breakfast version to an evening treat. No caffeine is needed at 9:30 in the evening in our house.

The original recipe, for breakfast or anytime you want a treat with caffeine, requires the following:

1 peeled frozen banana, quartered
2/3 cups milk
1 tablespoon honey
4 teaspoons chocolate malted milk powder
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder

Note about the frozen bananas - when they start turning a bit too ripe just peel, break it into a quarters and toss into a baggie. Freeze for later use. Using frozen bananas will take the place of using ice when making a smoothie.


We tossed the frozen bananas in the blender. Added fresh cut strawberries instead of the espresso powder and used a bit of extra honey. Blend until smooth.



Pour into glasses and enjoy. What could be more simple.




Nigella Express, Get Up and Go Section, page 86.