Making Bread

Since I've been reading more cooking blogs, I've been thinking more and more about tackling bread making. As Ed pointed out, people have been making bread for a very, very long time, so it shouldn't be that difficult.

Still, I didn't want to tackle anything too tricky, so I started with some foccacia bread (I figured that it didn't have to rise up as much so it would turn out better). Flipping through my Cooking Light Cookbook, I stumbled on a fig and marscapone foccacia that was "voted as a reader's top choice."

To start, I used a packet of yeast, a teaspoon of honey, and 1/2 a cup of warm water. Now, I don't have a  thermometer for water (and wasn't sure about using a meat thermometer on water), so I just warmed up the sink water to what felt like a warm shower temperature and then poured it in. Of course, after I poured it in, I refelt the water and decided I hadn't gotten it warm enough, so I dumped it and started again (good thing I had extra yeast!). This time, I got the water much warmer and then tried again.

I let it sit for 10 minutes, watching it bubble and do it's thing. Then, I added 2 T of olive oil and mixed. 

Finally, I go to start turning it into dough. I added in 2 3/4 C. flour and stirred

yay...it's dough! I then turned it out onto a floured cutting board and got to knead the dough for 10 minutes. This part was pretty fun (though the 10 minutes seemed to last for a while). I kept adding flour to keep it from being sticky and soon had a ball of elastic bread dough. 

Now came the first of three waiting periods while the dough rose. For this, I put the dough in a greased bowl and put it on the stove (it's supposed to rise in a place at least 85 degrees, so this was one suggestion I read). I covered the bowl with a damp towel.

There it sat for an hour, rising nicely. Finally, I uncovered it, and revealed my delicious ball of dough!

I punched the dough down (and promptly got my hand stuck - it was stickier than I thought!), and then spread it onto a greased baking pan. 

Here is where I began failing as a baker. I spread the dough fine and covered it with the damp cloth as instructed. However, after letting it sit for about 20 minutes, I realized that the cloth was touching the bread. Deciding this wasn't good, I decided to put a piece of wax paper between the bread and the cloth. 

Turns out, this was a very poor choice. Once it was time to check the bread, I discovered that the paper had completely stuck to the paper. Using a knife, I pulled the paper off, but it left the bread looking pretty sad. I greased my hands and tried to smooth it out, which sort of helped. Then, I kept following the recipe, this time just recovering it with the towel, as directed. 45 minutes later, it was ready to top!

The marscapone was tricky to put on, as it wanted to sink down - I should have put on smaller dollops. Then, I topped it with quartered dried figs. 

Finally, it was into the oven for 23 minutes! 

Overall, I was quite please. the marscapone wasn't all that strong tasting, and it needed a bit more salt, but still, it was bread!

I'm already looking forward to my next challenge :) 

Menu Planning Monday

Monday - Lentil Chili Curry with Rice and a Cucumber, Onion, Yogurt Raita
This is frozen leftovers from three weeks ago. It's been just long enough that we're no longer feeling tired of this dish and are really looking forward to it! Plus, its so lovely to just have to defrost and reheat a meal (and cook up some rice to go with it).


Tuesday - Five Spice Pork

This turned out really well! It was another recipe from my new cookbook, and required the purchase of "five spice" - an apparently well known mixture of chinese spices. Though I wasn't sure about it based on the smell, but it tasted great on the pork. The sauce asked for honey, but we were out so I substituted a bit of sugar and it turned out right. This was the first time I've put spinach in Chinese food, and it was tasty! I also enjoyed using snap peas. We served this on brown rice.


Wednesday - Chipotle 
Ed is officially gone for the next week in New Orleans (lucky duck!), so I was lazy and got Chipotle. (Side note - since I've started doing these posts, I've noticed how much I eat Chipotle! Perhaps we should cut back).


Thursday - Steak and Snow Pea Wraps

This was my "stretch" recipe - I wasn't sure how it would turn out, so I decided to test it out on a night Ed was gone. I bought those transparent rice wraps to try with it

(seemed like they would go better than a tortilla, which was what was recommended - turned out I should have gone with a tortilla). To make this, I grilled a flank steak on the grill pan (4 minutes each side), and then cut it against the grain. I put the strips in a marinade (mainly soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil), and then wrapped a few strips of meat with red pepper, snow peas, mint and green onion.

Then, I dipped my wraps in extra sauce!

While it sounded perfect, about halfway through, the wrap fell apart. Holes formed where the meat touched it, and I had to eat the second half with a fork. Still, it was very tasty. I would definitely buy this meat again, and use it for fajitas or stir fry - it was very tender!


Friday- Burger and Sweet Potato Fries

I was planning ot have leftovers from last night, but I ended up eating the rest for lunch, so I had to come up with something that I could pick up from the store, but that wouldn't result in leftovers. We already had burger buns from last week, so I bought a set of two beef patties and one sweet potato (to make my own batch of healthy fries. I simply grilled up one patty and froze the other. I cut the sweet potato into small strips and cooked them at 450 for about 16 minutes. It was a very "heavy" meal, but tasty and satisfying (though I missed having some sort of veggie with dinner, I did have a massive salad for lunch, so I didn't miss it too much).

Saturday - Calzones

For this meal, my sister, Ashley, taught me how to use Trader Joe's pizza dough to make a tasty calzone. This was a great way to cook pizza, and made the perfect portion. I filled mine with mozzerella, spinach, pepperoni, and bell pepper. After a quick 9 minutes, It was crispy and hot, and I dipped bites in tomato sauce spiced with red pepper flakes. Quite the treat!

Sunday - Calzones Again
It was so tasty last night, we decided to have it again :)

Day Trip to Half Moon Bay

 The week before last, the Bay Area was graced with beautiful, summer-like weather, so that weekend, Ed and I decided that a day trip to the coast was in order. We hadn't been out to Half Moon Bay in almost 3 years, and that was just for a evening/dinner trip.

So, Ed and I packed a picnic lunch, some warm clothes, and dressed out in running gear for a fun day by the ocean.

After a not too long and very beautiful drive, we soon arrived at our destination - a decent sized parking lot adjacent to a paved pathway that ran along the bluff about the ocean. It looked perfect for our 3 mile run, and I was excited to be running by the beach.

When we stepped out of the car, we were surprised by the force of the wind, turning what looked to be a warm sunny day into quite a crisp one. 

Despite the cold wind, the run was gorgeous - wildflowers were blooming along the coast, and the contrast between the yellows of the blooms, the green grass, and the blue sky and ocean was just gorgeous. 

We were even more excited to discover that a mere quarter mile down the paved trail, the path continued on dirt! We ran another mile and a bit down a beautiful single track that wound along the bluffs, keeping you generally within 10 feet of the edge, and always with spectacular views. 

It reminded me of Wilder Park, in Santa Cruz, where I used to run during my grad school days. We certainly weren't the only people out enjoying the beautiful scenery, and it was fun to be on such a flat, accessible trail. 

Right as we hit our turn around point, we came across snake hanging out on the trail! It was a very pretty garter snake (I think - I just know it had no rattle :) ). We stopped to admire it as it whisked into the grasses. Ed check the Garmin; we were at 1.5 miles exactly, so we turned around and headed back the way we came. It was just as beautiful going back, though the wind (and my legs) made me happy that we picked such a manageable distance. 

After we walked back to the car, we headed to another area to have our picnic. We changed into warmer clothes (though apparently not warm enough) and claimed ourselves a picnic table to enjoy our sandwiches and fruit. 

While the view was lovely, the stiff wind wasn't so great. We used our picnic quilt to wrap ourselves up and ate our food quickly, eager to get a respite from the cold. 

Once the food was done, we took one more look around the beach, and then headed back to our warm car. 

The wildflowers were beautiful here, too, and there were a few other brave picnic-ers out enjoying the vista.

Our last stop was going to be sitting in a restaurant having a glass of wine, but the cold weather drove us to a cafe instead. We found a nice place with a cute second story, where we got to enjoy looking out on the streets below. I had a delicious steamed milk with almond flavoring, which was lovely. 

All in all, the perfect spring outing!

Menu Planning Monday

Monday- BBQ Chicken, white rice, salad
We didn't want to go to the store, so we just went with what we had at home.


Tuesday - Pasta (marinara and cheese)
Simple and easy dinner


Wednesday - Chipotle
Not much to say, except we were lazy and tired. The burritos were good, though!


Thursday - Salmon, quinoa, asparagus, pecan and goat cheese salad

This was fresh, delicious, and the perfect first meal to eat outside this year.

We got to enjoy our beautiful patio in 80 degree weather. I'd forgotten how relaxing it was to eat outside.


Friday - Pork and Sweet Potato Dinner (courtesy of my sister, Ashley, who got it courtesy of her mother in law, Pat); served with couscous

3lbs boneless pork loin
4 sweet potatoes 
2 med apples
1/4 cup apple juice or white grape juice
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp apple pie spice (this is basically cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, cloves) 
1 tsp salt

Cube the pork loin and then brown it in a skillet with olive oil.  In the bottom of the crock pot, place apple cubes, then the sweet potatoes, the the browned pork cubes.  Combine the apple juice, brown sugar, spice and salt.  Pour over the top of the pork.  Place the lid on and cook on low for 8-12 hours.

Saturday - Sushi at Yuri Sushi
Today was my first day "back on track" with weight watchers (making this the umpteenth time I've rejoined). The weather aligned with this and made cool sushi seem like the perfect meal. This is probably our most consistent "go to" place, but we hadn't been in a while. It was surprisingly quiet that night, so we got to eat at the tatami tables, which was fun (and gave us a bit more space from the other diners). We started with delicious steamed edamame, and then I got sake sashimi (10 delicious strips of raw salmon) and a side of white rice.

(stock image - not mine)

 Ed had 2 rolls plus 3 pieces of nigiri. With it, we had copious amounts of green tea. And for dessert? A delicious glass of port :).

Sunday - Thai Chicken Burgers

Wow, this was amazing!!!! This was from my new ww cookbook, and it was just spectacular. In the food processor, you combine a tablespoon of ginger and the white part of 4 scallions with 2 diced chicken breasts and mix until the chicken looks almost ground. Then, you mix the chicken with 1/3 c. egg substitute, 1/2 c. bread crumbs, 1 T lime zest, handful of cilantro, 1/2 t salt and 1/4 t pepper. How could you go wrong?

Once the mixture is blended, you form patties with damp hands and bread the patties in more bread crumbs. They go in the fridge for 30 minutes.

After that, you just cook them in a skillet on medium high heat (with cooking spray) for 13 minutes, flipping once.

They were great drizzled with lime juice, and served with a good salad (red pepper, cucumber, cilantro, scallions, and soy ginger dressing). Theses are the kinds of salads Ed and I grew up with (with lots of "goodies," but we never seem to have the energy to put in the effort. It was the perfect side.

With these burgers, we didn't want to use ketchup, which would have masked the awesome flavor.

We took the opportunity to have a "romatic" dinner at the table, which was a great way to celebrate a lovely weekend. 

Kort's Visit to the Bay Area

This past weekend, Ed and I had the lovely fortune to have my sister, Kortney, come to visit. She stopped en route to visiting her friend in Berkeley. We started by heading out to The Counter on Santana Row, where we had delicious burger. Then, we stopped by Borders. This one was closing, so we were able to score some great deals (40% off!). I got 7 books, and Ed, 2. 

After that, Kort wanted to check out SJSU, so over we went. I had never been there before, and it was really fun to be on a new college campus. We started at this nice fountain before heading out to some buildings that Kort was interested in. 

Heading towards the art building, we stopped by this gorgeous mosaic. 

Then, onwards to the art museum.

Kort (and the rest of us) were impressed with the art in the courtyard, and we could picture how nice of a place this would be to hang out on nice days.

It was a nice day, one of the first that started really feeling like spring. 

We stumbled upon this statue on the way to the library that honors Olympians from SJSU.

There was also this lovely historical building on campus.

Finally, we reached the library. My goodness, this might have been the most beautiful libraries that I've ever seen. 

Even better, they were having a sale of books outside - $5 for a bag! I got all these lovely books (and Kort got some of her own)

Inside, it was even better. 

 

The inside of the library was just beautiful. I wished we had more time to explore - this is definitely a place I would like to return to.

We decided to get takeout from To Mero Mole, and it was delicious!

The next morning, Ed and I got up early to work and Kort got to enjoy the morning before she headed off to Berkeley.

All in all, a lovely visit.