Against My Better Judgement

Although the annoying screech of Rachael Ray's voice usually sends me running the the opposite direction, I have to give her props for this quick and tasty meatloaf recipe. I won't be subscribing to her magazine anytime soon, but I will certainly put this in our dinner rotation.

Mini Meatloaf Muffins
adapted from Rachael Ray

1 2/3 to 1 3/4 pounds ground sirloin
1 medium onion, cut into chunks
2 ribs celery from the heart of the stalk, cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 of a red and orange pepper, cut in chunks
1 large egg plus a splash of milk, beaten
1/2 cup 4 cheese bread crumbs
1/2 cup panko
2 tablespoons grill seasoning
1 cup barbecue sauce (we used raspberry chipotle)
1/2 cup tomato salsa
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Put ground beef into a big bowl. Put onion and celery into a food processor. Cut the bell pepper in half, rip out the seeds and throw them into your garbage bowl. Cut the pepper into a few pieces and add to the food processor. Pulse the processor blades to finely chop the vegetables into very small pieces then add them to the meat bowl. Add egg, beaten with milk, bread crumbs and grill seasoning to the bowl. Next, mix together the barbecue sauce, the salsa and the Worcestershire sauce. Pour half the sauce mixture into the bowl with the meatloaf mix. Mix the meatloaf together with your hands. Wash up. Brush a 12-muffin tin (1/2-cup each) with vegetable oil or extra-virgin olive oil. Top each meat loaf with a spoonful of extra sauce. Bake about 20 minutes. Cut open 1 muffin to test that the middle is cooked through.

Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot Pieeee

If you have ever had the pleasure of licking the bottom of the gratin dish full of Amical's chicken pot pie, this is the recipe for you! It is a creamy, delicious dinner fit for company and can be easily adapted to use the biscuits that the original recipe requests.

Chicken Pot Pie
adapted from Ina Garten

3 whole (6 split) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 cups chicken stock
2 chicken bouillon cubes
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 cups medium-diced carrots (4 carrots), blanched for 2 minutes
1 10-ounce package frozen peas (2 cups)
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

1 tsp dill
1/2 tsp tarragon
1 pkg. puff pastry

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub them with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, or until cooked through. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then remove the meat from the bones and discard the skin. Shred the cooled chicken.

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock and dissolve the bouillon cubes in the stock. In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and saute the onions over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until translucent. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and the heavy cream. Add the chicken, carrots, peas, parsley, dill, and tarragon. Mix well. Place the stew in individual gratin dishes. Place the dishes on a sheet pan lined with parchment or wax paper. Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove the stew from the oven and arrange the puff pastry on top of the filling. Brush them with egg wash, and return to the oven. Bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until the pastry is brown and the stew is bubbly.

I Love It When You Call Me Biga Poppa

For those of you who think you can't make delicious bread at home, you have to try this simple recipe. Don't be discouraged by the length, much of your time is spent waiting for the end result. I opted to form the dough into six sandwich size loaves, but the original recipes yields two larger loaves. Whether you do it for me, Big Poppa, or just to say you can, you will amaze yourself and your family with amazing homemade bread!

Ciabatta

Source: Epicurious
Makes 2 loaves

For biga:
1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons warm water (105°‐115° F.)
1/3 cup room-temperature water
1 cup bread flour*

For bread:
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons warm milk (105°‐115° F.)
2/3 cup room-temperature water
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups bread flour*
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Make biga:
In a small bowl stir together yeast and warm water and let stand 5 minutes, or until creamy. In a bowl stir together yeast mixture, room-temperature water, and flour and stir 4 minutes. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let sponge stand at cool room temperature at least 12 hours and up to 1 day.

Make bread:
In a small bowl stir together yeast and milk and let stand 5 minutes, or until creamy. In bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with dough hook blend together milk mixture, sponge, water, oil, and flour at low speed until flour is just moistened and beat dough at medium speed 3 minutes. Add salt and beat 4 minutes more. Scrape dough into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours. (Dough will be sticky and full of air bubbles.)

Have ready a rimless baking sheet and 2 well-floured 12- by 6-inch sheets parchment paper. Turn dough out onto a well-floured work surface and cut in half. Transfer each half to a parchment sheet and form into an irregular oval about 9 inches long. Dimple loaves with floured fingers and dust tops with flour. Cover loaves with a dampened kitchen towel. Let loaves rise at room temperature until almost doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

At least 45 minutes before baking ciabatta, put a baking stone or 4 to 6 unglazed "quarry" tiles (see note, above) arranged close together on oven rack in lowest position in oven and preheat oven to 425° F.

Transfer 1 loaf on its parchment to baking sheet with a long side of loaf parallel to far edge of baking sheet. Line up far edge of baking sheet with far edge of stone or tiles, and tilt baking sheet to slide loaf with parchment onto back half of stone or tiles. Transfer remaining loaf to front half of stone or tiles in a similar manner. Bake ciabatta loaves 20 minutes, or until pale golden. With a large spatula transfer loaves to a rack to cool.

Dinner Rolls

When I found the world of cooking blogs sometime last year I was opened up to a whole new
domain filled with exciting recipes and great photographs. As I perused some of my favorites, I kept stumbling upon the name Peter Reinhart when bloggers waxed on about bread. After a little research, I decided my plan of attack was to purchase The Bread Baker's Apprentice and see for myself. That purchase has definitely been one of the best I have made in my quest for really learning about bread.
Reinhart is truly a teacher and goes to great lengths to thoroughly explain the many stages that bread goes through so the student can begin to comprehend the how's and why's behind the art. Reinhart is to bread baking what Alton Brown is to cooking...he includes the science of bread making from explaining the ingredients to informative photographs on shaping and preparing a home oven for hearth baking. Here, I am including a simple dinner roll recipe that we used to make mini sloppy joes.

White Bread: Variation One
Makes two one pound loaves, 18 dinner rolls, or 12 burger or hot dog buns

4 3/4 c. unbleached bread flour (I use King Arthur)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. powdered milk (DMS)
3 1/4 T. sugar
2 tsp. instant yeast
1 large egg, slightly beaten at room temperature
3 1/4 T. butter, margarine, or shortening, melted or at room temperature
1 1/2 c. plus 1 T.-1 3/4 c. water, at room temperature
Sesame or poppy seeds for garnish (optional)

1. Mix together the flour, salt, powdered milk, sugar, and yeast in a bowl of electric mixer. Pour in the egg, butter, and 1 1/2 plus 1 T. water and mix on low speed with paddle attachment until all flour is absorbed and dough forms a ball. If dough seems stiff and dry trickle in more water until the dough is soft and supple.
2. Mix on medium speed with dough hook attachment, adding more flour if necessary to create a dough that is soft, supple, and tacky but NOT sticky. Continue mixing for 6-8 minutes. In the electric mixer the dough should clear the sides of the bowl, but stick ever so slightly to the bottom. The dough should pass the windowpane test and register 80 degrees F. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
3. Ferment at room temp for 1 1/2-2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.
4. Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it in half for sandwich rolls, into 18 2 oz. pieces for dinner rolls, or 12 3 oz. pieces for burger or hot dog buns. Shape the pieces into boules for loaves or tight rounds for dinner rolls or buns. Mist the dough lightly with spray oil and cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Allow to rest for about 20 minutes.
5. For loaves shape and lightly oil 2 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pans and place the loaves in the pans. For rolls and buns, line two sheet pans with baking parchment. Rolls require no further shaping. For hamburger buns, gently press down on the rolls to form the desired shape. For hot dog buns, shape without tapering the ends. Transfer the rolls or buns to the sheet pans.
6. Mist the tops of the dough with spray oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap or a towel. Proof the dough at room temp for 60-90 mins. or until it nearly doubles in size.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 for loaves or 400 for rolls and buns.
8. Bake the rolls or buns for approximately 15 mins., or until golden brown and register just above 180 degrees in the center. Bake loaves for 35-45 mins., rotating 180 degrees halfway through for even baking, if needed. The tops should be golden brown and the sides, when removed from the pan should also be golden. The internal temperature of the loaves should be close to 190 degrees and the loaves should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.
9. When the loaves have finished baking, remove them immediately from pans and cool on wire rack for at least one hour before slicing or serving. Rolls should cool for at least 15 minutes on a rack before serving.

Valentine Treats

Although this is coming at you a week late, I wanted to share the treats I made for Valentine's Day. The first photo is the almond toffee crunch topped with chocolate. The second photo shows some simple chocolate dipped pretzels adorned with sprinkles, and the final photo is my new favorite sugar cookie recipe topped with modified royal icing. These cookies were delicious! I do want to note that I did not add the full 1 1/2 tsp. of almond extract to the dough. I thought that sounded a little heavy handed, so I compensated be adding a touch more vanilla as a replacement.

Almond Toffee Crunch
shared by The Quail's Nest

1/2 cup chopped almonds or pecans (toasted)
1 cup butter
1cup sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon corn syrup
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds or pecans (toasted)

Line a 13" x 9" pan with foil, extending over edge. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup nuts and set aside.

Butter sides of heavy 2 quart saucepan. Melt butter and add sugar, water, and corn syrup. Cook and stir over medium high heat until mixture comes to a boil. Clip a candy thermometer on pan and reduce heat to medium. Continue boiling at moderate, steady rate, stirring frequently until thermometer registers 290 degrees (soft-about 15 mins.). Watch carefully after it reaches 280 to prevent scorching. Remove from heat and quickly pour into prepared pan. Let candy stand for about 5 mins. and then sprinkle with the chocolate chips. When the chocolate has melted, smooth with knife/spatula and finally sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup nuts.

Egg Noodles

Although it was a beautiful, sunny day yesterday, the thermometer still dipped in the single digits and I thought it was high time for soup. I have been wanting to make egg noodles for some time, but have given in to convenience and bought the frozen variety instead. After a little research I discovered that homemade egg noodles are very simple and worth the effort. I let them dry briefly on wire racks and stirred them in to some chicken noodle soup about 25 minutes before we sat down to eat. If you have some freezer space available I think it would be wise to make a double batch and keep some on hand for a quick weeknight meal.

Egg Noodles
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup whole milk
1 T. butter, melted

Stir together flour and salt. Add the beaten egg, milk, and butter. Knead dough for about 5 minutes or until smooth. Cover and let rest in bowl for 10 minutes. On a floured surface, roll out to 1/8 inch thick and cut into strips. Air dry until ready to cook.
**Note: When I started to roll the noodles, they did not want to cooperate. I had read somewhere that if you let the dough rest for a few more minutes it should be easier to work with. I did, and it definitely did the trick!

Oreo Truffles

I know you are thinking "Just what I need, more sweet recipes to crush my diet in 2010", but these just HAVE to be shared. Apparently they have popped up in the blogosphere time and again, but they had alluded me until my hairdresser mentioned their chocolately goodness which sent me straight to the internet to investigate. I decided on the following ratios:

Oreo Truffles
36 oreos
1 8oz. package cream cheese, softened
chocolate chips (for dipping)
white chocolate chips (for drizzling)

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse oreos until they are ground. Add cream cheese and blend well. The mixture looks very sticky, but is easily handled. Roll into small balls and refrigerate well. Dip chilled balls in melted chocolate and drizzle with white chocolate if desired. Store in refrigerator.

Please note that if you have an aversion to black oreo dust getting lodged between your teeth, these are the perfect alternative! They are the bite-sized answers to your snacking prayers.