Days 5 through 7 — Feasting with Friends September 10, 2009

I was pleased on Day 5 because I fought my baser “run to the store” instincts in the face of impending company and after a day at the beach that went about two hours longer than I’d intended. In addition, I suddenly realized I’d be feeding more than I’d planned on when shopping and going through my stores of supplies earlier in the week. My menu for 3 adults and 1 child was now being faced with 7 adults and 1 child in a growth spurt.

“I’ll just have to run to the store and get more pork butt…!” I told myself frantically. This is what I love about this challenge, though: The thought of spending more money before even a week was up just killed me. I took a deep breath and took stock. On the menu was carnitas and salad. But that wasn’t going to feed 8. What to do?

(You know, I’m suddenly feeling a bit better about my $300.00 spending choice. While we’re only 3, my husband sweetly allows me to have guests over quite often. I’d say at least once a week we feed at least one extra adult, usually one of our many single friends, and send them home with some leftovers. More often it’s more people and more frequent than that. I am so very, very thankful that Ryan enjoys this, too, and let’s me give little gifts to our friends this way! And this is perhaps one of the bigger side effects of having started to work on my food budget — as we steward our gifts better we are able to be so much more generous with our resources and it is a source of real fun and glee in our home.)

So, our Day 5 menu was:
Carnitas (from FF$75, truly delicious recipe and stunningly easy)
Grilled chicken tacos
Spanish rice (ill-fated, it didn’t cook through that night)
Tomatillo salsa
Chips
Fresh guacamole
Sweet corn casserole (brought by a friend)
My one accrued cost for today was $4.50 for a pitcher with a lid that will hold a gallon of liquid. We have one for tea. This one is for lemonade. We can make a gallon of each and it lasts us for days at only about $1.25 (based on price of mix and tea bags purchased in bulk) as opposed to the cost of soda, which my husband loves. He’s finding homemade iced coffee and iced sweet tea (sometimes mixed with the lemonade) to be his preferred alternatives, though! Hooray!

Sent a hungry seminarian friend home with leftovers, to boot. I love that.

Day 6:
My failed spanish rice was re-cooked as a crock-pot casserole with corn and beans added. This was taken to church for community meal and every last bit was gone when I picked it up after the meal!
That night we made one exception to our eating at home and had tacos with friend who were leaving town the next day. After 6 hours at the beach and and having worked our way through all the snacks (fruit, my spiced nuts, boiled eggs for protein after surfing, etc). we succumbed to the siren call of cheap mexican food with friends, who all had decided to go as well.

$18 for the family with leftovers that my son ate the next day. He literally fell asleep chewing a bite of quesadilla, poor guy! “Furfin’” four days in a row will do that to you! We had 5 tacos, beans and rice, a UFO-sized quesadilla, and a California burrito the size of my husband’s head.

I’m not sure what to do with my $18 expense. We normally have an eating out budget. This is the ONLY eating out we’ve done and we’re way under. So I guess I’ll keep those pots separate and figure out how much lower my eating out budget will be this month. I guess I’ll just list that expense in a separate category for accountability purposes for now.

Day 7:
For lunch we had chicken quesadillas while my E finished off his food from the night before. We shared the leftover rice and beans that came with his meal. I sliced up a cantaloupe to go with them. We added leftover salsa and guac to the quesadillas and all of us were loving lunch!

Dinner was my new recipe for “California Tacos”. If you’ve never had a California Burrito this name might not make much sense to you. But it’s a carne asada burrito with added fried potatoes (sometimes french fries). My husband LOVES California burritos possibly more than any food save sushi. So I was curious to know how he’d take to the tacos. If we weren’t already married, I think he would’ve proposed after eating those. So here’s my easy-peasy recipe for California tacos. They took about 20 minutes.

California Tacos:

Pre-heat oven to 450 F

4 or 5 potatoes (any kind, honest!)

• Dice and boil until just cooked through in salted water
• Drain and toss with vegetable or olive oil, pepper and seasoning salt
• Bake in oven until outsides crisp and brown slightly while you make the other filling.

While potatoes cook, in a small pot combine and heat:
1 14 oz. can black beans, with juice
2 C cooked chicken, chopped or shredded
2 Tbsp. bacon crumbles (optional, for flavoring. this time i used the very last of our carnitas meat.)
1 tsp cumin, coriander and oregano each
1 Tbsp chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

Combine chicken and potatoes in corn tortillas with salsa, sour cream and fresh cilantro.

We ended up eating this two nights in a row because it was so good and very filling, so they lasted well!

There you have Days 5-7.

We’re at 149.08.

I’ve run out of a lot of my more expensive things all of a sudden.  The end of this month is going to be interesting to say the least.  Especially because my in-laws are coming for 10 days.

I’ll up date with Days 8-10 tonight, Lord willing. What a busy week this has been!

Aw, Nuts! (and Honey Whole Wheat) September 4, 2009

Some pictures and recipes (approximate — that’s just the way i roll)

Chili, Garlic and Lime Peanuts:

These peanuts (3.5 C) got mixed with:

2 T melted butter
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp garlic, minced finely
zest of 1 lime
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp chili powder
garlic salt
sea salt

then they got roasted in a 300 degree oven for 20 minutes (could have gone another 10 minutes, I think). they tasted better the more they rested and dried out. i’d like to figure out how to up the lime taste as it’s not very strong. maybe some granulated citric acid? i don’t know, i’m going to have to research this.

Hot Spiced Cashews:

these cashews (3 C) got mixed with:

2 T melted butter
1 Tbsp Worcester sauce
garlic salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp chili powder
a couple of really good shots of Tapatio sauce

then they got roasted in a 300 degree oven for 30 minutes. any longer and they would’ve burned. we hit that perfect balance right before over-roasting where they go tender and melt in your mouth, though. sooo good!

Thanks, Mary, for the snack idea!

And now for the new bread recipe I tried, Honey Whole Wheat:

The crust is crunchy but not hard, so it’s very edible:

The crumb is so, so tender and tasty. For breakfast this morning it was heaven as toast with butter and apricot preserves.

I’ll definitely be making this in double batches from now on.

Grocery Spending Challenge — Day 3 September 4, 2009

Here I am at the end of day 3 of the challenge and it’s only my first post on progress.  But what a busy few days I’ve had.  And spendy!  However, I’m thrilled about some of the deals I’ve gotten this month so far.  I’m hoping that some of the spending I’ve done up front will pay off at the end of the month.

The numbers:

Budget for the month: $300.00

Money spent so far:  $127.43

Remainder:  $172.57

I mentioned in a previous post that I was heading out for an opening of a new farmer’s market store in my neighborhood (I’m really excited because previously the closest one was a whole town over).  They were giving out a bag of free groceries to the first 200 families to shop at the store.  This is a post for another day but, needless to say, I don’t think I’ll ever try the first morning of a store opening again!  However, I did score some great deals there and a few other places.  Here are my best bargains:

– Boneless Skinless Chix Breasts, frozen, $1.66 lb.  I got 8 lbs.

– Scented soy-based candle in lavender, Free! (sometimes cupons are great, just not always)

– Bananas, 4 lbs. for $1.00.  I got about just over 2 lbs.

– Dozen eggs, $.99. I got 4 dozen.

– 5 lbs. bag of russet potatoes for $.97

– 4 lbs of tomatillos for $.99 (this is just…like..unheard of!)

There are other good deals on my list but those are my shining finds.  We’re in chicken (with another purchase of fresh breasts for $1.88/lb.) for the rest of the month, easily.  I have some frozen in pollo asada marinade, some grilled after being marinated in teriyaki sauce and then frozen for later, some frozen in family-sized portions, and will shred more for freezing this week.

Day 1 Dinner:  Leftover zupa toscana and salad with viniagrette

Day 2 Dinner:  Teriyaki chicken, gingered teriyaki rice wtih pineapple, green salad

Day 3

Breakfast: Cheese and bananas and Kix cereal — too hot already in the morning to cook.

Lunch: Teriyaki leftovers for the hub, PB&J with grapes and a cookie for the E.

Dinner:  $.35 for all three of us!  I love it when stuff like that happens.  I had a gift card for a smoothie place that just started selling sandwiches and wraps.  For $.35  beyond my card, E and I got three smoothies (took one to my dad who was in 100+ degree weather with no A/C), a chicken chipotle and lime wrap, and a bag of the oh-so-beloved-and-rare-for-us Pirate’s Bootie.  We topped it off with a watermelon snack before bed.  The hubby had dinner on his work, which kindly treated all the employees to an after-hours happy hour with food.

I’m not counting the money on the card as part of my budget.  My reasoning?  It was just for the smoothie place so I couldn’t have used it any other way if I’d tried.  Ah, sweet friends.  Sometimes they lead you to the lap of luxury!

In addition, I’m smelling a loaf of Honey Whole Wheat bread bake as I type this.  It’s a new recipe and if it tastes as good as it smells, I’ll be making a lot more of it soon.  I also made two batches of spiced nuts for my husband.  I’ll post the recipes for them once I get some of the kinks worked out but they are already pretty tasty.  We have a pound each of Chili, Lime and Garlic peanuts and Spicy Chili Cashews on the counter that cost us a grand total of $6.72.  I’m not sure how this compares to store-bought nuts but I think I came out ahead and I’ll do some research to find that out and post with the recipes.

Lastly, I’m really looking forward to making pizza this week with cheese I made with my friend Wilma.  We took a crack at making home-made mozarella and documented with pictures.  I’ll be posting a step-by-step for that this week as well.

Oh dear…and to think I have to let this bread cool before I eat it…when my mouth is watering NOW!

Snacks — The Budget Buster August 31, 2009

I once wept to my husband, “Could you PLEASE keep your cravings to something that DOESN’T cost us $11.00 a lb.??” when thwarted in the process of making pesto one night. I reached for my bag of pine nuts only to find 8 or 10 measly little kernels remaining in the bottom of what had been a huge, full Costco-sized bag the week before.

This is one of the biggest problems for me with frugal cooking and household budgeting: My husband is a rabid snacker. He willingly and appreciatively takes leftovers to work for his lunches (I only occassionally get them back uneaten and that’s usually when a hankering for rolled tacos just cannot be avoided…totally understandable!) But he is a big man, an extremely active surfer, and has a big appetite. When Ry comes home from work or surfing and when he’s up late doing freelance or 3-D modeling, he wants handy snacks that are easily accessible and he wants them in huge proportions. If I don’t have them around then things like this happen:

An entire box of granola bars disappears in one night
An entire 1.2 lbs bag of pine nuts goes missing
A large box of cereal disappears in one night
Half a bag of string cheese vaporizes when I’ve left the house for an hour

To put this in perspective, he’s about 6ft 3 or 4, wears a 3X wet suit to accommodate the breadth of his shoulders and chest, and will surf for 6 or 7 hours in the course of a day quite easily when the swell is good. He burns through calories like other people burn through….uh…well, I can’t come up with a good comparison — but something that burns quickly and people use a lot of! Anything else I can think of falls short when it comes to his appetite when it hits.

So, here are some things I already do:
Buy whatever fruit he likes that’s on sale and keep it handy as consistently as I can
To cut cost on cereal I use coupons and combine them with sales to keep cereal costs low
I also make homemade granola (TY to Mary at Owlhaven’s Granola Recipe in Family Feasts for $75 a Week) to lighten the cereal costs
Buy block cheese on sale and slice it myself so it’s easily accessible for snacks
Keep cookie dough on hand so I can easily bake up a batch of cookies on a whim

Two things that Ryan LOVES and I haven’t figured out are:
Spiced nuts
Popcorn

Microwave popcorn is expensive and not all that healthy. I make popcorn in a pot but sometimes I’m asleep when the craving hits or I’m just exhausted. Does anyone know of a way to keep popcorn fresh? Does anyone make seasoned popcorn? How does it keep?

Spiced nuts I’m going to look in to today at the store. I’d like to see about finding recipes for spiced nuts so that, when raw nuts are on sale in bulk I can buy them, season them and roast them myself, and then keep them handy to fulfill some of his needs for protein.

So what do you do for easy snacks? Do any of you have men/sons like mine with big appetites and for whom meals or leftovers won’t always do? I’d love to hear suggestions!

Thrown Together Dinner: Chicken in Tomato Caper Sauce July 20, 2009

My eyes are open all the way again. Thank heaven! I don’t know what on earth I got into, but I was seriously considering asking my husband to take me to the ER at one point on Saturday night. Good grief! And never mind the fact that we had his company picnic with his brand new job (not even a month old) on Saturday. Luckily, the damage could be hidden by sunglasses.

As a result I’ve been a little off kilter and we’ve been eating out some and off our game. But tonight I had a bag of potatoes, some tomatoes ready to go bad, some cooked chicken in the fridge and some wonderful green beans I scored at Henry’s for $.77 a lb. So I got creative. This is what we ate:

Baked the potatoes and then mashed em up in their skins with butter and salt.

Steamed the green beans and then sauted them in olive oil til slightly caramelized and then sprinkled with just a dash of kosher salt.

I built the base of my plate with those two things and then made the pan sauce and used it to heat up the chicken. For the pan sauce:

2 Tbsp of butter
2 cloves of garlic, softened into the butter
1 small tomato diced and added to the pan to cook down with
Juice of 1 lime
1 or 2 tsp of capers
salt and lots of pepper to taste

I reduced the broth until it was just slightly thickened and then added in the shredded chicken until it was cooked through. I served the chicken over the potatoes and green beans and then used the sauce to dump over the whole top.

Our family, including the three-year-old, purred their whole way through.

The sauce took about 7 minutes from start to finish. And we made some more to take to lunch tomorrow. If I’d had parsley on hand I would’ve added some. And canned tomatoes — a small can — would’ve likely worked just fine, too.

Double yum.

Two Salsas and How to Deal with Tomatillos (trust me, they’re worth it) July 9, 2009

This week tomatillos and tomatoes were on sale along with cilantro, avocados, and jalapeños. MAN do I love summer!

So I made up two salsas for dinner last night. I calculated out the cost and I made 10 cups of salsa for less than $5. And let me tell you, homemade salsa just…well…how do I even begin?? It is SO GOOD. I’m not sure about shelf life on these as salsa — even ten cups of it — never lasts more than two or three days around here.

So. Here are two of my standards.

Basic Tomato Salsa
About 10 medium tomatoes, cored and quartered
6 or so cloves of garlic
1 small can of diced green chilies with juice
A rough handful of cilantro, rinsed (I use a LOT more than most folks like because we LOVE cilantro)
Juice from 1.5 to 2 limes
1 – 2 jalapeños depending on your heat preference
half a white onion, peeled and chunked
15 – 25 twists of the pepper grinder (trust me)
salt to taste

Just plop all of the ingredients into the blender and pulse until it’s the consistency you like.

Green Tomatillo Salsa
10 tomatillos, husks off and rinsed of oil
1-2 jalapeños
A rough handful of cilantro
Juice from 1.5 to 2 limes
1 avocado
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
salt to taste

Before plopping this all in the blender like the first salsa, I toast the tomatillos a bit and char some of the skin on them. You can do this under a broiler, in a hot pan, or even on the grill. I don’t know why but it just does something wonderful to the flavor of the salsa. If you DO toast them, though, you’ll likely want to chill the salsa before you serve it as the flavors really come together when the salsa is cool.

If you don’t know about how to pick out a tomatillo, here is some help:
Don’t be afraid to tear into a tomatillo husk to take a look at the fruit underneath when you’re picking them out
Look for tomatillos with a nice, even medium green color
Tomatillos don’t have to completely fill out their husk to be ripe — often if they do their already too ripe and sort of beaten up
Tomatillos are weirdly oily/sticky on the outside under the husk — that’s natural and rinses off under warm water
Tomatillos should be about the same firmness of a ripe tomato
Tomatillos are NOT green tomatoes and they have a lovely distinct flavor all their own — if you’ve never had them in salsa, you’re missing out!

(Edit:  Maybe someone can clarify on this for me.  I don’t have enough brain cells to try right now.  Is there a difference between tomatillOs and tomatillAs?  I don’t think there is.  But is one more proper than the other?  Inquiring minds want to know!)

Family Feasts for $75 a Week – A Review July 8, 2009

Author: Mary Ostyn

Release Date: September 2009

Price: $17.95 US

I was all set last night to sit down and write my thorough praises of Mary Ostyn’s new book, Family Feasts for $75 a Week, when my husband blithely reviewed the book better than I could have in pages with one sentence:

As I sat cackling over the money I’ve saved since reading a pre-publication copy of this book a month ago I said to Ryan, “I can’t believe how much money we’ve saved this month!  I’ve cut our budget by 50% and I think I could easily go lower if we needed to.” To which he replied, “That’s insane, because we have been eating really well recently, too!”  High praise coming from a man whose own mother (an amazing cook) dubbed him The Food Diva several years back when he commented on the amount of carrots she’d used in a favorite dish of his when we were home visiting for Christmas.

In case you aren’t already heading out to pre-order a copy of the book based just on that, let me elaborate just a little.  Because if you’re anything like me you might be thinking, “Come on, seriously.  Do we really need another book on how to save money on groceries and inexpensive recipes to feed our families?  How many tater-tot casseroles with cheese whiz and Ritz cracker toppings can a girl try?”

If that’s you, I’m with yah sister.  But let me just mention a couple of things.

1. Delicious Recipes Suited to Any Skill Level: While Mary DOES mention tater tots once in her book it is only to tell you how much better homemade fries are.  Not only that, but she upgrades the oven fries with her own homemade Ethiopian seasoning mix (and provides several other easy suggestions for seasonings if a mouth on fire is not your particular version of tasty).  And all joking about those spuds aside, her recipes are seriously good, seriously easy and seriously cost effective.
   In particular I must recommend her Thai chicken curry dish for which you can make your own curry paste and even your own coconut milk if you don’t have a can on hand but do have some shaved coconut in the freezer.  Another favorite already is her suggested recipe for making your own granola cereal.  (As I stood at the counter breaking up my first batch, chest swelled with pride, my husband gave me a smooch and seriously appreciative squeeze and raved about how amazing it was that I could make something like that all on my own.  Sorry, Mary, I took that compliment for my own and didn’t re-mention the fact that I’d learned it from the book.)
2. Flexible Ideas on Cost Cutting that Allow You to Create Your Own Plan: One of the frustrating things about many books like these is that, in order for the system to work, you have to change a million things all at once and after about two weeks (for the very strong and enduring, perhaps three), the whole thing goes out the window because it’s just too hard to maintain so much change all at once.  Mary, however, is very clear about her desire for readers not to make this mistake.  Instead you’re given four areas in which you can assess your strengths and weaknesses and then a ton of ideas to choose from in each of those areas to begin the process.  This book’s plan is laid out like an a la carte menu of great ideas that you can tailor fit to your needs and your money-saving goals.
   I hate to admit it but I’m the queen of starting strong, getting over my head, and fizzling out completely on things.  This is something I dislike about myself and have been working hard to overcome.  But ladies, this process has been seriously painless so far and the benefits have far outweighed the effort.  Oh and another thing?  You don’t have to use coupons!  (But you can if you need to do penance or something.)
3. An Easy and Interesting Read that Gets Right Down to the Issues and Lets You Start Saving Almost Immediately: I got this book on a Sunday.  Inspired, I refused to go to the grocery store until Wednesday because I could see in my own kitchen several different great meals I could already make with things I had in the house.  During that time I was able to use small portions of my time each day to figure out what changes I could make, lay out my plan, and embark.  Holding on to just a few of the ideas I’d found in the book I set out my first week and was delighted with every grocery receipt I collected because I knew I was making wiser decisions already.

I am torn between a desire to be completely honest about improvements to our grocery budget because it’s so amazing and wanting to hide from shame about how easily I have saved so much in my first month of using Family Feasts for $75 a Week.  I have literally saved several hundred dollars this month.  I thought at first that I was unique in how much waste was happening in our home but a few conversations with friends let me know that I am certainly not alone.  Some of my joking, if I’m honest, is to distract from the fact that it was painful to realize just how much room for improvement there was.  I found myself in tears at one point as I worked through my new budgeting plan and list of easy changes – it was a mixture of regret over the waste I could now see over the last 5 years of my marriage and relief to have found in Mary’s advice a workable, helpful and thorough means by which to improve so drastically.

In Titus 2, Paul admonishes older women to come alongside younger women and, among many other important things, train them in the ways of their home. Mary has shared the resulting wisdom of years of experience, trial, error and success in this new book and it’s a fantastic boon to those of us who still have a lot of learning to do. In future I plan on giving this book for wedding shower presents so that my friends can start out ahead of the game in feeding their families well on a frugal but flexible budget.

I could not recommend Family Feasts for $75 a Week more highly.  

What Food Can Make Real for Us July 4, 2009

As I sat in our kitchen one day about two years ago, feeding my one-year-old son his lunch and eating my own, I began to think about food and how much I hoped that my son would grow up with a taste for foods from all over the world.  That led me to thinking that I just wanted him to know about all the different groups of people in the world, to understand what a great, diverse, and colorful place this world is. I want him to know how these things point to the greatness, creativity and glory of God, who has “measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,” and “with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens. Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,” and “weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance.”  (Isaiah 40:12)

I grew up in a home of daily devotions around the dinner table during which my father would often pull out our copy of Operation World and allow my brothers and me to pick any country we liked.  Dad would read to us about the country, we would talk about any missionaries our family knew who might live there, and then we would pray together for the people and needs there.  On our kitchen wall we had a gigantic world map which was bordered on all four sides with pictures of loved ones and missionaries for whom my family prayed throughout the years.  Pins marked on the map the location of each person or family and I spent many hours in front of them considering the faces, work, and lives represented in each one.  I wish I could say that I sat patiently through our devotions and obediently and hungrily absorbed the things Dad was trying to teach us, but I’d be lying.  However, those Operation World lessons caught my attention and something about the thought of these different lands and different cultures excited me and made a lasting connection in my mind.

Along with devotions around the table, my mother served us many delicious meals there.  Often they were the favorites served at just about any table across our country then and now, but my mom also occasionally served us foods from other countries or with biblical significance.  One that I still serve in my home now was Jacob’s Pottage.  I can’t stir those lentils and rice, pour the lemon-paprika dressing that accompanies it, or take a delicious bite without thinking about Esau coming home ravenous from hunting, and understanding just a little bit, how he could have sold his birthright to his brother for the sake of that simple meal.  Something about the food brings the story close to home for me and I still remember giggling with delight when Mom told me that this meal we were eating could be very like the one in the Bible from so long ago.  It was history on the table right in front of me!  It made the story seem real and possible, rather than like some story from the past in some far away land with no connection to me and my life here.

And so, sitting with my son as he gleefully consumed fist-fulls of broccoli and cottage cheese, I pondered how to go about making those same connections for him.  A desire I have had since the moment I knew I was pregnant with him was to impart an understanding and love for the greatness of God and the love He holds for all of His people of every shape and size, every color and hue, and from every country.  I want the connections to be strong, the lessons to be colorful and interesting, and for him to appreciate and value the importance of the work that missionaries do in the world.  I believe that this is a desire with which any believing parent can identify.

That is going to be the goal of some of my upcoming posts over the next few months:  To give children food that nourishes their bodies, hearts and minds and that creates with each meal a picture of another place in this world.  I’d like to provide some recipes and information that brings into present focus the reality of the work missionary families are doing to spread the precious word of God around the world.  It is my hope that through this learning God will be glorified as our children begin to piece together an understanding of the greatness and mighty works of the God to whom we look for all things and to whom we owe all things.

Does this sound interesting to any of you at all?

3 Easy Breads June 28, 2009

So, my sis-in-law, Michele, made a great New Year’s resolution a few years back: She decided she was going to learn to make bread.  And that girl didn’t just learn to make a loaf of white bread and call it quits.  She learned to make some fantastic artisan breads.  My appetite wasn’t so great for a few months during my mom’s illness and following her death.  But I remember Michele made a loaf of sesame challah that she brought over to my dad’s house on afternoon before Easter and Crista toasted it up for us with butter and jam.  Honestly, it was like mana.  I couldn’t eat enough.  It was so good and I decided then and there that I’d learn to bake bread, too.

The three breads I’m sharing here are some of our favorie staples at home now.  One doesn’t require any kneading at all.  One requires kneading in a food processor or a mixer with a dough hook.  One allows for kneading by hand or with a hook.  All of them are easy, inexpensive and, best of all, delicious!

Tip:  I highly recommend pricing out flour and most especially yeast at a big buy store near you.  One of the no-fee stores near me, for instance, carries 2 pounds of yeast (no joke, 2 pounds!) for less than what I pay for a jar of yeast and about the same price as a set of three packets in the grocery store.  I bought mine a year ago, store it sealed in the fridge, and my little yeasties are still going strong in any dough I make.

No-Knead “Sour” Dough What you need to know about this bread is that you have to plan ahead.  If you want to eat it, start making it the day before because time replaces work here.  It is excellent sliced with butter, dipped in hummus, as a crouton for bruschetta, or dipped in oil and vinegar.  There are lots of variations of this recipe online.  Look around and get some creative ideas!  Mary at Owlhaven.net uses a different variation from the one I use.

Amazing White Bread (or wheat, if you want!) Trent, over at The Simple Dollar offers a step-by-step-with-pictures lesson on making white bread yourself at home.  You can modify this recipe to include whole wheat flour for something healthier.  I’ve also done this and then added flax meal for additional nutrition and to moisted the bread which can get a little dry with the WW flour.  Let me tell you, there are few things that make my toes curl the way a slice of this bread toasted and then buttered and drizzled with honey can.  Goodness gracious.

One note: if you’re using a stand mixer to knead this dough:  Just knead the dough with the hook for about 4 minutes on setting 2 or 4.  Much more than this can over-knead your dough and keep it from rising.  I had never used my mixer for bread before and found this advice on the Kitchen Aid site itself.  Very helpful!

Home-Made Pita Bread This recipe is the most labor intensive simply because you have to roll out your dough.  But it’s tasty and well worth the effort.  Because there is lots of standing time for the dough, I find that I can have my dishes done and the kitchen cleaned up before the last batch comes out of the oven.  This means I often get to stand at the counter and eat some warm with homemade hummus before I put the rest away as a reward for my efforts.

1/4 oz dry yeast (1 pkg or 2 1/4 tsp loose)
1/2 cup warm water
1 additional cup warm water
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. additional sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. olive oil
3 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
(you can use all white if needed)

Mix up yeast, 1/2 C warm water and 1 tsp of sugar and let proof for ten minutes.  It will get bubbly.

In bowl of mixer combine flour, salt, 2. tsp sugar and mix on very lowest setting.  Add yeast mixture, oil and water and mix until combined.  Remove mixing paddle and replace with dough hook.  Knead on low setting for ten minutes.  Remove, fold over on itself several times with floured hands and then form into a ball.  Place in a lightly oiled bowl (glass or porcelain is best) and turn over a few times to evenly coat with oil.  Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise until it doubles.  (Anywhere between 1 and two hours depending on the temp in your kitchen! Tonight it took barely an hour.)

Position rack in lower 1/3 of oven and preheat oven to 500.  Punch dough down and let rest 5 minutes.  Divide dough into 8 equal portions.  The best explanation I’ve found for what to do next with the dough is out of an Armenian cookbook my friend Ani gave me:  ”Taking one piece at a time, flatten and fold sides over toward the center like wrapping a package.  Seal together on all sides.  Turn sealed side down.”

Let dough rest an additional 10 minutes, covered with a towel or plastic wrap on a lightly floured surface.  Next, roll each piece of dough out into a circle and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake approximately 7 minutes or until slightly golden and puffy.  Cool slightly on racks and then place in a plastic bag for storage while still warm so that bread remains moist.

A REALLY good way to eat this (though I’m not sure how healthy it is!) is to cut pita bread into triangles (like a mini pizza) and lightly fry them up in olive oil or vegetable oil.  Lightly sprinkle with salt and then dip in hummus.  The soft bread takes on the consistency of a savory doughnut.  Delicious!

So there you are.  3 easy breads. Enjoy!

Taco Salad Dressing June 26, 2009

I was looking online for a good salad dressing to put on taco salad and I really couldn’t find anything that quite suited my tastes.  So I made one up and we really liked it.  I don’t measure much so what I’m writing down is extremely approximate.  I hope you like it!

Mary’s Taco Salad Dressing

3 good glugs of olive oil
Juice of 2 limes
Dashes (about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp) of each:
paprika
cumin
coriander
1 tsp chili powder
4 Tbsp medium salsa (we use Trader Joe’s regular salsa when I don’t have homemade on hand)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 or 3 Tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and black pepper to taste
enough water to dilute the flavor if it’s too overwhelming

It was a good enough dressing that my husband said, “you should make notes on this one.”

I make a lot of things that I forget about later.  I’m so glad he knows me well enough to remind me of such things.

One note:  I really like sour cream but my hub does not.  If I had not had him to consider, I wouldn’t have hesitated to make this a creamy dressing with some sour cream or yogurt.  To accommodate both our tastes, I just added sour cream on the side with my salad and it was really fantastic both ways.  This should keep well too, since there’s enough lime and vinegar to help cure your other ingredients for a bit.  I’ve got my leftovers in the fridge but I don’t think it’ll last long enough for me to figure out its shelf life. 

Enjoy!