Weekend Escape

I went home on Friday night to escape the high stress of the end of the semester. And, of course, to partake in some home-cooked food.

Friday night we had bratwurst fresh off the grill! So good! Talk about a summer dinner on the back porch! I had never made them on my own, but only watched my dad make them. This time I helped, and the satisfaction was even greater.

Just take a look at that plate--->

Does that look like summer or what?

Saturday morning, my dad made juevos con chorizo-- eggs, veggies, and hot chorizo, mixed with mexican cheese and wrapped in a warm tortilla. This is a family breakfast favorite.

Before going back to school, I always like to cook or bake something to take back with me. My personal favorite, to bake and to eat, is oatmeal raisin cookies. I would take an oatmeal cookie over any other kind any day of the week. Not only are the delicious, they also help trick myself into believing that I am eating a 'healthy' version of a sugar and butter packed treat. Seals the deal right there!

I also made pasta salad to share with my Relay for Life team. Relay is a 12 hour event, through the night, in which at least one person from each team must be walking at all times. (All proceeds go towards fighting cancer!) It was going to be a very long night, and we would need sustenance.

Now, I don't know why, but I think pasta salad always intimidated me just a little bit. I think maybe it has to do with summer block parties, and all of the mom's bringing giant pots of it to share. I don't know why this would intimidate me, even in theory it doesn't seem very complicated. Anyways, I made pasta salad for the first time this weekend, and it was pretty darn good. It kind of turned into an 'everything-but-the-kitchen-sink' dish because I didn't really have any idea of where to limit myself. So if something sounded tasty, I would throw it in. This could have proved disastrous, but it turned out fantastic. Although that might also be personal bias and pride speaking...

I used a pound of pasta, a mix of two previously opened boxes. Cooked and drained.
Mixed in olive oil (enough to cover all the noodles) and balsamic vinegar (to taste, which also gave the noodles a darker color).
Mixed in some cooked veggies (mushrooms, peppers, onions), quartered and uncooked cherry tomatoes, fresh basil and oregano, red pepper flakes and salt to taste.
The final touch was about a tablespoon of Old Bay. And this made all the difference! The salad seemed like it was missing something until I added this.

We did not have olives or celery in the house, so these traditional ingredients were left out. I don't know that I have ever had pasta salad with mushrooms, but I feel that it gave the dish a nice taste, as well a unique twist. And I think my Relay team agreed. They devoured it almost as soon as we had set up our campsite!

"Man Can Live by Bread Alone"

I spent this past weekend at home again. Any guesses as to what I spent most of my time doing? If you guessed cooking, you would be correct!

I recently had my eyes opened to the wonderful and addicting website TasteSpotting. Big mistake. Although its not one that I would take back. I have spent countless hours in the past week pouring over pages and pages of this site, absorbing great ideas and salivating over delicious food photos. So, naturally, upon returning home for the weekend I had many plans up my sleeves. After pausing to think for a moment, and after my parents knocked some sense in to me, I decided a safer option, physically and mentally for all involved, would be to only make two loaves of bread. My goal being to perfect the art of bread making. And I guess it is better to have under your belt the skill to make an amazing loaf of plain white bread than to make a mediocre loaf out of a complicated recipe (even if I would feel very proud even completing such a complicated recipe).

Immediately upon walking in the door on Friday afternoon, I began James Beard's recipe for a White Loaf of Bread from the Beard on Bread cookbook, which I love by the way. (PS- I recommend the Banana Bread recipe in this book. With raisin or chocolate chips it is even better!)

Anyways, after mixing, kneading, resting, waiting impatiently, kneading some more, resting some more, and finally baking, it turned out, as my mother said, "like the beast Wonderbread in the world, except with a really good crust that Wonderbread lacks." Pretty good, huh? I guess I may be on the path to making a great white bread.

Next, I began a recipe that I found while browsing TasteSpotting. It is a No-Knead-Bread (NKB) which probably took a total of 16 hours to make. Time consuming, but for the large part of that time, the dough sat on the counter rising.

To begin, mix 3 cups of flour with 3/4 tbsp of salt, 1 1/2 warm water, and 1/4 tsp of instant yeast OR 1/4 tsp of dry active yeast proofed in the warm water.
Let the dough sit in the bowl, covered by plastic wrap and a towel, for 8-12 hours.
After taking a long nap, wake up, dump the dough onto a floured surface, and shape with wet hands.
Plop (that's the technical term) into a bowl with a floured towel. Cover and let sit for another 2 hours.
Preheat the oven oven at 450 degrees. Place the dish/pot/bowl which will hold the loaf into the oven to preheat for 30 minutes.
Plop (again) the risen dough into the pot and bake covered for 30 minutes.
Bake for another 15-20 minutes uncovered, or until the loaf sound hollow when rapped upon.
When finished, and looking deliciously devour-able, let cool.
Then slice open and DEVOUR!! I recommend just plain butter or fruit preserves to top the slice. ENJOY!!


Photos from left to right/ top to bottom:
Dough doubled in size after resting overnight; Dough shaped into loaf, resting and rising in floured towel in bowl; Finished loaf on cooling rack; Cut loaf- just look at those bubbles!!


To see the full and original recipe, visit Steamy Kitchen.

Enjoy!