Zucchini Banana Muffins

What does one do when one has some extra-ripe bananas and a zucchini on the edge? Look for something to bake that uses both ingredients of course! A simple Google search using the words yielded me plenty of results from which I selected this recipe for Zucchini Banana Muffins from "Baked by an Introvert". Except for the optional banana chips (which I did not use) I had everything I needed to make these super moist muffins in my pantry. Beyond the oil (I used lemon-infused olive oil) and the eggs the liquid mostly comes from the water in the zucchini, so there is no milk or water called for.

The only change I made to the recipe was to use 1/2 cup of brown sugar, rather than 3/4 cup. I almost always use a bit less sugar than what is called for, especially when baking with fruit. I find that the rest of the flavors are more likely to come through this way.

We will be enjoying these treats for a few more days.

More blueberries

We had more blueberries than we needed for the salmon recipe I made earlier in the weekend so I got out Granny's Muffin House Cookbook and found a a recipe to use them up.

We had breakfast-for-dinner on Monday, so these made for a nice pre-dinner snack, and a dessert, too.

I really should make better use of this cookbook. 

Khachapuri-Georgian Cheese Bread

Two years ago we had a Geology student from Georgia (the country) stay with us for a semester. Luka also came back last spring and stayed again for a few weeks. We shared some good times and he introduced us to Churchkhela (aka Georgian "Snickers" bars). I immediately thought of him when I saw this story from Gastro Obscura about Khacahpuri. I sent him the link to the story and asked how to make it, and he replied with this link . That was over a year ago, and on Friday I finally made this tasty dish for dinner. I started on Thursday night by making the dough in our 21-year old bread machine.

The recipe indicated that the dough could be made ahead of time and refrigerated. Once I was ready to use it, I broke it into fourths and rolled each quarter out and then shaped into a "boat"with points on each end. I filled each with a mix of shredded Fontina and Parmesan cheese and baked at 450 for 15 minutes on our baking stone - I eschewed the parchment lined baking pan called for in the recipe. This made for an especially crispy crust. The bread was then taken out of the oven and I used a spoon to make an indentation into the middle of each in order to crack eggs into them, then baked again until the eggs were cooked. You can see from the photos below that two of the "boats" ended up with double-yolk eggs.

Bread with cheese after initial baking

The double yolks were just a bit of luck. Each boat had only one egg cracked into it.

Prêt à manger!

As the recipe indicated, I left the whites a bit runny and mixed them together with the cheeses before eating. These were really filling. James and I each ate two (one each single yolk, and one each double yolk). We would easily have been satisfied with one, but it didn't seem as if these would keep very well for leftovers, so they were eaten all in one sitting.

Bloggers and their muse
Luka Adikashvili, May 2017

James adds: Delicious indeed, and filling, as Pam wrote. A late breakfast the next day was strongly indicated.

Of Apples and Libraries

Many years ago (perhaps 14?) we planted two apple trees in our backyard. A few years ago we noticed one apple on one of the trees, and expected that there would be more, but, alas, we waited in vain. Then, a few weeks ago, James came in from the yard with a surprise. He had picked five apples off one of the trees. And a few days later we noticed that the tree was bursting forth with fruit.

We were undeterred by the fact that they were too high for us to reach because Pam knew that the Maxwell Library (where she works) had an apple picker that could be checked out! Off we went to the library and returned with said picker and with such Pam picked a basket full of apples! Of course we returned the picker the next day because that's how libraries work.

Of course it is no good to pick backyard apples without using them in a new recipe! 

We marvel that our 21-year old bread machine still works. And fortunately the tattered manual includes a recipe for Apple Walnut Loaf. Still more good news - we already had walnuts, as well as all the other ingredients we needed. This was a "Quick Bread" so it needed no yeast and only took 100 minutes in the machine once everything was in the pan. 

Fresh from the machine!

We both enjoyed a slice with a dollop of vanilla ice cream!

Hot Cross Buns

My family and I were invited to Easter dinner by my friend Jenny's mother, Jackie, in 1998 (my first Easter as a Bay Stater). Since that time I enjoyed the holiday meal with Jackie every year. Dinner moved from Jackie's house to Jenny's house a few years ago (and I have offered our house for next Easter), nevertheless the tradition remains. Another tradition that started in 1998 is that I would always consider making hot cross buns to share at dinner, but then, after looking at the recipe and figuring in dealing with preparing an Easter basket, going to sunrise service, and my attending "regular" church service as well, it just wasn't going to happen. With my child now grown and living in another city, and the realization that I really didn't have to go to sunrise service I decided to go for it, and make the long awaited bread. The recipe came with my bread machine (see image below), a gift from my mother in 1997. I can't believe the machine still works. I used it a lot when I first received it, but for the last several years it has been used perhaps only once a month. Anyway, the hot cross buns turned out great, and were a big hit a dinner. They were also very big.

Irish Soda Bread

It has been over a week since St. Patrick's Day and I am finally catching up on my blogging. We eschewed the not-really-traditional corned beef and cabbage and had some truly inauthentic shamrock-shaped pasta instead (purchased from Costco). As suggested on the package I made some vodka sauce to go on top.

However, so as not to forgo an opportunity to prepare a new recipe I decided to make some Irish Soda bread to go with it. I found a good recipe in my trusty Deborah Madison vegetarian cookbook. The recipe is above. I made two changes to the ingredients as listed. I used wheat germ in place of wheat bran, and I added raisins. The bread was just a bit sweet and made a nice complement to the pasta, and made us feel like we celebrated St. Patrick's Day as we should have.

Favorite Biscuit Variation

Pam:
It seems that we've mentioned Deborah Madison's Buttermilk Biscuits on several posts, but have been remiss in providing the recipe. This is likely because we've been enjoying these for so long they are hardly "new" to us. However, this week we did a few variations on the recipe, making it new again.

The recipe, as described in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, calls for
2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of buttermilk

First, I will point out that we almost never use buttermilk, but substitute plain yogurt instead. Earlier this week when preparing to make these I realized we had only regular milk (no buttermilk, no yogurt). We learned a trick once of making a buttermilk substitute in 10 minutes by adding some vinegar to plain milk. Alas, we had no vinegar either. (Our larder was indeed spare as we had diligently eaten virtually everything in both our houses before taking an eight-day road trip to drop our daughter at college in the mid-west).

However, I was not about to let the lack of necessary ingredients stop me from having my biscuits. I used a substitute for the substitute -a meta-substitute- lemon juice did the same job of curdling the milk as vinegar. I also whisked in a dollop of sour cream. My next problem was that we were quite low on flour, and I discovered we were short by about 1/3 cup. I considered making a smaller batch of biscuits, but then I remembered that James improved on our waffle recipe earlier this year by putting in some corn meal in place of flour (see the entry here) and so I decided to try the same with the biscuits. I sifted the flour and corn meal in with the rest of the dry ingredients, then cut the butter into it with a pastry cutter. The sour milk/cream mix was added to the dry ingredients and mixed. James took over from there.

James:
I believe this is the second time we have used the Big Green Egg for biscuits. Thanks to the innovations Pam describes above, these were delicious! But thanks to my still-limited skills with the kamado-style grill, they were not beautiful. They look lovely in this photograph, taken a few minutes before they were done --

-- but they did not look quite so lovely as I scraped them from the baking stone. I had heated the grill to 500F, but had put the stone in for only a few minutes when I added the dough. I should have let it heat more thoroughly. The result was rather hot knuckles and a fair bit of batter left on the stone. By the time it cooled thoroughly, those remnants were quite charred, and the stone is soaking for a couple days as I write this.

The good news, though, is that the delicious biscuit tops had all the advantages of muffin tops.

Cranberry Gingerbread

James' post about the Cranberry Noir describes how he got the fresh cranberries from a former student. Said student actually brought so many cranberries (6 cups!) that not only was he able to make the sauce that we'd been salivating over, there were still plenty of cranberries so that I could make the Sticky Cranberry Gingerbread recipe I found in the New York Times. Sticky is definitely the right adjective to use when describing this gingerbread. These adjectives are also appropriate:

• Spicy (I used even more spices than the recipe called for including fresh ground cloves and allspice)
• Sweet
• Yummy

It took longer to bake than the 50-minutes indicated in the recipe (more like 75) and it stuck badly to the parchment. Next time I will just grease a pan.

Solstice Supper

It being the first day of summer -- and the longest day of the year -- Pam made two good suggestions. The first was to look for solstice recipe ideas in our Wicca Cookbook. The second was to enjoy the resultant feast-for-two outside. It was also the first day of the new CSA-farmbox season at Colchester Neighborhood Farm, so her third suggestion was a a very fresh and local salad!

Stonehenge solstice image lifted from Pixie Campbell.
Not sure whether or where she lifted it!

 Cherry Pottage

I begin this post at the end of the meal. Because this dish required heating and then considerable cooling, I started it first. In fact, because we selected the menu after doing most of the day's chores, we procured cherries rather later in the day than would have been ideal. This should ideally be prepared very early in the day.

Before getting into the preparation, I should address the question on everyone's mind: what the flaming heck is a pottage? Is it just a misspelling of porridge? Well, yes, basically. I thought of it as an archaic form of the word porridge -- which I associate with oatmeal -- probably owing to its use in archaic biblical translations as in "Esau traded his birthright for a mess of pottage."

Our Friend the OED tells us that the word is indeed an archaic (as early as 1225) form of "porridge," further defining it as 

A thick soup or stew, typically made from vegetables, pulses, meat, etc., boiled in water until soft, and usually seasoned

Which raises a further question: What does this have to do with cherries? The cookbook includes a narrative ahead of each recipe, so I turned to this, hoping for clues. Not a word! The authors do, however, ruminate on the value of "special" meals and other things that we use only on certain occasions. In this case, the white sugar used in this recipe meant that it would only have been served as part of a celebration. As with fine silver or china, such a use presents an interesting paradox. We bring out our "special" items in part to show off -- and show thanks for -- our prosperity, yet we have to use these things sparingly, for we are never quite that prosperous. And once we are, the specialness is gone. White sugar is a perfect example; I think of the cherries as a special splurge, but white sugar is about as ordinary an ingredient as we can have.

I hand-pitted an entire quart of fresh cherries with a paring knife (a better tool is on its way for next time) and placed them directly into the blender, with 2/3 cup of red wine and 1/3 cup of granulated sugar. The wine was from a partial bottle of our home-made Barolo that we had set aside for cooking. I pureed this mixture until smooth. Then I melted about two tablespoons of butter in our indispensable cast-iron saucepan and poured in the fruit along with an additional 2/3 cup wine and 1/3 cup sugar.

Meanwhile, Pam cut up a few slices of wheat bread to provide what the recipe calls "soft bread crumbs" because we had no idea how else to do that! We added these and continued heating until bubbly. The recipe calls for "low heat" but also bringing this huge mixture to sufficient activity to reduce and thicken it. So I turned up the heat a bit and stirred this continuously for approximately ever. It was not reducing, so we added one teaspoon of cornstarch (dissolved in a little hot water) to thicken the mixture.

We cooled this on the counter and then in the fridge for a couple of hours, until well after dinner. This definitely falls in the category of a "better on the second day" food. We have not (yet) tested the theory that it also falls in the category of a "better topped with vanilla ice cream and/or cherry liqueur" but odds are high.

Midsummer Ale Bread

This brings to mind another question: "Where have you been all my life?" For several years we used beer as an ingredient in our bread-machine pizza dough, until we realized that it made it too doughy, and that the entire family prefers crustier crust. I had not thought of ale as a main leavening agent, though perhaps I should have. This was amazingly simple: I whisked together 3 cups flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, and 2 tablespoons sugar (which I took for granted, until reading the discourse on pottage, see above). To this I mixed in 12 ounces of our special Scotch ale, making a thick dough.

I then turned this into a 6x9-inch pan and drizzled 1/2 cup (one stick) of butter over it. Actually, I could tell that was WAY too much butter, so I used some of it to brush the bottom of the pan, and still had plenty to drizzle and plenty more to reserve for the main course (see below).

The directions called for three smaller pans, which would have had the advantage of even more buttery-crusty goodness, but the single pan worked great -- 350F for 50 minutes, plus just a few minutes once I tested it. This was a very easy, delicious bread. A bit crumbly, but designed to break apart for sharing. The authors recommend it for housewarming parties, since a blessing can be said with each piece that is shared, and love will fill every room of a house. We ate it outside -- the longest day of the year and all -- but still blessed our house!

Noodles Della Italia

For the main course, I cooked fettuccini in one pot (this did not make it pottage!) while re-using our indispensable cast-iron saucepan to saute onion, garlic, red bell pepper, sliced mushrooms, and fresh oregano and basil from our front yard. When I read this recipe, I thought it would be rather like pasta primavera, but it had no tomatoes, and I had caramelized the vegetables just enough to give this a much earthier feel and sweeter taste.

What does this have to do with solstice? I'm not sure, except that we do have oregano and basil this time of year. The authors cite Stregheria, the Italian earth-based religion, but the opportunity to share a family recipe that is light and suitable for summer cooking seems to be the main motivation.

Salad

As mentioned above, Pam put together a delicious salad with local Romaine and other leafies, along with a couple kinds of berries. This went very well with a Maine blueberry vinaigrette, and the whole meal went very well with Westport Rivers Pinot Noir, one of the very few good red wines from our region.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

As an aging hippie I could hardly pass up a recipe for Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme Bread. I can't even believe I never noticed the recipe before! Although I will admit to rarely opening the Gold Medal New Bread Machine Recipes book (copyright 1999). The recipe called for 1 1/4 c. water; 2 T. Butter; 1 2/3 cup EACH white and wheat flour; 2 T. dry milk powder; 3 T. sugar; 1 1/2 t. salt; 1 t. EACH dried parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. and 1 3/4 t. yeast. I set the machine on "2" (Regular). As with last week's bread I  found myself with a beautifully perfectly round mound on the top of a nice brown bread. We enjoyed the herbal flavors on tuna salad sandwiches. Perfect. 

Bread Machine Pesto Bread

We've had our bread machine for 16 years. It came with a bunch of recipes, but we tend to stick with the same half dozen or so. Occasionally, though we go ahead and try something new, and so I did this week. James baked biscuits to go with the minestrone soup he made earlier this week. When we had some of the leftovers the next day I made some pesto bread to go with it. The pesto was prepared by me over the summer with some of the basil from our CSA farm box, and then frozen. I thawed it easily under running water. The ingredient list otherwise included 1 c. water; 1T. sugar; 1t. salt; 1 2/3 c. each white and wheat flour;and 1 t. yeast. Of course once everything goes into the machine one simply waits for the finished product, and hopes that it doesn't cave in before it's done. In this case I have to say that I don't believe I have ever seen a more perfectly rounded loaf, and in such a  beautifully even brown tone. A sight to behold. And tasty too. A perfect complement to the soup, and it made for a delicious grilled Provelone cheese sandwich for lunch yesterday.

Lime Jubilee

Prelude
(written by James, May 25)

For Pam's Jubilee Birthday (that number is biblical -- look it up) she wanted a lime variation on the coffee-infused cake she made for James' Jubilee Birthday (biblical types differ on how to count the Jubilee years -- this May we covered them both).

As we sometimes do, we got a bit carried away with a theme, so that the menu now reads:

Beer-Lime Grilled Chicken 
Lime Biscuits 
Cilantro-Lime Slaw 
LimeAde
Lime Sherbet, natch, as our only store-bought offering
A Lime Variation on our Award-Winning Mocha Cake

Margaritas may also be involved, and perhaps Corona, which is only palatable with a wedge of lime.

Lime Cake
(written by James, May 26)

Of course it is appropriate to begin the preparations for Pam's Big Day on her Attainment Day, when she has already attained her newly-earned aged. After preparing some famous queso dip for an unrelated event this afternoon, we prepared two items that are best completed a day ahead, both to clear the kitchen for other activities and because neither of these has any last-minute steps.

The first of these is Pam's kidney bean salad -- a gift to herself each birthday. No limes are involved. Then James began the lime cake, varying the Molly Katzen pound cake that has become our standard. I followed the recipe in the original Moosewood Cook Book, using Katzen's suggested variations for a lemon cake as a starting point to create a raspberry-lime cake.

Rather than using butter and flour on the Bundt pan, I prepared it with lime-infused olive oil (brought in from Lebherz just for the occasion) and flour. I replaced the vanilla extract in the original recipe with raspberry extract, adding the freshly-squeezed juice of three limes and the zest of two. After the batter was prepared, I gently mixed in a small package of fresh raspberries.

I usually do not sample batter, but if it is any guide, this is going to be a really nice cake!

Slaw
(written by James, May 27)

I started the slaw -- perhaps only the second I have ever made -- fairly early this morning so that it could chill and the flavors could meld. I must confess to cheating, using one of those ubiquitous bags-o-veggies that have taken over produce shelves recently. Perhaps a bit later, when our CSA presents us with actual cabbage, I will do this again with fresh ingredients. But on a busy cooking day early in the season, I was happy to have the shortcut.

Since the bag had about 6 cups of cabbage rather than 4, I increased the ingredients in rough proportion -- lighter on the mayo and heavier on everything else. I could not imagine what I would have done with a partial bag of shredded cabbage, so I used it all. I also made a few minor substitutions, as described below.

I used one cup of Light Hellman's, the only mayo that crosses our threshold. It has 60 percent of the calories of regular. We tried Lowfat Hellman's once, which is 50 percent, and learned our limits! We had scallions on hand, so I used these for a very mild onion taste, rather than buying red onion. I used a serrano-honey balsamic in place of the rice vinegar, and probably used more than was called for. I have no idea what "sweet chili sauce" is, so I used deli-style crushed red peppers. I whisked all of this together before stirring in the vegetation (using our silicon scraper-spoon to good effect).

The result was a nearly perfect slaw -- not too creamy or too vinegarish, and just tangy enough for a nice late spring meal outdoors.

Chicken
(written by James, May 27)

Speaking of which, after a few days of unseasonably cold, windy, and wet weather, the skies lifted, the sun came out, and the angels sang off in the distance, for the occasion of Pam's birthday. This meant that recent landscaping preparations were worthwhile, and that grilling outside was part of the festivities, rather than a frozen exile. I prepared the marinade just as directed in the aptly-named Beer Lime Grilled Chicken recipe,  except that I used some flat pale ale from the back of the fridge rather than the light-colored beer it calls for. (Those who are not hop-heads might be surprised to learn that "pale ale" is actually much darker than most mainstream beers.) The extra flavor certainly did not harm the outcome -- the pre-packaged, boneless, skinless organic chicken breasts turned out moister and more delicious than would have been thought likely.

(Incidentally, neither margaritas nor Corona were involved after all -- each diner enjoying some combination of limeade, ginger-ale, and home-brew.

Limeade and Biscuits

(written by Pam, May 28)

I adapted a favorite recipe for ginger-lemonade I clipped out of a newspaper years ago to make mint-limeade. I started with making a mint-infused syrup with chopped fresh mint from the garden, 1/4 c. of water, and 1/2 c. of sugar. All of this was heated until boiling, then removed from the stove top to steep. While the syrup cooled I juiced 9 limes. The lime juice, 4 cups of water, 1/4 of sugar and the mint syrup all went into a pitcher and were stirred until well mixed. Our friends brought over some lemon-lime seltzer water which when mixed with the limeade made a refreshing spritzer.

The lime biscuits were pretty simple -- much like other biscuit recipes I used, but with added lime zest and a bit of lime juice. I did think that the 10 tablespoons of butter the recipe called for seemed like overkill and used about 7 instead. They were plenty buttery, and quite tasty with just a hint of lime.

To round out the meal we also had some macaroni and cheese, and Tostitos Hint-of-Lime chips which were delicious with the leftover dip. Everyone was well satisfied when the meal was done.

Wheat Bread Rising

This week's Nueva Receta is an Easter bread with a Passover lesson. Those familiar with the Old Testament story know that unleavened bread is associated with Passover because the Israelites did not have time to stay up late waiting for the bread to rise.

Our story begins with a youth-group fundraiser at our church, for which Paloma agreed to make some bread. Her first attempt was a kind of macaroon with which I helped her last weekend. She read the directions carefully and we followed them closely but the results were underwhelming.

So this weekend we tried a simpler wheat bread. Pam and Paloma followed one recipe closely but the result -- though tasty -- was more doughy than breadish. We hesitate to speak ill of our friends the yeasts in this increasingly zymurgical household, but we think they let us down this time.

So we turned to our trusty More-with-Less Cookbook in search of an easy recipe to begin late on Easter Eve. Pam and Paloma found Easy No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread on page 58 and I set out to the store in search of younger, fresh-faced yeast.

I whisked together 3 cups of whole wheat flour 1/2 cup of sugar 2 tablespoons of salt in three packages of that fresh newborn yeast. Yes, three packages! meanwhile Paloma heated 2 cups of water 2 cups of milk and a half cup of canola oil to 120°F. We added this mixture and two eggs from nearby Hanson Farm; Paloma used our hand mixer on low speed to mix until moistened and then on medium speed for three minutes to make a smooth batter. (Our hand mixer is among the most neglected items in our kitchen, but the recipe called for it specifically.)

This concluded the "easy" portion of the recipe, which now called for the addition of 5 to 6 cups of white flour. Paloma gamely stirred as I added the flour cup by cup, but as it was transformed from batter to dough, more Dad-sized muscle was called for. We covered the mixing bowl and with some trepidation I began the midnight watch. After ninety minutes of playing around on the computer, I checked the bowl and was surprised to see that the towel seemed to have been pushed up slightly. It was our largest mixing bowl, but those yeasts had pushed the dough right up to the top. On that predawn Easter morning, it had risen indeed!

I punched down the dough, divided it between two oiled loaf pans, and in just 15 min. found it had risen again. I bake at 375, and after a half hour I removed the upper rack from the oven and continue baking for a total of 45 minutes. The result was two of the airiest wheat breads we have ever had. One was a success at the youth-group auction in the other was a welcome addition to an Easter dinner with friends.

Louisiana Yam Muffins

I make a traditional lasagna each year for Christmas dinner. Cooking the sauce is an all-afternoon affair, which is then layered with a ricotta cheese mixture, and shredded mozarella cheese, and lasagna noodles. This year, I added special muffins to the menu. I could not resist this recipe when I saw that it called for Tabasco and coffee - James' two favorite beverages. I also had half a sweet potato in the refrigerator, which after I steamed and mashed it, gave me the 1 cup that the recipe calls for (it does specifically say that yams or sweet potatoes can be used - I am not really sure what the difference is, anyway). The recipe also calls for 1 c. each of cornmeal and all-purpose flour; 1/4 c. sugar, 1T baking powder, 1 1/4 t. cinnamon and 1/2 t. salt. The dry ingredients were mixed together in one bowl, and in a smaller bowl I mixed 2 eggs, 4T canola oil, the sweet potatoes, coffee (1/2 c.) and Tabasco (the recipe says 1/2 t. but I just shook some into the batter. I am sure it was more than 1/2 t.). The wet and dry ingredients were mixed together, and then baked at 400 degrees for 16 minutes in the convection oven. There were a lot of flavors to be tasted in this. It was just sweet enough, and the coffee flavor came through. I probably could have added even a bit more Tabasco for more kick.

Eggnog Muffins

Today's recipe is in honor of my friends Anna and Rachel. Anna died earlier this year due to complications from breast cancer. The cookbook, Granny's Muffin House came from her kitchen. She gave it to me about two years ago, insisting that I loaned it to her, and she was just returning it. I told her I had never seen the cookbook before, but in her usual stubborn way would not let me leave without it. This is the first time I've used it. Rachel is a co-worker who just returned from a very long sick leave. We always have coffee together on work days. I told her when she returned I would have exceptional coffee for her, and make some muffins. I am so happy she is back. She gives this recipe two thumbs up.

Granny's Muffin House is conveniently divided into seasons, so that bakers can find recipes with ingredients that are seasonal. I opened right to the Winter section, and found the recipe for eggnog muffins. We had a bit of eggnog (3/4 c.) left from our recent Crescent Ridge Dairy Farm delivery, which turned out to be just enough for this recipe which also calls for 2 c. flour; 1 T. baking powder; 1/2 t. salt; 2/3 c. sugar; 1 egg; 1/3 c. melted butter; 1/4 c. rum and some nutmeg for sprinkling on top. Baking was at 400 degrees in the convection oven for 16 minutes. I don't think I've ever made a batch of muffins that called for a tablespoon of baking powder, and these turned out to have tall peaks.

Oatmeal Spice Bread-Fail!

Back in May, I committed to using my bread machine at least once a week, and I have to admit, I have not kept up with that very well. I do use it more than I had been in the last few years, but hardly once a week. Freshly recommitted after having read William Alexander's book, 52 Loaves which documents the author's quest for the perfect loaf through baking one loaf a week, by hand, in a real oven, I figured it really shouldn't be that hard to find time to use a bread machine, for goodness sake. Last Sunday I selected Oatmeal Spice Bread from the Gold Medal New Bread Machine Cookbook which tell the baker to "greet the morning with fabulous French toast made from this sugar and spice bread." Who could resist. This sweetbread calls for brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Yum. I had to use my kitchen math to adjust the recipe to fit into my 1 pound machine, so I am not sure if I miscalculated something, or selected the wrong setting on the machine, or perhaps left out some important ingredient, but this was not bread in any sense of the word. When it machine beeped I opened to lid to find an unrisen square of doughy substance at the bottom of the pan. When I removed the "bread" from the pan I discovered it was about 2" thick, and when I cut into it found it not cooked. I had to throw the mess away. At least the house smelled good for a few hours.

Dos recetas nuevas

It is "leafy green season" here in New England, so we have eaten a lot of salad thanks to our CSA farm share. We have had quite an abundance of greens the last few weeks, so in addition to salads I have been looking for ways to cook some of the greens. One simple meal was to simply sautee some mixed greens and add leftover rice to the skillet. I topped it with cheddar cheese to give a bit more flavor. That still left us with many, many greens so I went to that doyenne of veggies, Deborah Madison, to find another recipe. I selected "Greens with Potatoes" from the Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone cookbook, knowing that my daughter will eat almost anything if potatoes are included. This was pretty similar to the rice and greens I threw together. I boiled some potatoes while sauteeing the greens with garlic rabe and scallions (garlic and scallions courtesy of the farm box as well), then mashed the potatoes and added them to the skillet unitl the greens and potatoes were throughly mixed. I added two peeled and diced tomatoes before serving.

And, since it was Sunday, I held true to my vow to use my bread machine. I picked Potato Rosemary bread from the Gold Medal New Bread Machines Recipes cookbook. I think we have had mashed potato flakes stored in our freezer for over a decade. We bought them for use in the bread machine, but hardly made potato bread, so I was glad to use them finally. I can't image using them to make mashed pototoes, which I would only do with real potatoes. For my 1 pound bread machine I used: 1 c. water; 1.5 T butter; 1 1/4 c. white flour and 1/2 c. wheat flour; 1/3 c. mashed potato mix; 3/4 T dried rosemary leaves; 3/4 T sugar; 1 t. salt; 1.5 t yeast, and used the regular setting. The bread was delicious. I am going to make it again soon. I'll be glad to use those potato flakes again.

The whole family enjoyed this meal.

Hazelnut Espresso Bread

We have had our bread machine for over 13 years. I know we used it a lot when we first got it, but over the last years it has taken up a disproportionate amount of "kitchen real estate" for the occasional use it has seen - mostly for making pizza dough, or "company bread". Last Sunday, when I made yogurt bread for the red pepper, bacon and jelly sandwhiches (see my sauteed jerusalem artichokes post) I decided that I would make bread every Sunday. I have a Gold Medal New Bread Machine Recipes cookbook on my shelf - the kind you pick up at the grocery store check out line - which I don't know if I have ever used, and from it selected the Hazelnut Espresso Bread. I had to do some kitchen math in order to adjust the ingredients for my 2 cup maker, as the recipe had proportions for 3 cup or 4 cup makers. This was made with 3/4 c.strong coffee, 1.5 T butter, 2 c. flour 1.5 T dry milk powder, 2 T. sugar, 1/3 c. hazelnuts (or filberts as they are called in Oregon), 2/3 t. salt and 2 t. yeast. The result was flavorful, and crunchy. We could definitely taste the coffee in it. We enjoyed it last night with our dinner fresh from the machine smeared with cream cheese, and this morning with our breakfast lightly toasted with butter.

Traditional Irish Soda Bread

It has long been a tradition in the Hayes-Bohanan house to have mashed potato casserole on St. Patrick's Day. This easy-to-prepare dish is simply mashed potatoes mixed with cooked spinach in a casserole dish, and topped with cheese. Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes until the cheese is golden and bubbly. This year, after hearing this story on NPR, James suggested we have some traditional Irish Soda Bread with dinner. I had made what I believed was Irish Soda Bread before, but it turns out I was very wrong indeed. The stuff with raisins, and icing, is not real soda bread. I followed the recipe for the Traditional White Soda Bread which required getting my fingers sticky with dough. The instructions call for putting the dough in a round cake pan, and putting a second cake pan on top. I almost used the lid from my indespensible cast iron skillet instead, but I am glad I didn't. The bread rose quite a bit and would have stuck to the lid. This turned out fabulous in my convection oven. A great addition to our meal, right from the oven.