Night-Time Bread

Buttermilk Rolls (Kate Aitken's Canadian Cook Book)

Never, ever, ever make bread when you've had a long day. Trust me. I was looking for a side dish to a soup I was making and this baby was next in line. I love buttermilk baking, so I was excited about this one. Until, that is, THIS was the first ingredient.



Weird, no?

1 medium potato
1/2 cup shortening
1 cake compressed yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
2 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, well beaten
3 1/2 - 4 cups sifted all purpose flour

Peel the potato; cook until tender. Press through the ricer; there should be 1/2 cup.

I failed to do most of this. I didn't peel the potato...screw that...too much work and too much wasted fibre. I also don't own a ricer (hint, hint, Christmas-gift buyers). And there was WAY more than half a cup.

While the potato is still warm, add the shortening; stir till it is melted.


Dissolve the yeast cake in the lukewarm water; beat into the potato mixture. Add the sugar and salt to the buttermilk; heat to lukewarm; add to the potato mixture. Add the well-beaten egg; add the flour cup by cup, stirring and beating until the mixture cannot be stirred any longer. Turn on a floured board; knead gently till smooth. Place the sponge in an oiled bowl.


Apparently, the sponge is your pre-baked, pre-risen dough. Check out my oiled bowl. Screw that extra work too.

Cover and let rise in a warm place till light (about 1 1/2 hours).

I didn't do this part either. Because I fell asleep. And let my dough rise overnight. I wish I'd been awake enough in the morning to take a picture of the result. Interestingly, the tea towel I'd used to cover the bowl acted as barrier enough and rather than spill hilariously all over my kitchen, the dough rose just to the tea towel and stopped there. Phew?

Knead down lightly; shape into rolls. Place them on an oiled cookie sheet; again let rise till light, about 1 hour.

I skipped the rising bit, feeling as though my dough had had ample rising time. Plus if I did, I would TOTALLY have been late for work. So there.

Bake in a hot oven (400F for 20 minutes); while still warm, brush with melted butter. Yield: 24 rolls.


In the end, they had a bit of a beery taste, and I'm not still not entirely sure what purpose the potato served in the whole affair. But they were a decent breakfast, and three with butter or jam were pretty filling.

Something Practical

I've resolved to make all my gifts this year. I can always use dish cloths, but I remember a time in my life when getting a bundle of handmade dish cloths would make me wrinkle my nose, then put on my best fake smile and utter my best insincere thanks. Anyway, I hope whoever gets these also is sick of using crusty, questionably scented dish cloths.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/traditional-dishcloth

It's an easy pattern. If you know only the knitting basics, then you'll be fine with this pattern. I can knit one up in about an hour and a half now.

Drinking on a Tuesday

Back Bay Cocktail (International Bartender's Guide)

There are definitely days that call for a weekday cocktail. Last Tuesday night was one of them. I've been searching for my signature drink for some time now, trying new things on a semi-regular basis and stocking a hilariously diverse "bar" (aka the top of my livingroom shelving unit). The International Bartender's Guide, purchased from a really awesome local bookstore , has been my go-to for recipes lately.

I started with this:


2 oz (4 tbsp) Jamaican Rum
1 oz (2 tbsp) brandy
1/2 oz (1 tbsp) peach brandy
1 tsp lime juice

Now, I didn't have Jamaican rum, and neither did my local liquor store, so I settled for whatever Bacardi is. And it took some creative and loosely translated Wikipedia work to get Peach Schnapps from peach brandy. And that lime wedge had certainly seen better days than the ones it had seen lately in the bottom of my fridge, but I soldiered on.

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain ino old-fashioned glass half-filled with cracked ice.

The result was this:


I think the sweetness of the schnapps makes this drink. I'm not a rum kinda girl. And even the brandy is a bit...authoritative. There's just enough schnapps in here to make this a lady-like cocktail (read: cocktail for a big baby).

Happy Weeknight!

Flatulence, Ho!

Dish #1: Eight-Bean Soup (Reader's Digest Ultimate Soup Cookbook)
Dish #2: Warm Chorizo and Spinach Salad (The Cook's Encyclopedia of Four Ingredient Cooking)
Dish #3: Rhubarb Stewed with Apple and Strawberries (The New Lighthearted Cookbook)

I love beans. Beans, lentils, pulses - they are my friends. They make something more of any soup, chili, salad...you name it. So I was really excited to try this eight-bean soup from my soup cookbook. Before:
1/2 cup great Northern beans
1/2 cup dry kidney beans
1/ cup dry navy beans
1/2 cup dry lima beans
1/2 cup dry butter beans
1/2 cup dry split green or yellow peas
1/2 cup dry pinto beans
1/2 cup dry lentils
1 hambone
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 can tomatoes, undrained, quartered
1 can tomato paste
1 large onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, choped
4 carrots, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup dried chives
3 bay leaves
2 tbsp parsley flakes
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1. In a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, bring beans and 5 cups water to boil. Cook 2 minutes, then remove frmo heat and let stand, covered, 1 hour.
2. Meanwhile, in an 8-quart soup pot voer medium-high heat, bring hambone and cups water to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 1 hour.
3. Drain beans and add to stock. Add bouillon, tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, celery, carrots, chives, bay leaves, parsley, thyme, mustard, and cayenne. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer 2 hours or until beans are tender. Remove hambone and bay leaves; add more water if desired.

So, you're going to desire to add more water. Once again I neglected to read that essential part. Because if you don't, you're going to have something that looks like this:


Complete with charred bits that burned to the bottom of the pot. Blech. Also, now I have several different variety of dried beans. Because those are everyday use items. Me <- Genius.

I didn't feel this was enough vegetable for the evening, so I made the warm chorizo & spinach salad side dish to go with it.

8 oz baby spinach leaves
6 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
5 oz chorio sausage, very thinly sliced
2 tbsp sherry vinegar

1. Discard any tough stalks from the spinach. Pour theo il into a large skillet and add thes ausage. Cook gently for 3 minutes until the sausage slices start to shrivel slightly and color.
2. Add the spinach leaves and remove the skillet from the heat. Toss the spinach in the warm oil until it just starts to wilt. Add the sherry vinegar and a little seasoning. Toss the ingredients briefly, then serve immediately, while still warm.



Despite the fact that this recipe boasts ONLY FOUR ingredients, I was unable to find half of them in my local grocery store. I substituted hot genoa salami for chorizo, and though at any other point in time the grocery store has bazillions of BRANDS of baby spinach, I had to take home a box of baby arugula instead. Just as well, I like it better anyway. That being said, the green to red ratio in this picture does not reflect the vegetable content promised me in the original recipe book's picture. Hrmm.

Rounding out the evening was a fruit-based dessert, which always makes me feel virtuous and good (and slightly unsatisfied). Before:
1 orange
1 lb fresh or frozen rhubarb
1 large apple
1 cup water
1/4 cup (approx.) granulated sugar
2 cups fresh strawberries, halved
1/2 cup low-fat plain yogur
2 tbsp packed brown sugar

Grate rind and squeeze juice from orange. Cut rhubarb into 1" lengths. Peel, core and thinly slice apple.

In a saucepan, combine orange rind and juice, rhubarb, apple, water, and sugar; cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until fruit is tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in strawberries. Add more sugar to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature. Top each serving with a spoonful of yogurt and sprinkle with brown sugar.



You might notice that it doesn't actually contain any rhubarb. Yup. My grocery store strikes again. I decided to substitute mango for a variety of reasons. 1. It seemed to be the only thing there. 2. I love it and my boyfriend hates it and he wasn't going to be around to eat it. 3. Mango & strawberry. It's a delicious smoothie in the making. It's pretty good, although I suspect a little mushier than the intended rhubarb version.

This was a steamy night in my kitchen. Not only was I cooking for myself, but I also made a batch of brownies and a loaf of bread. The bread was an interesting recipe; full of dried prunes and bran. I refer to it as poop bread. Eating the bread and the bean soup concurrently has been interesting. And, unsurprisingly, pretty solitary.

I Hate My Slow Cooker

Dish #1: Italian Chicken and Pasta (Better Homes and Gardens Slow Cooker Favorites Made Healthy)

I have a tiny slow-cooker. It was given to me as a well-meaning Christmas gift and I was pleased to receive it at the time. But it really only holds 2-3 servings of anything. Most of the time, I really want my slow-cooker to make things easy TONIGHT and FOR MANY NIGHTS TO COME. Ultimately: it's pretty dinky.

So, I forgot to get groceries to fill the cooker up in the morning, meaning it didn't even make things easy TONIGHT since I had to race around the grocery store, dump everything in the cooker and hope for the best AT LUNCH, leaving me 0.2 milliseconds to eat my actual lunch that day. Blargh. Before:

1 9-oz package frozen Italian-style green beans
1 cup fresh mushrooms, quartered
1 small onion, cut into 1/4" thick pieces
12 oz skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1" pieces
1 14 1/2-oz can Italian-style stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 6-oz can Italian-style tomato paste
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning, crushed
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz dried fettuccine, cooked and drained
3 tbsp finely shredded or grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a 3 1/2 to 4-quart slow cooker combine green beans, mushrooms, and onion. Place chicken on vegetables.
2. In a small bowl combine undrained toamtoes, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, and garlic. Pour over chicken.
3. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 5 to 6 hours or on high-heat setting for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Serve over fettuccine. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

So, turns out small-town Northern Ontario doesn't have a. Italian-style green beans or "Italian-style tomato paste." And I've only just now realized that I used 12 chicken thighs instead of 12 ounces of chicken thighs. Sigh. Finally, I used pureed tomato instead of stewed tomato because I'd already opened a can. It turned out fine that way.


Today's important lesson learned: my blackberry camera makes grated parm look like slime vomit. Yes. It's a thing.

Friends Don't Give Friends Chickpea Bruschetta

Dish #1: Chickpeas and Balsamic Vinegar Bruschetta (provenance unknown)

So, I have a few friends that I haven't had the chance to visit with in quite some time. After many repetitions of things like, "Hey...we should get together..." and "Uh...has my boyfriend left his jacket in your closet for the WHOLE SUMMER?" we finally decided on a date and time.

Because my friend has a small monkey (read: child), I thought I would be a good guest and bring a delicious appetizer. It so happened that I had a recipe for what looked like a delightful pre-dinner snack: Chickpeas and Balsamic Vinegar Bruschetta.

Before:

In a medium bowl, combine one 15-oz can chickpeas (drained, rinsed, and roughly chopped), 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves (roughly chopped), 1 clove garlic (finely chopped), 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 3/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Spread on toasted baguette rounds.

Now, I didn't have time to toast baguette rounds myself, so I bought 'em. And it's hard to chop chickpeas manually...so I did it in a food processor. And the result was, I thought, pretty tasty.


Ok...it was a littly salty, and a little parsley heavy. And I believe I made enough to feed the standing army of a small country. So, wanting to save room for what was arguably "the main event," we each politely had two or three slices of bruschetta and that was that. I ended up throwing most of it out, truth be told. Might be good for a party, though. If do a "Chickpeas, yea or nay?" poll ahead of time.