Goose Eggs

 Not exactly a food post, but we are swimming in goose eggs right now,

goose egg next to chicken egg

What do you do with goose eggs?

    We eat them. 

Goose eggs are very tasty!  Mild, very much like chicken eggs, but 3x larger by volume.
Yolk:white ratio is bigger, which makes for great baking and custards.  

If we aren't making a fried egg and don't need the yolk/white separated, we try to blow the egg out first.  Then we use the hollowed out shell for decorating.

How do you blow out a goose egg?  My method:

poke top and bottom w/ a thumb tack

use a hand drill to make one of the holes big enough to get a skewer through,

poke with skewer to loosen the membrane and break the yolk sack

blow through little hole to make the egg come out the slightly less little hole

1 goose egg~3 chicken eggs ~ 3/4 cup egg, so plan your receiving vessel appropriately

 Now what? 
1 goose egg makes a lovely "3-egg omelet", quiche is always good, and of course I have a few other recipes....

And after a little rinse the blown out eggs are ready to decorate!

Grandma's Classic Fudge

 This was our go to treat for special occasions.  Christmas, Easter, even once for my birthday.  It's easy to make, easy to mess up, but absolutely amazing when you get the knack.  Also, with candy thermometers, there's not so much a knack any more as just pay attention.

Grandma Esther Romero's Classic Fudge

3 cups white sugar

3 heaping Tbs cocoa

1 cup milk (whole milk or half-n-half is best, but condensed is ok too)

1/4 cup corn syrup (don't substitute, there's nothing healthy about this, just go for it)

Bring to a boil in a heavy sauce pan to hard ball stage (~250-266(F) on candy thermometer)

Pour into mixing bowl, beat with 1/2 butter or margarine
Here's the tricky bit, you have to pay attention and be ready to move quick
It should lighten up and get glossy as you beat it, pour into greased pan or raised plate before it sets (before it looses it's gloss)

If you like nuts in your fudge, you can add nuts as you beat in the butter

 

Chocolate covered Pecan Creams

I haven't found anything similar to these treats.

My mother's friend Mary made these for us one year, and they became one of my favorite treats.  They seem like a lot of work, but every time I make them I thank myself for the effort and remember our hikes with Mary.

Pecan Creams

In pot on stove mix together:

2 cups sugar

1 Tbs corn syrup

1/2 cup warm water

Boil to soft ball stage (~ 235(F) on candy thermometer)

Then beat in 1/4 cup margarine or butter
cool to luke warm, before it sets beat in pecan pieces (wouldn't it be useful for me to know how much pecans?  but that's all the recipe says, so ....)

Roll into balls before it cools completely.

Cool, dip in melted chocolate

Russian Teacakes

 When I was a girl my Great Aunt Dorothy would always bring Crescent and Moon cookies.  According to her they were traditional Danish cookies.  I never got her recipe, but this recipe from my childhood Cooky cookbook tastes the same to me.  This recipe uses almonds, but if you switch up the nuts and use pecans I think they're called Mexican Wedding Cakes.

Russian Teacakes

1 cup butter (or margarine)

1/2 cup sifted confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup finely chopped nuts (almonds Russian/Danish cookies, pecans for Mexican Wedding cakes)

Mix butter, sugar and vanilla
mix flour and salt together, blend in, add nuts

Chill dough

roll into 1" balls
bake at 400(F) for 10-12 minutes
 (375(F) for convection bake)

While still warm roll in confectioners' sugar
cool, roll or dust with sugar again

Christmas Bell Cookies

 When BitBoy was actually a boy, and not a grown man like he is now, I let him pick a new Christmas cookie to make.  He wasn't reading at the time, so picked this recipe based completely on a picture in the classic Betty Crocker Cooky Book.  My copy is from my childhood, held together with tape. The cover of my book is missing, as is the title page, I can only guess that it was printed in the late 70' or 1980 at the latest.  It's now a required Christmas cookie for all of the kids.

Christmas Bell Cookies

1/2 cup shortening (butter is best)

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

cream shortening, sugar, egg and vanilla together

stir flour, soda, and salt together, blend in

Color 2/3 of the dough red or green, then mold into a roll and freeze.

(Roll can be triangle for a green tree, or bell shaped for green and red bells)

Roll out not-colored dough into a sheet, wrap it around the chilled/frozen log of colored dough

Freeze again

to bake cookies, slice from roll ~1/8" thick and place ` 1/2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Place cinnamon candies (like Red Hots) on cookie as bell clapper or tree ornaments.
(original recipe calls for using un-tinted dough for clapper, trust me, cinnamon hots are better)

Bake at 375 (F) for 8-10 minutes
( 350 (F) for convection oven)

makes 5 doz cookies

Notes:

This is a small recipe, so if you want two colors of bells, rather than split the dough, it's easiest and most efficient to make three batches.  Color 2 whatever colors you want, then leave the 3rd uncolored and split in half to make wraps for each colored log.

Wressed Chicken with Broccoli

If you, like us, have a lot of turkey left over, try this casserole.

It's basically Thanksgiving in a casserole dish, but we like it year around.  It's a good way to use up leftover poultry, or a rotisserie chicken
 

Wressed Chicken with Broccoli

4 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed  (~ 1.5 lbs of cooked chicken or turkey)

20 oz frozen broccoli

sauce:

    1/2 cup butter

    3 Tbs flour

    2 cups chicken broth

    1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Arrange in casserole dish in this order:
Broccoli, chicken, sauce

Top with stuffing mix:

~ 7oz dried bread cubes (homemade or store bought)

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup butter

(if bread is unseasoned, add poultry seasoning or herbs de Provance for spice to taste)

Bake at 350 until heated through

For crunchy topping bake uncovered, cover lightly to keep dressing soft

Notes:
If this looks like
"Put a layer of  frozen broccoli in a casserole dish, then layer chopped left over turkey, pour gravy over it, and then top with stuffing, you're not wrong.

Chocolate Pud-n-Cake

When I was a little girl we would go to Grandma's house every Sunday.  There was always a lot of food.  Fried chicken or rabbit (Grandpa raised rabbits), pinto beans, green beans, raspeberries, peaches, and if we were lucky, maybe, this cake.  More recently I was watching The Great British Baking Show and learned it has another name and is part of a whole class of cakes "self-saucing cake".  It's meant to be served by turning it upside down as you take each portion out of the pan.

Chocolate pud-n-cake

1 cup flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilia

3 tablespoons cocoa

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons melted butter

1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Mix wet ingredients together, sift dry ingredients together and add to wet

Pour into ungreased pan.

mix together:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons  cocoa

sprinkle this mixture on top of cake batter in pan.  Pour 1 cup cold water on top

Bake for 45 min at 375 F

Notes and Comments:

You can easily substitute a gf flour.  Better Batter is my current favorite.
I don't use nuts, I like the creamy texture it has w/o them.

You can serve w/ whipped cream or ice cream if you want.

Honey Toffee Pennies

One of the first cook books I got as a kid was The Pooh Cook Book
My favorite recipe to make from that were these.

Honey Toffee Pennies

1/4 cup butter, sliced
3/4 cup honey
1 1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
juice of 1/2 lemon

Melt putter, honey, sugar and vinegar in a heavy bottomed sauce pan.  Keep over low heat until it has melted together. Stir and increase heat for
   10 min for chewy toffee
   15 minutes for hard toffee
   20 minutes for brittle toffee

Add the lemon juice (or other flavor) when it has reached desired consistency but while it is still boiling.

Drop onto wax paper into shapes.  As it cools you can use your hand to shape it, especially if at the chewy stage.


Notes and comments

I'd suggest using a candy thermometer to get the desired level of firmness.  As a kid I did the drop test to see if it was at the consistency I wanted.  I'd fill a clear glass w/ ice water and then drop a bit of the mixture from a spoon into the cold water, watching how the drop formed (soft or hard) told me when to take it off.  This works well for being at altitude, when you can't always depend on a thermometer to tell you what is what.

Instead of lemon juice you could add 6 drops of mint, or cinnamon, or nutmeg, or ginger.
You'd be wrong, because lemon is best.  But go ahead, you be you.

This recipe can be used to make candy covered apples, use the hard toffee stage

If you'd like something more like brittle than a hard candy, add a teaspoon of baking soda at the end of the brittle stage (hard crack).

Broccoli cheese casserole

This one is for Cheryl

6 eggs
6 Tbsp flour
8-10 ox shredded cheddar cheese
10 oz frozen broccoli
8 oz cottage cheese
3/4 stick butter
salt and pepper to taste

beat eggs, add in cheese, mix in broccoli

bake in 2  quart casserole dish at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes


Notes and modifications:

You need to keep the quantity of cheese the same, but I've varied what kind of cheese.  It was definitely on purpose and not because I needed to use up dribs and drabs of what was left in the fridge.  ;-)

Simple Sesame Cookies

As you can see, I like them a little toasty

I'm putting this recipe up here for my friend, Jen.
I took these to her the last time we visited, as an example of a gluten free, dairy free, egg free, vegan, cookie that was really, really, good, and when she liked them I promised her the recipe.

Sorry it took so long Jen!



These are basically a short bread cookie w/ nuts and seeds added



Simple Sesame Cookies

2 cups softened butter or margarine*
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 cups flour *
1 cup sesame seeds
2 cups shredded coconut
1/2 sliced or chopped almonds

Cream butter (or margarine) until light
Add sugar gradually
Beat until fluffy
Add flour, mix
Stir in sesame seeds, coconut and almonds

Roll dough into logs*
Freeze until very firm
Slice into ~1/4" cookies
Lay on unreleased cookie sheet (will spread a little)
Bake at 300 degrees ( or 280 degrees for convection oven) for 25-30 minutes

Take off pan while still warm to cool on rack or paper towl

These will crisp on cooling, shouldn't be allowed to brown (unless you like it a little extra toasty)



Notes and Modifications

* flour can be all purpose wheat, whole wheat pastry, or gluten free

My favorite gluten free flour for 1:1 replacement is Better Batter Flour.  It's nutritionally as bad as white flour but, for anything except yeast breads, it's hands down the best tasting best textured replacement.  So long as it's not an every day thing, I think it's safe not to worry about the lack of nutrition and fiber.

* My favorite butter replacement for cookies is Earth Balance margarine

*I like to shape the rolls so that when you cut them they are rectangles, but this batch was made by Fire Lord, and anything I didn't have to make myself is perfect just the way it is.

I haven't tried switching out the nuts and seeds, but I think it might be interesting to try to make pecan sandies using this recipe as a base

April's version of Deb's friend Stacy's Sweet Potato Casserole

That's how it goes doesn't it?  Sharing recipes is a little like sharing folk songs, things get changed as we pass them on.   My version is a little bigger than Deb's, and a little less sweet, but the idea is still the same.  Total deliciousness.

Sweet Potato Casserole

3.5-4 lbs canned yams or sweet potatoes
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter
4 beaten eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all together and pour into ~9x13 pan

Topping

1/2 cup butter (cold)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/2 chopped pecans

mix or cut w/ pastry blender sprinkle on sweet potato mixture

Bake at 350 for ~ 50-60 minutes.

Top should be crispy, but not very browned.


Notes and Modifications:

You can half the recipe if you don't have many people to fill.  But think about it, because the leftovers make a pretty good breakfast. 

I've substituted coconut oil for half the butter and it was just as yummy.

We're gluten free here, so I used Better Batter Flour instead of wheat flour. 

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Sometimes I just need a chocolate cake.  Especially if it's my birthday.

Since going gluten free I've discovered a flour I like (Better Batter) and I can make just about any regular recipe using that flour.

But, when you want a really rich decadent chocolate cake, a flourless chocolate cake can't be beat. 
So, here's a recipe I've been using for a couple of years, taken from the internet, but tweaked until it's just right for me.

Flourless Chocolate Cake
Put in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave 20-30 seconds at a time, stirring each time until it's smooth and creamy:

2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter (or coconut oil if you're dairy free)


Meanwhile beat 3 eggs (sorry, this just can't be made egg free)
 beat into the eggs:
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa powder

Mix chocolate/butter mixture into egg mixture.


Line bottom of a small spring form pan, or small cake pan (~8" or less) with parchment paper
Pour cake batter into lined pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Let cool, use dull blade to detach edges of cake and pop it out of the pan.


 Notes and Modifications:

If I'm feelling a little guilty about all this decadence I sometimes mix in 1-3 tablespoons flax seed, doesn't change the taste, just adds a bit of texture

A double boiler can be used if you don't have a microwave

This is lovely as is, but you if you want a fancier cake or an even bigger indulgence, you can put chocolate ganache  on top.

Chocolate Ganache

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter (or coconut oil, or cream)
adjust fat/cream to get texture you want
(optional 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, rum, or other flavor)

Put in microwave-safe bowl, heat in microwave 20-30 seconds at a time, stirring after each time until smooth.  Pour on top of cooled cake, smooth, put in fridge so ganache firms up.  Serve at room temperature

Greek Salad Dressing

This one is for Tia, so she can have it anytime, on anything.

Greek Salad Dressing

1/2 cup olive oil
5 T  red wine vinegar
2 T lemon juice
1 T oregano
2-4 garlic cloves
1-2 t soy lecithin
salt and pepper to taste

I put it all in a blender.  The lecithin helps thicken it, and keeps it from separating so easily.

We like it on Greek salad, but it's also nice on sauteed veggies,  pasta, etc..

A Frozen Treat on a Frozen Day

Brrr!  It's literally freezing here.  I'm talking negative numbers. -22 F when I got up this morning, it was up to -6 when I left to run our morning errands at 10 am.

You'd think it'd be a good time to cook and bake, and you'd be right, but it's also apparently a good time to make gelato.  We've been having this treat at least once a week for a couple of weeks now.  Perhaps it's because we never get our fill.  This recipe makes just a quart, which is barely enough to give everyone in our family of 5 a small bowlful.  Perhaps it's because it's just down right yummy, and easy enough to make often, even if you're 9 years old, like Hot Dog.



Basic Gelato Recipe

3 eggs
1/2 cup cream
2 1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
dash of salt
2 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk the 3 eggs in a pot until homogeneous
Add milk and cream, whisk again
Add sugar and salt, whisk again

Heat on medium or medium low heat whisking occasionally until thick and starting to bubble.  Cool in fridge (or outside on a freezing day) for 2 + hours (or a couple of days, if like me you get busy and forget about it)

When cool add vanilla, whisk one last time, and freeze in ice cream maker according to manufactures instructions.


Notes and Modifications

The other thing that's been making this addictive is that I finally learned how best to add chocolate chips - heat the oven on low (~200 F) put a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet and put ~1/2 cup of chocolate chips on the wax paper and set in warm oven until chocolate is soft and gooey.  Pull it out and scrape liquid chocolate into the cold gelato, whisk, then freeze according to instructions.  The chocolate hardens in ribbons that are lovely in the finished product.

You can vary the flavor - use almond extract, mint extract, orange extract etc... instead of vanilla
I want to try chocolate sometime, oooh, or maybe chocolate orange w/ bits of orange zest in it.   Yea, that would be good.  If I could ever not make the basic chocolate chip that we all keep craving.

Super Easy Pizza Dough

Easiest Pizza Dough Ever

1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon bread machine yeast
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt (kosher if you have it)
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (optional)


Throw it all in the bread machine on the dough cycle.  You don't have to wait for the whole cycle, when it gets to the "rise" mode you can take it out and shape it.

Pre-heat oven to 500

Roll thin (~1/4")  and top as desired.

Notes and modifications:

One trick we learned is to bake it with just the sauce on it for ~3 min. then put the cheese  and other toppings on and finish it.  That cooks the crust a little bit more.
Also I like to sprinkle some extra pizza spice on the sauce, and minced garlic on top of the cheese.

Not-quite-Roti

On our sabbatical trip to the Caribbean we tried local cuisine whenever we could. In the British Virgin Islands one dish that was on many menus was "Roti".  Our experience with Roti was that it was a curry mix wrapped up in a tortilla.  Today we had a "Caribbean" party and I wanted to serve Roti, so I tried to google a recipe.  It turns out "Roti" is a naan like bread.  In the Caribbean it's filled with a savory curry and served as a ready to eat sandwich,colloquially called Roti, but not really the Indian Roti.

No matter how much I love them, I wasn't up to making individually shaped bread for 30 people.  I settled for making 2 curries and letting folks fill a tortilla with them.  Being me, I didn't follow a recipe, although I looked a few for inspiration.  Here's what I  made.

Beef Coconut Curry

 one beef roast, ~3lbs, whatever is on sale this week
Put in slow cooker with a jar of salsa and cook on low for 6-8 hrs.

You could stop here because that roast beef is pretty good just like this. Pull off bones and fat.  Eat it strait, or shred it and put a little vinegar on it, put it on a bun, and called it a pulled beef sandwich.

If you still want curry, chop or shred the beef and read on.

3 lbs potatoes, cut into chunks (~1.5 in)
 Put in pot, cover with water, salt if desired
Boil to not quite crunchy anymore, but not yet soft.

1 large onion coarsely chopped
4-8 cloves minced garlic
Fry onion and garlic in olive oil or butter
Add curry spice - ~3-5 teaspoons - it should taste good, but stronger than you want the curry to be
 I used Sunny Caribbee's Madras Curry, but just use what you have/like.

Put chopped beef, drained par boiled potatoes, and onion/garlic/curry mixture in crock pot.  Pour one can of coconut milk over the top. Stir it together and taste test.  If you want more spice add it, add salt and peppter to taste.  If you accidentally made your curry to spicy, add extra coconut milk.

Cook on low for a couple of hours.  Serve wrapped in tortillas, or in real Roti if you had the time to make some.

Vegetable Curry

 3 lbs chunked par boiled potatoes

2 cans of cooked beans, or equivalent amount of cooked dry beans, drained

1 large onion coarsely chopped
4-8 cloves minced garlic
Fry onion and garlic in olive oil or butter
Add curry spice - ~3-5 teaspoons - it should taste good, but stronger than you want the curry to be
 I used Sunny Caribbee's Madras Curry, but just use what you have/like

1 large can (2.5 lbs) yams, drained and chopped

1 jar salsa

Combine all ingredients into crock pot heat on low for 2-4 hours, serve wrapped in tortilla.



Notes and modifications



This looks ugly.  I know.  It tastes great though.  Wrap it up and you won't have to look at it.

I made up the pots of curry the night before, put them in the fridge overnight, and then just turned on the crock pots in the morning.

I used beans to add protein to the vegetable curry.  Lentils would have been more authentic, but I was out.

Both crock pots need water after a while, as they started to get a bit dry.  That was after cooking for most of the day, so for a normal meal I don't know that extra water would be needed.

Pumpkin instead of, or in addition to, yams would have been good, as well as authentic.

I think cooked carrots would be good in either curry. ( I don't know if that would be authentic.)

I used salsa because it was easy, and I have a lot of jars  from last years canning.  You could also use fresh onion, pepper, and tomato if that's what you have.

I think the secret to this curry is par boiled potatoes and fried onions/garlic with curry.  After that you can add whatever you fancy, or what left overs you have in the fridge, and it will probably be pretty good.

I have a few curry mixes I use, and I think any would have worked here.  It's just what you prefer.

I'm going to try freezing my leftovers, some pre-wrapped so I can just pop it in the microwave for a quick lunch, and some in a big tub for a family meal.

Kefir water

I've been making kefir water for a couple of years now.

This last year I fell behind, having other things on my mind.  Wanting and needing some more pro-biotic support I went looking for my little old pets.  I found these at the back of my fridge.

Yup.  3 jars of kefir.  Not only that, but they were experimental.  One was just the plain sugar water mix and kefir grains, one had a ground calcium tablet, and the other added molasses.  The grains in calcium  had not increased at all, the plain sugar  had doubled, and the molasses had tripled.  So, if your kefir grains are sluggish, I suggest adding molasses.

Here's how I make kefir:

1st fermentation:

3 Tbs kefir grains (I got my from a friend whose grains multiplied)
1/3 cup sugar
1 quart water


Mix all together and let sit out at room temp for 12-72 hrs.

Strain grains out

2nd fermentation:

put liquid w/o grains into bottles
add fruit juice to flavor or flavored sugar syrup and let sit at room temperature for 1-3 days.
Refrigerate what isn't immediately consumed.

Meanwhile take the grains and start over again. 

Super easy, yes?

I happened to have some of the 2nd fermented fruit flavored kefir in the fridge too.  The pomegranate, the grape, and the raspberry were excellent.  The orange had a lovely taste but developed the texture of mucous.  Fizzy mucous at that.  So, looking at the dates - don't leave orange kefir in the fridge for over a year and expect to enjoy drinking it.

The plain kefir water (1st fermentation) had sat in the fridge since last March.  That's, like, 10 months people!  Could they possibly still be alive?  I decanted them, and started them again.  Yup.  They're active and good to go, even the sluggish calcium fed grains.  Wow.   I've set the re-energized kefir back in the fridge, and started a new experiment.  I put some of the extra grains in the freezer, and set some to dehydrate.  Wonder if they'll be alive when I get around to them in a few months?



Notes and modifications:

I don't bother boiling or filtering the water and I haven't had any problems, but if you have a lot of chlorine, or don't trust your water supply might need to do something.

Cranberry Salsa

I love this cranberry salsa.   It's amazingly delicious.  It's easy.  It's pretty.  It's all kinds of healthy.

I discovered the recipe over a year ago in a local newspaper.  I made it all last fall and winter and forgot about it until just last weekend.   What a treat to find the clipping and be inspired to make it again.  I'm putting it here so I won't lose it again, and so you can try making it.

Fresh Cranberry Salsa  (makes ~1 quart)

1 package fresh cranberries (washed and picked over)
2-4 stalks celery
1/2 red onion
1  jalapeno (seeded)
4 Tbs  sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs lime juice
cilantro to taste

chop everything fine, or use food processor

Mix it all up.  Done.

If you can wait 3-24 hrs for the flavors to meld, it will get even better, but I tend to gobble it up right away.

Notes and modifications:

This is only a little spicy, my kids like it.

I ran out of lime juice and used lemon juice - it was still pretty dang good.
Ditto on the red onion and substituting regular onion.

You can also halve the recipe, although I don't know why you'd want to.  I'd just eat any extra with a spoon.

Melting Air

Every year our church's mother's group has a Holiday Cookie exchange.  This year I brought meringue cookies.  It's kind of an every day cookie here because I have one child who likes just a fried egg yolk for breakfast, which leaves a lot of egg whites in a tub in the fridge.  That also explains why I can't tell you exactly how many eggs to use.  I'd say about half a pint of eggs makes one batch and fills the cookie jar.

Not only are these cookies yummy melt-in-your-mouth, but they are also gluten free and dairy free.

Meringue Cookies

egg whites
sugar to equal volume of egg whites
splash of vanilla (or other flavor)

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Whip egg whites and vanilla until frothy.  Slowly add sugar as you continue whipping egg whites.  Stop when the egg whites can form a stiff peak.

Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheets covered with parchment paper.

Turn off oven and put cookies in.  Leave them in a long time.  Like all day.  Every now and then check on the cookies.  If the oven has cooled, turn it on as low as it will go (170 for my oven) for 10-20 min.  Leave them in overnight if you can.

What you're doing is essentially drying the cookies out.  Test them as you go.   When the cookie is hard and dry (not chewy, and not weeping)  it's done.  It will be crisp to bite, but melt in your mouth if you don't chew.


Notes and modifications:

I've forgotten the vanilla and they're still pretty good.

You can try other flavorings.  I liked almond extract.  The orange extract just tasted vaguely citrus.  Rum was uniformly awful.  I haven't tried mint yet, but that might be an interesting Christmas experiment.

No Knead Bread - the new crack

I've been using a slightly modified version of this no knead bread from Frugal Homemaking.

My version is slightly different, in that I have lowered the salt.  It's just a preference thing - I don't like salty bread.

It's amazing, and super easy.  I can make it up quickly, ignore it for half a day or over night, throw it in the oven and take it to a gathering and come away looking like a hero.  Yea me!

Here's the basic recipe I've been making.  I've got it memorized now.  Maybe I'll try making it on the boat!

No Knead Bread

3 cups warm water
1 tsp yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp salt
6 cups white flour


Mix the yeast and salt with the warm water, mix in the flour.  Let rise (covered or uncovered) for 5+ hrs.  (I use an unheated oven, since my house is a bit cool this time of year)

Put an oven-safe pot w/ lid into the oven to warm at 500 degrees F.   I line the pot with parchment paper because that makes it easier to get the bread out.
Once oven reaches temperature pour/scrape the dough/batter into the pot, cover with the lid, and bake for 1/2 hour.  Turn oven off, take lid off pot and leave the bread in the hot (but cooling) oven for another 15-30 min.  (this crisps and browns the top)

That's it.  All done.

Plain no knead bread and chocolate chip dry cherry no knead bread

Notes and Modifications:

Once you've got the basic recipe down you can play with it.  I like dried apricots with walnuts bread, and chocolate chip cherry bread.  Bit Boy likes kalamata olive bread, which is also pretty good.

This is a pretty big loaf of bread, I use a 10 qt cast iron dutch oven with a lid to bake it in.  It makes two nice smaller loaves if you have a couple of smaller pots.  If you make two loaves you can have one plain and experiment with adding stuff to the other loaf.

I've tried this with whole wheat flour.  Don't do that.  Just don't.  I usually love whole grain flours, but this comes out like a brick.  If you  must, you can make 1 cup of it whole wheat, but it won't be crack bread, it'll just be very good bread.