Easy Peasy Homemade Bread

I just got this recipe the day before yesterday from a friend (thanks Deborah!) and tried it out last night. Mmmm, mmm, good. This is a recipe for basic white bread, but stay tuned for variations of this recipe as I will be experimenting with it a bit.



Easy Peasy Homemade Bread

4 cups Flour
2 teaspoons Salt
2 tablespoons Sugar
2 teaspoons Yeast
1 1/2 cups Warm Water (plus a little)
2 tablespoons Oil

Blend flour and salt. Add remaining ingredients and mix together. (Add more flour as necessary.) Knead for 10 minutes or so. Rub a little oil inside the bowl and ad dough. Flip the dough over to get oil on both sides. Cover and allow to rise in a warm spot for one hour. Shape the dough and place in greased pan. (Enough dough for 2 bread pans or 1 large baking sheet) Slit top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

Note: When I made it, I didn't have any bread pans, so I just shaped the entire ball of dough into one large loaf, glazed it with a small amount of melted butter, baked it on a Pampered Chef stone bar pan for 30 minutes and it came out perfect. It is a dense bread, but not very heavy, which is perfect for smearing some butter and jam on. ;) I also had to let mine rise for a lot longer than the recipe calls for, because I had to run an errand, but I just beat it down a bit and let it rise for another hour when I got home.

Try out this recipe and comment with the results. I can't wait to hear if any of you tried it and how you liked it.

Fourth of July

I've been watching a lot of Food Network lately. I think it's so interesting that there is an entire television channel devoted to food. One of my favorite shows has become The Next Food Network Star. It's really remarkable what people can do with food. It's even more amazing to me that there are so many foods I've never heard of, let alone eaten! It makes me want to venture out to the nearest Whole Foods Market (which incidentally is in HOUSTON) and buy the ingredients for something like Pancetta and Pesto Souffle. Have you ever cooked with pesto? It's very exciting.

I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a food snob, but I do enjoy imagining what it would be like to create something delicious off-the-top-of-my-head. I perused the grocery store for some ideas to make something in honor of Independence Day- I found frozen berry medley. Feeling a little creative, I bought 2 bags (1 lb each) along with some cool whip, bananas and vanilla wafers. Today I decided to throw it all together myself, and not follow a recipe :0 I realize it's not totally original, but I think it turned out beautifully!

I apologize for my less-than decorative serving bowl :(

For any food critics out there, I'll understand if you leave a comment with suggestions ;)

It's currently chilling in the fridge. I'll let you know how the family likes it later. Here's how I made it:

First I mixed together:
12 oz Cool Whip
20 oz (estimate) cream cheese, or neufchatel
1/4 c. sugar

Next, I layered the bottom of the bowl with vanilla wafers and sliced bananas. I topped that with the cream cheese mixture. Using a slotted spoon, I added some of the thawed fruit. *You can use fresh fruit- which would minimize the juice spilling into the dessert. On the next layer, rather than line it with cookies, I outlined it and scattered several throughout the middle and continued to layer the bananas, cream cheese and fruit. There were 3 layers total.

I am going to top each serving with a dollop of cool whip. Bon appetit!

Beefless Stroganoff

Last year, I made an effort to replace almost all ground beef with ground turkey and it has gone over pretty well. I have gone through and revised most of my recipes that call for ground beef, so that they ground turkey is barely, if at all, noticeable. Here is my revision of Beef Stroganoff...



Beefless Stroganoff

1/4 cup of Butter
1lb. Ground Turkey
1 large can of Mushrooms
1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 cup of Light Sour Cream
1/2 cup of Chopped Onion
2T. Flour
2 t. Salt
1/4t. Pepper
1/4t. Paprika

Saute onion in butter until golden. Add turkey, brown. Add flour, salt, pepper, and paprika. Mix well. Add the mushrooms with liquid; cook for 5 minutes. Add soup and cook for 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream; heat thoroughly. Serve over noodles, rice, or mashed potatoes.

Easy Chicken Carbonara Pizza

This is a super easy recipe that I came up with recently and has quickly become a favorite. I don't have a picture of it at the moment, but I will take one next time I make it.


Ingredients:

Pillsbury Canned Pizza Crust (I use this one specifically, because it cooks so well and is only 2grams of fat per serving, whereas the off-brand has 7grams)
Alfredo Sauce (homemade or jarred)
2 Chicken Breasts
5 Slices of Bacon
Italian Seasonings
Mozzerella Cheese


Follow instructions on can for preparation of crust. Cut chicken breasts into bite size pieces. In a skillet, I melt 3Tb of margarine, which I cook chicken in. Cook bacon separately. (I just pop them into the microwave with paper towels under and on top of the slices. It only takes 1 minute per slice.) Spread Alfredo sauce on crust. Sprinkle desired amount of cheese on top. Top with chicken and crumbled bacon, followed by the seasonings. Bake for amount of time as instructed in the instructions for the pizza crust. I bake mine for about 15 minutes at 425 degrees. The key is to make sure the crust is golden. Another tip for making it extra tasty is to bake it on a stoneware pan (FYI: crust comes out of can rectangular), which helps it to cook evenly throughout.