I has it.
Bread
My house smells sooooo good right now.
Archive for the Category »food «
01
May
2008
2008
Yum!
I have been experimenting with my new mixer, and it dawned on me that I could make homemade pizza crusts. Sure, I could have made them before I got the mixer, but I’ve been looking at what kinds of things I cam make to justify the cost of the darn thing. Pizza sounded like just the thing. I pulled a pizza dough recipe out of a cookbook, threw in the ingredients, made the dough, and baked the pizza, and …. bleh. The dough was not cooked all the way through, and wasn’t even browned at all. It tasted pretty good, just not what I wanted.
Try number two. I prebake the crust before I put the toppings on it. This one came out pretty darn good. I had to take a picture of the one I made for Brian with his favorite toppings (olive oil, garlic, mozzarella and tomatoes). It looked delicious. Still not quite as browned as I would like, but nearly there.
Try number three – pre-baked the crust for 10 minutes instead of seven, and it came out perfect. Nice, browned, chewy crust, bubbly cheese… delicious.
Now I’m hungry.
Category: food
2 Comments
30
Apr
2008
2008
I’ve been asked to post my recipe for potato soup, so here goes.
- 6 medium/large red potatoes, diced
- 1/2 lb bacon (diced) or breakfast sausage
- 4 tbls flour
- butter
- milk
- salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste.
Cook diced potatoes in water until tender, drain.
Meanwhile, cook bacon or sausage in a large saucepan until done. Remove meat from pan. Reserve fat. Add 4 tbls fat back into the pan, adding butter to make up the difference if there is not enough. Over med-low heat, add 4 tbls flour to make a roux. Stir until bubbly. Remove from heat. GRADUALLY add 2 cups of milk, stirring constantly, until smooth. Bring to a simmer and stir until thickened. Add meat and cooked potatoes into pan. Add milk to cover potatoes. Heat on very low heat until just at a simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Serves 4-6.
Season to taste.. I use about a tablespoon garlic powder, tsp salt and tsp pepper – adjust that to taste. Serve with warm bread. 
I used sausage in this one. If you use bacon, make sure to dice it fairly small and cook it until crisp. It’ll soften in the soup and you don’t want it undercooked.
Category: food
2 Comments
29
Apr
2008
2008
I decided to put my mixer to use today, and have managed to produce two slightly misshapen loaves of sourdough bread.
This is really good bread… I decided to buy some sourdough starter online after I kept screwing mine up, and located a great place to buy San Francisco Sourdough starter. I need to get some of the other goodies that they have on that website, but what I have now works fine. The Mixer has made a huge difference in the quality and quantity of bread I turn out… it’s a lot easier to make the dough, so I do it a lot more often. If you’re into bread baking, I highly recommend giving sourdough a try.
Category: food
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14
Apr
2008
2008
I ordered my Kitchenaid stand mixer a little while back, and have been waiting patiently for it to arrive. Well, of course it shows up when we had to go out of town. Thankfully, my neighbor Gabriela was kind enough to put it inside the house so it didn’t have to wait on the porch until I got home. Thanks, Gabriela!
I managed to locate the ONE place in my kitchen it would fit… my cabinets all hang about 1/2 inch too low to fit it underneath. Grrr. However, there is a space between my microwave and the sink that has no cabinets overhead, and it is the perfect size to fit the mixer. Good thing it’s there, or I would have had to use it on the kitchen table.
My husband insisted that I bake something immediately, so I decided cookies were the best option. Easy, quick, and tasty. The sourdough bread came the next day.
So here, for your viewing pleasure, are my lovely peanut butter cookies. Very tasty.
Category: food, life
One Comment
25
Mar
2008
2008
Hopefully everything is working properly! I found a layout that I like… I’m curious what everyone else thinks about it. It’s been a bit fiddly trying to get the sidebars set up the way I want them, and I’m sure I’ll be making a few more changes over the next few days.
Next project, spring cleaning. I don’t know what it is about spring weather that just makes you want to tidy up. Normally I’m not the tidiest person in the world (I have “file piles”… those of you who do this know what I mean), but I really want to get the house back into shape. I’m in the process of going through the kitchen and weeding out old appliances and assorted junk. Anyone want a 20 year old crockpot? It still works!
Oh… coming soon to my kitchen… the Kitchenaid 600 Professional Stand Mixer in Cinnamon Red. I have wanted one of these forever, and since my husband insists on me making sourdough bread for him on a regular basis, he has relented and purchased one of these for me.
Beautiful, eh?
I have halted progress on the Leo Sweater. I realized that I was going to need a lot more of the yarn I chose than I had originally thought… 21 balls instead of 15. Yikes! So, I head on over to Knit Picks to order more (hoping they still have the same dyelot), and it’s out of stock until April 25th. Well, so much for the same dyelot. I called Knit Picks and spoke with a very nice lady (Brenda, I think), and she told me “Oh, no problem, just send back what you haven’t used and we’ll refund your money”. Woo! I (heart) Knit Picks. Now I just need to find out what color to actually order after I send this stuff back. I will be pestering hubby to make a choice this evening. In the meantime, I get to rip out what I’ve already started. Well, at least I had only knitted about 3/4″ instead of 15 inches or so! Next time, I will know, pick the pattern first, and then buy the yarn.
Good rule to remember.
Category: food, knitting, life
4 Comments
