I had a potluck this weekend. What to bring?

Also, we are currently trying to pack the house up.

Therefore, I don’t/didn’t want to buy stuff.

So, I dug in the pantry and found I had kidney beans and corn there, and some feta in my freezer. Aha! Time for a ‘Greek’ bean salad.

I wish I’d had garbonzos, but I still didn’t, so I used purple hull peas instead. I made a dressing out of extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, distilled white vinegar and greek seasoning. Turned out pretty yummy. I just added a few diced boiled eggs, chopped red onions, some tri-colored peppers and pimentos and, …… tada!

I love orange sherbet. One of my favorite frozen concoctions ever. The only thing I have ever found to improve it is chocolate syrup. It makes me think of those orange creme-filled dark chocolates, which I also love. Try it – unless you are grossed out. But don’t tell me if you are. This is purty!

I thought about how much I love hummus, but I had neither chickpeas (garbonzo beans) or pita. I did have two cans of cannellini beans, so I used thos with some more Italian spices, parsley, extra-virgin olive oil, tahini, and lemon juice.

This is some peasant bread I made (about 1/5 whole wheat flour, res unbleached white) with Italian spices. I learned that putting a little fat (in this case extra-virgin olive oil) into the bread drastically improves its taste and texture) no more extra-hard crusts!

I was thirsty, so I put a little simple syrup, ice and some basil leaves into a glass and shook. Then I added gin and club soda. That is the drink in the pic, it were yummy? Sometimes, I think basil makes everything better!

To the point, I am quite busy with work (and when I am not, I should be), but I will try to update this better. I am learning a bit about webpage design, so hopefully I will garner enough knowledge to help this site I have here.  At the moment I am not at home and do not have my camera or all the photos I have taken, so I will not attempt to make a new food post yet. But know this, I will make this better. I may not have any fresh herbs (I am a terribly lazy gardener), or be able to afford Vietnamese cinnamon, or have access to much in the way of seafood, but I can make realistic food with comments about technique that I would hope will aid anyone who wished to try one of my recipes. Allow me to leave you with my pot roast recipe (just click on the link for a pdf recipe).

Jenni’s Pot Roast

I love this with my artisanal peasant loaf! Sorry I don’t have any pictures.

I have tried the peasant breads, and one with more whole wheat flour, where I added some honey and milk. I don’t know how much, so I cannot give the recipe.

Most of the time, they work pretty well. I am not very good at shaping bread yet, so I don’t have any good pics of bread shaping. Most of the time it just looks weird.

And so, amid all these great, yummy loaves of bread I was making, I thought I had memorized the recipe. However, I accidentally doubled the amount of salt and yeast. So, I got risey, salty bread. It was edible, but not the best. So, I was listening the the Splendid Table podcast, and Lynne got a call about something called kouign amann. It was a salty, buttery, sweet pastry. So I thought, hmm, I have a salty dough, how much og a stretch would it be to make it buttery and sweet? Granted, what I had was nowhere near the beginning recipe, I did decide to slice up some cool butter and roll it in between a sheet of dough anyway. So, I rolled out my warmed dough on the copiously floured the counter into a rectangle. I put some slices of butter on that rectangle (cool and thinly sliced), then folded it into thirds and rolled it out into another rectangle. I did this 4 times, adding unsalted butter each time.

I think next time, I will add some sugar. At the end of all that rolling and rectangle-making, I let the dough rest for about 20 minutes (while heating the oven to 425). Then, I cut it into squares and then shaped them into rounds. That was a bad idea, I should have left them as rectangles. Some of them were still rectangly anyway. Them I washed them with a beaten egg (applied via a pastry brush) and sprinkled on some raw brown (turbinado) sugar. That stuff is fantastic for finishing pastries because it is so pretty.

I then placed them in the oven for about 20 minutes. I know, my baking stone is brown-ish. But, it gets that way. I use it a LOT.

Here is the plated product.

Personally, I like them. I have yet to force them onto others to see what they say. I haven’t a name for them yet, but I have learned a valuable lesson about making flaky pastries. It is not as hard as I had thought it would be, but I find it difficult to get thinks in the right shape and size.

This, I think I will consider, is a brunch food.

I made some more bread. But, I was taking it over to a friend’s house and I was late so I didn’t get to take any piece. It is the no-knead bread from before, but I changed up a bit. I added the flour using the scoop-and-scrape method. If you spoon the flour into the cup instead of shoving it down into the flour, you don’t get the right consistency. Also, I used less water. And I doubled it because I knew it would last a long time, and I was going to be going through it at an accelerated rate if I brought it over to someone’s house. It still stuck to the towel during the two-hour rising period, so I don’t think that is actually going to work. If you get it to, let me know, but from know on, I am putting down some wax paper between the bread and the towel. (I used tea towels rather than terry).

So, here is a pic. Not of the whole loaf, just a piece.

And, here is today’s harvest from the garden. My tomatoes are supposed to be that color, I have orange cherry and yellow pear, along with some lettuce and a zucchini that I seem to have missed before.

And, the salad that resulted from that, along with a cracker made of shredded and toasted Grana Padano (a hard cheese), and some cucumber that the water aerobics gave to me.

Okay, so I am trying my hand at the recipe featured in the New York Tines about No-Knead Bread. It is pretty easy to do. I don’t have an enamel pan or anything decent with a lid except for my stockpot, so that is what I used. I love that stockpot. Although, I think when I get a real job where I earn some real money, and enamel-coated cast iron pot will be desired.

Anyway, the stockpot really didn’t work too well because the sides were all large and I almost burned myself, but I didn’t. Which is pretty amazing, considering I have a tendency for self-destruction. Anyhow, it really didn’t work very well in that pot, and the dough stuck to my tea towel. I don’t really know why that happened, unless they measure flour using the scoop and scrape method, whereas I used the spoon and scrape method, thereby reducing the amount of flour as indicated in the recipe. Some liquid was removed from the dough from the towel, so I assume I just had more water than necessary, and that made it stick tot he towel. So, it looked pretty ugly going into the pot.

It is still pretty ugly, it doesn’t taste bad, though, it tastes like bread. Bread with a really hard crust.

I am going to try it again, but this time I will find a lid for my Pyrex casserole dish, due to needing a lid and all. Also, I will probably scoop the flour out of the bin and then level it off with a knife, so that way, more flour gets in. I think that will help it to be better. In the meantime, I think you should try it. Experiment. It is cheaper than actually buying something considered “artisanal” bread, and it doesn’t take much time to do. And if it turns out really bad, just grind it up in the food processor and you have breadcrumbs. Those are useful little things. I am off to finish running calculations and eating more bread.

I went tot he farmer’s market today to pick up some stuff, summer squash, tomatoes, cheese, bread, lettuce and ground lamb. Oh, and some lamb ribs and soup bones. I adore soup bones. I don’t know what I am going to do with those yet. I will think of something, though, that incorporates the ground lamb, some naan and Indian spices that can all be cooked on a grill. Mmmm.

So, as for those herbed rolls, they can be quite salty, so adjust accordingly. Here is a suggestion for the leftovers:

I was hungry, but not that hungry, so I figured some appetizer-type food would do well. I grabbed some of the rolles and sliced them in half. Then, I added a tappenade and some fresh mozerella and smoked salt. Broil this for about five to eight minutes (depending on how you want your cheese to look) and, viola, yumminess in a bite size. My favorite size for yumminess.

Here is the recipe for the tapenade (btw, I made too much to eat myself, so I stuck it in the freezer in small containers; I pulled one out yesterday and it was fantastic, no harm done if you wish to freeze some for later!)

Balsamic Artichoke Tapenade

1 can large, pitted black olives

4 artichoke hearts (canned, med size, drained)

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon pimentos

1 tablespoon capers (rinsed and drained)

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Finely chop olives and artichoke hearts. Add t he rest of the ingredients except the oil and vinegar. In a separate container, combine oil and vinegar by adding the oil slowly and stirring rapidly with a fork. Pour over other ingredients and stir. Set in refrigerator for an hour and serve. This goes pretty great with bread and crackers, and you can use it as an accompaniment to proteins such as chicken.

And, to leave you, I present an open-faced sandwich. Part of a ciabatta loaf, sliced, some sliced tomatoes, guacamole, mixed baby greens and grilled chicken (which I spiced thoroughly with cumin, salt, pepper, garlic pepper and chili powder). It was great, and some little hot marinated okras were a decent addition.

Herbed French Rolls

So, I haven’t been on in a while, work has been crazy and when I get home, I am tired and usually watch TV or play Sims. That probably won’t be getting any better anytime soon, but I will attempt to put the recipes I have recently completed. Including my “catering” job back in April.

First, something simple.

I was hungry this morning. Not any different from any other morning, but I desired something different. And, since it is my birthday, I made something. It took about 10 minutes total. I cheated and used refrigerator biscuits. And the new George Foreman Grill with the waffle inserts. It would work in a regular waffle iron, but I didn’t have one of those.

Biscuit Waffles

1 package refrigerator bicuits (approx 10 biscuits)

brown sugar

butter-flavored non-stick cooking spray

sliced strawberries

white granulated sugar

light corn syrup

Preheat waffle iron (I used the medium setting on the Foreman). Remove biscuits from package (I used Pilsbury Flaky layers, buttermilk would work wonderfully as well) and spread them out on a plate. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Flip, sprinkle other side with brown sugar. There should be little biscuit showing. Spray waffle irons (both sides) with the cooking spray. Place the biscuits evenly among the waffle grids. You can sprinkle any remaining sugar from the plate over them, then close the lid. Cook for about 5 minutes. In the meantime, slice up a few strawberries and sprinkle them with granulated sugar. This will break them down a bit so they are softer and more yummy. When removing the waffles, keep in mind they are hot and sticky. Put a few on your plate, cover with the sliced strawberries and light corn syrup, if desired.

Bear in mind that you just cooked sugar on the outside of them, so they will be a bit chewy. You may want to cut them with a knife.

These are the waffles with corn syrup on them