No knead bread

I just realized that I've never posted the recipe, so here it is!

We used to keep a starter for artisan bread in 5 minutes a day in the fridge at all times, but because you're supposed to take some out and add more every once in a while, and of course, we couldn't waste what we tossed out, we ended up baking (and eating) bread waaay too much (if there is such a thing) and eventually stopped :(   

Now we use this recipe instead when we're in the mood for fresh baked bread.  It's quick, easy and delicious and we love it.  In fact, when we make it, we tend to make several loaves at once, which kind of defeats the purpose of not keeping the old starter because we still end up eating too much bread.  Well, at least I get the fridge space back :)

Ingredients:

- 3 cups of flour (bread flour is preferable but all-purpose will work too)

- 1 1/2 cups of warm water

- 1/4 tsp yeast

- 1 tsp salt

Directions:

- At least 8 hours ahead of time, or up to 24 hours in advance, mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl (make sure to leave room for the dough to rise) and cover.  Let rise.

- When the dough is ready, it will look very wet and bubbly.

- Gently knead the dough a bit with your hands to punch down some of the bubbles and shape it into a messy ball.  You can shape it into a pretty ball if you'd like, but just be sure to slit the top before putting it into the oven.

- To make transferring the dough and clean easy, I like to plop the ball on parchment paper and put it back in the original bowl.  Let it rise for an hour or two.

- Preheat the oven and a dutch oven to 450 degrees.

- Carefully transfer the dough into the HOT dutch oven.  If you're using parchment paper, you can just place the parchment paper into the pot along with the dough.  

- Put the lid on the dutch oven and place it back in the oven for 30 minutes.

- Then remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes.

- Remove the bread and let it cool on a rack.

- Slice and enjoy!  Our favorite is to pair it with cheese :)

Chive Boxes

I love all dumpling'ish foods such as dumplings, pot stickers, steamed buns and of course chive boxes, also known as jiu cai he zi in Chinese.

Garlic chives or Chinese chives are much more potent than regular chives and I love the flavor and fragrance.  I started growing garlic chives in the garden, but I still don't have quite enough to make a decent batch of chive boxes, so store-bought will have to do for now.

The main components of chive boxes are egg, glass noodles and of course chives!  If you like, mini dried shrimp make a tasty addition as well.  And if you decide that you don't like the flavor of garlic chives, which can be a bit strong, you can easily substitute it for other veggies such as spinach and even add some ground pork or shrimp to make your own tasty creation!

I'm also submitting this dish to Weekend Herb Blogging which is being hosted by Chris at Mele Cotte.  Check out the other submissions if you get a chance!

Ingredients:
(Dough)

- All Purpose Flour
- Hot Water

(Filling)
- Garlic chives
- Glass noodles aka mung bean noodles, cellophane noodles, etc.
- Eggs
- Salt and/or soy sauce

- Sesame oil

Directions:
- Mix together the flour and hot water (about 2 parts flour to 1 part water) until a nice smooth dough is formed.  Cover it and set it aside.
- Chop the chives into 1/2-1/4 inch bits.
- Scramble the eggs in a pan with a bit of salt and/or soy to taste.
- Soak the glass noodles in hot water until soft and pliable.  Then chop the noodles into approximately 1 inch lengths.
- Mix the chives, glass noodles and eggs together in a bowl.  Season with soy sauce and sesame oil as needed.

- Cut off a chunk of the dough and roll and stretch it into a rope of about 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter.
- Slice the rope into approximately 1 inch chunks (depending on how big you want your chive boxes to be and how thick you like the skin to be), turning the rope 90 degrees in between each cut so that you the dough doesn't get flattened into an oval.

- Smoosh each chunk into a circle, dust with flour, set aside, and cover them with a kitchen towel so that they don't dry out.
- Using a wooden dowel, roll out the dough into a circle (or as close to it as you can get).  I find that rolling the dough from the edge closest to me halfway to the center of the circle and back out with my left hand while using my right hand to turn the dough a quarter turn in between each roll of the dowel works best for me.
- When you have achieved the desired thickness (depending on how dough-y you like your chive boxes to be), you can use a cookie cutter to get a prettier circle, but I'm lazy and don't bother with this step.
- Place some filling in the center of the dough and wet the edge of half the circle with water.  Bring the wet edge and the dry edge together (sort of like a taco) and press the edges together.  You can make pretty pleats if you want, but it's really not necessary.  Just make sure it's closed tight.
- Set aside and repeat until you are out of dough or filling.
- Heat some oil on medium in a non-stick pan.  Place as many of the chive boxes in the pan, seam side down, as you can.
- If you want, add a bit of water to the pan as if you were cooking potstickers.  You can also cook them without water too.  Both methods work and will just give you a slightly different texture in the dough.
- Let them cook until the crust is a crunchy and has a light golden brown.  Flip them and cook the other side until light golden brown as well.
- Serve plain or with a mixture of black vinegar and soy sauce.
- You can also freeze these and pop them back in the pan to reheat whenever you're in the mood for them!

Grilled Chicken Burrito

I've always had trouble wrapping burritos.  I can never get the filling to stay inside, and I've discovered the reason is because I've never used the proper tortillas.  Burrito tortillas are HUMUNGOUS!  And the only place I've found them at are Mexican grocery stores.  Having the right tortillas really makes a difference.

Oh, and you know those Grilled Burritos that they have at Taco Bell?  They're really on to something!  Grilling burritos may not be authentic, but it sure does make them tasty!

Ingredients:

- Chicken breasts

- Salsa

- Shredded cheese

- Burrito tortillas

- Mexican rice

- No-fried beans

Directions:

- Put chicken breasts in a heavy bottomed pot and pour in salsa.  You don't need to cover the chicken all the way because it will release a bit of liquid on its own.

- Bring the chicken/salsa to a boil and then turn down the heat to a simmer.

- Simmer until the chicken is cooked through and tender enough to shred with a fork.

- Shred the chicken and flavor with salt and pepper (or other spices of your choice) if necessary.

- Take a tortilla and layer the cheese, beans, rice, chicken and any other extras you like (tomtatoes, guacamole, sour cream, etc) and wrap up the burrito.  Be generous with the fillings, those tortillas can hold a lot!

- Grill the burrito on each side until brown and crispy.

- Share with a friend...these suckers are big!

Mexican Rice

Oh poor neglected food blog.  Hello again and happy new year.  Have I really not posted since last year?  Ack.  So sorry.  I'll try to post here a bit more regularly in 2011.

Mexican rice is so much more fun than boring old regular rice and is so easy too.  I'm assuming you can dump all these ingredients in a rice cooker and it'd turn out great too, but since I'm already dirtying a pan for sauteing the onions, I just finish it in the pan instead of dirtying the rice cooker too.  I've never cooked rice without a rice cooker and still depend on it to tell me how much water to put in, but who knew cooking rice was so easy?  This doesn't mean I'm giving up the rice cooker though!

Ingredients:
- Oil
- Rice
- Water or broth
- Minced garlic
- Diced onions
- Tomato paste
- Salt
- Cumin
(optional - bell peppers, jalapenos, cilantro, etc)

Directions:
- Pour a bit of oil in a pan and add the onions.  Saute until soft.
- Add the other veggies if you're using any.
- Add the garlic and stir for a few seconds.
- Add the rice and saute until the grains are coated with oil and are a bit toasty.  Then add the water/broth.  Or, if you're like me and have no clue how much water to add without using the lines in the rice cooker, add the rice and water together.
- Stir in the tomato paste (to taste/color) until melted.
- Add salt and cumin to taste.
- Bring everything to a simmer, turn the heat down and put the lid on.
- Simmer until the water is gone and the rice is cooked through.
- Fluff the rice, garnish it with cilantro, and serve it with whatever Mexican goodies you want.

Turkey Club

With the baby this year, I opted out of hosting Thanksgiving, and let me tell you, it was a nice break.  I didn't even realize Thanksgiving was coming up until a few days before it instead of stressing and agonizing over the menu for weeks.

We had a lovely dinner at my in-laws and even got to take home lots of delicious leftovers.  It just doesn't get any better...until my husband made this fantastic turkey club out of the leftovers!  Making a sandwich is not just slapping together two pieces of bread with some stuff in the middle.  It takes real talent to get the right combo of ingredients and put them in the right order etc, and I just don't have that talent, but I'm glad my husband does!  And don't sandwiches just taste better when someone else makes them anyway?  :)

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

potato salad

We had a big BBQ this past weekend.  It was such a contrast from last year.  This year was filled with a lot more kids and a lot less alcohol.  I guess we're growing up!

I also have to say that prepping and hosting a BBQ with a baby is a lot more difficult than I had anticipated, but we survived and I think everyone ate well and had fun.  At least I hope so!

We made smoked brisket, pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, and I tried a new recipe for the potato salad this year.  My hubby really liked the tanginess of it and I thought it was pretty good too.  I'm definitely keeping this one bookmarked for the future.

Adapted from Accidental Hedonist
(this is a double and a half batch because we had so many people and because I bought a 5 pound bag of potatoes)


Ingredients:
- 5 pounds of Sierra Gold potatoes (they were on sale, Yukon was not)
- 2 1/2 tsp salt
- 5 Tbs pickle juice
- 5 tsp yellow mustard
- 2 1/2 brown mustard


- 2 1/2 Tbs pickle juice
- 1/2 cup of finely chopped pickles
- 1 1/2 tsp celery salt 
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 1/4 cup mayo
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 1/2 red onion, chopped very finely

Directions:
- Peel and cut the potatoes into 3/4 inch pieces
- Place the potatoes in cold water, covered by 1 inch of water
- Bring the water to a boil, add 2 1/2 tsp salt and the simmer until tender (about 10-15 minutes)
- Drain potatoes and spread them out on a baking sheet
- Mix 5 Tbs of pickle juice with the mustard and pour it over the potatoes and toss gently
- Let the potatoes cool
- After the potatoes have cooled, mix 2 1/2 Tbs of pickle juice, pickles, celery salt, pepper, mayo, sour cream and onion
- Refrigerate until ready to serve

Milk

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I've been a bit busy with a new baby!  I'm still cooking here and there and also have a huge backlog of pictures of previous things I've cooked and just never got around to posting about, but for now, I'll leave you with this :)

Directions:
1. Get pregnant

2. Have baby

3. Wait a few days

4. Squeeze/suck boob 

PS - I started a baby blog too.  If you're interested in reading it and know me in real life, let me know and I'll invite you.