Focaccia Bread

Hi sisters,

Two blog posts in one day! I think this means I don't have to post again for a long time, right?

Here is the focaccia bread recipe I mentioned in my last post. This has to be one of my favorite recipes of all time - it comes from a good friend of mine in Nashville, Kristi Smith. I've made it a bunch of times and it is so, so good. You can also make the dough ahead of time and let it rise overnight or even all the next day and bake it before dinner. It's also a great vacation house meal...I've packed all the dry ingredients in a big ziplock bag (with the yeast packets separate) and brought it in my suitcase and made it for dinner in a beach house with Aaron's family too - all you have to do when you get there is buy the herbs. Something about baking fresh bread is really satisfying to me. One loaf feeds about four people, by the way.

Enjoy!

Susan

Focaccia with Herbs
-from Kristi Smith, who attributes it to the Look and Cook Breads Cookbook by Anne Willan
-If making straight through, allow 3 hours and 15 minutes total time (only 15 minutes or so are hands-on time)
-one loaf feeds four adults

Ingredients:
Herbs: 5-7 fresh sprigs (I've used rosemary, thyme and a combination of both)
2 packages of active dry yeast
1 1/4 c lukewarm water
3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp salt
6 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
(I have sometimes also added a clove of minced garlic)

Strip herb leaves from the stems and finely chop.
In a small bowl, add the yeast to 1/4 cup of the water. Let stand until dissolved, about 5 minutes. If it doesn't get foamy, your yeast is dead and you should start over with fresh yeast.

Put the flour and salt in a large bowl, make a well in the center. Add the herbs, the yeast mixture, 1/4 cup of olive oil, the pepper and the remaining 1 c water. Using your hands, work the ingredients until it forms a sticky dough. Then clear a space on the counter and sprinkle it generously with flour  and spring your hands with flour too. Knead the dough for 5-7 minutes, adding more flour to your hands and the counter as needed until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky. (See the photo above)

Brush a large bowl with olive oil, add the dough and cover with a towel. (If you're making it ahead, put it in the fridge at this point for 8 hrs or more). If you're baking it soon, let it rise 1 1/2 hours.

(If you've refrigerated your dough overnight, return to the recipe here).

Brush your pain or baking stone with oil.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead for 15-20 seconds.

Place the dough on the pan or baking stone and flatten it out to fill the space.

Cover with a towel and let it rise again for 35-45 minutes. (If you've refrigerated your dough, give it 1 hr or more)

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Brush the dough the oil, top with more herb leaves and minced garlic if desired. With fingertips, poke the dough all over.

Bake 20 minutes until crisp crusted on the bottom and lightly browned on top.

Salmon Salad

Hi sisters,

I made a great salad recently and thought I'd post it here for you. It comes from a cookbook that I just bought and love, called Dinner: A Love Story. It's written by a woman who has a blog of the same name, and she writes about getting dinner on the table for your family when you are a working parent. I've made several recipes from her blog, including this pizza and this pulled pork.

The recipe is here. I substituted a chopped red pepper for the cherry tomatoes. It was fast and really healthy and tasted better outside on the deck. I've made it a couple of times, and with one of them I paired it with some homemade focaccia bread, which was really good - maybe that's a another blog post?

Susan

Chicken Wheatberry Salad with Goat Cheese and Cherries

Hello sisters,

We had our first snowfall of the New Year last night! I was up early to go to the Y this morning and now I’m relishing a few minutes with my coffee before the day gets going.

There are two reasons why the recipe I’m about to share is especially fitting for my first blog post of the year: it’s healthy, so it’s a perfect January meal, but it’s also my attempt to recreate a dish we sisters all had together a few years ago. Do you remember a holiday dinner at Lord Fletchers maybe 4 years ago with Mom and Dad and our husbands? Do either of you remember what we ate? I loved my dish so much that I scribbled a description on a little index card that I’ve kept in my cookbook ever since – and I’ve just been waiting to get the courage to try to recreate it.

The dish was a Pheasant and Wheatberry Salad and I remember that we passed it around the table, raving about how delicious and different it was. On my notecard, I wrote that it had shredded pheasant, chestnuts, wheatberries, goat cheese, spinach, cherries and choke cherry vinaigrette. The Lord Fletcher’s website currently has a similar salad with chicken and lingonberry vinaigrette and craisins…maybe the pheasant was a special thing for New Year’s Eve when we were there. Or maybe it’s not practical for them to keep it on the menu all the time. It’s not practical for me either, so you’ll see I’ve modified this with chicken. I also left out the chestnuts because of Aaron’s nut allergy, and because pine nuts are easier to find – but if you can find some chestnuts, go for it!

At any rate, I finally made the salad yesterday! I was largely prompted by a New Year’s resolution to cook through my pantry, and these wheatberries have been squirreled away in there for a few months. I also have to apologize because I forgot to take a picture of it before we ate it – by the time we realized how good it was, there was nothing left to photograph. Some food blogger I am.

Here’s my version. If you plan to make it on a weeknight, I recommend cooking the wheatberries ahead of time (like on the weekend) and saving them in the fridge to save a step. In fact, almost all the steps can be done ahead and then the salad can just be assembled at dinner time.

Let me know if you try it and how it compares to that original salad we had...

Susan

Warm Wheatberry Chicken Salad with Cherries and Goat Cheese

Serves 4

2 cups of wheatberries cooked (Put them in a dutch oven and cover them with a few inches of water, bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Keep an eye on them to add more water if it all gets absorbed).

1 rotisserie chicken, meat shredded (can also be done ahead)

Dried cherries (a handful – ½-3/4 cup maybe?)

Toasted pine nuts (put a few tablespoons of pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium high heat – once the skillet gets hot, stir constantly and keep a close eye on them so they don’t burn – this is also a good step to do ahead – I toast a bunch at one time (cheap at Trader Joes!) and keep them in my pantry).

Crumbled goat cheese (4 oz)

Baby arugula

Dressing (can also be made ahead):

¼ cup raspberry vinegar (or red wine vinegar)

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

½ cup olive oil

A pinch of salt and a grinding of fresh black pepper

(If you’re using the red wine vinegar you might want to add a pinch of sugar if the dressing is too tart)

Combine in a jar and shake vigorously.

To assemble the salad:

Combine the wheatberries and shredded chicken in a saucepan or skillet and warm them over medium heat for a few minutes, just until everything’s warmed through (this is assuming that your ingredients were prepared ahead of time and are cold – if you’ve just cooked the wheatberries and shredded warm chicken, then you could skip this step).

Combine the wheatberries, chicken, pine nuts and cherries in a bowl and mix. Pour some dressing in and stir it to combine so everything’s moistened.

On each plate, make a bed of the baby arugula. Then take a 1 cup measuring cup and pack it full with the wheatberry chicken mixture, and then invert it over your greens on the plate. (It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t hold it’s shape – it just makes a nice mound.) Then sprinkle the crumbled goat cheese on top.

Serve with some extra dressing on the side.

Fall photos of Family "C"

I met up with Mike, Laurie, and Emmett a couple weekends ago. The sky was a bit overcast, the leaves were crisp, and the temperature cool. Perfect for a fall photoshoot! I love capturing Emmett's curiosity and personality in photos. I only wish that with a hop, skip, and a jump I could capture BOTH nephews in the same photo! At least Christmas isn't too terribly far off, and I'll have that opportunity. :)

Enjoy the photos-- and I hope to see some photos from your adventures in Boston, as well!

Birthday cake decorations: quick & easy

It's become tradition that Ryan and I celebrate each Resident Assistant's birthday with the entire RA staff. We bake a cake, a dessert we think they might enjoy, or some fun recipe I've been eyeing. We often get comments from passers-by that the hallway in the dorm is smelling especially good, and they wonder what we're baking that smells so good... perhaps they're hoping to sample some of the goodness, but we save it only for the RA staff. Then we light the candles, which is a rare occurrence in on-campus buildings, since the students aren't allowed to burn candles (or anything, for that matter). Then we reveal the cake and sing "Happy Birthday" to the birthday boy or girl.

I selfishly really enjoy this tradition. It gives me the excuse to bake something new, exciting, and awe-inspiring. The students "ooo" and "ahhh" over the cakes as if they're the best thing they've eaten all week. Perhaps the truly are the best thing in comparison with food from the dining center, although I think they mostly appreciate that it's a reminder of homemade food, which they rarely eat. The other aspect that I love is that I get to take pictures of the cake and the birthday person! I tease them that after spending a year with Ryan and I, they will be twice as documented as they have been in their previous 20 years of life. I take pictures of these students as if they're my own children.... which makes me a little concerned that my own children will someday be incredibly documented-- this could be good and bad. So really, at the end of one of these birthday celebrations, I feel pretty satisfied.

This year, I've been trying to come up with fun ideas for birthday cake decorations. Last year I used frosting to write out "Happy birthday" or some other phrase... but as you can imagine, that strategy isn't quite fail-proof. Now that I've learned this, I'm trying a new idea: toothpick decorations. They are quick, cheap, and easy to make. The best part? If I don't like my handwriting on one of the signs, I haven't ruined the whole cake. These are my first two attempts at toothpick decorations, within one week of each other: the first on Matt's marble chocolate cake, the second on Chris's gluten-free yellow cake with fruit and whip on the side.

What are your cake decorating ideas? I hope to try more toothpick decorations throughout the year-- I'll keep you posted with what I try.

First Haircut

It took over two years, but Eli finally grew enough hair that he needed a haircut. Aaron was the brave one who could tune out the unwilling toddler, and the uncertain wife. I was just sure he was going to scalp Eli, but of course, Aaron did a great job. As you'll see in the pictures, we had to resort to playing Thomas the Train videos on Aaron's phone to keep Eli still.

It's so hard to be two.

Feeling like Fall

The third table is finally joining the blog! Sisters, I've been loving your posts, and loving our ability to share these fun parts of our daily life with each other across the miles. This week, I'm finding myself in a nice lull between busy spells - just in time for fall, which is really in the air here. For some reason this is the time of year that most inspires me to cook and bake. This week I needed to bring a meal to a friend who had just had a baby, so I decided to break out the crockpot for one of my favorite cooler weather meals: Beef Barley Soup, with Goat Cheese Biscuits. I typically freeze half of it for later, but it's also perfect for having guests or bringing a meal to another family. The Goat Cheese biscuits are quick to make after work and are really addictive! Laurie, this biscuit recipe is nearly identical to the lowfat buttermilk biscuit recipe in your Best Light Recipe cookbook, except for the goat cheese - so I think it's relatively healthy. And, if you don't have one already - this recipe alone is reason enough to have a cast iron skillet - check out the nice browned bottom crust it creates! But if you don't have one, a cake pan or pie plate works well too. Enjoy, and I look forward to more food and life adventures being posted here!

-Susan

Slow Cooker Beef and Barley Soup

Adapted from The Best Make Ahead Recipe, America's Test Kitchen

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 medium onions, minced (trick: I buy frozen diced onions - one bag is about enough for this soup - saves a lot of work, for about the same price)

2 carrots, chopped medium (this time I also tried frozen chopped carrots and it worked well)

1/4 c Muir Glen tomato paste

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c red wine

2 pounds blade steak, or other lean steak or stew meat, cut in 1/2 in pieces

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, pureed in a blender until smooth

2 cups low sodium beef broth (I find that Campbell's beef consomme is richer)

2 c low-sodium chicken broth

1/3 c soy sauce

1/4 c pearl barley

1 tbsp fresh or dried thyme leaves

1. Heat the oil in a skillet until hot but not smoking. Add the onions, carrots (OK to put them in frozen if using those), tomato paste and salt, cook until soft and lightly browned, 10-15 minutes. Stir in the wine, scraping up the browned bits from the pan. (Note - this can be done ahead of time and refrigerated until you make the soup later).

2. Put the vegetables in the slow cooker, with the meat, pureed tomatoes, broths, soy sauce, barley, and thyme, and stir together. Cover and cook on low for 9-11 hrs, (or I do it on high for 5-7 hrs).

3. Skim any grease off the top of the soup before serving. You can sprinkle some fresh herbs on each bowl before serving if you'd like something green.

I usually serve this with a green salad.