French Bread ala Moi

My brother in-law's gf brought this french bread to our soup party last Sunday. I cannot believe that it's homemade. I really didn't know it was possible to bake such good french bread without a proper, industrial bakery oven-thing...you know what I mean. So thank you, Charla!

French Bread ala Moi

2 ½ cups very warm water

2T sugar

1 T salt

2 T cooking oil

6 cups flour

2 pkg dry yeast (2 T)

Into a large warm mixing bowl, pour in warm water then stir in sugar, salt, oil, half the flour and then the yeast. Beat vigorously 2 – 3 minutes. Stir in remaining flour until all dry ingredients are completely mixed in. Leave spoon right in the heavy batter.

All the dough to rest 10 minutes, then stir down. Repeat this until the dough has been stirred down five times.

Turn the dough onto a floured board. Knead only enough to coat the dough with flour so it can be handled. Divide into two parts. Roll each part into a rectangle shape about 9 x 12 and then roll up like a jelly roll – rolling from the long side. Pinch edge of loaf to seal the dough. Arrange lengthwise on a large cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with corn meal, allowing room for two loaves. Cover lightly and let rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.

With a very sharp knife, cut three slashes at an angle on the top and then brush entire surface with a slightly beaten whole egg.

Bake immediately at 400 F for 25 – 30 minutes or until brown. Remove from baking sheets and let cool on racks.

Blue-Potato Soup

One more potato soup recipe. For now. Used blue/purple potatoes from my garden.

Recipe taken from the New York Times. Link here.

Blue-Potato Soup

Ingredients

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

1-1/2 pounds blue potatoes, peeled and quartered

6 cups good chicken or vegetable stock

1 bay leaf

1 cup milk or light cream

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

salt to taste

Preparation

1. Melt the butter in a 3-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the potatoes, stock and bay leaf and heat to boiling over medium-high heat. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 25 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.

2. In batches, carefully puree the mixture in a blender or food processor. (Do not overblend or potatoes will get gluey.) Place in a clean saucepan and stir in the milk or cream. Season with nutmeg, pepper and salt.

Yield: About 9 cups.

Note: To serve cold, chill the soup for at least 2 hours before adding the milk or cream.

Cream of Fresh Tomato Soup

Recipe from Ina Garten via the Food Network. Link here. Seriously the best tomato soup I've ever had. No jokes.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped red onions (2 onions)
• 2 carrots, unpeeled and chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
• 4 pounds vine-ripened tomatoes, coarsely chopped (5 large)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/4 cup packed chopped fresh basil leaves, plus julienned basilleaves, for garnish
• 3 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• Croutons, for garnish

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and carrots and saute for about 10 minutes, until very tender. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, sugar, tomato paste, basil, chicken stock, salt, and pepper and stir well. Bring the soup to a boil, lower the heat, andsimmer, uncovered, for 30 to 40 minutes, until the tomatoes are very tender.

Add the cream to the soup and process it through a food mill into a bowl, discarding only the dry pulp that's left. Reheat the soup over low heat just until hot and serve with julienned basil leaves and/or croutons.

Chicken Noodle Soup

My friend, Heather, made this for dinner when I was at her house almost a year ago. I've been meaning to post it ever since then because it's just a really basic, delicious soup. My daughter will eat bowl after bowl. Below it I have one other egg noodle recipe that is a lighter option (but maybe not quite as wickedly yummy).


Here is the recipe for the chicken noodle soup. I just get like 12ish cups of water boiling and add carrots, onions and celery. Then I add chicken bouillon, usually a whole 3.75 oz, but the water, amount of veggies and bouillon is just totally to taste. After the veggies have boiled to softness, I add cooked chicken pieces and noodles. Here is the recipe for those:


2 cups flour
1/2 cup shortening
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. salt


Mix ingredients together, add more flour if sticky. Roll out on floured surface about 1/4 inch or whatever thickness you like and cut them to desired length and width. Drop them in soup for 12- 15 min. So easy.

Egg Noodle Option 2 (from The New Best Recipe):

Makes about 1 pound

2 Cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3 large eggs, beaten

1. Pulse the flour in a food processor fitted with a steel blade to distribute and aerate it evenly. Add the eggs; process until the dough forms a rough ball, about 30 seconds. If the dough resembles small pebbles, add water, 1/2 teaspoon at a time; if the dough sticks to the side of the workbowl, add flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, and process until the dough forms a rough ball. (I actually do all of this by hand without a food processor like you do to make pie crust.)
2. Turn the dough ball and small bits out onto a dry work surface; knead until the dough is smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for at least 15 minutes or up to 2 hours to relax. (The pasta dough can also be wrapped well in plastic wrap and kept refrigerated up to 1 day before rolling out.)
3. Roll out the dough (or use a pasta machine, if you have one, which...who does?) into a thin layer and cut into thin strips. I use a pastry cutter or pizza cutter.

What am I making right now?

Curried Acorn Squash

Slice acorn squash into rings. Oil and salt, put into oven at 350 degrees.

In a pan add butter, let it heat up, add chopped onions.

Slice apples, add them into pan.

add a pinch of salt, some curry powder, all spice and cinnamon.

In a separate pan toast some cashews and then add them to onions and apples.

Once the squash is soft put the apple onion curry concoction into the middle of the squash rings and stick back into the oven.

Take out when you feel the flavors have blended.

*maybe even add raisins?

ENJOY!

Classic Potato Soup

When I want to find the OG (original gangster, if you will) of a common dish I always go straight to the OG cookbook, Joy of Cooking. So although I posted a potato-leek soup recipe from The Art of Simple Food last winter, I'm posting another one. I love soup so there's no telling how many more potato soup recipes I'll post. I like to have several good variations of a recipe because then if I'm missing a few ingredients for one, I can probably use another.

Anyways, this recipe is super simple (I made biscuits to go with it) and it was so nice to make hours before. By the time dinner came, I felt like someone else had made it for me. That's a good feeling.

Potato Soup

Makes about 5 cups

Pare and slice:

2 medium-sized potatoes (I use red potatoes)

Chop:

2 medium-sized onions

4 ribs celery

Saute these ingredients in:

1-1/2 tablespoons butter

Add:

Boiling water to cover

1/2 teaspoon salt

(1/2 bay leaf)

Boil the vegetables until the potatoes are tender, or pressure-cook them 3 minutes at 15 pounds pressure. Put them through a ricer or blender. Beat into them:

2 tablespoons butter

Thin the soup to the desired consistency with:

Light cream

Add if required:

Salt and paprika

A dash Worcestershire sauce

Serve with :

Chopped parsley, chives or watercress

1 cup sliced frankfurters or chopped cooked shrimp or diced ham

Pumpkin Bars

PUMPKIN BARS

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cloves

1 cup oil

2 cups pumpkin

4 eggs

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup butter

1 lb powdered sugar

1 Tbs vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Grease & flour a large sheet pan (15x10 pan). Combine all bar ingredients and mix at low speed for 2 minutes. Pour into pan and bake 25-30 minutes. Cool.

For the frosting, cream butter and cream cheese together until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla; mix on low until sugar is combined and then mix on high until fluffy.

Spread Frosting over cooled bars and enjoy! Store any leftovers in the refrigerator.