French bread bowl

Hi, I decided to make breadbowls with my soup today.

Sounded yummy. Here is the Recipe.

Ingredients:
•2 ½ cups warm water
•3 tablespoons sugar
•2 packages dry active yeast
•1 tablespoon salt
•5 tablespoons oil
•6 cups all-purpose flour
Method:


Preheat Oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric bread mixer, combine warm water and sugar. Sprinkle yeast over the top and stir. Wait 10 minutes until yeast mixture is frothy. Add salt, oil, and half of the flour. Beat well in mixer or with a wooden spoon. Add remaining flour and mix well until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto floured board and knead 2 or 3 times to coat with flour. Divide into 8 to 10 equal parts, depending on size of bowls desired. Form into large balls and place in small foil pans (small pot pie pans work well). Allow dough bowls to rise for 20 minutes. Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pans. Cut off tops and hollow out insides. Serve with soup.
Makes 8 to 10 bowls.

This recipe was found HERE


So, Let's start.

First I put the lukewarm water in my mixer and added the sugar. Ten I went to get my yeast. The yeast was not where I left it last so I ran around in a foul mood looking for it for 30 minutes. After it was found my cabinets were is better order and I was in a foul mood.

By the time I was ready to add the yeast My water was too cold. Ss, I dumped it out and Started over.

This is the yeast mixture after I mixed it.

And here it is after 10 minutes.

Looks almost the same right? IIn real life it looked a bit bigger and more bubbles. My crappy photography skills cannot highlight this.

Then I added the Salt and Oil. I used pure olive oil. I would have used extra vergin olive oil but mother wanted to go to the store for me. (more issues with this in the Amaretto cupcake, (next blog))

Then added the 3 cups flour. I used bread flour. As it gives the best rise.
Again sorry for the crappy photography. But here is the dough at that stage.

And this is after the rest of the flour is added.

I then kneaded it a couple times on a floured cutting board. Flattened it out a bit. I forgot to take pictures. Probably because my hands were gross. I used a steak knife and cut it into 8 sections.

I then rolled them into balls and placed on cookie sheets. 2 per sheet because I did not want sides touching. A little overkill. you can do 3. I let it rise for 20 minutes. then baked them.

Here they are unbaked.

It took less time to bake than the recipe says. Like 8 minutes shrter than the recipe says.


Here it is nice and baked.

After they have cooled I cut the top off them.

See

I then used my fingers to hollow it out.

They got to be about a knuckle deep.

I filled them with a chicken pot pie soup. I had made it earlier this month when I made chicken pot pie. I froze it.

Here is the finished product.

yum!

Was a bit of work but not too much. Would do again.

The flavor and texture was perfect.

I used the insides to go into my overnight french toast casserole. (coming soon)

Hope you enjoyed this.

Salsa chicken and mac&cheese

Hi all!

In discussion about chicken recipes on a message board I found the recipe for salsa chicken. Sounded interesting and I was also planning on salsa mac and cheese for dinner. So I pulled out some chicken from the freezer.

Let's start with the ingredients.

chicken!
salsa
taco seasoning
cheese

mac and cheese
ro-tel.

seems easy right? well, it is.

I forgot to picture the taco seasoning. sorry.

Step One.

Cover the chicken in taco seasoning.

Step Two:
Place chicken in casserole dish. (Am I going to fast for ya?)

Step Three:
Cover chicken in Salsa.

Step Four:
put a slice of cheese on chicken. (or shredded if you prefer)

Step Five.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the meat thermometer says it is done.

Onto the salsa mac&cheese.

Step One: prepare the mac and cheese according to directions on package. (not brain science here)

Step Two: add a half can of ro-tel per box of mac&cheese.

Here is what my plate looked like.

The verdict:
Was yummy. I think I overcooked the pasta a bit but still yummy.
The chicken was excellent. although next time I will not use the hot salsa.


P.S. I used both chicken thighs nd boneless chicken breast. As it was what I had on hand.

Quick sloppy joes and mac&cheese

Sorry for the delay. I was sooo slacking. I wish I could promise that was the only time that I will do it but we all know better.

So, Let's get started.

This meal was Quick sloppy joes and Mac&Cheese.

I will start with the ingredients.

We have 3 lb hamburger. (not pictured, as was still thawing)
Black pepper
tomato paste
ground mustard
rotini
cheddar cheese
mozzarella cheese
Velveeta cheese
paprika
Worcestershire sauce
french cut green beans
honey
soy sauce.
milk(not pictured)
butter(not pictured)

I add the spies to the meat before I brown the meat. I feel it give so much flavor to the meat that way. So I add the paprika, ground mustard, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and the black pepper to the meat. Then brown it.

After that is done I add the tomato paste. I used two cans. Then a couple table spoons honey for a little sweetness.

It looks like this when done.

You can add bell peppers or onion if you wish. i sometimes add garlic too.
But there you have a quick and easy sloppy joe.

Now on the mac&cheese.

I boil the noodles according to the package directions. Drain then place into the casserole dish.

Then In a medium sauce pan I melt a stick of butter. then add about 2 cups milk. Let it get bubbling. Then add the cheeses. I added whatever I had in the fridge honestly. Which was cheddar, mozzarella, and Velveeta. Let it melt. I then add some spices to it. Like the ground mustard and paprika and black pepper.

STIR FREQUENTLY!

Seriously. Not a fun pan to clean if you don't.

If it does not thicken to your liking you can add cornstarch or flour. a couple tablespoons should do it.

An aside. never add powdered ingredients to a boiling liquid. It will get lumpy. Mix it with some water or milk. Just a little. Just enough to make it a liquid.

It should look like this when done.

See how it coats the spoon?

Then I add it to the noodles. Stir it in. should look like this.

Then this

I then top it with some shredded cheddar cheese. Will look like this.

or this

Bake at 350 degrees for as long as it takes to melt the top cheese.
should look like this

For the green beans I take a can or two. Dump them into a glass bowl and microwave for 2-3 minutes.

My plate looked like this.

As a side note I like to use ronzoni brand pastas. They have extra nutrition packed into them. It's good for the kids.

Cuban night.

This blog will begin with a tale of our honeymoon. Feel free to skip it.


***
My husband and I were married May of 2011. We honeymooned in Orlando and Saint Augustine Florida. At Orlando we visited Medieval times. Was really the first thing we did. Seriously went straight there because we made it *just* in time.We stayed at the Rosen Inn. Was a beautiful room with a beautiful view.

We visited Universal Studios and Universal Studios Island of Adventure. Was an awesome time. I met up with a friend one day very much enjoyed the company. She writes a blog and Here! is the link.



The best part of our Honeymoon happened in Saint Augustine. We stayed at the Bayfront Westcott House Bed and Breakfast.Is a beautiful location look it up on google maps.

We had the Catherine room. I highly recommend the place. Was very luxurious. We ordered their romance package. the carriage ride was amazing and the Massage was wonderful. I really loved the champagne, chocolate covered strawberries and roses.

We bought two trolly tickets. the red train at Ripley's and the green train.

We also did two ghost tours. The one by Rippley's was awesome. The ghost and gravestone by trolley tours was cheesy but fun.

The best burgers I had was at the Cafe at the old drug store.

I also recommend eating at Flavors.

We toured the San Sebastian winery while there. They do a free tour and wine tasting.

Back to the story...

Well we were hungry one night and not wanting to use our car to transport us so we stumbled upon a little Cuban resturant. Was simply divine food. The resturant's name is Habana Village Cafe.

The wait staff was wonderful. Suggesting the perfect dishes for us. Our taste buds were grateful. A great thing was it is on the bay so you can sit at the window and see much beauty. Such a great location.

What we had there is our inspiration for tonight's dinner. I had Palomilla Steak, My husband had echon Asado. We had the black beans and Fried Sweet Plantains. That is what is for dinner tonight. Also ordered but not being featured today was Chicken Fajita nachos, and Yucco.

***



The Palomilla steak and echon asado started the night before. It was put in our marinator to marinate with lime and Garlic. You can also use a plastic bag.

Now I personally had little to do with this meal. It was my wonderful husband who cooked most of it. If you don't believe me you should look at our poor poor kitchen that I need to clean.

SO here are the ingredients minus the meat.

Here is the Steak. He bought some thinly cut steak for this.

Here is the pork tenderloin.

To Bake it he put cut limes on it then wrapped it in foil.

He baked it at 350 degrees and until the meat thermometer said it was done.

Onions were cut into strips. He also added Cut limes Garlic and pimentos.

This was sauteed in Butter.

(Paula Dean would be proud)

I made the saffron rice according to the directions on the package. Yummy.

(this was 2 packages)

The black beans were warmed on the stove with pimentos.

He pan fried the steak. The tenderloin was sliced and he made it all pretty for me.

The plantains were not a success. In the restaurant they came out all sweet and melted in your mouth. His came out hard and dry like a potato.

He tried making a brown sugar sauce for it. It did help.

Here is my plate.

The steak could have used a bit more lime but the onions were amazing. I loved the rice, then again I always do. The beans were great. I had a total of three bites of the plantains.



Now if you will excuse me I will attempt to concur the kitchen. He left it a mess. *sigh*

Chicken and Eggplant Parm

Last night's dinner was Chicken and Eggplant Parmesan. (is that spelled right?)

I meant to make this dish last weekend while my brother was visiting. But was too tired. So I get around to making it last night, and my eggplant was no longer good. I sent the husband out for another one.

To start I "sweated" the sliced eggplant. Totally a weird thing. You slice the eggplant and coat the cut sides with some salt and let sit in a bowl for a few minutes. It is supposed to get the bitterness out of the eggplant. You pat dry with paper towels. (we were out of paper towels and used dinner napkins lol)

Then I set up three bowls. One bowl flour. One bowl several eggs beaten. One bowl Panko breading.

Panko is superior to breadcrumbs for breading. It come out crunchier. You can get Italian herb and Parmesan flavor.

I prefer to do a double flour breading then bread in panko. First I dip into the flour then give an egg bath. lather rinse repeat...... then into the panko.

I had my husband do the frying for me because I was tired and good at guilting him.
A little vegetable oil in a pan and have it in there enough for a nice golden brown. be careful to not have it too hot or it will burn fast!

Do not worry about the chicken being uncooked still as baking will be the next step.

After the frying is done I put a layer or marinara in a casserole dish and layer the eggplant or chicken. I do separate dishes for eggplant and chicken, as the chicken needs to bake for longer.

On top of the chicken and eggplant I layer some mozzarella and some Parmesan. I then bake at 400 until the meat thermometer says it is done.

I also made rotini and Marinara. Some store bought frozen garlic bread and some mozzarella bites.

Everyone was soo full.

The best part.....I put half my chicken and eggplant in a freezer bag before baking for a wonderful less stress meal later this month.


Sorry for the crappy pictures, I forgot to take pictures halfway through and I promise to get better. I am new to this I really should take pictures throughout the entire process thing.