kirstencan

More Bread

Hope you're not sick of bread, but I have done the next natural step in my bread-making journey:

bought a wheat grinder!

It's cool, and the kids are fascinated. 

Using my own flour now to bake our weekly bread.  Still using the same recipe, but where I stretched it to get 5 loaves before I now do 4 loaves (as the recipe calls for).  I think the first time I made it I overproofed it, so I thought I should do five loaves.  Now I've gotten the hang of it more, and 4 turns out better. 

Even if todays are a little ... floofy on top.  It was a bit warm where they were rising... I think?

Last weeks were PERFECT, check it:  (even if I forgot to butter the tops)

We still do the artisan bread often, which has been our go-to bread recipe for the past few years.  It is handy to have a bowl of bread dough in the fridge, for when you decide to make soup and want crusty bread with it, to give away, or to make naan or last-minute pizza dough (our go-to pizza dough is from this book and we make it the day before).

This bread is CRAZY easy, and always so gorgeous.

So this morning I ground wheat for half-whole wheat muffins, for my batch of bread dough, and filled the canister with more flour to keep in my fridge for baking throughout the week.

Cool.

However. 

I do not love the taste of whole wheat.  I'm sure I'll get used to it but... luckily the kids aren't phased by it at all.  Maybe cuz I'm a super taster?  That's partly why we're easing into the whole wheat stuff.  We're up to 3/4 whole wheat in the bread and I still love that.  I've always been okay with it in bread, it's the other stuff... I've got to try the orange juice suggestion that supposedly cuts the wheat-y taste, anyone try that?

ps - It's a Wondermill, and yes, I researched it and am happy with my choice.

ps2 - I tried another bread recipe a week or so ago - it's this one, and it's AWESOME.  It doesn't have as much whole wheat in it, but it also has oats (I used rolled) and it turned out SUPER soft.  The kids scarfed a whole loaf for lunch.  It's definitely going in the recipe rotation!

Mostly Red, Then Pizza

Chinese New Year happened.

This year we tried a new noodle recipe (Ants Climbing Trees, I don't have the link, Aaron remembered a chinese colleague bringing this in one day and looked it up) it was yummy!  Definitely a keeper.  Also had miso soup with tofu and green onions (Japanese celebrate the New Year, too!).  And by 'we', I mean Monkey and Aaron, no one else loves the stuff.

Then Valentine's day happened.  No party this year, but we had a special day nonethless, starting with a love-fest and small gifts and finished off with cream puffs.

We haven't made these for a while - they are easy and so fancy-seeming!  We fill them with a vanilla pudding (cook-n-serve) with whipped cream folded in, and then drizzle with melted chocolate.  Om-nom-nom!

A big pat on my own belt - I filed the kiddo's schoolwork!  That red box fills up awfully fast, but look!  It's red!  And EMPTY!  Woo!

Not red, but awesome:  a valentine from a little girl in church.  We discovered we both like giraffes the very best, and she made this for me, love her giraffe!  Made my day!

Sunday is always Pizza Night, unless we're going to Grandma's for Family Dinner (Indian this week, yum!), like this week.  So we did it early.  This time we rolled the dough smaller and everyone made their own personal pizzas.

Talk about om-nom-nom!


Ahhh, pizza.  You are so good to us. ;)

Mixing it up

After months (years?) of anticipation and research... I got a new toy:

I've used it a few times now, and LOVE it.  I was using my (large) kitchenaid before, but it took forever to incorporate the flour.  This thing does it SO fast!  And I love being able to make more loaves at a time.

Still using this recipe, still not 100% whole wheat.  I use a little more each time I bake, so we'll get accustomed to it gradually.  This time I used fresh ground wheat flour from my mom  who was showing me how her wondermill works.  I think that's next on my list!

(pre-rise - I was nerdy this time and weighed the dough on my kitchen scale to get the loaves more even than last time when I guestimated (badly))

I LOVE my pans.  They are awesome.  They have a silicone coating on them, so you don't have to grease them and the bread pops right out.  The pans look clean afterwards, so cleaning them takes two seconds.

I need another one, though - see my one blue standout?  The recipe says it makes 4 loaves, but I always get five out of it.

(post-rise ready to bake)

MMMmmmmm.

I'm no bread expert, but it sure is fun learning!  Also, what a 'domestically-happy' feeling you get from making fresh bread! **side note: my kids are sure spoiled since we make so much of our food from scratch!  Last week I used THWOK dough (our nickname for pillsbury dough - shout-out to Valerie!) to make pigs in a blanket on a busy evening instead of homemade biscuit dough and the kids hated them!  HATED.  I guess that's one drawback...**

Also, honey + sun = pretty.

Tonight we mixed up a giant batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to freeze into doughballs.  Our doughball supply was dwindling way too low.

Can't let that happen!

**Another sidenote:  I guess since we're talking bread, I might as well mention that the redhead is no longer gluten-free.  We took him off the GFCF diet a few years ago, actually, somehow it's never come up here.  We still avoid dairy, but not as strictly as we did before.  Lots of reasons for this, but there you go.

Random

The redhead got a kit to participate in the Cub Scout Space Derby.  So we bought kits for the other kiddos to make as well.  Luckily our pack is pretty low-key about these things.  And of course, we waited until the night before to make them...

I'm sure you'd never guess that the one with the washi tape and purple flower is the girl's? :)

Monkey finds centrifugal force HILARIOUS.  Man, science was fun last week.

We had an awesome week of dinners.  Taking the kiddos to and fro to their activities (all around dinner time) really takes a toll on good dinners.  And we like good dinners.  Anyway, last week Aaron was able to pick up the girl from dance, leaving me more time to make something yummy.

This is (the beginning of) mini chicken tacos.  Saw the idea of baking wonton skins to make little taco shells ... somewhere, apparently I didn't pin it. :(

I broiled a little chicken, whipped up a quick cilantro slaw (my fave), and we had black beans and sour cream as well.  YUM.

The kids loved it.  And here the redhead is holding a mini taco shell to show you how small they were.  Technically these are dumpling wrappers, not wonton skins, but same deal.

Can you tell I am not trying to be a food photographer here?  I'm not bothering to make this look pretty at all, but I was way proud of this next dinner.  We had (nearly) veggie sandwiches.


I used the food processor to chop various veggies (took 2 seconds, awesome), which were served in totally random bowls.  Cucumber, red bell pepper, carrot, cabbage, onion.  We had our yummy artisan bread, cream cheese (I put dill in mine - mmm), black bean hummus, and a tiny bit of pulled pork from the night before (so two of the kiddos chose to have a bit).  The kids had to choose at least 3 things to put in their sandwich (which we were very generous with).  This time we were lenient, letting hummus count as one of them and letting the redhead have two layers of shredded carrot.  I just wanted them to like this dinner.  I had very low expectations, but they LOVED it!  Woo hoo!  This will be a repeat for sure, and it will be fun to change up the veggies.

Man, maybe I should up the food photography skills... these don't look great at all, but I swear they were!

 

Bread

We love homemade bread.  And I HATE buying bread.  Not only is it not as good, most have all kinds of weird ingredients in them AND they are expensive!  We have been making the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day bread for a few years.  It's excellent.  YUM.  But I've been looking for a more traditional whole wheat sandwich loaf recipe.

I'm thinking of getting a wheat grinder and a BOSCH (because it can make so many loaves at once) but for now I used my big kitchenaid (pro model with a dough hook) to make two to try.

We tried this recipe - and LOVED it.  I halved the recipe, and did half wheat and half white flour (just to start getting used to more whole wheat, I'd like to go 100% eventually).  I really like that there is no 'dough enhancer' in this recipe.

My loaves turned out quite wide and wonky because we have silicone bread pans.  I love silicone for muffin pans, but it makes oddly shaped bread.  I want some of the bread pans mentioned in the recipe post - they sound perfect.

Everyone loved the bread - yay!  Except I think it gave me heartburn, boo!

So we still have to figure this out...

Bean Burgers

Sharing a recipe with you today.  Did you already decide you don't want it?  Trust me, you do.  Had you told me a couple of years ago that bean burgers would be one of my family's fave go-to meals, and that many of us preferred them to beef burgers (unless we're at Five Guys) ... I'm not sure I would have believed you.

But it's true!  We make bean burgers all the time.  We started out with the basic recipe from this book  and have tweaked it a ton till we have it how we like it.

I should have taken a photo of the veggies in my food processor - much more appetizing than this one... but this is the patties before they are cooked...

And ready to be flipped (I waited a tad too long to flip this time, but you see a couple on the end are flipped, that's what I wanted to show you).

And the final product - yum.  Aaron likes them loaded with veggies and avocado.  Monkey likes veggies, so he loads his, too.  The less adventurous kids like just ketchup and mustard and stuff. 



They are so good, I swear.  And so easy using the food processor (but you can do it without).  The recipe is flexible, you can mix things up or sub for things you don't have.  And it's cheap and healthy!

I've had a few neighbors pop in while they are cooking and ask what's cooking and when they hear bean burgers and go .. whaa?  but when they smell them, they are convinced.  They smell AWESOME while they're cooking.

So without further ado, my version of Bean Burgers:

(note:  if you don't have a food processor, you'll be chopping, but it's not too bad)

BEAN BURGERS

In food processor with blade, chop 1-2 cloves garlic with 1 quartered onion until tiny pieces (or near-liquefied if your 7yo helps and likes to push the buttons)

PULSE in 2 cans rinsed black beans (you don't want to fully blend these)

STIR IN (done with processor) 2 eggs

salt and pepper to taste (1/2 tsp. salt?)

3/4 cup cooked quinoa

1/2 cup raw oats (I use old-fashioned, I think quick oats would work, too)

(This is where the recipe is really flexible.  You just want some combination of grains in there - if I forgot to make quinoa I use more oats and throw in some Panko breadcrumbs.  Not as nutritious, but works in a pinch)

Shape into 6-8 patties using a spoon (not really something you can do with your hands) onto a silicone lined baking sheet (that's all we've used, but I imagine greasing a pan really well or using parchment will work, too).

Bake at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes flipping halfway through (don't forget that!). If they stick when you flip them, wait another 5 minutes and try again. 

If you want cheese on your burgers, throw on a slice in the final minutes of cooking.

When they're done you want the outsides to be firm, the insides a little tender.

Serve however you want.

The original recipe called for (a lot) of chili powder.  Sometimes we throw in a little, but usually the garlic and onions is enough seasoning for this.  Plus we want burgers, not Mexican-style burgers.  But experiment with seasonings if you want to.

These are so yummy, let me know if you try them!

I think we're having these again this week!

(p.s. did I use enough parantheses in this post? ;)

Mostly kitchen and garden

These days I'm more likely to accomplish a kitchen 'project' than a sewing one.  I'm realizing that I need to set time aside for the sewing again (especially when I see gorgeous new fabric lines!).  Remember when I used to sew?  It feels SO good and it's been forever since I've done it.  I've always baked/cooked, but lately even that  feels like an accomplishment.  At least something feels like an accomplishment!

Anyway, we are so grateful for our garden producing a few yummy things for us.  Later than normal, mostly smaller than normal, but we got a little out of it, which we did NOT expect this year!

Our first year of trying to grow potatoes!  Here is our (small!) harvest of fingerlings, ready to be roasted with olive oil, kosher salt and garlic cloves (from our garden, too - they were supposed to be big heads for grilling, but they're tiny!).

We got some tomatoes, mostly orange ones - we've been able to make several batches of fresh salsa - which, sadly is the only way I like fresh tomatoes.  I know.  Here's one batch all frothy because the fastest way to do it is to throw everything in the food processor...

This batch had more red tomotoes and the food processor was in the dishwasher, so I chopped by hand.  Much more appetizing (worse light - night).

I love poppies.  They are such simple, beautiful flowers.  And when they dry into seed pods they completely fascinate me.  Like nature's little poppy seed shakers.  The design is awesome.

These, too, are smaller than normal this year, but I harvested them (and shook some around the garden!).

Last night I made a new coconut beans and rice recipe - it was pretty yummy. 

Tried a new recipe for chewy granola bars (very good, no bake is the way to go with these, but too sweet).

Somehow I've never made monkey bread for my kiddos, so I surprised them last weekend. My monkey had heard of it somewhere and had been asking for it.  YUM.

And to perk up the kitchen a little, I couldn't resist the new Curiosity Shop line at Target - have you seen?

The dishtowels are my FAVE (straight from the dryer = a little wrinkly).  I wish I would have bought the other set they had.

See?  Happy for my kitchen.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Food lately

A bit of radio silence around here and on Pinterest this week as we're having a family Screen Free Week to kick off Summer.  I have a post half-written about why I don't hate video games, but it's good to do a week like this now and again.

But here I am cheating.  Don't tell.

I have been checking email, weather and news, so yeah, I was already cheating.*

Anyway, here's some of the yumminess happening around here lately:

I made tortillas!  For the first time!

(Note how they are artistically piled on a Seaworld Souvenir plastic plate - We're classy like that.  But seriously, those plates are useful, I love them!)

They were easier than I thought, yummy, and will be made again for sure.  This night we had our fave taco lentil recipe with them.

I somehow only took process shots and not a finished product shot, but Monkey helped me make an apple pie for Father's Day.

He ate the peels as he was peeling them!  Funny kid.  The pie was DELISH.

Aaron will laugh that I posted this because it shows that we're wimps.  We skipped Midsommar last night (boo - we were bummed!) because of 100 degree temps and bad air quality.  Didn't sound fun.  But we did our own 'feast' after heading to IKEA for meatballs, sauce, and potatoes.

Totally the easy way out, but it was yummy, esp. with a fresh cucumber salad.  I can't get enough of that stuff. 

And we still make pizza - I've blogged about that, right?  Probably not for a while.  Most Sundays, actually. And today we grilled it for the first time this year so as to not heat up the kitchen.

Served with a salad from our garden (yay!).  Yum.

What have you been eating lately?  Anything I should try?

*And MAYBE I watched an episode of Monk while I folded laundry.  Maybe.

Multicultural Cuisine

Dinner tonight was YUMMY so I thought I'd share.

We tried piroshki (filled rolls, Russian recipe).  Been meaning to do this forever, ever since having them at our (Russian) friend's house.

This time we used frozen roll dough - easy peasy.

Two different fillings.  One a very simple ground beef, onion, garlic (as requested by the kiddos), and the other...a potato samosa filling (oh.my.).  Aaron did the potatoes with this recipe (he made a few changes) and it's killer.

Letting them rise...

The first batch (meat).

The potato ones are to die for.  Seriously.  Granted, this potato dish will become a staple, as it would be awesome by itself (or with a fried egg, says Aaron).

I made more cucumber salad (the Thai-style one I told you about here) instead of a chutney.  It filled the place nicely.

So our attempt at Russian food turned into Indian food with a Thai salad... not sure how Vladimir would feel about this, but it was AWESOME.  Like samosas but not fried and an excellent Sunday dinner.  

Next up I want to try making some simple ham + cheese or boiled egg + rice piroshki as something easy to keep in the freezer as a before-dance snack. 

Chicken Satay Sandwiches

Our weekly dinner menus have been... lacking lately.  Busy lives = boring meals, often.  In part because we're just so tired - why is planning meals so hard?  And often dance/cubs/basketball/SOMETHING is right when I should be cooking dinner.

But Wednesdays I have time to cook.  So I try to make a non-pasta/burritos/frozen leftovers/sandwiches kind of dinner.  And today I'm pretty proud of myself.

Bear with me, I'm not a food photographer.

SO... first I had my girl help marinate some Satay chicken (using this recipe).

Then we made Ahjaad (various spellings online).  It's like Swedish cucumber salad (which I made for Christmas and loved) but substituting a hot pepper for the dill (!).  It's awesome.

I had planned on making peanut sauce, but then found some bottled stuff at the store so I just bought it.  Then I opened it and ... it didn't smell like what I was going for and was too... gelatinous and bright. SO I made some peanut sauce!

But first I broiled the chicken.

See that yellow?  Turmeric.  MMmmmm. Man, just mixing the turmeric + coconut milk cream I was all "THAI FOOD!"  Yeah.

Okay, so THEN I made peanut sauce (this recipe, omitting fish sauce + tamarind (though we do have it, I thought it was probably overkill, and I stand by that decision)).

The chicken was done and resting and all was set ... for sandwiches. This whole thing was inspired by this post and by the fact that Monkey is much more likely to eat dinner if it's served as a sandwich.  Seriously, we make him beef stirfry sandwiches, and Saag (spinach curry) sandwiches -  the weirdo.

It might have been better on our artisan bread, but for whatever reason I bought wheat rolls.

Then we dished up!  Not pictured:  a generous helping (and then seconds) of cucumbers on the side and more peanut sauce to dip in.

End result - YUM!

Aaron said 'You added to our staple dishes!' which was a big compliment.  Usually he's the one finding awesome recipes.  And nothing about this dinner was hard or complicated.  We even had all the spices and stuff on hand.

Staple dinners - now that's a post for another time, but I was kinda trying to find a good Thai one to add to our regular menus.  We have tried and true Korean, Chinese, and Indian, so I'm glad this was good!  Now to find a good way to make it meatless...