Stuff

If anyone wants to buy me anything ever, I would like this:

http://www1.fredflare.com/customer/product.php?productid=1998&cat=254

Julie and Julia recipe

So my mom and I went to see Julie and Julia last week. Great movie. In the beginning though there was a scene where Julie is making dinner in the kitchen and she makes this fantastic looking bruschetta that my mom and I both leaned in to say "that looks amazing." So, I set out yesterday to make this dish. Everything from scratch. I made things a bit different from the recipe, so I'm only going to include what I did. If Andrew gets up in time for me to make it for him, I'll show the fabulous picture.

First, I made crusty Italian bread. It came out fantastic although a little small. I think my kitchen was just too cold to get this bread to rise properly. The end product?

It's not pretty but it was pretty good. Better than the store and this just had flour, salt, little sugar, yeast and water. Who knew.

So, cut your bread diagonally into nice, thick slices (not too thick you can't take a bite of though with topping). Next, take you minced garlic and saute it over med-low heat in some olive oil until they are soft (2 min max really). Remove the garlic and place it in the bowl with your tomatoes and basil (recipe below). Cook your bread in the garlic olive oil until both sides are brown, remove from heat and turn your stove off. Next, mix your bruschetta with salt and pepper by hand, drizzle with just a teaspoon of olive oil, then put in the pan you used to brown your bread. The stove is off so it's just heating the tomato goodness up. After 10 or 15 seconds, remove and spoon mixture over the bread. You really will eat "like a pig" like Julie's husband did. It's good.

Bruschetta
1 1/4 pound of plumb tomatoes
1 tbs finely chopped basil
2 cloves minced garlic
1tsp olive oil
salt
pepper

Cut your tomatoes length wise then give them a good squeeze over the sink to de-seed them. Dice them then place them in a bowl with the basil and cooked garlic. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt and paper then toss gently with your hands.

Bread

Okay. So as promised, here is my bread story. It started around 9pm after an unusually long day and a recipe for Parmesan Pull-Aparts, I went to the store and called my mom with a million questions about baking bread. The woman is an expert on all things bread baking. So, after consulting her I went to work. First, I prepared the yeast. I had to google what "foamy yeast" looks like but this was mine.

Foamy!

Next, I added the necessary ingredients. Then, I watched it knead. I couldn't look away. The image of this dough turning and turning was fascinating. After it properly had pulled away from the bowl, I transferred it and set it aside to rise.

yeah, it's sideways but you get the picture

When it got to this point I was certain it was never going to rise. I even cried (part hormones, part being tired) because I was absolutely certain my dough wasn't going to rise. But then...

Hooray!

It rose! And it rose well! I took it out, kneaded it, and rolled it out into 12 neat balls for my pull aparts. I actually think I let it rise too much because there was supposed to be 1inch between each ball and I had much less than that so the next rise only took 45 min. Then it was eggwash and oven time.

Isn't it beautiful!

The end product? Delicious. We ate it without butter and it was fantastic. You can tell by this:

Look at how happy he is. It really was great. I think I may become a bread expert, thanks mom.

bread? Bread. BREAD!

This is my bread. I made it. And it really does taste as good as it looks but I had a time making it. I have pictures detailing my process, so I will post them and my bread making story when I get home this evening.

P.S. Doesn't my whole kitchen look clean from this small screen shot of my stove and tea kettle? I thought so.

BREAD!

So my mom gave me an awesome Bosch mixer for my birthday and I will attempt to make bread this evening using it. I have a feeling I will be calling her often.

Avocado Feta Salsa

I found this recipe on Amanda.Fakeginger (one of the food blogs I read) and had wanted desperately to try it. Oh. My. Gosh. So good. I did what she did too and made a double batch. We ate it for dinner that night and for breakfast the next morning. I used less oil and vinegar than is recommended. I didn't use pita bread but instead I found nan, which I like better. Pita would work though. Or any crackers really, but I'll include what I used for the nan (or pita).

Avocado feta salsa
1 avocado
2 roma tomatoes
1/4 diced red onion
1 tbs olive oil
1tbs red wine vinegar
salt, pepper
3.5 oz feta cheese (one small container)
optional-chopped cilantro

Dice avocado, tomato and onion, mix in bowl. Gently mix the oil and vinegar, then gently mix in the feta. Refrigerate for at least 30-60 minutes.

Nan/pita bread
we used approximately 1 average piece of bread per person.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush each piece of bread with olive oil, both sides, then sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic salt (or powder). Cut up into a little over bite size pieces (roughly the size of a tortilla chip). Bake for roughly 10min or until golden brown.