I’ve found two new cooking blogs, Recipe Look and They Draw and Cook, that I think are really fun. They are both sites where people submit their illustrated recipes. Maybe someday I’ll have enough time to create some of these. Until then, I’ll enjoy what others have done. 
Here are two that caught my eye:
There is this restaurant in Idyllwild called The Bread Basket. They have a squaw bread that is delicious, and I miss it. This is the first squaw bread recipe I’ve tried, and while this recipe is not the same bread, it is pretty yummy. It’s quite sweet due to the honey and raisins, but it makes great toast. I followed the recipe and split it into four loaves, but I think next time I’ll split it into two because the loaves were really small. I got the recipe from AllRecipes.com. You can try it for yourself here: Squaw Bread
There are more bread pictures here: Bread of the Month
Well, I kind of didn’t get around to making any bread during March, so in April I made two things. Spelt Everything Crackers were the first. I’ve been wanting to make these for a long time. They’re from the blog Smitten Kitchen. Hers definitely turned out prettier, I gotta say.
These are ridiculously easy. I couldn’t find sesame seeds, so I used sunflower seeds. I also accidentally bought paprika covered dried onions. They both tasted pretty good. I definitely learned one important thing about cracker making. After you sprinkle your toppings on, you need to go over them with a rolling pin to kind of push them into the dough. If you don’t you get some pretty plain crackers in a bowl and a mess of ingredients all over your counter. The second attempt on these crackers was much more successful as a result of this discovery.
There are more pictures here: Bread of the Month
The bread of the month for February was Beer Bread. I wasn’t really sure how I’d feel about this bread because, well, I kind of think beer is gross. However, I’ve heard good things about beer bread, so I gave it a whirl. Turns out beer bread is really yummy. Also, beer bread might be the easiest bread in the world to make. I got the recipe from Honest Fare. She even gives you a printable recipe here: Beer Bread. It literally took mere minutes to make this bread. It’s sweet with just a hint of beer flavor. I took Honest Fare’s recommendation and ate it with a little freshly ground pepper. Yummy! Later in the evening Matt and our friend Whitney couldn’t stop themselves and they ate the whole top half of the bread. Yes, that’s right, the top half. They scalped the poor thing, but it was confirmation for me that this bread is worth making again.
The Bread of the Month for January was tortillas. Delicious, delicious tortillas. What happened to November and December you may ask. (Although, probably not ) Well, in November I learned how to make pie crust from scratch. Who knew that would be so easy? In December I was pretty focused on cookies. I learned how to make some chocolate biscotti that were pretty yummy. I decided that since those are kind of baked in a loaf, they’d count as bread. It’s cheating a little, but I’m OK with that. Given the holiday craziness in both of those months, I did not do a great job of documenting the process. Not so with tortillas!
My friend Melissa is the resident tortilla expert, so she kindly agreed to come share her knowledge with me. We decided to make both corn and flour tortillas. It was a tortilla making extravaganza!
We’ve both been dreaming of corn tortillas. I thought I’d found masa, but I think maybe it’s just corn flour. It was really fine and the tortillas were decidedly unsuccessful. We did learn a few things along the way, though.
We’re not giving up on corn tortillas, but for now, they are out of our reach. Sigh.
The flour tortillas, however, were a huge success. A huge delicious success! We went for the straight white flour tortilla this time, but I’ll be trying for wheat very soon. There really is no excuse for me to buy tortillas ever again. Not only are they ridiculously easy to make, they taste a million times better than store bought. Yes, a million. At least.
Here’s the recipe:
3 cups white flour (2 cups white, 1 cup wheat for wheat tortillas)
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil or shortening (we used oil & it was perfect)
1 cup warm water
Combine flour, salt & oil or shortening. Mix until crumbly. Add warm water. Mix until a ball forms. Knead for 5 minutes. Cover and rest for 30 minutes up to 2 hours. Roll out on a floured surface. Be sure to roll them fairly thin. Cook in a nonstick pan.
Note: We tried to cook them in my cast iron pan. This didn’t work very well, but that is most likely because my pan is pretty trashed.
A few more pictures here: Bread of the Month
The bread of the month for October was Honey Whole Wheat Bread. I again got the recipe from the More-with-Less cookbook. I really do love the simplicity and practicality of this cookbook. This bread is quite good. Not only that, but the house smells amazing when you bake it – it smells like warm honey. Yum! We liked this bread a little better than the No Knead Wheat Bread for it’s versatility. This bread is not nearly as crumbly, so it’s great for sandwiches, toast and whatever else you need bread for. We’ve decided that for our everyday needs, this is the bread to use. However, if we need bread to go with soup, we’ll make the No Knead Wheat Bread because it’s tastier.
Again, I added 3Tbs. of flaxseeds to the recipe. This bread freezes really well, too, so bake away!
Just a note on the mixing: I didn’t use a mixer. I just used a wooden spoon and made sure to really mix it well. It takes a few minutes longer, but it’s a lot cleaner. When I tried it with the mixer, there was stuff flying all over the kitchen. Reason number one to get a standing mixer someday.
Honey Whole Wheat Bread from More-with-Less page 57
Combine in mixer bowl:
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk
2 packages dry yeast
(3 Tablespoons flaxseed)
Heat in saucepan until warm:
3 cups water or potato water
1/2 cup honey
2 Tablespoons oil
Pour warm (not hot) liquid over flour mixture. Beat with electric mixer 3 minutes. Stir in:
1 additional cup whole wheat flour
4 – 4 1/2 cups white flour
Knead 5 minutes, using additional white flour if necessary. Place in greased bowl, turn, let rise until double in bulk. Punch down, divide dough in half and shape into loaves. Place in greased 9×5″ bread pans. Cover and let rise 40-45 minutes. Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 40-45 minutes.
I love to cook. Actually, what I really enjoy is experimenting in the kitchen – taking recipes and tweaking them a bit. Thankfully, I have a husband who is OK with me experimenting on him, and who is willing to tell me if the experiment was not too successful. When it comes to cooking, I don’t really measure anything. I just taste and adjust. I’m a little better about measuring when it comes to baking, but I tend to change things up with that, too. Food blogs have been a fun resource for me and I want to share a few of my favorites with you.
The Kitchn – A blog by the folks at Apartment Therapy. There are lots of recipes here, but also lots of general food knowledge.
Serious Eats – Lots of diversity in the recipes and info on this one.
Smitten Kitchen – Full of yum!
Baker’s Banter – The blog of King Arthur Flour
Mennonite Girls Can Cook – It’s true! I love how this blog intertwines faith and cooking.
Joy the Baker – Great recipes and really fun to read. She’s got personality galore!
Bakerella – She is brilliant!
Snack or Die – Video game themed cookies, cupcakes, and more. Deliciously nerdy!
Now go get cooking!
So, last year I set this goal for myself to learn how to bake one new kind of bread each month. I learned how to make scones (yummy, yummy scones, actually) and that was it. This year I’m starting over. This year I’m going to make it happen. Since I’ve always been a teacher, I view September as the beginning of the year, so here it is – the first Bread of the Month (BOTM).
In September, I learned how to make Easy No Knead Wheat Bread from the More-with-Less cookbook. The bread is really easy and really yummy. It makes delicious toast and is so good that Matt and I actually just grab chunks and eat it plain. It also freezes really well, so it’s not a problem that the recipe makes two huge loaves. It’s a bit crumbly, however, so it’s not the best if you want to make sandwiches.
I added 3 Tablespoons of flaxseed to the recipe. You know, ’cause it’s healthy and will supposedly lower our blood pressure.
Easy No Knead Wheat Bread from More-with-Less page 58
Combine in large mixer bowl:
3 Cups whole wheat flour
1/2 Cup sugar
2 Tablespoons salt
3 packages dry yeast
(3 Tablespoons flaxseed)
Heat in saucepan until very warm (120°-130°F/60°-65°C):
2 Cups water
2 Cups milk
1/2 Cup oil
Add to dry ingredients:
warmed liquids
2 eggs
Blend at low speed until moistened. Beat 3 minutes at medium speed. (I did all of this by hand and it was fine.) Stir in by hand:
5-6 Cups white flour
Use enough flour to form a stiff batter. Cover and let rise until double. Stir down and spoon into 2 greased 9×5 inch bread pans. let rise 20-30 minutes. Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 35-40 minutes.
We had our second Korean cooking class on Valentine’s Day. This time around, Myunghee taught us how to make mandu and kimchi. Mandu are very similar to potstickers only they’re not fried. They are so yummy! I’m amazed at how easy they are to make. I’ll definitely be doing these at home. The other thing we learned was how to make kimchi. Kimchi is a fermented cabbage dish that Koreans eat at most meals. It is supposedly the healthiest food in the world. Or so Koreans keep telling me. The thing is that kimchi is a very strong, spicy, fermented vegetable dish. I really like it, but a lot of people (including Matt) do not. I don’t think I could ever eat it for breakfast, or even eat it everday for that matter, but I am glad that I know how to make it now. You can see more pictures from our class here: Korean Cooking Class #2
I have a tendency to be a little clumsy. This can be a bit of a problem in the kitchen. Last week I accidentally stuck my finger into boiling water. OUCH! It instantly began to blister and hurt like the dickens. I called my wonderful hubby to tell him that I had burned myself. Well, that I had burned myself again, but that it was a doozy. He came home with these Brandwunden-Pflaster (Burn Wound Band-aids). They are miraculous! A few seconds after I put one on I could no longer feel the burn. After two days of wearing these my burn was completely healed. I mean gone. You couldn’t even tell it had been there. Not only that, but the gel in the band-aid is so thick that I couldn’t feel any bumps to the blister while I was wearing them. Given my tendency toward accidents in the kitchen, I think we’ll be keeping a box of these close by.
