Favorite Friday Recipe: Peasant bread

This is a super easy and very tasty bread--it took about 2 hours from start to finish which is really quick for fresh bread.  The recipe and lots of tips can be found here.  I especially love the idea of baking them in pyrex bowls so you get these round loaves of bread.  We've had it this week with marinated tomatoes, as grilled cheese and prosciutto sandwiches and will use the last of it for french toast this weekend!

Peasant bread

Ingredients:

• 4 cups (1 lb. 2 oz) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons active-dry yeast
• room temperature butter, about 2 tablespoons

Directions:

• Whisk the flour and the salt in a bowl
• In a small bowl or measuring cup, dissolve the sugar into the lukewarm water. Sprinkle the yeast over top and let stand for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the mixture is foamy 
• Then add the yeast/water mix to flour and begin to mix the dough.  It will be pretty wet
• Cover bowl with a tea towel and set aside in a warm spot to rise for at least an hour
• Grease two oven-safe bowls or loaf pans with about a tablespoon of butter each
• Using two forks, punch down your dough, scraping it from the sides of the bowl which will loosen the dough entirely from the sides of the bowl
• Take your two forks and divide the dough into two equal portions, then scoop up each half and place into your greased bowls/pans
• Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes while you preheat oven to 425 degrees
• Bake for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to 375 degrees and bake for 22 to 25 minutes longer 
• Once golden brown, remove from oven and turn the loaves onto cooling racks. If you’ve greased the bowls well, the loaves should fall right out onto the cooling racks. If you're like me, it'll take a knife, fork, and finally a spoon to get these little suckers to budge :)
• ENJOY!

Favorite Friday Recipe: Marinated tomatoes

A great way to use up the last of this year's fresh tomatoes.  These are delicious with fresh bread to soak up all the goodness!

Marinated Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 3 whole Green Onions, Sliced
• 1/3 cup Chopped Parsley
• 10 whole Basil Leaves (chiffonade)
• 1 clove Garlic, Minced Finely
• 1 pound Tomatoes, cut 

Directions:

•  Combine all ingredients except tomatoes and whisk
•  Add tomatoes
• Allow to marinate for at least 3 to 4 hours, several hours if possible 
• Serve with fresh hot crusty bread!

The last of our summer vegetable garden

Any ideas on fall/winter vegetables to plant?

Favorite Friday Recipe: Orzo pasta

I love the tiny grains of orzo pasta and this dish is a great accompaniment to some grilled fish or steak and is satisfying on its own as well.  I looked up various orzo recipes and then kind of used what I had in the house to make it work.  Here's what I remember...

Orzo Pasta

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry orzo
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 sweet onion
• 1/2 bag of spinach
• cherry tomatoes (as many as you'd like, ours came from our garden!)
• Parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Bring water to a boil and cook orzo, drain when al dente
• In a separate saucepan, sautee minced garlic and onion in olive oil
• Add in cooked orzo and spinach until wilted
• Add cherry tomatoes and Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste (I may have added in a bit of truffle oil and salt)
• Enjoy!
  

 

Wishlist Wednesday: Fresh produce!

Our first cherry tomato harvest from our garden--hope to have some every week!

Wishlist Wednesday: A garden that grows

Our raised bed garden adventure began a year ago.  You can check out its evolution and how we made the raised bed here, our giddiness at the first signs of prosperity,  and enjoying the fruits of our labor here and here. 

We've learned a lot of lessons last season, namely to water more frequently and in the mornings, build trellises sooner,  and plant more realistic vegetables that we can and will actually consume (remember my sole green bean harvest?)

So this year, B cleaned out the garden bed, added a few bags of organic cotton compost and we were ready to plant!

The garden bed always looks so neat and tidy in the beginning... 

This year, we've chosen cherry tomatoes 

(we figured this might give us a slight advantage 

over beating the squirrels to harvest first)

Seedless Japanese cucumbers and Persian cucumbers

(same seeds from last year)

And just to break it up a bit, I chose a Thai hot pepper 

(perfect to spice up Vietnamese spring rolls this summer)

 

And B chose a Habanero Pepper (on the far right)  

to spite the squirrels I think

DIY: Vegetable garden tomatoes

Our harvest this week from the garden.  I was a bit alarmed at the two headed tomato but they sure did taste delicious!  And it was much easier to incorporate into our meals than our first harvest here. 

It's the magical weekend of the Citywide Garage Sale again and I'll be dragging B along this afternoon.  Wish us luck!

DIY: Vegetable garden - order has been restored

We finally put up trellises for the tomatoes and cucumber plants.  Now we have to train them to keep growing up, up, up, instead of all over the other plants in the garden bed!

And not only is it a space saver, but we are able to spot the fruits (ha!) of our labor more clearly now.

Cucumbers:

Tomatoes:

DIY: Vegetable garden May update

Remember my prediction from a few weeks ago that the squash would be our first vegetable to harvest?  Well it looks like the tomatoes are now in the running as well!

(If you click on this picture to the larger version, you'll see a little visitor on the squash)

Had the best weekend in SF--will post pics soon!