More Than a Sandwich...Treat Dad to a MANWICH

My mom sent me a forwarded email this morning titled MANWICH.  The name alone peaked interest so I checked it out.  What followed were photos of a SERIOUS sandwich that the likes of Guy Fieri would drool over.  I decided I would give it a try as we're trying to show added appreciation this week for my sweetheart and Dad to our kiddos.  How could we go wrong with sourdough bread, steak, bacon, Swiss cheese, mushrooms, onion and BBQ sauce?

Gluten-Free Currant Scones

My mom is visiting next week.  It's time to brush up on the gluten-free recipes.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, she has celiac disease, but fortunately there are so many gluten-free options.  I'm trying some home-cooked-from-scratch treats...all gluten-free.

Irish Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread

Last week, our history study touched on the Potato Famine in Ireland during the mid 1800's.  During this time period nearly one million Irish died and another million left the country.  Approximately 800,000 of those who left, emigrated to the United States.

Today, my girlie made traditional Irish Soda Bread as a cooking activity wrapping up our Irish Potato Famine study.  This bread is SO TASTY!  It would be a great addition to a St. Patrick's Day meal also!  We'll remember this recipe next month as we plan our special Irish meal.

Super Easy Whole Wheat Artisan Bread

Another great recipe from Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.  This is not for the gluten-free or wheat free folk.

This Week: Moosewood Cookbook's Basic Corn Bread

Choosing a meatless cookbook to focus on seems rather counter to our mostly paleo lifestyle, but the popularity and appeal of the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen cannot be overlooked.  Her recipes use healthy, natural ingredients much of which would fit in the Zone or Paleo food program.

The first recipe I'm showcasing this week is Basic Corn Bread.

Who doesn't love corn bread?

It's a must with chili or other hearty soup/stew.  Corn Bread screams comfort food!

This recipe is a variation from the traditional; it calls for buttermilk or yogurt instead of milk.

I used Arrowhead Mills Organic Yellow Corn Meal and 1/2 buttermilk, 1/2 organic vanilla yogurt.  For the sweetener I used coconut sugar.  It's subtle and went well with the sweetness of the vanilla yogurt.

Basic Corn Bread- The Moosewood Cookbook

Ingredients

Butter to grease the pan

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk or yogurt (I used 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup organic vanilla yogurt)
1 egg
3 tablespoons sugar or honey (I used coconut sugar)
3 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease an 8-inch square pan (or a 9-10 inch cast-iron skillet) with butter.

Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl.  Combine wet ingredients, including sugar/honey, separately.  Stir wet ingredients into dry, mixing just enough to thoroughly combine.  Spread into the prepared pan.

Dry Ingredients

Dry and Wet...combine

Batter, ready for the oven

The batter is relatively thick- much thicker than other cornbread recipes I've tried. No cause for concern; it turns out great!

Bake 20 minutes, or until the center is firm to the touch.  Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

Fresh out of the oven

So moist...perfect!

Thank you Mollie Katzen for a GREAT recipe!

Enjoy!

Grub Recipe #3: Rosemary-Butter Biscuits

Sitting in my favorite rocking chic, inhaling the fresh scent of rosemary and slowly savoring recipe #3 from Grub.

This kids keep repeating in their best Martha pronunciation, "I smell a 'Herb'."

Yes , my loves, you do smell a herb.

Rosemary.

One thing I love about living in Southern California is the abundance of rosemary shrubs.  I love walking past a rosemary shrub and rubbing my hand along while activating the aroma.  It's heavenly!

It reminds me of what I dream cottage living in Avonlea would be like.  Specifically, when I think of such herbs I think of gardens and tea, leading me to think about Anne and Miss Lavendar Lewis.  I think Anne, Diana and Miss Lavendar Lewis would have loved these biscuits.

Today's selected recipe is truly scrumptious!

If I wasn't counting points and limiting wheat and gluten, I would have inhaled most of these delicious biscuits!  I'm practicing my best self-restraint right now!  It's difficult to say the least!

Rosemary-Butter Biscuits

Ingredients

3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon organic raw cane sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons fresh minced rosemary (I used between 1-1 1/2 tablespoons)
6 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into bits, plus more for serving
3/4 cups organic whole milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Sift flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt into large bowl.  Stir in the rosemary.  I used less than the 2 tablespoons suggested because I wasn't sure how our kids would like the flavor of rosemary.  I didn't want the rosemary to overwhelm them.  If you or your kids love herbs go for the 2 tablespoons or if you're enjoying a hearty fall meal I think the 2 tablespoons would be great!  With a pastry cutter or fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal.

Sifting the dry ingredients

Cutting in the butter with a pastry blender.  A fork would work also.

Add the milk all at once and mix with a large spoon just until the dough forms into a ball.  With lightly floured hands, knead the dough on a lightly floured surface just a couple of times, until it all comes together.

Roll out the dough about 1/2 inch thick, and then cut with a 2-inch biscuit cutter or drinking glass.  We went with a drinking glass that measured about 2 1/2 inches in diameter.  Place the biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet a few inches apart from each other.  Bake until the biscuits are golden brown on top, about 15 minutes.

Remove from oven, cut a widthwise slit halfway into each biscuit and add a thin sliver of butter.  Serve hot.

We made 13 biscuits with our 2 1/2-glass.  If you're following Weight Watchers, each biscuit is 3 points.

1/2 Whole Wheat Artisan Bread

Beautiful Loaf

Last week I shared a YouTube video demonstrating how to bake Artisan Bread from the authors of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a day.

Today I decided to try the bread with 1/2 whole wheat flour.  It turned out GREAT!

In case you missed the video, here it is:

So to recap:

Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
3 cups warm water
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups all-purpose flour

Combine all ingredients in large bowl.  Stir with wooden spoon until flour is mostly worked in.  There is no need to knead or overwork the dough.

Allow to rise for 2 hours.

Today we divided the dough into two large loaves.  Work dough into round loaves.  Place on cornmeal covered wood working surface.  Allow to rise an additional 40 minutes.

The cornmeal on the wood surface allows the bread loaf
to easily slide onto the stone in the oven

While bread is rising, heat oven to 425 degrees.  While heating, place cooking stone (if you have one) in oven.  About 10 minutes before placing bread on stone, place the additional cooking pan (for water) in the oven to heat up.

After 40 minutes, place bread loaf on stone; pour water in baking pan below the stone.  This should steam.

Cook about 20 minutes or until nice golden brown.

Fresh out of the oven

The kids love fresh baked bread!

Maybe next time I'll try 100% whole wheat.

Enjoy!

Baking Artisan Bread

Why do I do this to myself?  I'm trying to be a faithful, fit paleo-eater, but I REALLY want to be a baker creating beautiful desserts and baked goods.  I'm impressed by disciplined Crossfit athletes, but I'd love to cook like Paula Deen feeding family and friends all sorts of home-cooked-with-love delicious meals.  Cooking and baking makes me happy.  It relieves stress.  But just looking at it and not eating it is utterly the pits.  Oh well.  It's the life.  I continue to dream and bake for our family.

One cookbook I've been eyeing, but not buying is Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day.  It's on my wish-list, but hasn't made it to the "buy" list yet.

Thanks to the gift of YouTube, I was able to find a great recipe and tried it.

It was so easy and I was so happy with the results!  I think our kids were pleased with it too considering one loaf was gobbled up in minutes.

Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons Kosher salt
3 cups warm water
6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Bake at 450 for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Add yeast to large bowl

Ingredients

Add salt

Add flour

Stir briefly until flour is mixed in

Cover and let rise

Allow to rise 2 hours

Looking good!

After 2 hours

They suggest shaping a grapefruit-sized ball into a loaf

Allow loaves to rise 40 minutes

on cornmeal covered wood surface

Forming more loaves

Little cuties!

Cut before baking

Ready for the oven

The stone is HOT! 450 degrees  Bake for 20-30 minutes.

Done!  The kids are already requesting bread bowls for soup.

Buttered up and ready to eat!

So easy with GREAT RESULTS!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Sour Cream Pancakes

Pancakes are one of my favorite foods.  I grew up enjoying stacks and stacks of pancakes.  They were one of the only foods that could fill me up and satisfy my hunger pangs until lunchtime when I was in school.  I remember my mom serving stacks of 4-6 pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast almost every morning. Her pancakes, made from scratch, were filled with wheat germ, bran, oat bran and whole wheat flour.  They were HEAVY DUTY pancakes!

I also have many memories of my Papa whipping up pancakes on Sunday mornings. He and my grandma would eat some type of hot cereal (Cream of Wheat, cornmeal, oatmeal, farina, etc) every weekday morning.  On weekends my Papa would make pancakes from scratch.  We'd sometimes sneak little surprises into the pancakes, unbeknownst to our patrons.  Sometimes we'd stick a chocolate chip or a raisin in them. Other times we'd be really sneaky and we'd cook a piece of thread inserted in the batter in a circular motion.  The recipient of this pancake would find they couldn't easily cut the pancake.  It was a bit like an April Fool's joke.  We chuckled many times over this trickery.

Although these days I rarely eat grains, since limiting intake, I still love to make and experiment with all types of pancakes.  I make them, but don't get to enjoy them. Bummer!

My family still enjoys them.

On Halloween, I woke early to make the kids Pumpkin Pancakes.  We enjoy these every fall!  I found the recipe in a magazine about 15 years ago.  The recipe comes from Cambridge House Inn, a bed and breakfast in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I've never had a problem with this recipe, but I have heard people struggle with it. Some people have tried it and their pancakes turn out raw in the middle.  Keep this in mind. Our pancakes have turned out great, so I'm not sure what advice to offer.  Give them a try and see what happens.

Pumpkin Sour Cream Pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon oil

1.  Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together in medium-size bowl.

2.  Combine remaining ingredients in small bowl.  Slowly whisk liquids into dry ingredients.

3.  Spray a grill pan with cooking spray (I use a non-stick pancake griddle (at 300-325 degrees), so there is no need to spray).  Our pancakes are pretty thick and fluffy.  I usually pour the batter on the griddle then spread it out a bit.

4.  Serve with butter and syrup.

I miss pancakes!

Civil War Study: Gingerbread

During our Civil War study this year we made a few simple foods of the era like Johnny Cakes and Hard Tack.  Just like our soldiers of today, Civil War soldiers awaited special packages from home.  In these packages they would find items like socks, soap, and food.  One special treat was Gingerbread.

In honor of Flag Day (there's always a good reason to celebrate) we made Gingerbread once again today.

Gingerbread

Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter (for buttering 9X9 baking dish)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick butter, softened)

1 1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice
1 cup very hot tap water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 9 X 9 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl combine flour and baking soda.  Cut soft butter into flour mixture with fork or pastry blender.

Measuring out the 2 1/2 cups flour

Dip-Level-Pour

Cutting butter in with pastry blender

My little baker

Add molasses, egg, cinnamon, allspice, and water.  Stir well.

Stir wet ingredients well into flour ingredients.

Pour batter into baking pan.  Bake 30-40 minutes, or until wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.

In the oven for baking

Done

We doubled our recipe to share with friends

  

Enjoy!