Yummy Rye Bread

Recently, I've been experimenting with baking bread.  It took me a few times to get it right.  At first, the bread was either too dense or too dry, not the light fluffy loaves like at the store.  I had two problems.  First, I am a very impatient person, and because I am a very impatient person, I wasn't letting the bread rise enough.  It's better to let it rise for longer rather than shorter.  Watch a movie, go on a hike, whatever.  The second problem was that I let the bread cook for too long.  You shouldn't wait for it to get too brown, or it will be hard and dry.

It was with this Rye bread recipe that I finally got it right.  I think it had more to do with experimenting and less to do with the recipe in itself, but I love me some rye bread, so here you go!  I got this recipe from KitchenAid: Best Loved Recipes, and I only slightly altered it.

Ingredients

• 2 cups hot water (I usually make this as hot as I can get the tap, but it shouldn't hurt if you touch it, because if it's too hot it will kill the yeast)
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil plus some more for oiling the pan
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or 1 small packet)
• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups rye flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• cornmeal, to sprinkle on the pan

Tools

Kitchenaid (or hand beaters or a fork), one large cookie sheet, a few large bowls, a bread knife, various measuring tools, and saran wrap or something to cover the dough with as it rises.

Yummy Cooking Time

1)  Dissolve yeast, sugar, salt, and 2 tbsp of the oil in the warm water using the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, the regular attachments of a hand beater, or just by stirring with a fork.

2)  Add 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and continue to mix for a few minutes.

3)  In a separate bowl, mix together the wheat and rye flour and the caraway seeds.  Add mixture 1/2 cup at a time, and continue mixing between each addition.

4)  Add enough of the remaining all-purpose flour to make the dough gooey but not sticky.

5)  Now, if you are using a stand-up mixer, switch to the dough-hook attachment, and knead the dough until it's smooth (~ 7 min).  If you don't have a stand-up mixer, knead the dough by hand.

Dough-Hook Attachment

This is the consistency you want

6)  Oil a large bowl and put the dough in it.  Roll the dough for a second in the bowl so that the oil covers the top part.  loosely cover it with saran wrap or a damp cloth.  Now wait for the dough to rise.  If it's hot, I just leave it out on the counter for 2 hours (or until it doubles in size).  If it's not hot, I turn on the oven to like 350 for 2 minutes, then turn the oven off and put the bowl in.  Then I'll let it rise for 1 hour.  Don't be impatient, or your bread will be too dense.

7)  While the dough rises, oil a large cookie sheet and then sprinkle cornmeal on top.

8)  Once the dough has risen, punch it down and break it into two equally sized pieces.  Shape the dough into two flat footballs and let rise again until it doubles in size (45 minutes to 1 hour).  Go ahead and preheat the oven while the dough is rising.

9)  Brush some water and then some flour on top of the loaves and slice 3-4 slashes into the tops of each loaf.  Toss it in the oven, and cook until the crust starts to get a golden color (15-25 minutes).  Don't cook for too long, or your bread will be dry!

10)  Eat!

Rye Bread, good with Bananagrams and Pabst Blue Ribbon!  YUMMY!

Steve-O Makes Beans and Rice

This is my husband, Steve-O.

Everyone who has ever tried my husband's beans and rice has said something to this effect: "These are the best beans I've ever had!" or "I didn't know beans could actually taste good!"  So, for this blog entry I will show you how to make his easy yet ridiculously yummy recipe for beans that he has been perfecting over the years.  The rice part involves "cook some rice" so I'll mostly focus on the beans.

Steve normally makes the beans every other week or so and we store them in the fridge for the following week.  We have them for dinner when we don't feel like cooking and I take them to school for lunch.  I never get sick of these beans and rice.

Ingredients

Beans:
2 cups of beans (pinto or black, today we will be using pinto)
5 cups water (plus a little bit more, if necessary)
1/2 - 1 onion
4 - 5 cloves garlic
1/2 Tbsp dried epazote or 1 sprig fresh epazote (optional)

3 - 5 chipotle peppers from a can of La Costeña chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Steve will not use any other brand of chipotle peppers.

Beans and Rice:

Some rice, cooked (I like basmati best)
The beans you just finished cooking
salt and pepper, to taste
Whatever else you want (we like to add sour cream or plain Greek yogurt, salsa, and shredded cheddar cheese, maybe some fresh cilantro sprinkled on top)

Tools

Chopping devices, garlic press (unless you want to chop the garlic), a large pot for boiling, a rice cooker, and a slow cooker.


Bean Cooking Time!
1)  Add the 4 1/4 cups water to the large pot, cover, and heat with stove on high.  Also, turn the slow cooker on high.  This allows it to heat up before you add the boiling beans.
2)  Pick any rocks out of the beans.  Steve does this by dumping the beans onto a silicon baking sheet, removing the rocks, and then folding up the sheet and dumping the beans into the colander.

3)  Rinse the beans in a colander.
4)  By now the water from the pot should be boiling. Add the beans to the pot, turn down the heat to keep at a low boil.  Cover and let these boil until you are done chopping up the veggies.
5)  Chop the onion and add it to the slow cooker.

6)  Take out the chipotle peppers from the can, chop off the tops, removed the seeds, and chop into small pieces.  Add the peppers and the tablespoon of adobo sauce to the slow cooker.

Split open the chili.

Remove the seed pod.

Remove any lingering seeds.

7)  Use the garlic press or chop the garlic and add it to the slow cooker.  This is also the time to add your epazote, if you wish.  Epizote adds a nice flavor to the beans, and is also considered a carminative spice, meaning that... well... it keeps you from stankin' up the room.  If you are using dried epazote, avoid any stems.  If you are using fresh epazote, remove the sprig after the beans are cooked.

8)  Pour the boiling pot of beans and water into the slow cooker, stir, and cook on high until tender.  This usually takes about 3-4 hours.  If you don't have enough water to cover the beans, or if the water evaporates before the beans are finished, add a little bit more, but not too much, because you don't want to dilute the flavor.  Stir the beans every hour or so.

Before

Cooking...

DONE! 

Now for the "and Rice" part
9)  While the beans are cooking, throw two cups of basmati rice and three cups of water into your rice cooker and cook.

8)  When both the beans and the rice are finished, you can do what you want with them, really.  But I'll show you how I like to prepare them.  You'll need some shredded cheese, chopped cilantro, salsa, and either Greek yogurt or sour cream.  I ran out of yogurt, so I'm using sour cream.

9)  First, put some of the rice in a bowl, and cover it with shredded cheese.  I put the shredded cheese below the beans so it will melt easier.  

10)  Then I put the beans on top, add some salsa, a dollop of sour cream, and garnish with chopped cilantro.

YUMMY!

11)  EAT!!!! YUM!

Crackly Gingersnaps

For my first recipe, I decided to do something quick and easy, so I could get used to taking pictures while I cook.  I have to say, taking pictures while I cook helps me to keep my kitchen from turning into a complete disaster area.  This recipe is almost exactly taken from Santa Fe Kitchens: Delicious Recipes from the Southwest by the Museum of New Mexico Foundation.

My (evil) stepmother-in-law, Dana, gave me this book for one of my birthdays, I believe, and it's quite nice, though I mostly stick to the desserts since I tend to avoid meat.  One day I plan on veggifying some of their main dishes (future posts, perhaps?).

Okay, on to the gingersnaps.  To start, you will need the following ingredients:

3/4 cups vegetable oil
1 cup sugar plus some more (~1/2 cup)
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon, ground
1 tsp ginger, ground
1 tsp cloves, ground

and you will need the following tools:

A KitchenAid (or hand-beater, or whisk, or fork), 3 bowls (one for dry stuff, one for wet stuff, and one for rolling balls in sugar), various measuring tools, a few cookie sheets, and silicon baking liners (or parchment paper, or just grease your cookie sheets).  I also used a coffee grinder to grind the cloves, because I only had whole ones.

Okay, now, to start cooking!

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C)

2) Beat that oil and sugar until smooth.  Then add your molasses and egg and beat some more.

3) In a separate bowl, mix together your flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.

4)  Add that to your wet mixture, and beat some more, until it is well combined.

5)  Roll the dough into lots and lots of little (~3/4 inch or ~2 cm diameter) round balls and roll each one in sugar.

6)  Smoosh each ball slightly on the baking sheet to make a disk.  Line them up about an inch (~ 2.5 cm) apart.

7) Cook them for ~7-12 minutes at 350°F (177°C), until they are crackly.

8)  Eat up!  Nom Nom Nom! Yummy!

Steve says "YUMMY"

And they're even yummy with milk!

I encourage you to try these; they are super easy and quick.  They are especially good right out of the oven.  See you next time!

An Introduction

Before I start posting recipes, here's a brief introduction.  My name is Stacy, and I am not a writer.  I just want to put that out there to start.  I can make words into sentences (most of the time), but I lack a certain pizazz with words that is necessary to entertain people with them.  As a biologist, I do write, but in a very technical way, and I do not want this blog to be especially technical.  I want it to be fun and light-hearted, you know, something I look forward to after a long day of thinking about math and diseases (not to say I don't enjoy thinking about math and diseases, because I do, a lot, just not all day and all night).

Also, I want to say that I pretty much copied the idea of starting a food blog from my friend, Lauren, who actually is a talented writer, and here is a link to her site.  Not that she invented blogging about food.  Anyone who knows anything knows Julia Child started that (right?).  Either way, I started reading Lauren's blog and thought it would be fun to share my recipes with people (and myself... I tend to forget things).

One more thing. Before I start with the recipes (and whatever else I feel like putting in here), I want to write a little bit about who inspires me (on the cooking front... I could go on forever about who inspires me in general).  First, my mom, of course.  She taught me to make spaghetti and chocolate chip cookies at a young age.  Those chocolate chip cookies are a good bartering tool to this day!

Next is my Great-Aunt-Jane, who has a lovely garden in Somerset, Pennsylvania, and during family trips up there, she made us the most delicious country-style food.  When I was little, she taught me to roll grapes in sugar and then freeze them (the sugar keeps the grapes from sticking), resulting in tiny, yummy Popsicles.

Lastly, my (evil) step-mother-in-law, Dana, is my biggest cooking inspiration.  She has two specialties that she has passed down to me: Indian cuisine and chocolate.  She taught me to make cheese, introduced me to the wonders of KitchenAid, and gives me a new exciting cookbook at least once a year. She's not really evil.

Okay, time to cook!