Leave it to Grandma to come over with a bag full of cream puffs for Ben. For those of you who know me, that doesn’t usually fly around here. I have been really good though. I understand that Grandparents have certain rights. Spoiling is one of them. But a BAG? Just for Ben? Given to him when she walks in the door, BEFORE dinner? Come on Mom!
The Monsta was lucky that he ate his entire meal. I think he was imagining the puff during every bite. Well, the time came….
for dessert:
He examined it, smelled it, lifted it up slowly and took a bite….
When his teeth sunk into it, it was pure ecstasy in his eyes…
The rest is history!
One of my Flickr contacts posted a picture of a bread that she had made. She also included the link to the video on how to do it. I watched and was amazed at how easy it seemed. Could it be possible? I tried it because I had all four ingredients in the house and I had nothing to lose. It took me five minutes, that’s right, 5 minutes to prepare the dough. Then it sits for at least 12 hours. The next day it took me another five minutes, that’s right, 5 minutes to get it ready for the oven. It baked for about 45 minutes and then I looked at it. Holy Mackeral – REAL bread. It probably didn’t taste too good, let me try it…..HOLY, IT TASTES AWESOME. You have got to try this. I already made 2 loaves this week. The second one even better than the first. I’m psyched over the simplicity and the deliciousness.
No-knead bread
3 cups All purpose flour
1/4 tsp. instant yeast
1 tsp. and 1/4 salt
1 and 1/2 cups warm water
Combine dry ingredients and then add the water. Stir it with your hands just till it comes together. Cover with damp cloth and let it sit for 12-19 hours.
The dough should be loose and stringy. Lay a dishcloth down and dust it with something. (I used corn meal). You can use flour or wheat bran. Experiment. Transfer the dough onto cloth and fold it (you will see what I mean when you watch the clip). Dust the top with more of whatever you used. I put sesame seeds and sea salt on top of mine.
Oven is really hot at 500 degrees and the cast iron pot is in there. Plop dough into HOT pot and cover for 30 minutes. Then uncover for another 15-20 minutes. You won’t believe how good this is.
Enjoy!
Outtake:
THE VIDEO
Yesterday was the perfect day to make banana bread with my boy. We had a bunch of over-ripe bananas that all three of us were not into eating and it has been on my mind for days. Ben makes the best helper ever. He loves to pour and stir and enjoys watching the process. I will add here that I think it is WAY important to have the little ones help with this kind of stuff. They feel necessary and love seeing that what they have done turns into something grand (and tasty). Not to mention that that time spent with your child is priceless.
Ok, so anyways, I thought I would share the recipe with you. If the bananas sitting on your counter are getting brown spots, then I suggest you take out a stick of butter right now and let it get to room temperature.
Banana Bread
1 stick butter (room temp)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 c. mashed ripe bananas (approx 2 1/2)
1/2 c. sour cream
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 c. chopped pecans/walnuts
Before you start – Preheat oven to 350 and grease loaf pan.
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs – beating well.
Sift the dry ingredients together and combine with butter mixture. Blend well.
Add mashed bananas,
sour cream and vanilla and stir well.
Stir in nuts
and pour into loaf pan
Bake for 1 hour – Turn out onto rack and cool. (we ate it right out of oven – yummmm)
Do you have a favorite recipe that you love making with your kids? Please share.
Went to the Long Island Children’s Museum yesterday with my friend Emily and her son. First time being there but definitely not the last. We all had such a great time. This wall is outside the museum and I thought Ben looked supa cool in his hoodie (hehe). I have lots more photos but don’t have the time to post now. I need to research Long Island Restaurant week now. It crept up on us and we never miss it. (That’s right Joe…another date night!) Check out the link and go treat yourself.
Every once in a while I feel the need to share something simple and delicious. I think it was two years ago that my cousin-in-law Melinda’s Mother gave me a cookbook for Christmas. It is called, “The three ingredient cookbook” written by Jenny White. I have to admit that I didn’t open it for over a year. (sorry Dorothy) After all that time, I really forgot that I even had it. I pulled it off my shelf in desperation one night hoping that it would hold the answer to my dinner problem. The problem being that there was no dinner. Lo and behold it did! As a matter of fact it has a lot of great ideas. Here is the recipe that I used. I picked this one because I had a ton of tomatoes from my garden and I didn’t want them to go to waste.
Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes and Goat Cheese
8 Large ripe tomatoes
Pasta
Goat Cheese
There are your 3 ingredients……BUT this recipe is just screaming for some garlic!
Preheat oven to 375. Place the tomatoes and garlic in a roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil. Season well with salt and pepper. Roast till soft and slightly charred.
Meanwhile, cook your pasta. Don’t forget to salt your water.
Slice up the cheese. It will totally crumble but it doesn’t matter.
Roughly smash the roasted tomatoes.
Add pasta and gently stir in the cheese.
Enjoy!
It’s easy, fattening and DELICIOUS!
Japanese Fried Spaghetti
1 lb. spaghetti (I like to mix regular and whole wheat)
1 lb. bacon diced and fried
Remove bacon from pan and leave 1/2 the oil.
Brown 2 cloves garlic
Add 2 Tbl. chives
Throw in One head of Cabbage (diced)
Stir Fry with garlic and chives until it is well coated and getting soft and brown.
Add in slightly undercooked spaghetti to pan (deep wok or something works best)
Let it get a little toasty and then add
4 Tbls. soy sauce (I use low sodium)
When everything looks good enough to eat, add bacon back in and a little fresh parsley.
Enjoy!
(Norine – let me know how it turns out)
: )
A few weeks ago, you might remember, we went to visit Julie and Samy. I wrote about it in this post. Samy made us a dinner that night that was soooooo fantastic. I thought you might want to see some photos of what he created. It’ was not only delicious but it was a work of art. He carefully plans out these menus and cooks all day with the finest ingredients of the East end. I forgot to write down what each dish was so Samy, please send me the descriptions when you can and I will add them. Thanks again for a wonderful meal.
Cucumber topped with guacamole and seared scallop.
Butternut puree with Sea bass and cipollini onion.
I can’t even guess what this was…..I know mushrooms and some sort of roast. (Yikes! Help me out Samy)
Nectarines, grapefruit and cherry with some sort of creamy, fresh sauce.
*******
On a side note:
Girls, Have you gone for your mamogram this year? I just went for the first time. If you haven’t……Make your appointment TODAY!
We spent the afternoon/evening out by Julie’s on Sunday. It was a beautiful day and being at the beach was delightful. The Monsta ran all around picking up rocks and putting sand on his head. He would take Grandma’s hand and run down to the water totally squealing as a wave approached and then run back. They did this about 1000 times. He sat on the lifeguard chair and made a friend. Then he climbed all the way up the hill back to the house by himself. Samy was busy cooking and was all ready for us to sit down and indulge on one of his awesome dinners. I will definitely have pictures to show you when I’m done editing them. It was marvelous! About 3 minutes after we got in the car to go home, cookie was fast asleep. Another awesome day!
I’ve been having a time getting Ben to eat vegies lately. He used to eat everything and now he definitely is getting picky. UGH! Why does that happen? Does he not like things now or is this just a control thing? Whatever it is, it’s happening. Yesterday, we went shopping at Trader Joes (my favorite store) and they were giving out samples of hummus made from white beans instead of chick peas. It was really delicious. I bought it. Today, I made Ben his egg and cheese omelet. BUT….I beat in the hummus and sprinkled in some frozen spinach. I put muenster in the middle and served as usual. Do you know that the boy ate it all up! Go me! I think I have to be more sneaky from now on. Does anyone have any recipes they would like to share? I’d love to hear about them.
It’s all I got for ya today. This was dinner the udder night.
