family-friendly

No-Knead Cottage Cheese Dill Bread | Papa’s Dilly Bread

January 23, 2013 by Rebecca 18 Comments

I have spent my entire life thinking my dad is pretty much the bees-knees and since he just keeps improving with age like a fine wine (or a stinky cheese, as he would say), I’ll just keep carrying on that way. My dad has always been that perfect blend of serious, goofy, cautious and devil-may-care. For example, he’d make sure you put your seatbelt on before driving on roads that were closed due to weather conditions just because he could.

Dad is one of those renaissance men. He’s equally at home screaming at a hockey match, speaking in churches, ploughing snow, operating his ham radios, working on his local volunteer ambulance squad, fishing, reading books, crafting groan-inducing puns, felling trees on a dime, listening to beautiful music, dandling grandkids on his knees, pulling campers on water skis around a lake in a speed boat, putting nervous parents at ease on airplanes, and hiking the vast wilderness trails near where he lives.

With a list of attributes like that, is it any wonder I’m an unapologetic daddy’s girl?

But that’s not all. My dad can bake. He has a specialty bread -one that most everyone who spends a decent amount of time with him gets a chance to taste at some point or another. Dilly Bread. Many years ago, dad took the recipe from the “Deaf Smith Country Cookbook” and made it his own. Translation: he made it better.

To begin with, this recipe is a no-knead recipe. No knead to tinker with that. Ahem.

You just mix the lot up in a big bowl with a sturdy spoon and let it rise in a warm corner. As for the changes, the original recipe called for honey as the sweetener. Dad has mainly used sugar over the years, mainly because -as he says- that’s what he had handy. I stick with the sugar vs. honey, both because it’s easier to measure and it’s a less expensive ingredient. Dad also played with the type and proportion of onion in the recipe. He suggests using minced dehydrated onions because “it’s easier to add more onion to the dough.” I stick with the minced dehydrated onions not only for that reason, but also because this is a very slack, moist dough and the dehydrated onions soak up a bit of that moisture, making it easier to work with. When I asked Dad what kind of flour he prefers (because the book didn’t specify) he said, “Whatever I have on hand, but I did try making it with all whole wheat once and it didn’t rise enough for my liking.” I personally like to toss a little whole wheat in there, so I go for about a 2:1 ratio of all-purpose flour to white whole wheat. Then you get that wonderful toasting quality of whole wheat along with the more impressive rising ability of all purpose.

Now, once your dough is rising, you need to turn your attention to what you’ll use to bake it. I had a double batch of this rising on the counter the other day when I realized that my oven had (once again!) broken. The potential two-fold horror of wasting A.) a batch of perfectly good bread dough for my favourite bread that has B.) four full cups of cottage cheese ($$$$$) in it made me get really creative really quickly. I determined that my little old toaster oven could fit two standard loaf pans in it side-by-side, but that wouldn’t account for the other two loaves worth of dough. I brought out and greased a fistful of ramekins in a fit of desperation and found that it made BEAUTIFUL little individual loaves when baked.

The little loaves somehow skirt the “don’t cut when hot” rule. Why is this? Well, mainly because a tiny, hot loaf of bread just hollers, “Top me with a cold pat of butter and watch it melt!”

And if you do that, you have to do this…

Right?

So- you’re left with choices… standard loaf pans, ramekins, or…by extrapolation… pretty oven-safe bowls. The nice thing about using ramekins for dough was that I had leftover dough that wouldn’t fit anywhere I could bake it before over-rising.

How is this a nice thing now when it’s usually to be avoided?

It’s time I introduce you to yet another one of my dad’s finer ideas… The Baker’s Tax. This is the reason you want to be at my dad’s house when he’s baking. He deliberately ACCIDENTALLY puts a little too much of everything into his mixing bowl so he has too much dough to fit in available pans. He then rolls little bits of the dough out as thin as he can without ripping it, melts an indecent quantity of butter in a cast-iron skillet…

…And fries those rounds of dilly, oniony, cheese-studded dough.

Behold the brilliance of The Baker’s Tax.

If you are nearby when these are fresh from the oven and you have a single lick of sense, you will beat a hot path for the kitchen and be not proud about eating as many of these little rounds of glory as you possibly can. If you should somehow make an entire batch of dough into these, I will tell you that you probably couldn’t find a better possible flat bread to wrap around smoked turkey breast, lettuce and onion with a smear of spicy mustard. But that scenario would presuppose you hadn’t already eaten them all, so we’ll just leave that one alone.

In the meantime, while you’re waiting for your standard loaves of the stuff to bake, contemplate how you want to serve the finished product. Sliced thin, this is just about the best deli-meat sandwich vehicle you’ll ever eat. Toasted on one side in a pan with butter, you can’t imagine a better accompaniment to a fried egg, mug full of soup, or bowl full of stew.

But if you were to slice a couple of hearty pieces of bread, butter them both and stack them around some nice melty cheese, then slowly fry it in a pan until it was deep golden brown and the cheese was gooey, you might just yawp from the pure joy of the thing.

Six out six sturgeon faces agree: any way you slice it, Papa’s Dilly Bread makes people happy.

No-Knead Cottage Cheese Dill Bread | Papa’s Dilly Bread

Rating: 51

No-Knead Cottage Cheese Dill Bread | Papa’s Dilly Bread

This no-knead sandwich bread is flecked with aromatic and flavourful dill and onion and enriched and kept moist by the addition of cottage cheese. The little melted pockets of cheese make this bread one of the ultimate choices for toast. When baked in ramekins, the dough makes beautiful little individual loaves ideal for accompanying meals.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons yeast
1/2 cup warm water plus a pinch of sugar
2 cups small curd cottage cheese
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons neutral oil (like canola, vegetable, or corn)
2 tablespoons raw or granulated sugar
6 tablespoons dried minced onion
1 tablespoon dried dill SEED
1 teaspoon dried dill WEED
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 eggs, beaten
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (*See Notes)

Instructions

Gently stir the yeast into the warm water with the pinch of sugar in the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Let stand for 5 minutes, or until the yeast is frothy. While that rests, whisk together the cottage cheese, milk, oil, sugar, minced onion, dill seed and weed, salt and eggs in a saucepan over low heat just until lukewarm.

Add that to the yeast mixture and stir. Add the flour all at once and use a sturdy spoon to mix until there are no dry pockets of flour and everything is evenly moist. The dough will be shaggy, but that is as it should be. Don't get zealous and try to over work it.

Cover with a damp tea-towel and let rise in a warm place for about an hour and a half, or until almost doubled in bulk.

Grease the pans you want to use to cook them (it will yield 2 standard loaf pans but can also be divided among ramekins or baked in oven-proof bowls.) Divide the dough to fill the greased pans by about 1/3. Reserve any leftover dough for The Baker's Tax (See Notes).

Cover the loaf pans with a damp tea towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the risen dough for 30-40 minutes for full-sized loaves or 25-30 minutes for ramekin sized individual loaves.

Remove from the oven and let the loaves rest in the pans for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Store loaves wrapped in a clean towel at room temperature for up to three days, or wrap cooled loaves in a double layer of plastic wrap and freeze for up to three months.

Notes

*If you don't have white whole wheat flour, you can simply substitute an equal amount of all-purpose flour. It will still be delicious.

The Baker's Tax is simply walnut sized pieces of leftover dough rolled out about 1/4-inch thin and fried in melted butter in a cast-iron skillet until deep golden brown and cooked through. It's a reward for baking that you might just like so much you plan ahead to have leftover dough the next time!

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/01/23/no-knead-cottage-cheese-dill-bread-papas-dilly-bread/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Filed Under: Bread, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: Bread, family-friendly, frugal gifts, kid friendly, quick and easy, Vegetarian

Homemade No-Cook Instant Pudding Mix | Make Ahead Mondays

January 21, 2013 by Rebecca 16 Comments

We are on the tail end of a two week tour of our household by the flu. The only person who has -thus far- remained unscathed is my germaphobe husband. Don’t get me wrong, I am the original Purell poster girl, but next to me, my hubby is Howard Hughes. The poor guy looks like a man on death row awaiting his fate. He jumps at the rattle of every cough (which means he’s been getting quite a cardiovascular workout lately.) He’s been bravely facing his fate, making runs to the store for more boxes of tissues, whipping together dinner for his furniture jockey crew, delivering, “Hey! It’s been five days! I bet you’ll be feeling great soon! Can I throw an ibuprofen to you from over here?” pep talks, and sitting on the couch with his tuberculoid family with barely a deer-in-the-headlight look in his eyes.

It’s been anything-goes on television here. The kids have been glutting themselves on Phineas and Ferb, Little Bill (the little guys), Full Metal Alchemist (the big guys), and recorded episodes of Monk, Nova, and Star Trek. (Wavin’ the nerd flag even when sick. Holla!) And food? Oh gosh. Let’s just say that letting my eleven year old mix up a box of instant chocolate pudding for himself sounded like a perfectly reasonable lunch option for a few days especially if it meant I could remain in my chair with a blanket pulled up under my chin. The boxed instant pudding ran out pretty quickly because I don’t stock much of that (two box maximum is my usual count). We prefer homemade cooked pudding for both flavour and nutritive (HA!) value. Look. I know I’ll never win a parenting award for feeding my kids pudding, so I pretend that homemade is enough better for you that it cancels out anything I’m doing wrong. Yes? Anyone?

But I was saying we ran out of instant pudding. TRAGEDY! And my husband had just come home from a tissue procuring mission and retreated to the home-office germ-free fortress. HORRORS! And the kids were hungry and wanted pudding. And I wanted my blankie and chair. So I did what any insane woman would do. I got up and whipped together homemade instant pudding mix. The first iteration of it didn’t go over so well. They said there was a funny after-taste. I -who could taste NOTHING ANYWAY- had to take their word for it. Take two went much more smoothly. In fact, the one child I have who DOESN’T like pudding (to which I say, what have I done wrong?) actually liked it. In fact, he ate his own serving and part of someone else’s serving, too.

There were two mixes I made for the kids: chocolate and vanilla. Almost to a man, they preferred the vanilla with one hold out for the chocolate. Howard Hughes, er, my husband, also preferred the chocolate.

How did I get a pudding texture with no cooking? I used instant clear jel. (Please note, this is an affiliate link.)

Have you used this stuff before? It’s seriously fun. It is a modified corn starch (and thus gluten-free!) that does not require heat to thicken liquids. It’s most commonly used in fresh berry pies or fruit glazes. Mmmmm… Fresh strawberry pie! It can be used to thicken gravies, sauces and stews, too. When you’re using it in a cold application (like a drink, berry pie, or this pudding) the key is to whisk it into other dry ingredients -like sugar- before combining it with the liquid you want to thicken. This prevents clumping in the final product. If you do end up with clumping, all is not lost, though. You can save the day by tossing everything in the blender and whizzing it together or using a stick-blender to bust up the lumps. When it’s fully hydrated, it yields a silky smooth, soft gelled product.

Naturally, the final product is going to be different than the boxed instant pudding… It’s lighter in texture, in fact, it’s almost fluffy and mousse like. The vanilla pudding is milk white and the chocolate is almost speckly looking because of the lack of artificial food colouring. If you want it to look closer to its storebought counterpart, you can add a drop of yellow food dye to the vanilla and a drop of brown to the chocolate.

One final word before I get on with giving you the recipe. Aside from the fact that I was thrilled to be able to avoid going out in the blowing cold with tissues stuffed up my nose to buy boxed pudding mix for my kids, I’m wicked excited about this no-cook instant pudding mix for another reason; my nieces and nephew have some fierce food sensitivities including gluten. My sister, Jessamine, has spent years making everything from scratch for her kids to avoid ingredients that would make them sick. While that’s just fine most of the time, when she’s feeling poorly or her oven is on the fritz (both of which were true this past week), it is nice to have a couple of go-to convenience items. I can’t even wait to shove a big quart jar of this with directions written on a card into her paws the next time I see her. The pudding is naturally gluten-free, being made with modified corn starch but can also easily be mixed up with coconut, soy, almond, or rice milk to yield a deliciously creamy dairy-free, vegan pudding. I’m having fun picturing my nieces and nephew sitting down to a bowl of homemade instant pudding. Sometimes it’s the little things…

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I hear my husband mumbling something about a Spruce Goose…

Homemade No-Cook Instant Pudding Mix | Make Ahead Mondays

Easy to put together and just as easy to turn into pudding, this dry Homemade Instant No-Cook Pudding Mix is a pantry friendly staple that stores for up to a year at room temperature. This mix is a wonderful homemade alternative to its storebought counterpart, is gluten-free and can be prepared to be dairy-free and vegan with coconut, almond, soy, or rice milk.

Ingredients

For Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix:

2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups instant clear jel
1/2 teaspoon salt

For Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix:

2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups instant clear jel
2 cups dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

To Prepare Pudding:

2 cups of milk (Whole, 2%, 1% or Fat-free Cow's milk, Goat milk, Coconut, Soy, Almond or Rice milk.)
3/4 cup pudding mix
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract (for the vanilla) or 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (for the chocolate.)

Instructions

To Make Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix:

Add the granulated sugar, instant clear jel, and salt to the carafe of a blender. Fix the lid firmly in place and blend on high for about 30 seconds, or until the ingredients are completely mixed and finely powdered. Let the contents rest about 5 minutes before transferring to canning jars or airtight containers with tight fitting lids. I use a spoon to transfer the mix to prevent powder going POUF in the air.

To Make Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix:

Add the granulated sugar, instant clear jel and salt to the carafe of a blender. Fix the lid firmly in place and blend on high for about 30 seconds, or until the ingredients are completely mixed and finely powdered. Let the contents rest about 5 minutes before removing the lid and adding the dutch process cocoa powder. Replace the lid tightly and blend on high for about 15 seconds, or until the mixture is a uniform colour. Let the contents rest about 5 minutes before transferring to canning jars or airtight containers with tight fitting lids. I use a spoon to transfer the mix to prevent powder going POUF in the air.

Store the mix in the airtight containers in a cool, dark place for up to a year. A cabinet or basement shelf should work well.

To Make Pudding from Either Mix:

Pour 2 cups of cold milk into a mixing bowl and add the appropriate amount of vanilla extract. Sprinkle 3/4 of a cup of mix over the top and whisk in thoroughly until thickened. If you are having trouble with clumping, you can either pour the contents into a blender and blend on medium until smooth or use a stick blender to break up the lumps and smooth the mixture. It will be soft set immediately, but improves in flavour and texture if it is allowed to rest (with a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface) for at least 30 minutes.

Notes

If the pudding is too soft set, you can add extra pudding mix, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it thickens to your liking.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/01/21/homemade-no-cook-instant-pudding-mix-make-ahead-mondays/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Oh! And before I go, I want to invite each of you to a Twitter party sponsored by Land O’Lakes tomorrow evening from 8-9pmEST. It will be co-hosted by Amber, from the Land O’Lakes test kitchen and yours truly. We will be talking about recipes from the Big Game Collection for the upcoming Super Bowl, sharing tips for entertaining a crowd, and giving away prizes. All you have to do to participate is tweet using the hashtag #CheeseChatter during that timeframe and you’ll be entered to win one of several prize packages that will include:

One Mario Batali pizza stone
One bamboo cutting board
One six-inch gourmet chef’s knife
Set of four canapé plates
One reusable refrigerated grocery bag
One high-value Land O’Lakes deli cheese coupon

I hope to see you all there! For more information on how to participate, click here!

Filed Under: Desserts, Gluten Free, Make Ahead Mondays, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: budget friendly, dairy-free, dessert, family-friendly, Frugal Food, gluten-free, kid friendly, quick and easy, vegan, Vegetarian

Balsamic Chicken Dinner Salad

January 16, 2013 by Rebecca 15 Comments

You know those go-to dishes? The ones that you can’t mess up and no matter how often you make them, you never tire of them? The dishes that you can make with your eyes closed and one hand tied behind your back? You are looking at one of mine.

That, my friends, is a dish I’ve been making for almost two decades. It started as a recipe clipped from a Wegman’s sales circular. Somewhere -about fifteen years ago- I made a couple of changes to the recipe based on what we had on hand and we liked it so much it stayed that way.

Balsamic Chicken Salad. I have an almost Pavlovian response to the name of the dish I love it so much. Tender strips of chicken are tossed with a balsamic vinegar, sun dried tomato and caper pan sauce over a bed of fresh greens.We are talking the ultimate dinner salad, here. If you serve this with a lovely hunk of baguette or some corn muffins and some sweet cream butter, you really don’t need anything else.

Now, if you’re not a salad person *GASP*, or can’t lay your hands on good mixed greens this time of year, don’t let this stop you. The chicken is so good by itself, you must -ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO- make it. I can’t keep my fingers out of the pan sneaking bites here and there. It is wonderful on sandwiches or tossed into bow-tie pasta with a shower of grated Parmesan cheese.

Mercifully, this eminently craveable dish is shockingly fast to make and budget friendly all while being impressive enough for company. You can’t beat that with a stick!

I’ll tell you, it does make quite a bit of chicken. This IS a dinner salad, after all. Don’t fret, though, if you’re cooking for less than a regiment, because the leftovers are great chilled on salad or folded into other dishes (hint hint… There’s a recipe that is especially good with it coming up in the next couple of weeks…)

Balsamic Chicken Dinner Salad

Tender strips of chicken are tossed with a balsamic vinegar, sun dried tomato and caper pan sauce over a bed of fresh greens.We are talking the ultimate dinner salad, here.

Ingredients

6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, sliced into thin strips.
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (not the oil packed variety)
1/2 cup semi-dry or dry white wine
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced or pressed
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tsp brined non pareil capers, drained
5 basil leaves, ripped into strips
Mixed salad greens
salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Heat the white wine in a saucepan or microwave until steam is rising from the top. Pour over the sun-dried tomatoes in a heat-proof bowl and cover with a saucer or plastic wrap. Set aside to rehydrate.

Sprinkle the sliced chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Place a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium high heat and add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. When the oil is shimmery, add as much of the chicken as you can without overcrowding the pan.

Sautee the chicken until just cooked through and lightly browned. Transfer to a plate and repeat with the remaining chicken. Repeat with the remaining chicken, adding 1 tablespoon of olive oil each time. You will probably have 3 batches, depending on the size of the chicken breasts.

When the final batch of chicken has been removed from the pan, add any remaining olive oil and the garlic and stir for about 15 seconds, or until the garlic is fragrant. Add the vinegar stir the remove any tasty bits stuck to the pan. When the vinegar boils up and starts to thicken, add the sun-dried tomatoes in the white wine, the capers, the basil, and return the chicken to the pan. Toss to coat and heat through. Remove the pan from the heat.

Add two cups of mixed salad greens to a plate for each of the desired number of servings and use tongs to arrange about a cup of chicken over each salad. Spoon pan sauces over the chicken, if desired.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/01/16/balsamic-chicken-dinner-salad/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Filed Under: Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: budget friendly, family-friendly, kid friendly, quick and easy, salad

Green Olive Tapenade | Make Ahead Mondays {GIVEAWAY CLOSED}

January 14, 2013 by Rebecca 102 Comments

I love rich and indulgent food. I love butter, heavy cream, all manner of bread, bacon and the like. I also love healthy food. It all depends on what is going on, what’s freshest and what’s available to me. After the holiday food madness, my food pendulum tends to swing a little further toward the healthier food cravings. I’m more likely to have a desperate desire for broiled fish than a buttery chocolate custard. It has nothing to do with resolutions, because I’ve never been a New Year’s resolution girl; that’s just how I am this time of year.

Don’t misunderstand me; my taste buds have not taken a leave of absence. I still want delicious food. This is where I rely on bold flavours that deliver big like this Green Olive Tapenade. Indulge me for a moment if you’re a tapenade-aholic while I dig into what it is for the benefit of those who haven’t yet tried this ambrosia.

Tapenade -in it’s most traditional form- is a spread or dip made of black olives with capers and anchovies. It is served with bread or crackers or added as a fast-and-easy WHIZZBANG flavour component to sandwiches, flat-breads and many other dishes. For instance, I love a light layer of tapenade atop the aforementioned broiled fish. It’s the difference between plain old broiled fish and “Oooooh! Broiled Fish!”

While I am an Equal Opportunity Tapenade Lover, there is a special place in my heart and in my stomach for Green Olive Tapenade. I chalk this up to the fact that I didn’t discover a love of green olives until I was pregnant with my first child. It’s a matter of mathematics. I must make up for time lost NOT eating things with green olives by eating many things with green olives. I believe my physicist baby sister would agree with this theory. Let’s ask her. Airlia? Are you reading this?

My Green Olive Tapenade is extra fabulous for more than one reason, though. While the traditional tapenade is almost entirely made of salty preserved things (Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Believe me, I’ve consumed and will continue to consume more than my share of the stuff…) I like to make mine more exciting with the addition of fresh herbs, garlic, lemon, and flavourful sun-dried tomatoes. It practically sings from the bowl, “I waaaaaaant you to want me. I neeeeeeeeeeed you to need me!”

Please tell me food sings songs from the 80′s to you, too.

In addition to all it’s deliciousness, tapenade has some health benefits. It’s true! Olives are full of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. These are the good fats that help control cholesterol and blood sugar. Don’t you love it when great food is great for you?

Now, before I give you this ultimate Make Ahead Monday fabulousness (because once made, the Green Olive Tapenade is good for up to a month when tightly covered in the refrigerator. Tapenade things with wild abandon!) I will put on a dazzling display of mind reading. I sense it deep in my core that the second I said ‘anchovies’ some folks started pulling faces. No nose twitching allowed unless you’re certifiably allergic to fish. Anchovies add that certain je ne sais quois to dishes. Since all the ingredients are chopped or ground together, I defy you to find the presence of anchovy in tapenade. While you won’t be able to say, “A-HA! I taste ANCHOVY!” if you include the wee little fishies, you will most certainly know you’re missing a certain depth of flavour if you omit them. Take the plunge, or your tapenade attempt will sleep with Luca Brasi AND the fishes.

Please make yourself a batch of Green Olive Tapenade. You’re going to want to have it on hand for an impossibly easy and delicious Super Bowl treat I’ll be sharing with you in the next couple of weeks. You really won’t want to miss it!

Green Olive Tapenade | Make Ahead Mondays {GIVEAWAY}

Rating: 51

Green Olive Tapenade | Make Ahead Mondays {GIVEAWAY}

Your taste buds will sing for joy when you eat this fast, delicious Green Olive Tapenade full of briny olives and capers, fresh herbs, garlic, lemon, and flavourful sun-dried tomatoes.

Serve as an accompaniment to bread, crackers, crisps, vegetables or use as a topping for fish, chicken, pork. A spoonful or two tossed with hot pasta is one of the world's fastest comfort food dishes!

Ingredients

2 cups drained Manzanilla olives with pimientos
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons brined capers + a little of their brine
7 anchovy fillets (from a can of packed-in-olive-oil anchovies)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped, oil-packed sun dried tomatoes
the juice and zest of one whole lemon
3 fresh basil leaves
1/2 to 1 small clove of garlic, peeled and minced or pressed

Instructions

Add all ingredients to the workbowl of a food processor* (See Note) fitted with a metal blade. Pulse until everything is evenly chopped. You can leave it more coarse for spooning on top of things or grind it up a little more to use as a dip or sauce. It is a matter of personal preference.

Notes

If you do not have a food processor, don't fret! Finely chop your herbs and sun-dried tomatoes then add all of the ingredients to a mixing bowl and use a sturdy spoon to smash them together. It will be a more rustic but no less delicious tapenade!

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/01/14/green-olive-tapenade-make-ahead-mondays-giveaway/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Update:The giveaway is now closed. Pick a Giveaway Winner chose Katee L as our random winner. Check your email and congratulations, Katee!

More giveaway fun! Wasa Crispbreads (pictured above with the Green Olive Tapenade) have offered to help kickstart one Foodie with Family reader’s holiday foods reset. The crispbread’s pure, natural grain flavours shine through ready to be topped with anything you wish, whether salty or sweet. Because the crispbreads themselves are not salted, they are a superior choice for serving with salty Green Olive Tapenade and other savoury spreads. My kids also love them topped with cream cheese and candied jalapeños or blueberry jam.

Wasa is giving away the following prize package to one Foodie with Family reader in the United States.

1 $25 gift card (That would buy enough ingredients for a VAT of Green Olive Tapenade!)
2 packages of Wasa Crispbreads so you can discover your own favourite way to eat them.

How do you enter?

Mandatory Entry: Leave a comment on this post telling me what you do to reset after the holidays. Do you do resolutions? Do you crave healthy foods? Are you still doing holiday activities?

Optional Entries: (Be sure to leave a separate comment for each optional entry method used so we can be sure to count it!)

Like Foodie with Family on Facebook.
Follow Foodie with Family on Twitter.
Follow Foodie with Family’s boards on Pinterest.
Like Wasa on Facebook.
Follow Wasa on Twitter.

The winner will be chosen at random and announced here on this post on Wednesday, January 16, 2013. Good luck everyone!

Disclosure: Wasa provided crispbreads for me to review and compensation for my additional ingredients, but all opinions are -as always- my own.

Filed Under: Condiments, Happy Healthy and Wise, Make Ahead Mondays, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: budget friendly, family-friendly, Frugal Food, quick and easy, Vegetarian

Earl Grey Raisin Scones with Sticky Lemon Glaze | Downton Grub Files

January 12, 2013 by Rebecca 23 Comments

The body of this post and the printable recipe do NOT contain SPOILERS, however, I cannot make any promises about the comments section. If you are not caught up on Downton Abbey (Episode 1 of Season 3 as of this writing on January 12th, 2013), you may not want to read comments. I also ask -No, I BEG and PLEAD- that our friends overseas (or those who somehow saw all of Season 3 already) refrain from giving away what happens in any episodes past where I am!

Whoopsie! Forgot to include how MUCH cream in the ingredients list. It is fixed now!

I am an unapologetic anglophile from television programs to music to art to literature to food.

It is an idea that started with a simple question on the Foodie with Family facebook page…

“Are there any Downton Abbey fans here?”

In sixteen hours, more than seventy people ‘liked’ the post and there were twenty four comments. I knew I wasn’t the only mega Downton Abbey fan out there. Obviously. I hear internet chatter. I read newspapers. I see the news. I know it’s a big deal. What I didn’t know was how many Foodie with Family readers would be interested in me blathering on about how on Sunday the children are duct taped into bed after I rush home from taking my eldest to youth group at lightning speed just so I can see the Dowager Countess, Lady Grantham, Lady Mary, Sybil, Edith, week-ends, Mr. Bates and Anna, the abhorrent Thomas, Mr. Carson, Mrs. Hughes, Mrs. Pattimore, Daisy, Mrs. O’Brien, upstairs and downstairs, and lush costuming.

OH, THOSE COSTUMES. The dresses! The DRESSES, I tell you!!!!!!

Yes, I record it on the DVR, but if you have to ask that, you’re not getting my point. I want to watch it the very second it’s airing on PBS. I don’t want to wait one fraction of a second to get my weekly Downton fix.

More than I want to dress like Lady Mary, do something jolly with my hair like Edith, or just plain LOOK like Sybil from time to time, I want to be as witty, incorrigible and stalwart as the Dowager Countess Violet. Every time she speaks, I hush the imaginary people in the room with me. Imaginary, because I DO NOT allow anyone in the room with me lest they should talk over, wiggle, or otherwise interrupt my show.

My husband likes to sit in the other room with the door closed and laugh at me as I yell at the t.v. (Thomas, Mrs. O’Brien, and the former Mrs. Bates, I’m looking at you…), swoon (Oh hello, Lady Mary and Matthew, Anna and Mr. Bates. Yes. You all make my heart go pitter patter.), and otherwise sigh, moon, and mope when episodes conclude. After listening to me watch the conclusion of Season 2, he asked, “Is that what I sound like when I watch football?” My response included something intimating that if football had dresses like that I’d watch it, too.

I was late to the Downton party because of a fun little personality quirk where I deliberately avoid trying anything large crowds of people love. Yeah. That’s working out really well… So far, I can add Harry Potter books, Downton Abbey, and So You Think You Can Dance to that list.* The ONLY advantage to having taken so long to discover the series (midway through Season 2) was that I got to park myself on the couch for an indecent amount of time and watch Season 1 in one sitting.

*To be fair to myself, I can also add the Twilight books, which -after reading- led me to conclude that my personality quirk might actually be useful in some ways. To quote Snorg Tees, “Real men don’t sparkle. Real men defeat dark wizards!”

I quickly discovered that I really couldn’t get through an episode of the show without something to eat since so much of it revolves around time spent at the dinner table or in the kitchen. Since I love a good theme, I decided to stock myself with British Isles treats to nibble while slowly and inexorably becoming part of my furniture. And here’s where my idea came sidling in like Mr. Carson in the dining room. Why not post a little of the grub I made to sustain myself during my Downton Abbey marathon sessions? Just as quickly as the thought was hatched, I could almost hear the Dowager Countess saying, “What IS grub?” The Dowager Countess is apparently my grammatical conscience.

Today is my first contribution to the Downton Grub Files and it’s a doozy; Earl Grey Raisin Scones with Sticky Lemon Glaze. These moist, flaky scones are packed with Earl Grey soaked raisins and a touch of lemon zest and topped with a sticky, absolutely, unequivocally un-Downton finger-licking, Sticky Lemon Glaze. Every time you bite into one of the juicy soaked raisins, you get a little subtle pop of Earl Grey tea. I’m pretty sure Mrs. Patimore would be a-okay with slurping the glaze from your fingers, so go for it.

Tune in every Saturday while Downton Abbey airs for a great new classic British fare recipe to eat while you watch on Sundays! Who’s your favourite on Downton? What moments made you GASP? Cry? Scream at the television? (Come on, I can’t be the only one who did it!)

Earl Grey Raisin Scones with Sticky Lemon Glaze | Downton Grub Files

Moist, flaky lightly lemony scones studded with Earl Grey soaked golden raisins are perfect to nibble while watching Downton Abbey or just because you can.

Ingredients

1 cup golden raisins soaked in 1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) hot, extra-strong Earl Grey tea for at least an hour
4 cups (1 pound 1 ounce, by weight) all-purpose flour (preferably King Arthur all-purpose or Galahad flour.)
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
8 tablespoons (1 a stick of butter or 4 ounces by weight), very cold and cut into 1/4-inch cubes, divided
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
zest of one lemon, divided
juice of one lemon
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper and set aside.

Pour the raisins and tea into a fine mesh strainer and let drain thoroughly.

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add about 1/2 of the cubed butter and work in with a fork, two knives, a pastry cutter or your fingers until the mixture resembles lentils. Add the remaining butter and work in, leaving some slightly larger pea sized -or even larger- flakes of butter.

Add half of the lemon zest, and the drained raisins to the flour, then toss through gently until evenly distributed, taking care not to mash it in. Add 1 1/2 cups of the cream, sprinkling it over the top, then tossing to combine. Pick up a small amount of the mixture and try squeezing it gently together. If it crumbles, or if there are dry crumbs in the bottom of the bowl, add more cream -1 tablespoon at a time- until you have a mixture that holds together as a shaggy dough when squeezed gently. Use a bench scraper or spatula to gently fold the dough in on itself until it forms a shaggy mass you can turn out onto a very lightly floured surface.

Divide the dough in half and gently pat out the dough into two 7-8 inch discs that are about 3/4 of an inch thick. Carefully transfer the discs to a parchment lined baking sheet. Use a bench knife or Chef's knife to cut each disc into 8 wedges, cutting straight down and not sawing back and forth to help it rise higher in the oven. Gently separate the wedges so there is a little space between them.

Whisk together the remaining lemon zest, the lemon juice and the sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Lightly brush the tops of the unbaked scones with the glaze.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the scones are puffy and golden brown on top.

Spoon any leftover glaze on the hot scones and spread it over the tops. Let cool 'til comfortable to handle!

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/01/12/earl-grey-raisin-scones-with-sticky-lemon-glaze-downton-grub-files/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Bread, Downton Grub Files, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: Breakfast, budget friendly, dessert, family-friendly, quick and easy, traditional food, Vegetarian

Lemon Dill Spreadable Cream Cheese and the FwF Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich | {GIVEAWAY CLOSED}

January 11, 2013 by Rebecca 36 Comments

Update: The winner of the Sam’s Club giveaway is Barbara N. Nice start to a Monday, eh, Barb? Check your email for details.

I have to tell you that I have a list of kryptonite foods -foods against which I have absolutely zero self control- and today’s post contains seven of them in one form or another. In other words, this is pretty darned close to perfection in my book.

My current (current because it changes from time to time) kryptonite foods list is:

Cream Cheese
Dill
Lemon
Smoked fish (in general)
Smoked Salmon (specifically)
Bagels (in general)
Everything Bagels (specifically)
Pumpernickel
Pumpernickel Everything Bagels (Black Russian bagels) Fuggedaboudit. That’s as good as it gets.
Biscuits
Gravy
Feta
Garlic-stuffed kalamata olives

Living as far out as I do, it’s not often I can lay my hands on some of those ingredients, so when I do, I go a bit nutso. For example, that lady who was frantically stuffing all the Black Russian bagels in the bin into her bakery bag at Wegman’s? That was me. And the gal at Sam’s Club who was desperately clutching the packages of smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers, fresh dill, lemons and a boneless leg of lam? Yours truly. I can’t help myself. The lamb just sounded goooooooooood.

Bless Sam’s Club for carrying everything but the bagels. (And they DO have bagels… just not the Black Russian variety.)

Do you like flavoured cream cheese? I am insanely devoted to it. I love the creamy, rich cheese when it’s completely infused with herbs and citrus, garden vegetables and garlic, chives, or -for something completely different- a little maple syrup and cinnamon. Here’s where I twitch with desire a bit… My all-time favourite version of this concoction is a light lemony cream cheese studded with chopped fresh dill, parsley and green onion. HOLLA!

I’m sorry. Sometimes I lose my head over cream cheese. It’s a sickness. I’m working on it.

Here’s the beautiful thing of it; although I could probably easily eat an entire batch of it myself in one sitting, (Hangs head in shame.) I cover it tightly and pop it into the refrigerator where it will last (improving daily) for about one week. I can’t promise that I am above walking past the fridge, throwing the door open and scooping my finger through the bowl from time to time. Remember, cream cheese=kryptonite.

I have good news, though! This is the time of year that many folks are resolved to eat better than they did in the previous year. If you’re in that camp, you can easily substitute Neufchâtel Cheese (commonly sold by major brands as Low-Fat Cream Cheese or 1/3 Less Fat Cream Cheese) for the regular full-fat cream cheese without sacrificing any of the quality, flavour, or smooth creamy texture you want. Big old win!

It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that the Lemon Dill Spreadable Cream Cheese goes beautifully on my beloved toasted Black Russian bagels topped with flaked smoked salmon, capers, and a pinch of fresh dill, natch.

But that’s not all it’s great on; it is the be-all-and-end-all on a roasted turkey or chicken breast sandwich with baby spinach and black olives, or as a dip for vegetable sticks, or spread on toast all by its lovely self. Get creative! Spread it on a bun for a grilled turkey burger or on a flat bread for a lamb wrap. The fresh, light, creamy, dilly cheese goes just about anywhere!

Lemon Dill Spreadable Cream Cheese and the FwF Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich | {GIVEAWAY!}

Lemony, light, studded with fresh dill and other herbs, this refreshing spreadable cream cheese is fantastic on the FwF Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich or smeared on a chicken sandwich, bagel, turkey burger, or used as a dip for fresh vegetables.

It can easily be made with 1/3-less fat cream cheese (Neufchatel cheese) lightening up the fat content in the recipe for those with dietary restrictions.

Ingredients

For the Lemon Dill Spreadable Cream Cheese:

8 ounces of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
zest of one lemon
juice of 1/2 to 1 whole lemon, to taste
1/3 cup minced fresh dill weed, lightly packed
1/4 cup minced fresh flat leaf or curly parsley, loosely packed
2 tablespoons minced green onions, green part only
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the FwF Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich:

1 pumpernickel everything bagel (Black Russian bagel) or your preferred savoury bagel
1 teaspoon softened butter
2 to 3 tablespoons Lemon Dill Spreadable Cream Cheese
1/4 cup flaked or 2 thin slices smoked salmon
5 to 10 pickled capers, drained
fresh dill, to taste

Instructions

To Make the Lemon Dill Spreadable Cream Cheese:

Add the cream cheese, lemon zest, juice of 1/2 a lemon (to start with), dill weed, parsley and green onions to a mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.) Mix with a hand mixer on high (or on high on the stand mixer) until the cream cheese is fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes. Taste the cream cheese and add more lemon juice, if desired, along with salt and black pepper to taste. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix on high an additional 30 seconds, or until everything is fully incorporated. Scrape the contents into a container with a tight fitting lid and refrigerate for at least an hour before using and up to a week.

To Make the FwF Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich:

Slice open the bagel and spread 1/2 a teaspoon of softened butter on each cut surface. Broil under a hot broiler just until the butter is bubbly and the bagel is toasted on top. Remove the bagel from the oven and let cool until it is comfortable to handle.

Spread about 2 tablespoons of the Lemon Dill Spreadable Cream Cheese on the bottom half of the bagel. Layer on the flaked or sliced smoked salmon, as many capers as you'd like and fresh fronds of dill, if desired. Top with the top half of the bagel and enjoy!

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/01/11/lemon-dill-spreadable-cream-cheese-and-the-fwf-ultimate-breakfast-sandwich-giveaway/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Now a giveaway!

Sam’s Club contacted me before the holidays offering a giveaway to one of my readers. With all that went on around here, the post didn’t happen. Sam’s Club has graciously offered to let me do the giveaway in spite of the fact that I didn’t get the post up in time. I am grateful, because I’m a big fan of Sam’s Club. With such a big family to manage, Sam’s Club is the go-to place for paper products (paper towels, toilet paper, etc..) and mega packs of juice boxes. I love the selection of fresh meats (and the price is always competitive), produce and dairy products. Thank you Sam’s Club! So what are we giving away today? A Modern Cocktail Holiday Mixer Party Pack! Sam’s Club says, “This fun, non-alcoholic drink mixer pack will turn the average consumer into a modern day mixologist. The Modern Cocktail Holiday Mixer Variety Pack contains our top selling holiday mixers to include 4 Margarita Mixers, 4 Martini Mixers, 4 Berrytini Mixers and 3 Champagne Toppers. The pack also contains salt and sugar crystals to finish off any premium cocktail.” All you have to do is add liquor!

To enter, just leave a comment below telling me how your holidays were. Did you get to see family? Did you stay home hunkered in? Talk to me!

The winner will be chosen at random and notified by next Monday, January 14th, 2013.

Disclosure: This contest is open only to US Residents due to shipping restraints. Sam’s Club provided a membership and covered my food costs for the recipe, and is providing the prize to the winner, but all opinions are my own.

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Breakfast Foods, Component Foods, Condiments, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: Breakfast, family-friendly, kid friendly, quick and easy, Snacks, Vegetarian

Homemade Feta Cheese | Make Ahead Mondays

January 7, 2013 by Rebecca 44 Comments

I have been promising to bring you my homemade feta cheese recipe for a while (Ahem, probably a couple of years. Eek.) Today is finally the day. You may be wondering why I bother making feta cheese from scratch. The answer-as is often the case- is that homemade tastes great and because I can. I am, after all, the daughter of a man who feels driven to walk laps around the house outside in blizzards when authorities warn that you shouldn’t go out unless you have to do so.

There’s an enormous satisfaction in doing something that seems just undo-able, isn’t there? Not only does homemade feta taste incredible, but it delivers a pioneer, up-by-my-bootstraps joy that a store-bought version just can’t give no matter how wonderful it is.

…But there’s another reason to take the plunge and it’s a doozy. For the cost of three gallons of milk (it can be pasteurized/homogenized or raw, cow or goat milk) and about a dollars worth of other stuff, you get a massive amount of feta cheese. As in a gallon jar of brined feta cheese. If you’re fearful of trying your hand at cheese making, just think of it this way; the risk is about twelve dollars worth of materials (depending on milk cost near you) versus a potential payoff of about forty dollars worth of cheese and an enormous ego boost. If it -bumbum BUM!!!!!- goes wrong, you can feed the errant cheese to dogs, cats, pigs, etc… They’ll be happy.

I’m going to get right into it because even if I’m being succinct, this post is going to be long on account of the how-to photos… There’s no getting around it. Some important notes:

Stay calm! Cheesemaking is not supposed to be stressful. It may seem complicated, but it isn’t. Just go one step at a time and you’ll get there.
Don’t get freaked out by the length of time it takes to make this. Much of the time is hands-off time. Another warning for those who haven’t made cheese or fermented something before; it gets a little, um, pungent smelling at times. Keep a-going. Don’t worry! Remember that cheese making is essentially controlling how fast and in what way milk ‘goes bad’. If it goes bad the right way it’s delicious!
The only special equipment you really need to pull this off is a large stainless steel or other non-reactive pot, a heat source, a long knife or off-set spatula, a colander, something from whence to hang the cheese and butter muslin (extra, super, mega fine cheesecloth.) Do not confuse this with the “fine” cheesecloth you get in the grocery store or hardware store. It’s confusing terminology, but that stuff is so not fine. Just look for something called butter muslin and you’ll be fine. Finer than cheesecloth. Sorry. You can get it here. (Note: This is an affiliate link.)

You can opt to use raw OR pasteurized/homogenized milk. It can be cow milk or goat milk. Any of those choices will be delicious.
Goat milk is naturally more tangy, so if you use cow milk, you may want to consider adding a bit of lipase powder. Lipase is an enzyme that naturally occurs in higher amounts in goat milk. If you want cow milk feta to have that bite that is found in feta, lipase powder is your answer. You can get it via my beloved Amazon.com should you wish to. (Note: This is an affiliate link.)

As far as specialty ingredients go, the lipase is optional, but rennet and mesophilic culture are not optional. Again? You can turn to Amazon.com (Affiliate Links.)

Whatever you do, don’t think Junket Rennet will do the job. It simply won’t. That’s for custard making. My preferred cheesemaking rennet is made from animal sources:

But there is a perfectly acceptable and delicious vegetarian option…

Finally, I suggest you start the process around lunch time. This gives you the time needed to do the Day One portion of the recipe before too late in the day.

Just think what you’d do with a gallon jar full of fabulous feta cheese. You can go nuts with feta! On pizzas, spanakopita, this tempting salad from my friend, a baked potato, in soup, in omelets, with olives and bread, IN bread, and in just about any recipe that calls for cheese. Where would you use your wealth of feta?

Homemade Feta Cheese | Make Ahead Mondays

What do you get when you combine three gallons of milk, a little know-how and some time? A big batch of homemade feta cheese that tastes incredible and gives you major bragging rights. Don't fear the cheesemaking!

Method gently adapted from and with thanks to Fias Co Farm Please visit her site for great feta cheese trouble shooting and other pointers.

Ingredients

For the Cheese:

3 gallons fresh raw or pasteurized and homogenized goat or cow milk
1/4 teaspoon Mesophilic culture (see link in post for source)
1/4 teaspoon lipase powder if using cow milk (Omit for vegetarian cheese. Lipase is animal derived.)
1 teaspoon single-strength liquid rennet (or 1/2 teaspoon double strength liquid OR 3/4 of a vegetarian rennet tablet crushed) dissolved in 1/2 cup of cool, UNCHLORINATED water.
kosher salt (no substitute)

For the Brine:

1/2 cup kosher salt (no substitute)
1 gallon cool, UNCHLORINATED water

Instructions

To Make the Cheese:

Sterilize all of your equipment with boiling water before beginning (including the cheesecloth.)

In a very large, non-reactive pot, bring all of the milk up to 86°F.-88°F. Add the mesophilic culture and the lipase powder, if you are using it. Stir well with an up and down motion, cover the pot and let rest for one hour. Try to maintain the 86°F temperature. If you have trouble with that, you can set your large pot inside a larger pot with an inch of hot water in the bottom of it. This should help regulate the temperature more gently than firing up a burner directly beneath the milk. The goal is to avoid rapid temperature changes.*See notes.

After 1 hour, add the dissolved rennet to the milk and stir vigorously for 15-20 seconds. Remove the spoon from the pot, cover it, and let it stand undisturbed for 30-40 minutes or until the curd 'breaks' cleanly when you insert the tip of a knife and lift as shown below.

Cut a 1/2-inch grid pattern into the curd. Don't get perfectionist here, you'll get frustrated. The curd likes to move while you try to cut it, so just do your best.

After you have the grid pattern, hold the knife at a 45° angle and retrace the cuts you've already made. This is going to make MOST of the curd in the pot into roughly 1/2-inch pieces.

The ones that didn't get cut that small will break up later in the process. DO NOT STIR THE CURD YET.

Let the curd rest undisturbed for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, stir gently, breaking up any larger pieces you missed with the knife. Again, don't sweat this too much... Just try to have most pieces in the neighborhood of 1/2 an inch.

Keep the curd at 86°F to 88°F for 45 minutes, stirring from time to time to keep the curd from sticking to itself. You'll notice the curd getting slightly firmer and smaller. This is because as you stir it and hold it at this temperature it releases more whey.

Dampen your butter muslin/cheesecloth and use it to line a large colander. I usually position the colander over another large stockpot because I like to save the whey for baking.

Carefully and gently ladle the curds and whey into the lined colander.

When all the curds are in the colander, draw all 4 corners of the cheesecloth together to form a bag and tie in a sturdy knot. Hang the bag over the sink or a bowl or pot so it can drain freely.

Let the cheese drain at room temperature for 3-4 hours, carefully lower the bag into the colander and untie the bag. At this point, the cheese will be smooth on the bottom and spiky on top.

Flip the curd over so the spikes are at the bottom, retie and rehang the bag. Let it drain for 24 hours.

Here is where you're going to notice a certain stank coming from the vicinity of your cheese. That's okay. It means you're on the right track. Don't back down!

After 24 hours, lower the cheese, untie the bag and put the curd onto a sterilized cutting board. Cut it into blocks. I usually aim for pieces that are about the size of a deck of cards but about 2 inches thick.

Generously sprinkle all of the surfaces of the cut cheese with kosher salt then load the cheese into a sterilized, large, food-safe container with a tightly fitting lid.

Let the cheese rest at room temperature (DO NOT REFRIGERATE even though it is counterintuitive.) for 2 to 3 days so that it can continue releasing whey and hardening up. This will help it store longer.

To Prepare the Brine and Store the Cheese:

Pour the whey the cheese has released into a sterilized large, food-safe container with a tightly fitting lid. Arrange the cheese blocks in it.

Add the gallon of water and 1/2 cup of kosher salt to a non-reactive pot. Stir well over medium heat until the salt is completely dissolved. Let the brine come to room temperature before pouring it over the cheese. Put the lid in place tightly on the container and store the cheese in the refrigerator.

Let the cheese age at least two weeks before eating. It is good for up to a year as long as it is kept submerged in the brine and refrigerated. It will continue to get stronger in taste as it ages.

Notes

*If your room temperature is too cool and you are having trouble maintaining the temperature of the milk, you can either set the pot inside a larger pot with an inch or two of hot water in the bottom. When the temperature of the milk starts dropping, you can turn the burner on under the larger pot and the hot water will help gently raise the temperature of the milk in the inside pot. The goal is to avoid rapid temperature changes with can affect the culture at work in the milk as well as risk scorching. Scorched cheese is blechy.

Another option -and my preferred one- is to set the pot on top of a warm but not hot heating pad. This is my go-to procedure during cooler months when I have to wear a sweat-a to make feta.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/01/07/homemade-feta-cheese-make-ahead-mondays/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Filed Under: Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: budget friendly, cheesemaking, family-friendly, Food Preservation, Frugal Food, home cheesemaking, seasonal, Vegetarian

Ranch Bake-In-Slices Bread

January 4, 2013 by Rebecca 16 Comments

This is going to be a little crazy all over the place, so please bear with me, but I have a lot of ground to cover.

First -and most importantly- my entire family thanks you for all the condolences and expressions of support you’ve shared with us after the loss of Val. It means more to me personally than I can possibly say to know that you all are thinking of and praying for us. As weird as it feels to get back to doing normal, every day things, it really does have to happen, so here I am!

Next, I hope you’ve noticed the pretty new dress Foodie with Family is wearing. It was a while in the making, but I love the new look. There are a couple of little upgrades and tweaks I wanted to point out to you that will -hopefully- make hanging out here and menu planning a little easier and more pleasant.

If you hover your cursor over the “Recipes” tab directly below the header, you will see three options. Clicking on Recipes will -as always- take you to my recipe archive page where every single recipe (hopefully!) that has ever been on Foodie with Family can be found in one handy-dandy page. Clicking on Shopping List will allow you to put ingredients from our recipes onto a -what else- shopping list! courtesy of Ziplist. (Those are the same nice folks who created the plug-in that I use to provide printable recipes here.) Directly below that is the Grocery Deals option. This nifty function -again, courtesy of Ziplist- allows you to specify which grocery chains are near you and see what the advertised sales are in your area. I encourage you to to play around a little bit with those options. Hooray for streamlining the menu planning process!

We have pretty new (and much, much more user friendly) options for subscribing to Foodie with Family via RSS or reader, send me an email or follow me on Twitter, and Facebook. Please join me in any or all of those. I do so love your company.

In the sidebar, there is a more fwf section featuring some older posts that you just might find a.) interesting, b.) hilarious (it’s a process, right? Tell me I’ve grown.) and c.) delicious.

Now, I know there are bound to be hiccups here and there as there always are with changes, so I hope you all will let me know if you find a broken link or wonky image anywhere. I do love my new look, though. What do you all think?

Finally, there’s this bread. Oh, this Ranch Bake-In-Slices Bread is the bees-knees. It’s bread that’s baked in such a way that no slicing is necessary afterward. Why bother? Well… Lemme tell you. Most folks know you’re not supposed to slice hot bread because it ruins the texture of the rest of the loaf, right? This loaf is superior BECAUSE YOU CAN EAT HOT SLICES OF BREAD WITHOUT WAITING FOR IT TO COOL. That’s where you hear angels singing, right? Of course, there’s more. There’s the fact that it’s brushed lavishly with butter and sprinkled with Ranch dressing mix before being stacked deck-of-cards-like into the also lavishly buttered bread pan. And there’s also the fact that you can make this with homemade or purchased bread dough… There’s the perfection of a sunny-side up egg on top of a slice. Or the fact that grilled cheese sandwiches made on slices of this bread are pretty much the best tasting things ever, if a little funny looking. I’ve sopped soup, sauce and egg yolks with slices of this. Take your pick. Any one of those is reason enough for me.

My favourite, though, is simply turning the freshly baked loaf of pre-sliced bread out onto a cooling rack and peeling back then inhaling the heel pieces. Yes. That is comfort food writ large, folks. Happy sigh.

Ranch Bake-In-Slices Bread

Ranch Bake-In-Slices Bread is a wonderfully versatile snacking bread that bakes itself into slices. Eat hot straight from the oven, sop up soup, stew or sauce, or use to make the most spectacular grilled cheese sandwich this side of heaven.

Ingredients

1 pound sandwich bread dough (homemade like this or purchased)
1 stick (4 ounces by weight, 8 tablespoons) of unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for buttering the loaf pan.
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoon of dry Ranch salad dressing mix
1 teaspoon dried dill weed

Instructions

On a clean, lightly floured surface, roll the bread dough out into a rectangle that is about 1/4 of an inch thick. Pour the melted butter over the rectangle and use a pastry brush to more or less evenly distribute it. Sprinkle the dry Ranch dressing mix and dried dill weed over the dough. Cut the dough into pieces that are roughly the size of a playing card.

Butter a standard loaf pan and prop one end up on a box of toothpicks or something similar so that the pan tilts up at on end. Stack five pieces of the dough at a time and place in the pan, starting at the lower end so gravity holds it in place. Repeat until you've added all of the dough to the pan. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes at room temperature.

While the dough rises, preheat the oven to 350°F. Uncover the dough and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the top of the bread is deep golden brown. Let the bread rest in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a plate or cooling rack. Eat immediately or store wrapped with a clean towel at room temperature.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/01/04/ranch-bake-in-slices-bread/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com