Archive for July, 2009

Bread

July 30, 2009 at 1:41 pm · Filed under Background

Ah, Bread. The food that prompted me to start this blog.

I have attempted bread four times. The first three were whole wheat bread attempted. They never rose. Proofed the yeast, was following a whole wheat bread recipe, tried both the refrigerator kind and an actual kneading recipe. No dice.

I then tried the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day recipe, except I used bleached flour instead of unbleached flour. Which, had I used the actual book, I would have realized was 1) wrong, and 2) needed less water. I developed a bread dough that rose (yay!), but the dough was very wet, hard to work with, and sticky. I did bake a loaf in my dutch oven, however, the bottom burned. Other than that, it was amazing!

I do want to make my own bread. I don’t really eat bread all that much, so I want a cheaper way to make it than paying 2.50 a loaf or more. I do want to learn to make whole wheat bread, as I want it to be at least slightly healthier than white bread.

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Cold Brewed Coffee

July 20, 2009 at 3:07 am · Filed under Recipe

I love Coffee.

My typical Starbucks order is 5 bucks. (Mmm, Iced Venti Soy Caramel Macchiato). But, it is expensive.

Since I enjoy iced coffee, when I make it at home, I make Cold Brewed Iced Coffee. It is very simple, with just a small preplanning element.

Coffee
Water
A french press (such as Bodum Brazil Glass 3-Cup Coffee Press, Black )

You can play around with the amount of coffee and water mixture. You need to brew super strength coffee. I tend to do 1/4th coffee in the french press, then fill the rest with water. Let sit overnight (up to about 12 hours or so is fine), then press the coffee to the bottom. Pour off the coffee concentrate.

I make iced coffee, so I pour about 1/4 of a glass with concentrate, add a few ice cubes, then fill the rest with soy milk. I like my coffee super sweet, so I typically add Torani Syrup, Sugar-Free Vanilla. I like the sugar free vanilla in iced coffee, but I have also used the Caramel syrup (and caramel sauce).

You can also heat the coffee, but I have not tried that yet.

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Meat and Carrot Tomato Sauce

July 13, 2009 at 2:34 am · Filed under Ingredients, Recipe

This is an example of an idea that I had, and how it actually came out.

I have been reading about bolognese sauce. And, for some reason, the main idea I got out of it was carrots. I had also cleaned out the fridge a few days ago, and found two bags of carrots that I had bought a while ago, and were still fresh.

So, I thought about making this sauce. It is in no way authentic, but it was very tasty.

Extra virgin Olive Oil
4 carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, pressed
1.5 pounds ground beef (approximate, use however much you want).
Spices
Tomato Paste
Spaghetti

Chop carrots, saute in olive oil for a few minutes, while I fill the pot for pasta and chop the onions. I wanted the carrots to cook a while to soften before adding the onions. I added the onions along with some sea salt, and let it cook until everything was soft. I then added the garlic, and the meat.

I browned the meat. I added spices to it (more sea salt, ground pepper, Italian seasoning, and some Ms. Dash. (I would have added dried red pepper flakes, could I have found them.) I then took the pot to the sink, and used the spatula to get some of the grease out of the pan. Not really draining, but got most of the stuff out. I added tomato paste, and cooked it. This makes a very thick sauce, so watch out for it burning on the bottom.

I put the noodles in with the sauce, and tossed it. I served it with grated Parmesan Cheese. Yum!

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