Week 10 - CC: Book/Movie Inspired: Catcher in the Rye Bread

If a body catch a body comin' through the rye...

Those who know me know that I love love love Catcher in the Rye.  It has been a favorite book of mine since reading it my sophomore year in high school. Back in 2003 I even got the original cover art tattooed on my leg. Thanks to the lovely Megan Colette Bronder for this gorgeous wedding photo :) 

Anyway, I digress.  I've been wanting to get better at baking bread and rye bread is one of my favorites.  I used the Cooks Illustrated recipe for Deli Rye Bread which calls for a sponge to be made first.

This soupy yeasty mix sits for 2+ hours covered tightly with saran wrap.   I had to use tape to get the saran wrap to stick tightly.

After 3 hours, it had more than doubled and was all bubbly.

I added the rye flour, the rest of the all-purpose flour, caraway seeds, and salt and used the dough hook to mix it all for about 5 minutes.

Once it was a cohesive ball, I took it out and kneaded it for a few minutes on a lightly floured cutting board.  I used the rye flour rather than the all-purpose. 

Once it had been worked a bit, I formed it into a nice ball and placed into a lightly greased bowl.

Again, I used tape to secure the saran wrap and then let it sit for about 2 hours.

It doubled in size and I cut it into two so that I could make two loaves.  

I shaped each half into a approximately 9x6 rectangles then rolled them up on the long side to make 9" loaves.  I pinched the seam and tucked the ends under.

I placed the loaves onto a baking stone dusted with corn meal and covered them to let them rise again. Approximately 1.5 hours. 

I beat one egg white and 1Tb of milk then basted the loaves.  Six small slices in the tops and they were ready to be put in the oven! (sorry this picture is all green...it looks gross in the pic, but believe me it was better in real life!)

30 minutes at 450 degrees and 25 minutes at 400 degrees and they were done!  The loaves both temped to 200 degrees so I took them out and they are cooling as I write this.  I won't get to taste them till tomorrow when they are fully cooled, but I can't wait! 

Week 10: BC - Book/Movie/TV Inspired - Low Cal Calzone Zone (Parks and Recreation)

If you haven't watched Parks and Recreation, stop reading this and go to Netflix or Hulu and watch an episode.  Any episode.  It is hilarious and it is one of my favorites these days. So with this week's baking challenge of media or literature inspired this show was a clear choice to honor/emulate.  Now, I could have made waffles topped with way too much whipped cream (Leslie Knope's favorite) but there is no baking involved so I went to the obvious second choice: calzone.  Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) talks about calzone in several episodes but my favorite is the one where unemployed Ben becomes obsessed with making the perfect calzone and opening a line of restaurants called "The Low-cal Calzone Zone".

So, here they are!  Not so sure they are low-cal, but they were certainly delicious.

Each one had different ingredients but some combination of the following: onions, broccoli, mushrooms, moose-a-roni (pepparoni made from moose given to us by the in-laws)

Stretching the dough to calzone shape was not too easy, but not as hard as transferring them to the baking stone. Note to self: next time build them on the baking stone. 

This one had the moosearoni, onion, and mushrooms.

Apparently I forgot to take a picture of the other before folding and getting it into the oven, but it has mushrooms, broccoli and onion inside. 

They both baked up quite nicely but one prettier than the other.

This one sorta exploded and juiced out everywhere.  It ain't no thang, cause they were really tasty and a perfect Friday night dinner.

I cut them and we each got half so we could taste them both. 

Pair with a beer and a ceasar salad, and A and I were happy campers. 

Beeeeer! Our First Brew

Andrew and I, with our new spacious home, decided it was time to start making our own home brews!  I received one starter kit for my birthday from my wonderful MIL and Andrew and I bought another on the recommendation of my fabulous friend Jake (a home brew expert). We tackled the Irish Red Ale yesterday and it was a blast.  Hopefully it is delicious.  We are still trying to decide on a name for it, so help us out with some suggestions!

Week 9: Coffee - Coffee rubbed grilled salmon tacos

 I really wanted to avoid baking something with coffee in it for this challenge. It seemed like the easy answer and let's face it, the more I bake, the more I eat it; I'm a sucker for sweets. We bought some awesome salmon at Costco a day or two before so it needed to be used. Thank goodness for Google.  I searched coffee and salmon and this great recipe came up!

First I created the rub for the salmon. It included freshly ground coffee with coriander and other spices(left) made liquidy with EVOO (right). 

Salmon from costo (left) with some pepper and parsley on it already.  I wiped most of that off and basted the salmon (right) on tinfoil so we could grill it .

While I worked on the salmon, Andrew prepared the brussel sprouts and brocolettes for grilling

I whipped up the very simple red cabbage, lime juice, and cilantro mixture and set it aside to marinate while I moved on to the guacamole.

It was entirely appropriate at this point in the cooking to crack open a bottle of wine.  This bottle was a gift from my Reddit Secret Santa in Montana (see my post about that here) and I've been saving it till I was able to properly savor it.  It was a fruity delicious red, so a big thanks to my SS!

The guac called for boiled tomatillos to be added to jalapeno, avocado, lime, and cilantro.  It was very basic but very delicious; reminiscent of the guac at Taco Lobo here in B'ham (which is uh-maze-ing!)

With the red cabbage slaw it really looked pretty.

Andrew perfectly grilled the fish, which is not too easy to do.  Well, it is easy to cook it, but it is equally easy to over cook it.  This salmon ended up flavorful and tender and not dry at all.  

Here is the finished plate.  I chose white corn tortillas but both Andrew and I felt the flavor was over powering to the somewhat subtle salmon coffee rub and we both ended up just eating the guts of the tacos by themselves with no tortilla.

SO much better.  Here is a perfectly composed bite:

Without the tortilla we could really taste the coffee in the rub and although we both felt a little wired afterward, it is most certainly something I would do again.

Week 9 - Cookies - Oatmeal Fudge Cookie Bars

First off, let me say these are delicious. Now that we have that out of the way, I confess that although I love love love making cookies (I go a little nuts around the holidays in particular), I just did not have the brain power or time to handle the whole cookie sheet and batches process, so although perhaps a cop out to do bars, I guarantee you'll see plenty of cookies from me in the future. Also, this sorta serves as a double BC/CC whammy since I used coffee in the fudge port of this creation. 

As many of you know I am working on finishing up my Masters degree and with only two weeks left this quarter it is crunch time. I had (ugh, still have) copious amounts of writing to do and spent most of my weekend hunkered down in my office at work getting homework done. I know this is a food blog, but just to give you a glimpse of my weekend, here is my qualitative theme analysis spread out on three desks.

Now, lets forget about that an get on with this week's challenge details! The nice thing about this recipe is that the oatmeal mixture you make serves as both the crust and the topping! It is a basic oatmeal, brown sugar, flour, melted butter mixture. Pretty straight forward.

I pressed 2/3 of the mixture into a foil lined 13x9 and threw that in the oven for 12 mins or so - till just brown and firm. This picture is a little foggy but shows the baked crust and the leftover mix ready to be used as topping.

After cooling the crust, I put the chocolate chips into a double boiler. I was a little short on the chocolate chips so I improvised and added some butterscotch to the mix.  

Once melted I whisked in two eggs until fully incorporated.

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While the chocolate and butter scotch melted, I threw together a little mix of dry goods including sugar, flour, and instant coffee. This gets added to the chocolate and egg mixture next.

The result is a thick brownie batter-like substance which I then spread over the cooled crust.

Sprinkle the remaining oatmeal mixture on top and pop it in the over!

Here it is fully cooked and cooling.

I cut them into small 2 or 3 bite bars (I learned my lesson with those White Trash Bars back in week 6) and, of course, dug in. They are really tasty and I like the addition of the slight butterscotch taste in the fudgey middle.  Pretty easy and quite good -these are getting added to the repertoire for sure. Now, Andrew and I just have to avoid eating them all before Wednesday - these are intended for a work potluck that day. Probably won't be too hard for Andrew since he's not a huge sweets person, but my will power will be another story. Although, the fact that I'll be at work doing homework till late every night means they have a hope of surviving till the potluck.