I think it’s safe to say that making your own pizza will change your life. At least it changed ours in the way we feel about eating it…

Let’s face it, pizza is delicious — dough, sauce, cheese — although it’s not one of those foods that I just have to have. We just about never go out for pizza and when it’s delivered it’s usually mediocre at best. Pools of grease that then sit heavy in your stomach. Ugh. I generally don’t feel so great after a pizza delivery experience, a quick crap fix of a meal that cost a pretty penny. Not to mention the standard pizza sauce surely involves onions. Delicious at the time but not always a feel good situation in the end.

Last winter Joe and I got into making our own pizza and haven’t gone out or ordered pizza delivery since.  It’s just so simple and so much cheaper to make our own; it’s actually quicker too. While you can’t deny that it is pizza you are eating, it feels better for you because you control everything that goes into it. For example the cheese — you can use as much or as little, you can buy a cheese that is light or of higher quality.  You can load it with vegetables so it’s not just dough sauce and cheese, you can roll it out as thin or as thick as you like…. basically it’s fully customizable, so how could you lose?  Make it just how you like it and feel good about eating it. Have it for lunch the next day too…

This recipe makes 2 big delicious pizzas:

roasted red pepper sauce:
6 medium peppers
1 jalapeño
1 head of garlic
4 tomatoes
kosher salt to taste

dough:
1 1/3 cup warm-to-hot water (about 100 degrees F)
2 1/4 teaspoons dry active yeast (1 packet)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/2 cups flour

topping:
2 potatoes
1 tablespoon rosemary
3 cups chopped mushrooms
12 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

First prepare your sauce; this can be done the day before if you plan ahead but we often just do it the same day. Doesn’t matter.  Preheat oven to 425°. Wash ingredients to be roasted. For this sauce we used 6 medium peppers (2 red, 2 orange, 2 yellow), 4 small tomatoes, 1 jalapeño, and a head of garlic. Place on a greased baking sheet and brush with oil. Wrap the head of garlic in foil and drizzle with oil, place on baking sheet as well.  Roast for about 40 minutes turning once or twice during that time. The peppers will be slightly blackened and soft when the are done.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool before handling.

Before blending, remove the stems and seeds from the peppers, you can leave the jalapeño seeds in and cut out the stem from the tomatoes. I also like to peal away the skin from the bell peppers and tomatoes to create a smoother textured sauce. Include the garlic and blend until desired consistency.  Salt to taste. We ended up with about 4 cups of sauce which is a little more than we would use for the two pizzas. 3 cups should be enough. But we wouldn’t want to run out so we planned to have a little extra instead. Set aside while you prepare the rest the dough and toppings.

Next prepare the dough. In a large bowl or in a stand mixer combine 1 1/3 cup warm water with 2 1/4 teaspoons of dry active yeast (or 1 packet). Allow to sit for a couple of minutes to give the yeast a chance to work. Add a tablespoon of sugar, a tablespoon of salt, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Mix in 3 1/2 cups flour and let the dough sit for about 15 minutes while your prepare your ingredients.

Preheat oven 425°
(check that your rack is at the lower setting before the oven gets hot)

Peal and chop the potatoes in smaller pieces, we usually cut them to about 1/2 inch cubes or similar sized rectangles. Slice mushrooms. Remove rosemary leaves from stems and coarsely chop if you’d like. Shred your cheese. We always buy the block of cheese to grate ourselves for a couple of reasons; it’s generally less expensive and there are unnecessary preservatives added to prepackaged shredded cheeses — same stuff with a bit of extra questionable ingredients added to the mix. No thank you, we’ll grate our own.

Time to roll out the dough! Get out two large baking sheets and grease them up. Sometimes we use butter and other times we’ll use a spray oil. You can also use a sprinkle of cornmeal if you’d like. we’ve never had a problem with the pizza sticking.

Cut the dough in half making 2 balls. Roll out one at a time on a lightly floured surface. The dough might be a little tough if you’ve never rolled dough before, but you can stretch it out a bit by pulling at the edges and letting it hang off your hands. If you want to be really daring, practice spinning it in the air; this might seem like an unnecessary flourish but it actually helps stretch the dough.

Now it’s time to top the pizzas…

First layer is the sauce, spread an even layer across each pizza.  It takes about 1 1/2-2 cups of sauce per pizza. We usually roll out each pizza to be about 12 x 15 inches or so.  You’ll probably have more sauce than you need so put as much as you like.

Second layer is the potatoes.  Divide your cut potatoes in two and scatter them on top of the sauce.

Third layer is the rosemary. I usually chop up about a heaping tablespoon or so of rosemary to share between the 2 pizzas. You can add more if you want a more intense rosemary taste, but it’s a pretty strong flavor so you don’t want to overdue it especially if your cooking it for other people.

The forth layer is the mushrooms. Find some open spaces between the potatoes and fill them in with mushrooms. There’s room for everyone here.

Last but not least is the cheese! We use about 12 oz of mozzarella between the 2 pizzas, but you could cut it down a bit for a lighter pizza or bulk it up some for a cheesier pizza, of course.  Sprinkle an even layer on each. We also usually add Parmesan to the top as well but this time we were out, it’s delicious either way.

Bake at 425° for 15-20 minutes or until it’s golden. Baking time may vary depending on your oven. We like to bake ours at the bottom for a slightly crispier crust.

Two large custom pizzas for well under $10 — in under an hour!

Throughout spring and summer we prepared fresh salsa about once a week- sometimes even more.  As fall set in I noticed that we had not been making fresh salsa nearly as much, although we have been making many meals that are naturally complimented by salsa.  We started to miss it. With busy lives and produce seasons changing the desire and convenience of making fresh salsa has slowed down.

We never buy store bought salsa for a few reasons, the first being the fact that I don’t tolerate onions and I have never seen a store bought jar of salsa excluding them (let me know if you know of one!) We consciously try to avoid purchasing pre-packaged food that contain unnecessary ingredients and preservatives, and also because it can get kind of pricey — once you figure out how inexpensive and delicious it is to make your own fresh salsa it just doesn’t seem worth it to buy mass produced versions anymore. Of course there are decent market fresh salsas — but all of which will contain onions, suitable for the majority. A jarred salsa is so convenient and a perfect snack, and since we don’t purchase it from the store and haven’t been making it fresh, we have been deprived. This is why we decided to can our own. We have thought about doing this for a while and now we’re living the dream! We have a full stock of custom salsa in the cabinet! Like fresh salsa there are many “right” ways to do this.  Here is how our first attempt went.

Ingredients : plum tomatoes, bell peppers (green, red, orange, yellow), jalapeños, habeñeros, lime, salt, cilantro.

Supplies needed : canning tools, 5-6 pint jars, large pot for boiling.

Recipe:
8 cups plum tomatoes seeded and diced
2 green peppers
2 yellow peppers
1 red pepper
1 orange pepper
4 fat mild jalapeños
2 habeñeros
5 pieces of garlic
7 table spoons lime
4 teaspoons kosher salt
2 bundles cilantro- 1 heaping cup chopped

Before you start this process make sure you have all of your canning equipment ready (jars with fresh lids, a pot large enough to boil the jars with 2 inches of water over top, and canning tools for lifting the hot jars/lids from the water). Wash your jars with hot water and soap, set aside while you prepare your ingredients. If you have an extremely large pot to boil your jars it may take quite a while to heat up the water — you can set it to warm up at anytime so you’re not in a situation where you are waiting for long.  Fill the pot with enough water to cover the tops of the jars with 2 inches of water.

Prepare all of the ingredients before cooking.  Seed and dice the tomatoes and peppers, pluck the cilantro leaves from the stem and chop finely, crush and mince the garlic.  Once you have chopped everything it is time to cook!

We used a 4 quart pot which would hold up to 8 pints worth of salsa — this batch made 5 1/2 pints for us. Heat up the pot with a splash of olive oil and add your garlic, jalapeños, & habeñeros. Saute for a moment and include the rest of your peppers.

Add tomatoes and simmer for a couple of minutes, it will become more soupy.

Throw in cilantro, lime, & salt to taste. Bring salsa to a full boil for at least 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and cover while you sterilize your jars before canning. Place washed jars in the pot of water to simmer for 5 minutes, do not boil.  Place lids (not the rings) in a separate pot of water to simmer, do not boil. Remove the jars from the water bath with the jar lifters and place on a heat safe surface, we use a wooden cutting board.

Fill your jars with the salsa leaving about a ½ inch of space from the top. Use a funnel to avoid spilling on the jar.  Poke the mixture with a clean utensil to push out any extra air bubbles — we use a chop stick. Wipe around the rim of the jar with a clean towel before closing.

With the magnetic lid lifter place your jar lid and screw the band on with enough force but not too tight. Use the jar lifters to place jars back into the water bath and bring to a rolling boil for at least 5 minutes. Remove jars right side up and place back on to the heat safe surface, allow to rest undisturbed for 24 hours.  Over the next hour you will hear pops from the lids which indicates a successful canning. The following day your jars should be complete. Test that they were canned successfully by lifting the jar by just the sealed lid (remove the screw top), it should be securely attached.

For more instructions and information on canning please refer to Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving or other sources with more experience; we are amateurs.

The salsa turned out to be delicious, though fresh is still better, but now we have enough salsa to last us several weeks, maybe even months! It took a little time to do, but if you’re like me it was a fun activity and we saved a lot of money by doing it. We listed out the cost of this particular salsa below, to make 5+ pints of salsa it cost us just under $9.00! I’d say that’s pretty good, an average pint of salsa at the grocery store would cost around $5.00 which means we saved over $15.00 and we are glad to know exactly how it was made and processed.

Cost :
tomatoes- $3.30
bell peppers- $2.94
cilantro- $1.10
jalapeño- $0.38
lime- $0.25
habeñero- $0.18
garlic- $0.07
salt- $0.01

total cost $8.95 for 5 pints of fresh custom salsa.

This year our porch garden had 5 pots of various peppers: jalapeño, red chili, habeñero, serrano, & ancho. We used about 40 of our red chilies to make chili garlic sauce and had well over 60 more peppers to use! Many peppers were used fresh throughout the summer but whatever was left at the end of the season we used to make a chili powder. Ingredients : about 50 peppers- we used jalapeños, red chilies, habeñeros, and serranos. We slow roasted the peppers until they were dry enough to grind into a powder. To do this, set your oven to the lowest temperature; our oven went down to about 200°F and seemed to work well. I was prepared for this dry roast to take a long time, possibly even overnight, so I started in the morning and planned to be home all day. Place all of the whole peppers onto a non-oiled sheet pan. Pop it in the oven and periodically flip & turn the peppers so all sides dry evenly. The peppers will shrivel up and become a little darker in color.  The habeñeros seemed to dry the fastest because their skin is so thin, next up were the chilies, then the serranos, and coming in last were the jalapeños. Because they were all different sizes and dried at different rates, I removed each pepper from the oven as it was ready to avoid any sort of burning. This took about 10 hours in the oven before they were all dry enough to grind; it could take longer though depending on the size of you peppers and your oven. We ground all of the peppers together with our magic bullet, but any spice grinder or clean coffee grinder should do the trick as well — if you use your coffee grinder I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a few spicy mornings to follow. This stuff is really powerful! Prep your dried peppers by getting rid of the stems; I found scissors to work the best. Chop the rest of the pepper into smaller pieces to maximize space in the grinder. It might not be a bad idea to wear gloves during this step, my hands felt the heat the following day. Grind until desired consistency. Half way to powder form you get a really nice crushed pepper flake.  We wanted ours to be a coarse powder, as we often use cayenne powder in our kitchen, but sometimes I think it’s ground up a too finely for what we need and it’s hard to sprinkle evenly as a topper. Leaving it as a more coarse texture will make it easier to spread evenly for a little extra spice and it won’t clump together as much as a finer powder would. Throughout this entire process your house will smell strongly of peppers, but once you open the grinder of the fresh pepper powder you’ll really understand how intense it is! Anyone in the house will be able to detect it. This fresh spice is very different from the rest of the powders in your cabinet. We have already used our new spice a few times to make lotus chips, curry, and chick pea snacks!

A lot has happened in the garden since the last post in July.  We are now at the beginning of September and the air is already starting to feel like fall. What a strange summer it has been here in Chicago and I’m assuming in most places.  It has been unseasonably cool with about a scattered week of actually hot days through out summer. Despite it feeling like an unusual summer, we have been really lucky to have a lot of rain and enough sun to keep our garden productive and happy. So, Here is an update of the progress:

We’ll start with the peppers because there are so many types and so many peppers growing! Our habeneros started forming around the beginning of July; they seemed to reach full size towards then end of the month and while it seemed time for them to turn orange it took longer than I expected.  It wasn’t until mid August when the first few started to change and by now we have already picked 5 peppers and it won’t be long before the next. The other night we made a fresh salsa and a roasted pepper sauce to top our chiles rellenos all using the heat of our home grown habeneros. For such a cute little pepper it sure does create an intense heat, you definitely need to use these sparingly.  The plant itself is short and squat the peppers are near an inch large and turn into a beautiful bright orange, but the heat might be the most impressive part of all.

Next, we have ancho peppers as labeled when we purchased the sprouts, they are also known as poblano peppers which are traditionally used to make chiles rellenos. I didn’t realize these two peppers were the same until I Wikipedia’d them and found out that “ancho” usually refers to dried pablanos. Anyway, we have already eaten a few of our anchos so far in our gourstada. They were definitely the largest of the peppers on our porch but not as large as we are use to seeing them at the market. We decided to cut them because the the plant was not creating any new peppers and it seemed to have a difficult time supporting the weight.  Since the first harvest a few more peppers are off to a great start and we’re hoping to grow them even larger than the first batch- hoping for 5-6 inches. We will see!

Last of the pepper updates is on our red chilies which are planted in a large pot along with jalapenos.  This pot of peppers was the first to fruit.  We started seeing peppers at the very beginning of July.  When I planted the sprouts I remember doing it in a specific way- one row of 3 jalapenos in the center and 2 red chilies on each side of that row.  Once the peppers began to grow I was no longer sure how I planted them; it was very confusing because all of the peppers were seemingly the same! I would see peppers that seemed to resemble a jalapeno, dark green and a bit round at the bottom and then would see others that seemed to resemble chilies- thinner and a bit more pointy, but there was no consistency from plant to plant. All the same color growing from plants that looked alike. As they would grow they would seem even more similar and because of this I felt more confused- I had planted them specifically in such a way that I would know which was which.  In the past when I have grown red chilies, in a smaller pot, they would start off as a slightly lighter green and have a distinct chili shape.  They also took less time to turn red.  Judging from the limited experience under my belt I began to lose hope in that they were actually “red chilies.” I started to assume that they must have been mislabeled and came to terms with it. Whatever the case, this pot bears over thirty peppers (jalapenos and chilies together) ready to eat at any moment.

After going a way for the third week of August we came home to find that our chilies were beginning to turn red! Yessss! And, to make it even more exciting, the first two peppers to turn red were the first two to start growing in the garden- I know this because one of them had a particular mark and an odd shape- within a week a few more turned red justifying my original planting method! Mystery solved, we picked our first 4 chilies earlier today and made my favorite soup Arhar Dal using them- look forward to the recipe this fall!

I’ll make a quick mention of the serrano peppers, I barely have any photos of them for some reason, they seem to get lost among all of the other peppers in the garden. They’ve been growing well throughout the summer but we have not eaten any yet! I’m thinking they’ll have to have a special meal revolved around the first ones we pick.

Let’s breeze by possibly the saddest part of our garden- the cucumber(s). I almost didn’t mention them at all but once I saw the lone stunted cucumber emerge from the vine I thought- how the hell did that happen?- I figure I should mention them too, even if pathetic. I love cucumbers and before planting them I imagined a healthy row of cucumber vines wrapped around the porch rails, and maybe we would even get some food from them. They are planted in 18in wooden cube along with mint. Cucumber & mint, it’s obvious they would go together.  The 2 types of mint were quick to get comfortable extending their roots in all directions.  The cucumbers however never got comfortable at all. The entire time we’ve had them they looked somewhat alive but never healthy. It’s only promise is the one cucumber that is hanging on by a strand, still slowly growing.  I think these sprouts were not doing well to begin with and once the mints took off they hogged the nutrients and the light making it even more difficult for the cucumbers to survive. But, it’s not quite over yet, there is still an ounce of life left but I don’t expect you’ll hear about them from me again.

The cherry tomatoes have been mentioned a few times; throughout August we have been eating them, more and more appear each week and they’re still coming.  I sense the plant will be winding down for the season soon, but I expect we’ll see a more tomatoes for a while.

Another unexpected surprise appeared when we returned from our vacation.  One giant strawberry (image taken on August 23rd). The last time we saw strawberries in our garden was towards the end of June and I assumed that would be it for the year and put the pot off to the side but continued to water it. By mid July the plant was sending out new vines reaching for the ground in order to sprout more plants. Towards the end of July a few new flowers appeared and by the end of August we received this beautiful strawberry, the largest of the year! 2 days later the strawberry was bright red, for some reason it had gone unnoticed by the squirrel who lives upstairs and is known for meddling in our plants. Because it was a cold and rainy day I decide that I would photograph and pick it the next morning… but by then it was gone.  I should have learned my lesson the first time around and pick it immediately when ripe! Perhaps there will be another this fall.

The brussels sprouts are showing some progress.  They are not drastically taller, but the stalks are getting a little thicker and the tiny sprouts are getting bigger every week.  Joe does not notice the change and worries we will not get sprouts this year,  but I am confident that they are eventually going to give us some food even if they’re smaller than we’re use to.

Last, an update of our herbs- mint, sage, lady lavender, thyme, french lavender, and basil.  We have been able to use fresh herbs all summer so far and I’ll mention that we have saved a lot of money because of it.  I absolutely love basil but I will often choose to not buy it at the store in order to save some money; we bought a our basil plant for $2.99 and have used it in 2-4 meals a week for the past 2 months. I’m interested in continuing the herb garden inside for the winter.

Gourstada, as in gourmet tostada.

Tostadas have to be one of the easiest and quickest meal or snack to make.  We make some sort of variation of a tostada meal at the very least once a week. Whether it’s our huevos rancheros, a simple bean and cheese, or loaded with random delicious it always proves to satisfy.

On this tostada we used almost all home grown vegetables! Starting from the top- straight from the garden, 3 anchos, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and fresh basil were combined with balsamic vinegar and salt to make a fresh Italian inspired salad. Just beneath baby bella mushrooms sauteed in plum sauce with home grown kale. Below that are black beans warmed with fresh jalapeno from… you guessed it, our garden!  And of course at the base of it all are El Ranchero’s tostadas.

Ingredients : cherry tomatoes, basil, ancho, balsamic vinegar, kosher salt, baby bellas, kale, plum sauce, black beans, jalapenos, El Ranchero tostadas, mozzarella, and cheddar cheese.

At the base of most our our tostadas we use some sort of bean, in this one we used black beans- no, we did not grow them. However the jalapenos were fresh cut from the pot, our first actual harvest of peppers all year! We may have picked these jalapenos a little soon, but they have been growing for quite a while & we just wanted to try them. There are plenty more where they came from; our jalapeno & “red” chili pepper pot is growing like crazy. So many peppers to go. Now, if only these supposed red chilis would turn red. Back to the black beans and jalapenos- drain black beans and simmer on low heat with diced jalapenos while you prepare the rest of the meal.

Next prepare your salad for the top.  We used all the red cherry tomatoes from our garden, which was about ten and an additional handful from our organic produce delivery. They were chopped in quarters from the top making small wedges, a perfect bite size for this dish.

3 anchos were hollowed out, sliced in thin rings and then halved. They were the largest of our peppers so far, although they probably would have grown a little bigger; we felt it was time to cut them down as the slender stems could barely hold them up anymore and were not producing any more flowers. They were perfect for this meal though, very crisp and had a nice mild spice to them.  The basil was sliced into thin strips as well. All ingredients were combined and tossed with some balsamic vinegar and kosher salt to taste.  Set aside and refrigerate until serving time.

The last step in preparation for this meal is the mushroom kale layer.  First chop kale into small pieces.  Remove the stem from the center and slice or tear the leaf into small bits.  Set aside and slice the mushrooms, in a large frying pan heat up a 2-3 tablespoons of plum sauce and a splash of olive oil, sautee mushrooms coating them with the plum sauce flavoring.  Toss in kale and saute a bit more. Once they are done cooking it’s time to plate your tostada.  Remove from heat and get ready to assemble your meal.

Joe and I made 4 tostadas, 2 each and it was the absolute perfect amount.  We were both completely full but not even a little bit over stuffed!

To assemble : lay El Ranchero tostadas on the plate, add beans and jalapenos, sprinkle with cheese if desired- we used a mixture of shredded cheddar and mozzarella because that’s what we had. Next make a layer of the mushroom and kale with plum sauce and top it off with your fresh ancho, basil, and tomato salad.

Generally we think of tostadas as being a mexican flavored dish, we still used a lot of the same traditional ingedients (beans, corn tostada, tomatoes, and jalapenos) but introduced some completely different flavors to the dish as well. I really enjoyed this combination because the bottom layer of beans was a bit spicy and totally cooked, the middle layer was cooked a bit but still somewhat fresh with sweetness of the plum sauce, and the top layer of salad was also a bit spicy and flavored with basil but very fresh. It’s an odd mix of flavors but they all add something interesting to the dish and complement each other quite nicely.

On May 17th 2009 our potted garden was born.  Planting on the porch is something I always look forward to, it happens every year but this time we have decided to plant with a focus on food.  The majority of our plants are growing and cared for with the intention to eat.  We started all of the plants from greenhouse sprouts and we used over 300 pounds of dirt & peat!  Most of our pots are ceramic or terracotta, but we also have 2 larger wood pots built by my dad for our tomatoes, cucumbers, and mint. So far we have seen a lot of progress in just a couple of months and I couldn’t be more excited about it. Here is a set of photos to introduce what we are growing in summer of 2009 (fair warning- it’s a long post); to start off we have some basic shots of when the garden was being planted going through the evolution of the porch. Stay tuned for the details of what is here…

We are growing five types of peppers: jalapeño, red chili, serrano, habenero, & ancho.  Every plant has several peppers already; none are ready to be picked, but it’s clear that we will be eating a lot of peppers this year! It’s so much fun to watch the flowers bloom, the petals fall, and the peppers emerge into something we certainly can use.  Can’t wait until our red chilies and habeneros begin to change color.

The strawberry patch, or rather the one pot of strawberries we have, were the first to travel through their fruit cycle in this garden. It was possibly the most exciting one as well! It took several weeks for the flowers to form into strawberries.  The small fruits were so beautiful they looked plastic and fake! Over the course of a few days they turned from green to white to the most stunning fleck of red in the yard.  How did they taste?!!! Ask the squirrels! Sadly they got to them before we did ;( and with the storms of Chicago the rest was history, our plant will now remain fruitless until next year.

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Brussels sprouts.  A lot of people don’t like them but we happen to love them, so we thought we would try growing them.  If you haven’t seen a stalk of Brussels sprouts before take a look at this post on 101 Cookbooks.  I’m impressed.  They started off as a couple of scant leaves protruding from the dirt and quickly bloomed quadrupling in size in only a couple of weeks!  At this point we aren’t seeing any drastic growth- probably because they are a bit crowded with four in the pot. We can see on the stalk that there are tiny sprouts forming and keep our fingers crossed that they will continue to grow.

The cherry tomatoes are planted in a long wooden crate like planter (thanks dad).  There were 8 sprouts to start with plenty of room.  However, “plenty of room” quickly turned into a huge leafy burst out of the planter.  These plants are luckily separated from the rest because they have aphids. Yikes. But these little bugs have not stopped the plants from growing; we give them weekly soap baths to keep the bugs down but can’t seem to keep them out for good. Anyone have a winning plan to defeat these little guys? Lady bugs? Anyway, with or without aphids our tomatoes are flourishing, everyday there are new flowers and new tomatoes showing up. Tons of green just waiting to turn red- squirrels, we will not let you get a hold of these babies!

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Kale! As you already know we love kale. Naturally we had to include it in our garden. It started off rather small and is now about ready to eat. We’ll let you know how the first harvest goes…

There’s more! We also have 2 types of lavender, 2 types of basil, sage, thyme, mint, cucumbers and several other plants that are better left uneaten…  So far we have been able to use a few of the herbs in meals and drinks. Mojitos are a popular drink at this house and with the way our mint has been growing it seems that we will keep a healthy supply at the tips of our fingers. Basil and thyme have already been used a few times as well, details to come.

After a long scroll down the page you’ve made it to the end of the first look into our garden.  There will be more to show in the coming months that will include recipes.

We don’t have much experience in making loaves of bread. So, we have decided to start baking them more often to learn different methods.  When it’s time to make a new loaf we prowl the internet to find a recipe that sounds good to us.  In the past month we have made this jalepeño cheddar bread twice; we found it on epicurious.

One loaf of this bread takes almost 7 hours to make with only about 20 minutes of your actual attention.  It would have been much easier if we owned a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, but with our simple wooden spoon and metallic bowl we managed to get through it just fine.  The bread was delicious both times.  The first loaf turned out well but we thought it should be more spicy so the next time we added more jalepeño and more seeds; we may have put a bit too many peppers the second time even though it was still not very spicy.  The flavor, however, was great in both cases and we will make it again according to the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon active dry yeast (less than a 1/4-ounce package)
1 3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon warm water (105-115°F)
4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped fresh jalapeño, including seeds and ribs, plus 2 tablespoons
chopped fresh jalapeño, without seeds and ribs (from 3 medium total)
5 ounces coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons)
1 1/2 ounces finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (3/4 cup)
1 large egg, beaten with a pinch of salt

* Special equipment: a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment

Below are the instruction from the original recipe along with our observations of the process….

Stir together yeast and 1 tablespoon warm water in a small bowl; let mixture stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If it doesn’t foam, discard and start over with new yeast.) °° We did this a few times and it never foamed so we decided to move on.  I was worried that it wouldn’t rise properly since the instructions specifically say to start over.  Well, we did start over and it never foamed for us ;( but it in the end it didn’t seem to matter much at all.
Mix together flour, salt, oil, yeast mixture, and remaining 1x cups warm water in bowl of mixer at low speed until a soft dough forms. Increase speed to medium-high and beat 3 minutes more. Add jalapeño, 1 1/2 cups Cheddar, and 1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano and mix until combined. °° This is where a stand mixer would have been extremely helpful!

Scrape dough down side of bowl (all around) into center, then sprinkle lightly with flour. Cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel (not terry cloth) to keep a crust from forming and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. (Alternatively,let dough rise in bowl in refrigerator 8 to 12 hours.)

Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and gently form into a roughly 11- by 8-inch rectangle with floured hands.

Fold dough in thirds (like a letter) with floured hands (dough will be sticky), pressing along seam of each fold to seal.

Put dough, seam side down, in an oiled 9- by 5-inch loaf pan. Cover pan with same clean kitchen towel and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until dough completely fills pan and rises above it slightly, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F.

Brush loaf with egg, then sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons Cheddar and remaining 1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano down center of loaf.

Bake until bread is golden and sounds hollow when tapped on bottom, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Run a knife around edge of pan to loosen loaf, then remove from pan to test for doneness. °° The Bread turned out to be beautiful after almost an hour of cooking.  I can’t say we tapped on the fresh out of the oven loaf to hear the hollow sound but it looked done to us and it was.

Return bread (not in pan) to oven and turn on its side, then bake 10 minutes more to crisp crust. Cool completely on a rack, about 1 1/2 hours. °° We didn’t do this step on the first loaf but we did on the second; I didn’t notice much of a difference.

We enjoyed this jalepeño cheddar bread all week in many fashions.  We made a delicious grilled swiss cheese with a mustard seed spread, garlic bread, and an eggs Florentine.   A flavored bread is definitely a nice way to spice up your everyday meals.  This makes me want to try more!

Salsa is one of the most obvious and easy snacks, especially when you can just pour it out of a jar or pick up a fresh batch from your local grocer.  But wait!  That salsa has onions in it! This situation comes up frequently; almost all salsas and guacamole contain onions, lots of fresh onions (the worst). Bummer.  Have no fear, making your own salsa can be easy and will most certainly be fresher and taste better.   We make a fresh salsa at least once a week. The recipe always varies slightly and is never disappointing.  It’s actually much cheaper than buying a jar of salsa and you end up with a lot more if you make it yourself.  You really can’t lose with this one.  Here is an idea on how to make your own….

In this salsa we used :: 4 tomatoes, 1 medium cucumber, 1 yellow pepper & 1 red pepper, jalapeño, limes, salt, cilantro, garlic, and NO onions.  Looks can be deceiving; the cucumber kind of looks like onion for those who are expecting it ;)

Dice up all of your ingredients into small bits. Combine tomato, cucumber, peppers, & cilantro. Then add your flavor enhancers to taste, jalapeño, garlic, salt & lime.  Enjoy this refreshing snack.