Fall is slowly moving in on us and with it comes the urge to bake more bread! Joe and I love making bread. We don’t have much experience or a stand mixer, but we love to try out new bread recipes. While searching for ideas on how to use our fresh sage from the garden I stumbled across this Cheddar Sage Bread recipe.  Cheese, bread, & herbs… Yep- sounds good to me!

We have been growing sage all summer and haven’t done anything special with it (until now). I love the flavor of sage but just don’t know much about using it. I was excited to find this recipe because I have never tasted a sage bread before but it sounded delicious to me. We changed a few small things in the recipe and it turned out great! It wasn’t too much work and the rising time was only a couple of hours.  Sometimes when we make bread it feels like the rising time takes twice as long as it says it should. With this recipe I felt like everything went according to plan.

Cheddar Sage Bread
This recipe was found on thathomesite.com
(we slightly modified it in order to use ingredients on hand)

½ teaspoon dry mustard or 1½ teaspoons yellow mustard
3 tablespoons fresh sage, minced
3-3½ cups flour (we used bread flour, but all purpose will work just fine)
1½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
1 cup milk
3 oz shredded sharp cheddar or 3oz of other cheese
1 package active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon oil
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter

Dissolve mustard in 1 teaspoon warm water – we didn’t have any dry mustard so we substituted it with 3 times as much yellow mustard (this recipe calls for ½ teaspoon dry mustard, we used 1½ teaspoons of yellow mustard instead).

Combine 3 cups flour with salt, pepper, and sage. Warm the milk.

In a large mixing bowl combine the milk, yeast, sugar, and oil. Stir or process to combine. Add the egg and mix well. Add mustard and flour mixtures, adding more flour as necessary so mixture forms a stiff dough and comes together in a ball.

Incorporate cheese into the dough — This recipe called for 3oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese; we used what we had on hand instead- which turned out to be about 4oz of a Gruyere & Colby cheese mix.

Turn dough out onto floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, add more flour as necessary, about 10 minutes.

Put dough in a lightly buttered bowl and turn to coat top. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour. Punch down, shape in a loaf, put in buttered loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, another hour.

Heat oven to 375°. Melt butter. Brush loaf with melted butter and bake until loaf is golden brown, about 50 minutes  — 50 minutes was just right for us. The bread seemed to turn a golden brown rather quickly and looked like it could be done after about 25 minutes, but we waited until it baked for the suggested amount of time and it turned out perfect. Cool on a rack before cutting into it.

While it was baking the whole house smelled amazing! It tasted just as nice!  We used it all week to eat as a simple toast and for a few breakfast sandwiches as well.

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.

Week two of our organic produce delivery, received on August 12th 2009.  This week our box seemed a little heavier than last, this is what was in it :: broccoli, 2 bananas, 8 apricots, 8 white nectarines, green leaf lettuce, 2 apples, kale, 4 russet potatoes, a box of cherry tomatoes, & 1 ear of corn.

For our weekly roommate dinner we made a curry, muffins, and fruit salad each including something from our delivered produce box-

The curry was a little sweet and moderately spicy; we added flavors as we cooked and because of this we can’t share an exact recipe for it with you because we don’t know it! Sorry, it was an add and taste situation- spice taste spice taste spice taste until it’s done!  However, we can tell you what went into our curry and how we cooked it.  And, if we could do it- why couldn’t you?

Ingredients in this curry : from our produce box- an ear of corn chopped off the core, 2 medium russet potatoes, & broccoli. From our home- Basil from the garden, garlic, mushrooms, two cans of coconut milk, cumin powder, ginger powder, chili garlic paste, hot curry powder, coriander powder, salt, turmeric, basmati rice.

We ate our curry over basmati rice; this particular rice only takes about 10 minutes or so to cook, so we chopped and prepared all of our vegetables ahead of time and had our spice selection and coconut milk ready and near our wok before we even thought about the rice. We started the curry first and then the rice. However, if you are cooking a rice that takes forever (50 minutes) you’ll want to get that going early on in your dinner prep.

To start, in a splash of olive oil, fry about 2 cloves chopped or crushed garlic.  Add in some initial spices and fry for a moment. Include coconut milk and simmer for a moment dissolving the spices.  At first you can be pretty liberal with your spices, to make a coconut curry without a pre-made curry paste you need to add quite a bit of powdered spices. Start off with at least a teaspoon of each and go from there.  Allow the spice to simmer and add more to taste as you are cooking.  Once you add the vegetables the curry will inherit more flavors, adjust spices to taste.  Add potato chunks first and simmer, cook until half way done, include corn, mushrooms, and broccoli and simmer while adjusting your spices. Cook until vegetable are how you like them, avoid overcooking the potatoes, all the other vegetables are fine if they’re a little crispy. Just before eating time include the basil.  Serve over rice.

Apricots, white nectarines, mint, and sesame coated cashews!
Wow, imagine all of them together in one salad. Um, yeah- it’s amazing. Absolutely delicious.  There’s not a lot of explaining to do on this one, it was quick and easy but the flavors are complexly wonderful. Cool, spicy, sweet and minty with a crunch!  Oh my.

We used our white nectarines and apricots from our produce box, the mint was cut from our garden, and the sesame honey cashews are a mix made by Trader Joe himself.  The instructions are simple- cut fruits into bite sized pieces, tear mint leaves into the bowl and add your nuts!  That is all! The nuts in this dish are brilliant because they come packed with flavor that adds a whole new element to a simple fruit salad.  The cashews are coated with a bit of sweet and spicy and then rolled in sesame seeds.  So delicious and so easy.

Fresh nectarine and apricot muffins

We make a lot of muffins in this house- even in the summer. We often will add blueberries, walnuts, spices, or vegan chocolate, and almost always use bananas, but this would be the first time we ever tried using fresh apricots or nectarines.  We started with this basic recipe from The Joy of Cooking book and the we added fresh nectarine and apricot pieces.

Recipe :: makes 12 muffins.
This is a modified version of the Banana Nut Muffin recipe from The Joy of Cooking.

Preheat oven to 375°

whisk together dry ingredients:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Whisk together in a large bowl:
1 large egg
¾ cup packed lite brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 nectarines chopped
2 apricots chopped

Fold in dry ingredients until batter is smooth, avoid over mixing. Divide batter between the 12 muffin cups and bake for 14-16 minutes.

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Our cherry tomatoes are finally turning red! The other day we made our first salad using them- I have to say, fresh picked cherry tomatoes are oh so delicious and satisfying; I’m already anticipating the next ripe bunch any day now. This salad was thrown together with a mix of our usual produce, offerings from our organic produce box and some wonderful from our garden. Just thought I’d share the idea with you, it’s always nice to have salad inspiration- mmmm vegetables!

ingredients :: red leaf lettuce, raspberries, cherry tomatoes, olives, cheddar cheese, 1 baby ancho, pine nuts, basil, hard boiled egg, mustard seed dressing.

The preparation of this meal is pretty obvious, chop vegetables as necessary and combine.  The basil in our garden is now growing well and we have been able to use it a couple times a week with out depleting it completely.  One of our plants started off slowly and seemed to be struggling so we repotted it, changed it’s location, and trimmed it down. Now, it’s growing really well. Another basil plant started off full and healthy, once we started to chop stems from it we found it wasn’t growing back; we started to pick just the larger leaves from the top so that new growth could move in and it seems to be working out right. New leaves keep appearing and the plant is now becoming more stable.

Our ancho peppers, also known as pablano peppers, are probably the most impressive peppers growing in the garden right now because they are getting so big. We have three fairly large ones that seem to be taking over the plant and weighing it down.  We’re going to pick them to eat tomorrow and hopefully the plants will continue to produce.  The one we used for this salad was tiny and fell prematurely- but we decided to use it anyway.  Although it was very small it still tasted nice. Anchos are a fairly mild pepper, this one smelled like it might be spicy but didn’t really offer any heat.  We just sliced it as a topper for fun.

The cherry tomatoes are doing well, the whole pot of plants is filled with green, orange and red fruits.  We only had a handful this time around but it was definitely enough to brighten up this salad.  They were near perfect!

We used a red leaf lettuce as the base of our salad, raspberries from our fresh produce delivery last week, and pine nuts.

Green olives are always a nice addition to a salad, I don’t always like to use dressing- if I do, I take it on the side.  Olives and fresh herbs usually add enough extra flavor on their own for me.  And last, cheddar cheese and a hard boiled egg for some extra protein. We have a little egg slicer which is perfect for slicing uniform rounds for a salad. I also like to quarter them or halve them as well- any way will be good!

The dressing on the side is one we have been preparing an awful lot these days.  It originated from our raw kale salad, and now that we’ve made it several times it’s an easy one to whip up and modify quickly.  This time we added some crushed red pepper to spice it up.

My friend Ellen is about to enter her first year of culinary school; a couple of years ago she started her blog- gogochicago as a way to track what she eats and cooks as well as recipes that she enjoys and creates.  A while back she posted about her grape almond cilantro salad which appealed to me right away.

In May she threw a birthday BBQ for our friend Natalie and made this salad which was the first time I ever tried it.  It was delicious, I would probably have not considered pairing cilantro and grapes on my own although I happen to really love both of the ingredients.  Including almonds to the mix is wonderful; it adds a completely different texture as well as a new level of nutrition. This recipe is super easy to make and is a unique summer salad- perfect for any summer event.

Ingredients : red grapes, almonds, cilantro, lemon, kosher or sea salt, olive oil.

This salad is not something you should really have to measure out, but for the first time preparer it’s helpful to have guidelines to follow.  Ellen based her recipe for a single serving.  I wanted to make a bit more, 3-4 servings.  So, we adjusted accordingly and this is how we did it…

3-4 servings :: 3 heaping cups of halved red grapes, 2-3 handfuls of almonds, Juice of 1 or 1 1/2 lemon. 3 Tablespoons olive oil, 1-2 cups of plucked cilantro leaves, kosher salt to taste.

Wash and halve the grapes, pluck cilantro leaves from the stems and chop if you want.  We decided to keep the cilantro leaves whole, but I think chopping them a bit would be nice too. Mix in a bowl and toss a couple of handfuls of almonds to the mix.  We used raw almonds, toasted would also be nice. Add your lemon & olive oil and mix well. Salt to taste.  That is it! Enjoy.

Can’t wait to make this again; I would like to try adding cheese and a little spice.  I’ll let you know how it turns out!