Whole Wheat Bread - Take 2

 

You might recall my post from about 2 weeks ago and my lackluster attempt at making whole wheat bread. I did my second attempt tonight and it definitely yielded much better results. All I did was tweak the proofing times. I let the dough go for 1 1/2 hours on each proof, which allowed it to rise nicely as you can see on the picture. Glad to say it turned out delicious.

#bread #bakingbread #breadmaking #homemade #homemadebread

Honey Dijon Brussel Sprouts

As I mentioned in my previous post, I bought a bunch of vegetables when I went food shopping this week. Among those were a beautiful stalk loaded with Brussel sprouts. My challenge was trying to find a recipe that would help me do justice to them. So of course I did a search, which yielded the usual ones. Some called to sautee them in garlic, others said add bacon. I had already tried that so it was only when I checked Instagram that I came across a recipe for coating the sprouts in a honey dijon concoction. 

If you have read this blog before, you know by now that I am not one to follow recipes exactly as noted (unless it is for baking and even then I figure out a way to differ). Here is the link to the original recipe  

Here is my list of ingredients and cooking instructions

1 lb Brussel sprouts (cleaned and cut in half)

1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp coarse dijon mustard

1/4 tsp garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Fill a medium sauce pot with water and add saltto lightly season. Put your sprouts in and heat up until simmering. Cook your sprouts until tender.

While your sprouts are cooking, in a large bowl, mix the olive oil, honey, dijon mustard and garlic powder, until all ingredients are completely incorporated. 

Drain your cooked sprouts and then toss them in the honey dijon mixture, until evenly coated.

As an additional step, I put my sprouts into a baking dish and put them in my air fryer for about 10 minutes to give them a little crisp finish and intensify the mustard flavor. 

It turned out pretty well. 

The Lonely Girl's Cream of Asparagus Soup

 

Since cold weather has actually started in earnest in the Northeast US, I figured it would be a good time to make one of those soups that makes you feel warm and good all over. When I went food shopping this week, Trader Joe's had these beautiful bunches of asparagus. I couldn't resist getting them because I wanted some veggies, and since my daughter is with her dad this week, I could get something other than broccoli. The problem is that even for me the bunch I got was a lot more than I could eat in one week without all the other veggies I got going bad. The answer was to make something that I could have already prepared and that coukd keep for longer than a few days in the fridge. Creamed soup to the rescue!

Here is the list of ingredients and cooking instructions.

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp ground ginger

2 garlic cloves - minced

1/2 large russet potatoe - diced

1/2 medium white onion - diced

1/2 lb asparagus stalks

2 Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp butter

3 cups chicken or other kind of stock

1/2 cup milk

1/4 tsp dried thyme

Salt and pepper as preferred

In a medium sauce pot heat 2 Tbsp of olive oil and toss in your diced potatoe and onion and sautee until the onions get nice and translucent.

In a pan heat up 1 Tbsp of olive oil and drop in your ginger and garlic. Sutee until the garlic starts getting fragrant, then add in your asparagus and toss in the oil, ginger and garlic medley unitl the asparagus get nice and deep green. Remove and cut up unto small pieces. Add to the onions and potatoes in the pot. 

Add in the stock and heat to a simmer. Cook for about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Put the contents of your pot in a blender and add the milk. Blend until completely smooth.

In your now empty pot, melt the butter and mix in your flour with a wisk to create a roux base. Slowly add in the contents of your blender making sure you wisk as you add it in to break up any lumps forming in your roux base. Once all the contents of the blender have been incorporated add salt and pepper to taste, and heat until it simmers. 

Serve as a side, or serve a full bowl with a side of rice and enjoy the creamy goodness.

#wintersoup #heartysoup #coldweatherfood #comfortfood

Sunday Baking - My Return to Blogging

 I hope there are still some of you following me out there. I have been away for a while because there were major changes in my life, which took a toll on me. It took me meeting a wonderful person who is just as in love with food and cooking as I once was, to get me inspired to want to do this again. So this post goes out to Luca. Thank you for sharing your love of cooking with me. 

Today's post is about my first attempt at making whole wheat bread. The recipe is from one of my Pinterest pins from "The Woks of Life" here is the link to the recipe 

https://thewoksoflife.com/perfect-whole-wheat-bread/

And here is the step by step pictorial of the process and my results

The wheat flour and yeast mixture.

The ball of dough after adding white flour.

Getting ready for the 1st proof.

It has risen!

Putting the dough into the 

loaf pans for the 2nd proof.

They didn't rise as much :(

The final product.

It was not a complete disaster, but I wish I had gotten a bit more rise out of the second proof. Maybe a longer proofing time might have helped. I will try again in about a week and will let you know how that goes.