Black Bean Salsa Bread

Since we tried the Easy Bread recipe by Marcia Passos Duffy via the The Heart of New England and it was really good, we figured we could make a couple of specialty breads with it.  So here’s our attempt at Black Bean Salsa bread.  It still needs a little work (we’re thinking it needs some cayenne pepper to give it more of a kick), but Jesse is really enjoying it.

Updated 11/27: I’m still working on this recipe.  This time around, instead of mashing all of the black beans, what I did instead was place half of them in a blender along with the tomatoes, onions, jalapeños and 2 cups of hot water for less than a minute.  I didn’t want to puree anything, just finely chopped the tomatoes a little more and it made smashing the beans a little easier.  This also gave them this nice tiny bites that should help color the bread a little.  I’ve also added the cayenne and black pepper to the recipe.  Jesse’s biggest complaint on the first attempt was that it wasn’t spicy enough, so I’m trying to fix that.  One other thing I’m trying is using a bread machine (we finally got a new one) to make up the dough and then I’ll bake it in the oven.  I’ll add my bread machine directions below.

Ingredients
1/2 (6.5oz) jar of sun-dried tomatoes, drained and diced
1/2 a can of black beans, drained
1/2 small onion
1 tbsp diced jalapeños
2 cups hot water (120-130 degrees F.)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
dash of cumin
1 tsp of cayenne pepper
5-6 cups all-purpose flour (you can substitute whole wheat flour for 1 or 2 cups).
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp salt
dash coarsely ground black pepper
2 tbsp of dry yeast
A cake pan of hot water (used for humidity)

Directions:

  1. Mix 3 cups of the flour with the yeast, sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, cayenne pepper and salt.  Pour in the hot water and beat 100 strokes (or 3 minutes with a mixer).
  2. Take 1/2 of the black beans and smash with a potato smasher (or some other method). Mix together smashed black beans, whole black beans, tomatoes, onion, jalapeños and minced garlic.  Add to flour mixture and mix well.
  3. Stir in the remaining flour until the dough loses its stickiness.  Turn onto a floured surface. Knead for 8 minutes.
  4. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with a warm damp cloth.  Let rise for 15 minutes in a warm spot (away from drafts).
  5. Punch down and divide the dough into two pieces.  Shape into round loaves and place on a greased baking sheet.  Cut an “X” one-half inch deep in each of the loaves with a wet sharp knife.
  6. Place baking sheet with loaves in the middle of a COLD oven. Place a pan of hot water on the lowest shelf.  Heat the oven to 400 degrees and bake 40-50 minutes until golden brown.

Bread Machine Directions:

  1. Add 1/2 of the black beans, tomatoes, onions, jalapeños and 2 cups of water (although if you can finely dice the onions and jalapeños, you don’t have to blend them) to a blender.  Blend for less than 1 minute, just enough to do a good dice.  Add to bread machine pan.
  2. Add all the dry ingredients to the bread machine pan, on top of the wet mixture.
  3. On the bread machine, select the dough setting and press start.
  4. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with a warm damp cloth.  Let rise for 15 minutes in a warm spot (away from drafts).
  5. Punch down and divide the dough into two pieces.  Shape into round loaves and place on a greased baking sheet.  Cut an “X” one-half inch deep in each of the loaves with a wet sharp knife.
  6. Place baking sheet with loaves in the middle of a COLD oven. Place a pan of hot water on the lowest shelf.  Heat the oven to 400 degrees and bake 40-50 minutes until golden brown.

November 25, 2009  Tags: ,   Posted in: Bread  No Comments

Simple Bread

We’re huge fans of fresh bread and ever sine our bread machine committed suicide, we haven’t had any in the house.  Jesse recently got a craving for it and found this Easy Bread recipe by Marcia Passos Duffy via the The Heart of New England.

I was kind of skeptical at first, but it really is a simple recipe to make.  I can handle 8 minutes of kneading and other than mixing the ingredients, there really isn’t that much more to it.  The taste was really good to.  I do think I made a mistake when I was forming the loaves, but that’s only because of the “cut” they want you to do to the top.  Other than that, it was really good. We already have plans of using it as a base recipe for a few different types of breads we want to try.

Ingredients
5-6 cups all-purpose flour (you can substitute whole wheat flour for 1 or 2
cups).
2 tbsp of dry yeast
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp salt
2 cups hot water (120-130 degrees F.)
A cake pan of hot water (used for humidity)

Directions:

  1. Mix 3 cups of the flour with the yeast, sugar and salt.  Pour in the hot water and beat 100 strokes (or 3 minutes with a mixer).
  2. Stir in the remaining flour until the dough loses its stickiness.  Turn onto a floured surface. Knead for 8 minutes.
  3. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with a warm damp cloth.  Let rise for 15 minutes in a warm spot (away from drafts).
  4. Punch down and divide the dough into two pieces.  Shape into round loaves and place on a greased baking sheet.  Cut an “X” one-half inch deep in each of the loaves with a wet sharp knife.
  5. Place baking sheet with loaves in the middle of a COLD oven. Place a pan of hot water on the lowest shelf.  Heat the oven to 400 degrees and bake 40-50 minutes until golden brown.

November 24, 2009   Posted in: Bread  No Comments

Broccoli-Cheddar Soup

I haven’t tried this one yet, but considering how cold it has been lately, that may soon change.  This recipe came from Nikki and she says it’s really good, so if anyone does try it before me, let me know how it turns out.

Ingredients:
2 pounds potatoes (peeled and cubed)
32 ounces broth (chicken or veggie)
3 cups broccoli
3 cups cheddar cheese (shredded)
2 cups onion (diced)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbs. Butter

Directions:

  1. Saute the onions in the butter. Do not brown.
  2. Add onions, potatoes, and broth. Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are tender (about 15 min.).
  3. Add the broccoli and continue to simmer until the broccoli is cooked (5 min.).
  4. Transfer half of the mixture to a food processor or blender and puree (or use immersion blender).
  5. Add the puree back into the pot.
  6. Salt and pepper to taste.
  7. Add the cheddar cheese and warm the soup until the cheese is melted.

November 12, 2009   Posted in: Soup  One Comment

German Chocolate Upside Down Cake

This is a recipe my friend Rachel sent me and it sounds really yummy. I may have to make this relative soon.  I’m adding this recipe exactly as she sent it to me, but I’m thinking that before cutting the cake and inverting each piece individually, it might be a little easier to flip the cake all at once.  However, I haven’t made it yet, so I’m not entirely sure how that would turn out.

Ingredients:
1 cup flaked sweetened coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 package (18.25 ounces) German chocolate cake mix
eggs, water, and oil as directed on package
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
1 pound confectioners’ sugar, about 3 3/4 cups, unsifted

Directions:

  1. Grease and flour a 9×13x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350°.
  2. Sprinkle coconut and pecans evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan. Prepare cake mix with the appropriate measurements of water, oil, and eggs, following the package directions. Pour the cake batter over the coconut and pecans. Beat together the cream cheese, butter and confectioners’ sugar; drop by spoonfuls over the top of cake batter. Bake for about 45 to 50 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean when inserted into the center of the cake portion.
  3. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack. To serve, cut into individual serving-size pieces and, using a spatula or cake server, remove from the pan and turn upside-down on dessert plates.

November 11, 2009   Posted in: Cakes & Pies  2 Comments

Sugar Free Chocolate Cake

My mother is a diabetic, so for her 50th birthday party, I wanted to have a chocolate cake for her. Ideally, it was going to be a chocolate cake with strawberry mousse, but after tasting the chocolate cake, I didn’t want to try strawberries just yet. Quite honestly, I haven’t had time to play with this yet, so she’s getting my first attempt.  Well, I my second attempt since I didn’t like my first attempt enough to let it slide and decided to take the time to rebake it even though I was running out of time.

The first time I made this, I forgot I had unsweetened baking chocolate in the cupboards and tried using regular semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Yeah, don’t do that.  Well, the batter wasn’t bad with this, it just had more of a peanut butter-chocolaty feel more than straight chocolate.  I also made the mistake of not looking too closely at the directions and I doubled the recipe since I was going to use two 9inch round baking pans.  Don’t do that either.  Doubling the recipe was a bad idea because I ended up with way more batter than I needed, which was the real reason I scrapped the first cake.  Upon baking, the cake overflowed (but didn’t destroy) and it was a little too moist for my likening.  Think quicksand moist.  On top of the peanut butter-chocolaty favor, I wasn’t too happy with it.

So I decided to redo it and I have to say that was a great idea. This was about the time I remembered I had the unsweetened chocolate and that made a world of difference.  I originally thought that there was too much butter in the recipe, but I forgot that the chocolate chips added some of that favor as well.  Plus, the unsweetened bars gave the cake more of a chocolate look than the chips did.

This recipe is really just the Chocolate Cake recipe from my Better Home & Garden’s New Cookbook, but instead of using the sugar, I substituted it with Splenda.  I also didn’t use as much the second time around since I ended up being a little under 1/4 cups than I needed, so I didn’t worry about it.  It’s for a diabetic, oh no I didn’t use all the sugar.  We’ll see if I’ll need to retract that later.

My original idea for the cake included a strawberry mousse, but I’m running out of time and my recipe is just too complicated for that (I was planning on using the Raspberry Mousse recipe, substituting strawberries for raspberries, but next time).  However, I’ve been thinking about this so what I am going to do is get either a cream cheese or cheesecake or vanilla pudding mixture, do the mousse like I normally do, but add in some sliced strawberries.  It may not be a strawberries mousse, but at least it’ll have some strawberries in there.  I’m going to use frozen strawberries since that’s what I have, but I’m sure fresh would work just as well.  Plus, with the frozen ones, after they’ve thawed out a bit, they’ll be a little mushy so they’ll blend better with the mousse.  At least I hope so.

Ingredients:
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter or margarine
1-3/4 cups Splenda
2 eggs
3oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour two 9×1-1/2 inch round baking or one 13×9x2 baking pan; set pan(s) aside. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the the butter or margarine with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar; beta til well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in chocolate and vanilla. Add dry mixture and 1-1/4 cups water alternately to beaten mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Pour batter into the prepared pan(s).
  3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool layer cakes in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove layer cakes from pans. Cool thoroughly on racks.

Sugar-Free Frosting

Ingredients:
1 (1.4oz) package sugar-free instant pudding mix
1-3/4 cups milk
1 (8oz) package cream cheese
1 (8oz) container lite frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:

  1. In a medium bowl, combine pudding mix and milk. Mix well and let stand until thickened.
  2. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pudding and mix well. Finally, fold in whipped topping.

August 8, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Cakes & Pies  2 Comments

Zucchini Bread

Seriously, I don’t have a zucchini bread recipe here?  Okay, I’m rectifying that now since I’m making a few loaves.  I love zucchini bread and I’m still trying to find a really good recipe.  I have my grandmother’s (which will be posted later), but Jesse is hooked on his moms (which I don’t have).  So I’m trying to find one that is mind.  What I have right now is the one from the Better Homes & Garden New Cookbook.  Although, I did add an extra 1/2 cup of zucchini shreddings since my grandmother’s called for 2 cups and this one only has 1. I also took out the nutmeg, which may or may not be a good thing. I’m not a fan of a lot of nutmeg, so I didn’t want it in there. The original recipe calls for 1/4 tsp. I also use a stone bread pan, so I had to lengthen the time they state in the recipe, so adjust as necessary.

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup finely shredded zucchini
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 egg
1/4 tsp finely shredded lemon peel
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of an 8×4x2-inch loaf pan; set aside.
  2. In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt (and nutmeg); set aside.
  3. In another medium mixing bowl combine sugar, shredded zucchini, cooking oil, egg and lemon peel; mix well. Add dry mixture to zucchini mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in walnuts or pecans.
  4. Spoon batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove loaf from pan. Cool completely on the wire rack. Wrap and store overnight.

Yield: 1 loaf

Nutritional Information: Calories 148; Fat 6g (saturated fat 1g); Cholesterol 13mg; Sodium 83mg; Carbohydrates 22g; Fiber 1g; Protein 2g.
Diabetic Values: Vitamin A 80%; Vitamin C 1%; Calcium 1%; Iron 4%

August 5, 2009   Posted in: Bread  No Comments

Strawberry Raspberry Tartlets

This was actually really easy to make except I think I added a little too much berry filling when I made it. The tart was a little too heavy and the bottom center never really cooked thoroughly. I also changed up the filling a bit so I wasn’t exactly following the directions. Instead of using cherry pie filling and fresh strawberries, I used strawberry pie filling and fresh raspberry and blueberries. The flavor was good, but I think I added too many berries. So this is one that can definitely be fiddled with, in regards to the fruit center, but definitely keep an eye on how much of the fresh fruit you add.

Ingredients:
2 pkg (15oz) refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on package
1 cup almonds, sliced
4 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 can (21oz) raspberry pie filling

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Gently unroll one pie crust onto lightly floured Cutting Board. Spacing closely together, cut 12 disks from crust using outer tube of Measure-All Cup (nine around outside edge and three in center). Press disks into wells of Deluxe Mini-Muffin Pan using Mini-Tart Shaper, ruffling edges. Repeat with remaining crust.
  2. Using the Egg Slicer Plus, slice thawed strawberries. In Classic Batter Bowl, combine and mix strawberries and raspberry pie filling. Cut remaining pie crust into pieces using Crinkle Cutter (it is not necessary to unfold crust). In the Small Batter Bowl, mix together the almonds, sugar, pie crust pieces and cinnamon; mix well. Add crust mixture to the berry mixture and mix well.
  3. Spoon berry filling evenly into tart shells using the Small Scoop. Bake 14-16 minutes or until edges of tartlets are golden brown. Remove tartlets from pan to Stackable Cooling Rack. Serve warm.

Yields: 24 servings

August 2, 2009   Posted in: Dessert  No Comments

Florentine Brunch Casserole

I was browsing through the Pampered Chef’s All the Best cookbook and I was seeing a lot of recipes that I wanted to try.  So I picked up a copy.  One of those recipes was the Florentine Brunch Casserole and Jesse gave me the excuse I needed to try it when he suggested more food for work (I guess it’s been requested or asked when I would send more in again).  The picture looks so yummy and I only hope it looks as good.

The only major change I can see is that I didn’t use the oval baker the recipes calls for.  I used my deep covered baker and I’m actually liking this size better than what the cookbook had pictured.  Otherwise, everything was good.  It really didn’t take that long to prepare (other than baking the bread), but even then, everything was pretty smooth.

Ingredients:
12-16 slices firm white sandwich bread
3 tbsp butter or margarine, divided
1 can (10-3/4oz) condensed cream of celery soup
1/3 cup milk
1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1 red bell pepper, diced (about 1 cup)
4oz deli baked ham, diced (about 1/2 cup)
10 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup (4oz) shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 bag (5oz) fresh spinach leaves, washed and stemmed (about 6 cups)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.Cut crusts off bread; cube crusts to measure 2 cups.  Arrange bread slices in an overlapping pattern against sides of oval baker; place bread cubes in bottom of baker.  Microwave 2 tbsp of the butter in small micro-cooker on high 30 seconds or until melted; lightly brush over bread slices.  Bake 15-20 minutes or until edges of bread are golden brown.
  2. Meanwhile, in small batter bowl, whisk soup, milk and black pepper until smooth.  Finely chop onion using Food Chopper.  Dice bell pepper and ham using knife. Melt remaining butter in 12-inch skillet over medium heat; add onion and bell pepper.  Cook 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender; stir in ham.  Whisk eggs in classic batter bowl; add to skillet.  Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until eggs are set but still moist.
  3. Stir in soup mixture; cook 1 minute or until hot.  Grate cheese using cheese grater.  Gently stir 3/4 cup of the cheese into egg mixture; fold in spinch, half at a time.  Cook about 2 minutes, stirring gently until spinach is wilted.
  4. Spoon egg mixture into center of baker, mounding slightly in center.  Top with remaining 1/4 cup cheese.

Yield: 8 servings

Nutritional Information: calories 340; total fat 19g; saturated fat 9g; cholesterol 300mg; carbohydrate 25g; protein 18g; sodium 810mg; fiber 1g
Diabetic Exchanges per serving: 2 meat, 1 vegetable, 1 starch, 1-1/2 fat (1 carb)

July 31, 2009   Posted in: Breakfast  No Comments

Garden Vegetable Omelet

The Pampered Chef has these eight different recipes that all use the same idea – making the dish end up looking like either a ring, braid or wreath.  Basically, it’s bread stuffed with a casserole and some of the dishes actually look really tempting.  I’ve already made the Chicken and Broccoli Ring, which I also tried as a braid (not crazy about the braid, but its doable).  This time around, I’m attempting the wreath and using the Garden Vegetable Omelet recipe.

One thing I did with this recipe, and I’m not sure how well it’ll turn out, is I made the filling last night and I’m going to make the wreath this morning.  This is another dish Jesse is taking to work and I wanted the dish to retain some heat.  So I’m going to cook it before he heads in.  It’s been awhile since I sent anything hot in, so we’ll see how this works.

One other thing I did, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, is I really didn’t measure the veggies before adding them.  I ended up using a full red bell pepper, all of the tops from the asparagus spears and probably 1/3 of an onion (although I would say it was a rather large onion).  I’m not really sure if adding extra veggies is a bad thing, but it’s never harm a recipe in the past.

I have already found something I want to change, but it’s purely a selfish change since I cooked asparagus really has no appeal to me.  I’m really thinking I could exchange the asparagus for broccoli or another green veggie and it’ll still work.  Not totally sure, but it’s a thought.

Ingredients:
4oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
8 eggs, divided
1 tsp all-purpose dill mix
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 lb fresh asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch pieces (3/4 cup)
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  In classic batter bowl, whisk cream cheese and milk; add flour and whisk until smooth.  Spearate 1 egg; reserve egg white.  Add the yolk, remaining 7 eggs, dill mix, salt and black pepper to cream cheese mixture; whisk until smooth.  Add asparagus, bell pepper and onion to bater bowl; mix well.
  2. Melt butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat.  Add egg mixture; cook, stirring occasionally, 4-6 minutes until eggs are set but still moist. Remove pan from heat.
  3. Unroll crescent dough; separate into triangles. Arrange triangles in a circle on Classic Round Stone with wide ends overlapping in the center and points toward outside. (There should be a 5-inch diameter opening in the center) Using Medium Scoop, scoop egg mixture evenly onto widest end of each triangle; sprinkle with cheese.  Bring points of triangles up over filling and tuck under wide ends of dough at center of ring. (Filling will not be completely covered.)  Brush with remaining lightly beaten egg white.
  4. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Yield: 8 servings

Nutritional Information: calories 320; total fat 21g; saturated fat 9g; cholesterol 25mg; carbohydrate 26g; protein 7g; sodium 620mg; fiber 0g.
Diabetic Exchanges per serving: 1 meat, 2 fruit, 3 fat (2 carb)

July 31, 2009   Posted in: Breakfast  No Comments

Rice Cooker

This is my new favorite tool to have in the kitchen and for all the wrong reasons!  Have you ever had one of those cravings late at night and could do nothing about it?  You know the ones, where you want a big slice of chocolate cake (or any kind)?  I know I have and not getting that slice usually meant I had cake on my mind all night.  At 10 o’clock at night, who wants to wait around for an hour and a half for a cake to bake and get frosted just to satisfy a craving?  The rice cooker is the perfect tool to help with that craving.  I was able to bake, and frost, a cake in 10 minutes flat.  Now that I would have no problem doing at 10 o’clock at night.

Granted, that’s part of the reason it’s so wrong.  I know I don’t need to have that cake at night, and usually the time to make it deters me enough not to have it, but now I have to rely on my will power.

On the flip side, using the rice cooker to make a cake has some other benefits.  How many of us have kids who have wanted to bake a cake for some reason?  To bake a cake in the oven, an adult has to be around – there’s no question about it.  However, with the rice cooker, there is no use for the oven. The cake is made in the microwave and most kids can handle that on their own.

Also, how many of us know bachelors?

July 30, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: News  No Comments