Deanna's Daughter

Soooo good – my girlfriend told me I HAD to make this and I’m so glad I listened (thanks Auntie Jino!).  This is borrowed from Smitten Kitchen, where it was adapted from Ina Garten.  I used more bread than the recipe called for – in fact I think I just about doubled what she used in her recipe, and I thought it was great.  I used a regular ‘French’ loaf, put it into the fridge overnight to soften the crust, then trimmed the crust off and cubed it yielding about 6 cups.  I then baked it in a large 11 x 13 pan so that I could keep the bread in a single layer for everything to better crisp up.

We had this for dinner tonight with some grilled chicken breasts that were first marinated in a bit of olive oil and lemon juice, yellow beans from the market and the Peach Crisp that I said was coming soon – that recipe will follow tomorrow.

Scalloped Tomatoes and Croutons

3 T. olive oil

6 c. bread from a French loaf – trimmed of crust and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

2 1/2  – 3 lbs. fresh tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch dice (I happened to use Roma)

6 cloves garlic, finely minced (about 2 tablespoons)

2 T. sugar

2 t. salt

1 t. freshly ground pepper

1/2 c. thinly slivered basil leaves, lightly packed

1 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese – and it MUST be fresh

Preheat oven to 350.  Heat the oil in a large skillet and toss the bread around to get it all toasted for 5 minutes or so.  In the meantime, prepare the tomatoes and mix them up in a large bowl with the garlic, sugar, salt and pepper.  When the bread is toasted and close to being a crouton, pour in the tomato mixture and cook it all together for another 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the basil, then scrape everything into a large, greased, shallow casserole dish.  Top evenly with the cheese and bake for 30 – 40 minutes, depending on how crispy you’d like it to be.  Unfortunately, there were no leftovers…but Smitten Kitchen recommended having a bowl of this with a poached egg on top and we all thought that would be a great idea.  Enjoy!

Flashback #4 – As their vocabulary expanded (they were 1 1/2), the cuteness abounded.  Explaining the differences between, boy, girl, husband, wife, man, woman etc., in reference to ourselves sitting at the dinner table, Marlow exclaimed, ‘He’s not a man!  He’s a Daddy!’.

Borrowed from Dinner With Julie, all I really changed was the name…and interestingly enough, I was inspired to make broccoli soup with it (with roasted chicken thrown in.)

Upside Down Onion Bread

canola or olive oil

2 large onions, cut in half and thinly sliced

2 c. flour (or half regular and half whole-wheat)

1 T. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1 c. milk

1/4 c. canola oil

1 egg

In a large (mine was 10″) ovenproof skillet, saute the onions in a bit of oil until they are golden brown.  This should take 15-20 minutes and I added about a 1/2 t. of salt and 2 t. of sugar to work on the caramelization – you may also need to add a bit more oil if it all gets too dry.  When the onions are done, remove the pan from the heat.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and in a different bowl, combine the milk, oil and egg.  Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined.

Spread the batter over the onions and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.  I thought it looked great sitting in the pan, but if you want to get fancy, turn it out onto a platter (after it’s rested in the skillet for about 10 minutes) and serve.  Definitely best served warm!

My mom discovered these years ago and while it may be many moons until mine turn out as perfectly uniform and browned as hers, they are still very tasty and quite straightforward to make – as far as bread goes.  They are a favorite of Marlow and Waverly so along with having a big family birthday celebration for them last weekend, I decided to ‘whip up’ some buns, so that we could have them on their actual birthday.  One day they’ll appreciate it, but for now, I have to admit I do enjoy putting the effort in.

Potato Buns

1 T. traditional yeast

1 1/2 c. warm water

2/3 c. sugar

1 1/2 t. salt

2/3 c. shortening

2 eggs at room temperature

1 c. lukewarm mashed potatoes (make them ahead and then just microwave them for a bit)

6 to 7 c. flour

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and then stir in the sugar, salt, shortening, eggs and potatoes – I found using a heavy whisk works best.  Add 2 cups of flour (1 at a time, whisking in between) and once that’s mixed in, graduate to a big wooden spoon.

Mix in enough flour to make the dough easy to handle – I quite easily added 4 more cups and was able to stir it in – and then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter to knead (or just knead it directly in your bowl if it’s large enough).  At the end of adding flour, I used very close to the 7 cups.

Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes) and then place in a greased bowl.  Lightly grease the top of the dough as well so that when you cover it and it rises, it doesn’t stick to everything.  Make sure the bowl is covered tightly and refrigerate for at least 8 hours (overnight preferably).

Punch down the dough and then let it rest for about 10 minutes before making it into whatever shapes or buns that you want.  Traditionally Mom always took the time to make tiny buns in a springform pan (marble sized, NOT golf ball size), but it’s dough, and you could probably make any shape you wanted and have it work out.  One batch fills 2 springform pans and then one small casserole of tiny buns.

Let it rise for 1 1/2 hours before baking, and then bake at 375 for 15-25 minutes, depending on the shape and size.  I find that a springform pan full of tiny buns takes about 20 minutes.  These are sooo worth the effort!