Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese and Homemade Challah

It was a cold, cold day outside and I didn't feel like leaving the house today, so it was time for some experimenting in the kitchen.

You already know about my love affair with bread.  Homemade bread can always be found in my kitchen, although it's usually of the whole wheat variety.  This afternoon I was in the mood for something different.  I have been eyeing this Challah recipe for some time now and today was the day.  I always thought that challah would be complicated and difficult to shape.  It was really very easy and the results were extremely satisfying.  I followed the recipe exactly except for the yeast.  I used instant yeast and just mixed it into the flour and then threw the liquid ingredients in all at once.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.  The recipe includes photographic instructions for a six-stranded braid.  My loaf didn't look exactly like their finished product, but was nonetheless very attractive.

What do you think?  Jane thought it was beautiful.  Then we sliced it...

And ate it with our supper.  It earned five out of five thumbs up. In fact, some family members gave it the double thumbs up.  And Jane said I could definitely make it again.  It was soft and fluffy inside and had an almost flaky crust.  I will certainly be making more.  Jane will be pleased.

After we were finished with it, this was what was left:

I must confess, I stole the other heel of the loaf.  It's my favourite part, and I knew it would be better today than it would be tomorrow, so why not?  Anyway, some people say that leftover challah should be made into French toast or bread pudding.  While those options are tempting, I think this will just be toasted for breakfast in the morning.  Bread pudding will have to wait.  I think the family will appreciate it more if we wait until long after the gluttony of Christmas, the end of January, perhaps, when we need a little something special.

On to the main course.  This was another new recipe.  Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese has been on my "To Do" list for a while.  I was looking forward to a spicy blend of chicken, tomatoes and macaroni topped with just enough cheese to give it some flavour.  The only time I strayed from the original recipe was to substitute some cooked turkey breast for the chicken.  Hey, it was already cooked.  Don't judge me.  Oh yeah, and I used cheddar cheese instead of blue cheese.  Blue cheese?  Really?  Maybe I don't have a very sophisticated palate, but blue cheese has never appealed to me.  Besides, I wanted the kids to eat it.

I was a bit leery of adding milk to the onion/celery/tomato mixture because I knew the milk would appear to curdle a bit, but I went ahead with it anyway.  All in all, the casserole turned out to be okay.  It was lacking a bit of something.  It had a good amount of heat from the cayenne and the buffalo wing sauce (made from endangered flying buffalo, I presume - that led to quite the dinner table conversation, I can tell you), but it needed something to bring out the flavours more.  I ended up adding a some salt and pepper to my plate at the table.  Four out of five of us ate it.  Jane tried some and decided to eat challah instead.  Jack and Anne really liked it, and opted for seconds, as did the Jason (but he always has seconds).  I think it needed a bit more macaroni, but that was not the fault of the recipe.  It was the fault of the person who managed to dump the macaroni into the sink while draining it (is my face red!).  Most of the pasta was salvaged (DON'T JUDGE ME! My sink is clean and the macaroni was well rinsed.  Shaddap.) and made it to the dish.  Will I make this again?  Maybe.  It looked pretty, anyway.

Now, off to peruse my recipe board for more recommendations for Kim.

Easy Christmas Treats for Kim

During the busy, hectic month of December I was exhausted every day after work and didn't have the energy to do any Christmas baking.  I mean any.  Nothing.  Zip.  Nada.  This may not sound drastic to you, but as a rule my kitchen is a flurry of activity during the month of December.  Flour, sugar and butter can be found mixed in various proportions and with large quantities of chocolate, nuts, oatmeal, dried fruit and a myriad of other ingredients, resulting in mountains of goodies which last long after the Christmas season is over.  This year, however, was a different story.  Stress at work and the dark, cloudy, dreary days of December this month didn't leave me much in the mood to be creative or productive in the kitchen.  I knew there were some recipes that involved only a few ingredients and were incredibly quick and easy to make.  In the dark recesses of my memory, I dredged up a couple of partial recipes that I hadn't made in years.  A brief internet search led me to exactly what I was looking for.  The following recipes can be made in only minutes and require only a few easily acquired ingredients.

I haven't make Saltine Toffee Cookies in years and had almost forgotten how good they are.  There are many recipes to be found on the internet, and most of them are almost identical, but this one I found at my one of my favourite recipe sites: allrecipes.com.    Depending what you top these crunchy toffee treats with, they can be a very plain (and yet extremely tasty) square, or a decadent concoction fancy enough for company.  These I sprinkled with toasted, sliced almonds and served to the in-laws, who were suitably impressed.  Next time, and there will be a next time, I will try walnuts.  If you are a nut-free household you could use some kind of crushed, colourful candy, or even leave them plain.  If you are a nut freak, you could try using a combination of peanut butter chips and chocolate chips, or all peanut butter chips.  How about white chocolate.  Butterscotch chips?  I won't say the possibilities are endless, but there are many combinations to be tried and enjoyed.

The other treats I made were even easier to make. Rolo Pretzel Candy took about ten minutes to prepare, start to finish (well, except for cooling time).  It was almost an afterthought to make these, and I didn't have any Rolos in the house.  I sent my husband for some (because it was Christmas Eve and I couldn't be expected to brave forty below weather to go the the zoo...I mean grocery store) and he brought me mini Rolos instead of the full sized kind.  No problem.  I just placed three mini chocolates on each pretzel twist and it was fine.  These are actually easy enough for kids to make.  All you have to do is put in and pull out the pan from the oven.  Salty and not overly sweet, these make a nice addition to your cookie tray.

Happy indulgences to all.

Orange and Lentil Soup

Today was a soup kind of day.  I tried a recipe I was curious about and it was semi successful.  It rated two out of three thumbs up from the three of us that ate it for supper.  It was hot dogs for the non-adventurous types.

Orange and Lentil soup piqued my interest when I came across it at allrecipes.com (which is one of my favourite recipe sites; real recipes made by real people, made with common ingredients. But I digress.)  I am very fond of lentils, and oranges taste like sunshine, so I figured it was a good choice for a winter evening.  This soup was relatively quick to make, taking only about an hour, which allowed plenty of time to prepare it after work.  After sauteing the onions in a little butter, I threw the rest of the ingredients into the pot and left it alone to simmer for forty minutes or so.  After everything was nice and soft I gave it a quick buzz with the immersion blender and it was ready to eat.

Jane and Jack weren't interested in trying it.  Anne tasted it and proclaimed, politely, that she didn't really care for it.  Jason had two big bowls full.  If he has seconds, it must be good.  If he doesn't go back for more, it's a sign that I don't really need to make that recipe again.  At least not for him.  

This soup was flavoured with thyme and bay leaf, which was interesting when paired with the orange juice.  Its yellow and orange colours were appealing and it smelled great.  Will I make it again?  Maybe.  I think it was missing a little something, but I can't quite put my finger on it.  I may try again another day when I have more time for experimentation.

My soup looked like this.  And the black specks are pepper, not something else that you wouldn't want to find in your soup.

Mmmm...soup....

European Peasant Bread

I love bread.  No, I really, REALLY love bread.  I think I'm in love with bread, but only homemade bread, preferably made by me.  Today's Pinterest recipe is one I've actually made a few times.  European Peasant Bread, posted by Foodie Reflections, is a favourite of mine and Jack's.  Jack calls it Viking bread.  Whatever.  It's so easy it almost makes itself.  After mixing the ingredients and letting the no-knead dough rise for two hours you just chuck it in the fridge and leave it alone for up to two weeks.  I think the longer you leave it, the more the flavour develops.

A note on the ingredients: I didn't have rye flour so I just replaced that with more whole wheat flour.  It's best not to deviate more than that in the proportions of white/non-white flour.

When you decide you're in the mood for bread, take the dough from the fridge.  This recipe says to use a one pound blob of dough.  I found that one pound didn't work for me.  Maybe I just did it wrong.  I think I used half of the dough at a time.  The easiest way to let it rise after forming the loaf, which is not easy...it's like trying to hold on to a giant amoeba, is to let it rise on a clean dish towel which has been sprinkled liberally with flour, cornmeal or wheat germ (I am partial to wheat germ.  It adds a nice flavour.) because after it's risen you can pick the whole thing up and dump it upside down into your pot.  It will look like crap, but that doesn't matter because while it bakes it will fix itself.  Trust me. When it's done you won't believe you actually made such a beautiful loaf of bread.

The baking part looked a bit scary to me at first.  You have to set your oven to "inferno" and heat your baking vessel (and its lid) until it's insanely hot.  I used a small, round ceramic roasting pan that I found at The Bargain Shop for ten bucks - no need to spend obscene amounts of money on specialized equipment.  Oh yes, do not grease your pan.  I repeat DO NOT GREASE YOUR PAN!  The bread will not stick.  The tricky bit is turning your risen dough into your hell-hot pot without disaster striking.  Put the lid on.  Shove it into the oven for about half an hour.  Take the lid off and bake it some more (20 to 30 minutes).  The wheat germ (of whatever you used) might look a bit dark, but that's ok.  Dump the bread out.  Pick it up (with your oven mitts on, silly) and tap the bottom. If it sounds hollow, it's done.  Put it on a rack and wait.  And wait.  And wait.  When it's cool you can cut into it with a sharp serrated knife. You'll probably need to vacuum your kitchen afterwards because of all the crumbs, but it will be worth it.

It will look something like this:

Go make some.  You're welcome.

Yes, Kim, I made this.

This  blog is for my friend, Kim, who asked me once, "Jen, do you really make all the stuff you post on Pinterest?".  "Of course," I said.  Ok, so I actually don't make everything, or even most of it.  Kim thought I should review some of these recipes and share them.  Hmmm...I do all the work and she benefits.   All right, Kim, this one is for you. Actually, they are all for you.

Yesterday was a horribly blustery, snowy day.  I swear we got an entire winter's snow all at once.  It was also a rough day at work and I was in dire need of something chocolate, and this was one of those days that an Aero bar just wouldn't do the trick.

Enter Hot Fudge Pudding Cake from notwithoutsalt.com.  http://notwithoutsalt.com/2012/04/26/hot-fudge-pudding-cake/

This was very easy and quick to make.  I have made similar desserts before, but none were quite as good as this one.  I didn't have instant espresso powder, so I made a cup of very strong coffee as a substitute.  I may have baked it a little too long and there wasn't quite as much pudding on the bottom as a result, so be careful to watch the time and take it out before it looks completely done.  We ate it without adornment, but I think it would be an extra-special dessert for company if you served it with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream melting seductively over the cake in the bowl.  Chocolate and coffee; who could ask for more?

Be sure to check out Hot Fudge Pudding Cake at notwithoutsalt.  Once you see the gorgeous pictures of the step by step directions and the beautiful finished dessert, you'll be helpless to resist.