Monkey Slices

For a long time now I've been frequenting a lovely website called craftgawker - it is exactly what it sounds like!  Near the bottom of the page there's the typical buttons for various social media sites and a short list of other "gawker" websites. 

I recently discovered foodgawker - the food version of craftgawker.  It is a treasure trove of gorgeous food photography and nearly every picture has a recipe!  A few of them are more about food styling then food making, but those are pretty interesting, too. 

So while I was gawking I happened upon a photo of a loaf of bread that looked unlike anything I'd seen before.  If that wasn't enough to catch my attention, the name would have been!  It was called Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread.  YUM!



Forgive my crappy, fluorescent light at night photo, please.
 Food photography is not my forte, although I'm determined to improve at it.

 Here is the recipe I used (with way better pictures), should you feel compelled to make this yourself.  A word of warning, though - the pull apart nature of the bread is very much like Monkey Bread and lends itself to overindulgence. 

If you follow the directions for slicing the dough and end up with 36 slices, each slice is a whopping 2 ppv.  It's not super healthy, but it is delicious and has a sort of built in portion gauge since you know how many points each slice is.

I recommend eating this while it's warm, but the kids enjoyed it the following morning, too. 

Mom's Diner



Photo by The Boy, Autumn 2010


One popular breakfast around here is Eggs to Order.  In the past I've just asked each person what they wanted and kept a list, but lately that's felt a bit boring.  Knowing I was going to make eggs to order for breakfast this week, I decided to make a restaurant style menu.

In Word I created a document that has check-boxes for various kinds of eggs (sunny side, over easy, omelet, etc...) and side dishes, as well as beverages.  Last night after dinner I handed them out and asked Bryant and the kids to fill them in, then I used them this morning as I was making breakfast.

It was so much fun!  I'm thinking that I will ask for opinions tonight and adjust the menu as suggested.  After a couple uses, once I've got it down just the way we want it, I'll print clean ones and laminate them.  Then we can use them over and over again with dry-erase markers!

Kaiser Rolls

This recipe is a recent favorite of ours - I've made it three times in the last week!  It's another good one for those of you who might be a little nervous about working with yeast breads because it's quite simple and forgiving.  So what are you waiting for?

Kaiser Rolls
Makes 16 sandwich rolls or 32 small-ish dinner rolls
6 PPV each if you make 16 rolls

5 tsp active dry yeast, or two of the little packets
2 C warm water, divided
4 T sugar, divided
1/3 C canola oil
2 tsp salt
6 - 6 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 egg white
2 tsp cold water
Optional: Poppy or sesame seeds

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/2 C water.  I don't bother with precise measurements here - I use hot tap water and I usually get my whole 2 C of water and just pour in about a quarter of it, saving the rest for use in a few minutes.  Add 1 Tbsp sugar and let stand about 5 minutes.  The yeast should bloom and look a bit foamy or spongy.

Add the oil, salt, remaining water, sugar.  It should look like this -

Then toss in about 4 cups of the flour and mix until it's fully incorporated and somewhat smooth.

Stir in enough of the additional flour to make a soft dough.  I usually end up using almost exactly 6 C, so if you're not sure, that's a good starting place.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until it's smooth and elastic, about 6 - 8 minutes.

Place the kneaded dough into a well greased bowl and cover it with small, thin-ish towel.  Let it sit in a warm spot for about an hour, or until it's doubled in size.  When it's this warm out, I just leave it on the counter in the sunshine, but in the winter I turn the oven on to 200*.  When it gets up to temperature, I turn it off and then let my dough rise on the stovetop near the oven vent. 

When it's done rising, have a small child whip the towel off the top in grand fashion.  It adds so much to the experience!

Now you get the fun of punching down the dough!  I typically just dump it out onto a lightly floured surface and fold it into itself, pushing the gas out as I go.  Then it's very easy to cut it into the appropriate number of pieces.  Today I'm making the rolls to be used in place of regular bread in sandwiches, so I cut my dough into 16 pieces.

Then, with floured hands, pull the dough down and tuck it under the roll until you have a smooth surface.  Or, just roughly shape them into balls, whichever your preference.  Either way, they should be about this size, if you're doing 16.

Place the dough balls on greased cookie sheets, at least 2 inches apart.  They will probably grow together a little, but that's okay, it just adds to the fun later when you get to decide if the grown together rolls count as one sandwich or two!

Let them rise, covered again, for another 30 minutes or so - just enough to puff up a bit.  They won't grow dramatically during this time, but it's important to let them rest for good gluten development.  Near the end of that rise time, preheat the oven to 400*. 

Beat the egg white with the 2 tsp cold water (again, just cold tap water) until just frothy and use a pastry brush to paint the egg wash onto the rolls.  If you want to use seeds, now is the time to sprinkle them across the top of your rolls.  In addition to seeds, you might consider things like garlic bread seasoning (actually, I hadn't thought of it before, but that would be amazing added right into the dough...) or herbs.

With a pair of sharp scissors, cut a 1/4 inch deep cross in the top of each roll.  It seems weird, I know, but once they have the wash on them, they're slippery and a knife just isn't going to be practical.  Trust me, use the scissors. 

I don't have a pair of kitchen snips, so I use my regular everyday scissors and just wash the blades in hot, soapy water afterwards.  As always, though, feel free to put your own personal touch on them; use a kaiser roll stamp (like this one), cut stripes instead of crosses or skip the cutting altogether.  The important thing isn't what they look like so much as that you have the fun of creating something so delicious from such humble ingredients (and then the joy of sharing that deliciousness with your family and friends)!

Bake the rolls for 18 - 20 minutes or until as deeply golden as you like them.  Remove the rolls from the pan onto a wire rack to cool completely.  You should end up with something like this:

See that little guy on the bottom rack?  That one in the middle?  Pookie shaped that one himself - he's crazy proud of it and I'm a little afraid he won't want to eat it later!

So there you have it - how to make extremely versatile rolls in just a few short hours with minimal work or ingredients! 

The little things

There are many ways in which I'm a lucky girl.  I have a wonderful family and home, I'm living the life I want and I have an abundance of extended family and friends that I enjoy spending time with.

And that's just the big stuff!  I could go on all day about little, seemingly insignificant things that make my life amazing and special.

But today I want to mention one specific thing. Well, one specific person...

Bryant. 

I'm inclined to just do things myself and sometimes I forget that I can lean on him when I need a little extra support.  Not through any fault of his, I just sometimes get caught up in what I've got going on in my own life and I take him for granted. 

Yesterday I was forcibly reminded of just how blessed I am to have him.  I was washing a bunch of champagne flutes and wine goblets (we don't use them often, so they always need a quick scrub before use) and I shattered one.  A piece of glass gouged into my finger, leaving me bleeding quite a bit.  I yelled for Bryant and he came rushing to my aid.  He held a towel on my hand, applied a bandage and then cleaned the broken glass out of the sink.

It wasn't a huge moment; my hand is fine and I could have put a bandage on it myself.  I could have cleaned up the glass and calmed the kids fears.

But it sure was nice to know I didn't have to do it all myself.  I really should try to remember it more often.

Lazy Activity

I've been living the Weight Watchers lifestyle for about two and a half months now and I'm seeing results.  Yesterday I wore jeans a size lower than my usual ones and even they were a smidge loose around the waist.  I've lost just over 15 lbs and made a lot of healthier choices into healthier habits. 

One thing I haven't gotten the hang of is exercise.  Honestly, I just hate to sweat.  I don't like the way it feels and I don't like the interruption in my day that exercise always is. 

But I know I need to be more active to make my WW efforts more effective and to help my body become what I want it to be - an efficient, healthy machine that does it's job for a good, long time. 

My solution is two-fold.  First, I explained to the kids how important it is to me that I make and keep the commitment to exercise.  We talked about what constitutes exercise and what I am willing and able to do at this point. 

The second part of my solution is to involve the kids as much as possible.  I made a commitment to them to be active WITH them at least three times a week.  That can be walking down our (private) road, playing tag in the backyard, hiking Mayfield or any active play.  They're already excited and brainstorming creative ways we can include more activity into our daily lives. 

What are you doing to create activity in your life?

Bryant's fries

About two weeks ago I took the kids grocery shopping.  Bryant stayed home because he was working.  While we drove home, my phone beeped several times, so Scooter grabbed it to see what was going on.

She said her Dad had texted a bunch, so I asked her to read them to me.  The following is a direct quote from his texts, except where noted.

Text 1: Bryant got hungry.

Text 2: Put fries in oven.

Text 3: Went back to work.

Text 4: "What's that beeping?"

Text 5: Smoke alarm!   (Scooter paraphrased) "Bad word, very bad word"

Text 6: Black fries.

Text 7: Smoke.

Text 8: Laughing at stupidity.

Text 9: Still hungry.

Hasselhoff Potatoes?

It's no secret that I love potatoes.  Passionately and without reserve.  I often say that I've never met a potato I didn't want to eat.


Boiled, baked, fried, mashed or really, any way you can think of them, I love them all.   But, I live with six other people and they don't all share my love of all things potato.  So I try to come up with different ways to serve the humble spud.

I happened upon the phrase, "Hasselback Potato" not too long ago and I was intrigued.  A quick Googling later and I had a recipe.

So here's how I did it...

Preheat your oven to 425 - 450, depending on the oven.  Mine cooks hot, so I set mine to 425.  Start with six or seven decent sized russet potatoes, scrubbed clean, but not peeled.

                                     


Carefully slice a very thin layer off the bottom of the potato so it will sit flat on the cutting board.  This step is important, because next we're going to make very thin slices in the potato and it'll be difficult if your spud is rolling around the counter!

Using a sharp knife, make slices about 1/4 inch apart for the full length of your potato.  You don't want to cut through, though.  Leave about 1/3 - 1/2 inch uncut at the bottom.  I had a hard time eyeballing it, so I used the handle of another knife as a guide.  I simply slid my knife through the potato until it hit the handle of the other knife.  Easy peasy.

Repeat these steps for all the potatoes. They should look like this...

Now the fun part!!  You want about 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and very thinly sliced.  Or, about 2 tsp of jarred minced garlic will work, too.  You also need about 3 Tbsp of butter, chilled and cut into tiny cubes or slices. 

Spacing the butter and garlic evenly, wedge it into the slices.  I put a bit of garlic and butter in every other cut of each potato.  The butter kept wanting to pop back out, so I used a dull knife to push it back in.  After you've stuffed all the potatoes, drizzle 2 Tbsp olive oil over all the potatoes evenly.  A generous sprinkle of coarse sea salt and fresh ground black pepper tops it all off. 

Pop those beauties into the oven for 60 minutes.  Every so often, two or three times total, baste the melted butter/olive oil back up onto the potatoes.  That will help the skins to become crisp and golden - YUM!

When they're done, place them in a serving dish and, if you like, drizzle the remaining oil/butter over the top.  I opted not to, but it could be delish!

I served these plain alongside a grilled steak and steamed broccoli with excellent results.  The garlic became very soft and sweet, the potato was crisp on the outside, but tender on the inside.  All in all, our family called this one a winner!

The serving size depends on the number of potatoes you use.  I made 6 potatoes and fed 7 people, but Midge isn't a big potato fan and I was already close to my WW points limit for the day, so we shared a potato.  Speaking of WW, these bad boys are 7 points each, but totally worth it, especially served alongside a low point entree and steamed veggies. 

The name Hasselback potato comes from the Hasselbacken Hotel in Sweden where the recipe originated, as far as I can tell (Google hasn't led me astray yet...) and today's post title comes from my silly desire to call them Hasselhoff potatoes. 

Time Waster

There is a place near here that I love.  It's a historic pond/park called Mayfield.  Outside of home, Mayfield is my favorite place to be.  I'm often reminded of Shakespeare when I'm there - "I love this place and would gladly waste my time in it."

A few of the reasons I love Mayfield:




There's a pond that's perfect for learning (and teaching) how to skip rocks.





Frogs and their eggs



Lots of interesting and beautiful creatures



Gorgeous flowers



And lots of walking paths!

 So where do you gladly waste your time?

Peach Cobbler

I haven't made this recipe yet, but when I mentioned it to my Mom yesterday, she was mucho excited to try it.  Pibb and I will be making it this weekend, so I'll update the post with my review and at least one picture then.  For now, here you have it: 

EDIT:  Photo added 7/19/2011

Peach Cobbler
Serves 8
WW PPV = 4

6 medium peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced
6 1/3 Tbsp sugar, divided
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
3 Tbsp reduced calorie margarine
1/2 C fat free milk

Preheat oven to 375.

In a large saucepan, combine peaches, 1/3 C sugar (5 1/3 Tbsp), cornstarch, lemon juice and cinnamon; toss to coat peaches.  Set pan over medium heat and bring to a boil cook until mixture thickens, about 1 minute.  Remove pan from heat; transfer mixture to an 8 X 8 baking pan.

To make topping, combine flour, remaining sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  Work in margarine with a fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add milk and stir until flour is evenly moistened.

Drop 8 Tbsp of topping mix over peaches.  Bake until topping is golden brown and filling is bubbly, about 25 minutes.  Cut into 8 pieces and serve.


My notes so far:

Life is too short to eat reduced calorie margarine in baked goods.  I will recalculate the points on this to include real butter.  3 Tbsp divided by 8 servings isn't much, but I'm betting it will greatly improve the flavor and texture of the topping.

Also, I've made a few cobblers and crisps and they all have one thing in common - if you fail to put a baking sheet under them in the oven, they will bubble over and you'll have burned fruit stuck in there until you finally get sick enough of it to scrape the oven out.  I'll be putting a cookie sheet under this when I make it.

EDIT:
Pibb and I made this cobbler last night and I only have one thing to say about it - make this at your earliest convenience!!  It was crazy good, but even more than that, it was super easy!  The hardest, most time consuming part of it was pealing the peaches.  And even that was pretty quick - we used the boiling water/ice bath method and it was pretty smooth sailing.  I had one peach that wasn't quite as ripe as the others and that one needed to be boiled/iced twice.  Everything else was easy peasy. 

The fruit was tender and sweet, but not overly so.  The flavor of the peaches really shines here because of the small amount of sugar and spices.  The biscuit topping was tender and crumbly, but had a little crunch on the top - it was perfect.  Oh, speaking of the crust, I didn't scoop the topping in 8 individual bits, as the recipe called for.  I just used my fingers to kinda spread the topping around, mostly covering the fruit.  It worked out very well!

I served this with a bit of sugar free Cool Whip and those of us that enjoyed it, really enjoyed it.  Scooter doesn't care for cooked fruit, so she wasn't thrilled with it, but she's an odd duck. 

Changing the reduced calorie margarine to real butter increased the points plus value to 5 per serving, but I think it was well worth it!  If you're going to splurge, why not make it the best splurge you can?  I'll leave you with one final picture to help motivate you to make this NOW...

Watching

For the past six or seven years, my weight has stayed pretty steady, except when I was pregnant.  I'd bounce around the same 5 lbs or so and  my jeans size didn't change in those years.  I'd pretty much accepted that this weight was where my body was comfortable.  I was pudgy, but not overly so and my health didn't seem to be suffering, so I wasn't really worried about it.  I'd occasionally get upset with myself for being out of shape, but most of the time, I just accepted that this who I am and what I look like.  No biggie.

This past year or so, I've put on a few pounds, gone up a pants size and lost some flexibility.  At first, I just attributed it to getting older and being less active over the winter.  But as the weather warmed up and we started walking the nature trails near here, I realized just how out of shape I'd gotten; for the first time in years, I was having to stop and take a rest every time we hiked and I was feeling a little like The Blob.

So about a month ago I did something I told myself I wasn't going to do.  I joined Weight Watchers.  I'm not a joiner by nature, so the idea of going to meetings and being forced to participate really didn't appeal to me.  Then someone showed me the WW online program and it looked like something I could really do.

They happened to be having a really good deal on the day that I was checking it out, so after talking to Bryant, I decided to go for it and sign up for three months.  I'm a couple of days from one month in and so far, so good.  Sure, there have been a few times when I wanted to give up, but since those feelings are hormone related, I'm finding ways to plan for and deal with them.

Someone recently asked me what a typical day looks like on WW and I wasn't sure what to tell her.  The plan is so customizable that my typical day may not look anything like someone else's.  But, in an attempt to answer that question, here's a rundown of my food choices from one day last week:

Breakfast: (4 pts)
1 egg + 1 egg white omelet, filled with onion, bell pepper, mushroom, 1/2 slice ham and 1 slice low fat American cheese with a handful of fresh raspberries and a large glass of water.

AM Snack: (3 pts)
Fiber Plus Dark Chocolate and Almond bar

Lunch: (9 pts)
1 thin slice of turkey breast, mixed greens, red onion slices and mustard on a homemade bagel sandwich with a handful of baby carrots and more water.

PM Snack: (1 pt)
1 string cheese and an apple, sliced.

Dinner: (13 pts)
4 oven-fried chicken tenders, 15 honey barbecue potato chips, veggies from a veggie tray and 2 tablespoons of salad dressing for dipping and more water.

I always keep a bottle of water with me and I drink quite a bit more than the WW Healthy Checks recommendation, but it's an amount I'm used to and comfortable with.  I've also found that drinking so much more water, my "need" for Diet Pepsi has dropped pretty significantly.  Yay!

When I first started WW, I wasn't sure how to organize my points so that I'd get enough food all through the day (I do not deal well with hunger), so I began planning my day ahead of time.  Each morning after breakfast I sit down and plan out my food for the next day.  Doing it this way gives me time to figure out how many points will be in the foods I make from scratch and let's me choose my menu when I'm not ravenously hungry.  When it comes time for snack, I simply grab my notebook, flip to the appropriate page and all the decision-making has already been done!

There's wiggle room in there, too, so if my day takes an unexpected turn, I know I can play with the point distribution and adjust for real life. 

So there you have it.  My WW experience so far. 



Oh, and I've lost just barely shy of 12 pounds already!