100% Whole Wheat Bread

June 12th, 2008

This blog post has been a long time coming.  Every time I make bread, and I make it often, I think I should post it!  Well, lately I’ve been in the posting mood, so it’s your lucky day!  This bread recipe has been such a blessing to me; the bread comes out perfect every time (with the exception of using bad flour).  I like to use whole wheat, but sometimes I sneak in 1/2 cup of regular flour.  You would definitely want to do that if you don’t have good quality whole-wheat flour.  Here are all of the tricks I have learned from making bread over the past 18 months or so: (…read more and get the recipe)

Strawberry Chiffon Shortcake

June 12th, 2008

Rachel has an obsession with this food blog, so naturally she always wants to try out recipes.  I don’t blame her, the photos and ideas look so perfect.  So my sister-in-law had her 21st birthday a few days ago so Rachel set out to make her the strawberry chiffon shortcake from the blog for her.  I love strawberries and whipped cream (who doesn’t?) so I was sold on this cake the instant I saw the photo.  When she finished it last night we sliced into the tall, beautiful, 3-layer treat and enjoyed it with the birthday girl.  The cake was light and fluffy and the lemon zest did indeed offset the missing flavor of butter (as is suggested in the blog).  The whipped cream and fresh strawberries added to the flavor and texture to create a delicate and delicious cake.  We decided the only think we’d do different is put whipped cream around the sides next time. (…read more and get the recipe)

Perfect Whole-Wheat Blueberry Muffins

June 10th, 2008

Who would have known, a 100% whole-wheat muffin recipe can actually be moist and delicious!  Rachel and I typically have a big breakfast/brunch on the weekends and make a huge mess in the kitchen doing so.  I woke up a bit earlier than Rachel and decided to make her muffins the other morning as part of our regimen.  Now Rachel doesn’t usually like the whole-wheat goodness like I do so I wanted to do it right.  Well, taking some hints from my chocolate chip-cookie recipe (they were also so moist and delicious!), I whipped some muffins up that topped them all!  To help support local and more humane food practices you can try using milk from a local dairy, eggs from your local farmer’s market (or neighbor/co-worker as we do), and other locally produced goods as they are available near you.  Here’s what I did: (…read more and get the recipe)

Rustic Vegetable Soup

June 9th, 2008

YUM!  I am exited to share this recipe with you.  I really loved cooking and especially loved eating this soup.  It warmed my insides and had a wholesome texture that brought back memories of visiting my Grandma.  The unique flavor of leek, heartiness of cabbage, and healthy carrots I feel make this soup a quick and easy meal that you can make and enjoy for the whole week — or feed a large family or group of friends.  It’s a light soup but it still filled me up.  Rachel said that it needed some potatoes, so next time I think I’ll add those.  Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

• Olive Oil
• 3 long celery stocks diced
• 3 large carrots chopped
• 1 large white or yellow onion chopped
• 1 large leek chopped (white portion)
• 1 whole green cabbage
• (Rachel suggest 2 or 3 medium potatoes)
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• Sea Salt and Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 2 teaspoons chili powder for a kick
• 64 oz chicken broth or vegetable broth for vegetarian/vegan
• Water

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot over medium
2. Add all the vegetables and heat them up until they begin to get soft (about 5 to 10 minutes)
3. Add the broth
4. Cover the rest of the vegetables (as needed) with water
5. Bring the pot to a slow boil and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Serve the soup in a big bowl with some fresh Italian bread and garnish with some parsley.

I hope you enjoy it!

Slow Food - Corvallis, Oregon

May 20th, 2008

I have been learning a little bit about what the “Slow Food” (as opposed to fast food) movement is lately. To my surprise Corvallis, Oregon (where I reside) is starting a chapter. Attached is a poster inviting you to the kick-off event for the chapter. The event can also be found on the Slow Food USA event website (Look under June).

Decadent Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

May 18th, 2008

The other night my wife declared “I need some chocolate decadence!”  That was when I knew I had to get to work.  We had both been craving chocolate chip cookies lately so I got out the recipe.  These chocolate chip cookies come from an article we cut out of the Oregonian a year or so ago because my wife was trying to figure out how to make chewy, melt-in-your-mouth, decadent chocolate chip cookies.  At long last, this recipe is the end-all of this famous morsel.  I baked them for about nine minutes which was probably about one minute too short.  Due to this, the centers were soft, but I thought I had reached heaven every time I bit into one.

I think the brown sugar (more moist than white sugar) and cold butter and eggs make the difference when compared to other recipes.  When you beat the butter and it is cold, try chopping it into smaller pieces in order to blend it easier.   Needless to say, my wife loved them!  I even snuck in some whole-wheat flour so it didn’t feel all bad eating these!

I REALLY hope you enjoy them as much as I did.  I’d quickly like to announce that I am joining the FoodBuzz Featured Publisher Program.  I’m excited to have some new readers enjoying what I cook, so, welcome!  Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup of cold unsalted butter
• 3 cold eggs
• 2 cups of regular flour
• 1/2 cup of whole-wheat flour
• 3 cups of quality chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch (up to 1 teaspoon) of fine sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit
2. Beat the butter and brown sugar together until it is fluffy
3. Beat in the cold eggs until well combined
4. Mix in the vanilla
5. Then mix in each of the flours, baking soda and the salt but only just until combined.
6. Gently stir in (with a wooden spoon) the chocolate chips
7. Spoon out by the tablespoon full (larger or smaller according to your taste) onto a greased cookie sheet with at least two inches between each cookie
8. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes
9. Remove from tray immediately and cool on a cooling rack then serve with a big glass of milk and go to heaven!

I hope you enjoy them!

Pumpkin Raisin Hazelnut Muffins (and Banana too!)

April 9th, 2008

This last weekend was my sister-in-law’s wedding.  The wedding was beautiful and my wife especially looked hot!  I wasn’t part of the wedding party, but I did have the pleasure of cooking breakfast for the “day of.”  She didn’t want to put me out or have me do any major cooking in the morning, so we decided on muffins and fresh fruit.  After going to Costco and looking for muffins I decided they looked WAY too unhealthy (sugary and such) for a bridal party and to last them throughout the morning.  I definitely didn’t want anyone having a sugar high and subsequent crash.

My solution was to bust out the muffin tins, whole wheat and go light on the sugar!  The result was about 100 delicious small muffins.  I made both pumpkin and banana muffins with hazelnuts in each and raisins in the pumpkin variety.  Everything turned out good, except I wish I would have had riper bananas and I might add a little more oil, butter or milk next time to the banana muffins.

My wife and I also had a discussion about the whole wheat flour.  We noticed that the flavor of these and other things I’ve made has been turning out weird with this brand of flour I have.  I usually buy King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour which makes for great bread making too (I know I owe you this recipe sometime!).  I think, even though the prices of wheat keep going up, I am going to have to keep buying this brand due to the quality.  Of course, I used my wife’s Stahlbush Island Farm Organic Pumpkin again with great success!

I’m going to share the Pumpkin Raisin Hazelnut Muffin recipe.  Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup regular flour (mix and match to your taste)
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup of raisins
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup of roughly chopped hazelnuts (walnuts work too) — try Hazelnut Hill!
• 1 can Farmer’s Market Organic Pumpkin (15-oz)
• 1/3 cup canola oil (or unsalted butter for a slightly richer flavor)
•  2 eggs, whisked
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 cup of sugar (down from 1 and 1/4 in the recipe I modified!!)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of fine sea salt
• cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top right before baking

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees f.
2. Pour about 2 cups of boiling water over the 1 cup of raisins to plump them for about 5 minutes, drain well before using.
3. Place muffin liners in your muffin tin (this will make about 20 average sized muffins or about 12 large ones)
4. In a small glass bowl mix flours and baking powder, set aside
5. Mix together remaining ingredients until combined well to create a pumpkin mixture
6. Add flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix only until just combined
7. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full and sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture on top of batter
8. Bake for 20-30 minutes (depending on size) or until a toothpick comes out clean
9. Remove from oven and let cool

I hope you enjoy them!

The Dominican Republic: Part 4 (Chocolate Oatmeal Peanut Butter No-Bake cookies)

March 18th, 2008

As my time in the D.R. wound down I wanted to share my bread recipe and all the learning on bread I have been doing over the past year with some friends. Unfortunately the short two weeks I spent there zoomed right on by along with time to make bread! I decided at the last minute to whip together some no-bake chocolate chip, oatmeal, peanut butter cookies.

As a kid one of my favorite desserts was these cookies! I can’t even begin to count how many of these little chocolate morsels I devoured. Cooking them in the D.R. posed many challenges though. First, we wanted to cook them in Travesia (see Part 2) which is quite a hike. I had to worry about the butter melting, carrying the bulk, and then how to prepare it once I arrived.

I used the fugon (also described in Part 2) to cook up everything. I have some pretty funny pictures of some of the people looking at me like I have gone crazy while I cooked them. While I would have to say I was quite complimented when a villager rode by on his mule and had a couple cookies in his hand that someone had shared with him. He asked if I made them and we talked about what was in them. He said they were really good and everyone was stopping by to try them! Perfect!

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter (I had to use margarine due to the melting issue)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 tablespoons cocoa
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (or chunky, if you like that sort of thing)
• 3 1/2 cups dry quick-cooking oats
• 1 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

1. Add butter to large pot and melt over medium heat
2. Mix in sugar, milk and cocoa into pan and bring to a rolling boil for one minute
3. Mix in peanut butter, vanilla and oats
4. Drop onto waxed paper by the tablespoon and enjoy once they fully cool/harden

As you can see they are so simple and probably only take a few minutes to make. I hope you will enjoy them as much as the Dominicans and I do!

The Dominican Republic: Part 3 (Smörgåsbord)

March 3rd, 2008

Food and coffee were, obviously, both very enjoyable portions of my trip to the Dominican Republic. Here I am a month later at home thinking back on what else I did there. We tried really hard to visit a lot of friends and even make new friends there. It was so enjoyable to walk to someone’s door and have them shrill ‘entre, entre’ (come in, come in). To have someone sincerely pull a chair out or laugh as they kick a younger brother or daughter out of their seat and say ‘Sientate, Sientate’ is such a great feeling. I was able to see a very different side of people compared to what we typically see in the U.S. For example, I don’t even know either of my neighbors and I’m sure I’m not alone.

Back to the food: My wife and I were able to visit each missionary (including one indigenous missionary) on the T.E.A.R.S. team during the two weeks we were there to cook! I made it my mission to cook a meal for each of them.When I left for the D.R. I felt miserable with a cold. When I arrived Jennifer and Luis Rodriguez(another T.E.A.R.S. missionary couple) had plans to have us over for dinner the night after we arrived. I still hadn’t fully recovered but Jennifer remembered my blog and was fresh out of Taco Seasoning packets. I was volunteered to come up with a substitute with the seasonings in the cupboard. Fortunately I had made this seasoning many times at home using cumin, pepper, salt, garlic, onions and ground beef. It turned out good and we had a great evening of sharing and games.

For Bau (a Dominican missionary living in Maria Auxiliadora, La Vega) we cooked one of my favorites — Unique Chicken Pot Pie. I was also able to share this meal with Tracy, a long-time missionary with T.E.A.R.S. Bau and his wife Adriana had never experienced a “soup” quite like that!

Tracy and I experimented with my pretzel recipe (and maybe I’ll teach you someday on this blog). That was an experience. Even finding the ingredients in La Vega was a challenge, not to mention baking in a tiny gas oven and kneading dough on a small wobbly plastic table. Good memories.

For Rod Davis (the Executive Director of T.E.A.R.S.), Twila (his wife), and two children I cooked one of my wife’s favorites: Linguine with Spicy Chorizo and Tomato Sauce. I combined this with a feeble (and unsuccessful) attempt to make French Bread for the first time. The bread tasted good, but I didn’t quite follow all of the directions. I forgot to roll out the dough and then roll it up so it just spread out and became very flat. When I got home I tried it again right away with great success. I’ll have to post on here how to do it right pretty soon.

One of my favorite evenings, yet bittersweet since it was our last night, in the Dominican Republic was when we stayed with Joy and Vidal Reyes. Vidal and I (the mighty men of the house) got to cooking. Due to the fact that it was about a perfect 75 degrees every day there Vidal fired up his BBQ. He figured we hadn’t had a BBQ since summer and cooked us up some delicious chicken and steaks. He was correct about that and it was so good to have BBQ. He also taught me how to make Spanish Rice Vidal style. It turned out pretty good and I’ve already experimented with my own back home. I’ll have to get it perfected and then blog about it too!

I was able to use fresh ingredients they already had in their house to cook some of my delicious pico de gallo salsa. I chop into small cubes tomatoes, onion, chilis, bell peppers (optional), cilantro and add fresh squeezed lime juice, minced garlic, and salt. We had a delicious meal that evening and also had a great time really getting to know Joy and Vidal.

All of the cooking I did there was quite an experience. Often times I was forced to improvise due to lack of a lot of the conveniences we are blessed with here in the states. While baking bread the power went out (as it often does) at the Davis’s house outside the barrio (Maria Auxiliadora, La Vega). Luckily, Rod has a generator! When I was preparing to make the Chicken pot pie the water was turned off (as it often is) to the Barrio. I used a bucket we had filled with water for such an occasion to rinse and boil the chicken. That was … interesting. Also, since hot water (from a tap) is pretty much non-existent in most places I never was able to wash my hands or utensils as I normally would. This sort of sicks you out, but you get used to it, especially after eating at someone else’s house where they’ll cut up chicken with the same knife they use to cut everything else up without even rinsing between. All in all the cooking turned out pretty good. The missionaries enjoyed some American cooking and Rachel and I got to have some great company throughout our trip.

In my next and final DR series I’ll talk about the no-bake cookies I cooked up in Travesia on the Fugon.

Thanks for reading!

The Dominican Republic: Part 2 (Coffee!)

February 5th, 2008

Above: Coffee Drying operation in the Village of Travesia

Coffee in the Dominican Republic, simply, is a way of life. My wife and I visited many friends in their houses during our two week trip. During every visit to a friend’s house we would be served a delicious cup of Dominican coffee. If you’ve read my last post, you know coffee also comes along with every meal. Needless to say, we drank a lot of coffee while we were there!

How it’s brewed:
Coffee is brewed in an Italian-style espresso maker they call a “Greca.” A little bit of since electricity there is fairly inconsistent — we had electricity about 1/2 the time we water goes in the bottom of the brewer. Some ground coffee goes into the “filter” area and it’s all screwed together. Almost everyone there uses a gas (propane) stove top to cook were there on average. The water is heated and boils through the filter (from underneath) and then up through a little spout into a reservoir.

How it’s served:
Once the water is all boiled into the reservoir it is removed from the heat and often poured into a serving carafe. About one-half cup of sugar is added for each pot (about 2-3 cups). This makes for one sweet cup of coffee! For drinking, you are served one very small cup (about the size of an espresso shot). I really enjoyed sitting on someone’s porch, taking in all the delicious smells, sights and sounds of the Dominican Republic while sipping on my sweet cup of “cafè.”

Often times the ground coffee is mixed with nutmeg, cinnamon and/or other spices during brewing for an extra layer of flavor. It is delicious!

Growing and Roasting:
Fortunately for me, I had the opportunity to visit a village where coffee is grown and roasted! The growing seemed fairly normal in the village of Travesia (a small village in the mountains above the city of Jarabacoa), but the roasting was quite unique.

First off, they grow it under the banana and orange trees all along the hill sides. As we were walking up the trail to the village I saw coffee growing everywhere along the trail. It’s picked and husked using a small husk-removing machine (see photo) . Afterward it’s dried on a cement slab under a plastic covering. It is raked into ridges about twice a day (ridges are alternated between length-wise and width-wise).

To Roast in the village they use a clay-oven top called a “fugòn.” It’s basically a clay base and sides with a small fire (see photos). The coffee and unrefined (natural cane — still brown) sugar added at the same time to a huge cast-iron pot. Its stirred with a wooden spoon and caramelized.

My theory is that this is done because the fugòn and wooden spoon can’t get the beans evenly roasted so the caramelization hides the roast. The end result is a really black bean (on the outside) but a delicious flavor when ground and brewed! I brought some home and it’s sitting in my freezer now! YUM! My mother-in law once brought back about 10 pounds on her carry-on of this stuff and we drank it all year.

I hope you’re enjoying this series on the Dominican Republic. Feel free to ask me questions on the comment sections or just leave comments.