Bread Pudding

We frequently scout the Walmart bargain rack when we go shopping - and usually, if there is French bread, we get it! The problem with French bread is that it gets stale really fast - that is just the nature of the stuff.

A couple weeks ago, we tried out this recipe for bread pudding, using the remainder of a loaf of French bread we had in our fridge. The original recipe can be found here; we altered it a bit so we could use ingredients we had on hand.

Bread Pudding
2 cups milk (the original recipe calls for whole milk)
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups bread, torn up into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Tear bread and place in a lightly greased baking dish (I used a 9*9 square pan). If you like raisins, put them in the baking dish as well. You might need to hand-mix them so they are evenly distributed.
2. Heat milk and butter in a medium saucepan, stirring so it does not scorch. Let butter melt completely. Cool to lukewarm.
3. Combine sugar, eggs, spices, and vanilla and mix with an electric mixer. Add milk/butter mixture; combine well.
4. Pour this mixture on the bread and raisins in the baking dish. Try to get all of the bread wet with the batter.
5. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until set.

We enjoyed it warm, with ice cream!!

Danish Dumplings

I feel weird posting soup recipes at the end of May, but with the cool weather we've been having, that's what we've been eating a lot of! We've tried out several delicious soups lately.

This recipe for Danish Dumplings came to the Bradshaw family through Thomas' dad's mission cookbook. It's a pretty simple recipe, but kind of fattening, especially if you use actual butter (we've been using margarine). So, while I'd like to eat it every day, I've had to hold back ;o)

When we make this, we usually have leftovers, so it could easily serve 3-4.

Danish Dumplings
1 c milk
1/2 c (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 packet dry chicken noodle soup (such as Lipton), prepared according to package directions

1. Prepare chicken soup, letting simmer on stovetop.
2. Combine milk and butter in skillet or large frying pan and bring to a boil.
3. Once boiling, stir in flour and salt. Stir, cooking until mixture slips away from sides of pan.
4. Let cool for a few minutes (until not hot enough to cook eggs on contact).
5. Beat in the eggs.
6. You will now form dumplings from this mixture, and drop them into the hot soup. Do this by dipping two spoons into the broth, and then using the spoons to scoop out and shape a spoonful of the mixture. Drop into the still-simmering broth and repeat until all of the mixture is in the pot of soup. 
7. Simmer for a few more minutes, until dumplings are cooked through.
8. Serve hot!

oxox

Strawberry Shortcake

'Tis the season for strawberries, and one of our favorite ways to eat them is with shortcake. We recently tried out this recipe (click for original). It had a very light sweetness and was not as spongy as what we're used to, but it was worth making.

Strawberry Shortcake
2 c flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar
1/3 c shortening
1 c milk

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Mix dry ingredients thoroughly.
3. Add shortening, and cut in using pastry blender, forks, or knives until crumbly
4. Add milk and mix until combined.
5. Bake for about 25 minutes in greased pan (we used our bundt pan), or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Seder and Passover Feast

Although we are not Jewish, we enjoy learning about the traditions and symbolism found in Judaism (and other religions, for that matter). Because it is Passover week, we decided to have a small get-together with our friends to learn about and try the Seder plate fare and some interesting Passover-friendly recipes from a book we found at a garage sale last summer (The Passover Table by Susan R. Friedland). We and our friends tried our hand at the recipes shared below. Thank you Shari & Lisa for cooking and bringing the cake and cutlets!

We did run into some hiccups while getting this all together. For instance, because we live in an area with an overwhelmingly high population of Latter-day Saints, we had a difficult time finding matzos and matzo meal. We found some matzo meal at Macey's, but realized after purchasing it that it was "not for Passover use" because it had not been processed appropriately for Passover. We ended up making our own matzo bread to use with our Seder and in the Matzo Chicken Pie recipe because we did not find any at the stores we went to. In the end, our matzo-stuff was not Passover-kosher according to the Jewish traditions, but we figured it was the best we could do, all things considered.

We started our meal with a Seder plate, discussing the symbolism of each item as we ate.

Seder plate

•  "Karpas" symbolizes new growth of spring = parsley (this is dipped into salt water/vinegar, which represents the tears shed by the enslaved Israelites)
• "Maror" symbolizes intense bitterness of slavery = horseradish (we dipped our matzo in horseradish sauce)
• "Charoset" represents the mortar the slaves prepared for the building of the pharoahs’ cities and pyramids = 1 lb apples, diced ; 1 1/4 c walnut halves, chopped ; 3/4 Tbsp ground cinnamon ; 3-5 Tbsp light grape juice
• "Zeroah" represents the Paschal lamb sacrificed at the temple, which represents the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ = roasted lamb (we put ours in the oven with parsley, onions, and lemon juice at 400°F for 15 minutes and then turned it down to about 350°F for about 35 minutes)
• "Baytzah" symbolizes mourning for the temple; also a symbol of a festival offering brought to the temple on Pesach = roasted egg

lamb, prior to roasting

Matzo bread
3 units flour to 1 unit water (3 cups flour to 1 cup water yields about 4 medium matzos)

1. Combine flour and water. Mix and knead into a dense dough. 
2. Roll out to 1/8" thickness or so. Thicker will be more bready, thinner yields more cracker-like matzo. 
3. Poke lots of holes with a fork and bake in a hot oven (450°F or more, as hot as your oven gets without broiling) for a few minutes - until cooked through and possibly browning.

The dough is a little difficult to roll out

Lots of holes!

 Matzo Balls
4 eggs
1/2 c water
1/4 c oil
1 tsp salt
pepper
1 c matzo meal

1. Beat eggs. Add water, oil, salt, and pepper, and mix well. Add matzo meal and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.
2. In a large pot, bring some water to a boil. With moist hands, form small (1") balls from mixture and drop them into boiling water.
3. Simmer all matzo balls, covered, for about 30 minutes until done. Remove with a slotted spoon into a large bowl.
4. Serve in chicken soup. We served ours in chicken broth made from bouillon.

We got this recipe on the back of the Streit's Matzo Meal box - it was pretty similar to other recipes we'd seen.

matzo meal added to egg mixture

all mixed together

These expand a lot when cooking - these were just taken out of the boiling water

served in chicken broth

Mina de Pesah - Matzo Chicken Pie
vegetable oil for frying
2 c chopped onions
2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 1/2 c mushrooms
3 c cooked chicken (about 14 oz)
salt
pepper
1 c chopped parsley
5 eggs, lightly beaten
5 to 6 matzos
1 c chicken stock

1. Heat oil in large skillet. Sauté onions and garlic until soft and translucent. Add mushrooms and continue to cook until they are soft too. 
2. Let cool. Add chicken, salt, pepper, parsley, eggs.
3. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray baking dish with cooking spray.
4. Soak matzos in chicken stock until moist. I neglected to complete this step because I could not think of a way to soak them. I instead began layering them and poured some stock over each matzo, but this did not work that well. If I make this again I will place them on a cookie sheet and soak them therein.
5. Layer matzos and chicken-vegetable mixture like a lasagna: matzos, mixture, matzos, mixture, matzos. 
6. I also did not do this: pour 2 tsp oil over the top and bake for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with another bit of oil and bake for another 15 minutes. (The top matzo on mine was very, very dry... doing this might have remedied that problem).
7. Let cool 10 minutes, then serve.

Onions, garlic, mushrooms

Plus eggs, parsley, chicken

Layered using homemade matzos

Vegetable cutlets (side)
1 1/2 to 2 c minced red or yellow peppers or a mixture of both
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 c grated carrots (about 4 carrots)
1/2 lb raw spinach, cleaned, trimmed, chopped (2 tightly packed cups)
1 lb (3 medium) potatoes, boiled and mashed (2 c)
6 Tbsp grated raw onion (1 large)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tsp salt
pepper
1 c matzo meal
vegetable oil

1. sauté the peppers in the olive oil until soft
2. add all of the remaining ingredients except vegetable oil and let mixture stand for 30 minutes or overnight, refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before continuing
3. either fry or bake: 
1. fry by heating 1/4 inch of vegetable oil in large skillet. Form each patty with about 1/4 c of the mixture. Flatten slightly and fry in batches for about 6 minutes on one side, 3-4 minutes on the other side. Drain on paper towels.
2. bake by putting patties on lightly greased baking sheet and place in preheated 350°F oven for about 10 minutes; turn over and bake another 7 to 10 minutes
4. serve warm

These are yummy - not sure how to describe them, though.

Walnut cake (dessert)
9 eggs at room temperature, separated
1 c sugar
2 c walnuts, ground to a powder
2 Tbsp matzo cake meal (we used matzo meal and it worked fine)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

1. preheat oven to 350°F. Dust two 9x3-inch loaf pans with a little extra cake meal and set aside
2. with an electric mixer, beat egg yolks until pale in color. Beat in sugar 2 Tbsp at a time, beating well after each addition
3. combine nuts with matzo cake meal. Stir into yolks along with vanilla.
4. beat egg whites with salt until they are stiff but not dry. Fold them gently and carefully into the batter
5. turn the batter into the prepared pans and smooth the top. Bake 30-40 minutes, or until cake shrinks away from side of pans and cake tester comes out clean. Let cool on rack.

This cake was surprisingly light and sweet - do not be afraid if/when the cake caves in.

 oxox

Biscuits from scratch

 We received some sausage gravy mixes for Christmas last year, and decided to try them out. What better way than with biscuits? This is a recipe I found online recently here that turned out pretty well for us.

Biscuits
2 c flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp shortening (or just 4 Tbsp of one or the other)
1 c buttermilk, chilled (or 1 c milk with 1 Tbsp lemon juice)

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add cool butter and shortening. Mix in with a fork or with your fingers (taking care not to melt the fats) until it reaches a consistency like peas or looks like crumbs.
4. Add buttermilk. Mix. It will be VERY sticky.
5. Pour out onto a well-floured surface and cover dough with flour. Knead around, folding dough in on itself a few times. 
6. Spread out until about 1" thick. Cut circles from dough. I used a 3" cup to do so.
7. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. Biscuits will turn a golden brown color and should rise a bit.

"French" bread

Thomas pointed out that this bread is not really French bread when I made it recently, because it does not get stale as quickly. Well, I do not mind that fact!

I do not know who to credit with this recipe, but I believe my mother came upon it at church several years ago. It comes out soft and is great for sandwiches or as an addition to a meal.

"French" bread (makes 2 loaves)
2 Tbsp yeast
1/2 cup warm water
3 Tbsp sugar

2 cups hot water
1 Tbsp salt
5 Tbsp oil
3 cups flour + 3 cups flour (you will need 6 cups total)

1. Dissolve yeast using yeast, warm water, and sugar. You don't want your water to be hot, or it will kill the yeast. You will know that (a) your yeast is active and (b) your water was the right temperature if, after a few minutes, this concoction is foaming/bubbling and begins to grow in its container (make sure it does not overflow!).
2. Combine hot water, salt, oil, and 3 cups flour and mix.
3. Add yeast mixture, mix.
4. Add remaining 3 cups flour, mix.
5. Let dough rest 5-10 minutes.
6. Knead for 30 seconds. Repeat the rest/knead process 5 times. If dough gets too sticky, add flour.
7. Preheat oven to 375°F.
8. Split dough in half. Roll dough into two large rectangles. Roll each into a loaf shape, pinching seam together underneath. 
9. Place on greased cookie sheets (probably best to put each loaf onto its own cookie sheet).
10. Score each loaf (take a knife and make 3 shallow diagonal slashes along the length of each loaf).
11. Let rise 20 minutes. 
12. Bake 25-30 minutes. Brush with butter while warm.

The foamy yeast is on the left.