Friday, March 27, 2009

Curry Bread

Ok, as I posted in my answers to this week's Take 5, I'm on a bread machine kick right now. I've tried a couple of recipes that were real flops, but today I've got a curry bread baked up that smells pretty darn good. I'll wait until my taster (Mike) comes home from work to report back on the results, but thought I'd post the recipe in advance anyway. This bread has coconut and peanuts in it along with curry powder. I'm thinking it might make really good PB&B sandwiches (peanut butter and banana) or be good with some kind of tropical chicken salad on it. Anyway, I'll report back after Mike tries it and let you know what he thinks :) Meanwhile, here's the recipe:


* Exported from MasterCook *

Curry Bread (1 1/2-Pound Recipe)

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 16 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Bread

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 cup water
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup flaked coconut
1/3 cup coarsely chopped roasted peanuts
3 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons Fleischmann's® Bread Machine Yeast

Add ingredients to bread machine pan in order suggested by manufacturer, adding coconut and peanuts with flour.

Recommended cycle: Basic/white bread cycle; medium/normal color setting. Timed-bake feature can be used.

Source:
"Fleischmann's Yeast"
S(Internet address):
"http://www.breadworld.com/index.html"
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Tuesday's Take 5 Week 8

My Favorites - Tuesday's Take 5 - Week 8

1. What is your favorite food scene in a movie?
Hard choice! Food fight in Animal House? Escargot scene in Pretty Woman? Or maybe the spaghetti scene in Lady and the Tramp :)

2. What is your favorite breakfast food?
Probably coffee cake, especially my grandmother's version!

3. What is your favorite ethnic cuisine?
Another hard choice! I swing between German, Thai and Indian. Right now I'm on a German kick cooking jager schnitzel tonight and sauerbrauten this weekend...

4. What is your favorite thing to snack on?
Usually something salty like popcorn

5. What is your favorite kitchen gadget?
Probably my food processor, although I'm on a bread machine kick right now too

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A bit o' the green!

In honor of my grandmother who would always make us some green food for dinner when we were eating at her house when we were kids, I'm posting a few of my favorite "green" foods for your enjoyment. Below you will find the recipes for "Luck o' the Irish" salad, Pistachio Cake and her potato bread, which she would make into rolls and dye green for St. Pats (along with the mashed potatoes occasionally!) Enjoy!


* Exported from MasterCook *

Luck O' the Irish Salad

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 4
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 package lime gelatin powder -- 4 serving package
1/2 cup celery -- chopped fine
1 cup hot water
1/4 cup pecans -- chopped
3 ounces cream cheese -- softened
8 ounces Cool Whip® -- thawed
2/3 cup crushed pineapple -- with juice

Dissolve the lime gelatin in the hot water. Add softened cream cheese and beat a medium speed with a hand-held mixer until well blended. Chill to soft-set consistency, then add crushed pineapple, celery and chopped nuts. Fold in Cool Whip. Pour into a 3 cup mold or other container and refrigerate to set. Serve cold.


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* Exported from MasterCook *

Pistachio Cake

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 12 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 package white cake mix
3 eggs
1 package instant pistachio pudding mix -- 4 serving size
1 cup 7-up®
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped nuts -- pistachios or walnuts
***Frosting***
1 package instant pistachio pudding mix -- 4 serving size
16 ounces Cool Whip® -- thawed
1/4 cup milk -- if needed to thin icing

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9x12" pan (can also use a bundt pan) and flour with a small amount of cake mix or plain flour. Mix cake ingredients and pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 40 min. or until lightly golden and springs back when touched. Cool for 10 minutes in pan and then put on wire rack to finish cooling. When cool, mix frosting ingredients together, using milk if needed to thin. Frost and garnish with extra chopped pistachios if desired. Keep refrigerated until serving. Freezes well.

Description:
"Very refreshing"
Yield:
"12 pieces"
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* Exported from MasterCook *

Old Fashioned Potato Bread

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 package instant mashed potato flakes -- 2 servings
1 tablespoon salt
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup butter
2 cups Warm water (105-115)
7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour -- sifted and divided
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter -- melted

Make 2 servings of potatoes, minus butter and seasonings. Measure one cup of potatoes. In large bowl, sprinkle yeast over water; stir until dissolved. Stir in sugar and salt until dissolved. Add 1 cup potatoes, 1/2 cup butter, 3 1/2 cups flour. With electric mixer at medium speed, beat until smooth - 2 minutes. Gradually add 4 cups flour, mixing with hands until smooth and stiff enough to leave bowl. Add remaining 1/4 cup flour if needed. Turn onto lightly floured board. Knead until smooth and elastic (small blisters will appear on the surface) 10 minutes. Place in greased large bowl; turn over. Cover with towel and let rise in warm place (85) until double - 1 hr. Turn out dough onto lightly floured pastry cloth or board. Divide in half. Roll out one half into a 16 by 8 in rectangle and roll from one end. Press ends even, pinch to seal, and tuck under loaf. Place, seam side down, in greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Brush surface lightly with some of the melted butter. Repeat with the other half of dough. Let loaves rise in warm place, until tops are rounded - 1 hr. Set oven rack at lowest level. Preheat oven to 400. Bake 30-40 minutes, or until deep golden brown and cover with brown paper. Turn out onto wire racks, brush tops with remaining butter. Cool. Makes 2 loaves.

From Betty Wood Calvert

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NOTES : Can be made into potato rolls easily. Just pinch off a lump of the finished dough about the size of a walnut. Take three such dough balls and place them together in a regular-sized muffin cup and allow to rise as with loaves. When risen, bake until golden brown as directed, usually 20-25 minutes.

Tuesday Take 5 Week 7 Answers

St. Patrick's Day Tuesday Take 5 Week 7

1. have you ever made some thing a certain color for a holiday (i.e. green cookies for st. patrick's day)? Yes, sure. Especially when we were cooking for church fellowship meals
2. what is your favorite green food? Asparagus! Love it!
3. what is your favorite irish dish to make?Colcannon and Barmbrack, just not necessarily together. Also like reubens, but I guess corned beef isn't actually irish...
4. what is one irish dish that you have always wanted to try?Dublin Lawyer sounds good to me!
5. have you ever had green beer?Nope. Don't like beer...I've had several green drinks though

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Take 5 Tuesdays Week #6

Take 5 Tuesdays Week 6
1. What was the last meal you ate out? Lunch at the Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls on Friday for lunch on our way to Grand Prairie.
2. If your partner or friends could take you to any restaurant you wanted (their treat), which one would it be? Bohanan's Steakhouse in downtown San Antonio
3. Buffet, take-out or sit-down restaurant? Prefer sit-down most of the time, but occasionally the noise and crowds are too much and then take-out
4. What restaurant do you eat at the most? Sarika's Thai Cafe in Boerne
5. What type of restaurant is missing from your current town? German! We're a town with a German name and a German heritage and no German restaurants! Would also love to have some Indian and a good Italian place...

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Dinner tip of the day - Meatloaf Muffins!

Ok, so today's tip for those who are interested, is meatloaf muffins... We started doing this when we were cooking for a large group at our church on Wednesday nights. It allows the meatloaf to cook quicker and is much easier to serve. Just make your favorite meatloaf recipe but instead of making a loaf out of it, form extra-large meatballs and bake them in a muffin tin. This is also very helpful when, like us, you have several toppings you like. You don't have to choose! Just top the meatloaf muffins differently. So, in the photos, you'll see first the "unadorned" meatloaves in the tin, then the "adorned" version with my ketchup and mustard toppings. This works really well for left overs as well. Freeze them and just take out one or two for an individual meal or several for the family. And slices are perfect for a hamburger bun for a meatloaf sandwich! Hope this idea is helpful to some of you out there!


Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Take 5 Tuesday Week #5

1. what 3 ingredients couldn't you live without? salt, butter, sugar
2. what food reminds you of your childhood? quiche, it was the first dish I cooked all by myself
3. what was your last cooking disasters? a cake I was making to decorate that just fell apart when I tried to work with it
4. what makes you a foodie? I'm interested in where my food comes from, how it's prepared and ways to make it taste better
5. what is the last meal you cooked? sloppy bbq joes with steamed vegetables

Take 5 Tuesdays Week #4 (catch-up)

1. what are you currently trying to learn/master with your cooking? bread
2. where do you go for ideas for new recipes (cooking shows, cookbooks/magazines, experiment in the kitchen)? I'd say a combination of all of those plus my recipe program, MasterCook, where I collect recipes
3. what is one thing that you make, but you don't eat? rhubarb pie, hubby like it, I don't
4. what is your biggest guilty pleasure with food? definitely chocolate, the darker the better
5. what is one thing that you mom (or who ever taught you to cook) can make better than you? chicken paprikash!

Take 5 Tuesday - Week #3 (catch-up)

1. what surprises you most about your cooking? how I go through spurts of ingredient use, sometimes I get on a kick for one ingredient and work with it a bunch or perhaps a technique that I'm loving, such as bread making
2. what is the one thing that you have mastered cooking (that you could not cook when you started)? cakes
3. who was your biggest inspiration to start cooking? my grandmother
4. what is your favorite thing to make? anything sweet, especially chocolate
5. what is one recipe that you are known for? my chicken salad

Take 5 Tuesday Week #2 (catch-up)

1. what is one food that you refuse to try? guinea pig!
2. what is the one food that you like to eat, but won't make? sushi (but willing to try making it, just haven't yet...)
3. what is the farthest you've traveled for a meal? 45 miles
4. what is the most creative/exotic meal you've ever made? Thai food
5. what is scariest (i.e. hole in the wall) place you've eaten at? a little place over the border in Nuevo Laredo

Take 5 Tuesdays - Week 1 (catch-up)

1. what is your favorite food/cooking website? Over all, http://Foodtv.com but current fav is http://crockpot365.blogspot.com
2. do you prefer to watch cooking shows or read cooking magazines? depends on my mood. I like both, but more often watch than read.
3. are you more adventuresome in what you cook or in what you eat? eat. I tend to try things that are prepared for me before trying to prepare them myself.
4. what is one ingredient that you have always wanted to cook with, but never have? Foie Gras
5. what is the one thing that you can not cook without?salt! The universal spice

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