Friday, April 16, 2010

Take Me to Bread or Lose Me Forever

Breads. French Bread, Sourdough, Multi-grain, Whole grain, Soda bread, Pita bread, Bagels, Baguettes, Naan, Rye, Boule, Foccacia, Ciabatta, Flatbread. There are literally thousands of types of Bread. Every culture has a Bread. Bread can be used as a utensil. It can be used to keep cookies soft. Hell, here's 7 uncommon uses for Bread right here . You can eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Bread is heavenly. I love Bread. If you know me, you know that if I had my pick of one last thing to stick in my mouth, it would be buttered Bread. Textured Breads are my favorite. If I nearly break my jaw chewing Bread, I'm in heaven. If I chip a tooth off some seed or grain in my Bread, don't send me to the Dentist, just give me a piece of Bread and I'll make a tooth mold from it. Notice that the word Bread is capitalized here. That's because Bread is so good. It deserves nothing less than capitalization!

My point is...Bread is awesome. And you should make your own, because besides eating Bread, there's nothing better than your entire house smelling like Bread. I suck at baking, but since I love Bread so much, I've decided to give it a go...for Bread's sake. And here are my new Bread babies:

Rosemary, Salt & Pepper Ciabatta Bread


And...

Multi-grain Whole Wheat Bread

Aren't they beautiful? I have already eaten both of them and they were delicious, and healthier than the Bread you buy in the grocery store, because you actually have free reign over what ingredients to use. If you want true whole grain Bread (not the crap that SAYS it's whole grain), you can make true whole grain Bread. If you'd rather have sesame seeds and flax seed than oatmeal and cracked wheat, by all means, add in whatever makes you happy!

I will probably look a little doughy in a bathing suit this year, but at least I'll smell like freshly baked BREAD!!

(The Multigrain recipe is adapted from America's Test Kitchen Recipe and the Ciabatta recipe was made after watching an episode of Anne Burrell's "Secret's of a Restaurant Chef", so if you want 'em - search for 'em and if you can't find them, I guess I will give them up if you ask nicely.)




Monday, April 12, 2010

Finally Mastered Scallops


Usually when I make scallops they turn out resembling the texture of a rubber eraser. You know, the pink kind that we all once chewed on in Elementary School. Don't act like you never put one of those in your mouth. But this time, they turned out perfectly! They could have been a little more browned, I know, but the texture was similar to the texture of scallops I pay $22 bucks a plate for at nice restaurants! Melt in your mouth delicate. And this meal was healthy! Asparagus, cherry tomatoes, garlic, shallot, a little lemon, a touch of butter, crushed red pepper, salt & black pepper and some chicken broth. All sauteed together in one pan. Don't be afraid of scallops. Even if they turn out bad the first couple of times, they still taste good. But when you finally master them you can invite people over and blow their minds with your expert scallop cooking techniques!

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