Pretty Girl Bakery

J was finishing up the move out his apartment on Sunday and was in need of dinner when he got to my apartment.  Sadly the first thing I offered to make was Kraft Mac & Cheese. I can’t believe that was my idea of giving the one I love some dinner!  So right before I went to the grocery store I noticed I had left over turkey meat from Thanksgiving and I needed to get some carrots & celery to make turkey stock so I thought I’d just whip up some noodle soup. I haven’t had time to make the turkey stock so I substituted in some canned chicken broth and the end result was probably the best soup I’ve ever eaten. J thought so too.

Homemade Turkey Noodle Soup:

4 cans chicken broth or 2 quarts Turkey stock

1/2 chopped onion

1 stalk celery

1/2 cup or so chopped carrots

2 cloves chopped garlic

kosher salt to taste

2 cups chopped cooked Turkey meat

8oz pasta (2oz pasta for every 15oz liquid)

On medium high heat add chicken broth to stock pot. Let this heat until it simmers, and reduce heat if it comes to a boil.  Next add the onion, celery, carrots, garlic and salt (about a pinch or two) and simmer for ten minutes or until vegetables are tender. Last add the turkey and pasta; cook until pasta reaches desired tenderness.

My next new thing is bread. I always sort of put my nose up when I heard someone talk about the bread they made.  I’m not talking about banana breads or orange cranberry breads. I’m talking about sandwich bread, baguettes, rolls. Because in the past no matter what I did my bread (I always tried to make standard white sandwich bread) tasted like the Pillsbury boxed pizza dough you make in home ec. Ew. Honestly. Then I found out about this. A few months ago I stumbled across Pete Bakes, and made his chocolate chip coffee cake which is honestly divinity in an 8×8 glass dish.  I continued to follow what Pete baked and a couple weeks back he presented this gorgeous deli rye bread. And I thought, wow this guy is just on the ball with baking because I could never do that. I was wrong. Dead. wrong. Zoe Francois has a website where she makes tons of delicious things, not just bread.  However I’d been eying up her website and the book and then when she posted on how to make bagels I couldn’t stand it anymore and ordered the book.  This is after I swore to myself that the cookbook buying binge from the month before was it for awhile.  I could not wait. It arrived right before Thanksgiving and I was about to dive in until I hit some stumbling blocks in regards to a pizza stone.  I was going to use unglazed quarry tile (as recommended by Pete here) but when I went to my local Home Depot, they didn’t have it. So I eventually made it to Target and found a cheap pizza stone.  Next I needed a bucket  so I went back to Home Depot and bought a standard five gallon bucket with lid and punched some holes in the top. Perfection for $5 USD. On Sunday I finally (!!!!) got around to making the bread now that I had secured my bucket. She’s not kidding when she says “in five minutes a day.” It took me longer to measure out the ingredients and get water to the right temperature than to have the old Kitchenaid mix it together.

Here’s a picture of the dough at the 2 hour mark once I put it in the bucket to rise:

And here’s a picture of where the dough level was in the bucket at that point.  Keep in mind that the bucket was probably 1/5 full when the dough was first made and it’s a five gallon bucket:

So on Sunday while I was getting the turkey soup together I through my first loaf in the oven along with a mini loaf for J to have with his soup.

And a profile view:

RESULTS:

This was beyond anything I ever thought I’d make bread-wise. Absolutely positively fantastic fantastic fantastic. In fact I am a complete store bought bread snubber. I cut two slices for a sandwich at work on Monday, and then Monday night J and I accidentally finished off the loaf and it was too late to make more. So when Tuesday morning came and I had no sandwich bread J reminded me that the end of the Nature’s Own whole wheat was left I looked at him and said, “As if I’m even going to eat that crap!” Want to know the icing on the cake? This bread tastes EXACTLY like the loaves of bread we would get when I was growing up at the local Italian bakery (you can still get it but I’m only home a handful of times per year).  This loaf tastes brick oven baked and I did it all in my little old gas oven. I’m stoked to go home for Christmas and  make this.  No one in my family is going to expect this.  And it makes me happy that we don’t have to wait for a Thursday or a Saturday to snap up some fresh loaves and hope the bakery didn’t run out.

Now I leave you with a picture of J’s dinner I made on Sunday with the accompanying roll:

I’ll post my TWD tomorrow.  I know that’s against the rules but the past four weeks have been insane with a very big change coming in J’s life especially, and mine too.  But that’s another post for another time. Now I’m off to have a little fresh bread with butter and olive oil snack with J before bed. This bread book is the end of any waistline I might have ever had.

I’ve not written about myself and so here is where I inform you that I’m trying to lose weight. I’ve probably been trying at various points since I was sixteen, although perhaps this time around is the most educated, informed, mature go at it. I’m out of that fad-dieting and into trying to create a lifestyle that promotes a healthy, happy body and mind. What does this have anything to do with anything? Well if I had my way I’d certainly bake once, if not twice per week.  And then I’d do perhaps my more favorite part of baking which is eating what I create.  In the last few months I’ve hired a trainer and highly reduced the output of things from the oven or stovetop. Now that’s what I call a necessary evil! But the next few weeks I hope that more things might happen in the kitchen. Last night however I strayed from cooking healthy.  I went for one of my childhood favorites that we use to eat quite a bit while I was growing up during the colder months… macaroni and cheese. I think I was about 17 the first time I ever had a kraft dinner.  And my mom’s style of mac and cheese didn’t mean heating the milk and melting the cheese.  The pasta get boiled and then everything else is baked. I don’t have a picture of last night’s dinner, but I assure you that you’ll know it’s done when it’s done. Also I’d like to mention here that this is all approximate.  I’ve made this recipe so many times that the quantities are just a guess and a feel for how many people you are feeding and how cheesy you want it to be.

Feeds approx 4-6 people.

8-10oz elbow macaroni, or other pasta of choice

10-12oz fresh * extra sharp cheese, grated

1/4c breadcrumbs

2 pinches of kosher salt

milk

1tbs butter

8×8 pan

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray an 8×8 baking dish with pam spray.  Boil the pasta until al dente, approx. 2 minutes less time than the box calls for. Drain well.  Cover the bottom of the baking dish with milk, just until you can see through the milk anymore (about 1/8 to 1/4 cup). Lay down half of the pasta. Cover with half of the shredded cheese and sprinkler with one pinch of salt. Cover with half of the breadcrumbs. Layer the last of the pasta, sprinkle cheese, cover with breadcrumbs first, then sprinkle with kosher salt. Cut the butter into thin slivers and place over the top.  Bake for 30-40 or until the top is browned.  If you are using a darker pan check it after the first 25 minutes and keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn which will happen quick.  Let sit for  10 minutes.  Serve.

*If you are using preshredded cheese from a package, don’t drain the noodles as well as if using fresh cheese.  Grated cheese is a little dry and can use the moisture.  Fresh is certainly best.

UPCOMING EVENTS

A certain handsome boy’s mom is coming into town this weekend and I want to try my hand at Dorie’s creme brulee since I was not apart of TWD quite yet and I can’t say that I really like almonds or biscotti.

The November issue of Bon Appetit is great.  I’m such a fussy eater that I don’t make most things I see but they have this wonderful collection of pumpkin desserts, a yukon gold/sweet potato gratin, turkey rubs. But the pumpkin is what I am interested in most.  So look forward to lots of post-Thanksgiving meal ideas to come if you don’t get the mag.