Soft Pretzels/Salzbrezeln

So the kids helped me make these soft pretzels. As you can tell we did not get them thin enough so they aren't the typical size of soft pretzels. Next time I think I'll make these when the kids are asleep or off on an adventure with their father or I'll make them into pretzels sticks. However I must say these were so pretty good tasting pretzels. So much better than the rubbery kind you buy in the freezer section. They were chewy and light. I think I'm going to try to make these into a brown and serve pretzel so I can freeze them. We waited, it seemed, all day for these pretzels and if I can freeze them as a brown and serve I think we would use this quite often.

2 tsp dry yeast

1 1/4 cups (300ml) water

3 1/2 cups (500 g) unbleached flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

egg glaze, made from 1 egg and 1 tsp water

toppings of your choice

1. Sprinkle the yeast into 1/2 cup (125 ml) water in a bowl. Leave for 5 minutes; stir to dissolve. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the dissolved yeast.

2. Use a wooden spoon to draw enough of the flour into the dissolved yeast to form a soft paste. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let "sponge" until frothy and risen , about 20 minutes.

3. Mix in the flour. Stir in the remaining water, as needed, to form a stiff, sticky dough.

4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.

5. Put the dough in a bowl and cover with a dish towl. Let rise until doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Punch down, then let rest for 10 minutes.

6. Divide the dough into eight pieces. Shape each piece into a round roll and then into an oval. Roll each oval backward and forward with your fingers, along the dough, until it forms a strip about 16 inches long and is 1 inch thick in the middle and 1/4 inch thick at each end.

7. Pick up the two ends of each strip to make a loop. Cross the ends over twice and then press them down on either side of the dough loop; repeat these actions with each strip of dough. Place the pretzels on a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with a dish towel. Proof until each piece has doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

8. Brush the egg glaze over each pretzel and sprinkle with the topping of your choice. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Crispy Chicken Salad

Not a recipe that you can really follow as I just threw stuff together but here was our dinner tonight. I used a mix of spinach, red/green lettuce, and mizuna from the CSA package. I also used the radishes from the CSA. I threw in a cucumber and mushrooms to round out the vegetables. I still had some of the cheap breaded chicken tenders so I cooked those up and chopped them up on the salad. And as the finishing touch I made ranch salad dressing. Although two kids wouldn't touch the salad, Zachary ate half of my salad.

http://norahsrecipes.blogspot.com/2007/07/ranch-dressing.html

East Farms CSA 6/24

Another week and another box of greens. We received spinach, arugula, radishes, mizuna, red and green lettuce, and what I believe to be bok choy. If someone knows for sure the item in question is please let me know

Savory Garlic marinated steaks

This marinade was pretty tasty. I have to admit I was a little concerned about some of the ingredient but it was good. I could also see using this marinade for chicken and pork. The steaks were quite tender. Much better marinade than any I've bought in the store. I did not use the rib eye steaks called for in the recipe. Instead I used sirloin steaks and it worked well.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Savory-Garlic-Marinated-Steaks/Detail.aspx?prop31=1

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring
1 pinch cayenne pepper
2 (1/2 pound) rib-eye steaks

In a medium bowl, mix the vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, honey, olive oil, ground black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, salt, liquid smoke, and cayenne pepper.
Place steaks in a shallow glass dish with the marinade, and turn to coat. For optimum flavor, rub the liquid into the meat. Cover, and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days.
Preheat grill for medium-high to high heat.
Lightly oil the grill grate. Grill steaks 7 minutes per side, or to desired doneness. Discard leftover marinade.

Sauteed Tat Soi

I have to say I wasn't too impressed with this dish. It tasted blah to me. Maybe I should have added more crushed red pepper flakes or garlic or salt. Even dh didn't like this but then I really don't think he's a fan of trying something new. The only one in the family who liked this was Nathan, which really says alot since he is the pickest of all the kids. I found this recipe on the web: http://alexandracooks.blogspot.com/2008/03/tat-soi-sun-post-news.html

Serves 2 as a side dish

5 bundles of tat soi (there are three tat soi to a bundle)

1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

crushed red pepper flakes to taste

kosher salt to taste

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

2. Unwrap the bundles and place in a large bowl of cold water. This will allow the dirt to fall to the bottom.

3. Place the olive oil and garlic in a large nonstick saute pan. Turn heat to medium. When garlic begins to sizzle turn heat to low and let cook, watching closely so the garlic does not brown. After 2 to 3 minutes add the crushed pepper flakes and turn of heat.

4. When the water boils add tat soi. Let cook 10 to 30 seconds max. Drain and rinse with cold water.

5. Turn the heat under the frying pan to medium. when the garlic and pepper flakes begin to sizzle add the tat soi. Season with kosher salt to taste. Shake the pan or use tongs to coat the tat soi in the garlic oil mixture. Serve immediately.

Grilled Chicken Salad

Before posting this recipe I should state that I just made this up as I went yesterday. I wanted to use some of the greens I received in my CSA share yesterday so there is no exact measurements on the greens. This salad turned out pretty tasty. In fact the kids even ate their salad.

I used for the salad:

the red and green lettuce from the CSA along with some of the mizuna

radishes

tomatoes

I also made the vinaigerette from a previous post:

http://norahsrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/04/salad-verte-with-vinaigrette.html

Then I grilled the chicken on the grill with montreal seasoning. Really you could use whatever spices you like but I was in a hurry so I reached for the first thing I saw in the cupboard.

I topped the salad with freshly grated Romano cheese.

Simple and a tasty salad.

6/17 East Farms CSA half share

Today was the first CSA pick-up of the year. This is my first year with East as last year I went with Borski Farms. This year I am doing both. With it being early in the season today's pick-up was mainly greens. I'm posting pictures of all the food I picked up today.

Included are:

red and green lettuce

Tat soy

Mizuna

Arugula

radishes

I'd say there was at least 2 lbs each of each of the greens and probably about 2 bunches of radishes.

http://www.eastfarms.net/about.htm

Three bean salad

I am so not a fan of three bean salad that is served out of the can or on a salad bar. It just grosses me out to even think of eating the salad. However dh is a huge fan of three bean salad and would probably eat it everyday if my stomach could handle it. So for Father's Day I made him a three bean salad. I actually ate this and it did taste good. Very simple to make and yet the flavors were quite tasty together. I found this recipe here:

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001911three_bean_salad.php

1 15-oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 15-oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 15-oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

2 celery stalks, chopped fine

1/2 red onion, chopped fine

1 cup fresh, finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 Tbsp fresh finely chopped rosemary
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 In a large bowl, mix the beans, celery, onion, parsley and rosemary.
2 In a separate small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, sugar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Add the dressing to the beans. Toss to coat.
3 Chill beans in the refrigerator for several hours, to allow the beans to soak up the flavor of the dressing.
Serves 4 to 8.

Texas Roadhouse Rolls

Never eaten at this place but I noticed these rolls on a friends blog and gave them a try. They were quite tasty and enjoyed by everyone in the house. Even the dogs were fighting over them. I did make a mistake in making them though. In my haste to finish and do things with the family I left the salt out. This did not cause problems with the rising but I did have to cook them awhile longer to get them brown and they did taste slightly blah. The salt is a needed ingredient. Overall they were enjoyed and will be made again. I found this recipe at Sherri's blog, http://kaysvillemomma.blogspot.com/2008/06/things-i-love-at-texas-roadhouse.html

TEXAS ROAD HOUSE SWEET YEAST ROLLS - From the trainer for all the bakers of the Texas Roadhouse chain (so they say)

1/2 sol. oz. cake of yeast or 1 pkg. active dry yeast (next time I think I will use 1 1/2 packets)

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups milk- scalded and cooled to lukewarm

3 tablespoons of melted butter - cooled

1/2 cup sugar

2 quart all purpose flour

--2 whole eggs

2 tsp. salt

Soften yeast in warm water with a teaspoon of sugar.

Add yeast, milk, sugar and enough flour to make a medium batter. Beat thoroughly. Let stand until light and foamy.

Add melted butter, eggs and salt. Beat well. Add enough flour to form soft dough. Sprinkle small amount of flour on counter and let dough rest.

Meanwhile, clean and dry bowl; grease clean surface of bow. Knead dough until smooth and satiny. Put in greased bowl; turn over to grease top. Cover; let rise in warm place until double in bulk.

Punch down. Turn out on floured board. Divide into portions for shaping; let rest 10 minutes.

Shape dough into desired forms. Place on greased baking sheets. Let rise until doubled.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes (until golden brown). Baste immediately with butter

Yield: 5 to 6 dozen (depending on the size - I made mine kind of big and got about 3 dozen)

Honey Glazed Chicken

Another great recipe from My Kitchen Cafe, http://mykitchencafe.blogspot.com/2007/12/honey-glazed-chicken.html

I did change a few things on the recipe though. First instead of making and breading the chicken I used some prebreaded chicken tenders that have been sitting in the freezer, normally I don't buy the prebreaded stuff but this was not precooked and it was 24 cents for a 10 pound bag box because they mismarked it. Second thing I used orange juice instead of lemon juice. Third I added garlic and red pepper flakes. Fourth I doubled the sauce for basting and then made another batch of sauce for serving over the cooked chicken.

The chicken became nice and glazed. The flavor was so intense. It tasted like the sticky orange chicken I love. I can only imagine how good this would have been following the breading recipe for the chicken.

Overall it turned out great and will be used quite often in this house. Nathan refused to eat it because it smelled funny. Zachary wouldn't touch it at first because Nathan refused it but after a promise of ice cream he ate one piece and then begged for about 5 more pieces. Noah didn't try it but I served it with rice so I knew he would only eat the rice. All the adults loved it.

2 lbs of diced uncooked chicken breast

1/3 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

4 TB butter

1/4 cup honey

3 TB lemon juice

2 TB soy sauce

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

Heat oven to 350. In a shallow dish combine the flower and seasonings. Dip each piece of chicken in flour mixture and coat evenly.

Melt 2 TB butter in a shallow baking dish, large enough to accommodate chicken in a single layer. Arrange chicken in pan and bake uncovered for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt remaining butter and add honey, lemon juice, soy sauce and ginger.

After chicken has baked the 30 minutes, turn each piece over and pour sauce mixture evenly over chicken. Bake another 30 to 40 minutes basting frequently.

Serve over rice. I usually double the sauce ingredients to make more to serve over the rice.