Blog Identity...for my hubby

As the most important person in my life, and someone who shows up most often in the blog, my husband has officially earned the right for his very own blog-identity.

I tried asking him what he thought would be fitting...

Some people think he resembles Dennis Pedroa, so I pitched this one his way only to have it slugged back with a bit fat no.

Green Mountain Boy seemed fitting for professional reasons...not to mention I kind of like that he is a Green Mountain Boy, cause my hockey team is the Green Mountain Girls! Still he is not interested.

He then threw out the idea of being called Brooks. Where he came up with that one who knows...and this time it was my turn to say sorry no, we need imagination, creativity, pizzazz, etc.

Some ideas I may still try...

Ben & Jerry, since he is one of their biggest consumers, critics and flavor idea contributors.

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OR how about Chubby Hubby, it's his favorite Ben & Jerry pint afterall?!?! [By the way, there is nothing chubby about my hubby!] Probably not the best option, cause I'd come off as a mean name caller.

Tom Colicchio would be nice. Chef, Restaurateur, and Top Chef Judge makes him one of those folks I'd love to meet. Not to mention they share a similar fashion sense when it comes to hairstyle.

Good Eats is a possibility, it's his favorite food show to watch. But this may have the potential to get a little confusing.

A well-suited blog-ID for him is imperative, as it will also need to create a catchy name for his food rating scale.

Ideas?!?!

Chocolate Croissants

Who doesn't love a good croissant?

Buttery, flaky...just scrumptious!

My husband's most favorite thing for breakfast is a good chocolate croissant. Armed with my new cookbook Baking by James Peterson, I scored off the charts on the hubby's food scale with this one!

Getting things started with some yeast.


This dough has the most unbelievable texture...it's sooo soft and supple.

This is truly a first.

Lay a butter sheet on half the dough, fold...

Roll, then fold in thirds (like a letter) and roll again.

After a couple times the dough gets a rest in the fridge to cool the butter.

Roll and fold, roll and fold.

Look at those layers!

Dough, butter, dough, butter, etc.

Filled with lots of chocolate and having a final rest before they head to the oven.

Homemade Chocolate Croissants!

We actually ate and gave away the best looking ones before I took a picture (my bad).

The hubby LOVED them...and our awesome neighbor, who happened to show his awesomeness again that particular day by clearing the driveway, also relayed their goodness!

The one pictured here is from the tray I accidentally set on a warm baking stone just before going to the oven. The butter layers began melting into one another...oops! Not a great idea, cause it produced a bread-like inner texture rather than flaky pastry goodness.

This is a must do again!

Not to mention, if you've never tried making this flaky dough from scratch...do it! The process and end result are well worth, I promise!!

What if...

What if.......food could save your job?


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In the spirit of layoffs and the corporate belt tightening plaguing our nation, I have been pondering this very question for a couple days now.




Instigated by an email from one of my firm's Partners that said, in a nutshell - they had let someone go from one of our offices, but this was not the beginning of a round of layoffs.

I do believe him...for now. The last time we 'laid off' or rather let someone conveniently go was just about a year ago. Two people in the course of 13 months is not too bad by today's standards. However, being in a non-billable, overhead position keeps me a little nervous.

What if...you had the chance to create a single dish that would mean the difference between having a job or not? What would that dish be?

In this game there are no loopholes...the final judgement would simply be whether your bosses think the dish falls in the EXCELLENT category.

If the dish is good, you're gone.
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OK...well you're just toast.
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If EXCELLENT, then they would want to have it again, so will keep you around.

So I ask you my friends, if there is one dish you could make that has the power to persuade, convince or even beg for assurance of a continued livelihood, what would that dish be? If you stay at home, then let's say it would be your significant other's job at stake??

Now don't be looking at me for answers this early...I have NO IDEA! I am officially adding this What if... Challenge to the mix. Stay tuned and share your thoughts!

Trial #1 of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

The Bread Challenge ensues...

One of my first blog posts addressed my recent wonderment on the topic of homemade bread. The question at hand was whether or not the greatest thing since sliced bread was actually homemade bread (Sunday Therapy)?

The answer is YES! Since my initial Focaccia experiment in Sunday Therapy Part 1, Session 1, I have slowly expanded the types of breads attempted to include...

• Cheddar Jalapeno Bread
• Lavash Cracker Bread
• Seeded Challah
• Cheddar-Thyme Rolls

My groovy parents are the best Santas out there...among the overly generous bounty of gifts, were a few more cookbooks to fuel the blog and baking challenges:

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg MD and Zoe Francois

Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, The second book by Jeff & Zoe

Baking by James Peterson

At my husband's request I began with Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day.

In case you have not heard of these books, they are based on the notion that with only 5 minutes of active prep time a day you can make fresh bread. How does this work you ask? Well the authors provide a no-knead dough recipe that can be made in advance and stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. The idea is you just grab some of your pre-mixed dough from the icebox, shape, rise briefly and bake.

Now think about this...fresh bread in 5 minutes a day! SUPER Homemaker would be more like it. How could I resist the temptation to not only conquer my bread quest, but also be that person who can whip up a fresh loaf for last minute dinner parties!?!

OK, now let's slow down here...it is part of my expressive nature to get a little carried away at the onset of a new challenge/idea. In order to get a feel for things, I wanted to first try some of the actual recipes out.

The risen dough for Cheddar Bread from the book. There is enough here to make 4 x 1lb loaves!

An interesting side note - Author Zoe at one point mentions she grew up in the NEK (Northeast Kingdom) of VT. For this cheddar bread recipe she mentions she grew up near Shelburne Farms...since the two are no where near one another I'll have to assume either 1) she moved around the state quite a bit or 2) she's full of you know what and wrote that to endorse her book/recipe.

OK, now back to our regularly scheduled program...

Since I was planning to give these to friends that very day as gifts, I shaped up half the dough into two loaves and allowed them to rise again. The remaining dough went into the fridge (and is still there...test #2 of the book!).


Once time has passed, the surface is floured in preparation for...

Cutting!

Yup, Ms. Fancy Pants here is learning to make bread that is visually appealing as well as tasty!!

Experienced bread folks might say at this point: jeez, those look awful! In my own defense, I also received a super nice (and sharp) bread knife from my in-laws this year. It was soooo smooth slicing the dough that I accidentally cut a little too deep, which you'll see in the finished product.

Ready for the oven (btw all this bread is cooked on the baking/pizza stone)!

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While making the Cheddar Bread dough, I also made the one for French Boule. The Boule is the holy grail for the book and termed The Master Recipe. As the basic model for all breads in the book, I assume learning to make this comfortably will enable me to pursue other types.

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Not the prettiest looking loaves.

First time for everything right?!?!

Now, are you ready to see the finished products???

Cheddar Bread, Loaf 1 - Full Frontal

Loaf 1 - Ariel View

Loaf 1 - Side Profile

Loaf 2 - It's good side.

Loaf 2 - It's other good side.

Ahhh, the happy couple...of Cheddar Bread Loaves.

The WHOLE FAMILY of bread from the day.

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While not the best looking, the baguettes tasted wonderful. A of B&A mentioned she really liked their crust (this was my New Year's Eve Bread). I also took a loaf of each to JCx2's party that night as well. They too seemed to enjoy them and put some of each out with their cheese selections (it is possible they could have just been making a friendly gesture).

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My only comments on the Cheddar Bread are 1) not enough cheese, 2) it was a little denser then I had expected and 3) easy with the knife!

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For the baguettes, I need to work on forming the loaves and a more even cooking in our oven.

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Overall I was happy with the outcome and will continue to pursue the idea that I can have fresh bread in 5 minutes a day.
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Onto the next one!

Bread, not forgotten

A brief side trip back to November 2009...

Never making it to the blog was my second attempt at our oh-so loved Cheddar Jalapeno Bread.
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Since making it through the initial trial rather successfully, my husband and I put out heads together to improve upon the decent first loaf (MORE on The Bread Project). This time we wanted to get even closer to the stone-fired original we crave so much from summers at our family's summer camp.

The ingredients were pretty much the same, except we cubed/diced the cheese (rather than shredded) and added canned corn.

We topped the loaves with cheddar to improve upon the crust.

Also, we incidentally tried 1 loaf in a pan and allowed the other to go free form on our baking stone.

They looked great!

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The free-form loaf was almost spot on compared to the original we were trying to recreate!

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For the loaf version, the bread was more dense, and the side/bottom crusts left something to be desired, but the taste once again absolutely wonderful!!

To give credit where credit is due, my husband came up with the diced cheese and I was the one with the corn.

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We happily shared these with our family at our multi-dinner Thanksgiving!

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SOO psyched we found one to love...

cause we just gotta have our Cheddar Jalapeno Bread!

Christening of the Le Creuset

Guess what Little Ms. Homemaker got for Christmas this year from her wonderful, fabulous, and handsome husband....

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My very own LE CREUSET!!!!

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I have lusted for one of these for 3 years...and now my life is complete. I've got my very own Oval French Oven beauty!

The fact that I had finally received this unbelievable gift was a bit overwhelming. I couldn't just use it for any old recipe, it had to be special. Throughout the holiday season I experienced a series of events that led me to the perfect dish to christen my Le Creuset...

1. Family/friends reading the blog were almost always bring up the movie, Julie & Julia. Very predictably each would ask if it was the motivation to do the blog...which sorry, no (I hadn't even seen the movie yet!).
2. J&J finally came out on DVD, so I rented and watched.
3. Christmas morning = Le Creuset woohoo!

SOOO on the eve before this eventful day where I would christen my new treasure, I did finally use J&J (which friends B&A so kindly gifted us just days before) to inspire my recipe selection...can you guess what I decided to make?!?

Yup, that's right...the classic of classics.

A slow cooked, attention demanding, day long adventure

in creating my very first Boeuf Bourguignon!

It is the ABSOLUTE PERFECT RECIPE!!!!

Here we go...

We begin with blanching the bacon.

I have never heard of, or even seen this done before!

One recipe online stated this removes some of the saltiness.
Sounds reasonable to me, unless someone else has a better one?!?!


Not handy enough to have fresh homemade beef stock on hand, I had to buy some already made. I do not typically purchase the Rachael Ray stocks, figuring it's kind of a marketing gimmick and not worth the extra $0.30, but for this recipe I figured I'd honor Julia Child with a modern food star's mass produced product.

Rachael meet Julia.


The blanched bacon is laid to dry.

Boiler/pearl onions.

Blanching in beef stock.

Following their beef stock bath...

they are a tad brown in color and softened.

BEEF...

It's what's for dinner.

Another key to the beef, which is made obvious in the movie and Julia's recipe, is that the hardy chunks need to be dried or they will not brown properly.

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The bacon goes back into the pan with some oil.

The fat is rendered out...

the pieces crisped up and then placed into the Le Creuset.

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The beef is added in small batches to the oil/bacon fat mixture.

Each hunk browned.

The crispy bacon patiently waiting...

for the addition of the beef.

Looks so lovely in the new shiny Le Creuset, don't you think?!?!

Oops, dropped a piece for my little helper!

The chunks are coated with a sprinkle of four.

That's a lot of beefy yumminess right there!

One carrot and a single onion are browned and added to the mixture of meats.

Just patiently waiting for me to drop some more tasties for him to clean up :o)

Our seasonings...

which by the way I'll have you know,

I did fight the urge to up the amount of garlic -

a true display of self restraint here!

Thyme, crushed bay leaf, garlic and a bottle of wine are added.

Beef stock joins the party and then we're off to the oven!

As the magic in the oven begins, the mushrooms are prepared.

Mushrooms & butter, classic!

Here is where I believe my recent craving for mushrooms originated.

They were sooo unbelievably tasty!!

Blanched onions and buttery mushrooms join the party...

we're almost done!

Ok, I give you...

Boeuf Bourguignon!!

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I was not beat by this classic of classics!

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A truly fantabulous creation, which only got better as leftovers.
This dish happily recieved a 9+ on the hubby's opinion scale (Wow!).

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Completing this recipe was an incredible experience!!

Achieving the famous dish provided a level of accomplishment, which I have not yet felt in my cooking experience.

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To truly understand I urge you to give it a try...

you won't be disappointed!