First Friday Food

Honey Wheat Bread

/ Shane / 1 Comment

The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

I set out on a mission to find a good, spongy, soft, 100% whole wheat bread. We only use white whole wheat flour, but a lot of the bread recipes we try end up very tough or dense. This was creating a bit of a problem, because bread from the store is increasingly disgusting (i.e. high fructose corn syrup flavored foam bricks with ingredients lists that are inexplicably longer than my arm), but I couldn’t find a good substitute. So I began trying various recipes until I finally found one that was everything I ever wanted, and more.

The Journey:

The reason this recipe is “the one” is because it has a lot of sugar in it. That’s both the good and the bad, but it is a necessary evil because it’s what makes the bread light and fluffy. That sugar is yeast food, and it makes the dough rise like crazy. In fact, with a little extra rising time, you can actually split the loaf in half and make two loaves for the price of one. Lately I have been experimenting with cutting out a tablespoon of brown sugar. So far I haven’t noticed a difference.

I make the bread on the dough cycle of our bread machine, but you could conceivably do it by hand. I’ve just found from experience that I don’t mix it it enough when I do it by hand. Besides, why even have a bread machine if you’re not going to use it? (And believe me, we get a lot of use out of ours)

After the bread has been mixing for awhile in the bread maker, I open it up and scrape down the sides with a spatula to make sure everything is mixing well, and also add a tiny bit of water if it seems necessarily. I like wet dough, because it tends to rise better. Basically, every bread recipe I’ve ever tried for whole wheat flour has required me to add water to it. I don’t know if people just consistently underestimate the amount of water they need, if the recipes are really for bread flour and whole wheat needs more water, or if there’s just something about my baking environment that requires more water. But anyway, feel free to play with the recipe if it’s not coming out quite right.

The Verdict:

For artisan breads I rely on Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day (perhaps there’ll be a post on that someday), but this recipe cannot be beat for a sandwich loaf. I don’t think it’s out of line to say this is the best whole wheat bread I have ever made. We don’t buy bread anymore, we only make it. In fact, I have even used this recipe to make some very excellent hamburger and even brat buns!

The Recipe:

The original recipe was from the Internet, but I can’t find it anymore.

  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • sprinkle of ginger (I sprinkle *very* liberally with the ginger, because I like ginger)
  • 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
  • 3 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 2 teaspoons yeast
  1. Mix in the dough cycle of the bread machine (or by hand if you want, but I get better results in the bread machine)
  2. Deflate the dough and put it in a greased loaf pan, or shape into buns
  3. Cover with a towel and let rise. If you’re in a hurry, let it rise on the oven while it preheats.
  4. Bake at 365 for 30 minutes

Whole Wheat Bacon-Fig Scones

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

Baconfest.

The Journey:

Okay, so I haven’t actually made this, which is a first for First Friday Food. So I can’t speak for how difficult it is to make, but I can speak for how awesome it is to eat!

The Verdict:

In a day of a lot of really good recipes, this one stood out to me as the best. The bacon really added something; it was neither extraneous nor overpowering. It is sweet, but not too sweet, and it goes perfect for breakfast. There wasn’t anybody who didn’t like this (even Evie!), in fact, I don’t think there was anybody who didn’t take seconds (or thirds, or in some cases fourths).

The Recipe:

Adapted from Smittenkitchen.com

Scones

  • 1 cup Whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup dried figs (rehydrated)
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup (10 slices) cooked bacon (apple wood smoked)
  • 3/4 cup whole milk ricotta
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream

Glaze

  • 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup

Scones:

  1. Cook bacon until crispy. Chop into small pieces.
  2. Prepare figs by chopping them into small pieces (roughly the same size as your bacon pieces). Place the pieces into the bottom of a medium bowl . Cover the fig pieces in boiling water and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Strain fig pieces.
  3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  4. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  5. In the bottom of a large bowl, whisk the flours, baking powder, sugar, and salt together.
  6. Cut the butter into small pieces with a knife and work the butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
  7. Toss in the figs and bacon and mix.
  8. Add the ricotta and heavy cream together and stir them in to form a dough with a flexible spatula. Using your hands, gently knead dough into and even mass at the bottom of the bowl.
  9. Transfer the dough to a slightly floured counter. Lightly flour the top of the dough and pat it into a circle (about 7 in. in diameter) about 1 inch thick. With a large knife, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Transfer the scones to the prepared baking sheet with a spatula.
  10. Bake the scones for 15 mins, until lightly golden at the edges. Cool in a pan for a minute then transfer to a wire rack. Allow them to cool about 5 minutes before glazing.

Maple glaze:

  1. Combine the maple syrup and brown sugar. Lightly brushed over the baked scones.

Scones are best the day they are baked. However, if you wish to get a lead on  them, you can make them, arrange them on the parchment-lined sheet and freeze them. If you are prepping just one day in advance, cover the tray with plastic wrap and bake them the day you need them. If you are prepping them more than one day in advance, once the scones are frozen, transfer the scones to a freezer bag or container. Bring them back to a parchment lined sheet when you are ready to bake them. Do not defrost, just throw the frozen scones in the oven and add 2-3 mins to the baking time.

Spinach Artichoke Lasagna

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The Reason:

Lasagna has long been one of my favorite meals, and something I often picked for my “birthday dinner” when I was a kid. As an adult, I learned that lasagna tastes pretty much the same with or without meat (actually, I learned that was true about a lot of recipes, such as chili, but I digress). This led me down a long road of veggie lasagna recipes, which ultimately diverged quite a bit from a traditional lasagna. And a good thing too, or else I probably never would have tried this recipe. Needless to say, Spinach Artichoke Lasagna is quite a bit different than traditional lasagna.

The Journey:

This is pretty straightforward to make. We buy frozen spinach and artichokes, so you don’t really have that much chopping to do. The hardest part is chopping the rosemary, because it’s so tiny. But it’s only a tablespoon, so I’ll guess we’ll all survive it. You don’t even have to boil the noodles! How easy can it get?


In the past, I’ve stuck strictly to the script on this one. However, I’m sure you could add other things as well, such as carrots or mushrooms, or whatever else you like in your veggie lasagna.

The Verdict:

This is the best veggie lasagna I’ve ever had. On the other hand, Evie doesn’t like the rosemary for some reason. She might just have lit on that as an excuse, but it does have rosemary in it, so I can’t say she’s wrong. I suppose there could be a (non-)hypothetical person out there who doesn’t like rosemary.

The artichokes in particular are what makes this for me. They provide both a texture and a sort of sour twang that really just set it off. I haven’t seen a lot of veggie lasagnas with artichokes in it, so I guess that is the secret ace in the hole here.

I’m also a big fan of throwing a little feta on things.

The Recipe:

Adapted from AllRecipes.com.

  • 1 package whole wheat lasagna noodles
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 3/4 cup vegetable broth
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
  • 1 bag (1 pound) frozen artichoke hearts (or 1 can), drained and chopped
  • 16 ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry
  • 1  jar marinara sauce (22 – 26 oz)
  • 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
  • 1/4 pound of  feta, crumbled
  • Italian spices (parsley, oregano) to taste
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Spray a 9×13 inch baking dish with oil.
  3. Do not boil the noodles! Even if they’re not “no-boil”, there is enough moisture that they will soften while baking.
  4. Saute onion until translucent. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute.
  5. Stir in broth and rosemary; bring to a boil.
  6. Stir in artichoke hearts and spinach; reduce heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes.
  7. Stir in pasta sauce.
  8. Spread 1/4 of the artichoke mixture in the bottom of the prepared baking dish; top with 1 layer of noodles. Sprinkle 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese over noodles. Repeat layers 2 more times, ending with artichoke mixture and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle crumbled feta on top.
  9. Bake, covered, for 40 minutes. Uncover, and bake 15 minutes more, or until hot and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Sweet Potato Tacos

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The Reason:

We had some ground turkey and we were looking for a recipe to use it up. It’s funny that this is the recipe we found because, although we did use up our ground turkey, this is clearly a sweet potato recipe, not a ground turkey recipe. (I guess technically the original recipe is a yam recipe, but we have only made it with sweet potatoes)

Anyway, this is sooo good, it might just turn you off regular tacos forever. Even if it doesn’t, it makes an excellent change of pace, and is a lot healthier than regular (ground beef) tacos to boot.

The Journey:

I know some of you will be tempted to leave out the jalapenos, but I assure you that it is not spicy, even with four jalapenos. “Yeah, but I don’t like spicy food,” you will say. “He likes spicy food, so he doesn’t understand how tender my palate is. I’m a delicate flower,” you will say. I know that there is nothing I could say to convince you poor folks, other than to physically trick you into eating it with four jalapenos and getting you to admit it wasn’t spicy before I reveal that fact. However, I can’t do that over the Internet, so you’ll have to take my word for it. Or not, I just realized, I really don’t care.

The thing you’ll notice about the filling is that it is orange. Very orange. Startlingly orange. Do not be startled, you’re doing it right.

The ground turkey is nice because it is so lean, but you can really use any kind of ground meat (i.e. beef). You’re mostly going to taste the sweet potatoes anyway.

Another thing I should mention here, is that all tortillas in our house are grilled over the open flame of the stove (we have a gas stove obviously). Just light the burner and set the tortilla directly on it. Flip it after about 10 seconds and do the other side for another 10 or so. It will seem like you are going to set the tortilla on fire. It will get little black burn marks on it. Do not be startled, you are doing it right. You can thank me later.

The Verdict:

Magically delicious.

The sweet potatoes make the filling sweet, which to me seems like it would be a bad thing, but it’s totally not.  (I do NOT like salty and sweet mixed together. It is almost pathological with me.) Also, the texture is a lot softer than ground beef, and it kind of mashes up around all of your toppings keeping everything in better.

The Recipe:

Adapted from AllRecipes.com

  • 3 sweet potatoes peeled and diced
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • 1 medium-large chopped sweet onion
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4 jalapeno peppers, minced (you can reduce this to 2 if you are nervous about the heat, but it’s really not very spicy!)
  • 2 tablespoon chili powder
  • 2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup tomatillo salsa
  • 1/2-1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • warm flour tortillas
  1. Put the diced sweet potato in a microwave-safe bowl; cook in the microwave until cooked through and fork-tender, stirring every 5 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes.
  2. Coat the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil and place over medium heat;
  3. Cook and stir the turkey until crumbled and evenly brown, 5 to 7 minutes.
  4. Stir the onion, garlic, and jalapeno pepper into the turkey and continue cooking until the onions begin to caramelize, 7 to 10 minutes.
  5. Season with the chili powder, cumin, Cajun seasoning, and salt.
  6. Mash the sweet potatoes with a potato masher
  7. Pour the salsa over everything; fold the sweet potatoes into the mixture.
  8. Allow the mixture to cook until the excess moisture evaporates.
  9. Garnish with the cilantro.
  10. Heat your tortillas in the microwave if you’re a barbarian, or on the stove if you’re fancy pants like me.
  11. Serve with the warm tortillas and whatever else you put on tacos. I recommend fresh salsa (pico de gallo).

Cowboy Candy (A.K.A. Candied Jalapenos)

/ Shane / 1 Comment

The Reason:

Well, the main reason is that we had a lot of extra jalapenos from our garden last year, and we had to find something to do with them. We stumbled on this recipe and it sounded just weird enough to try.

The Journey:

They’re not too difficult to make, at least, not compared to other things you might can (in other words, the canning is the hard part, and that’s the same no matter what you’re canning).

The Verdict:

I don’t know. They’re strange. They’re very sweet, but also very spicy. I don’t like to eat them by themselves very much, but they are killer on a barbecue pork sandwich!

They’re also great for getting people to try them and watching their faces, so I’ll let some of the reaction shots speak for themselves:

Let’s See…                          Sort of unpleasant                      Thats…very spicy
Here we go                              ::gulp!::                            Hey, I survived!
I’ll try it if you try it                         Do not like!                       Rinse it out with milk
Yummy!                                     Uh oh…                                    Spicy!

Don’t let him fool you though, he was soon gobbling them by the handful.

The Recipe:

Recipe from Tasty Kitchen.

  • 3 pounds Firm, Fresh Jalapeno Peppers, Washed
  • 2 cups Cider Vinegar
  • 6 cups White Granulated Sugar
  • ½ teaspoons Turmeric
  • ½ teaspoons Celery Seed
  • 3 teaspoons Granulated Garlic
  • 1 teaspoon Ground Cayenne Pepper
  1. Wearing gloves, remove the stems from all of the jalapeno peppers. The easiest way to do this is to slice a small disc off of the stem-end along with the stem. Discard the stems.
  2. Slice the peppers into uniform 1/8-1/4 inch rounds. Set aside.
  3. In a large pot, bring cider vinegar, white sugar, turmeric, celery seed, granulated garlic and cayenne pepper to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pepper slices and simmer for exactly 4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the peppers, loading into clean, sterile canning jars to within 1/4 inch of the upper rim of the jar. Turn heat up under the pot with the syrup and bring to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 6 minutes.
  4. Use a ladle to pour the boiling syrup into the jars over the jalapeno slices. Insert a cooking chopstick to the bottom of the jar two or three times to release any trapped pockets of air. Adjust the level of the syrup if necessary. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, damp paper towel and fix on new, two-piece lids to finger-tip tightness.
  5. If you do not want to can these to the point of shelf stable, you can simply put the jars in your refrigerator and store them there. I prefer to keep the fridge space free so I can them. If you wish to can them, follow the instructions below.
  6. Note: If you have leftover syrup, and it is likely that you will, you may can it in half-pint or pint jars, too. It’s wonderful brushed on meat on the grill or added to potato salad or, or, or … in short, don’t toss it out!
  7. To can, place jars in a canner and cover with water by 2-inches. Bring the water to a full rolling boil. When it reaches a full rolling boil, set the timer for 10 minutes for half-pints or 15 minutes for pints. When timer goes off, use canning tongs to transfer the jars to a cooling rack. Leave them to cool, undisturbed, for 24 hours. When fully cooled, wipe them with a clean, damp washcloth, then label.
  8. Allow to mellow for at least two weeks, but preferably a month before eating. Or don’t. I won’t tell!