Gone Fishin'

I am constantly saying all the foods I would like to include more of in our diet.  When we first got married, I would ask Drew on almost a daily basis if he had eaten any fruit because I felt it was my wifely duty to make sure he got a well-balanced menu. 

Well, to be honest, it kind of is my duty.  Last year some time, I was reading the book of Genesis - you know the part where Eve gives Adam the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and he takes it and eats it - and it dawned on me that wives are the gatekeepers of the home in regards to what our husbands eat.  So, it is up to me to make sure that Drew has eaten a banana or some broccoli, or fish, or whatever.  Funny that when he eats junk food, that has nothing to do with me - it's all him. 

Ok, so back to my constant drive to add things to our menu.  I am forever saying I think we need to eat fish at least once a week.  So today we ran over to Costco and got a BIG BAG of Mahi Mahi filets.  We got the plain kind because I didn't want us to get burned out on one particular flavor (they had a blackened Mahi that Drew wanted, but Eve (ahem...I) convinced him otherwise by telling him I could season it for him.  Then we also picked up some Texas Ranch sauce that claimed on the bottle it is great for fish and chicken.  The real reason we got it is the Texas connection.

So we got home and I thawed out a couple of filets and threw Tony Cachare's (Drew loves it so much) on one and the Texas Ranch on the other.  I pan sauteed the fish to great results and added some brown rice and steamed yellow squash.  We split the fish and loved the results.  I am going to have so much fun coming up with different flavor combinations and cooking methods for our gigantic bag of Mahi.  Oh, and I even took a picture that didn't turn out that great. 

Now off to wash some grapes to feed my husband (I don't think he has had any fruit today)!

Baking School: Week 4

Hello, my name is Leah and I am a breadmaker. 

For the last week, I have been working on a 12 step program.  No, not that one.  The one that results in warm kitchens, yummy smells, and yeasty goodness of a whole other sort: the 12 step program for baking bread. 

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal for this year to learn how to make bread.  But ,I have to be honest, I was pretty intimidated by my goal.  I had never attempted anything beyond banana bread and I had never used yeast in my life.  So, imagine my terror when I opened my textbook and found out the process of making bread was even more involved than I had ever imagined!  

Thankfully, our teacher is helpful in guiding us through the program, defining terminology, and encouraging us to go for it.  Over the last week, we made: focaccia, sweet rolls, danish, brioche, french loaves, and whole wheat dinner rolls.  Whew!  That is a lot of bread and a lot of patience!  If there is one thing I am learning about baking in general each week, it is patience.  The process of baking is not something you can just speed up because you are running short on time, or you just want to get it over with.  Attention to each of the 12 steps is necessary in order to acheive the best possible results. 

So, my teacher suggests that we select one type of bread and make it until we know it fully.  I think I am going to choose french bread.  My goal is to make it at least once a week for a while.  That means lots of bread to give away!  That also means I will be well on my way to fulfilling my New Year's resolution.

Bread Making for the Month

As stated in a previous post, one of my resolutions for this year is to learn how to make bread.  I have had a 66% success rate thus far and thought I would share with you my results. 
The first attempt at bread was the easy way out...I made pita bread.  With the help of the bread machine (purchased by my husband a scant 3 and a half years ago), the dough was prepared.  This was not without some trouble because I did not realize how difficult it was to seat the bread pan in the machine...you really have to push down hard to get it in the right spot.  So after Drew's help and encouragement, I got the pan seated properly and in a short time had dough!  I threw it in the oven for the specified time and... SUCCESS!  It tasted really good too!
The second attempt was for Jalapeno Bread.  Drew was very excited about this prospect.  This was the first time I tried to prepare the bread from start to finish in the breadmaker.  I don't know what went wrong, but the bread did not bake properly.  It was not finished when the machine said it was finished and so I put it on a timer for another 20 minutes.  It still was not cooked because the machine shut itself off after about 5 minutes.  FAIL!
The third attempt, I got a little ambitious.  I decided to make French bread for our guests on Saturday night.  As per the first attempt, I made the dough in the breadmaker and then finished it in the oven.  This was the first time I had to deal with timing on rising and baking.  It came out just great!  SUCCESS! 

I am not sure what to make this week, but I have discovered finishing the bread in the oven has been my only successful mode of breadmaking.  I want to give the machine a chance to redeem itself this week.  Any suggestions?

Resolved

New Years always brings the resolutions on so I started thinking of mine for this year rather early.  Drew and I decided at least a couple months ago that we were going to try to read a book a week for the new year.  This resolution has resulted in the creation of a new blog by the both of us.  Check it out.

Other New Year's resolutions for me this year are food related - what a surprise!

1. Learn how to make bread
2. Learn how to can/preserve.

I do feel somewhat home on the range with these two resolutions.  I did not grow up in a household where either of these two things took place.  Thus, they are quite foreign to me.  I sat down this past Monday and started to read on how to make bread - this made me a little more fearsome of my resolved choice, but by Wednesday, I was feeling better.  So, here goes the adventure.  I will try to include pictures of my successes and failures.