Cheddar Bread

I halved a recipe for 2 loaves because we don't eat that much that quickly.

2 cup bread flour
3/4 c whole wheat flour
1 heaping teaspoon yeast
1 teas sea salt
1 c and 3 tbls warm water
2 tbls oil]
1/2 tbls honey
6 oz cheddar in small cubes, 1/2 to 1/4 inches

Mix flour, yeast,& salt together in large bowl. In small bowl mix water, oil & honey together. Add to flour mix & stir. Knead for 7-10 minutes until smooth. I use a stand mixer & this takes 5-7 minutes usually. Let dough rise in warm place for about 1.5 hours. Punch dough down & knead in cheese cubes. Grease a loaf pan & put the dough in it. Let it rise in the pan for about an hour. Preheat oven to 350 and bake bread for 40-45 minuutes.

Cool on rack out of loaf pan

I made ragu for dinner

There are times where I wish I could say "I made my mother's ragu, handed down through the generations from mother daughter. It's an old family tradition from the Old Country."

But we're Irish & German, have been here since 1780 or so, and my foremothers embraced the convenience of early modern agribusiness prior to WWII with a startling eagerness. Oh there were jars of home canned stuff in my Nan's larder when I was a child, but no one had seen her can a thing after 1951.

Tellingly perhaps, I cannot remember any of the jars every being opened, let alone eaten.

This is my family's traditional ragu.

It even says 'traditional' right on the label.

I'm rather fond of it actually. There are so few 'family recipes' in my background that I take what I can get.

But sometimes, usually around now, when it gets really cold for the first time in months, the complete lack of Italian blood in me calls out for a dish of rich meaty ragu, served over polenta. And ConAgra's contribution won't cut it.

I make this sort of ragu

I should have remembered to take the photos *before* we ate.

And before I spooned half of it into a bag for the freezer

The pot was actually nearly brim full of ragu when it was done cooking.

It's good over pasta shells, rigatoni or gnocci, and in lasagna, but I like it best over polenta.

It takes freakin forever to make this ragu but it's worth it. Most of the time is just waiting around for it to cook but there is a about 30 minutes of activity leading up to that and another 10-20 or so after. You end up with about 8-9 cups of ragu from this, which works out to about 3 dinners in my house.

You need:

2 28 ounce cans of tomatoes - crushed or whole doesn't really matter, you'll be pureeing them. Get good ones, home canned if possible (assuming you know they were canned in this century)

2 pounds or so bone in beef short ribs, trimmed of large areas of fat

1 pound of boneless chuck meat,likewise trimmed

1 pound of sausage, links or ground, your choice

1 small yellow onion - peeled & chopped

2 cloves of garlic smashed & chopped

2 carrots peeled & grated

2 ribs of celery likewise

4 ounces of portabella or crimini mushrooms, chopped

1 cup of white wine

2 strips of thick sliced bacon, chopped

a handful of chopped parsley

salt & pepper

olive oil

First you need to puree the tomatoes and then strain them, pushing them through a metal strainer set over a bowl. You want to strain out the tougher bits of skins & the seeds. Salt & pepper the tomato puree. Set that aside & preheat the oven to 300.

It a large dutch oven, about 7 quarts, though mine is a bit smaller than that, brown the sausage, breaking it up as you do. Then remove it and set it aside to drain. Pour off the excess fat, but leave a little & add some olive oil. Over medium high heat brown the chuck all over, remove it, add a bit more oil if needed and brown the ribs all over. This takes about 10 minutes or so.

If you're like me, use this time to chop & grate up all that stuff you didn't get around to doing ahead of time.

Remove the ribs, pour off the fat and wipe the pan out with paper towels, set it to medium heat then add the bacon. Stir the bacon and let it brown. Once it is browned add a bit more oil and add the onions, carrots, celery & garlic. Stir them often as they brown & get soft, about 7-8 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and parsley and stir them around for a bit. Add the beef, but not the sausage. Stir it all around well, then add the wine, turn up the heat to high and let it cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the pureed tomatoes, stir and let come to a simmer.

Put the lid on it and slide it into the oven for 2.5 hours. Put the sausage in the fridge until about 10 minutes before the ragu is done in the oven.

When the time is up remove the ragu. Remove the meat from the sauce, all of it, even the bits that have fallen off the bones. Set it aside to cool a bit. There will be a good bit of oil floating around on top of the sauce. Remove it with a spoon or turkey baster. Then puree the sauce, either in batches in a blender or with a hand blender in the pot, carefully. Once the meat can be handled (10-15 minutes) remove the bones, any chunks of fat or connective tissue and discard. Shred up the meat and return it to the sauce. Add the sausage. Stir and reheat to a simmer for about 10 minutes. Salt & pepper to taste

I usually make polenta, putting 4 cups of cold water with a cup of coarse corn meal in a pan and setting it over medium low heat and stirring it from time to time until it gets thick, then stirring it more frequently (usually in between shredding up the meat & things).It takes 30-40 minutes for the polenta to get thick enough to pull from the sides of the pot.

Pile some polenta on a plate, scatter some provolone & mozzarella over it and ladle a big helping of ragu over that.

It's seriously hearty. Make no plans after dinner.

what a good day so far!

It took me all of about 60 seconds to vote. There were 20 cars in the lot but they must have belonged to the people manning tables by the roadside and the dozen or so folks working for the precinct. It seemed a bit overstaffed to say the least. I showed them my ID, noticed DH had voted earlier (#112), got my card (#306, I didn't realize there were 300 people in my precinct, let alone they would have voted already) and made my 3 choices (we only had President, Senator and Representative to elect this time. No bond issues or anything). It took me longer to tweet about it than it did to do it.

I hadn't realized Nader had made it onto the ballot here, nor that the Constitution Party candidate, Chuck Baldwin,  had made it either (and why are they listed as Independent Greens?) They managed to put someone up for Senator as well.

Then I went and got a bacon chili cheese dog, which took much longer to get than it did vote. You want to talk lines? Stop by the General Store at lunch time.

But the really really big news is this:

While taking Mayhem to the bus stop I passed the UPS truck headed toward my house.  I very nearly made a U-turn and chased after him. But I stuck to my duty to get the kid on the bus and go vote.

Looky what the Big Brown Truck of Joy left for me

My long anticipated and saved for, DSLR!  The battery is charging now and I'm getting ready to read the manual instead of reading blogs.

The orange light is supposed to flash while the battery is charging, right?

Homemade pizza

The boys love pizza so I make it often.  I often use pureed veggies as a base for a sauce, usually defrosted & drained spinach pureed up with a spoonful of pesto or alfredo sauce.  Other times I grate slightly steamed broccoli or carrots and scatter them over the sauce before topping with cheese.

A family favorite is chicken, spinach and artichoke pizza. This uses a couple spoonfuls of alfredo pureed up with spinach as sauce. One cooked and chopped chicken breast is usually enough for an average pizza.  I make an extra one when we have chicken for dinner so I have one handy later in the week. The artichokes are a small jar of quartered marinated heartes in oil.  Not the canned ones. The jarred ones have a better texture.  I chop them up small. The boys are more likely to eat small toppings rather than big ones (I chop pepperonis into 8ths for them). I also top it with extra defrosted and drained spinach. Sometimes the boys pick it off, sometimes they don't, which is why I puree it into the sauce as well.

These are the crust recipes I use:

This one makes a decent sized pizza of average thickness.

2 teas sugar

2 teas salt

1 tlbs olive oil

3/4 c water - warmish

2 c flour

1 teas yeast

This one makes 2 12' pizzas of average to thin thickness or one rather large thick crust pizza

2 1/4 teas yeast

1 1/3 c water - warmish

3 1/2c flour

2 tbls olive oil

1 tlbs salt

1 tbls sugar

For both recipes mix all the ingredients together and knead for 10 minutes. Let them rise for about 2 hours in a warmish place (I use my microwave oven, nice even temp inside and doesn't take up any more counter space). I've found the dough is pretty forgiving of longer rises, I've left it for up to 5 hours & the only real change I noticed was a crisper crust when cooked, even the thick crust version. Then punch it down and roll, toss or otherwise stretch it out to size. cover with a dishtowel & let sit for 30 minutes

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 475.

You can at this point top it and bake it for 10-12 minutes.  I however bake the bare crust for 5 minutes, let it cool for about 10-15 minutes, then top it and bake it for another 5-7 minutes. You get a good crisp crust this way and it's easier to get off the pizza paddle and into the oven.

This dough is also sturdy enough to go on the grill, use the same temperature, but make small individual pizzas and knock a couple minutes off the cook time.

I've been baking

I made cupcakes Saturday and muffins yesterday. The cupcakes were for a pot luck party my bunco group was having. The muffins were for the family.

I ate several of both batches.

The cupcakes were cheesecake brownie cupcakes. I used the recipe for Mrs Field's Cheesecake Brownie Cups found here at RecipeZaar.com.  However, I am not sure what it is with me & measuring, but I ended up with 16 cupcakes instead of 12. They were very well received.

I had 2 bananas that needed to be used yesterday so I made muffins. I was going to make peanut butter banana muffins, in the hopes of tempting Mayhem to actually eat a muffin rather than just demand to make them.  But he'd gone on a PB&J spree over the weekend & there was insufficient peanut butter remaining. I decided to replace it with Nutella. Chocolate, bananas, hazelnuts...yum!

Nutella Banana muffins

Preheat oven to 400 and prepare 12-18 muffin cups. (recipe claims 12, I made 18)

In a large bowl mix together

2 cups flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tblsp baking powder

1/4 teas salt

In a smaller bowl mix  until well combined

1/2c  Nutella

2 tblsp  oil

2 eggs

3/4 c warmish milk

2 medium bananas mashed (or pureed like I did)

This will take some time if you do it by hand. The Nutella and the milk & the eggs do not want to combine, but they will if you keep at it. I don't own a hand blender so I stuck it out with a whisk.

Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. This will be a thick but liquid batter. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full with the batter. Bake for 20 minutes or so. Test with a toothpick.

These are very good banana muffins with a chocolate & nut background flavor. If you want a chocolate & nut muffin with a banana flavor I suggest omitting one banana and increasing your Nutella by a couple of tablespoons. And you can add some mini chocolate chips as well.

Forgot the muffin recipe

I worked myself into enough irritation about the muffins and forgot to post the recipe.  *I* like them even if the boys are only so-so about them.  I bet if I made them with Nutella and raspberry jelly Havoc would like them more.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins

This makes a dozen regular sized muffins. Use paper muffin cups. Preheat oven to 375.

1.5 cups AP flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 teas baking soda

1/2 teas salt

Combine in a large bowl& set aside

1/2 cup smooth natural peanut butter

2 eggs at room temperature

Mix these together well in a second bowl then add

3/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

4 tblsp really soft/ melted but too not hot butter

and mix thoroughly.  Add to dry ingredients and mix until just combined

Let sit for 10 minutes. Then spoon into muffin cups, filling each one about 3/4 of the way.  Add a teaspoon of grape jelly to the center of each cup, making an indentation as you do.

Bake for 20 minutes

Supper Score

Aug 26 - Spaghetti Carbonara - no actual bacon pieces in the boys'

Mayhem paused but once he started eating he ate it all & told Havoc it tasted really good

Havoc took a long time to get started, being suspicious of the smell of cooked garlic, but in the end ate it all

Aug 25 - cheese pizza with spinach & tomato sauce

Mayhem ate 3 pieces without a word

Havoc grumbled that he only likes Papa John's sauce and ate most of one piece. What we wonder is does he mean their tomato or their alfredo? He won't be clear

Aug 24 - BBQ grilled chicken with grilled sweet potatoes & beets

Mayhem ate the obligatory one bite of each item, said he didn't like them and that was that.

Havoc ate a few bites of chicken & one bite each of the rest

Aug 23 - Turkey croquette with spinach mashers

Mayhem ate a few bites of croquettes and one of potatoes

Havoc ate maybe 2 bites of croquettes and 2 of potatoes

Aug 22 - went out to eat

Mayhem had pizza & ate nearly all of it

Havoc had chicken fingers & ate most of them

Aug 21 - Scotch eggs and spinach salad

Mayhem ate all his salad & a bit of sausage & egg

Havoc ate his sausage, the white of his egg and some salad