french boule rolls with garlic dipping oil

I am thrilled to announce the birth of my baby girl (blog name Pebbles)!  We're keeping busy at home getting settled, but hopefully we'll soon have a chance to properly introduce her to you.

I'm also excited to welcome another guest blogger - Pie Birds, Buttons and Muddy Puddles!  This bread looks fantastic...I can't wait to give it a try. 

Now, I know what some of you are thinking - you don't bake bread, right?  Well, let's change that because this is a super simple bread recipe that you cannot mess up.  I promise.  No kneading and no mixer involved.  Seriously, you make the dough, let it rise and then shape into rolls like I did here, or you can make 4 small round loaves instead.  This is one of those recipes that will impress your family and friends so please don't run away.  Enjoy these French Boule rolls with a garlic infused dipping oil that is also simple to make.  The boule recipe is from Grace at Anderson Family Farm and the dipping oil is family recipe that my Dad perfected.  Let's get started!

French Boule Bread with Garlic Dipping Oil
Ingredients:
for the bread
3 cups warm water
1 ½ heaping Tablespoons of dry active yeast
1 Tablespoon honey or sugar
1 Tablespoons coarse salt (like Kosher)
6 cups flour (half bread flour, half whole wheat)
for the dipping oil
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 Tablespoon dried parsley, or 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped fine)

Directions:

Measure your water in a large measuring cup.  You want the water to be warm, but not hot!  Add your yeast to the warm water with the honey or sugar and set aside for a minute or two. If you don't buy yeast in bulk, you can use one of the little packets (just measure the yeast out of that). Put the flour and salt into a large bowl. Add water mixture to dry ingredients and stir by hand until there are no dry pockets.

The dough should be quite sticky and wet, if it is not then you were too heavy on the flour and you’ll just need to add more water. No kneading, remember?

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and set aside to rise at room temperature for about an hour or longer.  Once it doubles in size and starts to collapse you know it is ready.  But this is easy, remember, so if you can't tell if it is doubled or starting to collapse, just go for it after an hour or so.

This is what my dough looked like after an hour and a half.  Perfect. Now preheat your oven to 450 degrees and place a stoneware pan in the oven (if you don't have one you can use a baking sheet upside down).  Place an oven safe pan (metal - don't use glass!) on the bottom rack, underneath the rack with the stoneware pan.

Flour your counter really well and scoop your dough out onto the counter.

Use a sharp floured knife to cut the dough in half, and then in half again, giving you 4 quarters.

Cut each quarter into 4 equal sized pieces, giving you 16 pieces of dough total.  They don't have to be exact, just eye it and no worries if some end up a little bigger or smaller than others.

Place a piece of parchment paper on top of an upside down baking sheet (or a baking peel if you have one, I don't) next to your work surface and start shaping the rolls.  Using well floured hands roll each piece of dough into a round ball, pinching the bottoms together towards the center.  Do this step pretty quickly, taking only about 20 seconds per piece of dough so you don't overwork it.  Place the round balls of dough, seam side down, onto the parchment paper.  Continue with remaining pieces.

Sprinkle the tops of the rolls with a little more flour and let them rise for about 20 minutes.

After about 20 minutes they should start to look puffy and they are ready for the oven.  Add a cup of cold water to the metal pan on the bottom rack of the oven.  This will create steam inside the oven, giving your rolls a nice crisp chewy texture on the outside.

Slide your parchment paper full of puffy rolls off the baking sheet and onto the hot stoneware pan, being careful not burn your hand!  Bake the rolls for 20 minutes.

Now while the rolls are baking you can make the dipping oil.  It is sooooo good.  Add about 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil to a small sauce pan over medium low heat. Heat until you warmed through.

Add one clove of minced garlic to the oil and shut the heat off and let it sit and mingle for a few minutes.  You don't want to cook the garlic, just infuse it into the oil.

Grate about 1/4 cup of fresh Parmesan cheese.

Measure out 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes and 1 Tablespoon of dried parsley (or double of fresh parsley).

Add the crushed red pepper flakes and parsley to the garlic infused oil.

Mix well.

In little bowls, place 1 Tablespoon of the freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Pour the oil mixture over the cheese and mix.  The smells are going to overwhelm your senses here and you might drool.  Apologies in advance.

Take your rolls out of the oven and let them cool for about 10 to 15 minutes before you dig in, if you can.  I usually can't.

Enjoy with the dipping oil and marvel that you just made a wonderfully impressive French bread.


The dipping oil is the perfect condiment for these delicious rolls.  See the chewy crust all around the edges of the roll?  That steam in the oven really gives you a professional bakery result.  See the herbs and cheese in that oil?  Seriously amazing flavors. Are you drooling yet?

I told you this was easy, and these step by step pictures (taken by my best bud Travis) will help you along the way.  Hope you enjoyed this recipe as much as I enjoyed sharing here on Delightful Country Cookin'. I have plenty more recipes over at my little blog, Pie Birds, Buttons and Muddy Puddles.  Enjoy!

an international comfort food fusion (try saying that three times fast!)

I'm excited to introduce you to another fellow blogger who has graciously offered to share THREE recipes with you!  Ruth is the voice behind Red Recipes, a blog she started to keep in touch with family and friends and organize her favorite recipes.  She's lived all over the world...literally!  She started in Springfield, Missouri, but her list of former homes includes West Virginia, Mexico, Shanghai, and now lives and works in Katmandu as an anthropology teacher at an international school!  

She told me, "I find there is nothing more comforting than to spend the afternoon cooking with a loved one and spend the evening eating and drinking our creations. In addition, because I've lived so many places and visited so many others, I find that there are foods which can be made everywhere or which can be incorporated into any dish. Adding a dash of the "other" or changing an old favourite recipe to fit with my current location has always been a puzzle which excites me and results in lovely creations."  

I'm excited to try out the dishes Ruth showcases below and to learn so much more about a fellow blogger.  Hope you enjoy what she has to offer - be sure to go check out her blog!

My name is Ruth Herrin and I’m a cooking addict.

It all started in high school … while attending the Academy (a boarding school of types), the kitchen was my hideout from the stresses of academic and social life. In the kitchen, my friends and I could experiment with foods, trade recipes and ideas (both philosophical and mundane) and – one way or another – attempt to transcend the boundaries of our dormitory.

As I have grown older, my interest in food has only developed. No matter where I have lived, food is the substance that ties people together, that connects them on both a material and an intellectual level. Everywhere I’ve traveled, there’s food. Everywhere I’ve traveled, people sit down to meals with their loved ones and smile. And everywhere I’ve traveled, I’ve been able to experience (if only for a bit) a community surrounding food.

I live and work with my partner, Shane, in Kathmandu and about once a week we start itching for food that reminds us of home, something hearty and warm (winters are frigid here) but also something that combines elements of the country that we live in with those of our southern American roots. That’s all part of our day-to-day life: how can we integrate aspects of our own backgrounds with those of our current environment? How can we bring out the best of these two cultures? As international school teachers, this is an idea that plagues us in the classroom and as hungry cooks, it is an idea that waddles around our brains come supper time.

 Mom’s Potato Soup with homemade chapati and tumeric saag

I introduce to you this week’s comfort-food fusion: Mom’s Potato Soup with chapati (a Nepali tortilla-like bread) and turmeric saag (spinach). Warming to your insides and good for your waist-line, we gobbled up this well-rounded meal and even had enough for leftovers. I’ll give you each recipe independent of the others so you can make them alone or in conjunction!

I hope you guys enjoy this simple, healthy meal. A big thank you to Kristin for inviting me to guest-blog for her fantastic site! Thanks so much and be sure to come visit me at Red Recipes.

Mom’s Potato Soup

Ingredients
Makes around 4-5 entrée servings
4 TB butter
2 TB flour (I use wheat flour but any kind of white flour will work)
½ C onions, finely diced or substitute for the same amount of minced scallions
2 C milk
4 C potatoes, diced (peel them if you would like – I prefer to leave the skins on because they bring more fibre to the dish and give a neat consistency to the final soup)
3 C vegetable stock
Salt and pepper
½ C cream
a handful of fresh parsley (not pictured above)

Directions
1. Make a roux: Melt the butter in a large soup kettle then add in the flour.

2. Once the flour is well-incorporated with the butter and is beginning to brown, go ahead and add in the onions. Sautee them a bit in the roux, about 3-5 minutes, or until they begin to cook and become translucent.

3. Carefully add in the milk, potatoes, stock and salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil then let gently simmer for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.

4. After the potatoes are cooked through, remove the soup from heat and let cool.

 

5. By this time, your mixture should look like the picture above and we need to make this a smooth soup, so it’s time to puree! If you’re like me and your food processor doesn’t usually work (or there’s load shedding and you find yourself sans power) you can mash the stew by hand. I prefer just mashing the potatoes because it leaves bits of whole potatoes in the soup! Yummy! If you do end up using the food processor to pulverize the soup, be careful – let the liquid cool down and don’t fill the container to the top … you don’t want to burn yourself.

 I transferred the soup to a plastic container to better smash the ingredients and to save my non-stick pot … when I visit my mother this summer, I’m definitely picking up a potato masher.

6. We’re almost done! Now stir in the cream (or leave it out if you want a less-creamy and healthier version) and parsley, reheat the soup and serve piping hot alone or with the other yummy sides.

Inside a traditional Gurung home – that’s me being handed this delicious saag dish and that’s the woman who taught me how to make it.

Tumeric Saag

I learned how to make this traditional Nepali dish while doing an anthropological site visit at Sikles, Nepal – in the Annapurna Range. My group and I did a homestay with one of the local Gurung women and we became very intimate with their cooking processes. The Sikles community uses wood-fire hearths because propane and other methods are not readily available. I think the most surprising encounter of the whole week was on our second night when our host was making us dinner over the wood-fire and talking on her cell phone to her next door neighbour: globalisation does odd things. :)

Ingredients
Makes enough for 2 servings; can be served either as a side dish or the main attraction
3 TB oil
2 small onions, finely diced
2 tsps tumeric
1 tsp red pepper flakes (add more if you like spiciness, I tossed in enough to add a nice kick in the mouth … about 3 tsp or more)
salt, to taste
4 bunches of fresh spinach, cleaned and de-stemmed/de-ribbed

 Step one!

Directions
1. In a small saucepan, add oil and let it heat up over medium heat. Toss in one piece of onion and when it crackles in the oil, add in the rest. Sautee for about 7 minutes or until the onions are well carmelised but before they begin to burn (see image above).

2. Add in tumeric, red pepper and a dash of salt. Mix well with the onions and let fry for about a minute. Don’t let these burn so keep your eye on them.

3. Now add in the spinach. Toss to coat and cover the saucepan with a lid. Let steam for about 1 minute or more, if needed. Uncover, continue to toss the spinach in order to thoroughly coat it in the onion mixture.

4. Once the spinach has cooked down, serve it! Enjoy it hot and steamy with the potato soup recipe above or over a bunch of rice. There are so many ways to enjoy this lovely dish.

Chapati

Chapati, as mentioned above, is a traditional Nepali bread that is reminiscent of wheat tortillas. I made a huge batch of the dough earlier (before learning that I could guest blog) and so I simply needed to fry them up as the Tumeric Saag was finishing. For an excellent, step-by-step tutorial on how to make chapatti, I suggest you visit my recent blog post, Red Recipes’ Chapati, or About.com’s excellent step-by-step tutorial, How to Make Chapati.

Cheers and enjoy eating!

honey lime chicken enchiladas (guest post)

Oh my goodness, don't those look delicious???!!!  I'm so excited to welcome Mandy from Mandy's Recipe Box as a guest blogger today.  You MUST go check out her blog - she's got some great stuff on there!  I can't wait to try out this particular recipe.  Maybe I'll get Cookie Bandit to make it for me after baby gets here... :)

Hey everyone! I'm Mandy from Mandy's Recipe Box. I am happy to be here today to help Kristin out. I love it when I can guest blog or when I have guest bloggers on my blog. It lets you meet new people and find new blogs you may not otherwise. Let me tell you a little about myself.

I am a wife and mother of 3, 2 girls (9 & 3) and a boy (7). They keep me on my toes and I love having them in the kitchen with me. I love cooking and baking (especially desserts) and I'm a converted country girl. I used to be a total Utah city girl until I met and married a farmer from Idaho. We moved to the middle of nowhere and the rest is history! 

Today I am sharing a favorite dish of mine - Honey-Lime Chicken Enchiladas. These bad boys taste even better the next day as leftovers, if you ask me. The combo of honey and lime is incredible without being overly sweet. Give them a try, and you're sure to love them.

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

6 Tbsp honey

4.5 Tbsp lime juice

1 Tbsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 lb cooked chicken, shredded (you can also use shredded pork. That's what I did here.)

flour tortillas

colby or monterey jack cheese, shredded

10 oz. can green enchilada sauce

Mix first 4 ingredients together and toss with shredded chicken. Let it marinate for at least a half hour. Pour some green enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 10x10 casserole dish or 9x13 pan. Fill flour tortillas with chicken and shredded cheese. Roll up and place seam side down in the dish. Pour the rest of the can of green enchilada sauce over enchiladas then sprinkle with more cheese. (When using a 9x13 I like to use 1 1/2 10 oz. cans) Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. (Put it under the broiler at the end to make the cheese brown and crispy on the top.) Serve and enjoy.

I hope you'll come visit me at Mandy's Recipe Box. I'm also on Facebook, so visit me there, too!

Mandy from Mandy's Recipe Box

Mandy's Recipe Box is on Facebook

ever considered blogging?

Have you ever considered what it would be like to blog?  Wanted to give it a try?  Have a favorite recipe that you are just dying to share with the world???

Well, I'd like to invite you to give blogging a shot by guest blogging for Delightful Country Cookin'!  You see, with the baby coming any day, I've been more than busy trying to get everything ready.  I haven't really had a chance to do much cooking, much less blog about my cooking.  And I miss it!  Delightful Country Cookin' is looking so empty lately!

I figured, why not use this time in my life to allow you to shine?  I know that several of you have delicious recipes that you want to share.  There are many of you with an inner writer or photographer just itching to get out. :)  And I've talked to quite a few who have always wondered what it would be like to blog.  Well, come find out!

If you are already a blogger, I'd also like to invite you to write a guest post.  It's a great way to draw attention to your own blog and hopefully expand your readership.  There are so many great food blogs out there - I just love learning about new ones!

If you are interested, go on up to the "Contact the Cook" tab and shoot me an e-mail!  I'll walk you through the whole process (which is incredibly easy, by the way).  I do hope that several of you will consider it, and I can't wait to see what you come up with!

rush-hour recipes: we have a winner!

We have a winner!!!

Congratulations to Spradlin.cindy@yahoo.com - you've won a free copy of Rush-Hour Recipes!  Here's what she said..."It is hard to choose out of these... but if I must it would be the cheesy potatoes for me."  

And good news for our winner...the winning recipe was the cheesy scalloped potatoes!!!  It was your overwhelming choice, and (I must say) it was an excellent one.

 First, you slice up about 6-8 potatoes.  The recipe says to peel them first, but I left the skins on.  I figured I should eat my fiber.

Then, combine a can of Cheddar cheese soup, a can of cream of broccoli soup, milk, swiss cheese, onions, and garlic.  It doesn't look all that appetizing now, but it's what gives this dish its great flavor.

Finally, shred some Cheddar cheese and chop up some green onions.

To assemble, grease a LARGE slow cooker and layer some of the potatoes...

...some of the soup...

...and then some of the Cheddar cheese and green onions.  Continue layering until all of the ingredients have been used.

Turn your slow cooker on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 5-6 hours...and voila! You've got perfectly cooked potatoes in a delicious cheesy sauce.  Your house will smell out-of-this-world delicious, too.

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
from Gooseberry Patch's Rush-Hour Recipes
10 3/4 oz. can Cheddar cheese soup
10 3/4 oz. can cream of broccoli soup
1 1/4 cup milk
2 cups Swiss cheese, cut into strips
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
6-8 potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
4 green onions, chopped

In a bowl, mix soups, milk, Swiss cheese, yellow onion and garlic; set aside.  Spray a slow cooker with non-stick vegetable spray.  Layer some of the potatoes, soup mixture, Cheddar cheese and green onions.  Repeat layering until all of the ingredients have been used.  Cover and cook on low setting for 8 to 10 hours, or on high setting for 5 to 6 hours.  Serves 6 to 8.   

Thanks for all of your entries, and be sure to get your own copy of this cookbook in your local bookstore or online retailer.  You don't want to miss out on any of the other wonderful recipes!

rush-hour recipes: review and giveaway

Thought I'd disappeared???

Nope.  I was just busy celebrating the holidays, traveling, turning the big 3-0, and letting my husband do the cooking (that's what you do when you are pregnant, right?).  I was also testing out some delicious recipes from one of Gooseberry Patch's newest cookbooks...Rush-Hour Recipes! 

This is an awesome cookbook for those of us who need a quick meal or who want delicious food without spending all day in the kitchen.  I especially appreciated it at this point in my life...I've now got the figure of the Pillsbury Dough Boy and am moving at the pace of a snail.  It was nice to know that I could provide delicious meals for my husband even though I haven't really felt like cooking.  Everything was so easy that I didn't mind being in the kitchen one bit!

Rush-Hour Recipes is full of 230 recipes for those busy times in life.  I love the fact that it includes slow-cooker meals and potluck dishes as well as the run-of-the-mill family dinners.  You can find something for every occasion in this cookbook!  And like all of Gooseberry Patch's signature cookbooks, it's full of those cute little drawings and kitchen tips to make the cookbook just as fun to read straight through as it is to cook from.  I highly recommend it!

Once again, we picked a recipe from each chapter to try out and share with you.  Here they are, each given its own "reward"!

Messiest Main Meal

Crispy Corn Flake Chicken from the chapter "5-Ingredient Favorites"

 

These chicken legs were easy to assemble and had a wonderful flavor...but boy were they messy!  If you have kids, they'll love them (just make sure to have plenty of napkins on hand).  Being the refined adult that I am (yeah, right!), I think I'll use boneless chicken breasts next time so that I can use a fork and knife.  However you do it, the coating is delish!

Most Comforting

Tuna Tetrazzini from the chapter "One-Dish Dinners"

Tuna casserole is one of those dishes I associate with childhood, so it's perfect on those days when you just want something warm to fill you up.  I made this one when Cookie Bandit had a cold - I'm not sure he could taste much with his sniffles and all, but he ate every bit of it up.  I didn't have a cold, so I can vouch that it was excellent.  I loved how easy it was to put together, how creamy the texture turned out, and how much it reminded me of being a little kid.  It's definitely a must-try.

Most Flavorful

Tony's Peasant Soup from the chapter "Soup's On!"

Haha...so we have a confession regarding this soup.  We didn't actually follow the recipe.  We meant to, but I let Cookie Bandit make out the shopping list.  With him in charge, fresh basil turned into dried, and Italian sausage turned into sausage links.  We went with it though, and absolutely loved it!  I guess it just shows you how versatile this particular recipe is.  It's also an extremely quick fix if you use link sausage and precooked chicken breast like we did.  It was perfect for the one cold day we've had in Dallas...now if the temperature would go down, I'd make it again!

Richest Side Dish

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes from the chapter "Slow Cookers to the Rescue"

These scalloped potatoes were made in the slow cooker!!!  Can you believe it?  I couldn't!  I was so intrigued by the idea that I just had to try it.  Man, my house smelled amazing that day.  Cookie Bandit walked into the door and just started sniffing...it was all I could do to get him to wait for dinner.  The potatoes cooked perfectly, and the sauce was creamy and delicious.  This recipe makes enough for a crowd, so it's perfect for a potluck!

Best Make-Out Bread

Quick Brown Bread from the chapter "Make-a-Meal Sides"

Odd choice of an award?  Yes.  But let me tell you...every time Cookie Bandit and I ate this bread, we started kissing!!!  We don't know why, but we liked it. :)  He was very, very sad when we finished eating the loaf.  So...just a warning...don't serve this bread to anyone you don't like!  On a more serious note, this bread was a fantastic find.  I whipped it up in about 5 minutes, and it finished baking just in time for the soup to be done.  It's made with all whole wheat and flavored with molasses, so it passed my "relatively healthy" test.  And, it's amazing in the morning with jam or Nutella.  Loved, loved, loved it!

Most Crowd Pleasing

Very Best Texas Caviar from the chapter "Speedy Potluck & Party Foods"

This stuff was so good!  It took just minutes to assemble, made tons of servings, and stole the show as the most colorful thing on the dinner table.  I ate it as an appetizer with tortilla chips, slopped it on top of my nachos, and later ate it straight up as a side.  Either way, I thought it was delicious.  The nice thing about making this dish yourself is that you can adjust the heat by changing how much jalapeno you include.  It's also a great source of fiber and veggies.  Lately, it's been unusual for me to go gaga over a vegetable, but I really loved this.

Cookie Bandit gets to pick which one of the above recipes I share with you.  It didn't take long for him to decide on his overall favorite...of course he picked the bread!  What husband doesn't love kissing his wife??? :) 

 Combine the milk and vinegar and let it just sit and coddle...or, use straight up buttermilk instead!  Your pick!

Mix together the whole-wheat flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda...

Mix together the egg, molasses, and shortening or oil with the buttermilk mixture...

Then combine the wet and dry ingredients and pour the batter into a greased loaf pan!

Thirty minutes later at 350 degrees, your bread is done!

Be sure to try some warm and slathered in honey butter...yum.

Quick Brown Bread

From Gooseberry Patch's Rush-Hour Recipes

1 cup milk

1 T. white vinegar

2 cups whole-wheat lour

1 t. salt

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup shortening, melted and cooled, or oil

Combine milk and vinegar in a small bowl; let stand for a few minutes.  In a separate large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.  Mix thoroughly and set aside.  Add remaining ingredients to milk mixture.  Add milk mixture to flour mixture; stir just enough to barely mix.  Pour batter into a well-greased 9"x5" loaf pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center tests clean.  Makes one loaf.

So...how can YOU win a free copy of Rush-Hour Recipes?  Just leave me a comment answering the following question - which of the other recipes featured above would you like me to share?  I'll tally up the answers and share that recipe when I announce the winner!  (Please also make sure I have access to a valid e-mail so that I can contact you if you win.  No contact info, no entry!)  Giveaway ends January 8 at midnight (Central time).  Winner announced Monday, January 9.

PS - Gooseberry Patch gave me a free book to review as well as another to give away, but the views and opinions (and pictures!) presented in this post are entirely my own!   Disclosure...check!