Bread Baking Babes Get Stuffed for October

It's the 16th again...time for the Bread Baking Babes to reveal the October bread. This month we were treated by Katie of Thyme for Cooking, our Kitchen of the Month, to a savory stuffed bread.This was a sticky dough at first, but fine by the time I was rolling it out.Of course that may have been because I stored it overnight after the dough had it's first rise. I let it come to room temperature and rise a little more, then turned it out on a floured board and shaped it. It smells heavenly with the herbs, but the herbs were barely tasted in the final bread. 

I admit that part of the situation may be because I used a different onion filling. Thinly sliced onions are mixed with honey, white wine, and bacon drippings, then caramelized. When you make the bread, you put ricotta cheese in the center third, then the onions, then crumbled bacon. It is a wonderful filling, but it may have overpowered the other flavors in the bread. I still want to thank Katie for choosing this savory stuffed bread. It sure did get eaten fast and it made a very pretty braid. It was also filling, so cut small pieces. The original recipe can be found on Katie's site. The filling recipe I used is here.

If you'd like to bake this bread and be a Buddy, bake it by the 29th and let Katie know by e-mail about your experience with this bread and be sure to send a photo for the roundup. Further instructions should be on her blog.

Be sure to visit the other Babes because you can be sure that many of them will make a wonderful savory braid and there may be a few surprises along the way.

Bake My Day - Karen, Blog From OUR Kitchen - Elizabeth, Bread Experience - Cathy, Girlichef - Heather, Life's a Feast - Jaime, Living in the Kitchen with Puppies - Natashya, Lucullian Delights - Ilva, My Diverse Kitchen - Aparna, My Kitchen in Half Cups - Tanna, Notitie van Lien - Lien

the Garden is Sooooo Happy

Although I'm not a big fan of summer...too many hot days...I do love the garden produce of summer.
We have been enjoying chard and grilled summer squash (with extra going to friends...they claim they are thrilled...we'll see if that continues as the plants keep producing more and more and more) and now the beans are blooming so soon there will be lovely haricot verts. Just saw today that the eggplant have set fruit. It will take a while for them to grow big enough to harvest, but probably sometime in August I'll be looking for eggplant recipes.

The fun part is the tomatoes. I grew three different types of heirloom tomatoes from seed, but then got the seedlings mixed up, so it will be a surprise to see what kinds I actually planted. Weeks went by with the plants getting bigger each day. Little yellow flowers were blooming like mad, but no tomatoes were setting up. A little over a week ago I had enough. I went out at mid-morning, pulled off a likely flower, used my thumbnail to open the pollen holding area, then smooshed that flower up into the pollen holding area of some flowers that were still on the plant.

Each plant was treated to pollen from a flower from its own plant, so the varieties should stay true. It worked! Withing 4-5 days, you could see tiny tomatoes, about the size of a raisin. The next day there were far more baby tomatoes than those I had messed with. Looks like the plants got the word that they better set fruit, or else. LOL! Anyway there are now dozens of the little tomatoes, growing larger by the day. It may be September before I harvest any of them, but at least there will BE some to harvest! BTW, I've done this before when Mother Nature seemed to be asleep at the switch, so I knew it was likely to be successful. You can try it yourself if the bees are not doing the job.

Along with the veggie plants, I planted basil this year. Since rosemary grows in a big shrub down the driveway and my newest rose plant seems to be bonded with some oregano, herbs were easily available for a nice marinated chicken dish for dinner yesterday.

Some rice or good bread will sop up the juices and a green salad is perfect to pick up the herbal flavors, but with crunch and coolness instead.


Wine and Herb Baked Chicken

1 cut-up chicken or about 8 pieces - I used boneless, skinless thighs and breasts
1 cup finely chopped fresh herbs, mixed - I used Italian parsley, rosemary, oregano and basil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil
about 1 cup red wine

Rinse the chicken pieces and set aside.

In a non-reactive bowl, combine the herbs, garlic, mustard, olive oil and wine. Pour into a non-reactive baking dish which is just large enough to hold the chicken pieces. Place the first piece in the baking dish. If the liquid doesn't come halfway up the piece of chicken, add more wine until it does. Then place each piece of chicken in the marinade and then turn it over, thus coating it with the herbs. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover dish with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for an hour.

After an hour remove the dish from the refrigerator and unwrap. Turn each piece over, cover and return to the fridge. Repeat an hour later and let chill one more hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Remove the plastic wrap. Replace it with foil to cover the dish, then bake for 35 minutes, removing the foil cover for the last 5 minutes.

Serves 6 - 8

An Old Rooster Gets Drunk

Nope, this is not a tale about Sweetie getting sloshed. After a couple of posts with offbeat dishes like spicy gingerbread doughnuts and bacon truffles, it seems like time to look at something more classic.

Originally this dish was made by thrifty French housewives with rooster, not hen and the old bird was braised to tenderize him. Since I don't have access to old roosters, I made my Coq au Vin with chicken breast and thigh meat and a good, drinkable, red wine. This dish comes off as high end, fancy food, but really it is comfort food.

Served with some good bread to soak up the juices, and over mashed potatoes, as I did, and with a nice salad, it makes a delicious meal that is easy but is la-de-dah enough to impress guests. It's also great for a romantic meal...and then there will be leftovers.

Coq au Vin
Serves 4-6

2 Slices bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 lb (8 oz.) fresh muchrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons olive or grapeseed oil
3.5 - 4 lbs mixed skinless checken breasts (boneless) & thighs (bones OK)
1 cup dry red wine
1 - 14 oz can chicken broth or 14 oz homemade broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup whole small onions (jarred, canned, ro frozen for ease)
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Heat a Dutch oven or heavy, covered pot over medium high heat. Brown the bacon, stirring occasionally. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

To the Dutch oven add chopped onion. Saute 3 minutes. Add the garlic and mushrooms. Saute another 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the pan and set aside. Wipe any remaining bits from the pan with a paper towel.

Add olive oil to pan. When hot add half the chicken, browning on both sides. Remove from pan and set aside. Brown the remaining chicken on both sides. Set aside.

Deglaze the pan with the red wine, then add the broth, tomato paste, small onions, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper. Stir. Return the bacon and chicken to the pan. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, about 25 minutes, until the chickne juices run clear when pierced. Remove the bay leaves and discard.

Refrigerate overnight to blend flavors (optional).
Return mixture to a simmer.

Make a roux by melting the 4 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan. Whisk in the flour. Cook over low heat a few minutes to brown lightly.

Whisk the roux into the coq au vin. Stir gently around the chicken pieces as the roux thickens the gravy.

Serve in wide, shallow soup bowls, over mashed potatoes, with a sprinkle of chopped parsley over all.

Note: Leftovers are, perhaps, even better than the original serving. Bon appetit!

Let's Go On a Picnic

It's spring. Some of the time it's sunny and not too windy (but not today) and the out of doors calls when we are stuck inside being adult or something. It's picnic time in wine country.

Last Friday friends from New Orleans visited and gave us the perfect excuse to get on the road with a picnic basket full of food. With choices like a day at Bodega Bay, a hike in Armstrong Redwoods near the Russian River, a trip into the past at the Petaluma Adobe, or heading north for some wine tasting, there was no way to have a bad day.

Our guests chose the wine tasting tour, so we headed for the Dry Creek valley, one of our favorite places to taste wine, although there are hundreds of wineries within driving distance. One stop was at the Hop Kiln Winery which is housed in a historic old hop kiln. Inside on the stone walls there are photos from the turn of the century showing hops pickers harvesting the hops from the tall vines. Later those hops were toasted in the kilns and used to flavor beer. Now there are no commercial hops in the valley, but lots of wine grape vines. At this time of year the vines are just starting to leaf out and you can still see the twisting of the old vines.

Our favorite winery to eat lunch at is Armida Winery. You drive up a steep and twisting drive, past two ponds and a bocce ball court. The winery is in a geodesic dome building. They concentrate on reds, so we purchased a nice Zinfandel to go with the picnic. They provide glasses and a wonderful deck with comfortable tables and chairs and red market umbrellas. The view over the valley is wonderful. We nibbled, drank wine, had long rambling conversations and nibbled some more. I'm telling you this while risking the possibility that Armida will become so popular that there will be no tables available when we visit. We already have trouble getting to play bocce ball. Oh well, it really is a great picnic spot.

A favorite picnic for this type of trip includes a selection of crackers, cheeses, salami, nuts, fruits, crudites, and some chocolate.

This time I made sure to include an artisan baguette from The Village Bakery in Sebastopol and some Humboldt Fog goat cheese. The bread, sliced fairly thin, makes a nice base for the tangy cheese. Both are made locally. They really go well with the Armida Zinfandel. These will make a wonderful addition to the Blog Party Picnic hosted by Stephanie at Dispensing Happiness. See you there!