TWD: Savory Brioche Pockets

After looking at the recipe, I felt like I should stuff some chicken and other things inside these 'pockets' but decided I better just stick to the recipe.  And after making them and eating them, I'm thinking maybe I should have listened to my heart.  Dramatic, I know.  I forgot to add the chives to the potato and goat cheese mixture, oops.  I ended up sprinkling them on top to try to make up for my misfortune but these just didn't wow me enough to make them again.  

It was a 2 day process for the brioche and then several different pans are needed to 'steam' the potatoes and cook the asparagus and caramelize the onions.  And honestly after all that time and all those dirty dishes, I was expecting to have my socks knocked off.  Sadly, they weren't.  My socks are still in tact.

I enjoyed mixing the dough, but we've made brioche before so I knew what to expect.  And I have to admit, I think she's so pretty.

 Calvin helped me fill up the pockets and I caught him eating asparagus!  I just about died because he usually and forcefully refuses asparagus.  So there's that.

 The pockets before the rise.

 After the rise and ready to bake.

 Baked.  The edges didn't really want to stay nicely pressed like they were in the book, but I figured the fillings were solid enough, I didn't worry too much about it.

I KNOW the brioche recipe is a winner because these Pecan Sticky Buns blew my mind and used the same brioche recipe.  I think it's just a matter of what you shove inside these things and your preferences.  If you'd like to try the recipe or a variation of it, you can visit the blog of our host for the week:  Loaves and Stitches.

I'm sure the amazing TWD bakers have come up with some mouth-watering renditions.  To see their links go HERE.

TWD: Rustic Potato Loaves

I try not to get braggy about food.  Just because I like something, doesn't mean everyone will.  Just because I think something is 'the best...' or delicious, doesn't mean you will.  Because of that, I normally try to reel in my sentiments.  I don't want to over-sell anything.  But seriously, this bread was bomb.  Yeah, it made me feel cool enough to start talking like a 15 year old boy.  And since we are already there, I will just tell you that it was also epic.  Seriously.

When I took it out of the oven, I wasn't all that impressed.  When bread doesn't go how I want, and comes out looking wonky, I label it 'rustic.'  While this was supposed to be rustic, I wasn't in love with the look of it.  Have you ever seen someone and you don't think they're much to look at, but then you get to know them and it turns out, they're flippin' beautiful?  Or vice-versa:  They're beautiful until you get to know them and then they quickly lose all appeal?  Well, this bread was the former.  I wasn't so impressed with the rustic look of it, but then I got to know it a little better and I can't figure out why I didn't love it from the get-go.  I've made potato bread before, but never found a recipe that I wanted to commit to, until now.  Mark my words, this bread and I are going to have a long lasting relationship.  I am hopelessly in love with it.  

I loath peeling potatoes but I was expecting to have to peel them for this bread.  Um, nope.  And I almost chickened out and peeled them anyway because I thought it was going to be super weird having potato peels in the bread.  It wasn't super weird.  Everything about this bread was super awesome. (to be read: ..super awesome period!)  

I had to use a couple red potatoes because I didn't quite have enough russet.  I didn't have enough all purpose flour.  I subbed 2 cups of bread flour for the all-purpose so I left out 1/4 cup (I think I read/heard that bread flour soaks up more liquid than all purpose so I didn't want it to be too dry.)  to make 4 1/2 cups of flour all together.  The substitutions worked seamlessly.  So not only is this bread delicious  it's also forgiving!  

It did give me a little bit of anxiety when I was mixing the dough but the book warned me it would look crumbly.  I seriously wanted to add about 1/4 cup of water right here....

'Have faith and keep beating.'  And so I did.  And it paid off.  The dough did come together how it was supposed to.  Phew!

I didn't use my baking stone because it wasn't big enough for both loaves at the same time.  I lined a baking sheet with parchment, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with cornmeal.

I was a little worried about transferring the dough, but it wasn't so bad.  The biggest hiccup was that one of the loaves was a bit crooked and it stayed that way.  (below)  Don't you think it's rustic and beautiful?  Well, maybe taste it and get back to me.

If you don't love the outside, try not to love the inside.  I dare you.

We had chicken salad sandwiches with the bread.  I wasn't sure how to cut it because just slicing it would have made for weird shaped sandwiches so I cut the bread down the middle and acted like it was 4 loaves of bread.

I can imagine this bread would be great with anything on it or nothing at all.  You really can't go wrong.

If you'd like the recipe, you can buy the book or visit the blog of our host for the week:  Simply Sweet.  Dawn also has some great step-by-step photos and a loaded baked potato version that I am sure is down-right delicious!

If you'd like to see how the other TWD bakers did you can go HERE.

Chicken-in-a-Packet (or in the crock pot)

This has been such a favorite for a long time, it deserves a post on the blog.  It's one of Tyler's favorite recipes and he always requests it when I ask him his dinner ideas for the week.  As you can tell by the name of the recipe, it actually calls for the chicken and veggies to be cooked in individual foil 'packets,' kind of like a tinfoil dinner, but in the oven.  While it was fun to cook this that way the first couple times, it gets daunting separating everything into packets.  Now that my kids are older, it might be fun to have everyone make their own instead of me having to do them all.  But before I just realized that my kids can help, I looked for easier ways to make one of our favorite dishes.  I have made this is a covered baking dish in the oven as well as the crock pot.  All three ways have produced a successful result.  Just decide which way you like best.  My kids like to have the rice with it.  Tyler and I like it either way, rice or not.  I am not sure why we still call it "Chicken in a Packet" since we don't really cook it in the packet anymore, but none-the-less, we do.

Turkey or Chicken Pot Pie

{photo updated 3/4/2013}

Every year after Thanksgiving, my mom would make turkey pie with the leftovers.  I never understood the brilliance of it until I was trying to shove a bunch of leftover turkey down the throats of my family.  Everyone loves it on Thanksgiving, but when it gets to be a couple days later, we are all kind of sick of turkey.  It's such a great idea to transform the leftovers into something that makes them forget they are eating leftovers.  I love this pie so much that I often turn it into chicken pot pie when we don't have leftover turkey on hand.  If you have leftover gravy, it's great to use that instead of the chicken broth in the recipe, just add broth to equal the cup and a half.

Pork Chops with Mushroom Sauce and Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

I know it's Halloween.  I should be posting some kind of gruesome thing to eat.  Like those witches fingers or eyeball cupcakes or something.  But alas, I have no such post.  If it makes you feel better, it's a dead pig. ;)  

When I was growing up we used to eat pork chops with cream of mushroom soup over rice quite often and I loved it.  This is kind of a play on that but I think tastes a little fresher and is a bit healthier. We had it with Parmesan Mashed Potatoes but you could serve it with white or brown rice.  I had a pork roast in the freezer that I cut into pork chops but you could definitely buy them already cut.  This is a pretty painless recipe with few ingredients and not a lot of supervision.  I hope you like it as much as we did. :)

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

I have been wanting to make a potato soup for a couple weeks.  It's been rolling around in my mind and today when I was at the grocery store, they had 10 lb bags of potatoes on sale.  I think it was a sign that tonight was the night.  I went into my kitchen, annoyed by the thought of trying to find a recipe, and decided to just go for it.  I wanted a potato soup that was good and cheesy and comforting.  Some days, when I go into my kitchen without a plan, it can end up being disastrous, but today, luckily, was not one of those days. I asked Tyler after we ate if he thought the soup was blog-worthy and he didn't hesitate at all before saying, "Yes!"  (I thought it was, I just wanted a second opinion.)

Doughnuts

Is there anything to say here really?  This is my favorite doughnut recipe so far, they are so tasty and light.

The original recipe is insanely huge.  I really don't recommend making that much unless you are planning on opening a drive up window, it mkes 4 DOZEN DOUGHNUTS!!  I halved the recipe (of course) and I still ended up sticking a cookie sheet of dough in the freezer because it was still too much for us to eat.  And we weren't dainty about it (not that we ever are).  I think next time I will try cutting the recipe down to 1/3.   I used bread flour this last time instead of all purpose and I think it made them a little easier to work with when it came to frying them.   It's easiest if you have a fryer, but I have done it before in just a pan and some oil and thermometer.  I really don't recommend frying anything without a thermometer to make sure you are around the right temperature.  Just try to get it at the right temp and keep it there, it might take some adjusting.   I have included a recipe for the glazed (our favorite) and cinnamon sugar. 

Mashed Potatoes

 {Photo updated 3/10/2013}

I love mashed potatoes.  If you ask Hadlee, I love everything and I always say everything is delicious (Hence, the blog name!).  But that's not really true, I just usually don't make things I don't like.  Every now and then, it's kind of nice to be the adult.  And as the adult, I pair mashed potatoes with everything I possibly can.  Luckily, my family likes them as much as I do. :)  I really don't peel potatoes because I spent a childhood being a potato slave, but feel free.  Sometimes I use regular russet potatoes but red are my favorite.

Corn Chowder Bread Bowls

I decided I wanted soup in a bread bowl.  I can't think of a more Fall-like meal!  And I thought I should redeem myself after posting about ice cream.  This soup is super easy, which I like, it doesn't call for a ton of ingredients, which I also like, and it doesn't take long to make.  If you don't like corn, I would just stop reading right here and find a different kind of chowder to put in your bread bowl.  This soup has three different kids of corn.  Yeah, when I say it's corn chowder, I mean it.  I happen to love corn, so it doesn't bother me one bit.