Saints Went All the Way!

Sunday was a big, big day in our household. We had around 20 people here to eat, watch the game, eat, drink, eat and play with the dog wearing a homemade jersey.

We had muffalettas and I spent a lot of time trying to make them as close to correct as possible-- Cori and I made the bread ourselves, we ordered olive salad from Cajun Grocer, and we filled the sandwiches with capicola, salami, mortadella, emmentaler and provolone. They were incredibly tasty and really tasted like the real things to me.

We also made a king cake that was a show-stopper. King cake is a traditional New Orleans treat that is only made and eaten during Carnival season, which is from Twelfth Night to Fat Tuesday. We used Emeril's recipe, which is available here and totally worth all the fuss. We tucked a baby into the cake but nobody found it! There's one piece for Patrick and I to split for dessert tonight-- maybe it'll show up there.

Our friend Carole brought these gorgeous corn fritters and a big, gooey tub of cheese grits.

This is half of our spread. There was a big pot of jambalaya that my father-in-law slaved over and some red beans and rice (provided by the fine folks at Zataran's.) We ate well and we ate often! I see salads in our future...

Hot Buttered Rum

If you came to my home on a day like today, there would be a fire in the fireplace and I would greet you with one of these:

Ingredients (makes two mugfuls)
2 jiggers of rum
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
boiling water
cinnamon sticks to garnish (if you have them. I didn't.)

How To
Pour one jigger of rum into each mug. Turn your kettle on to boil while you combine the butter and sugar in a small sauce pan. Once the butter and sugar have melted together in a smooth batter, divide between the two mugs. Top off with boiling water, stir and serve.

Success!

Patrick reports that his bread was stable and delicious! Thank you, Baker's Dozen! I now have a sandwich bread I can feel good about!

The Baker's Dozen's White Sandwich Bread

I've long wanted to be one of those people who makes their own bread. Not just bread for fun or bread for treats, but bread that's sturdy enough to go in a lunch bag. This recipe has simple ingredients and fussy instructions, America's-Test-Kitchen-esque fussy instructions, if you know what I mean (click to enlarge.)

Still, I was able to put the dough together, kneed it and have it rising with minimal attention. I split the dough in half and made one half into dinner rolls. The instructions have you put a plastic bag over the dough, get air into the bag by shaking it, then tie it shut while it rises.

I realized a bit late that I didn't divide my batch evenly enough, so my loaf of bread ended up a little shorter than I wanted.

The rolls baked while I made the rest of our dinner. Don't these look lovely?

They were pillowy yet sturdy. They would be amazing with a piece of smokey ham sandwiched in the middle. I'll admit it-- I ate three of them for dinner and not much else.

Once dinner was done, the bread was ready to go in the oven. I wish I'd had a little more dough so the loaf was taller but I'll remember that for next time.

These slices look promising!

I will absolutely be making this bread again, though I'm not quite sure how it will stand up in a lunch bag. Patrick's sandwich today will be heavily analyzed so we can see if we've found the magic recipe or if the search continues.

For a copy of the Baker's Dozen, click here.

Cookbook of the Month: The Baker's Dozen Cookbook: Become a Better Baker with 135 Foolproof Recipes and Tried-and-True Techniques

We LOVED our month with Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food. I'm honestly sad to stop blogging about it. We're still talking about his pork chops and peppers full of pasta. One of the really nice things about this cookbook is it's the size of a large paperback book-- you could take it to work with you, find something you want to make for dinner during lunch, pick up the ingredients on the way home and about 30 minutes after you start, you'll have a healthy, tasty and interesting dinner on the table.

For the month of February, I'll be baking from The Baker's Dozen Cookbook. I used to bake lots of breads and other treats but somewhere along the way, I started to prefer searing a steak instead of waiting for dough to rise. I'm looking forward to getting my rolling pin out and making the house smell like sugar and butter.

Toffee Peanut Crunch Banana Bread

Let's make one thing clear-- banana bread is not health food. It's delicious and it's a good way to use bananas past their prime, but it's just two steps away from cake. With the addition of toffee peanuts-- both in the bread and crushed up on top-- this banana bread is now just one step away from cake. I really don't mind!

Ingredients
3/4 cup toffee peanuts
3-4 black bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
large pinch of salt

How To
Preheat your oven to 350 and prep a small loaf pan (I haven't been able to find my loaf pans since we moved and some weird pride prevents me from buying more, so I used a square pan, which made the bread look even more like cake.) Take 1/4 cup of the toffee peanuts and place them in a small plastic bag, then crush them into medium-sized pieces. Set aside.

Mash the bananas and butter together. Mash in the sugar, then the egg and then the buttermilk. In another bowl, mix your flour, baking powder, salt, and the remaining 1/2 cup of the toffee peanuts together. The flour on the peanuts will help keep them from falling to the bottom of the bread.
Fold the flour mixture into the banana mash until everything is moistened but lumps remain. Spoon into your prepared pan. Sprinkle the top with the reserved, crushed toffee peanuts.

Bake for 1 hour. Turn out onto a wire rack and let cool before serving. Promise me you'll wait until it's cool? That's the cruelty of baked goods-- when they smell their finest, they taste like nothing.

Well, would you look at what we have here!

I came home from a walk and found a big box on my stoop, full of Zapp's chips for our Superbowl party!

Patrick and I usually grab a bag of the Voodoo Gumbo chips and snack on them on the flight home, so they taste a little like sad to us, but a very, very tasty sad.