Whole Wheat Honey Oat Bread

     Bread by request.  Yes, I can.  My cousin Pil (last name Pilarinos) asked me if I ever made whole wheat bread.  I told her I could make anything.  She asked if I could make a whole wheat bread for my Aunt Soul.  I found a recipe on King Arthur Flour using whole wheat, oats, some honey, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla.  I really thought the bread would sweet, but it just has a hint of sweetness.  This is a great loaf for sandwiches, for a snack with a little peanut butter, or for French toast.  It sliced very easily despite it being so soft.  I hope my Aunt Soul likes it.
     I know I've talked about my aunts and uncles names before and that Aunt Soul's name is actually Soulita.  When Richard and I were young Aunt Soul, Uncle Nick (who was Greek), and Pil moved to Waxahachie, Texas.  My mother, brother, and I took a train trip to see them.  It truly was the middle of no where Texas back then.  There were small clusters of houses, but lots of wide open space.  While there, Rick and I caught a horned toad.  We had never seen anything like it before.  Living by Lake Pontchartrain we had seen all matter of fish, turtles, snakes, frogs, and lizards, but never a toad with "spikes."  We put the toad in a box and brought it home on the train.  The few other kids in the neighborhood were just as amazed by this toad as we were.  We had the toad outside playing with it, and it got away.  I think the poor thing was fed up with it's fame and us.
     Pil and Aunt Soul ended up in Waxahachie after Katrina.  It was much bigger than they remembered.  It is now a suburb of Dallas/Fort Worth.  They moved to Alexandria because Wayne and I moved to Pineville.  Wayne and I moved to Pineveille because his sisters had moved to Moreauville (which makes Pineville look like New York City). His sisters are no longer in the area, as I've mentioned before Gerry died a couple of years ago, and Ms. Carol is living in Picayune.  Pil is living in a small apartment that she loves, and Aunt Soul, now 92, is in a nursing home.  It's nice to have some family living near by.  I hope Pil and Aunt Soul enjoy the bread, because it contains one very special ingredient - love.

Tomato, Basil, and Garlic Filled Pane Bianco

     Have you ever seen a bread that was so pretty that you knew you would have to make it.  Well, that's the case with this bread.  While I was looking for a different bread to make, I came across the recipe for Tomato, Basil, and Garlic Pane Bianco.  What is there not to love - lots of fresh basil, sun dried tomatoes packed in oil, garlic, and Italian blend cheese - mmmmm, yum.  As I said the thing that really got my attention was the way it looked.  This bread makes a beautiful presentation with minimum work.  The technique of filling, slashing, and shaping is super easy.  The flavor matched the looks.  It was great.  When you look at it, you think that it would have a crunchy crust kind of like Italian bread, but it doesn't.  The bread is a very soft and tender bread.  Living in the sticks the challenges was to find sun dried tomatoes packed in oil and fresh basil.  I way over bought the basil, but that leftover basil became a wonderful pesto (grilled chicken with pesto cream). 
     One of the best things about this recipe was learning the technique.  I want to make this again using different herbs and cheese to stuff it.  I can imagine it with oregano, feta, and kalamata olives or cheddar, roasted poblano, roasted garlic, and bits of cured chorizo.  Since it makes two loaves you can make one savory and one sweet.  Dried cherries, mini dark chocolate chips, with a little cinnamon sugar would make a great dessert.  This bread screams for you to use your imagination to fill it with anything you want.
     Some of this bread made its way to Baton Rouge.  Wayne and I had lunch with our buddy Anita before she moves to Hobbs, New Mexico.  She's been to Hobbs several times, and from what I gather Pineville is happening when compared to Hobbs.  I do love the southwest.  A group of us went to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta a few years ago.  It was one of those things that you see on travel shows and say to yourself, "Someday I'm going there."  I was glad someday came.  We arrived at the Fiesta grounds pre-dawn so we could see the Dawn Patrol.  It was great to be able to walk among the balloons and take photo after photo.  To see hundreds of balloons in the air was magical.  As dusk settles on the fair grounds the Afterglow show begins.  Who cares about fireworks.  To see all of those balloons light up from their burners and glow in the dark was gorgeous.  It was just so cool.  It's definitely worth going to again. 

     The group from left to right - Marvin and Keri, Rhonda, Pat (Madam Principal Lady), Me and Wayne

Bagels

     Bagels!  There is nothing that says Sunday morning more than a bagel.  This was not my first time making bagels, and I’ve got to say not my favorite recipe.  I used the recipe from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice; the bagels had a good chew, but they did make a very puffy bagel.  Also, I did not brush the bagels with egg white to adhere the toppings, since the directions did not advocate it.  The belief being that the toppings would adhere if applied to the bagel as soon as the bagels were pulled out of the water.  Once I moved the bagels to the cooling racks, the toppings began to fall off.  The bagels also did not brown as much as I would have liked.  (And yes, I baked them an additional 10 minutes.)  The bagels did have a good chew, a good flavor, and an acceptable crust.  They were good bagels, just not really good bagels.  My favorite homemade schmear is cream cheese, lots of roasted garlic, and black pepper.  It’s easy and very flavorful.
     Years ago I visited New York with my brother and his girlfriend.  I asked Wayne if he wanted anything from New York and he said, “Bring back some bagels.”  I brought him a dozen New York style bagels, and so began our bagel prejudice.  After having “real” bagels that had a wonderful crust, a chewy texture, and a wonderful variety of flavors and toppings, grocery store and frozen bagels would no longer do.  Our search for “real” bagels in the New Orleans area had begun.  We found “The Bagel Factory” in Metairie.  Great bagels, limited schmears, and okay coffee.  A few years later we found “The Bayou Bagelry” in Metairie.  Great bagels, great schmears (loved the roasted peppers), and great coffee.  Bagels will always be Sunday morning breakfast fare.  We would go to one of the bagel shops, drive to the Lakefront, and have our bagels as Wayne would read “News of the Weird” to me.  We did this for 15 years.  Then you know who washed us to Katy, TX for six months.  We did manage to find “The Bagel Café” in Katy and a small lake to sit by.  Before we moved to Pineville, we bought several dozen bagels in Katy.  I know that you are going to find this difficult to believe, but there are no bagel shops in the Pineville/Alexandria area.  We did find a bagel place in Baton Rouge (New York Bagels) to get real bagels.  We would always buy a few dozen when we would go there.
       Sunday morning bagels have always been our special time together.  It was a way of leaving the world behind.  It was a quiet time when no one else existed.  It was just the two of us and a very quiet lakefront.  We had no worries, no responsibilities, no phones - just us.  Two large coffees, two warm bagels, and each other.  I’ve told Wayne when I die, throw my ashes in Lake Pontchartrain, have a bagel, think of me, and smile.

Stecca - A Little Lagniappe

     I know I already baked my bread for this week, but it was almost gone, and I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while.  So I thought, "Why not have a lagniappe bread this week."  
     Stecca is an extremely easy no-knead bread.  It is basically like a baguette, only very easy to make.  It is a very wet dough.  The first rise is12 - 18 hours.  I replaced the yeast with a half cup of my starter and also increased the amount of water by nearly a half cup.  This morning I took the dough out of the bowl and placed on a silicone mat that had been liberally dusted with flour.  I stretched and folded the dough 3 or 4 times.  Back in the bowl for the second rise, about a hour and a half.  The recipe called for each loaf to be garnished with olives, garlic cloves or cherry tomato halves.  I did not have any cherry tomatoes, but I did have a fresh jalapeno and some parmigiano reggiano.  One loaf was topped with jalapeno stuffed olives, one with pimento stuffed olives, one with garlic cloves (with a good sprinkling of black pepper), and the final loaf with a slice of fresh jalapeno and a small cube of parmigiano reggiano in the center.  The bread was removed from the bowl after the final rise.  The dough was divided into 4 pieces.  Each piece was stretched and placed on an pan lined with parchment and oiled.  Each loaf was then stuffed, brushed with olive oil and baked.  There is no shaping , just pull the bread into a rustic baguette shape.
     One of the unusual things with stecca is you eat it while it's warm.  As the bread cools, the crust softens.  Wayne couldn't believe he was finally getting warm bread.  The flavor of the bread with the toppings was great.  It was very aromatic when it baked. The crunch of the bread was sensational.  As I've mentioned before Wayne is, as our cousin Lillian likes to say, a pepper belly.  I was not surprised that this jalapeno and parmigiano reggiano was he favorite.  I was surprised that he said it was quite spicy.  I did indeed seed the pepper and remove the membrane.  He was right; it was spicier than expected, but wonderfully spicy.   Although the garlic cloves appeared burned, there was no burned flavor, just that wonderful roasted garlic flavor you would expect it to have.
     Stecca is a great bread for anyone who is looking for a very easy bread to make. Or for someone who feels they do not have the skills to make "real" baguettes.   It makes a great presentation, has a  wonderful crust and crumb, and you could convince people that you put a lot of work into it. This is the link for the   Stecca recipe I used.
    

Fruited Sourdough Bread

     I love being able to use my sourdough starter.  After all the TLC it took to grow it from flour, pineapple juice, water, and air, I want to use it often.  I hate having to throw some out when I feed it.  This week I found a wonderful recipe on King Arthur for Fruited Sourdough Sandwich Bread.  I did not have enough golden raisins, so I used some dried cranberries in place of them.  I did not peel the apple, and I tossed in a half cup of chopped pecans just because.  The result was a super fruit studded very moist bread.  The fruit gives it just the right amount of sweetness without it tasting sugary.  Rather than shaping as a traditional loaf, I divided it into three pieces and braided them before placing the dough in the pan for the final rise.
      I went into a major cleaning frenzy today; it doesn't happen often.  I spent most of the morning cleaning the living room and dining room.  My husband then had a client come over to have a couple of photos restored.  (If you get a chance check out his website The Pixel Station.)  While his client was here the AC repairman came.  By the time everyone was gone, it was nearly 2:00, and my breakfast Cherrios were fading.  Lunch was going to be maple glazed pork tenderloin, steamed broccoli, and herbed brown rice.  But we were both hungry, and I needed a quick dinner -  ah I have some sliced turkey, Swiss cheese, and fruited sourdough.  When I tell you it made a great pressed sandwich, I mean it made a great pressed sandwich.  The sweetness from the fruit, the crunch of the pecans, and the gooey Swiss cheese were a wonderful combination.  I'm hoping to still have some of the bread left for pain perdu Saturday morning.  I know it will be delicious.