Pane Hispaniola

     I made Pane Bianco about year ago and loved the bread.  It was filled with basil and sun-dried tomatoes - such a flavorful bread.  But it seems I can never leave things alone.  I thought about the flavors that I love - I love Mexican food.  Roasted peppers, cilantro, cheese, and chorizo. So this variation was just had to be.  I used a cured Spanish chorizo, roasted poblano peppers, fresh cilantro, queso fresco, and a dusting of chili and garlic powders.  I love Mexican chorizo, but I was worried about it being a little too greasy with an overpowering flavor.  I think I made the right decision.  What a aromatic and wonderful combination.  This bead along with a nice tossed salad made a great dinner.

     I come by my love of these flavors honestly.  I love telling people that I am Hispanic.  I get that sure, whatever you say look.  I can understand these looks; I am pretty fair complected with medium brown hair and light brown eyes.  My hair color of choice has been light auburn, I am fair enough to pull it off and have it look natural.  You can see the Murphy and McConnell in me.  My mother's paternal side of her family was from Spain by way of Cuba.  My mother's maiden name was Santa Cruz. She and her six siblings all had black hair, dark brown eyes, and olive complexions.  My mother nor any of her siblings ever learned to speak Spanish.  My cousin, Lillian (named after our grandmother), learned to speak Spanish when she became a missionary as a young adult.  We taught together for many years, with Lil teaching Spanish.  The kids couldn't understand why I didn't speak Spanish since she did.  She would tell her students that she found me in a garbage can when I was an infant, and she took me to her aunt.  One student came to me telling me how wonderful Ms. Pil was.  I agreed she was wonderful, but asked "Why do you think she is so wonderful?"  The student was completely disheartened when I told her it was a story.  Lil always wanted to go to Spain, and she and I went for 2 weeks about 20 years ago.  We toured Spain and walked through the Santa Cruz quarters in Seville.  (Where we saw the Bourbon Street Bar.)  It was a wonderful trip with many cherished memories, but for Lil it was the trip of a lifetime.  Anyway, my mother and her siblings could never deny one another. They all looked so much alike; I used to say if you could have put them all in a bag, shake them up, and pull out one it would be like pulling them all out.  The picture below has eight children in it, the littlest one on the end was Anthony from next door who ran in.  I used to refer to it as the refugee picture.  It was during the depression, but they looked like they just got off the boat although they were all born in New Orleans.

The Santa Cruz clan from left to right - Malcolm (called Mattthew), Alguinaldo  (called Gonala), Antonio (called Tony), Soulita (called Soul), Dolores (my mother), Louiska, and Rosita (called Rosie)

Oat Apple Walnut Bread

    I know it has been quite a while since I have blogged (nearly a year), but I have am still baking at least once a week. My love of oat bread brought me back to my blog. I am also soooooo ready for this stupid hot weather to go away.  My friend, Eileen, says she smells autumn in the air. I hope she's right.  So with thoughts of cool weather and autumn dancing around in my head, I can't help thinking about apples.  Hmmm, oats and apples what pairs well with those two ingredients - nuts and cheese.  I searched the web and decided on a recipe at King Arthur Flour for Apple Oatmeal Bread.  The recipe called for walnuts but not cheese.  The recipe makes two loaves, so I made one with loaf with some smoked blue cheese, and the other basically according to directions.  I hate to waste anything, so I have been saving my crumbs from the bottom of the shredded wheat bag to use in bread.  I figured it would have to work in bread, and this was the bread to try it in.  I just added an extra quarter cup of milk.  The cereal crumbs just added a little more texture and fiber to the bread without impacting the flavor of the oats.  Even though the recipe has brown sugar and a bit of cinnamon in it, the bread is not a sweet bread.  The pans were oiled and sprinkled with oats before the dough was put in for the final rise.  I did not sprinkle the top with oats because Wayne does not particularly like them on the top. I love the oats embedded in the crust.  It adds a beautiful rustic look to the loaves.  I slashed the loaf with the blue cheese down the center, and the loaf with out with a few smaller slanted slashes so I could tell them apart once baked.  The regular loaf reached the 190 degrees a few minutes before the other loaf giving it a slightly darker crust.   Both loaves turned out great.

    Bread with apple, walnuts, and blue cheese just screamed bacon.  I also happened to have a beautiful ripe creole tomato.  The "b" word, bacon, is rarely spoken in my house.  I did have some thick sliced peppered bacon in the freezer.  When I told Wayne we were going to have BLT's for lunch his face lit up.  You would have thought it was his birthday.   I don't normally toast really fresh bread, but a BLT needs toasted bread.  The sandwiches were fantastic.  The oven "fried" bacon was super crispy, the tomato was super juicy, and the bread had the perfect amount of blue cheese to add that hint of flavor I was looking for.  The loaf without the blue cheese will make a great pain perdu. If you have read my blog in the past you know I love French toast.  It always brings back memories of my childhood.

     Apples always make me think of bobbing for apples when I was a kid.  What a fun and goofy thing to do.  Getting a face full of water, trying to bite into that red apple that kept getting away.  Of course, you don't would never quit until you would get an apple.  As an adult I always think of helping my friend Rhonda when she made caramel apples.  I was her "apple" bodied assistant.  I make a great gofer/assistant.  Just tell what to do, point me in the right direction, and I'm on the chore.  I would melt and stir caramel and chocolate, cut ribbon, bag cooled and decorated apples, and whatever else she needed me to do.  You have to know Rhonda to appreciate her caramel apples.  There is nothing ordinary about them.  She starts with huge, unblemished apples.  Dips them in a silky caramel, and rolls them in pecans or almonds, once they have dried she dips them in either milk or white chocolate before adding the finishing the touches of drizzled colored white chocolate or seasonal sprinkles. Sometimes it was difficult to get them in the bag because the finished product was so big.   What was my pay for being a good assistant?  Rhonda apples - better than gold and much tastier.