Italian Cheese Loaf

I made this for a ward recipe exchange and everyone loved it! Sorry no pic.

Italian Cheese Loaf

Ingredients:
1 loaf (1 lb.) French bread
2 c. diced fresh tomatoes
1 c. (4 oz.) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1 c. (4 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/4 c. grated Romano cheese
1/4 c. chopped ripe olives
1/4 c. Italian salad dressing
1 tsp. chopped fresh basil
1 tsp. chopped fresh oregano

Directions:
1. Cut top half off loaf of bread; set aside. Carefully hollow out bottom of loaf, leaving a 1/2 in. shell (discard removed bread or let the kids gobble it up!).
2. In a bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; mix well. Spoon into bread shell; replace top. Wrap in foil. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted. Slice and service warm.
Yield: 12 servings

Notes:
- I didn't have the fresh basil or oregano so I just used the dry spice, however you call that form of it. :)
- You can get creative with this. I've heard of people doing french bread pizza for an after school snack. Same idea as this, you just top it with some sauce and cheese and whatever your kids like (pepperoni, olives, etc.), broil it for a bit, and you've got a fun quick little pizza.
- I can't tell a difference between grated romano and grated parmesan. There probably is, but I'm sure grated parmesan works great too if that's all you have on hand.

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Sundays are "treat days" at our house. We love to make dessert on Sunday. This past week, my 5 year old had seen a picture of homemade "CTR" (stands for Choose The Right) pretzels in The Friend magazine and had been bugging me for days on end to make them. So we made some soft pretzels for the first time and they turned out delicious!  I took the recipe from the Food Network so I can't take any credit for it, but we sure enjoyed them. Note: these are not nearly as good the next day. So either invite people over or eat a lot, because they're best eaten fresh. It makes 8 pretzels.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
• Vegetable oil, for pan
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
• Pretzel salt (kosher salt again)

Directions

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.
Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.
In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.
Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Quesadillas

Have you ever made homemade tortillas? You will love them! They're super easy, and super cheap. I took the tortilla recipe from the Our Best Bites Cookbook.

You'll need:

2 1/2 cups flour

3/4 tsp. kosher salt

1/4 cup plus 2 T. shortening

3/4 - 1 c. hot water

Combine flour and salt in mixer. Add shortening and combine until crumbly. While mixer is still running, add the hot water (start with 3/4 and add more if you need to).

Divide the dough into 8-10 balls and roll them out as thinly as possible. My kids love to help out with this part. Mine obviously don't resemble circles very well, but that's the shape you're going for.

Cook on a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Bubbles will pop up in your tortilla and you'll only need to do it about one minute on the first side and 30 seconds on the other side. Keep between paper towels or kitchen towels until they're all finished. Best served warm!

For the quesadillas, put one tortilla back on the skillet and add cheese and whatever else you like, then put another tortilla on top of that. Flip over halfway through and voila!

My husband and I really like to add Mexican rice (I just buy the boxes of mexican rice at the store), cheese, black beans and corn in our quesadillas. You can dip them in salsa or ranch, and even throw some chicken in there and it tastes wonderful! It makes a really yummy meal, especially if you've run out of bread and it's lunch time!

Wheat Bread

We eat a LOT of bread in our house. That is why I feel that making homemade wheat bread is one of the main ways I can cut our grocery bill and help us eat healthier. However it’ll take several years of making bread before it actually becomes profitable since we spent somewhere around $350 on a wheat grinder last year (we went with the Nutrimill and are very pleased with it). But eventually it will save us money! And in the mean time we definitely have the health benefits. I hope this recipe isn't too complicated for my first ever post on this blog. It may seem like it at first, but it's really pretty simple.
I got this recipe from my mother in law. I had to change the rising time and play with the amount of yeast a bit (because I live at a different altitude) but now it's fool proof, until we move again that is! I use a bosch mixer. Use the bars the whole time.

Wheat Bread

Mix:
9 c. flour (I do 8 c. wheat, 1 c. white)
2 heaping Tbsp. yeast
Vitamin C (crushed - I use the non chewable kind. I've also been adding a crushed Vit. D tablet)
Add:
7 c. warm water
Mix for 1 min.
Let sit 10 min.
Add:
1/2 c. oil (I use olive)
1/2 c. honey
1 1/2 Tbsp. salt
then add enough flour until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl, usually 7 – 8 c. for me. I usually do a cup or so of white flour here also and the rest wheat.

Let knead 10 min.

Grease pans with Crisco.

Preheat oven to its lowest setting (170F on my oven) while you put dough in pans. Turn off the oven and put bread in to rise. Let rise until double in size (recipe said 25 min. but it’s about 20 min. for me). Turn oven on to 350F (or 325F for glass) and set the timer for 32 – 35 min.

To clarify, yes you will start the timer right away, before the oven is preheated. And try not to open the oven while the bread’s rising or in the early stages of baking. One time mine flattened when I opened the oven. Just use the oven light!

When done put loaves onto cooling racks and grease with Crisco (optional). I bought a huge roll of produce bags from Albertsons and I use those to bag my bread.

I love filling my house with the smell of fresh bread and seeing this on my kitchen counter! Makes me feel much more domestic than I really am. :)

Makes 5 to 5 ½ loaves depending on how big you make your loaves. You may need to freeze some like I do, since homemade wheat bread goes moldy much more quickly than store bought bread!

This dough also makes delicious scones and rolls! For the rolls let rise until double just like the bread then bake for 22 – 25 min.