Quick & Crusty French Baguettes

HELP! Back in March I attempted to make this quick bread recipe -- twice. Neither time was I able to get the dough to form. I decided to go ahead and post this recipe anyway despite my failure at it. If any of my readers are able to be successful at this recipe I'd love to hear about it. I want to know how I can make quick baguettes so I'm asking for your help. Please try this recipe and report back. Was it a flop for you too? Or were you able to enjoy this simple recipe?

Quick & Crusty French Baguettes

2 cups very warm water

1 packet yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups flour

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  In a large bowl, whisk together the warm water, yeast, and sugar.  Set the bowl on top of your preheating oven for ten minutes.  Stir in the salt and add the flour a half-cup at a time, until the dough becomes soft but not sticky.  Knead the dough until elastic.

Cut the dough into four even pieces.  Roll each of them into four long, thin ropes.  Twist together two of the ropes to form one loaf.  Twist the other two ropes together to form a second loaf.  Transfer both onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

You can now bake the loaf right away (if you’re in a hurry) or allow it to rise for an additional 15-30 minutes on top of your warm oven.

Now for the SECRET: Fill a large bowl with 3-4 cups of ice.  Open your hot oven and place the baking sheet with the baguettes inside, then toss the ice cubes on the bottom of the oven and quickly shut the door.  Do NOT open your oven for 15 minutes.  Bake until golden brown, about 15-18 minutes.

Serve fresh and hot with your favorite olive oil for dipping.

Recipe found at Babble.com

Romaine Salad with Choice of Raspberry Vinaigrette or Creamy Italian Dressing

Bummer, I have no beautiful photo to accompany this recipe. I always love photos but I take very poor food images so sadly, you'll have to go without this time. But I'll make it up to you by giving you a delicious recipe for not one, but TWO homemade dressings and a simple salad to pair them with. The dressings make enough for multiple salads so save those old glass store-bought dressing bottles and reuse them to refrigerate your new favorite homemade dressing. :)

Romaine Salad with Choice of Raspberry Vinaigrette or Creamy Italian Dressing
Raspberry Vinaigrette:
3 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
1 shallot, quartered
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dried thyme
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Creamy Italian Dressing:
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 garlic clove, lightly crushed with the side of a knife blade, and quartered
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pinch crushed red pepper
2 tablespoons Parmesan
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Salad:
12 cups romaine lettuce soaked in salt water to remove grit, stiff spines removed, torn into bite sized pieces and dried with a salad spinner (from 2 or 3 heads romaine lettuce)
1 red onion, thinly sliced on a mandolin
1 Vidalia onion, thinly sliced on a mandoline
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 small loaf French bread, sliced, toasted and cut into croutons

Directions
For the raspberry vinaigrette:
Add the vinegar to a blender, replace the lid, turn it on, and through the feed opening, add, 1 at a time, the shallot, black pepper, salt, mustard, and thyme. Then leaving the blender running, add the olive oil in a slow thin stream.

Wash and dry the blender to have it ready to prepare the other dressing.

For the creamy Italian dressing:
Add the vinegar to a blender, replace the lid, turn it on, and through the feed opening, add, 1 at a time, the garlic, black pepper, salt, red pepper, and Parmesan. Then leaving the blender running, add the olive oil in a slow thin stream.

For the salad, toss the lettuce, red onion, sweet onion, tomatoes, Parmesan, and parsley together in a large bowl. Top with croutons, and serve the dressings on the side.

This yummy salad recipe is courtesy of FoodNetwork.com.

Let's the blogging begin...again! (And Spanish Rice)

Ah, Meals by Mel...what happened?

What can I say? I've been busy. I've been unmotivated. I've been distracted. Yes, yes and yes. But I think it's time to come back. I really enjoyed my food blog when I was doing it. And I know a few people who have actually referenced my blog and tried a few of my recipes. I even have a list of recipes waiting in my cue to share with you. So thanks to your positive feedback and requests for me to keep blogging, I am going to get my groove on and start cooking and writing again. Oh, and I know leaving comments are often difficult so I've added a few new buttons at the bottom of each post so you can quickly let me know if you 'like' this post.

As a way to kick things off, here's the Spanish Rice recipe that I promised to share with you back in February. It's super easy and oh so good!

Spanish Rice

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons chopped onion

1 1/2 cups uncooked white rice

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup chunky salsa

Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.

Mix rice into skillet, stirring often. When rice begins to brown, stir in chicken broth and salsa. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes, until liquid has been absorbed.

Recipe found at Allrecipes.com

Honey Wheat Pizza Crust

I love the standard pizza dough recipe I posted last month, but I was looking for one that included wheat flour so I was happy when I stumbled across this one. So simple to make and it tastes yummy.

Honey Wheat Pizza Crust

Time: 5 minutes prep + 2 hours rising

Yield: 2 twelve inch crusts

1 t yeast (I use active dry)

1 3/4 C water

2 C white flour

2 C wheat flour

1 t salt

1/3 C olive oil

1 T honey

1. Pour the yeast over the top of your warm water. Don't stir....Just let it fall like snow.

2. Pour your wheat flour and your white flour into your stand mixer. Add the salt and stir it around a bit.
3. Pour the oil into the flour. Let your mixer combine it all up, nice and pasty like.

4. Add your honey.

5. Add the water and yeast mixture. Mix it all until it is combined. No need to let it knead for a long period of time. Just get it mixed up well. Cover it with some plastic wrap and let it rise for at least 2 hours. You can also put it in the fridge if you aren't planning on using it until later that day. You can actually leave it in the fridge for several days and it will just get better with age.

6. Divide the dough in half. Pour some olive oil onto a pizza stone, or any other kind of baking sheet. A stone is not required. Let the dough hang out there for about 5 minutes. Then stretch the dough out to the edges of the pan.

7. Cover with sauce and pizza toppings. Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutest, or until the cheese is bubbly and the underside of the crust is golden brown.

Recipe from Jamie Cooks It Up! 

What toppings are you putting on your pizza?

On my table this week...

I realized that today is Friday which for most people marks the end of the week, but in the Matthews' household today is our Monday. Friday is when Josh starts his five day stretch at work which means meal planning and grocery shopping for me. My challenge/theme for this week is to not purchase any "meat" from the grocery store and instead make dishes from whatever I have stored in my freezer. I'm also looking at this as an opportunity to clean out my tiny freezer and make space for some new stuff. Here's what I have planned for this week:

Enchiladas with Spanish rice and black beans -- this is yet another new enchiladas recipe. I'm kind of on a kick to find the best enchilada recipe out there. I plan to use my frozen chicken for this meal. Oh, and I can't forget to share my Spanish rice recipe with you!

Pizza -- yep, again! I found pizza dough hidden in the back of my freezer which will make for a super quick meal one of these nights. Plus I can add fresh veggies from my Wildly Organic delivery that just arrived.

Red Beans & Rice -- Ok, I'm cheating here. I'm not using anything from my freezer for this one but I needed a quick and easy recipe that I can make on a night that Josh is working til 9pm.

Boneless Ribs -- hm, not sure if they're pork or beef ribs since I didn't label them. Guess this will be a nice surprise. :) No recipe for this one. I'll probably bake these slowly for an hour then slather them with some BBQ sauce. Broccoli and cauliflower will join this meaty dish.

Pork Casserole with Biscuit Topping -- This was my sisters "birthday dinner" growing up. I recently found the recipe in my childhood cookbook that my mom put together for me a couple Christmas's ago. Natural ground pork was on sale a couple weeks ago so I bought some and froze it.

Add in a night of leftovers and we're covered until our next grocery shopping trip. I'll be sure to post my recipes as I make them so you can enjoy them too.

What do you have tucked away in your freezer that you could make this week?

Cake Mix Cookies

I'm not going to tell you how many times I made this recipe in the past week...ok, fine, you convinced me...three times!!! But I promise I didn't eat all of the cookies myself. Funfetti cake was the best. It was difficult to add chocolate chips to the batter since it's so oily. Instead it worked better to roll the cookie balls then place the chocolate chips on top. Plus you can make cute designs with the chocolate chips that way, like flowers and Mickey Mouse ears. This is a great recipe to do with kids.

Cake Mix Cookies

makes about 2 dozen cookies

1 cake mix

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup mix-ins (chocolate chips, coconut, m&ms, anything you want!)

Mix all the ingredients together.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.  Bake in a 350F oven for about 10 minutes, or until set in the center.

So happy to have found this recipe at Cafe Zupas

Mushroom Bourguignon

I know I've told you about my love for mushrooms, so I decided to try this mushroom dish the other night and let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS! I was so stuffed by the end of the meal. I ate two huge helpings which was disappointing only because there wasn't any left for lunch the next day. If you love mushrooms, please give this recipe a try. Mom and Dad, I think you could easily make this a vegan dish!

Mushroom Bourguignon
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds portabello mushrooms, sliced into ¼ inch slices
½ carrot, finely chopped
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup full bodied red wine
2 cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme (or ½ teaspoon dried)
1 tablespoon butter
1 ½ tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup pearl onions, peeled and thawed if frozen (optional)
Egg noodles, cooked

Heat two tablespoons olive oil in a medium dutch oven or large sauce pan over high heat. Sear the mushrooms for about three or four minutes or until they start to darken. Before they begin to release much liquid remove from heat and set aside.

Lower the heat to medium and add in another tablespoon of olive oil. Saute the carrots, onion, thyme, salt and pepper for about 10 minutes until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Add the wine to the vegetables and turn the heat back up. Reduce it by half, scraping the bottom of the pot to remove any bits that are stuck. Add in the tomato paste and the broth. Remove the thyme sprigs (if using fresh) and add back in the mushrooms (and any juices that have collected) and simmer the mixture for 20 minutes, or until the mushrooms are very tender. Add in the pearl onions (if using).

Combine the tablespoons of butter and flour and stir it into the stew. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the sauce is thick and has a nice consistency. Spoon the mixture over egg noodles. 

I found this recipe at A Cozy Kitchen

What's your favorite mushroom dish?