One of my favorite things to make in the winter is my variation on a bread pudding.  I take stale bits of bread that we haven’t eaten throughout the week, some fruit, milk, eggs, sugar and spices and make something that is good enough for dessert and healthy enough for breakfast.

There is no rhyme or reason to this bread pudding.  It really is ripping apart pieces of stale bread (2 rolls) and placing them in a 9×9″ baking dish.  I then blend a mixture of milk (maybe 1.5 cups?), 2 eggs, 2-4 tablespoons sugar, healthy pinches of cinnamon and allspice and maybe a few tablespoons of plain yogurt if we have some, a small pinch of salt and a tablespoon or less of oil.  I pour this over the bread, mash in 2 bananas (with clean hands), mix in some blueberries and slivered almonds, make sure everything is soaked, top with some brown sugar and bake at 375F until the top is golden brown.  You can use any type of fruit, lesson the sugar, use honey or maple syrup instead and I’m sure it will turn out just fine.  Experiment!  It’s just stale bread.  This is great to make ahead – just let the bread soak in the milk mixture over night and then bake in the morning.

Structurally, it came out great. The omelet folded nicely and slid off the pan without a problem. In terms of flavor, I think soy sauce would have worked better than the Bragg’s. I also wish I had used a bit more rice syrup to get the sweetness that makes tamagoyaki so good. This tasted a bit more like your regular scrambled eggs. In any case, I decided to have it as a sandwich with lettuce, nayo, and horseradish. Recommended.

Major doldrums right now, thinking about making some pistachio donuts as the end to the Middle Eastern inspired feast we’re having.  I could also reuse the heavy cream from the panna cotta and make icecream….  Decisions, decisions.

Happy new year’s everyone!  We’re still trying to decide which way we want the site to skew and are working on the new layout, so bear with us as we try and sort it all out.  I know a lot of people who have vowed to eat better in the new year, and while donuts might not exactly be on their plate – these donuts could be!  Made from whole wheat pastry flour, ground flax-seeds and a minimum of amount of sugar, these are a great treat and probably not too bad for breakfast either.  It also helps that they’re baked, not fried.  I got a doughnut tin for Christmas and CANNOT wait to start concocting some ideas.  The six doughnut option allows for a lot of mini experimentation.  I topped the basic dough recipe with a mixture of apple cider syrup (graciously given by Phil, who found it in his stocking) that I blended with some confectioners sugar to make it thicker.  Two other donuts were filled with peach preserves and then topped with some of the preserves and toasted almonds.

Basic Doughnut Dough

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light buttermilk or milk mixed with vinegar to sour
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

  To Do:

1. Preheat oven to 325F and grease your doughnut tin.
2. Whisk all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Mix all of the other ingredients in a large measuring cup or a smaller bowl.
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the wet and stir until combined.
5. Pour into a big ziplock baggie, snip the end off and pipe into your donut tins – about 2/3 full.
6. Bake for about 12-14 minutes, until the tops of the donuts are golden and spring back when you touch them.
7. Top with whatever you want while they’re warm – turbinado sugar and cinnamon, powder sugar, preserves, a sugar/water glaze with sprinkles – fool around, the options are endless!
8. Let cool and then store in an airtight container and eat.

This certainly was not in our budget, BUT it is Christmas and I needed a baking challenge.  Behold, our Bûche de Noël!

It was actually not that hard to do, just a bit time consuming.  Utterly worth it – I plan on making one for the family’s Christmas Eve party.  I used this recipe from Saveur and just winged it with the coffee buttercream frosting as I was not in the mood to use up a ton of egg whites.  A showstopper and delicious to boot.

Kinda, sorta, baaa-aack.  Don’t worry, we’re still being super frugal.  So frugal, in fact, that in an attempt to get rid of some starting-to-get sour milk, I made some of this beautiful Irish soda bread.  The recipe is super easy and if you have milk that is just beginning to turn (please DO NOT use curdled or rancid milk), use it instead of buttermilk!  This bread is best day-of and the next day – it doesn’t keep too well, so eat up or tightly wrap and freeze a loaf or give one to a friend!  Delicious with cheddar cheese, sweet butter, soups and just about anything.

I adapted this recipe from Epicurious – the original recipe can be found here.

Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour OR 2 cups all-purpose and 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon bakin soda
• 1 cup golden raisins, soaked (if you have time, do this overnight, if not, just start when you decide to bake) in a mixture of half hot water and half bourbon (or just all water)
• 2 cups just-about-to-turn milk or buttermilk or homemade sour milk (2 tablespoons vinegar + 2 cups milk)

To Do:

1. Mix together the dry ingredients.  Strain raisins, pat dry a bit, and stir those in too.
2. Add milk and stir until the dough forms.
3. Turn dough on a well-floured surface and knead with your hands or use your dough hook on a stand mixer to mix for a minute or too.
4. Half the dough and with floured hands shape each bit into a ball and smush down.
5. Transfer bread to a lightly greased baking sheet and cut an X on the top of each loaf.
6. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.  Place on racks to cool.  Slice and enjoy!

I think I waited too long for aforementioned magic.  When I pressed the grapes through a fine sieve and then transported the contents into a jar for cooling, the next day I found the seal clamped tight.  Laboriously trying to open the jar, I found out that my “syrup” had really turned to grape jelly.  I’m not complaining.  We’ve had some with PB on sandwiches and, even better, using a tablespoon of jam and a tablespoon of peanut butter mixed in with frozen bananas to create a type of vegan “ice-cream”.  Jam all that into a food processor until smooth and then enjoy with a big spoon.  Happy accidents.

It’s getting to be sick season in our apartment, so a lot of soup is being made.  This is a super-easy Tomato and Basil Soup made from herbs from 3rd Ward‘s plot at the DeKalb Market.  We’re doing some harvesting over there and getting the plot ready for winter – if you haven’t stopped by, check it out!  Cool container shops and delicious eats make for a lovely stroll in downtown Brooklyn.

Back to the soup.

Tomato and Basil Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large cans whole tomatoes
• 3-4 cups basil leaves, washed
• 1 cup cooked quinoa or brown rice
• 1 spring rosemary
• 1 small carrot

To Do:

1. Set your oven to broil and line 2 cookie sheets with tinfoil and place the tomatoes from the cans on them.  Reserve all of the liquid in the cans.
2. Simmer the olive oil over medium heat in a large pot on the stove.
3. Add the onions and sautee until they are browned – feel free to add a bit of water if the onions are sticking to the bottom of the pot.  More decadent?  Add olive oil instead.
4. Add the garlic to the pot and put heat to low and cover.  You want the mixture to become nice and browned without burning, so add more liquid and adjust the heat if necessary.
5. Pop the tomatoes under the broiler for about 5 minutes – they should get slightly blistery on top.
6. While the tomatoes are in the broiler, add the tomato liquid to the pot on the stove and stir.
7. Take the tomatoes out of the oven (turn off oven), fold the tinfoil in half and just plop the tomatoes and their juices into the pot.  Mash around with a big wooden spoon and add the quinoa, rosemary, carrot and basil.  Bring to a boil and then let simmer for about 15 minutes.  If it looks too much like pasta sauce, add water or broth.  I just filled one of the tomato cans full of water and used that.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Remove the carrot and rosemary spring and then carefully (it’s hot!), blend the soup in batches or use an immersion blender.  I wanted a very smooth soup, so I opted for the blender.
9. Serve in big bowls with breadcrumbs and fresh basil leaves (optional).

You can, of course, omit the step of roasting the tomatoes a bit.  I thought it created an interesting flavor, but bet the soup would be tasty without that step.  The quinoa was added because I had some cooked in the fridge, but also thought it would provide a creaminess that normally some sort of dairy would provide.  Happy to say that it worked beautifully AND with quinoa you have the added bonus of adding a complete protein to your meal!  Add some salad and you’ve got a simple supper.