Warm And Fresh Bread

The Shamrock is filled with smell of fresh bread. Every week or so the house is filled with this warm, amazing smell. In my attempt to keep my diet simple, and free of chemicals I try to make most of my own bread. Here is my tweaked recipe originally from the Joy of Cooking:

1 1/4 cup of warm water
4 1/2 teaspoons of yeast
2 tablespoons honey, or molasses
1 cup of warm milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups white flour
2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour

Mix the water, yeast, and honey (molasses) together, set aside to let the yeast activate. Melt the butter in the warm butter. In the mixing bowl mix the flours and salt, add the milk mixture, and then the yeast mixture. Blend until it forms dough, spend plenty of time mixing and kneading it, this will make a more tender bread. Put the dough in a greased bowl and let rise to double its size at least twice. Divide the dough in two, take 1/2 and roll out and form a loaf, repeat with the other part. Let the loaves rise once more in the greased pans. Preheat the oven to 450, bake the loaves for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven to 350 for 30 minutes.

Enjoy ~SJ

Birthday Meatloaf

I made one of my favorite dinners last night, meatloaf, and it reminded me of one of the funniest memories I have of my mother in the kitchen.

One afternoon my Mom and I watched Martha Stewart (a.k.a. Miss Martha) and she was making our favorite "comfort food", meat loaf. In classic Miss Martha style it wasn't just regular meatloaf, but a birthday "cake" meatloaf! To do this she made two round meatloaves in cake pans, frosted them with mashed potatoes, put corn between the two layers, and decorated the top so that it looked like a carrot cake. It was truly a work of art and my Mom and I were inspired.



Here is the recipe from Miss Martha's website:

Birthday Meatloaf "Cake"

Serves 10 to 12

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 celery stalks (about 1/2 cup), finely chopped
• 5 pounds ground beef
• 2 small carrots, peeled and finely grated (about 1/2 cup), peels reserved for decorating
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons ground mustard
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup cooked green peas
• Vegetable oil cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat two 9-by-2-inch round cake pans with cooking spray; set aside. Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and celery; cook until softened, about 7 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl; let cool.
2. Add beef, carrot, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, eggs, oats, ground mustard, salt, and pepper to bowl with vegetable mixture; mix thoroughly with your hands.
3. Gently press into prepared pans. Bake until an instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees, about 25 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes; carefully remove with a spatula, and transfer to a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet. Tent with foil.
4. Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a small pan. Add reserved carrot peels; cook until tender, about 1 minute. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain.
5. Place 1 meat loaf on platter; spread 1 cup warm mashed potatoes over top. Sprinkle with 3 tablespoons peas. Top with remaining meat loaf. Frost top and sides with 3 cups mashed potatoes. Fill piping bag fitted with a 1/2-inch star tip (such as Ateco No. 825) with remaining mashed potatoes. Pipe borders around cake. Using tip of a 1/4-inch plain round tip (such as Ateco No. 10), punch out circles from carrot peels. Decorate cake with carrot circles and remaining peas. Serve immediately.

Since it was around both of our birthdays we decided to make one of these birthday meatloaves. We followed Miss Martha's directions to the T. We decided that we would trump Miss Martha's meatloaf by putting it on one of the many cake stands that I own (this was the beginning of the end!) We had not thought about the fact that meatloaf is naturally juicy, and if it was placed on a cake stand the juices would have no place to go other than the counter and then the floor. As we started to attempt to "frost" the cake the juices began to run. Gretal, Moms daschund, was of course underfoot and began to lick the running juices. The meatloaf was crumbling everywhere and was getting more and more difficult to "frost". At this point we were laughing hysterically, and I said "Mom, just imagine, there are disastrous meatloaf birthday cakes all across the country right now!"

Well, I can never make meatloaf without remembering this hysterical kitchen moment with my Mom. Oh, the birthday cake was amazing, even though it did not look at beautiful as Miss Martha's.

Enjoy ~SJ