I Have a Lava Lamp and I'm Not Afraid to Use It

Lydee! Where have you been?!

Watching my lava lamp.

Really, that can suck away hours of your day.

Years ago my mom gave me a lava lamp. And I still have it in our bedroom, ooh la la. My kids find it fascinating, even better than tv. And watching it is what they're doing right now, so i have some moments of quiet. What a great mother i am!

Actually, life has become a busy endeavor. By the way, I hate being busy. I really do, almost as much as I hate driving in the snow. I'd rather watch the lava lamp.

Some things are a good kind of busy: I have been writing here , I made a quilt (and inadvertently dyed it red by using a recycled red flannel sheet as batting, don't do that, ever), we put up the girls bunk beds, hoping to bring a sense of order to their tiny room, I've made bagels, and have been refining my italian bread recipe.

Now, I need fuel. I need comfort food. Yea! for a long weekend! Today I am making Italian Wedding Soup. It's no coincidence that Pioneer Woman is making Italian Meatball Soup, (because it's cooold!)but her soup is more of a vegetable soup, whereas mine is all about the pastina and the tiny meatballs.

Italian Wedding Soup is the stuff of comfort. I am not italian, and I'm no expert at italian food, but I know what tastes yummy! I took voice lessons as a teenager. One of the unexpected benefits of voice lessons was this little Italian restaurant called Hills (not sure about the very un-italian sounding name) close to my teacher's voice studio. After a lesson, my mother and i would eat dinner at Hills. Mmm, my memories of Italian Wedding Soup stem from there: tiny meatballs, escarole, carrots and pastina floating in a flavorful chicken broth, warm crusty italian bread on the side, smeared with Real butter, yum. (Their Gnocchi was amazing too, but that's for another day, it's a wonder I didn't weigh 300 lbs.)

I started my soup and crusty italian bread yesterday. Actually, I started it earlier this week when I cornered two lovely italian ladies I work with and threatened them until I got their family's Italian Wedding Soup recipe out of them. Ha! I kid. You should never threaten an Italian lady! Especially when it's about food! I just asked nicely and got two recipes with a lot of good stories tossed in for flavor. Thank you lovely ladies!

My recipe is based on theirs, and what i remember from the soup I ate all those years ago.

Italian Wedding Soup (a very loose recipe based on multiple sources)

So, yesterday I tossed a whole chicken, with an onion and garlic and salt and pepper in a pot of water to cook until the meat fell off the bones. I strained the broth and separated the meat from the bones and all of that other disgusting stuff. Picking meat off of bones is one of my least favorite activities. Ah, what i will do for food.

I shredded the chicken and put in fridge. I will add some of it back to the soup, and freeze the rest for another recipe/cassarole. I put the broth in the fridge too. Today I will skim the fat off the top and heat my broth to boiling on the stove.

In a skillet I will brown tiny meatballs (which I still need to make, I'm going to use last week's crusty bread as bread crumbs) and remove when they are done. Next I'll saute chopped onion (you can add pepper flakes and celery, optional), and carrots sliced thin. I'll add the meatballs and veggies to the pot of broth and simmer. I'll add a cup of chx broth to my skillet and heat to boiling, scraping off the goodness on the bottom of the pan. I'll add that to my pot as well.

Add some of the shredded chicken from yesterday. Add as much as you want. I'll probably use 1/2 to 1 cup of chicken. (Freeze the rest of the chicken for another use).

Next I'll add 1/2 cup of pastina or so. You can cook it ahead of time, but I take the lazy route and just add to my pot of broth with everything else.

Add 1/2 lb of spinach (fresh, or use frozen-thawed and drained) (spinach is easier than escarole)

Scramble 2 eggs and add to the soup, stirring with a wooden spoon the entire time.

Cover soup and let stand for a couple of minutes. Serve with grated cheese and italian bread.

Italian Bread

2 Cups of warm water
1 T sugar
1T oil
1 1/2 t salt
6 C of flour
1 T instant yeast

Mix and knead dough in your favorite way. I use a bread machine.
Allow to rest in a greased bowl for 1 hour. Punch down and allow to raise for another 1/2 hour.

Shape into a long loaf on a greased surface. (some people use a floured surface. I like my bread well hydrated, so i use a greased surface instead, whatever your preference). Shaping: I pat into a rectangle and fold over 3 times, and then began to shape into a long loaf, pinching the bottom, do whatever works for you and whatever stretches the "skin" taunt without breaking it.

Place on greased (couple of spritzes with a Misto) parchment paper fitted to a baking sheet.

Allow to raise for 20-25 minutes.

Cover with a damp towel, or plastic wrap and place in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight. This helps the loaf hold it's shape and gives it that crispy crust.

The next day, heat the oven to 500 degrees F. Take the loaf out of the fridge and allow to rest for 1/2 hour while the oven heats up.

Spritz the loaf with a water mister, and slice diagonally along the top with a sharp knife. Bake at 500 degrees F for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 450 degrees F and finish baking for 10 minutes until the loaf is golden brown, and an instant read thermometer inserted into the loaf registers 190 degrees.

Allow to cool and slice.

Breadsticks

Mmmmm, my house smells like a pizza parlor. I am in heaven. I made homemade bread sticks. I ate some. And I was intoxicated for the next hour. My dear sister-in-law called with some questions. And I babbled. It wasn't until I stepped onto my porch that I realized I also smelled like a pizza parlor. Ahhh, (sniffing again), ahhhhh....



So, here's how to make homemade bread sticks if you too want to join in the aromatic fun.

Breadsticks

(Use your favorite method of making dough: breadmachine, standing mixer, food processor, or by hand. I use the knead and raise only setting on my bread machine.)

1 1/3 cup of warm water
1 Tablespoon of salt
2 Tablespoons Oil (optional, leave out if you want a "crustier" traditional style breadstick)
4 Cups of flour (bread, high gluton, or all purpose, whatever floats your boat)
1 Tablespoon of instant yeast (or 1 packet of yeast)


Non-stick cooking oil for greasing 2 baking sheets and spraying the tops of the breadsticks (I use canola oil in a Misto sprayer)
Your favorite Italian seasoning (I use Penzey's Sandwich Sprinkle) [optional]
2 T Butter (melted)

• Mix and knead your dough using your favorite method. Let it raise, covered for 1 hour.
• Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Pat into a long flat oval shape.
• Using a dough cutter, or pizza cutter, divide dough into 14-16 skinny pieces about 6-8 inches long or so. (Cut shortways across the oval, not longways.)
  
• Place pieces on two greased cookie sheets. The pieces should not be touching.
• Spray tops of breadsticks with non-stick cooking oil. Lightly sprinkle italian seasoning on top of sticks (being careful not to get any on baking pan, it will burn and set off your smoke alarms; i speak from experience) if desired.
  
• Allow to raise for 15-30 minutes while oven heats up. Heat oven to 450 degrees F. Arrange oven racks so that one is on the bottom and one is on the top. (I have a propane oven and this works for me. With an electric oven, I would try placing the racks more in the middle first to see how much the bread sticks brown, and to prevent burnt bottoms!)
• Bake about 15-20 minutes (rotating pans halfway through) until the breadsticks are a beautiful golden color.
• Brush tops with melted butter.
• Cool on a cooling rack and enjoy!
  

Thanks to Sneaky Momma Blog Design for showing me how to open links in a new page. Go check out her site for good blog design tips.

The Best Easiest Chocolate Chips Cookies Ever

I have developed an elaborate chocolate chip cookie recipe that is one of the best I've ever tasted. That recipe, unfortunately, has not seen the light of day since I went back to work full time. (perhaps I'll share it with you sometime.)

This recipe has come to take its place, and while it's not the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever, it's probably the easiest. And it's a darn good substitute. My family (husband) has grudgingly learned to accept them. At least, I think so because the cookies never last for longer than 24 hours at our house.

You start with one kid (because they're never far when I start banging bowls around in the kitchen, always hoping for a nibble of something sweet), one bowl, one oven heated to 350 degrees F, one greased 9x13 cake pan, and one box of cake mix (any kind of your choosing). Yeah, you've heard of this recipe before (cake mix cookies, cake cookies, etc...). Well, we love it.

Here's the official recipe as I received it from a friend of mine:

Cake Chocolate Chip Cookies (or the easiest chocolate chip cookies ever)

1 box of cake mix
1 C (or 1/2 bag) of chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk)
1/2 C. oil (i use canola)
2 to 3 Tablespoons of water

Mix together and pat into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 18-20 minutes (it always takes mine longer in my propane fired oven, about 20-25 min).

cookie dough patted into a greased cake pan

Divide and conquer when cool.

baked cookies, ready to be cut!

This recipe also makes a wonderful cookie cake for birthdays. I would post a picture, but i'm afraid it might end up on cake wrecks, lol! A baker, I am. A decorator, I am not!!! The cookie cake was such a great alternative because none of us like regular cakes. I always end up throwing out leftovers. I'm sure you could divide it between two 9" round cake pans, or one of those lovely heart shaped cookie cake pans, or whatever you put your mind to.

These cookies are fabulous with ice cream. Once we used a chocolate cake box. Oh! heaven! Like brownies, mmmm.

My friend who passed on this recipe, forwent the chocolate chips and made it with a white cake mix. It was like shortbread. She served it with strawberries and whipped cream. Delicious!

Have fun with this recipe, and if you make it, let me know what adaptations you made!

Another Morning Baking tip

My voice is sloooowly returning from it's sabbatical (probably from someplace warm with sun and sand). I have a sinus infection.

Thanks for all of your comments about my tip. I have another today. I'm making another loaf of bread. I grew up with my Mom kneading and baking bread all the time. When I was a teenager, she switched over to a bread machine. Somewhere along the line Mom decided to let the bread maching do all the kneading and raising, then she would shape the dough and put it in a bread pan and into the oven.

When I moved into my first place (a dumpy trailer), my aunt and uncle gifted me with my first bread machine. It served me many years. I used it so much, I finally wore out it's bearings. Mom bought me my second bread machine a couple years ago, a Zojirushi. Now the Zojirushi will bake up a fine loaf of bread, no meddling needed. But I still enjoy taking the dough out after it's done kneading and raising, and shaping it myself, putting it into the loaf pan of my choice. Wal-la! Fresh baked bread.

I created this recipe when I was sleepy once and added too much water. I caught the mistake before I started kneading, and added a few extra ingredients.

Lydee's Honey Wheat Bread:

Put in bread machine in the following order:

1 1/2 C of warm water
2 Tablespoons vegatable oil
2 Tablespoons of sugar
2 Tablespoons of Honey
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
4 Cups of Flour (I use 3 C of white and 1 C of wheat, but you can use any combination)
2 1/4 teaspoons of instant yeast, or 1 pkg of dry active

Allow bread machine to knead dough, check after 10 minutes to make sure it's mixing properly and to check flour/water proportions (if it's too sticky, all a little more flour. If it's too dry, add water by the Tablespoon)

Allow the bread to raise in the machine or in a greased and covered bowl. Raise for 1 hour, punch down, and raise for an additional 30 minutes.

Grease a bread pan to your liking (I like to spray oil in with my Misto and then sprinkle with cornmeal)

Remove dough from bowl onto floured surface. Knead a couple of times and shape the dough. I pat mine into a rectangle and roll up the dough, and or fold into thirds. Pinch the bottom and place bottom down into prepared bread pan. Allow to raise 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Heat oven to 375 degress (F). Slash top of dough 3 or 4 times with a sharp knife just before placing in the oven.

Bake for 35-45 minutes. Check bread after 20 minutes to see how brown the top is. If it's turning too brown, cover with foil for the remainder of the time in the oven.

Check to see if bread is done. I use an instant thermometer. When the temperature reads 190 degrees (F), it's done.

Remove bread from pan after 5 minutes, allow to cool before slicing. Enjoy!