Tag Archives: Savory Breads

Homemade Corn Bread & Chili

06 Saturday Nov 2010

Posted by in Baking, Muffins & Quick Breads, Recipes, Savory Breads

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I won’t bore you with the details of my chili recipe… well, mainly because there isn’t one. My chili is often different every time it is made. I don’t really use a recipe, just kind of pick and pour… anyway, that’s not what this post is for.

Where I’m from, cornbread is often a staple with chili – that or corn chips, or both… Usually I go the easy way – and use a box or pre-mix corn bread base, but tonight I decided I would make a scratch recipe. I had just bought a new can of corn meal – which I like to use on pans for pizza crust… and there was a recipe on the back. I thought, why not… Ok, well the recipe was very good; cake-like and far from dry and crumbly. My husband just raved over it. This recipe is nothing fancy, nothing bursting from the likes of Iron Chef, but a simple delicious cornbread that comes together very easily. Here’s the recipe:

Easy Corn Bread

from the back of the Quaker Corn Meal Can

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup enriched corn meal
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup skim milk
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 egg whites or 1 egg, beaten

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 8 or 9 inch pan.

Combine dry ingredients. Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing  just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 20 – 25 minutes or until light golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm. Makes 9 servings.

You can also make into muffins – 12 regular size muffins, baking 15 – 30 minutes.

Sunday Dinner

29 Sunday Mar 2009

Posted by in Chicken, Entree', Recipes, Salad, Savory Breads

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Italian Grilled Chicken

Why is it that Sunday seems to be the only day that we eat “dinner” at lunchtime. Tradition? Timing? Does it really matter? For my family growing up, Sunday dinner was a time when the whole family got together, usually after church, and had probably the most formal meal of the week. Time and tradition now has replaced that dinner with eating out, or something quick (that and growing families). We did however enjoy one of those dinners today.

Whole roasting chickens have been on sale for .79 cents a pound… a deal difficult to pass up. As a matter of fact, I bought several. This recipe doesn’t get more simple or cost effective. I took a whole chicken and cut it into pieces, then basted it in Italian dressing. Then wrapped the chicken in foil and grilled it for about an hour. The dressing, along with the juices in the chicken kept even the white meat deliciously moist and flavorful.

I served the chicken with a Caesar salad and macaroni and cheese (for the kids ok?). One more little tidbit. When preparing the salad, I realized that I was out of croutons… so I made my own. I have included that recipe below too. We finished dinner off with some friendship bread that I had frozen a few weeks back.

Italian Grilled Chicken

Ingredients:

Directions:

Cut the chicken into pieces, separating by breast, wing and the leg/thigh. Place chicken in foil, larger pieces on the bottom, and pour dressing over the chicken. Wrap tightly with foil and let marinate in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Place foil package on hot grill until the chicken reaches at least 165 degrees internally. For the final few minutes of cooking, remove the chicken from the packet and place on grill to brown the skin. Remove and serve. I satisfied 5 respectively with no leftovers.

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Homemade Croutons

Ingredients:

  • 5 – 6 slices of day old bread (any variety – I used white and wheat)
  • Olive oil Cooking Spray
  • Mrs. Dash Original seasoning
  • Grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with foil and coat with olive oil cooking spray.

Slice the bread into squares and place in a single layer on cookie sheet and spray generously with olive oil spray. Sprinkle with seasoning and Parmesan. Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes, or until the edges of the bread slices begins to brown. Remove pan and turn slices over, coating again with spray and light seasonings. Return to oven and bake until crisp, about another 10 minutes.

You could use any seasoning blend or cheese. You could also use regular olive oil in place of the cooking spray, I was just trying to keep them relatively healthy.

Pretzels (and my love for photography)

15 Sunday Mar 2009

Posted by in Recipes, Savory Breads

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My last post entailed my first pizza dough from scratch experience. With the second batch of dough I made foccacia, and these little delights. All in all, my cooking experiences today were successful. More fun for me, was getting to take pictures of these results. I do a little part time photography for family and friends, but taking pictures of food is always more fun. For one, food doesn’t run away, cry, frown or move right when I snap the camera. I love to zoom and get as close as I can to the most intricate parts of the item. And generally, no photoshop is required to cover blemishes, or to transfer faces from one pic to another, because only 2 of the 3 kids smiled…

So here are my pretzels and a couple of my favorite shots of them. I enjoyed the baking and taking of pictures… everyone else enjoyed eating the finished products (that is after I took too many pictures).

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Homemade Pretzels

Ingredients:

  • Prepared Pizza Dough
  • Boiling Water
  • Course Salt (sea salt or kosher)

Directions:

On a lightly oiled surface, flatten the dough into a rectangle and cut into strips, about 1″ x 4″, and 1/4″ thick. Roll out each strip into a long “log” and shape into a pretzel. Cover and let rise again, 15 – 20 minutes.

Bring a 2 – 3 quart pan of water to a boil. Pre-heat the oven to 475F.

One or two at a time, place each pretzel in the boiling water. It will sink initially, remove once it rises to the top and plumps a little, about 45 – 60 seconds. Remove and place on a towel to absorb the extra water. While still moist, sprinkle salt over the top. Move to a well-greased pan and bake for about 12 minutes. Remove and enjoy!

Note: my daughter asked me to make some cinnamon sugar pretzels. Easy enough, I took some unsalted pretzels and melted a little butter. Combine some sugar and cinnamon (about 3 – 1 parts). Dip the pretzel in the butter, coating both sides, then into the sugar mixture. Mmm, have some napkins ready! (I had already put the camera away at this point)

Dough, Pizza Style

15 Sunday Mar 2009

Posted by in Entree', Recipes, Savory Breads

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I will admit that I have yet to make homemade pizza dough. I have made plenty of yeasted breads, but never this. Usually I use the Pillsbury Refrigerated Dough. The fam really enjoys the dough, and it is a quick and easy fix. However, I came across this recipe (at Biggest Diabetic Loser) a couple of days ago and decided it was time. I actually purchased a food processor almost a year ago, and until this morning, had not taken it out of the box. I got a steal of a deal on it though…

This dough was very easy to make and had tasted great. Good enough that I made two batches then played around with the dough. From the first batch I made a pizza for lunch. With the second, I made a focaccia loaf and some pretzels (see my next post). No doubt I will use this recipe again and again.

Pizza Dough (via the food processor)

Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 package active yeast
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:

Put 2 cups flour and salt in food processor and pulse.  Heat water to 110 degrees.  Add yeast and let it sit for 5 minutes until its all nice and bubbly.  Add olive oil to yeast/water mixture and stir.  Start food processor and slowly pour in yeast mixture. Add the remaining flour in portions, enough that the dough stops sticking to the sides.  I actually checks the “stickiness” of the dough. Then, let the processor run for about 5 minutes until the dough begins to form a ball. Mine made enough for a 14″ pizza, about 1/4″ thick. Note, I also let mine rise about 10 minutes, then I baked it at 425 for 5 minutes to crisp-en the dough.

Add your desired toppings and bake for another 7 minutes, or until the edges of the dough are lightly brown, and the cheese is melted. For my pizza today I used Ragu Pizza Sauce, Mozzarella Cheese, Bacon, Onion and grated Parmesan cheese. (I didn’t have any pepperoni, or I would have surely used it.)

…the Foccacia…

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Ingredients:

  • Prepared Pizza Dough
  • Olive oil
  • Herbs and seasonings as desired
  • Parmesan Cheese, grated

Directions:

With half of the second dough, I rounded it and let it rise in an oiled pan for 30 minutes. Then I flattened the round to about and inch this and brushed olive oil infused with garlic and herbs…then a little of the grated Parmesan cheese. It baked at 425 for 15 minutes. It smelled downright amazing.

**In the Biggest Diabetic Losers post, she mentions using 1/2 – 3/4 cup flour following the yeast addition. I found that I needed closer to 1 cup. Maybe because I live in humid Florida, I don’t know… it still turned out great!