French Bread

So, I've been craving french bread lately. There is just something about the chewy interior, and the crispy, crunchy crust. Of course, a little sour dough wouldn't be a bad thing either, but I didn't feel like making a start and waiting days for it to be ready, I wanted fresh bread now. Anyways, my homemade bread has been lacking lately. It hasn't been very good. So, I'm making a VERY basic bread, hoping to remember what makes bread good.

French Bread

• 1 1/2 c. Milk, luke warm
• 2 tsp. Yeast
• 1 Tbl. Sugar
• 2 tsp. Salt
• 1 Tbl. Butter
• 3 c. Flour

First I combined about a half cup of the milk and yeast in my mixer bowl and let it proof. Then I added the rest of the ingredients and let it knead in my mixer for about 9 minutes. Then I formed it into a ball and put it into a lightly greased bowl and covered with plastic wrap to rise, about an hour, till it's doubled in size. Then, I'm going to bake it on my stones, rather than in a loaf pan. I guess we'll see how it turns out. *shrugs* I hope it has a chewy interior and a crispy crust, and a good flavor. Maybe I'll make a sour dough start. I'd love to make one of wild yeast, but it's winter....so it'd probably take a long time. I'll wait till spring!

Easy BBQ Chicken

This recipe is soooooo easy and really delicious.

Easy BBQ Chicken

• boneless skinless chicken thighs
• bbq sauce

First boil the chicken until it's cooked. I boiled mine in chicken broth and added 1 jumbo chicken bouillon cube. Then I prepared a glass casserole dish with a little pan spray and I covered the bottom with bbq sauce. Then I put the chicken into the pan and covered it with bbq sauce. I used two different kinds of sauce, a hickory brown sugar and a thick and spicy kind. I made sure every part of the chicken had bbq sauce on it. I then covered the baking dish with foil and baked for 30 minutes at 350. The chicken is so moist and I love the flavor of it. As you can see, this recipe is READY for alterations and I'd love to hear them!!!!

Rachel's Chicken Salad

I was thinking about what to have for dinner tonight and I was thinking about the contents of my fridge, freezer and pantry. I didn't want something cooked...I wanted something fresh, with a crunch, that ruled out the pantry, unless I wanted to eat raw spaghetti. I thought about the contents of my freezer and I remembers we had some frozen chicken breasts. I thought "Wouldn't a chicken salad be great?" So, I pulled out my package of chicken breasts, which I had foolishly frozen them all together, and began thawing them at about 2:00 this afternoon. I began looking for recipes on all my favorite websites. I love allrecipes.com, recipezaar.com and the foodnetwork.com because they all have ratings and reviews and usually some good revisions to the recipes. I don't like cooks.com for that very reason. The recipe I found was on foodnetwork.com and it was similar to the taste I was looking for, here's the link: Almond Chicken Salad by Paula Deen but, it didn't have enough roughage! I wanted more flavors than just celery and almond and chicken. So, I got thinking, what makes good food....a little sweet and a little spicy! This is what I came up with!!!

Rachel's Chicken Salad

• 1/2 c. mayo
• 1/4 c. light mayo
• 1/2 tb. lemon juice
• 1 c. grapes, cut in half
• 1/4-1/2 red onion
• 3 ribs of celery, finely diced
• 2 c. chicken, shredded
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 c. slivered almonds
  

First boil the chicken w/ some salt, to taste and the garlic powder. When cooked shred with with two forks and spread out on a cutting board to cool, you can place this in the fridge until it's cool. in a bowl, combine the mayo's and lemon juice. Add the grapes, celery, almonds (I tried toasting my almonds in the oven while I was chopping the veggies, but I didn't keep a close enough eye on them and they burned...so I added the rest of the package just as is. I'm sure toasting them adds a wonderful depth of flavor, maybe next time.) and shredded chicken and combine. You can serve in on rolls, croissants, or any type of bread you want. I had mine on lettuce leaves like a lettuce wrap, which was a nice crisp refreshing change, but it was really messy.

In the reviews of Paula Deen's recipe, one person suggested using yogurt as a mayo substitute, and I may try that. I also used 1/2 red onion and it was a little too much, so I'll cut back next time, but it's up to your tastes.

Oatmeal and Applesauce Pancakes

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. I went looking for something to do with one egg, because that's all I had left in my fridge. I googled "What can I make with one egg" and it brought up a page about egg substitutes and I saw applesauce was an egg sub. So, I thought, I want breakfast and pancakes sound good and I had applesauce and voila! APPLESAUCE PANCAKES. I had some with my cousin Heather a few years ago and they were so good! So, I made some, using this recipe. I almost followed it completely.

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup quick cooking oats
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup fat free sour cream
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup milk

Heat a lightly oiled griddle over medium-low heat. In a bowl, mix the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, mix applesauce, sour cream, egg, and vanilla. Stir applesauce mixture and milk into the flour mixture until evenly moist and thick. Scoop about 1/4 cup batter for each pancake onto the prepared griddle, and cook, turning once, until golden brown on both sides.

I had some left over cinnamon sugar mixture that I added, it equaled just over 1/4 cup and I put in too much applesauce, so it was about 1 cup that I added. Because of the sugar I added it does make these pancakes really sweet, so next time, I'm not going to add it. These were really soft and tender so you have to be careful when you turn them. I topped them with a little butter, applesauce and maple syrup, it was so delicious.