Garlic Slathered Stretch Bread......

Its no secret that I'm a huge fan of Marcy Goldman. I love, love, love her Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking book and I'm equally in love with her latest book " A Passion for Baking".

My friend Di also has this book and she reccomended this Garlic Slathered Stretch Bread. Once I read the recipe, I knew Robin would love this. She is always begging me to make " cheesy garlic bread" and this recipe is exactly that times 10. You start by making a simple flatbread dough. I love that the majority of Marcy's recipes use Bread flour. I think it gives great texture and chew. I made the dough in the KA using the hook and it came together in a snap. While its rising, you make a spread with mayo, garlic( I reduced the cloves to 4 instead of 6 and it was very garlicky) parmesean, some italian seasoning and evoo. This is spread over the bread with mozzarella. Once the second shorter rise is complete, its a short bake in the oven. As you can see, 4 cups of flour made a huge amount of bread. I have a big catering job coming up and I plan on serving this with their lasagna.

If enough people want the recipe, I can ask Marcy if I can post it. Or, you can always go buy the book. If you're like me, you'll want to bake every single recipe in it.

Beer Can Chicken( CI).......

I seem to be one of those folks who's always behind on the latest cooking fads. Can you believe I've never even made the No Knead Bread??? It took me awhile to try beer can chicken and I'm really sorry I waited so long. I have this irrational fear of running out of propane in the middle of grilling. Thus, I never want to grill things that take hours and hours. I knew we were going to my MIL's for dinner on Sunday, so I decided to make this over there. My MIL has a direct gas hookup to her bbq( I'm smacking myself for not doing that when we did all our renovations). This seems like a fussy recipe, but its really very simple. I used the recipe and technique( loosely) from Cook's Illustrated. I bought 2 whole fryer's at Meijer in Port Huron, MI for .69lb( so cheap!!). I made a simple rub of parprika, salt, pepper, celery seed and thyme( I left out the cayenne). Instead of beer cans, I used two empty soup cans because they were sturdier. You fill those with beer and crumbled bay leaves( you can also use lemondae of ginger ale or whatever). I also used mesquite chips that I soaked for an hour. Those went right on the coals in a disposable pie plate( CI says make a foil packet, but I used the plate). We did have to flip the birds around a few times since they cook on indirect heat. The end result was a moist very tasty bird. I only had the breast meat and it was really good. This is something I'll defintely make again.

Rhubarb raspberry pie.......

Its no secret that I'm a cake kinda girl. Plain, frosted, layer, sheet, bundt, I'm sure you get the picture. Its not often that I'll turn down a piece of cake. My Mother-in-law however, is a pie gal. She loves pie( as do most of the older folks around these parts). Since yesterday was Mother's Day, Robin and I whipped her mom up a nice pie. I've always been afraid of lattice, but I wanted to do it this time because I knew it would showcase all the ruby red fruit. I used my go to pie dough recipe for pate brise. I love the taste of an all butter crust even though my MIL prefers lard( egad!!). The filling is simply 4 cups of chopped rhubarb, a cup of raspberries, a cup of sugar( I used vanilla sugar) and 1/4c. of minute tapioca. I've made lots of pies since moving to Ontario and I have to say that as a pie thickener, I prefer the tapioca over flour or cornstarch.

Robin did the lattice using the really simple intructions we found over on simply recipes. I eggwashed the top and sprinkled some turbinado sugar over the whole lot.

Now, if we can just get the hang of this new camera, we'd be set.

Mimi's carrot walnut raisin bread......

I'm pretty much an "anti chain" restaurant type of person, especially in Florida. There are so many fabulous independent restaurant choices that I dont understand why someone would visit an Olive Garden or a Red Lobster. Thats not to say that I dont eat at any chains. When I go to Port Huron, I basically have no choice as almost all the restaurants there are chains. Jimmy John's sandwiches just opened up there and I'm not ashamed to say that I really like the #12.

My ex's mom used to take us to Mimi's cafe in Phoenix when we'd go back for a visit. I loved, loved, loved the carrot raisin walnut bread. Mimi's would always give you one small slice in their breadbasket. It would be the first peice I'd pick up. I found this copycat recipe( Top Secret Recipes) and I'm happy to report that the taste is very similar. I did make a few substitutions as I had pecans instead of walnuts. I also had a breakfast blend of dried fruits so I used that. Next time I make this, I'll reduce the oil to 3/4 cup(from 1 cup). I found it to be slightly greasy. Its dead simple to make and the recipe makes 2 loaves.