TwD:BwJ: Popovers

Still running late, but better late than never! These were really good and super easy! I decided to use them as the bread for chicken salad and they worked perfectly. Mine didn't pop up really big, but that might have been due to the 1% milk, but they tasted good and went really well with chicken salad! I also had some issues with them sticking and I really buttered them.

Buttered they heck out of them and they still stuck (oh well)

Too cute!

So yummy!

Great recipe, very adaptable and fun! Thanks to our awesome hosts this week: Paula and Amy!  Can't wait to look at everyone's posts, it is supposed to rain all weekend, so perfect to catch up on blogging!

TwD:BwJ: Happy 100th Julia!

Happy 100th Birthday Julia! I first got really interested in Julia Child when I read Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. I had heard of her before and even watched a couple shows, but after I read that book, I wanted to cook my way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volumes I and II... that didn't happen (yet), but I have enjoyed several recipes since then.

On a side note, it was been a pretty rough week at work, so it was very therapeutic to cook today. In celebration, I broke out my favorite awesome Le Creuset Dutch oven and I made Leek and Potato soup for lunch (so amazing and soul-soothing) and Moules Mariniere for dinner. Both were just what I needed today and was a great way to start a couple days off! I also started her Country Buttermilk Rye Bread and will finish that tomorrow.

Lunch:

Beautiful leeks and potatoes

Grilled cheese and soup!

Dinner:

Yum... Mussels

Perfect, mussels, peas and wine!

Berry Galette:

I totally flaked on posting this last week, so I am adding it into this post! This was perfect, I used the leftover dough from the Blueberry Nectarine pie and threw in some peaches and strawberries.

Fruit, dough, and butter!

Gorgeous!

My hubby and I loved this! We ate some of it for dessert and then finished it as a late-night snack!

TwD:BwJ: Blueberry Nectarine Pie

I love pie! Especially fruit pies, and this one was awesome! The crust was a definite keeper recipe, I plan on using it from now on, so flaky and good. I ended up only using the bottom crust and folding the edges around the top. The addition of the lemon zest and lemon juice really complimented the flavors and didn't let the pie get too sweet. It worked out really good!

Heating up the fruit

My darling helper, rolling out pie crust!

Dotted with butter, brushed with egg wash, sprinkled with sugar!

Fresh out of the oven!

I served this with some vanilla ice cream and it was perfect, even perfect a couple days later!

Lots of thanks to our hosts this week: Liz and Hillary, they made some beautiful pies!

TwD:BwJ: Semolina Bread

Other than running a bit late on posting, this recipe turned out really good! I had a lot of other stuff to do that day, so the multiple rises worked out fine. The Semolina flour gave the bread an interesting flavor. I cut the salt down a little bit, but not much, and I didn't use a razor blade, just a paring knife and that worked. Both my hubby and I really liked this and I will be making some again soon!

Before rise #3 (I think)

My lovely slashes!

Wonderful with some butter!

Big thanks to this week's hosts, Anna and Renee!

TwD:BwJ: French Strawberry Cake

Well, I am not sure if the genoise worked out the way it was supposed to, but it tasted pretty good. It was a little worrisome to watch it deflate with the addition of the flour. I got 2 layers out of it, it got a beautiful golden brown and the fruit was perfect with it.

 I used a frozen mix of strawberries, blueberries, rasberries, and blackberries.

My mish mash of fruit!

Now, when it came to the whipped cream....well, that did not work out that great. I didn't have any sour cream and only 1 cup of heavy cream, so I substituted yogurt and a bit of milk. Yeah, after 10 - 15 minutes of beating, it still was not whipping up well, kinda became a custard consistency, but it tasted good, so onto the cake it went. Because it was so liquidy, I only put it between the layers and on the top. It smoothed out really well! It ended up being a great dessert for Father's Day!

Thanks to our awesome hosts this week: Allison and Sophia !

TwD:BwJ: Oasis Naan

I absolutely thought this recipe was for next week, so it is a couple days late! This bread was pretty easy to make, put the dough together in about 15 minutes and then sat it on my oven to rise and forgot about it. After about 4-5 hours (wasn't kidding about forgetting about it), I pulled it into 8 pieces, rolled into balls and pressed and pulled into disks (also didn't feel like rolling anything).

My pretty disks with salt!

Sprinkled some salt on 4 of them, left out the scallion and caraway seeds because I forgot to buy scallions and don't like caraway, and did cinnamon and sugar on the other four! I don't think I pre-heated the oven enough, because they did not get a pretty golden brown, but they tasted really good and made up dinner last night!

Thanks to our hosts this week, Maggie   and Phyl !

TwD:BwJ: Lemon Curd Cookies

This was our free choice week! I decided to use up some stuff I had in the freezer. I had half a recipe of rugelach dough and some lemon curd. Added some ricotta and lemon sugar and we were in business! Rolled out the dough, spread a mix of lemon curd and ricotta over it.

Rolled them up (and ate the filling that fell out!), put in the freezer and waited a bit. Probably didn't wait long enough because the filling started coming out, but oh well, cut them into too big of rolls and coated them in lemon sugar.

And into the oven they went! Well.... they kind of melted and spread out... looked a bit funny and fell apart easy, but they tasted awesome!!! Like lemon cheesecake cookies, they were a hit all around!

TwD:BwJ: Pecan Sticky Buns

OK, these buns were definitely a labor of love. Without a stand mixer, the brioche dough gave my arms quite a workout! Between the first kneading and then the incorporating of the butter, I kneaded dough for about 35 minutes straight!  They turned out excellent, but I might wait to make them again when I get a stand mixer (fingers crossed for a birthday present)!

Waiting to be kneaded!

After a lot of love!

I kept pretty close to the recipe, only a couple of changes. I doubled the amount of filling and halved the butter in the bottom of the pan.

Yummy filling!

I left a couple of them at home for the hubby and took the rest to work (my coworkers alternately curse me and beg me for stuff!). The buns rose beautifully at room temperature.

Pretty buns!

After a bit in the oven, the came out and I realized that when I halved the butter in the bottom, I probably should have halved the brown sugar also, because there was not a gooey sauce, it was kind of caramelized pecans and chunks!

But, it did not matter, because they were seriously good! I had 3 of them that day, I could not help myself! They were a hit with the coworkers too!

Just times this by 3 and that was breakfast, lunch and snack!

Thanks so much to our hosts this week: Lynn and Nicole!

TwD:BwJ: Lemon Loaf Cake

I love lemon, so I really wanted to love this recipe. But, I don't, it is OK and my husband loves it, but it just did not hit me as amazing. I followed the recipe as is, but took a cue from the many recipes for tres leche cake that I keep seeing and baked it in a 9x9 pan and made a coating for it. For the coating/glaze I made some lemon curd, it was so amazing and easy, and mixed the lemon curd with heavy cream and evaporated milk. I could live on the coating/glaze, it was so good!

Homemade lemon curd, so yummy!

Ready to go in oven

When it was done baking, I took it out and put a bunch of holes in it with a toothpick.

And put a bunch of holes in it with a toothpick and poured the amazing coating/glaze on it!

Could seriously lick this right off the cake!

Well, after a couple of hours in the fridge and even overnight, it did not really sink into the cake. Might be because it was almost a pound cake and really dense already, but the glaze did solidify on top and make a thick almost frosting.

Thanks to our awesome hosts this week: Truc and Michelle!

TwD:BwJ: Pizza Rustica

Wow! This was so good, probably my husband's favorite so far and one of my top 3! I loved the dough (so many ideas for it), the sweetness really complimented the saltiness of the prosciutto. I also added artichoke hearts which really was yummy! Pretty quick to make (totally used a 9 inch cake pan by mistake!), I really embraced the rustic part with the lattice, not the prettiest, but worked well. We paired the pizza rustica with a simple spinach salad and called it dinner.

Almost ready!

My awesome lattice!

Beautifully golden and ready to eat!

Thanks to our hosts for this week: Emily and Raelynn!

TwD:BwJ: Irish Soda Bread

Since we were on vaca for St. Patty's Day, I decided to make our Irish feast today! This wonderfully easy bread came in real handy and delicious with the corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and of course some Guinness! The Irish Soda Bread was so easy and quick, I thought I had missed something! I just made it plain today, but since reading about some of the additions, I am definitely going to put some cherries or cranberries and maybe some chocolate in next time!

Before baking

After baking!

Thanks to Cathy and Carla for hosting this week!

TwD:BwJ: Rugelach

These cookies were not as hard to make as I thought they would be! I made the levkar the first day, that was so easy!



After simmering



All mixed up!

 A bit later I made the dough, it was really sticky, but came together nicely. It looked so good with all that butter and cream cheese! The next day, I rolled out the dough (I only used half), and filled one side with Nutella, cherries, and walnuts, and the other side with levkar, cinnamon sugar mix, and walnuts. Rolled them up and into the fridge they went.

Instead of making dinner, we ordered Chinese and I baked the cookies! I am not too sure what happened to them. I baked the Nutella batch a bit too long and I don't think I put anywhere near enough Nutella on it, I could hardly taste it! The more traditional ones, I didn't bake as long and I liked better. These are definitely interesting cookies, and I have tons of ideas to use the dough in!

Thanks to our hosts this week, Jessica and Margaret!

TwD: BwJ: Chocolate Truffle Tart

I learned a couple of things from this delicious recipe! First, it is not one to do when you are short on time, I ended up using my 10 inch tart pan instead of the small ones, the microwave for melting the chocolate and recruited my husband to beat the egg yolks! Second, I had the worst time with the tart dough, after chilling it, I ended up just putting chunks into the tart  pan and shaping it with my fingers. Third, oh my gosh is it rich! I substituted crushed walnuts and chopped dried cherries for the biscotti and omitted the white chocolate because I didn't have any. I thought it was excellent, my hubby thought it was good, but he is not as big a fan of dark, bitter chocolate that I am!



My temperamental dough!



My tart before cooking!



Perfect with some whipped cream!

 Thanks to our awesome hosts this week, Steph, Spike, Jaime, and Jessica!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia: White Loaves

Awesome week! I am so excited, this is the first recipe from the Baking with Julia group! I was really nervous about making my own bread, I had never done it before. It turned out to be easier than I thought! The first time, my little hand mixer tried to eat the dough, so kneading by hand it was! This time, I only used the mixer for a few minutes and then turned it out by hand for the rest of the time. Wow, what an arm workout! I was running low on yeast, so I only made one loaf. It turned out nicely and I plan on making grilled cheese for dinner!



Ready for the first rise



Fresh out of the oven!

 I am very excited and a bit nervous (haven't been much of a baker beyond cookies in the past) about this group! To read the recipe, head over to slush and Jules. Thanks you two for hosting!!