KC Baked Beans

Baked Beans. A national staple here in the UK. They are used for breakfast, lunch and dinner in a very simple form straight out of the can. The ever popular English Breakfast puts beans right in the center of the dish. The cafe at work for both breakfast and lunch has beans as an option for either creating your own English breakfast or for lunch with a jacket potato (baked potato). For dinner beans on toast seems to be another staple of comfort food. Good or bad I have not joined the Heinz bean on toast group and still like my beans with a bit of spice. To me these beans are similar to Pork 'n' Beans of childhood before the fancy brands of beans came to the grocery stores. My discovery of the homemade version of beans came from a summer visit to family in Missouri, my mother-in-law Linda made these beans for a bbq. I was in heaven! These have a good spice and are easy for bbq's and feeding a crowd. Since then they have been present at many events and get rave reviews every time. Recently we hosted a bbq for Alan's work team most of them English and they even liked them so I take that as a good sign.

This recipe doubles easily!

KC Baked Beans
from Linda Tetley

2 cans of baked beans (in the states they should be plain with no additional flavouring)
3/4 cup bbq sauce - I use spicy but not necessary
1 green apple, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
3 bacon slices, halved

Stir together first 8 ingredients in a lightly greased 2-quart baking dish; top with bacon.

Bake at 350 degrees/160 degrees for 1 hour

Peanut Butter Cravings

Peanut, Peanut Butter & jelly or maybe it should be Chocolate for this combination? One of the best loved candies in American is Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and something that is not always easy to find here in the UK. Growing up I never was a huge fan of the treat more or less but preferred the mini Reese's cups for the small bits of sweet & salty combo all in one. But this treat I have found from Nigella Lawson is simple, easy and a real crowd pleaser. My brother has even started to make them in LA and his friends are loving it. They make for a good party platter when you need a simple dessert and being here in the UK is even a hit with the Brits.

This comes from Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess" that I received as a wedding shower present 6 years ago! I have a few favourites out of this book but this one is high on the list of a go to recipe.

Peanut Butter Bars - A sweet American treat!

For the Base:

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar (Icing sugar here in UK)

1/4 cup unsalted butter, slightly warmed up but not fully soft

3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter

For the Topping:

7 ounces milk chocolate

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter

Grease 9-inch square pan and set aside.

Mix all the ingredients for the base together until smooth. Either a mixer or wooden spoon work well. The brown sugar on occasion will stay in clumps but rub it into the mixture as best as possible but it is ok to not be fully smooth as the mixture should be sandy. Press the mixture into the prepared 9-inch pan and make the surface as even as possible, pushing into the corners and make sure the surface is even.

For the topping, melt the chocolates and butter together in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave in 30-60 second burts. Be careful of the chocolate as it can easily burn in the microwave if not stirred and watched. Once the chocolate and butter are melted pour over the base and spread out evenly to cover the surface. Put the pan in the refridgerator to set. When the chocolate has hardened, cut into small pieces and serve or take to a bbq and share!

Mighty Meatloaf

Last Monday I spent my day in the town of Bath taking a bread baking course. I have been stuck on bread since last summer and was super excited when the chance came up to finally get to take the class. Thanks also in part to my birthday present from Carey and Ben a bit ago in the form of a gift card for the class it made it that much sweeter. I took the train from Paddington to Bath early on Monday and made my way to the studio/kitchen. Besides me there were 8 other women and 3 men plus two assistants and the teacher Richard Bertinet. He runs the school and has published two books, Dough & Crust. I now of course have both of them but before the class I only had Crust and successfully made the seeded bread from the book which is pretty good but does take a bit of work too. Richard has a technique that is very different then other bread books and his kneading is not kneading but more of a way of folding or working the dough to capture the air pockets in the dough. The dough in his recipes is often much wetter and thicker then others and so is hard for sure at first when one is used to putting the extra flour on the counter to keep it from sticking. Here there is no extra flour you are working with the sticky dough no matter what!

The class started out with introductions and listening to Richard talk about his theories of bread that is out there...meaning not much is actually bread. Read the packaging how much of it can you actually pronounce? Then finally it was on to watching him demo his technique which was pretty amazing to watch and a bit scary at first as you knew no matter how much you watched and paid attention one would mess it up and sure enough pretty much all of us did that, oh well we were there to learn. We split up into pairs and got to work on the first dough which is the basic white dough used for many things but only has flour, water, yeast and salt in the ingredients list. We let that rise and then moved on to the next recipe of Olive Oil bread which we made 4x the amount on the recipe and worked in 4's to get it sorted. It seems like a lot and it was but it made for good work and learning on how to work the dough. Afterwards it was time for a quick break for those who drank coffee & drunk prunes, really they were tasty! Back to work we went shaping the dough into Fougasse. It is a flat bread shapped and cut which when baked turns out crusty and tasty. I must admit mine were not so pretty but it was fun to do. We also made bread sticks with olives, cheese and seasonings and those were good! Our Olive Oil Bread for our table then was turned into a huge Foccacia coated with olive oil, rosemary, thyme, and lemon zest. Finally we learned how to put the other tables Olive Oil bread into tins to make loaf bread. It was a busy day to say the least and the room smelled sooooooo good of fresh bread baking. The final part was getting to eat a late lunch and all the bread we had made that day was on the table for munching to go with the cheeses, salads, and other snacks plus of course wine. As it turns out this is where the Meatloaf comes in...I sat next to two women one who had lived in the states for awhile and another who had a son living there who both wanted an American recipe for Meatloaf that didn't dry out. Being Midwestern in the blood Meatloaf was part of growing up. I have many memories of my mom making this along with mashed potatoes and green beans. It was often considered an easy meal as she could throw it in the oven and work on other things and there are not many ingredients to it. I did add a bit of garlic to mine to give in some zing but for the most part I still make it the way it was when I was a kid. So due to popular demand here is an American's take on Meatloaf on UK soil.

Mighty Meatloaf...with Sauce

1lb ground beef (minced meat)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Dash pepper

2 Tablespoons chopped onion

1 garlic clove chopped

2 Tablespoons flour

1/4 cup milk

1 egg

1 can tomato soup (favourite is campballs but Heinz will work too)

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

Preheat oven to 350F/160C Degrees. Mix first 7 ingredients in mixing bowl until combined. Place in loaf shaped pan and mold to fit the pan. I tend to pile it a bit more towards the middle giving it space on the sides for the juices and sauce to come later to be able to have a place to go while cooking. Place meat mixture in oven for 30 minutes. During this time mix the soup, sugar and green pepper together and set aside. When 30 minutes are up pull out the meat and pour over the soup mixture, place it back in the oven for an additional 30 minutes. Give the meat a few minutes to cool before serving as it will be very hot and will be easier when cooler for cutting and pulling out of the pan. Also as my dad says makes for very good leftovers on sandwiches the next day!

Pizza Dough

Pizza! It is a great time to be making pizza dough and really such an easy thing. I never thought I would be out there making pizza in my own home or own a pizza stone which has become a valuable part of the kitchen. In our house we been making two different types of pizza one is thin crust for this recipe and the other is a Chicago style deep dish. Lorie managed to secure her mother's recipe and I have tweaked it to make it work for us and it is really good but takes a bit more work. The thin crust dough works well for when we have guests and want to try and make a lot of different pizzas and snack around. The other thing that makes homemade pizza amazing is the different and fresh ingredients you get to put on to your taste. Our most recent foray into pizza making was after going to the Real Food Show which I blogged about in my other blog. We came out with yummy mozzarella freshly made that just was screaming out for pizza toppings. Alan while we were in Italy had been given a huge roll of cured meat from friends there along with fresh Aspargus from market that morning we were pretty sure our dinner would be awesome.

I have a favourite bread book one I picked up from Ireland during our trip there with Alan's parents in 2007. I use their white bread recipe quiet often made with fresh yeast and probably one of which I must share this summer when bread is really at its best. The book: The Ballymaloe Bread Book is also a cooking school and cafe, no I have not been there yet but someday! This recipe is simple and easy to make and the nice part is that there is no real rising time which makes it something that can be made after coming home from work. The dough will keep for a few days in the fridge or also you can freeze it if that works better for you. For a sauce I make my own or sometimes follow Heidi's on 101 Cookbooks as it is simple, easy and tasty.

Garden Cafe Pizza Dough

from The Ballymaloe Bread Book

680 grams/ 1 1/2lb strong white flour (bread flour)

50 grams/ 2oz butter

1 packet fast-acting yeast

2 level teaspoons salt

15 grams/1/2 oz sugar

2-4 Tablespoons olive oil (good quality makes a difference)

350-400 ml/12-14 fl oz lukewarm water, more if needed

Into a large, wide mixing bowl, measure the flour, add in the salt and sugar and rub in the butter. Stir in the fast-acting yeast into the dry ingredients.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, add the oil and most of the lukewarm water. Mix to a loose dough, add more flour or water as needed.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work top, cover and leave to rest for 5 minutes.

Then knead the dough for about 10 minutes or until smooth and springy. If kneading in a food mixer with a dough hook 5 minutes is usually long enough.

Leave the dough to relax again for about 10 minutes. Shape and measure into 8 equal balls. A scale if very handy for this process. If we are having a big group over I do measure the balls to exactly 140grams/5 oz, but sometimes I do make them a bit bigger and then have usually one less ball. It all depends on how big your pizza stone is and your oven!

Lightly brush the balls with olive oil. If you have the time and it does help then place the oiled dough balls into a plastic bag and chill. The dough will be easier to handle when chilled but it can be used immediately.

On a well-floured work surface, roll each ball out to a disc about 25.5cm/10in. Top with your favourite ingredients.

For baking I bump my oven up to around 450 degrees this usually takes about 25-35 minutes to preheat, enough time for the dough to chill & make the sauce, and do remember to preheat the pizza stone in it the whole time to get it nice and hot. I tend to roll out the dough and then prepare all the toppings and once the oven is ready to be used I pop out the stone, lay on the dough and quickly top the pizza. Depending on the oven aim to bake between 8-12 minutes.

April flies past me in books

It has been too long and of course it is nearly the end of April. Where did the month go and I know I tried new recipes! Lately I have been reading a bunch of food books as I would call them. They are pieces that cooks have written or have been written about them. Here are my two pence on the few that I have recently read:

Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (and family)
I have really enjoyed reading her books in the past for their humor and her story telling ability in the Southwest so was excited to see another book by her on the shelves. It took me a bit to pick up the book but once I did finally picked it up I couldn't put it down. It is about her and her family moving from New Mexico to Virginia to live on their farm for good and how they make it work for them. They include stories of daily life, recipes, information on how things are politically and other random notes of living on a farm. One of my favorite things was learning about her youngest daughter and how she took to raising the chickens to create an egg business out of them! What a great way to learn the value of money and responsibility. Something I took away from the book was about learning and wanting to know more about eating within the seasons which is a good experience. I will aim to add it more into our eating this year too and go with what is local and in season plus you get the best of what is out there if you try for it!

Alice Waters & Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee
This one was given to me for my birthday and I had not heard about Alice Waters before and can't believe after reading it now that I ever could not have! She has been a major influence in food for years and I must have been in my own bubble but I have broken out! The book focuses on how she came into the restaurant business and how it has taken on whole new life in the way they sourced food from local places. This has been the motto since the beginning and has helped to steer others in the same way. I really enjoyed this book as I am a huge fresh market person so it really spoke to me about how to keep finding local products or to meet the producers. Alice Waters if you do a quick search on the NY Times there is a bunch of information if you want to learn more. I do love the fact that the US has started to bring this one by starting at the top with the White House and their new garden...of course we have to see how long it will last! I did recently add Alice's cookbook The Art of Simple food and made several things out of it already.

Julie & Julia by Julie Powell
This one was more of a light read and a good one for the long plane flight that is my roundtrip to Seattle. A woman in NYC needs a break from her dull normal day and picks up Julie Child's French Cookbook and decides to cook all the recipes in it from start to finish, over 500. The book is funny and light at heart but still reminds you that cooking can help to relax and escape the normal dull work day. I think there is something to be said for that since that is what I do on a daily basis. They are also using this book as a basis for a movie so that should be interesting to see how it turns out!

My Life in France by Julia Child
As a result of reading Julie & Julia I had to go and read this one. So far I am about a 100 pages in as it is my tube reading material and enjoying it. I remember watching the shows on PBS growing up with my dad and being in awe of her and how she always just seemed to whip everything into shape without batting an eye. In searching for the links to show you the readers more about the books I also discovered that Julie Child has dvd's out too!

So happy reading and I will work on a food post this week before we head to Rome with David this coming weekend.

Millionaire's Shortbread

Finally something very English to share with you all! Alan has been telling me about this shortbread before but I never had found a recipe until a recent cookstore trip. One day I was out with a girlfriend and we ended up in a new cookstore and she walked out with a bottle of wine and me a Leiths Baking Bible holding the magic recipe. That very day I went home to experiment. There are many steps to this recipe so that day we started to call it the dog walker shortbread since we walked Daisy a bunch while the different parts cooled before the next step in the recipe.

My first attempt was good but not great. I took my first attempt to an experienced Millionaire Shortbread taste tester on Alan's team and he gave me the low down. He also advised me that the chocolate should break Before the official taste test could start first he had to go and get a cup of coffee to go with it since no sweet dessert is ever complete without a cup of coffee in his hand. His first bite he described how the bottom shortbread was not quite crunchy enough but the caramel was perfect but it needed more chocolate so that when you bite into it the chocolate would break apart and be crumbly and yet stay together. He really liked it but it needed some work. It was all good for me so I went back to the drawing board.

Try number two I worked with a different shortbread bottom to test to see how to get it to a good consistancy. This version never worked right and the taste for the shortbread didn't come out according to plan. While making the second version I added more chocolate but still not enough so it was time for the third time.

Three times the charm and I finally nailed it!! Alan took it to work to share and got feedback that I had finally got it just right as the faces of enjoyment he said were perfect! Here is the recipe and my notes to go with it.

Millionaire's Shortbread

adapted from Leiths Baking Bible

For the Shortbread

200g/7oz butter, softened

115g/4oz caster sugar

285g/10oz plain flour

For the Filling

115g/4oz butter

115g/4oz caster sugar

2 Tablespoons golden syrup

1x400g/14oz can condensed milk

For the Topping

The book calls for 115g/40z plain chocolate...go much bigger!

Meg calls for 400g plain chocolate, I did a mixture of 70% & 80% cocoa so fairly dark.

Heat the oven to 180C or 350F. Grease a 9x13 tin.

Make the shortbread: Cream the butter in a mixing bowl, add the sugar and beat until pale and fluffy. Add the flour and bring together to form a dough.

Press the dough evenly into the prepared tin, using the back of a spoon.

Bake in the center of the oven for 20 minutes or until golden-brown. Mine took about 40 minutes until it got just right. It will vary by the oven so watch it after 20 minutes and make sure it gets cooked all the way through. Having a good crust will make a difference! Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin.

Good time to walk the dog for cooling!

Make the filling: put all the ingredients into a saucepan and heat gently to melt the butter and dissolve the sugar, stirring occasionally. Increase the heat and boil rapidly for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. There will be little brown bits when it starts to boil so don't panic, and keep stirring! take care not to touch the filling it will be very hot. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 1 minute. Pour over the cooled shortbread and allow for the filling to cool and set.

Good time for walk number 2 for the dog!

For the chocolate topping: melt the chocolate in a small, heatproof bowle set over but not touching a saucpan of gently steaming water. Spread the melted chocolate carefully over the cold, set caramel filling.
Mark into fingers and leave to set before removing from the tin. Cut into fingers only once they are cold.

Flour Power

I tend to go through a lot of flour these days. Between bread, cookies, other sweet treats or just normal cooking flour is a hot commodity in our house. The sizes of what is offered in the stores does not help either as they make it tough to keep enough on hand for long periods (a month being long). In comparison to a US size bag these ones are small to me plus if you can imagine you can go smaller! I know you are saying but Megan you are in the UK so everything is smaller but I still don't accept if for food always! The same sizing of bags is consistant for sugar but I have been lucky in that on occasion I am able to go to Costco or send Alan on his way home and get a fairly big bag at 5kg's. It is pretty funny to me that I think this is a big bag! I do have to store it outside of my cupboards as it won't fit but I will take that any day over having to keep running to the store for a tiny bag of sugar that barely will fill the recipes I have for a week.

Flour on the other hand is a different story. The big bags at the store are only 1.5kg's. After awhile every time Alan would take me to the store I was buying 4-5 of these bags to be able to last a few weeks for all the bread and testing on other recipes I am doing. It would last a bit longer when we travelled but it was funny how much flour was costing (£3-4 a small bag depending on what store/quality), not only in cost but in the factor of having to bring it home on my shoulder from the store or wait for Alan to drive me to the store for a stockpile. One day at our local market I noticed a woman purchase a very large bag from the guy we sometimes would buy flour, hot sauce and garlic from, yes a strange combo but he makes Alan's favourite hot sauce. Several weeks later I went up to him and chatted about getting big bags of flour for both bread baking and regular baking. He is a funny guy with a big heart. We speak to him every week we are there and he drives up from the Isle of Wight each week with his truck for deliveries. He really does have some good chutney's and hot sauces all made on the island. He brings the products out to the other areas and Barnes is one of his spots. We have grown rather fond of the guy and make sure to talk to him every weekend even if we don't buy anything. He assured me that my flour order would be there the following week and so I planned with Alan to drive down as there would be no way we could get it on the bus with other groceries from market. Sure enough the following week our two VERY LARGE bags of flour were ready for us 16kg's for each bag at £19 each a great deal in my book! It is awesome to say the least. I have not worried about having flour or running to the store in the past month and a half. The cool thing when we picked up the bags from him is that he told us the plain flour had just been milled the day before and was very fresh and ready to use. He is the miller for the flour!

So when my bins run a bit dry in the kitchen I had upstairs to the guest room and fill up! I have sadly no other real good dry/cool storage other than in the house. No guests for awhile otherwise they might be sleeping with flour!
Check out the picture for the size comparisons between what you can actually buy in a grocery store and this includes a big supermarket shop vs what I got at the farmers market from the local miller.

In Progress

I am cooking! I do swear I am. We have been working through recipes of late to get them right for blogging and sharing.
Recent Adventures in the kitchen include:

Millionaires Shortbread
White Bread - braided
Ragu
Shortbread - plain but oh so tasty
Lemon Pound Cake
Cinnamon Rolls
Crusty Cheese Bread
Bitten's version of No-Knead Bread
Chicago Style Pizza (deep dish all the way)

That is a long list but I will work on it for March for sure as we are only travelling so far to visit the Swiss to see what kind of cheese, chocolate and Schnapps they have and through in some snow and we are all good.

Tonight Alan and I are heading to one of our favourite London Restuarants called Chez Bruce. The first time we were able to go was because my old team in Redmond the Admins gave me a gift card for the place. Alan did research for what would be something fun to dress up for but was not overly fancy and didn't break the bank. Chez Bruce is one of those places for sure. If you want to dress up you can, you should it does make the evening all the more fun. The food is served as pre-fixed 3 course for about £40 per person! They also have an amazing wine list that covers all countries and regions so you can't go wrong. So tonight for our 7 year anniversary Alan made a booking to celebrate and we are ready for our evening out. If you go you need to make a booking and thankfully they have changed the booking policy and you are able to book a bit further out then the original month. I am dreaming of my dinner at work already when is the work day over?!

Sloppy Joes – Comfort food

Last night I was in a hurry before we went and met friends at the movies.  We finally saw “Slumdog Millionaire” which by the way is a good movie and totally worth seeing if you have not.  One cool thing is that Orange (a mobile company here) does a 2 for 1 deal with the movie theatres in London on Wednesdays.  It is a great deal and they serve Ben & Jerry’s at the theatre too! 

On to the Sloppy Joes…my brother and I grew up with this recipe made by Mom who had to have something to feed us and Sloppy Joes out of a can just didn’t work in our house only the homemade version.  I don’t know where she go the original but I know both my brother and I still use the original. The great thing is you can easily add a side salad or another green veggie on the side to round out the meal as the meat dish provides good flavours even though it is so simple.  The best part is that it is the ultimate in comfort food with ground beef on top and then bread on the bottom, we recommend either a burger bun or maybe a piece of homemade bread.  It is simple and easy to make and you can do it in under 30 minutes which is why I used it last night when in a hurry.  The ingredients needed to be added in clumps so it does help to measure out ahead and set aside to speed up the process, or at least gather them out on the counter as it will make it so much easier. 

Lloyd Family Sloppy Joes

1 pound ground beef

1/4 cup of each – chopped – onion, celery & green pepper

1 1/4 cup water

1/4 cup of each – Ketchup & Chilli sauce (we use Heinz 57 Chilli Sauce)

1 Tablespoon of each – brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon of each – chilli powder and salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon French mustard

1 teaspoon Parsley Flakes

In a deep fry pan, simmer the onion, green pepper and celery in a touch of olive oil.  Let the onion start to shimmer and add in the ground beef and break up into bits and allow to start to brown.  After about 2 minutes start to add in the rest of the ingredients up to the Parsley Flakes, they will go in last.  Once everything is in let the meat and sauce start to thicken and boil about 7-10 minutes.  At the end stir in the Parsley flakes and serve over a hamburger bun or a piece of toast.  Homemade cheese bread works well too, give it a slight toast to bring out the cheese! 

The dish makes great leftovers too.  Sorry no pictures we ate in a hurry last night! 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The joys of comfort food. The good old fashioned chocolate chip cookie. This is something rarely found properly done here in the UK. They do have biscuits and other types of cookies but nothing is as good as an American made cookie. At the tube stops and such there is a cookie stand at several locations but they don’t have the smell or taste of the Mrs. Fields in the malls of my childhood. Those were always a treat to get the semi-sweet chocolate chip cookie when out shopping.

Today Alan’s team has a late day with the larger team in Redmond having a Friday all hands late our time. I asked him if I baked cookies for the team what would he prefer and he thought about it and came back to me saying, “I am a chocolate chip cookie kinda guy so that is my vote.” So yesterday I made a couple of batches of those! I tend to experiment and bake for his team a lot and it is nice to know that ones cookies don’t go to waste. So today Alan took in several bags worth of cookies to help the group survive the long call tonight late on a Friday.

I have had this recipe for a long time and don’t remember where I found it but it different then the normal Toll House recipe that is off the back of the package. I like the texture of the cookie better with the crinkles that come out when baking. Since the butter is actually melted and warm there tends to be chocolate swirls that develop in the dough which give it a nice colour and brings out the chocolate flavour too.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large whole egg

1 large egg yolk

1/2 Tablespoon Vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup walnuts broken (optional)

In a saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. When melted take it off the stove and add the sugars to the butter and combine. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and allow to cool to room temperature. While cooling combine flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl. If using salted butter omit the additional salt.

Whisk egg, egg yolk and vanilla into cooled butter-sugar mixture. Mix in the reserved flour until just combined. Add in the chocolate chips and nuts if adding. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Using 2 teaspoons, place golf size dough balls on the cookie sheets. Bake until cookies are golden brown and the tops no longer look wet, about 12-14 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheets about 5 minutes, transfer to wire rack and let cool. The tops should be nice and crinkled!

Yummy!

Cheese Bread

Now one of our favourite finds in the UK at our Whole Foods has been Cheese Bread. This is a great mixture of bread and cheese and usually in Alan's book that is about all you need. I had not found a recipe for it until I found this book which is a fun read. Country Wisdom & Know-How (from the Editors of Storey Books). It is a book full of 8,167 Useful Skills & Step-by-Step Instructions and there are quite a few recipes! We have made the Monkey Bread from here before but that one still needs some adjustments so will keep working on it before posting. This one is straightforward but the key is good and strong cheese to bring out the flavour. We are lucky to have discovered a great Provolone that we buy locally at our farmers market in Barnes. The cheese has a real zing to it and really sets off this bread wonderfully. To be fair we had never had any Provolone before like this it is STRONG!

Cheese Bread

adapted from Country Wisdom & Know-How

1 pkg dry yeast

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup (120ml) water - lukewarm (95-110F; 35-40C)

1 1/4 cups (295ml) milk

2 1/2 cups grated or shredded cheese - Put the good stuff in!

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 1/2-5 1/2 cups bread flour (I used this last time and it worked well and used smaller quantity) OR use 5-6 cups white flour

Proof the yeast in a large bowl along with the sugar in the lukewarm water.

Beat in the milk, cheese and oil to the yeast mixture, then add in the salt and 2 1/2 cups of the flour. Mix well. The dough will start to come together but still be wet.

Keep adding more flour to bring the dough together and not as wet. Turn out onto a well-floured surface and add more flour as needed while kneading the dough. Knead until the dough is smooth and shiney.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, turn once to coat, then cover and let it rise until doubled in size. I place this in my "Harry Potter" closet under the stairs and it heats up nicely with our water heater in there! I usually estimate about 2 hours rising time.

Once doubled in size punch down the dough and divide it into two loaves. Have ready 2 9-inch loaf pans greased & floured and ready for the dough.

A method for preparing the dought into the pan that I have found helpful:

Work on a very lightly floured surface. Work the dough with the heel of your hand to form dough into a rectangle. Fold over the long sides of the rectangle to the middle, like an envelope and then pinch the seam closed with the fingers. Finally fold the ends of the loaf into the middle. Place seam side down into the pan and gently press into the pan.

Cover the two loaf pans lightly and let rise again until once more doubled in size, just cresting the pan edge. Bake in pre-heated oven at 350F. Bake for 40 minutes

In my oven it takes about 30 minutes to bake so check on your bread. The loaves when finished should sound hollow when tapping on the bottom of the pan.

Enjoy!