Easy Artisan Bread

My name is Hayley and I am an addict. A bread addict, that is! I came across this wonderful artisan bread recipe from Simply So Good while browsing Pinterest months ago. I have quickly become the favorite daughter and favorite study group member. I seriously cannot stop devouring this bread. I followed her methods verbatim in the beginning, but I have quickly found out this recipe is very hard to mess up. It always seems to work out even if my dough seems extremely sticky. The plain recipe is fabulous and a great place to start, but these are some others I have tried:

• Lemon, swiss, and rosemary (this one is probably my favorite) 
• Cinnamon, nutmeg, rasin, and brown sugar 
• Pumpkin and sage 
• Dark chocolate and dried cherries (want to try) 
• White chocolate chip and cranberry (want to try) 
• Pistachio and cranberries (want to try) 
• Garlic and caramelized onions (want to try) 

The pumpkin sage bread was the recipe I brought to my study group on Sunday. We all spent days reading about lipids, gastrin, and gastric diseases and totally deserved to treat ourselves with a carb overload. I picked up a HUGE bunch of fresh sage from the farmers market for $1 (along with two asian pears, YUM). Of course bread always needs butter so I chopped up a bunch of sage and made a sage compound butter. The next day I sautéed leftover sage pumpkin bread in browed sage compound butter and had croutons to go on my salad. As you can tell, I am a little obsessed and will try this again. The pumpkin sage bread was devoured before I got any pictures, but I do have pictures of the loaf of rasin bread I made a few weeks ago! 

Dat crust.

Ignore the bag of soil in the background, my porch is the only place with adequate lighting!

I wish smell-o-vision was a thing. 

Sometimes I think I just use bread as an excuse to eat a lot of butter. 

Just for fun (and because I took them on the same day), my new old lady glasses. 

Side note- I think the sage from the market was slightly spider infested. Every time I pull it out of the fridge I end up with a little cooking buddy. And not the cute Rattatoulie kind. Please don't tell Adam. ;)

I am linking up to a few linky parties this week for the first time. I always LOVE scrolling through lists of linky parties and seeing the wonderfully creative things other bloggers are doing, so I have decided to join in on the fun! If you're stopping by from one of the linky parties, welcome to my little space in bloggerland! :)

Cake Batter Chocolate Sauce, or Using Resources Wisely.

Hi all,

I just got back from a whirlwind weekend of cooking at a Girl Scout camp! This was our first year at Camp St. Albans (camp was traditionally held at Camp Klahanee) and there were a few fantastic improvements. The girls were able to go boating, swiming, and even shoot an arrow at the archery range. A feature the girls wouldn't notice is the wonderful commercial kitchen at St. Albans. Klahanee has very small home-sized appliances, which means one traditional oven to feed 100+ people.  St. Albans has FOUR commercial convection ovens, huge prep spaces, multiple sinks, and a walk-in refrigerator/freezer. The first few days of camp were so hot that we held many planning meetings inside the walk in refrigerator, so refreshing!

I was assigned to help prepare dinner for about 150 ladies (and 2 guys!). The last night we planned to have angel food cake with berries for dessert, but the berries had been accidentally used for a different meal! What is that old phrase about having too many cooks in the kitchen? Anyway... being on a limited budget, we tried to come up with alternatives. The weather was unexpectedly hot, so we had two cases of hot cocoa mix that were going unused. I decided to tinker around with the mix and see what kind of chocolate sauce I could come up with. This sauce was made entirely with leftovers from other meals at camp. The end product was insanely decadent and well-loved by all! Here's what I did:

Melt margarine (or butter) over medium heat in a large sauce pot. Stir in hot cocoa packets. This will look very grainy and will separate into a chunky sludge and a dark smooth oil like substance. Do not be deterred, it will work! 

Crack and beat eggs in a spare bowl. Spoon a bit of the chocolate oil into the egg mixture. This tempers the eggs and prevents you from making a scrambled egg sauce. Once your eggs and sauce are mixed around, pour the egg mixture into the pot of chocolate goop. 

Now get to whisking! I alternated between a whisk and a large metal spoon, but keep in mind I was making a huge quantity. A whisk will probably get the job done in your kitchen. I kept the heat around medium to medium high and stirred the mixture around for about 5 minutes before it became a silky smooth chocolate sauce. 

At this point, the sauce was good, but not outstanding. Rooting around the kitchen a bit more, I found some leftover sour cream. THIS is what gives it a true cake batter feeling. Silky, smooth, creamy, and a little tart bite. I spooned the sauce into glass syrup dispensers and kept them in the fancy-schmancy warmer (held at 140 degrees or higher) until we were ready, but you could easily serve it immediately. Pour over angel food cake (with some donated blueberries- thanks Kim!), canned pineapple chunks, and a dollop of whipped cream. Or dip giant serving spoons in the pot like the entire kitchen staff did. Either way, your taste buds (and camp budget!) will love you. 

Anyone who has watched me cook knows I am a professional eye-baller. I will try and give you quantities, but I did not measure so you may have to play around with it. I made both the "home quantity" and "camp quantity" and they both turned out fine without measuring. 

Camp Quantity- Served 150 (approximately 30 cups sauce)

• Extremely large scoop margarine, probably close to 5-6 cups or more. I probably used close to a 1:1 ratio of margarine to cocoa. 
• 48 packets hot cocoa mix (50 in a case, but I practiced with 2 first). Using bulk cocoa, this almost filled up a small metal kitchen bowl. The packets should contain cocoa powder, sugar, and non-dairy creamer. 
•  About 18 raw eggs. All leftover from breakfast. 
• 1 container sour cream, approximately 12 ounces. 

Home Quantity- Probably 6 healthy servings

• About 1 cup margarine 
• 2 packets hot cocoa mix 
• 2-3 eggs 
• A healthy dollop sour cream

I know the math between the two doesn't quite add up, but that's just what I did and it was fantastic both times. Sorry for the lack of pictures- there is probably a food safety rule about cameras in a commercial kitchen. ;) I am already thinking of ways to change this chocolate sauce up at home, using peppermint cocoa mix, white chocolate mix, etc... anything goes! Enjoy! 

Apple Pie Oatmeal

While flipping through Pinterest the other day, I came across this spectacular oatmeal recipe. I love oatmeal and this recipe made me pine for crunchy fall leaves and pumpkin patches. I didn't take any pictures of mine because it looked like regular mushy oatmeal (follow the link above for her pictures and original recipe). I decided to add some brown sugar to mine, and I would probably use a bit less next time because it was like eating an actual apple pie, not breakfast oatmeal. I doubled the recipe so I would have enough to take to my Grandpa and have leftovers. Here's what I did:

Combine 2 cups steel-cut oats, 5 cups apple juice, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 (or more) diced apples, and a splash of cinnamon and vanilla in a slow cooker. Mine cooked long enough for the dog and I to walk around a lake and clean the house (about 3 hours on high). You could cook it for 7 hours or more on low. I did end up adding an extra cup of water towards the end, you'll just have to watch it. It is important to use steel-cut oats in this recipe because they keep their shape and texture. 

This recipe has joined my arsenal of go-to recipes, even Kona approved! I hope you try it! :) 

Mother's Day Extravaganza!

After all the gift/card making and post office visits, Mother's Day has finally come and gone. I am crashed on the couch with a big mug of D&M coffee recovering from this weekend. Shopping and eating is hard work! Mom drove over to spend the weekend with her favorite daughter (the other one was left at home and ended up suffering from a golf ball to the head- ouch!). Mom got in late Friday afternoon and we started out our weekend by seeing The Five Year Engagement. The next day we got up at the crack of dawn (HA!) and made our way to the Ellensburg Farmer's Market. Before we could even make it to the market, I experienced massive trauma:

My worst fear came true!!

I always have a huge fear that I'm going to be pooped on by a passing bird- and it finally happened! I was innocently walking along when I felt a huge SPLAT. I am actually glad it hit my hand instead of the intended target- the inside of my purse! I forgot to put my watch on that morning, so this poop-bombing went about as smoothly as possible.

After washing up, we finally made it to the market! 

A beautiful day at the market. Cowboy hats, babies, and dogs were abundant. 

GORGEOUS tomatoes.

The farmer said sometimes smaller tomatoes grow together which makes for some strange looking tomatoes.

Mom looking at these awesome benches. I have a feeling these will make an appearance  in her backyard soon. 

So many gorgeous flowers.

A funky monster mug. 

We bought this awesome cat picture.
It was wrapped in plastic so it was a little hard to see, but the cat is out-of-focus staring at the birds.

We picked up some of those delicious tomatoes for dad.

 After the market, we made our way to Yakima for some shopping and lunch. I had been wanting to try this restaurant out- and it did not disappoint.

Creekside West Bar & Grille

We both had the Cranberry and Pear Turkey sandwich, and I had smoked tomato bisque.

And mom had sweet potato tots with hers- YUM. 

 After lunch, I may or may not have gotten us extremely lost. I missed a turn and we ended up in the middle of farm country. Eventually, I maneuvered us back into civilization and we went to The Garden Girl. I found this cute little shop a few years ago and have been meaning to take mom there for ages.

This is the outside- the picture really does not do it justice. Everything is so fresh, green, and stunning. 

Lillies!

This flower was wrapped around a tall trellis.

A giant gondola filled with flowers.

Mom poking around the flowers!

These were the most unique little vines I have ever seen. They're called  Angel Vines (or something like that??) 

Agh, the store has huge old windows that do not mesh well with picture taking. This table had a killer terrarium filled with lilies and ferns. In front of the terrarium are rusty miniature bikes- so cute! 

The rest of our trip consisted of Craft Warehouse, Target, Big Lots, and WalMart so there was nothing exciting to take pictures of. I do have a full pantry now, which is very nice! Mom bought a Chocolate Mint plant and accidentally left it behind, so now it's mine. :) My tasks for this week are planting a few random herbs and flowers I have accumulated over the past week or so and to figure out what the heck to do with garlic scrapes. I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!