Homemade Italian Bread

Living in California, the thing I missed the most was the rain. Well, excluding real New England ice cream, obviously. I've been back in Massachusetts for a little over three weeks now and it's rained pretty much every other day. Let's just say I'm ready for California weather... but I'm not ready to give up local ice cream!

Weatherwise, yesterday was pretty fair--so of course it's been raining all day today. I didn't have to work or babysit, so I spent the day watching my new show, Sherlock, and making bread from scratch.

Even though I had all day to poodle around making bread, I didn't want to spend multiple hours proofing yeast and waiting for the dough to rise. So, to the internet I went for a relatively quick and easy recipe.

I eventually found this recipe on For the Feast. Super easy to follow and a delicious, gorgeous loaf as a result!

You will need:
 -3 cups bread flour
 -1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) of active dry yeast
 -2 tsp granulated sugar
 -1 tsp salt
 -1 cup warm water (plus water as needed)
 -approx. 1 tbsp olive oil
 -sea salt, if you're up for adventure

In a bowl, combine the cup of warm water and the packet of yeast. Let it sit for about five minutes, until it's "creamy" and resembles the picture above.

While the yeast is doing its thing, combine the flour, sugar, and salt in another bowl.

When the yeast is ready, do what I didn't--make a well in the flour and pour the yeasty water into the indent. I just kind of poured it in willy-nilly and ended up with this weird looking mess above. Add water (a little bit at a time!) if necessary until the dough sticks together and is sticky.

When it's reached an appropriate consistency, gently form the dough into a ball and put it in a greased bowl. Spray a little bit of Pam on top, then cover the bowl with kitchen towel. Leave the dough alone for an hour--take a shower, exercise, binge-watch Sherlock...

After an hour, the dough will look like this. Tip it out of the bowl, flip it over, and move it around a bit. Form into another ball, spray some Pam, cover it up with a kitchen towel, and leave it to rise for another half-hour to hour.

Voilà! This is my dough after an hour and fifty minutes of total rising time.

Now's the time to preheat your oven, folks--375˚F.

Prepare your surface; I used a medium sized pizza stone. Sprayed it with (what else but) Pam, and I was ready to go!

Ease your dough out of the bowl, and carefully form it into a ovular/football shape. Try and handle the dough as minimally as possible, because you don't want to ruin any of the nice little air bubbles inside.

Brush the loaf with the olive oil. If you're feeling exceptionally daring, sprinkle some sea salt on top. Then, using a sharp knife, slice three angled cuts into the bread.

Now it's time to pop that sucker into the oven! Cook for thirty minutes, or until tapping the bottom produces a hollow sound. I can never shake the thought that I'm Nancy Drew searching for a hidden room... but maybe that's just me.

Let it cool for at least fifteen minutes before enjoying.

On a side note, I was eagerly taking this photo when my dad came home from work. I got some judgement vibes from him, but really. Look at this beauty.

We had it with our dinner tonight, but I'm looking forward to enjoying it before it inevitably disappears by tomorrow evening. I'm guessing my dad will make toast with it for breakfast, and my mom is no doubt fantasizing over an egg and homegrown watercress sandwich for lunch... 

It's quite a dense bread, but crumbs very nicely. The bread has a gentle yeast flavor and smells like heaven! The sea salt is a nice touch, I think.

All in all, an easy, delicious, and quick bread (well, as quick as bread can be!)

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Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

So here's a bit of backstory. I'm an only child--the people in my house are me, my mom and dad, and our crazy mutt Seeds. Therefore, whenever I make desserts, I have to find someone to give them to!

Every month, the dental practice I work at has a "team meeting", where all the employees meet and we discuss various topics. You see where I'm going with this? That's right; a group of people I could give dessert to!

Since all my coworkers are quite healthy, I thought I'd stay away from (deliciously caloric) things like brownies. I wanted something relatively mess-free as well... with some creative googling and blog-searching, I found a recipe on Brown Eyed Baker for Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake bars.

You will need:
 -Nine graham crackers
 -1/2 cup of granulated sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
 -Pinch of cinnamon
 -A cup of blueberries
 -16 oz (two little boxes) of cream cheese
 -4 tablespoons of butter, melted
 -2 eggs
 -Zest and juice of two lemons

First off, preheat your oven to 375˚F, and line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper. Trim the edges so they don't hang too far off the edge.

You'll use your food processor excessively for this--so drag it out from whatever cabinet it's in, give it a good rinse, and you're set! Break your graham crackers into pieces, and throw those into the processor with the two tablespoons of sugar and the pinch of cinnamon.

Pulse until it resembles bread crumbs, then pour in the melted butter. Pulse some more until it resembles the above picture.

Press the mixture into the pan, then bake for twelve minutes until it's even more golden brown. Take it out of the oven and let it cool, but keep the oven on and hot!

While the crust is in the oven, you can start on your filling.

Begin by zesting your lemons. We have a nifty little tool that we use, so that certainly simplifies things. Once you've zested (I'm never going to get sick of that word), slice your lemons in half, then juice them. If you don't have a juicing device, use a pair of tongs to squeeze the lemons. It works better than manual squeezing!

Into the food processor: all the cream cheese, the two eggs, a half cup of sugar, and all the lemon juice and zest. Process away until it's completely smooth.

Make sure you occasionally scrape the sides down, so that everything can mix together fully.

Pour the filling on top of the slightly cooled crust. It's going to be pretty thick, so spread it with a spatula to make an even layer. Once it's spread to your satisfaction, sprinkle your blueberries on top. Feel free to put as many or as few on as you'd like.

Now, pop that sucker into the oven for approximately 35 minutes, until "the center only slightly jiggles", which I took to mean as didn't jiggle much when I poked it (with clean fingers, I swear).

When they're done, take them out of the oven and let them cool completely before removing from the pan and refrigerating for at least three hours.

I brought them into the office and was greeted by some very happy coworkers! They went quickly and were absolutely delicious--they were wonderfully light and lemony. I saved some for my parents and they said that, flavorwise, the bars reminded them of Key Lime Pie. Next time I may omit the blueberries and instead top with a little bit of fresh zest!

These will definitely go on the roster for delicious, relatively guilt-free, and quick desserts!

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Spring Vegetable Quiche

Home is a great place to be. Sleeping in my nice big bed, seeing all my friends and coworkers, and my mother buying groceries are certainly the main reasons I love being here!

There's a Whole Foods in my town, and we do the majority of our grocery shopping there. My parents, while extremely healthy to begin with, have just read Salt Sugar Fat (available here) and are becoming more conscious of the food they eat.

We eat a lot of vegetables at home and make whatever we can from scratch. Therefore this slightly modified recipe for spring quiche (from this great food blog) is an instant hit in our house. While it is slightly involved when it comes to making the dough, it's an extremely simple recipe that yields delicious results.

You will need:
 -1 and 1/4 cups of flour
 -6 tablespoons of unsalted margarine (any solid fat will do!)
 -salt and pepper to taste
 -approximately 1/3 of a cup of water
 -9 or 10 asparagus stalks, with ends removed and cut into 1-inch pieces
 -4 cups spinach
 -4 green onions (scallions)
 -5 large eggs
 -1 cup milk
 -approximately 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
 -3/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese
 -1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese
 -9-inch pie pan

For the crust:

Grab a mixing bowl (ours is two quarts), flour, margarine, salt, and pepper.

Start by measuring out a cup and a quarter of flour, and put it in your mixing bowl.

Cut up your margarine into small chunks, pop them in the bowl, then add salt and pepper to taste.

Mum did this part, since she is the undisputed pie crust queen.

 Get a pastry cutter (or a knife/fork/something sharpish) and mash your butter into the flour.

Keep cutting it all together until it looks like this: there should be no chunks of butter left in the mixture. It should resemble coarse meal.

Here's where it gets a bit intuitive: pouring a little bit of water in at a time, combine the flour/margarine mixture with the water until it barely starts to stick together. It should resemble the above picture and you will probably think it is too dry. Trust me, it's done when it juuuuust sticks together. For this batch, we added just about 1/3 of a cup of water.

Still mum!

Pick the dough up with your (clean) hands and make a loose ball with it. Wrap it in saran wrap/clingfilm and pop it in the fridge while you prepare the filling. See? Isn't that easy?

You begin the next steps by turning your oven onto 375˚F and...

Start by laying out your vegetables in neat, easily photographed rows... then chop them up! The spinach stays whole, but the asparagus need the ends removed and then need to be chopped into inch-long pieces. Once they're cut up, throw them in the bowl with the spinach.

Remove the roots/hairy bits of the green onion, then chop them up finely. Keep these off to the side.

In a pan over medium-high heat, pour in about a half-tablespoon of olive oil (though I tend to eyeball it), then throw the spinach and asparagus in. All you want to do is wilt the spinach and slightly soften the asparagus.

While the vegetables are cooking, whisk together the eggs and the milk. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Then, add the feta cheese and 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese. When your vegetables are done, move them into a strainer and gently press out the excess liquid.

Once you've mixed the eggs and milk together, you can start to roll out your pie crust. Remove the dough ball from the fridge and saran wrap, then place on a very well-floured surface. Sprinkle more flour over the top, and using a rolling pin, roll the dough out until it's about twelve inches in diameter. It's going to have to fit into a 9-inch pie pan, so make sure it's enough!

Transport your dough to the pie pan. We do it by folding the dough in half, then in half again, then picking it up, plonking it in the pan, and unfolding it. Lightly press the dough into the corners of the pan, then trim off the excess hanging over the edges.

What we like to do is sprinkle a light layer of mozzarella cheese (about half of what's left) on the bottom, so that the crust doesn't get soggy. Once that layer is down, lay your vegetables (the cooked ones and the raw green onion) evenly over the dough, then pour the egg, milk, and cheese mixture over the top. Sprinkle with the rest of your mozzarella cheese.

Now, place the quiche into the oven. Congratulations! You're almost there!

Bake the quiche for about forty minutes, when the filling is set and the top starts to turn golden-brown.

Let it sit for about fifteen minutes, since it will deflate a bit as it cools.

We generally serve this quiche with baked potatoes and peas. Delicious, nutritious, and healthy!

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Katsuya

This past Thursday, my friend N's mother was in LA and took N, me, and our friend J out to dinner in LA Live.

J and N had tickets to the Kings/Sharks game, so we had to eat a quick, early dinner. We decided on Katsuya, the famous Los Angeles restaurant.

Now, I'd never been before, but I've heard great things. To be frank... I wasn't that impressed with the food, even though the ambiance was stellar. However, minor disclaimer, sushi restaurants are rarely exciting for vegetarians. There's only so many avocado and cucumber rolls I can eat before I've eaten them all!

We started off with edamame (predictably good), and before we were even finished, our various rolls and dishes started coming.

First up, my vegetable bento box. Three little sample-size dishes inside: a fairly average vegetable roll, followed by mushroom and avocado in a really delicious sauce (didn't catch the name of it, whoops), and then vegetable tempura waaay over on that far end. All in all, quite tasty, but nothing extremely special, and left me a little hungry.

This is one of Katsuya's specialties--the Crispy Rice with Spicy Tuna. The restaurant calls this one of their specialty dishes and their "most flavorful", but my dinner companions were not incredibly impressed. While they did find it good, they didn't find the dish as awe-inspiring as the menu made it out to be.

Next up for my friends was the Spider roll; soft shell crab, ponzu, cucumber, and avocado. Again, a pretty typical sushi dish that was executed solidly. While all of the pieces were eaten, I don't think it was anything to write home about. The next roll however...

This was the one that was unanimously everyone's favorite... the Rock Shrimp Tempua roll. The base is tuna roll, topped with a few pieces of spicy tempura shrimp. These went really, really fast. According to my companions, their complete uniqueness added to the level of enjoyment. Really though, how often do you see a dish like this?

As you can see, I couldn't get a picture of the Wagyu Ribeye before N and her mother started tucking in. Cooked medium-rare and served sizzling on a plate with mushrooms, everyone said it was delicious. Apparently it was prepared and executed extremely well, and tasted wonderful.

I swear I just got a picture during a lucky people-free moment!

All in all, Katsuya's decent food was really improved by the ambiance and location. LA Live was bustling and exciting, as it normally is, and sitting outside and people-watching made the dinner even more fun.

Of course, the TV playing the Bruins game certainly improved it for me! Our fellow diners were extremely friendly and we struck up conversation with a few of them about their dishes. Of course, all of them had ordered and were raving about the Rock Shrimp Tempura roll.

Once we paid the bill, we snagged a quick picture in the wooden chair at the entrance, and we were off. N and J had nosebleed seats to the game, and I was back to school for an evening of Graham Norton and Arrested Development.

On a separate note, I'm back home in Massachusetts for the summer now! Expect lots of recipe posts now that I've got a full-size kitchen and my mother's well-stocked pantry.

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Roundup, and Jacks N Joe

Well, folks, life's been happening. School's been a little psycho, but my last final is Wednesday and I'm home next Sunday!

A quick recap of what I've been up to since I last blogged:

I got a behind-the-scenes look at my friend J, shooting for her fashion blog. Check it out here!

If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen that my friend L surprised me with macarons from 'Lette. They were just as delicious as they looked!

My friends and I built a fort. We're still ten years old. It's casual. We hibernated in there for an entire Saturday night with absolutely zero regrets.

I made some smores. I had to run extra-far the next day... just look at that delicious, melty goodness sandwiched between those graham crackers. Yummm.

But now, to the real point of my post: Jacks N Joe. Located just off campus on South Figueroa Street, this is a place solely devoted to breakfast. I've been here a few times and thought I'd finally share! There's generally a line out of the door, but the food is fast and delicious--totally worth the wait.

I cleaned my iPhone camera lens right after this shot!

The back side of the menu is devoted to various omelettes, cereals, and drinks. It's extremely tough to decide! Normally I decide on egg dishes, but everything I've ever tasted/bites I've stolen from my friends have been delicious.

A few weeks ago, I ordered their "Seven Minutes in Heaven" french toast. Three thick slices of their homemade french toast, slathered with Nutella and topped with bananas, strawberries, and powdered sugar. My only complaint? I could have gone for more Nutella, per usual!

When I went on Thursday with my friends, I was determined to get photos of everyone's food. What I ordered is not on the menu--Jacks N Joe has their own "secret menu", and this is one of the items on it. They're loaded hash browns; a bed of hash browns, topped with two eggs any style, sausage, bacon, cheese, green onion, and aioli. Two pieces of toast come on the side. I choose to get my meal without meat, but it was nonetheless delicious and completely filling. I was comfortably full until dinner!

L got a make-your-own omelette. Price depends on what you order (she got a lot of vegetables and avocado) and sides are addition. However, as you can see, you definitely get your money's worth!

Coffee at Jacks N Joe is $1.50 for bottomless refills. I'm not a big coffee drinker, but my friends love it; strong coffee, refilled about every five minutes.

M ordered one of the combos--two eggs any style, bacon, homefries, and two chocolate chip pancakes. I had a bite of the pancakes... oh man. They were absolutely heavenly. Rumor on the street is that Jacks N Joe puts cookie dough in their pancakes (okay, not a rumor, but awesome nonetheless).

Jacks N Joe is pretty essential breakfast food; fast, delicious, and very reasonably priced. It's a good ten-to fifteen-minute walk from campus, so it's nice to stretch your legs after cleaning your plate.

For anyone interested, Jacks N Joe is located at 2498 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA. I highly recommend it.

And one last little tidbit: the LA sky a few nights ago!

Follow me on Instagram @kat_herine_w. I update there almost daily!

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