Polack Shortcakes

As far as I can remember into my childhood, my mother usually served strawberry shortcakes on angel food cake. A few weeks ago, Paddy and I bought some strawberries at Whole Foods. Berries notoriously go moldy in our home because we forget to eat them the first day. Never again.

On that day, I decided to make shortcakes for our strawberries. I've never made shortcake before, but I'm sure I saw a recipe on the Bisquick box. Miraculously we had all the ingredients in the house. First ingredient is 4 pints of strawberries. Check. Next was 1/2 cup of sugar. I poured it in my Pyrex mixing bowl and set to work adding all the other ingredients..until I got to the 3 tbsp of sugar part. Why would I add another 3 tbsp of sugar when we already added 1/2 cup. Turns out that 1/2 cup of sugar is supposed to go on the strawberries. Woops. Oh, well, I finished and baked them anyways.

Over the past few weeks I've messed with the recipe until I feel confident to post it here. (Or I've been busy eating shortcakes and finally decided to stop being lazy and post it.) In any case, you'll love it. Shortcakes that are so sweet and heavenly and cakey. No dry, cardboardy biscuits here.

Polack shortcakes:
1/2 cup of sugar
2 1/3 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
some shakes of cinnamon
3 tbsp melted butter

Mix ingredients. Make 6 lumps on a Silpat baking sheet. (If you don't have Silpats, they're heavenly, get them.)

Bake at 425 for 10 minutes.

They're so good you'll eat any leftovers naked once the berries and whipped cream are gone.

Here's tonight's finished dessert of blackberry shortcakes, but Paddy used my shortcakes to complete it so I'll have to have him tell you what he did. It's so damn good.

5-Hour No Knead Bread update

On Monday Paddy requested bread. Like a dummy, I packed all my cook books but two of them. I did not leave out my bread cook book. Sigh. I made Caine's 5-Hour No Knead Bread. I also put in garlic powder(1 tsp?), ground chipotle powder(2 tsp?) and some chopped fresh cilantro (handful?) It was so good I made 4 more loaves on Tuesday to use up all the fresh cilantro bunch.

We had it for lunch. We had it for dinner. I'm having it for lunch again. The toddler is in love with it. She's going to start pooping loaves of bread. It's all she asks for. "Brrrrrread? Brrrrread?" She seriously asked for it for breakfast.

Flour Fail

Paddy and I talk about buying the 25 pound bag of flour at Whole Foods all the time but don't because we're moving "soon" (in 3 months ish.) I have started baking bread very regularly to use as sandwiches for our lunches to save money on eating out. I now go through large amounts of flour, so we went to Whole Foods to get the 25 pound bag.

The bag is really a 50 pound bag. We got it anyways because it's just $1.00 a pound and organic and bread flour (has more gluten than regular flour.)

On the way home the umbrella stroller that was also in the trunk with the sack o'flour put a hole in the bag. Not at the top, or the bottom. Right in the middle. Paddy did some cursing bringing it into the house, as I was putting the weentsy one down for a nap and 22 weeks pregnant. (See moms? I do responsible pregnant things like not carrying the 50 pound bag of flour or teh 50 pound bag of sand.) Did I mention we also bought a 50 pound bag of sand to make a mini sandbox for Weentsy? It's not as much sand as you'd think.

Since we're moving "soon" I have packed up all non-necessary containers and kitchen things. Including my new gallon and half gallon sized glass containers which would be super helpful right about now with a ripped bag of flour. Instead I have a canning pot filled with flour. And a soup pot. And that took enough flour out of the bag to get it below the hold level.

Paddy is now dreaming of loaves of potato bread. And sourdough bowls. And dinner rolls. I'd better get baking.

Jane's Chili

I just made this up today. I make up my chili recipe every time I make a pot. But I make this for Jane because the girl loves chili and beans and I sneak in lots of veggies and some grains. Then I don't feel as bad letting her have an Oreo for dessert.

1/2 pound ground meat (I used beef today.)
1 onion
4 stalks of celery
1 quart canned quartered tomatoes
1/2 bag of frozen chopped broccoli
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
broth (I used turkey)
garlic powder
cumin
chili powder
ground red pepper
quinoa

In a soup pot, brown the ground meat. Do not drain. Add onions and celery. Dump in tomatoes with juice and half the bag of chopped broccoli. Feel free to add other veggies. I have used carrots, beets, corn, etc. in the past. Drain and rinse beans. Add to pot. Also feel free to use what ever kind of beans you'd like or to soak up some dried beans over night. I was being lazy today and used the canned ones. Season with chili seasoning. Make it as hot, or not as you'd like. Jane can handle some burn. ;)

Add broth. I probably added about 6 oz. I have homemade broth frozen in silicone cupcake cups. Each one is about 1.5 oz and I think I tossed in 4 ish. It happened to be turkey stock. Use whatever you have or like.

Bring pot to a boil and let simmer for a while. Mine probably was around an hour, but I wasn't really paying attention. Cook until the veggies are tender. Pour in some quinoa (or any other grain) I probably added 1/3 to 1/2 a cup of quinoa. The goal is to absorb the extra liquid and thicken things up. Cook for however longer your grain needs to properly cook.

Serve. Freeze in smaller sized portions to defrost.

Jane after 2 bowls of her chili and an Oreo.

Caine's 5-hour No Knead bread

3 c flour (dip, level, pour please)
1.5 tsp salt
7 grams yeast
Mix em (I use a whisk.)
Add 1.5 c water
Fork it til it's "wet and shaggy" (Caine says, it will look wrong.)

**Please us a fork, too. I was lazy and kept using the whisk. It worked, but was a bitch to get the dough out of in the end.**
Cover with plastic wrap(I usually mark my plastic wrap with a sharpie so I remember when it's 'done.')

Wait 3 hours
Turn it out onto an (olive)oiled board and fold it 2 times
**This is where you can fold in other yummies, like roasted garlic and/or herbs. I just added home dried basil because I was too lazy to roast garlic and it was late. Next time, Gadget!**

Cover it on the board for 30 min
Preheat dutch oven and lid to 400°
Put dough in dutch oven w/seam side up (Can also pour some olive oil on dough. Paddy really 'poured' too.)
Cover and bake for 30 minutes
Uncover and cook for 15 minutes

Slice, slather with butter, eat.
Start your next loaf.

French Toasted Banana Bread

Make banana bread with recipe below. Slice 1/4" slices. Beat 4 eggs with some milk. Dip slices in egg/milk mix. Coat well, even let soak in a good amount. Cook in hot fry pan, flip over when ready. Eat. Then lay with your stuffed belly up. Rotten bananas never tasted so good.