Thursday, March 24, 2011

Bread bowls

I love bread bowls but hate spending money on them.  I especially love them with soups!  The weather has been a little colder this week so what better time than now to try some!  I found this yummy recipe and gave it a whirl.

Ingredients

  • 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast ( 4 1/2 tsp)
  • 1 cup warm water (110 degrees to 115 degrees)
  • 1 cup warm milk (110 to 115 degrees F)
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 6 cups bread flour
  • Cornmeal

Directions

  1. In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the milk, shortening, sugar, eggs, salt and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
  2. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into eight pieces; shape each into a ball. Grease two baking sheets and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place four balls 3 in. apart on each prepared pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.
  3. For bread bowls, cut a thin slice off the top of bread. Hollow out bottom half, leaving a 1/4-in. shell (discard removed bread or save for another use). Fill with chili, chowder or stew.

You can make this with a bread machine too.  I just put everything in my bread machine because I didn't feel like kneading it.  Put liquids first, then dry and make a well in the flour for the yeast and set it on the dough cycle.  Before it got to the rise cycle I took it out and put it in a greased bowl.



Sunday, March 20, 2011

homemade sloppy joes

I didn't get a picture of this, but it was really good.  I also didn't really follow a recipe so here is kinda what I did, but you can change amounts and ingredients to your taste.  If you like it sweeter or more tomatoey, add more ketchup.  If you like it spicier, add more chili powder.


1 1/2 -2 lbs ground beef
1 green/red/yellow/orange pepper, chopped (whichever color or flavor you'd like)
1/2 onion, chopped
combine in separate bowl:
1/2 c. ketchup
1 c. bbq sauce (whichever flavor you'd like)
2 tablespoons vinegar
1-2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, to taste
1 tsp. dry mustard
2 tsp. mustard (the stuff in the yellow bottle = )  )
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder, or to taste

Brown the hamburger.  When it is almost done, add in the peppers and onions and cook till soft.  When hamburger is done, add in the sauce mix and heat through.  Serve on hamburger buns and enjoy!!  We had slices of cheddar cheese to ours too =)  This makes a lot so you will have plenty for leftovers.  It freezes great too.