A Couple of Recipes...

I'm excited to be a contributor on this blog! It makes me feel a little special...though I still have a lot to learn in the cooking arena. I'm excited to steal your recipes and try them!

This is also good because it will get me to take pictures of food I make. Tom used to take quite a few pictures of food at the beginning of our marriage, but I always made fun of him for doing it, so I don't have any recent ones.

I have made both these recipes in the last week, so I just pulled them off the top of my recipe box. I'll be sure to take pictures for the next post.

French Peasant Bread
1 T. yeast
2 c. warm water
1 T. sugar
2 t. salt
4 c. flour
oil
cornmeal
melted butter
Place yeast, water, sugar and salt in warm bowl and stir until dissolved. Add flour and stir until blended. Do not knead. Cover and let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size. Flour hands, remove dough from bowl and place 2 rounds on an oiled cookie sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Let rise 1 hour. Brush tops with melted butter and bake at 425 for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 and cook and additional 15 minutes. Brush with butter again and serve warm.

This is SUCH a yummy new bread recipe I found. It is super easy - just takes a lot of time.

Oven Fried Potatoes (one of Tom's favorites)
12 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
2 t. salt
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. paprika
1/2 t. pepper
1/3 c. vegetable oil
Place potatoes in a large resealable gallon-size plastic bag. Combine the parmesan and seasonings. Add to potatoes and shake to coat. Pour oil onto 2 15x10x1 inch baking pans; pour potatoes into pans. Bake uncovered at 375 for 40-50 minutes.

For crispier potatoes, I turn the temp up to about 400 - that is how we like them. I usually half this recipe. This recipe goes great with grilling...burgers, steaks, etc. We also like to grill veggies in our grill basket for this meal. I usually just cut up zucchini, squash, broccoli, onions, peppers (whatever I have on hand) and toss them in olive oil and season with spices.