Eating the Bible: Iron Men

April 9, 2014September 17, 2014 ~ lk529 ~ 3 Comments

Tonight’s recipe and accompanying bible verse come from The Book of Deuteronomy.

It is a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity – where you will not lack for anything; a land whose stones are iron, and from whose mountains you will quarry copper. Deuteronomy 8:9

Rena references the Babylonian Talmud during her bible study. It suggests that the reference to “stones of iron” is a metaphor for those who will build the land. According to the Talmud “any scholar who is not as tough as iron is not a scholar.” Those building Israel are its scholars – requiring a strong will and a strong faith.

It is important to remember during the journey of Lent to be “tough as iron” in keeping your Lenten promise, in resisting temptation, and in enriching your belief.

To accompany a verse on iron, Rena created a black bean soup as black beans are rich in iron. I halved her recipe as I only need to feed two of us. If you want to make this a completely vegetarian one-pot dinner simply substitute vegetable stock in place of the chicken stock. Rena suggests pureeing the soup to a desired consistency, I omitted this step.

Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tbsp cumin
1 can (15 oz) black beans, undrained
1 can (15 oz) stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 1/4 C chicken broth

Steps:

In a pot saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium-high heat. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Cook until onion is tender. Add beans, tomatoes, and broth. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes.
Serve with crusty bread. And provide shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream for topping, if desired.

*This recipe is adapted from Eating the Bible by Rena Rossner*

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Nutella Coffee Cake

April 7, 2014November 3, 2014 ~ lk529 ~ 7 Comments

As promised I have another April Food Network Magazine recipe.

The first Monday in April kicks of National Baking week. And April 7th is National Coffee Cake Day. Two birds, one stone.

In every edition of their magazine, Food Network features a “Mix & Match” concept. Whether it’s a cake, bread, pasta, or something else. I really like this concept as they provide for you the basics of a recipe but allow you to be the mastermind behind which flavors you want to combine. It’s a great way for new recipe makers to learn how to adapt recipes to suit your tastes while still having the “science” at hand.

This month: Coffee Cake. I opted to use cocoa powder and oats in my topping and chocolate-hazelnut spread as my filling. I did contemplate making a raspberry coffee cake instead – and I just might! But when I flipped through this page it was Nutella that was on my mind – so that’s what I went with. But while making it my sweet tooth started putting up a fight, requesting raspberry instead. Too bad sweet tooth, you lost the battle to my pantry items. And while I write up this post my stomach is growling waiting for the cake to come out of the oven. Let me tell you, it smells fantastic – the cinnamon in the topping mixed with the chocolatey filling… is my hour up yet? (for the record there are 10 minutes remaining – I just hope it’s really ready!)

Nutella Coffee Cake

Ingredients for topping:

3/4 C flour
2/3 C brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
5 tbsp butter, at room temperature
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 C rolled oats

Ingredients for cake:

2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 C sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 C yogurt (original recipe called for sour cream, but I didn’t have any)
8-10 tbsp chocolate-hazelnut spread

Steps:

Make the topping: whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Using your fingers, break the butter into small pieces and combine with the topping. After combined add the cocoa powder and oats. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8×8″ square cake pan with foil and grease.
Make the cake: In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a the bowl of a stand mixer beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add in the vanilla.
Incorporate a third of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Once combined add 1/2 C of yogurt/sour cream. Add another third of the dry ingredients. Once combined add the last 1/2 C of yogurt/sour cream. Add in the final third of the dry ingredients.
Assemble the cake: Place half of the cake batter in the prepared cake pan. Spread the chocolate-hazelnut spread and top with remaining batter. Top the cake with the topping from step 1. (Note: I did not use all of the topping.)
Bake for 1 hour, or until a knife comes out cleanly.
Allow cake to cook for 5 minutes and remove the cake from the pan by the foil. Serve your cake with some fresh fruit and a cup of coffee!

Now that my cake is out of the oven I might suggest using a 9×9″ cake pan instead. My personal opinion – the cake was too tall. With a shorter slice of cake you could eat a bite with both topping and filling. Additionally, with a larger cake pan size I would have used more of the topping!

Stuart declared this better than any coffee cake you can buy at the grocery store bakery and now expects it every weekend. (Yea, good luck with that!)

Eating the Bible: To the Manna Born

April 6, 2014September 17, 2014 ~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

And the house of Israel named it manna, and it was like a white coriander seed, and its taste was like a wafer of honey. Exodus 16:31

Manna was a gift from heaven, but it required some work to turn it into something edible. The Torah provided instructions regarding how much manna could be gathered per person per day. Including the limitation that manna could not be kept overnight. This means that you could only gather what was needed for a day.

I think this is where “…Give us this day our daily bread…” comes from in the Our Father prayer. In this prayer we are asking the Lord for only that which we need. We must remember that “this day” refers only to our time on Earth. After reaching the afterlife we won’t need Earthly sustenance.

Honey Coriander Manna Bread

Ingredients:

1 C warm water
pinch of sugar
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 egg
1/2 C honey
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 stick butter, melted
1 C whole wheat flour
3-4 C all-purpose flour

Steps:

Combine water, sugar, and yeast. Allow to sit 5 minutes.
In the bowl of a stand mixer combine egg, honey, spices, salt, and butter. Add in the yeast mixture.
Stir in flours 1 C at a time.
Using the dough hook of stand mixer knead the dough until smooth.
Transfer dough to a large greased bowl. Cover and let rise 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
Punch down the dough and divide in half. Knead each loaf again and place in separate loaf pans, or on baking sheets. Cover and let rise 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Bake 30-40 minutes until golden.

*This recipe is adapted from Eating the Bible by Rena Rossner*

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Pancakes vs Waffles

April 4, 2014April 2, 2014 ~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

When I received my Food Network magazine for April I didn’t wait for an excuse (such as a road trip) to break into it like I usually do. The lure of multiple slow cooker meals and the temptation of spring dishes was enough for me to plop on the couch and start dog-earring pages. In fact, this month you’ll find quite a few of my posts coming from this particular magazine edition!

In every edition they have a spread of two similar recipes – whether it’s a “He Made, She Made” or a “Pick a Side” – encouraging readers to try both. I’ll usually mentally pick a side based on the recipe/photograph and that’s that. But this month the choice was between Buttermilk Pancakes and Sour Cream Waffles. One weekend I made the pancakes and the next the waffles. As I expected, Stuart preferred the pancakes while I preferred the waffles. (Food Network fans were split 52/48 in favor of buttermilk pancakes.)

Stuart said he preferred these pancakes to my trusty pancake recipe. So what’s different? For starters, the buttermilk. These pancakes were fluffier (and therefore absorbed more syrup) and surprisingly not very sweet. The use of whole-wheat flour added great texture too. They happily accept spreadable butter and maple syrup.

While I did prefer the waffles to pancakes – I just love love love waffles – I didn’t like them more than my recipe. For including both butter and shortening in the batter I was expecting very decadent waffles. But honestly, I couldn’t really find much of a difference in the taste department – the sour cream probably cuts through the richness. Fluffing up the egg whites created a fluffier texture to the waffles and the exterior crisped up beautifully.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C flour
1/2 C whole-wheat flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 3/4 C buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp sugar
4 tbsp butter, melted

Steps:

In a medium bowl whisk flours, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
In a large bowl whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and sugar. Once foamy add the melted butter.
Incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet.
On a hot buttered griddle drop 1/4 C of batter into pancakes. Flip pancakes when batter starts to set and bubbles form in the center of the pancake. Cook until both sides are golden brown.

Sour Cream Waffles

Ingredients:

2 C cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs, separated
3/4 C sour cream
3/4 C milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/4 C vegetable shortening, melted
2 tbsp brown sugar

Steps:

In a large bowl whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a medium bowl whisk together egg yolks, sour cream, milk, and vanilla. Once smooth whisk in melted butter and shortening.
In another medium bowl beat egg whites with a hand mixer until soft peaks form. Add the brown sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
Combine egg and milk mixture into the dry ingredients. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.
Into a hot greased waffle iron drop 1/3 C of batter and cook until golden.

Thursday Thoughts #1

April 3, 2014April 2, 2014 ~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

As I’ve gotten more into the world of blogging – it’s hard to believe it’s been 10 months already! – I’ve been noticing that a fair amount of bloggers have a post once a week or so of random thoughts and observations. I can see the genius in this – food blogging can be stressful, especially if you try to post every day. That means you’re cooking something every day. And what if that photograph just doesn’t turn out? Or the recipe is an epic failure? Or – gasp! – you ordered take out!?

I don’t know if I’ll fully embark upon a series of “Thursday Thoughts” but I’m going to try one. Please comment and let me know what you think!

There are a few reasons why I’ve decided to do this.

1) I was really craving a root beer float last night. I didn’t have root beer but I did have some caffeine free Coca-Cola in the fridge and some vanilla ice cream in the freezer. And as I didn’t think a coke float really warranted it’s own blog post I thought it could be valid in a post about random things! I know, you’re probably thinking my Kahlua Coke Floats would be much more delicious, and probably closer resemble the sweetness of root beer. But – surprise dear readers who I don’t personally know! – I’m 27 weeks pregnant and as tempting as that Kahlua might be in some moments it will have to remain in the alcohol cabinet until the summer.

2) Last month, one of the blogs I’ve recently started following (How Sweet It Is) posed a question during her Real Life Wednesday series and I thought it’d be fun to respond to her with my own blog post. Jessica asked, “What’s your Passion?” Hers is writing. Maybe most people can answer that without hesitation and if you’re in that group I’m truly jealous. There are a lot of things I like – the obvious cooking and quilting, scrapbooking, TV – but I don’t know if I could tell you I’m passionate about anything in particular. While I am constantly thinking about food – I don’t know if it’s my passion. There are always 1-2 nights a week where the last thing I want to do is cook. I feel like a passion is something that totally consumes you, your every thought and your every desire to drop everything and go do it. Maybe I’m putting too much pressure on passions. Maybe I just haven’t found that one thing yet.

3) I actually enjoy writing about nothing. I’ll set down with a train of thought and by the end we’re off in Timbuktu. In high school I did community theater down town and I became really good friends with one of the other actors. We did a few shows together and when we weren’t we acted as pen pals during the year. He often told me that I should take a journalism class in college. I never did. Maybe he saw a passion in me I didn’t know I had? Paul passed away my freshman year of college in a motorcycle accident, but I know that were he still around he’d be my first blog follower and comment on every recipe. I think this post would make him very proud.

Eating the Bible: Fishy Business

April 2, 2014September 17, 2014 ~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

May the angel who redeems me from all harm bless the youths, and may they be called by my name and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and may they multiply like fish, in the midst of the land. Genesis 48:16

This passage is confusing. Why would Jacob bless his children to multiply like fish? And better yet, why “in the midst of the land?”

One of the references Rena makes in Eating the Bibleis that fish live their lives away from the influence of humans so by association Jacob’s descendants should live their lives without the influence of those around them. I like this explanation as it can relate to keeping Faith. While Lent is a time to renew your Faith it is prudent to remember that regardless of what is happening around you, your Faith must remain unshaken. Like fish, you must live your life apart from worldly influences.

Arrabbiata Tilapia

Ingredients:

1 lb tilapia filets
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 large onion, choppped
1 clove garlic, minced
red pepper flakes, to taste
1/4 C chicken stock
1 C crushed tomatoes with basil
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp fresh parsley

Steps:

Season fish with salt and pepper. Squeeze with lemon and set aside.
In a large skillet over medium high heat saute onion in olive oil for 4 minutes, season with salt. Add garlic and red pepper flakes, saute for 30 seconds. Add chicken stock and tomatoes to the onions. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer. Stir in sugar and parsley. Put fish in the sauce and cook on low heat for 10 minutes, or until fish is cooked. (Cooking time will vary depending on how thick your filets are.)

*This recipe is modified from Eating the Bible by Rena Rossner* (Rena served her fish atop a bed of rice. I opted for a side of potatoes because I had a bag sitting on my counter.)