Broccoli Cheddar Soup and Fresh Baked Bread

Welcome back! I've been a bit busy of late and have not had much blog worthy food to write about but Sundays generally mean I have some time on my hands...so I usually get into the kitchen. Today I was planning on making broccoli cheddar soup, which was a pretty straightforward recipe. But, I also decided it as time to bite the bullet and make some bread.

I have wanted to make bread for a long time but it just seemed like a very daunting task. A lot of the recipes I read said you had to make the dough and then let it sit overnight, and I am pretty impatient so when I want to make bread, I want it done the same day. I had a few recipes that sounded pretty easy,  because bread is becoming more of a "mainstream" thing I guess you could say. All of recipes I had were for no knead artisan bread, so it is very easy to make. Well, that's lovely but I still have to wait overnight for it.

So I finally found a recipe (where else, on Pinterest) that sounded really easy, and touted that you could have fresh baked bread in your tummy in around an hour. So I decided to give it a shot, and hope for the best but told my self not to get pissed if it didn't turn out. I will admit, I have a kitchenaid mixer with a dough hook so this really was so easy. If you don't have this wonderful machine, you should get one! I'm only kidding (sort of), I know it's not feasible for everyone to own this fabulous device and apparently this bread is just as easy to make with a good old wooden spoon.

So anyways, here is the recipe for both the bread and the broccoli cheddar soup. Enjoy!

                                 
Ingredients:

Bread
2 1/2 cups warm water

2 tbsp instant yeast

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp olive oil

5 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Directions:

First preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Pour the warm water into a large bowl (keep in mind the dough will almost double, so seriously, use a big bowl). The water should be around 100 degrees Fahrenheit, if you have a meat thermometer just stick it under the running water until it is close. It should be like warm bath water. Mix the yeast into the water and then sprinkle the sugar over top the water. Wait approximately 5 minutes until the water is bubbly on top from the yeast.

Next stir in the salt, oil and flour. Mix everything together with a wooden spoon until everything is incorporated together. Then give it a few extra mixes to "knead" the dough together, making sure it is smooth and starts to pull away from the bowl. Once the dough it mixed place a wet, warm dish towel over the bowl. Run your microwave for 2 minutes with nothing in it, and then place the covered bowl in the microwave for 15 minutes while the dough rises. The warm environment will help the dough rise.

(I used this time when the dough was rising to prep ingredients for my soup)

Once the 15 minutes has elapsed remove the bowl from the microwave, the dough should be quite large now. Flour your counter top a bit and then pour the dough out of the bowl. Cut the dough into two halves, of roughly the same size. Pull the dough into a round loaf shape, and tuck the edges underneath itself. Place the round loaves onto a greased cookie sheet, and into the oven for 30 - 35 minutes. Along with the bread place a bowl of 5 - 6 ice cubes on the rack below your bread. As the bread cooks the ice will melt into steam and help your bread get crisp on the outside. When the timer goes, voila! Remove your golden, steamy, delicious bread from the oven, let it cool, and enjoy!

*Note, if you want a fluffier bread (because it is pretty dense) let it rise for 30 minutes, knead it again for a couple of minutes, then let it rise another 30 minutes. After that follow the same instructions.

Ingredients:

Broccoli Cheddar Soup
2 tbsp butter (or margarine)

1 small onion, minced (a very small dice)

1 stalk celery, minced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 heads of broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces

2 cups chicken stock

2 cups milk

1/2 cup flour

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

This recipe is really quite easy, once you've chopped everything up. Heat the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the onion and celery, season with salt and pepper and cook until soft. Next add the garlic and cook for a minute or two or until fragrant (until you really start to smell it). Add the broccoli pieces, mix everything together and cook for another minute or two. Add the chicken broth, allow it to come to a soft boil and then cover until the broccoli is soft (5 - 7 minutes).

While the broccoli is cooking, mix the flour into the milk making sure to whisk out any lumps. Once the broccoli is done, add the milk/flour mixture to the pot and stir everything together gently. Let it cook for another minute or two and the soup will thicken up. Once the soup has thicken, removed from heat, and add the cheese. Stir the soup until all of the cheese is melted through and finish with salt and pepper. Serve with a small helping of cheese on top (and with fresh bread)! Yummers!

Sources: Bread recipe modified from Keep Home Simple
               Soup recipe modified from The Little Girls Guide to Sugar and Spice

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Pork Tenderloin with Pan Sauce

Hello again, and thanks to all who have checked out my blog so far. I have gotten some really great feedback that let me know at least a few people are checking out (and enjoying) my posts! I have a pile of new recipes sitting on my kitchen table, so I decided to try one out today.

I don't always have the foresight to plan my meal very far ahead (if I remember to take something out of the freezer in the morning for dinner that evening, I'm lucky). As of late I have been trying to plan my meals two weeks at a time and make my grocery list accordingly. Most of the time (on previous occasions) I go to the grocery store with a vague idea of what I want to make, buy a bunch of random stuff and then not have any real coherent plans for said "stuff". Then when it comes time to make something, even though I have tons of food in the house I can't think of/find anything to cook. So, my planning has become key in a) not wasting food b) having an idea of what to make each night.

So back to my recipe at hand, one from my "meal plan"; Pork tenderloin with pan sauce. I love pork tenderloin, as it is generally very easy to cook. I used to put a dry rub on it and bake it in the oven. I've found of late it's been a little dry, and while the outer crust is delicious, the inside is still rather plain. So when I saw this recipe was a marinade and a sauce, I though "Bingo"! Now, this does require a bit of pre planning, and a little work either the night before you plan to make this (or if your like me, and leave things to the last minute, the morning of). So you've been forewarned, pull out the pork tenderloin now!

Ingredients:

Marinade
1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 soy sauce

1/4 red wine vinegar

Juice of 1 lemon

1 - 2 tbps Worcestershire sauce

1 - 2 tbsp fresh parsley (I didn't use this because I didn't have it on hand and I'm not a huge parsley person)

2 tsp dry mustard

Freshly cracked pepper to taste

4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 lb pork tenderloin

Pan Sauce
1/2 cup chicken stock

2 - 3 tbps of pork marinade

1 - 2 tsp of butter

Directions:

Basically all you need to do is mix all of these ingredients together, pretty easy hey? But before you do that, just a note for a few of the ingredients; use real lemon juice. I know you can just buy one of those lemon shaped plastic things full of lemon juice, but real lemons are super cheap and have so much more flavor. I don't even own one of those fancy citrus juicer things, I just squish it with my hands. Takes 5 seconds (just watch out for seeds, don't want those in the food).

Also, buy a pepper mill. That powdery stuff you put in a pepper shaker is really not even the same as cracked pepper. Fresh cracked pepper is so much better, so much more flavor. Then you can just buy a big container of mixed peppercorns, and refill your pepper mill as needed. My hubby is a pepper nut, so trust me on this one.

Lastly, use real garlic. It doesn't say "garlic powder" for a reason. I used to never use real garlic, I'd use garlic powder, or you can even buy those jars of minced garlic, ready for use. Please don't. I go through usually a whole bulb of garlic a week (we like garlic). I still am not really very good at mincing garlic, I can manage it, but it does take me some time. I use a garlic press. I know some people frown at these because it is not as gentle as properly mincing but I saw, fresh garlic is better than no (or fake) garlic!

So now that you have your yummy (fresh) ingredients, mix everything together with a wisk, or better yet put everything in a blender. If you use a blender it will help emulsify everything together. Basically what this means is that things that don't normally mix together (oil, and most other liquids) will be blended together so they appear as one liquid. After time they will separate out again, but not before you've used it (if using same day). Put 2 - 3 tbps of the marinade in a separate dish and pour the rest of it into a plastic bag (or airtight container). Put the pork tenderloin in the marinade and pop it into the fridge until your ready to cook it (at least 3 - 4 hours).

When you get home from work (or whatever you choose to do while everything marinates) turn your oven on to 350 degrees. While you are waiting for that to preheat place a skillet (one that you can also put in the oven) on the stove over medium-high heat, and once it is hot (place a drop or two of water in the pan, if it sizzles, it's hot enough) place the tenderloin in the pan. Sear it on all sides (just browning it for a couple minutes on each side). Your going to want tongs for this, tongs are your friend. Once you have seared the meat pour the marinade into the skillet, and place everything in the now preheated oven.

Cook the meat for 20 - 30 minutes and check the internal temperature to make sure it is at 150 degrees (another very useful kitchen tool, meat thermometer). If it's not quite there give it another 5 - 10 minutes. Once it is done take it out of the pan and place it on a cutting board, or serving plate and let it rest for at least 5 minutes. Seriously. You can't skip this step just because you are impatient. If you do all of the delicious juiciness will run all over your counter and you will be very sad.

I have the perfect job for you while the meat is resting! Place the skillet you cooked the pork in on the stove over medium heat and add the 1/2 cup of chicken stock. Stir with a wooden spoon to get all of the  browned bits from the pan. Add the small amount of marinade, that was put aside earlier, to the skillet and let everything boil down for 2 - 3 minutes. Add the butter (or margarine), remove from heat and stir until melted and distributed evenly in the sauce.

Now you can slice the pork, pour the sauce over top and serve!

Source: Modified from Chef Mommy Pin It