Cottage Cheese Bread

It's been a long time since I've bought a loaf of bread from the store. Baking fresh bread on a Sunday has become a favorite activity in my house. The Spud loves to help with the dry ingredients and is mystified by the rising of the dough. She is under the impression that if she kisses the dough, that provides the magic to make it rise for baking. No clue where she got that idea. We like to keep a basic loaf available for sandwiches and toast. Normally I used a Dill-Seed bread recipe, and just left out the dill. However, that, and many other of our standard loaf recipes called for whole-wheat flour. If the pandemic lockdown has caused any odd impact, it's that I absolutely can't find whole-wheat flour anywhere in two counties. I wound up altering the recipe and came up with a very serviceable white bread that is great for sandwiches and toasts very well.

Cottage Cheese Bread
adapted from James Beard's Dill-Seed Bread recipe

Ingredients

• 1 package fast-rising yeast
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water (100-115F, 38-46C) 
• 1 cup cottage cheese at room temperature
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 cups white flour

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar. Proof for about 5 minutes.
2. Add cottage cheese and egg to the yeast mix.
3. In a large bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda.
4. Add flour to wet mix and mix/knead until you get a slightly sticky, but elastic dough (I did this in my Kitchenaid and it took about 4-5 minutes to get the right consistency. By hand it would likely take 10 or more minutes)
5. Put dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise to double in size (about an hour)
6. Punch down dough and place in a greased loaf pan. Cover and allow to rise to double size again (about another hour)
7. With a super sharp knife, run a slit down the center of the loaf.
8. Place in a preheated oven at 375F (190C, Gasmark 5) for 40 minutes.
9. Cool on a wire rack

Good times!

Spicy Pork, Mushrooms, and Noodles

I have to tell you, I've been a hot mess lately. Literally.  The blower on our house AC died the first hot day we tried to use it. The hoses on The Wife's truck's AC gave out. We've also been busy with having the roof of the garage torn off and reshingled, and we're still in the process of filling in the in-ground pool once and for all. In all that excitement, I've fallen off on giving you the High Quality Content that you all deserve. I thought for sure I had lost this particular recipe, but while The Wife was moving stuff around, it materialized. So here you have it. A simple recipe for spicy pork and noodles. We used some leftover pork from pork steaks we had cooked before. If you don't have precooked, you can just cook it up in the pan before you add in the veggies. The heat on this dish is easily adjustable. It's also easily made vegetarian by leaving out the pork and using sauteed tofu or some more veggies. 

Spicy Pork, Mushrooms, and Noodles

Ingredients

• 8 oz. Thai red rice noodles (we found them at ALDI. If you can't find them, just use fettucini)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup sliced, cooked pork
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 3 scallions, sliced
• 2 tablespoons spicy mustard (we used a couple packets of hot mustard from the Chinese restaurant. Look around, I'm sure you have some in a drawer somewhere. Maybe in the bottom of the lettuce crisper)
• 1 tablespoon black bean garlic paste
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon sriracha
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds

Directions

1. Cook noodles a little shorter than the directions on the package call for (they will finish cooking at the end)
2. In a bowl, add the mustard, bean paste, hoisin, sriracha, pepper flakes, soy sauce and sesame seeds. Stir to mix.
3. In a large pan/wok, heat oil over medium high heat. Add mushrooms and scallions. Stir-fry for about 5-7 minutes.
4. Add the cooked pork and noodles to the pan. 
5. Pour sauce over everything and toss to coat. Lower heat to medium and cook another 3-4 minutes, tossing regularly, until the noodles are the desired tenderness.

Good times!

Mexican Style Rice Casserole

Time for another inauthentic recipe! This one made use of the copious amount of white rice we had leftover from the last time we ordered Chinese take-out. Normally I'd use it to make rice pudding, but we didn't have anything for dinner. Desperate times call for desperate measure. What we ended up with was a surprisingly tasty and filling meal that was super easy to make. It works as a side or main, and is easily made vegetarian by leaving out the ground beef!

Mexican Style Rice Casserole

Ingredients

• 4 cups cooked white rice
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) tomato soup
• 1 can tomatoes with jalapeno (10 ounces)
• 3/4 can (about 1-1/2 cups) corn
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
• 1 packet Sazon seasoning
• 1 teaspoon dried cilantro
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• more cheese, dammit.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F (191C, Gas Mark 5)
2. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients except the extra cheese.
3. In a 9x13" greased baking dish dump in everything from the bowl and spread evenly.
4. Top with as much extra cheese as you can possibly tolerate.
5. Cook for 30-40 minutes or until top is starting to bubble.

Good times!