Dill Bread!

There is nothing like fresh homemade bread. I am partial to a warm slice of homemade bread, slathered with butter, and drizzled with honey. Yum. I went looking for this recipe because there is a lot of leftover dill from the dill steaks. This particular recipe called for cottage cheese but the comments said you could sub sour cream which was perfect because I had some leftover from my birthday/football play off party that I needed to use up. The bread texture is soft, the crust is gorgeous, and the flavor is delicate. I would have preferred a more pronounced dill flavor. I just found another recipe that used 1/4 cup fresh dill! I might go with that next time.

Look at beautiful golden brown!

Dill Bread

(Adapted from the Joy of Cooking)

Ingredients:
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon minced onion
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, or 1 tablespoon dried dill or dill seeds
2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup cottage cheese (I subbed sour cream)
1 large egg
Directions:
1. Combine yeast and water in a small bowl and let stand until the yeast is dissolved, about five minutes.
2. Combine cottage cheese, sugar, onion, butter, dill, salt, soda, egg and dissolved yeast. Mix well.

3. Add flour and mix well. Knead for 5 to 10 minutes. Cover and let rise in a warm place for one hour.

4. Punch down and place in a greased loaf pan. Let rise for 40 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 350 and bake bread for 35-40 minutes.

doubled in volume, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I started my morning by making surprise Almond Valentine Cookies. This recipe is also known as Candy Cane Cookies but I just shaped mine into hearts instead of candy canes. I was also trying out an almond emulsion instead of extract. Emulsions are often used by professional bakers for a more in your face flavor. They are alcohol free so the flavor doesn't bake off when it's heated. The cookies did come out pretty almond-y!

Almond Valentine Cookies

(Joy of Baking)

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsaltedbutter, room temperature
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract (or almond emulsion!)
1/2 teaspoon red food coloring
Directions:
1. In a bowl, whisk the flour with the salt.
2. In a second bowl beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and almond extracts. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough.
3. Remove half of the dough from the mixing bowl. To the remaining half add the red food coloring and beat on low speed until well blended.
4. Take a walnut sized piece of red dough and a walnut sized piece of white dough. Separately, roll each color on a lightly floured surface, into a 4-5 inch long rope. Place the two ropes side by side, gently press together, and twist the two ropes to form a spiral. Place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart. Shape each cookie into a cane shape or a heart!
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake 8-10 minutes.

Almond cookies are a nice alternative to your overly sweet cookie. However, this dough is a pain in the butt to work with and you must have patience when twisting the shapes as it is prone to cracking. The cookies are also very fragile when baked so stick to smaller shapes, not giant hearts that break when you carry them all the way down to city hall.

I also made some chocolate covered strawberries! I had some leftover bittersweet chocolate from my birthday Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes so I heated it up, dipped in my strawberries and boom! I butchered up some milk chocolate with white chocolate Lindt truffles in order to get some white chocolate to decorate them with. Do you know how hard it is to scoop out the insides of a Lindt truffle? Outrageous. I combined these luscious berries with some Bacon Wrapped Scallops to created a platter 'o love and romance.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

(just winging it)

Ingredients:
Strawberries
Dark Chocolate
White Chocolate
Directions:
1. Heat chocolate (I used my ghetto double boiler system consisting of a small frying pan over a pot), once melted dip your strawberries in, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper.
2. Let them cool a bit while you heat up your white chocolate. Drizzle your white chocolate over your strawberries.
3. Place in the fridge until time to serve.

And because Mr. Lawyer deserves some bonus points he shall be a special kitchen guest! He surprised me with a very yummy dinner of baked salmon (coated with butter, pepper, smoked danish salt and baked at 400 for 15 minutes), my most favorite asparagus (coated in olive oil, sprinkled with salt, pepper, garlic and baked at 350 until done), and some rice pilaf (from a box). Most impressive and yummy! All washed down with some Catawba wine from Torrey Ridge. (Go NY wine!)

Not food but I love my flowers!