Speedy No-Knead Bread (The easiest recipe ever!)

Source: NY Times

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Rise Time: 4:30 (in 2 rises)
Cook Time: 45 min

Ingredients
3 cups flour (white or wheat)
1 packet (1/4 ounce) yeast
1.5 tsp salt
1.5 cups water
oil

Directions

1. Combine flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest about 4 hours at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Lightly oil a work surface and place dough on it; fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes more.

3. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6-to-8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under dough and put it into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.

4. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Comments: This bread is so good, and this is my new favorite recipe because it is SO easy! Sure, you have to plan ahead with the rising time, but no kneading? Love it! You get a really beautiful, olive-oily, cripsy crust too. So good with hummus or chicken borscht, and we're going to try it with bruschetta!

Chicken Borscht

Source: Allrecipes.com

Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 120 minutes

Ingredients

2 lbs skinless chicken thighs
8 cups chicken stock (I dilute mine, and I added an extra 1.5 cups of water)
2 lbs potatoes cut into 1 inch cubes (use good quality, like Yukon Gold for better flavor)
1 16 ounce can of diced tomatoes (not drained) (I skipped this ingredient)
3 large beets peeled and shredded (I diced)
1 large carrot grated (I diced)
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 tbs. red wine vinegar
3 tbs tomato paste
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place chicken thighs in the chicken stock in a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, cover, and simmer until the chicken thighs are no longer pink at the bone, about 20 minutes. Remove chicken, and set aside to cool. Stir in the potatoes, tomatoes, beets, carrot, cabbage, onion, garlic, red wine vinegar, tomato paste, and bay leaf. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, chunk the chicken, and discard the bones. Return the chicken thighs to the soup, and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Comments: I've only had borscht once (and loved it!), and it was nothing like this, but this was still really good. I picked this recipe because it called for chicken instead of pork or beef (which we don't eat much of) and because it took 2 hours to make instead of all day like a lot of recipes I found. We loved it, and we even got Katie to eat it, which is saying something! Again, I highly recommend using good potatoes like Yukon Gold---you'll never go back to Russet!

Oatmeal Wheat Bread

Source: Janet Markham

Prep Time: 2:30 hours (includes two rises)
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Servings: Two loaves

Ingredients
2 cups very hot water (near boiling)
1 cup oats (regular is best, quick oats work ok)
1/2 cup warm water
4.5 tsp yeast
1 tsp white sugar
2 tbsp oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup or more whole wheat flour (I usually use about 2.5 cups whole wheat)
1 tbsp salt
4.5 cups white flour (more or less depending on how much whole wheat you use)

1. Put 1 cup oats in large bowl. Pour 2 cups very hot water on top and stir. Let stand for 5 minutes. Meanwhile put 1/2 cup warm water in a smaller bowl and add 4.5 tsp yeast and 1 tsp white sugar. Whisk together with a fork and well stand until frothy.
2. Add 2 tbsp oil, 1/2 cup brown sugar and wheat flour to the large bowl and stir.
3. Add the yeast mixture, stir, and then start adding white flour. (I usually add it about 1/2 to 1 cup at a time). Add 1 tbsp salt and keep stirring. Add more white flour until the dough gets less sticky, starts to form a ball, and is hard to stir in the bowl.
4. Sprinkle a generous amount of white flour on a counter top. Dump the dough out on the flour and start kneading. Sprinkle more white flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and the counter top. Knead for about 5 minutes. (I like to think of kneading as stretching the fibers of the dough in a circular motion- fold the dough in half, push down and backward into the ball with your palm, and let the fibers from the bottom be pushed to the back and around to the top, if that makes any sense.) The dough should be sticky but smooth when fully kneaded. (Adding too much flour will make the bread drier.) When fully kneaded the dough will spring back gently when you push into it with one finger and will be "soft as a baby's bottom" to quote my mom.
5. Sprinkle a little more flour around the inside of the large bowl and place the dough in the bowl to rise for 1 hour.
6. After 1 hour, take the dough out, knead it gently, and cut in half with a knife. (Don't pull the dough apart- that breaks the elastic fibers that you worked so hard to make while kneading.) Shape two loaves by flattening it out into a rectangle on a floured surface and rolling it up.
7. Place in greased bread pans and let rise 35 minutes. Preheat oven to 350. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped on bottom. Let cool before eating- this lets the bread structure "set up" before cutting it.

Comments: I've always loved homemade bread, but I've always been intimidated to make a rising bread. My friend makes this weekly, and Ry and I love it so much I finally was motivated to try it. I still can't make it as good as she does (she uses a different kind of wheat, which is part of the issue), and I don't make it very often, but we still eat the two loaves fast when I do get around to it!

Radish Top Soup

Source: allrecipes.com

Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 45 min

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 medium potatoes, sliced
• 4 cups raw radish greens (I used the greens from 5 radishes, and that was plenty)
• 4 cups chicken broth (I used 3 bouillon cubes to 4 cups of water)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream (I used almond milk)
• 5 radishes, sliced

Directions
1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and saute until tender. Mix in the potatoes and radish greens, coating them with the butter. Pour in chicken broth. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.
2. Allow the soup mixture to cool slightly, and transfer to a blender. Blend until smooth.
3. Return the mixture to the saucepan. Mix in the heavy cream. Cook and stir until well blended. Serve with radish slices.

6 servings
Amount Per Serving Calories: 167 | Total Fat: 9.3g | Cholesterol: 32mg

Comments: This soup is so good! It's a lot like cream of broccoli, but so much more flavor, and since it's not cream based, I'm sure it's lower fat (even lower than it says if you use milk instead of heavy cream). But it does not really make 6 servings. It made enough for two hungry adults to have dinner and a tiny bit left over for the next day.

Cheese Soup

Source: Sacha Bikhazi (not sure where she got it)

Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: about 20 minutes

Ingredients:
1/2 cup carrot finely diced
1/2 cup celery finely diced
1/2 cup onion finely diced
1 Tbs butter
2 cups cheddar cheese (regular, sharp, or extra-sharp; and you can use a bit more cheese than this)
Dash of sour cream

Saute veggies in the butter until tender. Stir in 1/4 cup flour. Blend in 2 cups milk, 1 1/2 cup chicken broth. I like to use a milkshake blender, but you could put the soup in a food processor or a blender. Once the soup is thickened a bit, add the shredded cheese. Serve immediately, with an optional dash of sour cream or paprika. Do not let cool too much after you add the cheese. However, it is good leftover the next day.

Comments: Not fat free or low calorie, but so worth it! Really good with biscuits or bread bowls.

Swiss Chard

Source: Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 large bunch of fresh Swiss chard
• 1 small clove garlic, sliced
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp water
• Pinch of dried crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon butter
• Salt

Directions
1. Rinse out the Swiss chard leaves thoroughly. Remove the toughest third of the stalk, discard or save for another recipe (such as this Swiss chard ribs with cream and pasta). Roughly chop the leaves into inch-wide strips.

2. Heat a saucepan on a medium heat setting, add olive oil, a few small slices of garlic and the crushed red pepper. Sauté for about a minute. Add the chopped Swiss chard leaves. Cover. Check after about 5 minutes. If it looks dry, add a couple tablespoons of water. Flip the leaves over in the pan, so that what was on the bottom, is now on the top. Cover again. Check for doneness after another 5 minutes (remove a piece and taste it). Add salt to taste, and a small amount of butter. Remove the swiss chard to a serving dish.

Comments: Our first experiment with our Roxbury Farm (CSA) veggies that we got Tuesday. Incredible! Seriously, friends! We read online that it's important to use only the freshest chard, so bear that in mind. Ours was great---lovely flavor, not bitter at all. We also loved how quick this recipe (as well as the pasta one was). Unfortunately, we only had half a bunch of chard (we split our veggie share from the farm with someone because we didn't think we could eat all the veggies in one week, but now we're regretting that), and it cooks down a lot.

Sautéed Swiss Chard Ribs with Cream and Pasta Recipe

Source: Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 lb swiss chard, yielding 2 cups of chopped ribs
• 1/4 cup (half a stick) butter
• 3/4 to 1 cup heavy cream (we used almond milk; not as good, but passable)
  
• Enough dry pasta to make about one quart of cooked pasta (use rice pasta if gluten-free is required)
• Salt and pepper

Directions
1. Separate the ribs from the greens. Cut the ribs into 1/2-inch to 1-inch pieces. Blanch the ribs in lightly salted boiling water for 3 minutes.

2. Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Add the drained, blanched ribs and simmer for 4 minutes. Add heavy cream and cook until cream reduces by two-thirds.

3. While the cream is reducing, cook up your pasta according to the pasta's package directions.

4. Mix creamed chard with pasta. Season lightly with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Comments: Our first experiment with the Roxbury Farm (CSA) veggies we got on Tuesday. This recipe was good, but a little bland. It would be better with some kick (a la crushed red pepper, perhaps). Also, we read online that it is very important that the chard be very fresh. We got ours yesterday and it was great today. We love the flavor (not bitter at all!).