My Rissotto style LO MEIN

Okay, I doubt this is true Lo mein, but its my version!!

Ingredients:
1 onion diced
4 stalks of celery diced
4 carrots sliced diagonally
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon butter
8 cups of water
4 chicken bouillon cubes
2 beef bouillon cubes
2 cups of dry broken spaghetti noodles
6 strips of bacon
3 chicken breasts- sliced into bit size chunks
sliced chunk ed ham- deli style or ham steaks.. whatever you have on hand
1 cup of frozen peas
granulated garlic powder
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
melt butter in large fry pan. add oil.  Brown onions, celery and carrots until onions and celery are soft.
In the meanwhile in a separate pan bring water to boil with bouillon cubes.
add broken spaghetti to vegetable mixture.  Add boiling broth 1cup to 1 1/2 cups at a time to spaghetti vegetable mixture.  Stir and boil off liquid.  When liquid is almost gone in spaghetti mixture, add more same measurements. Keep adding stock, stirring and boiling down until carrots are cooked and pasta is cooked through. You may not use all the broth.
Meanwhile in another small fry pan, cook bacon until crispy, drain on paper towels.  Add another tablespoon of butter to fry pan.  Brown chicken in oil. Don't crowd the pan you may have to do in several batches.  Drain chicken on paper towels.   Add chopped ham to any left over oil in chicken/bacon pan.  Brown until its the desired color you like.  Add the frozen peas to ham and stir fry till peas are heated through.  Add Chicken, ham, peas and crumbled bacon to spaghetti mixture.  Sprinkle with garlic powder to taste and stir until all is combined.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think it turned out yummy.  I added all the meat to keep the protein count a little higher.  The peas add protein as well.  You could also use pork chops instead of chicken.  Or whole wheat pasta.

Semi Home made Chicken Parmesan

Ok.. I really hate that cook on the TV Food network who does the whole "Semi Home made" thing.. But how else do you describe food that you have cooked that you made with some store bought products and your own love?

So I am "borrowing" her terminology, even though I think the woman is KOOKOO for KOKOPUFFS!!

The Ingredients for the chicken:
Shake and Bake Parmesan Crusted
3 Table spoons of Parmesan cheese
1 Tablespoon of oregano
2 tsp. of garlic powder
6 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves.
Shredded Mozzerella Cheese

2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon Veg or olive oil
 1 onion diced
1/2 green pepper diced
2 small cans of mushrooms
garlic powder
Italian Seasoning
1 can of diced tomato's
1 can of Ragu Pizza sauce- or you can use your fav. bottled sauce.  Thats all I had in the pantry.
`````````````````````````````
Empty shake and bake seasoning crumbs into bag provided. Add Parmesan cheese, Oregano,2 tsp of garlic powder and shake till blended.  Shake each piece of chicken in crumbs as directed on box.  Bake in foil lined pan for 20 minutes at 400F for 20 minutes or until Chicken is done {165F}

While chicken is baking, melt butter and oil in a saucepan.  Add diced onion and green peppers and cook on low heat till soft.  Add mushrooms and sprinkle with garlic powder to taste.  Cook till mushrooms are heated through and add tomatoes and Italian seasoning.  I smashed the tomatoes with a fork as they cooked so it would be saucier.  Add the Pizza sauce to onion mixture during the last 5 minutes of chicken baking.  Spoon over the top of Crusted chicken and top with grated mozzerella cheese.  Bake for 5 minutes more.
I spooned osme of the leftover sauce onto the plate and then topped with the chicken breast. I also added some "not Home made pasta" to the meal.  I just cooked the Pasta Roni brand- Garlic and Olive oil Vermicelli as directed on the box.
It was yummy!!
Especially with my fresh bread!!

sour dough bread starter

I am trying my hand at sour dough bread making.  I found a recipe for sourdough starter last Monday and started fermenting it on my counter.    Early this morning I added 2 cups of flour and 2 cups of barely warm water to the starter.  I am hoping to be able to make my own loaves on Sunday or Monday.    I will post a recipe if this works!!  I have been googling all kinds of  methods and recipes and mostly its a matter of letting your "pet" ferment and "feeding " it. 
Its an interesting process.
If any one out there has already attempted this with some success, I would love to hear about your process and recipe!!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK Sunday afternoon and here is the finished product!!

It is not as "sour" as I wanted, but I have also read that this takes time.  You can't expect a "sour" sour dough bread on the first run of your Sour dough starter.  But I mixed up the bread last night and put it out to raise about 10:30 pm.  Went to bed.  I woke up around 2 am and it had doubled in size.  I punched it down, and went back to bed.  I punched it down again around 6:30 am,  Kneaded in about 3/4 more of a cup of flour. You do this to give the bread a little more "food" so it can rise again.  the reason you give it so much of a longer time to raise, is it can take longer with no "store bought" yeast in the dough.  You are using naturally occurring yeast and that takes a little more time.

Made it into a loaf.  Covered it with a damp towel and then a dry towel On top of that. Placed it  on my baking sheet with a silpat underneath to prevent sticking.
Went to Ward council and came home for a few minutes around 10:15 am and it had spread out of proportion on the pan. so I punched it down again. Rolled it more tightly this time and when we got home around 2:45 I started it in a cold oven at 350 f. and baked for 45 minutes.  I spread butter over the top and baked for 10 minutes more and then let it finish on a cooling rack for 30 minutes.
I think its pretty good for my first try!!

Okay here is the link to guy who I got the starter recipe from.
http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm

This is the recipe I used because I didn't have any whole wheat flour in the house, and The guy above uses that in his recipes.
Link to her page.http://whatscookingamerica.net/Bread/FrenchSourDoughII.htm

San Francisco-Style Sourdough French Bread - Version II
1 1/2 cups sourdough starter, room temperature*
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons lukewarm water (110 degrees F.)
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil {I used Veg Oil.. didn't have olive oil in the house.}
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3 cups bread flour or unbleached all-purpose flour**
Cornmeal-{i didn't use this as the Silpat or silicone mat worked great!!}


** The thickness of your sourdough starter can determine how much flour needs to be used. If you think the dough is too moist, add additional flour (a tablespoon at a time). The same is true if the dough is looking dry and gnarly. Add warm water (a tablespoon at a time).{ I ended up using almost a 3/4 cup of flour more because mine looked too wet. }

Standup Mixer Recipe:

In a large bowl or in the bowl of a 5-quart stand mixer, add all the ingredients except cornmeal. Using dough hook, mix everything together into a uniform dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until elastic, about 15 minutes. NOTE: In an electric mixer, it should take about 9 minutes.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes. 

After resting, knead dough (see kneading tips below) on a lightly-floured board by pulling the dough towards you and then pushing down and forward with the palms of your hands (kneading gives the bread the elasticity and lets it rise).

Kneading Dough Hints & Tips:

Lightly dust your work surface with all-purpose flour or bread flour. Place a small mound or a measuring cup of flour near the work surface as you will use this flour to sprinkle over the dough as you knead to prevent sticking. Also lightly dust your hands with flour to keep the dough from sticking to you.

Gather the dough into a rough ball and place on your floured work surface.

When you knead, you will use only the heels of your hands. Push down on dough with your hand heels.

Fold the dough in half. Turn the dough about 45 degrees and knead with your hand heels again. Continue to knead, fold and turn the dough for the required length of time or to the consistency suggested. I usually knead the dough around 5 minutes. Well-kneaded dough should feel smooth and elastic. Press your fingertip into the dough; it should spring back.
 

Place the dough in a lightly-oiled large bowl. Place a damp towel over the bowl and then cover with plastic wrap (the humidity in the bowl helps in the rising process). Let rise until it doubles in volume (when you can put your finger in the dough and it leaves and indentation and doesn't spring back out) approximately 4 to 8 hours (depending on the temperature and the starter used, the rising time can vary as much as 2 hours). 

Oven Bread Rising: Sometimes I use my oven for the rising. Turn the oven on for a minute or so, then turn it off again. This will warm the oven and make it a great environment for rising bread. If you can't comfortably press your hand against the inside of the oven door, the oven is too hot. Let it stand open to cool a bit. Sourdough rises more slowly than yeast bread; Always remember, the longer the rise time, the more sourdough flavor.
Cool or Refrigerator Bread Rise: If I don't have the time to wait for the rise to finish or I know that I will be interrupted before the completed rise, I do a cool rise. A cool rise is when the dough is place in the refrigerator and left to rise slowly over night approximately 8 to 12 hours. I usually do this after the first rise and the dough has been shaped into a loaf. As this is a longer rise time, it improves the sourdough flavor in your finished bread.
After dough has risen, remove from bowl, and place on a lightly-floured board. Knead in flour to feed it one more time before baking.
Shape dough into a loaf shape and place on a cookie sheet that is dusted with cornmeal or use the Silicone Baking Mats. I personally recommend that you use the Silicone Baking Mats as nothing sticks to them.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot to rise until doubled in size, approximately 1 to 3 hours.
Do not preheat oven - place bread in your oven; turn oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until nicely browned.  {I ended up baking for 10 minutes more because it didn't seem brown enough.. it was done at that point. I also brushed with butter the last 10 minutes because, well I love butter!!}
Remove the bread from oven and place the bread on a wire cooling rack to cool. Let baked loaf cool for 30 minutes before cutting (this is because the bread is still cooking while it is cooling).
Makes 1 large loaf.