Garlic and Herb Pull Apart Bread

It is very unlikely to get this freezing cold in our part of the world. It doesn't snow but it snowed...atleast on the mountains, that is visible from our nest. Even though we would love to stay all tucked in the blanket, we have places to go to and so it doesn't get any better. Should I mention the countless number of times that the kido has fallen sick in the past one month...uff..I just want it all to end and embrace the warmth of the sun which seems to be hiding somewhere. I know I am going to say something totally contradictory when it would get too hot in summer. But hey isn't that human :D.

Anyways, coming back to food, we have been trying to keep ourselves warm with some great food which is easy to make and provides warmth to the body in this dropping temperature. This bread is just the perfect one for the crazy weather conditions. They are great for the tea time with some hot cup of coffee or tea. It has a blend of a variety of flavours that will definitely wake your taste buds esp. if you have been under the weather lately given the crazy weather. 

Buttery Dinner Rolls

That aroma of freshly baked dinner rolls is something that I can't explain in words but if you have baked it yourselves you would know, how heavenly it is. I am not exaggerating, but the very thought of it is making my mouth water. I had never seen or done bread baking untill I came to the US, but everytime I passed by the bakery in our small township that I grew up in, the smell of the bread getting baked has always left me tempting. Bitting into a warm bread having spread some butter, which melts with the warmth of the bread slice is the simplest of pleasures.

Getting the perfect dinner rolls was always a challenge. Yes the dinner rolls would be soft when warm, but when they cool down, they would turn dry and hard. After couple of trial and errors, I finally landed on this recipe and its a keeper. Both my boys are not bread lovers. They would like it if dunked into some spicy curry to pair with. But with these dinner rolls, I just saw them taking and bitting into them even without anything spread on them. They being not a big fan of bread, but still loved these dinner rolls , I knew I had to document it before I forget the ratios. So here it is - the recipe to soft and buttery dinner rolls.

Pita Bread

My first attempt at Mediterranean food was in the initial days of pregnancy which were really hard. I ordered fancy things but I ended up eating only pita bread dipped in hummus. And then somehow I never returned to the place all throughout my pregnancy and even post that, the new mother gets so busy that somehow trying mediterranean food never crossed my mind. But in the past 2 years, we have been indulging a lot in it. Its one among our favorite cuisines to try and have whenever we think of dining out or even trying something different at home other than the daily Indian food. All of us love it.

We used to buy the pita bread from grocery stores to make our wraps. One day we thought of trying it ourselves. I had least expectation of it getting all puffed up. But surprisingly, all of them puffed up with the same perfection that I quickly made a note of the recipe. Well why not, right? Such recipes are keepers that you may always want to document it. And this recipe has never disappointed me even once. So here is it. You should think twice or may be thrice before you get pita breads from outside, when you have such easy recipes at hand :).

Bread roll ~ with potato fillings

This snack always reminds me of Leela teacher, my school teacher as well as a family friend. I have never had this snack other than made by her. When ever she would host a treat for us, this would be one of the items in the menu and that would make me soooo happy :).

I have seen her make it then. Even though I was not a big fan of cooking, I had a vague memory of the process. Being a novice to cooking in the early days of married life, this used to be one of the tea time snacks that I used to make often and feel proud of myself :). 

Pumpkin Pecan Loaf

When my brother visited , they brought some pumpkin loaf with them. So while we were site seeing and the lunch or dinner happened during odd timings, hogging on all those stocked snack items helped to keep up the tourist energy. That pumpkin loaf was a hit. So when I stocked up on pumpkin puree I knew I had to try it.

When I first came to the US, it was Thanksgiving season. Jacob had bought some pumpkin chocolate cookies and they were heavenly. I remember those being the days when I was novice in baking, I didn't think of baking it myself then. But as I got better with baking, I did bake them and ate it to my hearts content. These seasonal cookies/loaf are my weakness. If I try to control myself; I cannot and just end up eating it all. So I try to make pumpkin puree at home and freeze it in portions to bake it in intervals over an year untill pumpkins start appearing next. So I do not hog over all those goodies baked all at once but have it spread all throughout the year.

Blueberry Loaf

Berries in cakes/bread/loaf is one of my favorite version of having them. Blueberries in a loaf is just superb to have with some hot cup of coffee. Hmm...my mouth gets all watery whenever I think of them.

When made at our home, these don't last long. When I say long, I meant not even a day. Yes, it gets over in a day. These are so light and fluffy and soft that anybody would fall for it. And its pretty hard to deal with the temptation that you tend to eat one slice after the other.

Bialys

Have you had Bialys? Well, I would say it is more like bagels. I am not a fan of bagels, but I did like having bialys. They serve as a good option for tea time snacks or a grab and go breakfast.

I just made a couple of them, fearing that it might go wasted if they tasted like bagels, which I dislike having. But they turned out to be good. And with the garam masala in it, it tasted more indianized. I wonder if I would have given up the thought of trying it, I would have been missing out on something delicious.

Spinach and Corn Cheese Sandwich

The initial days of anything is hard...be it work, or motherhood or relocation into a new place or a business, say anything. So was my initials days at work. Those days of training, we hardly slept, ate or talked to family.  After having nothing for breakfast, because our days started early, we were spared just half an hour for lunch to be grabbed from a cafeteria filled with hungry people. Guess what, half an hour would be just spend in the queue to order food, forget about having it.

The Amul stall was our rescue those days. We would have a cheese filled sandwich which was easy to fill our stomach and would be ready in minutes times, or else get to pack it back to our desk. And not to forget one of those chilled shakes that we would grab to wash down the sandwich. The taste have lingered around for like years now, because its already 10 years since I had one of those sandwiches from Amul. And now when I go back to their stalls now, I don't find sandwiches on their menu. Sad.

Grilled Vegetable Sandwich

When my brother and sis-in-law visited us the first time(2 years back this time..he he ...It took me 2 long years to pen this post), they had gifted us with a grill- George Foreman grill. We grilled chicken on it the same day. It was so yumm. But those were the initial days  of my morning sickness(well, the term 'morning' should be replaced with 'Day long' in my case). If you have suffered with it ever, then you would know how one may start hating things they once loved. Exactly that's what happened with me. I couldn't stand the look of the grill, as it would make me sick. Yeah, it was that bad for me. Now, why am I telling it all now. Because, that is the very reason why I delayed this post.

Perfect Banana Bread

We end up buying bananas every time we are out to get our groceries. But do I finish it without letting them go over ripe, is one big question. How much ever I try, not to make them go over ripe, I end up having one/ two of those bananas with their skin turning dark in a couple of days. I dislike its taste then. So I try cooking something out of them rather than having it as is. Usually I end up making Ada or Banana Bread or if I have some dosa batter handy, I turn them into a pancake form having added these bananas.

Banana bread is super easy. Dropping all the ingredients into a bowl and mixing it with a spatula is all what you need to do. So you don't end up having too many greased dishes to wash, which is a bonus (I love to cook but I hate to see the number of dishes piling up to clean after I am done cooking). These make a great breakfast option, but we usually tend to have it as snack during tea time.

Bruschetta

Who loves to munch the juicy and cute little grape tomatoes ? I do. And if it is to be combined with some roasted garlic and olive oil, to top it on toasted Baguette slices... hmm gets even more lovely.

I love making it. Ofcourse, because of the ease of making it. At the same time, I love the smell of the garlic roasted in olive oil. Ohh, that aroma itself is so mouth watering.

Baguette - Another way of making it !

Procrastination hits me every now and then or lets just keep it simple - it stays with me forever :). I would always think of making this baguette every other day, so that I could eat some right out of the oven and may be use it for bruschetta. Finally I made it :). 

It was during last winter that we made Bruschetta and Baguette for the first time and we were so much in love with it that we made it again and again. It had been a while since then. Suddenly an urge to have bruschetta grew in me the other day and no I was not going to calm it down by using a store bought baguette. I am so adamant about certain things :P.  Bad habit, I know, but if helps to overcome my laziness then ya I happily boost up my adamancy to achieve it.

French Toast

French toast used to be one of the breakfast options on a weekday, back in those days, when I used to work. Quick to make, delicious and filling they used to be and made me proud of myself for having made breakfast even though I was rushing for work. After I quit my job, having plenty of time in hand we switched on to more of a wholesome Indian breakfast options. But still, once in a while when the laziness hits me, I would go back to simpler stuff to make in the morning, one of the options being french toast.

Remember, Challah bread that I had posted few weeks back? The day after I made it, I tried french toast with those and they were so good. It was after some time that we were having french toast for breakfast and moreover the ease/convenience of making it is what I love about them the most :).

Challah ~ Six Strand Braided Bread

I have been seeing Challah bread in the blogosphere quite often these days, with the holidays on. That reminded me, I had still not given it another try after my failure with the six strand braiding. After multiple failures, braiding it with 6 strands, I unbraided it and finally went ahead with the normal 3 braids and baked it. I don't know what went wrong, whether it was me playing around with the dough for some time or the cold weather or may be just that particular day(sometimes I feel things turn out bad just because of a particular day as one is not in a mood to cook but still went ahead trying something new) - the bread was not airy and uncooked in the center but hard like rock on its outside. In short, it was a disaster.

I never gave it a try again. But these days when I saw Challah bread frequently in my blog feed, I pushed myself to make it again and I am happy I did. It smelled so good, tasted good, either with or even without butter/jam and it made up for a yummy french toast for the next day breakfast.

Bruschetta & Baguette - Buon Appetito !

Do not go by the jazzy words. I just wanted to make the post sound sophisticated with Italian and French. I recently saw the movie - Julie and Julia. Though Beef Bourguignon (BB) was the highlighted dish in the movie, I got fascinated with french cooking. But I guess BB is a tough dish to conquer altogether. I don't think I am ready to try it out yet. But hopefully one day I would give it a try.

Anyways, I came across Bruschetta during a sampling event. I don't know whether it was the taste or the name itself, that piqued my interest. Somehow the complexity of the name reminded me of the Bourguignon from Julie and Julia. I mistook Bruschetta to be French but the mighty Google tells me - It's Italian. So Italian it is :).

Stuffed buns ~ with chicken fillings

The smell of freshly baked buns and having them hot, just out of the oven...hmmm... Can you picture it? This was what exactly happened at our home, when we baked these stuffed buns. The speciality of these having little spicy filling in it, makes it even more mouth watering.

When my husband came back from work, he was received by me at the door, with camera in one hand and the other hand with a half eaten bun. These were so tempting in their look and smell that I couldn't wait for him to be back, to have it :).