Lemon Loaf

Last Sunday was Easter. Last Saturday our local bar was giving away opening day Phillies tickets.....

I hosted a nice little Easter brunch for our two close friends, Melissa and Jack. I prepared as much as I could on Saturday so it would be easy breezy on Sunday morning. The lemon loaf from this week's Tuesday with Dorie made it to my Easter menu. I thought it was a perfect complement to the overall meal. It was really easy to put together. The hardest part was probably zesting the lemons and of course waiting for the loaf to bake. Waiting wasn't hard for me...but it was hard for somebody else (somebody who thought they were going to win Phillies tickets)! That certain someone (cough, cough, Nadya) pulled the loaf out of the oven about 8 minutes too soon. Unfortunately, I didn't notice until Easter morning when the center of the loaf looked rather moist. I tried to save it by heating it back up but that didn't help. I'll have to make the lemon loaf again. The pictures from all the other bloggers look amazing! If I had more lemons on my hand Easter morning I would have started all over. I'll be sure to blog about my lemon loaf success. Until then, check out my fellow Tuesday with Dorie Bloggers and their lemon loaves. 

Lemon loaf failure, topped with glaze

For those of you wondering, we did NOT win the opening day Phillies tickets but we did have a fun time. 

Thanks so much to Truc of Treats and Michelle of The Beauty of Life for hosting this week! I'll be sure to make again soon! You can find the recipe here

Pizza Rustica

I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. This is one of those recipes that makes me so happy to be included in the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group. If it wasn't for this group, I would think pizza rustica was just something that was ordered at the corner pizza shop and ready for pick up in about 20 minutes. Do you know what pizza rustica is? Did you imagine it to be bake in a pie dish? Did you know it's the perfect combination of sweet and savory?

Pizza rustica is an Italian savory pie with ricotta base that is traditionally filled with meat. Since I'm not a huge meat eater I replaced the prosciutto, that the recipe called for, with roasted red peppers. This takes the name "pizza pie" to a whole new level! 

A lot of the bloggers thought the crust was too sweet. I didn't find that to be a  problem. I honestly thought the sweet, savory combination was perfect! The dough was really easy to work with and didn't shrink up at all.


If you're hosting Easter and don't have your menu planned out, add this! It's perfect for a crowd (or just a few). It could be served as a first course (yes, something sweet for the first course) or it can be served as the main course with a nice salad. 


The recipe can be found on our host's blogs. Emily of Capitol Region Dining and Raelynn of The Place They Call Home. Thanks Emily and Raelynn for hosting this week.

Irish Soda Bread

 Another great bread from Baking with Julia and a perfect one for St. Patrick's Day, Irish Soda Bread! Who knew it would be so easy? Honestly, this takes about 8 minutes to put together and 50 minutes to bake and about 5 minutes to eat! OK, I'm kidding it didn't take 5 minutes to eat but it's so tasty that I'm sure it can be done. The buttermilk adds a great amount of sweetness. 

I decided to bake it plain (you can add dried fruit or even make it savory with herbs) and it was simply delicious! I love a nice easy and delicious bread! I'll be making this again!

Thanks to Cathy of My Culinary Mission  & Carla of Chocolate Moosey for hosting this week! You can find this week's recipe by visiting their blogs!

Buffalo Chicken Nachos

This past Sunday was the Super Bowl. Did you watch? Was your team playing? I'm not a huge football fan but I do live in Philadelphia were the city goes crazy for the Eagles. If they were to make it to the Super Bowl, I'd totally hop on the band wagon and cheer them on. Alas, the Giants and Patriots were the champions so we stayed home which was a perfect excuse to make buffalo chicken nachos that I've been seeing pop up all over Pinterest (follow me if you're on)! The combination of buffalo chicken & nachos is complete heaven to me. This tasty treat was oh so easy and oh so yummy.  It's perfect for a party (or no party at all)! 

Buffalo Chicken Nachos (adapted from foodnetwork.com) 

 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups wing sauce

1/2 cup water

4 cups shredded cooked chicken

Tortilla chips

3 cups cheddar cheese

blue cheese & chopped celery

Bring wing sauce and water to a simmer.  Add chicken, strain the chicken and reserve the wing sauce. Spread tortilla chips over cookie sheet, top with chicken and cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 until cheese is melted. Top with blue cheese, chopped celery and reserved wing sauce.

White Loaves

I had a short hiatus from my blog but I'm happy to report, I'm back! The end of 2011 was hectic to say the least. I can't believe this is my first post of 2012. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and your New Year is off to a great start. Even though I've been absent on the blog, I haven't been completely absent in the kitchen. I enjoy blogging but for whatever reason it's always put on the back burner. I decided for 2012 to join an online baking group. This group has been around for a while, I know because I've drooled over the computer every Tuesday for the last couple of years. Tuesday's with Dorie is an online baking group which tackles recipes from one cookbook. The group recently finished From Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (hence the name of the group). Now they're tackling Baking with Julia and I'm happy to be a member. I'm really excited and think this is going to be a fun journey. I know I'm going to learn a ton along the way.

So let's get this started...we made white loaves for our first week. This was my first time making white loaves (without using a bread maker that is).  This was a pretty simple recipe the hardest part was 1. waiting for the dough to rise & 2. kneading the dough by hand after my KitchenAid mixer got a bit overheated (anyone else have that trouble?). I'm not going to lie...it was a pretty good workout and I'm happy to report my KitchenAid is just fine. Thank goodness! 

The bread was so very tasty! It was good warm with some butter. It was good the next morning as toast. AND it was a great bread to use for grilled cheese. What did everyone else do with their bread? 

The organizers of Tuesday's with Dorie, Jules & Laurie, selected this week's recipe. I think it was a great pick for our first post. I'm excited to continue the journey! 

If you're interested in the recipe, hop on over to Jules blog.