Author: petebakes

bread

apple bread

i’ll be blunt: it’s freezing outside, and my kitchen doesn’t have heat. suffice to say, it’s not fun. so last sunday afternoon i was looking for any excuse to turn on the oven, but wanted something quick so i could start preheating immediately. my favorite standby is chocolate chip banana bread, but i had zero bananas. rumaging through the fridge, i discovered 2 granny smith apples in the fruit crisper (yes i have one of those). would it work? maybe, just maybe…

this recipe is so simple and perfect, i can’t believe i haven’t made it before.

remember the apple muffin recipe? and i’ve ready mentioned the banana bread recipe. take those two, subtract 3 bananas, and you can imagine how incredible the house will smell when you take this bread out of the oven, and how satisfying it is to devour with a mug of hot coffee.

i’m all about recipes that take little time and effort but still taste like your mom slaved over a hot stove in the kitchen all day. and honestly, at about 10 minutes from peeling and cutting apples to putting this bread in the oven, you have no excuse not to make a loaf or two tonight and give one to someone you love (or even just like). what are you waiting for? go now!

bread

corn bread

i present to you, the readers: your quiet sunday morning.

keep in mind, your quiet sunday morning will start with the sound of sizzling bacon, but who doesn’t love that? and until you take the bread out of the oven, your morning will also be filled with the sounds of your friends and family asking “is it done yet? is it done yet?” but once you start divvying out pieces of this perfect, moist and flavorful corn bread, simply put, everyone will shut up. forget dry, tasteless and crumbly corn bread – this is the real deal, complete with bacon fat. pair it up with brunch, or with a great big bowl of chili.

it’s sweet, but not too sweet, soft and delicate but still hearty, and of course, topped with delicious crumbled bacon. with a mix of fresh corn and coarse cornmeal (soaked in buttermilk), the flavors are so vibrant, you can take a break from your new years diet to indulge.

there are hundreds of variations on corn bread, but all of them have one thing in common: when you eat corn bread, it just makes you just feel good inside.

savory

bastilla

just one week ago, i made a few new years resolutions, and baby, i intend to keep em!

bastilla (pronounced bas-tee-ya) is a moroccan dish that combines spicy and sweet chicken, almonds and scrambled eggs wrapped in phyllo dough and then dusted with confectioners’ sugar and cinnamon. traditionally, it’s made with pigeon, but i went with chicken because american pigeon is so different from moroccan pigeon it wouldn’t have tasted very good in the first place. also, i wasn’t really in the mood to go pigeon hunting on the mean streets of dc.

what gives the chicken it’s awesome color is a combination of turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, parsley and cilantro. i can’t describe how delicious the apartment smelled when i was cooking.

you assemble the whole dish on layers of phyllo. what’s great about phyllo is that it’s so flaky and light. what sucks about phyllo dough is trying to get it to do anything you want it to do. every single piece of phyllo i unrolled fell apart in my hands like it was some ancient babylonian scroll. luckily, all you need is copious amounts of melted butter to repair it – no one will know.

this dish normally takes a few hours to make from start to finish, but in all the hubbub of decorating it and taking pictures, it cooled before i could cut myself a slice. at the time, i didn’t actually know if i was supposed to eat it warm, so i just had a piece cold. to be honest, it was amazing cold. i still haven’t had it hot – i can’t wait long enough to heat it before digging in.

i’ve been nervous about using different spice combinations in the past, but this recipe has helped things make more sense to me. i’m already dreaming of other things i want to make this week, like sweet and spicy chicken salad with grapes and red onion. mmmmmm…