Naan: Dinner with a dear friend on the back porch

We had Conrad, a sweet and lifelong friend over for dinner last night. We sat on the back porch with a small fire in the fireplace, ate yummy food, caught up with each other, and played with the puppies. I think it is always nice to have people over for dinner. I feel like you have better conversation, you are not rushed, and well, let's be honest, I love being at home with the puppies!

For dinner I made pearled basil and herb couscous with mushrooms and tomatoes, red wine vinegar chicken, sliced and roasted yellow squash, a fresh spinach salad, and Naan. Naan is a leavened flatbread which comes to us from Southeast and Central Asia. It is a delicate and fluffy bread that looks a bit like pita bread, but in texture naan has far more softness and moisture, yum! Bunker and I love Naan, but it is near impossible to find in our local grocery store. Since I refused to tackle Central Market (the only place in Dallas that I know carries Naan), I decided to try my hand at this fresh bread. It was honestly not too hard and worth the time and effort! In process it is very similar to any other type of bread. However, rather than baking a loaf in the oven, you cook small pieces of the dough on the stove top or grill, much like a pancake.

Enjoy your Naan with hummus, dips, or as we did, as an accompaniment to dinner (it was very helpful to scoop up the couscous!). I found this recipe on Allrecipes, and it came with high marks and recommendations.

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Ingredients:
1 package of active dry yeast
1 cup of warm water
1/4 cup of sugar
3 tablespoons of milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons of salt
3 to 4 cups of bread flour (I used 3 1/2)

Steps:
1. Gather your ingredients.

2. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water.

3. Let sit for about 10 minutes, until the yeast begins to froth.

4. Add the sugar, milk, egg, and salt to the yeast and water mixture. Stir to combine.

5. Slowly add up to 4 cups of flour to the mixture. You want to form a soft and non-sticky dough, but not stiff and grainy, so do not add to much flour. You can always add more flour, but you cannot take flour back out.

6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and kneed for about 6 to 8 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

7. Place the dough into a bowl and cover. Let rise for an hour.
8. Punch down the dough and remove it from the bowl. Break off golf ball sized pieces of the dough and roll each piece into a ball.

9. Cover the pieces of dough with a cloth and let rise 30 minutes.

10. Roll each piece of dough out into a thin circle. I used a rolling pin.

11. Set your range top, or your grill, to medium high, and then add one circle of dough at a time to your lightly oiled skillet or grill.

12. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side. The dough should become fluffy and browned.

13. You could also add butter to both sides when you are cooking, I just used olive oil.
14. Slice and enjoy with dinner or an appetizer!

Sweet Creamy Cornbread

In my family, a bowl of chili and slice of cornbread go hand in hand. It's rare to have one without the other. Typically, my mom whips up cornbread using the Jiffy corn muffin mix or Pioneer cornbread mix you can find at the grocery store. This time, however, I decided I wanted to make homemade cornbread without the mix.

A good friend of mine makes her cornbread with sour cream and creamed corn in addition to Jiffy cornbread mix. It's delicious and creamy, so much richer than regular cornbread. With this in mind, I set off to find a similar recipe without the mix. What I found was this recipe by Paula Deen. I made a few adjustments to suit my preferences: using Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, using canola oil, and adding 3/4 cup of sugar. This cornbread is grainier than I was used to, but really delicious. Robert has declared it to be our go to recipe from now on.

Please forgive the lack of photos in this post. Apparently I was hungry and in a rush while making this and most of my photos came out blurry.

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Sweet Creamy Cornbread

Ingredients

1/2 cup canola oil, plus 1/4 cup for greasing the pan

1 cup cornmeal

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 can cream style corn

2 eggs

1 7 ounce container 2% Fage Greek Yogurt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Season a cast iron skillet with 1/4 cup canola oil. Place the pan on a burner at medium high heat to preheat the pan.

 In a large bowl combine 1/2 cup canola oil, cornmeal, flour, corn, eggs, and yogurt. Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir the mixture until fully blended.

 Pour the batter into the skillet and place in the oven, baking for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

 Remove from the oven and enjoy with chili, soup, or stew with a pat of butter.

Source: Adapted from Paula Deen

Buttermilk Biscuits

I love breakfast. However, I also really love my sleep and during the week sleep always wins over a large homemade breakfast. Typically I grab a banana or packet of oatmeal that I will add hot water to and eat once I get to work. The weekends, however, provide me with ample time to make Robert and I delicious homemade breakfast feasts. It's part of what I love most about the weekend.

This was not my first time making homemade biscuits, it was, however, my first time making biscuits from scratch without a mix. The results were absolutely delicious and definitely worth the large mess of flour and dough I left all over the kitchen. Oops. :) Have I mentioned how amazing my husband is to help clean up after my messes in the kitchen?

One thing I love about making homemade biscuits is that you can freeze the dough already cut and then just pop one in the oven later when you're ready for it. Just like you can buy in the freezer section of the grocery store. I will say, that I learned somethings while making this.

First, you don't need to use a rolling pin, just pat the dough down into a flat circle. In fact, the biscuits that I just formed with my hands from excess dough rather than rolling them out and using the biscuit cutter were my favorites. Second, the dough is super sticky, be warned and prepared. Finally, don't roll out your dough too thin or else you'll have thin crispy biscuits. Which still taste good, but lack the flakiness that defines all great biscuits.

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Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 to 6 tablespoons chilled butter cut into little squares (I used 6)
1 cup buttermilk

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a sifter.

Sift into a large bowl.

Using a pastry cutter, or if you're me a whisk, cut in the butter pieces.

 Work the butter in until they are the size of small peas.

Make a well in the center of the flour.

Pour in the buttermilk.

Stir until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Transfer to a floured surface and knead 8 to 10 times.

 (Your hands will get messy.)

Roll out the dough, our push down using fingers, until about 3/4 inch thick.

Cut with a biscuit cutter.

Place the dough on a cookie sheet.

Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with butter or jam and a big cup of coffee.

Source: The Joy of Cooking