Happy Halloween: Barmbrack Bread

Happy Halloween, Crushers!

Our office has a Halloween challenge where groups of employees are allowed to take some time to decorate the area by their cubicles and then we all "trick or treat" visiting each other's cubicles or set ups. It's really fun and makes the afternoon go by quickly. Everyone has a sugar crash by the end of the day! This was a huge team effort, so thanks to all my co-workers for doing an amazing job!

Photo: Sarah Smith

Since my client is an international one, we decided to see how people celebrate Halloween or other ghoulish holidays around the world. We picked Ireland, where the Celts are supposedly the first to celebrate. The rituals and celebrations focused on Samhain, a festival celebrated over night of October 31 around harvest time seem to have evolved into Halloween. Beltane bonfires were lit, turnips were carved (eventually turning into jack-o-lanterns as we know them), and Barmbrack Bread was eaten.

Photo: Sarah Smith

Photo: Sarah Smith

In Mexico and many other countries, celebrate Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Again, this is a day to gather with family and friends to pray for and remember relatives who have died. Skeletons and marigolds are familiar things to see around homes, cemeteries and altars. Lots of meals are shared and one special item, pan de muerto (bread of the dead), is shared by family and friends near the gravesides of the deceased.

Photo: Sarah Smith

Photo: Sarah Smith

Photo: Sarah Smith

In China around August, a festival called Yu Lan, or the Ghost Festival, is when the deceased is said to come visit the living. People will provide food to hungry ghost visitors and even set empty places at the table for the ghosts. There is lots of food!

Photo: Sarah Smith

Photo: Sarah Smith

Photo: Sarah Smith

I was in charge of bringing pumpkins for the Ireland set up and making barmbrack. Here is the recipe that I used (it's made in two stages and traditionally has trinkets baked inside, but I skipped the trinkets):

Barmbrack Bread

First stage
Mix together:


1 cup of sultanas


1 cup of raisins


3/4 cup brown sugar


1 cup cold tea
Cover these ingredients and leave to soak overnight (or in my case, a few hours).
 
Stage Two
Prepare these ingredients:


1 1/2 cups of flour


1 level teaspoon of baking powder


1 egg beaten


1 teaspoon mixed spice
1. Add the four, baking powder and spice to soaked fruit mixture.
2. Mix in the beaten egg.
3. Spoon into a well greased loaf tin and bake for 1 1/2 hours at 150 degrees Celsius (300 degrees Fahrenheit). If you're making it in cupcake form like I did for work, bake it at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.
4. When cool brush the top with warmed honey for a glazed surface.

Bread - two variations one dough

Hey Crushers!

Remember that photo of me hugging my brand new KitchenAid Mixer? Well, I put it to good use this past weekend to make bread. The mixer comes with a handy recipe book, so I thought I'd give this a try. Plus, I really wanted to see how the dough hook worked. The recipe says you can make two loaves with this and it gives you suggestions for other things. I went with one loaf of bread and then some bread sticks which I ended up putting in a freezer bag to save for later.

Ingredients:
1/2C (4 oz.) milk
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons butter
2 (1/4 ounce) packages active dry yeast or 2 teaspoons fast-acting/instant east (.34 oz.)
1 1/2 C (12 oz.) warm water (105F to 110F)
5-6 C Unbleached bread flour (I used regular flour and that worked fine)

Get it all ready to go!

Directions:
Combine milk, sugar, salt, and butter in small saucepan. Heat over low heat and stir until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Cool to lukewarm (less than 110 F).

If using active dry yeast, dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed bowl and let stand for 10 minutes. If using Instant/fast-acting Yeast, just add it to the flour and mix it in before adding liquids. Make sure you still heat up the water otherwise it could be too chilly for the yeast. I went with the fast-acting yeast and it really worked!

See how it hangs on to the hook? So cool! Also, see all the flour on the top of bowl.
I told you it would fly!

Add lukewarm milk mixture and water to 4 1/2 C  flour. Attach bowl and dough hook. Make sure you have the top locked in place. Turn to speed 2 and mix 1 minute. Continuing on speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 C at a time (slowly so it doesn’t fly out of bowl because it will fly!), until dough clings to hook and cleans side of bowl. Knead on speed 2 for 2 minutes longer, or until dough is smooth and stretchy. Dough will be slightly sticky to the touch.

All the dough in the bowl.

Place in a greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover; let rise in warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk, about an hour. I was amazed at how huge my dough got. Steve had fun coming in the kitchen and punching it down.

See how high above the bowl it got?!

Punch dough down and divide in half. Shape each half into a loaf and place in a greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Cover; let rise in warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. OR only make one loaf and let it rise.

About-to-be bread stick

While that's happening, take the other half and roll it out flat until it is about 12 inches by 9 inches. Cut it with a sharp knife into 1 inch strips. Roll each end in the opposite direction. Pick up the ends and bring them together. The dough should spin around itself making braid-looking bread sticks.

You can bake them both at the same time for the same time and temperature.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks.

Yum! Sandwich (or French toast) ready.

New Year's Resolutions

Hi Crushers,
As many people do, I like to make resolutions or set goals for the New Year. Steve and I set some for us as a family as part of our #24daysoftogetherness. Some of them I can share and some of them are just for us.

Resolutions:

1. Run the Green Bay Cellcom Half Marathon together (or at least start together!). I ran the Fox Cities Half Marathon with some friends and it was a lot of fun training for it and completing it. Steve helped me train for it, but in the end he didn't sign up because it was during football season and he wasn't sure how much time he could devote to running at the end. I think he could have still done it, but better safe than sorry! Running injuries are no fun.
2. Learn how to make more breads. My sister's mother-in-law gave me a book on making bread. After the success of the rosemary bread I wrote about here, I feel like I could take on other bread challenges.
3. Learn how to make more Asian dishes. My friends Stacy and Misty make these rice cakes of spicy dragon fire that are amazing! Really, they are called Ddukppoki and they are a favorite street food in Korea. I'd also like to try making Pho, which is a delicious soup. I bet Stacy and Misty wouldn't mind helping me learn how to make these. My cousin Rob knows how to make sushi, so that could be interesting too. Plus, all of these recipes would require a fascinating grocery trip!
4. Learn how to make pasta. I have a feeling that this will be more effort than it's worth, but who knows? I've kind of always wanted to make my own ravioli, but haven't had the guts to try it yet.
5. Beat my 5K race PR. Right now, my best 5K time is hovering right around 29 minutes. I'm slow, but I'm ok with that. It's all about finishing what you start!
6. Do 50 push ups in a row! And not the modified "girly" kind from your knees either! I'm talking regular, from your toes push ups without sticking your booty in the air.
7. Learn how to lay tile or linoleum or something to repair our kitchen floor. Before we were married, something (water damage?) happened to the floor and it needs to go away. Argh.

How about you? Do you have any? Do you have foods you would like to see us try to make?

Happy New Year!

Hello and Happy New Year, Crushers!

Steve and I are blessed with having so many friends and family nearby that we got to celebrate seven Christmases. Yes, seven! We host a friend Christmas party every year. This year we decided we were going to have a Hawaiian-themed party. My sister made pineapple iced tea, which was a hit. We also had some Hawaiian steamed pork dumplings (which I bought), BBQ ham balls (I just couldn't make Spam meat balls), coconut shrimp from Skinnytaste.com and lots of other fun treats. I think next year we're going to go for "Fleece Navidad" and combine Mexican foods with an Ugly Sweater party.

We spent Christmas Eve with my family after going to church. This is my absolute favorite Christmas service because all the kids from the school put together a program (or their teachers do) and they recite passages and sing carols. It's wonderful. My favorite part will always be when they recite the passages from Luke 2 just like Linus in "Merry Christmas Charlie Brown." They do a fantastic job leading the service.

Sadly, it was very difficult to get there because a police officer had been shot and a lot of roads were closed in my hometown where things like that hardly ever happen. We were all able to say an extra prayer for her and the poor kid who fainted and broke a tooth right after singing "Silent Night". It was a rough Christmas for a lot of people in various ways, and I don't mean that flippantly. I hope that yours was much happier with family and friends.

After spending some time with my grandparents and opening gifts with my parents, we were 2 down and 5 to go. My grandparents really enjoy holiday parties with everyone so they rallied and stayed up extra late! At my parents' house, I got a... drumroll please... KITCHENAID MIXER! I kid you not, I hugged it. See?

What to make first?

My grandpa on my dad's side is kind of hard to shop for, but there is one thing that he loves to get and that is food! My mom made him a big platter of Christmas cookies, so I tried making homemade rosemary bread since he's a big soup and sandwich fan. I found this recipe and it was super easy to make. See?

Bread finished with a nice egg wash ready to be gifted.
Note: there are no preservatives so if you aren't going to eat it right away, you should keep it in the freezer

Christmas #3 and 4 were on Christmas Day first at Steve's parents' house, to which I brought a no-bake cheese cake, and then at my sister's house, to which I brought a cranberry Jell-O salad. We had such a nice time at church and then at home with everyone!

Although it seemed to be the year of the sweater/kitchen stuff, I got one gift from Steve that should not be used in the kitchen: snowshoes! Please pardon my crazy outfit, but those were really warm pants. My sister said that I looked "like an adorable Christmas Elf." Ha! All of my other snow-wear was in the wash since we did a lot of cross country skiing, too.

After spending Christmas #5 with my extended family, to which I brought an antipasto salad, and singing carols for Grandma, we spent Christmas #6 with Steve's dad's side of the family. There was lots of babies to hold, kids to play with and carols to sing. I was losing my voice! We spent some time up in Green Bay, where I got to see the Packer Hall of Fame for the first time. We ate some really amazing cheese curds at Curly's Pub (named for the Packer's first coach, Curly Lambeau, who is also the namesake for the stadium) and watched the Packers, gulp, LOSE (!!!!) to the Minnesota Vikings. There was a lot of yelling going on in the pub. Fortunately, we are forever fans and have a lot of hope for this weekend where we (pfft, I say this like I'm going to be on the field) take on the Vikings in the first round of the playoffs.

At the Hall of Fame!

Christmas #7 was spent with Steve's mom's side of the family with more caroling and more food! Phew! What a whirlwind!

In case you aren't sick of holiday dinners with ham, here's the BBQ Ham Ball recipe. It sounds weird, but it's really, really good.

BBQ Ham Balls
Ingredients:
Ham Balls
1 1/2 pounds ground ham
1 1/2 pounds ground pork
2 cups Cracker crumbs (I used Ritz)
1 cups milk
2 eggs, beaten

Glaze:
1 can tomato soup
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup vinegar
1 tsp dry mustard


Directions:
Mix ham, pork, cracker crumbs, milk and eggs in a large bowl. Use 1/3 cup of mixture and form into balls. This is also about the size of a tennis ball. Place in a 13 x 9 pan. Bake for one hour in a 350 oven. While baking, mix glaze ingredients in small bowl.  Pour glaze over balls, and bake an additional half hour to glaze. Serve with roasted veggies.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!