TWD - Honey Nectarine Galettes

This time I'm going to actually talk about the recipe. No shoe mysteries or what mischief I might have gotten into last Tuesday with the authorities. None of that! This is all recipe.

Now I do reserve the right to talk about any recipe, so we will be discussing biscotti, bibimbap and galettes.

So I don't think I conveyed how much I loved the biscotti recipe or rather the idea of it in my biscotti post. I, of course, didn't follow the recipe. Instead I used ginger and black sesame seeds and I felt this opened up a whole new world of possibilities! I made walnut and brown butter biscotti, almond and candied ginger biscotti, banana bread biscotti and wrote down recipes for ginger molasses biscotti and many others I can't even remember now. I was crazy over biscotti. I had even started the planning for sales at the holidays. I was going to be rich. Still might, but probably not over the biscotti. I loved it. But the love quickly faded. I now love bibimbap.

What? How? What the what? I transitioned from complete lovedom of a crunchy, better dunkin' than a donut cookie to a Koren rice dish. Well I'm fickle. (BTW that's the name of my brittle that I sell during the holidays, I'll tell you all about it sometime.)

So fun to say and even more fun to eat.

Bibimbap is the mac 'n cheese of the Korean world (I mean comfort food-wise, not the nutritional equivalent). And it only took one bite for me to fall in love with the idea. Not so much the actual dish that I took a bite of but nonetheless this is how I work. It's so easy, just cook up some rice, saute some spinach and a few other veggies that please you and add some fermented chili sauce and an egg. It's awesomely delicious and I would like to think healthy. I implore you to try it, either at some Korean joint or in your kitchen. If you want to be really adventurous, pick up some quail eggs at the Asian store too. You will be going to the Asian store because that's the only place you'll get fermented chili paste (Gochujang - you really want some now don't you). And while your there, pick up some of these little gelatin things for desert. They're Vietnamese, but come on think multi-cultural!

Ok, now galettes. I woke up at 2 in the morning (my standard idea time) and thought about how instead of a pie, that I should make little tiny galettes with honey and tarragon and nectarines and dried blueberries. I completely went 180 with this recipe. Well more like 140, I don't know. I don't do math.

Now, before we go further...let's take a look at the actual recipe and what these lovely folks did:

Here's "That Skinny Chick Can Bake", Liz's pie and the recipe. And our other host, "Manchego's Kitchen, I Just Cook Here", Hilary's pie and the recipe.

I didn't use the pie crust recipe, I didn't use fresh blueberries, I didn't use sugar and I didn't make a pie. BUT I did use the nectarines so it counts.

iPad for scale only, I don't generally serve food on it or use it as a table...much.

And if every one of my 2 am ideas ends up like this...then Mensa you missed out on this genius! Tarragon and honey and dried blueberries and nectarines and topped with a little lemon glaze are brilliant. BRILLANT! Even if I can't spell brilliant, these mini galettes are.


Update 8/1/2012 - So I send my weekly baked goods (including TWD goods) to my husbands office. Let's face it, I can't keep that many things at home while being at home most of the day. Even if I wasn't home, I would be driving around trying to get home so that I could eat those said things. So off they go, out the door to willing or not so willing folks. Well I guess they are willing because I just received flowers from his office saying Thank You! That is awesome. Thank you for making my day :)

Thanks :)

TWD - Semolina Bread

A day late, a dollar short....

At least I baked the bread on Tuesday. That's something. Truthfully, I had time last night to blog about it. I had my pictures, but I was in no mood to write. And if I did, it would not have been a pretty post for you, for me or for my husband. Enough said.

But today is a new day. Didn't start out particularly awesome. Two out of the four household members managed to create some epic messes that needed special odor eliminating cleaners. Once again, enough said.

So right now we will push the reset button. Click. And here we go.

So tasty, Father Time you are a genius.

Semonlina bread, that's some nice stuff. I have a tendency to shy away from anything that takes so long to proof/rise/cure/ferment because...well I'm impatient. But as I push forward in this culinary adventure I have learned that time makes for some dang tasty stuff. This semolina bread is a nice example. I also made my own yogurt the other day (I guess it'll always be my own. I could just say I made yogurt). Once again, time rewards.

Pickles! I forgot about the pickles. They were quick pickles, but you do have to wait 24 hours before eating them. So maybe I've made it over the hump (haha today is hump day) and now have the patience of a sloth. That doesn't sound so good. Well they are cute.

Quick! Pickles!

Here are this week's host. I haven't had a chance to read both, but I will! So you go over and take a look and I'll go over and take a look and then we can compare notes.

Keep it Luce and The Way to My Family's Heart

Oh, I do have one comment. The bread is salty, but if you dip it in olive oil and balsamic vinegar you'll think you've just eaten at a twelve star restaurant. If you plan on eating it sans dip, then only use half the amount of salt. It's probably better for you anyway.

TWD - Ginger Black Sesame Biscotti

Life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone
I hear you call my name
And it feels like home....

So I've just accomplished two things with that little bit of lyric. One: you are now singing Madonna and two: I've just described what my shoes went through earlier.

So let's all sing together for a bit...

When you call my name it's like a little prayer
I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour I can feel your power
Just like a prayer you know I'll take you there

I hear your voice, it's like an angel sighing
I have no choice, I hear your voice
Feels like flying
I close my eyes, oh God I think I'm falling
Out of the sky, I close my eyes

Awesome, we sounded great. Let's do this again...soon.

Now the shoes. I lost two hours today and my shoes. No, Not like that. There was no secret sauce or ripple tipple involved, I was actually making fondant with my niece (hi Jamie!)...I guess when you enter fondant land anything is bound to happen. So remember that and go cautiously into the sugar. I swear that when I started making fondant I had on shoes and it was like 5 o'clock. Then when we were done I looked down and my shoes where gone and two hours had slipped by. I started looking around, calling for the shoes. Everyone was looking for them, the tiniest of people looked under the couch and the tallest of us asking the tiny ones to look under the couch again.

So life is a mystery, because I don't know how I lost my shoes. Everyone stands alone, because shoe loss only affects the loser and when the shoes hear their name being called they know they have a home.

Ginger and Black Sesame Seed Biscotti

Oh ya, I made some biscotti too. It was easy and did not enter into the Madonna equation except that maybe it's a mystery because it's a biscotti made with ginger and black sesame. Ingredients solely used because I was in an Asian store and thought, I, of course would find some great ingredients for an Italian cookie. Life is a mystery.

Later I stopped by a non Asian store and picked up pecans and cinnamon chips to make some more biscotti.  Not as much a mystery, but ingredients that are more in Vogue ;)

Sorry.

Check out these non pun'rs and their biscotti beauties: Hosts this week -  Jodi of Homemade and Wholesome and Katrina of Baking and Boys.