End of Summer Risotto

Today marked the end of summer in my house- school began for my new 1st grader.  New school, new teacher, and a kid so full of confidence in himself that he barely needed me to walk him to his classroom.  How did he get so big?

I refuse to believe that summer is over and I suppose that here is Southern California, it really isn't.  The weather is great, there are plenty more beach days in my future, and the produce is still literally falling off the vines and trees.  I mentioned in my last post that I was living completely on tomatoes in the recent weeks and here's why.......................








This is just a small sampling of the cherry tomatoes that I picked last week from the four plants in my backyard.  That doesn't include the huge beefsteaks and heirlooms that are just days from ripening at the moment.  What's a girls to do with them all?  This was the dilemma that faced me a few days ago as I was deciding what to make for dinner.  A salad (again)?  A pasta (eh)?  A risotto (YES!!)?  I make a killer salad with corn, tomatoes, zucchini and basil and I had a hunch that those flavors would work just barely cooked into a risotto with its creamy rice.  Of course, I just happened to have all of those things in my kitchen.  So off to the stove I went.

Risotto is nothing to be afraid of, friends.  It's really very quick to make and just requires a turn of the spoon every few minutes.  The rice and broth do most of the work themselves.  All you need to do is stand by and watch the magic happen.

End of Summer Risotto
This, to me, is a meal in and of itself.  However, if you have an eater in your house who is anything like my husband, it will also make a nice side dish for grilled or roasted chicken or fish.

1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs butter
1 small onion, diced
1 cup arborio or canaroli rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
4-5 cups homemade chicken broth or store bought low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups diced beefsteak tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes
kernels from 2 ears of corn, cut off the cob
1 small zucchini or summer squash, diced
1 cup grated perorino romano or parmesean cheese
handful of basil leaves

In a medium saucepot, bring the chicken broth to a simmer, then turn the heat to low.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and butter.  Stir in the onions and saute until they are soft and translucent.  Add the rice and stir for a minute or two.  The rice will begin to become translucent as well and it will get coated with the butter and oil.

Add the wine to the skillet and let it cook until almost evaporated.  Add a ladle-full of the chicken broth and stir into the rice mixture.  When the liquid is nearly evaporated add another ladle-full of the broth, stirring occasionally.  Continue cooking the rice this way, adding the broth a bit at a time until the rice is creamy and tender.  Be careful not to overcook it- it can go from perfectly tender to mush very quickly.  The whole process should take about 20 minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes, zucchini, and corn and cook with the rice for 4-5 minutes, adding more broth as necessary.  You don't want to fully cook the vegetables though, what you're looking for is for the tomatoes and zucchini just to soften a bit.  Again, you don't want to be eating mush.  Stir in half the cheese.

To serve, spoon into individual bowls and sprinkle each with additional grated cheese and a few shredded basil leaves.  A glass of chilled white wine is a great accompaniment.  What a way to enjoy the best of the end of summer produce.

Cantaloupe Popsicles

While everyone else in the country has been dealing with earthquakes and hurricanes, it's been downright HOT here in Southern California.  The kind of hot that makes me regret putting off fixing the air conditioning in my car.  Luckily, also the kind of hot that does a great job ripening the tomatoes in my backyard.  I've had a ton of them ripen in the past week.  Tomato salads, BLTs, and caprese salads...oh my...

But one cannot live on tomatoes alone (though I feel as if I've been trying).  The cure for too many tomatoes?  Well, actually, I don't know if there is a cure for that besides giving them all away to grateful friends and neighbors.   But finding the sweetest smelling cantaloupe in my produce box last week certainly helped.  I think my little one ate most of the first half of it all by himself.  Don't you just love watching them gobble up ripe fruit, the juices dribbling down their chins?  Ah, to be two again...The rest of the family helped him eat the remainder of the first half and we could have easily eaten the rest as well.  But I had my eye on it for another purpose- popsicles. 

Who doesn't love a popsicle?  It's downright un-American.  And they are so easy to make, the hard part is waiting for them to freeze before slurping them up on the lawn on a hot afternoon.  I managed to save what I needed for my popsicles and made them one morning late last week.  It was hard waiting long enough for them to freeze, but we were totally rewarded for our patience.  These popsicles are the best I've ever made, hands down.  I added some lime juice to the simple syrup I mixed into the cantaloupe puree and was hoping for a bit more flavor from it than I got, but the cantaloupe was so good on it's own that I didn't mind.  My 6 year old suggested that orange juice would have been a good addition, and I have to say that I quite agree.  Whatever juice you pick, you can go a bit heavier on it than the recipe calls for if you like.  Either way, you won't be disappointed with the results.

Cantaloupe Popsicles
From All Things Simple
Please, please, please use the best smelling and most perfectly ripe melon that you can for this recipe.  You won't regret it.  I got my popsicle molds in the dollar bin at Target, but you can really find them cheaply all over the place.  Mine are a bit on the small side, so I cut back on the recipe I used as my guide.  If yours are an average popsicle size, you may want to increase the amounts by half.

3 cups fresh cantaloupe, cubed (about half of a average sized melon)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 sup water
juice of 1 lime

In a small pot, mix together the water and sugar.  Cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.  Remove from the heat and let cool.  (Incidentally, I found that I can also do this step in the microwave using a Pyrex measuring cup)

In a blender or food processor, blend the cantaloupe until it is smooth.  Add the lime juice and cooled sugar syrup.  Blend just to mix the ingredients.  Fill the popsicle molds with the cantaloupe mixture, leaving a bit of room at the top for expansion.  If your mold has lids with the sticks, pop them on and freeze until solid (about 5 hours).  If you aren't using molds with lids, freeze until the popsicles are beginning to set (anywhere from 1-2 hours), then insert your sticks and continue freezing until solid.

**NOTE** I have made popsicles using this same basic recipe, but swapping the cantaloupe for watermelon and adding about a dozen mint leaves.  The result is a pretty, layered popsicle (the watermelon separates into a clear layer and a pink pulpy layer) with a refreshing hit of mint.  Quite a nice way to use up one of those big melons.

Lemon and Oregano Grilled Chicken Drumsticks with Tzatziki

One of my favorite food memories with my older son is taking him to the Greek restaurant in the small town we lived in when he was just a toddler.  I always ordered the same thing- kota lemonatha (grilled lemon-chicken) and an extra order of pita and tzatziki.  The chicken was always perfectly grilled and just lemony enough for my lemon-loving palate.  And the potatoes, I wish I knew how they cooked those potatoes.  Steamed or boiled in some concoction of chicken broth and lemon juice, I think, but I have yet to come even close to recreating the perfectly tender goodness of those potatoes.

My son was an adventurous eater right from the start.  Even at one he would sit next to me at the restaurant and scarf up all of my tzatziki sauce and eat every last one of my pita wedges, then go for my stewed green beans and tomatoes.  I couldn't get over how much he liked that sauce since it seemed way to strong in garlic flavor for such a young eater.  Even the wait staff would marvel at him as they brought him extra bowls of the stewed veggies on the house.

We've since moved from that small town, but I won't ever forget those wonderful, simple meals.  The tzatziki sauce is now a regular on the menu at home and I keep trying to get the chicken just right.  I think I came close with this recipe.  I use drumsticks instead of the chicken breasts that the restaurant used, but I think the flavor of the chicken is better.  Besides, aren't drumsticks just more fun to eat?  Last time I made this I had about 2 dozen drumsticks and between 4 adults and three kids we ate them all.

Pretend you're sitting on a whitewashed patio overlooking the Adriatic Sea (this is the closest I'm going to get to it) and enjoy.

Lemon and Oregano Chicken Drumsticks and Tzatziki
Adapted from, Grill Master (Williams-Sonoma), by Fred Thompson

For the chicken:
 2 dozen chicken drumsticks, skin on
1/2 cup lemon juice (from 3-4 lemons)
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tbs chopped, fresh oregano
1 tbs each chopped fresh basil and thyme
1/2 cup olive oil

For the tzatziki sauce:
1 english cucumber or 2 persain cucumbers
16 oz plain greek yogurt
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced
3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste

To prepare the chicken:
Make the marinade by stirring together the lemon juice, herbs and garlic.  Whisk in the olive oil then pour the marinade into a large bowl or resealable bag.  Add in the drumsticks and stir to coat the chicken.  Cover or seal the container and refrigerate for 6-8 hours (even up to 24 hours!).

When you're ready to grill, remove the chicken from the refrigerator and place it on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle it with salt and pepper and let it come to room temperature while you heat up the grill.  Heat the grill to medium then place the drumsticks over the heat.  Grill for about 10 minutes, then turn the chicken over.  Continue to cook, turning occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes longer, or until the meat registers 170 degrees (get an instant read thermometer if you don't have one, it'll save so much guesswork when measuring for doneness). Let the meat rest while you enjoy a nice glass of white wine with your family or guests.

To make the tzatziki:
Chop the cucumbers into small pieces.  Place the cucumber chunks, olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice into a food processor and pulse until the cucumber and garlic are finely diced.  Stir in the yogurt and season with salt and pepper to taste.

The chicken and tzatziki are wonderful served together, dipping the chicken into the sauce as you eat.  Serve with pita and a big greek salad and you've got a great summer meal.

Pancakes Two Ways- The Perfect Everyday Pancake and the Dutch Baby with Spiced Peaches

Things I need more of in my life...

Days at the beach...

Naps...

Warm, sunny afternoons with my boys playing happily and quietly...

Pancakes...

Over the summer and on the weekends, I have a hard time not making pancakes every morning that's how much I love them.  And my boys would happily oblige my need for fluffy, warm, buttery pancakes.  Am I drooling?

I have been using the same pancake recipe for years.  It's from a book that I bought off the clearance rack at a wine shop.  Random, right?  The first time I made them, I knew I would never make pancakes using another recipe again.  They are dead simple, perfectly fluffy, just a tiny bit sweet, and just a tiny bit buttery.  I eat them right off the griddle, no syrup, no extra butter, right out of my happy little fingers.  You must have this recipe.
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Perfect Everyday Pancakes
From pancakes & waffles, by Kate Habershon

1 1/2 cups flour                                                                     
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tbs sugar
1 cup milk
3 eggs
4 tbs butter, melted and cooled

Mix the milk and eggs in a large bowl.  Add the flour and baking powder to the wet ingredients and stir gently until the batter just comes together.  Stir in the melted butter.  Spoon a few tablespoons for each pancake on a buttered griddle, flipping when bubbles appear on the surface and the bottom is golden.

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Sometimes, however, the occasion calls for a bit of a fancier breakfast or just something a little different.  Maybe you have guests for the weekend.  Maybe your kids will begin throwing pancakes at you if you make another one.  On occasions like this, I break out the Dutch Baby.  I even woke up early one morning at the home of a friend I was staying with and made it for my hostess and her little girls.  It was a hit with big and little alike.  More like a popover than a pancake, it's easier than making pancakes because you don't have to stand over the stove flipping forever.  You mix, bake, and enjoy.

Dutch Baby Pancake with Spiced Peaches
Adapted from One Perfect Bite

1/2 cup flour
1 tbs sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 tbs melted butter
3 ripe peaches
1 tbs butter
1 tbs brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
seeds from half a vanilla bean (optional)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place a 10 inch cast iron skillet in the oven to heat up.

The Dutch Baby as it comes out of the oven.  I let mine get a little too dark- yikes!!

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and sugar.  In another bowl, beat the eggs then add the milk.  Stir in the flour mixture until just mixed, then add the melted butter.  When the skillet in hot and the oven is at 450, take the skillet from the oven carefully and swirl 1 tbs butter around in the pan.  Add the pancake batter and place the skillet back in the oven.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Do not open the door until it is finished or it will deflate.  Part of the fun of this pancake is that it puffs up beautifully in the oven.  Mine turned out a bit dark, please forgive me.  Yours will be prettier, I'm sure.


While the pancake is in the oven, prepare the peaches.  Peel, core and slice the peaches.  Heat a medium skillet over medium and melt the remaining tbs of butter.  When the butter is melted, add in the peaches, cinnamon, vanilla, and brown sugar.  Cook, stirring, about 5 minutes or until the peaches are softened and caramelized.

When the pancake comes out of the oven, sprinkle it with a bit of sugar (about 1-2 tsp) and about 1 tsp lemon zest.  Top with the peaches, cut into wedges and serve.

Mexican Chocolate Sorbet

I have had the pleasure of knowing so many wonderful families thanks to the semi-nomadic life we live courtesy of the U.S. Navy.  The constant coming and going can be both a blessing and a curse and a source of joy, sadness and camaraderie.  At times, it seems as if we are experiencing all of these emotions at the same time.  Over the course of the past 12 years I have had the privilege of meeting and becoming close friends with some of the most loyal, courageous, selfless and hilariously funny women I will ever meet.  Together we have shared the blessings of marriages and births as well as personal struggles, loss and heartache.  And when the Navy calls on us to move on, we part, but we know that we will forever be family to each other no matter the distance.

I love to cook for my friends, it's a way of sharing what's in my heart with them that I could never speak with words.  And of course I always try to cook with flavors and ingredients that my friends enjoy.  Over the years a few of these wonderful people I've known and some of their children have had food allergies and intolerances.  I would never want someone to feel deprived at my table, as if everyone else is sharing a fantastic meal and they have to sacrifice because of an allergy.  I do my best to include everyone in all aspects of my meals.

It is with this in mind that I developed the sorbet recipe I'm sharing with you today.  We were having a meal with our neighbors recently and their youngest daughter has a dairy allergy.  I have a hard time coming up with a dessert that doesn't include dairy in some form, but sorbet came to mind after a bit of searching the net and my favorite blogs.  With the abundance of fruit available right now, sorbets are an easy choice, but I'm never content to make the expected.  That's when I found a recipe for chocolate sorbet on the Smitten Kitchen blog.  A bit of ingredient altering- I wanted Mexican chocolate not dark chocolate- and I had what I was looking for.  A rich, satisfying dessert for both adults and kids alike.  No one was feeling deprived that night.

Mexican Chocolate Sorbet
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen (who adapted it from David Lebovitz, god of ice cream)
This sorbet is extremely rich.  In fact, I used my tiny ice cream scoop that I usually only break out to scoop cookie dough and two scoops was plenty.  I found that serving it with slightly sweetened strawberries lightened the richness a bit and by the time the sorbet melted I had a lovely chocolate and strawberry soup.  The sorbet itself is a bit like a extra fudgy fudgesicle with a bit of a cinnamon hit at the end.  In fact, if you don't have an ice cream maker, I bet you could whiz the cooled mixture in the blender for a few minutes to give it some air and then freeze it in popsicle molds.

6.5 ounces of mexican chocolate (such as Ibarra, in which case you will use 2 discs), chopped
2 1/4 cups water, divided
2/3 cups sugar
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa*
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla

*You can make this a dark chocolate sorbet by using dark chocolate instead of the mexican chocolate, omitting the cinnamon, and increasing the sugar to 1 cup.

Mix 1 1/2 cups water, the cocoa, sugar, and cinnamon in a medium pot.  Bring to a boil, whisking.  Let the mixture boil for about 45 more seconds, still whisking.  Remove from the heat and pour in the chocolate.  Stir until the chocolate is fully melted.  Add the vanilla and the remaining 3/4 cups water.

Just after mixing in the chocolate

Refrigerate the sorbet mixture until cold.  Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.  Transfer to a lidded container and freeze for at least 6 hours.  Serve with sliced, slightly sweetened strawberries. 

Garlicky Barbequed Ribs

The final step- a coating of BBQ sauce and a few minutes on the grill.

This week has been a sort of boring food week, so forgive me for not posting.  Don't get me wrong, the food has been good, just not all that exciting- pasta, stuffed peppers, burgers, and trying to figure out what to do with yet another mountain of peaches from my CSA.  That all changed last night.  I decided to break out the dinner doldrums and make one of my all-time favorites and a definite family pleaser, my garlicky ribs.

Over the years I've tried all sorts of ways to make ribs and the recipe that follows is the best way that I have found to get get tender, fall-off-the-bone ribs with a great flavor and a bit of the smoky BBQ-ness that I really crave in a rack of baby backs.  I never did copy down the original source for the method, so I apologize to whatever publication it came from.  But over the years, I've tweaked it enough that  I now consider it mine.

This is a great recipe for company.  Get a few racks of ribs, throw them in the oven the day before, let them cool off, refrigerate them over night and then grill them when you're ready to eat.  Make plenty though, they always go quickly.

Garlicky Barbequed Ribs
You can use baby back ribs or pork spareribs, though I prefer the baby backs.

1 rack baby back ribs
6 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne (use as much or as little as you like, I tend to use the lesser amount so the heat doesn't overwhelm the garlic)
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
3 tsp canola oil

The rub ingredients

In a food processor, blend all of the ingredients except for the ribs (duh!) until they make a loose paste.  Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and lay the ribs on the foil.  Pour the rub over the ribs and spread over both sides.  Let the ribs rest on the counter for 30-60 minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 425 degrees. 

Let the ribs rest for a while and the rub will soak in.

Pour 1/2 cup water in the pan and then tightly cover the pan with aluminum foil.  The water will heat up and essentially steam the ribs while in the oven.  The end result will be a moist, tender rib that falls right off the bone.  Roast the ribs for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.  They're ready when you lift the ribs off the pan with a pair or tongs and they nearly fall apart.

The finished product

Preheat the grill to medium high.  Grill the ribs for 6-8 minutes per side, basting each side once with BBQ sauce.  Two tips here- first, use a smoky, not a sweet, BBQ sauce, it will compliment the rub better.  Second, keep an eye on the ribs while they grill and leave the lid of the grill open.  The sauce will burn easily if you're not careful.  Let the rack rest on the counter for a few minutes and then cut between the bones to separate the ribs.  Serve with extra sauce.

The meat will be falling right off the bone if you've done them correctly. 

Creamy Restaurant-style Hummus

I love, love, love hummus.  And while I don't mind the supermarket brands, every time I buy one I can't help but think that I ought to be able to make it easily at home.  I've tried a few times and it just hasn't worked out well- it comes out way too thick, too garlicky, too grainy....it's just never right.

Then I stumbled upon this wonderful little recipe in Cooks Illustrated.  Now, they have a zillion chefs testing out all of their recipes over and over again, so they're easy to trust.  The article promised smooth, creamy hummus that would rival any authentic restaurant's version.  And honestly (I didn't really have any doubts, but you never know), this is the best hummus I've ever had.  It's not much more than dumping the ingredients in a food processor and letting it whirl, but the order of additions makes all the difference.  So now I do make the hummus myself in several different variations, and I don't miss buying it at the supermarket at all.

Creamy Restaurant-style Hummus
From Cooks Illustrated
3 tbs lemon juice
1/4 cup water
6 tbs tahini (sesame seed paste)
2 tbs olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp cumin
pinch of cayenne
1 15-oz can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

In a small bowl, stir together the lemon juice and water.  Set aside.  In another small bowl, stir together the tahini and olive oil.  Again, set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor, place the garbanzo beans (minus a small handful for topping the hummus), the garlic, cumin, salt, and cayenne.  Pulse the mixture several times until almost fully ground together.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  With the food processor running, slowly pour in the lemon juice and water.  Continue to process for about 30 more seconds.  Scrape down the bowl again.  Begin running the food processor a third time and slowly pour in the tahini and olive oil.  Blend until smooth.

Place the hummus in a bowl and top with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of paprika, and the reserved garbanzo beans.  Serve with pita bread or chips and sliced carrots, cucumbers, or peppers.

Variations: Roasted garlic hummus- replace the raw garlic with several cloves of roasted garlic
Red pepper- Coarsely chop one roasted red pepper and add it to the food processor along with the garbanzo beans, garlic and spices
Or add in any combination of  herbs or spices you like

Santa Maria Style Grilled Tri-tip

Slicing up the finished and rested Tri-tip

So here on the Central Coast of California, they take their BBQ seriously.  Way back in the 1800s, cattlemen and cowboys started grilling up cuts of steaks over oak wood fires with simple seasonings.  A whole style of grilling, called Santa Maria style after a town just north of Santa Barbara, was born and is the pride and joy of the folks around here.  I remember hearing about the famous Santa Maria tri-tip from a girlfriend of mine who grew up in California and loved it so much she served it at her wedding.  Little did I know I would fall in love with it too.

I moved down here to California and found tri-tip on menus everywhere.  Remembering my friends fabulous descriptions, I gave it a try.  Now I'm hooked, like seriously addicted.  My favorite happens to be the sandwich served up Wednesdays and Saturdays at the local airport cafe.  Sounds like a strange place to find good BBQ, I know.  But as my husband, an aviator, will tell you, sometimes the small airport restaurants have the best food and this place is no exception.  You can sit at a table outside and watch the airplanes taking off and landing while the cook stands grilling several tri-tips over a wood-fired grill right in front of you.  It's a cool way to spend an afternoon.  And the place is always packed on tri-tip days.  I learned the secret is simple seasoning- garlic, salt and pepper- and the smoke of some oak wood as the meat grills.  The end result is truly something special.

Santa Maria Style Grilled Tri-tip
a 2 1/2 to 3 lb trip-tip steak
1 large head garlic
2 tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 cups hardwood chips- preferably oak (you can get these in bags in the grill section of your local hardware store, Target, or WalMart)

The marinade ingredients

In a food processor, place the peeled garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Blend until you have a thick paste.  Alternately, you can chop the garlic by hand, use a mortar and pestle, or even grate the garlic with a fine grater if you don't have a food processor.  Your goal is to get the garlic as fine as possible so that you can spread it over the meat.  Poke the meat all over with a fork, then rub your garlic paste all over the tri-tip.  Wrap it in plastic wrap, or place in a zip top bag and refrigerate for 6-8 hours.

The tri-tip is ready to relax in the fridge and soak up all that garlic

When you're ready to grill, take the meat from the fridge so it can come to room temperature.  Place the wood chips in a bowl of water to soak.  I fire up all the burners on my grill so that it's nice and hot to start off with.  When the grill is ready, wipe most of the garlic paste off with a paper towel (if there's a lot of garlic, it will burn and that will not taste good), then place the tri-tip off to one side of the grill.  Sear the meat for about 5 minutes on both sides, then turn the burners underneath the meat to low.  Remove the wood chips from the water and put them in a foil baking pan.  Place the pan on the other half of the grill.  If the burners under the pan are high, you should get some smoke out of those chips.

The tri-tip is searing on the grill

The resting tri-tip

Grill the tri-tip for about another 20 minutes.  The meat will be medium-rare to medium (130 degrees if you're using a thermometer).  Remove it from the grill and let it rest for 15 minutes.  If you cut into it too soon, all the juices will run out of the meat and it will be dry.  Once it's rested, slice the meat into very thin slices and serve.  If you'd like, you can turn it into a tasty sandwich with some toasted bread and the secret sauce from my favorite airport cafe- mix 1/4 cup mayo with about 2 tbs of the darkest, zestiest BBQ sauce you can kind.  That's my kind of sandwich.

Tri-tip sandwich a la Waypoint Cafe

Rustic No-knead Bread (Original and Lemon Cherry Variation)

The plain rustic bread and the lemon cherry version

You know that question- "If you were stranded on a deserted island, what's the one food you'd want to have with you?"?  Well, for me that question is a simple one, no thinking involved...Bread.  In any shape, size, or form.  It's part of my earliest memories of standing on a chair next to my grandmother with a little ball of bread dough in my hands, watching her knead and trying to copy her.  I can remember her pulling fresh loaves out of the oven and not being able to wait until they were cool enough to eat.  I'd tear the end off the bread (always the end, the crustier, the better) and smearing some butter on it and being in heaven.  30 years after making those memories, the smell of freshly baked bread still puts me in food nirvana.  

I'm a pretty experienced bread maker, so I try to make my own when I can.  And I even make a pretty good approximation of my grandmother's bread, if I do say so myself.  I like to have a slice with dinner (or lunch...french toast anyone?...), but I have less time and less patience to deal with fussy recipes as I and my kids get older.  Somehow I stumbled upon a recipe for a bread that requires as little work as humanly possible.  The original is from the Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC, but a recipe was published in the New York Times a few years back and spread across the internet like wildfire.   So I guess I'm a bit late to the party, but better late than never.  This bread is so good and so easy, I don't think I'll ever make an everyday bread with any other recipe.  In fact, my husband explicitly asked me not to (that's always a sign of a winner).

A slice of the lemon cherry bread

If you're not an experienced bread maker, this is the recipe for you.  It really can't get any easier. 

Rustic No-knead Bread
This recipe will make one large loaf.  I personally like to have really fresh bread, so I'll use half the dough to make a smaller loaf one night, refrigerate the rest and then make another small loaf later in the week.

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
2 1/2 tsp salt
3 1/4 cups flour

The dough gets nice and bubbly sitting on the counter

In a large bowl, stir together the water, salt and yeast.  Stir in the flour.  Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap.  Leave the bowl to sit on the counter for at least two hours.  It will be bubbly and still very wet and sticky.  At this point, the dough can be baked or you can refrigerate it and use it later that evening or later that week if you wish.  When you're ready to bake the bread, take it out of the refrigerator and dump it out on a flour dusted piece of parchment paper to come to room temperature while the oven preheats.

The lemon cherry bread waiting for the oven to heat up

To bake this bread, you will need a pot that can withstand very high oven temperatures.  The only way to get a crisp, crackly crust is to have a lot of steam, which is why the dough is so wet.  If you had a professional bakery oven, it would be able to burst steam over the bread, but then again, you probably wouldn't be reading this blog if you had a professional bakery oven.  So instead, the way to get the bread good and steamy is to get the oven temp nice and high (475 degrees), get a pot with a lid nice and hot in the oven while you preheat it, dump the dough in, cover it with the lid, and bake.  A heavy porcelain-coated cast iron dutch oven works best (I have a Le Creuset that I use), but a regular pot will work if it and its lid are oven proof.  I even put my pizza stone under the pot to make sure it stays good and hot in the oven.  Bake the bread for 30 minutes and then very carefully remove it from the oven (lots of potholders for this recipe).  Lift the bread out of the pot with a spatula and let it cool on a rack completely (if you can resist eating it right away).

Lemon Cherry Variation
Anyone who's been to the Thursday night farmer's market in Oak Harbor, WA has seen the fantastic breads from the BreadFarm Bakery.  The bakery is a small one based in Edison and they sell at farmer's markets and in their own store and smaller ones around the Skagit Valley.  Go there if you get a chance, you won't regret it.  My absolute favorite bread is the sour cherry sourdough bread that they only sell in the summer.  I've been trying like crazy to recreate this fabulous bread since moving away and have come close with this recipe.  If you make my version and have had the BreadFarm's version, please let me know where I can improve.

 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1/4 cup lemon juice
zest of 2 lemons
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp salt
3 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cups dried tart cherries

Mix the yeast, salt, lemon zest, lemon juice and water in a large bowl.  Stir in the cherries and then the flour.  Cover and let sit on the counter for two hours.  This dough must be refrigerated in order to really develop the flavors.  If you try to bake it right away, you won't get any lemon flavor at all.  I let my dough rest in the refrigerator for 3 or 4 days.  From this point you can follow the directions from above for the baking of the bread.

My favorite way to eat this bread is with a nice slather of softened goat cheese.