Cold winter days...cooped up indoors...why not try out new recipes?! We have had fun doing some new food things this week, and since Gemma is gaining dexterity and stability in the Bumbo, she sits on the counter and watches. Here we are doing a homemade hot chocolate mix. VERY good and one of the only homemade mixes that does not use powdered creamer (yuck). It's an Alton Brown recipe, click here. We substituted cinnamon for the cayenne and make with half milk/half hot water. Creamy and very nice.
Also this week I have made for the first time...Ricotta! which I then used in ricotta-spinach crepes (the crepes were also a 1st). Thanks to Erik and Jane for the ricotta recipe. It was very easy to make; the only 'trick' was the time needed to let it sit and curdle, and then sit and drip through a cheesecloth. Perfect for snowy days when we spend all afternoon at home. 
And for Christmas Jim gave me the bread book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (click here for website). The dough literally takes five minutes to mix up, then you stick it in the fridge and later it takes 5 minutes to shape, 40 minutes to rise, and into the oven it goes (on a pizza stone). With some new instructions I tried this idea again (did it last Nov/Dec with some success) - following the light whole wheat bread recipe - and this time the bread turned out great! Delicious, crunchy crust. I'm really excited to try the other variations.
In addition to loaf bread, this week we also used the dough to make pizza crust. Again, very easy and fast: 10 minutes to shape, no rise, pop in the oven for 10 minutes. Delicious. Crunchy but chewy on the inside. We are going to continue to work on perfecting this dough as it's the ideal crust that we enjoy right now, not as bread-y and thick, but thinner and lighter, like traditional wood-fired crust. That's bacon-spinach-onion pizza. YUM.
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