Restaurant Style Artisan Bread

Those of you who follow recipes on Pinterest have most likely run into that recipe that you can make this fabulous artisan bread with just five ingredients. They always say that it is so easy that anyone could do it and that you don't have to knead it. They describe this bread as being hard and crusty on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. 

Let's just say I was so skeptical that this bread was all that because it sounds like an cheesy infomercial. I was always expecting the Sham-WOW! guy to come up on the website in a glittery pop up. Therefore, I really wanted to prove it wrong and say to myself that these people didn't know what they were talking about.

They did know what they were talking about because this bread was everything that they said it was. Who knew that things on the internet could actually be true?

The link to the bread that I made is located here at Frugal Living. Our bread came out crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside. It was easy to make because I did not have to knead it. It tasted awesome.

One thing I was skeptical about was that it might not come out of the dutch oven because it wasn't greased. However, you place the dough in a scalding hot pot which sears the dough, thus making it crunchy too.

I suggest that if you like to make bread, or even if you have never made it and just want to, you should try it. This was awesome. 

The House at Riverton

 By Kate Morton
My Rating: 4/5 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis:

Summer 1924

On the eve of a glittering society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again.

Winter 1999

Grace Bradley, ninety-eight, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet's suicide. Ghosts awaken and old memories - long consigned to the dark reaches of Grace's mind - begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret threatens to emerge, something history has forgotten but Grace never could.

Set as the war-shattered Edwardian summer surrenders to the decadent twenties, The House at Riverton is a thrilling mystery and a compelling love story.

My Thoughts: This is one book that I almost quite reading one hundred pages into it, and I am so happy that I sat through the beginning. It took me a long time to understand what was going on. The plot begins with a household maid, working at a young age for a wealthy English family. The plot continues from her perspective, but jumping in from the past to the present. At fist I had a difficult time jumping back and fourth out of time and then plunging back into it. However, once I became used to the awkward transitions, it was definitely worth the read.

This story has so many twists and turns. Every time I thought I had a prediction that was right, the story turned and I saw my prediction go down the drain. What kept me reading was that I wanted to know what happened to the characters. Each of the three children in the wealthy family had an interesting character and a place in the family. Hannah when from bossy and manipulative little sister to married woman not being in charge of her household. Sweet little Emmeline goes from an innocent child to a roaring 20's flapper. And when World War I hits, the entire family's role shifts due to the change in global politics. Watching those roles and characters shift and morph into new roles with new interests was addicting. The story was an epic tale of love, loss, and growth.

However, the last 150 pages were what sold this book for me. This book is sort of like the stories of Legends of the Fall and Gosford Park rolled into one. Then, change all the endings and when you think you have it figured out, you dump the idea down the drain and replace it with a more shattering idea. It was fabulous!

Balkan Restaurant

The Balkan Restaurant

Style: Balkan (duh)

Website: Balkan Restaurant Website

My Rating: 3.5/5

Likes: Really tasty breads; cool desserts; neat map painting on the wall with a fat Italy; friendly service

Dislikes: Cutting thick meat with a butter knife... here in 'Merica, we use knives with these things called serrated edges; It could also be a little tricky to find

The Fleenor-Thomas Ethnic Food Club strikes again when we went to a Balkan Restaurant called.... wait for it... Balkan Restaurant. We received the idea from a LivingSocial deal and decided to try something completely new. 

Finding the location was interesting. My husband and I were lucky because our friends arrived there first and told us to look across from the CVS. It is tucked within a strip mall on busy Patterson Ave. However, once we parked in front of the Papa Johns next door (shh... don't tell my mother we parked there because she thinks people will hit our car) we were greeted by friendly faces and ethnic people actually eating there. That is always an excellent sign.

They had a painting on the wall of the Balkan area, including Italy and Greece. The menu had an interesting representation of ethnic foods. Many meals were loaded with Kalamata Olives which I associate with Mediterranean. However, we also ordered things like cabbage rolls and schnitzel, which I don't associate with Greece or Italy. 

We first ordered an appetizer to start with. We had a burek, filled with cheese. The burek was a puff pastry, similar to a popover. It was just a touch greasy to make it taste decadent, without being overkill. 

Brent ordered the stuffed cabbage rolls called Swarma. He said that they were good. I am taking his word for it. Somehow, the love of cabbage skipped in my Irish genes. I suppose that the Italian took over.

Both Brad and Whitney ordered the Hungarian Goulash. It was beef served with mashed potatoes. I personally thing it would have been better if you could more easily mix the two. I would like to eat a bite of meat with the potatoes saturated with the paprika gravy.  

I ordered the Balkan Gourmet Schnitzel. This was my favorite of all of the dishes ordered. Others at the table agreed with me. The meat was a ground beef and lamb mixture and placed on top grilled lepinja bread (the slightly greased puff pastry from the grill). On top of it was some gouda cheese and smoked meat. The juices from the meat ran into the bread which made it extremely tasty. The only thing that I do wish, was that they gave me a sharper knife to cut it with. The bottom of the grilled bread was very hard to cut with a blunt butter knife. I spent more time sawing than eating. The meal was also served with some salty shoestring potato fries and a lettuce side salad. I did not care so much for the dressing on the salad. It tasted like a mixture of mayonnaise and Italian dressing. 

We also had dessert, which did not last long enough for me to take pictures of. The first was a rolled baklava that was cut into pieces. The second was a square of baked apples in filo dough. This was a treat, because it tasted like baklava with apples and honey. 

Overall, it was a very tasty meal shared with excellent company. The service was nice and the food was affordable. Although it was a fun and satisfying experience, I am not sure that I would drive the hour it took to get there again in the near future. 

The Fault in Our Stars Review

The Fault in Our Stars
By John Green
My Rating: 2/5 Stars

Goodreads Summary: Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now. 

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. 

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.


My Review: This is now my fourth version of this review. Each time I write it, it becomes far to personal for me to publish on the internet. I appreciated this book, but I didn't like it. 

The writing was a masterpiece. The characters are well developed. The philosophies are intricate and well formed. It is introspective and reflective about both very deep and serious issues, as well as everyday occurrences. 

However, the topic was depressing which goes against the reason I read. Currently, I read for escape. This is not a book that I wanted to escape into. I put the novel down three times because I was crying. 

I also feel that it was over melodramatic. It is great material for "emo" teenagers who write poetry and are just beginning to contemplate the meaning of life. I have surpassed that stage in my life and don't plan on revisiting it any time shortly. 

Although it is an excellent book, make sure you are comfortable with the topic before you begin it. By the time I realized how depressing it was, I was already too attached the characters and I felt like I was doing sick children around the world an injustice by not finishing it (yes, completely irrational I know).

Bavarian Cranberry Apple Torte

Last year, I was reading a copy of InStyle Magazine and they were featuring a spread on holiday food that actress Maria Bello prepared for family holidays with her mother. I prepared it for the first time last year a week before Christmas. The consistency was off and a little runny, but it tasted AMAZING. Therefore, I tried again at different temperatures and it was almost perfect. So I made another one to actually serve and it was perfect.

The trick with this dessert is to know your oven. The dessert is supposed to be baked for ten minutes at 450 degrees F and then the temperature is lowered to 400 degrees F for another half an hour or so. In the first round when I did this, my oven didn't lower the temperature quick enough. The outside was almost burnt and the inside was a little runny. I found that adjusting the starting temperature to 440 degrees F and then lowering it to 400 degrees worked well. Since the temperature was lowered, I kept it in for an extra ten minutes. However, since it was in for longer, I ended up tenting it with aluminum foil for the last twenty to protect the cranberries from becoming hard like glass!

This is one of those desserts that once you try it, it is hard to make just one. I like it because it is rich and flavorful without being very dense. It is creamier than cheesecake, but has that rich explosion when it hits your palette. When it is paired with the apples and the crust, the tastes and textures meld in an autumnal decadence. It was a such a huge success, that I ended up making three of them again this year. One went for Christmas Eve dinner, one for Christmas dinner, and another one just for me and Brad.

The original recipe from Instyle can be found at this link: http://www.instyle.com/instyle/package/holidaytrends/photos/0,,20538174_20542725_21077895,00.html 

Bavarian Cranberry Apple Torte

Crust Ingredients: 

•1 cup unsalted butter

•2/3 cup sugar

•1/2 tsp vanilla extract

•2 cups all-purpose flour

•1/2 cup raspberry jam

Crust Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.

2. Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla. Blend in flour to form a ball.

3. Press dough onto bottom and about 2 inches up sides of a 9-inch springform pan. I used a special Sara-created technique for this. First I lined the sides of the springform.

Then I added the bottom, making sure to use ALL of the dough and assuring that there was a great seal between the sides and bottom.

To create a finishing touch, I took a small paring knife and gently cut a smooth rim around the top edge of the crust. I let the little pieces of dough fall to the bottom. Then I reinforced thinner patches of crust with the smaller pieces. 

This is what the final crust looked like:

4. Spread with a thin layer of raspberry jam.

5. Refrigerate crust while preparing filling.

Filling Ingredients: 

•16 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

•1/2 cup sugar

•2 eggs

•1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling Directions:

1. Combine cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Make sure that the cream cheese is soft enough to blend, otherwise you'll end up with little extra clumps. 

2. Pour over jam-covered crust.

Topping Ingredients:

•3 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced. I found that Gala apples worked best.

•1/2 cup dried cranberries

•1/3 cup sugar

•1/2 tsp cinnamon

•1/2 cup sliced almonds

Topping Directions:

1. Toss apples and cranberries with sugar and cinnamon.

2. Spoon apples over cream cheese layer and sprinkle with almonds (I did creatively place a few apples for an artistic look). The picture below is just before the almonds were added. 

Final Steps:

1. Bake torte at 440°F for 10 minutes; with torte still in oven, lower heat to 400°F and bake for 40 additional minutes. Stop and tent with aluminum foil if needed. (original recipe called for 450 degrees). I would also put a pan in underneath it because the springform will link.

2. Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour to firm up filling.

3. Use a thin knife to carefully loosen torte from sides of pan and remove. Transfer to a serving plate and enjoy!