Wild Mushroom Ciabatta

I was making soup for dinner, so I went a little wild with my ciabatta. Clockwise from top left: sponge, dried mushrooms soaking in warm water, minced garlic, and fresh mushrooms:

Once everything but the mushrooms and garlic were mixed in, this dough looked like a bit of a mess:

But after some rising, it was time to shape the bread and mix in the fresh mushrooms and garlic, by now sauteed in a bit of olive oil. Here, the bread is stretched out so I can fold in the mushrooms:

Sprinkled on top before I wrapped the dough back over for another rise:

Once the mushrooms were incorporated, this dough sits in a couche (well floured kitchen towels, basically) to rise so that it doesn't lose the proper shape:

And from the couche, into the oven...and soon after, to the table!

Sauteed Spinach and Mushroom Pie

This doesn't look too much like it could be dinner:
I added sauteed mushroom, spinach and garlic to this mixture of ricotta, eggs and a bit of cheese and spice and rolled out some pastry dough.

The unbaked result:

And the top of a nicely browned pie:

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

I still hate zucchini, so I shredded some more to add to a new recipe - cookies!

I had read about this recipe a few years ago when my mother bought me a copy of "Animal Vegetable Miracle." The recipe is similar to your average chocolate chip cookie, though it uses a bit of honey instead of all sugar, which makes it a bit easier to cream:

And, of course, you add a bunch of grated zucchini to the mix once your flour is incorporated:

After adding a good dose of chocolate chips and scooping them onto cookie sheets:

They baked into soft, cake-like (healthy!) cookies:

Zucchini Bread

I really hate zucchini, even beautiful zucchini like these I got from my CSA:
The solution to this pile of beautiful vegetables, for me, is zucchini bread! I use a recipe my mom got many years ago from a farm a few blocks from where I grew up in Connecticut.

Zucchini Bread is quite simple to put together. You first blend together wet ingredients, here, oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla:

And then you measure out grated zucchini and nuts:

And mix those in after adding flour, leavening and spices:

The finished product is one of my favorite quickbreads - a far cry from a hated vegetable!

Potato Rosemary Bread

Sometimes, I just eat my leftover mashed potatoes. But this time I decided to turn some into potato bread:

The process for these loaves actually began the night before, as the base of the dough is a Biga. A Biga is a sponge made of flour, yeast and water that is kneaded and left to rise, then chilled overnight. This allows more flavor to develop from the wheat. Here is the Biga before is chilled:

In the morning I assembled my ingredients ahead of time while the Biga, sliced into chunks, warmed to room temperature:

Here is the dough once it was mixed:

And after kneading:

After this very soft dough had risen, the loaves were rolled into shape and left to rise again:

After a quick coating of olive oil for color and flavor, the loaves were ready for the oven:

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Easter: a time for chocolate bunnies, cadbury creme eggs and spring desserts:
I decided that I would make these carrot cake cupcakes to bring to a gathering because I wanted an easy Easter treat to serve to a crowd.

The recipe is a fairly basic quickbread style one, though with a bit less flour than average. The result is almost chewy and has a bit of a cookie feel to it. Here are the wet ingredients, dry ingredients, and a few essentials: grated carrot, nuts and raisins:

and a close up of the almost finished batter, a quick stir away from the finish:

Mix it all up and portion it out into cupcake tins:
and then beware: if you follow the linked recipe, the baking time and temperature has some inconsistencies. I agree with the reviewers of this recipe that the instructions must be for some sort of cake. Just lower the oven temperature and check these at about 20 minutes, and proceed cautiously.

Now, the part where everyone wants to lick the mixing bowl: frosting. This is a mixture of butter, cream cheese, vanilla and a little lemon juice, to which I added some of the confectioner's sugar to the right of the bowl. I like my frosting a little less sweet so I used less than the full pound:

Then I loaded the finished frosting onto my cupcakes!