Something Savory

My friend, Chris, has decided to dedicate her summer to mastering yeast breads. While I have never had the kind of focus that would call for mastering anything - I have at times become obsessed with doing something so well that it just becomes something I know how to do - so total hats off to Chris for taking it a step even further and mastering things. Well I got my masters degree in counseling......but I don't think that really qualifies since I think you really have to get a doctorate in the topic of choice for people to be all "oh my gosh you are a doctor!" and even then some people get confused about your being a doctor if you can't prescribe medicine - so I will leave getting a doctorate to the masters to avoid that kind of confusion where I might then become funny/sarcastic and pretend to prescribe fictitious medicine. Although the true reason I won't be getting a doctorate is I am just lazy (which is kind of funny to type out since I hardly ever really sit down - wait I am technically sitting now.......see how confusing life is?!).

Anyway - back to topic. This post is for my friend, Chris. Back when I first became a Stay At Home Parent our finances changed. We went from - buy whatever we want whenever we want - to spend as little money as possible on things so that we can still buy fun things. Groceries were one of the items that I scrutinized for cost change. We went from luxury groceries (name brands) - to researching cutting costs - like shopping bulk at Sams (which we ended up dropping because it wasn't all really a deal at all) and sale shopping (but not coupon hoarding) and in the end settling on Aldi for most of our groceries. To replace some of the luxury groceries I began trying to duplicate them myself - like decorated cakes obviously...can't let a little kid have a party without a rockin' cake right?......but also delicious breads and other foods that we were getting when going out to eat. If you took the time it can be done I found. So Dave became the master of most grilling/smoking/meaty things and he is way better then many of the restaurants I have been to and I took up most of the rest. Bread became a fun obsession for awhile (because remember I am not disciplined enough to master). I got a bread machine - which I eventually discontinued - and then started doing them from scratch. Vowing at one point not to buy any specialty breads anymore - which I discontinued once the children began to multiply.

This recipe featured in this blog is a family keeper though. Challah bread. Yum - Yum - OHMYGOODNESS we love this bread - Yum.

If anyone wants the recipe I will gladly send it to you. I picked it up from a boyfriends mom when she asked me to bake it for Passover. We dated about 3 years and I became the Challah and Kugel bringer to gatherings. Ohmygoodness I should make a kugel for our next friend gathering.......I forgot about kugel.

Through the years we now do bread really only for holidays. In the summer we mess around a bit. Ben loves to do breads a bit more then the other kids. The Challah bread recipe we have fun with because we turn then into surprise pockets. In the top picture you see Ben putting the egg wash over the bread. He was left out of the bread creation because as we waited for the yeast to rise a friend came over and knocked on the door......he then disappeared for the flour and the rising and the pounding down and the rising and the special surprise pocket ingredients.

In the end though - apparently gathering the ingredients - egg washing the top and smelling the delicious smell of the bread baking was enough for him. And who can disagree right?

Now here is the special surprise......

Yummo right?? So basically what we do is take ground meat (this is turkey, but you beef lovers can beef it up) and since I have a split household I do one half as just basic cooked beef with seasoning to favor a loose meat sandwich. The rest of the meat is treated to some brown sugar, seasonings and ketchup and other things to make it a sloppy joe kinda meat. Tuck a little of one meat of the other into the bread - add some cheese - close it up to look like one of the breads above - bake and then OHFORTHELOVEOFCUPCAKES you have a dinner treat that the kids don't even complain about the veggies on the side to eat. Well...unless the side is brussel sprouts - honestly I can't trick the kids or Dave into eating those at all.

In fact it has been a few months - maybe we will make some for our next friend gathering......hmmmmmmm.

Let me know if you are interested and I will post the recipe or send it to you personally.