Tupper,Why Do You Blog? Part 2......

A while back I had a post titled, "Tupper, Why Do You Blog?"

Seriously, it was like an introspective moment, a time of self-discovery, really finding myself for the first time in my life.  

Ha! Had you going there didn't I?  

Bottom line, is I blog and read blogs because it makes me happy (and it's cheap).  I could write a book on that, but that's another project for another day.

Reading blogs is like going on a treasure hunt, for whatever particular interest(s) you may have.

You never know what you're going to find. When you do find something really cool, you get to share it with the readership, (see, I want to make you happy, and that makes me happy-and it's all about me kids).

I'd like to share a recent find. 

1. Grilled Cheese.   I know what you're thinking- he's off his friggin' rocker (again).  But wait, we're not talkin' two slices of processed cheese on white bread (not that there's anything wrong with that), we're talkin' some serious grilled cheese sammies.

Like gourmet grilled cheese. Grilled cheese taken to the next level. This a serious culinary pursuit.

Check out this site- The Grilled Cheese Academy/Click Here .  Click on the Sandwich Directory.  Then, click on a 

sandwich title.  Look at the sandwich, look at another.......    

This the Sgt. Pepper

There's 29 more serious grilled cheese sammies- awesome.  

And then there's imagine a different world of grilled cheese/Click Here , one guy's pursuit of grilled cheese perfection.  Cool.  

Hell, there's grilled cheese festivals out there.  

Making the ordinary, mundane grilled cheese extraordinary-Way cool.

Who'd a thunk it???

And that folks, is my discovery of the week, hope you enjoyed it. 

Late addition- I just stumbled across this blog- Know Whey/Click Here. 

You've got to check out this grilled cheese with homemade cheese- to die for.

Stay tuned for the next installment....

Yeastspotting....

If you read this blog on a regular basis you probably know one thing about me by now. 

 I love bread.  

I love homemade bread warm, just out of the oven, with real butter on it.  

I've really only been baking for about 6 months or so, but the thought of the next loaf or batch of rolls is everpresent.  

You could say I'm consumed by the though of consuming bread.

To that end one of the best sites I've found is Wild Yeast and it's weekly feature of breads (loaves, rolls, pastrys, flatbreads, etc.)

This feature is called Yeastspotting and consists of pictures of breads that folks submit every week.

Click here for this weeks Yeastspotting.

The pictures are outstanding (well except for mine-got to work on those photography skills, have Ted give me a primer).

And if you click on the pic it brings you to the site of the baker and their recipes.

Check it out-great stuff.

Great way to breaducate oneself!  

Wednesday-Baguettes, Boule & Pizza......

Hump Day.  TGIW?   It's all downhill from here, right? 

While we're waiting for the weekend to come to us, may as well bake.  

This afternoons baking consisted of 3 items. 

First up, baguettes.  

Hadn't made baguettes before, but they were pretty easy.

Made up a batch of no-knead dough yesterday following the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipe.  Let it sit in the fridge overnight, took it out when we got home, let it warm up a bit and made these crusty little loaves.

This was a practice run for Danielle's wedding in June. I'm going to bake the bags for (part of) the appetizers, served up with olive oil.

There were four to start-one was consumed in a taste test. 

Nice and crusty on the outside, chewy with a decent crumb inside. 

These'll work, oh boy will they work.

Then I had some leftover dough, so I made a boule for my favorite retiring co-worker.

She'll get this in the morning tonight-it's better warm.

Finally I made 2 pizzas for supper ( hadn't had any in a couple of days).

Used the frozen dough from Sav-A-Lot. 

It cost 99 cents, defrost easily in the microwave and spreads easily. It's not as good as homemade dough, but darn close and for a weeknight it's a timesaver.

Made a white pie with garlic, onion, tomato, parm, mozzarella and some fresh basil. 

Good stuff.

Then a cheese pie with regular pizza sauce.

More good stuff.

With the new oven I can use the pizza stone and my new peel.  I cooked these at 500 degrees.

Makes a huge difference.  Once you start baking on the stone, you won't go back I assure you-just don't let your knuckles brush up against it when you're removing the pizza-it's hot, really hot.

Later!

Peanut Butter Cups & Cheesecake.....

Whilst on one of my many trips around the food blogosphere searching for something to make last weekend I came across a dessert recipe and pics that looked good enough to eat right off the monitor.
(I tried-didn't work, and the dog was looking at me in a funny way.)

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and Chocolate Cheesecake Bars from The Cookin' Canuck.

What's not to like about cheesecake, chocolate and peanut butter, all tied together in one nice little package?

Mind you, I've never made cheesecake, so my expectations weren't that high.  They should have been- they came out great.  

I made a simple graham cracker crust in a foil lined 8x8 in. pan., then I mixed the filling.

Licking my fingers with frosting off the mixing hook brought me back to when I was a kid and my mother would give me the beaters after she'd make frosting for a cake.  Good stuff.

Then it was chop up some peanut butter cups, fold 'em into the filling and scrape the filling into the pan on the crust.  Cook for 35 mins. or so, let it cool for an unbearable two hours, then refrigerate for another 3 longggggg hours.

Then, melt 2 oz. of bitterwseet chocolate in the microwave, and drizzle on top.

Cut into a dozen bars, and enjoy.

 The experiment was a success.  A very delicious success.

You can find the recipe here- Cookin' Canuck's P-Butter/Cheesecake Bars-Click Here.

If you like the ingredients in these I'd say start making 'em now!