Chi-town challenge

Dear Kristin,

Thank you for the wonderful kitchen gadgets you gave me for Christmas. Having the right tools always makes a job so much easier. I found the bench scraper a real help when it came to chopping up bread dough for my version of chopping block bread. The little hand mitten tweezers are great for removing sun-dried tomatoes from the jar, and the kitchen shears (which you gave me previously) are wonderful when it comes to cutting salami into bite-sized pieces. So, as you can see, I am making good use of the gifts you sent!

Oh - but wait - did I say chopping block bread? Yes - the manna from heaven that you used to get from Mariano's in Chicago. We had it a number of times, and I'm so sad that there is no place up here in Rochester that makes anything similar. I miss it so much, in fact, that I decided to try & come up with a version that can be made by a humble home cook such as myself. It took a couple of tries, but the recipe that follows is pretty close. The beauty of this bread-y goodness is that you can change the toppings pretty freely - I've used salami & sun-dried tomatoes, but you could easily go more Mediterranean and use olives with feta, or maybe you could come up with a sweeter version with apples or raisins or cranberries and nuts - I think the basic dough will work well with either a sweet or savory finish. If going the sweet route, simply eliminate the Parmesan cheese from the dough recipe.

So here's the challenge - while I'm so happy to have you back in New York State, I must admit that there are some things I truly miss about Chicago. Not surprisingly, most of my fondest memories of Chicago are food-related, such as:

Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder
Pequod's Pizza
RoseAngelis

I came up with the bread course for a Chi-town inspired dinner - I challenge you to come up with another course. Here's a hint - I would absolutely die for some of RoseAngelis' Italian Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce. Is there something that you truly miss from your days in Chicago? See if you can't come up with a home-version of one of your Windy-City favorites.

A word about the chopping block bread dough - this recipe is very loosely based on a recipe for one hour pan rolls found in "The Red Star Centennial Bread Sampler" - a promotional book published by Red Star way back in 1981. That was evidently before the rise (pardon the pun) of the bread machine, so I adapted the recipe to work in my machine. Warning - this just barely fits in my 1 1/2 loaf capacity machine - if yours is smaller you might have to trim the recipe in half.

chopping block bread

for the bread:

4 c. flour
2 pkg. instant dry yeast
2 Tblsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary (or Italian seasoning)
1 tsp. salt
1 c. milk
1/2 c. water
2 Tblsp. butter
1 egg
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese

for the topping:

1/4 c. butter
3 cloves (or more to taste) minced garlic
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
6-8 slices good quality hard salami, cut into 1" squares
1/3 c. sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped and patted dry

Place ingredients for the bread into your bread machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. Use dough setting for 1 1/2 lb. loaf.

During the last 10 minutes of the bread machine cycle, saute the garlic in 1/4 c. butter until fragrant.

Remove dough from the bread machine after the cycle has finished. Knead on a lightly floured surface about 10 times. Use a bench scraper to cut the dough into small (about 1" square) pillows. Arrange pillows on a parchment-lined baking sheet in a large rectangle, allowing the sides of the pillows to touch. Generously brush the top of the bread with the garlic butter. Scatter the salami and sun-dried tomatoes over the top of the bread. Lightly tuck the salami and tomatoes down into the spaces between the pillows. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 c. Parmesan cheese.

Let dough rise in a warm place for 20-30 minutes.

Bake at 375 F. for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned and dough sounds hollow when tapped.

lazy eggs

Dear Mom,

Christmas was an especially lazy holiday for us this year.  For the past 8 years while living in Chicago, John and I would pack up the Honda-sleigh with Christmas gifts and the pup and cross the winter wonderland of Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania towards either Pittsburgh (John's hometown) or Rochester.  This year, between moving to New York and just a generally crazy year, we opted to stay in NY sans parents and siblings.  While at first this sounded great, we would sleep in as late as we wanted, veg in our PJs and eat what ever we wanted, when the day actually came after the presents were opened we found ourselves drumming our fingers and wondering what to do.  There is surprisingly little good TV on on Christmas day.  The day did start out pretty strong for us though, we had the traditional Christmas Breakfast Casserole and then opened presents, which got us to about 11am.  Then, due to a miscalculation of preparing dinner the night before, the boredom set in.  Next year we'll be heading back out for the holidays for sure.

breakfast casserole
(This doesn't have to be made on Christmas of course, but it works out quite well for that particular holiday because you have to prep it the night before and let it sit in the fridge over night.  Then in the morning it has to sit on the counter for an hour and then in the oven for an hour, so you can open presents in the two hours while its resting/cooking.)

1 lb. breakfast sausage
12 pieces of white bread, cubed with crusts removed
1-1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (not pre-shredded)
9 eggs
3 cups 2% milk
1-1/2 tsp. dry mustard
salt and pepper

Spray a 9x17 glass or ceramic casserole.  Brown the breakfast sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Remove sausage to a plate to cool.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs, milk, dry mustard and salt and pepper together.

In a large bowl toss together bread, cheese and cooled sausage.  Pour egg mixture over bread mixture and fold gently until combined.  Pour mixture into prepared casserole, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night. 

In the morning, remove the casserole from the refrigerator and let it sit on the kitchen counter for 1 hour.  Preheat the oven to 350, and bake the casserole for 1 hour, until browned on top.