Thursday, January 21, 2010

focaccia and ruining dinner method #29

Just so you don't think that everything I make is great, here is a pan, previous and very recently on fire sitting outside of my house covered in flour. Organic whole wheat flour. I should have grabbed the cheap stuff for very fluffy baking. How to ruin dinner method #29.

I was making some corn meal crusted chicken and had the pan warming up. When I went to pour in some olive oil, the whole thing lit up. The pan was on fire. I remembered that you weren't supposed to use water, but rather flour to put it out. Water would have been easy since I had a sink full of dish water. It was suddenly extremely smokey and because there are about 30 plastic shopping bags stuffed in my stove exhaust fan, I was unable to work on the smoke. Hubby happened to be in the kitchen with me and opened the back door. The fire was high and the pan was so hot. I set it down outside and grabbed a jar of flour. The next thing I knew, the fire was out and I had emptied almost the entire jar of some organic whole wheat flour that I splurged on.


The pan cleaned up ok, but the patio is pretty stained. I thought the snow would have taken care of it, but it's snowed and melted, and it's still there.

I started the chicken in a new pan and all was well. I had the flour out because I was making some focaccia to go with the chicken. I don't make it often, but when I do, we wonder why I don't make it more often. It's so tasty and can easily be doctored up just the way you want.


Foccacia
2 ¼ yeast
1 c warm water
-dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add the following
2 ¾ c flour
1 t salt
1 t sugar
Knead and let rise 1 hour. Knead again and roll out about 3/4 inch - 1 inch thick. dimple with your knuckles. Let rise 20 minutes. Dimple again. Top however you want. A drizzle of olive oil and herbs and parm are nice. Tomatoes or other thinly sliced vegetables and other cheeses work too.
----topping
2 T olive oil
1 t garlic powder
1 t oregano
1 t thyme
½ t basil
1 t rosemary
2 T parm cheese

Bake 425° 15 min

Focaccias are all over grocery store bakeries right now. They offer a wide array of seasonings, herbs and toppings. What are your favorite toppings?

3 comments:

grandma said...

Why do you have bags in the exhaust? This blog reminds me of my story called AND A SCHICKEN I WOULD COOK.

Beth- the mama bee said...

I don't know why the bags are in the exhaust... They were like that when we moved in. There are several things around the house that we just wonder about.

Unknown said...

Gotta love it!!! When you said Beth Moore you had me for a second but then I read on...Im so glad that YOU stopped by..smiles...Susie