Sandwich Bread

 

Sandwich Bread

Bread Slices

Half a Loaf of Bread

Everyone seems to be making bread these days and there are countless You Tube videos demonstrating breadmaking techniques. GrandBoy#2 was spending the day with us and both he and Hubby love bread, so I spent the afternoon watching a video (link at the end of this page) and baking bread. For dinner we had Mexican pizza and also demolished half a loaf, straight out of the oven and slathered with butter. It was delicious and the house smelled heavenly! The slices shown above were cut from this half of the loaf.

When we were growing up in Burma, bread was breakfast food that we ate on the way to school. We would beg Mum to go easy on the butter and go crazy with the sugar or jam. Buttered toast with a sprinkling of sugar was comforting and diverted my attention from the stress of having to go to school. On the weekends or if we were recovering from a cold, we would dip our toast into sweetened milk. My memories of Mum's remedy for combating the 'flu was a triangle of toast that we dipped into chicken soup. It leaves me with a warm and fuzzy feeling towards Mum that is stamped into my memory. 

The nostalgia associated with these memories kept me company while I made bread today. These days, plain buttered toast is my favorite part of any breakfast.

I halved the recipe in the video to make one loaf of bread.

2020 Turkey Dinner

2020 Turkey Dinner

Even though turkey is the least favorite protein in our home, I was craving it since we didn't have it for Thanksgiving last year (we went to Kyoto Japanese Steak House instead). So we decided yesterday should be Turkey Day. It was a hurried decision, but I'm lucky to be blessed with an extremely cooperative Hubby who did all the shopping and cleaning up afterwards.

This being the year of Covid-19 restrictions, we couldn't have anyone over for dinner so I prepared everything, Hubby and I had one serving each of it all and I packed the rest for Son#3 who lives half an hour's drive away. My cravings were satisfied and we didn't have to suffer through a week of leftovers. Thank goodness for that!

The green beans casserole got an update with the addition of grated cheddar cheese and bacon and one new item, Corny Bread, was added. Whole baby potatoes and carrots were cooked along with the turkey in the last 45 minutes of baking. 

Our dinner also included dinner rolls, was washed down with hot apple cider and for dessert we had Apple Cobbler.

Suji Toast - Cream of Wheat Toast

 

Suji Toast

There are a myriad recipes for this popular breakfast dish on the internet. The video that inspired me is displayed at the end of this post. I found toasted suji at the Indian market which is what I used to make this. Our neighbourhood supermarket bakes their own Italian bread which was perfect because the crusty slices hold their shape and acted as a sponge for the topping. And according to my nephew, 'Iz bedder wid budder', so I used butter instead of oil to fry the toasts. The leftover batter can be made into little dosas. With less than 10 ingredients, breakfast is ready in under 30 minutes. 

Chicken Haleem - Chicken and Lentil - Wheat Berries Stew

 

Chicken Haleem

A colleague at work first mentioned Haleem and how delicious it is. A one-pot meal that is hearty and wholesome, I've been wanting to try it out in my kitchen for a long time. The main ingredient in the haleem mix is the wheat berry or little grains of wheat which are tinier than the wheat that is ground into flour.

As is my practice, I scoured the internet for haleem recipes, watched a few videos and came up with a recipe that is far from authentic, but delicious anyway. I mixed wheat berries with panch mishali dal or 5 different varieties of lentils. This consisted of red/masoor dal, split chickpeas/channa dal, white/urad dal, yellow/moong dal and yellow split peas/toor dal.

I used minced or ground chicken, 1 cup of wheat berries and a quarter cup each of the 5 types of lentils. The chicken was made into a keema curry and the lentils were first toasted in a dry skillet, cooled and blended to a fine powder. The chicken keema and haleem mix were then combined with 3 cups of water and simmered over medium-low heat until thickened.

Haleem reminds me of a rich version of khichuri in which rice is replaced with wheat berries. Delicious and nutritious, we had it for dinner with steamed rice and for lunch over a bed of rice noodles with several garnishes.

Serve with Garnishes

Apple Cobbler or Dump Cake

 

Apple Cobbler

A very easy dump cake using just a few ingredients, this dump cake was our dessert at Thanksgiving Dinner this year. It can be made with fruit pie filling of any variety. Since I watch my sugar intake, I used a can of Duncan Hines No Sugar Added Apple Pie Filling. To make your own pie filling, stew 2 cups chopped apples with a cup of sugar and a dash of salt. We liked this dump cake so much that the following week, I made a peach dump cake using no sugar added canned peach slices.