Sunday, March 16, 2008

Uh oh - too tasty!

We have been messing around with yeast doughs - Lee made some dense bread (yeast was too old), I made some really light bread (it was too warm in the oven to help it rise), Lee made a nice pizza dough for Connor's 'Pepperoni & Pizza' and Diana made Dampfnudel today. Those are yeast bread balls that are steamed to cook them, and served with vanilla 'sauce' (or pudding). She's going to bring one to school tomorrow for her German teacher to try :) So after the initial figuring out how to get the dough to rise properly in our coolish house (set the oven to 'warm' and leave the door open), we are having some nice yeasty things to eat.


Lee decided to try deep-frying as well. We like watching Alton Brown on Food Network, and he did an episode explaining that if the temperature is right, the fat seals the food so that it won't absorb too much oil, and it's not actually as bad as you'd think, calorie-wise. Yes, it's still deep-fried, but if you do it yourself, maybe not as bad as getting deep-fried stuff from fast food or restaurants.

Lee started his first foray into deep frying with corn tortilla chips yesterday. They turned out really yummy. We had some nice avocado dip & salsa with them for dinner last night. There were still enough to snack on this afternoon & while Diana was having some, Connor told her to say "cheese" and told me "take a picture, Mom." Just as I took the photo, he jumped in on purpose, and made us all laugh because that was his intention in getting me to take a photo :) I took a couple more shots with Lee, but Connor didn't get the timing right on those, so you don't see his mischievious face...



I think we're going to have Diana try making tempura next. I love tempura!!

I am really trying to avoid the next thing - yeast dough + fryer = donuts! I would eat way too many. I stick to my goal weight a lot easier if I'm not making donuts.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow he did the jump in? i taught him something didnt i?! yes!! anyway donuts sound like fun...glad to hear ya'll are having fun with the food network....which by the way i love too!! love nae

flyingvan said...

While I was still at HazMat I was known as the Condokiller because I used lots of condiments in cooking. Don Rock was the condo king---he collected the money and bought flour, hot sauce, oil, garlic powder, etc....I took the challenge one day to feed all 11 people a good meal using only left overs and condo's.....Don was furious, so I got up really early and made donuts. Tons of oil, flour, sugar, baking powder....I even took out and spilled ingredients I didn't use. Don woke up, made an even odd-er face than God gave him, and got on the P.A....He announced 'Condo-nuts are ready' grabbed a few and went back to his room