Focaccia - this time it isn't a big cracker!

The summer I tried making focaccia. It didn't get golden brown like the recipe said it would so I left it in the oven longer, too long in fact. It turned into a giant cracker, and not a brown one.

I asked Josh at Loaf Bakery what I should do to make the focaccia brown in the oven and he said I needed to create steam as the focaccia is beginning to cook. You can use a spray bottle and spray the preheated oven on the sides and bottom, but I just splashed a few tablespoons of water and that seemed to work fine. This time the focaccia browned in the 20 minute cooking time.

The recipe is from Sarabeth Levine's cookbook Sarabeth's Bakery. You can find the cookbook, seen in this picture, on her blog, Sarabeth. The green bottle of olive oil is from Midtown Olive Press. The recipe called for a fruity olive oil and I used their Blood Orange olive oil. The recipe calls for putting olive oil on the half sheet pan before adding the dough and again on top after the dough has puffed up and you create the dimples with your finger. It really gave the focaccia a great flavor.

Midtown Olive Press also has a delicious Honey Ginger White Balsamic vinegar that pairs well with the Blood Orange olive oil for a salad dressing. I just drizzle a little of each over the salad and season with a little salt and pepper. Salad dressing doesn't get any easier than that.  I love to go taste the different vinegars and olive oils at Midtown, located in Friendly Center in Greensboro, NC. I also like that they let you bring your washed bottle back and reuse it. 

While the focaccia was baking I made a trip out to the garden to see what was left that I could put into a salad. 

Good thing I took the basket! Earlier I had pulled up some tiny carrots, but now they are much bigger, short, but fat! There were also peppers, spring onions and grape tomatoes. I sliced the carrots and onions very thin, cut the tomatoes in half and diced the peppers. This combined with some purple leaf lettuce from the farmer's market made a great salad. Don't forget the dressing that was described above. 

So much good food and good recipes to try!

Two yummy recipes--a pork loin roast and sweet potato soup!

There are two recipes in this post, the first uses Lipton Onion Soup Mix (the dry package). I have always used it to season a beef roast, but this time it is for a pork loin roast. It is also a crock pot recipe, so it is very easy.

First I remove the netting that they put around the pork loin roast. I don't know what part of it they think will escape, but it works fine to remove it.

Season the roast with salt and pepper. I sliced 3 cloves of garlic very thin and inserted them into slits in the pork roast all around.
Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil into a hot cast iron skillet.
Sear the roast all around.
Once each side has been browned, remove the roast. Turn down the heat to medium.
Add the following and cook until the vegetables begin to get a little bit brown:

• one large carrot chopped
• one onion chopped
• two stalks of celery chopped

Season the vegetables while cooking in the skillet with salt and pepper.

When the vegetables have a little bit of color, add 1/2 cup of white wine to deglaze the pan. The wine will bubble up and you can scrape up all of the tasty bits on the bottom of the skillet. Use chicken stock if you don't want to use wine. Let the wine or stock reduce by half.

Place the pork loin roast into the crock pot.

Sprinkle the contents of the Lipton Onion Soup packet on top of the roast (only need one packet, there are two in the box).

Pour the vegetable mixture on top of the roast and add 2 cups of chicken stock.

Cover and cook on high until the meat is tender, about 4-5 hours.

Once the roast is tender, remove it to a plate and cover with foil.

Strain the liquid in the crock pot and discard the vegetables which have cooked and flavored the liquid.

Put 2 Tablespoons of butter into a clean skillet and when melted, add 2 Tablespoons of flour to make a roux. Cook the flour for 3 to 4 minutes to remove the flour taste.

Add the strained liquid from the crock pot and whisk to form gravy.

Serve the gravy with the roast-----yummy!

OK, second recipe, Roasted Garlic Sweet Potato Soup!

On the way home from the mountains this weekend, we stopped at a restaurant and I wanted to try the sweet potato soup that they had on the menu. Apparently everyone else did too, because they were out of it. When I got home I searched for a sweet potato soup recipe and found lots, this one is "roasted" sweet potato soup, and it is really good. I made a few changes, listed below.

Roasted Garlic and Sweet Potato Soup

I put the sweet potatoes on a large sheet pan so that they are in one layer and seasoned them with salt and pepper and drizzled a little olive oil and maple syrup over the cubes of potatoes. Mix with clean hands before putting this into the preheated oven. I also roasted the head of garlic as mentioned in the recipe above.

Instead of roasting the onions, I cut them into a large dice, seasoned them with salt and pepper, 1 teaspoon of dry thyme, a pinch of red pepper flakes and sauteed them in 1 Tablespoon of olive oil.

After the sweet potatoes and garlic roasted I added them and the onion mixture to a large dutch oven with the chicken stock. I let all of that simmer on top of the stove covered for 1 hour. Then I processed the soup in the food processor until smooth. Add chicken stock if the soup is too thick. 

The soup has a savory flavor due to the thyme, onions and garlic even though it is made with sweet potatoes. 

Sorry, no pictures this time, I'll do better!

Cutting azaleas, picking tomatoes & spinning yarn

Fall is the time to make cuttings of azaleas and root them. Several years ago I put a cutting of one of the pink azaleas in a clay pot, put it on the north side of the house and literally forgot about it. It took root and I transplanted it to the back yard beside the deck. It has grown so much over the years that now it gets pruned in the summer after the blooms are finished.

Don built the rooting box in that same spot on the north side (shady) and this year constructed  the potter's bench beside the rooting box. It is a great shady spot for working on projects for the garden.

To root the azaleas, I cut a section so that there are either leaf nodes or branches that will be below ground. Remove the leaves or cut the branching stems short, then apply powered Rootone to that part and put it in the soil conditioner that fills the rooting box. Then I watered gently and thoroughly and replaced the windows covering the rooting box. The box is now filled with pink and lilac azalea cuttings. Next year they will be added to the garden.

The garden also yielded the last crop of tomatoes. These were from one of the 'volunteer' plants that appeared in the compost dirt that was added to the new part of the garden. 

They were just perfect for a salad!

Six pots of violas are handing from the deck, lots of pretty blooms for winter!

Spent time spinning on the front porch, now that the bobbin is full, 

the double ply yarn will be wound onto a nitty noddy.

My nitty noddy measures 1 and 1/2 yards each time you wind the yarn around. I wound around this nitty noddy 204 times, so I have 306 yards in this skein of yarn. 

Now with the bobbin empty, I can begin to ply two single strands of yarn together again. Only a little more roving to go and I will have spun this entire fleece. Then I can decide what to make with it.

When you are spinning, everyone always asks, "What are you making?" 

The answer is always the same, yarn. 

Sometimes I don't know what the yarn will become,

 a sweater, blanket, shawl, 

but it will always start as yarn!

Wandering around in Savannah, Georgia

On the way down to Michelle and Scott's wedding in Orlando, we stopped in Savannah, Georgia. We stopped there on the way back too, and this time we had more time for seeing the sights.

You can barely read the sign, Lady and Sons, for Paula Dean's restaurant in Savannah. We wanted to eat there, but there was a long wait. I did manage to get inside just to see it.  Guess I will just have to enjoy her recipes!

One of the streets is always closed to traffic and pedestrians can enjoy strolling past the stores and restaurants. this was just outside one! 

Johnny Mercer wrote "Moon River" and this statue is dedicated to him.

We also found Moon River Brewery. This is a sweet potato ale, with pumpkin pie spice and crushed pumpkin seeds around the rim of the glass, delicious!

There were lots of spacious parks in Savannah, like this one.

A 50 foot tall marble obelisk marks the remains of Nathanael Greene in the center of the park.

Dinner that night was at Churchill's next door to the Moon River Brewery. Service was impeccable, the food delicious and you had the feeling that you were in a pub in London! Don was very British that night, ordering prime rib with Yorkshire Pudding!

Life is good and the food is delicious!

Great food, great fun, oh yes and a wedding!

A wedding? In Florida? In October? What a great time for a road trip! The daughter of good friends is getting married and we can't miss the fun. Festivities on Saturday included a visit to a tapas bar, mi Tomatina, in Winter Park.

Mi Tomatina is located in a quaint historic district of Winter Park. The brick covered streets are lined with shops and restaurants.

For those who have heard this name, Tomatina, there is a festival in Spain, La Tomatina which is only slightly crazier than running with the bulls in Pamplona.


The elegance and gracious service we experienced at the tapas bar mi Tomatina in no way resembles the antics that are experienced during the festival in Spain! The tapas were delicious, stuffed mushrooms, croquettes, all kinds of delicious morsels. The three bartenders were gracious and attentive. They  were from Spain, Venezuela and Cuba, in the order you see them below.

Michelle and her brother Ryan enjoyed the evening.

Fran and Annabel entertain Raylen.

Jill and Michelle, friends in college, enjoyed this celebration.

Ryan and his future (tomorrow) brother-in-law, Scott. 

K Restaurant, the site of the wedding and reception has amazing food! Kevin, the chef and owner, treated us to grilled oysters and shrimp, pulled pork, roasted lamb, lobster mac and cheese (oh my!), the food was planned by Scott Copeland, the groom, and Kevin. 

Grilling oysters, so yummy!

Pulled pork, delicious!

Oysters and shrimp !

Lamb, pita, potatoes, tzatziki sauce, so scrumptious!

In back of the restaurant, near the restaurant's herb garden, the guests wait for the ceremony to start.

Ryan, the brother of the bride and his wife Jessamyn and son Raylen wait for the wedding to start.

Michelle and Nicholas enjoy the party!

Michelle and Scott Copeland

Scott's family with Nicholas and Annabel

Michelle's family with Jill and Sally

Fran Rubio, mother of the bride and Don, my sweetie, enjoyed the festivities!

Ryan, Scott, Don and Al, the bride's father 

So much fun packed into two days, 

Wishing Scott and Michelle a lifetime of happiness!