Tomato and Onion Flatbread

Hey, look, I'm back to blogging. Well, not really.

This recipe is a guest post from my friend Karen who blogs at Karen's Kitchen Stories. You should go check out her blog - she's got lots of fantastic stuff and her photos are lovely. Or follow her on Facebook. Yes, you should do that, too.

This tomato and onion flatbread is so easy to make, and is amazingly thin and crispy. When you pull it out of the oven, you can hear it crackle.

What I love about this flatbread is that you get the joy of eating pizza without all of the extra calories. The flatbread is light and thin, and the topping is simply tomatoes and onions. Veggies! It’s almost health food, right?

I’ve made this in advance, reheated it on a hot baking stone, and served it as an appetizer. We’ve also had leftovers for breakfast! Last night, we had it as a side to baked salmon, along with a salad. It’s really versatile.

This crust is a great vehicle for lots of toppings. Once you get it stretched out onto the half sheet pan, you can choose any toppings you like.

Honestly, I think pizza and flatbread should be its own food group.

One note: Be sure to keep an eye out for any puffing up of the dough as it bakes. While I’ve made this flatbread many times, this time the flatbread rose up about 6 inches in the middle in the first five minutes of baking (eek!), so I stabbed in in the middle with a fork to flatten it out. It worked out fine!

Tomato and Onion Flatbread
Inspired by Jim Lahey’s My Bread

For the crust:
250 grams (about 1 3/4 cups plus) bread flour
5 grams (1 1/4 teaspoons) instant yeast
2.5 grams (3/8 teaspoon) salt
1.5 grams (generous 3/8 teaspoon) sugar
150 grams (2/3 cup) room temperature water
Extra virgin olive oil

For the topping:
14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup thinly sliced white or yellow onion
1/2 teaspoon crushed red peppers

Mix the dough ingredients in a large bowl with your hands, spoon, or dough whisk. The dough should be fairly stiff. I added an extra tablespoon of water.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 2 hours, until more than doubled.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. If you have a baking stone, place it on the middle rack.

Drizzle olive oil onto a half sheet pan.

Take the dough and stretch it lengthwise onto the pan. Let it relax.

While it is relaxing, using a strainer, drain the diced tomatoes, reserving the liquid.

Using a blender, hand blender, or food processor, mix the tomatoes, 3/4 cup of the reserved tomato juice, olive oil, and salt. Set aside.

Continue to press and stretch the dough until it nearly fills the sheet pan. Pinch together any breaks in the dough.

Ladle the tomato sauce over the entirety of the dough.

Sprinkle with the onions and crushed red peppers.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the edges are slightly charred. Using tongs, pull the pizza onto a cutting board.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

Easy Peasy Pizza

I wrote a bread baking book, so obviously I'm familiar with dough. I haven't bought bread for so long, I couldn't even tell you what a loaf costs.

But that doesn't mean I'm totally opposed to shortcuts. My good friends at Krusteaz sent me some of their flatbread mixes to try, and I was really curious. I like the other mixes I've tried, so I had reasonably high hopes for the flatbreads.

What I like about Krusteaz products is that they're reasonably priced, but they still taste good. When I'm testing bakeware, I like to use Krusteaz products because I know that if something goes wrong, it's a bakeware issue and not a recipe problem.

I decided to use my stand mixer to knead the dough, although the recipe instructions didn't require it. I mean, I have the thing, so why do it the hard way?

According to the instructions, I should have added an extra 1/3 cup of water since I'm at high altitude. But I decided to use the standard instructions and add water if I needed it. Rather than needing more water, I had a dough that was pretty loose and sloppy. To get it to turn into a ball of dough, I needed to add just a tiny bit more flour.

But that's no big deal. Any time you make bread, you should feel free to add more or less water, or add a little flour if you think the recipe needs it. With bread dough, the feel is more important than the formula.

Once the dough was made and rested, I decided to make a pizza from half of it

.

And I divided the other half into two pieces and baked them as flatbreads.

I decided to use the garlic and onion flatbread, which was pretty tasty on its own, but I loved the idea of using those flavors as a pizza crust base. I decided to use non-traditional toppings - a can of mild diced Hatch chiles, and cheddar cheese.

The flavors were good, but I have to say that I was really happy with the texture of the crust.

The instructions point out that if you want a fluffier dough, you can let the dough rise longer, but I liked the thin crust a lot. Since I baked the pizza first, the flatbreads did have just a little extra rising time, but they also puffed more because they didn't have toppings.

If you're looking for a quick, easy way to make flatbreads - for pizza or for other purposes - these mixes are pretty good.

Besides the garlic and onion version, there is an Italian herb mix and a whole wheat mix. So far, I've only tried one, but I expect that they'll all be just as good.

Disclaimer: Krusteaz sends me products from time to time for my use. I only write about the ones that I feel my audience would be interested in.

Chive and black garlic cream cheese spread

This is one of those recipes that's greater than the sum of its parts. And it's a perfect last-minute appetizer.

If you haven't tried it yet, black garlic is like ... uh ... garlic candy? Well, maybe not quite, but it's certainly not like garlic you know. It starts out as regular garlic, but then it's fermented. The cloves are actually black, and they're sticky, a little caramel-y, a tiny bit sweet, and much, much milder than regular garlic.

People will try this and say, "What's in it?" And when you tell them, they'll say, "No, really. What's in it?"

It's best made a couple hours ahead of time - or better yet, the day before. This gives the flavors a chance to mingle, and for the chives to mellow a bit.

Did I mention that black garlic is soft and sticky? Yeah, it is. It's a teeny bit hard to mince because it wants to stick to the knife. Although some of it will dissolve right into the cream cheese, you do want to mince it because some bits will stay whole.

Chive and Black Garlic Cream Cheese Spread

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1 tablespoon milk

1 tablespoon thinly sliced chives

2 cloves black garlic, minced.

Combine the cream cheese and milk in a small bowl, mashing until it is smooth. Add more milk, if needed, to bring it to a spreading consistency.

Add the chives and black garlic. Mix well to combine. Taste, and add more chives, if you prefer. Cover and refrigerate.

This is fine right after it's made, but I think it improves with a little time - like the next day. Stir again before serving. You can servethis chilled or at room temperature.

I received the black garlic from Frieda's Specialty Produce - it's like the wackiest CSA ever.

American Flatbread, Rustic Crust, Mom's scrambled eggs, and #BigGameParty

I grew up in Chicago where good pizza was always a stone's throw away. Or a phone call away. Pizza wasn't something fancy. It was what you ordered when you didn't feel like cooking. Maybe you grabbed a pizza after a movie. It's what the babysitter ordered.

When I moved to my new home in Colorado, pizza wasn't that easy. When we first moved here, there was no good pizza. There wasn't even average pizza. It was all pretty awful.

Now, there are some pretty fancy pizza places in Boulder. But ... but ... that makes it a "dinner out" option rather than a phone call for delivery.

If you know me at all, you know that I've made my share of pizzas from scratch. Heck, I make bread, there's no reason I can't make pizza dough. But that's not on the agenda on those "gee, I've been cleaning all day and now I want food to magically appear" kinds of days.

Enter American Flatbread pizza. I was offered the opportunity to sample the pizzas, and I have to say these are pretty darned good. What surprised me was how fresh the tomatoes tasted on the one you see here.

These are par-baked in wood-fired ovens, so you just need a quick bake in a hot oven to melt the cheese and crisp the crust, and you're done.

And, wow, the pizza actually looks like what's pictured on the box. That's just crazy stuff, right? That pizza right there is still frosty, and it looks pretty good, right?.

Above, the pizza before baking. 

And below, after baking ...

Looks pretty good, eh?

The crust is thin and crisp rather than being a big puffy, thick, bready crust. Like the name says, these are flatbread pizzas, not deep dish. I'm looking forward to finding these on sale locally. Having a few of these on hand would be nice for those days when I want pizza, but I don't want to fuss at home or go out for dinner.

Or ... for hanging around the house, watching TV (and isn't there some big sporting event coming?) or for feeding unexpected guests. Pop a few of these in the oven, and you've got food fast. 

Ahhh ... but the goodies I got didn't end there.

Rustic Crust and Mom's Scrambled Eggs

Rustic Crust makes pizza crusts, gluten-free pizza crusts, and ciabatta. I was sent the ciabatta, which was flavored with basil and sea salt. Just like the pizza, it cooked quickly. Preheating the oven was the longest part.

This ciabatta was fairly thin, which I liked. The great thing about ciabatta is that it's such a blank canvas. I mean, it's bread. You can eat it plain, use it to make sandwiches, dip it in oil, dip it in a sauce, or do whatever you like.

 Just rip into it and eat.

I decided to use it for a breakfast-brunch-like item. Of course basil pairs nicely with tomatoes, and I love tomatoes and eggs. So there it was - scrambled eggs and some little tomatoes on top of a basil-flavored ciabatta, with a little fresh ground pepper for a finish.

Looks good, huh?

So, no real recipe here, but can I tell you about my Mom's scrambled eggs? Because she didn't make her scrambled eggs the way most people do these days. Look closer.

Do you see the difference? See the bits of white mixed with the yellow? Those are photographic highlights, that's how the eggs are cooked.

You see, most people beat or whip their eggs before they cook them. Mom would crack the eggs into the pan and then break the yolks and mix them around. So there would be bits of cooked whites that weren't mixed with the yolks. Kind of like the whites in an over-easy egg. Sometimes she waited longer before mixing and the whites were more visible (and the yellow was yellower), and sometimes it was pretty quick so there wasn't quite as much contrast.

I'm betting a lot of people would look at the way my mom cooked eggs and say that it was wrong. But I like it. You get a little texture difference, and the white mixed with the yellow is a little more interesting, visually.

So there ya go. Mom's secret scrambled eggs. Give 'em a try.

Join me with @BlogRConnection on Mon 1/28 9 p.m. ET for a twitter party. We’re talking football,
food, and parties with the hashtag #BigGameParty. Go here to here for more info. Did I mention prizes? Well, yeah, it's a party. You could win something!

You want to know more? Check out American Flatbread and Rustic Crust on Facebook.

Thanks to The Blogger Connection for sponsoring this post.

Flour Tortillas - with a secret ingredient

I love fresh flour tortillas, whether they're home made or purchased from one of the local tortilla shops. But tortillas on day two are never as good. Either they get brittle or they get rubbery. But they never stay nicely flexible.

Sure, you can reheat them on a hot griddle to soften them a bit for your taco dinner, but it would be nice to grab a day-old tortilla and make a quick cold wrap without having it crack.

I decided to soften some flour tortillas by adding one of my favorite fluffy-bread ingredients - instant mashed potato flakes. The tortillas weren't weirdly soft or fluffy when I made them, but they did stay more pliable than usual after the first and second day.

Unlike most breads I make, these don't have any yeast or other leavening, but don't worry about that.

Since there's no rise time, these cook very quickly.

Flour and Potato Tortillas

2 cups (9 ounces) all purpose flour
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup instant mashed potato flakes

Combine al ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer and knead with the dough hook until the dough is mixture is smooth and elastic.

Flour your work surface and divide the dough into 8 even pieces. Form each piece into a ball. cover the dough balls with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let them rest for about 10 minutes. This isn't about rising - it's just to let the gluten relax to making rolling easier.

You can start rolling the tortillas right away, but in the end, it will take you about the same amount of total time.

Heat a cast iron frying pan, comal, or griddle on medium-high heat.

One at at time, roll the dough balls to between 6-8 inches in diameter, adding flour to the work surface as needed to keep the dough from sticking.

Brush the flour off the dough as much as possible and lay the tortilla on the heated pan. Cook until there are browned spots on the bottom of the dough about a minute or two, then flip it and cook on the second side for another 30 seconds or so, until you have lightly browned spots.

Remove the finished tortilla from the pan, lay it on a clean kitchen towel, and cover the tortilla with the ends of the cloth.

If you have a large enough pan or a large griddle, you can cook several tortillas at once, which will speed up the process.

Continue the process until all the tortillas have been cooked.

Serve warm.

Ham kebabs and barbecue crackers

Ever since Virtual Potluck teamed up with Savory Spice Shop, I've been playing with their spice mixes. I mean, I'm always using spices, but lately I've been featuring them in recipes rather than just tossing them in..

First up was the Brown Sugar & Spice Honey Ham Rub. I happened to have a bone-in ham, and I decided to do something a little different. Kebabs.

See, I like the idea of kebabs, but the execution is usually far from perfect. Chunks of meat on a stick don't cook evenly, and if you happen to add anything else to the kebabs, for sure you end up with a overcooked, undercooked and burned bits .

But my ham had the advantage that it was already cooked, so I didn't need to worry about cooking it through - I just wanted to get some grill marks on it and warm it up. I made it simple, but oh, boy was it good!

The rub was sweet, and yes, it was spicy. It sort of reminded me of chai spices (which means I'll probably be using it in cookies soon) and it added great flavor to the ham, and the charred bits where from the grill added smokiness. I

 gotta tell you, a ham is a big hunk of meat for two people. It helps if you can find ways to make it different. This is a great way to do it, and a great option for a barbecue. Something unexpected next to the cole slaw.

If you don't have a Savory Spice shop in your neighborhood, they sell their spices online, so you can order whatever you need.

Honey Spice Ham Kebabs

• 1 thick slice from a bone-in ham or a ham steak, cut in large cubes
• 1 tablespoon Brown Sugar & Spice Honey Ham Rub (or to taste)
• Pineapple, mango, or stone fruit, cut in similar-sized chunks (optional)

Sprinkle the rub on the ham cubes and thread them onto skewers. (If you're using wooden skewers, soak them in water ahead of time, so they won't burn on the grill.) You can thread the fruit between the ham, or put the fruit on separate skewers.

Grill the skewers on a grill or on a grill pan just long enough to get grill marks on the meat and to warm it through. Serve warm.

And now for a snack

Memory is a strange thing. When I got the Pearl Street Plank Rub I kept sniffing it and thinking that it reminded me of something. But I couldn't quite grasp that vague memory.

Finally - after I used the mix in a couple recipes - the fog cleared and I realized that the elusive memory was all about barbecue potato chips. Not the ones you can get today, but the ones I grew up with.

I didn't want to make potato chips, but I did want a snack. So I made crackers. I love crackers. Good crackers are a worthy munchie all alone, and they're a great canvas for other flavors.

Barbecue Crackers

1 cup (4 1/2 ounces ) bread flour
1 cup (2 1/4 ounces) potato flakes
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Pearl Street Plank Rub
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup cold water

Put the bread flour, potato flakes, salt, Pearl Street Plank Rub, yeast, and olive oil in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse a few times to combine.

With the food processor running, add the water through the feed tube as fast as the flour can absorb it. Process until the dough forms a ball, and keep processing until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside for 30 minutes.

Flour your work surface, line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Turn the dough out, knead it briefly, and divide it in half. Roll the first half as thinly as possible - and it can be rolled very thinly - and put it on one of the prepared baking sheets. Cut it into cracker-sized squares with a pastry cutter, pizza cutter, or sharp knife.

Prepare the second half of the dough the same way.

Bake at 350 degrees until the crackers are browned and crisp, about 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the crackers. If the crackers are cooking unevenly, you can pick off the ones that are crisp and return the rest to the oven to continue cooking - you want to make sure they're cooked and crisp all the way through.

If the crackers are browning too much and still aren't crisp, lower the heat to 250 degrees and continue cooking.

Let the cracker cool completely before storing.

This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.

Walnut Crackers

Lately I've been making a lot of complicated recipes. A lot of ingredients, a multitude of steps, or a lot of time spent stirring, flipping, or cajoling. I don't mind making complicated recipes. I don't mind creating complicated recipes. I don't mind emptying out my spice cabinet or shopping for exotic ingredients.

But every once in a while I feel a need to peel back all the layers and make something that's as simple as possible. I'm not willing to sacrifice taste for simplicity - it still has to taste good.

These crackers are not only simple in terms of ingredients, but they take very little time to make, particularly if you use a food processor to do the kneading for you. You can also do the kneading in a stand mixer or by hand, if you prefer.

Eat these all by themselves as a crunchy snack, or you can top them with something - cheese would be tasty.

Walnut Crackers

1 cup bread flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup walnut butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put the bread flour, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse a few times, then turn the processor on and then leave it running. Pour the water in through the feed tube as fast as the flour can absorb it, then leave it running until the dough gathers itself into a ball. Keep processing until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Add the walnut butter to the food processor and process until it is incorporated into the dough, and the dough is again smooth and elastic.

Flour your work surface and turn out the dough. Roll it as thin as you can to fill as much of the baking sheet as possible. Transfer the dough to the baking sheet, then cut it into 1- to 2-inch squares with a sharp knife or pizza cutter.

Bake the crackers at 375 degrees until lightly browned and they are no longer soft to the touch, about 15 minutes.

Transfer the crackers to a rack to cool.

Let's talk about nut butters

The walnut butter I used was from Artisana Organic Foods - and the Virtual Potluck bloggers also received nut butters to work with and write about.

For a complete rundown of all the bloggers and their recipes, go visit Marnely who is the host for this event, over at Cooking with Books.

Artisana sells some interesting products, including both raw and roasted nut butters and coconut products - a pretty good variety, and I'll bet there are some you won't find at your local stores. The company says that all the products are hand-crafted in small batches from hand-selected nee-harvest nuts.

I haven't worked my way all the way through the samples I received, but so far I've liked every one of them.

Want more info? Check out Artisana's Facebook page.

For my participation in this event, I received products to work with. I was not required to say nice things about the yummy nut butters.

Home Made Wheat Thins - better than the boxed version

This is another recipe from the Whole Grain Baking book by King Arthur Flour that I used for my Knead the Book column on Serious Eats.

I loved these crackers, and thought they'd be worth sharing here, as well.

I buy the commercial Wheat Thins once in a while. There's nothing wrong with them, but I think they're best as a vehicle for something like cheese. But these home made crackers are snack-worthy all by themselves.

If you're making them for a party or you're serving more than a few people, I suggest making a double batch. These recipe makes a lot of crackers, but they're small and thin, so it's easy to eat a lot of them.

The recipe suggested adding salt to the top of the crackers, if desired. If you're a salt fiend, that would be okay, but I thought these were great without added salt. Sesame seeds would be an interesting addition, though.

Wheat Thins
From Whole Grain Baking by King Arthur Flour

1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) whole wheat flour, traditional or white whole wheat
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick, 2 ounces) butter
1/4 cup (2 ounces) water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Additional salt for topping (optional)

To make the dough: 
Combine the flour, sugar, salt and paprika in a medium bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and mix it in thoroughly, using your fingers, a pastry blender, a mixer or a food processor. Combine the water and vanilla, and add it to the flour mixture, mixing until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Lightly grease baking sheets or line with parchment paper.

To roll and cut the dough: 

Divide the dough into 4 pieces; keep the other pieces covered while you work with one at a time. Lightly flour your work surface and your rolling pin and roll the piece of dough into a large rectangle, which should be at least 12 inches square when trimmed.

Keep your pin and the surface of your dough evenly floured. Flip the dough frequently to keep it from sticking, but too much flour will make it difficult to roll.

Keep rolling until the dough is as thin as you can get it without tearing, at least 1/16 inch thick. Trim the dough to even the edges and use a pizza cutter or a sharp knife to cut the piece into squares approximately 1 1/2 inches wide.

Transfer the squares to a prepared baking sheet; you can crowd them together, as they don’t expand while baking. Sprinkle the squares lightly with salt, if desired. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough. Save the scraps under plastic wrap and reroll them all at once just one time.

To bake the crackers: 
Bake the crackers, one sheet at a time, until crisp and browned, 5 to 7 minutes. If some of the thinner crackers brown too quickly, remove them and return the remaining crackers to the oven to finish baking. These crackers bake quickly, so watch them closely – even 30 seconds can turn them from golden brown to toast!

Remove the crackers from the oven and cool on the pan or on a plate; they cool quickly. These crackers will stay crisp for several days, but are best stored in airtight containers.

Mini Flatbread with Hummus ... and more

Virtual Potluck has teamed up with California Olive Ranch and Bob's Red Mill for a special four-week Healthy New Year promotion, pairing whole grains from Bob's Red Mill with with healthy olive oil from California Olive Ranch.

And that's good news for you, because each week, I'll be giving away the same olive oil and grain combo that I'm working with. Sweet, huh?

This week is the appetizer, and I'm working with hard white whole wheat flour and Arbequina extra virgin olive oil.

• In week 2, it will be a side dish using grande whole grains blend along with miller’s blend extra virgin olive oil.
• In week 3 it will be a main dish with quinoa and Arbosana extra virgin olive oil.
• In week 4, I'll be making a dessert with whole wheat pastry flour and everyday fresh California extra virgin olive oil.

For the appetizer, I went with Mediterranean flavors. These little flatbreads can be made well ahead of time and you can assemble them just before guests arrive. Or, if you prefer, let your guests assemble their own.

Mini Flatbreads with Hummus and Warm Olive Salad

To make the flatbreads:
1 cup Bob's Red Mill hard white whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon California Olive Ranch Arbequina extra virgin olive oil
Up to 1/2 cup water
For the hummus:
1 15-ounce can chickpeas
2 tablespoons tahini or peanut butter
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, finely minced
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt - or to taste
To make the warm olive salad:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup sliced kalamata olives
1/4 cup feta cheese, cut in small cubes
For the garnish:
Diced tomato
Parsley, chopped

To make the flatbreads:

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees with a baking stone in the oven.

Place the flour and salt in the bowl of your food processor fitted with the proper blade for processing a small quantity of dough. Pulse a few times, then add the oil and pulse again a few times.

With the processor running, add the water only as fast as the flour can absorb it until the dough forms a ball - you probably won't need all the water - you should have a tablespoon or so of water left.

Remove the dough from the processor and divide it into 16 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball, then roll each ball into a flat disk about 4 inches in diameter. Bake the disks on the preheated baking stone until they are puffed and lightly browned in spots on the bottom, about 1 minute. Depending on the size of your stone and how fast you can roll them out, you might want to bake them in batches. I baked four at a time.

Remove them from the oven and let them cool on a rack. You can make these ahead of time. Let them cool completely before storing.

To make the hummus:

Blend everything in your food processor or blender. You can also use a stick blender. Blend until it's the consistency you like - some people like it silky smooth, while other prefer more texture. It's really up to you. Add more olive oil, if needed, to reach your desired consistency. Taste and add more salt if needed.

To make the warm olive salad:
Heat the olive oil VERY GENTLY on the stove. You don't want it boiling - or even very hot - no warmer than hot tap water. Pour the olive oil over the olives and cheese and let them marinate in the warm oil.

To assemble:
Put a dollop of the hummus on the flatbread. Top with olives and cheese, then add tomatoes and parsley. Drizzle with a little extra olive oil, if desired.

To enter the giveaway:

For your mandatory entry, visit either the Bob's Red Mill or California Olive Ranch Facebook page and retrieve the current week's Virtual Potluck code word. Use that code word in a sentence in your comment here.

For an extra entry: Follow Bob's Red Mill, California Olive Ranch, and Virtual Potluck on Twitter, and tweet a link to the contest using the #virtualpotluck hashtag. Then comment here again, telling me that you've tweeted..

More Blogs, More Ways to Win: Get additional entries in each week's giveaways by visiting our host blog where you'll find a complete list of the other participating Virtual Potluck Bloggers. You could win there, too! So let's do the math on this one. Twelve bloggers, 4 weeks - that's 48 recipes and 48 chances to win something. Not a bad deal, hmmmm?

One more added bonus! If you buy California Olive Ranch oil from their online store, you can get a 10% discount by entering coupon code BLOGFRIENDS at checkout.

Contest begins when this posts and ends at midnight, mountain time, on Sunday, January 8. Open to US residents only.

Bob's Red Mill and California Olive Ranch supplied us with the grains and olive oils to work with and will be shipping the product to the winners.

The winner is Wehaf! Congrats!

Whole Foods Friday: Want some guac with that?

For information about Whole Foods Friday, take a look a the tab at the top.

The perfect starter for the pork stew I made is a simple bowl of guacamole and some chips.

While corn tortillas are probably more common, once in a while I like the multi-colored flour-tortilla chips that are sold at my local Whole Foods. And the colors are nice.

Guacamole doesn't have to be complicated. In fact. I like simple versions the best.

If I was serving it alone, I might add some diced jalapenos. But when it's in a meal with a spicy component, I don't add any heat to the guacamole. Without the heat, it makes a nice counterpoint to the spicy food.

Guacamole

1 avocado
2 tablespoons finely diced onion
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
Pinch of salt
Squeeze of fresh lime

Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit, and soop the flesh into a small bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine, mashing the avocado as you go, to your preferred smoothness.

Serve immediately.

Note: If you have left over guacamole, or you want to make it in advance, place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole and press out all the air. Refrigerate.

Not your abuelita's tortillas

Growing up, I never ate Mexican food. And I mean never. We never even had fake Mexican taco nights like some kids had. The first Mexican food I had was on a date. The relationship didn't last, but I fell in love with Mexican food.

At first it was all about going out to eat Mexican food. Taco stands, restaurants, little hole-in-the-wall places, and even some local chains.

Later, I got interested in cooking Mexican food. But since tortillas were so easy to buy, there were the last things I ever thought about making.

Recently, I bought some tortillas that were a hybrid of corn and wheat, and while they weren't any version of authentic, I liked them. I decided to try to make something like them. These have good corn flavor with texture more like flour tortillas.

The best part, though, is that these are easy to roll out.

Corn and Wheat Tortillas

1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 cup (4 ounces) masa harina
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
2/3 cup water

Put the flour, masa harina, sugar, salt, and yeast in your food processor fitted with the proper blade for working dough. Pulse a few times to distribute the ingredients.

Add the oil, turn the processor on, and with it running, add the water through the feed tube as fast as the flour will absorb it. It should form a ball - if it doesn't, add tiny bit more water to get it to form that cohesive ball.

Continue processing for another minute. The dough will feel gritty from the masa harina, but it should also feel like a cohesive dough. Put the dough in a plastic bag or in a small bowl covered with plastic wrap. Set aside to rise for an hour. It won't double, but it will be noticeably larger.

Preheat a cast iron frying pan, griddle, or other heavy pan on the stovetop.

Flour your work surface and turn out the dough. Divide it into 8 even pieces. Form each piece into a ball, then flatten the first ball into a disk. Roll it with a rolling pin to circle about 6-8 inches in diameter.

Place the circle in the preheated pan and cook until you see large bubbles forming and the bottom has browned spots - about a minute. Flip it over and cook another 30 seconds.

Remove the tortilla and cover it with a clean kitchen towel. Continue rolling and cooking the tortillas, stacking them up and covering them as you go. Serve them warm. You can also reheat them briefly on a hot pan.

This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.

Amuse Bouche: Just a little bite

Okay, I'm addicted. I'll admit it.

I realized I had almost let the month slip by without entering the Kitchen Play contest, and I felt a sudden longing. I absolutely HAD to whip something up. I've been entering since the contests first began, and missing a month would be like ... well, missing a month.

It's like when I don't really need more vegetable, but I feel like I have to go to the farmer's market on Saturday or my week isn't complete.

This month's contests are sponsored by the National Onion Association, and that gave me even more incentive. To begin with, I use a lot of onions. And possibly even more important is that the one time I was chosen as a Kitchen Play blogger, it was for the onion association.

I had looked at all the recipes earlier and knew which one I wanted to make. It was a goat cheese and onion appetizer, Carmelized Onion and Goat Cheese Vol au Vents. But I decided to make it a little less ... fancy. I mean, I like puff pastry and all, but crackers end up on my table a lot more often.

The onions, I cooked in the oven because it was on and there was room. Instead of oven-roasting the onions, you could certainly cook them on your stovetop.

Cheese, Onion, and Balsamic Bites

1 large onion, quartered, then sliced
Salt
Olive oil
Chevre
Balsamic vinegar
Crackers

Place the onions on a sheet pan or in an oven-safe baking dish. Bake at 350 (or, seriously, if you have something else in the oven, just go with whatever temp you need for that) stirring the onions occasionally, until they are soft and some have browned. If a few get crispy, that's fine, too, as long as they haven't gone all the way to charcoal. The darkly browned crispy bits were my favorite.

Top your favorite crackers with a bit of chevre, then some onions, then a few drops of balsamic vinegar. Serve warm or at room temperature.

It's a pretty simple little appetizer, but it tastes pretty darned good. If you're not a fan of balsamic vinegar, then a dot of jam would make a nice accent, as well.

Gluten Free Cheese Crackers

I met cookbook author Elana Amsterdam at a local event I went to, and she kindly offered me copies of her books, The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook and Gluten-Free Cupcakes.

If you've read this blog, you now that I'm not gluten-free, but I'm perfectly happy to try gluten-free recipes if they sound interesting. I mean, flourless chocolate cake is pretty darned good, isn't it?

And it seems to me that someone who can have gluten is a pretty good judge of gluten-free baked goods, as well. Where a gluten-free eater can only judge against other gluten-free products, a gluten eater can compare the items to all baked goods.

When I saw a recipe for cheese crackers, I was intrigued. I love cheese crackers. But what sold me on trying them was the statement, "Friends tell me these crackers taste like Cheez-its" Oh, really?

Okay, to be honest, I sort of hoped they'd taste better than Cheez-its because they have that cheez-powder flavor. I figured that a cracker with real, honest cheese had to be better.

Unlike some gluten-free recipes that use a whole pantry full of different flours, this was pretty simple. In fact, most of the recipes in this book rely mostly on almond flour. The book specifies the use of a finely ground blanched almond flour. I'm not sure if the one I used was correct, but this particular recipe worked anyway. The crackers didn't break apart as smoothly as I might have wished for, but rustic is good, right?

I haven't eaten a Cheez-it in a long time, so I don't know how close these really are. They aren't as dark orange, but that probably has something to do with the type of cheese - or maybe the use of food coloring. But color aside, they're addictive, that's for sure. Gluten or no gluten, they make a nice snack. I cut the recipe in half when I made it. So of course you can double it.

Cheddar Cheese Crackers
Adapted from The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook by Elana Amsterdam

1 1/4 cups blanched almond flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup freshly grated cheddar cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and have a baking sheet and two pieces of parchment paper handy.

In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, salt, baking soda, and cheese. In a separate bowl, combine the egg and oil, and whisk together. Add the eggs and oil to the dry ingredients and stir until everything is combined.

Place the dough on one piece of parchment paper, top with the second piece, and use a rolling pin to roll the dough to a thickness of about 1/16 of an inch. Remove the top piece of parchment, slide the other piece of parchment, along with the dough, onto a cookie sheet. Cut the dough into squares with a pastry cutter, pizza cutter, or knife.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the crackers are lightly browned. Let the crackers cool on the baking sheet for 30 minutes before serving.

ALSO - the hexagonal plate you see there up above is a sample I got (free) from Marx Foods.The plates are made from Adaka palm tree leaf sheaths. (Say that three times, fast.) The sheaths dry out on the plant, then fall off and are collected, so trees aren't being cut down to make these. And they're biodgradable and compostable. You can read How Palm Plates are Made for more details.

They're pretty sturdy as well. Marx Food says they hold up to hot and cold foods, and you cut meat in them without going through the plates. I don't know about that - I've only got a few of them and I've been using them mostly for holding tomatoes or fresh fruits and for items I want to photograph. They've all got different patterns to them, so they look kind of interesting.

I made the mistake of storing mine in an odd position and they got a little warped, but it's not a big deal. Once I put something heavy enough - like those tomatoes or apples - in there, they flatten out. I suppose I could put something in the empty ones to flatten them, but it hasn't been all that important to me. If I was using them for tableware, I might do that, though. Or maybe just not store them in a warpy position to begin with.