Easy French Bread

This technique is great for people who have some experience with baking bread. I have decided to bake all of my bread from scratch, so this technique is perfect for me. To get started, let me give you a list of ingredients:

4 C Flour (I like bread flour)
1 T Yeast
1 T Salt
Very warm (not hot) water
Extra flour for kneading
Water to make steam
Oil to grease cookie sheet

This guy is seriously brilliant. I have to say, for the minimal effort, this bread is pretty tasty. After I bake my bread, a few days later, if there are leftovers, I put them in my food processor to make bread crumbs, and put them in a bag. These are called panko bread crumbs, and they are wonderful to cook with (more posts on that later). Let me know how your bread turns out if you give this a try. Trust me, you'll be glad you did!



By the way, I use the bread to make grilled cheese sandwiches, using cheddar slices, and they are out of this world delicious!

Apple Sauce From Scratch

My good friend had a couple of apple trees with ripe fruit ready to pick, so I packed up my daughter and grabbed some beautiful apples. They were very tart, but now that they've rested a bit, they are much sweeter. The taste is between a yellow and a green apple, so they are very delicious. The only drawback with the apples is that they will not keep as well if left for long periods of time. Since I had two other generous friends who let me pick fruit from their trees, I gave them some of the apples, and decided to try and preserve some of my apples for future use.  Following the advice of another brilliant friend of mine, I decided to make my own applesauce and keep it safely in the freezer. It was surprisingly easy to make, and it tasted like apple pie filling!
Here's all you need:
Apples, sugar, and cinnamon

First, I peeled the apples. Then, I sliced them up into chunks and dumped them into a large pot. I don't mind the natural brown color that cut apples get, so I left mine as is, but if the color is a problem, a bit of lemon juice will stop the color change. On low heat, the chunks became soft enough to release juice and soften up for mashing into a beautiful, chunky applesauce. Then I used my potato masher and carefully mashed the apples, making sure to not burn myself on the steam or rogue bits of apple that shot out of the pan from the movement. To finish the applesauce, I added sugar and cinnamon. I like mine a little tart, so I used a little sugar and a little cinnamon. I just added a little bit at a time, and tasted it until it was just right. Not bad for my first time making applesauce!

This is when I added the chopped apples.

As they heat, the color becomes a gorgeous golden brown.
This is when the apples start to get soft and begin to release juice.

The finished product. Pure bliss!

PB&J Wrap Bento Lunch

These quick wraps are very convenient and add a great twist on the classic pb&j sandwich. I only eat wheat bread, so naturally, I use the wheat tortillas with these as well. The white tortillas work just as well, but it might take a trial period to train your taste for them. They taste just like bread, but more like when the bread has been squished flat.

Here's how I make the wraps:

1. Lay your tortilla on a plate. Spread one half with peanut butter, and the other half with jam. Try not to use too much jam or it will ooze out when you roll them.
2. Fold over one side, and continue folding it until you have a little burrito shape without the folded bottom.
3. Cut the wrap in half and serve.

One half peanut butter, the other sugar free jam.

Fold it a little past where the peanut butter starts.

Fold again, leaving a small flap on the end.

Tuck the last bit over. The peanut butter will make it stick.

Once you cut it, you can easily lay them in a bento box, or on your plate.

My daughter ate every last bite of this!

I love using these in my bento lunches. They are pretty sturdy, so if they are jostled a bit, they won't be destroyed. I slip these in first, and add my other foods to the bento afterward.