My new best friend Alex over at Ile de France Cheese must listen in on me when I talk in my sleep. Because there is nothing in the world I love more then cheese. And my hubby says that I never really talk in my sleep but when I do, I am always talking about food. Eggs and cheese to be specific. Can you say one track mind? Well Alex dropped me a little email, and then he dropped me a little package. A little package that held some of the yummiest goat cheese I have had in a long time.

The first tomato of the season.

Perfect. And soon, even more perfect.

First I cut just the top of the tomato off and gutted the poor fella:


Diced up 2 stalks of asparagus:


And cracked an egg into the tomato:


Um. Egg shell in focus, tomato, not so much...

Carefully pushed the asparagus pieces into the egg white, not breaking the yolk:


Like my lil tomato holder? It is a sauce cup I swiped from PF Changs. Shh...

Then roasted it in a 400° oven for 10 minutes. The egg was slightly set at this time. Then I topped it with a nice big round of Ile de France goat cheese, and broiled it for 5 minutes more.


Topped it with some cracked pepper and kosher salt and ate it all up before the hubby could wake up and steal it from me. Ha!

It was amazing. The egg cooked just enough for the yolk to ooze out when cut into. The asparagus and the tomato roasted nicely and the browned and melted goat cheese brought the whole thing together.

Perfect.

Everyone have a good holiday weekend?

Anyone need a holiday from their holiday? Whew. I thought it was just me. Then yesterday I realized I need a holiday from my holiday from my holiday and at this rate - I won't get anything done...

Where my fellow Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge peeps have almost finished baking the whole book, I took the holiday weekend to bake the second in a series of breads... the Artos loaf. I also decided to make it Christopsomos style, which is basically taking the Artos recipe and adding cranberries, raisins and walnuts. I was excited. It sounded like one delicious loaf of bread. Braiding and weaving and shaping aside, I just decided I would go monkey bread on it. Pour on that glaze and go to town.

Best laid plans.

But, it looks nice doesn't it?

Taste? Oh it tasted WONDERFUL! (As you can tell from the inconspicuous tear taken from the top right of the loaf...)

It even started out great. My poolish bubbled and doubled. My Kitchen Aid even handled the rather dense dough. I added the flour and the yeast, the milk and the oil. I used agave rather then honey and it smelled wonderful for unbaked bread. I molded it into a ball and placed it in an oiled bowl where it would sit and double in size. Mmm. THIS would be a GREAT day!

BUT WAIT!

What is that little bowl of nuts and cranberries and raisins and spices I see behind the FLOUR!

*panic*...

Shouldn't that be in the DOUGH THAT HAS ALREADY DOUBLED IN SIZE?

I 911 twittered my fellow BBA'ers. They suggested to add it after the first proof, just let it re-proof another 30 minutes or so before the final loaf shaping thing...

So I punched the dough out like Sicilian pizza maker and spread a thin layer of nuts and cranberries and raisins and SPICES over the dough. (Yesssss, even the spices were omitted...) Rolled it up and started forming it into a nice ball - but wait - NO! - the nuts and raisins and cranberries are breaking through! I pinched the little raisin holes up only to have 324 more open. Pinch! Ball! Pinch! CURSE! Pinch! PINCH PINCH PINCH! GAH!!! Cover with plastic wrap and come back in 30.

In that 30 minutes the outside temperature increased. The inside temperature increased. The dough proofed to ohhhh 3x its size. With little raisins and cranberries and nuts all trying to escape... not a pretty site.

Why oh why didn't I take photos...

Now I should have just taken this as a sign to screw the monkey and his bread and MAKE A REGULAR LOAF but noooooooo... Now the big ball of protruding raisins, cranberries and nuts had to become a bunch of little balls of the same.

Someone just shoot me.

If any bread should be called a monkey loaf - this was it... as if this wasn't enough, a minor situation involving beer, chips and salsa made me FORGET about the damn thing for 45 minutes. It was all, nuts, fruit and dough trying to escape the pan. 

:-|

Laughing and cursing, I threw it in the oven and hoped for the best.

Sure - It looks good in that photo - ok, kind of - but what you see is merely the top of a GINORMOUS loaf of monkey **** bread ever. This bread was 7" tall!

But it tasted AMAZING.

And the next morning - I learned that Artos french toast ROCKS!

If you my reader readers would like to join me on this baking adventure, pick up The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge by Peter Reinhart and get baking. You may have just as much fun as me...

So have I mentioned that I got all caught up in this little thing called the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge two weeks ago? On the encouragement of a non-bread baking foodie I know I signed up for what looks to be a year long trip down a very doughy road. Myself and 199 other crazy foodies are going to make and bake every bread in the book The Bread Bakers Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. Why? Hmm. Quite simply because we can.

I LOVE to bake. But generally save that baking for the cooler fall and winter months. Cranking my oven up INSIDE when it is 110 OUTSIDE and I am paying upwards of $300 a month to keep the temperature below 79 INSIDE hardly seems like the smartest thing to do. I may make this a two fold challenge. Bake the whole book - but do it outside on the grill. I wonder if THAT has ever been done. I wonder how many disasters I will endure. I wonder if my coffee is ready… Regardless, here is the first in a continuing series of yeast and gluten - the Anadama bread.

Me thinks I let it rise just a weee bit to much, but over all it was a tasty bread. I did think that it tasted much better right out of the oven then it did say a day later. But that did not stop me from enjoying it all week. The recipe calls for corn meal (polenta) and molasses which give this bread a slightly sweet flavor. Perfect for french toast. You are just going to have to trust me on this as before I could get the camera, it was literally all gone.

It also took quite literally - all day to make.

The soaker rested overnight.

Then we had to wake up the yeast for an hour.

Knead the dough

Proof for 90 minutes.

Punch down and shape into a loaf

Paint the house.

Let it proof again for 60 minutes.

Pour a drink.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Wonder if the cows will ever come home.

Let cool on a wire rack for 1 hour before you even DARE slice into it.

Patience is not one of my virtues…

So I sliced into it within 20 minutes anyway as you can see from the knife marks on the loaf.

But that was the best part. The VERY best part. It was warm, and still a little doughy and the butter melted perfectly and I was able to eat that whole slice before I fell asleep amidst scatterings of flour and cornmeal.

Mmm.

Bread. Good.

PS If you my readers reader would like to bake along with us please do! Pick up a copy of the Bread Bakers Apprentice and post links to your creations in the comments section of the post with the matching bread. So bake Anadama - comment here!

This heat is crazy hot for May. Broken high temperature records is not my idea of fun. It is also playing havoc with my basil plant.

Today was spent in the sweltering heat - as it is May and it is already 93 - doing some thrilling and exciting yard work.

It sure looks pretty so far doesn't it?

Tomorrow, I plant MORE...