Bleeding Espresso

OK, raise your hand if you love focaccia! I do! I do!

I had never made it before, though, so I thought this What’s Cooking Wednesday would be a great time to learn, especially since I came across a recipe for Focaccia with Onions. In addition to the thyme (timo (TEE-moh) in Italian) that was listed in the ingredients, I threw in some oregano, because, you know O Foods and all.

What? You haven’t heard of the O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month Contest? Check out the details here.

As you can see, my onions were super-cooked when all was said and done, but they’re still really tasty. Note: I used red onions, so they’re not *as* cooked as they may seem. Anyway, I think next time I’ll slice them just a little bit thicker and maybe adjust the cooking temp.

If you have any other suggestions on making focaccia, please do share. Overall, I have to say that this is a fabulous basic recipe from The Italian Cooking Encyclopedia published by Barnes & Noble (with my adjustments below).

Onion, Oregano & TimO Focaccia

For dough:

• 2 1/2 tbsp fresh yeast or 1 package dry
• 1 c warm water
• pinch of sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3- 3 1/2 c flour

For topping:

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• Sprinklings of dried thyme and oregano
• Coarse sea salt

1. Put yeast in warmed medium mixing bowl (swirl around some hot water and then dump it out to warm the bowl). Add warm water, stir in sugar, and mix with fork. Let sit for 5-10 minutes until the mixture starts to foam.

2. Mix in the salt and one cup of flour with a wooden spoon, then add in another cup of flour and mix until dough begins pulling away from the sides of the bowl.

3. Sprinkle some flour on a flat work surface and knead the dough, adding the rest of the flour a little at a time. Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is elastic and smooth, and shape it into a ball.

4. Place dough in lightly oiled mixing bowl and cover with a damp towel. Let stand in a warm place for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size. To test if the dough is ready, poke it with two fingers; if the indentations remain, it’s ready.

5. Preheat oven to 400°F.

6. Punch down the dough to release air and then knead for 3-4 minutes.

7. Brush a shallow cookie/baking sheet with one tablespoon of the oil.

8. Place the dough in the pan and spread it to the edges with your fingers. Leave this sit, covered with a towel, for a half hour.

9. In the meantime, heat two tablespoons of oil in a pan on low heat, add onions, and cook until tender.

10. Stir in thyme and oregano and remove from heat.

11. Remove towel from pan and make indentations in the dough with your fingers.

12. Brush oil from the onion mixture on the dough, then spread onions over top evenly. Sprinkle lightly with coarse salt.

13. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, until just turning golden.

14. Cut into squares or wedges, and serve focaccia by itself, as a side dish, or even as the bread of a sandwich. It is best warm or at room temperature.

Buon appetito!

Don’t forget to submit your O Foods recipe by September 30
and/or donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund!

Also, Megan’s Expat Snapshot of Italy Contest is still going on until tomorrow night–just head over to Career By Choice and fill in the blank: You Know You’re in Italy When….

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It’s What’s Cooking Wednesday and also the first full day of O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. If you missed yesterday’s announcement with all the contest details, never fear! They are at the bottom of this post.

Now, here is my fast, easy, tasty (just like we like ‘em!) O Food recipe based on this one from Cooks.com:

Oatmeal Banana Craisin® Muffins
(makes 6 large and 12 mini-muffins)

• 1/2 c butter
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 c mashed bananas (3 bananas)
• 3/4 c honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 c oatmeal (rolled oats)
• 3/4 c Craisins® (or raisins or dried cranberries)

1. Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C.

2. Cream together butter and brown sugar.

3. Add eggs, bananas, honey and vanilla.

4. Mix rest of ingredients except Craisins® together and add to batter.

5. Stir in Craisins®.

6. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full of mixture.

7. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes for the large muffins; 10-12 minutes for mini-muffins. Remove when top springs back to the touch.

Buon appetito!

O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. In honor of Gina DePalma, author of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen and Executive Pastry Chef of Babbo Ristorante in NYC, who was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer, Sara of Ms Adventures in Italy, Jenn of The Leftover Queen, and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso are asking you to donate to the:

Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (via FirstGiving.org)

and then, out of the goodness of your hearts and to be eligible for the O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month Contest, please do the following:

1. Post a recipe to your blog using a food that starts or ends with the letter O (e.g., oatmeal, orange, okra, octopus, olive, onion, potato, tomato) and include this entire text box in the post;

OR

2. If you’re not into the recipe thing, simply post this entire text box in a post on your blog to help spread the word about the event and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

AND

3. Then send your post url [along with a photo (100 x 100) if you've made a recipe] to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on September 30, 2008.

We will post a roundup and announce prize winners on October 3.

Prizes:

• 1 Recipe Prize for best “O food” concoction: $50 gift certificate to Amazon;
• 1 Awareness Prize for only publicizing event: Copy of Dolce Italiano cookbook.

———

From the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund:

• Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women; a woman’s lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1 in 67.
• The American Cancer Society estimates that 21,650 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the U.S. in 2008 and about 15,520 women will die from the disease.
• The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose. There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer but there are tests which can detect ovarian cancer when patients are at high risk or have early symptoms.
• In spite of this patients are usually diagnosed in advanced stages and only 45% survive longer than five years. Only 19% of cases are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region.
• When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early on, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

Please donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund
and help spread the word!

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I. Enter Alex’s La Cucina Italiana Contest
(for which I will be a recipe tester):

II. American cooking is back!
Check out Mary’s Potato Salad at Flavors of Abruzzo:

III. Celebrate Susan’s One-Year Blogiversary at
Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy:

IV. Tell me about all the fabulous things you will or won’t do this weekend!

Me?

After a very full work week, I plan on reading, writing (old NaNo novel!),
and generally relaxing with P and the pooches.

Buon weekend!

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I *loved* my grandmother’s steak hoagies. They weren’t exactly Philly cheesesteaks–they were better. Yeah, I said it.

The thing is, though, she used “Minute steaks,” which we don’t have here. Do you know them? Frozen, really super-thin slices of meat? Yes, it’s one of those things you can kinda sorta substitute, but still . . . it will just never be exactly the same.

Anyway, I made today’s What’s Cooking Wednesday recipe based on my grandmother’s original recipe, and we’ll get to that in a moment, but for those interested, let me tell you quickly how she made steak hoagies (no measurements because that’s the way she rolled):

• Steam broken up pieces of Minute Steaks in a pan, remove and cover them.
• Heat olive oil and butter in a pan and sauté peppers, then add onions as well.
• Add meat and sprinkle everything with garlic salt.
• Add a small can of tomato sauce and let cook until tomatoes no longer taste raw.
• Stir in cheese (she used slices of Kraft American).
• Serve on a big ole Italian roll. YUM!

Now, fast forward to my craving steak and peppers one night but having no tomatoes (fresh or sauce) or rolls in the house. This is what I made, a simpler, healthier, but still delicious version of an old classic:

Pepper steak over white rice
(serves 2)

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3-4 thin steaks, in bite-sized pieces
• 1 green pepper, cut into strips
• 1 medium onion, cut into strips
• a few shakes of garlic salt
• 1 cup prepared white rice

1. Prepare rice according to package directions.

2. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in pan, and then add meat, cooking until brown. Remove from pan and cover.

3. Add other tablespoon of olive oil and peppers. Sauté for a few minutes until starting to become tender and then add onions and sauté until tender.

4. Add meat and sprinkle everything with garlic salt, combining well.

5. Let flavors mix together for a minute or so, and then serve over white rice.

Buon appetito!

18 Comments »

The other day I came home and found this on my doorstep.

When P came home, I told him, but we still didn’t know the identity of our Fig Fairy even though I had asked around the neighbors.

P told me: “Don’t eat the figs!”

Because, um, we live in medieval times in which our nemici might foil our dastardly plans with tainted figs left outside our house? Please.

Needless to say, I ignored him and ate three of them later that evening.

And then was awake most of the night with a stomachache. Gah! I pretended like I had no idea what I could’ve eaten to cause the discomfort as I certainly couldn’t tell P I ate the figs.

Thankfully, the pain passed and the next morning, before I discarded the figs, I ran into a woman who owned up to being our Fig Fairy. I breathed a huge sigh of relief as she’s certainly one of the nicest signore around–yet another one of my nonne in the village.

And only then did I tell P the full tale of the figs, which he, of course, found hilarious.

I’m thinking I’ll just listen to him next time.

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