Lazy Sunday Lunch: Mushroom & Pesto Paninis

Saying that it has been a crazy year is perhaps the understatement of the decade around my house. Since I have been gone, life has completely changed. We moved from a city apartment to a country house, changed jobs, and most significantly, had a baby. In the midst of all that we dealt with hurricanes, blizzards, lay-offs, among other things related to relocating and having kids. This past weekend was the first time in a long time that Aaron and I were able to sit back, relax, and enjoy a few serene and peaceful days. This meant that rather than quickly reheating leftovers for lunch between errands on Sunday, we actually had the time and energy to make something.  

One of our favorite things about living in the Hudson River Valley is that we are really able to indulge in true farm-to-table cooking. We shop almost exclusively at our local farmers market, when we are not visiting the farms themselves. While we do enjoy taking locavor-ism to an extreme, it isn't without challenges during northeastern winters, as the selection becomes, well, pretty limited. After weeks and weeks of all variety of squash, Aaron couldn't take it anymore and demanded a change. So...

We moved on to mushrooms! Not very exciting, but at least something a bit of a deviation from the endless kabocha and butternut we had been eating through the dark days of winter. Fortunately I did have a container of homemade pesto tucked away in the back of the freezer waiting for that moment that comes towards the end of every winter when you are desperate for even the smallest taste of summer.

In 2011, this blog wasn't the only thing to go on hiatus. I also took an unfortunate break from bread making and am only slowly starting to get back into my former loaf-a-weekend groove. I have an enormous lack of trust in my oven - somehow I seem to burn everything - and fear of failure has made me apprehensive about getting started again. Though I dreamed of ciabatta for the panini, a simple white sandwich loaf was about all I could muster.

Add some creamy fresh mozzarella from the Italian dude at the market, and lunch is ready!

Challah Bread and a Dessert Free Weekend!

Dessert free weekend... dessert free weekend... means that I guess I will be writing about bread this week. It was a really busy weekend anyway. It was antiques weekend in New York City, which is always full of activity in our household, as A and I have a tradition of visiting all of the fairs to drool over the wares. It also coincides with our anniversary, meaning that the fairs are following by some sort of extravagant dinner out on the town (though I think the economy means cheap pasta, not Michelin stars this year). On top of that I had dinner with D to chat about my first week on the new job. See? No time for baking. Or at least that is what I am telling myself. In the back of my mind, I know that if A was not holding firmly to his dessert ban I would have tried to squeeze a cake in somewhere.

So... on to bread. I decided that this weekend would be a good time to whip up a challah loaf, or egg bread. My new job is in the Jersey suburbs, which means I no longer am able to indulge in the delight that is the tasty, but also very bad for you, lunch of street meats. No more greasy lamb over rice for me. Instead I get to choose from salads in the company cafeteria or a brown bag special. A and I didn't cook much this weekend so the brown bag special for Monday would be a cold-cut sandwich with a banana. To spice things up a bit, I thought that home-made bread was in order in lieu of pre-sliced sandwich bread from the grocery store.

One of my biggest frustrations I have with home made bread is that it goes stale ridiculously fast. Sometimes I feel like my bread has already gone stale by the time I reach for a second slice. To help mitigate this problem, A bought me a bread box from King Arthur Flour last year when I first became serious about bread baking. If you like making bread and having fresh, home made loaves on hand but dislike eating an entire loaf in a day, this box is the solution. I was surprised to learn that a bread box actually helped to partially solve the problem. While the crusts of my loaves do lose some crunch in the box, the bread stays soft for a few days.

Challah is basically an egg bread. It is one of my favorites because the dough is pretty forgiving and the bread has a sweet flavor that goes well with just about anything. Most importantly, it is not necessary to allow the dough to ferment overnight. A beautiful loaf can be put together from start to finish in less than 5 hours. (That is pretty quick for bread. If I have learned anything about bread, it is that a good loaf CANNOT be rushed!)

Recipe after the jump!