Italian Beer Bread with Sun Dried Tomato Butter

This was my final contribution to my grandma's happy hour birthday party. Back when Boy #1 turned six in February, he requested Little Ceasar's pizza for his family birthday dinner. Since no one other than my two kids are big fans of that, I made an executive decision to have a happy hour type party for him, so he could still have his pizza, but the rest of us wouldn't be forced to eat it. My brother and his girlfriend came down from Seattle for the party, but she ended up getting really sick while they were visiting, which meant no one wanted to touch our house with a 10 foot pole, meaning my family didn't end up coming over for his birthday dinner. Instead we had our best friends over to celebrate with us. I had this bread recipe slated to make for it, so I went ahead and made it. We all liked it so much I decided to make it again so my family could actually try it!

Italian beer bread and sun dried tomato butter
Source: SnappyGourmet.com via Pinterest

Bread:
3 1/2 cups (15oz.) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
12 oz. beer
2-3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (optional)

Butter:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes in oil, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9×5 inch bread pan with nonstick cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cheese, baking powder, Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt, garlic powder, onion powder, 1/4 teaspoon pepper until well combined. Pour in beer and stir until just combined.

Place dough in prepared bread pan. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of butter on top of bread if desired.

Bake bread for about 50-70 minutes or brown and crispy around edges. Cool slightly then remove from pan.

Meanwhile, place 1/2 cup butter, sundried tomatoes, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in food processor and process until smooth. Serve with bread.

Notes
SNAPPY TIPS: Be sure to cook the bread until is browned and crispy around edges so that it’s cooked through the middle. If you don’t add butter to the top of the bread, you can cover the bread halfway through the cooking time to help prevent overbrowning before the bread is cooked through.

*****

Like I said above, I had already made this before, so I knew it was a winner. I love a good quick bread recipe, and this comes together really easily. The sun dried tomato butter is tasty, too, although it is really hard to spread if you keep it in the fridge. This is a relatively easy appetizer to make, and I know it's one that I'll make a lot in the future.

Stuffed Baguette

I realized when I was organizing some pictures on my computer that I had never posted this recipe I made for Christmas. We've started a tradition in my family where we have a bunch of awesome appetizers for Christmas dinner instead of a real, sit-down dinner. It's so much nicer and easier than scrambling around to get dinner ready and everything finished at once while also opening presents and all that Christmas jazz. This was the second year we've done it, and it seems to be a big hit.

Last year we had an insane amount of food, so my mom suggested we scale it back some this year. Honestly the last two weeks of December are such a blur with my dad passing away, I don't even remember what my contributions were. I think I did a baked brie, Lil' Smokies in the crockpot, and this stuffed baguette. There may have been something else, I'm not sure. I don't even remember what all other foods there were. My uncle made an awesome shrimp dip (my pregnant cousin and I finished it off the next night) for which I need to get the recipe. There were meatballs in the crockpot, a ricotta/lemon spread our friend Betty made, deviled eggs. It was a feast, and that's all that really matters.

Last January I came across this recipe somehow and emailed it to myself. When I was trying to figure out what I'd make for Christmas I went through my recipes email folder and saw this. I don't know why I hadn't made it for another event, it sounded super yummy. It also sounded easy and was something I could make ahead of time, so I slated it for one of my contributions to Christmas "dinner."

Stuffed Baguette
Source: BakingObsession.com

Baguette about 14-inch long
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
4 oz fresh goat cheese
1 large garlic clove, minced
½ cup finely chopped red bell pepper (about 1 medium)
½ cup finely chopped sun dried tomatoes in olive oil
¼ cup finely chopped Kalamata olives
2 oz finely chopped spicy salami
About 2 tbsp minced Italian parsley
About 1 tsp minced fresh thyme
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt to taste (very unlikely since there’re plenty of salty ingredients)

Slice off both ends of the baguette. Using a long thin knife and working from the both ends, hollow the baguette out leaving about ½-inch thick crust all around.

Using an electric mixer beat the cream cheese until smooth and lump-free. Beat in the goat cheese and garlic. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Working again from the both ends, fill the baguette with the cheese mixture. Pack the filling tight. I like to use a slender tequila shot glass for pressing the filling in. Wrap the stuffed baguette very well in plastic and refrigerate for at least two hours and up to two days. Right before serving, slice the baguette into ½-inch thick slices and serve. For the most neat looking slices, treat it as a cheesecake – each time slice it with a hot dry knife.

*****

Now that I think about it, I think Aggie's Kitchen posted a link to it on Facebook. Perhaps in the future when I email myself recipes I should include in the email how I came across it since after having two kids I have zero memory left.

I didn't make any changes to this because I wanted to see how it turned out on its own. It definitely didn't need any salt, with the salty salami and kalamata olives it was pretty well salted. When I tasted the filling mixture it reminded me a lot of a muffuletta sandwich, so I think at some point I'm going to try making this with muffuletta ingredients and see how it turns out.

I thought I was being really smart in my preparation and threw everything into my food processor that needed to be chopped. My plan was to then add the cream cheese and goat cheese straight to the bowl of the food processor to mix it all up, but I was worried the ingredients would end up just mushing together into a paste and you wouldn't be able to tell what everything was. So after I used the food processor for chopping I threw it all in a bowl and added the goat cheese and cream cheese to that and just mixed by hand. Can you believe I don't own an electic mixer aside from my stand mixer? It's something I keep meaning to get but just never do.

I stood staring down my baguette for awhile trying to decide what to do with it exactly. I ended up cutting it in half to make it slightly more manageable for stuffing. As far as tearing the bread out from the inside, I used a serrated knife at first but then ended up using it to scrape the insides out as I found that to be a lot easier. I did use the tequila shot glass trick to compact the filling, but I was kicking myself because at some point I decided instead of stuffing from just one end I'd stuff from both so it would meet in the middle. It worked out okay, but I was worried there'd be a big empty spot in the middle where the filling wouldn't have met up with the other side, if that makes sense.

This was a big hit. Everyone really liked it. I'd recommend eating it the day of or day after preparing it so the bread doesn't get too soggy. This will definitely go into my appetizer rotation, and it's something that the filling ingredients could easily be changed up to make it a different way each time.

Barefoot Contessa's Caesar Club Sandwich

One more Barefoot Bloggers recipe that I missed posting in the correct month and finally got around to doing! I think I only have three recipes left (one of which I'm making Friday night) and then I'm fully caught up. woo hoo!! One is a cookie recipe, so I'll have to enlist the boy's help for that one as he loves to help make cookies.

Anyway, this recipe was chosen back in March by Karen of Shortbread. It's from the Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook, which was the first Ina cookbook in my collection. My sister-in-law got it for me for my birthday many years ago. This sandwich was always one I wanted to try, but I'm not sure why it's taken me this long to make it. Let's see, I got the cookbook in April 2005, so five years?! Good lord. I'm serious when I say I have a major procrastination problem. In seeing what BB recipes I'd been slacking on preparing I saw this one and figured I'd go ahead and add it to the meal plan.

Barefoot Contessa's Caesar Club Sandwich
Copyright 2006, Barefoot Contessa at Home, All Rights Reserved

2 split (1 whole) chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
Good olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces thinly sliced pancetta
1 large garlic clove, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons anchovy paste
1 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup good mayonnaise
1 large ciabatta bread
2 ounces baby arugula, washed and spun dry
12 sun-dried tomatoes, in oil
2 to 3 ounces Parmesan, shaved

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan skin side up. Rub the chicken with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until cooked through. Cool slightly, discard the skin and bones, and slice the meat thickly. Set aside.

Meanwhile, place the pancetta on another sheet pan in a single layer. Roast for 10 to 15 minutes, until crisp. Set aside to drain on paper towels.

Place the garlic and parsley in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process until minced. Add the anchovy paste, mustard, lemon juice, and mayonnaise and process again to make a smooth dressing. (Refrigerate the Caesar dressing if not using it immediately.)

Slice the ciabatta in half horizontally and separate the top from the bottom. Toast the bread in the oven, cut side up, for 5 to 7 minutes; cool slightly. Spread the cut sides of each piece with the Caesar dressing. Place half the arugula on the bottom piece of bread and then layer in order: the sun-dried tomatoes, shaved Parmesan, crispy pancetta, and sliced chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and finish with another layer of arugula. Place the top slice of ciabatta on top and cut in thirds crosswise. Serve at room temperature.

*****

I only changed things up slightly. Well, maybe a little more than slightly. I pounded out two chicken breasts so they'd be thinner and then cooked them on my grill pan instead of Ina's oven method. I also had some homemade Caesar dressing I'd made (shoot...did I ever post that? It's a Rick Bayless recipe...), so I skipped that part of the recipe and just used up what I had. And I used bacon instead of pancetta because I already had some. And I used regular tomatoes instead of sun-dried. Want in on a little secret? I'm not really a fan of sun-dried tomatoes. If they're in something and I don't have to taste them on their own, I don't mind them. But I got quite a few tomatoes from my produce co-op last week, so I went with that instead.

So, after FINALLY trying this, I'm so sad I waited five years!! This was an awesome sandwich!! We had something going on at our house on Sunday when I made this, so dinner was going to be ready really late. We ended up feeding the kids chicken nuggets, then the husband and I had this after they had eaten so as to not postpone their bedtime. Honestly I'm glad we didn't have to share it with them. We each ate a third of the sandwich, then he took the leftover piece to work for lunch the next day. This was really easy to throw together, especially since I already had Caesar dressing made up in the fridge. I foresee us having this on a regular basis over the summer when it's too hot to cook.

Ina, you've done it again!! You never cease to amaze me!!

Muffuletta

So, I was lying awake in the middle of the night last night wondering how it is I always end up getting so behind on my blog. I really have no idea because it's not like I'm not on the computer during the day (in actuality I should probably step away from the computer more often, but that's a whole other can of worms) and it's not like it really takes a long time to do. So I'm hoping that starting this week I can stay more current on updating. I noticed I'm down one follower--maybe someone got annoyed that I keep forgetting to post. :(

Anyway, I'm going back a week for this recipe. I've made it before, so I'll just post the link, but I took pictures this time so I wanted to add those in. When we were in New Orleans a few weekends ago we had grand plans to swing by Central Grocery on our way to the airport and get a muffuletta sandwich to eat on the plane, only to find out the store is closed on Sunday. D'oh! We were pretty disappointed as that was one of the top places we were most excited about eating at while we were there. Strangely enough no where at the airport sold them, so the husband had a muffuletta hankering. Even though it broke my Pantry Challenge rule for the month, I told him I'd get everything to make it for our date night dinner that Friday. Let me just say that this is not a cheap sandwich to make. But, oh, is it ever so tasty!!!

Muffuletta Sandwich

The husband was kind of worried when he saw the pile of bread on the counter that I had pulled out from the loaf, but when I explained to him that we got more sandwich that way, he was all for it. Here's the olive salad in the bread:


All wrapped up and ready for the fridge!


I used one of my bigger cookbooks to weight it down. Then I didn't think that was enough so I tied twine around it to really press it down, but I didn't take a picture of my extreme measure.


Check out all the layers!!


In actuality, I think the amount of meat could be scaled back a bit, especially since I added ham onto it too. My olive salad only sat for about six hours, and I think I had the sandwich pressed for a little over two hours. It was tasty! The husband had the wedge that was left the next day for lunch, which I'm sure was even more fantastic as that would really give the juices from the olive salad time to soak into the bread. Just typing this out and looking at the pictures makes me want another one!!

Muffuletta Sandwich

We are back from our trip to Seattle, and I have a ton of blog updating to do!! I can't remember if I had mentioned we were going up there for the LSU vs. UW football game. The husband went to LSU and is a huge Tigers fan. The game wasn't quite the blowout I expected it to be, but it was still fun. We're still a bit hoarse from all the cheering we did.

Prior to the game we had a tailgating party at my bro's house with some of his friends, my friend Jess, my mom, the husband, and my boys. We had quite a feast!! I made Aunt Holly's Gumbo, this muffuletta sandwich, and a shrimp & crab dip. My brother's friend Siri grilled salmon and made an awesome salad with mixed greens, heirloom tomatoes, chives, blue cheese, and a dressing that was kind of like a green goddess. Yum!!! Oh, and my bro had bought three dozen raw oysters. I'm telling you, it was a feast like none other!

The best muffuletta sandwiches are from Central Grocery in New Orleans, but they don't give out the recipe (trust me, I did A LOT of Googling to try and find it). I found this recipe on RecipeZaar.com and thought it sounded good and pretty similar to Central Grocery's. Actually the cookbook this is from is one I'm holding hostage from the library.

Muffuletta
Recipe #373115

Olive Salad
1 cup green olives (pitted and coarsely chopped)
1 cup black olives (pitted and coarsely chopped)
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces jarred roasted red peppers (drained and chopped fine, 1/2 cup)
4 ounces sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil (drained and chopped, 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 garlic clove, minced

Sandwich
1 large round Italian bread (or French bread)
8 ounces thinly sliced mortadella
8 ounces thinly sliced provolone cheese
8 ounces thinly sliced hard salami

For the olive salad, mix everything together. Cover and refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours.

To make the sandwich: Drain olive salad, saving the marinade. Cut the bread in half horizontally and remove most of the soft interior. Brush both inside pieces of the bread with the reserved marinade.

Place half of the olive salad in the bottom half of the hollowed-out bread. Top it with the cold cuts. Put on the rest of the olive salad. Put top half of bread on top of it all.

Wrap in plastic wrap. Put it between two dinner plates. (It might work best to turn the top plate upside down, depending on if the plates have any curvature to them or not.) Put 2 or 3 heavy cans on top of it to work as weights. (Mufuletta is pressed-down sandwich). Chill for at least 30 minutes or up to 6 hours.

To serve, unwrap and cut into wedges.

*****

I was having a hard time finding mortadella so resorted to looking for spicy bologna instead, but I ended up finding it at a fancy schmancy grocery store in the deli. I tell you, I would go broke grocery shopping if I lived in Seattle! There are so many nice grocery stores there. I also added ham to mine because I could have sworn that the muffs at Central Grocery had ham as well. This was a FANTASTIC sandwich! The husband said it was as close as he'd ever had to Central Grocery's, so I took that as a huge compliment! I ended up using a loaf of Italian bread because I couldn't find rounds anywhere. And really it could have been pressed down for longer (and with something heavier, but it was slim pickings for things at my brother's), but it was pretty freakin' awesome. I'm guessing the husband will be requesting it every now and then to get his muff fix!

Sigh...I have pics to add to this post, but they keep erroring out. What a pain! I'll post them later.