Fajitas, French-style bread with dipping oil and Sweet Corn Soup

First up, a delicious fajita combo that makes for a quick and easy dinner.  Slice up some steak (or chicken if you'd rather), onions and green peppers with a splash of oil, salt, peppers, chili powder, paprika, bouillon, onion powder, minced garlic, cayenne pepper and cumin.  Load into a small tortilla with avocado slices and sour cream (I may have overdone it a little...), and you've got yourself a good dinner.

Next up, a french-style bread and a couple ideas for dipping sauces.  For the dough, start off by combining 3C warm water, 2C bread flour, 2C whole wheat flour, 2T honey and 2.25T activated yeast into a well-mixed soup, and let rise for about an hour.  Mix in about 2.5C bread flour, 1C whole wheat flour and 4t salt, then kneed well.  Let rise another hour, then form into loaves.  To make the loaves (I made 3 loaves out of this recipe that each can serve 2-4 people) stretch the dough into a square, roll tightly and pinch the seams.  Let rise another 30 minutes to an hour, then slash the loaf and bake at 425 for 10 minutes and then turn the oven down to 375 for another 35 minutes or until nicely browned.  Wonderful right out of the oven, especially dipped in olive oil with Balsamic vinegar, Parmesan cheese, fresh herbs or garlic.

Finally, a tasty sweet corn soup.  Boil 4C milk, 4C chicken stock, 6-12 ears of fresh sweet corn with the kernels cut off, 2t salt, 1t sugar half an onion, 5T butter, 1T flour, pepper, cumin, cayenne pepper, cardamom and salt in a stockpot for about an hour, then puree with an immersion blender until the desired consistency.

French Bread and Awesome Scrambled Eggs

Today I've got a basic french bread recipe that is pretty easy to make and adds some class to a meal, as well as my version of scrambled eggs that taste pretty awesome.

First, the French bread. To make the dough, combine 3C all-purpose flour, 2.5t yeast, 3/4t salt and 1C warm water. mix and kneed for about 10 minutes, then let rise for an hour or two. Then, roll or stretch out into a largish rectangle, and roll up from a wide end. Moisten the edge with water to seal it, taper the edges and place onto a lightly cornmeal'd pan. If you want a lightly brown and glossy top like in my picture, brush lightly beaten egg whites on top. Then, cut 3-4 about 1cm deep slices into the top of the bread and bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top. This is best right out of the oven and, once sliced into, will begin to become stale rather quickly. I made a dipping sauce for this out of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, red pepper, black pepper, oregano, rosemary, basil, parsley, garlic powder and minced garlic, and it was fantastic. Based on http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/French-Bread/Detail.aspx

Next, my version of scrambled eggs. This is largely personal preference, but I make them by combining 3 eggs, about 1.5t each of basil, oregano and thyme, and about 1.5T Parmesan. Whisk well, then cook on high heat. When the eggs are beginning to become differentiated, take the pan off the heat for about 15 seconds while still stirring. This makes them fluffier for some reason. Then, continue cooking until they are 97% done and put them on a plate; they will finish with their internal heat.