This bread used the basic strait dough method I previously described. The recipe diverges from the herb bread by first omitting the 2 tablespoons of herbs and adding about 4-6 table spoons of sun dried tomatoes diced very fine with about 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil (or in my case, I just threw those together in a food processor and pulsed until they were chopped enough). The baking time was very close to 40 minutes at 375 on a cast iron griddle pan.

Thanks to Nicole for the suggestion of drying all the extra grape tomatoes that were left over this season!

In my original discussion of making tomato pesto, I explained how little effort there was. Now I will show you.

This video is not edited in so far as i have not cut out segments. However, the duration was 60 minutes and no one likes to watch a pot boil so I sped it up a bit … 60 times is more accurate. Thus, the hour long process takes about a minute!

For those more interested in how I produced the video than the making of the pesto, here is the trick …

Using ffmpeg, grab every 60th frame. Store these in a temporary directory. Then, use ffmpeg again to take those frames and make them back into a movie. You could use the second step to make a time lapse movie of almost anything – in place of the video frames, you’d just use photos from your digital camera.

ffmpeg -i orignial-video.avi -r 1/60 -f image2 temporary-dir/%05d.png
ffmpeg -i temporary-dir/%05d.png final-video.avi

If you like coffee ice cream but are finding it increasingly difficult to find or wished there was some creativity involved, you might like to try this alternative …

Take 1oz of warm water and add 8-10 tablespoons of instant coffee. Let it chill in the refrigerator. When ready, get yourself a bowl of good ice cream and drizzle a little of the coffee syrup on top. Warning – if you don’t plan to mix it in, be sparing. If you’re inclined to swirl it all together, you can add considerably more syrup with out it being bitter!

A few years ago I practiced the art of grilling steak outdoors. Now, with the new kitchen, I am revisiting steak but as an indoor sport. Here is what I have thus far …

Ruth’s Chris, the restaurant chain, is renowned for their steaks and more than one home cook has taken to reproducing the cooking results. Here is the simplest description I have found:

Broiling steak in a Wolf stove

We use NY strips from Costco. I rub on Costco’s steak seasoning mix and let the steaks sit for at least an hour beforehand in the fridge. Heat butter in a cast-iron skillet on the Wolf’s range top (medium high), add the steak(s), searing around 3 minutes per side. Flip once more and finish under the infrared broiler (I think I do use the second rack, actually) for about 4 minutes and then let the steak “sit” unheated in the skillet for a couple more minutes before serving. Perfect medium rare steak with crust! No need to leave the door ajar while broiling in the Wolf range’s oven.

source: chowhound board

This is pretty accurate and the process can work with any stove. If you don’t have an infrared broiler, one commenter suggests setting the oven to 350 degrees.

I took a #8 cast iron pan and heated it to medium high and quickly melted about 1TBS of butter. I used cheap cut of meat* about 11oz and 1-1/4″ thick. I seared it in the pan for about 2-3 minutes a side and as instructed above, flipped it back to the first side before popping the entire pan in the oven. The (infrared) broiler was already hot and the pan was on the middle rack. I left it in for about 4-5 minutes. I then removed it and left it in the pan for another 4 minutes and onto the plate. It was medium rare in the middle and medium at the edges. The next time I do it I will leave it in the oven for 7-10 minutes and will also try using a 350 degree oven at some point so I have a method that will work in other kitchens.

* cheap cut of meat = I took a 3-1/2 lb boneless chuck roast that was about 2-1/2″ thick. I cut it in half and the cut each half butterfly style to I had 4 steaks, each a little over an inch thick. I then liberally salted all sides with kosher salt, stacked them up and wrapped them in some butcher’s paper and put them back into the refrigerator. I then froze all but one which I used after 12 hours. You don’t need much more than a couple of hours in contact with the salt but I wanted to experiment with time to see if it would work to prep the meat at breakfast and cook it at dinner.

As my bread making continues, I want to share most of it – in part to prevent from eating it all ! When I make a standard loaf, that only yields one loaf and thus giving it to one recipient. To spread that home cooked goodness a bit further, my mother told me of an old trick …

After the dough has been punched down and is ready to go into the loaf pan, separate it into two equal balls of dough and apply just a little oil to the outside. Then, place them into the loaf pan together. When they rise and then bake, the loaf bakes like a full size loaf but when it comes out, is can be separated into two halves. This lets me give to two people – or more often – keep one, and give one away.

While I could use smaller pans, I like this solution because it does not change my baking temp or time.