Beef...it's what's for dinner...

Misnomer alert!!! Actually it was chicken soup made with homemade beef broth...close enough. It turned out great, though. The original plan was to make chicken soup with chicken broth (stands to reason), however, I had a leftover beef bone from a roast we had for dinner the other night and I was boiling it at the same time. So, given my affinity towards efficiency (no laughing those that know me), I decided to kill 2 birds (fitting cliche) with 1 stone. Hence, chicken beef broth soup. I had made a roux and added it to the beef broth along with the grilled chicken, carrots, celery, orzo, and cannellini beans. I seasoned with rosemary, thyme, cumin, dried cilantro, garlic, black pepper, and salt. Very nice, hearty, soothing, etc. I realize that a post about what we had for dinner may seem boring at first, but I can promise you...it is...kidding, it gets better. I'm actually posting a simple rustic bread recipe I baked on my baking/pizza stone. Pics to prove it will be provided...


Simple Crusty Bread

Time: About 45 minutes plus about 3 hours’ resting and rising

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt

6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough

Cornmeal.

1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).

2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.

3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.

4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

As a side note, I did use the convection setting at 450°...

All that for a simple bread recipe! Well worth it! This bread is very easy, 4 ingredients, gotta love it. I'll attach a link to the pizza stone below. It's the best one I've had. It works great for the bread, pizzas, etc, and it just stays in the oven. I tried to skimp and go to an outdoor stone place and have them cut one for me, which worked for a time, but eventually cracked. I think if I had seasoned it, like the instructions for my current one said to do, maybe it would have lasted longer. Anyway, I highly recommend the one I now have. Here you go: http://bakingstone.com/home.php

Buon Appetito!