Ladderloaf Bread

I also made ladderloaf bread for our Christmas celebrations. The grown ups handled the real cooking so us "kids" got to bring whatever food we wanted. This was my first foray into bread making, which I found that I enjoy! I love carbs (bread and pasta) so making them is especially gratifying.

This bread starts out pretty easy. You just need a breadmaker. Just dump the following ingredients into the breadmaker and set it on the dough cycle.

1/2 cups milk

1 large egg

1 tbs margarine

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups bread flour

4 tsp sugar

1.5 tsp Fleischmann's Bread Machine Yeast

Once the dough's done, divide it in half and roll it out on a floured surface.

I like having a salty filling, but the bread machine book had a sweet date mixture. For my filling, you thinly slice up some green onions, add olive oil, and a pinch of salt. I don't have exact measurements for this - just have enough olive oil to make the green onions wet, but. not so much that they're swimming in oil.

Spoon the filling down the center of the dough and leave about 2 inches on either side. Make cuts across the side of the dough about an inch apart and then fold them over each other, as if you're braiding it. It should look something like this:

Then it's time to let the dough rise. Turn on your oven for a minute at the lowest setting, then turn it off and put the cookie sheet in. Let it sit in there for about 30-35 minutes until it "doubles in size". Mine didn't really double in size, but it did get noticeably larger.

Finally, take it back out and brush some egg on the top so it'll look pretty when it's done. I also sprinkled on sesame seeds. Then just bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Californian Rolls

First off, the date is actually February 16, 2011. I just like going back in time! Just kidding, I can't really do that... yet. But I started trying to learn how to cook and bake around Christmas time so I figured I'd start with the food I made then. It was my transition period between graduating from college and beginning graduate school so I had some free time on my hands. Plus, learning to cook is good because I love to eat.

I started off easy with something I've made several times before - Californian rolls! I absolutely detest seafood so my "sushi" aren't sushi. But they are delicious, fun to make, and require no cooking.

Well, gosh darn. I just realized I didn't save the recipe anywhere. I'm taking a recipe for sushi rice off the internet but need to update this once I go home and get the actual recipe from my mom.

3 cups of cooked rice

1/3 cup vinegar

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Mix it all together and you're good to go.

Next, you need your seaweed paper (which real chefs call nori sheets), bamboo mat, damp cloth (I'm not positive why this is needed), and filling. I like to use 1 package of imitation crab meat, a little over 1 cucumber, and a large avocado.

Put your damp cloth down with the bamboo mat on top. The nori sheets gets put down and topped with rice. Be sure to leave some space on the top without rice because you don't want rice squeezing out the top. It gets messy and sticky, trust me. Then line your toppings along the bottom and roll the mat and cloth tightly. I like to do make a full circle with the nori around the toppings, squeeze tightly (but not too much or the avocado will come shooting out the ends), and then continue the rolling/squeezing process slowly until it's one long tube of sushi.

So this is what it should look like. The ends aren't too pretty, which is perfectly fine with me because I just eat them :) Cut into sushi-size chunks with a wet knife (it keeps the rice from sticking to the blade).

And voila! Californian rolls! A slightly odd addition to Christmas lunch! Enjoy with soy sauce and wasabi.