BREAD ART FEATURE: PETITPLAT MINIATURES

Today I was wandering around the web like normal and I do not remember how but I landed on Etsy - the site where people can sell their handmade items and on the front page was a picture of a plate of bread. I did not know exactly what the item was but when I clicked on it ... it opened up a completely new pocket of interest for me that I did not even know I had. MINIATURES!


How cute the replicas are of our enormous lives!

Here is some information about the artist that I found during my online travels and now I am sharing them with you so that you can feel creative enough to pull out that stash of polymer clay and get to work! LOL

PetitPlat started in 2009 after the founder, Stephanie, went on a search for a new hobby! She ran across some miniatures and it instantly brought back childhood memories of playing with Barbie and miniature plastic foods. PetitPlat features very realistic replicas of the foods we enjoy everyday like waffles, cupcakes, ice cream, sandwiches, and of course the "Breads on Bakers Tray" (featured in pictures). Stephanie creates each piece by hand and there are no two pieces alike. Please visit PetitPlat's website and Etsy site for more information and to shop.

PetitPlat
http://www.petitplat.fr/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PetitPlat

CRUSTY & WARM FEELINGS

When you hear the word "baguette,” what do you think of? I know that I instantly think about a warm piece of bread that is crusty on the outside, soft, and warm on the inside. YUM!

Feelings can be sort of like this and when we are dealing with conflict I think, it is important to get familiar with your personal baguette of feelings! :-)

So when you get mad what comes out? Is it anger, resentment, hate, fear, frustration, mistrust, passivity, blame, or what about jealousy?  When we are angry at someone what are we really feeling on the inside that makes us lash out with the crusty feelings? Things like love, disappointment, pain, fear, regret, sadness, rejection, insecurity, or hopelessness are some things that come to mind.

If we take a moment to think about a time when we allowed our crusty feelings to take over and lead us through a conflict that ended with hurt feelings... go back in your mind and think about how you were really feeling. Were you disappointed that someone hurt you?  And instead of stating that you were disappointed, you lashed out and yelled at him or her about how he or she is "always" doing something to you!

Anyway - I know I have had my share of crusty arguments but I think going forward I will attempt to deal with my conflicts better by getting to know myself better and getting in touch with my warm center and then letting the warm and soft feelings come out when I am trying to resolve or prevent a conflict!

Now what will you think of when you hear the word "baguette"?

10 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SPAGHETTI

Spaghetti is so easy to make that I found myself making it at least once a week for dinner. Week after week, the spaghetti is exactly the same. Here are 10 easy tips to spruce up your spaghetti and make it a hit gain during your dinnertime!

1. Pair with a side of bread :-) ~ do not just add a simple piece of frozen Texas toast as your side of bread. Go to your local grocery store bakery and purchase a fresh loaf of focaccia bread. Cut the bread in slices, butter, add slivers of garlic to the top and cover with slices of mozzarella cheese and put under broiler until cheese has melted and bread is lightly toasted.

2. Salsa ~ Make your spaghetti as normal and add 1 cup (per 1LBS of ground beef) of your favorite salsa to your pasta sauce.

3. Pepperoni ~ this is my favorite way to quickly improve my spaghetti. Pepperonis are a little spicy and add a nice kick to your dish. They do not need to be cooked therefore the pepperonis can be added to your meat and sauce mix until they are heated through.

4. Noodle Switch-a-roonie ~ Try changing the noodle to tortellini or ravioli. If you are not super daring or do not want “stuffed” noodles then try a penne or rigatoni noodle. Changing the noodle shape will not change the taste but it can improve the presentation and the texture of your pasta dish.

5. Shredded Cheese Bake ~ Follow your regular spaghetti recipe. Stir the noodles, sauce and meet together and pour into an oven safe dish, cover with 1 cup of your favorite shredded cheese and bake until cheese has melted. (I recommend a pizza or taco blend)

6. Velveeta Bake~ Follow your regular spaghetti recipe. When finished pour into an oven safe dish. In saucepan, mix Velveeta cheese, milk, and butter over medium heat. When everything has melted pour the Velveeta, milk and butter mix over the spaghetti mix. Bake until cheese is slightly brown.

7. Upgrade Sauce ~ if you are currently using a canned spaghetti sauce then this is definitely for you. Do not get me wrong there are some good pasta sauces in a can however; I find that the best tasting sauces are on the top shelves and in the glass jars. If you are really daring try jarred pasta sauce that cost more than $4.00 per 16-ounce jar. If you are not daring enough to spend the extra money then at least try a new flavor like a vodka sauce or a sundried tomato mix.

8. Meatballs ~ Meatballs can be troublesome and time consuming to make so I recommend going to the grocery store and purchasing a bag of frozen mini meatballs. They usually need to be baked in the oven. While they are heating up your noodles can be boiling and sauce can be heat up. The meatballs do have lots of flavor so use seasonings that compliment the flavor of the meatball. You can assemble each dish of spaghetti with noodles, sauce, then top with meatballs.

9. Italian Sausage / Bacon ~ Cook sausage and bacon with your ground beef and continue with your normal process - You may need more sauce to compensate for the additional meat.

10. Vegetables ~ add olives, mushrooms, green peppers, squash, peas, or carrots are some good veggies to start with.

Tonight for dinner, I upgraded my spaghetti by following my regular recipe. I added green peppers, onions to 1 LBS of ground beef added pasta sauce to the cooked meat (replacing my normal Barilla Pasta Sauce (around $2.00) with Mids Italian Sausage pasta sauce (on sale for $4.49), and I used whole-wheat rigatoni noodles. After I mixed the meat, pasta sauce, and noodles I put everything in an oven-safe casserole dish, added a layer of pepperoni, covered that layer with shredded taco blend cheese, and baked for 15 minutes until the cheese was nice and yummy! Therefore, with just a few extra dollars and a 10 more minutes I incorporated tips 3, 5, 7, 10.

How will you spruce up your next spaghetti dinner?

FUDGY BROWNIES EVERY TIME

For years, my brownies have been coming out inconsistent. I tried turning the oven down, changing the pan, greasing the pan -- EVERYTHING and nothing seemed to work until someone shared a secret ingredient to add to the batter of the brownies. So what is the secret ingredient, you ask? Miracle Whip ®

By adding a tablespoon of Miracle Whip ® to your brownie batter, your brownies will come out rich and fudgy every time. I prefer the Betty Crocker brand brownie mix but you can use your favorite! Just follow the directions on the package add the tablespoon of Miracle Whip ® to the batter and continue with the directions.

ENJOY A SIDE OF BREAD TODAY!

5 RESTAURANTS THAT OFFER A FREE SIDE OF BREAD

Going out to eat can be really expensive so it is always nice when a restaurant is generous and offers free bread. Here is a list of my 5 favorite restaurants that offers a free side of bread:

1. Brios Tuscan Grille is one of my favorite restaurants and their breadbasket is a combination of sour dough bread and flaxseed crackers.
2. Spaghetti Warehouse is an Italian restaurant that offers sour dough bread with garlic butter that is out of this world. You can buy the loaves of bread for any occasion. The loaves can be frozen and prepared whenever you are ready to use them.
3. Buca Di Beppo brings out Italian loaf bread that is nice and soft but not so good eaten plain but when they add the mixture of olive oil and balsamic vinegar then all of a sudden you find yourself fighting your tablemate for the last piece in between the server bringing a new loaf.
4. Romano's Macaroni Grill has bread that they call pheasant bread, a white bread that has rosemary in it.
5. Outback Steakhouse serves a dark rye bread that is called honey bushman bread has a little sweetness. It is YUMMY!

ENJOY A SIDE OF BREAD TODAY!

DINNER CAN BE INSPIRATIONAL & YUMMY WITH A SIDE OF BREAD!

Welcome to my new blog. Watching a movie about a famous food blog, I was inspired to start one myself. The movie highlighted the importance of following one’s passion and so that is what I set out to do. The title of my blog “A SIDE OF BREAD” was inspired by last night’s dinner.

I made jambalaya and even though that may be considered a complete meal, I could not help but to try to pair it up with a side of bread. I knew I did not want just plain sliced wheat bread with butter so I started looking for an instant box of corn bread that I could whip up fast. When looking for the corn bread I passed a canister of corn meal – determined to find an easy solution I still pushed things from left to right front to back looking for a package that I never found. Therefore, I decided to look at the corn meal canister and the first of several recipes was “Easy Corn Bread” --- I quickly scanned the ingredients and was happy to note that I had all the ingredients I needed in the house already.

The corn bread turned out to be super soft and yummy! I like my corn bread with a little more sugar than the recipe called for but following the recipe, exactly I found that the extra sweetness could come from butter once the bread has finished baking. Here is the recipe courtesy of Quaker Corn Meal ~

INGREDIENTS

1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 egg
1 1/4 cups of Quaker Cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)

ALEESHA'S ADDED INGREDIENT

Butter (not optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 400ºF. Grease bottom and side of round pan, 9x1 1/2 inches, or square pan, 8x8x2 inches.
2. Beat milk, butter and egg in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients all at once just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Pour batter into pan.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
4. This is the good part ... Add butter to top of bread while still hot and let sit for at least 2 minutes so that it can become one with the bread ;-)

ENJOY A SIDE OF BREAD TODAY!