Le Creuset and an EASY Bread Recipe

This weekend my DH and I spent a day in the big city for our Valentine’s date. It was so cold at 27 degrees Fahrenheit, but we made it fun!

First off, we dropped off loan papers at the bank to start our bathroom renovations. We had planned to do this a lot earlier but stuff came up. Then came Christmas and DD and DH’s birthdays and nobody wanted the renovation going on through that! So be on the lookout for updates and plans coming soon. I will be so excited to document this here on my blog!

Then we headed to the city. I really wanted to go to the Le Creuset outlet store because when we were there last I didn’t get to look as much as I wanted. It was DD’s birthday and she didn’t want to look at kitchen stuff, lol. 🙂 On the other hand, I did. My Dad would be so proud. I wish he was still alive because he loved cooking stuff, cooking stores, gourmet stores, and any fancy European equipment was right up his alley. As a child I didn’t really care about this stuff but would go with my Dad to the cooking shop all the time. Now I totally get it. If you are going to cook for your family, why not elevate it to an art or make it special?

So, I’ve always wanted a Le Creuset Dutch oven. No big deal, a lot of people do. But they are really expensive, way too high for my normal budget and others’ as well. My hubby and I do have a Le Creuset pan that we bought (on clearance) for each other for Christmas about 8 years ago and we LOVE this pan. It makes the best steak ever.

We arrived at the store and I just planned to buy a silicone trivet and some towels, but then we saw this.

And then we saw that it was 50% off the clearance price. And then I realized that it was cheaper than most of the used Le Creuset on eBay. And I remembered that I still had my budget money left for the month. And so we bought it! YAY And it’s gorgeous! And and and and!

We spent the rest of the day obsessing over it. We planned things to cook in it as we uploaded groceries to our virtual Walmart grocery cart, visited Trader Joe’s (too expensive) and Aldi’s (much better), and went to Sur La Table. There we saw a gorgeous spring display of Le Creuset and it reminded me that our new oven’s color looks like a daffodil! We ate seafood for lunch and sandwiches and soup for dinner, then headed back home to see our kids and have a family movie night. Our date was all about cooking and food and I had the best time.

 

I found a cool bread recipe here and tried it the next day after my hubby made his secret amazing chili. (I love being married to a foodie.) Here is the bread recipe (even I don’t know the chili recipe):

No Knead, Quick Bread for a Dutch Oven

3 Cups flour
1/4 teaspoon dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 Cups HOT water

Mix ingredients, cover with plastic wrap, let rise in bowl for 3 hours. Turn dough out, scrape together and flour surface. Do not knead. Put parchment paper into bowl and dough on top. Let rise again for 30 minutes while oven and Le Creuset Dutch oven BOTH pre-heat to 450 degrees F. After preheating place parchment paper with dough on top into Dutch oven and cover with lid. Bake for 30 minutes. For a crisper crust take out parchment after baking, leave lid off and return to oven for 10 more minutes. Ta-Da!

 

We have Girl Scout camp in April and I am thinking of trying this with our old camping cast iron Dutch oven. This year each Mom/Daughter is in charge of their own food. I’m going to try to be adventurous!

With love and the smell of baking bread on Kansas Street to you,

-Jaime