One Out Of Two

D-Licious here again to update you on my recipes at the last Real Women Eat Cook-n-Critique. What a beautiful day we had for our get together. Cupcake and Saucy did such a beautiful table decor as you can see in the pictures. They even gave us each a set of recipe cards. These ladies, who happen to be my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, always know how to make you feel welcome and special.

Now on to my recipes. I had a hard time deciding between two recipes so I did them both. I wasn't sure if this was because I was very brave or very ignorant since my "theme" was yeast. I know so many women are afraid of it. I used to be one of them. I have learned that yeast is nothing to be scared of. It's just another ingredient. My first recipe was called Chunky Cheese Bread. I made this recipe because the writer puts in the heading below the recipe: "Bold to say but I believe true: This recipe alone is worth the price of the book". Well, that made me very interested in trying it out. After the dough was ready I was instructed to roll it up into a jellyroll. Okay, I think to myself, I can do this. I've made cinnamon rolls many times and this sounds familiar. Then I was to cut the jellyroll into thick slices. No problem. Then it said to cut them again in half, basically into odd-sized chunks. I'm sure some of you think this is no big deal. What I didn't tell you was that the dough had been covered with cheddar cheese before it was rolled up. Well, if you haven't figured out my problem by now I'll tell you. Cheese everywhere! I had pressed it into the dough before rolling like the recipe asked me to do, but it didn't help. I had to literally scoop up cheese from my (Clean!) countertop and put it back into the ball of dough and then pinch each chunk to ensure I didn't loose the cheese. What a pain! Another problem I had was that I had quite a bit of dough left over. It wasn't enough to make a whole third loaf, but I threw it into another loaf pan just to bake. For me, it was too "yeasty" tasting. No other flavors really other than a very salty crust (it called for seasoned or garlic salt; I used seasoned). My husband came home as I was about to leave for Cupcake and Saucy's house and was quite happy when I told him that he and my father-in-law could eat the third loaf. He took two large pieces which I found out later ended up being tossed. He was so relieved to find out that we weren't fans of this bread either since they had secretly tossed it over the fence so as not to hurt my feelings. The baking time on this bread was also a little off. It said to leave it in for 35 to 40 minutes. I took mine out at 28 minutes. Sadly, this recipe will not make it to my recipe folder.

My next recipe was Double Garlic Fougasse. I have always wanted to make a focaccia bread and I am totally in love with garlic so I had to try this out. It was fantastic! It was so yummy and garlicky! There were a lot of steps to follow in this recipe, but well worth the effort. The only negative thing I can say would be that the top was done well before the inside was completely baked so I had to add foil for the last 10 minutes. All in all, a great recipe. It will definitely find it's way to my dinner table again. In fact, I know that Saucy and Cupcake have already made a batch of this bread to go with their spaghetti dinner. This recipe is definitely a winner.

We had such a great time getting together again and trying out our recipes. If you've got 1 spare day a month, you really ought to get some girlfriends or family members together and each cook or bake and get together and eat. You will have the most fun and make many happy memories.