20 Oct
Chili… On a Chilly Fall Day
Posted by Chelle as Beef, Mexican | 11 Comments
Fall seems to have taken a permanent hold over the last few weeks and as a result, I’ve been craving a warm and hearty comfort meal full of flavor. What cures that craving better than a big bowl of chili that has slowly simmered for hours? Not much, right? I have only ever made one other version of chili, which is the one my mom made growing up. While it’s certainly a great meal, it’s not quite authentic - it doesn’t contain much in the way of seasonings and includes rice. So I went off in search of a more traditional chili recipe.
18 Oct
French Toast
Posted by Chelle as Breakfast | 14 Comments
Honest to goodness, custard-drenched, authentic French toast. I told you I was going to make good use of that Challah I made!
I eat French toast pretty often, but it’s usually nothing close to the sweet sensation that I cooked up this morning. I typically keep it pretty light and healthy - wheat bread, a couple of eggs whisked together with a splash of milk, quick dip, and then browned on the skillet. This, however, is so incredibly decadent, has such a rich flavor, and so sweet that I would argue that the syrup could be optional. Crazy, right??
16 Oct
World Bread Day: Challah
Posted by Chelle as Yeast Breads & Baked Goods | 14 Comments
Once again the wonderful Zorra has coordinated a celebration of the World Bread Day, asking bloggers from all over the globe to bake, buy, or photograph bread and blog about it today. World Bread Day is an event created by the UIB (International Union of Bakers and Bakers-Confectioners) in an effort to provide an opportunity to talk about bread and bakers, to find out about their history, their importance, as well as their future.
In the spirit of what World Bread Day is all about, I decided to bake a bread that symbolizes a history and heritage that I am unfamiliar with, in an effort to learn more about it. Challah is a special braided bread eaten by some groups of Jews on the Sabbath and holidays. According to Jewish tradition, Sabbath and holiday meals begin with a blessing over two loaves of bread. This “double loaf” commemorates the manna that fell from the heavens when the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years after the Exodus from Egypt. The manna did not fall on the Sabbath or on holidays; instead a double portion fell before the Sabbath and holidays. See, I learned something new! 
15 Oct
Apple Hand Pies
Posted by Chelle as Pastries, Pies/Tarts | 20 Comments
Apple Pie: rustic, flaky, tart, and spicy. The most iconic of American traditions.
These marvelous little pies package up the best parts of apple pie, eliminate a lot of the work, and deliver scrumptious, addictive fruit-wrapped-in-crust that can be stowed away in your pocket for safe keeping. Hand pies have been making their way around the blog universe since the beginning of summer, it seems, and I’ve been meaning to make them but never quite got around to it. So when Annie asked if I was interested in making the Bourbon Peach Hand Pies that were featured on smitten kitchen, I was intrigued. While I’m not much of a peach fan, I figured I could use Deb’s dough recipe and sub in my own apple filling, which is what I did.
These hand pies are a fantastic option for changing up the traditional slice of pie and ice cream and would be especially welcome as a dessert at an outdoor gathering or one that included small children. And really, for the kid in all of us - what’s much better than a slice of apple pie that you can pick up and carry around with you?
13 Oct
Housekeeping - Some New Features
Posted by Chelle as Uncategorized | 3 Comments
Hey everyone, I have done a tiny bit of housekeeping here on Brown Eyed Baker and wanted to share some of the new features with you. Nothing earth shattering, but a few changes that I hope will improve your experience when you come to visit!
If you check out my category listings to the right you’ll see some changes, which are most notably around all of the bread here on the blog. I now have separate categories for Quick Breads, which includes muffins and scones, and Yeast Breads, which also includes other baked goods that use yeast such as bagels, cinnamon rolls, and the like. While yeast rolls will still be cross referenced in Yeast Breads, I also have a separate category broken out for rolls and biscuits. I hope that this new break out of categories makes browsing easier and you all have an easier time finding what you’re looking for!
At the end of each post is now a button that will enable you to share and bookmark the content found in the blog. The button looks like this:
When you click it a menu will come up that will give you a whole host of choices - you can bookmark that post, email it to a friend, or share it on a variety of social networking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook, MySpace, and others.
If you are a member of Facebook, you can now join the Brown Eyed Baker page and receive updates, view photos, and take part in discussions about what you like and don’t like about the blog, how I can make improvements, and connect with other readers. Click Here to go to the Brown Eyed Baker page and click “Become a Fan”.
Finally, I have created a photostream on Flickr, which you can view here. If you just looooove my pictures (hey, they’re improving!) you can subscribe to the photostream so you are alterted whenever a new photo is uploaded.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all find the changes useful and exciting.
Happy Monday!
