Zemiakové Placky

These yummy potato pancakes come from our Slovakian friend, Daniela Lečková. Serves 4.

8 potatoes (can use half zucchini)
2 eggs (may need more)
2 teaspoons marjoram
8 cloves of garlic, minced
black pepper (to taste)
salt (to taste)
paprika (to taste, perhaps 1 teaspoon)
4 tablespoons flour

1. Grate the potatoes (and zucchini) into a big mixing bowl. 
2. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
3. Heat olive oil in hot skillet. 
4. Spoon potato mixture into skillet and flatten into pancakes. Cook like pancakes (although you need more oil than you do for pancakes).

Eat plain or with the condiment of your choice (sour cream, ketchup, cheese, etc.). You can also mix crumbled bacon into the batter, if you want.

Delicious White Bread

This recipe comes from the Pillsbury Complete Cookbook, by way of my friend Verna. Verna's bread ROCKS! It's moist soft and perfectly delicious. This recipe makes 2 loaves of bread. If you get 18 slices from a loaf (yeah, good luck), then each slice has 90 calories.

5 to 6 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 packages active dry yeast
2 cups water (Verna uses 1 cup water, 1 cup milk)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter, melted

1. In large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast. Mix well. In small saucepan, heat water (and milk, if using) and oil until very warm. Add warm liquid to flour mixture, blending at low speed until moistened. Beat 3 minutes at medium speed. By hand, stir in additional 2 1/2 to 3 cups flour until dough pulls cleanly away from sides of bowl.
2. On floured surface, knead in 1/2 to 1 cup flour until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl, cover loosely with greased plastic wrap and cloth towel. Let rise in warm place (80 to 85 degrees) until light and doubled in size (45 to 60 minutes).
3. Grease two 8x4 or 9x5-inch loaf pans. (Verna uses glass pans.) Punch down dough several times to remove all air bubbles. Divide dough in half; shape into loaves. Place in greased pans. Cover; let rise in warm place until dough fills pans and tops of loaves are 1 inch above pan edges (30-35 minutes).
4. Heat oven to 375. Uncover dough. Bake 40-50 minutes (Verna says it's more like 25 minutes) or until loaves sound hollow when lightly tapped. Immediately remove from pans and place on wire racks. Brush with melted butter. Cool 1 hour or until completely cooled.

Breadsticks

After first rise time, punch down dough and shape into 32 eight inch breadsticks. Place on greased cookie sheets and brush with beaten egg white. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size. Bake at 400 for 14 minutes. (I haven't tested the time.)

5-Minute Fudge Brownies

This recipe comes from 100 Days of Real Food. (Thanks to my friend Tracie for the tip!) And note that 5 minutes refers just to the mixing time and does not include time spent baking.

Serves: 16 squares

¾ cup sugar
½ cup whole wheat flour (I used white whole-wheat flour)
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I highly prefer the "super dark" variety)
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 stick (1/2 cup) melted butter, plus a little extra for greasing
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life mini chips, see note above)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease a 8X8 or 9X9 square baking dish with a little melted butter (a pastry brush makes this job super easy).
2. In a large mixing bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. Make a well (hole) in the center and drop in the butter, eggs, and vanilla extract. Mix together thoroughly and then fold in the chocolate chips with a rubber spatula. (See I told you this would be quick and easy!)
3. Add the brownie batter to the baking dish and use the spatula to flatten out the top into one even layer. Bake for about 30 minutes and let cool before slicing into squares (if you can control yourself enough to wait - ha)! Enjoy.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake

This recipe comes from the blog 100 Days of Real Food. (Thanks to my friend Tracie for the tip!) This version is adapted from the original Williams-Sonoma recipe.

Serves: 14-16 generous servings

1 cup whole-wheat flour, organic pastry or white winter wheat recommended
1 cup all purpose white or cake flour (or can sub whole-wheat flour), organic recommended
½ cup unsweetened "dark" cocoa powder
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 ¼ cups sugar, organic recommended
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups water
2 eggs, organic recommended
⅔ cup oil (I recommend melted butter or coconut oil)
2 tablespoons vanilla
Butter for greasing pan(s)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Generously grease two 9-inch round cake pans or other sized baking dish.
2. In a large bowl whisk together dry ingredients including flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, sugar and salt.
3. Make a well (hole) in the middle of the dry ingredients and drop in the water, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Mix by hand with whisk until well blended.
4. Distribute batter evenly into the two cake 9-inch pans and bake for 18 – 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes clean. Let cool before adding frosting.