By Jomay Steen

As I have been trying to stay on a self-imposed budget, the online money advisers continue to recommend to “save a little bread, you gotta make some dough.”
(My editor hates that last line. Admittedly, it is a bunch of bankers talking cute.)
There’s something to be said about smooshing gobs of sticky dough over and over onto itself before popping it into a bowl to let it “rest.” While all that’s going on, I have finished my version of aerobics and taken out most of my aggression on bread dough rather than the person sitting next to me.
The best news, according to these bankers, the price of batch of biscuits or loaf of focaccia or no-knead bread is about 30 cents. I have included one wonderful biscuit recipe and some other bread recipes to help start out the college fund.

Mile-High Biscuits
3 cups sifted flour
2 tablespoons sugar
4-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt in bowl. Cut in shortening with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. In another bowl, combine egg and milk. Add flour mixture all at once, stirring just enough to make a soft dough that sticks together.
Turn onto floured surface. Knead lightly 15 times. Roll into 1-inch thickness and cut with floured 2-inch cutter and place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake in 450 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Makes 16.

Chef Sara Moulton, one of my favorite cooking personalities, offered these two recipes on her cooking segment of Good Morning America. I tried them at home with surprisingly good results.
No-Fuss Focaccia
Makes 1 loaf
Time: 2 to 3 hours.
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus additional for oiling the pan and drizzling the top of the dough
1-1/2 cups (12 ounces) warm water
1 tablespoon instant yeast or 4 teaspoons (2 packets) active dry yeast
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
3-1/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour (I used regular flour)
Italian seasoning or dried herbs of your choice, for topping
Oil well a 9- x 2-inch-deep round or a 9- x 13-inch rectangular pan.
Combine the water with the yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the oil, salt and flour and beat on high speed for 60 seconds. Scoop the sticky batter into the prepared pan, cover the pan with a dry towel and let it rise at room temperature until it becomes puffy, 60 minutes for instant yeast or 90 minutes for active dry yeast.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Drizzle dough lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle with Italian seasoning. Bake the bread until it is golden brown, 35 to 45 minutes (depending on which size pan you put it in). Remove from oven, let stand 5 minutes, then turn it out of the pan onto a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Recipe courtesy of King Arthur Flour.

No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery, NYC
Makes one 1-1/2-pounds loaf.
Time: About 1-1/2 hours, plus 14 to 20 hours rising
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
1-5/8 cups water
Corn meal or wheat bran, as needed
In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1-5/8 cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Recipe courtesy of Mark Bittman, The Minimalist, New York Times, Published: Nov. 8, 2006.

By Crystal Hohenthaner
Journal staff

My pastor will be having all the single young adults from our church over to his house next Friday and I offered to help with the food — and now I need the help of all of you creative foodies out there.

We have decided to have tacos for the main dish, which should be easy and we will be able to have some people bring a little something without actually cooking. You know, sour cream, salsa, shredded cheese, lettuce, tortillas and so on.

At first I thought this was a brilliant idea (because it was my idea), but now I find myself hard-pressed to think of any good sides. My mom has offered to whip up a batch of fiesta rice salad for the event — which will be great — but I can’t really think of any other mexican food that you wouldn’t just put on the tacos.

I’m thinking of things like guacamole and queso dip, but what else can we serve with the tacos? Oh, and I’m thinking we might want a good dessert to go along with it all too.

Help me people, I’ve got nothing.

By Tanya Manus

Looking for a good recipe? Put down your cookbook and give YouTube a try.
In my last blog entry, I included a link to a YouTube cook who prepared rhubarb crumble. Finding that video peaked my curiousity. I started hunting for other cooking videos on YouTube and was entertained for hours.
I was surprised by the number, and variety, of home cooks who want to be the next Food Network star. Instead, they have settled for sharing their favorite recipes and cooking tips on YouTube.
There are serious cooks who really want to share their prized recipes - chicken fajitas seem to be a favorite with YouTube users. See a video where the camera zooms in, blurrily, on each secret spice. Watch a young guy carefully and precisely telling you just the right way to slice the veggies. See chicken or beef being chopped and stirred in a pan until it’s just right.
Not a fajita fan? Keep watching. A series of downhome, lighthearted Trailer Park Cooking videos take you into the kitchen of Jolene, who cooks up Baked Donut Pudding, Chocolate Beet Brownies and other artery-clogging stuff.
And in a video that was just too weird to finish, called Pretty Intense Cooking Lesson, a girl in a red silk robe and sunglasses holding an apple and a cleaver was getting ready to do … something. I didn’t stick around to find out what.
Several videos give Web site addresses where you can buy spice blends, trinkets or find printouts of the recipes. I followed one link from a lady who calls herself Auntie Nora. Her Web site is wellwhatnow.com, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that her recipes are quick and proportioned to only make enough for one or two people. This is great news for those of us who are single and get tired of eating the same casserole eight times in a row!
She, like so many on YouTube, has a recipe for Chicken Fajitas. Watch her make it, then try this at home.
Go to http://youtube.com/watch?v=GXHXT8sBsCI

5-Minute Cooking with Auntie Nora: Chicken Fajitas
1 chicken breast, thinly sliced
1 small onion
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. butter
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
2 drops of hot sauce
2 tortillas
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Sprinkle of parmesan cheese
1/4 cup shredded chihuahua cheese (optional)
1 slice provolone cheese (optional)

In a small nonstick pan, heat to high heat and pour in olive oil and butter.  Once heated, add chicken slices.  Cook for 2 minutes, then add in onions, seasonings, soy sauce, lemon juice and hot sauce.  Serve in tortillas with sour cream and cheese.
Enjoy!

It was perfect fall weather at Angostura Reservoir this past Friday, and my husband and I had a truly wonderful time pretending to fish while enjoying a golden afternoon and evening.
I was still in a state of bliss on the drive home Saturday, relaxed and stress-free, when my husband wheeled the van (with the boat swinging behind) into a graveled lot in Hot Springs occupied by an Iowa farmer selling the last of his vegetable harvest.
Before I could stop him, my husband had bought about a dozen and a half ears of corn, several large bell peppers and a sack of some supposedly mild version of jalepenos. Was he under the impression that I couldn’t wait to get home and start cooking??
And on top of it all, I had left at home a large bunch of broccoli, some asparagus that I’d picked up on a good sale and there was still some summer squash hardening up on the kitchen counter.
It was uncalled for, this sudden vegetable bonanza. What was he thinking??
Sunday found me serving grilled chicken with asparagus and corn on the cob for lunch. That got rid of a few ears and a bunch of asparagus. And the husband swore he would take corn to work all week.
That left the broccoli, but I solved that problem with my trusty vegetable cookbook, “Farm Journal’s Best-Ever Vegetable Recipes.”
Here’s the simple soup recipe I found, which used ingredients I had on hand. As for the squash, it’s still there on my counter, harder than ever.

Curried Brocolli Soup
6 slices bacon, diced
1/4 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
3-1/2 cups chopped fresh broccoli (1 large bunch)
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2-1/2 cups light cream or milk
In 4-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat, cook bacon until browned. Drain on paper towels. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons bacon drippings.
In bacon drippings over meadium heat, cook mushrooms and onion until tender.
Stir bacon, broccoli, chicken broth, curry powder, salt and pepper into mushroom mixture; bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 8 minutes or until broccoli is tender.
In small bowl, stir together cornstarch and milk.
Reduce heat to low. Gradually stir milk mixture into soup. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and thickens. Makes six servings.