Toss Me A Natty Light. Scratch That. Toss Me A Vintage Pinot Grigio.

pizza.

what vision overwhelms you when you think about it? a grease filled, thin-crusted slice folded in half new york style? perhaps an oozy, cheesy, enormous piece of deep dish pie? a cardboard box held up by a miniature three-legged table in the center of a mass produced precisely measured corporate money maker? maybe a true italian flatbread, doused in olive oil and garlic?

maybe you just gag at the thought of all that orange fat seeping onto your plate (or into your arteries).  or perhaps your stomach rumbles when you think of what the gluten could do to your poor body (K, i don't envy your allergies).

maybe you see a cold glass of milk, a giant squirt of ranch dressing, an icy beer.

here's what we saw this week:

tomato, onion and goat cheese pizza; chicken and turkey bacon pizza

using the ciabatta recipe from the book we made what i would consider 3 gourmet pizzas. here's how it all came together:

1. mix part of the ingredients in the ciabatta recipe. let sit for 4 hours 

to ferment. it will look like this when it's ready

2. mix rest of ingredients into fermented batter. 

let sit 2 more hours

roll out pizza dough into desired shape(s). 

let rise for one hour in warm place

top it off

top another while you're at it!

bake

drool

the pizza directly above this line of writing is a buffalo chicken pizza. hands down is is the least nutritious of the pizzas i made-- it was for my husband and most of it was frozen so he'd have some good food to eat when i'm gone next month for a week.

to say that pizza is the least nutritious is saying a lot. the worst part about it is probably the sodium level because of the buffalo wing sauce. but because i made every bit of this from scratch, i can control the rest of the sodium that went in. guess how much salt was added aside from the wing sauce: none.

here's the break down of each pizza's toppings:

tomato, onion and goat cheese*:

olive oil infused with garlic, oregano and thyme

thinly sliced tomatoes

thinly sliced onions sauteed in olive oil with a little white wine

crumbled goat's cheese 

a little parmesan cheese

*vegetarian! 

chicken and turkey bacon:

all of the above ingredients

shredded rotisserie chicken

turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled

buffalo chicken:

all of the TOGC ingredients

shredded chicken tossed in your favorite wing sauce

that's it. now, let's talk cost really quickly. one of your favorite frozen pizzas costs around $5, maybe less if you buy the super cheap small guys or the off brand ones. take out pizza is $5-$20 depending on size, delivery, toppings. 

remember the cost of an entire chicken. you can make all 3 of those pizzas with the meat from one breast. if you make the dough and all you have is pasta sauce and a handful of some random cheese in your cheese drawer, you can make a healthier, larger, much tastier pizza. in fact, you can make 2 or three. if you're in a small family like we are, put all of them into the oven. slightly undercook all but one. freeze the slightly undercooked ones and treat them like you would any frozen pizza when you're ready to eat them.

let me just warn you, if you make the above mentioned pizzas, you will not be eating college frat food. this is not your party pizza. this is food that you want to savor and lose yourself in. this deserves a nice glass of wine and a good movie (or football game in our house), after the kids have gone to bed and nobody is around to threaten to steal a single bite.

the ciabatta recipe is as follows (quick warning, you need to start it 7 hours before you want to put the pizzas in the oven. i know that's a long time. there are lots of quick recipes for pizza dough online-- google it. they're all pretty darn good, but the texture and flavor in this crust made it well worth the planning it required)

paul hollywood's ciabatta bread:

about 4c flour

generous 1 1/2c water

1.5 tbsp or 2 packets yeast

1 tbsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

thoroughly mix together 2c of the flour, 3/4c warm water and all of the yeast. cover and let sit for 4 hours. it will begin to ferment--that means it will puff and become bubbly.

add the last 2c flour, 3/4c water, all of the salt and olive oil. mix until a nice smooth dough forms. cover again, let sit for 2 hours.

take dough out and shape into pizza dough. you may divide it as many times as necessary to get the sizes you're looking for. roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thick and transfer to a greased or lined baking sheet(s). it is going to rise, if not on the counter, then in the oven, so this will not give you a thin crust pizza. let the rolled out dough sit while you prepare the toppings.

after about 45 minutes, feel free to preheat your oven to 400 and start topping your pizzas. put the pizzas in and cook for about 25-35 minutes, until golden brown.

cut into slices and enjoy it hot :)

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

this summer was my first time to live in a home with a full, personal, fenced in yard since 2004. for about a year or so i was pining for an herb garden. in mid 2009 i was given a tomato plant that unfortunately died during a short vacation when i thoughtlessly left it in its windowsill home with no extra water. we promptly moved to colorado after that deadly vacation, where we lived in a second story apartment. plenty of sunlight streaming in, but no yard and pretty horrible growing conditions.

when i got to my folk's in june of 2010 i hit a bit of a depression in the first few weeks. i literally dug my way out of it with a tomato plant, some herbs, a bunch of seed packets and a couple of bags of dirt. my parents graciously allowed me to tear up parts of their backyard and spill dirt all over their patio. i loved the constant movement of transplanting seedlings to new homes and bigger plants from pots to ground. i was hooked.

i brought a fairly large number of plants down to florida in the moving truck and found a yard full of sand and a prolific ground covering. we didn't own a shovel at the time so whatever work needed to be done to clear was done with a trowel and lots of ripping. not much was done at first. my tomato plants went through their first flowering and not a single one pollinated. i went out almost a month ago to rip them up and make some decisions about winter plants when i saw another round of blossoms. armed with a paintbrush, i gently self-pollinated every 3 days for nearly 2 weeks. 

it worked. i now have over a dozen nice sized tomatoes growing and ripening.

it also sparked some life back into my hopes of a garden that could help feed my family-- and my soul. peas, beets, and squash went into the ground and some weeding was done. much needed tLc was given to my herbs and smaller potted plants.

and finally the spark lit into a fire. jp and i went out to get a shovel and a bag of dirt. my only real intention was to dig up a bit more ground so i could start some seedlings and transplant them in with ease once they were ready. a walk around the garden center at lowes resulted in this:

my new 5x5' garden, fenced off with chicken wire and 100% soil. no sand (except in the areas with plants that like some sand!). i have broccoli, squashes, spinach, beets, carrots, peas, tomato plants still going strong, lettuce, a fig tree and all of my herbs. the beets, carrots, spinach and squash were all planted from seed. i'm not sure what the success rate on those will be, but i'm definitely hopeful.

it's euphoric to look out at the mess constructed in our (rented) backyard. i love farmer's markets, but i have to say that i am looking so forward to the day when i rarely have to go, when i can simply walk out into my yard and pick the freshest gem i see laying out in the sunshine. 

i encourage everyone to find a local farmer's market-- the food is usually comparably priced, unbelievably more flavorful, and organic. you get to know the people your food comes from. and you can usually find some pretty intense jellies, jams, and preserves. yummmmm. 

and give gardening a try, if you can and want to. it might surprise you to find how addicting it is!!!

Buuck buck buck buck buUUck buck buck BAKAW!!!

i mentioned cooking entire chickens in my earlier post about some of the thing we do to save moolah on our food bill. well, we made one this weekend using a technique that was new to our kitchen: rotisserie.

sorry that the picture quality isn't 100%, my husband took it with his phone just before he dug in. i could not have stopped him for a second longer to take a pic with my camera if i had begged him. and rightfully so--this bird smelled and looked amazing. i'm sort of shocked that he was able to stop himself long enough to snap a photo. but snap (and brag) he did.

so here's the deal-- i'm going to keep track of everything this chicken gets made into, and once it's all gone i will make a picture blog of the uses we got out of it.

but for now, let me give a few whole chicken tips:

*always start with a completely thawed chicken. 3 days in the fridge should do it, but heavier birds might take longer. don't rush it. i let chicken from the store thaw out for an extra day in my fridge just to be safe.

*once it's thawed, open up the cavity. you can remove the fat around the neck are if you wish. reach your hand in and scoop out anything that's remaining inside the cavity and rinse the bird in and out with cold water.

*pat it dry and start your seasoning process. the options here are unlimited, so i'm going to just break down into cooking styles and mention a few ideas in each one.

crockpot (or slow cooker)

*cook on high for about 6-8 hours depending on the size of your chicken and what your pot can do.

here's the beauty of a crockpot: your chicken is going to be insanely moist. so will everything you put in that pot. when you try to take it out, it will literally start to fall apart. crock pot chickens are perfect for tearing and shredding and adding chicken to other dishes like enchiladas, sandwich meat, and naturally soups. 

you can make a soup in a crockpot in one day. stuff the chicken with a potato and season it with salt and pepper. add diced celery and carrot to the crockpot, put the bird on top, add a little water (or chicken stock!) and any herbs you might have on hand (thyme, rosemary or basil would be great) and set on high. cook for 6-8 hours. once the chicken is done, take it out to cool a bit. all of your veggies are cooked and you should have a decent amount of liquid. chop and add peppers and onion to the pot (and pasta if you want!) and then add enough water to double the amount of liquid that was in there. let it cook while you chop up the potato and shred some chicken. add both back in, set to warm, and voila: chicken (noodle) soup. you'll have plenty of chicken leftover and with any luck, some soup too. throw it into reusable containers and freeze it. it also makes a great (cheap!) gift.

other ideas: make a dry rub of 2 tbps chili powder, 1 tbsp garlic salt, and either 2 tsp black pepper or 2 tsp cayenne for a kick. massage the rub into the skin all over the chicken. put 2c water or stock into the crockpot and the amount of rice that would cook into 2c water according to the directions on the rice package. when all is said and done you can pair a tasty chicken breast with beans and rice, shred up some of the legs and wings and make into cheesy rice/chicken enchiladas, or toss some corn and black beans in with the rice, place a slab of chicken on top and squeeze lime juice all over the top! enjoy!!

roasted

this can work in an oven or a free standing roaster. set the apparatus of choice to 350, cook for 20 minutes per pound, plus 20 minutes. you might need more/less time, so make sure you have a thermometer to check the internal temp. you're looking for a temperature of about 170. you can cook the first or last 20 minutes at 450 to get a really crispy skin, but i wouldn't try that if you aren't familiar with your oven or if you aren't confident in your chicken cooking abilities. it's easy to dry chicken out, so do one at a constant temp first to make sure you know how long it takes :)

the glory of a roasted chicken v. a crock pot is that a lot of the fat sinks away from the meat rather than staying in the pot with it. when you roast a chicken, you want it elevated above a baking pan that's at least an inch deep. you can elevate it with a metal rack like this one. cheap!!!

roasted chicken screams classic to me, so i would definitely stuff the cavity with lemon and onion slices and sprigs of fresh herbs. brush the skin with olive oil (or vegetable oil. nobody is judging you here!) and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. you can roast vegetables in the bottom of the baking sheet. just clean and put them down there, no special work needed. carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash are great bets because they need a while to cook themselves and this is the perfect way to do a whole bunch at once. squashes will need to be cut in half and deseeded before roasting. everything on the bottom will pick up the fat that's being melted from the chicken, so the skins will get a nice brown crunch sometimes. yummmmm.

this is dinner by itself. take everything out, slice up the chicken and serve with vegetables. you can also drain the fat from the pan into a skillet and make gravy while everything sort of cools. if you roast white potatoes instead of sweet potatoes you now have mashed potatoes and gravy. and chicken. and a food coma.

my feeling on roasted chicken is that it deserves to be enjoyed in its purest form, so my suggestion for this is to use it as a show stopping centerpiece for a dinner with friends or family. save a few lemon slices when you cut them up to put into the cavity. if you take the bird off and surround it with the vegetables, you can garnish with those lemon slices and make a snip or two of the fresh herbs you used. that will impress the mother in law!

beer can chicken is a version of a roasted chicken. you essentially take a half full (how you get rid of the other half is really up to you.... ;) ) can of beer and place the chicken on top so the mouth of the can is in the cavity of the chicken. while it cooks the beer evaporates and the flavor only has one place to go: into the chicken. safety point: you need a contraption that will SAFELY hold the chicken upright for the duration of its cook time. something like this.

rotisserie

you have to have a special apparatus for rotisserie cooking. luckily for us, we have an attachment on the grill my dad so graciously gave us this summer. it does all of the work. rotisserie chicken is cooked by spearing a large bar through the chicken and rotating it near a single heat source. this is the classic cartoon of a pig tied to a stick hanging over a fire. except chicken, a metal rod, the heat source is on the side, and it's real life :)

this is another option that will allow the fat to melt away from the chicken. doing this on a grill also gives you that fabulous outdoorsy summer deliciousness. aaaaaaaah i love summer!!!! and grilling!!! 

back on track! 

there is no real wrong answer with this style of cooking. here's what we did: use a whole, uncut lemon or  potato in the cavity of the chicken (lemon will be much easier to pierce) to keep the chicken filled out and prevent it from caving as it cooks. before you even begin the chicken, take 1/4c olive oil (or vegetable oil! again, no judgement here!) and add 2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme, 1 of rosemary, and 1 tablespoon minced garlic. you want to give all of the flavors time to sit in the oil and absorb. (you could also use 1 tsp dried thyme and 1/2 tsp dried rosemary. same amount of garlic) set up the chicken, sat and pepper it, and use a brush to baste on some of the oil you created earlier. about every 30 minutes baste again. keep cooking until the skin is a crunchy, deep golden brown and the internal temp of a thigh (not touching bone!) reads 170.

covering a chicken in a beloved bbq dry rub would be genius for a great summer treat. and we all know that bbq tastes better the next day. with how far you can stretch a 5# chicken, the flavor might reach foodgasmic.

keep an eye out for the picture post of all our chicken uses in a week or so! i will tell you that we made ciabatta crusted pizzas last night and they will be included on that post... and probably one in between... 

ENJOY!

Seeds: Bread; Boardwalk: Park Place

how did you do on the verbal section of your SATs?


it doesn't matter. you don't need high scores to make these:

and turn them into this:

i love fall. the colors of autumn are inspirational to me and watching death knowing it will bring life once spring comes is a tender reminder of the balance we are all subject to.

i also love fall foods, by which i mean comfort foods. thick, hearty soups, crusty, warm breads, heavy, creamy casseroles, gourds galore... it's a wonderful time.

these are pumpkin seeds leftover from a joint-family pumpkin carving night. we all gutted our pumpkins and split the seeds once they were separated from the pulp. most of our seeds went into a bag for my husband to snack on at work, but i saved some for my own purposes also.

it's something as simple as toasted pumpkin seeds (or any gourd seeds! save them when you take the pulp out of squashes) that can take a loaf of homemade bread from special to extraordinary. what it costs to make a loaf of bread is minimal-- EASILY less than a dollar. what a great gift for all of your fall, winter, and holiday parties. useful, cheap, and tasty. what more could you ask for in this economy!?

here's how we toast seeds:

remove as much pulp as possible. best way i've found? fill up a huge bowl with cool water. a lot of the pulp will sink.

spread the seeds out in more or less a single layer and let them dry out for a while in a warm place-- an hour or two is fine if you've got it pretty thin, but overnight is is also pretty great.

once you're ready, preheat to 400.

mix together about 1/3c olive oil for the amount of seeds you'd get from one medium size pumpkin. you're going to have to eyeball it, honestly. add a little less than a tablespoon of salt and the same amount of pepper. (you could also use old bay, garlic salt, any seasoning you love!!!) toss the seeds and olive oil mixture to coat.

cover a baking sheet with foil (so much easier to clean), grease it, lay out the seeds in a single layer, and roast in the oven. you'll know they're done when you can smell them and they're turning a nice, deep golden brown.

enjoy them alone, or roll them into the top of a loaf of bread. they would also work in trail mixes, granola bars, or crushed up and added to oatmeal for a nice salty crunch.

ENJOY FALL!!!!

Yams? Sweet Potatoes? Huh?

ready for a long blog that appears to be about nothing and ends in a recipe!? here we go!

there is a root plant called a cassava that grows prolifically in a region of africa. it is a basic staple there and their rate of naturally occurring twins is 4 times higher than the rest of the world's numbers. studies have linked that bump in percentage to this cassava, which is a type of wild yam. something in the yam encourages egg release, often 2 eggs at once.

i've read plenty of "trying to conceive" forums over the last two years and women buy canned yams by the cartful in hopes that it will stimulate their systems into giving them the chance for a much desired baby (or two!) when their insurance companies can't foot the bill for more technical procedures.

the thing is, i'm not sure if any of those women were actually buying YAMS. yams and sweet potatoes are not the same thing at all, though american supermarkets have lumped them into the same category. i don't know many people that can distinguish between the two. heck, i don't know for sure that i can. the basic rule for differentiation as far as i know is that true yams are ENORMOUS, pale, and not at all orange. they are very low in beta-carotene, the substance that gives a sweet potato that delightful color. we can't grow yams here in the states, so finding them can be a bit of a challenge.

most of our friends and family know that E and i are hoping to have a second kiddo as soon as possible. twins run in both sides of our families (my dad is a fraternal twin whose twin brother had identical twins, E's brother/sister are twins.) and we've both agreed that we would LOVE to have twins. we appreciate the bond that twins have and i would love to knock two kids out of labor in one sitting. and when they both move out, it's like a double pay raise! HOLLA!!! we've joked quite a bit about wives tales that guarantee the conception of twins and i've told him numerous times that i'm going to eat nothing but yams until we get pregnant.

that will never happen, i love cheese too much to cut it out of my diet ;)

but i sent him out friday night to get me some sweet potatoes because i was really craving one and i needed some more veggies for jp (i always need more veggies for "jp". such a great excuse to get goods at 6pm on a friday!). i got a call from him asking if i wanted sweet potatoes or yams and if it really made any kind of difference. "yams? they have yams at sam's club?" "that's what it says on the box. yams/sweet potatoes" "oh, so they're just falsely advertised sweet potatoes. get 'em anyway, maybe it'll work!". so he got them and came home.

i wasn't listening very well when he called--he told me the weight, it did not register.

he came home with a 10lb box of sweet potatoes.

that should be enough tuber to satisfy my jones....

i baked 5 at once. i ate 2 with hot sauce and butter (don't judge me!), mashed one up for jp, and put the other two into the refrigerator with an internal promise to make sweet potato bread today.

here's where it starts getting.... interesting. i love sweet potato bread, but i'm truly not in the mood for muffins or muffin-like bread. sweet potato bread is generally a southern thing and thus is loaded with butter, sugar, and maple syrup. i wanted a healthy alternative. rather than googling "healthy sweet potato breads", i decided to experiment.

the theory i had was to take one of the breads i really loved the taste of and substitute the sweet potato in for the butter the recipe calls for.

are you baffled? would you like a glimpse into the logic of an overly confident cooking diva?

applesauce is an acceptable sub for butter in baking recipes. sweet potatoes, when mashed, are... almost... not really... but, maybe sort of close... to the texture of applesauce. do you think i've lost my mind? i think i have. so if applesauce can work, maybe sweet potatoes can too! WHO KNOWS?!!? NOT ME!!!

so i made the bread as i usually would. warm water+yeast until foamy, and then the rest of the ingredients. except no butter. mashed sweet potatoes.

it ended up needing significantly more flour than the original recipe, but the dough was the right consistency.

it didn't rise as high as the butter version did, but it's also much cooler in our house right now than it was when i made the original bread.

here's the real kicker. halfway through its bake in the oven, our power went out for the first time in our marriage. ooooooooof course. we located some candles, realized we need to buy a flashlight, and E quickly turned the massive grill on for me and the bread was thrown in.

here's the final result:

it has a really nice crunchy crust and a very slight sweet potato taste. i suppose i could always try it again later with more sweet potato and whole wheat bread for an extra healthy version, but this is pretty good! i'm excited to use it for sandwiches--a little extra nutrition packed into every bite!

here's the recipe

northern sweet potato bread

6 tbsp mashed sweet potatoes
1c warm water
2 packets dry yeast, or 1 1/2 tbsp
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
about 4c white flour

put the warm water and yeast into a bowl, let sit until foamy.

add the potatoes, salt, sugar and 3c of flour. add flour 1/2c at a time to the dough until it reaches a smooth, good bread consistency.

knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes until it feels uniform. put the dough into a well greased bowl, cover with a towel, and let rise for an hour in a warm place.

preheat to 425

grease a baking sheet. take the dough out. grab 2/3 of the dough and shape it into a ball. lay it on the baking sheet and flatten it out just a tad. roll the other 1/3 into a ball and put it on top of the first one. using a sharp knife, cut slits from the center out toward the bottom all around the bread.

bake until golden brown, about 30-40 minutes

Let Them Eat Cake!

i'm officially into french breads until i can locate some rye flour and do some back work on my basic loaves!

today i made these:

brioche tetes

brie and brioche packages

in the book Paul Hollywood's explanation of brioche says "The immortal line uttered by Marie Antoinette, allegedly, 'Let them eat cake,' is more likely to have been 'Let them eat brioche.'"

after making these, i believe him.

the texture of these "muffins" is unbelievable. between bites i found myself staring at the pores and air pockets, admiring the consistency and the unexpected sweetness. it's not that i expected them to be bland or sour--they have quite a bit of sugar in them after all. it was the nature of sweetness, its flavor... it was so rich and somewhat mellow. it was decadent.

the brie+brioche calls for one entire 9oz wheel of brie. i took some creative liberties and made a few with goat's cheese and a few with small squares of brie instead of an entire wheel. the point of this was 1) to save money because i simply can't see two of us eating an entire wheel of melted brie cheese in one night, and 2) E wasn't even home when i made it, so it would have just been me trying to eat it. bad on soooooo many levels.

i'm going to modify mr. hollywood's recipe just a tad. i don't know how different flour is in the UK, but almost every recipe, this one in particular, has required more flour. fyi, i used a combination of bread flour and all purpose white flour. they cost nearly the same when you buy in bulk (which we do!) and the bread flour definitely adds an element of sweetness and fluff, for lack of a better word, that plain all purpose does not have.

brioche tetes

about 3c, maybe more, flour
1/3c sugar
1 package or 3/4 tbsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1/3c milk
3 eggs, +1 for an eggwash
1 1/2 sticks butter
cupcake liners (about a dozen)

mix everything except the butter and the eggwash egg until smooth. then add the butter, mix until smooth. (don't ask me why you can't add the butter with all the rest, you just can't, and i won't question the method because these were outstanding) cover the bowl and stick it in the refrigerator overnight.

next morning! the dough will be pretty stiff. get out your muffin tins and liners. line 'em up and grease 'em up!

make balls from the dough that are approximately 1.5 inches in diameter. it's not rocket science, just eyeball it. they should fit cozily into the cupcake liners. top each one with a smaller ball-- about 1/2 inch in diameter. do that until you have no more dough!

leave your happy little snowmen out in a warm place to rise for one hour. once time is up, preheat your oven to 400 and brush your little guys (or gals!) with the eggwash.

bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

you don't need to put anything on these guys. they're amazing. Uh. Maze. Ing.

to make the brie and brioche, do all of the same things the night before. the next day, on a VERY VERY VERY well and evenly floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4inch thickness instead of forming it into balls. cut out circles big enough to completely envelope discs or squares of brie or goat's cheese. brush each one with eggwash, refrigerate for 1 hour.

preheat the oven to 400. take the packages out and brush once more with eggwash, bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

eat while warm.

Bad Breath Bread

did ya miss me!?! nothing truly spectacular has happened on the food front here since my last post. my husband did grill us a delicious meal and found a recipe for a goat's cheese sauce that i got to pour over his steak and my giant portobello. it was delicious, but it smelled too good for me to stop and take pictures! whoops! maybe next time?

we made our big monthly grocery trip today (hooray for buying in bulk, don't you think!?!) and got some of the things i need for the more ornate breads, so i'm feeling pretty good about continuing on the bread journey!

we also had a friend over for dinner tonight and because i have 5 (that's right, 5) loaves of bread in our fridge/freezer, he gets to take some bread home!! congrats L, you are the lucky winner of a cheese and onion loaf!!

i'm going to post the recipe to this one because it is OUTRAGEOUSLY easy and would make a great gift for a host or hostess, or a wonderful thank you to that teacher/neighbor/coworker/boss/friend/whatever you've been needing to thank for not failing your child/letting your dogs out/covering your shift/giving you a raise/helping you bury your mother in law/whatever.

bad breath bread

1 1/4c warm water
1.5 tbsp or 2 packets yeast
about 4c flour
2 tsp salt
2/3c butter, cubed
1c shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 onion, well chopped

mix together the yeast and water, let sit until foamy

add the butter, 2c of flour, and the salt. start adding the rest of the flour in, 1/2c at a time. you want the dough just a TAD drier than normal because the onions add a bit of wet. put the dough into a well greased bowl in a warm spot, cover with a towel, let sit for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

once it's ready, take it out and add your chopped onion and cheddar. either knead by hand or mix on the lowest setting of a stand mixer until it seems that you have a uniform distribution of the cheese and onion.

grease a 9x5 loaf pan and throw about 2/3 of the dough into it. use the other 1/3 to make biscuits of some sort, or muffins, or a tiny loaf. i'm not really sure what to do with the extra bit lol. it's too much work to adjust the recipe haha!

let it sit for about 30 minutes in a warm spot, covered.

bake at 400 for about an hour, or until it's a nice dark brown and a toothpick into the center comes out clean.

try to kiss your significant other after eating a piece. you will offend. make up for it by offering them a slice with some butter melted all over it. then you can kiss each other :)