Jalapeno Cheddar Bread

Ooooooh, heavenly! I think this is the best tasting bread I've ever made, and that's saying something for me who has had so, so many loaves of bread fail into miserable little bricks.

I used this amazingly easy recipe featured in Mother Earth News magazine for "Artisan Bread in 5 Mnutes a Day." But before I stirred all the ingredients together, I tossed in some tiny diced jalapenos (from my garden!), and some shredded sharp cheddar cheese. It was so amazing! And not that spicy, which is good, because I can only handle so much heat. The jalapenos are important becuse they add such a delicious, wonderful flavor which the sharp cheddar compliments so well. TRY IT!

Jalapeno Cheddar Bread

Put bread ingredients in the bowl according to the bread recipe.

Before mixing, add in 1/4 - 3/4 cups of diced jalapenos depending on how hot you want it. (After baking, a lot of my jalapeno bits lost their heat.)

Shred about 1 cup - 1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese and toss into the bowl. Stir, making sure to coat the cheese with the flour so the shreds don't stick all together. Mix according to bread recipe directions. Chill until ready to bake. Follow the rest of the bread recipe.

**Bakers note: I have had this bread come out doughy before. The best way to avoid this is to take the bread's temperature! As soon as it reaches 190º F deep inside the loaf, you know it's done.

Sticky Chicken

You want super easy and super yummy? Try this recipe out!

Sticky Chicken

1 lb. chicken breasts, skinned and deboned (or 2 regular-sized cans of chicken, drained)

1 cup apricot jam

1 cup fat-free Catalina salad dressing

1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

1. Cut chicken into thin strips. Saute in a skillet coated with cooking spray until lightly browned.

2. Combine remaining ingredients; mix well. Pour over chicken; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 to 15 minutes leaving lid slightly ajar. Serve over rice with your favorite veggies on the side.

3. Makes 6 servings.

Food Tip #1

So, I don't know how many food tips I have to offer, but I thought this one was worth mentioning. We'll see if I can think of some more to add to the list.

I don't know about you, but I am a person that is perfectly willing to eat the ends of loaves of bread... if there's no other bread in the house. I like crust. I just like the middle slices better, that's all. So what ends up happening is that bread packages with 2 end pieces accumulate in my fridge for weeks and (more realistically) months. Since they're refrigerated they don't get moldy too quickly either. After awhile, though, digging around the multitudes of bags gets annoying so I haul out my food processor and all the bread ends. Then I grind them all up into crumbs and Voila! Bread crumbs for future recipes. Then I put them all in a ziploc bag and stick them in the freezer until they're wanted. Or they get shoved to the back only to be forgotten all over again. Those poor bread ends...

But really. Having a fresh (frozen) supply of bread crumbs is a very smart thing to have and you don't have to buy these.