No Knead bread in Le Creuset

Happy New Year! Finally, we moved to a new place and we are settling down.

We moved little bit before Christmas and my husband's parents were here from Germany to help us move and spend Christmas with us. Since we were trying to finish everything before Christmas, it was quite busy and stressful but we were able to get most of the stuff done by Christmas and was able to spend nice relaxing Christmas.

About a week before the move, my son got sick and he was throwing up all day for one day. Thank god it lasted only one day. Then, right when we were about to move, my husband started feeling sick and he was not feeling well for about a week. Now, he feels fine and we were able to start a new year with healthy bodies.

Since we didn't have any furniture, we had to buy everything. We bought all the furniture from IKEA. IKEA is great. I think it would have cost a lot more if we didn't have IKEA. Even with IKEA stuff, buying all the furniture you need cost a lot of money. But I was able to get furnitures I like and the house is coming together.

I really love my house and the town I used to like before the Hurricane so I am still sad about it but the new house started to feel like home and I think it will grow on us with time. Plus, the town I used to live is about 30mins away so I will be going there at least once a week to see my friends and neighbors.

I don't know anything about this area so I just have to figure out what is around here.

Yesterday, I went to the library in the area. This library is very small and old but it seems like they have a program for my son once a week so I am going to sign him up for it. Hopefully I can make some new friends there.

Anyhow, enough about my life and let's talk about cooking.

In previous post, I told you that I finally bought Le creuset dutch oven.

There was this one thing I really really wanted to try making it when I get Le Creuset. It is no knead bread! This is how it came out.

Doesn't it look great? It really like bread you buy from bakery and it is super super super easy to make!

I think this bread started out as one person from NY bakery (Jim Lahey from Sullivan Street Bakery) invented this method so everyone can make real bread easily at home. Then, Mark Bittman wrote an article about it in New York Times and it got very very popular.

I don't remember how I found this out but I always wanted to try.

Here is the recipe in New York Times. 

But I used this website to make it myself since it is much easier to see and it explain the steps very well.
Click here for the recipe I used from "Simply So Good".

My husband loves bread so he was very happy when he saw this bread. He is excited that now he can eat this anytime at home. (Well it need to be rested for at least 18hours so I have to plan it though)

My husband's father (my father-in-law) also loves bread so he was also very happy to have this bread. I am happy that everyone loves it and it is really easy to make.

I don't need to knead the bread. I just mix the ingredients and let it sit for 18 hours and bake.

When you buy bread at supermarket, often time there are many chemicals to prevent it from spoiling but this one is all natural and it is a lot more economical and it taste better!

So if you have Le creuset, please try to bread. If you love bread, you will love this homemade bread!

Now I have all the cooking tools and I am excited about making new dishes and sharing it with you.

Its been a while...

Yes, It has been a while since I posted last time. A lot of things happened since then.
Because of the Hurricane Sandy which hit East Coast, our house was flooded and we lost lots of stuff...

I knew the Hurricane is supposed to be a big one but I never thought it will change our life like this.

Well, good thing is we are alive and healthy.

We can not go back to our house and who knows how long it will take to everything go back to normal.

It was heartbreaking to see our house and our city destroyed like that. I cried. I miss my city, my house and my neighbors and friends.

But life has to go on and we have to move forward. We found a new apartment and we are moving in very soon. It will be a bit away from where we used to live but it is not too far away so I can visit our friends sometimes.

It was a very difficult time for us but at the same time, we received so many support from our friends and family. Everybody is trying to help each other and it is heartwarming to see this.

So, that was why I hadn't updated my blog for a while.

Don't worry, after I moved to a new place and settled in a little bit, I will start cooking a lot and posting more pictures.

One thing I am so excited about is that I finally bought Le Creuset Dutch Oven!! It is Oval and 6.75qt.
(I know, I shouldn't be buying these things when I don't even have a place to live but it was such a great deal and I couldn't pass it. Plus, I wanted to have this for a long long time anyways so I guess it is a early Christmas gift for me!)

Anyways, I am looking forward to cooking more stuff with this Dutch Oven. I hope I can update my blog sometime soon with new dish I made :-)

Ellie Krieger's (again??) New Classic Meatlof

I know. I have been cooking from this book very often and quite obsessively but I think this post will be the last one from this book at least for a little while.

This time, I made meatloaf from her book. This meatloaf if a healthier version of regular meatloaf and it has lots of veggies and some oats.

Click here for her recipe. 

It was good but was not great. I think the reason why I didn't love it was because I used 98% fat free ground beef. The recipe called for 90% and higher and I chose to use 98% fat free to be extra healthy.

However, I think this decision backfired me. Since there was not much fat in it, it came out little dry.

It tasted really good and I love the fact that it had lots of vegetables in it so if I used 90% fat free meat, it should have been juicier and better.

The sauce was quite rich and yummy.

Even though I didn't love this meatloaf, my son loved it and he ate at lot of them. He ate it with pasta and also with rice.

This is a great way for kids to eat vegetable without even knowing.

For the side, I made roasted potatoes. Just simple potatoes with salt, pepper and olive oil.

I don't make meatloaf too often but next time I make it, I will use meat with more fat. That was the lesson I learned.

Anyways, I am running out of food pictures to post. My camera is in repair right now. It has been more than two weeks but has not been fixed yet.

These photos are from few weeks ago and I have been cooking some fantastic stuff since then but I don't have a camera to capture those fantastic food :-)

I hope we will get our camera back soon because we are having Halloween party with all my mom friends and also also I am going to take my son for trick or treat on the day of halloween.

I need my CAMERA!!!

The book I used for this meatloaf is this.