From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite…This is a wonderfully savory bread that can be made by beginners, but it’s so flavorful I suspect that experienced bakers will try it as well. Mary Woodruff develop this prize winning recipe for the Vidalia Onion Festival. A “cheat” gets the recipe off to a quick start. A packaged hot roll mix is used as a base for the loaf. What makes this bread a standout are the ingredients added to the dough. Purists can add those “extras” to a homemade dough and achieve the same results. This is the winning recipe.

Apple Onion Bread with Cheddar Cheese…from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1 large apple, diced
1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
1 (16-oz.) package hot roll mix
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons chopped red bell pepper
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup hot water

Directions:
1) Melt butter in a small skillet set over medium heat. Add apple and onion and saute until tender. Set aside.
2) Place contents of roll mix in a large bowl. Open yeast package and whisk into flour. Stir in cheese, red pepper and caraway seeds; mix well. Add egg, water and apple-onion mixture; mix with a wooden spoon until mixture pulls away from sides of bowl.
3) Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface; knead for 5 minutes.
4) Return dough to bowl; cover with plastic wrap and let dough rest for 5 minutes.
5) Grease a 6 to 8 cup bread pan. Place dough in pan; cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for 30 minutes.
6) Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
7) Bake the bread for 30 to 35 minutes, until golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when thumped. Yield: 1 loaf.

I’m linking this recipe to Wild Yeast for the weekly Yeast Spotting event.

We’ve come a long way since the days of the 4 food groups. Now the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has replaced that outdated model with the new Pyramid.

The colors on the Pyramid and the foods and recommendations they represent are as follows:

• Orange is Grains: cereal, crackers, pasta, rice, and whole-grain bread (recommended daily intake is 3 ounces a day);
• Green is Vegetables (including 100% vegetable juices): raw or cooked, canned, dehydrated/dried, or frozen, whole, sliced, cubed, chopped, or mashed, vegetables fall into 5 categories:
o Dark Greens – broccoli, collards, kale, spinach, watercress, etc.;
o Orange Vegetables – carrots, sweet potatoes, acorn and butternut squashes, etc.;
o Dry Beans and Peas – chickpeas, black beans, kidneys, lentils, lima beans, soybeans and soybean products (ie tofu), split peas, etc.;
o Starchy Vegetables – potatoes, green peas, corn, etc;
o Other – artichokes, asparagus, beets, cabbage, celery, cucumber, eggplant, green beans, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and more;
• Red is Fruits: variety is best here, choosing from fresh, canned, dried, and frozen, and staying light on fruit juices;
• Green is Oils – nuts, fish, and vegetable oil sources are best; butter, shortening, margarine, and lard are less desirable; out of all the food categories in the Pyramid, eat the least amount of oils, proportionately;
• Blue is Milk – Calcium alone is such an essential part of a healthy diet that calcium sources should make up just as much an equal portion of your daily diet as Grains, Vegetables, and Fruits; choose low-fat and fat-free products whenever possible; and if you can’t eat regular milk, cheese, and yogurt, make sure to find a source of calcium you can consume;
• Purple is Meat & Beans – fish, beans, peas, nuts, seeds, most-recommended; next to Oils, Meat and Beans comprise the second-smallest portion of an ideal diet; go easy on proteins, picking low-fat and lean choices whenever possible, and varying cooking methods between baking, broiling, and grilling, steering clear of frying;

The last part of healthy diet according to the USDA (though strangely they don’t give it a color on the Pyramid) is Discretionary Calories. Consider this like the Disposable Income portion of your home budget. The above-mentioned food choices are the essentials. But we all need extra calories beyond the essentials to burn throughout the day in the execution of our various daily activities.

Recommended ways to fulfill your daily requirement for Discretionary Calories is as follows:
• Eat a greater quantity of foods from any of the aforementioned categories;
• Choose foods with more calories, like whole milk and cheese, sugars, solid fats, sweetened cereals and yogurt;
• Add sweeteners and fats to your food, such as salad dressings, sauces, syrups, and butter;
• Eat or drink fat-heavy foods, such as sodas, candies, and alcohol.

These sources of Discretionary Calories (the top one notwithstanding) probably comprise the very list of items you believe you should cut out of your diet altogether, and to that the USDA says – just cut down. But if you’re getting a substantial and equivalent amount of Grains, Vegetables, Fruits, and Calcium, slightly fewer Proteins, and less Oils still, and if your primary source of Discretionary Calories remains the top choice (more of the good stuff), then there can be a place in your daily diet for what you may consider the “bad” stuff too.

At MyPyramid.gov visitors can use interactive online tools to assess their dietary and physical activity patterns and suggest personalized adjustments a person can make to achieve and maintain their ideal weight.

Okay, so this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie pick was actually vanilla ice cream, but I couldn’t resist adding the cookies to create my very favorite ice cream - cookies ‘n cream. The vanilla ice cream was selected this week by Lynne of Cafe Lynnylu. Click the link to get the recipe and see her fabulous pictures, which put the ones I took in under three minutes to shame!

This ice cream came together really easily and was surprisingly quick to make. I guess I’m getting good at this ice cream making thing. I followed the recipe exactly, and added about 10 crushed cookies during the last five minutes of its churning in the ice cream maker. My son actually helped me add the cookies (and ate a few) and loved watching the ice cream churning around. Look at him sitting there with his spoon, waiting to get a taste!

Overall, it tasted great and everyone enjoyed it. The recipe makes for a great base and just about anything can be added. Maybe next time I’ll try cookie dough… yum!