Rosemary Focaccia

This is a pretty easy recipe that smells heavenly while it is baking.  It goes great with pasta or as an appetizer with some pesto or marinara for dipping.  You can also load it with toppings and make a meal out of it.  So many possibilities!



2 1/4 teaspoon (or 1 package) yeast
3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 teaspoon salt
pinch of sugar
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
olive oil for drizzling
freshly grated parmesan (optional)

Mix yeast, water, salt, and sugar in a bowl and let sit until bubbly (about ten minutes).  Add flour and about half the rosemary and mix well.  Depending on your flour, you may need to add a little more water to the dough.  If it seems overly dry and crumbly, add just a little water and remix.  Continue until you get a non-sticky, non-crumbly dough.

Place on lightly floured workspace and knead until smooth.  Coat large bowl with oil and place dough in and then flip over so the entire dough is coated with oil.  Cover with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled (about 1 1/2 -2 hours depending on the temperature of your kitchen).

Preheat oven to 425.  Punch dough down to release gases and place on an oiled baking sheet.  Flatten out into a circle or oval and using your fingertips, poke dimples into the dough. Drizzle with oil, remaining rosemary, and a generous sprinkle of coarse salt.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until the top is a nice golden color.

Note - I added a little parmesan to the dough when I added flour and rosemary and again to the top just before baking. I didn't measure it but just grated a little to the mixture.

Spicy Mustard

Do you know how easy it is to make mustard?  I'm almost embarrassed to post a recipe because it is so simple.  But because I don't think it's common knowledge I'm going to share this easy, yummy, spicy mustard recipe with you.

The hardest part of making mustard is getting the mustard seeds.  I ordered mine from Amazon because I don't know how easy it is to find brown and yellow mustard seeds in Abuja.  And I don't feel like taking the time to find out.  So, Amazon to the rescue.

1/4 cup brown mustard seeds
1/4 cup yellow mustard seeds
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon turmeric

Mustard seeds soaking in vinegar and water

Place mustard seeds, vinegar, and water in a glass jar.  Cover and let it soak for about 2 days. Pour into a blender or food processor and add the salt, honey, and turmeric.  Blend until it forms a paste.  That's it.  Can you believe it?  It is so good too.  If you don't like spicy mustard, you can leave the brown seeds out and use 1/2 cup of yellow mustard seeds instead.










This mustard goes great with my homemade pretzels (which I'll try to post in the next few days).