Right now my grade (the senior class) at my high school is in the middle of a ferocious game called Assassins. Ever heard of it?
It is kind of giving me anxiety…
Here is how it is played. Everyone who wants to play puts in $5 (or whatever everyone agrees on) and is assigned a “target”. You must “kill” your target before the week is over by shooting them with your water gun.
There are a few rules like no shooting at work, none on school grounds, at athletes during sports, etc. You may defend yourself by shooting someone who you think is attacking you and if you shoot them before they shoot you, you have 24 hours until they are able to try and “kill” you again. For some reason I feel like I am making this sound uber complicated…it’s not though.
The winner gets a portion of the money raised and then most of it we are donating to a teacher who has a severe form of cancer and is struggling under staggering hospital and doctor bills.
This week, I am safe. I just “killed” my target yesterday as he was walking oh-so-innocently into the Men’s Warehouse to pick out his prom tux. He he hee. He never saw it coming. Also, I found out who the person was that was trying to “kill” me and they already got “killed” on the first day, so I feel like he isn’t even going to try and “kill” me because he is already out. However, my guard is always up and my water gun is always by my side. Some people may call me paranoid, I say I’m prepared.
Enough Assassins talk. Let’s talk about this beautiful focaccia. Is it bad to call something I made beautiful? I don’t think so. I feel like my mom has been requesting me to make a homemade focaccia for like ever but I was a little hesitant. It’s a bread..which requires yeast, and rising, and more rising, which means loads of time that I would rather spend eating the oh so quick to make frosting. But I was determined this time to give my mother what she wanted and focaccia was made. I’m not going to lie, I loved this recipe just as much (probably more) than the bakery focaccias we have bought in the past. Feel free to have fun with this recipe and adjust the seasonings, herbs, and add-ins to your liking!
Herb and Parmesan Focaccia
(Makes 2 8×8 focaccias)
2 cups warm water
2 teaspoons dry active yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups all-purpose flour
Olive oil
2-3 Tablespoons grated parmesan
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed basil leaves
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons crushed oregano leaves
3 teaspoons crushed thyme leaves
2 teaspoons crushed sage leaves
2-3 tablespoons sea salt
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Add the water to bowl of stand mixer. Run the mixer for a few seconds to dissolve the yeast into the water. Let sit for 10 minutes.
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Add salt and flour to the yeast/water mixture with the mixer on medium speed. Start with 1 cup of whole wheat flour, then 3 cups of all-purpose flour and add 2 tablespoons at a time of additional flour until the dough begins to pull away from the bowl, becoming elastic.
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Coat a large bowl with olive oil. Use a spatula to move the dough from the mixing bowl to the olive-oil coated bowl. Turn the dough in the bowl to cover with oil. Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm, dry spot until dough doubles in size (about 1 hour)
- Coat your baking pans with oil. I used one 9 x 9″ baking pan and one 9″ round baking pan. Transfer the dough to the baking pans. Punch down the dough, spreading it out to roughly fill the pans. Let rise in a warm, dry place until the dough doubles in size (about 45 minutes)
- Punch down the dough one more time. Let rise for 30 more minutes in a warm, dry place. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Use your fingers to make indentations in the dough (this will make crevices to catch the olive oil, herbs and salt!). Drizzle with about 1 Tablespoon of oil on each focaccia dough and sprinkle chopped herbs and seasonings evenly over the surface. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the surface is golden-brown.
- Brush about 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil over the top of the bread with a pastry brush. Sprinkle the sea salt over the surface. Cut and serve warm. Enjoy!
Random Fact of the Day: The normal static electricty shock that zaps your finger when you touch a doorknob is usually between 10,000 and 30,000 volts
- Kale, Tomato, & Garlic Breadsticks (vegetarianventures.com)
- Focaccia (yaseminscuisine.wordpress.com)
- Focaccia Bread with a Garlic Rosemary Topping (quintessentialmagazine.ca)
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