wine on the keyboard

recipe

Faux Macaroni Grill Rosemary Bread

by Kay~Kacey on 3/28/2011

I love and adore Macaroni Grill’s bread that they serve, so I went on a hunt for a copy cat recipe for the bread. Here is my  own version of Macaroni Grill -ish Rosemary Bread after experimenting for awhile.macaroni grill rosemary bread

Ingredients: (makes 2 loaves)

1 tablespoon yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup warm water

2 1/2 to 3 cups flour…I start with 2 1/2 and add a bit more if needed (my fav is white flour, but I’ve made it with wheat flour)

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1 teaspoon salt (I use kosher or sea salt)

2 teaspoons dried Rosemary (I use this because I always have it on hand), or 2 tablespoons fresh Rosemary

Directions:

1. Put water, yeast,  and sugar in large bowl and let the mixture to become bubbly.

bubbly yeast

2. Add in butter, salt and 2 1/2 cups of flour.
ingredients for rosemary bread

3. Add in a teaspoon of the dried Rosemary. (or a tablespoon of fresh) This is half the total amount of Rosemary for the recipe. I kind of smash the dried rosemary up a bit.

Dried Rosemary

4. I use my kitchen aide mixer and knead with the bread hook for about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. I’ve also kneaded it for about 10 minutes by hand. Your choice. Add in a bit more flour if needed.

kitchen aid mixer

5. Cover bowl. You can oil bowl first if you want, but I just pull the bowl off the mixer stand, cover,  set in warm area, and let the dough rise until it’s doubled in bulk…about 1 hour, give or take.

6. Punch down the dough (love that step for some reason.) Divide the dough into two halves. Form into two round loaves. Place on greased/sprayed cookie sheet, use a baking stone, or, what I do is use a silicon baking mat on my cookie sheet.

two loaves of macaroni grill type rosemary bread

7. Use a teaspoon of dried rosemary (or tablespoon of fresh rosemary) and kind of pat the rosemary into the two loaves. Or just sprinkle it on. Whatever works for you.

8. Cover the loaves again, place in warm area, and let them rise again until doubled. About an hour, sometimes less for this stage.

9. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

10. Bake the bread for about 15 to 20 minutes until brown. (it doesn’t brown a lot) (I often bake this ahead of time, and then warm it up when we’re ready to eat by heating for another 5 minutes or so.)

11. Pull from oven and brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt or kosher salt.

brush with butter and sprinkle on sea salt

Dipping Sauce:

We use olive oil, Spice Island Bread Dipping spices, and Parmesan cheese. (you could use your own choice of spices like garlic, oregano, italian spices, etc.)

Rosemary bread dipping sauce

Pour the oil on a plate and add the spices and cheese.

dipping sauce for bread

FAIR WARNING: This bread should come with a warning…you just can’t. stop. eating. it. once you get started. So very yummy.

Very easy to make and incredibly tasty. Enjoy your faux Macaroni Grill -ish- Rosemary bread.

Fabulous Swiss Cheese Fondue

by Kay~Kacey on 5/28/2008

This fantasic swiss cheese fondue is a regular on our dinner menu. We have it for the main meal. With a side of wine. 😉

Swiss Cheese Fondue:

1/4 lb Emmenthal Cheese (also spelled Emmental cheese, but don’t get me started…)
1/4 lb Swiss Gruyere
1 lb–give or take–any other Swiss Cheese…I prefer Baby Swiss
2 cloves garlic
juice from 1/2 lemon
1/4 c Kirschwasser (cherry brandy)
1/4 c white wine (don’t forget to taste this ingredient as you’re making the fondue!!)
sprinkle of nutmeg
1/4 c flour–give or take

swiss fondue ingredients

Okay, so this worked out well. I told SuperGuy that he had to cook, and I was in charge of the picture taking. You know, a group effort.

kacey's ingredient

I helped a lot with this ingredient. You know, tasting and sampling…

pour in kirschwasser

Pour in about 1/4 c kirschwasser…Cherry Brandy

white wine

Add about 1/4 c white wine. Pino Grigio is preferred by the finer chefs. 😉

smash the garlic

Smash the garlic with a knife. SuperGuy says this makes them easier to peel off that outer layer. Use your favorite knife.

chop garlic

SuperGuy insists I tell you to cut off the green tip end of the garlic. It can give a bitter taste. Who knew there were so many rules about chopping garlic?? I just, um, chop it… Anyway, add the garlic to the fondue pot.

juice from 1/2 lemon

Add the juice from 1/2 a lemon. (of course, then you have the problem of what DO you do with the juice from the other 1/2 of the lemon. But these quandries of the universe are more than we can really go into today.) See the lemon juicer? SuperGuy has a gadget for everything he does in the kitchen.

Turn on the fondue to medium and heat the liquid to just barely boiling.

swiss cheese

Here you see the cheese. About 1/4 lb ementhal and 1/4 lb swiss gruyere. About 1 lb of any other swiss. Baby Swiss is best. Trust me.

grate the cheese

Grate the cheese.

toss the cheese in flour

Toss the cheese in about 1/4 c flour. Hey, wait!!! Where the heck is his wedding ring??? Hey!! Be right back…

Okay, okay, he swears he took it off when he was staining a table he’s refinishing for me. All is forgiven. I’ll go retrieve the ring for him though…

add the cheese

Slowly add the cheese when the liquid gets to just boiling. You might want to turn down the heat just a bit. Sprinkle in some nutmeg. Just a bit.

serve with apples and bread

Serve with cubed bread and cubed apples. Or anything else you have around. Like veggies.

serve with white wine

We serve this as our main course. Yummy. Makes for a nice leisurely dinner of conversation and dipping into the fondue. Not to mention the competition to see who drops the fewest pieces into the fondue…

delicious

Doesn’t that look delicious?? We make it so often, we keep the cheeses and kirschwasser on hand. Well, and we never seem to have a problem coming up with the Pino Grigio either… A perfect dinner for two. If you have any left over, it’s really good heated over an open faced sandwich. Enjoy!