Focaccia bread

I remember my sophomore year in college when one of my roommates, Lydia, would make focaccia bread. I have been craving it for about a week or so. So for dinner group I decided it was time. I googled and looked around for a good recipe and found one on allrecipes.com (i love that website) and read through the reviews to make sure that I wouldn't end up with something nasty.  I added some veggies on top, added in a little wheat flour (cuz basically I'm obsessed) and it was delicious!

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to serve with it. I thought pasta, but then I thought that is too many bread like food. So I started thinking Chicken and decided to do a breaded chicken of some sort. At first I wanted to coat the chicken and then dip it in some shake n' bake like recipe. When I went into my kitchen, I found that I had italian bread crumbs so I just decided to use those. But I think that if there was a little more salt or something in them it would have been better. So, I did all this research to see which moistener/adhesive would be best - olive oil (http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fats-and-oils/509/2), mayonnaise (http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fats-and-oils/7520/2), or egg white (http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/dairy-and-egg-products/112/2). Typically recipes I've seen use one of these. So, in the end it seems as though egg white is the healthiest (ha ha.. surprise surprise.. but I wanted fact not just my thoughts). But whats funny, is that I ended up just using water! I had thawed the chicken in a bowl of hot running water and it was moist and so I just dipped it in the bread crumbs and put them on the pan. Sprinkled some Parmesan on them Baked 'em for like 20 minutes. Delicious. Then I also served it with an apple salad with lemon dressing.

Veggie Focaccia Bread

Source: Adapted from Terri McCarell at allrecipes.com (http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/focaccia-bread/Detail.aspx)

Makes: 1 cookie sheet sized foccacia

1 cup water

1 tsp white sugar

1 tbsp active dry yeast

1 tbsp salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (2 cups white flour, 3/4 cups wheat flour)

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried basil

1 pinch ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1 Roma tomato, thinly sliced

1/3 small zucchini, thinly sliced

2 tbsp onion, thinly sliced

1/4 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese

1. Take about a cup of warm water from the tap (roughly 110 F) and put it into the bowl, mix in the sugar, then add the yeast. Let it sit for about 10 minutes or till its all foamy. 
2. Add in the 1 tbsp olive oil and salt. Stir and then add the dry ingredients - flour, oregano, thyme, basil, pepper. (I combined the dry ingredients first to make sure they were evenly mixed throughout the flour).
3. Kneed dough till smooth and elastic on a floured surface. If it is dry you can add a little more water, I think I added about an extra 1/4 c. warm water at this point.
4. Place in a bowl, turn to coat with a little oil. Then cover and let rise for about 20 minutes in a warm location. 
5. While the bread is rising, make sure all the vegetables are prepared and ready to be put on the bread. 
6. Preheat oven to 450 F. Put parchment paper down on the cookie sheet (this helps SO much with preventing the bread from sticking)
7. Punch down the dough. Spread it on the parchment paper on the cookie sheet. Brush on about 2 tbsp of olive oil. Spread the garlic, tomatoes, bell pepper, zucchini and onions on top. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese
8. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

slicing the veggies!