Home again... and Rosemary Focaccia

Nothing says "home" like the smell of baking... well, that and your own shower/ bed.  So this afternoon when we returned home from our trip to New Orleans, Dixon and I threw the ingredients for this focaccia into the bread machine.  I adapted the recipe from the Houston junior league cookbook, Stop and Smell the Rosemary, which is one of my all time favorite cookbooks.

And rosemary happens to be all that is looking green and ready to harvest in the garden right now.

Also, this recipe is very very very easy.


Ingredients:
1 tsp yeast (half of a package, if you don't buy in bulk)
2/3 cup warm water
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 tsp coarse Kosher salt
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1-2 Tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary (feel free to substitute another fresh herb)

Make sure you chop rosemary small - it has a big punch and you don't want a whole leaf in your mouth

 Put everything except 1 tablespoon olive oil into the bread machine.  Start the dough cycle.

Go outside and have a Mardi Gras parade with your child (or at least that's what I did.  You can substitute the random activity of your choice.  Perhaps I should have chosen laundry, but my kid won't want to pretend to be a drum major while he trumpets "Second Line" in the driveway with me forever.  The laundry, however, will endure).

Dixon drew out his parade route first, using sidewalk chalk.  He blew up the dust to make a cloud and insisted I take a picture - I thought it was pretty cool! 

And William had fun watching... (I promise, I will get back to the focaccia... but the nice thing about this recipe is that it gave me lots of time to play with the boys)

 Yes, I bought the stroller just because it matched his eyes...
Well, that and I made my husband push the old umbrella stroller through a mall in Mobile so that I could get an upgrade ;)

In 1 1/2 hours, come back inside.  Punch down and roll out the dough.

Have your child attack the dough with "the claw."

 Again, lacking the enthusiastic child, you can do this yourself. The desired end is the little pits all over the bread that will act as happy homes to the olive oil.

 Sprinkle with the olive oil.  Let rise again on the pan it will cook on (I highly recommend a stone - no more burned bottoms, ever) for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375.  Bake for 20 minutes. Spray with water 2 times during the first 10 minutes (I forgot this step, so it wasn't as chewy as I wanted it to be)

The recipe recommended letting this cool completely.  It did not happen at my house. If yours smells as amazing as ours did, I wish you luck!!

Oh, and we served it with a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and a little cracked black pepper.  Freshly grated parmesan would also be amazing.

Enjoy!

P.S. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what I want to cook for the rest of this week, so suggestions are welcome. What should I make???