Jicama and spinach caserole

This is my first time working with Jicama. I saw it in the store the other day and decided to give it a try. I read a few recipes I had for it, most called for it raw in salads or cooked and mashed like potatoes. I decided to grate it up to give it an interesting texture, and pair it with spinach and a creamy cheesy sauce. Yummy! It turned out pretty good.

Caserole Body

1 Jicama Peeled and Grated

1 Bunch Spincah, Washed

The green ends off of 2-3 Scallions

1 Cup toased Bread Crumbs

Creamy "Cheesy" Sauce

2 Tbs. Vegan butter or oil

2 Tbs. Flour

1&1/2 Cup "So delicious" coconut drink or dairy alternative

2 Tbs. Nutritional Yeast flakes

1/2 cup Cashew "cheese sauce"(recipe in nutritional yeast post)

Garlic and onion powder

Salt and Pepper

Heat butter alternative or oil in small sauce pan. Add flour and let this cook a few minutes, stirring. Warm dairy alternative and add to flour mixture. Whisk this over medium heat, bring to a boil. When it reaches a boil, add the rest of the ingredients and mix thuroughly. remove from heat and let sit a minute.

Peel the jicama and cut in half. Grate and by the handful, squeeze excess liquid from grated jicama. Grease up a small caserole dish. Line the bottom with the first half of the grated jicama. Pour in some sauce, enough to moisten the jicama. Cut the root ends from washed spinach and rough chop. Rough chop scallion ends and layer them and spinach on top of the jicama. Now layer the other half of the grated and squeezed Jicama. Pour on remaining sauce. Sprinkle on lightly toasted bread crumbs. Cook in a 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes.

Artisan Bread Baking

It has been a while since I baked any bread, but it seems I still got the touch. This is the easiest, foolproof recipe I have found that makes amazing bread every time. There are a few easy tricks you can do to ensure a perfect loaf with a nice crispy crust. This recipe should make 2 large loaves or you can also use it for pizza crusts, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls or whatever baked goods you love. If you only want to make one loaf of bread now, you can stick the other half of the dough in the fridge to use later. The dough will continue to rise in the fridge, so make sure it is in a container with some head room. The dough will become stronger in "sour" flavor the longer it is in the fridge and will last up to a week.

The Dough
3 Cups Warm to the touch Water
1&1/2 Tbs. Active Dry Yeast
1&1/2 Tbs. Sea Salt
6-6&1/2 Cups Unbleached White Flour

A few things that will make this process easier
Pizza Stone(mandatory for a panless loaf)
Large Pizza Peel
Some sort of "form" for your loaf  to rise in (I use a smaller sized lined colander)
Squirt bottle full of fresh water
Sharp knife or razor blade for scoring top of loaf
Good sharp serrated knife for cutting fresh bread

Pour the water into a large bowl. Add the yeast and let disolve a few minutes..i swish it around with my fingers till its fully disolved. Next add the Salt and let this disolve also. When all is disolved in the water, add the flour. Mix till all of the flour is incorporated. You now have a nice wet dough. For the loaf above, I happened to have a piece of dough from my last batch left over from the weekend, so I added that in to the new dough. The old dough had a slight sour quality from having sat around for a few days, and this imparted a nice flavor into the bread. You can now do 1 of 2 things, Either knead the crap out of this dough, or let it sit and rise and develope the gluten naturally. So, when you Knead dough you are trying to physically align and stretch those gluten fibers, which will happen naturally through the rising process, it just takes a little longer. I choose to do a little of both. I put the dough in my Kitchen Aid and mixed for about 10-15 minutes. If you were only going to knead, you would want to knead about 45 minutes to get the dough ready to go. If you are going with rise only, that should take about 4 hours. I kneaded with my Kitchen Aid for 10-15 min, and then let it rise for about 2 hours.
Now you are ready to form your loaf(s). You can use a loaf pan if you prefer a nice even shaped loaf of bread. If you are like me and you like a more rustic loaf, there are a few different things you can do.

I use a smaller sized colander lined with a well floured tea towel. You can buy fancy little baskets that are made especially for rising loaves of bread in, this is the thrifty way of doing it. So, I form a "ball shape" called a boul, and let it rise, bottom side up in my lined collander. You can also, generously dust a large pizza peel with flour or corn meal and let the boul rise free form on here. It will flatten out quite a bit during the rise and you will end up with a flatter larger loaf than if you rise it in a form. You want to let it sit covered with plastic wrap, for another 45 min to hour once you have your loaf formed. If you used a form you will need to lightly dust a pizza peel with flour or corn meal and flip your loaf out and onto the peel once the second rise is complete. This can be a tricky move, and will come easier with practice. Working quickly, as the formed loaf will quickly start to flatten and spread once flipped onto the peel. You want to make long "slices" into the top of the loaf to allow air to escape during the cooking process. If you dont make these cuts your air will find its own way to escape and you will end up with a loaf of bread with large eruptions in it. You want to score the top even if you are using a loaf pan.

You want your oven seriously hot when cooking this bread, I heat mine to 500. I turn the oven on when the loaf is in its final rising stage, so after it is in the lined colander. So, now you have your scored loaf on the dusted pizza peel and your oven is raging hot! If you have a (water only)squirt bottle around, fill it with fresh water and, working quickly, spritz the inside of your oven genrously and shut the door trapping the steam in. The steam will help form a nice crispy crust on your bread. Now quickly slide the pizza peel onto the pizza stone, and push the loaf onto the stone. Spritz once more generously with the water and shut the door. DO NOT OPEN THE  OVEN DOOR FOR THE FIRST 10 MINUTES OF BAKING! You dont want to let out any of that steam you worked so hard to get in there. Bake for 40-50 minutes, turning the loaf once to cook evenly. Your loaf is done when it is a deep brown on top and Hollow sounding when tapped lightly on the bottom side. You really want to error on the over done side here. Some amazing flaovers develop in the crust when it gets that nice carmelized color. And when removed too soon the inner "crumb" will be soggy and dense. Once removed from the oven, let the loaf cool completely before cutting. Trust me, its worth the wait. I have been baking bread for about 5 years now, mostly with this super simple recipe. You can substitute in 1 cup of whole wheat flour, any more than that and it will serously affect your recipe. You really want a good Serrated knife when cutting into this beautiful loaf, anything else will end up mangling your hard work. I apologize for any misspelled words..I couldnt get spell check to work for me today on here, damn technology anyway...