A delicious, simple meal focusing on bread, an assortment of cheeses, sliced vegetables and fresh fruits, olives, pickles, meats, and often a small dish of olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping. Versatile and breezy, feel free to include whatever sides make you happy!
Hard-boiled or deviled eggs? Hummus and pita? Tapenade, bruschetta, or goat cheese – we love them all! Add a small bowl of whatever seasonal fruits or berries you find available as a special treat, as this meal is something of a celebration!
In our home we take special notice of Friday evening, marking it with a special meal and some family traditions like a special blessing and family Communion before sharing the food together. It’s something my children eagerly anticipate each week. Pausing to acknowledge the week’s end and to give thanks for the rest and refreshment that the weekend provides while refocusing on the blessings God has given us is an important part of the cadence of our family life.
While this Friday meal is special, it is by no means difficult. The majority of the food is usually handheld (although we do often include a salad), and that makes it enjoyable and relaxing, especially for the kids! (They lovingly refer to this meal as “Bread-and-Cheese”). To make it even more celebratory, we often include a sparkling juice for the kids and wine for the adults.
I usually start thinking and planning for it during the week and try to stock up on the things I will want for it so it becomes simply a matter of just laying it all out by Friday afternoon.
I hope you find this an inspiration to create your own delicious, simple, yet celebratory family feast soon!
Buon apetito!
Here’s my recipe for French Bread, which I make about once a week and shape into many versatile forms – Enjoy!
Basic French Bread Recipe
This recipe is inspired from Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day, my most-used bread recipe book. I don’t usually have time to make bread dough the day before, nor do I usually have the fridge space to chill it overnight like many of his recipes require, so I just simplify the process and dump the ingredients in my sweet and helpful bread machine, Melba. (Don’t tell Peter.) If you don’t have a lovely Melba-machine of your own, here’s the link to Peter’s original recipe: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120580907
Meet Melba:
Melba is a wonder. I just punch in the number for dough (on this machine, #8), put my ingredients in the metal bucket in the right order (making sure that paddle is in there, too). Then I hit the “start” button and one-and-a-half-hours later, I have some beautiful dough ready to go, already risen once and ready for shaping!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups lukewarm water
- 2 TBSP olive oil (if desired, technically this voids the “authentic” French bread part of it, but I do it anyway. You decide.)
- 3 tsp salt
- 5 1/4 cups bread flour (Yes, bread flour. It’s going to give that springy, delightful chewiness that makes French bread so wonderful. BUT. If you don’t have it, you can absolutely use all-purpose and it will be fine.)
- 2 1/4 tsp active yeast
Put all ingredients in bread machine bucket IN ORDER LISTED (basically note that all wet ingredients go first, then the dry and then yeast on top).
Wait for it… push that button! And boom. Walk away, knowing that your little friendly Melba-machine is going to take care of everything and transform the simple ingredients into something beautiful.
OK. Once Melba is done and starts beeping at me, I take the dough bucket and dump it out on a clean, often lightly-sprayed-with-oil surface. In my house, the only place I have room is my dining room table.
While I start this, I often turn my oven on to heat to 170 degrees F. for about two minutes., then I turn it off. (My oven gets pretty hot pretty fast) I do this because I want a warm safe place to let the buns rise, and any hotter isn’t good.
Then I roll out the dough and divide it evenly in half, then half again, so I have four equal dough pieces. For buns, I roll these out lengthwise, then slice them down the middle, then start chopping them up into little blobs about 1 1/2″ across.
Then I roll the blobs into smooth balls and place about an inch apart on a greased baking sheet – in this case, usually my lovely 11×17″ baking sheets. I can fit quite a few buns on these, and often get about 35-40 buns on one.
When I’m all done with the rolling, I put the pans in the oven with the light on and let them rise for 30 minutes. They should be visibly larger by the end of this time. Then, I take them out of the oven and preheat it to 400 degrees F.
I bake them for 12 minutes. Sometimes 13, but rarely more than that. I prefer softer over crunchy, but it’s a matter of taste. If you like more crispy, bake for about 14-15 mins.
Take ’em out and let ’em cool a bit before slicing in half to ease using as little hand-held sandwiches, or serve warm in a bowl with a towel.
By this point, the house usually smells like a glorious fresh hot bread bonanza, and I can rarely resist grabbing one fresh from the pan, stabbing it open with a knife and slathering butter in the middle. I then eat it quickly, giving thanks for such delights as hot fresh bread and butter all the while. If you have fresh strawberry freezer jam, that’s always a great option too. Or a slice of a densely salty aged Gouda or a tangy sharp white cheddar… Or just a lovely drizzle of a good balsamic reduction and a dollop of olive oil.
Makes 4 medium-size baguette loaves, 2 large French or Italian-size loaves, or many buns (based on how big you make the dough blobs). Usually it’s enough for my family of 10 to get full for dinner and still have over a dozen buns leftover.
(You’re welcome.)