A Plug for Sidewalk Shoes

I've had Sidewalk Shoes in my sidebar for a long time. It's one of my favorite blogs to read. I love what Pam puts together in her kitchen and her writing style, and her photos always look so darn appetizing. IOW, don't read when you're hungry. ;-)

This morning I took a peek at the latest entry and resistance was futile. I had already been thinking about making soup to empty out some space in the fridge in anticipation of Christmas Dinner preparations and leftovers. Her foccacia bread pushed me over the edge. Soup and foccacia for dinner it would be.

Although I didn't realize it this morning when planning, my foccacia would be the "poor woman's" version since I later found out I was very low on Rosemary and completely sans sea salt. (Already added to tomorrow's shopping list.) I subbed some thyme and tarragon and a pinch of chipotle.



When the bread came out of the oven, DS#1, who works at The Cheesecake Factory, couldn't get the plate of olive oil & ground pepper prepared fast enough — trying to impress us with his presentation knowledge. ;-)

Anyway, my point (yes, I do have one) is that this bread is absolutely delicious! And incredibly easy to make with a bread machine (Belinda, are you listening?). I made it this afternoon in the middle of holiday baking. Just a few minutes to toss the ingredients into the machine pan, and then later a few more minutes to turn the dough out into the pan. The machine, yeast, and oven do all of the hard work. I am definitely making this again next week when my mom, sister, and spouses are here.

The creamed chicken soup was very good too, but I forgot to take a photo of that while we had some in bowls. A shot looking down in the pot wouldn't do it any justice.