"15 min" French Bread & Goulash

The bread recipe is from my friend Bec, who I believe found it on another site. I do not know the official source to give credit, but it is an incredibly easy and delicious bread recipe. So easy, I feel ridiculous buying french bread or garlic bread from the store because it is much simpler to just throw a batch together. There is no kneading involved.

Here is the easy "15 min" french bread recipe:
2 1/2C. warm water
2T (yes tablespoons) active dry yeast
2T sugar
2tsp salt
5 1/2 C flour

1. Mix all into a large bowl, let rise for 15 min
2. Make into 2 long loaves, put 6 slits in each, let rise 15 min
3. Bake @450 for 15 min.

My own suggestions are to mix sugar and yeast in warm water first and then measure out flour and salt in separate bowl. Add dry to wet and mix throughly. This dough is very moist and when it rises the second time, is prone (in my experience) to spread. I roll up some little towels with flour on them to try and give them a little shape and keep the 2 loaves from squishing together. The bread is not crusty like a baguette, but soft and delicious.



Goulash

Goulash to me is probably not traditional in any way except it is traditional for my family. Its more of a ragtag of veggies, never really being the same except for the mainstays of beef, tomato and noodles.

1lb of ground beef or venison
1 can of tomatoes (i prefer stewed but diced works)
1 cup of noodles (elbow is great)
veggies....in the past I've used a mirepoix (celery, onion, carrot) or tomatoes that are going soft, mushrooms, frozen peas, green beans, frozen mix veggies etc)

Brown the beef, toss salt and pepper on, celery salt if not using celery, toss in chopped veggies and cooked noodles, worcestershire sauce, couple squirts of ketchup and shakes of italian seasoning. Serve.