Adelaide Lemonade

I'm in Chelmsford

Where, you ask?  Yeah, I'd never heard of it either until the class I was supposed to take in my hometown didn't get enough participants and the closest alternative was Chelmsford, MA.  There's not exactly much to do here, but I'm actually enjoying my "alone" time.  After traveling for work quite a bit in the past 3 years, I've discovered that I don't mind being alone one bit.  That may change when I'm not constantly with 5 other people, a cat, and a dog, but for now, I don't mind.  Of course, my first choice would be to be with my family, but I'm having a glorious few days doing what I want when I want.

I don't even mind eating out alone - especially when it's on my company's dime.  I usually treat myself to a glass of wine, read my e-mails, check my facebook, annoy the crap out of my husband by texting him photos of everything I'm eating and drinking, then read Kindle on my phone while I eat.  Tonight I chatted with some fellow business-travelling ladies from Dallas sitting next to me (but I'm usually traditionally Yankee stand-off-ish and don't talk to anyone).

The first night here, I ate a yummy cherry pepper flatbread from Moonstones

I liked it so much that I skipped dinner last night and ate my leftovers.

Tonight, I ate at a place called Fishbones.  Nice decor, don't you think?

Yummy blackened swordfish with pineapple salsa.  

I also drank a bellitinitini.  

Never had one before, but I was sold on the advertised peach puree.  I managed to drink it, but I'm not sure it was really my thing.  I didn't really need it, but I had a glass of Prosecco for dessert - my first white wine of the season.  

I usually drink red when it's cold and white when it's warm.  It was gorgeous and approaching 70 today.  I think it was the first day in 6 months where I haven't been freezing my butt off.

The two drinks is probably what's making me brave enough to post a photo by myself.  Here I am eating all by my lonesome.

I stumbled home on the lovely Bruce Freeman Rail Trail where I've been running/walking every day.  

Other than that, I've been spending oodles of time surfing recipes and cooking blogs on the web.  Do you have any favorites I should follow?  I've been following Pioneer Woman, Smitten Kitchen, and Pinch My Salt for ages, but I just added as many as possible to my Feedly feed last night.  I'm not positive that will still work after the Google Reader end of life.  I still need to research that some more.  What are you all going to do?  I mostly used the Google Next button which I loved because it took me to the actual blog.

I'm still totally on a cooking kick.  Here's what I made for meals last week.

Sunday:  Barbeque Shrimp, Chips, Guacamole, corn, Poblano Jack Cheddar Beer Bread (if I make this again, I need to cook it longer) S'mores Cookies, Strawberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (I used Pioneer Woman's Blackberry Ice Cream recipe, but blackberries aren't exactly in season now, so I subbed strawberries.)

It was so good!  We used chopped up Hershey bars leftover from the cookies.  Does anyone know where you can get those flat square chips that you find in mint chocolate chip ice cream?

The S'more's Cookies were the third in our project to make I Heart Naptime's 50 favorite cookie repices.  We all liked these.  I might skip the cinnamon next time and maybe double or 1 1/2 the Hershey bars.

Next up are Cookies and Cream Cookies.  Here's Addie picking the next recipe out of our basket of recipes.

and Frank carefully pressing the Hershey bars into the partially baked cookies.

Monday:   Pretzel Chicken (again!).  This time we used the Snyder's Honey Mustard and Onion Pieces for extra flavor.  I'm not sure it really made that much difference.  Crash Hot Potatoes (never any leftovers with these babies).  Carrot Sticks.

Tuesday:   Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce (this was so good - it converted my husband from his vegetarian ways - I feel a bit guilty), Quinoa Salad (I liked it well enough but not a big hit.)

Wednesday:  Leftovers and my husband cooked up some pasta because the peanut sauce was just so damn good.

Friday night, I went a little crazy preparing for an overnight in Rangeley and made my new favorite Jacques Torres Infamous Chocolate chip cookies found on via I Heart Naptime.  I'm really liking the Crepes of Wrath blog - home to these cookies - and have already marked a bunch of recipes to try.

I also made bagels and my favorite Pain a l'Ancienne from Peter Rheinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice.

I have a reprieve from cooking this week, since I'm out of town.  Since I've had so much extra time on my hands, I think I just about have the next 3 weeks of meals planned.  For me, that's almost the hardest part.

I originally had really good intentions of making a blouse for Spring Top Sewalong, and I was a good portion of the way there on Thursday night.  I might have been able to finish by the deadline of Friday night, but then I remembered that I'm trying hard to be patient with myself.  Rushing to finish a shirt didn't really fit in with that.  

I also intended to cut out a bunch of things for Kids Clothing Week and to bring my sewing machine to Chelmsford with me.  It was such a great idea, since, other than class, I have no commitments and could sew uninterrupted, but I had a chance to go to Rangeley for the night and hike with my girls on Sunday.

So I didn't have much time to prepare, and I decided that didn't fit in well with  being patient with myself either.  I am feeling a bit bummed about missing out on KCW especially seeing everyone else's posts about it, but I think I'll manage.  I'll sew when the motivation and opportunity strikes and not worry about it other than that.

I'm not completely craftless.  I brought my knitting.  I'm working on a Judith sweater and finally started on one of the sleeves.

Hope you're well and enjoying KCW!

Dinner

You would think that after being a wife and mother for over 18 years, I would have had the whole dinner thing figured out by now, but it's never really been my forte - to say the least.

It's not that I really mind cooking, but I always have other priorities like knitting, sewing, carting the kids around, relaxing, etc.

That and I'm not good at magically creating meals out of nothing without a recipe.

So another big duuh moment - you um need to plan for making dinner.  At least I do.

Most of you are probably thinking I'm pretty lucky to choose whether or not to make dinner and are thinking you've had to do that for your family for years.  I am lucky.  And guilty.  I won't spill all my secrets, but it's possible there are some cereal nights, lots of mac and cheese, a few nights where I yell down "you're on your own for dinner", and maybe, just maybe, a few trips through the Mickey D's drive through on the way home from dance class.  And I have a really great husband who cooks a lot and is a way better cook than I.

I decided to start small and agreed to start making dinner Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  I've managed two weeks in a row!  I'm not going to say it's a habit because I know myself, and I know the next project that I feel I absolutely must work on will quickly deter me from this dinner making thing.

But for the record, I want to document what I've made and what we thought of it.

Last Sunday (okay I didn't cook last Sunday - we were just getting back from Worlds in Boston)

Last Monday:  Pork tacos and corn salad.  I thought the pork was yummy, and the kids ate it but didn't love it.  My husband and I really liked the corn salad.  The girls just ate the corn and tomatoes.  The boys just picked out the corn.  Oh yeah, and I had to whip up a batch of my very favorite salsa.

Last Tuesday:  Pretzel Chicken and Strawberry Arugula salad.  The kids liked the chicken the best of anything we've had so far.  Frank's been helping a lot.  With a broken leg, I think he's so bored, he'll do anything.

The kids didn't say as much, but I think they thought the salad was a waste of strawberries.  I thought it was pretty.

I used goat cheese instead of blue cheese and enjoyed a big helping of the salad at work the next day (although, since I'd already dressed it, it was a big soggy).

Last Wednesday:  I was on a role, and we had a lot of leftovers, so I made dinner again even though I hadn't commited to Wednesdays.  We made nachos with the leftover pork . . .  

and ate the rest of the chicken.

I think we skipped a vegetable.  Hey, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Saturday was a bonus night too.  Because I really know how to party on Friday nights, I made this pizza dough with some fancy flour I bought at Formaggio Kitchen.  It has to "ferment" over night, so we ate it on Saturday.  I made this sauce that I've been wanting to try for a while.

 I really liked it.  I tried it again last night, but it got kind of funky - maybe frozen? - in the fridge.  My favorite pizza toppings are carmelized (aka burnt to a crisp) onions

and goat cheese.  My husband who's on a sometimes vegan/mostly vegetarian kick just had cheese and regular onion,

and the kids had bacon.  

Oh yeah and we had homemade ice cream.  

Addie and Frank helped me make it.  Frank is helpful.  Addie is the kind of help you can do without.  I added four crushed up Skor bars (my supermarked didn't have Heath bars - what's up with that?).  It might have been three by the time Frank and Addie and I sampled some.  Anyway the ice cream was awesome!  We had soft serve right out of the ice cream maker for a snack then hard serve for dessert.

This Sunday:  This slow cooked barbecue pork with these homemade buns and homemade coleslaw.  I made the buns really small - slider size - I divided the dough into 24 pieces.  

My husband claimed to like the buns (most wise husbands would always say they like their wives' buns - right?), but really none of it was a big hit.  I have lots of leftover pork in the freezer.  It doesn't help that my 17-year-old-will-eat-anything-except-tomatoes-and-frosting is out of town on a class trip.  Oh wait, I almost forgot about the crash hot potatoes.  

Those were definitely the highlight of the meal.  I've made them before and highly recommend them.  I found some expensive little potatoes at my supermarket that were perfect for this.  I can't wait until Farmer's Market season begins again!

This Monday:  Sloppy Joes on the leftover homemade buns which I had saved on purpose thanks to my planning.  Again, if only my 17 year old had been here.  Frank heroically ate two.  I pulled a classic parenting move (probably oh so wrong) and made Addie sit at the table until she tried one bite.  I remember sitting at my kitchen table as a young girl for what seemed like hours.  I'm pretty sure it was fishsticks, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't going to give in.  I don't remember the outcome, but I don't think I ate them.  Katie 1, Mom 0.  If only we'd had a dog.  For a vegetable (back in this century - not in young Katie's 70's), we had this cauliflower recipe.  Another one for me to enjoy for lunch snack the next day.

Last night:  Baked Potato bar.  Frank's idea even though Maggie is the one who loves baked potatoes.  Because I don't even know how to bake a potato, I used this recipe which was really good.  We had pear sorbet for dessert which was really yummy but kind of just tasted like frozen applesauce.  

I couldn't find pear brandy, so I used Applejack.  Now I have a lot of that and am going to have to find some cocktails to make.

So I'm off the hook for a few days and enjoying some time puttering around in my newest craft room trying to pick out a shirt to make for the Spring Top Sew Along.

Thanks for following me on my ever-changing obsessions.  If you have any great dinner ideas, please, please, please share!

Catching Up

Ugh.  It's been ages since I last blogged.  I hate when I do that!  I could just dive right in and start blogging about whatever I'm up to now and pretend the last two months didn't happen, but I'd rather try to catch you all up.  And I'd like to have it "on record" for when I forget and want to go back and read it all later.

So here's what we've been up to, since I last posted (almost exactly two months ago!) . . .

My husband and I had a lovely night away in Portsmouth, NH.  We had a nice, late dinner at Mombo . . .

and breakfast the next morning at The Friendly Toast.  Both great, but if I had to choose one, it would be The Toast with their funky atmosphere . . .

and homemade, thick Anadama toast with my asparagus and goat cheese scrambled eggs.

Frank broke his leg skiing.  It was his second time skiing, and he was with my 17 year old son.  We weren't even there.  We were an hour away at home, so they had to deal with the whole thing by themselves.  Boy did I ever feel guilty.  

We met them at the hospital as quickly as we could, and Frank is feeling much better.  He has a boot now and healing well.  I feel like I'm doing okay with this being the first broken bone in 47 collective years of parenting.

My mom, sister, and I have had several (okay 2) shopping excursions in Kittery and dined both times at the When Pigs Fly restaurant.  I love that place.

My mom and I found matching coats . . .

How cool are we?  For the record, we were most definitely NOT shopping at that store in the background.

Oh yeah, and I got a new job.  I'm still working at the same company, but I'm in a totally different role and department.  I'm loving it so far and am just a bit worried it's too good to be true.  I'm able to be a bit creative in my job as a developer (instead of managing developers) which I didn't realize I'd missed until I started doing it again.  I liken it to living in Maine - you have to go away and come back to realize how much you love it (although I really do question that every February and March).  I felt a little bit like I was going backwards in my career and giving up on being a manger (which I really think I was not bad at), but I now realize how silly that was.  I'm a thousand times less stressed out and can actually leave work at work and have room in my head to think about other things rather than obsess and worry about work.

My older daughter had lots of Irish Step Dancing events in March.  'Tis the season.  Then just last week, I took her to the World Irish Dance Championships in Boston.  

I thought it was going to be crazy - like regionals times ten - but it was actually really well organized.  Even though we spent the better part of 3 1/2 days there, it didn't seem so bad.  We had two days off in the middle, so we went shopping with my mom (that's what the girls in my family do) one of the days and the other day, I went on a bit of a foodie excursion in Cambridge/Boston visiting the famous Flour and picked up some gorgeous bread . . .

and Formaggio Kitchen and bought some fancy flour to make my own bread (or pizza dough as it turns out), and couldn't pass up these gorgeous macarons . . .

In the midst of it all, we decided to do a major rearranging of the house, so everything is a total mess, but yesterday, I finally got my craft room back in order.  I feel like a new person!  We still have a long way to go.  Only one of the kids currently has a room that's not complete chaos.

I really haven't been all that inspired creatively, but since I last posted, I did make my sister one of Noodlehead's Open-Wide Pouches for her birthday.  Of course, I had to make one for myself, too while I was at it, or as I told myself, to learn from any mistakes.

I didn't even take time to take a proper photo.  I was going to try to edit one, but why not just let you see my craft room in it's true state?!

I've been knitting a bit.  I made my sister a Dogwood hat for her birthday and Frank an Insulate hat.  (He's a Dr. Who fan.  I like how the pattern is pretty subtle.)  I'm working on a Judith sweater for myself.  

I just finished the body, now on to the sleeves.

I've been kind of in to cooking lately, but more on that another day.

My husband and I started the Couch to 5K program and are actually in our 6th week.  I'm quite proud of us considering I've started this about a dozen other times without making it past week 1.

I ordered some seeds.  I'm hoping to garden again this year.  Last year, I just knew I wouldn't have time, and the year before, I was in Australia during four of the big gardening weeks.  I've ordered from Seed Savers Exchange in the past but decided to go with more local Fedco this year.  I'm anxiously awaiting for them to arrive in the mail now, so I can start the tomatoes inside.

I'm sure I'm missing some things, but I think that mostly covers it.

I feel like I can take a breath now and think about sewing.  I'm hoping to make a top for Spring Top Sew along, and I definitely want to make some things for Kids Clothing Week (except I think I might be out of town that week.  Ugh.  Maybe I can bring my sewing machine.)

Hope you're all well.  Thanks for still reading after all this time.

My Weekend

Happy Monday.  How can the weekends possibly go by so fast?!  Back to work and limited sewing time.  Ugh.  At least I don't have to start off this blog post by saying something like, "I can't believe it's been so long, since I blogged."

I hate that the weekend is over, but it's nice to be able to report that I finished two items of clothing for Addie and have a really good start on a third.  The first was a repeat of the DMK Easy Wear Beach Top that I made a while back during Elsie Marley's Kids Clothing Week Challenge.  As I mentioned in this post, I messed up and accidentally separated the front bodice top from the rest of the front bodice body.  I actually decided I kind of like it that way. 

I used some Heather Ross double gauze for this one.  It wasn't horrible to work with but definitely not as easy as regular quilting cotton - just a little stretchier.  I love love love the print though, and the gauze definitely seems to be very soft and comfy.  This is a huge plus, since my daughter is reluctant to wear just about everything I make her.  Help!  Anyone have any advice on that?  So far I've been resorting to bribes.  My next step is to take everything ELSE out of her dresser.

Then I finished up this jacket prototype.  

Who uses Amy Butler for a prototype?!  I guess I was feeling pretty daring, and I actually love the way it came out.  This one is just flannel-lined, so it's more of a sweatshirt or spring jacket, but I had bought some pretty green wool at Alewive's last weekend to make a more winter-y jacket.  I wanted to make sure I could do it before I cut into that.  The outer jacket is done, so now I'm working on the lining.  I should have something to show you in a day or two (that is if I stop blogging and start sewing).

Oh and I baked two loaves of bread.  I decided to veer away from my trusty Bread Baker's Apprentice (which I'm still baking my way through - last I checked I think I had 11 recipes to go) and try some recipes from the King Arthur site.  I made this classic sandwich bread with 1/2 white whole wheat flour.  I haven't actually tried it yet for a sandwich, but it was just okay for toast.  I also made this oatmeal bread which is much better for toast.  I was kind of inspired by my brother who has been making the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and is looking for a more sandwich-y type of bread.  I think this may be the start of a mission to find the perfect sandwich bread.  I'm not sure either of these were it.

Lest you think I'm on of those bloggers who bakes bread every day, sews all homemade clothes for my family, and has perfectly behaved kids, let me just tell you that there were tears shed this weekend and Cheez-Its thrown.  (I don't know - how do you even spell that?)  Saturday was a mandatory yard clean up day mandated by my husband.  No one was too pleased about that including me, since it cut into my precious sewing time, but it was a beautiful day, so I was being a good sport.  Not so much for the three older kids.  Addie was actually really into it.

Maggie reluctantly did a good job raking.  As usual, she didn't want to have her picture taken, but I managed to capture this high-fashion outfit.

Joe was content enough using the electric pruners (as if I didn't have enough stress in my life already!) but had quite the attitude when it came to picking up the leaf piles (granted they're nasty and full of rotten apples which are now forming a nice thick layer on the bottom of everyone's shoes).

Frank actually helped out, too, but somehow I didn't manage to get a photo of him.

So the Cheez-it incident happened when Maggie took an unauthorized break to snack on a few of these crackers.  Holier-than-thou Joe happened to be taking a break at the same time - also unauthorized - told her to get back to work and apparently threw a Cheez-it at her.  Aaah gotta love that sibling rivalry.  No tears were shed there and no one got hurt.

So Maggie's getting ready for the New England Oireachtas next weekend.  If you know what I'm talking about, I bet you're feeling my pain.  We had dress rehearsal yesterday, and the tears were shed over a lost ghillie which we still haven't found.  Arggh.

Okay, I really want to get some sewing in before I have to start getting ready for work.

Hope your Monday flies by!

Tragedy in the Kitchen

Need I say more?

I couldn't even talk about it at first.  If you know what's in this photo, you can probably feel my pain.  If not, it's a dough hook for my Kitchen Aid mixer - more specifically a broken dough hook.  I'm kind of a bread geek, so this was pretty upsetting to me.  Okay so it's really not that big of a deal in the overall scheme of things, but it was going to put a damper on my bread-baking.  It broke while it was working hard to knead a batch of bagel dough.  I wasn't watching, but the sound of the mixer changed dramatically.  When I went to check it out I saw the damage, but not before I had a chance to make these baguettes:

and these bagels:

and while we're on the subject of bread, I've been keeping up pretty well (I think) with my Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge.  I made this Cranberry Walnut Braid which turned out to be better as toast than straight out of the oven and inspired a recipe for Cranberry Walnut Multigrain bagels which I will post soon.

I also made this Marble Rye.  It wasn't really to die for, but I bet it would make an awesome tuna salad sandwich especially if you buttered and grilled the bread.  Mmm.

Back in October, I made this Pane Siciliano.  The picture doesn't really do it justice, but it was delicious.  We devoured it in a day.

See what I mean?  Bread geek.

I told my sad story (okay complained) to enough friends that I was loaned two more dough hooks by the end of the next day, so all is well.

Catching Up

So far it's been a great weekend as far as accomplishments, and it's only Sunday morning.  Warning . . . This could be a long post.  I'm waiting for bread to rise, and it's very cold right now in my old Maine house, so it might take a while.

I'm finally catching up on the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge.  For some reason, I hit a wall with the corn bread, but I finally pushed on through, and it was delicious.  My husband said it was the best corn bread he'd ever had and that it was more like a corn "cake".  I've been trying to eat a Vegan diet, but after 7 or so months of being really good and really purist about it, I've somewhat fallen off the wagon, so now I'd say I'm more vegetarian than Vegan.  That worked out well for the corn bread, since it called for buttermilk, butter, and 3 eggs.  In the past, I would have replaced those with rice milk, Earth Balance, and Egg Replacer, but I just made it as is this time.  I did eliminate the bacon which sounded like it would have been wonderful.  I also didn't have a 10" pan, so I used a 9" which made it way too thick.  Because of that, I cooked it for way longer than the recipe called for, but I still ended up with some underdone spots.  (My husband likes underdone stuff, but I thought it was kind of gross.  Luckily, I can eat around that.)  The other thing I did differently was to just soak the cornmeal all day instead of overnight as the recipe called for.  I think that worked out fine, but the cornmeal probably could have been a bit more tender.  I made some chile (this was Vegan) to go with it.  Luckily, the kids didn't like the chili or the corn bread, so that'll make lunch for me almost all week.  We're having chili at my book club this week, so I think I'll make the corn bread again for that.

Then I also made the French Bread.  I totally spaced and added 1 1/2 cups water instead of the called for 3/4 cup.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Duh.  But in my defense, I don't know how I can keep a thought in my head with a full time job, four kids, and a husband who works nights.  Thankfully, I've learned enough from Bread Baker's Apprentice so far to know what the dough is supposed to look like, so I added a lot more flour.  Then I thought I'd better add a bit more yeast and salt.  The bread came out great.  It ended up being only slightly different from the Pain a l'Ancienne that I've been making ever since I got the first book.  It was slightly crustier and a bit less dense in the middle.  I'm going to have to make it one more time, since I don't feel like I really exactly followed the recipe with this one.  I still liked it a lot and I'm not sure which I like better - this or the Pain a l'Ancienne.  My husband liked the texture of the French Bread, but thought the flavor of the Pain a l'Ancienne was better.  Next time, I make the French Bread, I think I'll give the pate fermentee one more day in the fridge.  Ever since I bought the Bread Baker's Apprentice, I've been dying (okay maybe not dying, since I've had the book for about a year now, but excited at least) to make the epi shape.  I made two baguettes and one epi.  I thought my shaping was okay but will definitely need more practice.  Even the kids were impressed with it.

We took the bread and some other great snacks on a picnic last night to Portland's beautiful Eastern Prom park.  We didn't get there until almost 6, and even though it wasn't dark yet, the sun had moved on from the park, so it was cold, but we had a good time anyway.  The kids didn't eat too much, since they were busy playing on the playground, throwing around the football, and playing soccer, but my husband and I had a nice conversation.  Other than the main reason of wanting to spend some time with my family, I had two ulterior motives to wanting to go on a picnic.  I wanted to try out the quilt that I talked about in my last post.  I was in quite a quandary about it, as I think I mentioned because I didn't really want to ruin it with food and drink stains, but then again, I didn't want to never use it either.  I asked my 11 year old her advice, and she thought we should use it, and anyone who had drinks would just have to drink them somewhere else.  Made good sense to me.  (That and I compromised on white wine instead of red for us adults.)  I dropped a slow roasted tomato on it, but it's barely noticeable, and I supposed it's like a new car - you've gotta get that first scratch, so you can relax about it.  For snacks, we had the delicious slow roasted tomatoes that were just posted on Pinch My Salt (which also happens to be the inspiration for The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge) on top of some Maine goat cheese (wonderfully mild but not boring) on top of the homemade French Bread.  I made the tomatoes from some beautiful Sungolds that I picked up from the Farmer's Market along with some Maine garlic and bought the goat cheese from our cool, local Rosemont Market.  So good!

So now I'm waiting for the Focaccia to do it's final rise.  I just turned the oven on the preheat.  I can't wait for this one.  UPDATE:  Since this is such a long post, and my husband came down to chat, the focaccia is now done.  It is awesome!  I can't wait to make it again.  There are so many different possibilities with it.  I think I will try to make it pizza-style next time.  Once again, I didn't have the right size pans, so I divided it between a pie pan and a lasagne pan.  That seemed to work out fine.  I had plenty of extra slow-roasted tomatoes, so I added those to the pie pan size "loaf" as a pre-rise topping.  That worked out great.  (Another update - I couldn't get enough of the whole bread/goat cheese/slow roasted tomato thing, so I cut a piece of focaccia in half sandwich-wise, spread some goat cheese on top, threw some tomatoes on top of that and put it open-faced under the broiler.  Heavenly.  It's gonna take a miracle to go back to the Vegan diet now!)

Because I really hate to get the whole kitchen dirty for just one thing, I also made the English Muffins.  They were good enough and fun to make, but they really didn't have much hope for impressing anyone after the Focaccia.  One of these days, I'll have to make them again - alone.  My husband makes a mean breakfast sandwich which would be quite impressive with these babies.

Few.  So now I think I'm almost caught up with the BBA.  Italian Bread is next, and I think the only other one I skipped is the Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread.  I'll definitely have to do that for Thanksgiving.

Happy Baking!  (And eating.)

Casatiello

Just a quick (at least that's the plan) post about the Casatiello bread I made yesterday for the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. It was a hectic day capped off by my daughter's dance recital. Thanks to her independence and ability to get completely ready all by herself, I still managed to get in quite a bit of cooking and baking. I pulled the casatiello out of the oven about 15 minutes before it was time to go. About 4 hours later (it was a very long dance recital), I was finally able to sample it. I was quite skeptical, since I had made so many Vegan substitutes; Earth Balance Sticks for the butter, Egg Replacer for the eggs, and Rice Milk for the milk/buttermilk. I also used some caramelized onions and black olives instead of the salami and cheese (even though I would have LOVED to throw some cheese in there - Mmmm). I made it in the 8" cake pan that the recipe kind of alludes to. Surprisingly, it was very good! It was rich yet light and fluffy like the Brioche I made last week with the "real" ingredients. The biggest difference I could detect was the lack of golden color. My husband said he thought it was the best bread I'd made so far. In typical woman-fashion, I was a little insulted by that. In my mind, "real" bread is like the Pain a L'Ancienne that I've been making since I bought the book last summer. Granted I haven't perfected it, but to me, that's good bread. This brioche-y business is just a novelty - no matter how good it tastes. That's just my crazy logic. He meant well. I decided to let it roll off.

Dinnertime, Distractions, and Challah

Where to start?! I have so much to blog about. It's been awhile since I've blogged. I got distracted by a sewing project. We've always used cloth napkins (one less thing to throw away), but lately we've been washing them after just one use which seems almost as wasteful. I love my kids and have dealt with every possibly bodily excretion, but I just didn't like the idea of sharing their napkins. Since all the napkins look the same, it would be impossible for everyone just to keep track of their own from meal to meal, so I decided to make each person their own napkin with a different fabric. Since it would be too much to ask some of the less observant members of the family (Dad) to keep track of whose fabric is who's, I also appliqued each person's initial on their napkin. I was determined to use up fabric I already had and not succumb to my usual temptation to buy all new stuff for a new project. Mission accomplished! A few of the napkins have a bit of patchwork on the back, since I didn't necessarily have the right sized scraps, but that just adds to the charm. I just finished them yesterday, and we have yet to actually try them out, since our dining room table is covered with piles (okay mountains) of clean laundry waiting to be put away. Here they are: I hope to make one more set at some point to allow us to have the other set in the wash, but for now, I'm going to try to focus (back) on gardening, baking, and cooking. Oh, and we're going to be doing some rearranging of the house that will let me have a craft room. Woo hoo! I'm so excited about that, but I'm sure it will take me quite a bit of time to get everything set up. My craft "area" up in the attic is quite a mess right now. On to other things. I'm still doing (and keeping up with) the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. I messed up last week though and made the Challah when we were supposed to make the Casatiello. I'll make that this weekend. Although I love the name and have had it stuck in my head all week - with various dramatic (and really embarrasing if anyone could hear me saying it in my head) pronunciations, I'm not all that excited about making it. I loved the brioche (this casatiello is similar with salami and cheese also thrown in), but I don't want to compromise my Vegan diet twice (I had to the first time to try the brioche in all it's buttery, eggy glory). I'm going to have to try to make the Casatiello with rice milk, Egg Replacer and Earth Balance. And of course something other than salami and cheese. I'm thinking sun dried tomatoes. I guess it will be a good experiment. Anyway, I didn't love the Challah either. I had to use quite a bit of Egg Replacer in it as well. It ended up being quite bland, but I think that may actually be how it's supposed to taste. In my pre-BBA life, I probably would have loved it, but now I'm too spoiled by the other breads I've made from the book which are so much better. The challah, at least, was very pretty, and I enjoyed doing the braid. Here it is: Finally (for now - there's still so much more to catch up on), for the past two weeks, I've actually sat down on Friday or Saturday and planned out the meals for the entire week. I know that's probably the norm for most people, but it's a real novelty for me, and it feels like quite an accomplishment. I wanted to share what we've been having: Saturday Breakfast, 5/30 - Assortment of Poppy Seed, Blueberry, and Plain Pancakes, Bacon for kids. Saturday Dinner, 5/30 - Gone to a party Sunday, 5/31 - Pizza - With homemade dough from BBA - cooked in the oven on the pizza stone. Kids had bacon leftover from Sat. breakfast on their pizza. Adults had regular onions, carmelized onions, sauce. Need to come up with some more Vegan toppings. Monday, 6/1 - Sandwiches - Turkey for the kids and avocado and tomato for me Tuesday, 6/2 - Adults: Orange Pan-glazed Tempeh with Bulgur Pilaf. Kids: Leftover Pancakes Wednesday, 6/3 - Adults: Sweet Potato Pot Pies. Kids: Baked Potato Bar (with more leftover bacon, cheese, etc.) Thursday, 6/4 - Pasta Friday, 6/5 - Pizza - same dough - this time cooked over charcoal in the fire pit. I think the dough was too thin for this to work well. The next week was mostly the same, since I had a lot of leftover ingredients to use up. This coming week, I'll definitely have to throw in a few new things. Saturday Dinner, 6/6 - Maple Glazed Tempeh, Roasted Potato, Garlic, and Bell Pepper Salad, Burgers for the kids Sunday, 6/7 - French Toast or Eggs for the kids, Homemade Hummus and Pretzels for me Monday, 6/8 - Tacos for the kids, more hummus and pretzels for me Tuesday, 6/9 - Adults: Sweet Potato Pot Pies. Kids: Leftover French Toast and Tacos Wednesday, 6/10 - I went out with some friends. Dad and kids were on their own. Thursday, 6/11 - Adults not hungry. Kids: Mac & Cheese Friday, 6/12 - Adults: Orange Pan-glazed Tempeh with Bulgur Pilaf. Kids: PB & J I kind of fell apart on the kids meals. I go back and forth between wanting them to eat whatever I make and just wanting them to eat - period. I haven't completed the meal planning yet for this week, but today, I'm going to be making these awesome sounding Berry Beer Baked Beans from my favorite cooking blog, 101 cookbooks. I've had these beautiful, local, Jacob's Cattle Beans that I've been wanting to use for almost a year. They just completed their overnight soak and will go in the oven as soon as I get back from the Farmer's Market (and supermarket) with the rest of the ingredients. Gotta run - I like to get to the Farmer's Market right when it opens, and I'm already late.

Brioche, Crackers, and Beer

The above is a photo of one of my mini Brioche loaves that I made this weekend for week 4 (?) of the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. I'm so excited that I've been able to keep up so far, but I can't believe how much flour I'm going through. I haven't spent as much time as I would like following along with other people who are doing the challenge. I'll have to try to spend some time doing that this week. Anyway, for the brioche, it would have been nice to use the classic little brioche tins, but I didn't have any of those. I did have some really cute mini loaf pans that my father had given me a few Christmases ago, so I ended up using those, and they worked out perfectly. I put the egg and the 1/2 cup measuring cup in the photo, so you could get an idea of the size of the loaves. I made four altogether. They came out beautifully. They're the prettiest golden color and taste exactly how I would expect brioche to taste. I sprinkled a bit of sugar on the tops after I brushed on the egg wash because that's how I'd had it in one of my favorite bakeries. It was at least as good which I think is a pretty huge accomplishment. The biggest problem is that they're not Vegan. The recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter and 5 eggs. I just couldn't see substituting that much Earth Balance and Egg Replacer. My new Vegan diet and my new bread-baking hobby were in direct conflict. I compromised and had a slice (okay two) and gave the rest away to some very appreciative coworkers. So now I'm even getting ahead in the book. It'll be nice to have a week or two to spare when I'm feeling lazy. This weekend, I also made the Lavash crackers that are in the picture above. We'd been invited to a party and asked to bring an appetizer. I wanted to bring something homemade and Vegan (in case there wasn't anything else for us to eat - there was actually - a ton of really great food), so I thought I would try these. I bought some Muhammara at a great little local gourmet grocery shop. I'd never had it before, but oh my God, it was sooo good (the muhammara, I mean even though the crackers were good, too.) I'll definitely have to try to make it. We walked to the party with this little basket of homemade crackers and muhammara on my arm. It felt so old-fashioned in a happy kind of way. Finally, I'm giving up beer. I asked my husband rhetorically yesterday, how I could spend months eating Vegan and still not lose any weight. I mean I've given up cookies, M & M's, nachos, etc. It was really just more of a lament that a question that I wanted answered, but he, in such a male kind of way, immediately answered "alcohol". It's not like I'm a lush (I guess that's what they all say), but I do really like to have a beer or two or glass of wine especially while I'm cooking which as you know I've been doing more of lately. So apparently, more cooking = more alcohol. Anyway, I decided my husband has a good point, so since it's the first day of a new month, I'm going to give up alcohol for the whole month of June. We'll see how I do.

Bagels and Broccolini

I just finished making the bagel recipe from Bread Baker's Apprentice. I haven't tried one yet, but they look gorgeous and very authentic. It was a bit of a baking fiasco at first though. I always use my Kitchen-Aid because I'm too lazy to knead. I dumped everything into the bowl and got all set up to let my mixer do the work. Just before I switched it to on, my husband called from work. Always in a rush (for no particular reason this time), I figured I could multitask and went ahead and switched it on. Flour went everywhere. Much foul language was uttered with my husband on the other end of the phone. He didn't even bother to ask. I don't think he wanted to know. In hindsight, obviously, I should have given it a little stir by hand to moisten the flour. Oh well, I got it all cleaned up and got the mixer going again. It was really struggling, and I hadn't even put in all the flour that the recipe called for yet. I finally gave up and kneaded by hand which I have to say wasn't really that bad. I tried adding more flour that way, but that didn't really work then I think I had it too dry and had to add more water. I must have measured something wrong along the way. Finally, the recipe asks you to fit two cookie sheets full of bagels in your fridge overnight. I have a normal-sized side-by-side (which I would never buy again!), so there's no way even one was going to fit. I misted a couple of freezer bags with spray oil and put the bagels in those. When I took them out of the fridge this morning, it looked like they were all going to be horribly stuck together, but they ended up separating just fine - a bit misshapen, that's all. This is another bagel recipe that I had been making. It's pretty quick, doesn't require the overnight refrigeration, fits in my mixer, and has gotten rave reviews from my family. On the other hand, everything else I've made from BBA has been way better than any other bread I've made, so I'll have to see. (Oh, before I forget, more of a reminder to myself than anything . . . two other kinds of breads I want to try to make that aren't in BBA are pita bread and raised donuts.) Very exciting news to report in the garden. On of my broccolini plants is starting to flower. I think that the flour is the part that you eat. I tried to take a photo, but the flower part is so small the camera couldn't focus on it. (I'll have to try the manual focus tomorrow.) Oh and I did make the hummus I mentioned in yesterday's post. It was delicious, but you definitely need to top with the red pepper oil to get some spiciness.

Labels: Bagels, Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge, Hummus