The Week in Between

Our next Tuesdays with Dorie post is not due until the 21st, but I made the next recipe, chocolate tart, this past Saturday because my husband (and official taster) is off to Florida for the next 10 days.

In the meantime, I have the following to report. I made biscotti for the tart filling. It was typical biscotti - hard, crunchy and cinnamon flavoured - but seemed to make up more quickly and with less hassle than other recipes that I've tried. And it's just what I need - a nice treat with a cuppa but not good enough to call me away from my desk to sneak one or three.

In the course of making the tart, of course, I was left with 8 egg whites. I already have many of these in my freezer, from making ice cream, so it seemed like a good idea to spend my Sunday using them up....which meant more baking. I know, I know - I've could have had a healthy egg white omelet. But, you know, I am neither a good nor an inspired cook. I simply love to bake (usually while listening to a book!)

So, I turned to one of my favourite books, David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert and decided to try his chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons. I substituted almond meal for the flour (just in case I feel the need to eat something gluten-free). Also, I only had 3 of the 5 required cups of coconut so I added oats. I don't know if these changes accounted for the extreme mess that resulted... or if it was just me (I am not known for my precision in the kitchen). Additionally, the melted chocolate was far too thick for dipping - despite the addition of an impressive amount of Kahlua. And the cookies were so soft that I could not even spread the thick chocolate with a spoon, so what the heck! I used my (very clean) index finger and it seemed to work OK. After cleaning up large amounts of sticky crumbs, cookie parts and chocolate, I had about 2 dozen intact cookies that taste surprisingly like a Bounty bar - yummm. Gooey, sweet, coconut and chocolate - they taste far better than they look!

So, that's it - no more baking for me - at least until early March when the Tuesdays with Dorie group tackles rugelah. I have 4 pcs of chocolate tart left and I'm going to take my chances and freeze them. They, the macaroons and biscotti will join the frozen output from my other baking days - Danish, stollen, brownies, hot fudge pudding, homemade ice cream, lemon curd, etc. Even I am beginning to feel ill after reciting all this - and I'm fairly sure I've forgotten something.

In retrospect, I should have named this blog "Sweet Tooth" or "There's a 250 pound woman inside of me trying to get out!"
Til next time...

White Bread - first week of Tuesdays with Dorie

So this week, I'm trying to be gluten-free, which means my husband is my official tester. It takes a certain kind of insanity to bake bread and then not eat it. However, this bread was very easy to make. The recipe is quite correct in that you can start it after breakfast and eat it for lunch. The dough is lovely - supple, silky and easy to handle. When fully kneaded, it passes the "window pane test"

It bakes up beautifully and slices nicely.

That's the good news.

The less good news is my husband's reaction: "It's ordinary". Let me put this in context. I have been baking bread regularly for about 4 years and my go-to recipes are from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. My freezer is always stocked with loaves of pain de campagne, so we're accustomed to lean bread, with a full, aged taste. Still, an enriched bread like this has its charms - sweet, soft, melting in your mouth. This bread has a great texture

but not much taste. My husband, shamefacedly, pronounced "It's just a cut above Ben's (aka Wonder) Bread". He was fairly embarrassed to be dismissing fresh, warm, homemade bread in such a manner, but nevertheless, was not impressed by the taste. We have both been enamoured of Peter Reinhart's white bread, which is truly enriched. It uses buttermilk in place of water, an egg, and a little more sugar. It mixes up almost (but not quite) as easily and tastes amazing. So, bottom line, for me this recipe is not a keeper; when I make white sandwich bread, which is rare, I'll stick with Peter. But, as a concluding comment, let me say, that this recipe is so easy and successful, that there's little need to ever buy white bread again... but I'm probably preaching to the choir. Bake on!

The first week

This week the recipe is White Bread - a sandwich loaf. I am not anticipating any trouble with this one, since I make bread regularly. Most of what I make is from Peter Reinhardt's Bread Baker's Apprentice. I'm pretty comfortable at this point working with starters, wet dough, etc., so a straightforward sandwich loaf should be OK. The following week, however, we're doing chocolate tartlets - so I'm quickly out of my comfort zone. And some of the other recipes sound fairly intimidating. However, that's what it's all about, I guess - stretching oneself. Far more interesting than trying to get a manuscript published - at least you can eat your failures :)

First post

I just signed up for the Tuesdays with Dorie group, which will be baking their way through Baking with Julia. I ordered the book last night. Very excited!

Where did summer go??

Wow, I can't believe I've not posted for more than two months! August was pretty much a blur. September arrived and with it, the beginning of term. Bottom line - not much time for cooking or growing (other than girth-wise!)

I did attend a couple of cooking classes at Cilantro, a neat little cooking store in Lunenburg. They gave me the courage to buy and use a jalapeno pepper for the first time - I know that's embarrassing to admit. But it IS growth. It also made me want a large saute pan. The key, I'm told, to cooking fish, mushrooms, whatever, properly is to leave enough room in the pan - thus, my desire for a large pan. Fortunately, my husband was listening and sourced most of my birthday presents at Cilantro - including a large covered saute pan. Now I just have to find time to USE it and the space to store it!

My garden is looking better this year than ever before in the Fall. All the flowers that hated the hot summer weather have decided this is the time to bloom. One of my gardens actually looks better now than it did in July. Go figure.

Our very first vegetable garden was, as intended, a learning experience. We did harvest lots of tomatoes, but didn't enjoy them. Note to self for next year - don't buy Tiny 100's or even Scotia. Go for the heirloom variety AND those delicious orange cherry ones. Also, mound the leeks - I didn't and they're all green, with almost no bulb. Think I'll skip the beans next year - ours were so tough, we composted them - about 2 pounds worth. Finally, I learned not to grow things that I don't really like (e.g. eggplant)

My challenge now will be to find some time to get out there and record all my new perennials in my garden journal ...otherwise they'll be in danger of being pulled as weeds in the Spring! I love how gardening is "rooted" in the assumption of continuity. I don't love how it involves delayed gratification.

Summer is rushing by!

Here it is mid July! The gardens are unexpectedly gratifying. Oh, there are lots of changes to be made, decisions about plant selection and placement to second guess, but basically they are so lush and beautiful, that it's hard to feel much remorse. A veritable "riot of colour" - everywhere I look (especially at the neighbour's gardens across the road), there is beauty. When I look around, it feels like it does when I put drops in my eyes - that feeling of softness and relief. No wonder I hate winter. Perhaps I really should consider leaving my beloved place for somewhere, well, prettier, during the bleak winter months...I'll think about it.

The vegetable garden is a surprise. I was convinced I'd never actually get any vegetables - I'm still such a city girl that I just expect things to come in plastic wrap or not at all. But, the tomato plants are going crazy, the eggplants are growing, and even the broccoli is doing really well..peas and beans not so much, but who cares - I'm in love with growing my own! I could get really carried away with this! I found raspberry (maybe blackberry) bushes on the property, as well as a gigantic grapevine. I have visions of groves of fruit trees and berry bushes. How I wish I'd gone all self-sufficient 30 years ago - my sister (who was a homesteader-type) isn't as weird as I always thought!

I haven't been very adventurous with food this week - of course, I never am, but I always intend to be. Yesterday I made cornmeal muffins with jalapeno and curry, to go with halibut. They were pretty good and the blend of tastes was really quite nice. I think my husband thought it was kind of a waste of potentially good cornmeal muffins, but he kept saying they were good. Expanding your food horizons is a slow journey... I have signed up for a Mediterranean cooking class next week - does that count as adventurous?

I really must stop baking for the sake of it - I have part of a chocolate cake (low fat variety), part of a birthday cake, the remnants of hot milk cake that worked very nicely as shortcake, and a batch of too-soft oatmeal cookies in my fridge at the moment. At least the baklava is all gone...for now.

I'm still gearing up to make croissants - and debating the wisdom of that choice...what if they turn out really well??? How dangerous would that be? Right now, I'm off to make Jamie Oliver's pizza dough for supper - makes the best crust I've ever had - yummm.

Baklava - first draft

I've been planning to try to make Baklava ever since having some from La Casbah in Waterloo - sweet, gooey yumminess! It took me several weeks to get some rose water. But on Saturday, armed with a video from dedemed.com, I took the plunge. It's not really very complicated. It would be much worse if you had to make the phyllo...but who does that??

It turned out fine - not terrific, but fine. After several pieces and much deliberation, I've decided that I used too much nut filling, and didn't chop it finely enough.

My husband keeps saying it's so rich that you only need one piece...NOT ME! I have to restrain myself from wolfing down half the pan! I wonder what it's like to be someone who feels that they've had enough dessert....defies my imagination, actually. Perhaps he just doesn't like it and is afraid to admit it. This is the guy who can eat Eagle brand milk out of the can - talk about rich!

I also tried to make lemon sorbet - not so successful. It is so tart and icy that it makes my eyes water. Think I'll save it for my daughter, who seems to have a wide range of tolerance along the sweet-tart continuum!

I really should try to actually cook something and stop all this baking. As I'm fighting the late midlife battle of the bulge, this is fairly self-destructive! So my self-imposed goal for next week is to try a new dinner recipe and if there's dessert with it, that's OK too.

On another note, I am about ready to give up on gardening - the voracious earwigs are ruining everything from clematis to basil to eggplant. The slugs I can fight (and actually enjoy trying to outwit them with copper/salt/beer traps!) - however, the earwigs just defeat me. I am starting to really appreciate what organic farmers go through. When all is said and done, my homegrown veggies will probably work out to about $200/pound!