Tonight, there's a debate.
Being on the west coast, it starts at 5 p.m.
Therefore, it's quick-n-ez dinner night.
As much as fabulous foods are the order of the day on food blogs, I think that hints for everyday eating are really important. And if you can make everyday fabulous, then you're really doing something special.
The menu is political...
Trader Joe's Cuban Mojito simmer sauce chicken. To mark Fidel's retirement.
I'll do it up with some bowtie noodles, and some fresh veggies.
Oh, and a Focaccia. To mark how delicious Focaccia is.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
The sad tale of sourdough
I've been working on a sourdough using wild yeast for days. And days. And days.
Honestly, I don't think I've ever made anything that took this long.
I've been baking breads, and maybe I've gotten a little cocky... thinking I can do anything. Maybe Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" message has infiltrated my kitchen. Who knows.
So... I decided to try to make Sourdough bread from a wild yeast starter. "What is a wild yeast starter?" you ask. Well, apparently, there's yeast in the air - - - the white stuff on grapes, for example, is a wild yeast. So, if you play your cards right, you can make a nice puffy bread using nothing but flour and water.
I guess I didn't play my cards right.
So, days and days ago I started on a Natural Sourdough Starter. I was using Joy of Cooking (the 1997 edition). I started the sourdough. I fed the sourdough. It bubbled. It smelled sour. All was well.
On Tuesday, I followed the directions for Sourdough White Bread, adding water and flour to the starter, then putting the whole business in the fridge to rise for 12-14 hours... Except it didn't rise.
On Wednesday, thinking that if I took it out of the fridge and warmed it, it would rise, I put it in a nice warm spot. Nothing. Nothing at all.
Wednesday night I finally gave up, when I realized that if I baked them, I'd end up with two large hockey pucks.
I will try this again.
I will.
But right now, I'm sad for the death of my wild yeasties.
Honestly, I don't think I've ever made anything that took this long.
I've been baking breads, and maybe I've gotten a little cocky... thinking I can do anything. Maybe Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" message has infiltrated my kitchen. Who knows.
So... I decided to try to make Sourdough bread from a wild yeast starter. "What is a wild yeast starter?" you ask. Well, apparently, there's yeast in the air - - - the white stuff on grapes, for example, is a wild yeast. So, if you play your cards right, you can make a nice puffy bread using nothing but flour and water.
I guess I didn't play my cards right.
So, days and days ago I started on a Natural Sourdough Starter. I was using Joy of Cooking (the 1997 edition). I started the sourdough. I fed the sourdough. It bubbled. It smelled sour. All was well.
On Tuesday, I followed the directions for Sourdough White Bread, adding water and flour to the starter, then putting the whole business in the fridge to rise for 12-14 hours... Except it didn't rise.
On Wednesday, thinking that if I took it out of the fridge and warmed it, it would rise, I put it in a nice warm spot. Nothing. Nothing at all.
Wednesday night I finally gave up, when I realized that if I baked them, I'd end up with two large hockey pucks.
I will try this again.
I will.
But right now, I'm sad for the death of my wild yeasties.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Babyfood - Apples
aaaaah, apples.
Baby loves her some apples. Pretty much every morning, breakfast consists of apples-n-oatmeal.
Making babyfood apples is essentially making applesauce.
Personally, when we make applesauce, we don't cook it, we just do it up in the Vita-Mix, and off we go.
Here's a step-by-step:
Get some apples. Today, I'm using a mix of Macintosh, Pink Lady, and Braeburn.
Core 'm and chop 'm.
Pulvarize 'm. (no pic, because I can't figure out how to post a portrait-oriented picture... you'll just have to imagine a blender here, m-kay?)
Freeze 'm. (I cover them with plastic wrap first, so they don't get icky freezer burn.)
That's it!
Baby loves her some apples. Pretty much every morning, breakfast consists of apples-n-oatmeal.
Making babyfood apples is essentially making applesauce.
Personally, when we make applesauce, we don't cook it, we just do it up in the Vita-Mix, and off we go.
Here's a step-by-step:
Get some apples. Today, I'm using a mix of Macintosh, Pink Lady, and Braeburn.
Core 'm and chop 'm.
Pulvarize 'm. (no pic, because I can't figure out how to post a portrait-oriented picture... you'll just have to imagine a blender here, m-kay?)
Freeze 'm. (I cover them with plastic wrap first, so they don't get icky freezer burn.)
That's it!
Babyfood - Peaches
It's February in Seattle.
Not exactly prime time and place for peaches.
But they had them - - and I couldn't resist.
I haven't seen a peach for months.
When baby was new to food, I did some nectarines.
I peeled them and steamed them, then pulvarized them to a fine pulp in the Vita-Mix.
Now that the nipper is a little older, the process is a little different.
I just chopped them into pieces and used the pounding-mincer-thingy to mince them up small enough for her:
Then, into ice cube trays... It's pretty amazing that two little peaches made two trays full of babyfood cubes:
Off to the freezer with 'em!
Not exactly prime time and place for peaches.
But they had them - - and I couldn't resist.
I haven't seen a peach for months.
When baby was new to food, I did some nectarines.
I peeled them and steamed them, then pulvarized them to a fine pulp in the Vita-Mix.
Now that the nipper is a little older, the process is a little different.
I just chopped them into pieces and used the pounding-mincer-thingy to mince them up small enough for her:
Then, into ice cube trays... It's pretty amazing that two little peaches made two trays full of babyfood cubes:
Off to the freezer with 'em!
Babyfood - General Information
...time to start on some babyfood making!
Start with beautiful, organic ingredients. The whole point of making your own baby food is to have neurotic control over everything that goes into the nipper's mouth (except, of course, what she picks up off the floor!)... so it should be local and organic, no?
OK - not everything is particularly local... Kinda hard to get local bananas here in Seattle, know what I mean? But when we can, it's the preferred m.o.
Pretty....
Most of what I make up in advance are single ingredient foods. When babies are new to solid food, you want to introduce them to foods one at a time, so that if they have an allergic reaction, you know what the cause is.
The basic methodology for baby food is this:
Baby also eats yogurt, and lots of it. I won't buy her yo-baby or anything similar, as it's loaded with sugar. I buy whole milk yogurt and add fruit purees to it... she loves it!
Here's the DISCLAIMER.
I'm not a doctor. I'm not a nutritionist. I'm not at all an expert in baby nutrition. I have absolutely no training in this at all; I've just read some stuff. I'm just a mom who makes her child's food. There are some great sources out there for information about how to do this. Two I highly recommend are the website Wholesome Baby Food and the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. There's a lot you should know about food intollerances and allergies. Having dealt with none of that, I know little or nothing about it. So, really, you're totally wasting your time even reading this blog. Enjoy.
Start with beautiful, organic ingredients. The whole point of making your own baby food is to have neurotic control over everything that goes into the nipper's mouth (except, of course, what she picks up off the floor!)... so it should be local and organic, no?
OK - not everything is particularly local... Kinda hard to get local bananas here in Seattle, know what I mean? But when we can, it's the preferred m.o.
Pretty....
Most of what I make up in advance are single ingredient foods. When babies are new to solid food, you want to introduce them to foods one at a time, so that if they have an allergic reaction, you know what the cause is.
The basic methodology for baby food is this:
- If you were eating the food, would it be cooked? If so, cook it! Mostly, I steam foods for baby, as it retains a lot of the vitamins.
- Pulvarize it. For this step, it helps to have the-mother-of-all-blenders, a Vita-Mix. We have one and it rocks! If you aren't lucky like us, use a regular blender or a food mill. As babies get older, you'll go from a smooth thin mash, to a thicker mash (think mashed potato consistency) to a chunky mash.
- Freeze it. We freeze her stuff in ice cube trays, then transfer to ziploc bags the next day.
- Later, thaw and eat!
Baby also eats yogurt, and lots of it. I won't buy her yo-baby or anything similar, as it's loaded with sugar. I buy whole milk yogurt and add fruit purees to it... she loves it!
Here's the DISCLAIMER.
I'm not a doctor. I'm not a nutritionist. I'm not at all an expert in baby nutrition. I have absolutely no training in this at all; I've just read some stuff. I'm just a mom who makes her child's food. There are some great sources out there for information about how to do this. Two I highly recommend are the website Wholesome Baby Food and the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. There's a lot you should know about food intollerances and allergies. Having dealt with none of that, I know little or nothing about it. So, really, you're totally wasting your time even reading this blog. Enjoy.
Recipe for Sleeping Baby
Take 2 cubes Pulvarized Pears.
Microwave 1 minute. Stir.
Add some Baby Oatmeal (I like Earth's Best Brand). Stir. Add some whole milk yogurt (I like Nancy's Organics). Stir.
Feed to baby.
Listen to baby cry.
Nurse baby to sleep.
Ahhhhhhhh.
This is meant to be a teaser/advertisement for a post that I'll (hopefully!) do later today, on babyfood making.
Of course, that means I have to make some baby food... not take naptime to relax and enjoy some rare peace and quiet.
Microwave 1 minute. Stir.
Add some Baby Oatmeal (I like Earth's Best Brand). Stir. Add some whole milk yogurt (I like Nancy's Organics). Stir.
Feed to baby.
Listen to baby cry.
Nurse baby to sleep.
Ahhhhhhhh.
This is meant to be a teaser/advertisement for a post that I'll (hopefully!) do later today, on babyfood making.
Of course, that means I have to make some baby food... not take naptime to relax and enjoy some rare peace and quiet.
Multigrain Boule
So, my bread baking took a turn yesterday... toward French Birkenstock wearers. (Are there any French Birkenstock wearers? It seems decidedly un-French.)The recipe is here, from Martha Stewart Living.
I pretty much followed it right down the line, except that I don't have a baking stone. I have a rock. From the outside, that Andy washed, and that now lives in my oven.
No, I don't bake bread on the rock. It just lives in the oven to keep the temps regulated. I bake on sheet pans, using cornmeal to keep breads from sticking... which I really like. It reminds me of the Italian breads I used to eat as a child. And the crust comes out really well, which is the whole point, is it not?
You'll note, the very faint "X" in the flour on the bottom of this picture. That's because Andy simply couldn't resist challenging me to a game of tic-tac-toe on my boule. Is that allowed?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
