Okay, so maybe recipes aren’t a BAD thing…

Well, I have a bread recipe that I’ve settled on for every day.  And I’ve been asked to make it every day.  I think my mom is mostly living on it.  I know I am, at least until I can get some whole wheat/rye baked.  1-1/3 cups soy milk, 3 Tbsp. oil, 2 tsp. yeast, 1 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. sugar, 3-1/2 cups bread flour.

Two risings, bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

It’s killer with peanut butter.  Or peanut butter and pomegranate jelly.

Pomegranate jelly.  Now THAT’s a whole ‘nother story.  My total favorite.  It’s sweet, tart, and it looks like quivering rubies in the jar.  And we top the jars with wax, and put in a little pine branch and some redhots to look like holly berries.  That’s just the way we’ve always done it.

We’ve made it from scratch almost every year since I was a little girl.  It’s a total pain in the behind, especially juicing the pomegranates.  It’s worth every sore shoulder we get.  And I want to try a different way of seeding them and getting the juice, but that will have to wait for next fall.

The Worst Loaf of Bread in the World

I baked a loaf of bread last night.  It wasn’t really the worst loaf in the world, but as horrible as it was it should have been worse.

I didn’t measure anything.  I forgot it was rising.  I forgot it was baking.  It was the world’s most ignored loaf of bread is what it was.

All I can do is apologize to the ingredients and try again tomorrow, this time with a brain and some care.  Stress is no excuse.

And now I’m going to go make a pancake for dinner and go to bed.  It’s only 11:30 pm, which is practically midafternoon for me, but tomorrow will be a better day.

I think I’ll have scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Oh!  I forgot, I’m going to try an experimental version of spaghetti carbonara.  I couldn’t find decent parmesan or romano.  (Which is to say all I could find was the green can, which shall remain nameless.)

So, I’m going to use American bacon, and I bought a half pound of crumbled Mexican queso de Cotija.  Some fresh ground black pepper and a few eggs should make a yummy California version.  Maybe not carbonara, but then I’m not married to a coal miner, either.

Finally!

Well, I guessed and I by goshed, and I did everything wrong. And I came up with 2 great loaves of sourdough bread!

I was supposed to leave the preferment for 8-12 hours. It sat there for 2 days, in a VERY cold kitchen. I wanted to add citric acid to help with the browning, but instead I used a 1/2 tsp (or so) of bottled lemon juice and 1/2 tsp of sugar. I kneaded it mostly by machine, some by hand. I guessed at the baking temperature.

It’s chewy and sour and substantial. I absolutely love it. And my mother wants something LESS chewy and LESS sour. So, I’ll make her a regular loaf of white bread with eggs and Silk. And I’LL eat the sourdough.

Bread’s in the fridge to rise overnight

I’m going to see how it goes. I put the lump of kneaded (by the food processor, tyvm!) dough inside a floured plastic bag, and I’ll let it sit in the fridge until mañana, then knead it down and put it in the pan to rise again before I bake it.

Of course, that’s in between going to buy tires, buying animals supplies (did I mention that we rescue cats and the occasional dog?), calling the pharmacy, oh yeah, and wiper blades, since it seems we’re in for another storm this weekend. Chance of snow has gone from 5% and 8% for Friday and Saturday to 8% and 9%. And it’s only Tuesday night. And I’m supposed to go to the opera Friday night.

Big, dressy deal, with my friend Barbara. At the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, at the Los Angeles Music Center. “Down the hill” as we say around here. Getting there means an hour and a half or so, and 100 miles each way. Up and over a 4500′ mountain pass. Which has a good chance of getting snowed in, if it does snow on Friday. So, we may be going, and we may not be. It’s Don Giovanni, and I’d really love to see it, but I’m okay with staying home, too. And even if we get just the rain they’re predicting, we’ll probably be stranded for a day or two. Southern California isn’t JUST Los Angeles, and we’re on dirt roads in the rural high desert. Two of our 3 closest accesses to the nearest paved road are flooded right now from last weekend. Well, maybe we’ll get very lucky and the flooded parts will stay frozen and we can skid across!

I need to look and see what’s happening in Pakistan. And Venezuela, although that’s more headline material right now, so it’s easier to find out. “¿Por qué no te callas?” And, indeed, why doesn’t he?

I had yummy ramen for dinner and now I’m getting sleepy. I know yummy ramen sounds like a contradiction in terms for a lot of people, but I added vinegar, sugar, sliced fresh ginger, sliced fresh garlic and green onions to the cooking water, then poached 2 eggs in it when the noodles were done. Added some Sriracha hot sauce once it was in the bowl. Presto, quick fake hot and sour noodle soup. I’ve got to get some more Sriracha, and some sesame oil, too. Eating cheap doesn’t have to mean eating without flavor.

Easiest bread I’ve ever made!

I was going to post that miraculous bread recipe! Completely slipped my mind until it came time to make some more tonight.

I adapted this recipe from one on the Fleischmann’s Yeast website, www. breadworld.com. They have a ton of lovely recipes, and I’m going to work my way through, adapting some to sourdough, since I’m still in love with my starter. But that’s another story.

ANYWAY…

Rich Brown Bread
(Food Processor recipe)
Makes 1 loaf.

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar or honey (2 tsp if using applesauce)
1 envelope FLEISCHMANN’S Regular Yeast
3 tablespoons margarine, cut into pieces
1 egg or 2 T unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup warm water (105° to 110°F)

Directions
Mix yeast with warm water, sugar and applesauce, if using. Let set 10 minutes to allow yeast to bloom.
Insert dough blade in food processor bowl. Add flour, margarine and egg; process 5 to 10 seconds to combine. Add yeast mixture to processor. Continue processing for 60 seconds to knead dough. Carefully remove dough from processor bowl to lightly floured surface. Put 2 T flour in 1-gallon plastic bag, shake around, add dough ball and seal. Shake again to flour dough ball. Let rest in bowl in warm spot 60 minutes, or until doubled in bulk.

Roll dough to 12 x 7-inch rectangle. Beginning at short end, roll up tightly as for jelly roll. Pinch seam and ends to seal. Place, seam side down, in greased 8-1/2 x 4-1/2-inch loaf pan. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 45 to 60 minutes.

Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes or until done. Remove from pan; let cool on wire rack.
This stuff is YUMMY! It lasted less than a day because most of it got snacked on with jam or buttery stuff. I want to adapt it to sourdough, but that will take a bit of work, since you need a long slow rise for the flavor of sourdough to develop. Hmm…have to think about that a bit.

Enjoy!

Rough Night, but Good Soup!

Dinner Tonight

I toss and turn a lot at night usually, pain from a variety of arthritic things and fibromyalgia, which actually is also an arthritic thing. And that’s not a complaint, just my life, and I manage it. But last night was a cold night, and Bella kitty curled up on my shoulder and side as soon as I slid into bed. And she started purring. She’s so skittish and soft and adorable, I didn’t have the heart to move her. Every time I tried to stretch a bit and move around a little, she’d blink at me and start purring again.

So, I stayed in basically the same position for almost six hours. Something I actively encourage other people not to do. I came to at 8am and took a pain pill, TURNED OVER, and then slept until 11. When I woke up again, everything hurt from my waist to the bottoms of my feet, AND felt like it was on fire.

So, I whined a bit, and my brother and mother let me, and then he helped by peeling the potatoes while she did the dishes. I found the miraculous bread recipe partway through the soup, and got it going. And now everything is a bit calmed down, the temperature is dropping (it’s almost 6pm and heading for the mid-20’s) and I’m eating wonderful hot soup while the bread bakes!

Made a big pot of Potato Corn Chowduh, 3 ribs of celery, 1 onion, about a dozen peeled chunked-up potatoes, 1/4 cup margarine to wilt the celery and onion, enough water to float everything well. A tiny bit of salt, and some coarsely ground mixed pepper. Half a bag of frozen baby white corn. A cup of flour and a cup of plain soy milk mixed to a smooth paste added as a thickener towards the end. Thinned out with enough more water and soymilk to give the consistency you want. I used a potato masher to mash everything, but that was because I was too lazy to get out the immersion blender, which is a really lovely tool. Actually, it depends how chunky you want your soup, for us the masher worked fine.

We’re all adding our own salt, pepper and whatever. I added another spoon of margarine to my bowl, along with a sprinkle of coarse kosher salt, some dried dill, more pepper. Hmm…should have added a teensy bit of nutmeg. I’d love to make the soup again, but add spinach, then definitely the nutmeg.

My mom would have loved bacon in it, but she could have made that on the side and added it. Or we could have used vegie bacon or sausage of some sort. It’s not really an exact or exacting recipe, after all. Some form of cheese for those who will would work well, too.

There would have been fresh bread with it, but I didn’t have rapid rise yeast, so the bread just now started baking. There were still a couple of thick heels of sourdough left, so that will do until this loaf comes out of the oven. And I’ll make more tomorrow.

This is a one-loaf bread recipe, using the food processor. That will get us through, and last night was a rough night. I wasn’t really in a mood or condition to fight with a big ball of dough and the KitchenAid.

Life should always be this difficult! I’m going to check the bread and grab another bowl of soup.

Today’s Lunch and Dinner

Well, I found a 5-quart ice cream pail in the freezer yesterday, filled with 4 quarts of something unidentifiable.  So, I thawed it enough to loosen it up, and it looked vaguely soupish.

Threw it into a slow cooker for overnight, turns out it’s a very hearty vegetable beef soup from last spring!  Lots of different beans, lots of vegies, enough meat.  Crumble a piece of the new rye bread in a bowl, put soup on it, and it’s a warm, filling meal!

The first loaf of sourdough white is in the oven, but I’m not very hopeful.  I think it’s WAY too loose, could have used another 2 cups of flour.  That’s what happens when I don’t use the Kitchenaid because I’m trying to be quiet.  I just can’t do that kind of kneading anymore.

Still, it’s all an experiment.  Who knows, maybe it will turn out great!  Sticky as tar on a hot roof, but I’ve read that sourdough IS sticky.

I wish I’d taken a picture of that rye bread…gargantuan.  Had to be at least a 4# loaf.  Took up half a jelly roll pan, on the diagonal.

Today’s bread – out of the oven!

Well, 3 loaves of very moist white bread. Actually, a bit too moist, probably could have used a bit more flour or a bit less liquid. But it’s yummy and pretty.

Not much of a sourdough flavor to it, but there’s a lot of other stuff in it, including yeast and eggs, so I’m not complaining.

I have a sponge going of rye and whole wheat for tomorrow. No yeast, only sourdough. We shall see..

Baking more white bread tonight

Well, I’m playing with the white bread tonight. I gave myself permission to eat it and not feel guilty.

I’m trying a tested recipe, well, I adapted it a bit, and tonight I adapted it a bit more. 1/4 c sugar, 1/4 c oil, 2 eggs, 2 cups boiling water, 1/2 packet of yeast, 8-9 cups flour, and 1 cup of sourdough starter. You combine things so that you don’t kill any of the yeast critters, then knead (in the kitchenaide) until it’s absorbed as much flour as it will hold. Mine took about 10 cups of flour and probably could have used another 1/2 cup, but it will hydrate during the night. Place in an oiled bowl, turn oiled side up, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate anywhere from 3-24 hours.

In the morning, I’ll turn it out and weigh it, and divide it into 2 or 3 loaves, whatever seems appropriate. Let the loaves rise for about 2 hours, then bake at 350 for a little over half an hour.

You don’t notice the eggs in this one, but they (with the oil) definitely help keep it moist. I have 2 slices left that are 4 days old, and they taste like fresh bread. The original recipe calls for a Tbsp of salt, but I don’t salt stuff. Period.

I’ll let you know how it turns out. Fresh bread for lunch tomorrow!