Artisan Bread March 20, 2009

I bought a new book recently called “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day”, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. This is truely an AMAZING process!! It is the most simple bread making meathod in the world.

You mix up your ingredients, no kneading, just mix until there are no dry spots. Then you put it into your dough rising container, and let it sit on the counter for a couple of hours. Then you stick it into the fridge. Thats it for the dough. You use it within the next 14 days.

 

 

You take the piece out that you want to use, dont knead, there is never any kneading. You shape it into a ball by pulling the edges down, so the top is all smooth. Then you set it on cornmeal to rest for 40 minutes.

 

 

They suggest you use a baking stone, but I dont have one at this point. The cookie sheet has been working fine for me. You heat the oven to 450 degrees farenheight, put a broiler pan (or somethinig like that) on the bottom shelf that you will later put hot water into. When the oven is ready you slide your loaf onto the baking stone/cookie sheet. Pour 1 cup hot water into the bottom pan, and quickly shut the door. You bake it for about 30 minutes and it looks like this!

 

 

For better baking instructions visit Mother Earth News’ web page. They had an article on this, taking a couple of the recipes from the book. I still highly recomend buying the book, because there are all kinds of recipes in there. But to try it out, go here . When you get hooked on it you will run out and buy the book.

I have made things the last three nights with this dough. I need to make a new batch in the morning. I made rolls the first night, and a loaf like this the other two nights. It tastes sooooo good!

The Weekend October 20, 2008

This weekend was both a relaxing and productive one. We recently just got finished with milling a pile of logs into lumber. We hired a neighbor to come in with his portable sawmill and break down a pretty big pile of logs. We have been in the process of stacking the lumber, and cutting up the scraps for firewood. There is enough firewood to last a few years now (the house is completely heated with a woodstove, no other means of heat through the winter).  So we are getting close to being done with that whole project, it will be nice to have all that put away. I will have to post some pictures of the lumber piles before they get covered with tarps for the winter.

We also harvested the rest of the apples, well actually we have one more tree I believe, but we are pretty close. We have plenty of apples to last us through the winter, and then all the scabby and icky apples are to feed the rabbits through the winter. They LOVE the apples, and we do too. Homegrown apples are so great, no nasty chemicals sprayed on them, and they taste so sweet and fresh.

I am amazed at how fast fall has come upon us here in the northwest. We had a beautiful, warm, late summer, and then fall just decided to drop in. It is a beautiful season, just a little hard to put away those summer clothes and pull out all the layers. I am looking forward to Halloween, it is Bernie’s birthday, and I have been dreaming up little treats to make.

Yesterday I was browsing online for fall dessert recipes, and found some fun ones! Last night I ended up making pumpkin whoopie pies. They are soooo good! It is a Martha Stewart recipe, and my family loved them! A very fun Halloween treat. Baking is one of my many passions, I have a horrible sweet tooth, so I make all kinds of sweet gooey things.

 

We went to the Bellingham Farmers Market on Saturday. It was a more eventful trip than we thought it would be. First I got to custom order my new purse from a very sweet lady there, Heather Fitzstrawn. It is my belated birthday present from Bernie (on my birthday we were in the middle of nowhere, on Adak island in the Aleutian island chain, not much out there for birthday presents). My parents came also, and mom had brought her standard poodle Angel with us, she walked her around for a little bit and then put her back in her canopy covered truck, and came back to the market. Mom and dad were talking to a friend and dad pointed to a lady walking a white standard poodle and said “she looks just like Angel”, and they went on talking. When we all made it back to the truck we discovered an empty truck bed, Angel had pried open the window and jumped out. We went running back to the market and looked all over for the lady with Angel….. funny huh? Well it turns out they had already taken her with them. So we had to drive all the way home to get the message from them (about a 25min drive). Well when we checked the message there were two, one from the nice lady that picked her up, and then one from a close family friend that said he was hanging out with our dog….. Well it turns out the lady works at the restaurant that he used to manage, he had stopped and talked to her for a minute, and she asked if he happened to know where this address was. And as a matter of fact, he did. So he took Angel and we met him to pick her up. It was a very very strange coincidence. It can still be a small world.

She looks so innocent here……

 

Well, now we are off, the rain stopped and the sun has come out. We are going to go find some place to walk around and maybe find some animals to take pictures of. If we get some good pictures I will share them.