When the Bread Doesn't Rise

I don't understand bread. This dough had so much rising power in the bucket it almost burst the lid. And yet, in the oven, almost nothing. A modest puffiness at best. Why? I'm sure there are answers, but I don't know them. The good thing is that, impressive rise or no, this is one of the tastiest loaves I've made in a while (100 g white, 100g sprouted spelt, 400g whole wheat).

Italian Sausage

with baked potatoes and spinach. I always forget how good a plain old baked potato is.

Scrambled Goose Egg

with baked sweet potatoes and broccoli rapini. Also, another loaf of bread got made, 1/3 white, 1/3 whole wheat, 1/3 sprouted spelt.

Beet Cake

I would say I followed the recipe in the Tassajara Cookbook for carrot cake, except that I diverged from it so much that it's not really true. What I did was use the recipe, but: I substituted golden beets for the carrots, and I added 2t vanilla, 1t salt, 2t baking powder, and 1t baking soda. I also cut the sugar in half. I think the final result is good, but with cakes like this one never really knows until the second day. My spouse thinks it's delicious today.

Broiled Skirt Steak

with broccoli and quinoa.

Scrambled Goose Egg

with sauteed cabbage and mushrooms, and baked sweet potatoes. A gorgeously colorful meal.

Fried Chicken

with brown rice and sauteed red cabbage. The best thing about this meal is that I get to have it all over again today at lunch.

Ugly Quiche

Last night I decided to use the extra crust that has been hanging around in my freezer since I made a pumpkin pie at Christmas. What I forgot is that, totally uncharacteristically, I had included some sugar in the dough. The resultant quiche (with onions and red peppers) was a little off to my palate, though my spouse liked it. Good thing; ugly quiches need love!

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

These are a variation on Maida Heatter's"Banana Rocks." They are, needless to say, made with whole wheat flour and slightly less sugar than called for. Like all spicy things, they really came to life on the day after I made them. One thing I hate doing is getting most of the way through a recipe before realizing I am missing a crucial ingredient. I know how much I hate it because I do it ALL the time. Yesterday the missing piece was raisins, but the cookies are delicious all the same.

Goose Egg Omelette

with mushrooms and cheese; with roasted cauliflower on the side. Love those goose eggs! Two of them made a bigger omelette than the spouse and I could finish.

Broiled Flank Steak

with roasted red peppers and broccoli.

Bean Soup

Navy beans with tomatoes, an onion, some Italian sausage, and kale. Soo delicious. I'm finally mastering bean cookery. I think it all gets down to this: if you cook them low and slow, and don't add too much liquid, they thicken the soup beautifully.

Italian Sausage

(sweet) with broccoli rapini and roasted potatoes. Carrot cake for dessert.

Broccoli and Mushroom Fritatta

with roasted potatoes. For dessert, carrot cake.

Clamshell Bread

I think it looks like a clamshell or like a French macaron. Either way it's delicious; half white, half sprouted spelt flour. I'm thinking my ideal flour to water ratio is 2:1. I'm also learning that in addition to making bread palatable (to me) salt makes the crust color and crisp properly.

Fried Chicken

(wonderful Amish raised tasty chicken thighs) with broccoli rapini and fresh bread.

Broiled Skirt Steak

marinated in soy sauce, with broccoli and brown rice.

Sourdough

Here is the latest in my Anarchiste series of loaves. This is delicious, with a wonderful chewy crumb and a distinct sour tang. I attribute the latter to making the sponge with half white, half sprouted spelt flour; I find the more whole grain in the part of the dough that ferments overnight, the more sour flavor. In the end this loaf was composed of about 400g white flour (100 of which were the starter), 100g sprouted spelt flour, and 100g rye flour. I don't know how much water I used, but it was enough to make the dough impossible to work with, and beautifully textured once baked.

Scrambled Eggs

with fried potatoes (lots of them), and spinach.

Fried Chinese Dumplings

The gift that keeps giving!

Chinese Dumplings

for the second night in a row. This is how to throw a dinner party: invite a family to your house with nothing better to offer them than take-out pizza; have them show up with handmade dumplings, fresh herbs, and chinese vinegar; generously accept their offer to cook for you instead, and then feast off the leftovers for days afterward. Nice work if you can get it.

This and That

Bring-home sushi, a fried egg, a red pepper—not much cooking going on around here for dinner lately.

Fish Soup

I don't know what got into me, but I made a soup out of a big piece of cod, a potato, three leeks, some cream, and some jellied chicken juices. It was pretty good, but will probably be better tomorrow.

Scrambled Eggs

with sweet potatoes and broccoli.

Auction Bread

A number of months ago I offered to include some bread in an auction for a local literary magazine. I never heard that it was included, and forgot all about it, until a few weeks ago when a colleague of mine came to my office and (in the kindest, least demanding way possible) told me he had bid on and won it. So when I made this loaf (half white, half whole wheat) I gave it away without tasting a crumb, a first for me. Hope it tasted as good as it smelled.

Broiled Mackerel

with quinoa and sauteed cabbage. My spouse called the fish "a little fishy" and wasn't wild about it, but since fish can never be too fishy for me, I adored it.

Banana Bread

As always I used Nigella Lawson's recipe as a template, and also as always I tinkered: I used half spelt, half whole wheat flour, cut the sugar in half, and added a quarter cup of chia seeds. Do you know about chia seeds? You can Google and read about their being the next wonder food, but for cooking purposes they are fun because they absorb water like nobody's business, turning into a strong gel within minutes of adding water. I can't detect their presence in the banana bread, which is delicious (whether because of the chia or despite it I don't know).

Scrambled Eggs

with quinoa and roasted vegetables (cauliflower, red peppers, and shiitakes). Can't beat that meal.

Grilled Mahi

with quinoa and cold asparagus marinated in rice vinegar/soy sauce/olive oil.

Flank Steak

with roasted potatoes, spinach, and asparagus. For dessert, banana bread and birthday cake.

Grilled Grouper

with fried potatoes and some really limp broccoli.

Lamb Chops

with brown rice and sauteed cabbage.

Red Rain Drop Dress

My first knit dress; it wasn't as much of an endurance test as I feared it might be. Had a great time showing it off today.

Here We Go

All better. This has 500g of flour: 50g rye, 225g white, 225g spelt; about half a cup of starter; maybe half a pack of yeast; and 10g salt. It's delicious, and as you can see shaped itself beautifully without slashing or any fancy business on my part.

Fried Eggs

with spinach and a loaf bread that deserves and will get its own post.

Roast Chicken

with quinoa. Rubbed the bird all over with preserved lemon, then roasted: yum.

Spelt Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Just like grandma used to make! If your grandma was Gwyneth Paltrow, or ever made cookies, as none of mine did. Anyway, the cookies are delicious, but spread too much, which means I used too little flour.

The horror...the horror...

It looks good, doesn't it? I was so proud when I took it out of the oven; nicely risen, interesting cracking along the surface, beautiful color—what could be wrong? I found out the next morning when I took my first chewy bite. I had *forgotten to add the salt.* For me taking a bite of a baked good that's missing salt is like trying to move a limb that has fallen asleep: the shock of the dead where one expected warm life. I'm starting over tonight. Let us never speak of this loaf again.

Whole Wheat Fettucini

with shredded sprouts, onions, and shiitakes.

Pork Chops

with fried potatoes, butter-sauteed apples (my spouse's excellent contribution) and broccoli.

Purists Will Object

I resuscitated my poor neglected starter a couple of days ago, a process that was much easier than I expected: two feedings and it was chipper and ready to go. I planned to make a loaf of bread and got out the Bread Bible for my usual French Country Boule recipe when something came over me: a weariness of careful percentages and a deep desire to wing it. So I did: I threw some liquid-ish starter in a bowl with rye and white bread flour, let it bubble away all day and rest in the fridge over night. This morning I let it warm up on the counter for a few hours, then added a packet of yeast, a few cups of half bread/half whole wheat flour, and 15 grams of salt. After a rise I shaped it into a boule, let it rise again, and voila: the mongrel you see. It is very delicious. We had it for dinner with scrambled eggs and roasted cauliflower and shiitakes.

Lamb Chops

broiled, with broccoli and fried leftover sweet potatoes. It's always worth it to make extra sweet potatoes just so one can have the latter.

Sauteed Fluke

with spinach and corn on the cob.

Broiled Flank Steak

with sauteed cabbage and fried potatoes.

Sauteed Cabbage

with onions and green apples, over fried leftover grits.

Roasted Cauliflower and Shiitakes

with nothing. Light meal.

Fried Eggs

with spinach wilted in butter, and fried potaoes.

Lentil Soup

It's hard for me to express the centrality of lentil soup to my diet, in fact and imagination. I've been making it since I started cooking for myself regularly, and I don't believe I've ever made (or tasted) a lentil soup I didn't like. This is because you can't mess it up; lentils adapt to their surroundings under almost any conditions. On any given day if I'm not eating lentil soup for lunch you can bet I'm vaguely wishing I were. Yesterday I made a pot of it with the last leftover duck carcass from Thanksgiving (frozen), an onion, a handful of carrots, and two pounds of lentils. Delicious.

Happy New Year!

We celebrated with a party for our newly-minted three year olds. Can't tell them apart in the picture? Neither can I.

Broiled Flank Steak

The meat came from a local producer who brought it to the farmer's market. I made it the way my mother always did: doused it with soy sauce, let it stand for a few hours, then broiled it for a few minutes on each side. Holy heck was it delicious. We had it with brown rice and shredded kohlrabi (dressed with pomegranate molasses, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and olive oil).

Grilled Steak

with sweet potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts. For dessert Greek Christmas cookies made by my neighbor; I could eat them and never stop.

Merry Bug-Eyed Christmas!

The purple mitts are part of my holiday mitt-making binge.

Holiday Cheeseballs and Cheer

We had a little holiday party last night; very much fun with food and drink. True, the roaming, unsupervised pack of children left a fine coating of Goldfish crumbs over everything, but what's a little cleanup during the holidays. If you have people over I recommend the following appetizer, straight from the suburban sixties: olive cheeseballs. Grate one block of sharp cheddar, add one cup of flour, and pour in enough melted butter to make a crumbly dough (about a stick will do it, but proportions aren't that crucial). Squish said dough into complete casings for small green olives, one at a time, and bake at 350 for about half an hour. Your kitchen will smell wonderful, your guests' mouths will water, and all will be eaten.

Antalya

I made this hat as a little recess from a bigger project I'm working on. Knitters will appreciate the cleverness of its technique: knit sideways, flat, shaped by short rows. Non-knitters will perhaps appreciate the cheerful color, and I will appreciate its cozy head-snugging fit.

Scrambled Eggs

with roasted cauliflower and mushrooms, and corn on the cob. The thing about good eggs is that all you have to do is cook them with salt and butter, and they have the most complex flavor.

Citron

This little shawlette is called Citron; people are knitting it by the thousands. And no wonder! It's super-simple and totally pretty. This one is about to become a wedding present for a friend, but for now, it's an elephant swaddle.

Grilled Fish

I don't remember what kind! Halibut? Mahi? I think Mahi. We had it with brown rice and roasted-beet-and-green-apple salad.

Grilled Salmon

with sauteed savoy cabbage and baked sweet potatoes.

Kale Soup

kind of: with potatoes and Italian sausage and enough broth to make sort of a stew. Very delicious.

Grilled Steak

Two steaks from a local producer, now selling at the farmer's market, absolutely perfectly grilled by my spouse. We had them with baked sweet potatoes, and roasted cauliflower, carrots and red peppers. It was a grand meal, totally out of scale to how we usually eat on a weekend night.

Tagine Leftovers

Wow; it turns out the way to correct a less than perfect tagine meal is simply to throw it in the fridge and re-heat a couple of days later. Yum!

Leftover Duck

with cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and sauteed mei quing. As usual, the sweet potatoes were the stars.

Butternut Squash Tagine

I would like to understand my tagine, so I need to use it more. Last night I made in it onion, peppers, squash, carrots, olives, dried cherries, preserved lemons, and pine nuts. A lot was wrong (soupy where it should have been syrupy, unassertive spicing) but, served over brown rice with roasted cauliflower, a lot was right, too.

Grilled Steak

ribeye, with corn, broccoli, and fried potatoes.

Nitrous Oxide

Not a whole lot of dinner happening around here lately. There would have been one yesterday had I not gone in for a root canal. Nasty procedure, I assume, though I was too high on nitrous at the time to be able to say for sure. I had many drug-induced insights, but here's the one that stays with me: the four-chord sequence that underlies "Billie Jean" is the same one that structures "Moondance!" How did I never hear that before?

Cabbage

hash: sauteed onions, cabbage, and bacon, with brown rice.

Lovely Leftovers

Duck, brown rice, cranberry sauce, and salad. But most importantly, my spouse picked all the remaining green tomatoes on our black-cherry tomato vines, dredged them in flour, and sauteed: *delicious.*

Whole Wheat Fettucini

with collards, garlic, and bacon. Roasted carrots and turnips on the side.

Duck Soup

If there's one thing I like better than a roast bird (and there isn't) it's a roast bird carcass, just waiting to be made into stock. In this case I used the three duck carcasses we had to make a stock of deep richness; I ended up with two quarts of shaking golden jelly. I used about half of it to make soup last night. In the tradition of all my soups it involved everything I could lay hands on in the fridge: onions, fennel, red peppers, black beans, duck meat, turnips, and shucked corn. It was great last night and even better today.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Butternut squash pie and a forest of beer can ducks (to be cooked on the grill). Eventually we'll have brussels sprout and pomegranate salad, cornbread dressing, and pear-sweet potato gratin as well.

Haruni

I can't stop making lacy scarves! They are so satisfyingly quick and pretty.

22 Leaves Shawlette

This was fun and easy and pretty; what could be better. Note the difference between knitted lace pre-blocking (that is, before being washed and pinned out to dry) and post. It's part of the fun of knitting lace.

Roasted Red Peppers

our CSA ones again. Truly, I wish this blog had a sens-o-matic feature so I could demonstrate for you the deep fruitiness of these peppers when roasted. We had them with roasted cauliflower and shiitakes, and brown rice.

Scrambled Eggs

with roasted red peppers (from our CSA; they tasted like jam, just unbelievably concentrated and fruity), fried potatoes, and salad.

Hello Again

after my long absence. I celebrated a return to making dinner with steak, brown rice, and chard with garlic. All was delish, especially the Meyer lemon chutney I had with the steak. It happens that I have lately been traveling in cold climes, which meant much new sweater-wearing, so I'm happy.

Red Pepper and Onion Frittata

with sauteed mei qing, and brown rice. Was just ok.

Baked Sweet Potatoes

roasted brussels sprouts, and fried green tomatoes.

Pasta and Salad

for two nights running; one night I threw in some sauteed mustard greens just to shake things up a little. For Halloween, pizza and candy.

Hash of Leftovers

Fresh red peppers and onion sauteed with leftover black rice and pork chop. Heaven. With salad.

Grilled Salmon

with collards, kale, and fresh bread (Poilane style whole wheat, from Local Bread).

Blue Hat

The pattern is called "Crown of Leaves." I spent all last winter thinking, "I am a knitter. Why do I have no hats?" This season I'm going to be prepared.

Roasted Cauliflower and Shiitakes

with brown rice and a salad.

Pork Chops

with brown rice and broccoli. So good.

Collard Greens

with garlic and olive oil; with baked sweet potatoes and scrambled eggs.

Cornbread Waffles

with fried eggs and greens. I ate til I burst.

Surf and Turf

Grilled steak and shrimp, courtesy of the spouse. with green beans and baked sweet potatoes.

"Acorns" Sweater

I can't make too many yellow sweaters, it seems. This one was challenging for technical knittelry reasons, but I like that kind of challenge and enjoyed making it. I would enjoy *wearing* it, in case whoever controls the weather is listening.

(Almost the) Last Farmer's Market Meal

Tiny yellow crookneck squashes, sliced tomatoes, pan-roasted okra, and scrambled eggs.

Baked Sweet Potatoes

with roasted cauliflower and shiitakes, and bitter greens cooked with bacon and garlic. This dinner was a winner.

Leftover Frittata

with green beans, salad, and toast.

Hat and Scarf

on vampire! Note the naturally occurring fangs. The lady in question picked the yarn, and I improvised the patterns.

Pancake Au Levain

So...what happened here? The levain was nice and peppy, so I think it must be the high percentage of non-glutinous flour I used; lots of buckwheat, rye, and whole wheat. It certainly smells good, though, so all may yet be well. If you're wondering why I didn't slash it it's because I am tired of disappointing slashes.

Lamb Chops

with quinoa and sauteed greens and garlic.

Mahi

with okra, brown rice, and salad.

Vegetables!

And lots of them: sweet potaoes, green beans, turnips, and salad, all from our CSA.

Roasted Butternut Squash

roasted eggplant, sauteed turnips, and salad.

Fried Chicken

with brown rice, and roasted cauliflower and shiitakes.

Sugar Cookies!

My daughter and I made these while the bread cooled. One of her jobs was to scoop the cookie dough and plop it into my waiting fingers, to be rolled in pink sugar. She would ready the scoop, hold it out, and say "one scoop, ready to lay!"

Pane di Altamura

This bread was well underway before I read around on the internet and discovered that I, like many others who tried it, had done almost everything wrong. Most importantly I used readily available semolina flour, when apparently what one wants is a much finer grind available only in Italy, or at least not readily here. Nothing daunted, I went ahead and baked. I haven't tasted it yet, but feel in any case that it is no small thing to have produced a loaf that looks as nice and smells as heavenly as this one does.

Scrambled Eggs

with fried okra and shiitakes, and green beans.