A New Adventure in Sourdough

Last week when my Mom came to visit she brought me some of the cookbooks that she didn't want anymore. Among them was one that I was very excited to receive..."Bread Winners Too- The Second Rising" by Mel London. I looked for some sourdough recipes in the book and found several that intrigued me. I was looking to make a lighter, airier loaf worthy of toast and sandwiches and I found a recipe for a whole wheat sourdough brioche bread. So, yesterday I decided to make it and I'm so happy with the results. The above loaf is one of the two that resulted from my efforts and it was well worth it!

Below is the recipe along with my notes about the slight changes I made and the advice I give about making this bread:

Whole Wheat Sourdough Brioche Bread:

Adapted from "Bread Winners Too- The Second Rising" by Mel London

2 cups whole wheat sourdough starter
1 tablespoon yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3 cups milk
3 large eggs- separated
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon coarse salt
9-10 cups whole wheat flour
1-2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup butter, softened

1 egg yolk, beaten or 1/4 cup milk or cream for brushing loaves

2 small loaf pans

1. Mix the yeast and warm water in a bowl. Let it set for 5-10 minutes or until it looks frothy.

2. In a large bowl, mix the starter with milk. Beat the egg yolks separately and then add to the dough. Then, add the yeast and water mixture. After that add the honey and salt. Beat in half of the flour.

3. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until fluffy and then fold them into the dough. I beat mine by hand with a whisk but you can also use a stand mixer for this. Add the remaining flour slowly and knead well. If the dough seems too sticky and wet add more flour.

4. Knead on a floured surface for 8-10 minutes or so. Then, put the dough into a floured bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. I let my dough rise about 4+ hours for this first stage. Below is a picture of my dough. I let it rise outside for a while during the time it was sunny.


5. Punch the dough down and work in the butter. The dough will be very moist, but work all of the butter in until it is no longer visible. Make sure it is all absorbed. This will take a few minutes.

6. Spray 2 small loaf pans with non-stick spray or butter them. Form 2 loaves out of the dough and place them in the pans. Cut slits in the tops of the loaves and brush with beaten egg yolk, milk or cream. Place in a warm area to rise another 3-4 hours.

7. Place a pan of water in the bottom of the oven. Preheat the oven to 500F. Reduce the heat to 450F and then put the loaves in to bake. Bake for about 40 minutes to 1 hour or so. The tops will brown quickly, so during the last half of the baking time put a piece of foil over each loaf. Cool loaves on a wire rack.

My Notes:

The original recipe did not call for yeast. During the first rising period my dough didn't rise much, so I added the yeast after the first rising instead. In my version of the recipe here I add it at the beginning. I think it helps because otherwise the dough is so dense with eggs and milk that the sourdough will take a long time to rise the dough.

Another problem I had that I solved quickly before it was too late was that I had originally formed the loaves into free form circles and put them on baking sheets. During the second rise they spread out and were forming big "pancake-like" loaves. I didn't want this effect so I scooped up the dough and put it into the loaf pans instead. This made the bread much better!

One final note is to double check to make sure the bread is done. You might even take a wooden skewer and insert it in the center. I was fooled by my larger loaf of bread because I sliced 2 slices and we had them with dinner, but when I went to make toast the next morning I noticed the bread was raw in the middle. I promptly popped it back into a loaf pan and baked it 20+ minutes more until it was done. It's never too late to correct your mistakes!


Enjoy your bread and happy baking!

Pie in the Sky

We had the perfect weekend for a family barbecue and that occasion called for homemade pie! I had been waiting all winter and spring for the perfect moment to make & savor this particular pie. It was a strawberry rhubarb custard pie and it was heavenly! Since I was little I have always loved rhubarb. I used to eat the stalks straight from the plant. They were very sour but I loved it!


Now that my rhubarb plants (see picture above) are thriving I felt I could harvest some to make a pie. I was amazed that the stalks were so big I only needed around 2 large stalks to make this pie along with some strawberries. Luckily I had made a pie crust ahead that I had frozen so it was ready to go!

I'm happy to say that this pie turned out wonderfully and it was delicious! It is based on an old family recipe that my grandma used to make for rhubarb custard pie. I just added half strawberries and half rhubarb. Here is the recipe and my notes. Enjoy!

All Butter Pie Crust:

Pie Crust: Makes 2 large (10 inch) or 3 small (8 inch) single crust pies. ( I prefer my crust to be fairly thick and have a lot of room for crimping around the edge.)

5 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 pound- 4 sticks cold butter cut into small pieces
1 cup ice water

Mix dry ingredients together in a food processor. Cut in butter until coarse crumbs appear. Pour in ice water slowly until combined. Make 2 large disks out of the dough & wrap in plastic. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. After 1 hour let dough set on counter for about 15 to 20 minutes until pliable.

May be frozen as dough or made into pie crusts & frozen.

Strawberry Rhubarb Custard Pie:

Pie Filling:

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chopped rhubarb
2 cups chopped strawberries
2 eggs- beaten

Streusel:

1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup oats
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons soft butter

Bake pie shell in a 450 F oven for 5 minutes. Remove and cool while making the pie filling.

For filling, in a mixing bowl combine sugar and flour. Add the rhubarb and strawberries; toss to coat. Let stand for 15 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Beat eggs slightly with a fork. Stir into rhubarb mixture. Transfer mixture into pie shell.

Mix streusel ingredients with fingers until crumbly. Top pie with struesel. Cover entire pie with foil and place on a baking sheet. Reduce oven temperature to 375 F. Bake for 30 minutes. Take the foil off and bake for another 30-35 minutes. Make sure the middle is mostly set. It will be slightly soft but will set more upon cooling. Put the foil back on if the pie crust is browning too much. The pie may need an additional 15-20 minutes baking time depending on if the filling is mostly set or not.

Enjoy your lovely pie!

Succotash Row

Summer's here at last!! We finally finished up our planting today after many fits and starts. We were so excited today to have a chance to get everything in the ground and get the garden off to a good start. Since so many of the plants take a while to mature, we wanted to be as quick as we could to get everything planted. In the weeks to come we can weed, clean up some areas and do some general maintenance as well.

Here is our report about what we have planted over the last couple of weeks:

On June 18, 2010 my Mom (Serena) planted some sunflowers and melons. Here are the details of what she planted:

1. 2 1/2 rows of Tarahumara Sunflowers.

2. 4 Noir des Carmes plants

3. 3 Sweet Granite Melon plants

4. 1 1/2 rows of Mongolian Giant Sunflowers

5. 1 Siberian Watermelon Plant

6. 2 rows of Titan Sunflowers

7. 3 Charentaise melon plants

Later on June 23, 2010 my Mom was able to plant a few more things to get a head start since it has been dry and warmer for a few days now. She planted:

1. 1 row of Lettuce Mixture- 45 days to maturity

2. 1/4 row of Lettuce- Pot and Patio Blend- 45 days to maturity

3. 3/4 row of Royal Burgandy Bush Beans- 52 days to maturity

4. 1 row of Pak Choi- unknown days to maturity

5. 1/3 row of Pak Choi and 2/3 row of Dragon's Tongue Beans- 55-60 days to maturity

6. 1 row of Red Russian Kale- 50 to 60 days to maturity.


Then, today- June 25, 2010 it was a dry and overcast day in the upper 60's but a fine day to finish up our planting. We planted many rows of seeds including:

1. Sweet Genovese Basil- 55 days to maturity

2. Bulls Blood Beets- 55 days to maturity

3. Danver's Carrots: 65-87 days to maturity

4. Nelson's Carrots: 65-87 days to maturity

5. Black Coco Bush Beans for snap and drying: 95 days to maturity

6. Tongues of Fire Cranberry Bush Beans for drying: 75 days to maturity

7. Calypso or Yin Yang Bush Beans for drying: 70-90 days to maturity

8. Swedish Brown Beans for drying: 82-95 days to maturity

9. Hutterite Soup Bush Bean for drying: 80-85 days to maturity

10. Santa Maria Pinquito Bean for drying: unknown days to maturity

11. Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean: 75 days to maturity

12. 1/2 a row of Blue Lake Pole Beans

13. Christmas Lima Beans: 71 to 80 days to maturity

14. Scarlet Runner Pole Beans: 70 to 75 days to maturity

15. True Red Cranberry Pole Beans: 70 to 75 days to maturity. These adapt well to the cold.

16. Bantam Corn

We planted some rows of corn during the time that it was cold and wet but none of it has come up. Since the sunflower seeds that we planted around the same time came up and the corn has not, we guess that it won't. That is why we planted more corn over by the pole beans. By now you are probably wondering why we titled this post "succotash row", well it is because we did part of a row of corn along with a row of beans and it is one of our favorite vegetable dishes!

In other news, the potato plants are looking really nice and getting tall. Also, we were able to harvest and eat a few of the peas. The tomato plants are looking good and getting much bigger as well. The raspberries are ripening but the plants are looking a bit on the yellow side, so we need to figure out what is ailing them.


Suburban Garden Report:

Over on the other side of town, things are mostly going very well in my garden. My rhubarb is getting big enough now where I am going to harvest some this Saturday to make a strawberry rhubarb pie. I will post the recipe later on with some photos! Also, it has been fun to go into the garden every morning with Adam and help him pick strawberries. He loves to sit down and pick the tops off and eat them. It's a joy to see him relish the strawberries this time of year!

In the other bed I have bad news! The squirrels dug up all of the seed peanuts and took off with them. Also, in the process they dug up two of my sweet potato plants and they are now gone. But, at least the rest of my sweet potato plants are doing well. Our "sharecropper" pumpkin plant is really thriving and has even bloomed and has many buds on it.

That's our gardening news for this week!

Nutty Northwest Crunch

This week I found myself with plenty of bread still on hand and since the weather is starting to shape up and get sunnier I wanted to create a quick breakfast food and snack fit for warmer weather. So, I came up with this granola, a Northwest twist on an old childhood favorite of mine.

As a child I loved to cook too, and I had a great book called "Better Homes and Gardens New Junior Cookbook". It has a lot of healthy, simple recipes that kids can make in it. As an adult, I still use a lot of the ideas in it! And, soon when Adam's old enough he can make some of the recipes out of it too. You can tell that I made granola a lot because that page is very worn and stained!

Since I had a lot of hazelnuts and large flaked coconut leftover from our Farmer's Tea baking days, I thought I'd create a new granola out of those ingredients and other things I had on hand. Here is the recipe as well as some photos of the steps along the way:

Northwest Hazelnut Coconut Granola:

2 cups rolled oats
1 cup Scottish oatmeal or wheat germ
1/2 cup finely chopped hazelnuts
1/2 cup coconut
1 1/2 to 2 cups hazelnut butter (homemade or store bought)
1/2 cup honey
2-4 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoons coconut extract or vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 300 F.


1. First, I made some hazelnut butter by blending in my food processor 2 cups of hazelnuts and a teaspoon or so of salt. I had to let the processor run for quite a bit until the nuts were well ground and started to form a paste or butter. Then, I put the mixture in a bowl and added a tablespoon or two of canola oil to moisten the mixture. Above is a photo of my hazelnut butter.


2. Mix the oats, Scottish oats or wheat germ, chopped hazelnuts, and coconut together in a 13x9 baking pan. (As shown above).

3. In a bowl, mix together the hazelnut butter, honey, canola oil, coconut extract or vanilla and salt. Pour this mixture over the oat mixture and use a rubber spatula to combine thoroughly.

4. Bake the pan of granola in the oven for 40-45 minutes. Mine was done at 40 minutes.

5. Take the pan out of the oven and mix the granola with a metal spatula to break up. Let it cool and then break up further if desired.

It makes a great snack and cereal! Enjoy!

Our Sourdough Saga

As you may know, I (Trista) and my mom Serena have been working with our sourdough starter for quite some time now. We have learned a lot along the way. My mom found out that her starter became stronger with the addition of whole wheat flour. She then shared some of her starter with me and I mixed it in with mine and added a bit more flour and water to it. I have kept it at room temperature for quite some time and it has become stronger as a result. I also did some research and found out that it is necessary to feed the starter once or twice daily (if you don't bake with it that day) in order to keep it going strong. This has made a huge difference and allowed my mom and I to have much more success with our sourdough starters and really enjoy using them!

Here are some of our experiences with sourdough recently:

(Pictured above is Trista's variation on Serena's "Whole Wheat Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread" recipe)

Serena’s sourdough experience on 6/6-7/10

Tried combining a sourdough recipe with the dutch oven beer bread recipe.

Changes:
Left out the yeast
Increased flour
Increased water

Notes:
Dough rose satisfactorily in the first rise of about 24 hours.
In the second rise, I added a warm stone to the bottom to accelerate rise.
The loaf was left in the oven too long, resulting in an overdone, thick and tough crust.
Interior remained moist, but looked as if it needed to rise more.
I added 1 Tbsp per cup of potato flour.

Recipe:
2 cups sourdough starter (whole wheat and water starter)
1 cup water
3 tsp salt
5-6 cups flour, half white and half whole wheat
1 tbsp per cup of potato flour

I mixed the starter with 1 cup of white flour, then added the water and after that was thoroughly mixed in, I added 2 cups of whole wheat flour, 1-2 cups of white flour, and then the salt. Check the dough, and add up to 1 cup additional flour – whole wheat suggested.

Shape into a ball and put in a bowl covered with clean towels or plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for a bout 24 hours more or less. Put a piece of parchment paper into a skillet, leaving the edges of the paper overhanging the pan. Remove the dough from the bowl and shape into a round. Place the dough round into the skillet and cover loosely with clean towels or plastic wrap, so there is room for the dough to expand.

At this point you will need to check the dough after about 3 hours. If it is rising, continue rising as is. If it is not rising much or at all, put the pan on a pizza stone. Continue rising 4-6 hours.

Preheat a covered dutch oven at 500 degrees in the oven. Slit the top of the loaf about ½” deep and 6” long with a sharp knife, then lift the bread dough into the dutch oven by the corners of the parchment and replace the lid. Place in the oven and reduce heat to 425 degrees. Bake 30 minutes, remove lid and bake an additional 30 minutes until 200-210 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, or till well-browned on top and golden brown all over.
Suggestions: To make this again, try decreasing the flour a bit. Try increasing the rise time after shaping the loaf.

Trista's Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread Experience- 6-15-10:

I (Trista) followed the above recipe (putting into practice what was learned) that my mom created for whole wheat sourdough bread but I changed it slightly.

Trista's Variation:

1 cup of buttermilk
1 cup of Scottish oatmeal

I heated the buttermilk for 1 minute in the microwave. I added the oatmeal to it and let it sit for 5 minutes. Then, I added it to the rest of the bread ingredients.

I let this mixture rise 24 hours.

Then, I transferred the dough to the skillet as outlined above. Because I had to go garden for the day the dough ended up rising for about 8 or so hours.

I then baked it in the Dutch oven in the same way.

It turned out very moist in side and had nice holes in the crumb. It rose nicely and had a nice sour taste to it! I like that it has a lot of whole grains in it yet it is very moist! I think the extra rise time really helped and the buttermilk and oatmeal kept the bread very tender.


Serena's Sourdough Pancakes: 6-15-10


I found a sourdough pancake recipe but I noticed that it had baking soda in it as well as sourdough starter. I didn't want to use the soda because I wanted to see if I could make the sourdough work and leaven the pancakes by itself. So, I modified the recipe by putting in more sourdough starter but otherwise basically following the recipe. I was puzzled by the addition of buttermilk to the recipe but I didn't have buttermilk so I just used sweet milk. I really like the results I got this time. Here is my basic recipe:

Sourdough Pancakes:

Makes: 14 small pancakes

1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup flour- unbleached all purpose or whole wheat
1 heaping tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk

Mix together and either place the bowl allow to come to room temperature. These are the methods I would suggest for this:

-cover the bowl and allow it to rest for an hour or so
-immerse it in a container of hot tap water- making sure that it does not overflow into the bowl
-place it on top of a warm pizza stone
-place it in an oven preheated to 240 degrees F and turned off.

These other methods should cut the time in half.

Bake the pancakes on a hot buttered griddle. Using a quarter cup measure pour onto the hot griddle. Watch for bubbles to appear on the surface and look for the edges of the pancakes to lose their shine before turning them.

Trista's Sourdough Sour Cream Pancakes 6-16-10:

Trista decided to make these pancakes tonight for dinner along with an omelet and some asparagus. Here is her variation to the recipe:

I put a 1/2 cup sour cream and a 1/2 cup milk in the batter instead of 1 cup milk.
I put 1 heaping tablespoon of brown sugar instead of the granulated sugar

They turned out great! I put the batter in the oven which I turned off after it reached about 200 degrees. I let it rest in there about 30 minutes. This method seemed to work really well! They were sour, moist and smooth and tasted amazing with butter and maple syrup!

June 16, 2010: 50 degrees daytime temperature!

The day started out dreary and cold as I (Trista) noticed my car's outdoor temperature reading was 50 degrees! It rained through this morning, but we thought we should try to do some gardening. I went for a walk with Adam while my Mom tried to plant some sunflower seeds. The sunflower seed packet said that they "tolerate drought and adverse conditions" and she wondered if "adverse conditions" included the opposite of drought. If so this row should thrive. She got half a row (about 6 feet) in before deciding that the soil was too squishy and she was afraid of ruining the dirt. (Later on we planted cucumber starts like the one pictured above). So, she joined us on our walk.

Our Walkabout with Adam:


We saw many pretty native plants and other sights on our walk down the driveway and beyond with Adam as he pulled along his favorite stick. He really enjoyed splashing in the puddles with his little yellow rain boots on the way down the road.


First, we came upon a beautiful rock covered in a thick green moss with a small fern growing in it. It's hard to know how this will look once the weather dries up a bit but right now it is beautiful.

Later, we saw some salal that was blooming. The branches with their pretty and shiny leaves are used a lot in florist arrangements. The flowers turn into small dark blue berries that are edible but bland.

Further up the road we saw a nice patch of sword ferns in among the trees. They like the cool, rainy weather so right now they are a brilliant green. Some of the old fronds from last year are dying. If you have one of these in your garden you would probably cut the old fronds off in early spring to leave room for the new ones to grow and flourish.


From there we saw a dainty and pretty piggyback plant. It has a long stem of little pink bell shaped flowers on it.


Tiny Garden Report:

Later on as Adam was napping we decided to tackle the garden to see what we could possibly plant in this weather. We planted a long row of Double Yield Cucumber plants. Then we decided the only way we were going to get any heat around here was to plant a small row of Jalapeno pepper plants. One of these pepper plants is pictured above.

Our Gardening Purpose:


We've always raised a garden and we've often canned, dried and frozen the harvest as well as eating a lot of it fresh. However, we never really tried to plan to grow the majority of our fruits and vegetables for the whole year.

After I read and then loaned to my mom the book "Animal, Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver in which the author and her family raised most of their food for the year in their large garden and supplemented it by buying only local foods, we were inspired to do something similar.

Last year I didn't participate but I watched my parents were raising a large garden and they are still using a lot of the proceeds from that garden. My mom and I talked about the book and decided to work together towards growing most of our fruits and vegetables for the year.

My mom worked really hard to preserve the bounty of the garden harvest last year and she made everything from stewed tomatoes to pickles and salsa.

Here is a complete list of what she made in the 2009 season:

Frozen Foods:

-strawberries- 12 packages
-blueberries- 7 packages
-hazelnuts- 3.5 quarts
-peas- 2 quarts
-green beans- 16 packages
-zucchini slices- 4 packages
-corn- 27 packages
-bell peppers- 4 one gallon bags
-jalapeno peppers- 3 one gallon bags
-tomatillos- 5 one gallon bags
- brussels sprouts- 2 bags
- brocoli- 2 bags

Dried Foods:

-cherries- 1 gallon bag
-pears- 2 gallon bags
- plums- 6 gallon bags
-mushrooms- 1 quart
-tomatoes- 1 quart

Canned Foods:

490 pounds of tomatoes were harvested in the 2009 season!

-tomatoes- 58 quarts
-tomato juice- 9.5 quarts
-salsa- 30.5 quarts
-tomato sauce- 22 pints
-BBQ sauce- 8 pints
-ketchup- 9 twelve ounce jars
-cider- 20 gallons

Pickled Foods:

-dill pickles- 11 pints
-sweet pickles- 23 pints
-pickle relish- 6 quarts
-pickled jalapeno peppers- 6.5 quarts

Jam:

-strawberry
-blackberry

From this list above you can see that we are very serious about producing most of our fruits and vegetables. Now that I am joining the effort we are trying to grow enough for two families. We have added a lot to our garden this year including potatoes, broccoli, cabbage and other crops that were not grown last year.

Give Us a Break!

This week was supposed to be relatively dry, but I think the weather folks are just trying to break the news to us gently - it's raining, yet again. This morning it was about 55 degrees, which was 3 degrees better than yesterday, and we are pitiful enough at this point that that actually seemed like good news. The blue sky peeking among mostly clouds seemed like a good omen for the day, but then again, we always try to look on the bright side.

We managed to get some corn seed in. I (Serena) checked to find out the maturity dates on all of the seeds we are planting. The corn, Golden Bantam Improved, is supposed to be ready in 78 to 85 days. We also decided to try some Stowell's Evergreen, a white corn, which is supposed to be ready in 80 to 100 days. At this point we have resigned ourselves to the longest date out.

Adam is not quite two, and is interested in the garden for about 15 minutes, then it's time to do something else. Trista and I thought we could get the corn in, and we did manage to plant some before we needed to go for a walkabout, Adam style.


We walked along the road, admiring native plants we came upon. Adam found a great stick to drag along, too. We saw some beautiful honeysuckle. (Pictured above) I think it has lasted more this year than usual, so there are benefits to this cold and wet weather.


The vine maples (pictured above) are leafed out, and their shapes are so pretty, whether in leaf or without. There is a nice dogwood growing between the vine maples, which are at the edge of the drive in a grove of douglas firs.


The thimbleberry (pictured above) is blooming, and mixed in are mossy areas with ferns. Definitely a feast for the eye! While wandering back, Adam petted a soft-leafed plant, and then hugged it. That's what you do with soft things, don't you? It was one of those moments that you have a camera in your hand, and although you still aren't quick enough to capture it, the vivid memory remains.

I had good luck last year in planting pumpkin and squash among the corn, so we planted our seedlings there. One of our seedlings is pictured above. We have 4 different kinds. They are:

Lady Godiva ( 90-100 days)
Musquee de Provence (100-110 days)
Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato Squash (85-90 days)
Sweetmeat Hubbard (115 days)

That sounds like a lot of time, but since they are ready about the last of fall, we should make it. All we have to do with those is pick them when they are ready, and store them properly. We decided to get just one pumpkin for Halloween's sake - we hope there will be a perfect pumpkin for Adam.

Just about the time it began to rain, Trista finished getting the pepper plants in. One of our pepper seedlings is pictured directly above. We have:

Tolli's Sweet Italian (75-85 days from transplant)
Rooster Spur (95 days from transplant)
King of the North (70 days from transplant)
Ancho Gigantea (90 days from transplant)

We have high hopes for King of the North and the Sweet Italian, but it is going to be touch and go for the two others, as they are hot weather peppers, which doesn't seem to be our lot this year. I like the idea of the Anchos as they are fun to have stuffed, and the Rooster Spur looked pretty, so maybe we'll end up putting the plants in pots, which might warm them up too. For now, though, they are in the garden.

While Trista was making a mad dash to get the peppers in, I noticed our zucchini plants still in their pots so quickly dug some holes for them. The rain was beginning to dash us with giant drops, but our four zucchinis are tucked in the ground and getting watered in as I write.

Out of the mold

Last Sunday, June 13th, 2010 we celebrated my sister in law Kim's birthday. She had requested a strawberry and cream jello mold. It is great because right now in Oregon the strawberry season is in full force. So, I decided to take a recipe that I already had and modify it to fit her request. I have a recipe from when I lived in Mexico that is very good. In Mexico for birthdays and other celebrations families often have cake and to go along with it a very fancy, large jello mold instead of ice cream. I learned how to make a mold that had layers of sherry jello and cream jello. I took this idea and created a strawberries and cream jello mold which is pictured above. I ended up freezing it and the bottom layer was like a light ice cream which was delightful and delicious!

Here is the recipe and my notes:

Strawberries and Cream Jello Mold:

Makes: 1 large jello mold to serve 6-8 people

1 large package strawberry gelatin
2 cups sliced fresh strawberries

1 quart half and half or heavy cream
1 cup sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
1 cinnamon stick
2 packets of unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup water
2 egg yolks

1 angel food ring pan

Directions:

1. Make the strawberry gelatin according to the quick set directions on the package. Pour the gelatin into the mold. Then, when it is partially set add in the sliced strawberries. Freeze the mold while you are making the cream portion of the gelatin.

2. In a 5 quart soup pot or saucepan put the half and half or heavy cream, 1/2 vanilla bean, cinnamon stick and sugar and mix together. Boil this mixture. While the mixture is heating up to boil, mix a 1/2 cup water with the 2 packets of gelatin and let set. Meanwhile, mix the egg yolks in a bowl.

3. When the cream mixture has boiled, take out 1 cup of the mixture and mix it with the egg yolks. This will temper them. Then, using a strainer, strain them into the rest of the cream mixture and mix together.


3. While the cream mixture is still quite warm, pour it on top of the strawberry mixture in the mold. Freeze it. It is best made 1 day ahead of serving.

Enjoy!


I think next time I will use heavy cream and maybe add 3-4 egg yolks to the cream mixture to make it rich like ice cream. As is, it was very good though.

Kudos to my brother Stuart for the photos and Happy Birthday to Kim!

Tomato Dash - Fight to the Finish!

We seem to have tapered off from the deluge of rain. However it still was quite cold this morning- 52 degrees Fahrenheit! We had to hand dig a larger bed to finish planting the rest of our many tomato seedlings. Why did we have to hand dig the bed? Well, Dale (Trista's Dad and Serena's husband) and Stuart (Trista's brother) were working hard on fixing the tractor to be able to till the garden up for planting. But, as we really needed to get some planting done on a dry day, we had to just go for it!

First, we dug the bed and then we used hoes to soften up the dirt as much as we could. We decided crowding the tomatoes a little more than we usually do would be are best strategy. We are short on time and so we knew we needed to plant them all as soon as possible. It was do or die time!

During the time we were planting the tomatoes it actually started to warm up and get sunnier. I (Trista) dug the holes while my Mom (Serena) put chicken manure in the holes, put the tomato plants in and put dirt around them to finish planting them.

In all we planted 46 more tomato plants for a total of 90 plants in all! We ought to have a few tomatoes this year! Today we planted four varieties of tomatoes. They are as follows:

--Jaun Flamme- This is a good tomato for drying and takes 70 to 80 days to mature.

--Federle- This is a good tomato for making tomato paste and matures in about 90 days. This might be a difficult one for us at this point, but we will see!

--Purple Calabash- This is an all purpose tomato which takes 70 to 80 days to mature.

--Italian Heirloom- This is a good all purpose tomato which is very good for canning or slicing. It takes 75 days to mature.

We planted our 90 tomato plants between June 4, 2010 and June 14th, 2010.


Trista's Quick Suburban Garden Report:

On Sunday, June 13, 2010 I planted around 10 sweet potato plants (one is pictured above) and around 10 or so seed peanuts in my raised bed garden. I cut slits or small holes in the black plastic I had placed on the beds around 2 or so months ago to warm up the soil. In these slits I planted the sweet potato plants. Then, I removed one of the black plastic garbage bags in another area of the planter in order to plant my seed peanuts. The soil felt very warm and I am hoping that these plants will do well. In other news the "sharecropper" pumpkin plant (pictured below) is doing very well indeed! Great news on the home front!


A Walk on the Wild Side:

After we planted tomatoes my Mom took me on a walk around the property. Normally the grass would be mowed at this time of year but it was "hip high" and we had to take big steps to get through it to the wooded area.


Along the way we saw a young fig tree that has 8 figs on it. (Pictured above) We're excited about having even a small harvest because this tree is about three years old and this will be the first time we're able to get figs off of it.


Later on, we came upon a native Pacific Crabapple tree. (Pictured above) We were able to see an apple on it. It is supposed to attract bees and butterflies and it bears edible fruit that can be used as any other apple can be.

Just as Adam and I were about to head home, the tractor had been fixed and Dale (Pictured below) had begun to finally till the garden! Hopefully in the next couple of days we can get the rest of our planting done!


Happy Gardening!

A New Direction in Bread

The other day my Mom gave me a handout she had found online about breads from around the world. I thought I'd look up some of them and see if they were worth trying to make. One of the ones that intrigued me was the Brown Billy Loaf. This is an Australian quick bread. It is kind of like an Irish soda bread baked in a loaf pan. I found a couple of old recipes for it on this site called Old Aussie Recipes.


I did not find a lot of information about it other than two or three recipes and an explanation as to what a "Billy Can" was. From what I was able to learn this bread was originally made in a "billy" or can that was used to brew tea over a campfire. I learned more information about this from the Wikipedia page on it.

Some of the original recipes were quite plain and even the modern one I found I thought could use some sprucing up, so as outlined below I came up with my own recipe for this bread and it was very tasty! I think it was really moist because it was baked with foil on top to keep the moisture in the bread. It thought this was a great technique!


Brown Sugar and Maple Brown Billy Loaf:

Makes: 1 large loaf.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup
4 tablespoons boiling water
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

*Preheat the oven to 350F

1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

2. Put the butter and maple syrup in a glass measuring cup. Then, pour the boiling water over it. Stir until the butter is melted. If it needs to melt more you can put it in the microwave for a few seconds.

3. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients. Then, add the buttermilk in batches, stirring after each addition. Stir just enough to combine.

4. Put the dough into a greased 9x5 loaf pan. Cover it with greased foil.

5. Bake at 350F for about 1 hour.

Slice, butter and enjoy! It also makes great toast!

Farmer's Market Meal!

Yesterday I decided to make a new dish out of some of the lovely foods that I picked up at the Oregon City Farmer's Market last weekend. I had picked up a pork shoulder roast from Hansen Family Farms as well as sugar snap peas and spinach from Gardenripe among other things. Also, I had made some sourdough bread over the weekend. So, I thought I'd make a Cuban pork sandwich.

I combined two recipes & two cooking methods to come up with a delicious combination. I used a dry rub and then combined with a braising method to create the yummy pork for the sandwich.

Below is the recipe and my notes along with some more photos of the process:

Pork Shoulder Roast- Cuban Style:

Ingredients:

1 pork shoulder roast- 3+ pounds

Salt & Olive Oil Rub:

1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons oregano
1-2 teaspoons fresh ground pepper
2-3 tablespoons olive oil

15-20 cloves garlic- finely chopped
1 medium onion- chopped

1/3 cup lime juice
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 1/3 cups orange juice

Combine the ingredients for the salt rub and rub it over the meat. Let the meat rest, covered in the refrigerator overnight.



Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Take the roast out of the refrigerator. Place the garlic and onion along with some olive oil in the bottom of a dutch oven. Put the roast on top of the garlic and onion mixture. Mix the lime, lemon and orange juices and pour them around the roast. It should come up around a quarter of the roast. You will have some left over.

Roast the meat for one hour and fifteen minutes on one side. Flip the roast over and roast for another 30 minutes. Check the level of the liquid. If it starts to get low, replace it with more of the juice mixture. After 30 minutes flip the roast one more time (at this point check for doneness) and if needed roast for about another 30 minutes. If your roast is larger it may need more time to cook.

I refrigerated my roast after this because I was saving it for dinner that evening. It was nice because all of the fat congealed and it was easy to extract the sauce from the pan.


After the roast is done let it cool a bit before slicing. Get the onion, garlic & juice mixture out of the pan and reduce it in a small frying pan for a few minutes over medium heat. Then, slice the meat into thin slices for the sandwiches. Place meat on one side of the bread and then ladle some of the sauce on top. On the other side of the bread I put some spinach, but you may dress your sandwich as you wish.

Enjoy!

We Finally See the Light!

Country Garden Report:

Yesterday, June 8, 2010 we were finally able to plant a large number of our tomato starts out in the garden! We have had a day or two of dry, sunnier and warmer weather this past week which we are so grateful for! We ended up planting 44 of our all purpose tomatoes with many more specialty varieties left to plant in the next few days. Luckily according to the forecast we are supposed to have some sunny and dry weather coming up this weekend and beyond.

This Friday we'll take advantage and try to plant the rest of our tomatoes and peppers. We really need to plant most everything in the next two weeks in order to give the plants time enough to mature and bear fruits and vegetables in time for harvest in the late summer and early fall. It is fortunate that both I (Trista) and Serena are on vacation from teaching classes this week and next so we'll have extra time to get some gardening done.


All of our potato plants have come up and look very healthy! That is great news as we hope for a lot of potatoes to use in winter dishes. The organic russet potato plant is pictured above. Most of the plants look the same but the purple potato plants have a slight purple tinge to the leaves.


In other garden news our peas are now blooming as are our boysenberries (pictured above). Also, there are berries setting on our raspberry bushes.


Also, tiny baby grapes (in the above photo) are forming on the grape vines and the heirloom roses (used for rose hip tea) are blooming like crazy! Things are starting to shape up quite nicely after our very cold and rainy spring!



In fact, in the NOAA weather report for May, Oregon was among the coldest of all of the contiguous states for the entire month. We didn't have record rainfalls, although it shows the northwest was well above normal. You may also be interested to see how your own region's information. See link for maps below from NOAA:

http://tinyurl.com/26ta9dv

Suburban Garden Report:


The big news in my suburban garden this week was that there were a few ripe strawberries on the bushes in my raised bed garden! It was certainly exciting to see these and as soon as I pointed them out to Adam he quickly devoured every last one! (Pictured below)


In other news the rhubarb continues to grow. It has done really well in the wet weather and the second plant that hadn't been doing as well is now growing much bigger and getting healthier. I may even be able to harvest enough for a pie towards the end of the month! (Pictured below).




Happy gardening to you all this week!

Sour Success!

After a lot of research by my Mom and Aunt about sourdough starters and breads I decided to give my sourdough starter a refresh and start anew. The end result was this beautiful loaf pictured above that I made on Monday, May 31st. It was fantastic! It was well worth the wait and the effort to make. Now my spirits are lifted and I have a new faith in my sourdough starter.

Thoughts on Sourdough:

My Aunt had commented to my Mom about how the miners that first discovered sourdough didn't really fuss with it much other than keeping it going by adding flour now and then. This lead my Mom and I to the conclusion that we shouldn't "baby" our starter so much and maybe that is why my bread had not turned out well in the past.

My Aunt said:

"As for "hooch" I believe that term was invented by the sourdoughs and I think they did drink it now and then to get a little buzz on. I think they had to be pretty desperate for alcohol to drink it because it tastes vile. I think (from what I remember reading about it years ago) that some of the old prospectors and like people had starter that they kept going for years. They would start out with a bag of flour and make a well in it and add water and mix it up with the starter they already had and just keep it going that way, in the bag of flour. They took out what they needed to make up biscuits or something along with enough flour for the biscuits and then add a little water to the "well" area, stir it up and then load up the mule and keep on going. I imagine that during the short time there were cattle drives that the cooks did the same thing. I don't know about when the pioneers crossed the US but I would imagine that sourdough starter was easier to come by than baking soda or powder and didn't take up space or add weight if you kept your starter in your flour bag. "

This got my Mom thinking about it too. Last Friday when we got together at her house she had decided to leave her sourdough starter on the counter at room temperature and leave the lid off. I thought this was a good idea because it mimicked what the miners did and it seemed to work well for them. When I got home I decided to do the same thing with my starter. I added a half cup of flour and a half cup of warm water to it to get it going again. After letting it sit around for a couple of days I decided to make bread again. Sunday night I made the "sponge" for the bread and let it sit overnight to develop.

After I had done this I heard from my Mom again about sourdough and she said:

"I am glad your sourdough starter is bubbly again, and that you are feeling encouraged. I have been thinking about sourdough bread and how it evolved, and after checking out several sourdoughs in my recipe books and comparing them with what Echo told me, I think part of the problem is that sourdough recipes have evolved to fit modern life, and we need to go back to basics.

What I mean is, if those old miners carried their starter around in flour sacks with some starter mixed in at the top of the sack of flour, then kept it going while they were off all day doing their mining, it has got to be easier - and more flexible - than the recipes we have seen. All of the recipes in my books expect the bread to have a 2-3 hour rise, for example. I don't think miners were quite so fussy on timing, nor do I think they could be, given the work they did, and given the fact that they moved around a lot trying to find the gold where no one else had a claim, given the fact that they were out in the boonies and couldn't probably replenish their sugar or soda or yeast supply as easily as they could carry around a big bag of flour. If so, I don't think they needed a tablespoon or even a teaspoon of sugar each time they mixed in some more flour and water to replenish the starter. I'll bet that they didn't put it in every single time they replenished, either. Real sourdough had to be hardy and had to be able to keep going in a variety of conditions to fit the lives of miners.

The reason I am reconsidering the sugar is because modern recipes call for it to feed the yeast. I know from my experience with yeast breads is that some of them have sugar and some don't. They all rise, with or without sugar or honey. So, just as we can get energy from the starch in flour, I think yeast can too. Also, how can the bread be sour if I am adding sugar or honey to it every time? It just doesn't make sense that those old miners or the sourdough starter are so sensitive that sugar is a must.

I am also encouraged by the recipes we have used recently that call for very little yeast and a long rising time. I think we ought to try making the sourdough with a longer rising time. I have noticed that most of the sourdough recipes call for additional yeast, and even some have soda in them, and often additional sugar. That just doesn't fit the image of sourdough for miners to me. I think those additions are so that breads will rise more quickly, such as expected by modern cooks.

If we have the time to let the sourdough bread dough sit around for a few hours, why don't we do that instead? Frankly, I think that fits better anyhow; and I wonder if it also fit the original developers - miners - better too, as they could bake it when they were done for the day, or first thing in the morning before they went to work, or whenever. The dough is just not that fussy when it has a chance to rise slowly. As we know, some of the low-yeast recipes allow 8-18 hours, and I let that one go that I made last Friday almost 24 hours. The temperature of the day would be important, too, and because of the fact that these miners lived in the outdoors, tents, shacks, or houses without insulation, they were most likely hot and cold with the seasons, and the sourdough had to cope with that as well. Anyway, those are my thoughts on sourdough. It will be fun to try some loaves this way and see what happens."

I think that my Mom's thoughts on sourdough are correct. Luckily, I have never added sugar to my starter. I might try letting my bread rise for a longer time as she mentions as well. I am happy that we both decided to "go back to basics" with our starter.

Here is my recipe with my notes below:
Sourdough Buttermilk Bread:

Makes: 2 round artisan loaves

Ingredients:

Sponge:

1 cup sourdough starter

3 cups flour

2 cups warm water

Bread:

2 teaspoons yeast

¼ cup warm water

1 ¼ cups cold buttermilk

4 cups flour

4 tablespoons wheat germ

2 ¼ teaspoons salt

Cornmeal

Directions:

1. Mix the sponge ingredients and let them sit in a bowl overnight.

2. In a glass measure mix the yeast and ¼ cup warm water. Let it sit 5-10 minutes. Add this to the sponge. Then, add the flour, buttermilk, wheat germ and salt. Mix in a stand mixer or by hand until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

3. Knead 5-10 minutes with a dough hook on a stand mixer or about 15 minutes by hand. It must be very smooth. It will still by sticky. Add flour as needed.

4. Put the dough into a greased bowl, cover and let rise 3-4 hours in an area that is about 70 degrees F. I like it put the bowl in a sink full of warm water. It rises beautifully! As you can see in the picture below:

5. Turn out onto counter, flatten and press out some gas.

6. Divide into 2 parts, and form round loaves. Put the loaves onto baking sheets or stones sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover with a towel and let rise at least 1 hour.

7. Preheat oven to 375. Put a rimmed baking sheet on the bottom shelf of the oven. Fill it with warm or near boiling water. This will help steam the bread.

8. Slash the tops of the loaves with a razor or sharp knife. I made a cross shape on the top of my loaf. Bake at 375 for around 40 to 45 minutes. I baked the loaves on my convection oven setting for 40 minutes at 350F and about 15 minutes at 375F.

This bread turned out very moist with a more open crumb than the French sourdough bread I made before. I don't know if that is due to the buttermilk in the recipe or the "new and improved" way of handling the sourdough starter. In any case I am thrilled with this bread! We were able to eat it fresh right out of the oven for dinner on Monday night along with fresh Ling Cod and asparagus from our local farmer's market! What a great meal! I am looking forward to more experiments with sourdough Next time I'm going to try to add more whole grains to the bread.

Happy Baking!