Pane Siciliano

    Once again I have turned to The Bread Baker's Apprentice  ( Link to Bread Baker's Apprentice at Amazon) for this week's bread.  The loaves are very pretty, but even better they have a wonderful flavor due to the sesame seeds.  The bread also has a great chew and crumb to it.  We had it with dinner yesterday; I made a quick dipping oil to go with it.   All I can say is yum.
     I have been having some back issues, so poor Wayne became the apprentice's apprentice.  This is the type of bread a professional baker would use a steam oven to bake.  Since I am far from professional and don't have a steam oven,  I followed the directions in the book.  The process includes setting up a steam pan and using a plant mister to create the steam.  Wayne had to do the steaming, the rotating of the bread in the oven, as well as removing it when done.  But he got a great pay-off for all his help; he was able to enjoy this wonderful bread.  This is one of my favorite breads so far.  When I was shaping the loaves, I realized my dough probably needed to be a little stiffer, next time I'll add a little flour while kneading.   This was a 3 day bread, but it was worth the wait.
     The taste of the bread reminded me of the wonderful Italian bread I could get back in New Orleans.  I'm not talking about the big loaves of bread in plastic bags; I'm talking about the small loaves you would get wrapped in white paper wrappers on the counter of local bakeries.  The crust on that Italian bread was remarkable - super thick and crunchy. The inside of the bread  below the delectable crust was moist and chewy.  That's probably the bread that made me want to learn to bake bread.  I can remember eating my mother's meat balls and spaghetti.  My mother made a rich dark "tomato gravy" with lots of onions and garlic.  I can remember sitting at the table with a dish towel bib in front of a plate of meat balls and spaghetti and a big chunk of Italian bread.  That wonderful bread would be used to get every drop of that luscious sauce off the plate.  (I have to admit it, I am a mess.  If I am having spaghetti at home and it's just me and Wayne, I still use a "bib."  I know my limitations.)   There is a recipe for Italian bread in The Bread Baker's Apprentice, but I'm afraid it won't live up to my expectations.  Fear aside, I know I will be making it in the future.
    We used to have a little dog name Curley.  That little dog LOVED meatballs and spaghetti.  She would pace around the kitchen the whole time the sauce was cooking.  When the meal was finally ready to be served, the first one served was Curley.  I can still see my mother chopping up half a meatball and some spaghetti, topping it with sauce and putting it down for Curley.  My mother took excellent care of my brother and me, but she always treated her dogs as if they were her favorite children.  When my mother was a child she would always get in trouble with my mimi for sneaking the family dogs in her bed.  I know I learned my love of animals from my mother.  She taught me that a dog or cat is just a different looking member of the family, but they are a member of the family.  By the way - this is a picture of Tabu and Curley. 

Pecan Cranberry Pull-apart Dinner Rolls

     I found a wonderful recipe in The Bread Baker's Apprentice for Walnut Cranberry Celebration Bread, luckily it also makes rolls.  Being a southerner my nut of choice is pecans rather than walnuts.  The recipe also called for either lemon or orange extract, and since I made homemade cranberry sauce with orange zest and juice I opted for the orange extract.  I made the rolls on Wednesday, and put them in the fridge to stop the fermentation so I could bake the rolls fresh on Thanksgiving Day.   I accidentally left two rolls off the pan before refrigerating them.  The rolls also accidentally completed the second rise and were baked just in time for Wayne and I to sample them at lunch.  I think they will make a nice addition to the Thanksgiving table.
     Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday.  It's about all the right things.  It's about reflecting on all the things I have to be grateful for.  It's about sharing a special meal with family and friends.  It's about spending time with those I care about.  As I have gotten older, my family had gotten smaller.  Family is now living in many different places; grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles are no longer with us.  This year we will have a group of 5, but we will still have turkey with all the trimmings.  We usually have some type of pecan pie and pumpkin pie for dessert, but this year we are going to have Apple Upside-down Cake.  The recipe looked yummy, and the cake turned out just like the photo.  If you are interested check it out at  http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/apple-upside-down-cake-recipe     This is the second year I have made my own cranberry sauce, and I am a convert.  I was raised on the jellied in the can stuff.  When whole berry sauce became available we used that.  Well once I learned how easy it is to make homemade - wow so easy and so good.  If you have never made your own, check out the web.  There are many, many recipes, and I'm sure you'll find one to suit your taste.  The one I made called for a bag of fresh cranberries, the zest and juice from an orange, one cinnamon stick, and a cup of sugar. That seemed a little sweet for my taste, so I used a half cup.  You just cook it all until the berries open.  How much easier can it be?
     Thanksgiving is now behind me, and it was a success.  We had a really pleasant surprise for Thanksgiving. Ms. Carol, my sister-in-law, called to wish us a happy Thanksgiving, and she asked what were we doing.  I told her Wayne had just taken the turkey out the oven.  I looked up and there she and Harry were at the door.  Can I say shocked loud enough.  I told Wayne that his sister was at the door, and I think he thought I had lost my mind.  They now live 4 hours from us, and they decided to surprise us.  Carol brought one of Wayne's favorite things - deviled eggs.  Naturally we had plenty to eat, and two more people were no problem.  I told Wayne I could hear Harry saying to Carol on the way here, "Are you sure they are going to be home," numerous times.
     I was right, the rolls were the perfect compliment to the meal.  There were 18 rolls for 7 people, and I had 2 left.  The rolls had the flavors of fall and Thanksgiving.  They had just the right aroma of orange, and the ideal blend of flavor blend of cranberry and pecan.  The rolls themselves were tender and moist.  The apple upside cake was wonderful.  I used honey crisp apples which had just the right amount of sweetness and wonderful apple flavor.  I served this wonderfully moist cake warm with a dollop of whipped cream and a little ice-cream on the side.  It was the ideal dessert to end a day of family, friendship and food.  I don't think a better day was possible.

Orange Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

      If you are a native Louisianan this time of year brings thoughts of Plaquemines Parish navel oranges and Louisiana pecans. I remember going to the Orange Festival as a teenager, and my mother buying a bottle of orange wine from one of the many vendors along the road to Buras.  You can buy all things orange at the festival as well as along the road - wonderful marmalades, baked goods, cook books, shirts, posters and so much more. The main thing though is the Louisiana citrus.  Many people are satsuma fans; they're very good.  My brother is a big fan of the Louisiana sweets; he says they make the best fresh squeezed orange juice in the world.  Me, I'm a lover of Louisiana navel oranges.  You'll never find anything better.  If you've never been to the festival her's a link http://www.orangefestival.com 
     The other crop this time of year is pecans. pronounced peh-kahn not pee-can.  I know I've already written about the pecan trees in the back yard of my childhood home, but I've always loved that there is a pecan grove on the neutral ground by the University of New Orleans (UNO).  Once the pecans begin to fall you will see people walking along the neutral ground with their bags picking them up.  Who can resist free Louisiana pecans.  There are sooooo many things you can make with pecans.  You can make orange pecan cinnamon rolls; you make pecan pie (or chocolate bourbon pecan pie, or pumpkin pecan pie, or sweet potato pecan pie - is this beginning to sound like a bad remake of Forrest Gump); you can make pecan pralines; you can make pecan fudge; or you can check out the recipes at  http://lapga.com/  which is the Louisiana Pecan Growers web site.
     The rolls are started at the Cinnamon Roll recipe in the Bread Baker's Apprentice book, but I modified it to meet my idea.  I used orange extract in place on the lemon extract - and here I digress.  Many years ago when I was teaching 8th grade all boy English class at St. Bernard High.  It was the end of the school year, and I had a final vocabulary/spelling test for the year.  The students had 100 words to spell, and then they had to use 50 of those words of their choice in sentences.  My favorite sentence was, "My mother uses vanilla abstract when she bakes."  Back to the recipe, when it came time to roll out the dough I generously sprinkled the dough with chopped Louisiana pecans and the zest from a Louisiana navel orange.  I used the juice from the orange in the glaze in place of some of the milk, and I used orange extract in place of the lemon extract.
    This recipe made a dozen large rolls.  While the rolls were still warm, we shared them with some of our across the street neighbors.  When Wayne came home from delivering rolls, there was a pot of coffee waiting for him to go with our rolls. We buy our coffee from a small coffee roaster in Louisiana.  Their blends are wonderful.  You can order on line at  http://www.orleanscoffee.com/   I guess by now you've figured out that I am big on buying Louisiana products, but why shouldn't I, after all Louisiana products are the best.  Oh - the rolls are wonderful.  Slight hint of orange, tender moist rolls, filled with cinnamon sugar, and lots of pecans.  YUM!
    By the way - if you don't know what a neutral ground is check out this link, it's a New Orleans Lexicon (or How Ta Tawk Rite)  http://www.gumbopages.com/yatspeak.html

Flours

     We have six cats, and I love flowers, but the cats just think they are something to eat.  These aren't my favorites, but I finally found some "flowers" that I can have that the cats won't eat.

Sweet Potato Rolls

    Whenever I type the word potato I think about Dan Quayle, and it makes me smile.  He was not the best speaker or speller.  You can check out the link for "Quaylisms"  http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Dan_Quayle  it should make you smile too.  Enough of this mind roaming; this week I made sweet potato rolls.  I was looking for an easy seasonable recipe to make for a friend.  I found a recipe at The Fresh Loaf website. I did not use it because the amount of sweet potato was unclear. I will say the website has lots of valuable information for the beginning bread baker - lots of good forums, hints, and recipes.  My next place to look was at the King Arthur site.  The recipe I used was pretty much like the other one, but it gave specifics on the amount of sweet potato.  This is the link http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sweet-potato-cloverleaf-buns-recipe
     Wayne and I do not live within the city limits of Pineville even though we our address is Pineville.  We are in an unincorporated area named Libuse (pronounced Liboose - you know like goose).  Since we've been here we've found there is an annual event of epic proportions, and it was this past weekend.  It was sweet potato weekend.  The cars line up down the highway by the old Libuse post office to purchase a 40 pound case of sweet potatoes for as little as $15.  It is absolute chaos!  There are people like me who will buy a single case to share with family and friends.  And then there are the others - the people who buy 5 - 10 cases.  What does one do with 400 pounds of sweet potatoes.  I'd let my imagination go wild with this, but I'm afraid where it would take me.  Would you take a sweet potato bath (you know like a mud bath)?  Do you make the world's largest sweet potato casserole, and if so how many pounds of marshmallows would you need?  Okay - back on track.  When we first moved here our neighbor across the street asked us if we were going to go get our sweet potatoes.  We had no idea what she was talking about; she explained, and since then we have become willing members of the sweet potato fray and frenzy.  The sweet potatoes are actually locally grown, so it is nice to support local farmers.  We'll have none of those inferior sweet potatoes imported all the way from Avoyelles or Opelousas.  Okay, to be fair, all Louisiana sweet potatoes or yams are wonderful, delicious, and nutritious.  Last year I made a killer sweet potato, spinach and andouille soup.  For lots of wonderful recipes for sweet potatoes go to  http://www.sweetpotato.org/
     Back to the rolls.  They have a nice slightly chewy texture while being light and airy.  There is no real sweet potato flavor, but the sweet potatoes give it a beautiful color.  It's a good thing they have been promised to a friend, otherwise we would be likely to eat them all.

Multigrain Bread

     I baked the Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire from The Bread Baker's Apprentice Friday evening; it was wonderful warm from the oven, and it made even better toast this morning.  It is a dense loaf with a lot of texture, and it is super flavorful.  When I used to buy bread, I always bought a whole-grain bread, and that is exactly what this bread is.  This will absolutely become a staple.   The recipe affords some options for ingredients.  One of the things I was able to use in it was quinoa.  I only became familiar with quinoa this year, and discovered I like it.  If you don't know about it, look it up on the web and find the wide variety of recipes for it.  The recipe also called for wheat bran, which of course I could not locate around here, but after doing a little research I found I could substitute wheat germ.  In his book, Chef Reinhart said he likes to top this bread with poppy seeds, but I used some oats on the top.  I thought the oats would look better with this bread.  I also took a small piece of the bread after the first rise, braided it, allowed it to rise, and after the second rise I slit the loaf and placed the braid in the slit.  I wanted to see how it would turn out.
     This was not the type of bread I was raised on.  I was raised on typical soft white bread.  You know - the kind that sticks to the back of your teeth or the roof of your mouth.  I still love this type of bread with extra crunchy peanut butter on it.  It's a guilty pleasure.  The white bread of my youth was Sunbeam Bread which brings back many blissful memories.  I remember when Sunbeam Bread bought a baby elephant for the Audubon Zoo, Little Miss Sunbeam.  I could hardly wait to go to the zoo to see her.  She was adorable.
     My favorite memory of Sunbeam Bread was free rides at Pontchartrain Beach.  At the end of the school year, you would bring your report card to Pontchartrain Beach and based on  good grades you would get tickets for free rides.  It just didn't get any better than that.  My poor mother, she would load her car down with kids from the neighborhood and my cousin Linda and take us to the "beach."  She would give us a time to meet her by the stage.  Naturally, we would not be there at the appointed time.  She  would then start rounding us up.  She would find some of us, instruct us to stay put, while she looked for the rest of us.  Naturally, when she would find the rest of us and go to the spot the first group was told not to leave, they were gone.  This would go on until closing time.  Finally all of us gathered up and put in the car, we headed home.  By this time we were all hyped up from fast rides and cotton candy.  We kids would start arguing. I can still hear my mother, "Stop it!  If you don't stop, I'm going to drive us into the lake and kill us all."  This kept us quiet for all of 5 minutes, and we were at it again.  My mother was one helluva great and patient woman.  She worked all day, and still would do things with us once she got home.  She always had time for us. I can't begin to count the times she took us to the "Old Beach" to go swimming.  Once when my mother took my brother, my cousin Linda, and me swimming, there was a police check point  on the way home where the police were checking for driver's license, brake tags, and license plates; needless to say,  my mother did not have her license on her.  (For those of you who are not from New Orleans a brake tag is a vehicle inspection sticker.)  She also found out that it was unlawful to drive without shoes on (which she used to do all the time).  There we were all of us in damp bathing suits, and my cousin Linda starts crying, "We're going to jail.  I don't want to go to jail. I don't want to be a jailbird."  She is bawling out loud and repeating her jail statements.  My brother and I were frightened by this point.  I think the poor cop was overwhelmed.  He got more than he bargained for when he stopped us.  He didn't know what to do.  He followed us home to verify that my mother did indeed have a license.  He let her off with a warning.  Personally I think he did it more for himself than for her.  Ah - childhood memories.