Sourdough Sunflower Seed Rye

      When I pulled these loaves out the oven Wayne said, "The look like giant bagels."  He was right, but that's where the similarity ended.  I love any bread that uses my sourdough starter and has sunflower seeds.  Even though the bread began with a pumpernickel soaker, the bread does not have a real strong rye flavor.  This was a two day bread which gives it time to develop the flavor.  The bread has a good crust and moist interior.  The sunflower seeds were toasted before being added to the dough.  The toasting really does help intensify the sunflower seed flavor in the bread.  Because I can't locally find unsalted sunflower seeds, I cut way back on the salt in the recipe. This bread also has that beautiful brow rye color.  There is no caramel color or instant coffee added for additional color with this particular loaf.  This is the third rye bread that I've made, and none of them had the same flavor.  When I make this bread again I think I'll toss in some rye chops to help intensify that rye flavor. 
     I am not a real big egg fan.  If you toss in a little cheese or some veggies I can deal with them.  In our home Wayne really looks forward to "egg day" on Tuesday and Thursday.  To me, the best part of egg day is the English muffin or the toast.  The sunflower seed rye makes a really good toast.   It really helps cover up, I mean add to the flavor of the egg.  The toast was nice and crunchy and was loaded with all of those wonderful sunflower seeds.  "Egg day" is the result of having served on federal grand jury for over a year.  I had to report on Thursdays, and I did not have to get to downtown New Orleans until 9:00.  I loved grand jury duty.  I could sleep an extra half an hour, wash and dry 2 loads of clothes, and fix breakfast before I had to leave.  Hell, I had to normally be at work by 7:30.  Okay, I know it doesn't take long to scramble eggs and make toast, but cereal is so much quicker.  Once I retired egg day expanded to 2 days a week.  Wayne felt good fortune had smiled upon him.
     Grand jury duty was normally a six month commitment, one day a week.  Because my group was dealing with some on-going investigations, we were held over for an additional six months.  I don't think my principal, Pat, was thrilled over the first 6 months, much less the second, or third six months.  By the time the third six month period rolled around, it was more occasional than every Thursday.  If you ever are called upon for grand jury, go and enjoy it.  I had no idea how stupid some criminals were (leaving one's wallet at the bank you robbed); I had no idea how often banks were robbed; I had no idea that if you ask the same question 100 times you still get the same answer; I have never seen so many people called in as witness and ended up implicating themselves;  I had no idea how easy it is to launder stained money from a bank robbery (not telling, but I never would have thought of it - I guess I don't have much of a criminal mentality).  I could go on, but you get the idea.  Whoever would have thought doing one's civic duty could be so entertaining. 

No-Knead Oat Bread and Other Good Stuff

     I really did not intend to go into bake mode this week, but one thing just seemed to lead to another.  My plan for the week was to make No-Knead Oat Bread, that was it.  (I was anxious to bake bread in my new small cast iron Dutch oven.)  But on Saturday Wayne and I went out scouting for a place to take some good sunrise pictures.  There was a veggie stand on the side of the road, and I just had to have some of those creole tomatoes, and oh look fresh peaches.  I’ve never made a fresh fruit pie, but I’ve always wanted to, and I do love peaches.  On Saturday afternoon I thought, “You know, I haven’t made biscotti in quite a while. I think I’ll make some, now.”  Hence day one of bake crazy, Pistachio Cherry Biscotti recipe on King Arthur.  Wait, I don’t have enough cherries - eh, I’ll just throw in some cranberries.  Ugh, not enough pistachios - ah ha almonds.  Still not enough - okay pecans.  So I made Pistachio Almond Pecan Cherry Cranberry Biscotti.  Day two, again a King Arthur recipe for Summer Time Peach Pie, sorta a rustic peach pie instead of a two-crust pie.  Day three, No-Knead Oat Bread, what a great fragrant loaf of bread, but I’ll get to that.  Those mean people at King Arthur just had to highlight a recipe of Cinnamon Raisin Apple Challah. Day four, yummy ‘licious challah.  Running low on bagels hence day five of bake crazy.  I’ll skip the details on the biscotti and bagels.

     I am absolutely convinced the best breads for beginning bread bakers are focaccia and no-knead breads.  The focaccia doesn’t require a lot of technique and, it makes a great presentation.  It can be topped with just about anything you like, or left plain for dipping and sandwiches.  No-knead breads are great because they are easy.  The most difficult part is dealing with a somewhat wet dough, but there are so many great no-knead recipes that show it’s so easy even a kid can do it.  Long before I became a fan of oatmeal, and long before I began baking my own bread, I was a fan of oatmeal bread.  I think oats add a certain tenderness to bread.  This recipe was a really straightforward no-knead bread - not much yeast, a long fermentation, and the ability to cook it in a covered vessel in the oven.  My brother had given me a gift certificate for my birthday, and I finally used it to buy a pre-seasoned medium sized Lodge Dutch oven.  I shaped my bread into a boule, placed it in the pot, used a very sharp knife to slash it, sprinkled it with some oats, and into the oven it went.  Of course, the first way we ate some was an hour after it cooled to sample it.  Wonderful!  We then had it with corned beef and hot pepper cheese sandwiches.  Really good, hearty bread.

     The Summertime Peach Pie was a great first fruit pie.  It is a rustic pie, so I did not have to make a double crust.  It also did not require the peaches to be cooked ahead of time.  The only change I made to the recipe is I substituted a ½ tsp of Fiori di Sicillia for the vanilla extract.  (I have love of fiori.)  The hardest part of making the pie was the same as the hardest part of baking bread, the waiting to eat it.  For bread it is usually and hour wait; this pie required an overnight wait.  My brother said he would have had it for breakfast.  I thought we should at least wait til brunch time.  Anyway, as usual, I digress.  The crust was an oversized circle that was folded in quarters and placed into the pie pan.  After unfolding the crust, the filling went in, the extra crust was folded over, the crust was brushed with cream, and sprinkled with coarse sugar before baking.  The aroma was maddening.  You could smell the wonderful peachy goodness throughout the house.  The pie was everything I hoped it would be.  The crust was flaky, and the filling was so many soft peaches and just the right amount of sweetness.  My next pie will be a classic apple pie.  When I make it, I’ll let you know it turns out.

     The cinnamon raisin apple challah was a real treat.  It is not your typical challah in that it is not braided.  It is made in a spiral to signify the circle of life.  My Kitchenaid tilt head stand mixer “Little Red” started stalling last week when I made bread.  So with a minimum of encouragement from Wayne, I bought a Kitchenaid 600 stand mixer, “Big Blue.”  I wanted to give my new mixer a work out, so I made a double batch of this bread, knowing one of my neighbors would be more than willing to take a loaf off my hands (really good neighbors and wonderful people).  The bread is filled with lots of apple and raisins.  The rope is rolled in cinnamon sugar before being formed into the spiral, and placed in the cake pan to rise.  Right before baking, the loaves were brushed with an egg wash and generously sprinkled with more cinnamon sugar.  When I say the loaves were gorgeous, I am not exaggerating.   They almost looked like cake.  Instead of having it just as a snack or for breakfast, I thought we should have it for lunch.  Today I sliced some for sandwiches.  I made a honey creole mustard that went on the bread, I then put some thinly sliced Asiago, slices of grilled chicken, and some sauteed red onion.  The sandwiches were then wrapped in foil and toasted in the oven.  The sweetness of the bread was a great contrast to the sharp cheese, grilled chicken, and creole mustard.  Sometimes you just have to think beyond your instincts and try something different.
     I’ve made bagels before, so you’ve seen bagel photos, and let’s face it biscotti are not that photo worthy.  Now I have to start thinking about next week.  I think I want to use my sourdough starter.  I’ll have to see what bread is in my future.

Pain de Campagne

 

    Last week I baked Pain de Campagne from Peter Reinhart’s book The Bread Bakers Apprentice Mastering Extraordinary.   I’ve made almost every bread in this book now.  I have still have a few to go.  The Pan Champagne starts with a pre-fermented dough, and was pretty straight-forward to make.   While kneading the dough my beloved Kitchen aid Artisan Mixer was stopping completely on low speeds.  This can’t be good.  Wayne looked up how to fix it on the internet, but was afraid he would make it worse.  He convinced me to order a new KA 600.  It arrives tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to seeing how well it does.  I thought about a Bosch, but the KA is made in the United States.  My mother is smiling down on me (she was a huge advocate of buying USA made products).  Anyway more about mother’s crusade in a minute, back to bread.  The book says this is a great bread for shaping.  I divided my bread into two parts.  One part I made a boule that I snipped with scissors and made little spikes.  The other I attempted to make into an epi.  Instead of resembling a sheath of wheat, it look more like a cactus with bad DNA.  I will keep trying until I get it right.  It was not a super aromatic bread, but of course any bread baking smells great.  The bread itself had a great crust, chew, and flavor.  The pre-ferment does add flavor.

     Back to my mother’s crusade.  I think about the year we had a tee shirt made for her for Christmas with the American flag on it and writing that said, “Buy American, Put America Back to Work.”  And yes, the tee shirt was made in the USA.  I know I’ve mentioned her shirt before, but I keep hearing on the news about people needing jobs, and I think about how many things we don’t make here anymore.  It’s nearly impossible to buy clothing made in the USA. It wasn’t until 2009 that Congress mandated that military uniforms be made here.  This year I am determined to buy only products made in the USA for Christmas.  Toys for small kids can be found on the web in abundance if you look.  For older kids, it requires a little more effort, but there are some cool toys out there.  (Wood Lincoln Logs are not even manufactured here.)  You can do a search for products made in the USA and find all sorts of products including clothing.  Some things may cost a little more, but you are keeping an American working.  I know my mother would be pleased.

Cinnamon Apple Pull-Apart Bread

     I haven’t made many sweet breads, and I was in the mood for just that - something sweet.   Boy did I pick a good one.  I made Cinnamon Apple Pull-Apart Bread  from the King Arthur website.  What is there not to love, apples, cinnamon, dark brown sugar, butter, and bread.  I used a granny smith, a braeburn, and a fuji apple.  The recipe called for brown sugar, but did not specify light or dark, so I went with dark.  I had to thinly slice the apples, and then cook them in the syrup made from butter, the sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.  The apple mixture had to cool before topping the bread dough. The dough was rolled out to a large rectangle, and the apples were spread on top.  Next the dough was cut in strips and stacked.  The strips were then cut to squares and stacked into the pan.  I was glad I have 3 hands (okay one of the hands belonged to Wayne), so I could hold the prepared pan on edge to stack the apple dough squares.  The bread then had it’s second rise before going in the oven.  A hint before stacking the squares, be sure you place a dough side out for each end on the pan as you stack the squares. As you can see from the pictures, the result was a sweet, beautiful, apple-filled loaf.  One of the best things about this loaf, is you can eat it warm after a 15 minute rest out the oven.

     Wayne and I tried to figure out the best way to describe the bread.  Wayne first said apple pie biscuits, but then said, “No, it doesn’t have a biscuit texture.”  We decided on apple pie bread.  It truly is a delicious bread with apples galore.  I love the thinly sliced apples as opposed to diced apples that many recipes call for. You get a taste of apple in every bite.  It was great with a cup of coffee. 
     Apples always make me think of my favorite time of year - autumn.  I am anxiously awaiting our first cool spell in two days.  I can’t wait to go for our morning walk in 58 degree weather versus 76 degrees with 95% humidity at 5:30 in the morning.  Now, don’t think I’m crazy, but I love leaves on the ground, a cool nip in the air, and a cup of hot coffee on the patio while watching the birds at the feeder. I know we don’t get the fall color like places further north, but we do get some red and yellows.  I can’t imagine having to shovel snow to get out of the house, but I’m not a big fan of our infamous southern heat either;  I think that’s why I love fall so much.  Autumn is a welcome respite from the summer heat.  Autumn almost makes you forget southern June, July and August.

Cheese & Onion Swirl Rolls

 

     I wanted to bake something savory, and I came across this recipe for Cheese and Onion Swirls Rolls.  And savory they were!  There is a good amount of onion in the rolls, and I used freshly grated parmesan reggiano in place on the Vermont Cheese Powder.  I also generously sprinkled the top with the parm.  The aroma of the rolls wafted through the house, and Wayne and I once again were anxious for the timer to go off.  What a tasty treat.  We managed to save a few for Labor Day.

     I used to do my Labor Day barbecuing on the Sunday before Labor Day so I could kick back and enjoy my extra day off. Now that I've retired, I actually fire up the grill on Labor Day.  The number of people I am cooking for has changed drastically.  Instead of grilling ribs and sausage for a dozen or so people I found myself grilling for three.  Since it is just the three of us, I thought, "Why not get some big juicy steaks."  I did just that.  I went to the small meat market (Guillory's) up the road.  The cut two rib eyes and a t-bone for me as I waited.  On Monday, Lil and Wayne had the rib eyes, and I had the t-bone.  I kept it simple - we had the cheese onion rolls, a wonderful tossed salad, steak and cream puffs and eclairs with the recipe from King Arthur Flour.  I used the short cut suggestion for the pastry cream filling, but used chocolate instead of vanilla for the filling.  I filled the eclairs with the chocolate filling, but the cream puffs were filled with whipped cream.  The whipped cream was stabilized with a bit of unflavored gelatin in a bit of water.  (Three days later and the whipped cream is still great and has not weeped.) If you want specifics, just Google it.  Instead of vanilla, I used a tad of fiori di sicilia.  What a difference that makes.  I am hooked on fiori.  Even though it was a small gathering, it was still filled with love, joy, and great food.

 

Whole Wheat Honey Oat Bread

     Bread by request.  Yes, I can.  My cousin Pil (last name Pilarinos) asked me if I ever made whole wheat bread.  I told her I could make anything.  She asked if I could make a whole wheat bread for my Aunt Soul.  I found a recipe on King Arthur Flour using whole wheat, oats, some honey, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla.  I really thought the bread would sweet, but it just has a hint of sweetness.  This is a great loaf for sandwiches, for a snack with a little peanut butter, or for French toast.  It sliced very easily despite it being so soft.  I hope my Aunt Soul likes it.
     I know I've talked about my aunts and uncles names before and that Aunt Soul's name is actually Soulita.  When Richard and I were young Aunt Soul, Uncle Nick (who was Greek), and Pil moved to Waxahachie, Texas.  My mother, brother, and I took a train trip to see them.  It truly was the middle of no where Texas back then.  There were small clusters of houses, but lots of wide open space.  While there, Rick and I caught a horned toad.  We had never seen anything like it before.  Living by Lake Pontchartrain we had seen all matter of fish, turtles, snakes, frogs, and lizards, but never a toad with "spikes."  We put the toad in a box and brought it home on the train.  The few other kids in the neighborhood were just as amazed by this toad as we were.  We had the toad outside playing with it, and it got away.  I think the poor thing was fed up with it's fame and us.
     Pil and Aunt Soul ended up in Waxahachie after Katrina.  It was much bigger than they remembered.  It is now a suburb of Dallas/Fort Worth.  They moved to Alexandria because Wayne and I moved to Pineville.  Wayne and I moved to Pineveille because his sisters had moved to Moreauville (which makes Pineville look like New York City). His sisters are no longer in the area, as I've mentioned before Gerry died a couple of years ago, and Ms. Carol is living in Picayune.  Pil is living in a small apartment that she loves, and Aunt Soul, now 92, is in a nursing home.  It's nice to have some family living near by.  I hope Pil and Aunt Soul enjoy the bread, because it contains one very special ingredient - love.

Tomato, Basil, and Garlic Filled Pane Bianco

     Have you ever seen a bread that was so pretty that you knew you would have to make it.  Well, that's the case with this bread.  While I was looking for a different bread to make, I came across the recipe for Tomato, Basil, and Garlic Pane Bianco.  What is there not to love - lots of fresh basil, sun dried tomatoes packed in oil, garlic, and Italian blend cheese - mmmmm, yum.  As I said the thing that really got my attention was the way it looked.  This bread makes a beautiful presentation with minimum work.  The technique of filling, slashing, and shaping is super easy.  The flavor matched the looks.  It was great.  When you look at it, you think that it would have a crunchy crust kind of like Italian bread, but it doesn't.  The bread is a very soft and tender bread.  Living in the sticks the challenges was to find sun dried tomatoes packed in oil and fresh basil.  I way over bought the basil, but that leftover basil became a wonderful pesto (grilled chicken with pesto cream). 
     One of the best things about this recipe was learning the technique.  I want to make this again using different herbs and cheese to stuff it.  I can imagine it with oregano, feta, and kalamata olives or cheddar, roasted poblano, roasted garlic, and bits of cured chorizo.  Since it makes two loaves you can make one savory and one sweet.  Dried cherries, mini dark chocolate chips, with a little cinnamon sugar would make a great dessert.  This bread screams for you to use your imagination to fill it with anything you want.
     Some of this bread made its way to Baton Rouge.  Wayne and I had lunch with our buddy Anita before she moves to Hobbs, New Mexico.  She's been to Hobbs several times, and from what I gather Pineville is happening when compared to Hobbs.  I do love the southwest.  A group of us went to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta a few years ago.  It was one of those things that you see on travel shows and say to yourself, "Someday I'm going there."  I was glad someday came.  We arrived at the Fiesta grounds pre-dawn so we could see the Dawn Patrol.  It was great to be able to walk among the balloons and take photo after photo.  To see hundreds of balloons in the air was magical.  As dusk settles on the fair grounds the Afterglow show begins.  Who cares about fireworks.  To see all of those balloons light up from their burners and glow in the dark was gorgeous.  It was just so cool.  It's definitely worth going to again. 

     The group from left to right - Marvin and Keri, Rhonda, Pat (Madam Principal Lady), Me and Wayne

Bagels

     Bagels!  There is nothing that says Sunday morning more than a bagel.  This was not my first time making bagels, and I’ve got to say not my favorite recipe.  I used the recipe from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice; the bagels had a good chew, but they did make a very puffy bagel.  Also, I did not brush the bagels with egg white to adhere the toppings, since the directions did not advocate it.  The belief being that the toppings would adhere if applied to the bagel as soon as the bagels were pulled out of the water.  Once I moved the bagels to the cooling racks, the toppings began to fall off.  The bagels also did not brown as much as I would have liked.  (And yes, I baked them an additional 10 minutes.)  The bagels did have a good chew, a good flavor, and an acceptable crust.  They were good bagels, just not really good bagels.  My favorite homemade schmear is cream cheese, lots of roasted garlic, and black pepper.  It’s easy and very flavorful.
     Years ago I visited New York with my brother and his girlfriend.  I asked Wayne if he wanted anything from New York and he said, “Bring back some bagels.”  I brought him a dozen New York style bagels, and so began our bagel prejudice.  After having “real” bagels that had a wonderful crust, a chewy texture, and a wonderful variety of flavors and toppings, grocery store and frozen bagels would no longer do.  Our search for “real” bagels in the New Orleans area had begun.  We found “The Bagel Factory” in Metairie.  Great bagels, limited schmears, and okay coffee.  A few years later we found “The Bayou Bagelry” in Metairie.  Great bagels, great schmears (loved the roasted peppers), and great coffee.  Bagels will always be Sunday morning breakfast fare.  We would go to one of the bagel shops, drive to the Lakefront, and have our bagels as Wayne would read “News of the Weird” to me.  We did this for 15 years.  Then you know who washed us to Katy, TX for six months.  We did manage to find “The Bagel Café” in Katy and a small lake to sit by.  Before we moved to Pineville, we bought several dozen bagels in Katy.  I know that you are going to find this difficult to believe, but there are no bagel shops in the Pineville/Alexandria area.  We did find a bagel place in Baton Rouge (New York Bagels) to get real bagels.  We would always buy a few dozen when we would go there.
       Sunday morning bagels have always been our special time together.  It was a way of leaving the world behind.  It was a quiet time when no one else existed.  It was just the two of us and a very quiet lakefront.  We had no worries, no responsibilities, no phones - just us.  Two large coffees, two warm bagels, and each other.  I’ve told Wayne when I die, throw my ashes in Lake Pontchartrain, have a bagel, think of me, and smile.

Stecca - A Little Lagniappe

     I know I already baked my bread for this week, but it was almost gone, and I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while.  So I thought, "Why not have a lagniappe bread this week."  
     Stecca is an extremely easy no-knead bread.  It is basically like a baguette, only very easy to make.  It is a very wet dough.  The first rise is12 - 18 hours.  I replaced the yeast with a half cup of my starter and also increased the amount of water by nearly a half cup.  This morning I took the dough out of the bowl and placed on a silicone mat that had been liberally dusted with flour.  I stretched and folded the dough 3 or 4 times.  Back in the bowl for the second rise, about a hour and a half.  The recipe called for each loaf to be garnished with olives, garlic cloves or cherry tomato halves.  I did not have any cherry tomatoes, but I did have a fresh jalapeno and some parmigiano reggiano.  One loaf was topped with jalapeno stuffed olives, one with pimento stuffed olives, one with garlic cloves (with a good sprinkling of black pepper), and the final loaf with a slice of fresh jalapeno and a small cube of parmigiano reggiano in the center.  The bread was removed from the bowl after the final rise.  The dough was divided into 4 pieces.  Each piece was stretched and placed on an pan lined with parchment and oiled.  Each loaf was then stuffed, brushed with olive oil and baked.  There is no shaping , just pull the bread into a rustic baguette shape.
     One of the unusual things with stecca is you eat it while it's warm.  As the bread cools, the crust softens.  Wayne couldn't believe he was finally getting warm bread.  The flavor of the bread with the toppings was great.  It was very aromatic when it baked. The crunch of the bread was sensational.  As I've mentioned before Wayne is, as our cousin Lillian likes to say, a pepper belly.  I was not surprised that this jalapeno and parmigiano reggiano was he favorite.  I was surprised that he said it was quite spicy.  I did indeed seed the pepper and remove the membrane.  He was right; it was spicier than expected, but wonderfully spicy.   Although the garlic cloves appeared burned, there was no burned flavor, just that wonderful roasted garlic flavor you would expect it to have.
     Stecca is a great bread for anyone who is looking for a very easy bread to make. Or for someone who feels they do not have the skills to make "real" baguettes.   It makes a great presentation, has a  wonderful crust and crumb, and you could convince people that you put a lot of work into it. This is the link for the   Stecca recipe I used.
    

Fruited Sourdough Bread

     I love being able to use my sourdough starter.  After all the TLC it took to grow it from flour, pineapple juice, water, and air, I want to use it often.  I hate having to throw some out when I feed it.  This week I found a wonderful recipe on King Arthur for Fruited Sourdough Sandwich Bread.  I did not have enough golden raisins, so I used some dried cranberries in place of them.  I did not peel the apple, and I tossed in a half cup of chopped pecans just because.  The result was a super fruit studded very moist bread.  The fruit gives it just the right amount of sweetness without it tasting sugary.  Rather than shaping as a traditional loaf, I divided it into three pieces and braided them before placing the dough in the pan for the final rise.
      I went into a major cleaning frenzy today; it doesn't happen often.  I spent most of the morning cleaning the living room and dining room.  My husband then had a client come over to have a couple of photos restored.  (If you get a chance check out his website The Pixel Station.)  While his client was here the AC repairman came.  By the time everyone was gone, it was nearly 2:00, and my breakfast Cherrios were fading.  Lunch was going to be maple glazed pork tenderloin, steamed broccoli, and herbed brown rice.  But we were both hungry, and I needed a quick dinner -  ah I have some sliced turkey, Swiss cheese, and fruited sourdough.  When I tell you it made a great pressed sandwich, I mean it made a great pressed sandwich.  The sweetness from the fruit, the crunch of the pecans, and the gooey Swiss cheese were a wonderful combination.  I'm hoping to still have some of the bread left for pain perdu Saturday morning.  I know it will be delicious.

Potato, Cheddar, Green Onion Torpedoes

 
     I once again turned to the Bread Baker's Apprentice for last weeks bread.  This was the first bread that I've made that requires a coarsely chopped potato with the skin left on.  I really expected to see pieces of the skin in the bread, but none were visible.   This was a really wonderful bread.  The potato and potato water added moisture as well as flavor.  I love any bread that lets me use my sourdough starter. Instead of grated cheese, this recipe used thin slices of sharp cheddar that were rolled jelly roll style into the bread.  The recipe originally called for chives, but since chives require a trip to Alexandria, I used green onions.  The directions said to slash through to the first layer of cheese giving the bread that beautiful baked cheese on the crust.  The crust on this bread had an exceptional crunch.  The combination of flavors was delectable.  I brought half a loaf to our friend Anita when we went to Baton Rouge.  She emailed me a simple message, "Mo bread."  Yes, it was that good.  It made a great sandwich with some pulled pork and fresh creole tomatoes.

     We've been busy lately.  Last Friday we went to Baton Rouge.  We made a trip to Plano, Texas on Monday and Tuesday.  Yesterday we went to the The Dinner Bell in McComb, Mississippi.  We met my sister-in-law Carol and her husband Harry there for dinner.  Yesterday would have been my sister-in-law Gerry's 67th birthday.  Years ago Carol, Gerry, Wayne, and I were cleaning out their Aunt Mary's house.  We were wearing shorts and tee shirts and shorts because the house was hot.  We were sweaty and dirty, and hungry.  Right before lunch we came across hat boxes filled with beautiful vintage hats from the 1930's through the 1960's.   Carol and I decided the 3 of us would wear hats to the restaurant.  Well, Gerry was beyond mortified.  She said she would not wear a hat.  We said she had to wear one if she wanted to eat.  She did indeed wear one, an I thought she was going to crawl under the table.  Wayne thought nothing of it.  He's used to the shenanigans that Carol and I come up with.  So that's why we went to The Dinner Bell yesterday, and of course, Carol and I wore hats.  I think Harry was every bit as embarrassed as Gerry would have been.  He tried to pretend he didn't know us, but I would have none of that.  It was our own little loving tribute to Gerry.

     My brother also went to Plano, and he stayed with us Tuesday night.  I knew that I wouldn't be baking on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.  So I baked Sunday for this week.  I was out of onion rolls, and I wanted to make a fairly quick yeast bread.  I found a recipe for  Sweet Potato Sandwich Rolls at King Arthur.  The sweet potato did not add much flavor, but gave the rolls a beautiful color.  I omitted the sesame seeds and the egg wash.  I knotted three of the rolls, and shaped the other three as regular round rolls.  The rolls are a large roll that would be perfect for any sandwich or burger.  The rolls made a wonderful ham and Swiss cheese sandwich.  Perfect for supper after a long day on the road.

No-Knead Harvest Bread

     This recipe for No-Knead Harvest Bread from the King Arthur Flour website.  This is the first no-knead bread that did not require the oven or the baking vessel to be preheated.  It is a typical no-knead bread in that it has a long first rise.  I mixed my dough using my dough whisk at 5 p.m. yesterday, and did not punch it down and shape it until 8:00 this morning.  After it was shaped into a large boule it went into my enameled dutch oven, allowed to rise for 2 hours.  Before I placed it in the cold oven, I lightly misted the top with water to give the bread a nice sheen.  The oven was turned on to 450 degrees and baked with the lid on for about 45 minutes.  The lid was then removed, and the bread baked for an additional 10 minutes until it had a beautiful brown crust.  The bread is chocked full of golden raisins, dried cranberries, and coarsely chopped pecans.  It was not a particularly fragrant bread as it baked, but it sure qualifies as a super tasty bread.  The bread is very dense and moist.  I think this is a great bread for a beginning bread baker.  It's not as sticky as many no-kneads, you don't have to preheat your baking vessel, and you end up with a beautiful loaf.
     Today was a baking day for me.  I had some fresh raspberries in the fridge, and they were about to go bad.  I found a recipe for raspberry scones with chocolate chips.  They were very tasty warm from the oven.  An hour later the harvest bread  was ready to be sliced.  I asked Wayne which he preferred, and he said the bread.  I had to agree.  The scones were good, but the bread was excellent.  Great crust, great chew, great flavor -  what more could you expect from bread. 

Lavash Crackers

     Lavash is an Armenian flat bread.  It can be baked into a pita-like flat bread or a cracker.  The recipe I used came from my favorite bread book, Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, and the recipe was for lavash crackers.  The recipe was pretty straight forward and easy to make.  I topped mine with sesame seeds, Hungarian paprika, kosher salt, and black pepper.  They baked to a crispy, mahogany brown cracker.  Rather than pre-cutting them, I broke them into shards and we had them with roasted red pepper hummus.
     As I have gotten older I have developed a passion for Middle Eastern/Greek cuisine.  I think it was because of my Aunt Louiska.  (My mimi loved unusual names.  Her middle name was Eulahlee.)  My aunt had been married to Greek.  She did not learn much Greek cooking, but she did learn how to make a mean leg of lamb and a wonderful spanakopita.  How could I help but not loving all those wonderful layers of phyllo, salty feta, fresh spinach, and herbs baked into a “pie” - yum!  I did not know her husband as they lived in New York and divorced when I was an infant.  She would tell me the story about living in an apartment and Pete asking the landlord if he could run a flour business from it.  The landlord said sure after all what harm could come from “flowers.”  So Pete opened his flour business making phyllo.  Aunt Louiska said there was flour everywhere.  Neighbors complained to the landlord about the white dust from their apartment; that’s when he realized there was a breakdown in communication and that it was indeed flour and not flowers. 

Ricotta Chive Sourdough Rolls

     I love baking bread with my sourdough starter, especially when I come across a recipe like Chive Ricotta Sourdough Rolls.  I found the recipe at  The Fresh Loaf.  If you are a beginner like me, you'll find lots of great websites for bread, but I think the two most useful have been  King Arthur Flour  and The Fresh Loaf.  Both have an abundance of tips, recipes, and help.  The hardest part of making these rolls was finding fresh chives (it only took three groceries, I know, I need to grow my own herbs).  This was one of those long process, slow fermentation breads.  It’s easy, it just takes a three days to get there.  Day one was making the levain and letting it ferment for 12 hours.  Day two, the final dough was mixed and kneaded, allowed to rise for 2 hours. After the rise it was punched down and refrigerated over night.  On day three, today, it was shaped, and allowed to rise for five hours before being brushed with an olive oil mixture and baked.  Wayne went into the kitchen as it was baking and said, “That sure smells good.”  He was right, and as it turns out the rolls sure taste good as well.  The ricotta helps to keep the bread light and delicate.  The chives add a subtle onion flavor.  Since the rolls are made into a knot, they make a beautiful presentation.  Wayne said they looked like folds of fabric.
     I must confess that I did not make my own ricotta; maybe some day.  My favorite use of ricotta is in manicotti.  I love the combination of ricotta, freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago, mozzarella, and spinach.  I always put a little nutmeg in as well.  Baked with a light red sauce, and served with a crisp tossed salad and Italian bread, it makes just a great meatless meal.  When my little cousin Debbie was not married long, Wayne and I had her and her husband, Steve, over for dinner.  I made manicotti.  Steve had one serving, and asked for seconds.  (Being my mother’s daughter I learned to cook enough to feed a small army no matter how many people you are feeding.)  Steve seemed to really enjoy it.  After he finished his meal, he then asked what was the green stuff in the manicotti.  I told him it was spinach.  He said that he didn’t like spinach, but it was actually good in the manicotti.  Just proves, you don’t know if you like something unless you try it.

No Knead Olive Rosemary Bread

    

     This no knead bread was loaded with coarsely chopped kalamata olives and fresh rosemary.  As is the case with other no knead breads, it was easy to make, and required a long fermentation.  The dough was very wet and required a good bit of flour to be incorporated into the dough during the stretch and fold.  I am glad I did not start my exploration with this bread; I think the super wet dough would have freaked me out. I  find the more I bake, the better my feel for dough becomes.  The bread was baked in my enamel dutch oven.  The steam builds in the pot as the bread bakes, making a great crunchy crust.  The inside of the bread was extremely moist and tender.  The combined aroma of the rosemary, kalamata olives, and bread dough wafted through the entire house.  I had to keep busy to make the hour pass as quickly as possible until I could cut the loaf. I called upon ms1 (man-servant 1, Wayne, my brother is ms2) to take pics of the bread for me.  The loaf was whole when he took his first pic.  I then cut into to it so he could get a pic of the interior.  When he finished his job he asked if the cut end was his payment.  When he bit into it you could hear the crunch of the crust.  I knew it was a winner when he said, "Mmmmmmmm."  Once I tasted it, I concurred with him, "Mmmmmmmmmm."  The flavor of the dough and rosemary was enhanced by the flavorful, salty olives.  Regular ripe olives would not give this bread the same flavor as the kalamatas.  If you're going to make this bread, you have to use the kalamatas.  The recipe came from macheesmo.com , It did not call for the rosemary, but I love the flavor of fresh rosemary in bread.  Things that I find that made this a little easier: instead of using a floured towel as suggested, I used my silicone mat from King Arthur.  I also place the dough on a lightly oiled parchment sheet for the final rise.  When it's time to place the dough into the dutch oven for baking, I just lift the parchment and put the dough (parchment included) in the pot.  By using the parchment, I am able to treat the dough a little more gently and don't have to worry about deflating the dough.
     Anytime I use black olives I think back to when our nephews were little guys.  Wayne and I had not been married long when we asked Carol, my sister-in-law, to come to dinner with her husband and boys.  What do you feed kids?  I figured you can't go wrong with spaghetti and meat sauce.  I didn't add any red pepper flakes because I didn't want it to be too spicy.  I minced the onions, garlic, and bell pepper so it would cook down to the point of being invisible in the sauce.  I added a can of sliced black olives, and cooked the spaghetti a little softer than I like.   Once the kids started eating, I anxiously awaited the verdict. Little Carl looked down at his plate, and said to his mother, "Mama, Aunt Teresa burned the olives."  All I could do was laugh.
     Oh, the bread made a great panini sandwich.  We went to the big city of Alexandria and was able to find the exotic and elusive pastrami and baby swiss.  We put a little creole mustard on the sandwiches and grilled them to deliciousness.  We had a Caprese Salad on the side made with wonderful Creole tomatoes that I bought on my jaunt to "da Parish"  (St. Bernard).  I don't know what was better, the bread or the tomatoes.

Noon Rogani

     Since my blog is about exploring bread, I need to explore bread from other countries.  Sure, I’ve made breads from France, Italy, and Mexico.  The closest I came to the Middle East was pita.  So when I was perusing the King Arthur site I came across a recipe for  Noon Rogani from Azerbaijan*, I had to try it.  As you can see from the photo, the bread is turban shaped.  It is a fairly straight-forward dough that is rolled out to a large square, brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.  As the dough was rising, I went to mix my cinnamon sugar, and I was out of cinnamon.  I ran to the “Libuse Wal-Mart,” aka Dollar General, knowing they have limited groceries, but cinnamon is such a basic spice I was sure they would have it, and they did.  (There I go with one of those marathon sentences.)  Once it had risen, it was time for the fun to begin.  I floured my counter top since it needed to be a 23" square.  Once the square was brushed with the melted butter and sprinkled with the cinnamon sugar, the dough was rolled jelly roll style.  Next, the log had to be rolled into a 5 foot rope.  Heck, I’m only 5'3".   I had a blast making this bread.  I had flour everywhere!  (Have you ever seen Always with Holly Hunter?  You know the scene where she fake makes dinner and throws flour all over the place to make it look like she’s been cooking - okay, it was not quite that bad.)  Once I had my rope I need to twist it “similar to wringing out a towel.”  This was going okay, but then I ran out of arm.  The end I started on wanted to “unwring” itself.  Wayne to the rescue.  I had him hold one end while I continued wringing the dough.  It was then wrapped into the turban, allowed to rise, and baked.  It was a really neat experience, and it turned out rather good.  It has a wonderful bite to the crust with a moist and lightly sweet interior.  I’m sure I will make this again.
     I guess my American palate for sweet would have liked it a little more sugar.  I can see all kinds of options for this.  A little grated citrus rind, mini chips, or some finely chopped pistachios would be a great addition.  I know it will be great with a cup of coffee and chicory.  The Noon Rogani sort of has the flavor of a Prussian.  Okay, so you’re thinking, “Is she talking about eating a German?”  To non-New Orleanians I’m talking about a palmier.  The crust of the bread is crunchy, and it has the same buttery flavor.  It’s not crunchy all the way through like a palmier;  the interior is what you expect from bread.  It’s the perfect bread for a slightly sweet treat.
     Oh, by the way, thanks to my husband for not only playing photographer for me, but for also vacuuming up all the flour.


*This is a link to information about Azerbaijan just in case anyone is curious about the country and it's people.

Portuguese Sweet Bread

   

     The Portuguese Sweet Bread was truly the most aromatic bread I have baked.  The recipe I used from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice called for orange, lemon, and vanilla extracts.  I used Fiori di Sicilia in place of the orange and lemon extracts.   The bread bakes to a beautiful deep mahogany color.  This has also been the darkest bread I’ve baked so far.  The taste is very similar to Kings Hawaiian Sweet Bread.  It has a slightly sweet taste to it, and a very soft tender interior.  It made great French toast (Wayne was amused by the idea of Portuguese French toast).  It also was really good toasted with a little butter.  It was just wonderful to nosh on.
     I couldn’t help but thinking this sweet bread would make a really good ham sandwich.  I could almost taste it - a sandwich loaded with thinly sliced Chisesi’s ham, creamy havarti, a little mayo, a dab of creole mustard, some shredded lettuce, and sliced creole tomatoes.  Heck, it would be good with just mayo and creole tomatoes.  Just two little problems - no Chisesi’s ham and no creole tomatoes.  And no, there just are no substitutes that even comes close to either.  Before my mother had sold her house and moved in with Wayne and me, she would always have a little vegetable garden.  I don’t think that any New Orleanian with a vegetable garden does not have creole tomatoes in it.  My mother had cucumber, yellow squash, eggplant, and creole tomato plants in her garden.  One year she planted 8 tomato plants.  I felt like I spent the whole summer canning tomatoes and figs.  (She had a huge fig tree and two pecan trees in the back yard.)  It was amazing to see how many tomatoes she got from those plants. 
     Talk of tomatoes always brings me to my wonderful and loving husband, Wayne.  I know he loves me because he puts up with all my shenanigans.  We were not long married and living in the condo from hell when my brother insisted we take home a cherry tomato plant in a pot.  I knew the plant would not get enough sunlight to produce tomatoes, but Wayne was ever the optimist.  He watered, fed, and nurtured that plant.  It grew and looked quite healthy, but no tomatoes.  Since I have an “impish” control disorder (okay, I’m just plain bad), I went to my mother’s house, cut some fully ripened cherry tomatoes from her plant, and wired them onto our plant.  When Wayne got home, and went to water his plant, he was thrilled to see tomatoes.  He came in so excited, and then he thought, “Wait.  That plant never flowered.  There were never any green tomatoes on it.”  He went back to examine the plant, by this time I could not control my laughter.  Wayne hates it when I tell this story, but I think it shows how wonderful he is, and how mischievous I am.  I am one lucky woman to have a man who loves despite my impishness.

Pugliese

     My Pugliese was almost the bread that wasn't.  The recipe came from my favorite bread book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice."   It was a two day rustic Italian bread that starts with a biga.  In the grace notes in the margin Peter Reinhart said you can use your sourdough starter to make a firm starter in place of the biga.  That worked out well since I had just fed my starter the day before.  I read over the recipe a couple of times because it is a wet dough, and I have not had much experience with really wet doughs.  I  had to re-familiarized myself with stretch and fold.  I was once again looking forward to using that beautiful golden fancy durum from King Arthur Flour (you think it's hard finding rye flour in the middle of no where, try finding durum).  On baking day I was off to a great start.  I pulled my firm starter out of the fridge before our 6:00 a.m. walk to get the chill off the "dough."  I wanted to get an early start because of the many steps and the times for the rises.  I mixed the dough, stretched and folded and let the dough rest, stretched and folded again and let the dough rest, did my final stretch and fold, and put it in the bowl to rise.  Set my timer and set about doing other things.  Well, the weather alarm went off, and the wind started blowing - there was lightning - there was thunder - there were flying branches and pine cones - there was no rain.  All of this and no much needed rain.  Harumph! Well, about 20 minutes later the electricity went out.  My timer went out.  Oh no, my dough!  What should I do?  Okay, don't get thrown off, just put it in the fridge, and finish it tomorrow.  About an hour later the power came back on.  About an hour later it was still on.  Good deal, I can finish my bread today.  Of course, the power goes out again.  UGH!!!  Luckily it came back on in just a couple of minutes and remained on.  I  was able to shape my boules and complete the final rise, pop them in the oven, and ta-da - pugliese.
     I would have liked some larger holes, but I was delighted that the bread was not a disaster.  It was filled with lots of small holes.  The pugliese is a very tender bread, and again it has that beautiful golden color from the durum.  The bread had a good stretch to it before it would tear.  The crust had a perfect chew; it was just crunchy enough.  I read that it is a great dipping bread, so I made a little dipping oil with some extra virgin olive oil, some fresh garlic, and some dried Italian herbs.  And yes, it is a wonderful bread for dipping.
     If I had this experience early on, I would not have known how to handle it.  Refrigerating the dough was easy enough.  It was the timing of the dough that would have been hard.  I would have been totally dependent on timers.  The more bread I make, the more I learn about how the dough should look and feel at different stages.  I guess the three best experiences I've had so far in my bread exploration have been: baking my first loaf, making my wild yeast sour dough starter, and baking a successful pugliese despite the power outages. 

New York Sourdough Deli Rye

I’ve already made a swirled rye, but this rye was definitely different than the other.  The recipe for this New York Sourdough Deli Rye came from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  I did throw in a tablespoon of  rye chops just for a little rye flavor boost.  The sourdough gave it a nice tang; the grilled onions, rye chops, and caraway seeds enhanced the flavor above that of a regular rye bread. The two things that really surprised me was how soft this bread was, and how aromatic it was.  The loaf is very tender and flavorful.  When it was toasted or grilled, the rye flavor seemed to come out even more.  As a child the only rye bread we had was party rye on New Year’s Eve.  This is oh so much better.
     When I was young the nearest grocery was a tiny little neighborhood place called Jay’s.  On the right side was a small market that was great to pick up things you forgot to get when you went to “Schwegmanns,” and on the left was a bar.  We would ride our bikes to Jay’s for bread, soft drinks, luncheon meat, or candy.  (Back then, milk was not sold in the stores; it was strictly home delivery.  Anyone remember Mullen’s?)  You would always have a penny for the gum machine in hopes of getting that elusive striped gumball that would get you a free candy bar.  When Jay’s would not do, the closest “real” neighborhood was Longo’s.  The deli counter had luncheon meat, chopped ham, boiled ham, liver cheese, American and Swiss cheeses.  That was it!    (Of course when you made big groceries the place to go was Schwegmann Brothers Giant Supermarket.)  It was until I was a teenager that I discovered a magical meat called pastrami.  I can still see my first pastrami sandwich at Masperos.  So much thinly sliced pastrami on toasted rye that I could barely put my mouth around it.  My mother raised us to be open to trying new foods.  Today, there is nothing I love more than a good deli counter and cheese cases filled with all types of cheeses to try.  For dinner, we had grilled sandwiches with pastrami, caraway havarti, and creole mustard on the New York Deli rye.  Nary a crumb was left behind.
     Pierre Masperos is still in the heart of the French Quarter and still serving phenomenal sandwiches, as well as lots of great Creole and Cajun cuisine.  They’re obviously doing something right since they’ve been open since 1788.  If you’re ever in New Orleans and want a great sandwich, check them out.

Three Cheese Semolina Bread

  

 I made Three Cheese Semolina Bread  from the King Arthur website.  I added three toes of minced garlic, and a half teaspoon of dried basil and thyme.  This is the first time the aroma of the bread dough caught Wayne’s attention.  The fragrance of the cheeses and the garlic wafted through the house.  This bread was super easy and required no kneading, but I did knead it a little when I deflated it just before shaping it (stretch and fold).  Even though I have a lame (used for slashing bread), I find I do better using a good sharp knife.  Once the loaf was put on the stone, the whole house began to smell divine.  I can say with certainty that while waiting for the loaf to cool we went into a time distortion field.  I’m sure that was at least a 200 minute hour.  (I think I’ve watched a little too much sci-fi.)  The loaf itself is a thing of beauty.  The crust is covered with cheesy bubbles.  The tender inside has beautiful cheese holes. (I baked it on a stone as I have not yet invested in covered bakers.)  This bread would make a wonderful meatball or Genoa salami and prosciutto sandwich.  The bread calls for you to have a nice glass of red wine with it.  Kids would love it with a little pizza sauce and pepperoni.  Oh even better, toast some and have with a large Italian salad filled with artichoke hearts, tomatoes, black olives, and romaine lettuce.   I guess what I’m saying is this bread would be the perfect pairing with just about anything.
      When Wayne and I lived in New Orleans east one of my favorite things on a Friday evening was to have a thin crust pizza with the works and an Italian salad from Tower of Pizza on Downman Rd. delivered.  The crust was always super thin and crispy.  The Italian salad was wonderful.  Chocked full of olives, carrots, roma tomatoes, red onions, marinated artichoke hearts, pepperoncinis, and crisp romaine and ice berg lettuce - the salad was then tossed with a homemade Italian dressing and topped with basil, oregano, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  The restaurant itself was a combination hole in the wall/dive.  Nothing fancy, just really good pizza.  I don’t think I had pizza until I was 10 or 11 years old, and then it was frozen pizza from the grocery.  I think the crust was made of cardboard, the sauce tomato paste, and the toppings were mystery meat, and cheese.  Of course, not having had “real” pizza I thought it was good.  I’m glad that I discovered what pizza could taste like and the myriad of toppings that makes pizza wonderful.  As with many things, Tower of Pizza in New Orleans east went with Hurricane Katrina, but the memory of Friday night dinner from Tower of Pizza remains a fond memory of what was. 
     A little laginappe - a few weeks ago I made some pita bread just for the fun of it.  That's what happens these days when I get bored, I look for bread recipes.  It never made it to the blog, but below is a picture of how it turned out.  It was great with some roasted pepper humus.

English Muffins

     I made these English muffins last week using the recipe in my favorite bread book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice.  They were a really thick English muffin.  Not quite as craggy as I had hoped.   The were very tasty and had a beautiful look and crust.  We went to Florida to visit my brother last week, so I was looking for something quick and easy to make.  In the next couple of weeks, I plan on making sourdough English muffins.


     Tomorrow I am going to make a 3 cheese semolina bread.  I wonder if I can use durum in it?  I'll have to investigate.  Let you know what I find out when I post. 

Seeded Oat Bread

   

      Sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds!  How could I resist trying this bread.  It’s also made with whole wheat and oats.  Oat breads are my favorite.   I also added a little quinoa just for the heck of it.  The result was a super seeded oat bread  that was moist and tasty.  The recipe did not say how much it yielded, but I got 4 nice boules out of it.  It is a super simple no knead bread.  I used my new toy from King Arthur -   a dough whisk .  I really could not believe how easily the dough came together with the whisk.  After the first rise, the dough went in the fridge til the next day.   When the first two were pulled off the stone and moved to the rack to cool, I knew this was going to be a winner.  The beautifully browned loaf with additional seeds adhered to the loaf with an egg white wash during baking.  Wayne was impressed with the look of the loaves; I think he was even more impressed with the flavor.  This is definitely a make again bread.  I think I’ll try it in a loaf pan next time.
     Sunflower seeds always make me think of my early teaching days.  Lord, those boys loved sunflower seeds.  Getting them to not eat them in class was an on-going battle.  I can still see little piles of seed hulls inside of desks.  Trails of sunflower seeds in the hallways.  I can still the yellow, red, and white bags with “David” emblazoned across the bag.  When I started teaching many moons ago, St. Bernard High School was an all boys 8-12 public school.  I throughly enjoyed those years.  When there were no girls to impress, they boys were just plain silly.   Over my 30 years I’ve learned that kids are kids. My favorite stories are those of a mother who had 4 sons.  She would stop by and visit.  She was a riot.  I’ll call her Zelda.  Zelda came in one day killing herself laughing.  She spilled coffee on her “baby’s” homework (he was in elementary school) while checking to make sure it was done correctly.   She put it in the microwave to dry it, and she set it on fire.  She was laughing, because her child had been crying, “The teacher won’t believe me when I tell her you burned it up in the microwave.”  Her solution was to write a note and send the ashes in a baggie.  Zelda had a prosthetic leg.  She lost her to leg to cancer when she was very young.  Her 2nd youngest son, I’ll call him Bubba, failed Physical Education.  Bubba was with her when she picked up his report card on conference night.  The next day Zelda paid me a visit.  She told me the story of the ride home.  It went something like this: “You better not say a word to me.  Boy how could you fail f***ing PE.  I passed PE with one leg.”  Bubba would attempt to answer, and she would respond, “Boy didn’t I tell you not to talk to me.  I just don’t understand how you fail PE!  Well, how?  Answer me!”  When Bubba would go to answer her she would again respond with, “Didn’t I tell you to keep your mouth shout.”  That is how the half hour drive home went.  While telling me this story, I don’t know who was laughing harder, me or Zelda.  Her husband worked off-shore, so it was up to her to do the lion’s share of the parenting. The point is, Zelda was an involved parent.  She was at every activity for every child.  She always had a house full of kids.  She would not defend them when they were wrong.  She did not make excuses for them.  She did an excellent job of raising her boys to be responsible men.  I wish all parents were like Zelda.
      Teenagers don’t always make the best decisions.  They don’t always think things through.  They don’t think of consequences.  I would rarely get angry with a child; I would frequently get angry with parents.  I often would wonder how is it that you allowed your child to be in charge of the house.  I remember a senior coming into my guidance office.  He was upset because he was “grounded.”  He told me he deserved it, and he would get grounded all the time, but “this time they really mean it, and it’s just not right.”  I agreed with him, it wasn’t fair.  His parents should have meant it every time.  Teenagers are not easy.  Parents seem to think that they are old enough to “know better.”  The truth is, they don’t.  It is a time in their lives when there are bigger temptations that can have tragic outcomes.  It is a time when peer pressure is at it’s peek.  It is a time when they are trying to grow up, but don’t know how.  It’s also hard on parents.  Just how much freedom do you allow?  It’s hard to let them grow.  You look at your child and see that little child who adored you and wanted nothing more than to please you.  Want to know how to lecture your child?  Do it in 3 minutes or less because after that they don’t hear you.  Tell them you love them, even when they don’t want to hear it.  Ask plenty of questions.  Go to school events.  Be an active parent.

Sicilian No Knead Bread and Foccacia with Pecans, Dried Cherries and Rosemary

     I missed a week of blogging, but not baking.  Last week I made Sicilian No Knead Bread (sourdough version) from a recipe on Breadtopia.  I loved the crunchy sesame seeds all over the loaf.  This was the first time I used my durum flour, and it gave the bread a beautiful golden yellow color.  The bread was moist and had a great chew to it.  I found the bread to be a little flat - it needed just a little bit more salt.  If I am saying it needs salt; it needs salt because I am not a big salt user.

     This week I baked a recipe that a former student posted on my Facebook page. (Thanks Christy!)  I baked http://thecafesucrefarine.blogspot.com/2012/04/focaccia-with-dried-cherries-rosemary.html.  The aroma of this bread was terrific; the scent of rosemary and pecans wafted through the house as it was baking.  The instructions for the recipe were not the best.  It made no mention of when to add the cherries.  I also would not sprinkle the pecans on the top again.  The olive oil did not adhere them to the bread.  We had roasted turkey paninis for lunch today.  I put a smidgen of Boscoli Olive Salad on the sandwich along with some very thinned sliced red onions and a slight dusting of freshly grated asiago.  The combination of the savory with the sweetness of the cherries in the bread was great.
     Olive salad is one of those regional products that I was thrilled to find in Pineville.  You can make your own, but if I can find a really good commercial one, such as Boscoli, I'd just as soon buy it.    Like most New Orleanians, I love muffulettas.  It's one of those things that everyone has their take on.  I think everyone would agree that two key ingredients are the olive salad and the bread. NO, salad olives are not even close to olive salad, and cannot be used in place of it.  And NO, a sub roll doesn't come close.  I'm not a big mortadella fan, so I don't put it on my muffuletta.  I do put lots of thin sliced ham, Genoa and hard salamis, sliced mozzarella and provolone on my muffuletta.  I also like to wrap it in foil and heat it in the oven to the point of the cheeses being all melty, gooey good.  If you're interested in the history of the muffuletta, check out the history of the muffuletta YouTube video.  If you're ever in New Orleans stop by the Central Grocery on Decatur, get a muffaletta, cross the levee to the Moon Walk, pull up a bench, and enjoy your sandwich as you watch the traffic on the river go by.  

Walnut, Raisin, and Blue Cheese Fougasse

     What to bake, what to bake?  I want something I can use my unfed starter on.  I want something breakfasty (wow I made a new word).  I want something different - not a loaf or baguette or boule. Something tasty, easy, and different. Hmmm - this fougasse looks interesting in my Bread Baker's Apprentice looks good.  Let's look on the web for variations.  Ah, this recipe walnut, raisin, and blue cheese fougasse at King Arthur looks interesting.  I thought, I'll just substitute pecans for the walnuts.  I could hardly believe that I was out of pecans.  I decided since I had to go buy them, I should but walnuts.  This was a really fun bread to make.  The recipe warned that kneading in the blue cheese would be sticky business, but I had no problems.  I'm sure the recipe  hint of freezing the crumbled blue cheese made the difference.  I also enjoyed shaping the fougasse in the "tree" shape.  I did learn I need to pull my openings a little further apart.  The slits nearly closed during baking.  When it came out the oven I had one of my infamous duh moments.  Half of my "branches" were going up and the other half were going down.  So me!  I've talked about aroma of bread before, but this was the most wonderfully aromatic bread I've baked to date.  Better that the orange cinnamon rolls, better than pumpkin pecan, just better than any other bread.  The combination of the crunchy toasted walnuts, the sweet golden raisins, and the tangy blue cheese enveloped in a moist and chewy bread is divine.
     This is a bread that I love as an adult and would have hated as a child.  Blue cheese - yuk - look at the blue veins in it,  no way am I eating that.  Golden raisins - raisins are supposed to be brownish.  Bread is supposed to be white and sick to the roof of your mouth.  I'm glad my taste buds developed as I got older.  Don't get me wrong, we grew up eating all kinds of food.  I loved hearts of palms and artichokes.  I could eat Mexican (real Mexican as well as Tex-Mex) all the time.  My mother always encouraged my brother and I to try different foods.  To this day, we are both willing to try almost anything.  There are certain foods that I don't like.  When I was a child, I would not eat my Mimi's okra gumbo.  I thought the okra seeds were crab eyes, and I was not eating crab eyes.  This coming from someone who thought she struck gold when she would pull up a soft shell crab in a net.  I love soft-shelled crabs.  I remember, as a toddler, cracking crab claws and peeling boiled shrimp and crawfish.  Catching a trout, flounder or red fish in Lake Pontchartrain meant we would have fresh fish that night.  I've been told my mama made the best red beans and rice.  I learned from her, and I've been told my beans and rice rival my mama's.  Here I must make a confession, "My name is Teresa, I'm a native New Orleanian, and I don't like red beans."  There, I've admitted it to the world.  I also am not an oyster fan.  I have a friend who like me, doesn't like oysters.  She used to say she doesn't eat anything that eats, sleeps, and sh**s in the same place.  That's not what keeps me from oysters, I just don't like them.  I hope that I continue to try new foods as I continue my journey through life.  I've learned that some times it is better to ask what it was after you try, rather than what is it before.  Oh, below is a pic of my broken branched tree.

Savory Monkey Bread

     It took me a while to get this up, but I did a lot of baking last week.  Chocolate chip cookies to make ice cream sandwiches.  Sour dough rye because I hate wasting starter.  Onion rolls for hamburgers.  Sourdough biscuits for to go with creamed eggs for Easter breakfast.  I love baking, but it kept me from blogging.  Anyway here it is, last week's bread blog. 
     I wanted to make an easy bread for Easter dinner.  I had already decided that I was going to make a chorizo stuffed pork loin for dinner.  I am not a big fan of the chorizo that I find in the local grocery store, so I found a recipe for chorizo on the internet.  What kind of bread - I didn't want tortillas.  I wanted bread.  Then I remember seeing a recipe on King Arthur for savory pull apart roll aka Savory Monkey Bread.  I made a few changes to the recipe. I used the same herbs and spices in the chorizo and a bit of asiago (I know it's not Mexican, but that's what I had on hand) in the bread.  It was the perfect accompaniment to the roasted pork.  I was a little worried about the bread being to spicy for my cousin, Pil.  She's always telling Wayne and me that we are pepper bellies.  Well, it was perfectly flavored.  The bread was moist and flavorful.  The little "rolls" were almost as good on Monday as they were on Easter.

     Of course, Easter always brings back tons of childhood memories.  Even though the EB no longer brings me a basket of candy, I still love dying Easter eggs.  Wayne had not dyed eggs since childhood until he marries me nearly 29 years ago.  While most normal people are trying to dye and decorate the prettiest egg possible, we go in the opposite direction.  We have the annual ugly egg dying contest.  When we used to have a household full of people, they would vote on the egg.  This year I turned to Facebook.  I have to say, these were the only election returns we have enjoyed this primary season.  Votes were coming in all evening Saturday and continued into Sunday.  Anita, our "matchmaker" (see hearts and knots blog entry), said her phone was binging all night. 
     We had lots of votes, opinions, and fun.  Some of my favorite comments: No.1 Looks like it has fungus growing on it.  I don't know, I kinda like 8...it reminds me of the moon...lol. I pick 7!  Can I vote again. I'm from St. Bernard.  4 is actually pretty.... i would say #7 b/c it looks like it's bleeding.  7! I don't want to see anything tht comes out of a chicken with a ring of red around it :x !  I was going to say 8, but it kind of looks like a dinosaur egg. So my vote is 3, it has a post Katrina water stain that's a little off putting.  Child Number 1 says Egg Number 3
     I was sure I would win with egg #7, alas Wayne won with egg #8.  You can see the picture below.  All I can say is, there's always next year. 

Vermont Maple Oatmeal Bread

     Growing up I was not much of an oatmeal fan unless it was in my mimi's oatmeal cookies.  As I grew older, I discovered oatmeal bread.  (Notice I didn't say grew up - I'm hoping that will never happen.)  Not that I'm baking, I'm making oatmeal bread.  This is a great recipe for Vermont Maple Oatmeal Bread at King Arthur.  I threw in some sunflower seeds just for the heck of it.  The maple and cinnamon in the bread are not overpowering.  There's just enough of a hint to enhance the aroma and flavor.  Just a wonderful subtle undertone.  It's one of those breads that you get a beautiful rise from.  The type that when Wayne sees it cresting the pan, he starts tasting it in his mind.  It's one of those breads that as it is cooling you need to find something to do, so you're not tempted to start eating it as soon as it comes out the oven.  It's a very tender bread with a wonderful crust.  It's been wonderful with breakfast; it was great bread for a smoked turkey sandwich; and I'm looking forward to it as French Toast.
     I mentioned in my last blog that our trip to Vermont was one of my favorite vacations.  In 1993 I took a week off work with the blessings of my wonderful principal, Paul.  It's not like I could see Fall color in June or November.  It had to be in October.  Being raised New Orleans, there is minimal Fall color.  There is a  little color to be found - swamp red maples, cypress get a beautiful rusty color, and Bradford pears get some color as well, but nothing like Vermont.  Good Lord, it is spectacular.  We were there at peak color.  When we arrived, everything was ablaze.  By time we left several days later, the trees were bare.
     I remember bringing a sack of McIntosh apples home from Coldhollow Cider Mill.  It was fascinating to watch them turn apples into fresh apple cider.  The smell was a little bit of olfactory heaven.  We discovered Danforth Pewter.  They have beautiful housewares and jewelry.  I bought some Christmas charms that I used as ornaments of an embroidered Christmas tree on a tee-shirt.  Just this last Christmas, Santa brought me a gorgeous barrette and earrings from Danforth.  I've bought several birthday and Christmas gifts from them over the years.  I remember visiting The Vermont Teddy Bear Company, where you can still find a teddy bear made in The United States.  It was teddy bear Nirvana.  Walking into The Vermont Country Store was like taking a step back in time.  You find yourself saying, "I didn't know they still made that," over and over again.  And of course, visiting King Arthur Flour filled with tempting aromas and everything a baker could possible want.
     There were many small, cozy stores and restaurants.  While we were having breakfast one morning there were a few snow flurries.  (I did mention that I am a southerner, didn't I?)  When I saw the flurries I was sooooo excited.  We're eating and I'm saying (rather loudly), "Look Wayne, it's snowing! It's snowing!"  People in the restaurant looked at me like I was the goofiest person they had ever seen.
     But the real star of the trip was the natural beauty.  The Fall color, the green mountains, the winding roads, the covered bridges - all of these things made it a trip I will always remember.  Wayne had a photo of me playing in the leaves as if I were a young child.  Our ride on the Green Mountain Railroad was a great way to see the countryside.  One of the things we brought home to remember our Vermont vacation was a framed preserved leaf.  All of our photos and our leaf are now safe and sound in a landfill somewhere.  Even though the physical mementos are gone, the vivid images in my memory will stay with me forever.