What's on Your Desk?

Since this blog is about enthusiasms of all kinds, there will be a recipe at the end for the Grilled Peach Salad in the photo, but the meme I tagged some other blogger for led me to Peabody's blog, where she charmingly described items on her desk. That led me to wonder what people have on their desks. This will not be an official meme, just informal. If you want to post what is on your desk and link here, then e-mail me that you have done so, I might attempt to do a round up, say next weekend. If no one e-mails, I'll have less to do *grin*.

So my desk is, first of all, not very neat.
I have stacks of cookbooks (what a surprise!) and some printed out recipes,
cards because I use snail mail to send birthday cards, being a lover of all things birthday,
a stack of CDs which I use to download some of my photo files since they seem to multiply at an alarming rate,
old ZIP disks with older photo and graphics files (someday these need to be transferred to another storage medium - UGGHH - but for now they are a cheerful mix of gold, red, green, black and blue.
The usual office supplies are there, too, plus a spool of gold and silver ribbon...no idea why that ended up on the desk :)

I have a hand thrown and glazed pottery cup to hold pencils, pens, markers and a boning tool,
a couple of watercolor paintings I have done recently leaning up against the wall,
a photo of my daughter,
cheery magenta fake daisy like flowers in a pottery vase,
two printers (I own and use three...another enthusiasm obviously)
and my Dammit Doll.
On the wall, a poster that says, "Misery is Optional",
one that says, "We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden",
a framed needlepoint of the serenity prayer,
and a framed specimen sheet of Caslon type from Williamsburg.
Hanging from the window trim are a red dragonfly
and a green good luck elf.

So, what's on YOUR desk?

On to the salad. I'm certain that this is not an original idea, but earlier in the week I had a few ripe, perfect white peaches. I cut them in half, removed the pit (they were freestone peaches which makes it easy), sprinkled a bit of brown sugar on the cut sides, then grated a tiny bit of nutmeg on top of the brown sugar, then had Sweetie grill them briefly, just enough to carmelize the sugar and heat them through. When peeled, sliced, and added to the salad, they were such a treat. The grilling changes the flavor in much the same way that baking peaches in a pie does. I like fresh, uncooked peaches, too, but baked or grilled peaches have such a mellow juiciness.

Grilled Peach Salad
4 cups or more mixed field greens or mesclun or mixed salad greens of your choice
two ripe peaches - freestone variety preferred (I used white, but yellow peaches would also be good in this salad)
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg, freshly ground if possible
1/4 cup toasted pecans, broken into pieces
Balsamic Vinaigrette to taste (I added too much for my taste (about 1/2 cup) and will use about 1/4 cup next time. (see below)

Place field green or salad green, washed and dried, into a salad bowl. Set aside.
Cut peaches in half. Remove pits. On each cut face, sprinkle with the brown sugar and nutmeg, dividing among the 4 pieces. Grill cut face down 2-3 minutes or until sugar is carmelized and peaches are just heated through. Place peaches on a cutting board, peel off the skin, and slice each half into 4 or 5 slices, then cut crosswise into chunks. Drizzle peach chunks with 2 teaspoons of the vinaigrette. Add cut, dressed chunks to salad bowl.
Sprinkle top of salad with the nuts, then with the dressing. Grind a few grinds of fresh pepper over the salad. Toss to coat the lettuce leaves with the dressing and mix the fruit and nuts into the salad. Serve with more dressing on the side if desired. Serve cold.

Balsamic Vinaigrette
1/4 cup good balsamic vinegar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
Combine the vinegar, salt and thyme in a small bowl. Whisk in the olive oil to create an emulsion. Whisk in the water and keep whisking until fully emulsified.

Seven

Seven seems to be a popular number lately. Lots of couples paid extra to get married on July 7, 2007 because 7-7-7 is supposed to be lucky.

Today I got lucky because the lovely Jerry of Food and Photo tagged me for the Seven Random Things About Me meme. If it had not been random things, I'd feel unlucky, but, geeez, I should be able to to random. Thanks Jerry!

1. I don't like goat cheese. Here in California, especially in the Wine Country, goat cheese is served fairly often in lots of ways. If it's on the plate, I'll eat it, but I'd much rather have almost any other kind of cheese. I've tried many different brands and even fresh from Nan's goat (with some assist from Nan in making the milk into cheese), but it still leaves me cold. Guess I like cow's milk cheeses the best.

2. I don't knit or crochet. There is a story behind that. And a pun just made :) When my Dad drove my brother, sister, and myself to Alabama to visit my grandmother one summer, I had just learned how to crochet. We were driving a station wagon. At some point in the journey, I jumped into the far back part of the car and impaled my rear on one of the crochet needles. Ever since them I can't get excited about crochet or knitting needles as a way to pass the time enjoyably.

3. When I have a job I tend to be super neat and organized, but my office, pantry, linen closet, front hall closet, etc. look like a thief has just ransacked them looking for hidden jewelry.

4. My first cat was a marmelade colored cat, Muffin, but since then I've never had another cat that color. I do love marmelade on my English muffins, too.

5. I love making my own greeting cards. I use PageMaker, a graphics program, and Avery #3379 note cards. It allows me to make personalized cards with my own photographs or drawings. I also make calendars the same way for special people like my daughter.

6. My favorite music is Celtic, especially fiddle music. I know someone who is going to a Celtic fiddle camp in Scotland next month and I'm salivating hearing about what she will be doing and where she will be going in Scotland.

7. I love, love, love fall with crisp, cool days and golden sunshine and all the colors of the fall leaves, and enjoy spring and winter, but I hate summer. I don't like heat, and when I was growing up it was hot and humid and no air conditioning and we had to do chores all summer. I know I should get over it now that I am waaaaay past childhood, but summer is still my least favorite time of year, mellowed only partially by all of the zucchini in my garden right now.

That's pretty random, right?

So I'm tagging:

Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody because she loves autumn, too, plus she's an interesting person with great passions.

Kristen of Dish and Dine because she makes things very fascinating when she writes about them.

Lis of La Mia Cucina because she is such a funny writer and just plain fun.

Anna of Anna's Cool Finds because she has an international outlook and writes such great reviews.

Beth of West of Taos, who might not appreciate being tagged, but her writing is stellar.

Kellypea of Sass and Veracity because I enjoy her writing and opinions.

One Way to Remember

There are all sorts of ways to remember someone who has been a big part of your life. You can remember their humor, their interests, the way they spoke or looked, their favorite movies or books or music. One way to remember them is by what their favorite foods were.
Max had a granddad also named Max. They both loved foods that you enjoyed the most by picking at them. That might sound funny, but not everyone takes the same delight that they did at sitting down to a good picking session over a mess of Chesapeake Bay crabs that had been steamed with Old Bay seasoning. Although I enjoy cooking and baking with walnuts, I don't enjoy taking the time or concentration as they did in picking even the tiniest bit of walnut out of the cracked walnut shells. A related joy for the younger Max was the fun in taking steamed artichokes and picking each leaf off in turn, dipping it in butter, then pulling it through your teeth to extract the artichoke essence.

When we went to Seattle the first time Max was about 8. When we visited Pike Place and saw the great fish market, he talked Sweetie into buying a fresh King crab leg that had come from Alaska. The taste is nothing like frozen King crab legs, especially if you have a good palate like Max did. Being essentially spoiled from then on for anything except fresh, we were always on the lookout for them at fish markets and on restaurant menus. The same was true for lobster, another great opportunity for a picker. If it was fresh and on the menu, we somehow managed to find the funds to order at least one and enjoy the luxury.

When he was 15 Max became interested in cooking. We did a Parmesan cheese tasting one night when we were having pasta. First came the ugly stuff in the green cardboard container, then the already grated cheese sold in small plastic containers at the store, then an imported Argentinian Parmesan type cheese, then the wonderful cheese from Italy stamped with the Parmigiano-Reggiano stamp on the rind. As expected, he was wowed by the Italian cheese and could tell blindfolded which was which. Too soon he got his drivers license and the cooking lessons stopped. Still, on a day like today, eight years since the accident, it's good to remember the fun we had enjoying food in and out of the kitchen.

Scotch on That Salmon, Laddie

We don't entertain very often, but last evening invited two couples to join us for grilled salmon and a leisurely meal on the deck shaded by the walnut tree. Just to show that I don't just bake, here is the menu:

A starter of black bean dip with corn chips and assorted fresh veggies. The cucumber slices are the first from my garden this year. Everything else came from the market. We also had Italian country bread and little bowls with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping, and another small bowl with plain almonds to nibble.

The main dish was Sweetie's speacialty, grilled salmon fillets with Scotch. Yes, I said Scotch, laddie. The alcohol burns off leaving a nice, subtle smoky taste. The liquor also does a little tenderizing of the fish. He does the same sort of thing with other fish, with chicken, pork, lamb, etc. using Irish whisky, bourbon, and so on depending on his mood.

He also used a little olive oil and a smidge of garlic. Along side he grilled some slices of fresh-from-the-garden zucchini.

I made a big salad or field greens, chunks of tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, avocado and feta, which I tossed with a lemon-balsamic vinaigrette and toasted pine nuts.

One of our guest brought some enjoyable wine. Lots of iced water (since it was hot) and more bread rounded out the meal.

The best part of all was sharing all of this with friends who had not met each other before. Everyone seemed to enjoy the others company, so it was absolutely worth the effort. We should do it more often, but probably won't anytime soon...maybe in August.

Dessert? Well, that would be telling...the challenge recipe for the Daring Bakers was on the menu. Check back at the end of the month to see how that went.

Date Night

Thursday is Date Night, at least some of the time. When Sweetie and I had been married about 15 years we started having date night every week. As often happens when you get busy with jobs, homemaking, errands and all of the seemingly endless activities surrounding raising kids, we had very little time as a couple. Our focus was on the kids, job, etc., not on our relationship. I watched people I knew who were another 10 years or less past us in the baby to adult curve of childrearing and saw that there is a sort of danger time for relationships. One way to avoid the danger is to date your spouse! Sweetie got a lot of ribbing from co-workers about why he had to date his wife. Even so, it allowed us to reconnect as a couple and rediscover why we had married each other. It worked. Twelve years later we are still dating, although not every week, and having fun together.

Tonight the date was to Bodega Bay. The weather is often foggy at the beach but today it was beautiful in the late afternoon with a bright blue sky and golden late day light on the waves. We brough our dog with us and took a long walk on the crescent beach with him.

After the walk we went to Lucas Wharf restaurant which is right on the inner part of the bay. The breeze came in the window. Sweetie had saute' of calamari with a lemony sauce and I had a Caesar salad and then we both had bowls of excellent clam chowder. Near the end of our meal I noticed a fisherman on a nearby dock cleaning freshly caught salmon and then tossing them into a box filled with ice. Later he agreed to have his photo taken. Guess what we will be having for dinner soon :)


So why is there a photo of cookies at the beginning of this post? It's a belated birthday treat for fellow Daring Baker Veronica of Veronica's Test Kitchen. She recently experienced the Culinary Institute of America's French Cuisine Boot Camp, so these French inspired cookies seemed quite appropriate.

It is also because I don't have a recipe for the calamari or chowder, but I do have a recipe for the cookies taken directly from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours . They are called Chocolate Spice Quickies for a very good reason. Except for chilling the dough, the making of these delicious sables type cookies is super quick and very easy. They have a good chocolate flavor and some texture from the almonds, with just a touch of spice. Since they are refrigerator cookies, you can slice and bake some, then freeze the rest for baking at another time.

Chocolate Spice Quickies
From Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Makes about 40 cookies

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup blanched almonds, whole, sliced or slivered (I used raw, unblanched)
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice or cloves
pinch of salt
¾ cup sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temperature
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Put the flour, almonds, cocoa, baking powder, spice and salt in a food processor and pulse, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary, until the almonds are finely ground. Turn the ingredients out onto a sheet of wax paper.

Put the sugar and the butter into the processor and whir for a minute, then scrape the bowl and process for another 15 seconds; the butter and sugar should be smoothly blended. Add the vanilla and egg and process for 30 seconds, then scrape and process for another 30 seconds. Add the chocolate and pulse to blend. Finally, add the dry ingredients and pulse until they are fully incorporated. You’ll have a soft, fudgy, very malleable dough. Scrape it out onto a work surface.

Divide the dough in half and roll each piece into a log 7 to 8 inches long and 1 inch in diameter. Once the logs are formed, wrap them in plastic wrap, twisting the ends of the plastic firecracker-style to tighten the rolls. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. If the dough is too soft to wrap, let cool for 15 minutes in the fridge and then divide and wrap as described above. (The logs can be wrapped airtight and refrigerated for up to 4 days or kept frozen for up to 2 months; slice and bake the frozen logs without defrosting – just add a minute or two to the baking time.)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
Using a thin knife, cut the logs into 1/3 inch thick rounds and place the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving at least 1 inch between rounds.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 7 minutes, or until the cookies are slightly puffed and their tops look dry. Transfer the sheet to a rack and wait 1 minute before carefully lifting the still-fragile cookies onto a rack to cool to room temperature.

The cookies can be stored in a tin for about 4 days.

A Plum Cake for Mercedes


Much as I might want to, it's not possible to post something for all the birthdays that Daring Bakers have. Time for baking is limited and will be more so soon due to job pressures. Even so, today I baked a nice coffee cake for sweet Mercedes for her birthday tomorrow. If you haven't seen her blog, Desert Candy, do yourself a favor and do so. She has some incredibly good recipes and lovely photos, too.

This cake is a bit unusual since it combines yeast and biscuit mix. I found it when I was sorting out my card file the other day. There is no indication of how old it is or where I got the recipe. I don't actually remember making the cake, but there were juice stains on the card, so I probably baked it a dozen years ago or more. That's a shame because it is a tasty coffee cake and delicious with the fresh plums that are falling off the tree in the yard right now. The original recipe didn't say to peel the plums, but I did because Sweetie found out recently that he doesn't dislike plums, but he doesn't care for the plums with the skin still on them. The dough is tender, but not terribly moist and that is a good foil for the tangy, juicy plums and sweet, spicy streusel.

Since this is a sweet dish and uses fresh, seasonal fruit from my own yard, it is also a good fit for Jerry's of Food and Photo's summer challenge, Summer Flavor.

Despite having yeast in the dough, this recipe doesn't take too long to make. If you have fresh plums (or peaches, nectarines, cherries, blueberries) this is a wonderful coffee cake for breakfast or a snack.

Fresh Plum Coffee Cake

1 pkg (1/4 oz.) active dry yeast
¾ cup warm water (105-115 degrees F.)
½ cup sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons melted butter, cooled
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
4 ¼ cups biscuit mix (like Bisquick)
1 ½ pounds fresh sweet plums (Santa Rosa, Laroda, Nabiana, prune plums, etc.)
Streusel Topping (see below)

Dissolve yeast in the warm water and proof (let sit 10 minutes to make sure yeast is active)
Combine sugar, egg, butter, lemon zest, and extracts. Beat until thick and lemon colored, about 5 minutes. Stir in dissolved yeast and 3 ¾ cups of the biscuit mix. Knead until smooth, kneading in the rest of the biscuit mix as you go, about 25 times of kneading. Cover and let rest in a warm place for 15 minutes.
Roll out and place in a buttered 10” X 13” rimed jelly roll pan, pulling an pressing the corners to form a rim of dough.
Cut plums into ½ “ slices (I peel mine first, but unpeeled is fine, too.)
Arrange the plum slices on the dough in a pleasing pattern. Sprinkle with the streusel. Let rise in a warm place 35 minutes. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F. oven for 40-50 minutes. Cut in squares to serve. Serve warm or cooled.

Streusel Topping
Mix ½ cup brown sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon cloves and ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg. Cut in ½ cup cold butter with pastry blender or two knives.

Happy Birthday Mercedes
plum coffee cake
plums
fresh fruit
Summer Flavors

Out On the Porch in the Morning

When Sweetie said that dry rot had done it's thing to our front porch and that he would have to take the porch apart and build it again, I had no idea that it would be a good thing.

The old porch had three steps up to a landing and then three more steps up to the right to the front door, or a single step up to a platform where you stepped up into the sunspace at the side of the house. In the planning process for making the replacement, I asked if we could change things a bit. Sweetie was willing, so we now have the same three steps from the sidewalk to a landing, but now you step up one step to an expanded deck, then into the sunspace, or up the three step to the right and to the front door. The expanded deck goes beyond the side of the house a couple of feet and now has a railing around it, too.

Why am I blogging about this? Well, the unexpected thing is that we now have a front of the house eating area on the new expanded deck and we are eating there almost daily now that the weather has warmed up. This is especially nice for breakfast because the deck faces east. It has become routine to fix up our coffee, bowls of mixed melon and other fruits, yogurt for Sweetie and oatmeal with golden raisins and milk for me. We sit in the sun (I wear a sunhat) and eat, sip, and read the morning paper. Bliss.

Sweetie's Fruit Bowl

Sweetie keeps this seasonal but he likes melon, so there is usually some.

1/2 watermelon, cubed in bite sized pieces

1/2 ripe cantaloupe, cubed in bite sized pieces

1/2 honeydew melon, cubed in bite sized pieces

1 basket strawberries, in season, washed, hulled and sliced

Mix these fruits in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap and chill.

To serve, fill a cereal bowl 2/3 full of the fruit mixture for each person. Add more fruit...whatever is in season.

At this time of year it is often blackberries, blueberries, or peaches or nectarines. We often add a bannana, sliced, on top, divided between two bowls.

This is good topped with plain or vanilla yogurt and some nuts or a handful of granola.

The fruit mixture should be enough to serve 4-6 people depending on the size of the cereal bowl.

Happy Birthday Peabody!

When we were sitting at lunch in Seattle in June, Peabody, of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, mentioned that she loves bread pudding. When I was trying to think of what to make for her birthday, I remembered that I had this great recipe from the stone ages…well 1971 actually, but close enough. My friend Gale was active in her church and they did a lot of pot lucks. She said that this was her favorite thing to bring and when she didn’t bring it, she got grief.

What makes this bread pudding a stand out is the dark red cherries. A can is about 14 or 15 oz., but you can substitute about a cup to 1 ¼ cup of fresh, pitted cherries if you want to. I used some drained cherries from a jar that I bought when I went to Hatam’s with Anna of Anna’s Cool Finds. I suspect that a cup or so of any stone fruit or even berries in season would work well with this bread pudding. Peabody, hope that you find this to be a fun birthday gift…just wish you were here to have some.

Gale’s Bread Pudding with Cherries
A recipe from 1971, from a Fredicksburg, Maryland friend

4 cups dry bread cubes
3 cups milk, scalded
1 tablespoon butter
4 slightly beaten eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 can dark red cherries, drained

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Melt the butter in the milk. Add a little of the milk to the beaten eggs, then add eggs to rest of milk. Stir in the sugar, lemon zest, salt, and vanilla.
3) Put the bread cubes in a large bowl. Pour the egg/milk mixture over, stir gently, and let sit 15 minutes.
4) Butter a large baking pan. A deep one will give a softer center, a shallower one will give more crispy crust. Gently stir drained cherries into bread mixture and pour into baking pan.
5) Bake in a pan of hot water until firm, about 1 hour. Serve warm.

Happy Birthday Peabody
bread pudding
cherries
pot lucks

Wow Them at the Next Potluck

Do you always bring the same thing to potlucks? I know everyone loves your smoky sassy baked beans or asian cole slaw or molded sunshine salad...and you can bring that next time. But maybe for the 4th of July bash or the Bastille Day picnic you want to try something different this year.

A good place to start is with the Lentil Salad with Bacon (which tastes great without the bacon, too, if you don't want bacon in your salad). It's an adapatation of a recipe by Alton Brown of the Food Network.

Lentils are jam packed with nuturients and fiber and they also are the second best source of plant protein after soybeans. The thing that I like is that they cook up really fast, without soaking, so they are ready to go into the salad quickly. The salad can also be served at room temperature or warm, so it's perfect for the potluck at the soccer game or baseball game. No need to worry if it sits out on a hot summer day.

The best thing about this salad is that it tastes so good. I tried it before I added the bacon and it was yummy that way, too.

For mine, I used 1.5 cups of regular green lentils, and 1 cup of the tiny French green lentils. I added the French lentils to boil 15 minutes after I started the regular ones so that they wouldn't overcook. They added a slightly mineral taste. The salad would probably be fine if made completely with either kind of lentil. The other change I made was due to poor planning. I didn't have any red wine vinegar, so I substituted balsamic vinegar, white vinegar and lemon juice. The fresh herbs certainly give the salad a positive flavor, so try to use fresh instead of dried.

Lentil Salad

based on a recipe by Alton Brown

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
(the above three ingredients can be replaced with 1/2 cup red wine vinegar)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt (kosher salt if you have it)
1/2 teaspoon pepper (freshly ground is best)
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 recipe Basic Cooked Lentils (see recipe below)
2 strips bacon, cooked until crisp, cooled, and crumbled (or more, to taste)

Whisk the vinegars, lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, salt, pepper, parsley and thyme together in a large mixing bowl. Add the warm lentils and bacon and stir to combine. Serve warm or at room temperature. If you will be serving this much later, save the bacon in a zip-lock bag and add it 1/2 hour or so before serving. (That way the bacon stays crisp.)

Basic Cooked Lentils
1 pound brown or green lentils, approximately 2 1/2 cups
1 small onion, halved
1 large clove garlic, halved
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 pound salt pork, optional
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Pick over the lentils, rinse and drain. Place the lentils along with the onion, garlic, bay leaf, salt and pork into a large 6-quart saucepan and cover with water by 2 to 3 inches. Place over high heat and bring just to a rolling boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the lentils are tender, approximately 25 to 30 minutes. Drain any remaining liquid and discard the onion, garlic, bay leaf and salt pork. Stir in black pepper and taste for salt. Serve immediately or use in Lentil Salad.

Don't You Dare Take My Last Bagel !

Well, if you really want it, I guess I could give you half. It’s hard to share the last of something this delicious.

Bagels are a classic food. “The bagel, in its peripatetic history, has moved from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the delis of the United States” says Carolina Rodriguez while introducing this recipe from a friend of hers.

For the Daring Baker’s June Challenge, we are making Real Honest Jewish Purist’s Bagels. The recipe is from Johanne Blank and is found at jewish-food.org. Since it is a purist’s version, it involves yeasted dough that, after a first rising, shaping, and second rising, is boiled, then baked. The result is a densely textured donut shaped piece of bread with a nice chewy bite and yeasty flavor. It is perfect just sliced in half and toasted, then slathered with butter or cream cheese.


Often the bagels are sprinkled before baking with seeds like poppy seeds or sesame seeds, or with sea salt or onions. I chose to go with sesame seeds and sea salt, with one left plain to see how that was. They were all tasty.

For lots of other, imaginative variations, check out the other Daring Bakers blogs. Thanks go to Jenny and Freya for choosing such a delicious challenge.

There is little that is difficult about this recipe. If the yeast proofs then it’s just a matter of stirring in the flour until a stiff dough forms. I used the full amount of flour called for, plus a little extra when I did the shaping. I used all-purpose unbleached bread flour, not regular flour. Since bagels are bread, it makes sense, doesn't it?

The yeast does the work during the two risings and also during the boiling and baking. The part that allows for some creativity is how you shape the bagel. Since it is a donut shape, you can poke a hole up through the middle of the dough and then work the dough out from the hole, or you can roll the piece of dough into a snake and then put the ends together, leaving a hole in the middle. I tried both. In the end I couldn’t really tell which method I had use for any particular bagel.

What surprised me was how puffy the bagels got while boiling. None of mind sank first as the recipe said they would, but the final result was dense and chewy bagels, so I guess its O.K.
This is kind of a fun recipe because you can mix the dough with your hand and then use your hands to knead the dough,

then for the shaping. Working with yeast dough always feels good…it’s elastic and you can almost feel the little yeasties growing in the dough. You don’t let out as much aggression as you would from beating a butter block with a rolling pin as was done last month to make puff pastry, but kneading dough is very soothing and somehow contemplative.

This recipe below makes at least 15 bagels, but you can make half a batch. I did and now I wish that I had made the full recipe. These bagels are head and shoulders above anything you might buy at the supermarket. Try it…you’ll see.

Real Honest Jewish Purist's Bagels
Daring Bakers Challenge #7: June 2007
Hosts: Jenny (All Things Edible) and Freya (Writing at the Kitchen Table)
Recipe Quantity: Fifteen (15) large, plain, Kosher bagels

Ingredients:
6-8 cups bread (high-gluten) flour
4 tablespoons dry baking yeast
6 tablespoons granulated white sugar or light honey (clover honey is good)
2 teaspoons salt
3 cups hot water
a bit of vegetable oil
1 gallon water
3-5 tablespoons malt syrup or sugar
a few handfuls of cornmeal

Equipment:
large mixing bowl
wire whisk
measuring cups and spoons
wooden mixing spoon
butter knife or baker's dough blade
clean, dry surface for kneading
3 clean, dry kitchen towels
warm, but not hot, place to set dough to rise
large stockpot
slotted spoon
2 baking sheets

How You Do It:
Step 1- Proof Yeast: Pour three cups of hot water into the mixing bowl. The water should be hot, but not so hot that you can't bear to put your fingers in it for several seconds at a time. Add the sugar or honey and stir it with your fingers (a good way to make sure the water is not too hot) or with a wire whisk to dissolve. Sprinkle the yeast over the surface of the water, and stir to dissolve.

Wait about ten minutes for the yeast to begin to revive and grow. Skipping this step could result in your trying to make bagels with dead yeast, which results in bagels so hard and potentially dangerous that they are banned under the terms of the Geneva Convention. You will know that the yeast is okay if it begins to foam and exude a sweetish, slightly beery smell.

Step 2- Make Dough: At this point, add about three cups of flour as well as the 2 tsp of salt to the water and yeast and begin mixing it in. Some people subscribe to the theory that it is easier to tell what's going on with the dough if you use your hands rather than a spoon to mix things into the dough, but others prefer the less physically direct spoon. As an advocate of the bare-knuckles school of baking, I proffer the following advice: clip your fingernails, take off your rings and wristwatch, and wash your hands thoroughly to the elbows, like a surgeon. Then you may dive into the dough with impunity. I generally use my right hand to mix, so that my left is free to add flour and other ingredients and to hold the bowl steady. Left-handed people might find that the reverse works better for them. Having one hand clean and free to perform various tasks works best.

When you have incorporated the first three cups of lour, the dough should begin to become thick-ish. Add more flour, a half-cup or so at a time, and mix each addition thoroughly before adding more flour. As the dough gets thicker, add less and less flour at a time.

Step 3- Knead Dough: Soon you will begin to knead it by hand (if you're using your hands to mix the dough in the first place, this segue is hardly noticeable). If you have a big enough and shallow enough bowl, use it as the kneading bowl, otherwise use that clean, dry, flat counter top or tabletop mentioned in the "Equipment" list above. Sprinkle your work surface or bowl with a handful of flour, put your dough on top, and start kneading. Add bits of flour if necessary to keep the dough from sticking (to your hands, to the bowl or counter top, etc....). Soon you should have a nice stiff dough. It will be quite elastic, but heavy and stiffer than a normal bread dough. Do not make it too dry, however... it should still give easily and stretch easily without tearing.

Step 4- Let Dough Rise: Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, and cover with one of your clean kitchen towels, dampened somewhat by getting it wet and then wringing it out thoroughly. If you swish the dough around in the bowl, you can get the whole ball of dough covered with a very thin film of oil, which will keep it from drying out.

Place the bowl with the dough in it in a dry, warm (but not hot) place, free from drafts. Allow it to rise until doubled in volume. Some people try to accelerate rising by putting the dough in the oven, where the pilot lights keep the temperature slightly elevated. If it's cold in your kitchen, you can try this, but remember to leave the oven door open or it may become too hot and begin to kill the yeast and cook the dough. An ambient temperature of about 80 degrees Fahrenheit (25 Centigrades) is ideal for rising dough.

Step 5- Prepare Water for Bagels: While the dough is rising, fill your stockpot with about a gallon of water and set it on the fire to boil. When it reaches a boil, add the malt syrup or sugar and reduce the heat so that the water just barely simmers; the surface of the water should hardly move.

Step 6- Form Bagels: Once the dough has risen, turn it onto your work surface, punch it down, and divide immediately into as many hunks as you want to make bagels. For this recipe, you will probably end up with about 15 bagels, so you will divide the dough into 15 roughly even-sized hunks.
Begin forming the bagels. There are two schools of thought on this. One method of bagel formation involves shaping the dough into a rough sphere, then poking a hole through the middle with a finger and then pulling at the dough around the hole to make the bagel. This is the hole-centric method. The dough-centric method involves making a long cylindrical "snake" of dough and wrapping it around your hand into a loop and mashing the ends together. Whatever you like to do is fine. DO NOT, however, give in to the temptation of using a doughnut or cookie cutter to shape your bagels. This will push them out of the realm of Jewish Bagel Authenticity and give them a distinctly Protestant air. The bagels will not be perfectly shaped. They will not be symmetrical. This is normal. This is okay. Enjoy the diversity. Just like snowflakes, no two genuine bagels are exactly alike.

Step 7- Pre-heat Oven: Begin to preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 8- Half Proof and Boil Bagels: Once the bagels are formed, let them sit for about 10 minutes. They will begin to rise slightly. Ideally, they will rise by about one-fourth volume... a technique called "half-proofing" the dough. At the end of the half-proofing, drop the bagels into the simmering water one by one. You don't want to crowd them, and so there should only be two or three bagels simmering at any given time. The bagels should sink first, then gracefully float to the top of the simmering water. If they float, it's not a big deal, but it does mean that you'll have a somewhat more bready (and less bagely) texture. Let the bagel simmer for about three minutes, then turn them over with a skimmer or a slotted spoon. Simmer another three minutes, and then lift the bagels out of the water and set them on a clean kitchen towel that has been spread on the counter top for this purpose. The bagels should be pretty and shiny, thanks to the malt syrup or sugar in the boiling water.

Step 9- Bake Bagels: Once all the bagels have been boiled, prepare your baking sheets by sprinkling them with cornmeal. Then arrange the bagels on the prepared baking sheets and put them in the oven. Let them bake for about 25 minutes, then remove from the oven, turn them over and put them back in the oven to finish baking for about ten minutes more. This will help to prevent flat-bottomed bagels.

Remove from the oven and cool on wire racks, or on a dry clean towels if you have no racks. Do not attempt to cut them until they are cool... hot bagels slice abominably and you'll end up with a wadded mass of bagel pulp. Don't do it.

How To Customize Outside of Bagels: After boiling but before baking, brush the bagels with a wash made of 1 egg white and 3 tablespoons ice water beaten together. Sprinkle with the topping of your choice: poppy, sesame, or caraway seeds, toasted onion or raw garlic bits, salt or whatever you like. Just remember that bagels are essentially a savory baked good, not a sweet one, and so things like fruit and sweet spices are really rather out of place.

Sunday Sundae

Even though we ate them for Father's Day, I'm just getting around to writing about the dessert we had that day.

It's been years since I had a banana split sundae. Ice cream is not my first choice for an indulgence, but Sweetie is very fond of ice cream, so it seemed like a great choice for Father's Day.


Imagine the flavors: vanilla and dulce de leche ice cream over sliced bananas. Top that with fresh blackberries (I know, more blackberries...I just love them!), Ranier cherries, cut in half, strawberries, and chunks of peaches. On top of that drizzle a little caramel sauce. Top that with some softly whipped cream and a few pecans. Heaven! Where's my spoon?

Summertime Memories...with Berries

Happy Summer!

You need to understand that I would never say that. I grew up near Washington, D.C. where summer was a seemingly endless time of hot, hot days combined with energy sapping high humidity. Since we didn't have air conditioning, the kids would jump through the sprinklers on the lawn and find a shady place to stay still and read. Add to the heat and humidity the need to do daily chores, including extra home maintenance ones, and you may understand my lack of enthusiasm for summer. I know that it was a long time ago, but the disenchantment still lingers.

One of the things that I did enjoy was the fruits of summer, especially the berries. My Dad had grown up on farms and never gave up on the idea of having fresh fruit to can or make jam with. On Sundays, after church, we would get packed into the station wagon and head off to the country where we would meander down rural roads until we found a good collection of blackberry bushes and a place nearby to pull off the road. We never went on anyone's property, but when five or six children and my Dad finished picking berries, there were few left for the birds. There is nothing like picking ripe, sun warmed blackberries, sweet and full of juice, and eating them on the spot. There weren't farmers markets then, but there were U-Pick farms. We would also go pick strawberries, or peaches, or grapes in season. Back home these seasonal treats were baked into pies or boiled into jams or were packed in syrup and frozen.

Today I remembered those blackberry picking days while I picked some berries for my own pies. A few were eaten on the spot and were as good as I remember. Purple fingers are a sure sign of summer when the berries are ripe.

The first thing I made today was berry turnovers. I used ready made pie dough for some and refrigerated crescent dinner roll dough for others. Sometimes I make fresh pie dough, but today I wanted to get them done before noon because that's when we get our mail. The first two were ready just in time to give a couple to our mail lady. She is a super nice gal and the mailbox is near the berry bushes, so it seemed like a good idea.

The filling includes both cornstarch and some dry bread crumbs because these berries are really juicy. If you make these pies and your berries are not so juicy, you can skip the bread crumbs. The addition of some lemon zest wakes up the flavor. I used very little sugar because I wanted the berries to shine.

Then I made a mixed berry and peach crumb-topped pie. The filling included the rest of the blackberry filling for the hand pies, plus a very ripe and juicy white peach, sliced, a cup of fresh blueberries, and a few cherries that were sitting in a bowl on the counter. Sweetie says it's the best pie I've ever made, but that may have just been so he could have another piece. I think the crumb topping with it's freshly grated nutmeg and chopped pecans really complemented the fruit.

Hoping that you will make great summer memories for yourself and those you love. If it's not berry time yet, it surely will be sometime.

Blackberry Hand Pies

4 cups blackberries, preferably fresh. If using frozen, do not thaw.

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs, not seasoned

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

pie dough for 1 crust

1 package refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

1 egg, beaten in a cup with 1 teaspoon water

In a medium to large bowl, combine the cornstarch, bread crumbs, sugar and lemon zest. Add the rinsed and drained fresh berries or unthawed frozen berries. Mix gently to combine. (I use my clean hands).

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pie dough into a circle about 10 inches in diameter. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut the dough in four equal quarters. Place a scant 1/4 cup of the berry filling on each quarter, placing it near one edge, but with enough dough uncovered to allow for sealing, about 1/2 inch. Repeat with the other three dough pieces. Brush the edges of each quarter with the egg mixture. Fold the part of the dough with no berries on it over the part with the berries, pressing down around the edges to seal. This will form a sort of triangle. Using the tines of a fork, press along the two edges to further seal them. Repeat with the other three pieces of dough. Brush some egg wash on the top of each triangle and slash a small opening on top of each with a sharp knife.

Place on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven until the pastry is golden brown, about 15 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer the hand pies to a rack to cool. Can be eaten warm or cooled. Makes 4.

Unroll the crescent dinner roll dough and separate into triangles at the perforations. Using the same filling, place a small amount in the center of a triangle. Brush the edges with the egg wash and place a matching triangle of dough over the piece with the berries. Press all around the edges to seal. Using the tines of a fork, press along the edges to further seal them. Repeat with the other pieces of dough. Brush the tops of the hand pies with the egg wash and place on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven until the pastry is golden brown, about 15 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer the hand pies to a rack to cool. Can be eaten warm or cooled. Makes 4.

Mixed Berry and Peach Crumb Topped Pie

Pie dough for one crust

Pie weights

Blackberry filling from Hand Pies

1 ripe peach, peeled and sliced

1 cup blueberries, washed and drained

4 fresh cherries, pitted (optional)

Topping:

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup chopped pecans

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold butter

Rollout pie dough to about 10" in diameter. Line a 8" or 9" pie plate with the dough, crimping the dough around the edges of the pan. Prick lightly all over. Line with parchment paper and weigh with pie weights (raw beans do fine and can be stored and re-used). Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Remove pie weights.

Prepare filling by adding the peaches, blueberries and cherries to the remaining filling from the Blackberry Hand Pies. If making from scratch, put 2 cups blackberries, 1 tablespoon corn starch, 1 tablespoons dry bread crumbs and 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest into a bowl and mix together gently. Then add the rest of the fruit.

Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust.

Prepare the topping by mixing the oats, flour, brown sugar, pecans and nutmeg in a medium mixing bowl. Using a pastry cutter, two knives, or your fingers, cut the cold butter into the mixture until incorporated and clumps form.

Pour the crumb mixture over the fruit filling. Spread it to cover the pie. Bake the pie in a preheated 350 degree F oven until the topping is lightly browned, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Serves 6-8.

What Kind of Nurse?

J during a trip on the delta a few years ago

When you have been asked by your oldest friend in California to help out after surgery, what kind of nurse will you need to be? That is a question I kept asking myself as I drove an hour south to her home. We knew the surgery was coming and I left for Seattle expecting it to be this week. Imagine my surprise when I received a phone call late in the evening a week ago from another friend of hers telling me that J was in recovery and that the surgery had gone well.

She was staying overnight, but would go home the next day. Since I had a report on Convention to give the next day, I knew that it would be evening before I could make the drive. I had no idea how extensive the surgery would be, no idea how much care would be needed or what drugs she might be on. The wonderful news was that the excision had revealed that the problem was not as serious as exptected. Still waiting on the biopsy results, but the news seems to be good.

As it turned out, J was supposed to stay on painkillers for about 24 hours, so she slept a lot. I got up a couple of times during the night to check on her and make sure that the meds were taken, but mostly I got to be a supportive, kind and gentle nurse, not the kind that forces you to eat something you don't want and take a shower before you are ready to. By the next day she was feeling better and I was able to be home shortly after dark. Dinner had been the lovely jam cake from Peabody. I was reluctant to cook because every time I turned on the stove I managed to set off the smoke detector! This friend has been there for me time after time, so it was a blessing to be able to help her out a bit and spend some time, too. Thanks to those of you who wished her well. We both appreciate it.

This is the final travel that I know of, so now I can do some cooking and baking. Whhooo hooo!

101

This is the 101st post. Hard to believe. Want to keep this collage in the month, instead of as a header like it is right now. Seattle rocks!

Seattle On My Mind

If you've not had the experience of missing a grown son or daughter who have moved to another state or country, you might not understand why Seattle has been on my mind a lot since Christmas.

After she graduated from college, Sweetie and I were lucky to have our daughter living near by, no more than 40 minutes when she lived south of here, and that luck held for over four years. Even when she was in the LA area, it seemed like we could go visit easily. When she moved to Seattle last summer we drove there together and I really knew just how far away she was. I also found out that I really enjoy Seattle and find it to be a very comfortable place to be.

We did get to visit with her at Christmas, but each of us had a cold during that time, which put a damper on much activity. She has come here a couple of times, too.

A little over a week ago we were again in Seattle. The weather was nice a couple of the days, and rained the others so we knew we were in the right city. There were decorated pigs around the downtown area, and construction going all over, so we knew it was summer. Lots of people walking and biking. The food was wonderful no matter where we ate...surely Seattle.

It's difficult to decide what was the best. The cupcakes and coffee at Cupcake Royale were great. The breakfasts at the 5 Spot in Queen Anne filled me right up. Dinner at the Santa Fe Cafe' with a chef friend of hers brought some very rich dishes from New Mexico.


Probably the most enjoyable was the linguine dish pictured above, with fresh Copper River salmon, that I enjoyed at Cutters near Elliott Bay when I had the pleasure of meeting Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.

It may have been the freshness of the ingredients, or the lightness of the cream sauce, or the deft hand the chef had with the herbs, but it was probably that I thoroughly enjoyed talking and laughing with Peabody. As you may have gathered if you've read her blog, she is very knowledgeable about baking but modest about it, fun, witty, and she holds strong opinions. My kind of woman! Her photographs are also stunning. I was lucky because she brought me a small loaf of her grandma's bannana bread (which was perfect for eating while waiting for our delayed flight that evening) and a delicious lightly spiced cake with blackberry jam. Thank you Peabody!

So now I've had a little daughter time and I feel much better. I'm naturally biased, but I think she is beautiful, smart, a dynamic sales person and a great friend.

So now you can be jealous that I spent time in lovely Seattle, ate great food, had daughter time and spent a wonderful afternoon with Peabody. And I can be jealous that y'all have had time to cook and bake and blog about it. Heehee.

Joy and Love In Action

This month has been most unusual. It started with a Convention. That might sound like fun. In some ways it was, because I met some amazing women. On the other hand, I was a delegate, so, as Calvin used to say, the days were packed. The theme was Love and Joy in Action and there was a lot of smiling going on.

Blogging is one of my enthusiasms. So is food, photography, and writing. Check out that dessert photo. It was from the first day's lunch. I want to try making that marbled chocolate base for the sorbet.

Another one of my enthusiasms is raising money for scholarships for women, especially women who are returning to school both to improve themselves and to help out their families. I indulge this enthusiasm through an organization that has been around since the 1860's. The fund raising and fun is done through local chapters composed of women from many walks in life. In California there are over 500 chapters. This year the Convention had a delegate from almost all of those chapters, plus some past presidents and other dignitaries. There were also another 500 or so non-delegate chapter members. Image a huge meeting room packed with over 1,000 women! Since I like small groups of people, being a delegate was a challenge. Here is a photo of me being a delegate. Sorry about the quality, but it was taken by a sweet volunteer who didn't understand my camera. I look more relaxed than I felt.

The organization is P.E.O., a philanthropic educational organization. One philanthropy, for example, the International Peace Scholarship Fund, has given $20,495,763 providing 5,522 scholarships to women from 167 countries from 1949 to 2006. There are other projects with similar funding, plus California state scholarships, and local scholarships. Our chapter provides over $4,500 in local scholarship money each year. Last year our six scholars also received two international and two state scholarships.

So now you know why I was away from the computer at the beginning of June. As a past school board member, I still have a passion for education and assisting those who are eager to learn. This is a great way to feed that enthusiasm (although I'm hoping that someone else will go to Convention next year...too many people!)

This Little Piggy

Time available to be at the computer blogging has been in short supply all of June so far. The good news is that there were nice reasons for this (mostly), but the bad news is that it is continuing. A good friend had surgery and I'm off to play either Florence Nightengale or Nurse Rachette, depending on what is needed.

So I'll leave you with this little piggy, one of a number found around Seattle during my visit last weekend. This one sits outside a chocolate shop and the chocolate just drips down him.

Happy trails for now.

A Cobbler for Breadchick

A while back I had a photo of the hedge by the road with the berry bushes in flower. They are not the standard blackberries...those are just flowering now.

I'm not really sure what kind they are since they were well established when we moved her over 20 years ago, but there are two kinds, both ripening at the same time. One kind has long, thin berries and they are very dark when ripe. The other has very rounded berries which are quite juicy and still have a red cast when ripe.


Today I picked enough berries to make a cobbler for dinner. I mixed the two types together. Usually I try to combine them with peaches in the cobbler, but peaches are still expensive since it is early in the season for them. For some reason the long thin and round reddish berries are earlier than usual, too.

A fruit cobbler is a fairly simple dish, especailly if you use pancake mix for the topping. A fresh berry one welcomes in the cobbler season. Once they are cooked, the berries are soft, sweet and give up lots of the juice that tastes so good with the cobbler topping and some rich cream or ice cream. Later in the season you can make it with regular blackberries, peaches, plums, apricots, and apples, too.

Since I will be gone again this weekend and will miss Breadchick's birthday, Happy Birthday!...this blackberry cobbler is for you! We joined the Daring Bakers the same month and you are a super baker. Wish I could eat it with you on your birthday, but I'll bet you'll have something wonderful that day.

Blackberry Cobbler
Based on my Mom's peach cobbler

2 cups fresh blackberries (or frozen, but thaw first)
1/4 cup sugar (or to taste)
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

For the topping:
1 cup Bisquick or other pancake mix
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F., Combine berries, sugar, nutmeg, lemon juice, lemon zest, and cornstarch in a shallow ovenproof bowl or casserole dish. Bake in the oven until hot and bubbly and juice thickens.

Mix the topping ingredients together. Batter should drop easily from a spoon. When the berries ar hot, open the oven, drop the dough on top of the hot fruit in globs, leaving small spaces between the dough. Sprinkle with additional tablespoon of sugar if desired. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the topping is golden brown. Serve with cream or ice cream.

Since it is strawberry season, you can substitute equal parts of hulled, sliced strawberries and sliced rhubarb for the berries. Increase sugar to taste.