cheese sandwiches and rain barrels

Today was a rain day. Christina came over and we made impromptu cheese sandwiches for lunch- gorgonzola, sharp cheddar and gouda.

I also finally installed two rain barrels on our house. They're repurposed olive barrels from Greece. They were filled with one rain! Sheryl (my downstairs neighbor) and I have planted tomatoes, sweet and spicy peppers, tomatillos, beans, snap peas, carrots, spinach, lettuce, basil, cilantro and parsley in the garden, with kale, pickling cukes and squash on the way. Now we'll be using rainwater for mid-summer gardening!

Tortillas

Last weekend I woke with a craving for breakfast burritos. I had made a great pot of sweet-spicy black beans (yet another Goldmyer creation!) during the week. We had plenty of eggs and veggies... but I didn't want to go to the store to buy tortillas. So I found a recipe in, of course, How to Cook Everything and figured I'd give it a shot!



Observations: the recipe is basically flour, water and fat (butter)- there is no rising agent. For best results it suggests letting the dough sit for up to an hour, although not required. I probably gave it 45 min. My dough was really stiff. I tried kneading it in the food processor, as suggested, and I just ended up with granules of dough. So I hand kneaded it- still really stiff.



I rolled the disks out paper thin and cooked them in an ungreased cast iron skillet. It was a bit tricky to get the temperature and timing right so that they weren't doughy but also didn't dry out and become brittle. I think I did pretty well. Quite different than store bought which is sometimes too chewy/doughy for me. Next time I will try rolling them out a little thicker and see if that helps keep them flexible.



Consumed with: black beans, scrambled eggs with red peppers, chilli spiced sweet potato hash, cabbage (one head goes a long way!), and peach salsa. yum!

Bedouin Bread and Portuguese Vegetable Stew

Had a long afternoon (probably raining) so I set about to make a dinner feast. The Bedouin Bread recipe came from the Horn of the Moon cookbook. I was looking for an easy bread that wouldn't take all day to make. This one was great because it only required one rise, about an hour, and was very flexible.



Bedouin Bread
1T yeast
1T honey
1 1/4c warm water
2t salt
3 1/2c mixed flour- I used 2c wheat, 3/4c white, 3/4c corn, but the recipe also suggests rye or rice. endless possibilities?

Dissolve yeast and honey in water, let sit 5 min. mix in flour and salt. knead, cut into 8 pieces. shape into rounds and roll until 1/4" thick. put on lightly greased cookie sheet, cover with damp cloth and let rise 1-2 hours until 1/2"-3/4" thick. Bake 5-8 min in at 500. Serve warm with butter.




Observations: this bread was really easy to make, had a nice sweet flavor thanks to the honey (could try maple syrup next?), nice texture, fast! I will definitely make it again.

Consumed with: Portuguese Vegetable Stew, from Jump Up and Kiss Me.



This stew took a little longer to prep- you have to roast the squash, sweet potatoes and carrots before putting them in the pot. But it was well worth the effort!



Smells great, tastes great, and I even forgot to put the beans in and it was still tasty! The spices are a great combination- cinnamon, garlic, cumin, paprika, marjoram (I think my marjoram is old). And I've been cooking with cabbage more- yum!

biscuits!

This past weekend I made parmesan rosemary biscuits for breakfast, along with some eggs and veggie gravy. Yum! The recipe came from How to Cook Everything and I just added maybe half a cup of parm and a whole bunch of rosemary from the garden. Voila!

Loaves #9 - 12: Goldmyer Sandwich Slicers

While up at Goldmyer visiting Jeff, I made some sandwich bread to make grilled cheese. The first loaf didn't last long, so I made a second. When Dave and I got home, I made two more loaves. This recipe is from The Vegetarian Epicure, a great veggie cookbook that lives up there.



1T each: olive oil, salt, sugar, yeast
2c hot water
2/3c lukewarm water
6c or more flour

Mix yeast into lukewarm water and set aside. Mix the oil, salt, and sugar into the hot water. Add the yeast, then the flour. Knead well. First rise, double in size in 1.5 hours. Punch down and rise again, 1 hour. Shape into loaf and rise 1/2 hour more before putting into a 450 degree oven for the first ten minutes. Reduce heat to 350, bake for 45 minutes.

Observations: I made this with white and wheat flours, and at home added 3T of ground flax seed, which was really nice. This bread has a great chewy texture, but gets stale pretty fast- it needs to be eaten within a few days. Good slicer. It actually works well with all whole wheat flour (ran out of white at the cabin).

Consumed with: everything!

Fiddleheads

We also collected fiddleheads from the lady fern. They are found in drainage areas and are tightly coiled with brown scales. The two weeks Christina and I were at Goldmyer they were just starting to show above the soil:



But the next weekend when Dave and I went up to visit Jeff, they were abundant! We picked over a pound in about fifteen minutes. I brought them home, cleaned them up, and pickled them.



Haven't actually opened a jar yet. This was my first foray into canning, so I'm not sure if I did it right. I used a pickling recipe I found online on a local blog:

1 lb fiddleheads, cleaned
2 lemons
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups wine vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp kosher salt
8-inch piece wild ginger (optional)
1 tsp whole black pepper
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp whole allspice
1/2 lb shallots, sliced 1/8 inch thick
4 pint jars with lids and screwcaps, sterilized

1. Remove strips of lemon zest with a peeler, then juice lemons.
2. Pack fiddleheads tightly into canning jars, layered with shallots and lemon zest.
3. Bring to boil water, vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, salt, spices, and optional ginger.
4. Pour over fiddleheads so that liquid reaches to within a 1/4 inch of rim, then secure lids and process in hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Next time I will pack them tighter, but I wanted to make a couple of jars so I could give some away, and I just didn't have enough fiddleheads- two pounds would have been better.

Loaves #7 & 8: Goldmyer Bread

While at Goldmyer, Christina and I definitely made some bread. She made most of the loaves- she was queen of the kitchen for the two weeks we were there and I was happy to be her tasting guru. But I did make one pair of loaves out of an Italian bread book that she brought up with her. She made a sour starter that sat for quite a few days before I used it in this bread. This is the first bread that I mixed completely by hand- whew! Usually I use a mixer for the first part.



Observations: The oven was a bit hot, but the bread turned out well. I rolled this loaf so it has a fun spiral but is a little misshapen. Tasted well nonetheless.

Consumed with: butter, melted sharp cheddar.