Prep for the Fair!

It's true...I'm entering the Minnesota State Fair!  I've registered for all bread items.  The categories are whole wheat, whole grains, white, and in the category of sweet breads: coffee ring.  I'm actually so excited.  I hope the day I drive over to bring in my goodies I'm in a line with 100 other women...all over the age of 60:)  I realize my dream of finding an 80 year old blue ribbon champion mentor is probably slim, but you just never know.  And if the only thing I get out of this is a participation ribbon, hell, I'll wear that thing proudly.  

This week I've made a whole batch of whole wheat breads.  To be honest, they tasted mighty fine.  Next week I'll be experimenting with whole grain breads.  The difference is that the whole wheat is just with flour and the whole grains have little bits and pieces in the bread.  Things like cracked wheat or barley.  I will be submitting the rectangular loaves and not the round/egg-like ones.  

   
Today I will be making this tasty treat.  I'll post photos next week.  Until then, I will be dancing my pants off at a wedding weekend.  Happy Friday!!

A Small Date

After a week of barely seeing Ross, Friday night came around and a date was due!   We live on the second floor of orange duplex in an apartment that we love.  It's old and there may be grim on the tiles in the kitchen, only a bath tub in which to bathe, and visible slant to the floor in the living room...but it's got charm.  And, it has a porch!  Off the back door a green painted porch allows us to observe our chickens in the yard and look down at our landlord's garden to the North.  It's cozy and provides a nice little perch on the world below.  

So Ross prepared the meal and I hurried about to put together a little soiree in our porch.  Out came the card table, a nice linen tablecloth and into the yard I went to cut a flowering weed that added a sweet little touch.  I also pulled out the candelabra which is one of my favorite home items.  The candles lit and the scene was magical.   

 

Ross prepared a fish dinner we got from Organic Gardening the magazine.  It was a ginger-steamed black cod.  I was giddy the whole meal it tasted so awesome.   

Another magical summer evening in our little apartment in the orange house.  I encourage everyone to have a slow evening this week or weekend...and don't forget to light candles!

The Pastry Bible

I checked out the book The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts, by Judith Choate from the library last week.  It's a beast of a book.  When I first cracked it open I was frightened by the use of the metric system.  Grams?!  Crap.  Therefore, it sat lonely for a week and I only used it as a staple on the coffee table.  

Then earlier this week I was pulled toward it again and began reading through pages.  The directions and ingredients were fairly straightforward.  There's nothing worse than getting excited to cook or bake something and as you're pulling ingredients together realize that there's an ingredient needed that's specific to only the sub-Sahara and is only available through mail order.  Martha Stewart anyone?  Lord that lady can pack recipes full of "essential" ingredients.  I expect it from her now and always skip something in her recipes.  Needless to say, there's nothing that I've come upon in this book that requires mail ordering anything!  

So I decided to tackle brioche.  It's a morning bread as I see it.  It's main ingredient is butter...need I say more?  I always taste the dough of whatever I'm making.  I figure, if that doesn't taste good, neither will the bread.  This dough was difficult to stop "testing"!  There are dough eaters and there are not...I am a dough eater.  Let's move on. 

After all my converting of measurements, letting my dough sit in the fridge for a day, I shaped it and threw it in the oven. 

I was pleasantly pleased with it's outcome.  Buttery, slightly sweet and perfect for the start to my day!  Now this once intimidating book is full of slips of recipes that I want to try in the future. 

Radical Homemaker: Part 1 of many

A few months ago, Ross and I bought all the paper and tools to make my very own business card.  After I quit a recent job at a bistro/bakery, I decided it was time to make my own opportunities.  I wanted to stop living the decisions other people made and start making my own.  Now a few months have gone by and my cards aren't made.  I tend to do this.  Get an awesome idea, play around with it and then day by day it fades away.

What had been really bugging me was that I couldn't think of a title that I wanted on my card.  Baker?  Upholster?  Farmer?  Really I could put any of those, but I'm still learning and don't feel 100 percent about them as a title.  Then as Ross and I were driving back from my sister's house, I was reminded of a book I read this past fall, Radical Homemakers, by Shannon Hayes.  She talks about the revival of homemakers and how we need to become units of production as opposed to units of consumption.  Maybe it was the farms we were passing or the growing of corn or the lack of noise pollution in the city, but the book and all its lessons came flooding back to me.

That's it!  That's me...a radical homemaker!

She speaks on having governing principles of family, community, social justice and the overall health of the planet guide our daily lives.  And more than anything, she tells of radical homemakers being fearless.  That is where I have gone astray.  I have let fear creep it's way back into my thoughts.  I may not have an arrow that points in one specific direction for my life, but I have a general direction and I'm going after it.  I will work on being a unit of production and do all that I can to head towards that life.  I will read, educate myself, ask questions, volunteer...but most of all be fearless.

The Sweet Smell of Basil

This last weekend was the first time Ross and I went to the farmer's market of this year!  I guess I just keep thinking it's not yet summer.  Don't ask me why.  You'd think I was able to tell by living in an apartment with one bedroom, upper half of a house, with no air conditioning.  Let's just say last year it got so bad that our happy family of 3 (the cat is the third) took an extended Sunday drive just so we could have some reprieve in the air conditioned Chevy.  Needless to say, these past hot days here in the Minneapple have been steamy reminders that yes indeed, it is summer. 

At the farmer's market, a deal was given to me for six bundles of basil for five dollars!  Yes, please.  Everyone has their different veggies or herbs that speak summer to them, but basil is mine.  The first smell of the baby basil growing nearly makes me pass out with excitement.  So, when I got this deal I went straight home and made me some pesto! 

I was still figuring out a recipe, so the first batch was a wee bit too salty, but then I found out my perfect ratios.  After trying out a couple of recipes, I used this one.  However, I found that I didn't need to use three garlic cloves.  I used one or maybe two and omitted pepper and used just a smidge of salt.  My recommendation is to add some and then taste.  I probably didn't even use a teaspoon worth.  I also realize that some people don't think it's real pesto without pine nuts, but let's be serious...how many people can afford those bad boys?  Maybe some day:)  

Next time I swear I won't put them in the freezer before taking the picture.

Pickling Ramps

As I was weeding the garden adjacent to our apartment, I would sporadically pull "weeds" that smelled like onions.  Little did I know...they were ramps!  I had read about these guys being a perennial that many people love, but had never seen or tasted one.  So, I dug up all the ramps I could find.  My neighbor downstairs told me that pickling ramps is easy.  After looking at a few recipes, I decided on this one by, none other than, Miss Martha Stewart.  Sometimes I don't care to bother with too many ingredients and her recipe suited my desire! 

They will now be a staple in this house.  They have a sweet onion taste to them and I bet they'll be perfect on a pizza!

Oh Mulberries!

I find myself struggling quite frequently with the limited amount of space that I have in the city to grow things.  I have been fervently trying to create more space by digging up sod or planting containers full of tomatoes and basil.  Don't get me wrong, I appreciate even the little bit that I have.  I have made numerous mistakes since moving here and acquiring a community garden space in the past year and a half that a small space is really all I need to learn on.  Planting too many things?  Done.  Not giving the plants as much space as indicated on the info stake because I am confident they're lying?  Obviously.  Panicking when I discover all of my tomatoes have some sort of blight on them?  Yup.  But despite all these trials and errors, one food that is plentiful in my neighborhood and doesn't seem affected by any of my mistakes are mulberries!  There are so many trees around here! 

Ross and I set out early on Sunday morning and laid out a couple of sheets and did what my grandmother had her children do...shake the tree.  We only shook a couple limbs and walked away with a half gallon full!  Thank you Mr. Tree. 

This is from a chicken's point of view.  See Skinny Lynnie back there?  Luckily, there's a mulberry tree that hangs into our yard and deposits enough mulberries on the ground for the ladies to feast each morning.  They eat enough mulberries that the other day I noticed a large mulberry...nope just poo from a mulberry eatin' chicken. 

Anywho, I made 3 jars of jam!  Another lesson I've learned is that as soon as I have produce I need to use it fast or I'll straight up forget about it.  They had already been in the freezer for a few hours when I took this picture. 

So, I thank the space I have everyday and will be thanking those mulberry trees many more times this early summer!