flour, water, salt, yeast

My bread baking kick is back in full force after a bit of a break from this summer's Farmers Market adventure. The fridge is overflowing with concoctions made of just a few simple ingredients that will be baked in to crusty loaves of comfort.



What is it about bread that is so comforting? From the mixing, kneading, baking (oh the baking!), to the dunking the crusty loaf in olive oil and sharing with unsuspecting friends, {good} bread has some affect on people that keeps me baking away.

I just do not understand how any one could give up such comfort. (Speaking from a girl who outlawed any type of white flour in the house for far too long.)



Currently working its magic in my kitchen is a sourdough starter, honey light whole wheat bread, sun dried tomato cheddar baguettes, and on deck are pans of cinnamon rolls that are looking for homes...

friday appetizers (4/52)

We were invited over to a friend's for drinks on Friday night, so we decided to take our food on the road again for this weekend's New Year's resolution to "host" a meal every week with friends.



I have been on a huge bread baking kick lately, trying to perfect the art of making a beautiful artisan loaf. In the past two weeks, I've made no fewer than 14 loaves of breads, rolls and the like. Some straight up, rustic baguettes, others filled with anything from beets to sun dried tomatoes to goat cheese to combinations thereof.



This loaf is a peasant loaf with goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes folded in before baking, the tomatoes giving the loaf a beautiful golden red color. We hungrily dunked thick slices of the bread into olive oil infused with sun dried tomatoes, black pepper and salt, and dipped a few pieces into humous.



And for dessert - a meyer lemon blueberry galette. The sweet blueberries and tart meyer lemon marmalade (homemade!) were a lovely pairing that really brought some lightness and thoughts of summer to a dreary January night.



The pastry crust was a beautiful golden brown, with a beautiful flake, but substantial enough to hold in all of the delicious juices of the berries.



The only thing that could have made the galette better was a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, fresh whipped cream, or slightly sweetened coconut milk whipped cream.

Meyer Lemon Blueberry Galette

I love make rustic galettes, so easy, yet impressive, and 1/2 the work of making a pie!

Ingredients::

1 homemade pie dough

3 cups frozen blueberries

2 tablespoons organic corn starch

1/4 cup organic cane sugar

3 tablespoons meyer lemon marmalade

1/2 teaspoon organic vanilla extract

1 tablespoon coconut oil/butter

2 tablespoons meyer lemon marmalade for topping

Whipped cream (coconut or dairy) - optional

Ice cream - optional

To prepare::
In a small bowl, heat the marmalade (stovetop or microwave) until liquid. Mix blueberries, corn starch sugar, marmalade and vanilla into a bowl until blueberries are evenly coated.
Roll pie dough into a 10-12 inch round and spoon filling onto dough, leaving 1.5 inches of dough free of filling. Fold over and crimp the edges of the dough around the filling, leaving a large opening on top. Dot the top of the filling with the coconut oil or butter. Bake in an oven that has been preheated to 425* for 25-30 minutes or until crust is golden and the filling is bubbly. If necessary, put tin foil over the curst the last 5-8 minutes of baking if browning too quickly.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons marmalade until liquid. Brush the top of the filling with marmalade when done baking. Top with whipped cream or ice cream.

pumpkin ginger oat bread

An opened can of pumpkin combined with running across this recipe for pumpkin oat bread, lead to a house filled with an aroma so warming that I could have just curled up in it.

Buuut, it was 10 and I had work to do. So cutting two thick slices and eating them piece by delicious piece just had to do.



Pumpkin Ginger Oat Bread
Adapted from Naturally Ella's Pumpkin Oat Bread
Dense, delicious and super moist, this bread would be perfect to feed your family the morning after Thanksgiving, or to bring to your neighbors for the holidays, or to eat in mid July, or to...or to...really, it is just really that great anytime.



You will need::

• 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped walnut
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1.5 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1/3 cup organic canola oil
• 2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground flax mixed with 5 tablespoons warm water)
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, 2 tablespoons oats and 1 tablespoon brown sugar for topping

Instructions::

Preheat oven to 350* and oil the bottom of an 8" x 8" loaf pan.

Make the flax egg by combining ground flax and water. Set aside.

Process 3/4 cups oatmeal until finely ground, almost to a flour. Put into a large bowl and stir in flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and walnuts. Set aside.

In another bowl, combine pumpkin, molasses, ginger, syrup, milk, oil and flax eggs.

Mix wet ingredients into dry and fold together until just combined.

Sprinkle the top with nuts, oatmeal and brown sugar.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 55-65 minutes, or until knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.. It the top begins to get too brown, cover with tin foil.



Yum. I seriously had just eaten breakfast and wasn't hungry when I pulled this out of the oven, but somehow those two slices disappeared in just minutes. Really though, how can you resist warm bread?

kirkwood:: bread basics

Four loaves of bread baked in three house at Kirkwood's "Discovering Bread" series.

Because I am employed full time, have a very busy life and a lot of responsibilities and commitments, I can't just drop everything and go to culinary school like I would like.

So I am grateful for local community colleges, especially Kirkwood, who have great programs and wonderful instructors who take time to teach classes outside of their regular schedule through the continuing education department.

I may have a special affinity towards continuing education departments as my mom has worked with these programs for years and is always talking about the wonderful instructors, courses, certificates and much more. But the continuing education department is a great place to turn for people like me, who have a passion for one thing, but just can't make it their focus in life.

For the past few months, I have been taking a variety of different culinary classes through Kirkwood. The first class I signed up for, actually, Nic signed the both of us up for it as a date night surprise, was "Theories of Vegan Cuisine" taught by a local vegan chef. The course was great, informational and I couldn't wait to sign up for more.

We (because we are a super cute couple who take cooking classes together) signed up for a series of classes next, "Whole Foods Vegan Cuisine" with that same chef and instructor. A series of four classes focused on beans & grains, soups & sauces, soy foods, and vegetables, gave us even more tips, tricks, and ideas to keep in our cooking arsenal.

For the girl who thought she know just about everything about cooking, these classes are a nice reminder that even the most experienced chef has a lot to learn.

For the boy that is never allowed in the kitchen (because the aforementioned girl lays claim to that territory), a new confidence starts to develop and he is allowed to cook more and excited to branch out and experiment with flavors, techniques, and methods.


From the top, country hearth, sun-dried tomato filled bianco, french, onion soup loaf 

After that series of classes concluded, I knew I needed more and registered for a three course series, "Discovering Breads." This series consists of bread basics, advanced breads, and breakfast breads.

Baking bread has always been one of my true passions and I have so much to learn. Actually, one night in college, after studying at the local Barnes and Noble (with a huge frappuccino by my side no doubt), I headed by to my house with the gorgeous Bread Baker's Apprentice in hand. I stayed up for hours that night pouring over the pages, studying the techniques of baking bread when I should have been head first in my macro economics book. My best friend walked into my room to chat, and sniggered when she saw me reading a cookbook. What can I say? I find calm, joy, and so much more in cooking.

I attended the bread basics class on Monday night, without Nic by my side (his loss!), and was excited to jump in, and show off my bread baking skillz. Yep, skillz, with a z - that means I am mad genius in the bread baking department.

I paired up with a retired biology teacher and our instructor gave few directions before we jumped in. Ask Nic, but me giving up any control while cooking is hard, so having to work with a complete stranger was a bit of a challenge, but was so fun. Turns out that The Professor (that is how he will be referred to) was just learning how to cook. Just learning how to cook period. He was not afraid to jump in, but I found him to be a little scattered and did my best to make sure we were on track with all of our bread doughs.


My haul of the bread made with The Professor, who tried to take two country hearth loaves. I told him that that wouldn't work as we weren't going home together. Heh.

We did all of the kneading by hand, which was a nice to take a step back from the KitchenAid. The Professor had an interesting kneading technique, more of a flatten flatten punch punch punch, than a fold, knead, turn, repeat process. We started preparing the french loaf starter, which was set aside to proof, and then turned out focus to the country hearth bread, ordering wine (huzzah for drinking wine out of plastic cups while making bread), onion and the bianco doughs.

I really loved The Professor's enthusiasm (the wine probably helped to calm my inner control freak) especially while making the bianco. The recipe called for an egg. I suggested that he crack the egg into a smaller bowl before adding to the rest of the ingredients. I set the small bowl right next to the big bowl while advising this step. Instead, The Professor cracked the egg onto the shelf right above the big bowl, splattering egg white all over the cooking area. Fine. No shells made it into the dough which was the ultimate goal. There was a large bucket of disinfectant that I pointed to suggesting he wipe down the mess, instead he throws the egg shell into the bucket of disinfectant. Huge sip of wine. No, the egg shell goes into the garbage. The Professor grabs it out and continues to mix our dough. I clean up the splattered and dripping egg. Let's move on, mmmmk?

We transferred out bowls of dough to the big, beautiful, proofing ovens (can I have one for Christmas, Nic? Pretty pretty please?!), prepared the sundried tomato filling, cleaned our workspaces, and then retrieved the dough to shape.

The country hearth bread was shaped into a boule, the onion soup bread went into a mini loaf pan, we filled, rolled, shaped and sliced the bianco, and chose from a few techniques to shape the baguette.


The damage done on my hour drive home from class, not too bad.

Another round in the proofing ovens and before I could order a second glass of wine (I only had one, next time might require two) we had the entire class' loaves of bread (64 loaves total) in the even-more-beautiful-than-the-proofing-oven, steaming oven (can I have one for Christmas, Nic? Pretty pretty please?!). We stood around, asking out instructor questions about bread, gawking over all of the different ovens (at least I was), discussing ways to bring our bread home (note, one take out container did not cut it), comparing and admiring our projects rise and turn a beautiful golden hue.

We pulled the bread from the oven about three hours after we began class. I rolled up my four loaves in my apron and hit the road back to Washington. It only took 5 minutes into my hour trip to unwrap my apron and begin tearing off corners of each loaf. Delicious, delicious, delicious, and deliciously non-vegan, but still delicious.

I learned a lot in this bread basics class, most notably, that I still have a lot to learn. None of my loaves were called out as being a perfect example, and one of them was pointed out as being kneaded too much. I have plans to refine my basic techniques this weekend (and a lifetime to master them) before moving on to the next class in the series, Advanced Breads.

butternut squash soup & spaghetti bread

When Nic and I were in Chicago a few weekends ago, we stopped at Karyn's on Green for an early lunch before we made the trek back to Iowa.

As we stepped in to the restaurant, I immediately knew we were in for a treat, despite there only being three other parties dining at the time (it was about 11:00 on a Sunday morning, I thought for sure there would be a wait for brunch).

Nestled into Greektown, Karyn's on Green is a stylish vegan bar and restaurant that Nic and I will for sure be visiting again on our next trip to Chicago. With the tag line making vegan sexy, you should give it a try too.

As we sat at our table sipping coffee, I was torn between ordering breakfast or lunch. With the recommendation of our server, I decided to go with breakfast, meaning I wasn't going to be ordering the butternut squash soup that I had my eye on. And although the chilaquiles I ordered were amazing, the thought of that soup never escaped my mind.

Lo and behold, not a week later, I received my latest order from Barnes and Noble which included Thrive Foods, Brendan Brazier's latest book of 200 plant based recipes. In this book, Brazier mentions Karyn's on Green as one of his favorite restaurants to visit while in Chicago, and, to my delight, included the recipe for the butternut squash soup that I had been eyeing!

I was finally able to make the soup on Friday night, and served with a big wedge of "spaghetti bread," it was a dinner that lived up to every expectation.

Butternut Squash Soup
This butternut squash soup is good enough to warrant a trip to Chicago just to enjoy a bowl at Karyn's on Green, but simple enough to make at home. And although you won't be savoring each spoonful in the chic, stylish restaurant, you can still make vegan sexy and wow your family with this easy two-ingredient soup.



Slightly adapted from Thrive Foods, via Karyn's On Green

In the mix::

• 3.25 pounds butternut squash (2 medium squash)
• 1-15 ounce can coconut milk (full-fat)

To prepare::

Cut the cap and bottom off each squash. Cut in half lengthwise, and then half again. Roast in a 400* oven for 30 minutes-45 minutes, or until soft. Allow to cool.

When cooled, scoop the flesh out of the squash and spoon into a blender. Add coconut milk. Use a towel to cover the blender (instead of the lid) and blend until spoon.

Pour soup into a medium sauce pan, season with salt and pepper to taste, and heat through.

Serve with a wedge of spaghetti bread.

Spaghetti Bread {herb parmesan bread}
This bread is a favorite with my family. The recipe is from and old, very worn, recipe book with tattered pages, and a creased spine that falls open to this recipe the moment you set it on the table. Most likely the only recipe that is used in the book, it very well might be the most treasured recipe in the entire house. The bread screams comfort, and is quickly whipped up whenever kids make the long trek (from Iowa, Texas or Sweden) to Mom's house.



Slightly adapted from our family cookbook, originally from that one cookbook in my Mom's bookshelf
Makes one round loaf.

In the mix::

• 2 cups warm water (105* - 115*)
• 4.5 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons honey (or sugar per original recipe)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (or butter per original recipe)
• 1/4 cup + 3 T nutritional yeast (or 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon parmesan cheese per original recipe)
• 1.5 tablespoons dried oregano leaves
• 4.25 cups flour
• freshly ground pepper and a pinch of sea salt

To prepare::

Pour water into a bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle with yeast. Allow to set a few minutes, or until yeast becomes frothy. 

Add honey, salt, olive oil, 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, oregano and three cups of the flour. Using the paddle attachment, mix on slow until blended, and then mix at medium speed for two minutes, or until smooth.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl, switch to hook attachment, and gradually add in the remaining flour. The dough will be sticky.

Cover with saran wrap and a towel, and allow to rise in a warm place for 45 minutes, or until light and bubbly and more than double in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 375*. 

Lightly grease a 1.5 or 2 quart casserole.

Using a wooden spoon, stir down batter and beat vigorously for 30 seconds. Turn batter into casserole, brush with olive oil, sprinkle evenly with remaining 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast, freshly ground black pepper, sea salt and oregano.

Bake 55 minutes, or until nicely browned. Turn out onto a wire rack. Cool and cut into wedges.

pantry and freezer week - day 7

Officially our last day of this challenge. However, we've decided to extend this challenge another week.  Really, it hasn't been much of a challenge since we "shop the perimeter" of the grocery store most of the time anyway.  We only grab a few staples from the isles:

• canned beans
• canned tomatoes/tomato sauce
• bread
• crackers
• coffee - but remember, sneaking into the isles for coffee is not breaking any rules!
• oatmeal - thank goodness we are well stocked!  
• pasta
• condiments
• frozen veggies

Most of these things we can make from scratch (like the amazing loaf of bread I baked today) and have plans to re-create some of our favorite in the isles staples (wheat thins anyone?)

What happens when my beloved steel cut oats run out?? Well I never said we couldn't order things online! Seriously, today I did the math and we can order a 25 pound bag (yes 25 pounds!!) of steel cut oats directly from Bob's Red Mill and pay only $1.52 per pound and that is with taking the crazy charge for shipping into account! A one pound bag of steel cut oats from Hy-Vee is about $3.18. Our manager at Hy-Vee is going to see if he can order the 25 pound whopper for us which could potentially save another big chunk of money!

I never thought I would be so excited about oatmeal.  :)

After an amazing breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast - made by the lovely Nic (oh - and FOUR more cookies!), we hit up Hy-Vee to fill our fridge with some much needed produce. Check out our loot:

Fruit::


Bananas, honey crisp apples, blueberries and moro oranges. Have you heard of moro oranges ever? I haven't and picked these up on impulse. They are awesome - but not orange at all!  I'll snap a quick photo before I eat the second one.

Veggies::


Organic spinach, carrots, eggplant, mixed bell peppers, jalapeno, onion, and grape tomatoes.

Produce::


Local organic eggs, cheese, cottage cheese, almonds and a departure from the usual soy milk - almond milk.


Our total rang in just under $53.

I whipped up a quick smoothie and had a small bowl of kashi + almond milk before I went to the Y to work. I was home 20 minutes later because someone double booked the short Sunday shift and two of us showed up. I was ecstatic and and let her take the shift and headed home with an additional 3.5 hours in my day.

I decided to mix up some whole wheat oatmeal bread for Nic and made another quick run to Hy-Vee for some flours (yes - I totally shopped the isles...) when the call came. The gal who decided to work, was too sick and asked if I could come in and really work this time.

I had no excuses, plus it was only for 3 hours.

So I worked, and then came home to finish the bread and prepare dinner.

Dinner was a he picks, she cooks, they clean night. Nic had pesto pasta with veggies and steak in mind and I was happy to comply.

I roasted some eggplant, onions, green peppers, carrots and grape tomatoes in a little bit of olive oil, garlic powder, pepper and balsamic while the pasta cooked.  Nic prepared the steak (freezer item) that he had marinated in red wine and pepper.

The pasta and roasted veggies were tossed with some homemade pesto sauce that was stashed in the freezer.



Delicious and simple.

I decided to go steak free, but did steal two bites of Nic's - it too was delicious.

Oh yeah, the bread I made was done just in time for dinner! I don't know if anything is more comforting than fresh out of the oven bread smeared with a little butter.  This bread is going to be our go-to loaf from now on.  It was that good. Crunchy crust and a soft center.



I followed this recipe down to the gram. Literally.



So what do you think of our pantry and freezer week challenge? Should I keep blogging about it??

In running news today - I had psyched myself up for a run, but ultimately decided to give my knee one more day of rest. I will run tomorrow - I need to run tomorrow. Four days off is just crazy.