Dough Watch 2010

I'm a cook who likes a challenge. When I look through recipes I don't always look for something quick and easy. Quick and easy recipes definitely have their place, but I like to look for something I haven't done before. I used to live in a house with three other people and one day one of my roommates came through the kitchen and said in a slightly confused, slightly amused tone, “You are always cooking something different!” It's true. I almost never make the same thing twice. I wish I did so I could actually hone some recipes and make them my own. I make a conscious effort to do this sometimes, but mostly I am scouring for something new and challenging to make.

I tried naturally yeasted bread once before, and it was a complete disaster. It's bread that you don't add yeast to, but rather you let sit out for days on end in hopes that the natural yeast in the air will land on it. I tried this with a rye before; it took four days. It did not rise. When it came out of the oven it was the size of a softball and the weight of a bowling ball. The little bit I managed to chew did have decent flavor, but it was inedible. A very disappointing outcome after four days of anticipation. Some of you who have been my facebook friends may remember this as “Dough Watch 2008”. That was the last time I tried naturally yeasted bread....until now.

When Andrea came over the other day we were looking through all my baking books and I said that I have been meaning to try doing one of those week-long loaves of bread now that I don't have a job and I have the time. It was hard when I was working because I would have to plan out my week around baking. Be sure to start the dough on Tuesday before I went to bed so everything would be ready by Saturday morning when I would have time to bake it. Now, it doesn't really matter. I know I'll be here to do it. So, I impulsively started some San Francisco Sourdough Bread. I've read the reason San Francisco is so well known for it's sourdough bread is because of the strain of yeast that is naturally in the air in that part of the country. I'm hoping some of that trickles up the west coast.

I now present to you: “Dough Watch: 2010 Edition”.

I started on Wednesday. A little flour, a little water and a little cumin. Then it sat on the back on my piano for two days. It needs to be in a warm spot, and we have the window AC in the kitchen, so I'm trying it out in the back bedroom, which gets into the low-80s in the daytime.

This morning I did the first refreshment. I peeled off the hardened crust from the dough ball and scooped out the ooey-gooey center.

(pictured: hardened crust with gooey center removed)

So far I'm doing better than last time. My crust didn't really harden on that first loaf of rye bread, so I'm feeling optimistic.

Then I took the ooey-gooey center and added water and flour.

And made a new dough ball. It's sitting on the back of my piano again for another two days. Check back then for progress.

Bread Party.

Yesterday my good friend, Andrea, came over and we baked some bread together. We have a lot in common, but on opposite ends of the spectrum. We both work(ed) in the entertainment industry. She is an idea woman, a coordinator; I am a worker, give me the idea and I will make it happen. We both love baking. She is a pastry woman and is scared of bread. I am a bread woman and scared of pastries. I need to go over to her place now and have her teach me about pastries. Tarts, pie crusts, flaky doughs all scare me. They seem so delicate. I feel like I can beat up bread a little more and it will survive.

She came over and we made some whole wheat bread from start to finish. I tried my best to be a good teacher and went over proofing yeast, folding in flour, kneading, punching down and variable oven temperatures. I think the result of her first bread baking adventure was a success!

It was fun, though, to make bread baking a communal experience. Usually it's a solitary one. Many of these time-consuming, make-from-scratch things are often solitary endeavors. Knitting for hours, cooking (when it's a tiny kitchen), baking, canning, etc. There are knitting clubs already. People often cook together, and I guess potlucks could be “cooking parties”. And I recently read about hosting canning parties. Someday, when I have a bigger kitchen with an island, I'll have to start a baking club. Bread Party – it's the next big thing!

New crops.

The harvest is changing. We've been eating broccoli, peas and lettuce for what seems like a long time now. But the broccoli is finishing up, I've officially stopped watering the peas because they are dead to me (and mostly dead), and the bulk of the lettuce has bolted and been removed*. I have some more lettuce that is about in it's adolescent stage and ready to start eating too though.

Now, the beans are maturing.

I have cucumbers! I went with pickling cucumbers this year because I love pickles. I am assuming I can eat them as a cucumber too though....although I haven't looked into this yet.

The plums are ripening with fervor. I'm dedicating Thursday morning to make plum preserves.

Harvested today:

• 1 head broccoli
• About 1 pound beans
• 1 cucumber
• 1 zucchini
• 1 head lettuce
• About 4 straggler peas

*As a side note, the lettuce variety I used was “Salad Bowl Organic”. It's a looseleaf that grew like a weed! It got gigantic and I couldn't come close to eating everything it produced. I just pulled out the bit that was bolting this morning, which was taking up the last four feet of one of the beds. I was shocked to find it was actually only three plants that were taking up all that space. But I did notice that even after it started to bolt, it didn't bitter. Just a note for all you gardeners out there.

Muffins.

Mike went to a farmer's market yesterday on a break from work and came home with blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. We froze a bunch to make some smoothies, but I snagged a pint of blueberries and made a blueberry muffin recipe I have been wanting to try for a long time. They were pretty flippin' amazing if I do say so myself.

Summer harvest is officially on! Harvested today:

• 1 head cauliflower
• 2 zucchini
• 1 plum
• a bunch of broccoli
• 1 head lettuce
• 2 scallions

It's a plum!

It has been confirmed. I was outside watering the garden when a woman in a pick-up truck pulled over and said hello. She asked if I picked my plums. I was a little confused at first, but then figured out what she was asking me and I said 'Yes'. She then told me that her niece used to live in my house for about seven years and would pick the plums every summer and they were delicious! So, it's true – we have a plum tree.

This is also the second person I have met who knew who lived in this house before we moved in. Is that weird? I think it's just Portland. This place is such a small town at heart.

Daily bread.

Yesterday, I baked some bread.

We've already eaten almost half a loaf.

Winter planning.

I've been a bit absent from the blogosphere this week. I'm going to blame it on having a cat with an abscess on its face (currently just a tube sticking out of its face), a dog with diarrhea and a boyfriend with an ear infection. It's been a wild ride for a few days with a lot of bodily fluids on my carpet. Ick.

Anyway...it's that time! That's right – it's time to plan the winter garden! Already! I haven't even gotten my first tomato and I'm already thinking about what food I'm going to eat in December. It's certainly a change of pace in thinking from trying to decide what I'm going to eat tomorrow from the grocery store.

In planning the winter garden I have realized that my garden isn't big enough. I need more space. I can squeeze in broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, carrots, lettuce (through Nov.), kale, garlic, onions and shallots for the winter, but I really wanted to grow some collard greens and I just don't have the room available in time.

I am trying to coordinate the departure of spring and summer veggies to line up with the addition of winter veggies. The only completely open space I have right now is where the kale and spinach were this spring. I'm trading those out for overwintering broccoli and cauliflower. The cauliflower and broccoli from spring should be cleared out in the next two weeks or so and those are getting replaced by kale and spinach. The chard will be replaced by the last round of fall lettuce, but that won't be for a while. The carrots are holding their own and I'm hoping to get a few more seeds in before this month is out, otherwise what we have out there now is all we get. The current lettuce bed is becoming storage onions; it will be free for use in the next few weeks as well. And, lastly, the cucumber/pepper/bean area will be dedicated to garlic and shallots, but those don't go in until late September.

My goal is to get a job and therefore have the expendable income and peace of mind to spend a little money and flatten out the side yard with a retaining wall, some fill dirt, some garden dirt and some compost and get that done before winter. Then the rain can pack it down and we can add some more dirt in spring and use the side yard for next year's awesomely-amazing-gigantic-summer garden. There will be space for melons, squash, corn and hopefully a dedicated asparagus bed.

Hot!

There was a heat wave here in Portland last week. We had three or four days in a row that were in the upper-90s! It's gone now though...I was just outside in jeans and a T-shirt and was a little chilled. The heat, however, resulted in our first weather related veggie fatality. Well, at least critically wounded. The peas didn't care much for the hot, hot sun and lots of the peas shriveled up and the leaves and vines are going into the pale yellow-beige region.

It was just about time for the peas to die off anyway, so it's not really a big deal. We just lost a chunk of our last crop. I think we will have maybe one more week of fresh peas, then we have to rely on what we froze earlier in the season.

Harvested today:

• 2 heads cauliflower
• 2 heads broccoli
• 1 meal worth swiss chard
• 1 meal worth peas
• 1 carrot

Food Week.

Last weekend I decided to start tracking how much food we were actually eating from the garden, or eating from scratch. We were starting to eat something from the garden almost everyday it seemed, and the frequency of harvests were getting more and more. Before we had the garden I would make week-long meal plans and shop for those meals at the grocery store. Now I have to fly by the seat of my pants a little more and be creative with what we eat since the produce we have in the fridge changes everyday and depends on what was ready to harvest. I'm not about to go to the store and buy produce for a dish only to come home and find five heads of broccoli are ready and need to be eaten.

I'm taking off for the shoulder of Mt. Hood tomorrow morning to sit in the Salmon River and enjoy some fir trees and solitude for the weekend, so I'm posting this today. Items in blue were made from scratch and items in green were from the garden.

Saturday, July 3:

Lunch: Cheese Sandwich; bread, lettuce

Dinner: Enchiladas and Black Beans; beans, corn tortillas, Chile Colorado, broccoli, spinach, cilantro, epazote

Sunday, July 4:

Brunch: We ate out.

Dinner: 4th of July BBQ, we brought Snap and Garden Pea Salad; sugar snap peas, shelling peas

Monday, July 5:

Lunch: Cheese Sandwich; bread, lettuce

Dinner: Ravioli and Salad; vinaigrette dressing, basil, oregano, lettuce, radishes, carrots, scallions

Tuesday, July 6:

Breakfast: Banana-Peanut Butter smoothie

Lunch: Leftover Enchiladas; corn tortillas, Chile Colorado, broccoli, spinach

Dinner: Thai Peanut Sauce with Broccoli and Tofu ala Mike; peanut sauce, broccoli, basil

Wednesday, July 7:

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs and Toast with Jam; bread, cherry jam

Lunch: Garden Sandwich at coffeeshop due to failed internet

Dinner: Date with Mike, ate out at Thai restaurant

Thursday, July 8:

Breakfast: Toast with Jam; bread, cherry jam

Lunch: Big Salad; vinaigrette dressing, lettuce, radishes, scallions, broccoli, carrots

Dinner: Leftover Ravioli; basil, oregano

Friday, July 9:

Breakfast: Fried Eggs with Black Beans and Red Chile; cilantro, epazote, black beans, Chile Colorado

Lunch: Leftover Thai

Dinner: Pizza and Salad; pizza dough, basil, oregano, cauliflower, swiss chard, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, scallions

Not too bad! I hope the next time I record my food for the week that there is even more blue and green on it!

Start of Summer.

The summer garden is almost there! We put in tomato and pepper cages the other day and we have baby zucchini.

And baby cauliflower.

And bean flowers!

And lots of roses.

Harvested today:

• A handful of broccoli
• 1 carrot
• 6 green onions
• 1 gallon size bag packed full of lettuce
• 1 gallon size bag of chard
• 4 tiny radishes
• A handful of peas

Planted today:

• 1 row green onions
• 1 row carrots
• Filler green beans
• Filler dragon tongue beans

On being normal.

I read a great quote from the Bike Snob NYC blog the other day and I wanted to share:

"I may be naive, but I continue to believe that one day humanity will reach a point at which we will no longer need to feel special while we do something normal. Putting on pants will cease to be the subject of a feature article. The notion of a "bike culture" will dissolve like body paint in the rain. Riding a bicycle in street clothes will no longer be "cycle chic." Best of all, we will no longer need to be cultural aspirants or fashion models to ride to the store, and the simple act of buying something at that store will not need to be a statement about "sustainability." Instead, we will be regular schlubs doing regular crap, and we will be confident enough to do so without naming it and without baring our inner thigh sideburns in the process."

Just something to think about as I head out the door to ride my bike to an engagement. I'm going to do it in jeans and a t-shirt too. And I might even stop at the grocery store on the way home. And buy supplies for canning fruit. Look out! I'm making a statement about sustainability! Or maybe I'm just running errands on a nice afternoon. I guess you'll never know.

Broccoli Season.

Broccoli was one of the first seeds I planted inside this year. They were my first sprouts way back in late February. I planted nine broccoli starters and I transplanted all of them. And then I added a few more as direct seed once the weather warmed enough. That's great, except that means that all my broccoli are maturing at the same time. Yesterday I harvested about five heads of broccoli...and a healthy dose of peas, and some skinny little radishes, and three raspberries, and one strawberry.

I also made homemade corn tortillas for the first time. They were so easy! Corn flour + water = dough. Roll into balls, press, grill for 30 seconds. Done.

We ended up having broccoli enchiladas for dinner last night. Tortillas are going onto the “Never Buy at the Grocery Store (unless in a pinch)” list along with bread and English Muffins. The next will be bagels.

Spring Retrospect.

Yesterday we harvested all our remaining kale. It was starting to bolt and flower. We had a nice little assembly line going on with Mike in the garden cutting leaves while I was preparing the giant stockpot and iced down sink to blanche the harvest. Then, while I blanched and cooled and dried and packed Mike finished up in the garden and puled up the three foot high kale stumps. In the end we had three gallon size bags packed full of kale that went into the freezer. The garden calendar says to start planting seeds for overwintering kale starting July 15^th!

That brings me to something new I need to start doing since we have gone through a “season” in the garden so far. That season being Spring. We made it through a round of cool-weather veggies and are starting to get into the warm-weather veggies. So, what are my thoughts?

1. I planted waaay too much kale. I put in rows of kale and thinned them down as the season went. For the overwintering I am just going to plant a few seeds on a handful of mounds and thin to one plant per mound. Four or five kale plants will be more than enough for the two of us.

2. I planted waaaaaaaay too much lettuce. Although lettuce heads are really cute they aren't that versatile. You can really just eat salads or have them on sandwiches. If you know something else to do with lettuce, or you want some lettuce, please let me know.

3. I will plant more peas next time. I did a small section of the beck fence this year; maybe three feet for each variety. It is yielding very well, but I would like some more. Plus it grows up the fence and makes a nice natural screen and I would like it to go along more of the fence. Plus I discovered that peas are awesome, and I am surprised at how many dishes I can squeeze them into. So, more peas.

4. I was pretty happy with the radishes this year. There was a time when it seemed like all we had was radishes, but they were more versatile than I ever knew too. I planted one last row of radishes a few weeks ago, but I think it was too late and the weather had already turned too warm. This time around they aren't plumping.

   4b. Oh, and the spinach. I was happy with the spinach too. I was worried all spring that I would run out, so I think I tended to use it sparingly, which I didn't need to do. They took off once they had a good foothold.

We are now getting into the summer crops. Last night we had a nice make-shift dinner with broccoli, peas and chard from the garden. And we got our first two zucchini flowers opening up yesterday. I think I'm going to add to my to-do list for today to walk down to the nursery and get some tomato cages. They are starting to take off now that the sun has stuck around for more than a couple days.