In Search of Sourdough

As some of you may remember from my very first post, soon after I got married I began to bake my own bread. Not for everyday, but more for the confidence it gave me in the kitchen. So many people are intimidated by bread, I figured I would set out and accomplish the hard stuff first. And it was fun!

What you won't read there, because I didn't share it at the time, was that my excitement about homemade bread fizzled after a few attempts at sourdough bread which I considered failures at the time. The first loaf was decent bread, but had no sour flavor. I was dissapointed. The next time I let the starter proof extra long to make sure and have that sour flavor. I overdid it. We remember that loaf as, "the bread of fermentation." It was awful! I tossed my starter and moved on to sprouting.

But now I am back to bread baking. The reason being, over the past two trips to the grocery store we have purchased no less than five loaves of sourdough bread, and a couple packages of sourdough sandwich rolls. This began to seem like excess. (There are only the two of us, afterall! Dioji isn't eating sourdough.) I thought to myself for the hundredth time, "Wouldn't it be nice if I could bake this at home for us instead of spending money on it being baked and packaged?" Indeed.

I got back online and started researching. In addition to some recipes I can hardly wait to try out, I found some good articles listing the health benefits of eating naturally leavened bread (without commercial yeast).


In case this sparks your interest too, I will be posting on how to make your own starter next. ("Starter" is the batter that the wild yeast lives in [pictured above]. It is the key ingredient in sourdough baking.)

Merry Christmas!

I hope this Christmas is filled with love and joy for you, and that you have time to remember the Giver of all good gifts.


Now here is a little gift I'd like to pass on to my fellow bento lovers. If you haven't stopped by French Bento lately, you should. Take a look at the collection of beautiful photographs of Christmas bentos she has gathered and posted for all of us to enjoy! (There is a translation link on the right-hand side, but really, the pictures speak for themselves.)

Once again... Merry Christmas!

'Twas the week before Christmas...

...and all through Mer's blog, not a bento was posted!

Sorry for that. Here comes a couple. The first one is bento #49, brought to you in part by the color green. It includes apples, cucumber slices, and avocado wraps.


Bento #50 shows just what type of foods you'll find in my house before the holidays: junk! There is a rice Christmas tree, some almonds and kiwi. Then the sweets are more than covered with the red vines, marshmallows, and sugar cookie.




At this point I should have gone grocery shopping. Instead, I just stopped packing bentos and went back to a sandwich in a sack alternated with homemade lentil soup.

Hope you are all having a very merry Christmas!

Stray Bento

This bento was what I took to work on Tuesday, actually. Yesterday I took potato soup (delish!) and today I am taking spaghetti.

Bento #48:

• Cat onigiri with clove eyes
• ham slices
• almonds
• kiwi
• lemon sections

I ended up using some of the lemon to squeeze on my rice, to give it some flavor.

The cat was mistaken by one of my co-workers for a snowman, and she congratulated me on being so seasonal. That would have been a good idea, hmm? Another co-worker chimed in and said it would look more like a cat if it had whiskers. A month ago they would have been really impressed by my little lunch. A few months later, everyone's a critic.

Gluehwein (Hot Spiced Wine)

This time of year, whatever tiny bit of German blood my husband may have in him urges him to reach for a steaming hot glass of Gluehwien and enjoy this festive season. This is the first year that we have attempted making it from scratch at home, and I am here to share with you the results as well as the recipe (because we enjoyed it immensly).

We found a recipe on (where else?) All Recipes. This recipe, submitted by Else, was a great starting point. We made a double batch, and used some of the comments to modify the ingredients. Here's what we did...

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup water
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 2 lemons (1 cut in half, and 1 sliced)
• 1 orange (cut in half, one half sliced)
• 20 whole cloves
• 1.5 liter bottle of red wine (cheap merlot)

In a saucepan we combined the water, OJ, sugar and cinnamon sticks. We brought it to a boil, reduced the heat, and let it simmer. We squeezed the 2 lemon halves and 1 orange half, adding their juice to the simmering mixture and then putting the peels in as well.

We borrowed a tip from the Plain ‘Ol Gluhwein Recipe at Gluhwein.Net Blog. It suggested placing the cloves in a tea ball, so they would be easy to remove later.

Here it is, simmering away, just before we added the orange. We allowed it to simmer for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, we cut up the other lemon and the unused half of the orange for use later in the crockpot and as a garnish.

When the 30 minutes was up, besides smelling delicious, the mixture on the stovetop had also become pretty syrupy. At this point, we poured it into a mason jar for transport, because we were taking this over to our friends' house. We also took this bottle of wine that we bought very cheaply at Winco:

When we got to our friends', we plugged in our crockpot, emptied the mason jar and wine bottle into the crockpot, floated some fruit slices in there for further flavor and to look pretty, and turned it all on high. When it was steaming, we served it in a glass mug over a cinnamon stick.

It was completely delicious. Sorry that the picture up top is fuzzy. I took it very quickly at their house - explaining to my hosts that I was "blogging."



Enjoy!

Bento #47

This bento was created with frozen veggies, left-over KFC (thanks again, Mom and Dad!) and instant mashed potatoes. It was far tastier than it had any reason being, considering how quickly it was thrown together this morning.

Take a look:

Banana Muffin Recipe

Today I am going to share with you the recipe I use for banana muffins. These are simple, moist and delicious. I have made this recipe four or more times now and have always been very pleased and gotten lots of compliments.



This is another recipe I got from All Recipes. You can check out the original recipe, provided by All Recipe user Jo Jo, here.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup margerine
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• at least 1 cup mashed banana
• 6 Tablespoons vanilla soy milk (or regular milk if you prefer)

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl cream together the margarine and sugar, then add eggs and mix until smooth. Stir in soy milk and mashed banana and mix well.
3. Fold in flour mixture into the liquid ingredients until combined.
4. Fill muffin cups to just below the top (for delicious muffin tops!)
   
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.

I give this recipe 5 stars!




Happy baking...

Catching Up

Well, I have two bentos to share today because yesterday's snack just didn't get posted yet. Lucky you, eh?

I present, bento #45:

• Graham crackers with peanut butter in the middle, topped with almond slices and a chocolate chip
• Some green apple slices
  
• Banana slices with poppy seeds and sesame seeds sprinkled on top; aka: "Banana Sushi"
• Marshmallow fillers

And here is bento #46:

Turkey sandwich on sourdough with turkey star

Brownies

Stay tuned for a great banana muffin recipe... :0)

Saving Face

This morning I attempted to make my sandwiches a little cuter by tacking on some nori eyes and noses. One of the noses fell off before I took the picture, and I was running too late to make a new one.


Bento #44:

• turkey sandwich on sourdough bread
  
• Fritos scoops
  
• Granny Smith apple slices
• brownie

Verdict: I wasn't very pleased with this bento, actually. There was too much bread and not enough meat for my taste in the sandwich. And the chips had gotten a little soggy... from the apples? Or from not drying the lid off thoroughly? I'm not sure.

One thing I am pleased with is this bento box of mine. It is one of a very few I have that actually can be microwaved. It has a clear lid, so I can show off my lunch without opening it. And... best of all, it was absolutely free. It came as the "doggie bag" from Claim Jumper.

My Quick and Easy Meals

In our family, it sometimes happens that Bryan and I will be sitting across the room from each other, happily diddling our time away at our separate computers, when one or the other of us notices it is dinner time. Usually it is Bryan, and our conversation goes something like this:

HIM: What should we do about dinner?
ME: We should eat it.
HIM: I agree.
(pause)
HIM: Do we know what is for dinner?
ME: Um, no. I haven't really thought about it.

At this point, I usually hit "send" on my email or "save draft" on my blog post and wander into the kitchen. What I'm looking for is a "go to" meal. Something that doesn't require me to have thought about tonight's dinner yesterday and thawed or marinated something. What do I usually find?

• Chicken tenders, grilled on the Forman Grill (straight from the freezer) with seasonings on it, and some Rice-a-roni. I cut the chicken up and add it into the rice to serve it as a one skillet meal.
• Chicken breast, again Forman Gilled, maybe with mesquite seasonings. Served with seasoned, broiled red potatoes.
• Burgers and tater-tots.
• Broiled garlic sourdough bread with just about anything. (Chicken, or soup...)
• 8 cent soup (aka: Top Ramen) - with chicken chunks added, if I'm feeling fancy
• Pizza Rolls using Pillsbury crescent rolls.

This has been my first "Works For Me Wednesday" post. If you would like to see what other women make for their last-minute meals, or link your own crowd pleasing quick meals, check out What Do I Fix? at Rocks In My Dryer.

I Propose: Lunch

Hi everyone! I have not one, but two bentos for you today. Get ready for bentos #42 and 43...

I woke up this morning, realized it was the 5th of December, and set to work making a special lunch for my hubby. Today is a special day for us, because exactly three years ago he proposed to me. Here you can see I have cut a message out of cheese for him:


It wasn't until I was actually photographing his finished bento (complete with brownies and bread with heart shapes in them)...


...that I realized the answer to a proposal is "Yes!" and not, "I do!" Oh well, it was too late to do anything about that. The clock was ticking and I still had to pack something for me to eat for lunch.


My lunch contains:

• a spaghetti cup
• lots of sourdough bread (wait, is that a piece of rye in there? no, it's...)
• little heart-shaped brownie
• heart-shaped turkey sandwich
• the last little roma tomato from my garden
• more tri-tip steak

Thanks for reading!

Comfort Bento

Today's lunch is full of comfort food. Take a look:



Bento #41 contains:

• Onigiri with spices sprinkled on top
  
• BBQ tri-tip steak (with, sadly, nothing sprinkled on top)
• Spaghetti in a muffin cup with parsley sprinkled on top
• Brownies in a muffin cup with powdered sugar sprinkled on top

I found eating the spaghetti with chopsticks fairly difficult, but worth the effort.

So you want to... Eat Christmas Cookies?

You will need a great recipe. Luckily for you, I have found a veritable trove of edible treasures at Food Blogga, where Susan is compiling a list of links to delicious Christmas cookie recipes. She is calling her event

Even if you don't think you have time to bake this season, you should stop by and take a look at the list with all the scrumptious looking photos. Maybe you'll be inspired.

Have a great recipe your dying to share? Go here to learn how to participate in this event and submit your recipe for all of us to enjoy.

Thanks to Michelle at Scribbit for her post that pointed me to this tasty holiday collection.

Chicken Noodle Soup

On a cold day like today, soup just fits the bill, doesn't it? I pretended I was "snowed in" and had to make lunch from scratch with what we had on hand. I turned to another of the recipes that has its home on a post-it note in my spice cupboard. This one contains my furious scribblings made during a phone conversation with my mom-in-law, Leslie.

I must have bugged her for her soup recipe three or four times before I finally got around to really trying it. I have included her general instructions (as I understand them) for those of my readers who may just be starting to dream that there is more to life than what comes in a can.

Ingredients:

• Onion
• Carrots and celery
• Noodles
• Chicken
• Chicken bullion (cubes or powder)
• Water
• Flour (small amount)
• Butter

You will notice that there are no exact amounts listed above. That is because there is quite a bit of flexibility there. There is also a lot of room for ingredient substitution, as I will point out during the directions. But don't panic... I will tell you what I did today, and if you want you could follow that exactly. Here goes...

We start with the onion. This, in my opinion, is what gives the base flavor for the soup. Today I had decided I was making soup long before I discovered I was lacking onion. What? No onion? Bummer. I went out to my garden and dug two pitiful little specimens out of the soil. (Now, I'm sure someone who knows something about gardening will comment and tell me this isn't the time to pick them - either I'm late or way early - but I am under the impression that onions can be eaten at any stage in their growth, and I needed it today.)

Now, I knew that this wasn't as much onion as is called for. Leslie's original instructions called for a whole onion, and I usually use half of one of those large yellow ones. But I didn't feel like adding minced onion from my cupboard. So I improvised. You can too. Just fill in the gaps with what you have. In this case, I used garlic, since I knew that it was the same type of ingredient - an aromatic. I figured garlic never hurt anything, so I chopped up three big cloves and called it good.

Next I chopped up some veggies that I had in my fridge. I chose to use one carrot (that was all I had) and two celery sticks. You can use whatever vegetables you think will be tasty in your soup. If you have a bag of frozen vegetables, great - you won't even have to chop anything. Just throw it all in the pot with your onion.

Now is where my directions call for butter. Because I have a milk allergy, I routinely make substitutions for butter. And I have made this before with margarine, it works fine. But extra virgin olive oil is supposed to be healthier, so I went that route today. If you're out of butter - don't stress it. Just reach for a fat. All we really want here is to add a little flavor while we keep the vegetables from sticking to the pan and the onion from burning. Spray them with Pam, or chuck a dollop of Crisco in there - whatever you have to do - just add a little fat.

Sauté the vegetables (this means you've added the fat, and you are stirring it) until they are soft. But don't worry about the carrots getting soft. That would take too long. Now we are going to make a roux (Oooh... more french! We're getting fancy, aren't we?). Well, actually we are going to take the lazy way out. We are going to add 2 teaspoons of flour and it will mix with the fat that is already on the vegetables. (This flour will help thicken our broth.) Put a Tablespoon of water in there at the same time and stir. When it is mixed in, then add a couple cups of water.

Now we need to cook the noodles. Do this in a separate pot. Bring the water to a boil, add a pinch of salt if you feel like it, and two handfuls of egg noodles. The kind that I use are called "Country Pasta" and can be bought at Costco (see pic). They come in a big plastic bag.

If you prefer chicken soup with rice rather than noodles, you should go ahead and use a box of wild rice instead. I've not tried that yet, but I assume you would cook it separately the same way you do with the noodles. (Comments anyone?)

Anyway, drain your noodles once they've cooked, and add it to the pot with your veggies in it. At this point, add 4 or 5 cubes of chicken bullion to give it a lot of flavor. Let it continue to simmer.

Finally, the chicken. This is chicken noodle soup, after all, isn't it? If you have chicken breast left-over from last night's dinner, chop it up and add it. Or do you have pre-cooked chicken strips (like you might use for salad) in your freezer? Same thing. I didn't have anything ready, so I put two frozen chicken tenders on the Forman Grill and cooked them up right then.

Your soup might look something like the picture above now. I tossed in some Italian Seasoning and a dash of pepper at this point and removed it from the heat so it would cool down a bit so I could eat it.

Congratulations! You've made soup.

Recap of directions:

Cut up one medium onion, put it in a pot

Cut up veggies, add them to the pot

Put a Tablespoon or so of butter in and saute over medium heat until veggies are soft

Add 2 teaspoons of floor, and a Tablespoon of water, stir

Add 2 or 3 cups of water

Boil noodles in a separate pot; drain and add to veggies

Plop in 4 or 5 chicken bullion cubes (or the equivalent amount of bullion powder)

Let it simmer for 15 to 20 minutes

Meanwhile, nuke or grill your chicken and cut into cubes

Toss in some seasonings. Italian is usually a good bet. And maybe a dash of pepper.

Cinnamon Rolls

Last night I got the urge to bake. So I visited All Recipes and did a quick search for cinnamon roll recipes. I ordered them by their ranking, and printed off the first 5 star recipe I found that didn't call for cream-cheese frosting. The recipe was submitted by Julie Sterchi and can be found here.

I put on my apron, rolled up my sleeves, put the first two ingredients in the bowl and then... ran out to buy yeast. Mine was way past its expiration date, and wouldn't proof.

When I got home, new jar of rapid rise yeast in hand, I made up the dough. It was very sticky (there isn't a picture of that, because my hands were completely covered). I am not sure why it was that way, but I did not enjoy kneading it and kept adding flour.

Below is a picture of the dough before its first rise. In the background, Dioji looks a bit bored.

I covered it with cling wrap and put it into the oven. I had heated it to the lowest setting, and then turned it off. I just wanted the dough to have a warm place to rise, so that it would go more quickly. (That trip to the store really put my start time back!)

After the rise:

Rolling out the dough, on the nice mat that my Nana gave me. It actually has inches marked off so I could have rolled it into a 14 in by 10 in rectangle as directed. But it got a little out of hand.

Adding the goodies. For half of the batch I did white sugar, for the second half I used brown sugar like you see below. (The recipe didn't specify.) I followed the suggestions of those who had commented that there should be more cinnamon. I applied it liberally without measuring.

Here it is all rolled up and ready to cut. If you notice by the (empty!) cinnamon container, there is a dental floss. I use this to cut off the individual rolls. You just slide the floss beneath the dough and then pull the two ends together above the dough where you want it cut, and cross them as you slice through the roll with the floss.

Here are the rolls ready for their second rise.

When they came out of the oven:

Here they are with frosting drizzled on top:

So what did I think of this recipe? I thought that they tasted more like doughnuts than cinnamon rolls, which is probably due to the cake mix in the recipe. They are good, and I'm glad I made them, but they weren't my favorite cinnamon rolls ever.

So... who out there has a recipe for cinnamon rolls that they really like? I'm looking to try another one. Leave me a comment with the recipe or a link, k?