Food – Page 33 – E A Summers

October 21, 2011

A lovely week

The week was as lovely and varied as this photo taken this afternoon on the way back from Bigfork.

The week…mostly ups, just a few downs.

A productive work week as we push to finish the current version of software.

Up and down for Bob…we’re changing his food to hopefully help get his blood sugar more stable and it caused some fits with his digestion but minor and mostly he was his normal curmudgeonly self and my nighttime snuggle buddy!

Bear continues to do well off leash with the exception of some critter last night and early this morning. I really can’t blame him. I’m thinking it was the raccoon that passes through. He alerted last night and we did the dark o’clock last walk on leash. The night was quiet so I thought whatever had moved on, but no…and this morning in the dark, he treed whatever and wouldn’t “leave it” until I got the Jeep out. Peril of the long nights that will get longer before they get shorter. All in all, though, he is doing so very well – even the few times when I’ve been distracted by phone or this week, the guy here to work on my range…on his own outside, he stayed on the property and came when called.

But, the range…fixable and should be done next week. AND, it is only the lower oven not working so I am hardly bereft for that :)!

Motorhome, back from the shop and though nothing definitive on the battery failure, it is currently holding its charge and all seems normal…tentatively planning a next weekend, close to home, shakedown of motorhome, Bear travelling and Bob staying home with a new house/cat sitter.

And in honor of Friday: Pumpkin Carrot cupcakes with Pumpkin cream frosting.

A lovely end to a lovely week.

October 1, 2011

Perfect Rye

I love rye…in bread, distilled…I love rye.

Today, the rye “on the table” is bread.

I continue making the high moisture bread dough for my daily bread. Whether it is Portuguese Broa, whole wheat, oatmeal or rye, I make a mix which is 3 parts flour/grain, 1 3/4 parts water, 1 part (packet) yeast and a bit of sea salt in a bowl to sit overnight. The following morning, I spoon the yeasty stuff into a not airtight container and put it in the frig.

As needed, I scoop out dough for a small to medium boule, a french shaped loaf, english muffins, flatbread or pizza crust.

This week, the dough was rye. King Arthur’s Perfect Rye Blend combined with Montana Wheat’s Natural White high protein “hard wheat” flour.

The result: Perfect Rye!

**My exact rye mix: 114 grams King Arthur’s Perfect Rye Blend, 258 grams MT Wheat Natural White or any high quality, i.e. not grocery store, high protein flour. Yes, I’ve found flour quality to make a huge difference in both taste and texture of baked goods.

The other component is measuring by weight and not volume – a kitchen scale is less than $20. Converting to weight measure has made a difference in consistency of results for baked goods. All flour does not weigh or measure the same. Additionally, a cup of flour can measure differently on different days, To establish a weight base for converting recipes from volume to weight, sift flour into a 1 cup measure, leveling with a knife and weigh a sifted cup. Example with the rye blend as above: MT Wheat Natural White is 129 grams to equal a cup, the Perfect Rye Blend is 114 grams. For comparison, King Arthur White Whole Wheat is 110 grams to equal a recipe cup. There are even greater differences if you use other flours such as buckwheat, millet, coconut or almond, i.e. gluten free flours. If you don’t want to take the time or make the mess, there are charts online as well.

September 25, 2011

Eclairs

Weekends, I typically have a cooking and/or baking plan. Yesterday morning as I gathered ingredients and utensils for making the creme patisserie for eclairs I was struck by how much I enjoy puttering in the house, even though I spend most of my weekdays here as well. The light, the quiet, the serenity of just being here is so wonderful for me that it is sometimes hard to go anywhere that is a bit noisy or crowded.

I took the above photo to share some of that.

And then I made the creme.

This morning, with the creme fully chilled, I made the shells, stuffed them with creme and dripped the chocolate glaze. I’ve been making the pastry shells from Julia Child’s recipe…practice runs, you know :)! They are amazingly simple and fast to mix and get in the oven and another of those cooking astonishments – making something that seems so complicated and turns out to be simple and great fun.

Eclairs.

September 11, 2011