no knead bread

Behold, the greatest revolution in bread since the beginning of time. Well perhaps I'm over-stating it, but I can't emphasize enough how much in love I am with this recipe, this process, and the incredible result.


I give you (or rather, I show you while I eat) no knead bread. Thanks to Jim Lahey and the New York Times, this wonderfully simple process produces a satiating, crusty artisan bread with a chewy, substantial crumb. I'd like to see you try to squash this bread.



This was my first successful loaf. I had one dud before this because I totally botched the timing, and because I thought I would be lazy and use active dry yeast (oh the irony - once I got off my tail and bought the instant, I never have to proof again). To bake this bread successfully at home using a 1982 oven (or other less-than-professional variety), one needs a cast iron or ceramic dutch oven that can take up to 500 degrees. One also should invest in instant yeast. I love instant yeast. I ordered mine from amazon and keep it in one of those rubber sealed jars in the freezer.



If you want to see Jim Lahey in action, check out the video of him on Martha Stewart's show here. If you compare recipes, you might notice the variable amounts of water, timing, etc. The water is only slightly different, so no biggie there, and the timing of cooking really just depends on the oven it seems. I do 20 minutes covered and up to 20 minutes uncovered (checking at 15 minutes) which turns out a perfectly cooked loaf. I tried the 30 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered and it resulted in some burning. I think this process is subject to a little experimentation, and is somewhat forgiving.

What is not quite as forgiving is the resting and rising. Once you get this timing down, the rest is a cake walk. I am still positively giddy that I can do this at home so cheaply - and with practically no clean up. The bread doesn't stick to the pot, and all you do is wipe out the excess wheat bran and call it a day.

To make a whole wheat version, you use 3/4 cup whole wheat flour and 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (I recommend King Arthur if you can't get a good organic brand), 1/2 tsp instant yeast, and the same amount of water. Keep all the rest the same and the result is even better than the white bread. This recipe is located in an old issue of MS Living and for some reason is not on her website. Go figure.

On and off, I bake this about once every two weeks. Ellybeth's post got me all inspired so I baked the whole wheat yesterday (yum) and I've got the white bread in the oven right now. Oh my lord the smell is wonderful. *update* I just pulled the bread out of the oven and remembered to tell you about my favorite part (other than the eating of course) - the crackling of the crust just after it comes out. For me it is a magical as rice krispies were at age 4.

So try it! Let me know how it turns out :)

soup, gardening, etc.

After months of trying to find and order the right ingredients, I finally got around to making the first recipe from my Williams Sonoma Asian cook book that H gave me years ago. Yes years. I tell you though, the wait was worth it - this udon noodle soup is to die for. One of the things we miss most about NYC is our local Japanese restaurant where we always got udon noodle soup. This involves boiling konbu (seaweed), then adding bonito flakes (fish flakes), then straining, then adding a bunch of flavors like rice vinegar and soy sauce, then pouring over scallions and noodles. Yum!

A couple of weeks ago, H and I planted a rain garden with his leadership group, which was so much fun!!! I can't believe how much I miss gardening. What thrilled me most was how much H enjoyed it. We have lots gardening in our future...

You can read our little local article about it here. This is really the first time I had ever heard of rain gardens, so I'm just now learning all about them. I'm excited to learn more and someday plant my own :)

This is another gorgeous quilt from H's grandmother. She made it using free fabric samples from Sherwin Williams way back in the day. To me it looks like something from anthropologie - I love it! It's also very light, making it the perfect blanket for the coming summer months.

In other news, I'm still working on that painting for my mom...as you can see in the picture above I've put strips of fabric in and around the crevices of broken glass - genius! Mom actually thought of it which was just a stroke of brilliance. I plan to use this technique again in future paintings. It is so much more interesting a solution than grout or modeling paste.

And take a look at this mess:

What a cutie! I had this purring monster waking me up all morning today. I've got to remember to play with him more before bed...

whole lotta bakin goin on

I baked two loaves of whole wheat bread for the first time! I used outdated yeast which did proof (albeit not heartily), but it didn't rise a ton. I was sweating it, but it turned out wonderfully - nice and dense. As H put it, you don't feel like you're being cheated :)


It really has been a delicious treat. I've been craving toast for a long time, and I never could find a consistent source of organic bread. So I did what I tend to do - made my own. How satisfying! I used Martha Stewart's multigrain bread recipe and altered it a bit. I left out the rye flour (since I don't particularly love rye) and used more whole wheat flour instead. I also left out the sunflower seeds since I forgot to buy them - heh. I'm telling you, it really is good bread. Even with old yeast :)

Craving satisfied.

Next, H and I got on a blueberry muffin craze. I was trying to use up some fresh blueberries before they went to mush, and they turned out to be a tasty and healthy dessert. It's been nice to reach for a muffin instead of, say, cake (which *cough* we actually baked yesterday - organic, yummy, and yet...evil). For the muffins, I used this recipe from Williams Sonoma. The cinnamon is great in these.

As you can see in the picture above, I used wax paper liners - I just cut squares from a roll of paper. Cheap, handy and fancy.

This is before I tried that trick, and it was H-E-double-hockey-sticks to get them out of the friggin tin, even though I greased it with butter. Sigh. For my aforementioned evil cake, I tried using wax paper to line the pan, and it was glorious to simply lift the cake out. No sticking, no mess. I used this brand of organic mix, and a separate box of icing mix from the same company. Very good. Very evil.

Next I plan to try apple wheat bran muffins. I must get back to healthy desserts.

i see pumpkin pie in my future...

Just roasted my first pumpkin :) I tried to get a photo of the pumpkin right as it came out of the oven - it was one of the most beautiful colors I've ever seen, deep orange and glistening - but right as I was focusing the camera my batteries died. yup. Oh well, at least I have three jars of pumpkin puree! And the seeds there have been roasted and spiced up.

This pumpkin puree is destined to become a pie, chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie waffles, and anything else I can make with it :) Gotta love fall!

busy busy busy!

My fingers (and most of the rest of me) have been busy busy busy for the last few weeks. I was thrilled to finally find my missing knitting needles, which enabled me to finish my Grandmother's hats she requested. Yay! Both pink and blue hats are complete and safely in her hands. Just in time for summer - hmm.


Pattern: Modified Official Kitty62 Hat
Yarn: blast! I don't remember the brand. I know it's worsted weight merino wool.
Needles: US7 circulars and double pointed needles
Modifications: I added a few rows after the sead stitching and before the reduction rows, and left the ears off.

Here it is on my head (it looks soooo cute on my g'ma). Also my sister gave me that shirt - it's organic cotton and so pretty! I love it.


Here is a shot of the blue hat underway. I finished it in the car on the way home for my sister's and my birthday weekend, and attached the pompoms right there in her kitchen. The birthday weekend was tons of fun! Lots of eating out, visiting galleries, picture taking, cake eating, and general togetherness with family. My idea of a great time.


This here is my second try at homemade ice cream - strawberry! I've been wanting to try it ever since I read domesticat's post back in 2005. I go the recipe from Williams Sonoma (as usual). Very popular with yours truly, but not nearly as popular with H. He's partial to the chocolate batch. All the more for me :)


It was actually extremely hard not to eat the entire bowl of custard and strawberries in this stage. De-lishus.


Most recently of all I sorted through a huge stash of sewing supplies I got from my mother's gardening helper. Her mother died and left her with an enormous amount of crafting supplies. A lot of it was very costumey, but my mom and sisters and I managed to grab up some good stuff. My sister has been storing 5 trash bags full under her bed for months now. I finally got it over the birthday weekend. I think I still have to get some antique sewing patterns out of my mom's mini warehouse.


These beautiful lacy tablecloths and doilies are from my mother. They're old and stained, but I'm not sure I have it in me to cut them up, so we'll see what they become. Perhaps just tablecloths :) Can you believe how pretty that embroidery is?

I'm very excited about these particular fabrics too...and check out my pink and red ribbon! I have been dreaming about what I can do with that pink velvet ribbon. I see being busy in the future for sure...

Happy New Year!

Man I am exhausted. Christmas had a hefty dose of sadness this year, but there were still sweet moments that I have tucked into my memory. I have such high hopes for 2009!!!!!!!

This was the first breakfast H and I had in 2009. My mom brought me the waffle-maker which came from my Grandmother - very sentimental and fun to use! She also brought a couple of other waffle makers for different shapes :)


Next time I think I'll make pumpkin pie waffles - best waffles known to humankind! Or at least the percentage of humankind that loves pumpkin as much as I do.


I promised to show pictures of my new digs as soon as it was nice and clean, so here it is in all it's clean glory (this has not lasted). Note the absence of a couch - I hope to remedy this in 2009.


And here is the fully decorated tree! Which has not come down yet, I am thrilled to say. My mom was so disciplined and neat that our family tree always came down the day after Christmas. Now that I am free to be a slob (at least part-time) I am enjoying leaving it up :) Plus I think they leave trees up in Sweden until January 13, don't they? I'm sure I have Swedish in my blood somewhere.


I handmade about half of my ornaments - knitted stars, pinecones, paper globes, cranberry strands, foil and straw stars, etc. The other half was lovingly donated by H's mom. So much fun to decorate with brand-new-to-me sparklies! The cranberry strands were my favorite part of the tree, with the locally found pinecones in a close second. It's amazing what a little white paint, ribbon and a glue gun and do to a humble pinecone. Even though this year was a no presents year, I still made out like a bandit with hand-me-downs from my mom and mom-in-law. I got the aforementioned waffle makers, a giant crockpot, tons of dishes, and even did a little discount shopping. If you are ever in the Hilton Head area, you can get fantastic deals at consignment shops like My Sister's Closet (such a cute name!) - I mean I'm talkin' $3.50 for a mint condition lavendar button-down from Express. Ack! Plus it's eco-friendly. What's not to like?

Coming soon...photos of some sweet handmade gifts that my sister, her H and my SIL snuck in. Happy 2009!!!

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Happy Thanksgiving :) I am a day late with my wishes, and I wish I were only one dollar short! Here is our comically small table decorated for the most festive eating holiday there is.

I love an excuse to break out the crystal fancy stuff. I have yet to acquire a fancy dish for turkey however, so this turkey breast is on a sushi plate :) Faaaaancy stuff people. This year my hubby and I ate as a twosome, which was surprisingly nice. We made french press coffee, listened to Christmas music, stuffed ourselves, watched the Sopranos (we only have two episodes left. mphf), then watched the Visitor - an awesome movie, I highly recommend it.

My shutter-happy hubby took some shots of my dishing out the goods. The meal was a particularly good one, even if I DO say so myself (hubby said so too).

I think he captured the quiet mood of the evening quite well.

And I leave you with some pictures of chocolate chip pumpkin bread and banana bread I made during the week. I definitely plan to make the pumpkin stuff again...I have a serious weakness for pumpkin - is it adictive? Hubby and I are also adicted to peppermint bark - our yearly dose is sitting unopened (amazingly) for us to enjoy around Christmas.

Happy holidays to everyone! I hope you are all surrounded by people you love, and that safety and security find their way to you in spite of all the bad news this year.

Gone Fishin'

Hello there! I have great news - my mother-in-law's brain tumor is shrinking! The doctors at Duke still don't know what it is, but while it shrinking, they're not going to touch it. She'll go back for another MRI in a month to make sure it continues to shrink. I'm so happy and hopeful!

Hubby and I live at a marina, so we have access to a great fishing spot which is just a short walk away. We went fishing yesterday, and man was it COLD! It was in the sixties and the wind was blowing pretty hard. Nonetheless, we had fun - hubby caught two little fish, and I caught one. I also "caught" a blue crab which was hanging on to my bait for dear life :) I tried to grab my camera in time, but he finally gave up and fell back into the water. I wonder if these fish and crabs go back to their families swearing they were just abducted by aliens.


This little guy is a black sea bass - unintentionally I took this picture from an angle that makes it look way bigger than it is :) None of the fish we caught were big enough to be legal, but we got really lucky when some elderly fishermen gave us two big redfish for free! Gotta love free food.


So we cleaned the fish, for me it was the first time. It would have been easier with a filet knife, but we got most of the meat off with a steak knife. I dredged the filets in egg then flour, seasoned with salt and pepper, then pan-fried them in extra virgin olive oil. MAN they were good. I hope we can catch some of these on our own so we get this meal more often!

Fishing is an activity I would probably not do on my own, but I am coming to enjoy it more and more through my hubby's enthusiasm. It's acutally quite relaxing, you find yourself thinking of nothing other than the water ripples and the odd passing fancy. Plus, I absolutely LOVE the idea of self-subsistance wherever possible, so walking a short way to catch extremely fresh salt-water fish seems too good to be true, especially with the economy crashing all around. Free, healthy food is hard to beat.

Over the past month, I have found myself desperate for Christmas. I think I really need my family all around me after all the changes and crises I've been through lately. This year my family is coming to Hilton Head for Christmas, which is going to be SO MUCH FUN! I am trying to plan out what ornaments I can gather and make, and what food to cook for Christmas dinner. Already I have been gathering beautiful pinecones and sewing patterns for ornament making. Soon I'll post some pictures of ornaments I made for my mother last year - I'm getting into full-on Christmas mode early this year :) I can't wait!

Birthday Season...

Another Happy Birthday shout-out to my SIL! Here is the card I sent a few days ago. This was a lot of fun to make - I got the pattern from the princess of pop-ups, and it turned out great :)


This here is my new favorite cookbook. I got it from my boss who went to a fund-raiser and got a bag full of goodies. She is not exactly the cooking type. Ahem. All the better for me :)


I've already tried several recipes and they've all turned out tasty :) Pictured below is fettuccine with prosciutto and peas in creamy cheese sauce. Yummers!

And here we have fettuccine with asparagus and pine nuts in a goat cheese sauce. Seriously unique - quite tasty, but a little weirder than the prosciutto stuff.


Now this picture has just decided to sneak in here even though it's not from aforementioned new awesome cookbook. This here is an awful picture of a wonderful thing - blueberry buckle! It's extremely sentimental...my mom gave me the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook when I got married because her mother had given it to her as a wedding present as well. The first thing my mom made out of it was blueberry buckle - so I did the same. My mom cried a river when she gave me my cookbook (I was a wee bit early out of the nest), so this has very special meaning for me.


Plus it is delicious and healthy! I substituted butter for shortening because I have less than zero % interest in partially hydrogenated crap. Cooking is so fun for me - I really love it because it's such a practical art form, and it's a lot of fun to play with food :) Last night I made a mixed grain casserole out of the BHG cookbook, and it was awesome! If I think of it, I'll take some pictures of it too when we eat the leftovers tonight. Believe it or not, last night was my first time cooking with fresh mushrooms! They are SO fun to cut. I definitely wanna cook with them some more. How healthy are they anyhow? I'm guessing they're at least very good filler. And tasty too!

S'more Marshmallows Please!

Finally I have marshmallow-making pictures for you! I'm so excited to share these because the process was so much fun. I can't recommend trying these enough - I got the recipe from Martha Stewart, and it was a surprisingly simple process. The most difficult part is making sure you get the sugar and syrup to the correct temperature (basically entails watching the thermometer - not exactly brain surgery), and pouring all that hot sugary goodness into the gelatin without spilling. A wee bit scary! Once you get that done, you start whipping it into a beautiful white, billowy cloud.


I made that big bowl in my senior year ceramics class at school. I've only used it one other time to make monster cookies (more on those later), because it already feels like an heirloom bowl that I REALLY don't want to break. I wanted to use it on this though because the marshmallows are an anniversary gift, and I like to use my most special stuff for anniversaries :)


Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

It was SO much fun to pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan - so magical how soft and white it was! I let it sit in the fridge overnight, then my plan was to cut it up before going to work the next morning. It was slightly LESS fun trying to get it out. heh. I was nearly panicked when it refused to come out, but I finally coaxed it out, got it cut up and coated in powdered sugar. The cutting was more time consuming that I thought, but still fun. Had I not been trying to get to work, it would have been great :)


The finished result is the stuff of angels!

And here was the official anniversary s'more! It was enough sugar to kill a person (not that I was aiming for that, mind you). The verdict was to leave the chocolate out altogether, and substitute a thin layer of peanut butter. I have to admit, the peanut butter tastes wonderful with the marshmallow - you should definitely try it! If you must have chocolate though, try dark chocolate that is less sweet that milk chocolate. The marshmallows more than make up for any lost sweetness from the chocolate.

Coming soon...photos of the completed puff-sleave jacket!

Meatless Lasagna

This was a cursed process from the beginning. Ok, well it wasn't that bad. It was just an incredibly stupid idea to handmake pasta (without a pasta machine), then make sauce, then slice and grate fresh cheese, then mix fillings with fresh herbs, then bake at 4000° in an already broiling apartment ALL ON A WEEK NIGHT when the laundry lies languishing in heaps on the floor. Not my brightest moment. Fortunately, the lasagna turned out well. Not only was it edible, it was actually tasty..........my husband (aka the Turkey - mutual term of endearment....yes we are nuts) gave this a 7 out of 10. He hates giving things numbers but I usually whine until he does. I think I will obstain from whining next time.....he is painfully honest. However, he did say this is the best lasagna he's ever had without meat. Backhanded compliment, but praise nonetheless!

and here it is in it's messy glory.

Ok, so I liked the noodles I made...I'm shocked they came out so yummy actually. I didn't have a pasta machine, and after getting a resounding "no don't make pasta without a machine" from a co-worker with experience, I was thinking I should use boxed pasta. I am part hippie, part stubborn ass, and full measure impatient (and also broke) so I really wanted handmade pasta NOW. I am a bit grandiose, admittedly. I generally think anything is possible, then I break my back to get it done. Sometimes that pays off beautifully, and MOST times it results in lots of other things being neglected (like the heaps of laundry and hungry husbands). Fortunately I married a super sweetie so he was understanding....he has seen my crazed, maniacal enthusiasm many times before, and he knows to patiently step out of the way and forebear unless I'm an immediate threat to myself. SO, I thought the great chefs of Italy used to make pasta without machines, so dang it so can I. And I did! I was half expecting it to be lumpy, floury and gross, but it was quite delicious. The machine would make it easier, but hey, I need exercise anyway. And I live to do it all myself. From that point on, everything within a 4 foot radius of me was covered in tomato juice, flour and grated cheese. Oh the humanity. The turkey was so patient. I'm sure it helped that we had new Boston Legal discs to watch while the blasted lasagna baked for 45 minutes. We ended up eating at 9:30, which is insanely late for us. We're usually trying to eat anything not moving by 7:00. Oh well, as turkey would say, "somethin' dif'rent."

eat me!

After all the effort, this should have been the worlds greatest lasagna. It wasn't, but it was pretty dang good. And now I don't have to cook today or tomorrow! I have cornbread pictures to show you, but not with me. I made it the day before yesterday. That came out swimmingly which is what got me so excited to keep trying new things. Tonight is laundry night, which means knitting night. I can't stand to sit at the laundromat and watch whatever lifetime movie they have on. GAG. I always bring my ipod and knitting. Today I must finish the baby booties I'm knitting for my supervisor at work. She's having a baby shower tomorrow and this is my excuse to not donate $20 for a group gift. YEAH RIGHT! They don't pay me well enough for that garbage. Handknit baby booties are better anyway. You'll see...they're cute.

Oh, come on Patriots

I am annoyed the Patriots lost. Before I have you thinking I'm an actual sports fan however, I shall move on to more important things like food. Especially the made-from-scratch scrumdidliumptious kind! Such was my first attempt at making pizza! I'm so happy with how it turned out. I followed the Williams Sonoma directions for the dough, and used the Pizza Margherita recipe - YUM! I got my workout for sure kneading the dough. I thought, 10 minutes - pshaw! Man that was a long 10 minutes. I would have been lost in this department if I didn't have experience kneading clay in pottery. It's actually pretty fun, so I can't complain.

I forgot to take a picture with it in one piece, but fortunately snapped a couple of shots before we devoured it while watching the super bowl begin.

Oh, those thin, crunchy, flavorful basil leaves! My husband deemed this extra good, which is high praise indeed. I think I need to scrub my baking sheet though.

This is all that was left after about 15 minutes...

...which I am going to gobble for an afternoon snack while here at work. I'm definitely doing this again!