We trialed this recipe:
bread in five minutes a day

I baked up a quick baguette in the early afternoon to sample the recipe. It was the perfect shape, excellent birdseye, with a moist crumb. A perfect baguette made with minimal effort. After sampling half of the original loaf, Doug suggested I make a second loaf for dinner.

I’m saving the other two loaves for later in the week.

Try it. It is kind of like finding an extra few hours in the week.

Read, bake and be the judge.

I’ve never been a beet eater, but our CSA is seeing to it that this is not for lack of trying. Dirty and with the greens removed they look like beheaded dead rats. Blood and all. And their dye tinges everything. Thinking of saving a few for Halloween… They’ve been great julienned and sauteed, but having just baked up 4 of our 20 zucchini (thanks, again CSA), I’m thinking a chocolate cake might be the best resting place for one of our many bundles of beets. A quick google returns a ton of recipes. I’ll let you know if I get that far.

In the meantime, I just finished baking my favorite sponge cake recipe yet. It is from Marion Cunningham’s Fannie Farmer Cookbook (though at the link you’ll find the recipe hers is based on). Though there are several variations, my variation used 5 eggs, separated; 1 cup sugar – separated 3/4 and 1/4; 1/4 tsp salt; 2 tbs lemon juice and 1 cup flour.

The end result is a fluffy cake with a chewy/crispy caramel coat that would be delicious on its own, though at the request of the birthday child, mine was promptly filled with chocolate chips, vanilla ice cream and topped with buttercream frosting. It sits chilling in the freezer, now.

One cake down, and one more to go before the week is out. The big celebration gets a rainbow cake. Can’t wait to get started. Check back Sunday night for pictures.

In other foodie news, when I traveled to India for the first time several years ago, I discovered real Indian food. Sure, I’d had the americanized version in the states many times, but by comparison, our imitation is more a parody of the real thing. Theirs was incredible! Needless to say, I ate all that I could on that trip and resolved to learn how to make it myself. Unfortunately, my husband is not a fan and my children have gringo palates (Sylvie complained about the heat of her barbecue sauce, yesterday), so I haven’t made much progress. Until today.

I came home from work to find *The Vegetarian Epicure* by Anna Thomas on my doorstep. (Thanks, Mom!) Paging through it I found that Baco-bits are vegetarian and ran across a recipe for dal. Figuring if any American had figured out how to replicate real Indian dal, it would probably be that ole hippie, Anna, I attempted her recipe, tonight, with channa dal I had sitting around. The verdict: with a few tweaks, it passes.

Dal (revised to taste more like the real dal)
1.5 c moong or urad or channa dal or yellow split peas
4 c water
1 tsp sat
Wash the dal then bring the dal + water + salt to a boil. Stir often and cook until the dal becomes soft. You may need to add more water depending on the freshness of your dal.

3 Tbs butter or ghee
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground tumeric
1/2 inch cinnamon stick
1 tsp cayenne (it isn’t authentic unless you sniffle at first bite)
1/4 tsp ground ginger (1 knuckle grated fresh is best!)
1/4 tsp ground coriander (or 1/2 tsp coriander seed)
1/2 tsp mustard seed
6 whole cloves
Heat the butter/ghee until it bubbles. Add the spices and toast for a few minutes until aromatic. Add this mixture to your dal. At this point add a cup or so more of water if your dal has cooked dry. Simmer until you have a fairly thick soup. The more you simmer, the deeper the flavors. If you want to make this taste more like what you’d find in Delhi? Prepare this over your charcoal grill. Serve with warm roti/chipati.

One of the more exciting things about CSAs for me is the exposure to new foods. It was through Eatwell that we years ago learned about green garlic (the first crop of young garlic which resembles green onions in shape and texture, but has a buttery garlic taste reminiscent of shallots) and fava beans. Our very first box contained both which we improvised into a shrimp/fava scampi. Today, we were introduced to romanesco and tatsoi. The former is a fractal looking broccoli and the latter is a peppery green.

Of course there are good years and bad years. The last year we subscribed, we amassed a cellar of potatoes and onions and were completely unable to keep up with the kale production in both our garden and our farm. That summer, the farm was hit with mediterranean fruit flies depriving us all the best fruits of summer (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant…). We ultimately canceled, up to our ears in potatoes. Thankfully, during our hiatus, the farm grew a bit and is now able to offer one of the best produce selections in the area. So, with as much produce as my kids consume at lunch these days, I decided we’d get back in the CSA.

Interested in finding a CSA near you? Check out LocalHarvest.org

Our box this week:
romanseco, carrots, tatsoi, kale/mustard greens, spinach, daikon radishes, cilantro, oranges, lemons, leeks, and 6 fresh eggs

What we’re eating:

• Tonight: tatsoi + pear + raspberry + smoked salmon salad – just wash and toss everything in a vinaigrette.
• Tomorrow: Spinach pizza; Green garlic pizza
• Saturday: breakfast of biscuits with spinach and egg scrambles; vietnamese sandwiches for dinner to use the cilantro/radishes/carrots
• Sunday: spinach dip + chips, apple+greens slaw and tofu dogs, beer/root beer
• Monday: Veggie Cobb Salad with fake-on, cheese, hard boiled eggs, romanesco, the remaining greens, green beans (+ capers and anchovies for the nicoise fans)
• Lunches for the brown-eyed pair: Leek and asparagus soup

In celebration of Sylvie’s birthday, we had the neighbors over for some mad science. The kids made glow in the dark slime and screaming balloons while the adults ate quince liver, deviled eyes and mummies.

Yes, those are real meat.

We had the requisite ear (grow your own) and eyes (olives) in a jar. As well as spooky chemical looking liquids (colored water). But, the main attraction was the slime that the kids concocted and the mentos geysers.

And yes, my daughter wore her princess outfit most of the day.

I love the reactions of kids at their first few birthdays. Sylvie just stood there with a goofy smile absorbing the anthem in her honor.

Those were grave-stone cakes. Dirt + chocolate frosting + half a cookie.

Quote of the day –
Sylvie watching me make the dirt for the cupcakes, “Sometimes kids can eat dirt, right Mom?”

A recent fad to hit the microbrews on our coast is fresh hopping as a finishing step in brewing Pale Ales. In the traditional partial mash brewing technique, hops is boiled with the grains, losing much of it’s floral oils, which this fresh hopping returns to the brew. The green hopped beers have a grassy, fruity, floral note that cuts the normally bitter hoppy flavor. Our favorite beer of this style is Torpedo by Sierra Nevada. They kind of cheat by forcing their fermented beer through a Hopper that washes it in fresh hops, allowing it to soak up a super dose of the oils right before bottling. We can’t do that at home. Or, rather, it would probably be the end of our marriage if Doug built one of these systems. Where would we put it? No, NOT the linen closet!

Allegedly, as home brewer we can achieve a less grassy, but smoother/more floral taste by dry hopping – adding hops to the fermented beer and allowing this to steep for a few weeks before bottling.

If you are a home brewer, you might be interested in this explanation of dry hopping. If you are just a beer drinker, seek out some Torpedo. It goes great with nachos.

Will grew me a sweet pea seedling, painted something I’m not allowed to open, yet, and made me a necklace. I made the family Molly Weizenburg’s cream cheese frosted cinnamon rolls. I’m looking forward to a long day of running about with my kids.