Brioche and Breakfast for Dinner

Gail has been on me for a few weeks to make Brioche because 1) she wanted to make french toast so we can enjoy breakfast for dinner and 2) it is absolutely delicious! 

As I've explained multiple times I am learning to bake, especially bread, but I am not an expert. Lucky for me those with far more knowledge and skill have made their fool proof recipes available on the Internet. In the case of Brioche, I turn back to Michael Ruhlman's recipe which is easy enough that as he claims an eleven year-old and a stand mixer can make it. 

I may not be eleven, but I do have a stand mixer and a love of great (and easy to make) bread! Once again (this was my 2nd time with this recipe) the results were fantastic. The loaf is eggy, buttery, and almost cake like with a nice flaky crust:

With such an easy recipe that can produce something as delicious and great as the above photo I don't think I need to search for another one. Ruhlman's recipe will definitely be my standby when a basic loaf of brioche is needed. 

As I stated at the top of the post the whole point of making the brioche was so we could have french toast for dinner! Last night Gail sliced up half of the loaf and made a great homemade french toast that she dusted with a pinch of curry sugar. Topped with Cook's Farm maple syrup, a pile of crispy John Crow Farm bacon, and a fruit salad.  On a day that seemed like winter had finally arrived here in Boston a warm filling breakfast for dinner was exactly what we needed! 

Wayland Winter Market 2/25

Gail and I visited an extremely busy Wayland Winter Market this past Saturday. We arrived just a few minutes after the market was officially open and there was already a line of nearly 20 people waiting to get produce from one particular vendor. There was barely enough room for people to squeeze by each other as we went from vendor to vendor. No matter though, we persevered and wound our way through the vendors, leaving the market with an impressive and delicious haul!

We took home a bag of salad greens, white sweet potatoes, and a bag of potatoes from Red Fire Farm. Two bottles of Ginger Libation from Green River Ambrosia. A nice sampling of pickled goods from Grillo's Pickles including pickled grapes, pickled carrots, and half sour pickles. Micro salad greens from E & T Farms. Carrots, radishes, and beets from Winter Moon Farm. Smoked Cambridge and Herdsman Cheeses from West River Creamery. Country style pork ribs and Dragon Stout Mustard from Pete & Jen's Backyard Birds.  Steak tips and beef liver from Charlton Orchard. A new(ish) vendor for the Wayland Market (but a favorite from other locales), Doves & Figs had one of my favorites - Cape Escape an amazing cranberry puree with Taza Chocolate! We also took home some baked goods from the Danish Pasty House - a chocolate croissant, a bourbon chocolate pecan tart, and a savory baguette - not pictured is the ginger chew cookie that only made it to the car, where it was promptly devoured by Gail and I.
What we love so much about this market is the great variety of produce and local foods available from some really friendly and passionate vendors. The Wayland Market is easily our favorite Winter Market, which is why once it is open for the season we frequent it far more then they other markets.

2012 In Progress (February)

reading:
What I Eat: Around the World In 80 Diets - Faith D'Alusio & Peter Menzel (finished)
Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save The World - Paul Stamets
Dead for 32,000 years an arctic plant is revived - New York Times
Honey Makes the World Go Round - Grist

viewing:

Planet Earth (finished)

automobiles reclaimed by nature - this is colossal

listening to:

Joe Rogan Experience #187 Danielle Bolelli

Doug Loves Movies - Released Feb 22, 2012 Sean Cullen,  Brody Stevens, Brad Williams, & Brett Gelman

You Made It Weird # 25 - Paul F Tompkins

Coffee I am drinking this week:  This week we've been enjoying the Captain's Coffee Brewers Hope Blend which is a nice mix of medium and light roasted beans from Asia & South America that is very smooth and mellow.

2012 Seed Order

This past weekend I did one final check of my seed list, continued working on the growing plan for the upcoming 2012 season, and ordered some seeds to supplement what I already had. After looking around and debating where to order seed from I decided to go with High Mowing Organic Seeds of Wolcott, Vermont.

The order was nothing spectacular as we have more then enough seed for most of what we want to grow. I ordered:
Yankee Salad Mix
Purple Osaka Mustard Greens
Siberian Kale
Darki Triple Curled Parsley
Genovese Basil

That's it! The remainder of the seeds will come from what I've already got stored away in my personal seed bank as well as the random impulse seed purchase I may be susceptible too on occasion. We also have 4 packets of seed coming in each month courtesy of the Seed of the Month Club which is a great way to increase my personal seed collection. As usually I will be buying pepper and tomato starters from a local source, but plan to start the remainder of what we grow from seed, again this is subject to the occasional impulse purchase (last year it was huckleberries).

Have you ordered your seed? How for along is your planning/growing for the 2012 season??

Dark Days Meal # 12: Sweet Potato Fries, Sautéed Spinach & Onion with Roast Carrots and Beef Sausage

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.
This Dark Days Meal was pulled out of thin air a few nights ago! Looking in our refrigerator and pantry I took stock of what was available, at which point I realized that I had absolutely no desire to cook. That is how it happens sometimes though, and we still had some produce that needed to be used, hence the plate of seemingly random deliciousness pictured below:

Our meal consisted of baked white sweet potato fries, sauteed spinach and onions, and maple roasted carrots with sliced leftover Italian sausage from our last Dark Days Meal. The sweet potato fries were a real hit with Gail and I and the remainder of the meal was good enough to eat! The sweet potatoes, spinach, and onions came from Red Fire Farm while the carrots are courtesy of Winter Moon Farm and the Italian Sausage is from Caladonia Farm.

SoWa Market 2/19

Gail and I made a quick trip to the SoWa market yesterday afternoon. While it wasn't one of our biggest winter market trips we did bring home a great variety of food stuffs! A nice mix of produce, meat, cheese, and specialty goods.

We took home 2 packages of ravioli - cheddar and stout as well as braised carrot and chickpea from Valicenti Organico. Muhammara and flatbread from Samira's Homemade. Local Honey from Golden Rule Honey (they also have a variety of non-local honey), smoked pork chops from John Crow Farm, Maple Smoked Gouda from Taylor Farm. Carrots, turnips, chard, acorn and butternut squash from Silverbrook Farm, and 3 small packages of nuts from Q's Nuts (Banana's Foster pecans, Cayenne Mango almonds, and Sweet Roasted pecans) who were nice enough to let us sample nearly all of the nuts they had available before we finally made up our minds!

2012 In Progress (February)

Reading:

What I Eat: Around the World In 80 Diets - Faith D'Alusio & Peter Menzel

Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save The World - Paul Stamets

Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning in France - Reuters 

Don't Mock the Artisanal-Pickle Makers - New York Times

viewing:

Planet Earth

Intricate Pencil Tip Carvings - WebUrbanist

World Press Photo contest Winners - The Big Picture 

listening to:

Nerdist Podcast # 167 - Conan O'Brien

Coming Soon To Your Grocery Aisle: Organic Food From Europe - NPR

Eric Clapton - Slowhand

Black Keys - El Camino

Thievery Corporation - Culture of Fear

coffee we are drinking this week: We are finishing up  Coffee By Design's Colombia Antioquia Jardin Alma Del Cafe we have been enjoying the last few weeks. The coffee is a nice strong and bold cup that has a slightly sweet finish, as if there was honey already in the cup.

Dark Days Meal # 11: Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Ravioli with Homemade Sauce and Spicy Beef Sausage

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.

No picture of this weeks Dark Days Meal. What can I say, I was feeling lazy! Pasta is a pretty regular part of our diet as there is so much that can be done with it. No matter how we prepare it Gail and I are always satisfied with pasta.
This week we had Roasted Red Pepper, Goat Cheese & Chive Ravioli from Nella Pasta (and our freezer) with homemade red sauce that we canned this summer along with our homemade garlic scape pesto, onions from Red Fire Farm, and spicy Italian beef sausage from Caladonia Farm.

We are lucky to have a few different sources of locally made pasta and ravioli from a variety of the winter markets in the area so we typically have a few flavors of ravioli and maybe a fresh made pasta in our fridge or freezer for the days we want something warm and satisfying! I'd never had this variety of Nella Pasta's ravioli but I really liked it. The taste mixed very well with the Italian beef sausage, which was also a new item for us, as last week was my first time buying meat from Caladonia.

All in all it was a simple and tasty meal that left us with full bellies and smiles on our faces!

Growing Mushrooms in the Kitchen!

Last month Gail and I picked up a Back To The Roots Mushroom Kit at our local whole foods. The kit is a block of used coffee grounds inoculated with Oyster Mushroom mycelia. Activating the kit was as simple as soaking it overnight in water (we initially tried it without this step with no results, however as soon as the block was soaked and drained mushrooms started growing). Once activated a few sprays of water 2 or 3 times a day is all the attention the mushrooms really need.  On the days that I was working from home I would check in on the mushrooms a few times a day and could visibly see growth! In 8 days we harvested a 4 oz clump of Oysters Mushrooms. After the harvest, we turned the kit around and are now trying a second crop on the back side! Here's a few pictures documenting the rapid growth, which was really amazing!

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

It was really cool to see how quickly these grew. Though they are not my favorite I am attempting to eat more mushrooms and have also been learning about mushroom cultivation and growth. I look forward to learning and growing more!

Chewy Tangy Bread

I am not an expert bread maker, I barely qualify as a novice most of the time, but I keep trying with some great success as well as some pretty bad failures as well, but sometimes I bake bread that is absolutely what I envisioned. The 2 loaves I made on Saturday were a perfect example of the final product coming out just as I had hoped. The addition of fed sourdough starter gives this bread a slightly tangy taste. The bread had a thin and crispy crust and the loaves were soft, fluffy, and chewy -a perfect vehicle for a bit of warmed butter and a great addition to the dinner table.

 

 Chewy Tangy Bread
(makes 2 loaves)

1 1/2 cups fed sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 cups flour (I used 4 cups King Arthur All-Purpose Flour & 1 cup bolted Warthog from Four Star Farms)

Combine all of the ingredients and knead to form a smooth dough. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled, approximately 90 minutes. After dough has risen, divide the dough in half. Shape each half into an oval shaped loaf and place on parchment-lined or corn meal dusted baking sheet. Cover and let loaves rise until puffy, about 1 hour. As the dough is rising preheat the oven to 425 F.
Make deep slashes in each loaf with a serrated bread knife and mist with lukewarm water. Place a shallow pan with lukewarm water in the bottom rack of the oven. Back the bread for 25 to 30 minutes on the upper rack until bread is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack.

(submitted to YeastSpotting)