Words

I don't make resolutions, but I love the tradition of picking a word for the year. Only problem is, last year I chose a word and, come December, couldn't even remember what the word was. Clearly, I had not carried that word with me through my days. This year? No word, no resolution. Just a few blurry ideas with maybe a lofty goal tossed in for good measure.

In the spirit of all the wonderful words I have been reading about, I am sharing a few words that have highlighted the past few weeks for us:

Pulley: Made by "A," as a gift for the girls (inspired by this). Let it be known that the one rule for the pulley was that they may not lift people on it.

Renovation: The antique soapstone sink in our basement has been given new life. 

Oreos: from this recipe. Click over and make them. The sooner the better.

Sledding: a blizzard is good for this one thing, and was it ever fun.

Wishing you all much love and luck in the new year!

All In A Cookie

We love cookies. And batter, and books, and knowing where our food comes from. So a few years ago when I found the book All in Just One Cookie, I knew we had to have it. This hysterical book takes the reader through the process of making a batch of chocolate chip cookies. With each ingredient, it chronicles its source, and how it is made/processed. I had no idea baking soda starts as a mineral mined in Wyoming that is then mixed with hot water and carbon dioxide. The resulting chemical reaction produces baking soda crystals.

I think about local foods often, and we do our best to stick with local produce. We have also recently taken steps to buy meat from this area. But as far as baking goes, I have no idea where many of the ingredients come from. Why have I never investigated this before? A bit of research yielded local and semi-local sources for some of those ingredients. With that in mind, we set out to make our favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe.

...with eggs from our back yard, and butter from Maine

flour and oats that could be purchased from the Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain CSA

The chocolate chips could be substituted with chopped chocolate from Taza Chocolate

...and the labor, willingly provided by two little gals who'd rather eat the batter raw.

That leaves the vanilla, sugar, baking soda, and salt for the non-local ingredients. Could honey be substituted for the sugar without ruining the texture? Why isn't salt produced on Cape Cod anymore? I'm dreaming of sources, hoping for more luck.

Imagine. All in just one cookie!

The Biga, The Better

I am from Boston, but I don't mean "biggah," I'm talking about biga, a bread starter. Cousin to the sourdough starter, the biga is the key ingredient used in Italian-style country breads like ciabatta and pagnotta. It adds flavor and gives a crisp crust and moist chewy inside that, until now, I had only enjoyed in store-bought loaves.

It's a bit of a process, this biga business, but I found a recipe for a two-week biga in The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook, that makes a large batch that you can pull from for...two weeks.

A dough made with a biga is somewhat sticky, soft, and invitingly smooth. This batch made a delicious round loaf we devoured with pasta and broccoli. Pictured below are the rolls we ate with soup. Really though? It was more like the soup that accompanied the rolls. So good.

We have been baking our own bread for years now—sandwich breads, baguettes, rolls and sweet breads, but I have never been able to match that certain something found in country breads from the bakery. Bread with a crisp, knobby crust, airy inside, and deep flavor seemed out of my reach. Not so, anymore, now that I have tapped into the Italian in me. And just as the author of the recipe I followed predicted, I will never be without it. Best part is I still have another eight days to use the biga in my fridge.


I found a good history of the biga and instructions to make one here.

Thirty-four

As you know, I've been featuring my husband "A's " creativity this week. The reasons are many, but he celebrated a birthday the other day, too, and this was my way of shining the spotlight on him. Here's how we celebrated his turning thirty-four:

His gift was this crazy little bonsai tree. Coupled with origami, you'd think he is a dedicated student of the Japanese Arts, wouldn't you? While it hasn't been a conscious decision, he has delved into both origami and the art of the bonsai whole-heartedly. And wait till you see his most recent creative endeavour—a decidedly Japanese art form (more on that soon).

We chowed down on some Root Beer Float Cake (do yourself a favor and try this). I am now Joy the Baker's biggest fan.

Remember the birthday tree? The pug ornaments made way for volcano ornaments, the "theme" of A's birthday celebration. It's funny, the girls insist that even the adult birthday parties in our house have a theme. With help from two small girls, A came up with volcano, and all agreed that is was boy-ish enough for the only male in the family.

I think it's worth mentioning some of the themes the girls have chosen for their parties over the years: unicorn, horse, Star Wars, Chicken, Star Wars Chicken (seriously), and last but not least, Jerry Seinfeld (don't ask).

After seeing the recipe for chai concentrate on Amy's blog, I knew it had to be part of A's birthday gift (he's a big fan of chai). Then I started seeing it everywhere—bloggers from all walks were talking about it, all of them raving about it. And now I know why. Super easy, super delicious. (happy birthday to me?)

The Missing Ingredient

Why must molting chickens take an egg-laying vacation? For over a year now, we have thoroughly enjoyed getting our eggs from our own backyard. I can't tell you the pleasure we take in starting a recipe with a walk to the chicken coop to collect a few eggs—the freshness, taste, and color can't be beat. But we have seen a steady decrease in eggs over the past few weeks and between the four hens we are down to one a day, at best. This is not nearly enough for a family that makes their own bread. We have adjusted by skipping the baked treats, the breakfast sandwiches, and the quiches. Just the thought of purchasing eggs pained me. I relish in the running joke the girls and I have at the grocery store, "Oh we forgot the eggs!" (I pretend to turn the shopping cart around to head for the dairy aisle). The girls giggle and shout "No Meems, we don't buy eggs anymore!"

Well as you may have suspected, I finally broke down and bought some. Not happy about this. And happy about this, at the same time.

A half-dozen eggs, paired with the 2 we had in our fridge soon yielded those mouth-watering cookies for an after-school snack, a quiche for dinner, and some Pilgrim Pumpkin Cake for dessert.

A big thank you to all the chickens out there who are not molting!

Our daughter brought this recipe home from school a few years back and it has become one of our favorites.
Pilgrim Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Frosting
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Frosting ingredients:
1/3 cup butter
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons hot water

Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 9" square pan. Beat together eggs, sugars, oil, and pumpkin. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients together. Add this to the egg mixture and combine well. Pour batter into pan and bake for 35 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and spread frosting.
Brown Butter Frosting:
Melt butter over low heat until brown. In a large bowl, beat together powdered sugar and vanilla, add the butter and stir well. Gradually add hot water, beating until frosting is smooth enough to spread.

Kitchen Therapy

All this gloomy June weather combined with the start of summer vacation has lent itself nicely to staying inside and cooking. We have happily whipped up some treats the kids have been wanting to make, some more involved recipes, and some of the usual staples. So in the three days of vacation thus far we have made: chocolate chip cookies, glazed nuts, a handful of fresh juices (peach-blueberry the fav so far), chocolate-covered strawberries, creamsicles, cheesy popcorn, 4 different kinds of bread, strawberry-orange popsicles, and watermelon agua fresca—whew!

With bellies full, we watched the sun peek out this evening for the first time in eight days. That's my cue to close up the kitchen-as-entertainment for a bit so we can rediscover the backyard. Find out what got pummeled by the downpours, what has bloomed, and what has been utterly unproductive in the absence of sunlight. And so life outdoors returns, if not a bit late.

For now, I'll relax with my husband (more on him soon!) and enjoy a watermelon agua fresca, with a little rum added, and drink a toast to the King of Pop.