Food win: crusty bread

For Christmas I asked for--and received--My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method.  I have made a lot of delicious, bakery-worthy bread since then.  It's crusty and chewy and delicious and really, really bad for your waistline.

One thing you'll need is a large (about 5 quart) cast iron casserole.  Do not buy an expensive La Creuset; you do not need to spend $300 on something that will require you to remove the lid handle (as you bake the bread in oven temperatures too hot for the plastic).  If you have an enamel cast-iron casserole, use it (and sometimes you can find one in yard sales); take out the lid handle and stuff the hole full of aluminum foil.  If you are determined to make this bread, have $30 burning a hole in your pocket and think buying a new pot is worth it (and don't want to hit the yard sales), The Lodge has a great seasoned cast iron casserole.

The other thing you will need is time.  You don't knead the bread but you let it rise for 12-18 hours the first time, and then 1-2 hours the second time.  Time this for when you will be able to bake it (I'm busy enough that the proofing time wasn't a problem per se, but figuring out when I could start it so the second rise would be done and I'd have time to bake the bread before going off to my next thing to do was a challenge.)

The book also has recipes for whole wheat bread, rye bread, focaccia, pizza dough, and a bunch of other breads.  But master this one first.  It's not difficult at all.

It's worth it, though.  The ingredients for the bread are typical--flour, yeast (a relatively small amount, thanks to the long proofing time), salt and water.  The results are divine.  The bread tastes like it should be much harder to make than it is.

My life is hard! HARD I TELL YOU.

I work pretty close to this beach.  This makes my lunch hours a blast.  It also makes my long commute worth it.

Friday links--rhubarb edition

Today is all things rhubarb.  I already posted about a couple of savory dishes I made, but here are some other delectable treats you can make from rhubarb:

Rhubarb lemonade.  Sounds delicious!  Also, rhubarb sauce.

Rhubarb pie with pat-pie pastry.

Rhubarb polenta cake with cinnamon.

Sweet and savory rhubarb recipes here.

Rhubarb marmalade.

Enjoy your weekend, everybody!

Garden Progress

I have two garden plots, one in a community garden in my town and one at work (my workplace offers plots to employees, which is fantastic and makes me never, ever want to leave).  We have had a couple of meetings in my town for the container garden--the first one was to get everything up to speed and to make any repairs, add in some new soil, stuff like that.  Then we started planing a few things last week.  I'll get this finished up by Memorial Day weekend.

 My plot at work is huge--I am working the plot with a colleague, and hopefully this year it will go better than last year, when they had to close it down for two weeks to test the soil (long story--everything is fine, though).  There were so many weeds after that, I simply couldn't keep up.  Some dude in a loin cloth was swinging around in a vine and kept calling me Jane.  It was odd. Thanks to the mild winter, I was able to gather a lot of mulch for the workplace plot and I think (I hope!) we'll be okay weed-wise.

But, I've got some snazzy pics of my town container plot.  Container gardens--especially those based on Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening technique--are very low maintenance.  It's difficult to over-water them, the soil mix means the plants do well, they don't get choked with weeds, and while you do have a problem with some creatures trying to make off with your produce, you can easily put some chicken wire around it to keep them away.

Advice for the wealthy

Psssst! Pssst! Hey, wealthy people who want to live green!  I have a solution for you that might not be as sleek as Graham Hill's tricked-out, "sustainable" apartment in New York City, but will save you a lot more money.  I had blogged about his Life Edited project before.

I do not begrudge this man his flash, tricked out apartment.  I do sincerely wish him well.  I am glad he can live in 420 square feet of space with the help of convertible, fold-away things and moveable walls.  That's great.  It's a cute place.  But I am going to snicker at wealthy people who confuse consumption with sustainability, who go on about how much money they're saving when they're spending more than the average person who doesn't live in a compact apartment that manages to have dinner party seating for 10 and other things thanks to a sponsored design competition.  The rest of us have to make choices and live with their consequences.

So, wealthy people, if you want to be green and save a lot of money, here are my tips.  Shorter me: live like the rest of us.  We're not all Hummer-driving, McMansion-dwelling hogs.

Don't buy a tiny place and trick it out this way. Accept the fact that you will have to make some choices and that you can't have it all.  Live like the rest of us.  If you want to live in New York City, accept the fact that you will live in a much smaller place with fewer things if minimalism is how you roll.  If you decide you do need a little more space for your things, then accept the fact that you'll need a car since you'll probably need to live outside of the city to find an affordable bigger place.  It doesn't have to be a new car.  You can get a fuel-efficient, used car.  You can carpool if there are people in your town who work where you work.  And if you work in the city and live in a suburb, you can probably take some form of public transportation.

Buy used or take stuff off of your friends' hands.  You need a coffee table? Check out Goodwill, if you live near one (obviously, this doesn't apply to people who don't have access to places like thrift stores--there are regions where big box stores are the only game in town).  Does the coffee table look ratty?  Sand it and paint it.  Or, just, you know, learn to like what you already have.  Unless it's falling apart, you don't need new furniture, do you?  Keep it clean, paint it if it needs it, but otherwise keep it.

If you are tired of the way something looks, keep it anyway.  I know, that's mean.  It's also what a lot of us do.  It saves things from a landfill and it saves money.  Revolutionary, I know.  You can ask someone for advice on ways to change it or make it more attractive (depending on the item, paint it, dye it, change the accessories, cover it with a cloth, etc.)

If you have the money to use the cloud for your information, music and downloads, that's great.  Please keep in mind that many people would rather not pay--or cannot afford to pay--a monthly fee for that sort of thing.  If you really want to save money and space, you can use the library.  You can borrow books, CD's, and movies. All gratis.  Shocking I know!

Creatively reuse things you already have.  No, you don't have to hoard (I certainly don't) but I will keep pasta or dried beans in unused canning jars or a large empty plastic container that used to hold a lot of dried parsley for example.  It's not as pretty as the perfectly designed green home, but it's more affordable and I'm keeping these things out of the landfill.

Accept the fact that you won't have dinner seating for 10.  You can rent a folding table and chairs and move the furniture in your living room to make room for the seating for such an occasion, or better yet, think of other ways to entertain.  (People have been known to balance plates on their laps and sit on couches and chairs at my place when I've had a lot of folks over.)  You may need to accept the fact that you won't have a lot of dinner parties for ten in general.  Remember: live like the rest of us.

You have a T-shirt that's ripped?  Well, cut it up and use it for rags for when you clean.  I know, you're keeping clutter, rags are useful cleaning tools, and these are free, so they will save you money (and keep this cloth out of the landfill).  After the first or second T-shirt, you can donate the rest to those clothing dumpsters you may see along the road--they will take those rags and make them into rags that painters will buy.

You have jeans that are torn and that you won't wear anymore?  You can either re-purpose them into gardening aprons, a tote bag, or potholders (if you can sew), or you can cut them into strips and braid a rug out of them (if you are crafty).  If you don't have these skills, be neighborly and scout out someone who does these things and ask them if they'd like your old jeans for this purpose.

I dunno, readers?  Your suggestions?

Squid is a chewy delicious treat.

Oh, stop.  It is delicious.

I didn't make this, one of my friends made this.  He made this somewhat impromptu and it was heavenly.  My friends pretty much know that the way to my heart is through my stomach, and that I love it when they cook for me.  When we first met he didn't cook at all and now he's really into it, and he's pretty adventurous. He's been cooking for people a lot and they're all enjoying his passion for food.

He makes his food quite spicy; however it doesn't overwhelm the food.  He will cook frozen vegetables, meat, fish, or beans and cumin, cayenne pepper, chili powder, garlic and ginger (lots of garlic and ginger), a dash of lemon juice and some chopped tomatoes.  And plain yogurt on the side in case you're wimpy like me and need a little something to cut down on the spice.  And he makes basmati rice--plain or cooked with stock, sometimes with shredded carrot and a cup of chickpeas thrown in.

This was fantastic.  I love squid anyway--fried with hot peppers, pan seared with soy sauce, as sashimi (oh, it's actually lovely that way) in noodle soups, you name it.  It's a treat.

Rhubarb--a treat in savory dishes

Rhubarb isn't just for sweets.  The tart vegetable, normally mixed with a lot of sugar, is used in pies, tarts, cakes, and jams.  Certainly, it's delicious that way.  But thanks to a desire to make jam, I got a lot from my mother.  Strawberry rhubarb jam calls for more strawberries than rhubarb.


Rhubarb adds a lovely tartness to dishes—it’s perfect if you want a tart flavor but not the acidity of citrus (or you simply don’t have citrus on hand).  Work with the tartness and don’t cover it up with sugar—the first recipe calls for sugar, granted, but the next time I make it, I will try less sugar (probably just 1 tablespoon) than the 3 tablespoons I originally used, as I liked the tart rhubarb next to the earthy and sweet beets.  Too much sugar will cover it up.

Rhubarb and Beet Salad
3 or 4 beets
1 small red onion, sliced
3-4 stalks of rhubarb, sliced in ¼ inch pieces
1-3 tablespoons of sugar (to taste)
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Roast three beets in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes or until tender.   Allow to cool, then peel them and chop them.  Spread rhubarb on a roasting pan, and sprinkle 1 to 3 tablespoons sugar on it; roast for 10-20 minutes, until the juices are out and syrupy.  Meanwhile, whisk together ¼ cup of red wine vinegar, a tablespoon of honey, salt and pepper and a tablespoon of oil in a bowl.  Add beets, onion, rhubarb, and rhubarb juices, stirring well to coat.  Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours.  Serve chilled.

Rhubarb Chicken
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, minced
One medium yellow onion, chopped
3-4 stalks of rhubarb, sliced in ¼ inch pieces
5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 cup dry white wine (or chicken stock)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Sautee the garlic, onion, and rhubarb in the olive oil over medium heat until the onion and garlic are translucent and the rhubarb is soft.  Add chicken thighs, brown on each side (about five minutes).  Add wine and salt and pepper to taste.  Cover and steam the chicken until cooked (about 10-15 minutes).  Remove cover, check chicken by making sure the juices run clear.  Add more wine or stock if the chicken needs to be cooked more.  Reduce wine or stock to a thick sauce—it will be creamy (without cream added—bonus).  Serve sauce with garlic, rhubarb and onion over chicken thighs.

To add some spice or different flavors to this dish, you can add to the stock or wine:

½ to 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon of roasted fennel seed (heat fennel seed in a dry skillet over medium high heat until fragrant, then add them to the dish)
½ to 1 teaspoon dried thyme

Enjoy!

(Oh, yes, I made jam.  Turned out well.)