Early Risings and Simple Dinners

EARLY RISINGS

One of my goals this summer was to learn how to bake fresh, homemade bread.

As soon as I got home from Phoenix, I began this process. I chose to make Sourdough, because bread flour is really easy to work with. I also tried Rye.

First, I had to create my sourdough starter, which basically requires bread flour, room temperature water, and lots of hours to just SIT. This took a few days. Then, you can actually make the bread. “The Joy of Cooking” recipe was my guide, and proved to be a success. My bread turned out crusty on the outside, and really light and chewy on the inside, with lots of air bubbles. The moment I knew it was REALLY a success was when Brett exclaimed to me yesterday in the kitchen, “Emily, your bread was sooo good…”

So, here are some of the lessons I learned:

1) Trying to make Rye Bread is very difficult. Rye flour is hard to work with, because it creates a denser, thicker dough…it also will not rise as easily. The loaf I made came out well in shape and form, but it was as hard as a rock when I tried to slice it after it had cooled. It also didn’t taste very good, because I combined my sourdough starter with the rye flour, which I must admit, was not exactly following the recipe. (I ran out of bread flour….)

2) The best places for letting your dough rise: in the microwave with the door shut, OR on top of the dryer.

3) DON’T pull out your sourdough starter from the fridge to warm up late in the afternoon. Otherwise, you will end up doing what I did: which was that I had to set my alarm for 2am because if I followed the recipe exactly like it said,”4-6 hours after rising” would be 2am. I ended up baking bread at 2:30 in the morning, and was obviously very tired the next day.

4) Honey and Butter on the bread, with a cup of tea at your side, is pretty amazing.

SIMPLE DINNERS. Over the years, I have created a reputation for myself as one who tampers too much with recipes, and creates dinners that are WAY too elaborate and complicated. Just for the record, I wanted to post that I CAN do a simple meal that comes out just as delicious and refined as anything from Gourmet or Bon Appetit magazines 🙂 The menu?? Lasagna, Homemade Sourdough Bread, and Fresh Mixed Greens from our garden with an Olive Oil-Lemon-Garlic dressing. The boys loved it, and I must admit, I was able to appreciate the food MORE because it didn’t exhaust me to make it. The Lasagna recipe didn’t really come from anywhere: I just kept layering no-bake lasagna noodles, frozen spinach (thawed, drained, squeezed) marinara sauce, ricotta cheese, and ground beef (it was actually Buffalo) until it reached the top of the pan. I topped it with spices (basil, oregano) and mozzarella cheese, and baked it in a 375 degree oven for an hour, with the last 15 minutes uncovered so that the cheese could melt.

The fresh greens from our garden……..topped with Olive Oil-Lemon-Garlic dressing….