back to basics

Few things are as comforting as the scent of bread baking in the oven. Many people are intimidated by the idea of making bread, especially yeast breads, but there are foolproof methods to help you out. The kneading process will be easier if you have a stand mixer, but it’s not necessary. If you’re looking for an added benefit of a little stress relief, do knead your bread by hand; you may be surprised as to how therapeutic it can be.

For a basic sandwich bread, you will need the following:

1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees)

1 package dry yeast

1 tsp honey

6 oz warm milk (110 degrees)

3 T unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

1 T honey

1 large egg yolk

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 ¼ tsp salt

1. Combine the warm water, yeast, and honey in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a mixing bowl if making by hand). Allow to sit for five minutes for the yeast to proof; it will foam and give off a “yeasty” scent.
2. Add the butter, milk, and remaining honey, mix on low or by hand to blend. Add the egg yolk and 1 cup of the flour. Mix on low speed or by hand for a minute, add the salt and another cup of flour. Continue to mix (or knead by hand) and gradually add remaining flour as needed (depending on the humidity of the air, more or less than the total 3 cups may be needed. If using a stand mixer, let it knead the dough until the dough is mostly clear of the sides and may stick a bit to the bottom of the bowl, about 7 or 8 minutes total. If kneading by hand, work until it forms a smooth ball.
3. Lightly oil or butter a large bowl and place the dough in the bowl; roll the dough around until it is completely oiled. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise until double in volume, about an hour or two.
4. Grease an 8 ½” x 4 ½” loaf pan. Shape the dough into an 8 inch log and place in the pan. Cover again with the kitchen towel and allow to raise until the dough has doubled in size, about an hour.
5. Preheat oven to 350 F (176 C). Bake dough for 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden and the bread sounds hollow when tapped. Turn the bread out of the pan and allow to cool completely (this is important; cutting into warm bread will change the texture of the bread). Store in a sealed plastic bag.

This will be so much better than anything you buy at the grocery store!

Okay, so not really. Where I live, we all know that though we have a heat wave, it is certainly not the beginning of spring. We are hopeful that just maybe, we won’t have such bitterly cold weather anymore. It’s warmer today, and it will be raining later on (rain means snow melts faster!). Tomorrow we will be above 50 degrees F (!), and I fully intend to take advantage of it.

After the rain moves out of the area, I’m shoveling out my grill. Well, whatever snow is left around my grill will be removed. That hamburger I’ve been craving for weeks now will be mine!

I’m telling you, this is the part of winter that I like: the brief little spring teasers that give me a pick-me-up and allow me to go back to my winter cooking. Oh, I will be grilling a few things to enjoy this week: hamburgers, chicken breasts for salads, perhaps even a few hotdogs that I can refreeze and pull out in a couple of weeks when I’ve got the winter blues again. Yes, you read that right: hotdogs. I’m ashamed to admit that about twice a year, I eat hotdogs. And not the healthy ones. What can I say? Sometimes a cultural dish is more important that eating 100% clean.

Oh, I’ve tried the healthy hotdogs. I don’t like them. I probably should find some sort of vegetarian hotdog to try (do they make those?), because for me, hotdogs are simply an opportunity to load up on condiments: cherry tomatoes, onions, relish, cheese, and maybe a little mustard.

I’m so excited, it’s ridiculous. I’m excited for grilled food (I’ll throw some veggies on, too), but I’m almost more excited because this taste of summer will most definitely help me enjoy the rest of winter.

Last night, I was sad. Groundhog Day reminded me of just how long this winter has been so far, and how much we still have to go. I don’t put much stock in whether or not our state groundhog sees his shadow (he did); winter seems to go on for another 6-8 weeks after that day, regardless.

Lately, I’ve been really pining for spring and summer, simply for the windfall of produce available at the farmers’ market. I’m lucky that I live in an area that has close to twenty different markets (granted, some are in neighboring towns, but it does make it easy for everyone to visit a market), with at least one market open every day of the week. And while our largest market is open year-round (it moves indoors in the winter), there’s not a whole lot available other than preserves, eggs, root vegetables, and a few greenhouse items. I just miss the summer bounty.

And then I reminded myself of how every summer, I wish for the day I can turn my oven on to roast a chicken or bake a pie. How I long to make a warming soup or mug of hot chocolate. I can do all of these things now, and instead of enjoying what I do have now, I’m wishing for something in the future.

I made a conscious decision to enjoy making the warming, comforting foods that I associate with winter, and stop wishing for something that will come soon enough. Instead, I will look through my recipe collection to see what new recipes I can try out, to take advantage of the cool weather.

And really, I can’t complain. We’ve been light on snow the past few weeks, and though at times the temperature has dropped more than I would like, I’ve seen the sun just about every day lately.

If there’s ever a case for eating as few food products as possible, I think the peanut problems the US is going through right now makes the case. I know what you might be thinking, that there have been problems from produce as well…and to that I say that’s a good reason to buy local as much as you can!

Really, buying local, whether it’s produce or meat, is the best option you have. You have a chance to not only see where you food comes from, but to talk with the people who grow/raise it. And, it’s cheaper than you’d think.

Yes, if  you buy meat from a local farm (say 1/4 of a steer), your upfront payment is more, which means saving some money may be in order. But you’ll freeze everything, and in the end likely pay less per pound (or the equivalent) than if you’d bought all of that meat from the grocery store. Plus, you now know exactly what you’re getting, and there’s a lot less worry that your family will get sick.

And maybe it’s just my experience, but I’ve never heard of a salmonella or e. coli outbreak from food I’ve purchased from the farmer’s market. To really take advantage of seasonality, you could purchase a share in a CSA (community sponsored agriculture). You’ll get a weekly box of produce from a farm (some will allow you to add fresh eggs as well). You’ll have a chance to eat new foods, and you’ll really be eating seasonally based on what’s available…the way humans ate until about 100 years ago.

Don’t try to make all changes at once. I’ve been there, and it’s a little overwhelming. But, the more you try to buy foods from your area (or at least know the source), the better off your health will be, and the better for the world around you.

I started reading Fast Food Nation last night. It definitely brought back some memories (my first job was at McDonald’s when I was 16). It’s funny, because back then, I didn’t think twice when I was told I had to punch out, because we would get in trouble if I was on the clock past the time I was supposed to be…and yet I was suppossed to stay to finish my work, even if that was another hour or two after we closed.

I didn’t get paid for that time.

Apparently, that’s very common in the fast food industry, and there have been lawsuits over unpaid overtime wages. As a teen who wanted to prove I had a strong work ethic, it simply didn’t occur to me that I should speak up.

The thing is, in the US, those type of workplace “ethics” extend way beyond the fast food industry. I worked at a job that went back and forth between whether or not we should be hourly or salaried. They paid people for 8 hours a day, even if they worked more…but if you worked 9 hours (but could log Monday through Thursday, and then had to leave 1 hour early on Friday…you would only get paid 7 hours on Friday. It sucks, because people will put up with that when the job market isn’t strong. I worry now that more and more places will take advantage of their workers, because these people will be so happy to just have a job, and they won’t want to jeopardize that.

I don’t know what the solution is. I see so many things in our society that I would like to change, but other than changing my life, I’m not sure much is possible beyond that. I’ll have to keep thinking this over.

I learned a lesson. I saw an episode of America’s Test Kitchen yesterday, in which they made French onion soup. Now, the caramelized onions and triple deglazing looked fantastic, so I decided I would make it for lunch today.

In the summer, I try to purchase the produce that looks good, and design my cooking around it. I really should be doing the same thing in the winter. This recipe calls for 6 large yellow onions, or 4 pounds of onions. My store only had small yellow onions and large white onions. So I decided to buy 2 white onions and a big bag of the little yellow onions.

I start chopping onions and realize the white onions are bad. Both of them. Most of the small onions are green in the middle, so they are old too. I’m getting annoyed at how many onions I’m peeling…I can chop onions quickly, but peeling just gets messy, especially when you have a small workspace and cutting board.

Now I’m swearing up a storm and yelling at myself for picking a dish before checking on the quality of the ingredients. Then I reminded myself that these onions all looked fine, and I made the decision not to go to another store to look for large yellow onions.

The onions are now in the oven and are giving off a scent so powerful that my eyes are watering! Once the are caramelized, it will all be worth it, but until then I will be sniffling and blinking much more than usual.

Oh well, the end product should be worth it. It’s an extremely cold day, and nothing is more satisfying than a warm, rich bowl of soup. And soup topped with a crouton and cheese? Now that is perfection.

I was remarkably headache-free during my two week challenge. The past two days I have consumed a few snacks from the natural foods aisle. You would think these wouldn’t be too bad for you. Whether it’s from the snacks, decreased sugar in my diet, or simply not drinking as much coffee yesterday (it tasted bitter) or today (weak), I have a headache that I can’t shake.

Now, it’s not an awful headache, I can still function. Then again, I’ve often been forced to function while having a migraine, so I suppose my threshold for pain when it comes to headaches is quite high.

What I can say is that I believe this will serve as a nice motivator to continue to try to make the best choices possible when it comes to the food I eat. That doesn’t mean I’ll never eat dessert, it means I need to continue the path of making my own desserts (so I know what’s in them) and most of my own food.

As my two week challenge draws to a close, I want to take a moment to think about what I’ve gotten from this experience. The most important aspect is that I really can make some quick meals, eat them without feeling rushed, and clean up the kitchen in an hour’s time. I think my problem to this point has been in feeling the need to create more extravagant meals when I cook; not necessarily things that are impressive, but definitely things that are time consuming.

Searching out some quick-cooking was important to this. The peeled and deveined frozen shrimp are now a freezer staple in my house. I’m able to make a 1 portion meal using this protein. Individually wrapped chicken breasts are also important. They store well in the freezer and are easy to thaw in water. One of these is about 2 portions for me, so they work great for utilizing leftovers in salads or sandwiches.

And yet…I’ve had some odd cravings near the end of the challenge. First there was the mad cheeseburger craving. Granted, it was late at night and I was getting hungry before bed, and our temperatures had been sub zero for days, so craving a grilled burger (a summer food) probably wasn’t all that strange. The following day, however, I wanted a hotdog with kraft macaroni and cheese. Talk about wanting processed food! Again, since I only eat hotdogs once or twice a year, and only eat them grilled, I’m guessing what I was really craving was summer.

No idea as to why I wanted macaroni and cheese out of the box, though. It’s not even a traditional comfort food for me, as I started eating that in college.

This challenge has definitely yielded some unforseen results. As my grill is covered in snow, I doubt I will be having any burgers anytime soon, but that’s okay. Because I could not feed my craving, I have realized I’m willing to wait for the real deal.

And that’s a good outcome of the challenge.

Have you ever wondered why steak or chicken tastes so delicious in a restaurant, and you try to recreate the dish at home, without much success? With the advent of nonstick cookware, we’ve lost the ability to make a delicious pan sauce. All of those little brown pieces that stick to the bottom of a stainless steel frying pan or roaster can be utilized in a pan sauce; those little brown bits are what give the sauce a great depth of flavor, a richness.

For a simple steak recipe, you’ll need two steaks (tenderloin or
New York strip will work wonderfully for this). While you prepare the steak, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat in a stainless steel frying pan.

Brush both sides of the steaks with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Just before the oil smokes, add the steaks to the pan and give it just a quick little horizontal shake. Now don’t touch it! Don’t be tempted to move the meat or peek; let it sit in the pan for about four minutes on the first side. With a tongs, see if you can easily lift the steak. If it sticks, let it be for another minute. When the steak is perfectly browned, it will release easily from the pan.

Flip the steaks over, give the pan a quick shake, and again, leave it alone for four minutes. While the steaks are searing, you can prepare what you need for your pan sauce. A simple sauce can be made from four sliced shallots, along with some beef broth, a little brandy or whisky (if desired), and a tablespoon of butter or cream.

After the four minutes is up, check on the steak. If the internal temperature is 130 F (this is between medium rare and medium), remove the steaks from the pan to a plate and cover with foil.

Add the sliced shallots to the pan and sauté until browned. Add a cup of beef broth and raise the temperature to high. Reduce the sauce by half and remove from the heat. Add about 1/3 c of brandy or whiskey (always add alcohol off-heat). At this point, you can either return the sauce to the stove to cook off the alcohol, or you can light it on fire to burn off the alcohol and enjoy the pretty flame. Personally, I like the burn it, because it puts on a show for my guests, but obviously there are risks involved when lighting your dinner on fire, so do take care.

Remove from heat. Add a tablespoon of butter and mix it into the sauce. Poor the pan sauce over the steaks. This is especially good served with crusty bread or potatoes to mop up the extra juices.

This dish is so good, you may never go to a restaurant again. Then again, that’s kind of the point! Learning a few restaurant-quality dishes to make at home can enrich your family life (assign everyone a kitchen task), and give you more time to linger over your meal. It’s cheaper, it’s healthier (you control what goes into the dish), and it’s more pleasant because there’s no couple at the next table, fighting.

I need to modify my challenge a little. This occurred to me last night as I was enjoying a wonderful sourdough from La Brea Bakery. I’m in the Midwest. La Brea is in California. Doh! I love their take and bake breads (you take the loaves home and finish baking for 10 minutes in your own oven), but I shouldn’t be buying a loaf of bread that was shipped halfway across the country. We have a local European bakery here that makes several very good breads, but the baked cookies and desserts are off-limits, as they often contain shortening. That’s fine, however, as I’m trying to limit my desserts to things I bake, anyway.

The only other part of my challenge that I want to modify is to take time to really sit back and enjoy my meals. This is difficult for me, as I don’t have an actual table. I have a breakfast bar and tv trays. The breakfast bar is fine for something like breakfast, but not so fine when I’ve cooked a big meal. It’s difficult to relax while eating when you’re staring at four different dirty pots and pans. The time may have come to rearrange my furniture to make room for a small table of sorts.

Finally, the other point from this book that I haven’t necessarily accomplished this week is to stick to a cultural rule of three meals per day, no snacks. I’ve done this before and have been quite successful with it. Meals are much more tasty than ever before, because you are actually hungry when you sit down to eat. It’s been well-documented that any food tastes better when you come to the table hungry.

Thus far today, I’ve been enjoying my coffee, but I need to prepare a small breakfast now. I have errands to run, but it’s very easy to procrastinate when the snow is falling outside my window. It’s beautiful to look at, but not necessarily to drive around in.