• inspiration: "Levy's" Real Jewish Rye Bread, (p. 324-328)
• The Bread Bible
• By Rose Levy Beranbaum
• (learn more by following this link)

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summary: lesson on making jam with apricots and peaches; liquid pectin; sugar preferences; information about “Two For Tuesdays!” and Lynn’s High5; (click on images to see larger views and more photos)

We’re taking the “Two For Tuesdays” theme rather literally today and posting twice for the event… one post from each of us….

One of our fruit and vegetables stores is selling baskets of the most fabulous peaches. They’re exactly right for eating NOW. You know the kind. When you bite into it, you can’t stop the juice from running down your chin and arms.

I was raving about the peaches to my sister and she casually mentioned that she had made peach jam last year.

me: [awestruck] You know how to can??

she: [casually] I took a course.

me: I’ve always been terrified of canning. [whistfully] I wish I knew how….

she: [casually] Do you want to make jam this weekend?

me: [jumping up and down and squealing] Are you kidding?? Yes!! How many peaches should I get? do you want to make apricot jam too? we love apricot jam! there are apricots now too. we have some jars already. how many jars do we need? what do [more non-stop incomprehensible ectatic babbling]

So we jumped on our bikes and peddled furiously through muggy thick air the short distance to the “expensive” vegetable store that always has really good fruit in the summer. (We got spectacular sour red cherries from them a couple of weeks ago.) I got a basket of incredibly fragrant peaches (no idea what kind but they had reddish skins and were so ripe they were almost bursting) and some apricots. The tiniest apricots I’ve ever seen but they smelled the most like apricots of all the apricots at the various nearby produce sellers. Then I got some jam jars and a packet of liquid pectin because it was the only pectin that wasn’t laced with fructose and dextrose. (continue reading…)

summary: cleaning and sorting kidney beans; links to bean recipes; information about “Two For Tuesdays!“ (click on images to see larger views)

Hey!!! Look who did a writeup. Whoohoo!! -ejm

We both think that beans rock, but really now…!

We buy most of our beans in bulk, usually from stores in Toronto’s India town. It’s both inexpensive and we are assured that the product has a good turn around and hasn’t been on the shelf for too long. (Yes, it’s true. Even dried goods taste better fresher.)

Years ago in India I noticed that housewives would spread dried legumes on to a tray or tali to sort through before cooking. They would often find small stones, pebbles and/or bits of grit.

When we set up our own kitchen 20 years ago, we always followed suit. We don’t always find anything dangerous but every now and then we do. What surfaced yesterday is by far the biggest jaw dropping jaw-breaker I’ve ever come across.

The system we use in our kitchen is shown in the photo. When we’ve finished sorting it’s an easy step to just pick up the edges of the placemat from the tray and funnel the beans into a pot. Saves time and teeth.

-tph (continue reading…)

• inspiration: Royal Crown's Tortano, p.203-205
• Artisan Baking Across America:
• the Breads, the Bakers, the Best Recipes
• By Maggie Glezer
• (learn more by following this link)

go directly to the recipe

summary: recipe for Tortano based on a recipe in “Artisan Baking Across America” by Maggie Glezer; information about Bread Baking Babes and Lynn’s High5; submission for YeastSpotting; (click on images to see larger views and more photos)

Bread Baking Babes (BBB): Royal Crown Tortano

I thought that I should probably justify my invitation to become a BBBabe by actually making a few more of the recipes they’ve chosen over the years. Of course, it will take me ages to work my way through them all. And I might find myself nixing a couple (I’ll pretend that those ones were written with disappearing ink.)

I don’t know why I didn’t pay proper attention to Royal Crown’s Tortano (from “Artisan Baking Across America” by Maggie Glezer)! I’ve certainly seen it when I’ve leafed through Glezer’s beautiful book. But I got stuck on her recipe for Acme’s Rustic Baguettes. Every time I open the book, I find myself returning to that page. It’s SUCH great bread.

I made rustic boule – my take on the recipe for “Acme’s Rustic Baguettes” in Artisan Baking Across America by Maggie Glezer. I don’t know what has happened recently but I seem to have jumped up one level in my bread-making. I have to say it. The bread was stellar.

However, it was high time to turn the page and try a new recipe. (continue reading…)

summary: what’s up with the yeast and flour?; (click on image to see larger view)

I’ve been a bit in the doldrums with bread making and blogging lately. But since being invited to become a BBBabe, I suddenly have a new lease on life. Thank you BBBabes!!

I’m really excited about trying new recipes – wait til you see the loaf I made last night!! (We’ll be having it tonight with PEI mussels, a big Romaine salad and chilled rosé. What could be better for a hot summer night?)

And so, with this new lease, even though we buy our flour in 10 kg bags (or at least we DID…), our stash is quickly dwindling.

Whine alert:

Flour: Well. Here I am ranting about flour yet again. But not about rye flour this time. This time, I’m ranting about unbleached all-purpose flour suddenly disappearing from the shelves.

Not ALL the unbleached all-purpose flour. Just the 10kg bags…. (continue reading…)

♥  !!

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go directly to the recipe

summary: recipe for Katie’s salad with sausages, goat cheese and potatoes; whine about onions; information about Bookmarked Recipes (click on image to see larger view and more photos)

Bookmarked Recipe

We go through phases of having salad and not having salad. Unsurprisingly, because it’s summer, right now we’re definitely in a salad phase. Through our vegetable store and the weekly farmers’ market, we have easy access to great Romaine hearts, watercress, arugula, spinach, red leaf lettuce, etc. etc. And our herb garden is flourishing.

Not long ago, I saw the most wonderful looking salad on Katie’s site, “Thyme for Cooking”. A one-plate dinner salad. Now, just a salad for dinner isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to sell to T. Salad with dinner, yes. But just salad? Still, Katie’s salad sounded too fabulous. So, just before the six o’clock news, I decided to show it to him. Here’s how the conversation went:

me: There’s a really great looking salad with Romaine lettuce on Katie’s site. She says it’s one of their “favorite summertime salads”. I think we should have it sometime this week.

he: [vaguely] …mm hmmmm?

me: It has sausages in it. Come and look.

he: [brightening] Sausages? Let me see.

me: So? What do you think?

he: [briskly] Let’s have it tonight! The pasta sauce can keep til tomorrow. Go get your helmet. We’ll go get sausages now.

So we jumped on our bikes and peddled to our favourite vegetable store to get Romaine and then rode a little further to get Italian sausages – one hot and two mild. (continue reading…)