Monday, 23 March 2020
Today, we received email from our MPP, reminding us of the importance of social distancing. As many people have been saying for at least a couple of days now, can we please change this phrase to “physical distancing“?
With apologies to Clay Bennett for altering the wording on his cartoon
Saturday, 21 March 2020
Novel Food No. 38
As I read books, because of the Novel Food event, I find myself making note of any specific references to food. I pay particular attention when reading books that I can’t put down.
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai is one of those books. I could not stop reading it. I neeeeeeeded to know what was going to happen next. Or before. Or beside.
What??? (continue reading )
Friday, 20 March 2020
For several years now, we have rarely purchased commercial yoghurt, but been making our own in the oven with the dial set to a point on the dial below the lowest setting of 150 (T painted a line on the dial with nail polish to what might have been around 80F on the dial). This was for the oven of the old stove.
Now that we have a new (to us) stove/oven, things are different. The oven is beautiful, but….
I must say that it’s wonderful to have a new, reliable stove. […] The oven is going to take a bit more to get used to. It turns out that, in spite of the fact that the oven has a self-cleaning switch, the temperature is a.) off [too low] by about 50F degrees, and b.) it takes about 15 minutes longer to preheat than the old oven did.
– me, Can this be true?!
We still haven’t figured out our new oven. The BBB recipes says to bake this bread at 400F for about 30 minutes. We know the new oven runs a little less hot than our old one (we would have had to bake this bread at 350F on the old oven). But even with the dial turned to 450F for preheating and then set at 425F, it took over an hour to bake the bread, in spite of the fact that I made three quarters of the BBB recipe.
– me, Potato Pavé with Goat Cheese and Thyme (BBB March 2020)
Alas, with its push-button oven settings, the new (to us) oven doesn’t lend itself to going below the lowest setting of 170F.
For a few moments, we went into a decline. How would we make yoghurt??
But T is brilliant. He devised a way to make yoghurt on the stove top. Yay!!
Monday, 16 March 2020
“…’ware the Ides of March”
Wash your hands! Wash your hands! Wash your hands!
With the constant public notices for us to keep social distance, as well as schools, libraries, art galleries, concert halls shut down until at least the early part of April, it’s hard not to be obsessed with thinking about how to avoid getting COVID-19.
Therefore, the BBBabes’ habit of baking a different bread each month is an especially welcome distraction. It’s something to do when staying home to keep social distance AND there will be something good to eat as a result!
Bread Baking Babes (BBB): Potato, Thyme and Goat Cheese Pavé
Pain[s] Pavé[s] are smallish French rustic white wheat breads that are usually flattish, slightly rounded on top, and not very tall, so that they look vaguely like a cobblestone. […] It is often served with olive oil as a dip.
Cook’s Info, French Breads | Pain Pavé
Q: Connaissez-vous les ingrédients qui composent un “pain pavé”? Quelle est la spécificité de ce pain par rapport aux autres? [Do you know what ingredients are included in a “pain pavé”?]
R: [J]e dirais que c’est d’abord la forme qui donne le nom de pavé. Ensuite, on imagine plutôt une pâte un peu plus rustique que pour de la baguette mais je pense qu’on fait ce qu’on veut!
[I would say it is primarily the shape that gives it the name pavé (paving stone). Also, one imagines a dough a little more rustic that the dough for a baguette, but I think one can do whatever one wants!]
-marmiton, Pain pavé
Wednesday, 11 March 2020
I was looking through our photo archives the other day and realized I haven’t raved about the toasted chickpeas we made in early January!
In our Christmas present last December from my sister, there was a jar of her home-made za’atar and a recipe for chickpeas.
Now we’ve had za’atar with flat bread. But it had never occurred to us to add za’atar to chickpeas. (Thinking about it though, whyever not?) (continue reading )
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