Tuesday, 16 November 2021

Wildness from the North of Sweden (BBB November 2021)

8 responses

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BBB: Let's Keep Baking summary: recipe for Wild Hällakakor; I shouldn’t be so quick to judge; taste and try first; kuskavel or randkavel: do I really need yet another implement in the kitchen? (and, what kind of rolling pin???); …improvisations; meat tenderizers aren’t just for meat; information about Bread Baking Babes;

Taste and try before you…

Bread Baking Babes (BBB): Hällakakor

Hällakakor

This month, Kelly took the BBBabes to Sweden, deciding we would make Swedish Norrländska hällakaka, which literally translates as “Northern Rural Slab-cakes”). How do I know that? Ha. It’s not exactly thanks to Google Translate alone.

When I was searching on the internet, I came across recipes for tunnbröd, that looked very similar to hällakaka. The word “tunnbröd” translates as “flatbread” in Google Translate. The word “hällakaka” was more problematic for Google Translate; it suggested “pouring cakes”. And, after a little manipulation of “Norrländska” into “Norr ländska”, Google Translate comes up with “Northern rural”.

So, after having only moderate success with Google Translate, I decided to ask Ilva (Ilva Baretta Photography, previously at Lucullian Delights), who is actually Swedish. (continue reading →)

Monday, 18 October 2021

changing our mindsets (WFD 2021)

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feed the hungrysummary: Taking our heads out of the sand; better late than never; remembering the hungry; take action; sharing; World Food Day(s) 2021; a photoless not-Friday post;

[A] change in mindsets […] can make hunger a hardship of the past.

It was Thanksgiving in Canada last Monday. And last Saturday was World Food Day (WFD).

I am perennially filled with great intentions…. I had planned to include something about WFD when posting (late) about the October 2021’s BBB Pumpkin-shaped bread. But my lateness stopped me. And once again, I selfishly forgot.

Which is – especially because it’s happened to me before – inexcusable. It’s high time for a mindset change, isn’t it?

As long as there are so many hungry people in the world, we cannot forget that we are the fortunate few who have so much that we let some of it turn green and furry in our fridges.

There are still many who are in dire need. Needlessly so, but not because they have planned badly. It is because we have planned badly as we march around with our masks on – self-absorbed – complaining that we can’t dine inside at the restaurants yet.

Remember. Many people in the world cannot dine at all. In restaurants or at home. Take-out or home-cooked. Inside or outside.

Our actions are our future. (continue reading →)

Sunday, 17 October 2021

Shape-shifting with String (BBB October 2021)

5 responses

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BBB: Let's Keep Baking summary: recipe for Wild Pumpkin-shaped bread; made with butternut squash instead of pumpkin; pepitas; nigella and its many different names; fun with string; no idea of time any more; into the rabbit warren once more; late again; information about Bread Baking Babes;

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.

BBB October 2021

Bread Baking Babes (BBB): Rustic Pumpkin-shaped Bread

Last Saturday, there were pumpkins galore piled up on the sidewalks outside of all the vegetable stores and supermarkets. There were giant-sized jack-o-lantern pumpkins, and medium and small sugar pie pumpkins.

I made sure to look at them carefully – so I’d know exactly how a pumpkin looks for this month’s BBB bread. (continue reading →)

Wednesday, 29 September 2021

Still Living Wildly – and not just in September

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Sourdough September summary: pitas; pizza; bread book reading since last September; very brief book reviews; an entry for Sourdough September 2021: Life’s sweeter with sourdough!;

[R]emember, even when September is over, it doesn’t mean that we have to put our wild starters away. I don’t know about you, but we’re going to make every month a sourdough month!
– me, blog from OUR kitchen | Wordless Not-Wednesday: 2nd try at layering (Sourdough September 2020)

I must confess that as these weeks and weeks of pretty much staying at home stretched into months and months, I have been losing track of exactly what month it is. I’ve vaguely kept track by the weather and how late (or early) the sun sets.

Sometime last week, it started getting cool at night, signalling to me that it might be fall. (Did I notice the announcement that the official first day of fall had already happened? Of course not!)

Then a couple of nights we actually had to get the big blankets out. We also made a loaf of bread for the first time in weeks, instead of pitas on the barbecue. (Did I take a photo? Once again: of course not. But trust me, it looks pretty much like all the other Tartine loaves. And it tasted wonderful!)

Today, we WERE going to make Tartine bread again. But we suddenly realized that because it’s sunny and relatively warm, it may be one of our last chances to bake pizza on the barbecue.

And because I had already made the dough, rather than turn on the oven to make a small loaf of bread, we decided to use half the dough to make pita on the barbecue again.

Wild Yeast Pitas (continue reading →)

Tuesday, 21 September 2021

Revisiting Flash-fried Cherry Tomatoes

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summary: we have cherry tomatoes galore thanks to our neighbours; tomato sandwiches are great; flash-fried tomatoes are equally great; happily, the back lane garden is flourishing; reminder about when to pick tomatoes

[O]ur brilliant neighbours have planted cherry tomatoes!! Red and gold ones! […] In spite of having been caught red-handed (errmmmm… red/gold-juiced-handed and pocketed) a few weeks ago, look what our very forgiving neighbours gave us the other day!
 
– me, blog from OUR kitchen | Delving into the archives: Flash-fried Cherry Tomatoes, 25 August 2020

This spring, our lovely neighbour planted cherry tomatoes again in her raised garden beds and found she had an extra cherry tomato seedling. She gave it to us to plant in our back lane garden – because of us being caught last year stealing cherry tomatoes from their garden. (In our defence, only one of them even likes tomatoes ❗ ❗ so really, we were doing them a favour to take them, weren’t we?)

This little basket may look a little sparse. However, this is from just one day’s picking – how the basket looked AFTER we had removed several to make flash-fried tomatoes for dinner.

Cherry Tomatoes 2021

(continue reading →)