Blog posts

One of my most beloved cookbooks is the original Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas. It began its life with me in San Francisco in the early 1970s and has traveled with me ever since, now nestled on a bookshelf in upstate New York. It is in tatters with no binding left, but that only makes me love it more. It is well used.

It’s been a few weeks since I posted about my baking adventures—there hasn’t been much new and I’ve been busy getting my work life in order for vacation and then vacationing.

Tartine Country Bread

Here is my bread that I have just finished. This was a small loaf but I am very happy with the crust and crumb. 

Christmas has not been a convention in our culture. But people love to celebrate the day as a holiday. I, too, love the Christmas spirit and atmosphere. I still remember the family that invited me to their home for Christmas Eve and the big feast they offered while I was studying in Kansas. The warm hospitality has always been the mark of my American experience.

Last spring Breadsong posted about Alsatian Beer Bread, a formula developed by Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, published in "Modern Baking", a professional bakers' website http://modern-baking.com/bread_pastry/mb_imp_16940/. I liked the looks of her buns, and was intrigued by the beer crunch crust  (if it's crunchy AND made with beer, it must be good!) so I copied the recipe from "Modern Baking" to my ever growing to-do list.

I made this santa bread from Taste of Home for Christmas Eve using the lion house dinner roll recipe. It was super easy and fast! I should have rotated him halfway through baking, but he still looks cute.... and he was delicious!!

This week our bread to have with soup at lunch time will be olive bread.  I've been wanting to try this bread again from the Il Fornaio Baking Book by Franco Galli for quite sometime.  I made two changes to the recipe as given.  I used 1/4 cup of my 70% hydration whole wheat sourdough starter instead of the 1/4 cup biga.  I also used kalamata olives instead of green olives as my husband doesn't really care for the green olives. 

Boxing Day, a gorgeous day! 

All is quiet, on this early morning, except the gentle breeze.  The air is crisp and the sky is blue over the tree hills out of my tea room.

The Poinciana in my neighbourhood is firing in red, such colour of celebration.

As the few of you who read my posts know, 2011 was the year when I wanted to concentrate on formula development.  But as I found myself winding up the year and looking on to the next, I thought it might be time to look through my vast collection of “vintage” recipes and pull out something from a distant and fading past.