Yeast Mode, my sourdough starter, needed a workout. I also had a hankering for pancakes for brunch. So I hybridized a recipe for sourdough buckwheat pancakes.
I started with the recipe on the Bob’s Red Mill buckwheat flour bag, then took liberties. (Yes, Julian, this was a gemisch. Deal with it.) I added 1 cup of buckwheat flour to 1/2 cup of Yeast Mode. I then stirred in 1 cup of water, 1 tablespoon oil, and 2 tablespoons of molasses. I left this to rise on the kitchen counter for about 6 hours while I read the papers and email and went for a 16-mile bike ride.
There didn’t seem to be much action in the bowl when I came down after my shower. I then stirred in a beaten egg and 1/3 cup of nonfat dry milk powder. Suddenly, POOF! Bubbles! Apparently Yeast Mode contains some bacteria that loves lactose. I also stirred in 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in a little water to amp up the rising. This recipe made 14 pancakes. I cooked up the rest of the batter and refrigerated the leftovers for future breakfasts.
One note: These pancakes will brown very quickly. You may need to adjust the heat under your frying pan or griddle accordingly.
May 09
Sourdough Buckwheat Pancakes
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/05/09/sourdough-buckwheat-pancakes/
May 01
Getting Cheeky
Last month we checked out Double DD Meats, a butcher shop in nearby Mountlake Terrace. This place is a hoot. Not only do they have regular beef, pork, and lamb, but they have game and unusual cuts that you won’t find in the neighborhood Safeway. Double DD Meats also has aisles and aisles of hot sauces, barbecue sauces, and rubs. As an experiment, I found some beef cheeks in the frozen section and decided to try them.
Beef cheeks are as advertised, from the head of the steer/cow. Since cattle are ruminants and chew cud when they’re not eating, beef cheeks are quite tough and require braising. I found the basic method and timing for cooking on epicurious.com, from an old Gourmet magazine. (Obviously this was posted before the site managers decided not to include any more beef recipes.)
I browned the cheek (there was only one in the package) with some onion, garlic, carrots, and parsnips. I added some fresh thyme and rosemary, a bay leaf, and glugged in some red wine. When the wine came to a boil, I covered the pan and set it in a 325° oven for three hours.
The result was underwhelming. The beef could have benefitted from additional cooking time to get more tender. The wine had evaporated down to a thick purple syrup. The vegetables were good, though. The parsnip cores were very tender. In the future I’ll stick to chuck, brisket, or rump roast.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/05/01/getting-cheeky/
May 01
Life with the Nag-O-Matic
Julian and I both have Apple Watches. He uses his more for the Apple Pay app – “Watches are so 20th century.” I use mine for activity monitoring, hence the name Nag-O-Matic.
At 50 minutes of each hour, I get the message, “Time to stand.” If I’m in the office, I walk around for a minute. Or I time my trips upstairs to the bathroom to coincide with the stand command. I get extra calorie points if I go two flights up to the master bathroom.
The move and exercise features have some glitches to them. I’ve had the exercise feature undercount my minutes of activity when I’m out for a walk or bike ride. Sometimes it will ask if I need to pause my workout; other times it doesn’t. The watch will gently remind me that a brisk 25-minute walk will help me reach my goals – just before I’m ready to turn in for the night.
Every so often I get notification that the watch has bestowed some cheesy award upon me: “Congratulations! You met your stand goal all last week!” Alternately, it’ll entice me with the promise of another cheesy award: “Just burn 3000 calories in the next two days and you’ll reach your exercise goal for the month!” This morning it enticed me with the promise of a cheesy award for the month of May: “Surpass 21 days of workouts of greater than 15 minutes!” Maybe…
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/05/01/life-with-the-nag-o-matic/
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/04/25/rewrite/
Apr 18
Downtown Jaunt
Julian wanted to get out of the house today. “How about we go downtown, get piroshkys, and eat them in the park?” There was a long line outside Piroshky Piroshky, so we went with plan B. The Seatown is a small iteration of local restaurateur Tom Douglas’s empire, now mostly shuttered due to the pandemic. Julian had a halibut fish sandwich, while I had baby back ribs with a mango salsa. This was the first time we’ve eaten inside a restaurant since pandemic lockdown. The outside tables were full because of the gorgeous weather. Luckily, staff took great care to reduce risk all around.
After lunch, Julian needed a caffeine fix. His usual place was closed on Sunday. A nearby coffee shop had just closed. We walked up Western Avenue and found a Georgian café, Skalka. (Many of you know that my honorary niece was born in the Republic of Georgia. The breads I had over there were amazing.) In addition to food and drink, Skalka carries assorted Georgian foods. I picked up two sauces for future experiments.
We got plenty of exercise today running around downtown Seattle. While a lot of storefronts are still closed and boarded up, some signs of life can be seen. Many vendors at Pike Place Market are still going strong. Construction on the waterfront is proceeding. And people are coming back. If we can keep the fourth surge of Covid cases at bay, we might have a good summer.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/04/18/downtown-jaunt/
Apr 11
Southpaw in the Kitchen
As with many tasks, cooking can be problematic for those of us who are left-handed. Can openers, liquid measuring cups, kitchen shears, and instant-read thermometers are built for right-handed people. There used to be a store in Pike Place Market that carried items for left-handed folks, but it disappeared 10-15 years ago. Probably the rent got too damn high. Nevertheless, I persist.
Julian decided he needed to replace his roux-stirring implement, a flat-bladed wooden tool properly known as a spurtle. He found a slotted one at Williams Sonoma, but wasn’t happy with it. A little searching revealed a company that makes spurtles specifically for making Cajun-style roux. He showed me his purchase. I took one look and said, “That’s for right-handed stirring.” He smiled and pulled a second one out of his back pocket: “They make left-handed ones, too.”
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/04/11/southpaw-in-the-kitchen/
Apr 10
The Appliance Shuffle
In the six years since we bought Casa Sammamish, we’ve replaced the microwave/ventilation fan, range, refrigerator, rice cooker, espresso machine, sink, garbage disposal, gas grill, and coffee grinder. This means our dishwasher has a large target on it.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/04/10/the-appliance-shuffle/
Mar 28
Farm Girls Gotta Farm
Farming is the ultimate faith-based pursuit. Last year’s debacle (documented here) should have deterred me from further efforts. Nevertheless, I persist.
Last week we went to Sky Nursery in search of herbs and other plants. It’s still a bit early to put peppers, basil, and such outside, so I restrained myself to hardier crops. I got two types of mint, two types of chives, and rau ram (alias Vietnamese coriander). I also bought two varieties of fuchsias and three types of ferns for the shady planters out front. Last year deer or rabbits savaged the impatiens. I hope the critters don’t go after the ferns. I needed some potting soil and compost. The latter had all sorts of tasty ingredients in it, including bat guano.
This afternoon I decided to repot most of my purchases. It was raining and windy, but the planters on the north side of the condo are sheltered from the wind. I made reasonably quick work of the planting, mostly in an attempt to stay warm. My next door neighbor, the Master Gardener, came home while I was working. She observed, “This is an unusual day to be planting.” My response, “The ferns don’t mind.”
I’ll need to get some more potting soil before I repot anything else. (Those large bags don’t go very far.) I’ll check out what Yakima Fruit Market has in store. It usually has nice petunias. I’m also thinking about a bleeding heart or two for the planter boxes. Stay tuned.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/03/28/farm-girls-gotta-farm/
Mar 13
The Portrait
A large package arrived from my sister. Julian hoped it was more Junior’s cheesecake, as Terry knows how much he likes it. Usually QVC sends that directly to us. In addition, the package was way too big for even Junior’s largest confection. After digging through about a month’s worth of upstate New York newspapers, this is what I found:
It’s a picture of my mother, taken when she was a little girl. I needed a place to hang it, since most of our windows face south and it would get bleached fast. Luckily, the portrait fit on the wall to the left of my desk. Mom never got to visit Casa Sammamish. She was unsteady on her legs and didn’t want to repeat the fall she took in our garage on her last visit to Seattle. In a way, she finally made it here.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/03/13/the-portrait/
Feb 28
Pizza Night
While ordering pizza is easy, making it isn’t particularly difficult. Making your own allows you to get the crust as thin or thick as you like. You can add a little whole wheat flour, or even sourdough starter. You can also put whatever you’ve got in the fridge or cupboard on the pie.
Tonight’s pizza was relatively unadorned: Canned pasta sauce, mozzarella cheese, and kalamata olives. I made the dough in the morning. I used a Mark Bittman recipe that came together in the food processor. I added a little Yeast Mode for flavor more than leavening. In retrospect, I probably should have used more all-purpose flour rather than bread flour. The resulting dough was quiet glutenous. After a while it covered the bottom of the half sheet pan. I added the toppings and baked for about 15 minutes. An easy dinner.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/02/28/pizza-night/
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