Flawed Lessons

We're getting closer to Spring!

I made flour tortillas this week to have along side a black bean soup. Traditionally they are made with lard, but I used vegetable shortening instead and I think they still tasted pretty good. They were also super easy, the dough was so soft and easy to roll out it felt like it took no real effort to make them. The recipe that I used mentioned that because they had baking soda in them they were more Tex Mex than traditional Mexican and so I think I will try omitting it next time to see the difference.

The recipe is from Shared Appetite.

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons vegetable shortening

1 and 1/4 cups warm water

 

Mix all the dry ingredients together and then cut in shortening. Once the mixture is crumbly add in the warm water until a sticky dough forms. Knead the dough on the countertop until it is no longer sticky, a couple minutes.

 

Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest 20 minutes. Pinch off ping pong size balls and cover them again and let rest for another 10 minutes.

 

Roll out the first one, preheat a dry skillet over medium-low heat and cook a minute or two a side until golden. Roll out the second one while the first one cooks and so on until they are done. I wrapped them in foil and kept them in the warming drawer until they were all done and we were ready to eat.

 

They were pretty simple and mixed together easily, of course it's always easier with a helper.

There was a little kneading, but only for a couple minutes.

I tried my tortilla press but, as suggested, they were too thick and so I just rolled them out, it took a couple minutes for each one. I got 18 small ones out of the this recipe.

 

 

On my stove I started them at 5 and then turned the pan down to 31/2 after a couple and they browned quite nicely and quickly there.

 

 

We had them with black bean soup.

1 Tbsp Grape seed oil
2 onions, chopped
4 (large) cloves of garlic pressed
2 Tbsp cumin
Pinch of salt
3 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
3 ripe tomatoes
1/2 cup green salsa
1/2 cup cilantro
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp of Miso

Saute the onions in the grape seed oil until soft with a pinch of salt and the cumin. Add the garlic when they are just about soft and cook for a couple minutes. Add the black beans and cover with water (about three cups), bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. Meanwhile cut the tomatoes in half and whirl them up in the food processor with the salsa, cilantro and salt until liquid. Add this to the beans and pure the entire soup. If you like, add another cup of black beans whole, take out a small bowl of soup and dissolve the Miso paste in it and then stir into the rest of the soup.

Dance Break...

 

 

Sleepy Time...

 

We let Hannah stay up for the last Jet's game, once she found out they were out for sure - she didn't feel the need to watch the end.

Do you ever have those days where you cook all day and at the end of the day you end up with pretty well nothing? Yeah, I hate those days, although today ended on a high note. On the agenda today was crackers for a party that I'm going to tomorrow, bread and ravioli.

I made the bread and let it rise by the front window where it was nice and warm while I made the dough for the crackers, which needed to rest before being rolled out and cooked.

The long and the short of it is that I forgot about the bread which rose and fell, and I threw it out in frustration. Dave told me after that he thought I could have rerolled and let it rise again - oops.

The crackers turned out to be easy enough to make and good except, I didn't have any fresh rosemary and so I added dried, but not thinking, used the same amount as I would have fresh which was obviously, well just gross.

The ravioli was the last thing on the list to make, and it was for dinner. By the time I was ready to roll it out and make the fillings I was fully frustrated and kinda wishing I had planned peanut butter sandwiches for dinner. But then this kind of magical, wonderful thing happened.

Dave rolled out the first sheet of pasta. Hannah asked to help roll out the pasta.

Then of course Harper wanted to help too.

I was racing against the clock and paying little attention to what was happening, my ravioli looking huge and ridiculous with very little filling. I burned my hand and wasn't really paying very close attention that the sheets were too thick and quite honestly I would be kinda embarrassed to show pictures of them here, I'm not kidding some of them were as large as the palm of my hand, except that we all made them together. Sometime after burning my hand I realized how everyone had pitched in, and stopped to appreciate this wonderful chaotic rhythm we'd fallen into.

When I decided I wanted to make as much at home as possible it was for our health and of course the challenge. I want to know and understand the ingredients that we are putting in our bodies. Because of this, I have also switched over to purchasing some organic produce. This is always a little painful on the bank account, but if it's possible I think it's worth it. My main focus is to stay away from the dirty dozen. I was really frustrated because I couldn't find organic grapes and strawberries, a usual staple in our fridge, and was thinking I'd have to buy non organic ones. As I was heading for the green grapes it suddenly occurred to me that I could just forgo buying them, it was like an epiphany. I know, ridiculous, of course I could just not buy them, but I think that I'm not alone in this thinking. I think that we have become so accustom to the convenience of our food that we (and I'm generalizing here, of course there are tons and tons of people who have made this realization long ago), don't even really think about it.

Hannah and Dave just finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory together and she was amazed at the part where he gets a chocolate bar for his birthday and makes it last a whole month, starting by smelling it, then only having a tiny nibble each day. Of course it fascinated her, she lives in a time (and a socioeconomic bracket) where food is never ending, the fridge is always full and when we run out of something we just run out to the grocery store and buy it. If we run out of time to make something, we can run out to the store and buy it as well. Although a month for a chocolate bar is a little extreme and not what I'm suggesting, but the lesson is there. Start making your own bread and suddenly that loaf of bread becomes very precious, time and energy went into mixing it and kneading it. The poorly executed ravioli that we had for dinner tonight was delicious, even though it was thick and heavy (OK, perhaps delicious is the wrong word here), but we all ate it happily and decided that it was still better than store bought. The leftovers did not go in the garbage, but tucked away in the fridge for a lunch tomorrow.

My Memere use to tell the story about how when she was a girl on the farm her and her siblings wanted some ice cream and so they made it from scratch. The first step for them was to milk the cow. I'm not suggesting we get a cow, and I realize that being at home with an almost four year old affords me certain time luxuries that others don't have, but I would like to be a little closer to the cow milking ice cream and a little further from those Drumstick thingies. It is more than a challenge, it is a lesson in patience, appreciation and effort.

So here is our flawed, heavy ravioli in all it's homemade glory...

 

 

I think that perhaps, we are going to have a spring after all...

 

 

 





Let's hope spring is here to stay and the sun shines down on all of us!

 



Pasta and Granola (but not together)

So, I don't really eat cereal. I prefer toast and peanut butter or toast and eggs for breakfast. Dave and the girls eat cereal every morning, even mornings where we make pancakes or waffles they still start out with a bowl of cereal, Multi grain Cheerios to be precise. I feel the need to make them stop eating this! I know, it's probably not fair, but I just feel like it's unhealthy so I made granola. It went over really well at first, but then they asked for Cheerios yesterday morning and my heart sank, the girls, not Dave, but I am hoping I can still sway them away from the Cheerios (it will be easier when they finish the ones we have in the house).

I had no idea granola was so easy to make. The first batch I made just with what we had around the house and it wasn't nearly as good as this last batch. I looked at this recipe from Catherine Newman as well as the one from Eating From the Ground Up and came up with this one that seems to work for us.

10 cups oats
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup ground flax
2 cups chopped whole almonds
1 cup unsweetened coconut
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1 cup honey (although I will try Maple Syrup next time)

Preheat over to 250F.

Mix all the dry ingredients together and then mix in the coconut oil and honey.

 

 

Once all the dry bits are mixed in, spread out on two parchment lined baking sheets and bake for an hour and a half, shifting it around a bit in the pan and turning the pans every 1/2 hour.

After the hour and a half turn the oven off and let it cool completely, I did this in an afternoon and left in the oven until morning. In the morning I pulled it out and there were lots of chunky granola goodness. Store in an airtight container. Dave eats it plain, Hannah and Harper like to add raisins and a little dried apple, I like a small bowl as a snack with banana.

Sam Roberts in playing in the background (Me and Julio) on CBC, the girls are anxiously waiting for Busytown Mysteries to come on and have thanked me twice for letting them watch TV this morning (we have come to a time where we feel comfortable having both girls get up and watch TV while we sleep a little later - Hallelujah!). I am enjoying an uninterrupted cup of coffee, the kitchen is littered with various dishes and bits of breakfast food here and there, we are all still in our PJ's and the sun is shinning outside. It's Friday and Hannah's off today, what a treat!

Hannah loves having days off school and I love having her home, I take these days to try and say yes every chance I get, we never get anything that needs to be done, and there usually involves some baking and cooking. Plus, there's someone to play with Harper and I often get more than a few minutes to myself here and there. The best part is, we all know it's a treat, even though we never actually say it, and are all light of spirit. The only down sides are that Dave's not home and that when Hannah has a day off, that usually means that Harper has the day off preschool the day before. Harper does not enjoy days off. Wednesday night my heart broke for her as she tried to understand why she didn't get to go to preschool the next morning, and she eventually fell asleep on top of me, with her face buried into my neck and her little body still sobbing. It was really sad, school is the highlight of her week, well that and lunch. Harper asks if it's lunch time from the moment we drop Hannah off at the bus stop (I often feel that way too, wishing for lunch the moment after I take the last bite of my breakfast).

After a small bout of craziness where I had to insist the girls play outside to exert some of the energy that was busting the seams of the house, we baked. Before we baked, I looked out the window to see my two darling girls pounding a downspout drainpipe into the snow in the middle of the front yard. I went outside and asked them not to take parts off of our house and play with them. Hannah responded, "It wasn't attached, it was just laying there" to which I actually had to respond, "Please don't take parts that have already fallen off our house and play with them." This category actually encompasses more than just this drainpipe...perhaps the kitchen wasn't the smart choice of where our house needs improving - but it does make us the most happy! After this, we baked.

 

 

 

 

I think I have posted this little cookbook before, which Dave's parents bought for Hannah. She has been known to sneak it over to my parent's and ask them to bake with her. She has also mentioned she needs to know where it is for Grammie and Grampie's upcoming visit. The cookie recipe in it is really great because it only makes 10 cookies! Brilliant!

While the dough rested the girls decided to make kites and fly them outside. Hannah complained that she just couldn't seem to keep hers up and Harper's advice was, "lift your arm higher!" She then looked me square in the face and said, "Hey, I named my kite John!" and ran off around the car.

As they ran around with sheer glee I couldn't help to think of the child that died in Boston this past week, the havoc, the craziness, the sadness, the loss. Dave keeps texting me about the hunt that is taking place today, how they are in lock down and I wonder, how is it that these things happen? Why does it feel like the world's gone crazy when there is such joy and innocence that exists? My prayers and thoughts go out to all those affected.

I have been a little worried and excited about Friday night's pasta all week. I borrowed my parents pasta maker and it has been sitting on the counter, taunting me. So today, while the girls flew their kites, I dumped the flour on the counter, poured the salt and eggs into the middle and started to mix.

14oz flour
4 eggs
pinch of salt

From Eating From the Ground Up.

There were many moments when I was pretty sure I wasn't doing it right, but wondered how I might be doing it wrong.

 

 

It all mixed in and after breaking a sweat kneading it (don't let that scare you, I break a sweat pretty easily - too much info?), it became all uniform and I was able to divide it into 5, lay it to rest, covered in plastic for thirty minutes.

I then rolled it out with the pasta machine, with a little help.

When I put it through the cutting side, and I first saw the little strands of spaghetti my heart skipped a beat, *blush* is that maybe an embarrassing omission? Well it did, I was so excited! I made pasta and it wasn't even really very hard.

Now, I refuse to buy a proper pasta drying rack until I know I'm going to continue to make it so I draped it over various racks that I had around.

When Dave came home and I had a pot of water boiling I was suddenly nervous again, will it really work? I dropped all the pasta in and it cooked, doesn't it look...like real pasta!

 

When it came out I mixed it with a little sauce and voila it was gobbled up! Raved about! Hannah declared, "This is probably better because it's homemade!"

 

 

 

 

I had been roasting tomatoes for the sauce all afternoon, so it even smelt like an Italian restaurant!

For the sauce I lined a roasting dish with tin foil and squished in as many halved deseeded Roma tomatoes I could. I drizzled them with olive oil and whole cloves of garlic (depending on how garlicky you like it, I used a whole head of garlic), a sprinkle of salt and roasted them in a 200F oven for 6 hours. When they were ready I put them in the food processor with a cube of pesto I had in the freezer. The sauce turned out a little thick and so I thinned it with a little olive oil and cooking water from the pasta. It was still a thicker sauce and I just mixed in a little at a time to coat the pasta. It was yum and then I froze the rest!

When I reread this post before publishing, I moved around the part about Boston, finding it awkwardly sandwiched into our day and wanting to mention it, but not in any way wanting to seem flip about it. I realized there was no easy way to add it. It's not clean and neat, it doesn't fit into a certain part of the blog or our lives. It is messy and scary and sad, it horrifies us and then we must carry on with our days and lives. Count ourselves lucky that we don't live there or haven't lost any loved ones, count ourselves unlucky that this is the world that we live in, where a whole continent is rocked by the actions of a couple. It creeps into our day, finds us in some of our joyess moments and reminds us of how our worlds can be shattered in an instant. I wish that I had proper words or prayers to help those that have been so closely, emotionally and physically affected, I don't. But, I do hope and pray for them and all of us...

I Have Been Missing YOU.

I have been thinking of you. I know it seems like I haven't, I teetered and tottered last summer, a post here, a miss there, and then all together I disappeared into the bowels of a renovation that took longer than expected (of course, we expected that...?) and sucked all my energy. But I have been thinking about you, but not quite wanting to delve back into the old blog and not ready to explore something new. Let's be clear here, it's still all about food and parenting that is my life right now, and that I love.

Dave has recently procured a book from the library for me called, The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila. I decided to peruse it the other day and found myself completely inspired and feeling the need for a cup of tea, as I felt like her and I were having a really good little visit. I have always wanted to make more of the items that we stock, I always feel a pang of guilt when I open that can of beans or chickpeas and shutter a bit as I watch Harper squeeze out the bought mayonnaise on her fresh tomato sandwich, so this seemed like the perfect challenge and direction for me to start blogging again. Over the next year I am going to try and convert us over to as many homemade things as possible. We did build a whole new kitchen, so I should probably find some good things to do in it.

As for our life here, we still have lots of finishing to do, a basement that is littered with stuff a long with actual piles of cement chunks from when we cut up the floor. The garage is full to the rafters with garbage bags, old doors, sink etc on one side and tools and trim on the other. We are not back to normal, but we like to turn a blind eye and pretend we are, because that's what's working for us right now. We have settled into a routine in the past month of playing all kinds of games with the girls from Farkle and Pass the Pigs to Uno and SkipBo, we never miss a Jets game and on Friday nights we can be found snuggled on the couch together watching Africa (if there's not a Jets game on, of course). Life's good.

Hannah is in her last term of grade one and I am trying to come to terms with the fact that there is no baby left and hasn't been for a long time. She is not a toddler, or preschooler and really not even a "little" anymore. She's loosing teeth and the new ones seems too big but the baby ones seem woefully too small, she is all limbs it seems, her eyes roll at me and some days there is just the hint of attitude and other days I feel like I'm dealing with a thirteen year old. But, through all the awkwardness and attitude that seems to come along with asserting yourself and finding your place, this beautiful, generous soul always seems to shine through and some days she teaches me more than I feel I will ever teach her.

Harper loves school and I fear she is going to be crushed when she realizes that her preschool classes will be done a month before Hannah's. Her and I have become two peas in a pod during the day. We have settled into a routine that at times feels a little bit lazy, but after the past six months I'm alright with that. We normally have a busy morning of "getting stuff done" or preschool for her and a run for me depending on the day, and then we fill our afternoons with lunch and stories and games and puzzles. As Mother Nature has been in a weird funk this year, this has been working for us. Plus, Harper is a really easy going child, as long as I do whatever she wants exactly when she wants me to, so the afternoon gives us both a bit of a break in frustration.

This morning we woke up to about 5cm of snow and it has been coming down all day. Happy Spring? I have gone from one end of the spectrum to the other of trying to deny it to refusing to stick my nose out there if I don't have to, the whole city/province feels the same way. So instead I made this for dinner....

Both of these recipes are from my new favorite source, Alana Chernila who also has a blog you should check out called, Eating From the Ground Up.

This bread recipe is from her book, The Homemade Pantry. What I love about this recipe is that it has to sit in the fridge for at least 24 hours or up to 3 days before you form it into loaves and let it rise. I feel like this just takes the time commitment out of it. Often I can do the first part but am not going to be around for when the rising time is done and they have to go in the oven. I kind of wonder if I can do this with any bread recipe. We loved the texture and denseness of these loaves, but I would really like to try a multi grain bread.

6 1/4 cups whole wheat flour, plus additional for the counter
1 Tbsp kosher salt
5 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup canola oil
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water (90F to 100F)
1 1/4 cups lukewarm milk, whole or 2 % (90F to 100F)
1 1/2 Tbsp dry active yeast

Whisk together the flour, salt, and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and canola oil, then combine the lukewarm water and milk in a separate small bowl, Check the mixture with the thermometer to make sure it's at the right temperature, then whisk in the yeast until it is mostly dissolved. Add both the egg and milk mixtures to the dry ingredients.

If using a mixer, fit it with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed for about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and let the dough sit in the bowl for 5 minutes. Change to the dough hook and mix on medium-low speed for 2 minutes. The dough should be slightly elastic and a bit sticky. If it feels really wet, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of flour, and if it is so hard that your mixer is stressed, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of room temperature water. Continue to mix with the dough hook for another 4 minutes, increasing the speed for the last few seconds. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured counter. If mixing by hand, follow the same timing and texture recommendations as the mixer instructions. Use a large wooden spoon and mix vigorously, making sure to incorporate all of the flour and beat up the dough as you stir.

Knead the dough a few times, then do what Peter Reinhart calls a "stretch and fold" - reach under the front end of the dough, stretch it out then fold it onto the top of the dough. Now, repeat from the back end of the dough, as well on each side. Flip the dough, shape it into a ball, cover with a clean, damp dish towel, and let sit for 10 minutes. Repeat the stretch and fold process, cover, and let it rest for another 10 minutes. Stretch and fold one more time and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Lightly grease a large mixing bowl, place the dough into it, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours, and up to 3 days. Over time, you will probably see bubbles in the dough - this is the fermentation that will give the bread its flavor.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator 3 hours before you bake. Turn it out on a lightly floured counter and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a sandwich loaf by flattening it out into a rectangle about 5 x 8 inches. Starting with the narrow side of the rectangle, roll it up into a log. Pinch the seam closed and give the log a few rolls on the counter to even it out. Make sure that the shape it fairly regular, and that the ends of the log aren't narrower than the center. Place the logs into two greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pans, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and allow to rise at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, or until the dough is 1 inch above the rim of the pan.

Preheat the over to 350F when the dough looks almost ready to bake. Remove the wrap and bake the loaves in the center of the over the 40 to 50 minutes, turning the pans halfway through baking. They are done when the tops are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. Turn the pans to release the loaves immediately and let cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour before cutting.

The lovely, easy, simple soup was from her blog here. Dave came home with a butternut squash about a month ago from a woman he use to work with that has a huge garden from which she benefits all year long, but she confessed she couldn't possibly eat one more squash. It has been on and off the menu every week since, just never quite fitting in. Today when I knew I'd be baking bread and the snow was falling it felt like the perfect opportunity. I did slightly alter the recipe, it's so simple that seems impossible, but she suggests finishing it off with a little milk or cream and really it was so creamy and lovely that there was no need.

Butternut Squash, halved - I used two
4 garlic cloves and 2 sage leaves per half squash that you are using
salt and pepper
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400F. Half the squash, clean out the seeds into a bowl and then place them face down on a baking tray sliding 4 garlic cloves and 2 sage leaves into each hollow of each half. Bake until soft, about an hour.

Meanwhile clean the seeds, toss with a little olive oil and salt and bake on a pan until they start to pop, about 15 minutes.

When the squash is ready let it cool and then scoop it out into a pot with the garlic and sage and use a submersion blender to mix it up adding water as you go until it is the desired consistency, season with salt and pepper and serve topped with seeds. If your submersion blender has broken and you keep forgetting to buy a new one, like me, do it up in the food processor and then warm it and stir in the water in the pot.

I am hoping that we will be warm and snug with fresh bread and warm soup in our bellies and tomorrow maybe it will stop snowing (and the sun will shine down on you)!!!