Happy Cinco de Mayo! Be sure to put on a flat-brimmed hat festooned with dingle balls and bust out your maracas as you fasten your apron. Hominy is an ingredient I had never used before this dish, and probably in a trivia game would have confused with something liturgical, or musical. It is a Mexican […]
Tag: bake this day our daily bread
Rustic Whole-Wheat Pillows and Three Hens
I will never again be able to use the phrase “just us chickens” figuratively, because now I actually have chickens. Three to be precise: an Americauna named Betty White, a Lohmann Brown named Lucille, and a Plymouth Rock, my favorite, Quest Love. We rescued these ladies from Farmer Wayne who kept them alive in the […]
Gluten-Free Raspberry-Ginger Muffins
Let me be clear. I absolutely believe in gluten. BUT, I honor those around me who believe differently and who are biologically intolerant. I have now several times brought my baked goods to parties where they are not welcome. SO, I have decided to conduct a few trial runs in the world of gluten-free baking. […]
Pane Integrale con Miele
Honey and wheat and yeast— it doesn’t get much more Earthy than that. Happy Earth Day. Pane Integrale con Miele Adapted from The Italian Baker Starter ½ cup sourdough starter 2/3 cup warm water 1 ½ cups unbleached bread flour Stir starter into water, add flour and mix into a fine paste. Let rise, covered, […]
Cranberry Orange Hot Cross Buns
Don’t worry, I have no such medical analogy or educational tidbit on febrile gluteal folds to share with this special Sourdough Surprises edition post on hot crossed buns, though, I was tempted. I am keeping my off-color humor in check as we commemorate the resurrection of our Lord, how’s that? In fact, the cross on […]
Chocolate Sheet Cake
Finally made a pilgrimage to The Penzeys Spices store in the Twin Cities, a Minnesotan Mecca for foodies, where I not only got a free mug that states one of my chief life mantras: Love to Cook; Cook to Love, and free Pizza Spice (whatever that is) but I also had the chance to thank […]
Pane di Patate
I knew this would happen. I went to Iowa City and began to scratch the itch where my second book wants to break through the skin and into the world. There isn’t enough Benadryl at CVS to suppress it, and now, before the first book has been properly labored and birthed into being, here I […]
Sauteed Shrimp with Gremolata and Spiced Butter and Tacos
Let us remember…that in the end we go to poetry for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live them, and that if we more fully inhabit these things, we might be less apt to destroy both. Christian Wiman. Happy Poetry Month, y’all. Examined […]
Pane al Pesto and Bilious Emesis
The preparation of this bread begs a thoughtful reflection on green vomitus–bilious emesis–(words which sound like honorary degrees at Hogwarts) in the context of my current assignment in the pediatric emergency department (where Frozen’s hit song “Let It Go!” blares from personal DVD players behind every curtain in contention with the equally unsettling sounds of […]
Crescia al Formaggio and Molding
Molding. Usually we use this word as a gerund for the verb most applicable to cheese and nearly all outdoor surfaces in the Pacific Northwest. This week I’ve been using it more architecturally, in a corporeal sense. “Crown molding” now has fresh significance as something we assess during every newborn physical exam. When we arrive into […]