Winter Bread Baking

It's January and cold outside with temperatures expected to drop into the single digits this week.  To give the house a cozy feel, I bake bread.  It tastes so good with a dab of butter next to a bowl of soup.  And do I even need to describe in detail the smell of baking bread?  I was debating on whether to include step-by-step instructions for bread making, but I realize there are dozens of blogs with tutorials on this process.  Instead I will briefly introduce the two varieties I make.

By far the easiest bread to make is artisan bread taken from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by: Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.  The name sounds fancy, but the process is actually very straight forward and can be made in a normal oven.  For this bread, the dough is mixed in a container and stored in the refrigerator until baking day.  When you are ready to bake, you grab a cantaloupe-size ball of dough and throw it on a pizza peel to rest for about 40 minutes before sliding it on to a preheated baking stone in the oven.  A cup of water is added to a cast iron skillet in the oven to create that crispy crust that artisan bread is known for.  If you want to impress your friends with homemade bread, this is it!  There are recipes for different flours and other additives.  My family currently enjoys the Italian Semolina Bread.  

Another type of bread I make on occasion is a traditional white bread where the dough rises first in a bowl and then again in a loaf pan.  Different flours can be used in place of all-purpose flour if you choose.  I use a recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookbook.  What ever type of bread you choose to make, it will smell and taste fantastic because you made it. Enjoy!

Back to Basics Winter Reading

We're getting cabin fever here and running out of projects to keep us busy.  Thankfully we are still easily entertained with books, and during a brief stop at the local library, Jon found Back to Basics (copyright 1981) among the gardening books.  Him and I enjoy perusing the pages about pioneering basics that were common knowledge back in the day.  This book was written by the Reader's Digest and contains detailed information accompanied with pictures.  In this book you can learn how to build a home, dig a well, make your own electricity, grow your own food, make cheese, and much much more.  These type of books bring out the pioneering spirit in me because I enjoy learning about the old-fashioned way of doing things; and perhaps I will adopt some of these ideas down the road.

My mother recently sent me The Foxfire Book (copyright 1972) which is part of a series that is also about simple living.  This particular book contains information about building a log cabin, crafts, moonshining, preserving food, churning butter, and more.

Seed Catalogs and Fruit Tree Addictions

It's that time of year...when Jon gets squirrely because seed catalogs arrive in the mail.  "Can we get these...let's try this variety...look at those plump berries...perhaps we can find room for a few more fruit trees..."  These phrases are like mantras repeated in the house until an order is placed and the pages of the catalogs are sufficiently dog-eared.  We only ordered 2 catalogs this year but received others as well.  Hmmm...someone must be selling our information?  For a few weeks now Jon and Paul have spent hours perusing the catalogs and drooling over the pictures.  There must be a support group for those with a spouse addicted to these catalogs!  Now that an order has finally been placed, I did an official count and we now have 26 fruit trees, 14 blueberry plants, and a bunch of other miscellaneous fruits such as kiwis, blackberries, raspberries, honeyberries, etc.!  We may have 17 acres but we are soon running out of open space for everything; so Jon decided to bring the trees inside...we have tropical trees now...lemons, limes, oranges, olives, and tangerines!  I can only imagine the amount of fruit there will be in 10 years....

In addition to the catalogs, Jon is making a seed inventory.  Surprisingly we only have a few vegetables to purchase this year because we saved so many seeds last year. 

Homemade Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

This recipe comes from "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day" ( One of Jon's favorite bread books ). 

Master Dough Recipe

5 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tbsp (2 packets) granulated yeast
1 tbsp kosher salt
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
4 cups lukewarm water

Cinnamon Sugar Bagel Recipe

2 pounds (cantaloupe-size portion) Master Recipe dough (1/2 the batch)
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup raisins

For the boiling pot:

6-8 quarts water
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda

This recipe makes about 8 bagels.

Directions:

1) For the Master Recipe -- throw all the ingredients in a very large container that can be covered and stir until all the flour is incorporated

2) Put the lid on the container and set at room temperature for 2 hours.

3) Put the container in the fridge for an hour or two -- though you an wait up to a week if you want...

4) When you are ready to bake, place your baking stone in the oven and heat the oven to 425F.  Start the boiling water (you can just put all the "boiling pot" ingredients in the pot and stir).

5) Take a cantaloupe sized portion of the Master Recipe and roll it out on a well floured countertop to a 1/4" thickness
6) Mix cinnamon sugar / raisin mixture in a bowl and spread evenly over the top of the dough.

7) Roll the dough into a jelly roll

8) Cut off peach sized portions and squeeze together and eventually push your fingers up through the middle to make a hole.

9) Set bagel on a floured surface

10) Drop bagel into boiling water (I do four at a time) let it sit there for 2 minutes and then flip for another minute on the other side

11) Remove and put on a floured and cornmealed pizza peel or other surface that allows you to easily slide the bagels onto the baking stones in the oven.

12) Bake for 25-35 minutes at 425F (Time depends on how wet the bagels are)

Enjoy the yummy goodness!

Reference Books

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-to Basics Guide by: John Seymour

All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! by: Mel Bartholomew

Keeping Bees and Making Honey by: Alison Benjamin & Brian McCallum

The Backyard Beekeeper by: Kim Flottum

Home Dairy: All You Need to Kow to Make Cheese, Yogurt, Butter & More by: Ashley English

Soapmaking: Self-Sufficiency by: Sarah Ade

The Everything Soapmaking Book by: Alicia Grosso

Made From Scratch by: Jenna Woginrich

Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living by: Rachel Kaplan

The Way to Make Wine: How to Craft Superb Table Wines at Home by: Sheridan F. Warrick

The Solar Food Dryer: How to Make and Use Your Own High-Performance, Sun-Powered Food Dehydrator
by: Eben Fodor

A Year Without "Made in China" Review

After the tea ball experience, I find it fitting to give my opinion of the book,  A Year Without "Made in China" by: Sara Bongiorni.  The author writes about her New Year's Resolution to not purchase any products made in China for an entire year.  I won't give a full review of the book, for reasons of keeping this short, but I felt the book lacked substance.  I am a cynic by nature but the book really started to piss me off!

The book went from one item to another that needed replacing, and the author's struggles with finding replacements not made in China.  The author also focuses the book a lot on gifts to her children.  What the book completely missed was the re-evaluation of how much "stuff" we really need.  Not once does the author consider purchasing a product used or even foregoing the physical gift and giving the gift of experience for someone.  For example, the author's husband wants to purchase a blow-up pool for their son's birthday.  What about using the local pool or looking for a used pool at a garage sale, second-hand store, or Craigslist?  A simple example of reuse is birthday candles. At one point in the book, the author cons her sister into bringing birthday candles to her husband's birthday party because all birthday candles are made in China. She clearly violated the boycott, but then she turns around and throws them away and later uses tea lites for her daughter's birthday because tea lites aren't made in China.  What about reusing the candles----eliminate the waste?!  I have used the same birthday candles for 5 years now and they still have plenty of use left in them.

I was flabbergasted at the sheer amount of gifts the author's children receive throughout the year.  Again, it comes down to values and giving kids toys for everything which only sets the expectation of more toy giving.  It's that word again, STUFF.  How about the author take her children to the Zoo, park, swimming pool, or treat them with ice cream?  Why must she belabor the Made in China products when she's in the store trying to find Halloween decorations, when there are probably fresh pumpkins outside of retail stores and grocery stores in her area?

What about finding alternatives for things and use your creativity?  For example, the author hims and haws over the lack of beach toys her children have at the beach and then proceeds to steal all of the "forgotten" beach toys left on the sand when families leave.  How about using other containers (e.g. yogurt tubs, ice cream pails, etc.) that produce the same or similar effect even if they aren't brightly colored with star fish imprinted on the sides?

Has our ability to be creative in gift giving completely diminished?  Giving the gift of experience has so much more meaning and memories than a plastic figurine, whether it comes from China or not.  I understand that the book was trying to make a point about China globalization, but the book could have had more substance if it evaluated Americans' attachment to stuff; and how we can get the same quality of happiness without all that stuff.   Think of how much time the author spent researching and fretting about trying to find non made in china stuff that could have been directed towards time with her children, volunteering in the community, etc.