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Posts tagged ‘bread’

Feb 29

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Pretzel buns (All Whisked Up swap)

Pretzel-rolls

It’s time for another All Whisked Up! I’m one of the founding members of Wisconsin Whisk, and every few months we randomly assign blogs to feature one another’s recipes and to introduce our readers to other local sites. Perhaps, for some of us, it also helps us commit to writing a little more often … (apologies, apologies).

This round I was pleased to be assigned to All Food Considered, a Madison-area blog from T.J. Thering. T.J.’s background in engineering gives him a particularly methodical approach to his content and, as his title might suggest, the site’s recipe index covers an impressive array of cuisines and techniques. My favorite part of his site is his collection of 31 culinary lessons, including his advice on kitchen equipment, an overview of ingredient substitutions, and a detailed guide to eggs (as many of you know, my absolute favorite food). This is the sort of content I’ve always intended to develop here on my own site, but T.J. has actually made it happen – perfect for the beginning cook, someone looking for answers to basic cooking questions, couples putting together a registry, or a recent college graduate looking for how to stock and use their first real kitchen. Read more

Mar 16

3 Comments

Workshop recap: Foodcrafting 101 (more goat’s milk, please)

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time lately attending workshops and classes across the LA area, and despite the driving time I’ve been more than happy to spend my time meeting new colleagues and learning new skills. I spent this past Saturday with my hands deep in yeast, strawberries, mustard seeds, and fresh goat’s milk at the Institute of Domestic Technology‘s Foodcrafting 101 workshop, and it was certainly the best yet.

The workshop was hosted by the beautiful Zane Grey Estate in Altadena, a private residence that also functions as an urban micro-dairy and goat farm. Among those beautiful goats (seriously, they were beautiful) our group enjoyed farmstead meals, more goat milk than we could drink (so incredibly delicious, and very different than the store-bought stuff, which I’ve honestly never liked much), and five hours of in-depth instruction from the Institute’s talented instructors. An hour making bread, another hour jamming and canning, some great time mingling with goats and learning about the operation of the dairy, then two more hours making homemade mustard and fresh chevre (those last two after a delicious farm-style lunch, capped off with a warm chocolate chip cookie and fresh raw goat’s milk).

Dining_room

Schedule

Bread_workshop

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Apr 25

11 Comments

Koulouri-Cypriot village bread

We’ve been pretty busy around here lately – exhaustingly, chaotically busy, to tell you the truth.  Cooking has required obnoxiously meticulous planning of shopping and timelines, which can get pretty tiring. But yesterday was more low-key than most days have been and I finally had the luxury of picking up a cookbook and picking something, somewhat at random. In need of some dinner to go with our ham-and-eggs leftovers dinner plans, I picked up for the first time our copy of 100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood, which I chose out of a bookstore sale bin one day a couple of years ago. You already have a sense of my hesitancy for those types of books, but every book on the shelf deserves a good chance (besides, I’ve got this pesky List to deal with). Read more

Sep 11

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The joy of the challenge

{Note, April 13, 2013: Not sure why this post from three years ago was just republished on RSS feeds, and I’m not sure how to remove it … there are some great recipes here (but some incredibly old/poor quality photos), so you may want to revisit this post, but it’s not a new one! Sorry about that …}

I’d say about 75 percent of the time that I’m cooking, I like to do something just beyond my comfort level. Whether it’s doing a recipe I’ve never done before or changing one I know in a way that makes it slightly different, I generally like to learn a little something new when I’m cooking. But every once in a while – usually on a fairly empty weekend day, or when we have people over for dinner – I like to do something really new and different, or something that scares me a little. That’s part of the reason I put together Food List 2010 – to push me to make the more challenging things I want to have as a part of my arsenal. I figure this strategy will help me learn not only to cook the more everyday items with skill and comfort, but will also lend me the ability to reach out every once in a while and try something a little more ambitious with some reasonably certain rate of success. Read more