11 foods I'm supposedly not eating

The NY Times did a story that Men's Health originally did about the 11 foods "you" aren't eating. Taken literally, I hope you're not eating them now, because few of these foods would be welcome as you interact with the computer!

Here's the story.

How accurate are they? Are you eating some of the foods they list? Do you disagree?

1. Beets: YES – especially beet treat and grated on salads.
2. Cabbage: YES – especially in ground nut stew.
3. Swiss chard: YES
4. Cinnamon: YES, on oatmeal. Maybe I’ll splurge on that now.
5. Pomegranate juice: no. It doesn’t come in the CSA.
6. Dried plums: no. Do dried figs or dates give me any credit?
7. Pumpkin seeds: rarely.
8. Sardines: no
9. Turmeric: sometimes, again, now I’ll splurge and add extra when it goes in the curry.
10. Frozen blueberries: yes, if I can remember to eat them, which isn’t often.
11. Canned pumpkin: no, but I eat fresh ones in the fall, once in my bread (see the blog photo at top).
So I get 6/11, better than half but not great.

And I have a feeling my score will drop unless I find a CSA in the US.

How do you score?

CSA pizza

I made sourdough pizza crust last night as we had some friends over who just got married. Since our CSA is stocking us with lots of veggies, many went on the pizza. The sauce was sauteed (fresh, non seasoned) garlic with diced tomatoes added and cooked for a while, then honey and balsamic vinegar (tasty sauce!). Then I put garlic, 5-minute steamed broccoli, tomatoes, pesto, and basil in varying combinations on 3 pizzas.

No leftovers.

No surprise.

My son ate three pieces of pesto pizza, which is lately a favorite of his.

It was joyous, with wine that they brought and port afterwards to toast the newlyweds.

Sourdough best of breads? I knew that.

There was a study on whole-wheat vs. white vs. sourdough bread. Guess which one won? Sourdough!

http://health.lifestyle.yahoo.ca/channel_health_news_details.asp?news_id=15727&news_channel_id=1055&channel_id=1055

Whole wheat lost, interestingly, to white bread as well as sourdough.

Rye with oats

Tried a nice batch this past week. I made a sponge from my starter by adding 1 cup starter, then ~2 cups rye flour and ~2 cups water. I let that sit all day.

Then (three times, well once doubled and once a bit more than singled) I took 1/2 cup water mixed with with 2+1/4 t yeast, then 1 cup of sponge, 1 T sugar (we are out of honey), 2 T oil, 1/2 t salt with 2 cups all purpose flour. Kneaded a bit, let rise 1.5-2 hours or so, baked at 350 degrees for 30 min. One loaf I added 1/4 cup oats.

All were good. We ate a loaf and a half for that meal (my house has 11 occupants, plus a guest). The rest was finished within 24 hours.

Sourdough image

This is some sourdough I made, the left loaf has squash in it and is a bit sweeter.

Sourdough Pizza

So I seem to never write in this blog and when I do it seems never to be about sourdough. So here's proving both points wrong, at least for today.

I made sourdough pizzas on Monday which werethe best I'd ever made. Due to living in a community house with 7 adults, 3 children, 1 unborn child, 1 cat, and 1 dog, I decided to make four pizzas. Two usually sufficed in our last house for us and another family, but this is a different scale. And leftovers are never unwelcome, least of all pizza leftovers.

Since I tutor from 4-5:30, I needed to get going really early on the pizza, and would prefer to be cooking earlier anyway, as I'm better then and the kitchen and downstairs are less zany. So I got some sourdough out and made a sponge (1 cu. sourdough starter + 3 cups water + 3 cups flour) on Sunday night.

On Monday morning I made the dough (equal parts sponge and flour with a little salt and olive oil). I forgot to add whole wheat flour at the point, darn! And I didn't seem to have enough for four pizzas. So I asked my wife to get another frozen pizza crust (unbaked) when she was out, which she willingly did, along with toppings.

So the dough rested for the morning of Monday and I made them into pizza shaped shells after lunch. They then sat until after tutoring at 5:30pm. This allowed the dough to actually rise, which was great. The dough was less dense, more airly than usual. I was happy that my dough did better than the store-bought one, even though it was on the pizza stone (we only have one, and don't know where it came from).

The stone isn't seasoned and this is most of the problem. The pizza stone has a wooden circular sheet with a handle that is excellent for lifting the pizza off the pan/stone and cutting, then returning for serving (since I needed it more). Nothing cuts pizza so well as an ulu knife.

I had a problem coming up with ingredients. I finally arrived at 1/2 sausage (for the meat eaters in our house)- 1/2 cheese (for the children who don't eat anything unlike my son); tomato and mushroom (the standby, I love that); tuna and olives (thanks Mom, her idea); and pesto and sundried tomato (my wife's idea on the sundried tomatoes, and also her potent pesto).

It was a hit, and everyone had plenty, plus plenty the next day.

Sourdough success!

With Molasses

Today I tried a new thing with my sourdough: using molasses. It's exciting stuff, turning the bread such a rich amber color. It's been a while since I've made sourdough, I had a scare.

About 6 weeks ago, I decided to start making sourdough everyday, and leaving the starter unrefridgerated. This meant I could make lots of sourdough, and that I spent some time making bread each day (with Sundays off and a few other days, too, when there just wasn't time). When I don't make it, I either save a cup and feed it, or just refridgerate the day before.

Well, some of it went too long unrefridgerated when I went on a trip with friends, and it turned bad. It smelled not quite of rotten eggs, but in that direction. Something in the vinegary direction as far as smells are concerned. Then, my other starter, which was ok, but still out of the fridge, started smelling more and more like that. My family was visiting and I didn't want to deal with sourdough stress, so I fed it and put it back in the fridge. I haven't tried to use it again.

But my backup starter, which I used today, smells fine.

Thomasina, a friend who also makes sourdough and many other breads (who is part of my inspiration for using molasses), said that it does sour up quite a bit after a few weeks out of the fridge. She said to split the starter and feed it more to reduce the sourness. It gets alcoholy.

I also ran out of yeast, so I tried a few times just letting it rise with the sourdough as levening. Worked ok, sourer bread, and lighter, fluffier. 8-12 hours rising I allowed.

Intro to Sourdough

This is my sourdough bread blog. Here, I'll post what's happening to my bread and different things I'm trying with it.