Lunch with Mom...sort of

So this is what happens when you walk away from your sandwich for just a minute or two at my house...

Well, one would think that I never feed the little guy, but I do and lots. He just prefers whatever I am eating. This happens to be a liverwurst sandwich...he cannot help himself!

Me Showing off my new apron, cooking attitude and curly hair!

I was in the Mood for Donuts

And I had just read this really good recipe in the local newspaper.  Actually, I cut out the recipe and placed it ever so lovingly in my King Arthur Cookbook.  I always like to compare a couple of recipes before I actually make something for the first time.  I need to know that the basic ingredients are a common thread in several recipes and then I move on with confidence. Well wouldn't you know-- it was happy as a clam right there in my cookbook and the very day I decided I was going to make donuts...right after my nap...

Well, what you see is my cockatiel deciding that the newspaper sticking out of my cookbook needed to be shredded!  So he got through the top margin and the recipe title and almost obliterated the first item on the ingredient list! I made do with what was left.

I think it turned out pretty good!  Not quite as cakey as I would like, but quite edible.

Little did I know the recipe would yield 48 donuts.  Gees!  It's only me here!  So what could I do but try freezing them.  I stuck one in a snack baggie and froze it.  The next day I put it in the microwave for 20 seconds and then in the toaster oven and toasted for about 1.5 minutes.  OMG!  as good as the day I made them!

So it looks like I will have me some really good donuts for quite a while!  Yippee!

Hoopy House

So, I went through a serious bout with lung cancer and came out on the other side. I learned many, many things from that experience. Among them, that you truly ARE what you eat and that WHAT we eat (if we don't pay strict attention) is not all that good for us and indeed, may contribute to serious illness in the body that may be totally unnecessary. While I do not believe my cancer was caused by my diet, I do believe that my diet NOW should be the very best it can be, lest I contract some other malady that does me in.

 And so, I had to convert my raised garden bed to a hoop house garden. Why? Well, the summers here are getting to be so hot that things don't grow. Oh, did I mention that organically grown vegetables are significantly higher in vitamins and much more nutrient dense than those grown in a mono-agriculture farm that is over-dosed with fertilizers? THAT, is why I have the raised bed, and the hoop house will allow me to grow stuff for 10 months out of the year, giving me great fresh and wholesome nutrition just a few steps from my door, whenever I want it.

 Now anyone who knows about hoop houses, knows that they are just gardens covered with a poly film to create a kind of hot house environment to extend the seasons when things get frosty and downright cold. Mine has to do double duty. The summers here in Arkansas have gotten so hot that even watering twice a day, the sun just blisters everything. So I built a hoop house on top of my raised garden, but because I am looking to shield the sun I used a garden shade mesh instead of a poly film. In the cooler months I will switch out the mesh for a poly cover and just keep on keepin' on.

 Here are a couple of pictures of the Summer version of the hoop house.

I'm Smitten

For those of you who have been following for a while, your probably know I am a bit of a foodie. When I saw the movie last year: Julie and Julia, it was becoming more and more clear that I was probably more attached to food than is normal. (It is very hard for me to justify these feelings when I do ANY Buddhist reading) that said...

I just finished reading My Life in France by Alex Prod'homme (a distant cousin to Julia) and am totally awash in recipes and cooking ideas. I received the first volume of Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking for Christmas; I was respectfully scared and intimidated. The best I could do at that time was scan through the book and imagine that one day I might attempt something in it. Now that I have finished My life in, I feel I can page through Mastering a bit more slowly.

Well this may come as a shock but I spent a good hour looking at the recipes in the chapter titled: Eggs

Yes it IS possible to spend an hour thinking about cooking eggs. While I consider my current egg-cookery to be pretty good, the techniques she offers should just push those talents over the top. I am looking forward to trying and reporting on my efforts at (of all things) scrambled eggs. The French do it a bit differently and I can just imagine that the taste will be very much be
better than the already good ones that I currently make. Stay tuned and one day soon I will let you know how I made out.

If the scrambled eggs come out OK, then I will move on to the very intimidating: Omelet!

Oh, I suppose I should tell you that I was scanning the availability of things at Netflix and OF COURSE, the early 60's PBS show of Julia cooking IS there! I can hardly wait!

Doka Coffee Estate, Alajuela, Costa Rica

On the last day of our trip to Costa Rica we visited the Doka Coffee Estate. The weather was perfect for it; blue skies with a cloud here and there, temperature of about 75 degrees and lots of coffee plants all around. We arrived at about 8:30 and had a delicious tipical Costa Rican Breakfast, then toured the facility.

It began with a brief history of how the coffee beans were brought from Jamaica, as a gift from one ruler to another; then given to those landowners who had the ambition to grow the plants and reap the harvest. It did not take long to realize that they had latched on to something fabulous! Costa Rica is one of the worlds largest coffee providers and produces a very fine coffee.

This is the entry to the estate

Here is a shot of a coffee plant with a few beans that are ripe and ready for picking and processing. The beans on any plant do not ripen all at once; so must be revisited several times during the harvest season and all are picked by hand...this is why coffee is expensive.


Here you can see some green (unripe) along side some red (ripe) beans

The picked beans are dried and must reach a given humidity level before being processed further. The warm Costa Rican sunshine is perfect for the job. Here they spread the beans on concrete (specifically designed for this) and then the beans are raked every couple of hours to dry evenly. The become beige and quite light...not at all like the final roasted product.

In the roasting room I got a picture of the texture of the ground coffee that they use to brew coffee here; the texture is a bit finer than the standard canned coffee in the US.

Here is one of the machines that creates the aromas that permeate the entire estate. Just to walk around and breathe in the aromas was worth the price of admission.


Here is an overall shot from the headquarters of the estate...in an area as beautiful as this how could the coffee be bad?

Italian Braided Bread

This one was pretty simple. On day one make a Biga by putting 1 cup of water, 2 cups of flour (8.5oz) and 1/4 teaspoon yeast in a bowl, mix it up and cover. Leave it alone for 12 to 14 hours.

Then add 1/2 cup water, and mix until smooth; then add 2 to 2 1/2 cups flour (8.5 to 10.5 oz) 2 teaspoons of yeast and 1.5 teaspoons of salt; mix it altogether until it forms a mass.

Knead on a floured board for about 5 minutes. Place it in an oiled bowl and cover. Leave at room temperature for about 1.5 hours. Every half hour, turn it gently and tuck under in a kind of gentle knead.

Divide the dough into three equal pieces and roll into 18 inch ropes. Braid the ropes and set the braid on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover it and let it rise for about 1.5 hours. Brush it lightly with egg white wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Place in a preheated 425 degree oven and bake for 25 to 35 minutes.

When golden brown, remove, let cool on a rack and enjoy.

The crust of this bread was very good and the texture sturdy. it is great with butter or toasted or dipping into gravy. Good all purpose bread.

Here are the shots I took while putting it together:

Fig Crop

See, given the title you are probably thinking...figs and lots of them; but alas, no. It really is a fig (singular) crop. BUT, one that I am proud of and happy to say was delicious!

This is the second year for these trees and they are abundant with figs...sadly they will need about another three weeks before they could all ripen and the season is DONE now.

Here is the ONLY ripe fig that I have gotten so far this year. I know it doesn't look like much, but it sure was good! What is nice about figs is that when they are ripe they begin to droop and hang down. I makes it easy to tell if they are ready to eat or not.


See, first you make a little slice almost fully across the top and then peel down, continue around the entire fig until all the skin is gone and only white and the insides are visible. check the inside for insects before eating...ants love these things!








This was incredibly sweet and juicy!

Country Bread

Well, that's the title the new cookbook "Bread...A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes" by Jeffrey Hamelman, called it. It is a book I picked up while I was visiting the King Arthur Bakers Shop wile in Norwich, Vermont last month. It is the kind of book that you open and peruse; then your imagination seems to get the better of you and you just have to grab some flour, yeast and have a go at putting together some really great bread.
I have to admit that over the years I have made probably some twenty or so loaves. They were all edible but none were really what I had imagined them to be. These are better versions but still not quiet what I had in mind. It was the first time I worked with a pre-ferment (this is a small batch of flour water and yeast mixture) prepared the day before and then worked into the actual recipe the next day (or even later in some cases).

Anyway, I didn't get all the steps in quite the right order and yet the finished product is quite tasty. The texture is very substantial (you can't tear it very easily) and when it is toasted with butter and jelly...well now you're talking about some pretty good tasting bread!


This is the pre-ferment. When I first made it it was a pretty hard and dry looking lump, but after siting in the oven with the light on overnight...it relaxed and grew into this.
The next step was to mix the pre-ferment with the remaining ingredients of the bread recipe, this sure beats doing it by hand...and yet I missed working the dough with my hands prior to letting it rise.

Here is the batch all mixed by machine. now just a few folds and several rises and folds....



And here is a picture of the final product. I was hoping for a dome shaped rounded loaf, but my version of the dough was way to loose for anything like that so I divided it up into two loaf pans and went on from there.

This is probably the best tasting bread for toast that I have ever had!

I ended up with two loaves, so it will be a while before I try it again but as the following pictures indicate, it was a fun process:

Broasted Chicken at the Island Cafe, Island Lake, Illinois

The other day after our usual bike ride the group stopped at the Island Cafe; they don't have a website so here's the pertinent information about them:
310 East State Road, Island Lake, Illinois (it is just across from Culvers) 847 526 7797 It is almost a standard diner; with all the usual food and lots of it. Why is this one different? Well, they serve Broasted Chicken. On Wednesday, they serve an all you can eat Broasted chicken meal for an incredibly affordable price. Before you go and decide that you are going to try the chicken with thoughts of ordering more...understand that this chicken is cooked to order and it takes 25 minutes to prepare. Order your seconds well before you want them so they are ready when you are. I read somewhere once that it takes 20 minutes to satisfy your appetite, so you should probably order seconds almost immediately upon receiving your first plate. Anyway, I got to thinking about Broasted chicken; which I think is fantastic. I know that it is chicken that is fried under pressure, but that is about all. I discovered it first on a road trip through Pennsylvania; and always stopped there again and again when I was driving through. Sadly, that place has since closed down, but now I have rediscovered it here at the Island cafe. Go there and see if it isn't the best and healthiest fried chicken you've aver had!

Here is some more information that you probably didn't know and may actually have you seeking out a place that serves it. Genuine Broaster Chicken begins with the finest quality chicken, carefully marinated and coated with specially formulated Broaster ingredients. Then, as each order is received, the chicken is placed inside the Broaster Company manufactured pressure fryer, designed to cook each individual piece of chicken "under pressure" in the chicken's own natural juices, limiting the absorption of cooking oil and driving the marinade deep down to the bone while searing the chicken with a golden, crispy-crunchy coating.

Broaster Recipe foods provide all of our popular seasonings, coatings, and flavorful marinades in a full line of high quality foods that are quick frozen for the delicious and distinctive taste that can only be Broaster. It is actually lower in calories and lots lower in fats than your usual fried chicken, see the claims here.

Ok enough, if you want to find a place near you, go here

Here are some shots of the meal. Oh, this diner also makes it's own bread, we got the wheat bread and it was divine!

Chicken and Dumpin soup...homemade...wonderful
All this, plus soup and dessert for less than $9.00. You cannot beat it!
Marlene is one happy camper!

Food on Board the Angelique

I would be remiss to say so much about this trip and not create a separate post about the food. You must keep in mind that the area for food preparation were very small and the cook stove was fueled with kerosene with only three settings low, medium and high...well that would certainly be a challenge for me!
Our chef seemed to outdo herself progressively, each meal seemed to be better than the last and every day we had freshly baked bread and desserts. It was quite an accomplishment in my estimation. View for yourself...

OK, I see I jumped the gun here...this is clam chowder that we had at Cappy's, a restaurant in Camden, Maine. We tried to test all possible choices so we could report to you which place actually served the best chowder in New England...but it was a task bigger than both of us. It was great where ever we had it!
This is a lobster quesadilla that we also had at Cappy's...kind of unusual
The only day we had cold cuts, and a bunch of other nibbles with freshly baked bread
rolls and herb spread to accompany our soup of the day...
Caught her making bread...
Fresh from the ovens

Ahh....brownies...don't need to say anything else
lasagna...fabulous
French toast and Canadian bacon

Salad and stir-fry chicken

Lobster Bake, Burnt island, Maine

The highlight of our sailing trip on Penobscot Bay was the lobster bake. It started with the captain picking up a huge container of live lobsters while at our stop at the Wooden Boat Store. We held them for the night in a container lashed alongside the Angelique in the seawater, then moved them to another container and hooked up a hose to keep them alive until we found the perfect spot to have our picnic.

One of the purposes of an Elderhostel program is education, so we learned a lot about lobsters. We had a naturalist, Barbara, on board to instruct and entertain about the nuances of lobster life...

Here Barbara is transferring the lobsters to a container for the sail to Burnt Island. The container had to have openings to allow fresh seawater to flow over them to keep them alive until it was time to cook.
Barbara and Bud are holding a lobster to demonstrate the parts of a lobster and where the eggs are held.
See, you need a really big tub with a lot of seawater brought to a rolling boil...


Once the water is really hot, transfer the lobsters to the pot...

Cover them with seaweed, to act as a lid and steam the contents.
Once the cooking is finished (about half an hour) the water must be drained out.
The trick here is to keep your toes out of the water!


Create a platform with the seaweed that was used as a lid just moments ago
dump the lobsters very carefully and keep them all on the seaweed platform
Get on line and grab a lobster... (I know you will find this hard to believe, but this lobster is the same one they used as a demonstration one earlier in the post) see the broken claw and same color bands?

All good things come to an end...we helped carry all the stuff back to the boats and rowed to the Angelique and continued our sail. Yes, it was very much like a piece of heaven.