Ruminations from Earth-That-Was

Most girls of my generation probably grew up with some Laura Ingalls Wilder in their lives. Whether it was watching Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert on the television or reading the entire Little House series multiple times, I loved the stories of the Ingalls' family and how Laura ended up with her Almanzo. I even wanted to name my daughter Laura (I had actually picked out names for all seven of the children I intended to have, but that's another story).
Little House in the Big Woods is the first book in the series, and is touched with more than a little nostalgia for Laura's early years in Wisconsin. There they had food and shelter and no issues of debt or famine. She describes in great detail all the good things they ate, and how Pa would smoke meat in his hollowed-out tree while Ma cooked up headcheese. Don't worry, this isn't a post about headcheese. But it is a post about something else that Ma cooked up from the annual pig butchering: lard.
Another hallmark of my generation is probably the fact that we have grown up with a million diets and the official food pyramid, and lard was always spoken of with a pejorative tone. The saturated fat! The cholesterol! The heart disease you will die from! Of course, now doing research into traditional foods and the real food movement, I find that actually saturated fat isn't all that bad, and lard is better than hydrogenated vegetable shortening with its trans fats and high level of inflammatory omega-6s. So I put lard on my list of things to try as I experiment with new and different foods and preparation techniques in my kitchen.
But lo and behold, if you look at the store, there will be one lone can of lard on the shelf. You have no idea the conditions of the pig that produced this lard, and pastured pork is much healthier than those grown in conventional feedlots. Furthermore, that lard has been partially hydrogenated to make it last longer. Which means it is just as bad as any other trans fat out there! Apparently the only option is to buy it from a traditional food website or make my own. And since I just found a good source of grass-fed meat that sells leaf lard from pastured animals, I figured it was time.
Last night I chopped up a couple of pounds of smooth, slightly pink pork fat. I took my tips from The Nourished Kitchen (an excellent source for tips and recipes) and cooked it on the stove. It was so simple-cut up fat, place in large pot with a little water, simmer over medium-low heat 3 hours, strain fat and cool. A few hours later I had clear liquid fat with small crunchy bits of cracklins, ready to be strained.  This morning I looked in my fridge and found a jar of creamy lard just begging to be used in my quiche crust.
 
I think the Ingalls would be proud of me.

This post is part of Two for Tuesday, Tuesday Twister, and Fight Back Friday

Tags: real food

When I was growing up, we didn't have a lot of beef and bacon around. Not that we didn't like it, or were vegetarian on principle, but between budget constraints and the lowfat diet movement that had its grip on popular wisdom at the time, we hardly ever bought it. Extra lean ground beef and the occasional boneless skinless chicken breast were the extent of our meat choices. If I ever had a steak, it was at a restaurant, and was a big deal.

This pattern has continued into my own cooking and meal planning. I chuckle at frugal menu planning tips like "try eating a meatless dinner once a week". I have to work to incorporate meat into my planning! And I do want to incorporate more healthy, grass-fed beef and pork into our cooking. I certainly enjoy it, and I know my husband loves it. But the price can be quite prohibitive.

So over the past couple of months I have been researching different sources for our meat. I know that getting pastured or grass-fed animals are going to provide the best nutrition for us, but they are also fairly pricey. Not having a large freezer we can't order up a whole cow for a good bulk deal. But there are some good options out there, and you can balance budget and quality. They fall into categories of Good, Better, and Best:

Good: Reasonable price, but substandard quality

Central Market: I'll start here. Most grocery stores fall into the "Bad" category-forget grass-fed, you're lucky if they have organic or meat not full of hormones and antibiotics. But Central Market is a local chain that has a much healthier selection. I frequently buy whole free-range, air-chilled chickens here at a very reasonable price. But while the majority of their meat is hormone free, it is grain finished, and you don't have as much exposure to the source of your steak. I figure most major cities have grocery stores of this caliber; if you are stuck in an Albertson's only land, I'm sorry.

S&L Quality Meats: a local butcher shop that proudly advertises natural, hormone-free, antibiotic-free meat. Prices are comparable to Central Market. They tell you where the meat comes from, but unfortunately that is a couple of states away in Montana, and the meat is grain-finished. The person we talked to there seemed to think that was perfectly fine and that grass-fed proponents were a little snobbish. Well, sorry, but I am going to be a snob when it comes to the health of my family. Still, if I needed something in a pinch, it would be an okay option.

Better: Great quality, high prices

US Wellness Meats: Known on the web for having high quality and high prices. When I first looked at this site I wondered how anyone could possibly eat grass-fed meat on a regular basis unless they had a)no kids or b)a very high salary. We don't have kids yet but our salaries, while a blessing, won't support those prices along with our other financial goals.

Bill the Butcher: There are multiple Bill's locations around Seattle and all are fun small butcher shops with sassy employees and large hunks of tasty meat. They haven't found a good supplier for sausages (Jer actually pointed out to the guy working the knife that the brand they sell has msg) but their bacon is to die for. I mean, seriously good bacon. I make little egg and bacon breakfast muffins for quck bites in the morning and they are so tasty. Prices here are better than premium retailers, but still more expensive than S&L, because their beef is actually grass-fed. They also have Wagyu beef, in case you felt like dropping a LOT of cash on a big steak.

Sea Breeze Farms: A farm on Vashon Island, these guys do it all. If I was going to far, this is how I would do it. You'll find them at farmer's markets, selling meat, charcuterie, raw milk and cheese, and even wine that they make on their farm. I saw them at the U District market and bought a couple o sausages that they had made themselves, with no chemical additives. The sausages were delicious, and Jer was thrlled. These guys even have a limited seating weekend restaurant with a menu made from their foodstuffs. Great sustainability and diversity on a small farm. Wendell Berry would be proud.

Best: Good quality and good price

Thundering Hooves: Here is my new solution-a CSA for god meat. Grass-fed meat at prices comparable to the good options. Quality like US Wellness, with the local dedication of Bill's. Unfortunately, they don't have nitrate-free bacon or sausages (this seems to be a recurring problem, even among grass-fed proponents) but they do carry a wide selection of extras like liver, lard, and marrow bones. You have to order a couple of weeks in advance and go pick it up from a drop off center, but since I plan my meals 1-2 weeks in advance, that's not too strenuous. Also, when you go pick up the meat they will have extras on sale for 30% off, and you can score some real deals. I just found out that my produce CSA is going to start offering THundering Hooves meat in the weekly delivery box, at a higher price, which is a good option if pickup day is far off and we need something. But if we were going to pay extra, we would likely just go to the farmer's market or Bill's and get a fresh cut of something fabulous.

So there you are-the options for someone not in possession of a large freezer. But now that I have done all this research and found a good solution, we have decided to buy that freezer after all. We found someone who will go in with us on the purchase of a cow from a local farm, and my parents are going to take some as well, so come July we will likely be in possession of a quarter side of beef. And the price? With the beef and the cut and wrap fees, it works out to be $2.42 a pound. Yes, that's right. Less than $3 a pound for grass-fed, locally grown and butchered red meat. I think the freezer is the right investment.

Now I just have to find more good recipes for beef!

This post is part of Two for Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, and Fight Back Friday

Tags: real food, meat

Jer, despite being a video game playing techie, has a fair bit of gardener in him. On a little shelf by our front door there is a small tin of dried rose petals. You might think these came from some bouquet he gave me, or perhaps our wedding, but actually they were there long before I came around. The petals came from roses that Jer grew himself at a house he lived in several years ago. He loves roses and would enjoy having the time and space to grow more again.

I, on the other hand, am not a gardener. Between my allergies and my general bookishness, getting outside and digging around in the dirt never held much interest for me as a child. Just being outside when a neighbor is mowing their lawn is enough to send my head into an allergy fit. My grandma was a master gardener and when my parents lived with her they helped put in twenty raised garden beds in her large backyard. Every summer there would be lettuce and beans, zucchini and tomatoes, fresh out of the garden. I enjoyed the glut of zucchini, but never spent much time helping in the family pasttime.

Now I am more concerned with health, organics, price of food, and sustainability. Despite my desire to live as a black-thumbed urbanite, I have to admit that growing your own food is the best thing to do, both economically and ecologically. So, here I am, my newlywed self, with a patio full of pots holding myriad vegetables and herbs.

My weekend thrill was the first flowers blooming on my tomato plants. I don't even like tomatoes that much (I love to cook with them, but raw tomatoes don't float my boat) but I posted on facebook and jumped up and down a little at that first smiling yellow bud. I cried a little inside when my thyme died, and I am praying that my basil flourishes. Every day I go out and look at my zucchini and broccoli, my lettuces and squash. I talk to them like pets: "Hi little guys! How's the weather?"

To be fair, Jer has done most of the work planting, watering, and tending our mini garden. I figure this is necessary for them to grow, since my skills are quite limited. But I figure that I can use my kitchen skills to make the best use of the goodies that Jer's garden produces. Depending on how long we stay here in this house, we might do some work on the backyard that will enable us to plant more vegetables next year, instead of being limited to our containers. So many possibilities. But wherever we end up living, I am pretty sure that I will continue to grow good things for use in my kitchen. Who knows, maybe my kids will enjoy it.

So here I am, my posh urban banker self, getting a little glee out of a garden. I think, I hope, that somewhere up in heaven it's making my grandma smile.

This post is part of the Food and Faith: Local Farms challenge on The Local Cook.

Tags: real food, gardening, marriage

I've always considered eggs to be a healthy food, never buying in to the whole anti-cholesterol argument against them. The more I learned about hormones and antibiotics in industrial animal processing, the more consistently I bought organic eggs. But then in the last few months I've been reading all sorts of articles and blogposts about the benefits of pastured eggs versus standard eggs or even organic "cage-free" eggs.

Unfortunately, the only pastured eggs I had seen around were at the farmer's markets, and they were $5-$6 a dozen. We eat a lot of eggs (1-2 dozen a week) and when we can get local hormone-free eggs for $2 a dozen (sometimes cheaper if we get some that are almost past their sell date), spending $10 a week on eggs didn't seem quite feasible. Then my brilliant husband got on craigslist and we started looking around to see if there were any small farms or local families with chickens running around that wanted to share some eggs. Well, we found a couple in Snohomish that was offering pastured eggs for only $2.50 a dozen. Excited at the possibility, I drove out to their place tonight.

The drive from Mill Creek to Snohomish is gorgeous. It takes me past a couple of produce stands and a farmer's market, winding through the valley with the beautiful mountains in the distance. It takes about twenty minutes going the back way through the farms, but the drive is actually a great stress reliever-I found myself smiling as I passed llamas and signs enticing me to check out the antique stores. I used to detest family drives in the country when I was young (they bored me to tears), but now that I am older and have lived the city life for awhile, I enjoy the occasional trip out to the farmlands.

I arrived at my destination and met Brian and Jill, who brought out two dozen gorgeous brown eggs for me. The eggs were extra large and looked good enough to crack open right then and there. I chatted with them a little about their flock, and experienced for myself the truth that their chickens are truly free range: while we were talking one of their chickens came up and said hello, and then proceeded to scratch and peck at the grass and bugs around us. But the real test came when I got home.

I had heard about the color difference of pastured eggs, of the deep orange color that reveals the higher nutrient content in the yolk. But even so I was surprised when I cracked the eggs. Rich pumpkin-hued centers, larger than standard eggs, smiled up at me from the frying pan. I took it simple for my first try: just a couple of eggs in a pan with butter and some salt and pepper. The flavor was wonderful, and two eggs was incredibly filling, even to my super hungry stomach.

Now I understand. Now I know. I have seen and tasted, and I don't think I'll ever go back. The Snohomish chickens can provide me with 2 dozen eggs a week for $5, so it works for my budget as well as my focus on highly nutritious, super flavorful, quality food for myself and my husband.

But don't take my word for it. Get on craigslist or Eat Wild and go find yourself some good eggs. You'll see the difference.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop 

Tags: real food, eggs

I tend to be a list-maker and a planner. Previous to being married, menu planning involved sitting at work during a break with a piece of scratch paper, thinking up how many meals I could get from how few items (when you are planning a wedding, you have to be frugal!) and then blazing through the grocery store as quickly as possble to avoid getting ideas while I was there. I was frequently to busy to cook everything I wanted to cook, and ended up out with people most nights of the week, so breakfast foods were my main purchase.

After getting married, I reveled in planning elaborate meals and splurging on large weekly shopping trips. After a couple of months of that, I realized I needed to dial back the food budget. Now that I am working on transitioning to more real food, I find that menu planning is the only way to make both the time and money work. Things need to be soaked, recipes planned around a couple of ingredients stretched into multiple recipes, and enough leftovers created for lunches.

I typically plan the Mon-Fri dinners based on what we get in our produce box, what's on sale at the store or farmer's market, and what recipes I have been dying to try. Lunches are leftovers or quick cafeteria salads. Breakfasts are usually some type of premade egg creation or bran muffin-something quick to get us going, followed by a midmorning snack of fruit or vegetable. Weekends are reserved for leftovers and special occasions, and the infrequent cheat meal, like the pizza my husband is at this moment buying. No, it's not really very good for us. Yes, I am going to revel in it anyway. Splurges are still okay with us.

So, here's what I have on the list this week:

Monday: Copper River Salmon picked up from Loki Fish at the U District Farmer's Market this weekend. I've got split peas soaking for roti, and also fixins for a big salad.

Tuesday: Mushroom and barley stew, made without the potatoes and corn. Beans are already soaking, and this will be in the crockpot. Since I won't have much dinner prep, I'll start a pot of marinara with the tomatoes scheduled to come in the produce box this week.

Wednesday: I got some fabulous sausages from Sea Breeze Farms, also at the market, and will be pan frying those with the marinara that will have been simmering since the night before. We might make a little pasta, or perhaps saute some julienned zucchini or squash.

Thursday: Veggie Stir-Fry, probably in my homemade teriyaki sauce. Ingredients depend on what strikes my fancy at the market (you have to leave some room for adventure). I'm also considering skipping over to the local asian market for some miso and making soup to go with.

Friday: No-pasta lasagna. I'll have all that marinara, and I have found tons of good ideas online for layering grilled veggies and cheese and sauce. Who needs the noodles?

On Saturday I am picking up our first order from a meat CSA. I can order grass-fed meat from local farms at very reasonable prices that actually compete with the grain-finished stuff I usually buy. I'll never go back to the antibiotic-ridden, hormone-laced meats from the supermarket, but I was buying meat that wasn't pastured just to cut down the cost a little. So I am very very excited to see how this meat works out. And putting in the order now means that I already have a few ideas for next week, including chili (with liver meat, don't tell!) and a nice marinated steak. I also might have found a good local source for pastured eggs at only $2.50/dozen, which is half the price you see at the farmers markets.

So that's the plan. I've got stock simmering from the chicken I roasted last night and beans soaking and I'm feeding my sourdough starter up this week so I can make bread next weekend to take to family friends who just had a baby. I think I will also be making them a quiche. Oh, the fun of planning.

Now off to eat my pizza.

Tags: real food, meal plans

With the desire to reduce carbs this month I have found myself searching for new and different recipes. While I have never relied exclusively on carbs, a lot of my standby recipes, as well as things that I find interesting, involve pasta or rice or something of that nature. Fortunately there is a huge blogosphere out there with tons of ideas. However, many low-carb sites and recipes are based on a South Beach approach, which unfortunately involves a lot of skim milk and artificial sweeteners. I wanted recipes using real food and traditional methods of preparation.

In my searching I stumbled across Mark's Daily Apple, the blog of Mark Sisson, who is an author and champion of the "Primal" diet. Primal eaters believe that humans should still eat a mainly hunter-gatherer type of diet, consisting of meat, fish, vegetables, some fruits, nuts, seeds, and perhaps dairy (a further subset, Paleo eaters, also eschew dairy since it involves animal husbandry). They avoid grains and most legumes, as these are foods of the agricultural revolution, and there is scientific evidence to show that eating these foods, especially if not properly prepared, can actually harm you by blocking nutrient absorption and causing inflammation.

Mark and other Primal folks also have interesting ideas about not wearing shoes (my husband with his plantar fasciitis would balk at that) and theories on how to exercise. It's fascinating stuff, but I am not wholly convinced that jumping in to the paleo diet will be the most sustainable lifestyle for us. Balance is a good thing, and by earning how to moderate our intake of grains and make sure they are soaked or fermented first, I think we will protect ourselves and be able to enjoy all the many wonders of God's creation.

But, I was able to find some good recipes ideas from Mark and a follower of his, The Son of Grok. He has a recipe for enchiladas that didn't use any tortillas or chips. I tried it out last night and it was the tastiest thing ever. And the best part: almost everything I used was fresh, organic, and/or local. I think the most processed thing we had was the cheese and sour cream, which comes from Tillamook in Oregon, and they don't use any hormones (although it would be better if it was raw cheese from pastured cows).

Low Carb Enchiladas
adapted from Son of Grok

Crust:
1 zucchini, shredded
1 egg

Beat egg and mix with zucchini. Line bottom of 8x8 baking dish with batter and bake 10 min @ 350. Remove from heat and add fillings:

Fillings:

1 lb ground beef, preferably grass-fed
1 small onion, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, diced
1 pasilla pepper or bell pepper, seeds removed, diced
1-2 cups chopped tomatoes (yeah, I removed the seeds from those too. It was a bad day for seeds)
1 c shredded cheese

Brown ground beef in a saute pan, then add onions and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add diced peppers and cook until they start to soften and are fragrant, another 4-5 minutes. If you would like to drain off excess grease, you can. Pour mixture into pan on top of zucchini crust. Then layer tomatoes and cheese over the top. Bake 35-40 minutes until top is bubbly and golden.

Serve on a bed of lettuce, topped with avocado, sour cream, and salsa.

Maybe it was due to our mutual hunger, but Jer and I found this to be an extremely satisfying meal. When eaten with a big salad and additional veggies like sweet bell peppers or avocados on the side, it is just a wonderful combination of meat, veggies, and cultured dairy that makes our tummies and our immune systems very happy. And an 8x8 pan was enough for both us to eat a full dinner and have leftovers for lunch today (which were again, the tastiest thing ever).

Verdict: I could get used to this low carb thing.

Tags: real food, low carb, primal

My standard process with recipes looks something like this: see fun recipe online or in magazine/book/back of package. Look up other similar recipes and compare ingredients/technique. Make recipe with minor modifications. Continue to modify recipe(s) 1-5 times until perfection is established.

Another process involves taking two recipes, making them both exactly as written, and comparing the features of both. This usually creates an overflow of finished product that we cannot devour before a)we get sick of whatever it is we're eating, or b)it goes bad.  This leads us to the waffle situation: last time we tried using our wafflemaker we had waffles coming out our ears and after three days of eating waffles we put the thing away for a good long time.

Well, since I want to reduce carbs a bit next month, I figured this weekend would be a good time to get the waffle iron out and have a little last hurrah before I buckle down. I had collected a couple of awesome recipes over the past few weeks from my blog perusing, and thought we could try one out. But which to choose? And what would we do with all those waffles? This is where Jer came in with the stroke of genious: call the Pedersons.

The Pedersons are a couple of extreme genius and generosity who regularly host brunch at their home. We have been the partakers of many a plate of eggs, bacon, and fried potatoes thanks to their hopitality. Who better to come investigate the waffle recipes than the masters of the brunch invitation?

The call was made, the invite accepted, and this morning they arrived. I had started both batters the night before and was ready to whip up some deliciousness. And boy was it delicious. An hour later the batters were polished off, two couples and a baby in the womb (Pederson, not Anderson) were full of waffly goodness, and both recipes were declared tasty and worthy of future consumption. Success!

You can always count on those Pedersons.

A Tale of Two Waffles

The first waffle was a whole wheat sourdough version. Having a sourdough starter already active made this the simplest recipe ever: feed starter the night before so you will have 2 cups to work with in the morning. Add all the other ingredients except for the baking soda. Right before you are ready to start cooking, mix in the baking soda and watch the chemical reaction commence. The resulting waffle is hearty yet light, with a complex flavor that marries beautifully with either syrup or nutella (our waffle topping of choice).

The second came from Molly at Orangette: she hosted her own waffle-tasting a few weeks back and I chose the yeasted waffle recipe she made, originally written by Marion Cunningham. It involves beating together most of the ingredients and allowing the batter to proof overnight, before mixing eggs and baking soda in just before cooking. I briefly considered the second recipe from Molly, but it called for cornstarch and vegetable oil, two ingredients not common to my kitchen. This recipe was one of white flour and commercial yeast, unlike the whole wheat waffle with its unrefined sugar and naturally developed leavening. It had a crispy exterior with an as-promised custardy interior, and tasted amazing when topped with a little butter and some of my mother-in-law's homemade blackberry jelly. A wildly different experience from the sourdough waffle, and yet just as excellent in its own right.

The verdict? Both were incredible. Each delivered the delicious result promised by the bloggers who posted them. They were so dissimilar that it was impossible to choose which we would prefer, although the first definitely would work better in a savory application, whereas if you are looking for something to put berries on, I would go for the second. But hey, if you want to decide for yourself, go fetch your wafflemaker and call up some friends and host a tasting. Your friends will not be upset, I am sure.

Tags: food, friends, blogging

I have been having a lot of fun lately reading and expanding my knowledge of traditional food preparation and healthy eating. Slowly but surely I am making the switch to a kitchen based on good fats, a plethora of veggies, and a lot less sugar. New additions to my cupboards include unrefined natural sugars, coconut oil for cooking and baking, full fat dairy and cultures for making my own yogurt and buttermilk, and even grass-fed meats.

Last night we had an incredible meal that put into practice what I have been learning. We bought some grass-fed steak from a local farmer, marinated it, and threw it on the grill. The marinade of red wine, raw apple cider vinegar, a smidge of honey and crushed garlic caramelized beautifully and was delicious. We had a huge salad with homemade ranch dressing, using buttermilk I had made and none of the additives found in commercial dressings. I also used the broccoli we had from our organic produce box. This was no ordinary broccoli though. I took some ideas from a couple of blogs and made a cheesy concoction. I sauteed bacon and onions, added the broccoli, then stirred in butter, cream, and cheddar cheese, along with some spices. It was soooo good. Simple, with lots of good fats and fresh ingredients.

The only grain involved was a couple of slices of my sourdough bread, which was prepared traditionally (soaked flours, natural yeast). I do want to reduce our grain consumption a bit, mostly through limiting our pasta/rice intake, and only eating baked goods that have been soaked, like my bread and bran muffins. I am looking forward to trying soaked oatmeal this weekend, as a treat before I go seriously low-carb for June.

Yes, low-carb for June, just to reset my system a bit and jump-start some weight loss. I've been feeling healthier and managing my allergies a lot better the past month but I really need to make some progress in the weight department. I'm too close to unhealthy, and I don't like how I feel in my clothes. I stopped weighing myself a long time ago, to stave off obsession with my weight, but I know that I will feel better if I slim down a bit.

Jer is enjoying the changes and the meal plans I have come up with as well.  It is so encouraging to have a husband who is supported and engaged in the process, and will go with me to farmer's markets and butcher shops, help plant and tend our new veggie garden, and eat whatever experiment I put on the table. Love that man.

Here's to good changes, and a healthy life!

 This post is part of Fight Back Friday on Food Renegade.

Tags: real food, low carb

I wrote a post on my personal blog today about how Jer and I are trying to eat more unprocessed real food. One of the things I have been trying after reading several blogs is soaking my flour overnight. Soaking breaks down the antinutrients present in grains, making them more digestable and allowing the vitamins and minerals to be absorbed. I find that it makes my baked goods more tender and I need less sugar and butter in the recipe. I actually adapted this from three different recipes I found online-I think it is a pretty good basic recipe that you can add anything to-nuts, fruit, even chocolate (but try to make it some good fair-trade dark chocolate!)

Soaked Flour Banana-Applesauce Muffins

1 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c each rolled oats, oat bran, and wheat bran (you could also substitute flaxseed meal)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp each nutmeg and allspice
1/2 c melted butter or coconut oil
1/2 c applesauce
1/4 c yogurt, buttermilk, or whey

Mix together and let sit 12-24 hrs at room temp

2 eggs
1/2 c brown or muscovado sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 c ripe bananas, mashed

Beat together and mix into soaked flour. Mix well until all the soaked flour is broken down and mixture is mostly smooth.

1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Sprinkle over batter and mix well. If you want to add in chopped apples, nuts, or chocolate chips, fold in gently here. Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin tins. Bake @ 375 20-25 mins until toothpick inserted in center muffin comes out clean.

Tags: food, muffins

When I moved out of my parents' house I was no stranger to yeast. My mom is an excellent baker and has taught me the ways of leavening quite well. When I lived with the girls at the Yellow Cottage I would usually bake bread a couple of times a month. I settled on my favorite multigrain honey bread, a recipe which required that I make at least two loaves, because the first one would usually be gone within 10 minutes of my roommates getting their hands on it.

When I married Jer, I figured I would continue making my sweet bread of yeasty goodness. But Jer has other ideas. Confident in my baking powers, he not-so-subtly suggested that perhaps I should switch to sourdough bread. Now, I have always loved sourdough bread, but I have never worked with it, and my perception was that it was a lot of hassle and I would never actually get it to work. However, in the fog of romantic love and conjugal bliss I agreed to start the experiment.

So I did some reading and researching and found that starting a starter wouldn't actually be that hard. In theory. According to the recipes, you just mix together some flour and water and watch the magic happen.

Heh.

Let's just say it took a lot longer than I thought. And a lot more recipes than I thought. I feed our starter (we call him Odo, since he sleeps in a bucket) every day, building up his taste and leavening power, and then when baking day comes I take the chance that all my work will not go to waste. I've made no-knead bread and super-kneaded bread. Recipes that took 24 hours and ones that took 4. Dutch ovens, baking stones, preheated ovens, cold ovens, wood-fire grills. I've made the worst baked goods of my life struggling with that starter. Flat, hard bread, only useful for breadcrumbs (which I rarely need) or bread pudding (which I am not really a huge fan of). Through fail after fail, Jer encouraged me and ate the rejects.

There have been a few successes in the story, but overall I have not been satisfied. I had dreams of the soft, tasty sourdough bread I used to eat growing up, bread which I am sure was full of dough conditioners and other such chemical additives but nevertheless made me happy. A slight sourdough tang, a chewy crust, a soft interior. Such bliss.

BUT. It was this weekend that we finally reached the pinnacle of the sourdough bread. I have been reading a lot about sprouted flour and soaked grains and how proper preparation makes grains healthier for you and more easily digestable. Hopping from blog to blog I stumbled upon the recipe that would be the gamechanger. I read the title-Honey Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread-and I was filled with hope that perhaps here was the recipe that would marry my love for honey-sweetened multigrain bread with Jer's visions of sourdough loaves.

It was easy. It worked better than it said it would. And it was, categorically, the best bread I have ever made in my life. And so my friends, I share it with you. Let me know if you want a little bit of my sourdough starter to get you, well, started.

Honey Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread
from Kitchen Stewardship

This requires some planning ahead because of the overnight proof, but it actually is one of the easier sourdough recipes I have tried. Your starter should be fed a 1:1 ratio of filtered water and flour, and to keep it most active, you should feed it every 8-12 hours and keep it at room temperature for a couple of days prior to use (I usually feed Odo every 24 hours). I've heard some recipes say that a sourdough starter can't handle a dough with eggs and butter, but my starter loved it, and the loaves rose like nobody's business. I think having an active starter helps a lot.

1 1/2 cups whole wheat sourdough starter
2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup mild honey
2 large eggs
6 cups (divided) whole wheat flour, plus extra for kneading
2 teaspoons sea salt
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

The night before you want to bake, combine the starter, milk, and 3 cups of flour, creating a shaggy dough (much like a no-knead recipe). I used a mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour (the extra gluten makes a difference) but feel free to use whatever you like. Cover and keep in a warm place overnight. The best idea is to turn on your oven and preheat to 350 while you make your dough, then immediately turn it off and place the covered bowl in the oven. Leave the door open slightly so the light stays on.

In the morning, your dough will have puffed up and be covered in air bubbles. Stir gently with a wooden spoon and add in the honey and eggs one at a time. Mix until completely incorporated. Add the remaining flour, salt, and butter. If you have a mixer with a dough hook, use this and knead for 5-7 minutes. I didn't find that I needed a whole lot of extra flour this way. If you don't have a mixer, knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes, then let rest 10 minutes, then knead again for another 10 minutes. Dough will be moist but not sticky, with good elasticity.

After kneading, put your dough in a greased bowl and cover. Go ahead and do the same thing with the oven: preheat, turn off, put in dough, leave door open slightly. Allow to rise until doubled; the recipe said 2-4 hours, but mine took about an hour and a half. That's one benefit of having an active sourdough starter!

When dough has doubled, remove, divide in half, and shape into two loaves. 9x5 loaf pans are recommended, although I suppose you could try making boules and placing them on a cookie sheet. Repeat your oven proofing technique, allowing the loaves to rise to just above the edge of the pan, about an hour.

Take the pans out of the oven and preheat it for reals this time, to 375. Place a sheet pan in the bottom of your oven and get 2-3 cups of water ready. Slash the tops of your loaves. As soon as you place your loaves in the preheated oven, pour the water into the sheet pan and then quickly shut the door. This creates a steamy environment for your loaves, so they can develop a nice crust, as well as the series of romance novels that will fund your retirement.

Bake for 35 minutes. The loaves should get golden brown on top, and sound hollow when you tap them. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks. It will be tempting to cut into them immediately, but you need to let them cool down a bit before you slice. If any of the bread makes it past the first tasting, allow it to completely cool before wrapping it up and storing it in a cool place. The recipe states it keeps for a week, but I doubt it will last that long. You can also freeze the extra loaf, wrapping it in foil before sealing it in a freezer bag.

There you have it folks: the grand triumph. This bread is awesome with just a little butter, or toasted with honey or jam, or as a sandwich. I made Jer a PB&J with this and I swear he ate it in less than a minute. He then apparently ate four more slices while I was at worship practice! I'll be lucky if the two loaves last the week. But hey, anything for my man.

Tags: food, bread, marriage