when salad just isn't enough.

Take a look at this gorgeous salad I made myself for dinner tonight:

romaine, spinach, bell peppers, onions, snap peas, toasted sunflower seeds in a handmade miso vinaigrette. YUMMMMMM!!!

Except! About 45 seconds after finishing mega salad, my stomach was already growling for more.

And by an hour later, I had to eat or... suffer. So I made myself a tasty chicken and cheese sandwich on.... homemade bread! That is right, it came out edible!!!

Actually, I would even go so far as to say it is good. Now I am not going to enter it in any contests or anything, because there is room for improvement, but it is a nice start. the texture is good, the crust would be excellent had I not wrapped it in plastic while it was still warm (rookie mistake, shame on me) and the flavor is nice. It needs a little more salt and maybe a little sweet. I have some perfecting to do, but right now, I just want to eat my sandwich

                                                                                                        

                                 

Oh and I guess I got a little ahead of myself last night since TODAY was actually the last day of July. No matter, I can handle one extra day without junk... or atleast that is what I am saying now... on day one....  

;)

Cheers! LiA

Yeast as Leavening and other food drama

This week I am attempting two different recipes for bread. I have made bread before, but never very successfully. Yeast does funny things at altitude and I am just not patient enough MOST of the time for the let rise until double phase. So I get bread that has great flavor but is so intensely hearty and dense that you can't eat more than the thinnest possible sliver at a time. But today, the afternoon rain cooled the house down enough that while its still higher than room temperature, one can survive without the air conditioner. So, I am going for it.  And besides, both recipes are from alton brown's baking book, so even if I do everything wrong, they should atleast be edible.

The first recipe is called, "Morning after bread." I'm working on this one now. It contains coffee, dark beer, and whole wheat, so you know its got to be good!

I'm blogging so I don't notice how long it takes to rise...

Something that is different about these recipes is that Alton suggests using "instant" or "fast rise" yeast. I have always used active dry... With active dry yeast, you have to "bloom" it in water of just the right temperature for the right amount of time for it to start to do its thing. With instant yeast, you mix the yeast with your flour and then pout the liquid and combine (liquid does still have to be that just hot to the touch temp. but it doesn't seem as precise as with active dry so far...)

What I am noticing with this change so far is how much better the rise is happening. With this recipe, I am almost instantly starting to see a change, whereas in the past I keep going back to look at the bowl, think about the temperature of the room, decide if maybe I need more heat, try to manufacture more heat without going to hot and killing the yeast... etc etc. So I am very pleased with this. the ultimate test will of course be the taste and overall texture at the end of this process.

I am also trying another recipe for a 7 grain bread. This recipe requires use of a "starter". A starter is when you give the yeast time to start working in a basic flour and water combination, it takes 48 hours, but the resulting fermentation is supposed to result in a better rise (this is important with whole grain breads and the dough, atleast in my experience, can almost seem to heavy for the rise) plus a chewier texture in the bread. I put the starter together tonight and was surprised at how fast the chemistry started to take place. This was even more dramatic since the jar I thought would be large enough, was not in fact large enough. I am really excited to make bread and see how things turn out for me this time. Bread baking has always intrigued and overwhelmed me. My hope is that this time things turn out a little better, but only time will tell... A lot of time: because I'm only on the first rise.

In other news: Tomorrow is August first. I celebrated the end of July (and the end of preservatives and high fructose corn syrup) with a snickers bar and a soda. Neither were that satisfying so I find myself even more dedicated to the cause. I also bought chocolate chips so when the sweet need arrises, I have everything I need to make something fabulous... from scratch.

I'll be back to let you know how my yeast science projects turn out, but for now:

CHEERS! LiA

You're so granola...

Wowza, it has been a while without a new food obsessed blog!!!! It has not been a lack of food obsession, my dear friends but really.... a lack of foodie time outside of work. That being said, new job = wonderful and fabulous... but it has been an adjustment getting back into the groove of 50 hour work weeks (I got spoiled waiting tables 25 hours a week for over a year, sure, we were broke, but I had a TON of free time).

Anyway, I'm back and better than ever! Or... attempting to be. One of my goals for this next few months is to CUT preservatives and high fructose corn syrup OUT of my daily diet. No -ates, no -ites, and, frankly, pretty much no premade sweets since they all have high fructose corn syrup in them these days. You may ask why, and I say, "Why not?" Frankly, I feel that we are a little too obsessed with our food hygeine and our genetically modified, decade shelf life, everything treated with antibiotics lifestyle is not improving our quality of life (and some would even suggest it doesn't even improve quantity, er, lifespan given the issues with the obesity epidemic, diabetes, heart disease, food allergies, etc etc etc).

So, as I get ready to undergo this label reading, careful selection, fresh foods endeavor, I know I have a couple areas of weakness that I need to resolve in order to set myself up for success.
A) I have a SWEET TOOTH! There is hardly a day that goes by as of late that I don't have... just a little something. A brownie, some ice cream, a popsicle, a candy bar, etc etc. I am fully confident that a little sweet now and then is not bad, but there is no doubt that High Fructose corn syrup is an ever expanding problem (on our waistlines!). To resolve this, I just have to have some homemade sweet treats on hand at home for when the need strikes. I don't mind this, I like to bake and I have some darn good recipes, I just have to plan ahead in order to bake... Nothing is more frustrating than having a craving for something you can pick up premade at the grocery in five minutes, but instead trying to shop and correctly prepare a recipe for it instead. My plan is just to make up one batch of "little somethings" to have available when the sugar goblin gets me.

b) Soda! I don't even really like it. Its too sweet, the carbonation gives me gas, I know it is terrible for me... but here is the thing: being a restaurant manager can sometimes feel like the quickest way to starve yourself. I spend so much of my shift too busy to eat. So suddenly, I'm left feeling completely wiped out, shaky, faint, and other miscellaneous low blood sugar symptoms. And especially if this happens at the same time as the lunch / dinner rush, I'm not running to take a meal break. I'm going to find the first, simplest form of sugar to ingest and suck it down. So suddenly, as someone who doesn't even really enjoy soda, i'm drinking it about once a day. What I really need at work, are snack foods. Avoiding preservatives and high fructose corn syrup also cuts out a large majority of even the "healthy" snack foods.

So this past week, I put my madness to the test and made homemade granola bars. And low and behold: they are quite tasty!!! Here is the recipe: (you will need a kitchen scale for this one)

8 ounces rolled oats
3 ounces sliced almonds
1.5 ounces RAW sunflower seeds
1.5 ounces wheat bran
3 ounces honey
4.75 ounces dark brown sugar
1 oz unsalted butter
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp kosher salt
7 ounces dried fruit (I used craisins and dried mango, my two favorites, and diced them up really small)

Toast the nuts, oats, and wheat bran at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes.Combine honey, brown sugar, butter, vanilla and salt in medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook until brown sugar is completely dissolved.
Once oat mixture is done, remove from oven and reduce heat to 300 degrees. Immediately add oat mixture to liquid mixture. Add dried fruit, stir to combine. Turn mixture out onto buttered baking dish (I used a rimmed cookie sheet) and press down.
Place in oven and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares, store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Nutrition information:
Calories 175
calories from fat 59
total fat 6.5 g
saturated fat 1.4 g
cholesterol 4 mg
sodium 88 mg
total carbohydrates 27.6 g
dietary fiber 3.8 g
sugars 14.3 g
protien 4.1 g

So I think this is the type of snack that could help with both problems a and b. I want to switch things up and see what other great combos are waiting to be discovered (aka: peanut butter and chocolate chips anyone?). My expected date for the complete preservative fast is august 1 for atleast 30 days (hey, maybe I will feel so much better that I will never look back, right?). Over that time, I will be bringing you more research about preservatives and how to avoid them (aka: probably a ton of tasty recipes for things neither of us even realize are laden with things closer to chemical warfare than real food).

Until next time,
Cheers! LiA