Blog posts

I received an email several weeks ago about this contest to come up with original recipes with sweet potatoes as the main ingredients. While I grew up in a country where sweet potatoes were more commonly used than regular potatoes in cooking, the contest prompted me to experiment in baking with sweet potatoes.  Whether I win or lose, I have come up with several definite keepers.  I came up with 5 recipes (recipes should be easy, and quick enough to make it to mealtime and be a part of daily meals).  There was no limit to the number of recipes to submit.

I don't know if it's my love for bread baking or my new camera that keeps me in the kitchen, but here's another attempt I just completed tonight.  The recipe is from Lory of Maine whose web site is:  http://kusinanimanang.blogspot.com/2008/01/potato-peasant-bread.html.  She says people can copy her recipes but she'd appreciate it if they would include a link to her web site.  So my thanks to Lory for sharing.  She's got over a hundred recipes there - goes to show what a dedicated wife

It has rained for 4 days now. We are all stir crazy, so we made pizza. The kids did their own toppings. This one was just pepperoni. As they say in the papers, " A good time was had by all" .

My wife has been an instructor in some women's groups recently that have had, as one component, some instruction in cooking.  She was a bit surprised to find just how much interest there was among the women who attended these sessions in learning more about cooking.  For some, it was an opportunity to expand their repertoire with new recipes or techniques.  For others, it was a chance to learn basic skills that they had not been taught previously.  

Pictured below is a sourdough raisin walnut bread. the recipe i copies is from ehanner at http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/6629/raisin-walnut-sd-delight. i sliced it thin, toasted + butter + a little extra cinnamon sugar on top = YUM! i was hoping to get a larger ovenspring but i dont think my oven was hot enough. i also didnt score the bread properly.

Susan from San Diego, of “Magic Bowl” fame, has posted two of her basic sourdough bread recipes. These have been on my lengthy “to bake list” for a long time. The photos of her breads are stunning, and many other TFL members have baked from her recipes and enthused about their results.

This weekend, I baked two boules of her “Original Sourdough” - to be distinguished from her “Ultimate Sourdough.” The latter can be found here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/6927/well-i-finally-did-it

this is my first Sourdough: (san fran SD, i think it was pretty good for a first time). All of the sourdough things that I baked I used with the starter that I grew with Sourdo Lady's recipe, using dulled lemon juice.

sorry for the blurry image...

I made baguettes with poolish using one of the recipes on this site, and It was delightful!! my family all agreed that this was some of the best bread I've made!

compare to my first try with baguettes:

Way better!

I worked from home Wednesday and used it as an opportunity to refresh my starter and bake a couple of loaves.

The dough I made was a "little of this and that" dough.  I threw some leftover mashed potatoes in, the last couple of ounces of a bag of rye flour I had, a bit of whole wheat flour from another bag I needed to use up, and a couple of cups of AP flours.  I made the dough very wet, 70+ percent hydration.