4th of July

We had a lovely 4th of July yesterday. As most of our holidays, we spend the day with our friend Scott and consumed ridiculous amounts of food. I took the holiday as an excuse to lock myself into the kitchen for the better part of the day and engage in a baking marathon. I came up with a lovely whole wheat pluot torte and the bread pictured above. I love the braid on top of the bread; it looks very artisan-like and old-fashioned. 

Here's the recipe for the Pluot Torte: 

Whole Wheat Pluot Torte 

(adapted from Orangette's Apricot-Almond Torte)

1/3 cup whole wheat four

2/3 cup white flour 

1/3 cup sugar and a little bit extra for sprinkling 

1 tsp baking powder

a pinch of salt

2 eggs

1 stick unsalted butter

6-8 pluots (apricots, peaches, or plums would all work well), halved

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then, butter a 9-inch round spring form. Mix the flours, salt and baking powder in a small bowl. Cut the butter into little pieces, combine it with the sugar in your mixer and mix until the mixture becomes light and fluffy (Wow! There's way too much mixing going on in this sentence!). Add the dry ingredients and the eggs. Mix just to combine. Use a spatula to transfer the batter to the spring form. The batter is very thick and it'll be difficult to spread. Wet your fingers and use them to distribute the batter evenly throughout the form. It'll take a little bit of time and patience, but it works. Arrange the pluots, cut-side up, on top of the dough. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If the pluots taste too sour, sprinkle a little bit more sugar on top. We had our torte with chocolate ice cream, but whipped cream would be good, too.

I'm going to go running now and then I hope to sell our 90 gallon fish tank. I hope you are enjoying your weekend as well!

Randomness

Lately, I have been in love with the evening light. I'm not sure the first picture does a good job capturing it, but it has been really soft and beautiful. 

I'm also happy about my tomato plants. They seem to love their "pots." We'll probably be in Germany when the first tomato ripens, but I'm sure that Scott, our most-awesome friend and cat-sitter, will enjoy it. 

Otherwise, things have been quiet around here. I have been spending my afternoons at the beach, reading for the two classes I'm taking. It's fun being a student again. I'm surprised that I enjoy taking online classes that much, but I do. It's nice to be able to get the work done on my own pace.

I'm looking forward to this weekend and to next week. We'll probably spend Independence Day with Scott and maybe some other friends. On the 5th, we'll celebrate Jacek's work's 20th anniversary party. Then, on the 7th, we'll celebrate our wedding anniversary.  I'm going to stock up on raspberries at Costco to make jam. And I want to make more quilted potholders... And go to the beach...

Anyway, thank you for stopping by!

Enjoying Summer

Summer is here! There's not much better than spending an afternoon at the beach, getting "classwork" done, soaking up the sun and playing in the water. 

I hope your weekend is as fabulous as mine!

Rye Sourdough Seed Culture

A comment by my friend Steve inspired me to write a post about making a sourdough starter (check out Steve's amazing surfboards, photographs, and words of wisdom here). 

I have only been dabbling in making bread for a couple of years and most of my knowledge comes from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice and, my all-time favorite, Whole Grain Breads. I think it is safe to say that Peter Reinhart is to bread in America what Mick Jagger is to Rock 'n' Roll: he's THE MAN.  I adapted the following recipe for making a rye sourdough seed culture (the basis for a "mother starter") from Whole Grain Breads: 

Phase I: 

1 part whole rye flour

2 parts canned pineapple juice

Mix the four and the pineapple juice in a bowl. Cover loosely with cling wrap. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for 48 hours. Occasionally, open the cling wrap and aerate the mixture by stirring with a spoon or with your (clean!) finger. After 48 hours, move to the next phase. 

Phase II:

Use all of the phase I culture

1 part whole rye flour

2 parts canned pineapple juice

Mix all the ingredients together. Cover loosely with cling wrap. Sir occasionally. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for 48 hours or until it starts to get foamy and bubbly, whichever comes first. Proceed to the next phase. 

Phase III:

Use all  of the phase II culture

1 part of whole rye flour

1 part of filtered water

Mix all the ingredients together. Cover loosely with cling wrap. Sir occasionally. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for 48 hours or until it starts to get foamy and bubbly, whichever comes first. Proceed to the next phase. 

Phase IV: 

Use 1/2 of the phase III culture (discard the rest or pass it on to a friend). 

Use 1 part of whole rye flour

Use 3/4 of a part of filtered spring water. 

Mix all the ingredients together. Cover loosely with cling wrap. Sir occasionally. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for 4 to 24 hours, or until you can see signs of fermentation. 

Now you can use the seed culture to make a mother starter or refrigerate it up to 2 days. If you leave it in the fridge for more than 2 days, you'll have to repeat the last phase before using it. Depending how long you let it sit, you may even have to discard more than half to rebuild it. Reinhart does a great job explaining all the chemistry behind how much to discard, but I just go by feeling. In any case, I highly recommend that you check out his books. The recipes (or "formulas" as he calls them) and explanations are definitely worth it. 

I mean, it doesn't get much better than this!! 

P.S. Also check out The Fresh Loaf, a great online resource. 

A Few Things I'm Very Happy About Right Now

1. Summer

2. Pulling my head out of my butt and getting back in touch with a good friend of mine. 

3. The Queen Ann's Lace-like parsley flowers adorning my living room. 

4. The beautiful bookshelves in the background. 

5. The quilted pot holders in the foreground (more info on those later). 

6. The sleeping kitties surrounding me as I am writing this. 

7. Almond torte with sugared apricots. (Next time I'll use less sugar in the dough). 

8. Sunflowers. 

9. Our amazing CSA box. This week we got strawberries, kale, celery, melons, grapes, lettuce, carrots, zucchini, green beans, and peas. 

10. Looking forward to all good things that are yet to come this summer. 

11. Being able to blog as much as I have been. 

3 Years Later Or The Saga Of The Skirt

It took me three years to finish and wear this skirt. It is one of the last bigger crochet projects I started before I taught myself how to knit. The pattern is from a book called Fabulous and Flirty Crochet. 

That the skirt took three years to complete illustrates that I can be a total procrastinator. I finished the crocheting part of it in  a couple of months. Then, I didn't touch it for about a year because I didn't feel like sewing in all the loose ends.  After taking care of the loose ends, I realized that I didn't have good buttons (there are two fairly large buttons on the side) and started looking for some vintage ones. I found a collection of about 20 yellow vintage buttons on Etsy, ordered them, and found that the yellow didn't match. About a year later, I went to JoAnn's and bought regular buttons, which look just fine. Once I had the buttons, I still couldn't wear the skirt because it is see-through. I thought about either sewing or buying a slip, but I never got around to either. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a pair of brown leggins, which are perfect with the skirt. I'm wearing both today and I like the combination. I lost 20 pounds since I started it, so it is a little too big now and sits super-low on my waist, but that's alright. I mean it has to be after three years!

I hope you enjoy your weekend!

Baby Shrooms

Since I decided not to make a quilt for my friend who is expecting a baby, I had to come up with something else. I found the pattern for this toadstool rattle on the Purlbee. I was not completely happy with the first rattle I made (the one in the background) because my knitting was too loose, which caused some of the stuffing to show between the stitches. Aside making the rattle look not as good as I'd like a gift to look (I'm a terrible perfectionist), the loose stuffing is probably not very baby-friendly. Right now, I'm making a second, tighter one, which is nearly done. These are a lot of fun to make; in fact, I might knit a couple more for other friends who are expecting babies this summer. 

Thank you for reading! 

P.S. I added a few links to blogs by friends and family members on the right.