Category: Quotidian

Who says there is no time in the morning for a cozy breakfast?

What is a fall morning without the scent of pumpkin pancakes tickling the kitchen? 

Pancakes are quick breads and quick breads are great recipes to introduce little ones to cooking. With a little preparation before hand—pre-measured ingredients in portion bowls makes cooking with kids a very Montessori experience—cooking with little ones is quite academic.

First, assemble all the dry ingredients in a one bowl and the wet ingredients in another—a perfect task for little hands. Whisk the ingredients in each bowl (they are gonna love this part). Next, have them fold the wet into the dry, counting how many strokes it takes to just blend the ingredients. When it comes time to cook the pancakes, best for mom or dad to be in charge, but  when it come to clean-up, by all means let them wash some dishes the old fashioned way in a sink of sudsy water!

– Sara

Pumpkin Pancakes
Dry Ingredients:
– 2 cups flour (I use part whole wheat or nine grain flour)
– 3 T brown sugar
– 2 t baking powder
– 1 t soda
– 1 t allspice
– 1 t cinnamon
– ½ t ground ginger
– ½ t salt

Wet Ingredients:
– 1 ½ c milk
– 1 cup canned pumpkin
– 1 egg
– 2 T vegetable oil
– 2 T apple cider vinegar

I was thinking today as I was working in my garden that I take mentoring pretty seriously when it comes to gardening. I am such a “wanna-be” gardener even though it looks like I have it down. Well I don’t at all.

I am constantly calling my friends who have horticulture degrees or just lots more experience than I. And I know they call people who have more experience than them. So I benefit from the trickle down of knowledge. Throw in a healthy dose of the, “How hard can it be?” mentality and, shebang!  I have a decent garden.

But I am constantly doubting what I know and have many failures. I also do stupid things like shoveling mushy compost with my white gym shoes!

Well I attempted to photograph myself gardening this weekend. Practically impossible to hold a shovel and a camera at the same time! I finally got a bin full of compost to actually turn into dirt. It took forever because I had added WAY to much green stuff and not enough leaves (I was too lazy to go hunt up leaves.) Therefore my compost spent months in the anaerobic state rather than the optimal aerobic state. But never fear, I finally added enough dry stuff that it degraded into rich dirt. I found a cute frog in my bin and you know, they say amphibians are the first to go if their environment is bad sooo… it must be okay!

I also have been feeling so unmotivated to start fall planting. So with winter on my heels, I am at last into action.

I love the idea that a gentle rain will keep my seeds wet so I don’t have too. So I dove in on Sunday afternoon. First, I harvested all my remaining carrots and beets. I took a shovel and turned the bed, and then I tossed in my compost and turned that in. Then came decision time, what to plant? And then it dawned on me that it says right on the seed package whether or not it’s a cool or warm season vegetable! So I quickly weeded through my seed stash taking out only cool season seeds. I use the Square Foot Gardening approach by Mel Bartholomew. Except he does a professional job and I just wing it using some old bamboo sticks, to temporarily grid off the sq. feet. Oh to be Mel…

In the process, I discovered that I had neglected to support my eggplant all summer and it was a mess, so I gingerly staked it up and discovered a bunch of fruit under the pile! Even when I mess up things still grow and produce! Here’s to Eggplant! A good source of Vitamin K ,Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Potassium, Manganese and a very good source of fiber, not to mention, a good source of an antioxidant called Chlorogenic Acid, among the most potent plant-based free radical scavengers ever discovered!

– Sara

Eggplant Dip
from Dr Andrew Weil MD

– 1 eggplant
– ½ med onion, grated or finely chopped
– 2 T capers
– 2 T fresh lemon juice
– ¼ cup EVO
– ½ t dried oregano
– ½ t salt
– ¾ t fresh ground pepper
– 1 T  red wine vinegar
– 4 pitas
– 1 tomato, peeled, seeded, diced
– 1 T chopped fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Set eggplant on a baking sheet or dish and pierce it a few times with a knife. Bake until soft, 30 mins.
It should pierce easily with a fork. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Peel off skin, put flesh in a blender or processor. Add onions, capers, lemon juice. Turn on the machine, then gradually add the EVO. Continue to blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Transfer to a bowl, stir in oregano, salt, pepper, and vinegar.

Warm pitas briefly on a baking sheet, then cut each into 8 wedges. Arrange on a plate. Just before serving, stir the tomato and parsley into the dip.

I LOVE bread. A tradition of making it from scratch is easy to establish. The aroma of this yeasty wonder baking is pure gratitude and a warm slice with butter is a one-of-a-kind head-nodding smile. But home baked bread is more than yummy, it's science! Of course yeast is the agent that makes bread rise and yeast is an interesting thing to study.

Yeast has several crucial roles in bread baking. Yeast is a single celled fungus. How can such a little fungus be so important? Well, yeast is the driving force behind fermentation that allows a big lump of dough to become well risen. Yeast is a living organism that works by consuming sugar and excreting carbon dioxide and alcohol. Fermentation helps to strengthen and develop gluten in dough and also contributes to incredible flavors in bread.

There are three essentials to any bread dough: flour, water, and yeast. As soon as these are stirred together, enzymes in the yeast and the flour cause large starch molecules to break down into simple sugars. The yeast then eats the sugars and exudes a liquid that releases carbon dioxide and alcohol into air bubbles in the dough. It’s just like blowing up bubblegum! The longer fermentation goes on the more it breaks down big molecules in proteins, starches, and fats into their building blocks, so the more flavorful the dough becomes.

There are two basic yeasts that we buy today: active dry yeast and quick rise, or instant yeast. You can use either in a recipe. You just need to mix the active dry yeast with warm, (not hot) water with a pinch of sugar to activate it. Instant yeast can be added directly to the flour with all the other ingredients. This recipe calls for instant yeast and I don’t happen to keep that on hand so I used my active dry, I just added it to the warm water and let it sit for a few minutes until bubbles formed on top which lets me know the yeast is alive. If bubbles don’t form it means your yeast is expired or you killed it with hot water! About 105 degrees is perfect for dissolving yeast.

Flour is an important ingredient in bread making. The higher the quality the better your bread will taste. It’s better to use bread flour rather that all-purpose. Here’s why. Bread flour is milled from hard red spring wheat. It has a higher protein content so it has more gluten and will rise higher. All- purpose flour is great for soft breads like muffins and banana bread. It will give a more tender crumb.

Water is the last basic ingredient so it should be pure as well. If it has too many chemicals in it, that can be hard on the yeast and doesn’t taste good either.

Today I went to my favorite site for bread recipes, King Arthur Flour and found just what I was looking for. It is quite easy…a yummy and satisfying, not to mention educational, Thanksgiving activity for the whole family!

Soft Rolls
4 1/2 plus 2/3 cup bread flour
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 large egg whites
¼ cup vegetable oil   
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
3 to 4 tablespoons sesame seeds
 
1. Mix and kneed the dough ingredients-by hand, mixer or bread machine set on the dough cycle—to make a smooth dough.
 
2. Cover the dough and let rise until it’s noticeably puffy, about 60 to 90 minutes.
 
3. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, deflate it, and divide it into 12 pieces (about 3 1/4 ounces each). Shape into balls.
 
4. Dip the top half of each roll into water, then into the seeds. Place rolls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Press gently to flatten.
 
5. Cover the rolls, and let them rise until puffy, 45 to 60 mins. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 400F.
 
6. Bake the rolls until they’re deep golden brown, 22 to 26 mins. Remove and cool on a rack.

– Sara

It’s apple time at my house and our tree is loaded with apples, leaving me to scramble for things to do with them. This morning it dawned on me to add apples to our favorite buttermilk pancake recipe. The result was, THE BOMB, according to my teenage son!

Oh, and by the way, my first photos failed so I had to take more and Wesley had already left for school…Oh my, did I just eat a second plate of pancakes in the interest of not wasting food??? So much for that lecture on moderation..

–Sara

Here’s the recipe:

Buttermilk Pancakes
• 2 cups all-purpose flour ( I use 1 cup 9-grain flour and 1 cup regular flour) King Arthur has great 9-grain!
• 2 ½ t baking soda
• 1 t baking soda
• ¾ t salt
• 2 T sugar
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk*
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 large apple diced (don’t peel)
• Syrup and whipped cream of course

Combine the first 6 ingredients and stir well. Combine the eggs, buttermilk, and oil in a bowl and stir. Add the chopped apples directly into the wet ingredients and stir some more. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, stirring until just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Cook slowly on a hot, greased griddle.

*If you don't have any buttermilk on hand, read here about some easy substitutions!