Books And Stuff

Well its been over a week and I have yet to step up my game on the blatant advertising front.  So here we go.  No I don't actually think I'm going to make money on the blatant advertising, this is more showing off the random things I've spent money on myself.  I'm horrible for buying shiny things.

Anyway, the cookbooks I ordered from Amazon came in. I got:

The Best of Chef at Home: Essential Recipes for Today's Kitchen
Chef at home seems like a great book.  Every other page is a full size color picture and Michael Smith is my favorite chef.  He randomly throws things in pots to see what happens and that's basically my entire cooking style.  Go get this one if you don't have it.  Love it.  I haven't tried any of the recipes yet but they are bound to be good.  Besides the whole point of Michael Smith is to make you go "Hey I have one of those and some of that over there.  I don't really have that, but lets throw this in and see what happens." so recipes are kinda beside the point.  Buy it for the food porn.  Buy it because he is awesome.  The recipes probably don't suck if you are the type who follows them.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
For me this book was a waste of money.  I like spending time on bread.  It kills the boredom.  But if you are always in a rush and want fresh bread at home his technique is probably a good one.  No food porn, I think the book only has 5 black and white pictures.  No I didn't count them.  Also the first chapter of the book reads like a slap chop commercial. I don't know that the infomercial carries all the way through the book because I got so bored I had to go back to Michael Smith.  I'll ruin the surprise for your though, he wrote an entire book based on leaving batches of dough in your fridge.  Yup, a whole book.  Oh well, I cant win them all.  Teach me to buy books online.  Err, hey, buy these books from my website....

On an unrelated entirely note. Why are the books in Canada always more expensive. I hate that.  You Americans always get such good prices.  I spent like twice what the amazon links are saying they cost and all I did was go .ca instead of .com.  I mean one of the books is even made here and then shipped to the states.  Bastards. And if you go to the American site they just charge you the extra in shipping.  Grrr.

On another unrelated note.  If you live in Canada thats a GREAT rant to have really loudly in the romance section of a Chapters.  Especially if you throw in lewd comments about the people on the random `Approved by`and `So and So recomends` stickers that they have on all of the books.  It makes their employees LOVE you.  ``Oh! Heather recomends I get A Polished Hoe! Really! I don`t know who this Heather is but I like her!``

I do know who Heather is.  After my last rant one of their fine employees explained in great detail who Heather is and why her opinion should matter to me.  I may be the only straight male in history to actually know who Heather is.  Go me.

Ahem, ya.

While I am pimping things I may as well also give a plug to a couple of groups I joined recently:

Mellow Bakers is a group where they put up 3 breads a month and you get to make them and post your results.  They plug it as the best way to share your kitchen with other people without actually going to the bother of sharing your kitchen with other people.  Seems like a cool idea.  You can make all or none of the breads and they aren't really that fussy about your participation levels.  Thus the Mellow Bakers name.  All the breads are chosen randomly from Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes.  I don't have a copy yet but they also post some of the recipes on their forums so I should still be able to participate while I am saving my pennies.

I also joined The Daring Kitchen.  I signed up to be a daring baker.  My understanding is everyone makes one baked good a month based on someones post and then does a blog posting up for it on the same day.  They seem to be pretty picky and they have a three strike rule for missing challenges.  I missed this months cut off date so I will have to wait for next month to get in on the action.

And if you like shiny toys as much as I do you should check out:

Breadpots - From My Kiln to Your Oven.  Judith Motzkin hand makes pots for bread.  Very pretty.  I haven't bought one yet and I don't know if I can since I haven't checked if she ships outside the states.  The pots look awesome though and I've seen them pop up on a few peoples blogs with perdy breads inside.  Get one if you have the pennies for it.  I think I'm going to have to dream for awhile yet myself.

Yes I did write all of this to fit in a bad Polished Hoe joke.  Deal.

On The Third Day, For the Third Time

Bubbles!  Hopefully I don't mess it up again!  I'm going to let it sit out for the day and not touch it in any way in the hopes that my murderous touch doesnt get it.  C'mon Goop, you can do it!

I'm actually thinking that maybe tonight I will get a second mason jar of Goop going.  I'm less likely to kill two.  Well, thats the theory.

One Week

Well it's been a week since me and Goop began our zany adventures in doing very little.  I'm writing this up on my lunch break and Goop is still sleeping.  I can't really blame it, its 2:30 in the morning.  Anyone sensible is still sleeping.  Still, I was hoping for a little more action after a week.  You know, at least second base.  I'm just saying. You know how many dinners I've sprung for now and still no action.  7.  One week.  And nothing.  Worst date ever but I won't dump it yet.

Apple Mead Sourdough

Tomorrow me and the wife are taking my mom out for breakfast for her birthday.  It was last week so I need to suck up.  I figured I would bring over some bread to go with breakfast.  Since I still have lots of mead and the last one turned out OK but needed some tweaking I decided to have another go at the mead sourdough bread.  This time I added some apples to it so that it would be nicer for breakfast.

Get some:
• 1 Cup of Sourdough Starter.  Since my goop is still not bubbling I added a cup of goop and a tsp of yeast.
• 4 Cups Flour.  I used white flour mixed with some whole wheat.
• 2 Cups Mead
• 1 Tsp of Baking Powder
• Pinch of Salt

Also get:
• 1/2 Cup of Sugar
• 2 Cups Mead
• 2 Tsp Cinnamon
• 1 Tsp Paprika
• Some Lemon Juice
• 2 Apples skinned and chopped into cubes. I used red ones.

Now:
• In a large bowl mix the flour, mead, starter, baking powder and salt.
• In a different bowl (I used a big beer stein myself) add the sugar, mead, cinnamon and paprika.
• Give the mix a good stir.
• Coat the apples in lemon juice.
• Add them to the stein.
• Put something on the apples so they stay covered in liquid and put them in the fridge.
• Cover the bread dough and put it into a warm oven.
• Walk away for 10 hours. I went to sleep.  I'm lazy.
• Knead the dough.  I added some more mead and flour since mine had dried out.
• Flatten the dough out into a long rectangle.
• Add the apples to the top of the dough. (strain them, keep the marinade)
• Roll the dough up around the apples.  Tuck the ends under and put it into an oiled and floured bread pan.
• Walk away for an hour and let it rise.
• Paint some of the apple marinade on top of the loaf.
• Slash the top a few times.  I forgot to do this and I got big tears along the sides.  Oops.
• Cook in a 350 oven for 45 minutes.
• Take out and let cool.
• Give to your mom because you are a suck up.

I haven't actually tried this yet since I'm giving it as a gift in the morning but it looks like it will be good and it smells delicious so give it a try.  I'd imagine you don't need mead.  Maybe a nice apple cider, or apple juice, or water.  Whatever.  I just have a metric ton of mead to get rid of.