FrogPrincesse

Heidi, I wish I did but I don't make my own baguettes. I make rustic no-knead breads that I cook in a cast iron dutch oven (Le Creuset), but obviously that would not work very well for baguettes. The bread for the ricotta tartine was from Bread & Cie, a local bakery (more on them later). Saba is cooked grape must. It's rather sweet, and was used traditionally as a sweetener when sugar was more scarce. It's very good drizzled on a bitter salad such as treviso. It's called for in a few recipes in several books that I own, including Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin, and Babbo by Mario Batali. It took me a while to find a place that carried it. I finally found it at the little store at Mozza (mozza2go), Batali's restaurant on Melrose in LA. Here is an article on saba that was published in the New York Times. Here is a picture of the bottle I have at home. That Saucisson en Brioche sounds amazing! If you make it again, please post pictures on eGullet! "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" is worth looking into. So far I've only ventured into the peasant loaf and enriched bread sections, but the flatbreads are on my list too. Their website has a ton of information too, in addition to the excellent eGullet thread.

After the final proofing step, I brushed the dough with an egg wash before it went in the oven. 35 minutes later, the brioche was finally ready and the house smelled wonderful ! For some reason, it cracked a little more than usual.

It is indeed very simple and requires very little active time, just some planning. It's also my experience that the flavor improves if the dough stays in the fridge for a few days before baking.

On the second day (yesterday), when I took the dough out of the fridge, it had deflated a little. I sprinkled some flour so the dough would not stick, lifted it out of the container, and cut off a large piece. Then I formed the loaf and put it in the buttered pan. It went in the oven again for its second rise.

I started making this brioche a couple of days ago. Here is the process, based on Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Here are the ingredients. Normally, I would use honey from one of the vendors at the farmers' market, but I had run out. The flour is added to a mixture containing lukewarm water, salt, yeast, eggs, honey, and melted butter. Yes, I measure the flour by volume, and this is only because this recipe does not need to be precise. The water content can always be adjusted to obtain the right consistency, which is supposed to be fairly loose. Otherwise I always use a scale for baking recipes. I use my handheld mixer to make sure that all the flour is incorporated. The mixture does not have to be perfect, and this should take less than a minute (no kneading, just mixing!). I finish by mixing the edges with a rubber spatula. Here is what it looks like, before the first rise. I use the proofing function on my oven. For dense batters, the setting is 125F. Here is what it looks like after the first rise, which takes about an hour. At that point, it went in the fridge until the next day. Corrected typo

This morning, for a change, I had breakfast. Homemade brioche with locally-made blood orange marmelade. Corrected typo

Loved that Barely Buzzed from Beehive - chocolot brought me some when she came for the chocolate conference - she is good friends with the cheesemaker. I was fortunate indeed - wish I could get it here. Loved all those other pupus! We really liked the cheese! The idea of a cheddar with coffee & lavender buds sounds strange on paper, but it really works.

As promised, here is the rest of the kitchen tour. Our tiki drink station The bar (There is some overflow in the other cabinets) The tea and coffee station The Kitchenaid and a few of our dishes The pantry, which is in the hallway in the back of the kitchen

Dessert with chocolate from our local chocolatier, and black emerald grapes from our farmers' market bag.

I seasoned the steaks with olive oil, salt, pepper and herbes de Provence, and let them reach room temperature. I used a modified version of Alton Brown's method to cook them. I warmed a cast iron skillet in the oven for at least 30 minutes (longer is better) at high temperature, and cooked the steaks for 1 to 2 minutes per side for rare (me) to medium rare (him). It works because I had the steaks cut fairly thin (at least by American standards).

Before coming home, we also stopped by Specialty Produce to pick up our farmers' market bag. I have to explain that I realized this morning with horror and complete embarrassement that, with the excitement of the blog, I had completely forgotten to order my bag last Sunday. But they were nice enough to let me get one of their spare bags when I explained my situation. This is what we received this week. Our daugther started devouring the plums almost immediately. For tonight's dinner, I made a piperade inspired by the tomatoes, bell peppers, and garlic in the basket. After frying some onions at low temperature, I added the sliced garlic, some salt, and a good amount of Espelette pepper. After a few minutes, I added the chopped bell peppers and tomatoes, and let them cook at low heat until they became soft (about an hour).

For our dinner tonight, we picked up a couple of dry-aged prime rib eye steaks from Siesel's, our favorite butcher shop. They're always really friendly there and take care of all my "strange" requests for unusual cuts of meats without giving me a hard time. The shop is not huge but it carries a good selection, including the local breads from Bread & Cie, Stone beer, and El Indio chips, which is really convenient for us. They also have a deli and a small produce section. Beef Pork Bacon & sausage section

Here are some pictures of the original kitchen, per FauxPas' request. The wall you see behind the oven no longer exists. The remodel. This photo, like the other recent photos, was taken standing where the wall used to be. The framed area is now a bathroom.

While tonight's dinner is still cooking, here are some pictures of the making of the ricotta last night. (My husband calls this another white blob story, after the fromage blanc, raita, and orgeat! ) Heating whole milk with citric acid and kosher salt to 185F - 195F It has reached its temperature. Notice the tiny little curds. It's time for a 10-minute rest. After the resting period, it needs to be drained for about 20 minutes. It looks dry enough for me (I like it still very creamy) It's done!

Thanks Pam! The countertops are Ikea laminate in dark grey.

With our cocktails, we had French-style pupus. Barely Buzzed cheese from Beehive, rubbed with coffee and lavender buds Toma from Point Reyes Sungold cherry heirloom tomatoes (from last week's CSA, but still delicious!) Then, a tartine of homemade ricotta, with fleur de sel, mint, and saba.

It feels SO good to be back at home after a tough day at work, and to enjoy this wonderful cocktail. This is a Trader Vic's Mai Tai, with the orgeat I made the other day. I used my favorite rum combination (La Favorite Coeur de Rhum + Appleton 12 year). The homemade orgeat takes it to another level. Life is good again.

kayb, Shelby, and johhnyd, Thanks for the nice comments. They mean a lot, especially coming from veteran foodbloggers!

Thanks FauxPas. I am sure that I can find a picture or two showing the old kitchen, to give you a better idea of the extent of the renovation. Frimousse, our cat, seems to like the fragrance of the freshly-made orgeat! Corrected typo

Last night we had a little dessert before going to bed. Chocolate chocolate-chip cookies from David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert, and raspberries from Chino Farm.

Matthew, Thank you for your comments. I don't have an ice crusher. My fridge has a crushed ice option, so that's what I use. It may not be perfect , but it's really convenient! I will keep your tips in mind when I make sausage next time. I realize my sausage was overstuffed. I am glad that I got you interested in cheese-making. There will be more on that topic soon!

Thank you, Anna and Kerry. I'm enjoying reading about your cooking adventures in Manitoulin.

Thanks YSL. My husband took that photo, along with all the others, except for a few that I took.

As promised, I would like to give you a tour of the kitchen. We bought our house 7 years ago. It was built in the 1950s and, after living in it for a few months and realizing that it did not meet our needs, we decided to remodel it, including the kitchen. We expanded the kitchen area by including part of the space that used to be a family room. The idea for the kitchen design was to have most of it out of sight. Since the kitchen can be seen from our living room, dining room, and patio, we did not want it to be too intrusive. So we needed cabinets where we could hide everything when we were not using the kitchen area, hence the wall of roll-top cabinets. Also, I hate top cabinets so I did not want any in my kitchen To stay within a reasonable budget, I decided to get good appliances and Ikea cabinets. Ikea cabinets have the advantage of being cost-effective but with good-quality hardware (with blum hinges if you are into that kind of thing, including soft-close dampers on some of them). My husband and I assembled all of the cabinets ourselves, and the contractor installed them. We decided to have a large island so we could use that area for informal meals and parties. The island includes the sink, the dishwasher and the electric stove top. Because of the view, it did not make sense to have an updraft hood. The downdraft hood is a compromise because it's not as efficient as an updraft one. It was also a pain to install as a trench had to be dug under the kitchen floor. But I am happy to have a hood, especially during my heavy duty cooking projects (e.g., incinerating maple-cured bacon!!! ). Against the wall, we have a Miele oven that I am very happy with (I do a lot of baking and it's great), and a warming drawer which is very handy to warm plates or to keep things warm. Tomorrow I will show you what is behind the cabinet doors.

We settled in at a table outside on the patio (it looks like we may have scored the best seats in the house!), and ordered a couple of drinks from the menu. The view from our table The drink menu He ordered the Mr Bali Hai, and I got the Goof Punch (warning: STRONG !!!). Actually the Goof Punch is a very well-balanced drink, which makes it all the more dangerous. Our appetizers arrived. His was a deconstructed dynamite steak roll with grilled steak, onions, sesame rice, and a dynamite crust. Mine was the blackened local albacore with papaya, lemon, ponzu, pickled mustard seed, and tobiko. We were both very happy with our appetizers and our drinks, and the gorgeous view. For the main course, he had the char siu glazed duck with cauliflower, lup cheong sausage, snap peas and plum wine syrup. We instantly fell in love with that dish as we are both duck lovers, love char siu and Chinese sausage. What a great combination! I had the pan roasted striped bass with shrimp, mussels, bacon, peas, bok choy, and a lobster white corn coconut broth. My favorite part of the dish was the broth and the combination of the freshly shelled peas with the bacon and bok choy. This was lovely evening. We always have a good time there.