hummingbirdkiss

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this is such good tasting bread!!!

OK I could not take step by step pictures because I have camera issues right now ...but I did take a pic of today's experiment and kept notes of what I did so I could work on getting it just right!..... this is from three day fermented well hydrated dough that has not been messed with much just refreshed and coaxed and talked to ....and then today folded and put into a very olive oily pan to rise for one last time...baked it and it came out like this ... ...the texture of this bread is so nice I can not even tell you in words ..it is a perfect sandwich bread in my opinion! YET my holes are till not the way I want them ...I want bigger more uneven holes ... it is however a nice resilient yet soft bread with perfect amts of tang, salt ...honestly the right ratios of all the yummy sourdough feelings/flavors I love are in this picture ...EXCEPT THE FREAKING HOLES!!! they are eluding me!!! Tomorrows batch I will for sure be brave enough to dump the dough onto the stone and not cook it in the pie pain again ..also I will remember to slash the top! but for the holes ..I guess even less handling ...maybe I over folded...I really think now I have the right ratio of hydration going on ..I like the rise and the texture very much... I really like the olive oil crust it reminds me of the taste of bread and pizza in Providence where I grew up ? kind folks...OOOXXX thank you so much again

there you go and actual recipe for it! very cool!! I love how mine turn out but they are not predictable at all I just make a pound cake with a pound of each thing I wonder if her recipe is like that ..I have to check it out!

new day new batch wish me luck!!!

I may not have the best but this one is a really good one!!! Just a standared poundcake recipe with pinch of mace ..the entire contents of a vanilla bean and 1/2 cup of good rum in the batter and then bake ..remove from the oven and top the hot cake with a glaze made of powdered sugar rum and walnuts once while it is hot then again while it is cool ..this comes out fantastic!

what about hot peppers in a pot and basil? my mother has great success in that area with those? I am jealouse of folks that can grow tomatoes mine always get that black rot! and peppers are iffy I try every year but no luck ... I live in a very temperate part of the Puget Sound area and can literally grow all year something! I am so lucky that way!!!! toss a seed in and jump the heck back!!! but the rain is relentless this year!!! relentless!!!

I am cutting my parsley and chives and using them like crazy right now ...I love this time of year when things are poking up through the ground ...all my bulbs are blooming except the tulips and they are next... I have five way plums, five way dwarf cherries and five way dwarf Asian pears all bursting with blooms ...the fig tree is not showing buds yet...I want another one this year for sure (fig tree) they are so stunning and the leaves are so wonderful to use in the kitchen ... I am going to lime my beds today ...plant my peas..(I am late on all this and should have done it a month ago ..but oh well) pepper plants are started in the house ... rosemary is ready to burst into blooms and my Anna's hummingbird (he has lived with us for the past two winters) has two girlfriends this spring!!!

What a fantastic thread I am so enjoying reading about your traditions!!! What was your family food culture when you were growing up? I was a very little curly redheaded half Middle Eastern Jewish/half anglo girl... who was raised by a beautiful Afro/IndoCaribbean woman from Trinidad ...in a Southern Italian neighborhood in Providence RI....my mother passed away when I was 3 so this woman (along with all the other mothers in the neighborhood) became my mother/s ..she took me every summer to her family in Brooklyn NY ..where I was completely immersed in her family culture ..I was also blessed beyond reason to be able to spend a lot of time with my Jewish Grandmother in Montreal Canada ..she was a brilliant cook and loved making Greek and Persian food! I was so lucky in many ways growing up... Was meal time important? Absolutely! it was but not always at a particular "time" in the traditional sense ...we always had fantastic food going in the kitchen and if we wanted to eat any time of the day in almost any house on the block..well then that was a meal time for us and we had to sit at the table ..so maybe I am wrong there was not much importance on what time ..just that we make time Was cooking important? Along with keeping a nice house ..cooking was a most important skill it appeared to me ...that a woman could have (we were expected to go to college and have careers during this time... but it was very important as well to be good at keeping house) ...and the kitchen was for sure a woman's domain! Most mothers where/when I was growing up..stayed home to raise kids and keep the house ...and it was a very respected and important job as far as I could tell... it was not until I was older that I realized a man could actually cook! It was a very serious business feeding a family and families needed good food to grow into healthy adults ....so yes yes yes ...cooking was of the utmost importance ...still is to me ..however I am quite convinced men are as good as we are at it when they apply themselves What were the penalties for putting elbows on the table? None for me at home but I went to a Quaker girls school and manners were pretty much expected ..we did just behave very well at the table ...I never felt threatened it just seemed expected at school and in restaurants to sit up straight ..put your napkin in your lap ...do not grab for food and no elbows on the table... Quakers are gentle people but somehow they did convey the message of being well behaved at the table ..our lunch room was more a dining room at school and we had a chef and servers so it was like eating out each day when I had school lunch.... (my favorite dish they served was Fall River chow mein) at home however we were expected to enjoy our meal and never cared how we looked eating it!!! Who cooked in the family? The amazing woman who cared for me ...she cooked non stop!.. she always encouraged me to help and praised me highly for my efforts ..but my silly red hair ..the fact I was pretty tiny and also did not have a "real" mother somehow made it very important that my neighbors feed me "good" food as well ..I was an oddity and it was to my benefit because I learned to cook early by being in all those wonderful kitchens with a plate of food in front of me watching all the goings on! Were restaurant meals common, or for special occasions? Both... we had so many wonderful Italian restaurants around us that we went out at least once a week..also for Chinese food ..great stuff as a kid in Providence very exotic! ...the only fast food I ever remember were clam cakes and chowder at the amusement parks or pizza at the bakery or pizzeria ...actually to me "fast food" was stopping at the bakery for a strip of pizza or a freshly baked roll ... Did children have a "kiddy table" when guests were over? no we were such a small family ourselves we all ate together ...but at the larger families of friends and neighbors ..yes there was a kiddy table and it was a blast to me as a child since there were only two of us at my house... eating with a pile of kids at our own perfectly set table ... that was so much fun!!! When did you get that first sip of wine? In my breast milk Was there a pre-meal prayer? At my neighbors always and I loved how solemn and important it all seemed..at home no Was there a rotating menu (e.g., meatloaf every Thursday)? some type of curry at least twice a week.....other than that no predictable menu...we ate in season and always fresh foods ...our menu's were dictated by what was available ...shopping was an event ... first we would go to the fish market or butcher to see what there was ..then after we bought our meat we would mull a bit over ice cream ..then to the produce market... finally the bakery ..food shopping took place every day almost ...so did the ice cream How much of your family culture is being replicated in your present-day family life? all of it ...my kids expect curries ...I stayed home and "kept house" while they were little....we still shop and cook based on what is available fresh and almost every day ....the one thing that has changed is the kitchen being a "woman's domain" ...I love having all my men in there with me .... PS I am 49 years old so you can have the time frame for the period I grew up in the 60's-70's

I call an eggwash beating the eggs with some water then brushing the rolls with them in as mentioned the last few min of cooking ...yes if you want brown rolls use the whole egg if you want white rolls use the white only ..sorry I was in an hurry and did not clarify maybe that is the wrong term I dont know?

I have never been to that place but I know that using and egg wash makes my rolls very lovely and shiny

I am going out today after work and buying this book my mouth is watering for more ....

1:1 sourcream and cream cheese beaten until smooth and creamy then just add crumbled bleu cheese to the mix to your tasting and some cracked back pepper and that is it

I love this topic! I do cook with alcohol I will drink because I like having a glass while I am cooking! But I have also used what may not be thrilled with in my dishes and have found that maybe I don't care for in a glass can be wonderful when cooked into a dish food safety ..well guys I am a nurse and I work in place where I have cared for people who are heaving their guts out ..having massive blow outs of diarrhea ..for what actually does turn out to be a food related illness ...although honestly most of the people who think they have food poisoning actually have a virus ... so I am not obsessive but I do ..wash my hands constantly in the kitchen, keep my counters spotless between preps ...do not leave food out for long at all ..am careful about cross contamination and use my fridg/freezer to store food.. I just figure that from what I have seen come flying out of peoples bodies and how painful it is physically and emotionally ...I will be safe thanks .. Don't refreeze myth..I refreeze most things if I change my mind about dinner and it is not completely thawed I will chuck it right back in the freezer...with squid this works well because it seems that freezer abuse makes it much more tender!

I have done both with okra tossed seasoned cornmeal and also first flour then egg wash then corn meal ...and both were good ..the second one turned out better for sitting longer the coating stayed more crispy .. I know this is not traditional but I have actually made Cajun seasoned panko for okra and that was killer good!!! stayed very crispy!!!

these are my fruits I keep two jars this size going all the time I got the jars at a Korean market for about $2/each when I want to make a batch of cakes I take one of the jars and use the whole thing (less what I eat when I make the cake! see the plate ...yummm I am not sure I have even done this sober btw! the fruits sneak up on you!) then split the second jar of fruits between the two jars ..use it as the mother...and add fresh fruits, rum, brandy and port wine... in three to six months I can make another batch ..it is such a wonderful cycle!!! I think in my heart the age of the fruits matters more than anything else with this cake ...they should be mellow before you bake the cake and then the cake only needs a coupld of weeks of age to be perfect... I have aged my cakes longer but really when the fruits are perfect ..so will your cake be I think

OK I win the prize!!!! (kidding of course) These brownies are exactly what I would define as being the perfect brownie ...my friend worked graveyard last night and called me to say that they were "The best #$@#ing brownies I have ever eaten in my life!" I never did get my husband to give up his recipe so ..I took Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies mentioned previously and kind of combined it with the Bakers' recipe (since I did not have all the chocolate chips I just added more bitter chocolate and about 1/2 cup more sugar) and added 1/4 cup hot coffee with a vanilla bean scraped into and infused in it ... I am extremely proud of this effort and it was for sure the baking boost I needed lately!!! They are rich ..have the perfect shell on the top and are moist and chewy in the middle .very chocolatey!!!! ....I put walnut halves ..all the chocolate is melted in ...and a little coarse salt in (that was a brilliant idea!) all I can say is ..wow these worked!!! ..I just hope I can repeat it again for my son's birthday and to add to the Recipe Gullet ..these just came out so perfectly!!! humbley speaking of course!!! what a perfect and badly needed chocolate fix!!!!

you are such a sweet child!!! Good for you doing this...my son's keep telling me that "we want to have you to dinner as soon as we clean the house" it has been two years!!!! They come over instead and offer to help me cook ..but to sit and enjoy a feast they prepared would be the best gift ever!!! starch ..well rice of course!!! your menu screams for it! salad ...with all the wonderful dishes you are preparing I think a lovely fresh mix of spring greens tossed with a vinegar oil dressing would be perfect! I would also offer some sliced tomatoes drizzled with olive oil salt and fresh cracked pepper ...if you have nice ones there ..although this time of year hot house is all we have ...they go so nicely with the shellfish this will be a wonderful meal for sure!! good for you!!!

I am going to take another break reread what you all wrote in this thread again ...mull it again ..wish you were here just showing me how to do this in person so I could get it right... and then start over from scratch when I am off on Wednesday .... ... my husband promised me his camera for this upcoming batch...I will take pics of each step this time so you can see what I am doing ..right or wrong thank you so much!!!! You all have so much wonderful info and I am so grateful you are kind enough to share it with me!!!! There is just something here I am not getting ...but will persist ... I have an instant read thermometer and will for sure use it ... my wrist is probably not the best check at least my family and friends enjoy the "mistakes"

It's a bit cringe-inducing to hear something like this, as if one has to choose between poached and scrambled eggs and declare one superior for all time. Your friend is surely happy in his limited universe; no need to disrupt his equilibrium. But he's misinformed. There are several ways to cook rice, and there are several kinds of rice, and pretty much all you can say categorically is that the different methods produce different results, some of which are better suited to specific purposes than others. Boiling, steaming, absorption, absorption-plus-stirring . . . no one method is inherently the best. It's a question of the rice you're using and what you want to get out of it. ← OMG I so feel this way exactly!!!! it really depends on what I am making as to what type I use and how I make my rice....there are tons of ways to do it including boil and drain and that I use as well for certain dishes.....there is no one way of making rice I agree and I could not have said this better!!! I can honestly say the only way I don't make it is in a rice cooker I don't care for those things at all

my theory and I am sticking to it ....chocolate makes me happy ..gives me endorpins and helps my outlook on life become much brighter ...how can I not live longer with chocolate as my medicine

I would love to know the answers to this ... I know raw garlic is a problem but this place I frequent puts roasted garlic infused oil out and leave it out 24/7 and I wondered about the safety of that as well?

I do not like cauliflower or broccoli I know I should..most folks do really like them even when they are not big fans of other veggies...these two just do not taste good to me and really I adore vegetables the only other thing I can think of I don't care for that people around me just enjoy the heck out of is eel I will eat anything from the sea raw or cooked... but have tried this several times and can not make myself see what other people love in it...it is just too eely tasting I guess

I find these guys reliable ..predictable and always offer wonderful beans http://www.batdorf.com

I was taught to eat with chopsticks when I was too little to remember I also taught my kids to eat with chopsticks in the high chair as just another option to get food to your mouth ..they are all proficient in using them not only with great skill but they are very respectful and use them politely..if they had drummed with chopsticks I would have drummed their heads with my hands! ...manners do matter...and varry according to where you are eating..... I love sharing food and really when you use chopsticks you are not supposed to put your mouth on them just eat the food off the end ..so that way when you dip into the communal dish there is less chance of spreading germs...my girlfriend is from Laos and has this amazing trick of turning her chopsticks so quickly she can serve herself off the communal plate with one side of the sticks then eat off her plate with the other...I have tried to do this but can not flip them with any finess and end up getting food everywhere (I am practicing this in private btw) I have never been to an Asian restaurant that did not offer them as an option ..not one that I can remember anyway ...maybe this is regional? Here in my area there seems to be the popular offering on the table of most family style Asian restaurants of both the disposable chopsticks as well as the reusable ones...