Recent gardening and baking adventures, February 2019

The recent heat has left my poor garden suffering a bit. While I have always subscribed to the theory that if a plant needs too much care then it is not the plant for me, I feel sad when circumstances such as weather conspire against my kitchen garden. I haven't planted anything new for awhile as the heat would shrivel anything I dared to put in. We haven't had rain in awhile so all my once prolific tomato and eggplants are stunted and fruitless. Having said that, I got out there one weekend and cut everything back and harvested what there was to be picked. I ended up with a bowl of hot chillies, a handful of shallots and some spring onions. They were all used and enjoyed, so I do feel a little joy in eating the fruits of my meagre harvest. 

Some of the cherry tomatoes that did end up surviving the heat were used in one of my focaccia loaves. Even these aren't immune from the heat and I severely overestimated my proofing times. I ended up with a very puffy loaf, which although it looked a bit odd, was still tasty and enjoyed. 

After coming back from holidays over the Christmas break, I got back into the swing of baking with Lorenzo again. He's such a resilient starter, and I missed him while we were away. Shop bought bread just doesn't do it for me anymore, when I know that I can bake my own and make it just the way I like them. I think Lorenzo was happy to see me too. He put on a lovely performance for this bake. These loaves used up the very last of my beloved Trader Joe's Everything But The Bagel seasoning that a kind colleague from America brought over for me. I'm very sad about that as I haven't found another source and while I know Amazon have it, I cannot convince them to send it to Australia for me. There just isn't a comparible alternative seasoning I've found.

Although I usually shop at Coles, I find that Woolworths have really upped their game in vegan offerings of late. Over Christmas, they advertised a vegan loaf, and my philosophy is that if I don't support vegan offerings, they'll think people don't want it. So I ventured to buy one. It took me ages to find it, and I had to ask three assistants for help. Eventually we tracked it down. In the meat section. I see where they are going with that. The helpful assistant who found it also proudly pointed out the vegan patties and sausages too, located right next to the meat equivalents. The only way to tell them apart was the packaging was a slightly different green, and reading the label proclaimed they were plant based. I did try to find a link to the loaf, but it's disappeared from the site, so perhaps it was a seasonal special or others also found it hard to locate. Anyway, I saw them marked down after Christmas and bought another one to keep in the freezer. Here's what it looks like - the red thing on the bottom right of the plate. I think it was lentils, beets and a few other things. To be honest, it wasn't that great, and I probably wouldn't have continued to buy them, but I applaud Woolworths for trying (they constantly have new vegan and gluten free options advertised).

I served that loaf with maple carrots, peas (at the small man's request), some creamy potato bake (I use almond milk and haven't had any complaints). Also, gravy, loads of gravy because... gravy is delicious, but also, that loaf was dry.

Finally, I have been experimenting with some baked vegan donuts lately because I bought a donut pan and I'm not having it in the house if I don't use it! I'm not sure I like them. I find them a bit dense and more like donut shaped cakes than anything else. I think it's obvious here though from the small hand sneaking in to grab one because he just could not wait for me to take my picture, that the kids do like them. So I've been making batches when the oven is on (like for baking sourdough, also visible in the picture!), trying out various ingredients in the hope that I'll hit upon a fabulous mix, and freezing the experiments for school lunches. Miss E is in year one this year, and has quite liked taking a donut to school. By the time lunch rolls around it's defrosted sufficiently to be tasty I'm told. So at least the freezer is filling with school lunch possibilities.

I am linking this into the monthly In My Kitchen round-up, hosted by Sherry of Sherry's Pickings. What's happening in your kitchen this month? Do you have any school lunch tips to share? Does anyone know where I can source more bagel seasoning? 

Busy, not busy

Just recently as I was leaving the office on the last day of my work week, a colleague told me to enjoy my time off. It really ground my gears. What is this ‘time off’ thing they speak of?! 

It was on the tip of my tongue to start a rant about how I actually work full time (and then some!), I just get paid a part time wage, but then I bit off my words and swallowed them back. I know that my days off aren't spent loafing around idly. I'm pretty sure my husband and family appreciate all that I do when I'm at home too. I guess that's the important thing, not what the people at work think (so I won't rant here about gender stereotyping or making assumptions or accepted inequalities).

Instead, here’s some of what I did on that “day off”. I woke up and made everyone breakfast (naturally, no one wanted the same thing as anyone else). I made nutritious school lunches - no pre-packed food either, not that there is anything wrong with that, but everything was homemade (although to be honest, I did retrieve some baked goods from the freezer). I washed and hung out a load of laundry, before making sure bags were packed and doing the school drop off. 

After that, I came home, cut out some pants from old clothes which Mr Fork had worn through. I had time to pin them together and start sewing before the small man and I left to meet a friend who needed to talk. I entertained and distracted small man while there so I could chat, then came home to harvest and tend the vegetable garden. A friend was dropping by to pick up some kombucha scoby, so I brewed up a fresh batch for me and portioned some out for sharing. I also needed to write detailed instructions for booch brewing. 

After that, small man and I went and volunteered for an hour in preparation for my preppies upcoming school fete. After an hour, I got a message that our afternoon guests were running early and they'd be over shortly, so we came home to make lunch for said unexpectedly early guests that I wasn't expecting to feed.  Hurrah for always having homemade bread because paired with lots of odds and ends, it made for delicious sandwiches that hit the spot for everyone. The kitchen was tidied, and then I entertained small man for awhile since he refused to nap. We then returned back to continue the school fete preparations for a few more hours and stayed there until it was time to pick up the school child. 

We came home and I made afternoon tea. Folded the freshly washed laundry and started the dinner preparation. Oh, and I also finished whipping up those pants for everyone (I'll note here that both kids got a new pair of pants, and Mr Fork had his favourite jeans extensively mended and patched, so everyone except me got clothing out of it).

At this point, it was nearly time for Mr Fork to come home, so I stopped specifically noting my activities, but that certainly wasn't the end of my day. There was the usual night routines of dinner, cleaning, bathtime, reading etc etc.

Days off are so exhausting!

Here's a bonus picture of a focaccia I made on the weekend for a dinner party. While weekends are still busy (and also technically "days off") I'm particularly happy with how this bread turned out. I made two loaves, this one (grated haloumi, sun-dried tomato and oregano) and one plain - and therefore less photogenic! They were mixed in between swimming lessons, grocery shopping, errand running, a birthday party and various other tasks. The colder weather threw off my schedule so they also required some babying along with their own personal wheat packs to get some rise happening. Regardless, it was a delicious pre-dinner snack to share with friends. I've said it before and I'll say it again... I'm so grateful for the ability to make fresh bread and how with a little planning, I can easily fit the mixing and baking of it into my busy (not busy!) days.

Modern life is so busy, but things like fresh bread and good coffee are small treats that I always make time for. Do you have tips to share for coping with everything that needs doing?

Breaditation

Ever since I was gifted my sourdough starter four years ago (thanks Celia!), I have been baking bread. I'll admit it, I've had some shockers during my bread baking journey - and yet every single loaf I've turned out I've been ridiculously proud of. I still can't believe that I thought learning a new hobby with a newborn would be a smart idea. Actually, now that I think about it, I also can't believe that my little Attila the Bun will be four this year... not so little and bun-like anymore!

So years later, I'm still baking regularly. I can say with complete honesty that my loaves aren't perfect - they're rustic and not at all fancy, but they're edible and friends ask me to bring them when we have gatherings so I must be doing something right!

I like making regular sourdough loaves and I'm a big fan of fruit and nut loaves (I recently posted a pineapple and date loaf which I'd love to make again with some hazelnuts included). I can also do a decent focaccia which seems to be a hit.

Lately, I've started making extra discard on purpose, and using it to branch out from just regular *bread*.

Here are some sourdough crackers that I made using the King Arthur flour recipe as a base. They turned out great and way better than store bought crackers. I can't believe it took me so long to make them when I've heard so much about home made crackers. I love to go really heavy on the herbs and not be shy with the salt on top. These are a huge hit with everyone I've shared with.

Here's another shot with them next to some simple chia loaves that I baked to take to work. My co-workers have been asking for a loaf for awhile so I was happy to oblige!

Finally, this is my latest creation - sourdough English muffins. I was so ridiculously excited to bake these that I got up at 4am on a weekday, snuck out of bed so the kids didn't realise I'd left (they are very snuggly, clingy and warm so this was hard) and crept into the kitchen to finish off the baking after letting them rise overnight. I didn't use a single particular recipe for these, but an amalgamation of a few that I found online.

I didn't want to use dairy milk so I subbed in almond milk instead and I think they turned out pretty good. Next time I'll cook them a little longer so they brown more, but I didn't hear any complaints when I served them up warm for breakfast. I'm sticking all of the leftovers into the freezer so I don't eat them all, they are that tasty!

So, to all the bloggers who have been so generous with their knowledge and inspirations... literally thank you for giving me my daily bread. Thanks for what I've taken to calling my breaditation moments - when I sneak out of bed early, when the house is all quiet and still and I can knead and shape and bake in the silence. Then, if I've managed to do it quietly enough, I can enjoy a cup of coffee while the house is still asleep and watch the sun rise while the baking bread smell wafts from the oven. It's my favourite part of the day!