Saturday, March 21, 2009

Early Spring Light Supper

Yesterday was the first day of spring, you know. Yup. Some of you may not be able to tell (appologies to those of you in the chilly Pacific Northwest. I think even the Minnesota relatives are warmer than you. Not to... rub it in... or anything...) but today we had 52 and sun. Yea!





I love that even this early in the spring when my cold frame lettuce is only just peeking through the ground, I can go out in the field around my house and pick a salad. I took Jonah with me this time, but forgot my camera, of course. He was a good help, though, and he quickly learned to recognize the wild mustard greens growing everywhere (well, it's not that hard... the only thing green out there right now are mustards and little thistles...). They're tiny little leaves right now (at their most tender and tasty!), so it took us a while to pick enough, but we didn't mind. There is a certain "thrill" in the "hunt". So we brought them home and made a simple salad with some grated carrots and Mom's Maple Vinaigrette. I sliced up some of the Rosemary Onion Poppyseed Sourdough that I baked this morning and poured some olive oil into a little bowl with some mashed garlic for dipping the bread. Mmmm... I think I've been craving that all winter.

Now I regret that I didn't put some Creme Brulee in the oven this afternoon...

9 comments:

  1. Wow. Awesome! You are so resourceful.

    That bread looks amazing as I'm sure it also tastes!

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  2. Ok i can't pick anything wild here because the dog or the cats will have probably peed on it; but that loaf of bread!!! PLEASE post the recipe for that, look at that crust, it is a thing of beauty!!!

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  3. ps HOW do you make a sour dough where you live? I thought you had to live near the ocean to get a really good sour dough. I have a great bread book that explains how to make a sour dough starter from the wild yeasts in the air. It's a very complicated process and I never did it. I love sour dough the more sour the better. Native Californian, extra sour dough....saliva dripping...gnawing on hands

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  4. Sourdough is not that complicated. It does, however, have a pretty steep learning curve. You do not need to live by the ocean-- there are yeasts everywhere! You can catch them in the air in your house. For my starter, however, I used a method from Crust and Crumb by Peter Reinhart where I used water from soaking some organic raisins to give it a boost of wild yeasts.

    I've spent the last couple of years learning my sourdough technique from various sources. I can share them if you're interested. I also make bread for mail-order. :-) I'm filling an order for someone in Ohio this week...

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  5. that is my kind of dinner...
    everything on hand, made by hand- love it!

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  6. I am one of those in the chilly Pacific NW! We are expecting 58 degrees this weekend with SUN. And I can't wait. :)

    Plus, we're going to the home and garden show and that will be THRILLING!

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  7. Yep yep sourdough techniques, how about starter do you sell that? I am familiar with baking bread and can make a nice loaf of whole wheat thanks to my Bosch and my mill. But what we love to eat is sour dough. So teach on fearless leader!

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  8. Check out www.northwestsourdough.com. I learned some awesome techniques there. She sells quite a few different (wonderful!) starters. My white sourdough starter came from there and I made my own whole wheat. She even has a San Fransisco starter (though I don't advise starting with that as I hear it's pretty tricky!). She doesn't have a whole lot of info about whole wheat, though, so I've had to figure that out for myself. I learned alot about making sourdough bread by making white, though, and was then able to learn to do whole.

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  9. thanks for the tip! and any time your ready to photo op your baking day give it a go!

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