New content coming soon!

Out of Flour

I knew it. When I was at the store the other day, I said to myself that I'd get flour when I make my "real " grocery trip... certainly not now. I was only picking up a few things. So finally I got around to making my next loaf, and sure enough, I only had just over a cup of flour. So much for efficiency. My internal dialog of justifications is such a pain in the butt sometimes. As Oliver Hardy would say to Stan Laurel, "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into." I need bread. I'm tired of eating potatoes and rice for my starch component. I can't make a ham sandwich on crackers or potato slabs (I mean, I could). I have been experimenting with my bread recipe, tweaking it for lean times such as these. Do I really need 4 cups of flour? Can I make up for a reduction in diastatic power with something else or get by without it? Well, I had gotten some mixed sorghum-rice-millet flour a while back to cut into my...

Lactic Fermentation

I love fresh vegetables. It's one of the adult things I look forward to in the summertime. Sadly school days are long past, and Summer no longer holds its magical status as an untouchable time where I could drink in as much vacation as I wanted. Now I have alcohol... which is not what this post is about! The drinking kind anyway. OK, sticklers, I am patently aware of the use of lactic fermentation in brewing. Brewing discussions will come. B ut this is about food preservation. Ooh, pretty As usual, I have more things to do than I imagine. Will I take vegetables when offered? Of course I will! Of course I can use them! And believe me, I have every good intention to do so, but the reality is that I cannot realistically eat 8 pounds of fresh tomatoes and peppers and more in the time that it will take them to naturally ripen, over-ripen, and begin to ferment. No problem, I can use them for stuff!...

Where I've been

Hopefully more than a few of my readers have been asking this question and haven't abandoned my blog for good, as it might have appeared I did. At the beginning of summer, on top of all the other stuff that was happening, there was a death in my family. Then, my fridge slowly stopped working. Then, my work scheduled turned upside down. Then... then... then... well, fill in the blanks, and it probably could sound like anybody else you know. Everyone's life seems to be affected by some extraordinary situation, and priorities shift and change. Unfortunately, I left this blog with one awful quick-and-dirty post just to get some material up. When I came back to the blog and saw that somewhat embarrassing photo, I cringed enough to remove the post. As I had alluded to in the blog description, my meals aren't always beautiful and photo-worthy. I should have listened to myself and skipped the illustrations, though, what is a good post ...

The Occasional Chef

Search This Blog