Labor Day

I love holidays, not so much for the events, but for the chance to have a day off from work. A three day weekend was a real luxury. I did mow the lawn after weeks of neglecting it. I got the back done, but the front is still wild from my experiment of letting it go wild to allow it to rejuvenate itself and fill in some of the bare spots. If I'd just water the dang thing, it would be better, too. The front planter suffered seriously earlier in the summer for lack of water but it is coming back. I am slowly killing the african violets in the kitchen widow.

I didn't ride my bike at all this weekend and for that I need a kick in the butt!

I did bake a cake (no pictures unfortunately). It was an Italian cream cake with coconut, It was iced with a toasted pecan cream cheese icing. It was devine! I used cake flour instead of AP which made the crumb a little too fragile. The original recipe called for 3 layers. Since I have only 2 9" pans I opted for two layers and then torted them into 4. This put a strain on the icing and I had to put other plain icing in the torts, so I'd have enough for the top and sides. I almost didn't, the top and sides were only thinly coated. Next time I will double the icing if I do a f 4 layer version. I put in four straws to hold the layers together for transport. I forgot to tell anyone they were there. No one mentioned it though and I didn't remember until the last piece I ate and it had straw in it. everyone did rave about the flavor and moistness. This is a cake I'll make again sometime.

No Knead bread

I am almost a year behind the wave on this one, but I finally succumbed. I made 4 loaves of this stuff last weekend. I should have taken pictures, but forgot again. I'll make some more very soon and hopefully will memorialize the golden beauties. The best thing to come out of this has been my discovery of the 3½ qt. Tramontina enamel over cast iron dutch oven. For just under $30 before taxes, this was a great find. It isn't so big that it weighs a ton when it is full of stew and it is the perfect size for the NYT bread. The footprint is small enough that the bread doesn't spread too much. I can also fit three of these in the oven at one time.

Now for the bad part, by the time I had discovered these they had disappeared off the Wally World shelves. I had seen them weeks or months ago but had decided I didn't need one. Now that I do NEED one, they only had one left. I searched in three other stores, but without success. It seems in some of the stores the larger and vastly more expensive Lodge enamel over cast iron have taken their place. The Lodge stuff has a bigger footprint, only two would probably fit in the oven. It costs more than twice as much!

The good news, I hope, is that they still had the Tramontina on their website with free to the store delivery. I ordered one for Mom to pickup at her local store and two for me.

The bread was soooo easy, but a little on the wet side for handling. I found a revised recipe on eGullet that verified my feelings about the recipe:

1. needs more salt for flavor, increasing it to 2 tsp. I have also ordered sourdough starter, including it should add more flavor too.
   
   
2. recipe should have given flour weights as well as volume for more accuracy. I am increasing flour and weighing it.
   
   
3. the dough stuck to the cloth towels but by increasing flour it should no longer do this. I will also use wheat or oat bran to coat the towels.
   
   
4. OAP's have complained about the thickness of the crust, so removing the lid sooner during the baking cycle makes a thinner crust. Personally, I have searched for this kind of rustic bread and have tried numerous techniques to achieve it -- misting the oven, adding pans of water under the bread, using a pizza stone, etc. Nothing ever worked as well as this hot pot technique. I also don't have to handle the bread very much - always a good thing.

Anyway I made two white and two wheat loaves. All were a hit. One the bread was out of the pot, I tried a rump roast stew in it. Yum! I browned the meat in the pot, added bell pepper, onion, celery, taragon, mushrooms, and rutabagas. I used beef bouillion to deglaze the pot since I had run out of red wine - but next time.... I also forgot to add the carrots I had in the freezer. After baking for almost two hours, the meat was tender and the flavor - rich.