In the Kitchen

What a lovely weekend here in Kalamazoo.

I met a friend through our mutual love of cooking, in particular baking bread. So, take summer, check out a few books on baking bread (such as Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice) and in a weekend, many wonderful things will happen.

The purpose of this post was to share the French bread we made. It was my first attempt at "real" bread, instead of my normal throw things in a bowl, knead, rise, cook approach that has yielded good, but not great, loaves. So, we set out to create artisan bread. And we did.

And it's gone. Two one pound loaves have been devoured since we took them out of the oven late Sunday. I guess I'll have to wait until next time we bake to share photos. But man was that bread good!

So, instead of bread, I have farmer's market goodies to share. Such as a simple salad, with just a bit of Balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The tomatoes are so good I've been eating them on their own, just as a snack.

Or how about some onion and portobello mushroom risotto?

Tonight, I'm going to get a starter ready for a whole wheat bread from Reinhart's book. I'm a whole wheat devotee, and while the French bread knocked my socks off, it wasn't very filling. I want a big slice of whole wheat bread, a slice of cheese, and I'm in heaven.


I'm off to make dinner! I'll return soon with some knitting, crocheting, and animal tales.