Curiosity

Curiosity becomes interest, interest becomes hobby, hobby becomes passion, passion becomes life's work, and even spiritual pursuit--the stuff of the heart. (44) 

And I Shall Have Some Peace There by Margaret Roach

In my semi-annual quest to clean up and clean out at NOLD, I came across a file folder that became a catchall over the years for articles, information, and essays about food. As I looked back at what I had collected since my curiosity germinated, I realized that I had come a long way, building a solid base of knowledge and crafting an approach to cooking that feels authentic and ingrained.

So, I shouldn't be surprised that I have immersed myself with food as the seasons change. I am deeply immersed in the following:

• Preparing food for storage
• Planning food gifts for the holidays
• Organizing recipes collected and not yet tested
• Cooking and baking to get the family back on track nutritionally
• Cataloging recipes to share here
• Rifling through cookbooks and donating those left frequented to our Little Free Library

Working in the kitchen is creative and tangibly satisfying. I can taste and appreciate results immediately, although I do prepare meals and dishes that don't pass muster, too. And, sometimes, things do go terribly wrong. I have come to appreciate the process, which can at times run counter to my OCD side. 

However, my greatest satisfaction comes from sharing food -- sharing a meal with friends, family, and new acquaintances is a large part of life at NOLD. I love to gift food and, occasionally, peak someone else's curiosity in something new. So, today, I want to share a few recipes with just such curiosity in mind.

Two friends, one tween and one adult, requested this recipe after assurances that they could bake just such a healthful, simple loaf of bread themselves. You can, too.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread

1¼ cup warm water or warm milk (105ºF to 115ºF) or any combination of the two

1 egg

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, or sunflower oil

½ cup pure maple syrup, honey, or agave syrup or ¼ cup brown sugar

2 cups unbleached all-purpose bread flour

2 cups whole wheat bread flour or spelt flour

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon yeast

1. Place all ingredients, in order, into the large bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook.
2. Beat at low speed until dough is smooth, comes cleanly off of sides, and climbs hook, about 8 minutes. If dough is sticky add additional unbleached all-purpose bread flour as needed one tablespoon at a time. Be careful not to add too much additional flour or bread will be tough and/or dry.
3. Cover bowl and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot until doubles, about 1½ hours.
4. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan.
5. Scrape dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 2 minutes, shaping into an 8-by-3-inch log.
6. Place into pan and cover loosely with a buttered sheet of wax paper or foil wrap.
7. Let dough rise in a warm, draft-free spot until center is 1½ inches higher than top of pan, about 45 minutes.
8. Gently pull cover off top of loaf and bake in a 350ºF oven for 30 minutes until deep golden.
9. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Then, run knife around edges of bread and turn out of pan. Cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

Yield: 1 large loaf

Notes: You may use only whole wheat bread flour in this recipe. However, I would begin with 3 ½ cups and add additional whole wheat bread flour slowly, by the tablespoon, as needed in order to prepare a dough that is springy to the touch but not too dry or tough. Also, you may brush loaf with milk or cream and sprinkle with oats just prior to baking for added pizzazz.

My younger daughter is responsible for the following two recipes. She decided to eat salad greens (Hurray!) over the summer and has taken to caesar salads, in particular. She tracked down this recipe for dressing and allowed me to show her how to make croutons from leftover/stale bread (from the recipe above or otherwise) as well. Both are simple and delicious, staples to add to your larder.

Caesar Dressing

2 small garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon anchovy paste

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice/one lemon

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 cup mayonnaise

½ cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated

¼ teaspoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Put everything in a bowl or dressing holder. Start with the dry ingredients, then the wet. Mix with a whisk or handheld mixer until everything is combined. Serve immediately or put in fridge. Dressing is good in fridge for 1 week. 

Baked Croutons

Dice fresh or dry bread into ½-inch cubes. You may freeze them at this point or use immediately. Toss with enough olive oil to lightly coat (about ¼ cup olive oil for each ½ pound of bread). Season to taste with garlic powder, sea salt, ground black pepper, and/or herbs, to taste. Spread evenly in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F, stirring halfway through to brown evenly. Use immediately or store in an airtight container for future use.

Index

I am an organizer. I love to bring order to a project and believe this was one of my strengths as an administrator. At home, I straighten a closet, label containers, and schedule our calendar. I need a certain amount of order and organization to function well, to get my head around my workload, and to enjoy a task at hand. This is my nature at its very core.

So, I am pleased to share that I have started two indices on my blog: a poetry index and a recipe index. You can find the tabs at the top of the left hand column. I hope this will make it easier for my readers to find a recipe of interest or to return to words of insight and inspiration. Let me know how it goes.

Today, I hope to add three recipes to the recipe index. As I worked my way through each quart of strawberries in the flat I bought the previous week, I knew there were a few more related recipes to share. One of my favorite simple salads for early summer is made of fresh greens, cut strawberries, roasted nuts (if desired), and Poppy Seed Dressing.

This milk-based Poppy Seed Dressing is quite simple and rather delicious, if I may say so myself.

Poppy Seed Dressing

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Combine ingredients with a whisk. Serve with a fresh greens, fruit (such as strawberries), and nut (such as slivered almonds) salad or toss just prior to serving.

One of my favorite pies is a fresh strawberry pie from Fresh Market Wisconsin by Terese Allen. This cookbook is an old favorite which contains numerous recipes that I return to repeatedly and remains true to the farmers markets of my youth. It tops a layer of fresh, hulled strawberries with a creamy strawberry sauce.

Not too sweet, Bea's Fresh Strawberry Pie is refreshing and suitable for the first hot spell of summer.

Bea’s Fresh Strawberry Pie

1 quart fresh strawberries

1 9-inch deep dish pie shell, baked and cooled

½ cup granulated sugar

⅓ cup honey

⅛ teaspoon table salt

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon unsalted butter

1. Rinse, pat dry, and stem strawberries (but leave 6-8 berries unstemmed, for garnish). Arrange 2 cups stemmed berries, hulled side down, in pie shell.
2. To make filling, mash the remaining stemmed berries in a saucepan. Stir in sugar, honey, and salt. Heat slowly, stirring often, until mixture comes in to a boil. Mix cornstarch with ¼ cup water, and then stir slowly into the boiling strawberries. When thickened, remove from heat and stir in butter. Cool filling, then spread in pie shell. 
3. Chill thoroughly prior to serving.

Finally, no recipe index would be complete without Grandma's Pie Crust Mix. Prepared in advance and at the ready for Bea's Fresh Strawberry Pie as well as any pie baking that should come along, I have to share the recipe the way I see it as I bake in my own kitchen. It is written in my mother's beautiful script, shared from generation to generation in written form on a note card.