gingerbread spice recipe

 Last year, I was looking for a gingerbread spice recipe/formula - I had lost mine. I found four or five and made one - wasn't too keen on it. But I saved the others and tried another this year. Oh, the fragrance! 

GINGERBREAD SPICE

2 T allspice
2 T cinnamon
2 T ginger
1 T cloves
1 T nutmeg

pinch black pepper

This is from a website called Liv for Cake, but I saw it somewhere else, too, so I don't know where it originated. But I love it!

suddenly it's summer

 The scent of grass as its being mowed. The musical conversation of the catbirds. Going from flannel to muslin nightwear, overnight!

The lawn is a little squishy, but the sun came out and it's going to be full summer for a few days this week. I went out to the garden to spread some compost and grass clippings around but am still not sure if it's ready for plants. But I don't have plants anyhow - I set up the greenhouse nice and early, but never started any seeds in the house - the thought of Daisy getting hold of them made me hesitate and then I was paralyzed. Meanwhile, April winds knocked the greenhouse over twice - good thing it was empty at the time. And all the rain we've been having, and not being sure the raised bed was quite ready - well, looking back I'm actually glad I didn't start the seeds without being certain. I'll just have a late start.

Yesterday was Pentecost. "In our labor, rest most sweet; grateful coolness in the heat." And now the season of Easter is over.

lilacs

 A co-worker brought in a bouquet of lilacs, and they perfumed the workroom at the library. But it wasn't overpowering and I was surprised that it didn't bother me. Meanwhile, I read this the other day - and I hope it's okay to reprint it here. 

LILACS

You stand beneath the lilac bush at night
And smell her heavy blossoms, think, ah, right,
I've caught this scent a thousand times before,
Which, subtle though it is, you can't ignore.
It fills the mind and yet escapes it, too,
As every mystery worth the name will do.
Perhaps that's why, like baby faces, ants,
The curious innards of a marshland's plants,
Like love songs or the neighbor's lab you pet,
No matter how familiar, we still get
A pulse of wonder and a hint of fear
That some ethereal visitant draws near.

-   James Matthew Wilson, from National Review, May 16, 2022

snipping

 

It's June and that means roses. Our two bushes, yes, but those little white roses/(weeds?) that are everywhere, fragrancing the air. I rarely cut from our bushes because I don't want to see a bare bush , but there are plenty of the wild ones to spare. And then I noticed at the base of the pink rugosa these deeper ones - from the root stock? I don't know, but I snipped them off; nobody'd notice them if I didn't. 

Now they can show off properly.

getting ready for Christmas

 It was supposed to rain Saturday, then they said it would snow, and it did. And it's still white, because it's cold, too. 

I'm getting back to making bread again. I always stop in summer. Then there's the tasty supermarket bakery "artisan" bread in the reduced section for half price. I like it, so as long as it was available I didn't need to make my own. But I was missing it. We had to withdraw some older bread machine cookbooks at work, and I took them home, adapting recipes for regular oven use. So far: an oatmeal bread Saturday, and today an oat/wheat bread, substituting a cinnamon-orange simple syrup for the honey it called for. Very fragrant! I love to try new recipes.

I tried drying orange slices. Four hours at 200, and they still weren't entirely dry. 

Not quite what I expected. But I want to try again. I guess some people just let them air dry, but I haven't got a space for that, so I'll have to find a better "recipe". 

We just heard that a 7-CD boxed set of the works of Paul Desmond was released earlier this year. Don't tell Dolly! She'll want it for Christmas. 

low-yeast bread success

I am so psyched: I baked a loaf of bread, using only a quarter teaspoon of yeast. It came out just fine!

the cauliflower has sprouted!

Ever since I stumbled upon Artisan Bread with Steve, a youtube channel, I was wanting to try his method. Over the past few years, my researches have led me to the idea that a long rise using less yeast gives much more flavor - it's a more natural way of doing things. So, when I find a recipe which interests me, I make it, but with less yeast than called for.

after mixing and sitting out all night

But Steve uses only one quarter teaspoon, and that's hardly any. And his recipes look good, but I wanted to understand the method. He uses more water, which enables you to proceed with less yeast, and no kneading. Like the 5-minute artisan breads. So, after doing more research, I discovered that a flour to water ratio is normally 5:3. But with wetter, artisan-type doughs, the water amount is about three quarters of the flour weight. So that meant I'd have to weigh my flour after measuring to determine how much liquid to add. But I did it, and mixed it, and after 18 hours I shaped it for the second rise.

ready for the second proof

Another hour and a half or so, and it was ready for baking. So now I have three methods of baking bread, and depending on how much time I have and when I'm available, making bread can be done around my schedule. Excellent!

a thoughtful gift

A nice young woman who brings her boys in the library makes soap.

And she brought some in for all of us!  Pumpkin spice. It's lovely!

harvesting the basil

I had almost entirely forgot about the basil, and last night's temperatures in the twenties almost did it in.

the annual weeds of June

I have talked about this before - in fact, I just looked it up in my blog archives and found it on another June twelfth! - how sweet the air is around here every June. I used to think it was fancy or exaggeration when poets exclaimed over sweet fragrances wafting along the breeze, but now I know I was mistaken.

The above is a clump of wild roses growing across our brook, along the bank. And I can smell the scent through my bedroom window. We did not plant it there, nor did the birds. You may read my previous post in the link above, or I can repeat the story now. We'd pruned several branches of the stuff from a bunch of it nearer the house, and then threw it over there, presumably to break down in the way of nature. But when it was time for all good roses to bloom, those cut branches bloomed! Without any root! And by now have established themselves over there, to look pretty and sweeten the June air.

Who can complain about such a weed? (And also - is there a lesson to be found in this? Because I'm sure there is one.)

another weed

This wild rose - it took over the forsythia that used to be there and there are patches of it elsewhere in the yard, but I don't care - the sweet scent is everywhere these June days.

three roses left

and here are two of them. They lasted a whole week.

30 years

I've been at the library for thirty years. Well, you stay put in any job and the time does go by.

There was a ceremony last night at Town Hall, and Suzy Q brought me some roses - some white, and some pink.  She's my boss.

First of all, in this house there is nowhere to put a large bouquet or vase of flowers where a cat won't go, and maybe tip them over.

The pinks had thick stems and the whites had thin. So I cut the stems and separated them into two more manageable groups.  The pinks went into a quart mason jar. The whites are in my favorite bottle for roses. 

The cats won't bother them.

making pumpkin pie spice

It was in the newspaper, a recipe for making your own. I threw our (very) old one in the trash, and mixed up this new batch.

Yes, fall is really here.

olives and rosemary

I was all set to squeeze out half an hour to bring Dolly outside today, when I remembered (thank goodness!) that I had bread on the second rise which might need to go in the oven. And, it did!  By then it was time to make supper.

I realized my pinterest board with bread recipes in it has been ignored for some time, so I thought I may as well choose a recipe from there to make today. It has kalamata olives and loads of rosemary in it - what a fragrance when it was baking! I threw in a little rye flour to make it better. I did not use a pot, or any part of her method, but just the ingredients. Yes, two tablespoons of rosemary - dried. It wasn't too much! And a good way to use up those olives in the fridge. I had a little, and then put it in the freezer.

I've got another crop of strawberries - they're larger this time, so I think they must not be alpines. Those are small, I believe. I'm also getting loads of plum tomatoes. I never got around to staking them, which was very bad of me, but so many plants seem to be propping each other up. Which is nice.

summer rain

This morning soon after daylight arrived, the heavens suddenly opened - and it came straight down, as it does only in summer.

quiet days

In summer I put kitchen scraps in the composter, but in winter I was lamenting that they are wasted, until I realized I could make vegetable stock with them, and I believe I got that idea on Leila's blog.

The ziploc bag gets filled up quickly; today it came out of the freezer and I made stock. 

To say it smells good is only part of the truth - it's real aromatherapy, I believe. 

I've been working on turning a small but well made (Talbot's! from ebay!) overall-style jumper into an apron.

I'll be glad to have one that's a solid color, as some of my clothing is print.

Henry patiently waited for me in one of the bedrooms while I vacuumed in the hallway.

He's smarter than we give him credit for.

I think I've mentioned before that sometimes, on a picturesque route, I'll just snap photos in the passenger side in the car and see what I get. Here's a small, cute house in the center of town.

Joining Suki and Leila today.

the past few days

I'm joining Rosie and Leila today -

The snowstorm passed through yesterday and when the sun emerged -

beautiful. For a while, the sun shone but the sky was darkish blue - so pretty.

So, I ended up having the whole day off - it wasn't worth opening the library at two when we close early on Fridays anyway. But before I knew that, and when we were just planning to open late, that cozy feeling which snowfalls always bring came over me and I heated up enough almond milk for all my co-workers, added cocoa, brown sugar and some spices.  Put it in two canning jars and wrapped them up so they wouldn't knock against each other.

And then I got the call we were closing.  I'll have to drink it all - my brother can't eat almond. It was a good thought, anyway.

After telling someone yesterday that I don't bother with plants because the cats love sitting on our only sunny windowsill, I came home from the supermarket today with a basil plant.  I just was unable to resist it - organic, and on sale!

I hope I can keep it going till April when I set up the greenhouse.

I just finished the new Jane Austen mystery by Stephanie Barron; I love this series - they're very cleverly done. And that's what I've been up to these last few days.

a very long rise

I once heard Claus Meyer say - talking about bread - that you should let it rise for twenty four hours if you had to. I'm glad he said it and even gladder that it stuck with me.

Saturday I mixed up some dough for oat bread from Kneadlessly Simple. It was already afternoon, and without thinking, I used cold water which is what I usually do, but the night before. The dough, which contained just one teaspoon of yeast for two medium sized loaves, wasn't going anywhere. I knew I didn't want to end up having to bake it in the middle of the night, so into the fridge it went. I removed it before bed - between nine and ten o'clock, but in the morning it was still just like a lump. The thought came to me to toss it, but I said No! I had the three days off in a row - it had to rise sometime! I would just wait. Consequently, that first rise took all Sat. night and most of Sunday to happen. I then deflated it and put it in two loaf pans for the overnight.

This picture was taken maybe midday today. And I still waited a couple of hours more before baking. The total rising time for this bread not counting refrigerator time, was a day and a half!

In the midst of all this waiting and checking I realized the house was two degrees cooler than I thought, so I turned up the heat. So there were several factors involved there.

Meanwhile, I was so busy cleaning, etc., that I actually forgot I was baking bread and when the oven timer went off the loaves looked almost burnt. But I will tell you: they aren't burnt, and what with all that slow rising, so much flavor developed that it. is. truly. delicious.  And these are the things I find so fascinating about baking bread.

fresh dill

Debra gave me some of her dill plant a few months ago. I stuck it in the ground, but it didn't seem to go anywhere. Till recently, that is. And after a couple of hard frosts, too!  Spread over a good portion in one of the gardens, low to the ground and lush, like it must be springtime.

I decided if it wants to take over that much space, I'm not going to thwart it.

more bread ruminations

I have spoken here about the bread-making method I usually use, but there's another. My usual  method is to mix up the yeast, water and some of the flour the night before, which is some kind of preferment, and then finish it up the next day. Of course, I'm doing this on my day off. But sometimes on my days off I can't seem to get to it - and I confess that I don't really want to eat store bought bread anymore.

Way back when, I tried the five minute artisan method, but it wasn't for me. I didn't want dough in the fridge all the time; I certainly didn't need to make one loaf per day; I did not really want all my bread to be similar, from the same base recipe. I did want to experiment with different bread recipes.
After poking through the bread books on Amazon, I settled on Kneadlessly Simple by Nancy Baggett. Yes, this was it!

She has many recipes included - it is a cookbook, after all - and all the ones I've tried are very good tasting. (although I will say that her amounts of water seem like too much - I always end up adding much more flour; either that, or I just start out with half of her suggested water amounts.) But it's also a method, and at the end she explains how to adapt your other bread recipes to this method of hers.

Very basically, you are roughly mixing up her ingredients - and she uses a very small amount of yeast - with ice water, and then refrigerating the dough for three to ten hours. It's then put out at room temp for at least twelve hours, and maybe up to twenty four.  You then shape it, and let it rise the second time, which is usually two hours; then bake it.

This is very convenient if you're working. Yesterday afternoon I mixed up my dough, and it was in the fridge from 4:45 until ten-ish. Out on a kitchen shelf all night, and until I came home today after five. I immediately reshaped it into a loaf, and let it rise. It's very helpful to have different ways of baking your bread according to your schedule! Not to mention that the long rise in the cold is what develops the flavor. If you're interested in bread, check out this book.