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I want to be a veterinarian because I love children. View all posts by Mush →

Six Days Later

February 23, 2020Food, RecipesMush

In which I’ve made PERFECT baguette! Holy shit, IT’S A MIRACLE!

The #breadin5 dough has been hanging out in the fridge since the 17th, so today I baked it up and THE RESULTS were SPECTACULAR:

The crust is delicately crisp, and the crumb is glossy and soft with lots of holes. It actually did that singing thing when it was cooling from the oven! This is an IDEAL baguette!

It’s fucking amazing, this “artisan bread in five minutes a day” recipe/method/concept. Make a wet dough, leave it in the fridge, pull off a chunk and shape it and bake it in a hot oven with a bowl of water for steam: that’s it! That’s the whole thing! Super easy, no stress, and absolutely professional results.

I didn’t even need to buy anything — I used a big bowl for mixing and storing the dough, and instead of a baking stone I used my cast iron griddle. I don’t have a pizza peel, so I used a bamboo cutting board. In place of a dough whisk, I used the chrome handle of my silicon spatula. And while I did buy the book, I didn’t even need to: the recipe and method are right here. Never even used the bench knife I bought for sourdough awhile back, and, while the pastry mat is nice it certainly isn’t necessary. Basic kitchen stuff suffices.

All you really need is to learn how to form loaves, but that takes less than three minutes.

The dough smelled freaking amazing when I took it out of the fridge today, really fruity and yeasty, but I couldn’t taste any difference between the loaf baked on day 2 and the ones baked today, so it probably needs to spend a dozen days in the fridge to start to get sour.

I’ve just started a second batch with this yeast:

…mostly because that’s the only yeast I have left in the house, but I have high hopes for the results!

I ordered a bunch of soft, bloomy rind cheeses on Friday and am expecting them Monday or Tuesday. Super stoked that I’ll be ready for them with a fantastic, delicious baguette!

Enchiladas: Cottage Cheese & Chili

February 18, 2020RecipesMush

In which there’s not really a recipe so as much as an assembly idea.

I have leftover chili and it needs to be eaten, but another bowl of chili does not sound appealing. So I’ve mashed up a few recipes and here’s chili cheese enchiladas.

Ingredients:

leftover chili
corn tortillas
cottage cheese
grated cheddar, divided
spring onions, divided
hot sauce or salsa (I used El Pato)

Procedure:

Combine cottage cheese, grated cheddar, and spring onions in whatever ratio appeals to you.

Cover the bottom of a casserole dish with hot sauce or salsa. (You could also use chili, if you have enough; it’s to keep the tortillas from sticking.)

Heat enough corn tortillas until pliable. (I wrap them in a damp paper towel and nuke them for 30-55 seconds. They can also be heated over a gas burner or on a hot griddle.) Fill them with the cottage cheese mixture, roll, and place seam side down on top of the salsa in the casserole. Cover the enchiladas with the chili. Top with the remaining cheddar and spring onions.

Heat the enchiladas until bubbling (oven or microwave, whatever works for you).

Garnish with sour cream and serve.

Bread Baking

February 18, 2020Domestic Goddess, RecipesMush

In which it’s the #breadin5 recipe!

Okay. So. There are cheeses that need to be enjoyed with good bread. Not the crap from the Safeway bakery, but good bread. What they call artisan bread now, what used to be rustic peasant bread.

Bread you can only get from fancy bakeries now.

I got too spoiled with those Salty Tart baguettes at my last job, okay? Those baguettes were a revelation. I mean, there is no better way to eat a gooey, creamy, funky French brie than with a real baguette. We don’t have gooey, creamy, funky French bries, really, but we do have some brie and a bunch of other cheeses that would benefit from good bread.

Anyway, now I live in rural Oregon and we don’t have a fancy bakery. We have a Safeway, and their bread is pretty, and well-displayed in the store, and it all tastes exactly the same and the crust and crumb are too soft and too bland and it’s just depressing.

So, maybe it’s time for me to do that refrigerator bread thing. Yeah. Maybe. It was all the rage awhile back and maybe now I have the experience to understand it.

Yesterday I made this recipe. Sorta. What I did was:

3 cups 100F tap water
1 packet yeast
2 teaspoons salt
6-1/2 cups (2 pounds) flour

I used about 5 cups of King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose and about one cup of atta (Indian whole wheat flour, which I bought for roti/chapati).

Mixed it in my largest mixing bowl with the wire handle of one of my spatulas, covered it with plastic wrap, and left it in the oven (with the light on) for two hours to rise. It got huge.

Moved it to the fridge until it was well chilled (maybe 4 hours or so?), and then made a pizza with it.

I generally hate doughy pizzas and always prefer a thinner crust, but this dough is GOOD.

(The pizza was made with leftover garlic butter from an artichoke I ate, store-bought Parmesan Reggiano tomato sauce, a vanishingly rare (as in it’s no longer being made and there’s not much in existence) goat milk gouda I got from work, red pepper, white onion, and fresh spinach. It was fucking fantastic.)

Today I made a boule.

The dough broke when I lifted it out of the bowl, so I shaped the loaf out of two pieces. The piece on the inside exploded through the scores!

Oven spring for the win!

In the oven was a cast iron griddle and a stainless steel bowl. When pre-heated, put the loaf on parchment paper on the griddle, poured hot tap into the bowl for steam.

Also misted the inside of the oven with a spray bottle of water four or five times during baking, which probably took around 40 minutes or so, for additional moisture.

The crust is fantastic, crispy and delicate. The crumb is soft and chewy. Next time I’ll let the loaf sit on the counter for 90 minutes, get bigger holes in the crumb.

The recipe is supposed to make four 1-pound loaves, so there’s probably enough dough left for two or three baguettes. Might bake those up this afternoon and then mix another batch of dough!

Or might let the dough sit and develop in the fridge for a few days first.

Anyway, this dough is cool. With some in the fridge, you can have any bread you want in very little time–a pizza, a boule, a baguette, flatbread, focaccia, dinner rolls, whatever.

—
Here’s the mother recipe for this fridge method.

And here’s the original book:

Spring is coming

February 16, 2020Admissions, WeatherMush

In which I just looked out the window!

It’s Sunday so we slept in and then went out for brunch. I had a veggie omelet (with sweet potato in it, for some reason) and hash browns and a side of vegetarian gravy because I love gravy.

Then we came home and he studied for his cert exam next week and I took a nap.

Spent some time massaging my music library (I’ve backed up my ancient iPod yet again but this time I’m actually doing something with the data — I put it in MusicBee and am working on art and tags and replacing corrupted/DRM’d tracks) and then I went out into the living room to get something and glanced out the window and

HOLY SHIT! THAT LITTLE TREE OUTSIDE IS BUDDING OUT!!!

I probably don’t have the words for how fucking fantastic it is, like, on a cellular level, to be back out here where I’m from. Spring in Minneapolis doesn’t come until June, so the winters are not only cold as hell but extremely long.

I know this winter has been disturbingly mild, I know that, but there’s been green all winter. Just bits, here and there, in lawns or next to the irrigation ditch or whatever, but it lifts the heart to see it. (Plus, I’ve only worn cleats two days this winter, during that ice storm thing last month!)

Sincerely looking forward to a long-ass season of mild and green and growing and non-blizzard this year.

Really should weed those raised beds out front; maybe tomorrow.

Hi there!

February 11, 2020LifeMush

In which not much of anything!

I like my job, I like my house, I got last Saturday off unexpectedly and spent it day-drinking and napping! It was so great!

My relationship is lovely and lively, I’m richer than I deserve (I just ordered two bespoke dresses and have tons of food in the cupboards). I have a duvet cover!

There was a flood but it didn’t affect us, somehow?

I got a new desk, chair, rug, and lamp!

Life’s pretty great. How are you?

Chili Beans in Chili Sauce

January 12, 2020RecipesMush

In which I think I’ve successfully copied my favorite canned chili beans, which I can’t find in my local grocery.

1 c. dry pinto beans, picked over
3 c. water
1-2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder
a glug of vegetable oil

Cook in an Instant Pot under high pressure for 25 minutes, followed by natural pressure release.

Remove about half a cup of the bean liquor to a bowl, cool a bit, and whisk in 2-3 tbsp. chickpea (or wheat) flour. When smooth, return to the pot. Next, add:

1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tbsp. ground ancho chili powder
1 tsp. chili powder (the American-style blend)
1-2 tsp. apple cider vinegar, or to taste

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, to thicken, and then immediately reduce to a simmer. If the sauce is still too thin, simmer gently to reduce to desired thickness.

Serve over toast topped with cheddar and maybe a poached egg (this is a favorite breakfast of mine, for some reason), or use as a bean dip with tortilla chips, as a taco filling, or just eat as a bowl of vegetarian chili with your desired sides or toppings.

(This is an attempt to copy Kuner’s Chili Beans.)

Celebrating

December 25, 2019HolidayMush

In which his mom freaked out and sent us a ton of stuff! Four gifts each, eight total, more than doubling what we had under our little tree for each other!

Before:

And after:

I got an electric hand mixer! And a bath caddy! And other fun stuff!

And he got clothes and toys!

And I made an enormous Middle Eastern meal — falafel that fell apart, hummus, tabouli, marinated olives and feta, bread, sumac roasted potatoes with a cumin-tahini sauce — because Jesus was Middle Eastern, right?!

(“That’s a lot of tabouli,” he said. “A shitload of tabouli.”)

And we really should drive to the matriarchal home (after all, I actually got dressed today) and see my aunt and uncle, and visit, and drop off our tiny little gifts for them, buuuuuut I kinda want to just blob around here, in our cozy little house, watching terrible Christmas movies?

Freezing. Fog.

December 17, 2019WeatherMush

In which it’s cold and foggy.

lol oregon weather

Naan notes

December 16, 2019RecipesMush

In which there are leftovers.

I made aloo matar, carrot raita, and naan for dinner.

Even though I halved the naan recipe I still have four or five leftover, so have been surfing for ways to use them. Behold these fancy pizza ideas:

– Naan, olives, pesto, red pepper flakes, grilled artichokes, walnuts, chopped parsley, and a spritz of lemon juice

– Naan, garlic, shredded cheese/s, chili flakes

– Naan, parsley sauce, aged cheddar

(The parsley sauce is my own thing — parsley, olive oil, salt, and garlic in the blender so it keeps longer — and not actual parsley sauce.)

– Naan, pinto beans, cheese, salsa, and diced onion

– Naan, tomato, olive oil, ricotta salata

Would also be good reheated with some soup!

Yeah, I got my Christmas on

December 11, 2019Admissions, HolidayMush

In which Christmas is in two weeks and I finally put up the tree!

How is it Christmas in two weeks?! What the fuck, time. Of course, in Minnesota we’d have already lived through two blizzards and weeks of sub-zero temperatures, so the lack of brutal weather makes it sorta feel like it’s earlier in the year than it is. BUT STILL.

We’d discussed getting a real tree, since we’ve got an entire house and plenty of space, but it looks like we’re not into the idea enough to, you know, actually go out and do it. So! Our sixth year with our tiny baby fake tree!

Here it is, on my guitar case! I just decorated it!