Sunday Bread Baking

I am not sure what bit me in the ass recently and told me that I must bake bread from scratch, but this past week, I was itching to make fresh bread. And not the kind from a bread machine, either, but the old fashioned, knead-by-hand kind.

Then, I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen's blog (which, incidentally, is a gorgeous website that chronicles a Manhanttanite cooking fabulous recipes in a small NYC kitchen), and I could not get it out of my mind. I recalled eating black bread when I lived in St. Petersburg, Russia during my junior year abroad. I haven't really enjoyed/been able to find the same type of bread again, so, I ventured forth to make the 17(!) ingredient-incorporating black bread. Here's all the ingredients gathered. I don't have those small clear glass bowls that make ingredients look so organized and pretty on cooking tv shows, so I made do with our sushi-soy sauce dipping bowls and random other bowls. They worked pretty well, actually:

Note the small mortar and pestle in the picture for grinding seeds. I recall getting this as a wedding present from a certain someone who reads this blog with a comment about how this person thought it would be funny to get me things I would never use, but insisted on registering for. Haha - the last laugh is on you, because I use this thing all the time for spice grinding. I also use the Microplane grater that was in the gift - you would have to shoot me to part me with it. But, I confess, the flour sifter, not so much...I just use a small sieve.

The black bread calls for ingredients like chocolate, shallots, molasses, rye flour, fennel seeds, caraway seeds, espresso, etc. It wasn't easy tracking down all the ingredients, and it involved going to Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) and wandering up and down aisles.

I mixed together the dry ingredients, prepared the wet ingredients, including the yeast, and then combined to make the starter mix:


The mix looks sort of unappetizing and gross, but had this wonderful rich smell wafting forth of yeasty, dark goodness...

Then, came the mixing together of the wet and the dry ingredients. Ok, here, as another aside: I may have registered for a mortar and pestle, but I never registered for a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. You know, the kind that ubiquitously shows up on every bride's registry. I figured, hey, we are going to be living in a small condo in San Francisco, with a small kitchen, so why get even more gadgets that only take up valuable counter/cabinet space? I mean I have a hand mixer, and I have my own two hands to beat stuff with whisks and wooden spoons, right? Well, this recipe will go down in the books as having humbled my cavalier attitude about stand mixers. I will have reconsider getting a Kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook. The hands/arms in the picture are those of husband. I had to call in the big guns when the dough got harder and harder to mix in the bowl and it was time to turn out the dough on the counter to knead:

Ok, finally, I left the dough to rise in a greased bowl. Then, after a couple of hours, I came back to this - a nice, round ball of dough, roughly doubled in volume:

Then, husband and I each shaped a round loaf, left them to rest again, and then finally placed them in the pre-heated 350 degree oven:

About 45 minutes later, out popped these gorgeous, scrumptious-smelling loaves:

After we let the bread cool a little bit, we came back to make ourselves some delicious snacks. I wanted the traditional Russian-style buterbroad (sounds like boo-ter-bro-oad) open face sandwiches. First, you slather on butter, as any good Russian knows (and which Smitten Kitchen notes in her blog, as well), then layer on the goodies. We choose some Blue Moon cheese, hard salami and sliced cucumber. Very Russian. And as another option, we used some organic fig spread from Greece that we picked up at Whole Foods (so delicious, go get some for yourself right now, yes, now, don't make excuses).

Then, we ate it all up! The bread is spot-on, folks. Delicious, dense (but just the right kind of dense, not dense like sitting-in-a-lump-in-tummy dense), flavorful with the caraway and fennel and shallots coming through, and with a wonderful crust. So YUM. In the end, the bread baking was a success, but the process was long. This is not an everyday kind of bread, but I will definitely be making this again.

Bonus Kitty Pic! Elvis, in a a pensive moment.

Lily Clochette

Another item finished. I am on a roll!

This is Sock Pixie's Clochette pattern. Her hat is much nicer, and shaped perfectly. I have to say that the hat was fussy to make, since you have to knit each individual petal separately, then join them together, then knit leaves and sew them onto the hat. But, the finished product is so sweetly innocent looking, that I am glad I made it. I just don't think I will be making this agaiin for anyone else!

San Francisco Food Bank

Yesterday, as part of a volunteer program, husband and I and a group of people from my office went to volunteer at the San Francisco Food Bank. The Food Bank runs a really great program in which large quantities of food are shipped to local community organizations (including schools), and in which local people can also come in once a week to shop for and pick up food for home preparation. This lets people who wouldn't normally have access to fresh fruits and vegetables get these products and cook healthful meals at home.

Walking in, the place looks like a huge warehouse/Costco:

We were given the task of sorting apples that a grower from the Central Valley in California donated. With the help of other volunteers, we sorted over 16,000 pounds of apples that are being shipped out today! Here is a picture of me putting on some gloves (note, the large pregnant belly - for the record, bending over large crates with a 26 week pregnant belly not so easy...):

Ummm, some of the apples weren't so nice...hence, the sorting.

It was a worthwhile experience and husband and I will definitely be going back again to volunteer!

I Do NOT Have Swine Flu

So, amidst the media blitz regarding the swine flu, I show up to work today with some of the worst allergy symptoms I have had in quite some time. Due to pregnancy, there is only a certain range of medications I can take, and although I am "allowed" to take Benadryl, unless I want to be caught asleep at my desk, I have to forego. And so, I continue to sneeze, sniffle and have runny, itchy eyes, all of which, I understand, go along with the swine flu.

Anyways, I have noticed that no one has come into my office all day long, and people seem to be eyeing me funny. I also got a call from New York today, where I made the mistake of sniffling, and the person on the the other end said, "Do you have swine flu?" I am pretty sure this person was joking, because as far as I know you cannot contract swine flu over the phone, but I am not a doctor...

I take this opportunity now to state publicly, I do not have the swine flu.

The Cutest Little Dress!

I knitted the cutest little dress for future baby using the pattern for The Little Sister Dress. The pattern is well written, but I seem to be unable to follow directions these days and ended up ripping out the dress twice. I ran out yarn in the middle of it, hence the random stripe of multi-orange, but I like the way it turned out. It kinda looks like autumn and a pumpkin.
On a separate note, San Francisco weather has been crazy lately. It went from being unbearably hot (for San Franciscans) at 85+ back to being in the chilly 50s within one week. I am glad for the cool weather though, because being all big and round and hot is not pleasant. Husband and I have been busy looking into furniture for baby, and we just purchased a glider/ottoman set. It is so comfy, I never want to get out of it!

Davis and Preparation - It's Go Time!

This was a fun-filled weekend where we went to Davis to attend Picnic Day at UC Davis with a few of our friends and their children. The weather was really nice, not too hot, which is rare for Davis in summertime (it was around 80-85 degrees), and things were in bloom. After spending some time on campus, we went to Sudwerk, a Davis microbrewery, to eat and drink some more (just water and juice for me!), relax and hang out on the patio outside. We were all remembering the good life, when we were students (whether it was undergrad or law) when life was waaaaaay easier and less complicated without worrying about jobs, kids (or future kids), etc.

Pictures of the Davis rescue helicopter and old time fire engines showcased at Picnic Day:


We then met another friend, J, and went to watch a Sacramento Sirens' football game. My friend, A, from law school, plays on the all-women's professional football team, and she is pretty awesome.




J then came back with us from Sacramento to San Francisco and stayed over at our place. Unfortunately, on Sunday afternoon, poor J got forced into labor by husband and was enlisted to help paint the baby nursery. We finally picked a color, a pale green called Honeydew (which ironically looks almost the same as our dining room color, so we could have just used the leftover dining room paint instead of springing for expensive new paint, but, oh well). You can't see the color in the picture, but it is pretty. We are finally getting in gear about getting the nursery ready. Although three months seems far away, time really seems to be flying by!

Baby Shower

This past weekend, we went to Fresno to attend my baby shower. It was pretty small, as I requested. I got some really cute clothes for future baby, along with a few necessities.

Here's a picture where I am holding up one of my favorite outfits I received - I call it the cherry-butt outfit, since the cherry applique will be smack on future baby's bum.