Nothing much to report. Cavanagh continues to thrive. After mistakenly adding the 50-50 white–whole wheat flour mix to it two days ago, I’m back to white flour, and it looks the same as before. Continue reading Tartine Bread, Day 9
Because that’s what it’s like waiting for this starter to take off. I know it’ll get there, just getting impatient. And not much to report otherwise. Instead, I’ll just show you this: That’s Il Cornicione’s Basic Country Bread. He and I (and Caleb Schiff) have been talking on Twitter about this recipe, and Il Cornicione … Continue reading Tartine Bread, Day 8: Do you like watching paint dry? Grass grow?
I’ve brought Cavanagh up from off the bench (i.e., the refrigerator) and have revived it after months of neglect. Which is first-hand proof for me that you really can resuscitate a starter you’ve all but left for dead. What I’m going to do is keep feeding the TB starter and see if I can get it to take, but if not, I’ll use Cavanagh next weekend to make my first loaf of the Basic Country Bread. Continue reading Tartine Bread, Day 7: Bringing in the designated hitter, Cavanagh
Seriously, don’t bother watching this video. Nothing much happens. I got the notion of setting up a time lapse thing so I could see if the starter really was bulking up as part of the feeding cycle, as the book suggests it will. This is about 3 hours’ worth of time here. I’m thinking I … Continue reading Tartine Bread, Day 6: Time lapse video of starter after feeding
As I said yesterday, I decided to time-shift my feeding schedule to the mornings. Trouble is, I’m pretty groggy in the mornings. Today, for instance, I almost forgot about tending the starter. But then I went into the kitchen to take my vitamins, and BLAMMO. “What’s that smell?” … “Oh. Yeah. Gotta feed this thing.” … Continue reading Tartine Bread, Day 5: The hardest part
I fed my starter last night around 9pm. In his book, Tartine Bread, baker Chad Robertson recommends feeding in the morning. Not for any technical reasons. It’s just how he likes to time his day, he says. So he can feed the starter in the morning and use it for bread that’s ready for dinnertime. … Continue reading Tartine Bread, Day 4: Time-shifting the feed cycle
It’s Day 3 of my Tartine Bread “journey.” I started the starter on Monday night. The book said it may start bubbling by the second or third day. Here, it did. Continue reading “Tartine Bread, Day 3: first feeding of the starter”
Just putting this up out of a sense of completism. There is nothing to report today. There’s no apparent activity with the starter. Hence no photo. It does not smell like anything other than flour. Continue reading Tartine Bread, Day 2: Nothing to see here, people
I picked up Tartine Bread over the weekend after seeing my buddy John Wozniak rave about it on Twitter. I’ve been meaning to find a great book on naturally leavened bread, and this seemed a good candidate. After reading the first chapter and coming to an understanding of the recipe, I felt I could justifiably start the “Basic Country Bread.” To make it, you’ve first got to grow a starter. Continue reading Starting a journey with ‘Tartine Bread’
The wife and I joined a CSA this year (Harvest Astoria). We’ve managed to cook through most of our haul each week (we’re in the third week right now), with the help of some good recipes. I figured since I’ve collected these anyway, I might as well share with all three of my readers. I … Continue reading CSA PSA: Recipe ideas for fava beans, chard, pole beans, garlic scapes
Claire and I had dinner at the Queens Kickshaw for the first time last night. Preliminary report: great stuff. But what I want to draw your attention to is the fact that they have sparkling water on tap there — and it’s free.
Yes! We hadn’t yet tasted the food and already I loved this place.
Complimentary soda water. On tap. How often have you had that at a restaurant? It’s a small luxury that probably costs the Queens Kickshaw pennies.* Very classy — and smart. That cost is probably recouped a thousand times over from a customer loyalty standpoint. Continue reading “Sparkling water on tap, a simple luxury at the Queens Kickshaw”
Stellar is a nifty social-web thingamajig built by uberblogger Jason Kottke. It aggregates “favorites” from a number of familiar social-media sources — so far Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Vimeo. When one of the folks you follow on Stellar favorites something, it appears in your “flow.” What you end up with is a Twitter-like stream of … Continue reading Notes after 3 weeks of Stellar use
From left: Crust not stretched thin enough, and one stretched just about right.
Having finally found a couple dough recipes that yield great at-home pizza with no “hacks,” I kinda don’t need to experiment anymore. But what fun would life be without futzing with something that works?
Continue reading “Pizza experiment: Cook’s Illustrated dough, two sizes”
[This photo is part of my 2011 Picture a Day project »] I’m trying to perfect my recipe for chile-infused honey before posting it on Slice. Credit where due: It is 100% inspired by Mike’s Hot Honey, which is available online or from the bar at Paulie Gee’s. I’m playing with the spice levels. The … Continue reading Experimenting with chile-infused honey
[This photo is part of my 2011 Picture a Day project »] I’m trying to perfect my recipe for chile-infused honey before posting it on Slice. Credit where due: It is 100% inspired by Mike’s Hot Honey, which is available online or from the bar at Paulie Gee’s. I’m playing with the spice levels. The … Continue reading 1/19/2011: Experimenting with chile-infused honey
This photo is part of my attempt to take at least one photograph a day in 2011. Inspired by SE’r PoorOldMama, we declared January 8 International Serious Eats Day and tried to spark a series of distributed, autonomous meet-ups of SE’rs across the U.S. and around the world. At the NYC meet-up at Radegast Hall … Continue reading 1/8/2011: Accidental creepiness
To say that this is not the most glamorous Date Night would be an understatement, but Claire had a craving for Mexican. We tossed around the idea of doing Taco Night at home with a box-taco mix, but we were slow getting out of the house. So down to the local Chinese Mexican place we … Continue reading 1/7/2011: Date night at Fresca Tortilla
OK … so I didn’t actually take this photo — but I art-directed it, so I think that counts. (Claire took it.) Plus, I took other photos today that I could have subbed in to this slot, so I’m still within the spirit of the project. Here, I’m using the mini grater that Claire got … Continue reading 1/5/2011: Great grater!
Inspired by the semi-dried cherry tomato topping at Di Fara, I did a trial run of semi-dried grape tomatoes (my market didn’t have the former in stock). Lesson learned here? Shoot before-and-after photos under the same lighting conditions. Duh. The top photo is shot under our range’s built-in fluorescent cooktop light, while the photo just … Continue reading 1/3/2011: Semi-dried grape tomatoes
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. Continue reading Protected: 1/1/2011: New Year’s noodles
