Whole Wheat Bread

I've been looking for a bread recipe where the bread will last more than a few hours--made some delicious stuff right out of the oven, but then it gets rock hard and no good the next day.

Any ideas? I went with a Whole Wheat bread recipe from Cooks' Illustrated, but the problem is there are way too many sessions of waiting for it to rise for the time I have as a parent of a 17 month old...so instead everything has been overnight (45 minutes, nope, overnight in the fridge...60 minutes, no overnight in the fridge).

This bread is going to be ridiculously old by the time it gets baked. We'll see baking comes tomorrow.

Eltana--a oasis in Seattle's Bagel wasteland

This is S...

So one of the first things that R, J and I do anytime we go to canada is look for montreal style bagels. This started the very first time when visiting my high school friend Mark in Burlington during college, and took off when my folks were living in Toronto and we would go down to St. Laurence Market for them, bagels that are smaller, a bit sweeter and way more complex in flavor than anything we could find in the US. Montreal style bagels are boiled and then baked in a wood fired oven.

Since then we've been bringing home at least two dozen bagels anytime we go to Vancouver.

But recently a wonderful thing happened--into the bagel wasteland of Seattle came Eltana, a montreal-style bagel place with some really friendly folks working there, and it opens early--6 AM. About 6:45 AM last weekend J and I were there since she decided to get up and they gave us a tour, gave her dough to play with, amazing.

Even more amazing, those bagels are awesome. I have a dream of making a brick oven in our backyard if/when we ever buy a house, and bagels would be part of that.
I totally agree with this reviewer:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/tastingmenu/archives/238299.asp

Go check it out for yourself.

Cooks Illustrated Thin Crust Pizza

This is S.

The best recipe I've found in a while comes from a source we use all the time for things that aren't pizza: cooks illustrated online. I won't put up the whole recipe, but key elements include:

* An overnight rise in the fridge. I don't think I'll try rising dough again another way because the dough that this creates stretches beautifully and doesn't break part or tear which can be super, super frustrating. This relates to the nice color on the crust too.

* Mixing the dough in a food processor and then only a little kneading. Seems to work better for me than other recipes I've tried with a dough hook.

Here's some photos of the results:

Spirituality of pizza

This is S...


R has been encouraging me for months now to restart this blog, to share and remember some of the best meals we've had in Seattle recently and especially to write about pizza. I've been spending a lot of time with dough--actually, one of J's first words was dough and she is always trying to press out balls of dough into little rounds of pizza. When I was a kid I never knew where I could turn to be creative--art wasn't it, athletics wasn't it--and now with R's support I am finding some outlets, my guitar, and also especially making pizza.

Something about this pizza making has been healthy, even healing for my spirit:
I love how messy I can get. I love the playfulness of trying to toss and stretch and knead. I love how embodied I feel, hands sticking to risen dough that is alive, filled with the gift of yeast fermenting and moving and changing it. I also love sharing what I create with R and J, and the joy that comes from eating something I have made.

Plus, pizza is delicious, and I am trying to find a place of simplicity with it.

Here's a poem/prayer that's been very meaningful to me these past few months:

BakerWoman God
Bakerwoman God,
I am your living Bread.
Strong, brown, Bakerwoman God.
I am your low, soft, and being-shaped loaf.

I am your rising bread,
well-kneaded by some divine and knotty pair of knuckles,
by your warm earth-hands.
I am bread well-kneaded.


Put me in fire, Bakerwoman God,
put me in your own bright fire.
I am warm, warm as you from fire.
I am white and gold, soft and hard, brown and round.
I am so warm from fire.

Break me, Bakerwoman God!
I am broken under your caring Word.
Bakerwoman God,
Remake me.
Alla Bozarth-Campbell

Seattle Summer

I lived off the coast of New Hampshire for a couple summers. On hot days the morning fog started thick and cool and eventually the sun would burn off the fog and gorgeousness would settle in.

This must just be a phenomena of living close to the water. Today while driving Sean to work I caught a glimpse and smell of the sound and knew it was going to be one of those beautiful summer days where the fog burns off and gorgeousness settles in.

Columbia City Bakery

In our neighborhood, Columbia City, along Rainier Ave. S sits a wonderful little bakery. This bakery with the unclever name "Columbia City Bakery" ceases to be uninteresting with it's name.

I am a not a stickler for a bakery but I am also not uncritical either. I hate getting things that are too stale, too boring, that were thawed overnight and then baked in the AM etc. But this bakery is doing what bakeries should- baking amazing, delicious wonderful baked goods and serving them up with lattes with art on them (because in Seattle a latte without art is a shitty latte).

I believe that this bakery is so good it is worth an out of the way stop and must be avoided if you live locally (because you'll be hooked). There cookies are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had, their cupcakes are perfectly sweet (and not too sweet -the downfall of many cupcakes), their breads are rich and moist, their coffee cake crumbly but not dry. . . on and on.

Point being. This is not just a coffee shop stop (though you can make it one if you want) this is a wonderfulness stop on the ride of life! Don't miss it.

Mioposto in Mt. Baker neighborhood. Eat it. Enjoy it.

Salad and Pizza A plus!