Bread and Stew.

This post is a bit mismatched, since the bread pic is from the summer and the stew pic is from this recent holiday season. Oh well.

The purpose ties them together, which is that I love food. Love cooking. Last summer I started to get into baking bread and made some progress just before a new dimension in my life was begun, and I took a hiatus from bread-baking, crafting, cooking, blogging, etc. to focus on something new for about six months. Before all that, I read Amy's Bread by Amy Scherber (well, a good bit of it anyway) and borrowed Bread Alone by Dan Leader from Tim (which I still have and may be pushing the limits of the term borrow). Tim is an excellent bread-maker, so as I get more into the craft, I will continue to bounce ideas off him and see what he's experienced.

I really enjoyed trying the autolyse (resting period amidst the kneading and rising) that is championed in most bread books. I also tried the pan of water in the oven, but didn't mist as some people recommend. I thought this made a wonderful crust, but had tried so many things, it was hard to tell what made these loaves turn out so great... but they did and it was really exciting! Tim shared that he hasn't experienced a noticeable crust improvement from the water-in-oven technique, so who knows what really made the difference - will require more experimentation. :D

We've been making homemade pizza dough for a while now, which is really simple, and have tried several bread recipes with unimpressive results. This was a whole-grain bread with walnuts and it turned out amazing - I was proud enough of it to share a loaf with a new neighbor as a welcoming gift. One thing the recipe (from Amy's book) recommended was to let the loaves rest in the fride overnight after kneading the nuts to allow the nut oils to permeate the dough and give the bread a nuttier flavor. I did this and don't know how much nuttier that made it since I had no reference point, but it was nice and nutty, and Tim has mentioned that in his opinion any bread will turn out nicer after at least a night hanging out in the frige. All that said, I hope to dive more into the art of bread-making this year and share more hits and misses. :)

I heart soups and stews and cold weather that makes it feel right to slow cook a big pot of anything and fill the kitchen with the incredible aromas. It's so fun to throw all kinds of yummy things into a pot, cook it all down, spice it all up, and have a hearty meal. I usually freeze part of the batch for later and we'll eat the rest through the week, mixing small bowls with different wraps or sammies to mix it up a little, but the first meal is usually just a big bowl o' stew.

My SO's parents gave me this nice stew pot for Christmas and this is the first meal I made in it the very next week. It's a really great pot that can do double-duty in the oven, if desired. I partly followed a celery stew recipe, but really only used it for inspiration, since a friend brought me a bunch of celery and a head of cabbage from her farmer's market basket that she knew she wouldn't get around to using. In this stew is a pound of ground sirloin, a bunch of celery, a half head of cabbage, a few carrots that were in the frige, a whole onion, a can of crushed tomatoes, and some veggie stock. The main flavor of this stew for me is the cabbage, which I really enjoy. The beautiful thing about stews is how free-form they are, just go for it and throw anything you like in the pot - it'll turn out rich, hearty, and super tasty.