My bread gig has changed. A couple times now. First, back in the day, it started with baguettes from a dough recipe in the CIA’s Professional Chef tome. Then boules. Then boules with half organic whole wheat, half unbleached organic white – stayed on this one for a good 2-3 years, I figure. Those loaves ended up evolving to 6lb … Read More
Local Organic Pasta
Bias disclaimer. I think John and his farm are fantastic. There, I’ve said it. If you want to formulate your own opinion on him and his farm, watch the From Local Farms episode about their farm. Yesterday was the FIRST time their farm attended a farmer’s market EVER. Which marked the first time their organic local flours were available on … Read More
Ethical, Regional, and Cheaper: Flour
A few short years ago, I thought the often ~400% price premium for organics was so ridiculous that I simply wasn’t willing to pay for it, even if it was supposedly better for me. Times have changed, and two things have happened: 1] education has made me willing pay the price and 2] I found ways to not have to … Read More
FROM LOCAL FARMS – Gold Forest Grains
Organic grains from just outside the city – a bit of a dream come true for me. I could buy organic bananas and skads of other items grown overseas, shipped, then trucked to me. I could buy large sacks of organic flour from Anita’s Organic in Chilliwack, BC. But I couldn’t seem to find a good supplier of larger quantities … Read More
BBQ Oven Action
I’ve posted about this setup before. But then in all my wisdom, I nearly deleted all of my new wordpress blog-post-blogger-transition. I don’t recommend it. So some of the content from that post, well, died. Permanently. No matter. I had a good friend coming over for lunch today as I live close to his new City TV gig downtown, and … Read More
From Local Farms Project Update
This project is getting pretty big pretty fast, and I couldn’t be more pleased. Starting in September, I’m going to have a blog-doc-short episode featuring each of the following biggest and brightest talents in local artisan food production – and the list is growing daily: Sunworks Farm, Nature’s Green Acres, Smoky Valley Goat Cheese, En Santé Winery, Serben Free Range, … Read More
Dinner Party Menu
A breakdown of the menu for some new friends that came by for dinner last night. Excluding the first course – a salad from the garden…forgot the photo. The first three courses were paired with an alsatian riesling, the following 3 with a right-bank bordeaux. Overall, a lovely night: berkshire tenderloin on white bean purée, crispy sage pickled whitefish, dill … Read More
Hardcore Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Jam & Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Icing
My wife love cupcakes. It was her birthday. I do have the ambition to bake quality cakes one day. And there’s no way in hell this cheap-ass is going to splurge at a local cupcake shop on $3 cupcakes – no way, no how. I made two dozen – so…roughly…$72 worth of cupcakes? As if. I respect the entrepreneurial spirit … Read More
Foccacia di Vernazza
Yep. Bread. Again. This time 1/4 whole wheat, and a quadruple batch. I will find out how many kilos of bread my oven can bake at once one of these days. Fortunately, not all of it ended up in bread loaves. Not sure what to make for supper, I stole some of the dough, and made a quick foccacia. Man … Read More
Amended Bread Gig
Long ago, I posted about my ‘usual’ bread recipe. It’s the kind of recipe I’ve made so often I have the numbers in my head. But today I realized that for some time, I’ve making the same modifications to it. So why follow the same recipe all the time if I end up tweaking it anyway? Yeah…no good answer there, … Read More