When I was searching for a blog hosting company last summer, I really had no idea what I was doing. I just Googled "free blog host" and came up with a few matches. I didn't know any more about one host than any other. I'm not sure exactly how I ended up on Blogdrive, but I think it was fairly random -- it was the first free blog hosting site I saw that seemed to have the features I thought I wanted -- mostly, it was free, and it promised no pop-ups or pop-unders. Sold!
A month or so ago, Blogdrive added some new bells and whistles, and also started "featuring" two blogs each day. When someone goes to the Blogdrive home page, there is a box on the right side of the screen. That box contains two headings: "Featured Subscriber" and "Featured Profile," along with a little snippet of each blogger's header, or a photo from the blog. Guess who is today's Featured Subscriber! Here's what Blogdrive's visitors see today:
Featured Subscriber
I have to tell you, I was quite surprised when I went to the site and saw that. I said to my cats, "hey -- that's me!!!" I'm sure it's as random a thing as how I chose Blogdrive, but it sure has gotten me a lot of hits! =) It's barely noon here, and I've already exceeded my daily average of visitors, more than one-third of whom are other Blogdrive subscribers. It will be interesting to see how many of them stick around. I haven't found any other food blogs on Blogdrive in the nine months I've used it... maybe this will start a new trend. Thanks, Blogdrive!
My diet has been seriously lacking plum jam lately. It's not because I don't have any plum jam on hand... it's because I haven't taken the time to make my favorite vehicle for plum jam -- bread! Plum jam can't be eaten on just any old bread, you know. It really should be eaten on homemade bread. This afternoon, I got out my trusty copy of "Smart Bread Machine Recipes." It is, as I have mentioned, my absolute favorite bread book. Almost every recipe calls for 100% whole grain flours. A few -- very few -- call for just a little all-purpose flour. And I don't think any of the recipes calls for refined sweeteners. It's the crunchiest, granola-y-est bread book I own. I love it. I highly recommend it.
Today's recipe is one I've made before as dinner rolls for family gatherings. It's a perfect example of my favorite type of bread... you know, the more grains and seeds, the better? It came out as close to perfect as any loaf of bread I've ever baked. And yes, of course I baked it in the oven, and not my bread machine!
Amaranth Crunch Bread
makes 1 - 1 pound loaf
1-2/3 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup amaranth flour
1/4 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp wheat gluten
1 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp lecithin granules or vegetable oil (I used lecithin)
2 tbsp maple syrup or honey (I used honey)
3/4 cup water
3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
Put everything except the seeds in the machine's bread pan and turn the machine to the "raisin bread" setting. Add the seeds when the machine buzzes.
At that point, you can either leave the dough in the machine all the way through the baking cycle, or take it out after one rise and have your way with it, like I did. I shaped it into a loaf and let it rise for about 45 minutes, until it had doubled in size. I baked it at 350 for about 25 - 30 minutes (but who was counting?), until it was golden brown and pulled away from the sides of the pan.
This is a beautifully soft, light, moist bread with a nice crunch from the pumpkin seeds. It goes equally well with sweet or savory sandwich fillings and spreads.
A few weeks ago, Julie had a bit of trouble with popovers. They didn't pop. It's a problem she's had before. Poor Julie! Popovers are such a beautiful thing. What better vehicle for some good, organic, sweet butter and some lovely imported French jam? I've made popovers quite a few times and have always had success. I thought I'd make a batch so I could tell Julie exactly how I did it, in hopes that I could find the reason her popovers won't pop...
Popovers Puffy buns with space for stuffing
(12 popovers)
Mix thoroughly:
1 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
2 tbsp melted butter
Use popover pans or regular muffin tins. Pre-heat oven to 450. Grease muffin tins and heat in pre-heated oven. When hot, fill 1/3 full with popover batter. Bake at 450 for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for 10 - 20 minutes longer. Do not open oven until after 30 minutes of baking or popovers may fall. Eat with butter or jam or cheese.
I followed the instructions pretty closely. I mixed the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another. I added the dry to the wet and whisked until the batter was smooth. I used a regular nonstick muffin pan. I even preheated the pan for just a couple minutes while the oven was getting up to temp, which I don't normally bother to do. I think it helped -- they popped higher than I've ever had popovers pop!
Of course, I used a different recipe than I usually do, too. Some of them did have weird little indentations, but they were still pretty poufy. I usually like my popovers for breakfast, with butter and jam (of course!), but they went very well with the corn chowder my parents and I had last night!
Well, Julie... I don't know what to say. I can't imagine why your popovers don't pop. All I do differently is I'm not quite as fussy as the recipes want me to be. I hope you have better popover luck soon!
** Warning: the following paragraph contains extensive whining. **
I'm not having a very good day. It's cold, gray, snowy, rainy, and depressing here. I stayed up too late last night and got up too early this morning. I went to Wal-Mart this afternoon, which never fails to piss me off (I was so mad after being there for just a few minutes that I put back the stuff I wanted to buy and left! I don't know why I put myself through the horror of that store.). I got a CD from BMG that I never ordered, and I'm sure that I told them not to send it to me! Damn Selections of the Month. I e-mailed a guy in Boston about an apartment I looked at last week and I haven't heard back from him yet. My computer is very slow tonight. I even had a bread failure earlier this evening! That's when I know things are not looking so up.
OK. I'm done whining.
Craving someting raspberry-ish, I turned to my trusty copy of Lean and Luscious and Meatless. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- it's such a geeky title for a cookbook, but it has a lot of great recipes. I found a recipe for Orange Marmalade Bread and thought maybe I'd try converting it into a Raspberry Jam Bread. Here's what happened...
Raspberries and Jam Bread
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup rasberry all-fruit spread
1 cup orange juice
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup frozen raspberries (no need to thaw)
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly oil a 4x8 loaf pan or spray with non-stick cooking spray (I love my Baker's Joy!).
Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.
Combine all remaining ingredients except berries in another bowl. Add to dry mixture, combining just until dry ingredients are moistened. Gently fold in berries. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake 35 - 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center of bread comes out clean.
I baked that bread for 45 minutes, inserted a toothpick, and deemed it done. I let it cool for about 5 minutes in the pan and then turned it out onto a cooling rack. It imploded upon removal from its pan. The middle was still all raw and soupy! I managed to salvage a slice off each end, and I have to tell you, it was pretty damn good bread. It had tons of raspberry flavor, with a nice little hint of orange.
Too bad I had to throw away the rest! I won't even share a picture of the carnage with you. It's too horrifying.
So what happened? Did I just not cook it long enough? Was my oven lying to me about being up to temperature? Is raspberry jam so much thinner than orange marmalade that it made the dough too wet? Should I have used less juice? The batter didn't seem too thin. Sigh. Maybe it was just bad Karma. Are the planets out of alignment? And just how many planets are we up to these days, anyway? The Solar System just isn't what it used to be.
I am 34 years old. I have an Easy-Bake Oven, and I use it!
This particular oven was manufactured in the early 80s... but I just got it a couple of years ago! I found it on ebay, brand-new, never-been-opened, mint-in-package, and all that other ebayspeak. I chose this particular vintage because it was from around the time I would have had an Easy-Bake Oven, had it occurred to me at that time to want one. I just never really thought about it, I guess. My mom baked everything in the regular oven. Why wouldn't I?
What's really fun about my Easy-Bake Oven is that I get to use the miniature kitchen gadgets I have collected over the years. They are perfect for the jobs at hand. Tonight, I mixed chocolate cookie dough in a custard cup with a mini rubber spatula...
... and marshmallow filling in another custard cup with a mini whisk...
... to make mini whoopie pies:
How adorable are those?!? Each one is about an inch in diameter.
Are whoopie pies a New England thing, or are they common all over the country? It seems as though I heard something a long time ago about them being popular pretty much just in New England. They are my absolute favorite junk food on the planet. But I digress.
I have found that my Easy-Bake Oven is the perfect remedy for those late night, need-sugar-now fits. The little cakes and cookies are quick, easy, and a great exercise in portion control! Plus, they're just so damn cute. I'm sure they're also full of lots of scary chemicals and artificial thises and thats that I generally don't eat... but seriously, the oven only comes out once every couple of months or so. I think I'll survive.
Not long after I got my Easy-Bake, I searched the 'net for recipes to make my own little cake mixes. It was a lot of fun to mix up the flour, sugar, cocoa, and shortening, and I portioned the mix into snack-size Ziploc baggies. Again, too cute for words. Unfortunately, the cakes these mixes made were awful! Does anyone out there have any good homemade mix recipes? I know there's an Easy-Bake cookbook... in fact, it's on my Amazon wish list. =) And the official Easy-Bake website has some fun stuff, too... but I'd love to hear what you (and/or your kids!) like to make in your Easy-Bake Ovens!
