Pans & Needles

Monthly Archives: May 2012

5:02 am - May 25, 2012 -

A very Georgian wedding

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It still seems amazing to me that this happened at all, but this is one of the best things about travelling – you just never know what’s going to happen. I suppose I should say that we knew about the wedding two days before leaving, so I did have a suitable dress with me, but somehow my dad didn’t remember to bring either a tie or a jacket, so my mum and I spent that morning looking all over Tbilisi for a tie – apparently they aren’t big in Georgia. Anyway, when we arrived at the reception, not a single man there was wearing a tie (almost none of them even bothered to tuck in their shirts), so we were feeling reassured that it was a casual affair. Then we walked into the reception hall and saw this.

Every table was decked out like this. It was amazing.

The place was set for 250+ people, and the tables were already covered with food. And I do mean covered. There was salad, fish, bread, cheese, vegetable appetizers, jugs of amber wine (there are four colours of wine in Georgia: white, amber, red, and black), bottles of juice and water, and probably a bunch of other things besides. It was a feast. And then Irakli told us that this was just the cold dishes. Sure enough, we’d barely even started eating when more dishes were added to the table.

This was my favourite. It’s red pepper and seared eggplant stuffed with this walnut paste and pomegranate seeds. Oh my goodness it was delicious.

The funny thing, though, is that nothing is ever taken away. Instead, they just pile dishes on top of other dishes, and if you want what’s underneath, you just lift up the plate on top and get it. Basically, every table becomes its own buffet, which is amazing. It may have been the copious amount of wine I drank (you have to drink for every toast, and people just continuously fill your glass back up), but I found this very amusing.

Plates on plates.

Cake on top of chicken.

A disheveled table.

Anyway, the reception itself is really interesting. There is a toast master in charge of delivering long formal toasts throughout the evening (he had a microphone, and it took us a while to figure out where in the hall he was), and in between his toasts, these four divos would come out on stage and sing (very loudly). Mostly I think they sang traditional songs, but every once in a while it would be something more lively and people would get up to dance. The bride and groom also danced a traditional Georgian wedding dance, which was quite something, and by the end of the night my mum and I were being pulled onto the dance floor and being shown the traditional moves. I’m not sure we were very good at it, but it was fun.

By the end of the night we had eaten, drunk, and danced just about to our limit, and the next day started very slowly, to say the least. We’re in Yerevan, Armenia, now, but more about that later.

Categories: Cooking, Out and about Tags: , , ,
1:02 pm - May 23, 2012 -

Georgia is amazing

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Maybe I should start with a clarification, since for most people the first Georgia they think of is the state, and actually I’m in Georgia the country, which is in the Caucuses. You may be most familiar with Georgia from its 2008 conflict with Russia, but that’s long over and it’s really entirely safe and also entirely lovely. I’m actually here with my parents, which is an added bonus since I don’t get to see them all that often. My dad was here already for work and my mum and I arrived Sunday night (local time, which is 8 hours ahead of Toronto), after 24 hours of travelling.

So, we’re at the end of our third day now and I swear we’ve only stopped walking long enough to eat since we got here, and we’re exhausted. Tomorrow, we have to get a 5 a.m. taxi to Yerevan, where we’ll spend another three days. The Internet is good, there, though, so even though I’m about to fall asleep, here’s a point-form tour of Tbilisi (with pictures).

1. They love statues here. Seriously, they are everywhere. Little, big, copper, gold, stone, whatever, they’ve got it all. My favourites, though, are the little ones that run along Rustavelli (one of the big main streets). These statues stand/sit every ten metres or so along both sides of the lovely wide sidewalks. They’re all different, but here are a couple of my favourites.

This statue has a little bottle of something. Beer or juice, you decide.

This little statue went hunting (his gun is just peaking out over his shoulder) and he got himself a duck.

2. Khachapuri is everywhere. Remember when I made it? Well, it turns out there are a ton of different ways to make it, and they have entire restaurants that serve it, and it’s considered a regular course in a traditional meal. Seriously, Georgians know how to do bread and cheese.

We watched them make it through the window.

Khachapuri with egg.

Khachapuri with cheese on top.

Khachapuri with cheese inside.

3. They also love walnuts here – I even had walnut ice cream the other day – and dried fruit. As a vegetarian, I was a little worried about what I might end up eating, but at least in Georgia, I have been eating as well as anyone (which is to say, very well indeed).

So that’s regular fruit in the middle, fruit leather on the shelves, and the things that look like dried sausages are actually a kind of fruit juice candy.

4. They’re also big on wool, and although I haven’t seen any knitting/crocheting or related shops, gauzy felted wool scarves and thick felted wool hats are everywhere, as are wool carpets.

Carpets for sale on a wall next to a (very narrow) street in the old city.

Repairing an old carpet.

Hats and scarves for sale.

5. Georgians are very religious (Georgian Orthodox, primarily) and churches are everywhere. Today was went to Mtskheta (pronounced Moo-stek-ah, more or less), which was the original capital of Georgia. The cathedral there was built in the 11th century and remains in use. Besides that, there are churches all over the place (you turn a corner and run into a church) and they are all built in more or less the same style. They’re quite beautiful, really.

Cathedral in Mtskheta.

6. They do weddings on a huge scale. We got to go to a Georgian wedding and we’re all still recovering. We were invited by my dad’s colleague Irakli (one of the nicest men ever) and it was a once in a lifetime experience. Needless to say, it was amazing, and merits its own post, as do many, many other things about Georgia, but maybe you should come visit to see for yourself? (I really will try to post on the wedding, though, it was amazing.)

7. Not about Georgia, really, but oh well. Colour Affection is zipping right along thanks to all of this travelling. I got a ton done on the plane and I’m one row shy of completing the two-colour striped section, which means I’ll be into the short rows during the drive tomorrow and I can’t wait. Here’s how it’s looking so far.

Stripes are so satisfying.

Categories: Cooking, Knitting, Out and about Tags: , , , , , ,
10:45 am - May 19, 2012 -

Sixth time’s the charm, and trip knitting!

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So, it turns out that even when a rule is self-imposed and you’ve decided it’s arbitrary, there are consequence when you break it. To wit: remember how the other day I was all excited about starting the Colour Affection shawl  but really had to because it was Tuesday and Tuesdays are for my sweater? Well, yeah. I finished the decreases for the waist and then decided that maybe that fulfilled my sweater obligation, and then cast on for the shawl.

Well. I read the pattern (a point in my favour, I think) and then decided that a 4mm needle for fingering weight yarn seemed awfully big. I like a tight gauge, so I thought I’d knit this on a 3mm needle instead. So, I cast on, using a cable cast on. As soon as I saw it, though, I thought that’s too tight and pulled it off and re-cast on with a long-tail cast on. Nice and stretchy. Well, yes, but then you have to M1L and M1R in the first row, and that’s super awkward with a long-tail cast on, so I ripped it off again and then tried to cast on more loosely using my preferred cable method. Well, tiny needles and tiny wool and tiny stitches does not make picking up stitches very easy and somehow in the process of picking up the second one, I managed to drop all of them. That’s quite a talent, right?

At that point, I decided that maybe Veera was on to something with the 4mm needle. So I went and dug one up and cast on again, once again using the long-tail cast on. Of course, then I tried to pick up stitches and realized that it wasn’t going to work well, so I ripped it off again and switched back to the cable cast on (are you keeping up? That’s five times I’ve cast on for this so far – thank goodness it’s only 5 stitches to start with). Anyway, that seemed to work, so I started the pattern. I was about 9 rows in when I thought I had a problem.

It looks more like a pouch than a shawl, right?

See that? I’m a big believer in the magic of blocking, but I just wasn’t convinced blocking was going to save me. My edges just seemed too tight. It was puckering. I was convinced that when I was finished and took it off the needles the edge wouldn’t block straight, but would instead give me a hump. That is not what I want. So, I ripped it off my needles. Of course, though, as soon as it was off, this happened.

Oh wait, the pouch fanned out just the way the pattern indicates it should. Rats.

Apparently, it was fine. But, because of the picked up stitches and whatnot, I decided to rip it all the way back to the beginning and start over. (Aside: I just want to say that the Madelinetosh held up like a pro during all this ripping and reknitting and I didn’t have to cut off any of the old yarn, which is excellent since I’m already slightly worried about yardage.)

Anywa, when I started to notice what I thought was a hump forming, I took to Ravelry to read other people’s notes. It seemed that everyone add a YO between the first and second stitches of the row, and then dropped it on the way back, so make for a looser edge. I figured I’d try that, just to be sure. I added the YOs for the first six rows and then stopped doing them because I didn’t like the way the edge looked. I have decided that, since the edge was actually fine even when I thought it was too tight, that if I just pay attention and knit the first two stitched loosely, everything will be fine. So far so good. (Yes, I went with option A. I feel good about it.)

I don’t want to jinx myself, but I like how this is looking.

This puts me in a good place for my trip knitting. Did I mention I was going away? Well, I am. For two weeks! I am beyond excited. My trip involves three countries and two very long travel days, so knitting and books are required. I’m still working on my trip reading, but my trip knitting is all arranged.

Obviously, Patio Affection is coming. It’s garter stitch, and not pattern intensive, which is perfect for the plane and any driving we do. It’s big, though (or it will be), so I decided I needed a smaller project too. Also, on the off chance I get a little tired of garter stitch (it’s been know to happen), I decided project 2 needed to be sort of fiddly. So, I decided that this lovely ball of Indigodragonfly Sock would become the famous and ubiquitous Monkeys, which I have not yet knit.

Indigodragonfly 100% merino sock, in colourway “Tiny Bloodsucking Dancer” (their colourways have the best names).

Pretty good, right? I’m going to pack the Monkey project away in my checked luggage, just in case, and keep the shawl in my carry on, at least for the initial travel day.

The thing is, though, I needed to sort out my project bag situation. I have my standard (and very pretty, if I do say so myself) bag for the socks, but Colour Affection requires three balls of yarn and is going to grow. I poked around and didn’t come up with anything besides something ugly (like a grocery bag) or silly (a cloth bag in Christmas fabric) when it hit me: stuff sack.Thus, this 5L stuff sack from MEC is now my shawl bag, which will expand as amy knitting does (it’s also pretty much water proof and made of 30-denier rip-stop nylon, so my Addis shouldn’t poke through).

Sock bag (by ZigZag stitches) and stuff sack (by MEC), all rolled up.

5L is pretty big, as it turns out.

Really, I’m only going away for two weeks, so this will for sure be enough wool. Yes?

Sock wool on the left, shawl wool on the right. It’s kind of a lot, isn’t it?

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: , , , , , ,
10:26 am - May 18, 2012 -

In season asparagus risotto

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Oh yeah, remember how a chunk of this blog is supposed to be dedicated to food? Yeah, apparently I forgot too. Well, that’s not totally true. I work five evenings/nights a week, and it just so happens that in the last few weeks, my two nights off have meant either going out for dinner or L cooking, and although I like cooking, I’m certainly not complaining about that. Anyway, asparagus are in season, and that is pretty much impossible to resist, so I put my foot down this week and said I was going to cook.

Ontario asparagus.

There are lots of delicious ways to eat asparagus, but one of my favourites is risotto. When I was home in the evenings more often, risotto was one of my go-to meals because, once you get comfortable with it, you realize how easy it is. Truly, risotto is not difficult, but it does require a little attention and comfort with free-form cooking. Once you get the basics, though, you can make it with just about anything, which is another plus, since it will carry you through the various local growing seasons without any trouble.

Anyway, here’s how I do it – this isn’t a typical recipe because, as I said, it’s kind of free-form, but I have numbered the steps and bolded the ingredients.

Asparagus Risotto (this will serve two or three as a meal, increase rice, etc. for more people)

Creamy and delicious.

1. In a saucepan, heat up some vegetable stock (well, if you eat meat, chicken stock is fine too). I try to keep some homemade stock on hand for this sort of thing, but if you don’t have any, the boxed stock from the grocery store is a good second. If you need to use bouillon cubes, in a pinch, that’s okay; I would use slightly less than recommended, though, because cubes tend to be more salty than other options. You will need slightly more than twice as many cups of stock as you use rice. So, for 1.5 cups of rice, heat up 3-4 cups of stock.
2. In a wok or high-sided frying pan, melt 1-2 tbsp of butter over medium-high heat. Add a little olive oil to keep the butter from burning and add a finely-diced onion. Cook for five minutes or so, until the onion is soft and translucent. Add three or so cloves of garlic, minced. Cook until you can smell the garlic, another two or three minutes.
3. Add 1.5 cups of arborio rice (yes, there are other risotto rices, but they’re generally more expensive and more difficult to find; arborio is fairly ubiquitous now – basmati or other similar rice will not work, so don’t bother). If the pan seems a little dry, add a bit more butter and toss the rice with the onion and garlic until it is well coated. Let it toast for a minute or two.
4. If you have some white wine kicking around, this is a good time to add a half cup. If not, don’t worry. Using a ladle, add enough stock to cover the rice/onion/garlic (about a cup). Let it bubble down to a simmer and give it a good stir. The more you stir, the creamier the risotto, so don’t shirk on the stirring. This is a good time to get the asparagus ready (by which I mean, wash it, snap off the ends, chop it into bite-sized pieces, and set aside).
5. When the liquid starts to diminish and the mixture starts to thicken, add more stock, adding it by about a ladleful at a time and remembering to stir. The idea is that by slowly cooking it, the rice will take on the flavours in the stock and release its starch into the liquid, thus creating a yummy, creamy meal. Adding stock by the ladleful allows you to control the amount of liquid in the pan, so you don’t end up with a really liquidy mess at the end.
6. Grate some cheese. With asparagus I like an extra-old white cheddar, but it’s up to you. I usually grate about 1 cup.
7. After you’ve added two or three ladlefuls of stock, taste the risotto. You’re mostly interested in its texture. It’ll start out hard and kind of crunchy, but when it gets to the point that it’s soft enough to eat, but undercooked enough to still feel a little grainy on your teeth, add a half ladleful of stock and the asparagus. Keep stirring and tasting. (Adding the asparagus late means it won’t overcook.)
8. When the liquid has receded, taste it again. If the rice isn’t soft all the way through, add a little bit more stock; if it is, add the cheese. Turn the heat down a little and stir the cheese through so it melts into everything. If it seems a bit liquidy, let it cook a little longer (but not too long, or the rice will overcook!). Bear in mind that the cheese will solidify a little as it cools on the plate.
9. Season with salt and pepper and serve!

This method will work for any risotto. Some veggies you may want to prepare beforehand (like roasting a squash) but by and large, you add them at the same time and pair them with a cheese you like.

Are you already a risotto fan? What are you favourite pairings?

Categories: Cooking, Recipes Tags: ,
2:54 pm - May 15, 2012 -

The yarn wants what it wants

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About a week and a half ago I went into Lettuce Knit and picked up a ball of Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label Fingering Weight in the colourway Mallard. I had just finished my mirror-cabled socks and, even though I knew I had my mum’s scarf to start, I just wanted to have a little something in the stash to look forward to. Every once in a while I click over to Tanis’ website and just drool over the colourways, so it seemed like a good choice. I didn’t really have a pattern in mind, but that wasn’t the point. So I bought it, brought it home, and ever since then I’ve been thinking about it.

Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label fingering weight 80% superwash merino, 20% nylon in Mallard. (Yes, that’s Ganymede in the background. She refused to give up her window seat just because I wanted to do a photo shoot. Cheeky cat.)

The thing is, even though I was thinking socks when I bought it, this yarn just doesn’t want to be socks. Now, in the past I have sort of rolled my eyes when I heard a knitter say that about wool. I mean, come on, right? You’re the knitter, it’s the wool, it’ll be whatever you want it to be. But no. I have come to see the error in my ways. I love this wool. I love this colourway. I love knitting socks. But somehow these three parts weren’t adding up to a whole.

And then it hit me – just the way it’s probably hit thousands of other knitters – this yarn wanted to be worn somewhere visible, set off by two other contrasting by complimentary colours. Yes, this yarn wanted to be the Colour Affection by Veera Välimäki. I have been pretty in love with this shawl since I first saw it, but I just don’t think of myself as a shawl person, so I didn’t buy the pattern or obsess over colours. But lately, as the weather has been getting nicer, I’ve been thinking about it more and more. It’s not a triangular shawl, I told myself, so I can wear it as a scarf if I want to, with the option of draping it pashmina-like around my shoulders when the sun goes down. I am picturing this as a patio shawl (Patio Affection?), and the more I imagine myself wearing it, the more I want it.

So, this morning I called Lettuce Knit. I had been browsing Tanis’ colourways and picked my ideal three and I wanted to know if Lettuce Knit had them. They didn’t, but then Megan said they had Madeline Tosh sock in too, and some other sock yarns, and I figured what they heck, I’ll just go check it out. It’s a gorgeous, gorgeous day today, and I don’t have to work, so I hopped on my bike and rode down. After much deliberation (and there was a lot – another woman who was in the store had never heard of Colour Affection, but after helping me pick my colours and then looking at the pattern, she too decided she must knit it and then we picked her colours; this is why I love Lettuce Knit so, so much, but I digress), this is what I picked to go with Mallard:

Madeline Tosh Sock, 100% superwash merino, in Charcoal.

Madeline Tosh Sock, 100% superwash merino, in Candlewick.

Now, of course, comes the tricky part: what order do I want them in. Basically, I have three options (not counting the flipped versions of these, just picture them in the other order (They’re stacked with mc at the top, then cc1, then cc2).

Option A

Option B

Option C

Personally, I am leaning toward Option A, because I like the idea of the neutral as the anchor and then having a bright band of that yellow at the bottom. I haven’t cast on yet (it’s sweater day, remember? Torture!) so you still have time to change my mind or bolster my decision – foolishly I thought buying the yarn was going to be the hard part!

Categories: in progress, Knitting Tags: , , , , , ,
12:01 pm - May 14, 2012 -

A Proper Mother’s Day

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I don’t have kids, but it was my birthday yesterday, and since I’m the oldest that means Mother’s Day this year fell on the actual anniversary of my mum becoming a mother. In the year I was born my birthday was actually a couple of days after Mother’s Day, so my poor mum had to wait a whole year for it. Now though, I like to think that the waiting has paid off.  Unfortunately, what with my parents living in Nova Scotia and me living in Toronto, I didn’t get to see my mum over the weekend – instead, L and I did birthday stuff.

I had to work yesterday (I’m a copy editor at the National Post, and since there’s a Monday paper, I have to go in on Sundays to work on it), so we did birthday stuff on Saturday. As t turned out, the weather was so lovely all weekend that either day was basically the dream of a Spring-born. Obviously we had to take advantage of the 20C weather, so we bicycled to Kensington market, bought picnic supplies and then bicycled down to Toronto Island (well, we took the ferry, but you know what I mean).

One of my favourite things about the ferry is its life jacket ceiling. So reassuring.

We spent the afternoon on the Island, eating a lot of delicious bread and cheese, bicycling around, tossing a Frisbee, and admiring the lovely houses. Then we bicycled home (it’s just about 8 km each way to the ferry, entirely downhill there and thus, entirely uphill back, so it wasn’t as lazy a day as it felt). After a nap, we went out to meet some friends for drinks and dinner and, I have to say, it was just the kind of low-key fun day that I always hope my birthday is going to be.

Our bicycles resting under a Norwegian maple (according to the sign) while we ate our picnic.

I didn’t get any knitting time on Saturday, though, so on Sunday I went with L to a Frisbee practice before work and while he ran drills I sat in the sunshine and knit. Remember those 67 stitches I cast on last week? Well, they are (hopefully) going to turn into the Autumn Leaves Stole by Jared Flood (rav link). I’m really enjoying the knitting and it has been flying along (I’ve had about two hours total to work on it and I’m halfway through the first chart) and then yesterday, while I was knitting in the sun, I realized something was wrong.

Can you spot the errors?

Can you see it? There on the right – the garter stitch border is not, shall we say, consistent. I do this when I swatch sometimes (you know, forget to knit the last X number of stitches on a purl row) and I thought I was catching myself as I went along, but apparently not. I’m planning to give this to my mum for Christmas (I am starting early this year!), so while I might have decided I didn’t care that much if it was for me, I decided that I should rip it back and do it properly for my mum. Have you ever ripped back lace knitting? It’s terrifying, what with all those yarn-overs and k2togs and whatnot.

So many live stitches – thank goodness Ganymede was otherwise occupied.

I ripped back 10 rows (there’s no picture, because I was too tense) and then, when I picked up the stitches, I only had 61. I counted again. Still 6 short. I checked, and there were no obvious dropped stitches, all my yarn-overs had survived, but there were definitely only 61 stitches where there should have been 67. I decided to start working the chart, since I assumed it would become clear where the missing stitches at least should have been, and yes, when I hit the middle of the first leaf (where it’s slip1, k2tog, psso), there was no stitch to slip. I found the dropped stitch (which had basically melted away), picked it up and kept going. Sure enough, this was the case for every leaf but one. I’ve now reknit those ten rows, plus two, and I’m pleased I decided to rip back when I did, rather than waffling as I continued to knit, which is what usually happens.

Totally worth it, right?

An hour’s work just to end up back at the beginning. Oh well. By the time I get to the end I’ll be glad I did it.

Categories: in progress, Knitting, Out and about Tags: , , , , , , , ,
10:41 am - May 10, 2012 -

Adventures in Winding

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I own neither a swift nor a ball winder. I’m not (yet) a prolific knitter, so this hasn’t been a huge issue for me so far. Mostly I buy my yarn at shops where they will wind the wool for you, which is an incredibly generous service for a small and often bustling shop to offer. For a couple of bigger projects, though, I bought my wool at a larger shop, and they do not offer a winding service.

For comparison’s sake, a proper swift and ball winder set-up, as demonstrated by the nice people at Gaspereau Fiber Arts.

I thought of all those “hold my skein” jokes and then wondered how long it would take me to wind, say, the 1200 yards of fingering weight yarn I needed for my sweater. Or, indeed, the three skeins of Cascade 220 I need for my most recent endeavour. I did a little mental math, decided that I value my relationship too much to put L through that much skein holding and decided to figure out another way. My solution: an office chair. It isn’t quite ideal, but it does spin and hold a skein nicely, and I can wheel it over to where I want to sit while winding the wool by hand.

This system has been working quite well, and then one day Ganymede walked into the room while I was happily winding away (and watching the Season 2 finale of Fringe because, Pacey Witter!, and also, winding wool is not very exciting). Naturally, if you’re a little cat and there is wool moving around, you want in on it.

Oh my gosh. Best day ever!

Do you think, if I tried, I could eat it all at once?

Listen, it would help if you stopped pulling it away from me.

I fought her off as best I could, but man, she is so cute that even when she’s bad it’s hard to really be mad. At least she didn’t chase the balls the couple of times that I dropped them, right?

In the end, her interference didn’t cost me too much time or pain (her claws are quite sharp), and I went from this

Cascade 220 Heathers in colourway 4008.

to this

in not too much time at all. If I start needing to wind more yarn than this per project, though, I might just have to invest in a proper system. Ganymede’s reaction alone would be worth it.

Category: Knitting Tags: , ,
3:56 pm - May 8, 2012 -

Mirror Mirror, Cable Cable

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I was going to wait for a nice sunny day to photograph these before posting, but I am just too excited! My mirror-cabled socks are done, and they are just exactly what I wanted them to be.

It is really hard to take picture of your own socks, especially when the details are on the sides of your legs.

You know how sometimes you decide what you want to knit before you find a pattern, and then you search and search and search and nothing comes up? Well, I spent a long time clicking through Ravelry patterns before I had to concede that the socks I wanted weren’t there anywhere. Maybe they’re too basic, I don’t know, but whatever the case, they weren’t there. So, I made them up. As I said, they’re fairly basic, but they’re just the blend of pretty and plain that I wanted, and although they were an easy knit, they were just interesting enough to keep my attention.

Also, I totally had enough yarn in the end. More than enough, as it turned out (remind me of this when I’m knitting my next pair of socks and have a similar fit of worry).  Just in case you wondered what happened.

I will post nicer pictures when the weather improves, but until then, here they are.

Details
Pattern: Mirror-Mirror cabled socks by Me
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in colourway “Boticelli Red” (the real colour is somewhere in between the shades of these photos)
Needles: 2.25mm Clover bamboo dpns

I haven’t written this up as a formal pattern, but I might, since there doesn’t seem to be one out there yet. Would you want to knit these? (I have a sneaking suspicious they may become my go-to sock.)

For the first time in a long time, I don’t have a sock on my needles right now. I’ve got the sweater (goodness knows that isn’t going anywhere fast) and I’ve cast on a new project, but since it’s literally just 67 stitches on a needle right now, I’ll wait to show/tell you about that until it’s more interesting to look at.

Category: Knitting Tags: , , , ,
12:36 pm - May 2, 2012 -

Bread Check

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Remember how I said I was going to start making bread on the regular? Well, so far so good. I would guess that I make about 60% of our bread (this is an average because L eats way more bread than I do and buys bread to keep at the lab; I eat almost entirely homemade bread, unless I’m feeling lazy and then I just go to the bakery), which is not too bad.

Mostly I’ve been making the overnight, no-knead French loaf, which is a really easy staple as long as I’m on the ball enough to plan ahead.

I tried something a little different the last time I made this and substituted a half cup of flour for a half cup of flax meal. It added a really nice nutty sort of flavour and still rose beautifully.

But, because there are mornings when I get up to discover all the bread has disappeared overnight (or something), and I need bread for something before tomorrow, I’ve started trying some other recipes (as I said I would). I bought a very nice bread pan (tin?), and the first right-now loaf I made was Honey Wheat Bread, which is an easy and delicious loaf for sandwiches and whatever else you might use bread for.

Not bad for a first attempt, I thought. And not too sweet, either.

The recipe is for two loaves, but I only have one pan (for now), so I halved it thusly:
1 cup lukewarm water
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup canola oil
2-2.5 cups all-purpose flour (I actually ended up using just under 2 cups)

I followed all the other directions as-written, except, obviously, dividing the dough into two equal portions. The results were awesome, but I will have to work on my rolling technique in the future, as I ended up with a large air pocket just under the upper crust. Otherwise, though, I cannot recommend this recipe highly enough. Next up, I think, will be this Light Wheat Bread, which takes a little longer, so it will have to be made on a day when I’m kicking around the house.

After that, I’m not sure. What are your bread standbys? Any chance you have a great raisin bread recipe you wouldn’t mind sharing?

Categories: Cooking, Recipes Tags: ,