Fragrance in the Kitchen: Coriander Bread

This is my kitchen table, one of the most heavily used places in my house. It is the focal point of my kitchen: I display a portion of my rock collection here; display my mail; do all my art and writing projects; lay out my garden projects and read my cookbooks here. And, this is where I roll out the dough for my home-made bread.

Recently my gardening friend Steve gave me 9 cups of coriander seeds (left-over from his backyard garden last summer). He didn't want them, saying he 'has gallons left at home'. I was very happy to get them, as one small bottle of coriander at the store can cost up to $3.00. I was thrilled - I could make coriander bread!

First, I ground all the seeds in my coffee grinder to make a powdered spice. This spice is similar to cardamon, with a fragrance that is absolutely heavenly. So, I found a recipe for Finnish Cardamon Bread, and made a few changes. I made my bread with a bag of spelt flour which is an ancient nutty-flavored flour. To this I added a half cup of wheat germ, cinnamon, brown sugar, and about 1/4 cup of the coriander powder. I had some coconut milk left over, so I added that too, along with the yeast and a couple of eggs.
Since I warmed the milk-eggs-oil mixture before adding the flour, it was a soft warm dough when I began kneading it.

Once the dough was kneaded, I split it into two sections, then split those into three more sections which would be the basis for the 'braids'.

I mixed almond paste with crushed walnuts and spread it on top before rolling each section into a braid. This provides a flavorful nutty streak inside each braid, slightly sweet.

Then I took the braid strands, wove them together and put the two loaves into a long pan. I brushed the top with egg, brown sugar, and crushed almonds.

This is the finished braided bread, after it has risen in the pan and ready for the oven. I put my dough in a lightly warmed oven for all the risings.

Baking coriander bread is a good way to make the entire house smell good! As you can see, spelt flour has a wholesome texture, a heartiness of flavor and color. I sliced up one loaf with 1" slices which I plan to dip in batter for French Toast. I'll fry it early, wrap it up tightly in foil, and pack the prepared slices in the cooler for our camping trip next Wednesday. They can be laid on a baking sheet over the morning campfire for a quick, nourishing taste-thrill while enjoying morning coffee. Cinnamony, slightly sweet, this coriander bread is a 'poor man's substitution' for cardamon bread.

When my friend Steve gave me the 9 cups of coriander seeds, he was unaware of how useful this spice could be - many gardeners use only the plant (Cilantro), and ignore the value of the ground seeds. He'd never heard of it being used in cookies and breads. Here are some Flickr sets showing additional ways to use coriander in breads and other dishes, like beer bread with gruyere cheese, ham and coriander; camote bread with coriander spread; rye and coriander sourdough bread; and carrot and coriander soup.

Today I plan to put my tomato sets into my garden, about a dozen plants, Roma, which is an determinate strain that cause all the fruit to ripen at the same time rather than over a succession of weeks. I make my own spaghetti sauce from these pear-shaped tomatoes in the fall using all my own home-grown spices. Then I process the sauce in Kerr jars over the stove. Yes, it is labor-intensive, but very rewarding. The flavors are simply outstanding when produce is home-grown.

Since I'll be gone five days on our camping trip, I plan to heavily mulch my tomato plants. I've got some of my seeds planted, and have yet to put in my eggplant and celery starts. This year I'll try fava beans, as I like broad-beans in rice casseroles; however, the poor soil at my plot will have to have some compost hauled over to it for this plant to do well. All of it will be an experiment, just like my coriander bread. I like the element of surprise!

With company coming on Sunday and a Baha'i Feast here Saturday night, I suspect I'll not be posting until we have returned home from our camping trip to Lake Wenatchee, sometime after Memorial Day. I just have too much to do. Until then, here's wishing everyone a memorable Memorial Day weekend. Take care...

Exploring the Hong Kong Market

Soup Bun Bo Hue, Tuong Ot Toi Viet-Nam, Bun man Soup Seasoning, Cuttlefish Balls, White Fungus, Gia Vi Nau Pho, and Vegetable Chicken Bao are some of the items I brought home from the Hong Kong Market just around the corner from Vien Dong, our favorite Vietnamese restaurant.

For the last 20 years we've gone to Vien Dong for all our family celebrations. It is a restaurant that consistently offers exceptional Vietnamese food at a very reasonable price. It is always packed with people, lively and cheerful, and the same family - about 3 or 4 generations - prepare the food, cook it, and serve it.

Lately however, I seem to be more sensitive to the monosodium glutamate, the MSG, that is used to enhance the flavors of Vietnamese cooking. It just seemed too salty, and the aftertaste lingered long after the meal. Yet, I wanted the wonderful soup with the bean sprouts, fresh mint and basil, the dash of hot red pepper and fresh lime juice. It is especially good for colds and flu.

So, I visited the market, determined to find the ingredients so I could prepare my own broth. I purchased a big soup bone with plenty of marrow, simmered it for three hours, then strained all the broth into my kettle. I added two of the Bun Man bullion cubes (which do have some MSG in them) to add flavor to the broth, then I added scallions, onions, celery and a big thin-sliced turnip. Then I added thin-sliced stir-fried beef and Asian zuchinni.

When I served the soup, I let George and Rahmat add their own noodles, cilantro, basil, hot sauce and lime as these are optional. The broth was the most important to me - flavorful, but not salty. It turned out perfect, fragrant, fresh, a simple easy preparation.

When we'd have a meal at Vien Dong all of us would get spring rolls and dip them into the most wonderful peanut sauce. I bought some of the spring roll wrappers, but they were the wrong kind, a wheat wrap rather than rice. So, I had to fry them and serve them with a sweet-sour sauce. Next time, I'll take my reading glasses to read the fine print as it is the transparent rice wraps that we especially enjoy. They don't require frying. I still have to perfect my 'packaging', as these wraps are not real tight.
I had some additional beef stock left over, so I made some east-Indian curry that I placed around rice tadig, an experiment that I took to a potluck Saturday night. There isn't a name for this dish but it was sure fun to prepare.

The curried meat sauce and vegetables also went good over these thin noodles, as left-overs. I cannot recall all the spices that went into the sauce, but anise, tarragon, cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, fresh basil and hot red peppers provided the flavors. I've gotten so accustomed to making my own blends that most meals are now experiments, none of which are like anything I've cooked before.

I also purchased a slightly sweet Japanese sweet-bread, similar to pound cake, and put a tumble of strawberries over it for shortcake. I keep Greek-style vanilla yogurt on hand just to add a little cream to berries. One small scoop is all it takes to make this shortcake simply divine.

I'm headed over to my garden plot now, to transplant some of my dahlias, plant some seeds:carrots, cilantro, leeks, beets, lettuce, oriental peas, basil and 'rapini zamboni a flowering broccoli that is really good in stir-fry.

When I worked in the garden yesterday, a friend Steve dropped by, and gave me some of last years coriander seeds he'd saved from last summer - about 9 cups of seeds. I'll plant a row, but have ground all the rest and put them in a big pickle jar. I'll make coriander bread today during my coffee break!

One Egg Too Many, One Bug Too Many

I'm a person who 'watches cholesterol', so have eggs only a couple of times a month for breakfast. But, our market had a 'buy two cartons and get one more free' sale so I walked away with three cartons of eggs.....now, what to do with them! Usually that will imply custards and some baking. However, sometimes it is just enjoyable to have regular ole' poached eggs on shredded wheat. Or fried eggs in a nest of hash-browns.
To make the best hash-browns, I bake the potatoes the day before, let them cool in the fridge, and then shred them the next day. Then I pan-fry them in a heavy cast iron skillet until they are crispy brown.

Speaking of fried potatoes, hashbrowns are different from 'Home Fries' which can be made from raw potatoes, cut into large cubes or chunks and usually cooked with onions, peppers, herbs and spices. We also make 'Potato Pancakes' by shredding raw potatoes that are mixed with onions, eggs, flour, milk, baking powder, herbs and seasonings. The mixture is spread out in a pan and fried until crisp. I've also used this mixture and baked it.

My sister taught me to put eggs with shredded wheat - the large ones work best. However, I've used some of the spoon-sized, and added fried celery and onion to the poached eggs. With a cold glass of orange juice, this is a hearty meal.

When I was at our organic food market the other day they had a promotional on a drink called a micronutrient fruit juice drink. Free samples were given, so I took one home. The focus is "get a green routine", and the blend included micro-nutrients beta-carotene, vitamin c, iodine, manganese and potassium. It looked impressive, and I checked out the ingredients: apple juice, peach, mango, strawberry and banana purees, Spirulina, soy lecthin, ascorbic acid, wheat grass, barley grass, wheat sprouts, Jerusalem artichokes, lemon bioflavonoids and Nova Scotia Dulse (a sea vegetable that is a natural source of essential vitamins, ions, sea salt, and roughage.) This super-drink was then flash pasteurized, bottled with an expiration date, like milk, and has to be stored in the refrigerator.

When I opened the bottle and poured it into a little glass, it looked like swamp water, as if it could start bubbling any minute! So, I called Rahmat over to try it (he'll eat anything), and after he furrowed his brow at the awlful color he took a swig. His face brightened and relaxed and he said, "That's GOOD!" So, I shook it up again and poured a small glass, and you know, it is good. Odwalla puts out this 'Super Food', a pureed super-blend of Washington state orchards, meadow-grasses, and the seaweed in the North Atlantic. However, when I researched the company, and this drink, I learned that it suffered a serious setback - E. coli bacterial poisoning in '96. All the contaminated products were recalled, and now flash pasteurization is used to purify the blends. (Any time a food product is packaged 'raw', like some types of honey, there can be risk factors.)

There is a wide assortment of exotic fruit drinks prepared by Odwalla containing passion flowers, pomegranates, mangos, and a colorful array of berries, carrots and other vegetables. I can see why they can become an ADDICTION - just smoothe, nutritious, heavenly beverages. (flickr photo by peefy)

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

BARACK OBAMA:The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE!

JOHN MC CAIN:My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON:When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure -- right from Day One! -- that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.......

DR. PHIL:The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on 'THIS' side of the road before it goes after the problem on the 'OTHER SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT'problems before adding 'NEW' problems.

OPRAH:Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

GEORGE W. BUSH:We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL:Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road...

ANDERSON COOPER - CNN:We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY:Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

PAT BUCHANAN:To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART:No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS:Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY:To die in the rain. Alone.

JERRY FALWELL:Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth?'That's why they call it the 'other side.' Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay, too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like 'the other side.' That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA:In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the ch icken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS:Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to thechicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE:It is the nature of chickens to cross roads.

JOHN LENNON:Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES:I have just released eChicken2007, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of the Chicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^(C% .........reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN:Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON:I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE:I invented the chicken!

COLONEL SANDERS:Did I miss one?

DICK CHENEY:Where's my gun.

AL SHARPTON:Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.
(thanks to ole Uncle Frank for this little ditty...)
And, lastly:

BONITA: We need some PHOTOS of that chicken.

BONNIE: We've got to understand the DECEPTION under-lying the chicken. Yes, there in the nest, right there!

RUHIYYIH: SPONSOR me, and I'll travel with the chicken. You'll see just how tough he's got it.

GEORGE: Don't bother me with the details. Just fry him up and serve him for DINNER.

FRANK: That was no chicken; that was a rooster. And, you KNOW what he was after!

Whew! How'd I Get Myself Into This?

Well, the question above is answered with, I said "Yes!"

The garden coordinator for Metro-Parks called me and asked me if I still wanted a garden plot - they had one available! It was just an old weedy plot, previously tended by an elderly Ukrainian who worked it to death then abandoned it.

I'd had experience with these Ukrainian gardeners, who manage to eek beets, sorrell, potatoes, onions and tomatoes out of DIRT. They somehow make things grow, mostly in miniature, and with the utmost dedication. However, since they do not have transportation, they cannot haul grass clippings, autumn leaves, or any other type of soil amendment to their plots. So, the soil gives out after awhile, with the plants just barely being sustained. This is the plot being offered to me, something that looks beyond any kind of repair. Dusty, pebbly, full of crabgrass, shallow....like a gravel pit.

When I greeted some of the other gardeners at Franklin Park Community Garden, they all looked in dismay and said, "You've got your hands full with THAT plot", and I just nodded an abysmal agreement. While they planted their corn sets, and watered their seedlings, digging in the most wonderful rich soil, I headed over toward the gravel pit. There was no moisture in the soil. It was just dust. No worms. No organic material. Just a few bold weeds, which I figure had every right to be there if they actually could grow. Oh, and crab-grass, tons of it, which had to be pulled.

George helped me dig trenches, then pile the dirt up onto berms. We pulled out all the crab-grass and then I worked in sphagnum moss and chicken manure. I lined the walking paths, the trenches, with straw, then covered that with grass clippings. Looking at my plot now, it has five large growing berms surrounded by trench-filled organic matter. Over the summer I'll add more weeds, grass, leaves - anything I can scrounge to put into these trenches, composting it. By late summer it should be available to work into the soil to provide nutrients when the plants (I hope) are larger and need more nutrients.

It took three days just to prepare the growing berms, to lay out the trenches and to fill them. I took a serrated knife yesterday and spent four hours cutting grass from a nearby 'bog', an area of the garden that cannot be used because it is too wet. It will provide green organic material. I'll also use it to camouflage anything that is growing, as the crows here pull up anything that looks tasty. When we are on our week's vacation I plan to mulch everything with sphagnum moss, to hold in the moisture while I'm gone.

It has been over 10 years since I worked in a Community Garden, and I've forgotten just how enjoyable it is gardening with other people. Some of the gardeners are with the Master's Gardener Program associated with the University of Washington. They are experimenting with straw bales, similar to what I've done, only theirs will not be torn apart. I find that straw bales and grass provide excellent insulation near a growing bed; they hold the berm upright, and hold moisture in. I've always had raised berms. They keep my root crops out of the water when spring rains are excessive, and I can flood them in the late summer to make a rich organic soup that is absorbed from the bottom up. That ultimately cuts down on the need to water everyday when it is hot.
The Franklin Park Community Garden Plots are about five blocks from my house, so it is a 2-minute drive. In addition to gardening, there are large open fields available for sports. There are tennis courts, picnic tables and restrooms, and bike and walking trails. During recess at the nearby Life Christian Center the kids come out to play, and I've enjoyed listening to them while I work. An old-folks home, an Assisted Living Building and an Independent Living Complex border the gardens, so we have many of the elderly sitting at their windows, watching us garden. They wave, come by to visit, or take their walks along the sidewalk that circles the Community Garden. There is this wonderful feeling of being connected to all segments of humanity - children, youth, families, the elderly, and other gardeners. You can't beat that!

One of the elderly gentlemen living at the Retirement Home came by and told me not to be discouraged by the poor soil. He said roots love pebbles and rocks. Just add a little stuff to puff it up. So, I did, and I hope it all works out. He also said that it is not only plants that grow in a garden. He said I will too, as I learn what works, or doesn't.

I love the sounds of the birds - we've got a pair of nesting Killdear nearby and many other birds in the trees and up on the hill. Just a delightful environment, peaceful just like a park should be. As I work the dirt, I hope by summer I'll have prepared viable soil, with worms, able to sustain my tomatoes. Meantime, anything I plant will have to have a shovelful of my own backyard soil to get it started. That means I'll be hauling bucket-fulls. Sounds labor-intensive, and it is. My hands are full of bandages (I always seem to remove my gloves so I can feel the dirt) and I ache all over, but it sure feels good.

George bought me a little tool-box wagon that I can use to hold some of my gear; it's got storage for all my water bottles, my hand tools and seed-packets. There is a cover that provides a nice place to sit, and a holder for my coffee cup. It's a cute little thing, and a nice gesture from George. I do have to laugh though, because on this plot I do not foresee any 'sit down time'.

Family Reunion - Tent Camping

Our family is getting ready for Memorial Day weekend. Every year now we hope to pick a different camping location. We pack up our tents, canoes, hiking gear, and tons of food and head out for the prairie, the wide-open spaces.

Ruhiyyih is flying in from Washington D.C., and my sister, her husband and daughter will drive over from Montana. My oldest daughter Laurel and her husband Mehran will join us, and maybe both of my youngest sons will attend (if they can get time off from work.) George and I arrive on Wednesday to select the best campsite, set up camp, and the others arrive the next day. We camp through the weekend.

George decides the location (must have water and toilets for family reunions), and it is up to all of us to bring the necessities. For me that is food, clothing and bedding. For our kids it is media - iPods, computers, boardgames, movies and music. Buddy, Laurel's dog, hopes someone will bring his ball, and leave the leash home.

Our oldest son Ruh has just purchased a two-room tent with a screened-in porch, and he's setting it up early so he can baste the seams with a water-sealant. Basting the seams will prevent moisture from leaking into the tent. (Rue is listening to some advice from his inlaws ...thanks to Kathy for the photos.

Wind, rain and unpredictable weather are always a concern to campers, and we've had our share of tents collapsing in the rain - and some even blown across the desert into the sagebrush. That time, the pegs had not yet been installed. Ruhiyyih had to run to catch her tent!

I remember one year I told George that I was going to secure our tent and a protective covering over it with heavy rocks. He looked around at the calm weather, no clouds in the sky, and thought I was wasting my time. Come midnight though, a violent storm broke out over the lake, and our tent was simply pummeled with wind. The rocks held the tent-stakes down, the liner down, and the canopy down. Ever since, I find big rocks and haul them down, secure them onto the tent, and then I can sleep easy. (I can just imagine how delightful it will be to sit with morning coffee inside this little porch - no mosquitoes.)

Last spring all of us went into an early spring camping trip knowing we'd have rain, but Rue was well prepared. He'd basted the seams of his tent, secured ropes carefully, and pulled a huge tarp over the top to keep the rain out. We put a huge canopy over the picnic table so our food would stay dry, and we stacked the wood under the table. It poured rain that night. Of course the sound is delightful, the patter of rain. But by morning some of our bedding was wet. Water had gotten into the tent. When that happens, you wake up cold, and you try to figure out how that had happened. We learned to pull a tarp over the tent - and beyond - to keep all of the tents out of the rain. (Rue's father-in-law, Tim, has done extensive canoeing and camping, and hopes to join Annie and Rue on some camping.)

Our tent gave out last fall and I purchased another one, the most inexpensive one I could find. The zippers give out every few years on these 'affordable' brands like Glacier's Edge or Coleman. They have plastic zippers, not metal, and the wear and tear takes a toll. The better tents are from REI and you pay several hundred dollars for those. We used the tent several times, but I was disappointed that it didn't have a back window right over the bed. I prefer to have at least two windows, front and back, so that if I need to check out back in the middle of the night I can do so without having to get out of bed. I just unzip the window. I also missed not having the view, as part of the fun of sleeping out under the stars is in being able to enjoy looking at them while you are laying in bed. So, I've purchased another one, which gives us that back window. We'll take both, as there is always a need for an extra tent when we camp - people who want to bathe at bedtime can use this old one for their bath. (Our grand-daughter Daisy is enjoying the tent's front porch.)

I'm still down with a cold and bronchitis, coughing and coughing. Just waiting it out. I loathe the energy lag that comes with this, as I have a million things that I want to do to get ready for this trip. If I'm up to it today, I'll go to REI and get the sealing baste, and we'll set the tent up outside on the weekend. We'll baste the seams of our new tents, just as Rue suggests. However important that may be, I plan to have tarps and ropes next time, just as a precaution. If I'm still recuperating from this bug, I want to stay warm and dry.

Spicy-Hot Foods From the East

It wasn't until George and I came down with colds that I figured it was time to 'blast our bugs' with some hot fragrant spices. I went to one of the local markets that features east-Indian spices and found chilli peppers, fenugreek, tumeric, sumac berry, and fennel packaged up in various blends. I picked up some moong beans, black lentils, and kallonji.(Seeds from 'Love in a Mist' plant.)

All of these come in exotic-looking packages, with unfamiliar words: Paunch Puran from India; Ethiopian Berbere, a spice that is pressed into meats and added to lentil stews; from Phuket, a green curry powder that has coriander leaf, ginger, lemon grass, cardamon, garlic, fennel and peppers. It is mixed with coconut milk, shrimp and vegetables, and makes a spicy broth.

Quatre Blend, from France, has black peppercorns, cloves, nutmeg and ginger, and is added to stews and soups. Garam Masala Powder's ingredients are corn, mung, masoor, moth, potato, rice, sago, raisen, salt, and spices. All these spices provide hot, pungent spices. Perfect, when you have a cold!

This is Moong Dhal, a vegetable soup made from mung beans and assorted chopped vegetables. I always have a bin of cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, onion and garlic, bok choy, peppers and kale ready for stir-fry, so I put these in, adding tomatoes, currants, orange zest, and tiny chopped yellow beets also. I used garam masala powder, salt, and kitchen bouquet for the broth.

Paunch Puran has yellow mustard seeds and fennel, so I added a touch of that. I made only enough for one meal, as the spices tend to loose their effectiveness after several hours. As you study east-Indian cooking you come to understand that some spices must be fried first to get them 'popping', and at other times they are added at the very end of the cooking period. This allows for a burst of aroma which is incredibly refreshing.

Although a good part of east-Indian cooking is vegetarian, I experimented with some of the spices, mixing some with onion, garlic, and fresh large shrimp.

Then, I fried up some onions, and mixed panko bread-crumbs into them. The crumbs were seasoned with honey mustard (like Gullah-Grub Chicken) and fried also.

These Greek butter-beans are incredibly good. I poured them over basmati rice when the meal was served. Basic recipe here:

Greek fassolia gigantes, or butter beans
Chopped tomatoes
Olive oil
Finely sliced onions
Tomato puree
Chopped cloves garlic
Salt and Pepper
Finely chopped pepper
Oregano and Thyme

This is the complete meal, followed by demitasse coffee and puff-pastry for dessert.

γαλακτομπούρεκο: Custard-filled Phyllo Pastry

This is γαλακτομπούρεκο, a custard-filled phyllo pastry. It is a slight modification of the phyllo pastry that is so popular in Greece as it has a 'puff pastry' for the bottom layer. Zesty orange rinds are in the custard filling and honey and powdered sugar grace the top.

When I first started working with phyllo dough, I experimented also with 'puff pastry', a simple type of pastry characterized by various layers of dough spread with butter. The bottom layer of my pastries would be 'puff pastry' and the top would be flakey phyllo sheets I'd drench with honey and powdered sugar. The combination of the two are to my liking, one more substantial (flaky)and the other light as a feather (crisp).

I made this Deep-Dish Apple Pie using a puff pastry crust and a phyllo top. To make sure that the crust would stand upright, I used this small hinged baking pan. (Mistake: pouring honey over the phyllo toping BEFORE it was baked, rather than after. Those burnt pieces had to be removed.)

Puff pastry is an interesting delicacy because it tastes like a delicacy from a fine restaurant. The Italian dessert Sfogliatelle Napoletane has a crust similar to these Apple-Cinnamon Bear Claws.

When I make Sfogliatelle I reserve half of the vanilla custard filling and make Miniature Muffins with it, adding more orange zest strands and chopped pecans. I freeze these little muffins, and take several out after a meal - they are bite size, and are intensely flavorful.

To make puff pastry, you will need the basic ingredient called a puff paste, a dough that is spread with butter and is heavenly to work with as it is so light. The puff paste must be repeatedly rolled out and folded as thin as possible, then folded over and over into rectangles. I spread the melted butter with a brush over every layer. That way when it bakes, the layers will turn brown.

Rolling out and folding puff pastry is easy, but making puff pastry requires a lot of time. You have to make sure that the dough is stored at a cool temperature. (I store it in the refrigerator while I make the custard or fruit filling. ) To simplify the process, I purchase ready-made phyllo sheets in the frozen food section of our market and use them in stages, careful to keep all the layers moist under a towel.

Some people mistake puff pastry for phyllo pastry. There is a difference - puff pastry is made with a large amount of butter, salt, water and flour. When baked the product becomes flaky. Phyllo dough uses only a little amount of oil, water and flour. When you bake phyllo dough, it is more crispy than flaky. I made an Orange-Pecan Tart on Monday that has a puff pastry bottom, a filling of candied orange peel, pecans, shredded chocolate, ricotta, and dried espresso powder. It is a perfect dessert for George, as it isn't too sweet.

These pastry doughs are versatile and can be used for main dishes as well as desserts. I've made a puff-pastry biscuit pie filled with spinach, leeks and ricotta, then topped it with phyllo shards. Both combinations together are my favorite as I like crispy and flaky together. It offers something substantial yet visually inviting.

Beef Barley Soup and Sprouted Flaxseed Bread

I made this soup today, boiling up a ham hock then browning onions, garlic and celery in the skillet. I added carrots, peas, yellow beets, and tomatoes. Then I fried up thin-sliced steak in Worcestershire Sauce and added that. Barley came next, and a few bay leaves, fresh parsley, and an east-Indian spice called 'Paunch Puran'. It is fried with garlic to open the flavors - cumin, fenugreek, yellow mustard, fennel and kallonji.

I made a huge pot so I could freeze some, yet a tiny bowl is shown in the photo here so I could fit everything into the photo - the Sprouted Flaxseed Bread, the Mandarin Oranges and the Beef Barley Soup. It is a perfect meal when someone has a cold, and both George and I do!

I make the Flaxseed Bread using my Whole Wheat Bread recipe. I've used this recipe for over 30 years. It yields 3 loaves:

Sprouted Flaxseed Bread
To 3 cups warm water add and mix:
3 Tbs. yeast
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup honey
Let this sit awhile, for the yeast to get busy.
Then stir in 1 scant Tbs. salt
1/4 cup oil

Stir in until moistened:
1 cup whole wheat bran
1 cup sprouted flaxseed
2 cups whole wheat flour
Stir until sheets form, then add more flour:
2 cups white flour
Then add 2-3-or 4 cups whole wheat flour
Knead, adding flour as needed.
Place in an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise.

Punch down, form 3 loaves, place in pans.
Brush egg white over the tops of the loaves,
and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
Let rise again (I use a warm oven, to speed
this process up.)

Bake 350 degrees for 35 - 40 minutes, or until
the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. My oven
runs hot, so I cover the tops with foil mid-way
through the baking period.

Just make sure when you prepare this bread that oil doesn't touch the yeast until AFTER you've added flour. Many cooks ruin their yeast by coating it with oil, and it doesn't work well that way. You can also substitute milk for part of the water, but always dissolve the 3 Tbs yeast in 3/4 cup water, to which a little sugar has been added. Yeast eat the sugar and burp, causing it to activate.

I've been drinking organic Echinacea Plus Herbal Tea. It supports the immune system. There is also another tea that I use when I'm sick called "Throat Coat". It has licorice root extract, wild cherry bark, fennel seed, licorice root, cinnamon bark, orange peel, slippery elm bark, and althea root. soothes a sore throat. Traditional Medicinals carries the kind I use. They say it supports throat health by including herbs traditionally used to soothe the vocal chords, esophagus and the trachea. When released into hot water these herbs form a protective coating on the mucus membranes.

Night-time is the worst for George and I, as we can't breathe easily, so we're blowing our noses and getting up. He doesn't take any medication because of his asthma, but I purchased some Children's Dimetapp Cold and Allergy medicine today so I can sleep tonight. I use children's dosages rather than adult dosages because these higher doses make me jumpy.

I'll sure be glad when this bug has run its course. Until then, I'm just hunkered down with a box of Puff Plus, the TV, and Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" .

Isabella State Park

George and I are both down with colds, but that did not stop us from exploring Isabella State Park Saturday afternoon. This is a heritage site north-west of Olympia. There are extensive forests, old fruit orchards and expansive meadows, all of which are open for exploration.

Plans are in the works for this acreage to offer educational programs as well as recreational opportunities. Non-native plant species control is a concern as are the osprey and bald eagle habitats nearby. Nearby Lake Isabella offers a educational habitat for studying salmon and the fields offer native habitat field-study.

We walked along the trails, enjoying the sunshine and warm temperatures. As we hiked the meadow, we noticed that people were bringing dogs here, so they could run without a leash, finally being free of the confinement of a back yard.

We thought how unfortunate it was that it was only a day-use park, as camping in such an open meadow would be fantastic in the summertime. Currently, there are no such plans, but the meadow, forests and orchards are getting a lot of attention from environmentalists, naturalists, and silviculturalists. People are concerned about over-development around nearby Lake Isabella, and the impact of recreationists on nearby home-sites.

We put the canoe in Lake Isabella at the public boat-launch. It was a busy place, with families eager to do some fishing. These boaters brought along their morning coffee, and spent the day fishing.
The shoreline of the lake is bordered by wetlands.

We paddled completely around the lake, found the outlet and paddled down current until a beaver dam blocked the passageway. It was a wonderful paddle, warm, with no wind - perfect conditions for an afternoon canoeing.

We finished our day about 5:30, and drove over to visit with Taraz at Forza's where he works as a barista in Lakewood. He and Megan spent the night at our place again this weekend, so he could open at 7:00 at another place, One Heart Cafe, here in Tacoma. That meant he'd worked two different jobs in two different cities in one day, with a commute!
Perfect end to my day: Taraz prepared a single-shot doppio espresso with cinnamon, nutmeg and honey. They leave the most tasty mustaches!

A Big Heart For Little Places

My sister sent me this photo awhile back, knowing that I simply adore little dwellings. This one is 'just my size', as my dad used to say. My daughter also sent me an e-mail yesterday which contained one of my old posts on Flitzy. She urges a reprint, so here it is:

4th of July at Totem Lodge

When I was a kid, we spent our summers in a cabin in the Belt Mountains near the town of Monarch. All the wild country was national forest preserve land, and someone built this cabin long-long ago, with a 99 year lease on the land. It was a beautifully built old cabin, with an outhouse out back, and more sleeping quarters out in a bunkhouse. Potbellied stoves kept the cabin and a bunkhouse warm, and that meant a fire going in the morning until about July. We slept in brass beds, and used old down comforters.

The sound of Belt Creek was right outside our window. It was mostly glacier-melt, down off the mountains, but during the day we swam in it, in a wonderful swimming hole under a bridge. We had a huge dog, a St. Bernard, and he loved cooling down in that creek.

Totem Lodge was only a summertime cabin. The snow was so high in winter, you couldn't live there. You'd never be able to stay warm. We'd have breakfast, and that would be the last Mother would see of us until we got hungry! We explored the woods, made forts, hiked the boulders behind the cabin. We became good climbers, good swimmers.

A nearby gravel road led up to Camp Rotary, and dotted along the road were family cabins, almost always filled with other 'summer-timers'. We knew them all, and had an endless supply of friends. In the evening, after dinner, we kids would walk along the road, and visit every family. Of course, we'd spent most of the day with everyone's kids at the swimming hole, so sometimes we stayed for dinner. Those days, you'd knock on a door and walk in, you were so welcome.

Every 4th of July we got together with Bobby and Kathy Pearson, their's was the second cabin from us. Their mom went to school with my mom, so those ladies would visit. Someone always had extra hot dogs and potato salad, and they'd just bring the works down to the bridge, over the swimming hole. We kids had a game called 'walking the rocks' where you'd hop from one rock to the next to see how far you could go out in the creek. We could play in that creek all day, pulling rocks out of the sand to see what was underneath. Skeletons, little insect skeletons were under them. And we layered rocks to make a dam in the creek. Imagine, changing the course of water! We kids felt so strong!

One of our friends brought her pet deer and her billy goat - you can imagine how that would be a traffic stopper. People going up the road would park their cars and watch us play, now, was that really a goat, a deer, and a St. Bernard? They'd have to take a second look.

Nights were very dark, and we'd use flashlights to walk the path to Bobby and Kathy's. Their family always had sparklers on the 4th of July, with many to go around. We didn't have fancy fireworks, and I don't recall ever hearing loud fireworks up in those mountains. It was a quiet, peaceful place. All of us knew we were caretakers of a very special place.

Besides, in those mountains, an echo was a ECHO, was an ECHO, was an ECHO!

Well, we've enjoyed the Root Soup, and it is almost half gone. It is really like a barley soup, with vegetables. I added tiny meatballs, and my homemade breadcrumbs for the top.

This soup has leeks, shallots, onions, garlic, carrots, fennel root, celery root, parsnips, rutabaga, turnip, and potatoes all lightly mashed after the vegetables have simmered for 45 minutes. I used green curry powder, an east-Indian spice which was so much better than the orange curry. I served the soup with warm cornbread, butter and honey. I made two small loaves, one for the freezer and one for dinner.

On Sunday morning I made everyone a vegetable hash with salmon and tofu. The tofu is thinly sliced and fried, then used as a topping. Veggies are kale, onion and garlic, broccoli shards, thinly sliced carrots, bok choy, peppers, and cauliflower. I seasoned the slaw with a sprinkling of turmeric and cumin and stir-fryed it for only a few seconds to sear the skin and bring out the color. A mixture of almonds, peanuts and dried cranberries is sprinkled on top.

This butterscotch muffin was an experiment. I prepared a chocolate brownie batter and lined the bottom of the muffin tin with a thin layer. Then I poured a butterscotch brownie batter over the top, adding a little milk to both layers to make them more cake-like.

A few melted chocolate chips add a surprise in the center.

We had to put our precious Mordred down, suddenly, unexpect- edly. Rahmat and I are still recovering. Ruhiyyih will share the story.

Too Pretty For Soup!

A few days ago I purchased these organic roots - turnip, parsnip, rutabaga, onion, potato, celery root, fennel root, and golden beets. All of them (except the golden beets) will be used for my Root Soup.

I'd planned to make Root Soup over the weekend, but made the mistake of purchasing a little oval basket to hold the roots. Once I put the roots in the basket, I couldn't make the soup! Everything was just too interesting! (We went to the Mongolian Grill for lunch instead, having a wonderful meal prepared while we watched.)
The golden beets had such exquisite color and root tendrils. This turnip was so beautiful in the afternoon light. I angled my camera up close so it could magnify the detail.
It is a journey looking through the lens of a camera, poking it into the depths of fennel fronds, careening under celery root to examine pock-marks, angling over turnips and rutabaga. I kept the basket in the sunshine while filming, then placed it on our coffee table.

We were busy the entire weekend with house and garden projects - George and Rahmat cleaned out the garage and I worked out in the yard. Taraz and Megan stayed over Friday night. About 9:00 I served them some waffles that I made earlier in the day - Whole Wheat Citrus Waffles with mangoes, strawberries, Mandarin oranges and bananas on top.
These waffles are hearty, with wheat germ and orange zest in the batter. The orange zest is from Mandarin oranges boiled in brown sugar. Store any extra in the freezer for other recipes.
I dry them on a rack, and when there are left-overs I roast them in the oven until they are completely dried out. They make good sweetened breadcrumbs for desserts.

These little phyllo cups held left-over Bhutan red rice-white basmati rice pilaf. They work well as a garnish/embellishment to a simple salad, like watercress with lime honey dressing. George bought a bundle of watercress, filled a jar with water, and slid the root bundle down inside. We kept it on the windowsill for two days until lunch on Sunday. It was like eating a spring bouquet.