finally some food for thought.

i accidentally made crossiant bread. the recipe was for baguette, but some how i ended up with crossaints. maybe it was the half stick of butter? okay, so not what i wanted, but it was easy, smelled divine, and tasted really good too. and it was my first successful overnight rise!

twas the night before:

in a large bowl mix 1 and 1/3 cup flour, a packet of yeast, and enough warm water to form a very thick batter. cover and leave at room temperature overnight for 10 to 14 hours. it will be bubbly and gooey in the morning, and smell like you just walked into panera.

you just made a starter!

the next morning add 2 and 1/2 cups flour, 2 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp sugar and 4 tbsp room temperature butter to the batter and mix well. add enough water to make a soft dough, and let sit for one hour. after an hour, form into two baguettes and let rise for another hour on a greased cookie sheet. preheat oven to 425. brush loaves with ice cold water and slash with a sharp knife. bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes.

I've never made better smelling bread, but it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a bread or a crossaint, which wasn't what i wanted. i think i'm going to try this recipe again but with half the butter, and see what happens.

a while ago, my husband made me the best Fried Rice I have ever had in my entire life. i could eat this stuff every day for the rest of my life. it's got all my favorite stuff - rice, veggies, pork, shrimp, how can you go wrong? and it avoids the soy sauce disaster of our last attempt with fried rice by not using any soy sauce at all.

The best fried rice

1/2 lb thick cut high quality deli ham, diced
1/2 lb ready to eat shrimp
2 tsp rice wine
1 tsp tapioca starch (we used corn starch because that's what we had)
1/2 tsp salt
6 dried mushrooms, such as porchini or shittake
bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, snow peas, up to a cup each
3 green onions, chopped
4 cups cooked rice
2 eggs
6 tbsp oil
dash of salt & pepper

mix wine, starch and salt in a bowl, and marinate shrimp in this mixture for 15 minutes. soak dried mushrooms in hot water for 15 minutes,then chop them, removing any tough parts.

heat 1 tbsp oil in wok, and scramble eggs until they are dry. remove them from the wok. add a few more tbsp oil and add onions, mushrooms, ham, shrimp and veggies. stir fry for a few minutes and then remove it all from the wok. add any remaining oil and the rice to the wok, along with a little salt & pepper, and stir fry the rice until it is covered in oil and beginning to color. mix everything else in, stir well, and enjoy!!!

not at all related to much of anything, but the library book bag is out of control. bets on weather i can read all this in 3 weeks? sure, the manga goes quick, but i'm betting against myself on the rest.

REvolutionary Girl Utena volumes 3 & 4
Et Cetera volumes 1& 2
Nodame Cantabile volumes 1 & 2
Iron Council by China Mieville
Sackett's Land by Louis Lamour
Unruly Americans by Woody Holton
Artificial LIght by James Greer