More bread

you're getting more bread today. why? because i like bread too, and your house will smell really good when you bake it. you'll have to reaad the rest of this post to get to the surpris ending, which is the best cinnamon raisin bread you've ever had.

Ok, so i finally finished Lawhead's The Endless Knot. He's got this amazing knack for starting an epic tale, fleshing out the characters, imersing you, scaring you, seducing you. . . and then he paints himself into a corner, gets stuck, and keeps you in that corner with him while he tries to fumble his way out. i was less than impressed. I'd read the first book in The Song of Albion, The Paradise War again anytime, but the rest? not so much.

in better news, i'm in love with Ellis Avery's The Teahouse Fire. the quick version: it's the late 1800's, a young girl is taken to Japan with her missionary Uncle who is killed in a fire shortly after they arrive. The youngster is taken in by a Japanese household as a servant. Life ensues. the Meiji restoration occurs, Western trade begins, Samurai become a thing of the past, and Geishas are suddenly worldly women. I do adore novels like these: Young woman thrown into unexpected circumstances where she must adapt. and props to Avery, i've teared up about 10 times so far. i'll have to find some other books she's written.

On the immediate horizon are Anthony William's Scales, and Jennifer Caress's Perverted Realities. I have GOT to get past that title! but how would i ever read it in the lunchroom at work? i know it isn't dirty, but it shure sounds like it is!

no pictures today. sorry.

alright, you read through my boriness, now you get a reward. this truly is the most incredible cinamon raisin bread i've ever had. i learned the hard way, if the recipe says use bread flour, then, please! for the love of god and good bread, use bread flour! it's about $3 per 5 pounds. a small investment to not have to mess with a recipe.

you'll need:
1 packet dry yeast
1/4 cup + 1 3/4 cups warm water
5 1/2 to 6 cups bread flour
2 tbsp dry milk
4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 cups dark raisins
a little olive oil

for the filling:
3/4 cup sugar + some for dusting
3 tbsp cinnamon
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted & cooled
2 eggs

turn your oven on to the lowest possible setting.

lots of easy steps:
blend dry yeast with 1/4 warm water. let sit about 10 minutes. meanwhile, in a big bowl, blend flour, powdered milk, sugar, salt 3 tbsp butter and 1 3/4 cups water. add the yeast/water mixture, and mix it all together until a dough forms. knead the dough for 15-20 minutes, adding more flour if it's too sticky. don't add too much flour! it will get too dry! pour a little olive oil into the bowl and turn the ball of dough to coat.

turn the oven off, put the bowl of dough in the oven for about 2 hours to rise.

when the dough is nearly done rising, grease 2 loaf pans, and make the ooey gooey insides: combine sugar and cinammon in a small bowl. in another small bowl, beat one of the eggs. cut your dough into 2 equally sized ball of dough. leave the dough you aren't using under plastic so it can't dry out. roll one peice of dough into a roughly 10x14 rectangle. it doesn't have to be perfect. brush it with some egg, sprinkle with half the cinnamon sugar, and drizzle with half the melted butter. rub the mixture together with the back of a spoon or spatula. roll the rectangle up tightly, and pinch the ends. put it into one of the loaf pans. do the same with the 2nd peice of dough. let the loaves rise in a warm place for about an hour. before baking, brush the tops of the loaves with beaten egg and sprinkle on some sugar (the egg helps the sugar stick, and makes the tops of your loaves brown and shiny). Bake loaves at 425 for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 400 and back another 15 minutes or until cooked through. let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing. don't worry, the insides will still be warm and gooey after 30 minutes!

cars, books, and tabbouli, oh my!!!

it's been a stressful week. my car decided that regardless of how much i coaxed in, it just was not going to make it through another michigan winter. as soon as i can convince a bank that i'm not a loser, i'll be the proud owner of. . . something with 4 tires and an engine. until then, i'm begging rides to work at to the grocery store. i better figure something, i got books due at the library next week. maybe i can renew them over the phone?

good new on the book front. i got my advanced reading copy of "Dream of the Dragon Pool", by Albert Dalia. it is Chinese Hero Fantasy based on actual events in the life of historical Chinese poet Li Bo. looks very cool, and his very talented artist wife did the cover art. i know less than zero about Chinese history and myth. . . so hopefully i can keep up. but i did love Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

i finished reading Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, and if you're looking for a review, here or elsewhere, the next few sentences will have to suffice. this was the most readable Bradbury book i've come across, and Mr. Bradbury is so adorably sexist. really, it's quite cute. the short stories outline our first expedition to mars and first contact with martians, our martian colonies, the death of the martians, and the eventual nuclear death of the earth. parts of it feel like it is paralleling the Europeans discovery and colonization of North America, and how the natives were seen and treated. i wonder how many lit students have done that as a thesis?

what are your thoughts on the Martian Chronicles? i heard there was a movie made. do you know if it's any good?

so, no official review of The Martian Chronicles, but there is an official review of Greg Bear's Blood Music over at Scifi haven. I'd start posting reviews exclusively here, but i'm too busy being an attention whore over there.

time for food, i'm hungry.

Tabbouleh is a great summer salad, which is why i'm posting it in February, when it's getting up to a balmy 20 during the day, and dropping as low as -10 at night. too bad that 20 degrees isn't centegrade. i make as many batches of this as i can in the summer, because it's light, yummy, and pretty easy to make. it's divine in pita bread, as well.

you'll need:
1 cup bulgar wheat
1 cup boiling water
3-4 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
3 green onions, chopped
2 tbsp dried mint leaves
about 1 cup chopped cucumber
an entire bunch of fresh parsley, chopped as fine as you can (you should have about 2 cups)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
black pepper

optional:
can of chickpeas, strained.
garlic, to taste


how to make it:
put the bulgar wheat in a bowl and pour boiling water over it. cover, and let sit about 20 minutes. while the bulgar is busy absorbing all the water and softening up, you can chop everything else up. mix all ingredients well in a large bowl, cover, and let chill in the fridge for a few hours.

very easy, very fresh, and is delish in pitas, on crackers, or straight up. the chickpeas and cucumbers aren't part of the traditional recipes, but i love 'em, so i add 'em.

Potatoes make Eifelheim better

so i'm struggling through Michael Flynn's Eifelheim. this book is turning into a chore. but i'm nearly done, so i might as well get through it, so i can write a cranky, snarky review and bitch and complain about how Flynn can't get through a damn page without at least one untranslated phrase in German, Latin, or French. it would be nice if knew any of those languages. which i don't. grrr. knowing my luck, i'll be the only person who didn't like this book, and everyone else who reads it will rave about it!

but there is a reward in sight!! today i learned about library reciprocal borrowing! with my local library card, i can get books from the library in the next city. how different could libraries be, you ask? VERY different. and i came home with Edelman's Infoquake, Vandermeer's Shreik, and volume 1 of Cowboy Bepop, and 1 & 2 of something called Tokyo Babylon that looks cool. now if i can only find a library that owns the entire collection of Blame and Trinity Blood, i'm all set.

speaking of Manga, i got my copy of FullMetal Alchemist volume 3 today! Thank you Amazon, and thank you M for that Amazon gift card!

so many good books, i don't know where to start. the kitchen is a good place.

this dish turned out so much better than i expected, that not only will it go hand written in my cookbook, it will make reading Eifelhiem for another 2 hours much easier.

Garlicky roasted potatoes

1 1/2 lbs new potatoes, and or small heirloom potatoes
non stick cooking spray
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely (2-3 tbsp)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tbsp rosemary
1 tsp lemon juice
salt & pepper

preheat oven to 450. clean and quarter potatoes. use a baking dish no smaller than 9x9. spray baking dish with nonstick spray, and put in potatoes. sprinkle potatoes with 1 tbsp of olive oil, and salt & pepper, and put them in the oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

meanwile, make the garlic topping. in a saucepan, put the rest of the olive oil, and the garlic. cook over medium-low heat until the garlic begins to turn golden, about 2-3 minutes. you might need to add a little more oil, if it begins to burn. remove from the heat, and let cool. shortly before the potatoes are ready to come out of the oven, add the parsley, rosemary, and lemon juice to the garlic mixture, and mix well.

after you've taken the potatoes out of the oven, you don't want to pour the garlicky mixture onto the hot pan (you just don't. it will stick, and burn.). either pour the potatoes & garlicky mixture into a serving bowl and mix well, or pour the potatoes into the saucepan you made the garlicky mixture in, and mix well.

i love potatoes. they are good medicine for annoying books.