Sunday is typically the most busy day around the house for us so it seems like a good place to start blogging.
Here is what happened today:
Cinnamon rolls
Crafting brunch
Baguettes
Anadama bread
Herb bread
Pasta Salad
Our garden is pathetic – more on that another time.
Dave began his famous cinnamon rolls last night, making the dough and forming them into rolls to rise in the fridge overnight. Here is what they looked like this morning:
This morning they were baked and frosted with a delicious cream cheese frosting. The rolls went without incident this time. Last time dave made cinnamon rolls for crafting brunch the oven broke and he had to venture out in a snow storm to bake them at someone else’s house. They still came out quite good – these are some resilient rolls we’re talking about.
Renee hosted her second crafting brunch at corona st. People brought delightful treats such as a polenta bar with both sweet (nuts, honey, fruit) and savory (sour cream, cheese, and salsa) toppings inspired by 101cookbooks.com. Wonderful creations were born such as a cheshire cat oil pastel. Here is one of Renee's creations - it is an envelope:
Dave bakes for most of the week on Sundays. As planned, this weekend he made anadama bread shaped as a loaf for sandwiches. In case you are not from New England and have not had the fortune of indulging in this most delicious bread – anadama is a wheaty bread with molasses and cornmeal. It is dark, sweet, and dense and the best bread ever – the favorite of renee and also dave’s mom. dave also made baguettes using Julia child’s recipe. We looked at the huge bouquet of herbs Christina brought and pondered on what we could do with all that thyme and oregano (seriously, it was a huge flower sized bouquet that filled a vase). We decided on an herb bread and foraged in our garden for lavender and fennel. The recipe dave used as a guide called for ½ c of dried herbs which translates to 1.5c fresh herbs! We are going to try to post a video of Dave kneading.
The bread base is a country style bread recipe, which is basically just 20% whole wheat, 80% white flour, water, yeast and salt. Although there seemed to be a ton of herbs initially, when they were separated from their stems and chopped we were left with less than a cup. Hopefully the bread is herby and flavorful anyway – it is rising now so we should know soon.
The herb bouquet also included tons of chives that begged to be used in a pasta salad. Other ingredients included peas, red pepper, garlic, cheddar, olive oil, salt and pepper. It was tasty and will be great for lunch tomorrow.
That is pretty much what happened today.
dave and renee
