This brings us to the Godzilla sandwich. We baked the aforementioned loaf, which was about 50% bigger than normal. We got delicious fresh produce, mostly from the Saturday farmer’s market and including our own homegrown cucumbers. I believe we had peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, cukes, onions, avocado, provolone cheese and mayo. This is one of our favorite meals in the summertime. You make it and cut off a hunk to eat right away, then put it in a bag and refrigerate it. If you can wait until the next day, it’s even better because the bread gets a little softer and the flavors all meld together. Really easy to do and so good. We don’t eat it when the veggies aren’t in season though, because it seems to lose something.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The Art of Corona St. Cooking
This brings us to the Godzilla sandwich. We baked the aforementioned loaf, which was about 50% bigger than normal. We got delicious fresh produce, mostly from the Saturday farmer’s market and including our own homegrown cucumbers. I believe we had peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, cukes, onions, avocado, provolone cheese and mayo. This is one of our favorite meals in the summertime. You make it and cut off a hunk to eat right away, then put it in a bag and refrigerate it. If you can wait until the next day, it’s even better because the bread gets a little softer and the flavors all meld together. Really easy to do and so good. We don’t eat it when the veggies aren’t in season though, because it seems to lose something.
Quilted jars of relish
- 1. making the relish and letting it sit over night in the fridge
- 2. washing the jars and stuff
- 3. cooking the relish mixture
- 4. sterilizing the jars by boiling them in the canning pot
- 5. filling the jars with the cooked relish mixture
- 6. putting the tops on the jars
- 7. boiling the jars for some unspecified time (seriously, the recipe didn’t say so I had to make an informed guess by reading other recipes) don’t forget to adjust for altitude!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
I still like it complicated
Dave ruined a loaf of bread in classic dave fashion by failing to add salt. This is by far his most frequent baking error. You may underestimate how important salt is in bread. You shouldn’t. It is basically uneatable without it. And this is from a couple of people keep their standards low. It can be used for breadcrumbs or croutons. Trust us when we say a 2lb loaf of bread makes a lot of bread crumbs. The good news it was a loaf of anadama bread – that sweet dark heavenly loaf new englander’s know and love. yum. YUM! This is why that was good. Because earlier this week Amy C. requested more info on anadama. Since dave’s last attempt didn’t end up in an eatable loaf we are not sick of eating this type of bread and are totally ready for a loaf of anadama. Of course we wouldn’t have been sick of it even if we had eaten the whole thing because it is so scrumptious. So that entry should be forthcoming. Also, we may be attempting relish again. We had another bounty of cukes this weekend. As we speak dave is rushing to the farmer’s market to get baby cukes to supplement our own. Chances are when he gets there all the vendors will be gone or they will still be there, his hopes will swell that he will be able to get them, only to be disappointed when he learns that they have all been sold out. We shall see when he returns. This morning we were very excited to purchase a box of 2nds peaches (bruised or dented ones which are half of and perfect for baking) only to find out they sold out moments before we arrived. This was after talking with our friend molly for days about how delightful a peach cobbler would be… with either ice cream or homemade frozen yogurt to top it off. yum. YUM! YUM! (that is right, YUM! X 2). So no peach cobbler or peach salsa this week. Anyways, stay tuned for more news regarding the cukes and anadama bread.
Monday, August 3, 2009
I like complicated
These are Dave’s words. You should know that we tried to make relish and failed miserably. We don’t have any pictures to show for it. Anyways, here is the story. We had a bunch of cucumbers that were ready from our garden all at once. The recipe called for about 4.5 pounds of cukes and we had about 3 pounds. We thought this would be no big deal and we would just tweak the recipe. However, Renee a canning cookbook which insisted that you not decrease the amount of salt in a recipe even if you decrease the cukes. We shredded our precious cucumbers and added onion. Then we added tons of salt to the relish, along with sugar and cinnamon. It tasted a bit salty but otherwise was fine. The next step was to cook the mixture. Something wild and chemical must have happened in that pot on that stove on the way to relish because the next time we tasted the relish it was horribly salty. Way way WAY too salty. Ew, horrible, we shudder at the memory. Renee was ready to pitch it but dave wasn’t going to give up so easily. He instructed that sugar be added. We tasted again. This time the result were so revolting the hideous brew was spit into the sink. The horror! Our lovely baby cucumbers, the first produce we grew with our own hands – destroyed. Turns out Renee was reading a page about pickles and the whole thing was a misunderstanding.