Baking Bread

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Homemade Bread

“Breadbaking is one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony.
It leaves you filled with one of the world’s sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.”
— M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

The smell of homemade bread wafting in your home provides a sense of warmth and comfort and the promise of good food. The odor of baking bread can elicit feelings of well-being.

What makes bread smell so good? The little yeast critters are an important factor. They produce chemicals during baking that break down into delicious-smelling aromatics. The key aroma compounds create between eight and 12 notes which create the familiar smell of bread.

Bake Your Own Bread

Making your own bread at home is pretty straight forward with a bread pot by Emile Henry. Directions to make this tasty bread are included with your purchase. The wonderful lidded pot turns bread-baking into a straight-forward, no frills process. Something all of us can do.

Proof And Rise

“Bread deals with living things, with giving life, with growth, with the seed, the grain that nurtures.
It’s not coincidence that we say bread is the staff of life.”
— Lionel Poline

Mix together the ingredients: flour, salt, yeast and water. That’s it. Simple.

Allow the dough to proof and rise.

Those ingredients take on a life of their own over the next 12 to 18 hours. The instructions say 18 hours is ideal, gives the dough time to develop its personality, don’t you know.

Such a delightful idea to have a little food-being in a creation process sitting on the counter whilst you run about doing other things.

Once the rise is done, the dough needs a couple of folds, another rest of about 2 hours, and then the dough is dropped into the pre-heated bread pot. Only baking remains. It’s a no-knead bread.

Light With Your Food

For students of The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), you can bring extra light to your bread-making skills. Place your hands on the outside of your bowl when it’s full of ingredients, or while the dough is rising.

As the dough rises, you can share a cosmic symbol with your future bread when you happen to walk by. Just saying hello! Of course, when you handle bread dough, folding it, kneading it, you are bringing radiant energy to your food with your Radiant Touch®.

When it’s time to eat, you can place a hand in your heart to remind yourself of gratitude for our food and blessings.

Freezing Bread

Bear in mind, this bread has no stabilizers or preservatives, so it doesn’t do well sitting out on a counter past two days. If you have a small family and you can’t eat it all in a couple of days, you can freeze your bread. It’s ideal to freeze it while newly fresh.

Once it is completely cooled, slice it up and place in a plastic bag that you can seal tightly, then pop into your freezer. If you slice it before freezing, then you can take out slices as you need them. The bread thaws out in a flash and it’s great for toast.

Enjoy Your Bread

“Here is bread, which strengthens man’s heart, and therefore is called the staff of Life. ”
— Matthew Henry

Time to enjoy your bread. Make sure you have a sharp, serrated bread-slicing knife. You don’t want a dull knife squishing down your lovely loaf.

You can top your bread with a slice of Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter, made with grass-fed cow’s milk. A pure bread-and-butter treat.

Maybe you’ll want to use your bread to sop up some broth or stew. Or, perhaps, you wish to savor the unsullied freshness of your homemade bread and eat it plain, relishing in its chewy crust.

Bon Appétit.

Radiant Nursing is not affiliated with Emile Henry or Kerrygold.
Bread photos taken by Radiant Nursing w/smartphone.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

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A Day For A Feast

It’s Thanksgiving in the USA. A time for family and friends to gather for a Thanksgiving meal and to share in the abundance and generosity of life.

A Meal From The Past

Thanksgiving is a time of feasting – harkening back to 1621 when Native Americans and Pilgrims shared in a festival that celebrated a successful corn harvest.

Though turkey was consumed on that first Thanksgiving, much of what we have to eat today was not on the menu. Cranberry sauce would not have been there. The sugar sacks the Pilgrims brought with them were depleted by then and cooks didn’t start boiling cranberries with sugar until about 50 years later.

Potatoes, sweet or white, were not consumed at the time, but turnips might have made their way to the table. Without flour or butter, the settlers couldn’t make a pie crust and they hadn’t constructed an oven for baking yet. Cooking was done over an open fire or in hot ashes.

One item frequently off our Thanksgiving menu is seafood, but mussels were abundant in New England and it’s likely the colonists included them in their feast.

What’s On The Menu

For today’s Thanksgiving in the United States, the dinner table will be laden with pumpkin and pecan pies, green bean casserole with fried onions sprinkled over it, candied-yams casserole with toasted marshmallows on top, cranberry sauce and the ubiquitous roasted turkey.

Some Call It Stuffing, Some Call It Dressing

Seasoned bread cubes combined with celery, onions and carrot are part of the Thanksgiving menu.

Some like corn bread stuffing, while others prefer a plain bread stuffing. Some put the stuffing in the turkey, others prefer to bake it separately. Still others eschew the whole stuffing/dressing idea all together feeling that there are enough carbohydrates in the dinner rolls and mashed potatoes.

It’s called stuffing by most, but some call it dressing and others use both terms interchangeably. It can be argued that it’s called stuffing if it’s stuffed inside the turkey, and dressing if it’s baked in its own dish. But, these are only style points. It all goes with the turkey.

Cranberry Sauce, Berries Or Not

Some like cranberry sauce smooth and jellied and others like it with berries. Cranberry sauce is there to cut the richness of the other main-meal foods. Some like their cranberry sauce straight out of the can to include the little ridges left from the can, others like it homemade.

Pie For Thanksgiving

Every family has its own variations on a theme – some prefer sweet potato pie over pumpkin pie. Some like to toss in an apple pie. Some choose not to debate it and include all three pies for dessert. Pecan pie is a favorite. Pies dominate over cakes for this holiday.

Time To Eat

Then, there’s a debate on how to eat it. Some ascribe to the notion that the food is best enjoyed by getting a bit of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and cranberry sauce on your fork… all for just one mouthful. Others believe each bite should be consumed individually and thoroughly enjoyed.

Still others prefer to remain vegetarian and celebrate Thanksgiving with all the sides and skip the turkey!

However you enjoy your feast, it’s a time to give thanks for all we have.

Whether you are with a lot of family, just a few family members, or by yourself, let gratitude pour into your heart. Gratitude for this very bite of food.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Beans In The Oven

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Cooking Beans

There's something magical about a rich soup or stew bubbling away on the stove. With a slow simmer, flavors deepen and become complex. It harkens back to an image of a cauldron and the magic of a transformative fire. 

Somehow, the cauldron idea did not appeal when it came to cooking beans. It was labor intensive and beans ended up cooked irregularly, with lingering hard ones or entirely smashed ones.

When it came to beans, it seemed like using canned ones was the simplest choice. All the debate about soak or not to soak, salt or no salt, just how long to cook the beans and all the stirring for who-knows-how-many-hours left many of us less than enthused.

So, it was no surprise that over the years we gave up and took the path of least resistance... canned beans. 

Of course, it's not a failure if you use canned beans. Sometimes, it's just easier. It's better to have canned beans than none at all.

But, cans of beans are not terribly inspiring and consequently, we didn't often cook with beans even though we really liked them.

Dried Beans Versus Canned Beans

Dried beans come in a wide range of colors and sizes. Gigante beans, baby lima beans, red beans, black beans, and white Northern beans, just to name a few.

Buying dried beans is a pleasing process. All those bean pebbles feel nice in your hand. So many possibilities lie within little bits of goodness. They're easily transported and stored.

The price of dried beans is especially helpful. And, environmentally speaking, there are no tin cans or BPA to worry about. If you buy your beans in bulk, you don't even have plastic bags. 

Dried beans sang a siren call, but not really being sure what to do with them meant they remained on the store shelf.

Then, we found out about using a Dutch oven to cook our beans.

Dutch Oven To The Rescue

Looking on the internet, there were several articles about baking beans in the oven in a Dutch oven. Dutch ovens function both as a pot on the stove top as well as in the oven.

Dutch oven is a misnomer, in that two well-known brands, Le Creuset and Staub, are made in France. Lodge is another brand of Dutch oven made in China. Dutch oven refers to a cast iron pot with a tight-fitting, oven-proof lid and often with a ceramic interior finish.

“What Is a Dutch Oven?

A Dutch oven is any large, heavy pot that is suitable for stovetop or oven use. So your deep 7-quart stock pot could be a Dutch oven, as long as it has an oven-safe lid and can go straight to the oven from the stove.

But when talking about Dutch ovens, most people really mean the extra-heavy cast iron, enameled pots typified by Le Creuset and Staub. These hard-working pots are ideal for slow-simmered soups and braises, as well as other favorite hearty meals.”
— Kelli Foster
 

The idea of using a Dutch oven to cook dried beans was intriguing. The gentle, unhurried simmer that takes place in the oven is particularly pleasing.

The beans remain intact because they don't have constant stirring to break them down. There is no scorching on the bottom of the pan. It's very hands-off. The beans do their job of cooking while you do other things around the house. There's no need to stir during their bake time.

Canned garbanzos tend to be hard and roll all over the plate. Sometimes, there seems to be a slight bitterness to the flavor. Not so with the garbanzos we cooked in the oven. In fact, the broth is delicious – worthy of sipping all on its own.

Home cooked means you're in charge of their cooking time. We cooked our garbanzo beans until they were somewhat soft. The garbanzos had tender skins that melted into the buttery flesh of the beans. They even had a sweetness to them.

How To Cook Your Beans In The Oven 

Any dried beans can be cooked in a Dutch oven.

Here are instructions to prepare half a package of beans which is usually 8 ounces.

First, rinse them in cold water to take any dust off of them. Place them into a large bowl, sprinkle 1.5 Tablespoons of kosher salt on them. Cover with 8 cups of water. Let sit over night, from 12 to 18 hours. 

Drain and give the beans a brief rinse in cold water. Place beans in a 4 quart Dutch oven. Sprinkle 1.5 teaspoons of kosher salt over them. Add 6 cups of water. Cover with lid.

Place in a 300º Fahrenheit oven and bake for 1.5 hours to 2 hours depending on how soft you want your beans. Don't stir, just let them cook. 

Check them for doneness and if you think they need more time, you can put them back in the oven and check every 15 minutes until desired softness.

Below: white Navy beans cooked in a Dutch oven. No stirring required.

If you want to double the recipe, using the whole package of beans, use a bigger Dutch oven.

Use your cooked beans right away, or once the beans are cooled, place them in containers and store in the refrigerator. If you've cooked a whole package and find you have too many to consume right away, they freeze beautifully. They're easy to thaw in the refrigerator.

Add beans to soups or salads as desired. Be sure to keep some of the broth, it adds a lot of flavor. 

Students Of TRT®

For those who have studied The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), you can enhance the life-force energy in your food by holding it in your radiant hands for a few minutes. This applies to your dried beans too.

You can also place your hands about an inch above your food to help you connect to it consciously. For students of The Second Degree of TRT®, you can direct radiant energy to what you are about to eat. Your food is meant to nourish you and directing universal energy helps to lift that connection.

Garbanzos Transformed Into Hummus

Oven-baked garbanzos can be used to make homemade hummus, like in this photo. The recipe is from Bon Appétit: Classic Chickpea Hummus.

The recipe calls for a can of garbanzo beans, but you can substitute your own oven-cooked beans. About 1 1/2 cup of cooked beans equal one can.

The next time you see some dried beans, take some home and pull out your Dutch oven to prepare them.

Deliciousness awaits you.

 

As We Gather For Our Feast

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Thanksgiving Preparation

Grocery shelves groan under the weight of extra produce that will grace our tables. Pumpkins and butternut squash are piled high. Extra displays are set up with traditional foods for the Thanksgiving table such as sweet potatoes and yams, bags of cranberries, green beans, and stuffing mix for the turkey.

We Remember Our Farmers

It's a holiday for feasting, a celebration of the abundance of the year's harvest. We come together to share our food and to give thanks.

With gratitude for our endless bounty, we also take a moment to remember and thank those who provide all this food for us.

Our farmers.

Paul Harvey, a radio broadcaster from a time when radio was king, delivered a broadcast in 1978 about farmers. It became known by the title, "So God Made A Farmer."

Harvey painted with his words the hard work and humble life of a farmer. A rising sun waits for no one and so, the farmer rises early each day to tend the animals and the fields, no matter what. It's a life that requires resiliency and strength. How many of us would have the fortitude to be a farmer?

God Made A Farmer (text)

And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.

"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer.

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church. 

Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life doing what dad does." So God made a farmer.

–Paul Harvey

 

Farmers Face Challenges

There are struggles for today's farmers on many levels. Concerns swirl around us such as animal treatment, genetic manipulation of seeds, loss of crop land, and getting food to the hungry, just to name a few. As we become more and more urbanized, there is concern as to who will set up to becpme our next generation of farmers.

We Say Thank You

We also remember the long chain of people who bring the farmers' food to us. Many hands touch the food before we buy it, like people who package it, the truckers and the store workers.

This Thanksgiving holiday, we bow our heads before the beautiful food on our tables and we say thank you to everyone who helped bring it to us.

 

Photos of the farmers are all
by Paul Mobley from an article in The Morning News.

 

Bake Your Election Day Cake

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Election Day Is Nigh

National and midterm elections in the United States take place every two years.

Some people are glued to their television sets to follow minute-by-minute results.

Others, to avoid the stress of it all, keep their tv sets off and check the results once the drama is all over.

Take A Stroll Into The Past

If we were whisked back to colonial times, we'd find ourselves busy preparing our Election Cakes. In early America, Election Day was an important celebration, second only to Thanksgiving.

Our Puritan ancestors did not acknowledge the religious holidays of Christmas or Easter, believing they were too connected to Papist idolatry. Furthermore, to say that religious, "holy days" existed implied that other days of the year were not holy which was not acceptable to them.

Election Day, therefore, provided a rare chance to celebrate in high fashion. Parades filled the streets. People came to town from outlying areas and everyone fêted the day with religious ceremonies, dancing balls and fine food.

Election Cake Old World Recipe

I found an official Election Cake recipe from 1796. With these quantities, you’d have a lot of cake.

“Election Cake:
30 quarts of flour
10 pounds butter
14 pounds sugar
12 pounds raisins
3 dozen eggs
one pint wine
one quart brandy
4 ounces cinnamon
4 ounces fine colander seed
3 ounces ground alspice
Prunes and currants

Wet flour with milk to the consistence of bread over night, adding one quart yeast;
the next morning work the butter and sugar together for half an hour, which will render the cake much lighter and whiter; when it has rise, light work in every other ingredient except the prunes, which work in when going into the oven.”
— Simmons, American Cookery, 1796

Cakes of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries were typically produced through soaking or sour leavening, not unlike sourdough breads. This traditional method of soaking flour in sour milk or leavening dough with sourdough starter optimized nourishment received from these foods. In a time without mass-market refrigerators, it also made use of sour milk that would otherwise have gone to waste.

Election Cakes were filled with healthy, wholesome fats such as butter and fresh eggs. The added alcohol helped with preservation of the cake. The dried fruits made it similar to our infamous fruit cakes of Christmas.

Get Out And Vote

Election Day Cakes were also a way to entice people (in the beginning, men with property) to come out and vote. They could vote and receive a slice of delectable cake. Later on, it was even a bit of a bribe to vote straight down a ticket.

Cake sustained not only the voters, but the people counting all the votes late into the night.

Vintage Election Cake For Today

We can bring the past into our present by baking our own version of an Election Cake.

What better way to celebrate or soothe your disappointment than with cake? 

If you'd like to try a modern-day version of Election Cake, here is a recipe. It has a yeast mixture that harkens back to our historical Election Cakes.

Election Cake Revival

Voting is a remarkable aspect of our heritage in the United States. With the passing of the decades, people have tended to become blasé about this privilege. Others hold the stance that you can't complain about elected officials if you didn't vote. 

How fun to honor our history of voting with a present-day revival of Election Day Cakes. We could be creative and celebrate with any cake of our choice.

Here's a bundt cake from Martha Stewart that makes a great Election Day Cake. No yeast mixture is needed. This Kentucky Bourbon Brown Butter Cake would hit the spot, whatever the voting outcome.

The Privilege To Vote

Celebrate your right and privilege to vote.

Cake brings all of us together on this day of our democratic process. Go forth and bake your cake.

See you on Election Day.

 

Our Local Food Co-op

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Davis Food Co-op

Do you have a local food co-op where you shop for organic food? Not far from my home in Northern California, the Davis Food Co-op offers treats for everyone.

Just the other day, I had to smile as I waited in the checkout lane at the co-op. Instead of staring at gossip magazines with racy rumors, I found myself looking at the magazine Buddhadharma that featured the question: “What is enlightenment?” 

Buying In Bulk

The bulk bins are sumptuous with a wide variety of choices. Since the store has a large customer base, the bulk items remain fresh. It’s joyful to bring your own containers and weigh and label them. Skilled checkout clerks weigh the filled container and subtracting its weight from the bulk goods.

It's a sense of satisfaction knowing that I'm taking less plastic home with me. I fill various types and sizes of glass Mason jars with colorful beans, nuts and lentils. They are a source of visual delight sitting on my kitchen counter.

The Olive Bar

Another opportunity to buy in bulk is the olive bar. I always take time to visit the colorful display filled with plump tidbits to please the palate. 

Fresh Pure Waters

The water machine offers reverse osmosis water and is perfect for brewing Kombucha. I fill up gallon jugs with pure water that I use to prepare my healthy, probiotic concoction. I purchased plastic containers that are BPA-free and refill them over and over again.

Co-op Membership

One aspect of a co-op that appeals to me is the membership. I feel like a participant of the store, rather than just another faceless customer spending money. As members, we have an interest and stake in the success of the store. I suppose it connects to the old adage: "It takes a village."

“Co-operatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity.
In the tradition of their founders, co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.”

When the day comes that I have to move away from the area, I will miss this co-op experience.

 

Treats From A Farmers Market

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Buy Local, Eat Fresh

Getting your food at the farmers market is a treat, especially when it is the Davis Farmers Market in California where the bounty and variety delight both young and old. I explored this market that is connected to the bread basket of America before. In this post, I explore some of its specific delectable treats.

Raw Local Honey

Local beekeepers bring their raw honey to the market and taste-testing is encouraged. One of my favorites is the lavender honey shown in the photo above. Pure Honey comes from this beekeeper called Henry's Bullfrog Bees.

Being able to taste the honey made from different flowers is an education in itself. It's remarkable how different flowers create a strong variation in the taste and color of the honey. The wonders of nature.

 
“Where a bee collects its nectar determines the characteristics of honey such as the color, flavor, and composition.”
— Pure Honey
 

Buying local honey is important to help sustain small beekeepers. Our environment also benefits from a variety of beekeepers, not just the mass producers. Most studies say it is a myth that eating honey will help with your allergies, but don't let that stop you from enjoying it in your tea or on toast and in your baking. 

Honey is natural and considered harmless for adults and there is nothing to fear from raw honey. But pediatricians strongly caution against feeding honey to children under 1 year old. Children's digestive tracts aren't fully developed until after that age.

 
 

Farm Fresh Eggs

One of my favorite foods at the market is the fresh eggs from Vega Farms. I was first made aware of their double-yolk goodness when I overheard someone asking for a dozen of double-yolks. What? As far as I'm concerned, the yolks are the best part, right? 

Double-yolk eggs are a treat available only at the market, because eggs sold in grocery stores and the co-op are limited to single yolk. You want to plan an early arrival for these gems, because they sell out. 

The egg vendor knows I always get the double-yolk eggs. If she's not too busy with customers, we exchange a few words together. It adds a personal connection to the food shopping experience.

 
 

Connecting With The Vendors

Going to the same market on a regular basis has the added benefit of connecting with the vendors. I love having a face and a background with the product I'm buying. An added benefit is that the sellers often share good information about their products. For example, he'll tell you how to cook squash blossoms.

Here they are: squash blossoms for sale. The vendor clued me in that when the blossoms are available, people will queue before 8 a.m. (when the market opens) so as not to miss them. As you can imagine, it's a limited quantity and a short season, so people don't want to miss out. You won't be finding these in your supermarket.

Organic Cheese

Happy cows make happy milk and this is the case for our local Nicosio Valley Cheese Company and their pasture-based cows. I discovered one of their cheeses when I first started going to the market four years ago. 

The cheese is called Foggy Morning and it is, by far, a favorite of ours. The name alone inspires the imagination, especially for a fog-lover like me. It's a young cheese with a soft, creamy texture and it's refreshing in your mouth. Pair it with sliced, lightly salted heirloom tomatoes and you will satisfy any gourmet palate.

When the cheese vendor sees me coming, she reaches for a Foggy Morning. She knows that's what I always buy. This particular cheese is so popular, I have to make sure to get there early before it sells out.

 
“Foggy Morning is our American Cheese Society award-winning fresh cheese, it’s soft with a very subtle tang. Excellent on its own or paired with either savory or sweet accompaniments. ”
— Nicosio Valley Cheese
 
 
 

Buying at the farmers market brings me closer to the origins of my food. What a joy it was to share in their good news that our delicious Foggy Morning won a blue ribbon from the American Cheese Society Convention.

 
“We are proud to announce we received 3 awards at last weeks American Cheese Society Convention! We won Blue for our Foggy Morning and Red for our Loma Alta and San Geronimo!”
— Nicasio Valley Cheese
 

Are you able to shop local where you live?