Kerner.net

New Pants == Good Bread

I have to admit that I am a bread snob. My obsession with bread lead to a nasty baking habit. For almost 6 months I didn't buy any type of bread, just a lot of flour and yeast. Thankfully I've overcome the desire to bake all my bread myself.

After hundreds of loaves I think I've finally overcome my main bread making flaw. My bread almost always breaks at the seams. The key seems to be the second rise. I'm usually too impatient to wait for it -- I let the dough double in size, punch it down, shape it, let it rise briefely and bake.

One of Sarah's goals for the holiday weekend was to solve my sorry wardrobe/laundry situation through the addition of more casual pants (jeans, chinos, etc). A trip to the mall mid bread making required punching the dough down then leaving it to rise again.

After a successful visit to the Gap the dough had once again doubled in size. I removed it from the work bowl and shaped it into 16 dinner rolls. I let it rise while the oven warmed up. At the end of the baking, perfect honey-wheat dinner rolls. Yum.

I could just eat fresh bread for dinner, but I don't think Sarah would tolerate it. We made potato soup it's a very easy recipe (see below)

Steamed Buns

For dinner tonight we're having Chinese steamed buns and possibly a noodle or rice dish. I'm going to try both a bbq pork and a sweet/sour chicken filling. Sarah's sister is visiting tonight and she's a fan of dim sum, so we figured we'd try this out on her.

A local radio station (BXR) had a music therapy station at Les Bourgeois (a nearby, albeit mediocre winery). But who are we to say no to free food and drink. We also won two CDs -- a Jack Johnson and a Pseudopod. By the time we got home nobody really wanted the chicken so we just did the pork.

Overall it was a good experiment. The sauce is a bit too western -- I think adding some sugar and possibly some ginger would solve it though. Read on for recipes.

Leftovers from the ideal Summer meal

Last night I roasted a chicken on the grill. It was the start of the perfect summer meal. I will admin that I cannot place a probe thermometer in a chicken so that it accurately reads the temperature of the thigh. It always seems to reach 160 degrees long before the bird is actually done. In this case it took another 20 minutes to finish the chicken. Along with the chicken was grilled corn on the cob, fresh cole slaw, baked beans, and tomatoes from the garden.

Sarah missed out on this ideal summer meal as she wasn't feeling well. She finally managed to eat a baked potato. The result, a lot of left over chicken.

Some of the chicken was used tonight for chicken tacos. Stay tuned for more leftover extravaganza.

First Entry

This is the first post on my new blog. I've started it several times and never managed to keep up with regular posting. I think it's because I've never bothered to find an interesting topic to write about.

This time it will be different. I'm going to start with a theme and do my best to stick to it. I'm planning to write my thoughts on food, restaurants, recipes, and my general experience as a lover of all things edible.

Disclaimer: I've included a "Technology" category. I'm going to try and not write about issues related to my day job in the software industry, but I already know that sometimes I'll have to write tech stuff.