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OK. That's out of the way.
OK. That's out of the way.
I've left the blog until late because I had no idea what I was going to write about today. I've been baking, sewing and cooking. So I decided to just tippity-tap around and see where this goes.
First off, I tried baking sourdough again. It turned out much better this time. It still had quite a bit of sourness to it, but it was within the range of the sour that sourdough is supposed to be, as opposed to the last loaf that was so sour I couldn't stand it. That first loaf did not rise hardly at all, as well. It wound up as a treat for cats or birds or whatever. I hope it didn't hurt any local wandering animals.
This time, it did rise better and I was actually able to slash the loaf before baking (the last time the dough was so gooey, when I tried to slash it, it just kind of glumped back over) and I got kind of a nice pattern going. I think I did bake it a little too much.
It didn't rise as much as I would have wanted, but I'll figure that out next time.
So, what did I change? I didn't let it rise on the counter overnight. I put it in the refrigerator to rise overnight. I kneaded it on the counter more than the other loaf, as well. I did use a lot of starter. I used 1.5 cups of bread flour and 1.5 cups of whole wheat. I also used the dollar store colander with the parchment paper trick I learned on YouTube. I use the colander in place of a banneton. I also didn't use the Dutch oven this time, I used the cast iron skillet with a metal bowl over top of the bread. It worked out fine. I do think I need new oven mitts that can take more heat, though.
For dinner I kind of made up my own recipe today. I get tired of canned tuna, canned salmon, fish whatever, on Fridays. So I looked up some rice and beans recipes and converted one. I changed quite a bit from the original. But it turned out really good so I'm going to have to write down what I did!
So, basically, you mix together beans, corn, green pepper, onion, garlic, veggie stock, cheese, a few spices, and cooked rice together and bake it in a casserole dish until everything is creamy and yummy. I didn't have the beans the recipe called for, nor the cheese called for. I changed some of the spices and I used saffron rice instead of brown rice. I cooked things a little differently than called for, as well.
So, here's what I did.
I a diced up a small, yellow onion and a yellow bell pepper and dumped them in my trusty cast iron skillet (not the same one I used for the bread, by the way) along with some olive oil. The recipe said one tablespoon. I have no idea. I usually don't measure olive oil when I do this. I used my garlic press to press through three cloves of garlic right into the pan. The recipe said to cook this 4-5 minutes until things were a bit soft. Nope. I cooked these quite a bit. I wanted the onions to start to caramelize and the peppers to get quite a bit softer and sweeter. Just when things started to brown is when I stopped. I dumped these into a big mixing bowl. I added 2 cans of kidney beans and one can of whole kernel corn (drained), one cup of vegetable broth, some salt, pepper, a bunch of cumin, some parsley, some turmeric and an 8-oz package of shredded Colby Jack&Cheddar cheese. Next came the cooked rice. I cooked a 9-oz package of saffron rice in my rice cooker. I had to wait for it to finish because I didn't time things just right I poured it in hot and it started melting the cheese. It was okay. All that got mixed together well and poured into my biggest casserole dish. I baked it for 30 minutes until it was hot, bubbly and wonderful.
This was a delightful change from tuna salad. I'm sure it's going to become a staple in my kitchen. You could vary it in so many ways, as well, switching out cheeses, beans, onions, peppers, spices, adding toppings like sour cream or cream cheese, salsa........
So many things.
Well, that's kind of it for today. I waited so long that I have to start thinking about winding down my day and getting ready for tomorrow. If you do a meatless day (or more) during the week, how do you change it up?
Ciao for now!
So, basically, you mix together beans, corn, green pepper, onion, garlic, veggie stock, cheese, a few spices, and cooked rice together and bake it in a casserole dish until everything is creamy and yummy. I didn't have the beans the recipe called for, nor the cheese called for. I changed some of the spices and I used saffron rice instead of brown rice. I cooked things a little differently than called for, as well.
So, here's what I did.
I a diced up a small, yellow onion and a yellow bell pepper and dumped them in my trusty cast iron skillet (not the same one I used for the bread, by the way) along with some olive oil. The recipe said one tablespoon. I have no idea. I usually don't measure olive oil when I do this. I used my garlic press to press through three cloves of garlic right into the pan. The recipe said to cook this 4-5 minutes until things were a bit soft. Nope. I cooked these quite a bit. I wanted the onions to start to caramelize and the peppers to get quite a bit softer and sweeter. Just when things started to brown is when I stopped. I dumped these into a big mixing bowl. I added 2 cans of kidney beans and one can of whole kernel corn (drained), one cup of vegetable broth, some salt, pepper, a bunch of cumin, some parsley, some turmeric and an 8-oz package of shredded Colby Jack&Cheddar cheese. Next came the cooked rice. I cooked a 9-oz package of saffron rice in my rice cooker. I had to wait for it to finish because I didn't time things just right I poured it in hot and it started melting the cheese. It was okay. All that got mixed together well and poured into my biggest casserole dish. I baked it for 30 minutes until it was hot, bubbly and wonderful.
This was a delightful change from tuna salad. I'm sure it's going to become a staple in my kitchen. You could vary it in so many ways, as well, switching out cheeses, beans, onions, peppers, spices, adding toppings like sour cream or cream cheese, salsa........
So many things.
Well, that's kind of it for today. I waited so long that I have to start thinking about winding down my day and getting ready for tomorrow. If you do a meatless day (or more) during the week, how do you change it up?
Ciao for now!
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