One

Let’s face it, bread is getting expensive…and there really is nothing better than the taste and the smell of freshly baked bread! So, with a ditch effort to enjoy freshly baked bread and save money, I found this recipe in Mother Earth News, it seemed like a really great idea. I haven’t tried it out yet, but I figured I’d pass it along, we can all go out and bake bread and gather back here with the results of our experience!

The article said that the master recipe below makes enough bread for many loaves; you take what you need each day for baking and leave the rest in the refrigerator for weeks! Apparently, dough that is high in moisture, pre-mixed and pre-risen will keep well in the refrigerator!

The Master Recipe

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tbls granulated yeast (1 1/2 packet)
1 1/2 tbls coarse kosher salt or sea salt
6 1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour
cornmeal for the pizza peel

Heat the water until it is just a little bit warmer than body temperature.
Add yeast, salt and water in a 5 quart bowl preferrably one with a resealable lid. (if it doesn’t all dissolve, that’s ok)
Measure the flour by placing in a measuring cup and level gently with a knife, don’t pat it down.
Mix flour into yeast, salt and water mixture with a wooden spoon, food processor with a dough attachment or a heavy-duty stand mixer with a dough hook, until it is moist. DO NOT KNEAD YOUR BREAD MIXTURE! (strange but true).

Cover loosely and allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse; this process should take a couple of hours.

Place in refrigerator and allow to cool for at least 3 hours before baking.

When you are ready to bake your bread, use a pizza peel (a long-handled board) for easy sliding to and from the baking stone. Sprinkle the pizza peel with cornmeal to prevent the dough from sticking to the peel. Sprinkle the dough with flour and cut off a piece that is about the size of a grapefruit with a serrated knife.

Take the dough ball and stretch each “corner” to the underneath of the ball, rotating about a quarter inch as you go. Only complete one rotation. Be sure to keep extra flour on hand to sprinkle the ball so that it doesn’t stick to your hands. Place the ball on the pizza peel and let it sit uncovered for about 40 minutes. About 20 minutes before you’re ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees with the baking stone on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray on a different shelf in the oven (this will later hold water).

Dust the top of the ball with flour and cut the top of the loaf 1/4 inch deep across the top. Slide the loaf off of the pizza peel onto the baking stone and pour about one cup of hot water into the empty broiler tray. The broiler tray will permeate steam through the bread.

Bake for about 30 mins. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate the remaining dough until ready to bake next time within the next two weeks.

There are many variations that you can add to The Master Recipe, but I think I’ll play it safe and try this one first! Let me know how it goes!

Happy Baking!

~Wind

A “lagoon” from a pig farm in Comino

I know many vegetarians, and they all have different reasons for not eating meat. Some are vegetarian because of heath reasons, some just don’t like the taste and some, like my daughter for instance, ran into the PETA website and hasn’t touched meat in three years! But, there is also the fact that less meat eating makes for a healthier environment!

Did you know that…

…nearly 70% of the deforestation in the Amazon is a direct result of cattle ranching! These rainforests help maintain the climate by regulating the atmospheric gases and is the place that nearly 50% of the entire world’s species call home. But we are losing them to the meat market businesses for the almighty dollar.

…livestock contributes nearly 28% of the worldwide methane emissions that are a result of human activities! However, in Sterksel, Netherlands a group of farmers are doing their part and have come up with a solution! By cooking the manure from their pigs, they are able to capture the methane gas that emits from the manure and in turn, use the gas to make electricity! Brilliant!

…on these large scale factory farms the waste products from the animals are contained in what they call a “lagoon” (this will change your views of a tropical paradise!) Some of these lagoons are acres and acres of millions of gallons of waste water, with a high chance of rupturing. This could, and has, polluted our land water, our fish and other marine mammals! Some farmers ‘recycle’ this waste water through spray fields to water their crops with, which could be a great fertilizer, however, if it gets over watered, it can create a run off into our water supply, not to mention our atmosphere!

So there ya’ have it, three good environmental reasons that you should cut back on your meat consumption or you could always learn to recycle pig poo!

~Wind

Once upon a time, long ago (well, not that long ago) when I first became a vegetarian the choices for vegetarian foods and recipes were few and far between and not nearly as abundant as they are today. However, I ran across a vegetarian cookbook that I lived by, it was called the Moosewood Cookbook. Today, the cookbook has grown into a chain of Moosewood Restaurants!

One of my favorite recipes in the book was called “Zuccanoes”. It was made out of a zucchini, cut and stuffed to look like a canoe. My son, who was three at the time, quickly made these ‘canoes’ not only his favorite meal; but his favorite toy too!

“Zuccanoes”
4 med zucchini
1-2 tbls Olive Oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 cups minced onion
1 1/2 cups rice
1/2 cups minced almonds lightly toasted
1/2 lb chopped mushrooms
3 tbls lemon juice
6 medium cloves of garlic, minced
black or cayenne pepper
any combination of dried herbs (parsley, basil, dill, thyme, marjoram)
1 cup grated cheese or cheese substitute (pick a flavor!)

Slice the zucchini in half lengthwise, scoop out the insides and set aside for later, leaving 1/4″ rim so that the canoe stays intact.

Heat olive oil and saute onion and salt over medium heat until onions are soft.

Mince zucchini innards and add to the onions with the mushrooms and turn up the heat. Saute for about 8 mins, stirring continuously to let the liquid evaporate. Stir in the garlic and remove from heat.

Stir in the rice, almonds and lemon juice. Add herbs and pepper to taste.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Fill up the zucchini shells with mixture and tops with cheese. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Serve hot and steamy!

I would decorate mine to look like a boat by adding a flag (made with a toothpick and a slice of cheese substitute), it made it more entertaining for my son!

Happy boating!

~Wind