Weekend 6?? Anyone?? I will start because I have been playing in the kitchen!

B

barbara-in-va

Well-known member
1. Kim Boyce's Olive Oil Cake from Good to the Grain. It has fresh rosemary, 70% dark chocolate and of course olive oil. It is delicious! Don't think I would change a thing but if you google you will find someone who used egg beaters and almond milk. This is a great cake and you use some spelt flour in it. Spelt was easy to find at Whole Foods and is not expensive.

2. Another from Good to the Grain is the Muscovado Sugar Cake. I had trouble finding this sugar. Yes, I could have ordered it from Amazon but the shipping was the same price as a pound of sugar. Then I was ready to take Michael's suggestion of stirring in a T of molassas. But the last store I checked out had it there on the shelf, a new store in our area called Fresh Market. In addition to the unusual sugar this cakes used some amaranth flour. Not sure if I liked this cake better than the Olive Oil cake above just due to it's simplicity.

3. In the oven as I type is Kim's Date Nut Bread. Here you soak then puree the dates and use pastry flour and a bit of teff flour in the mix. Licking the bowl was quite tasty!

4. I have this weeks experiment with sourdough rising on the counter at the moment. I mixed in some roasted garlic and some fresh rosemary. These loaves will be ready to bake this afternoon and I can't wait to try some!

5. Dinner last night was a salad of sorts made with wheatberries, wild rice, veggies and sauteed shrimp. I had a recipe I used as a starting point and then built on it. I was very surprised at how really good it turned out.

6. Finally some peanut butter cookies from the King Arthur cookie book and then out doors for some badly needed exercise!

Recipes follow.

 
REC: DAte Nut Bread by Kim Boyce

1 1/2 cup pecan pieces
2 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

8 medjool dates, pitted and halved
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup teff flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
1 teaspoon Kosher salt

4 ounce unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 350. Toss the nuts in the oil and salt. Spread evenly on a baking sheet. Toast in the middle of the oven until golden brown, 12-15 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile bring 1/2 C water to a boil and pour oer the dates. Let soften while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

Lightly butter a 9x5 pan.

Sift dry ingredients together.

Put butter and sugar into mixer bowl. Mix at medium until light in color, about 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, using an immersion blender or food processor, blend the dates and soaking water until smooth. Scrape into a bowl and add the eggs, honey, and yogurt, whisk until thoroughly combined.

Pour 1/2 the date mixture into the butter mixture and mix on low speed to combine. Add half the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Repeat. Remove bowl, scrape down and sit in nuts.

Scrape into prepared pan, smooth top. Bake for 70-75 minutes. When ready the bread will smell like it is on the brink of burning, it should be deeply brown and even darker along the edges. A skewer inserted in the center should come out clean.

As soon as you remove the bread from the oven, flip it out of the pan,then flip it right side up. Place on cooling rack and let cool thoroughly before slicing.

 
REC: Wheatberry Salad

The link is for the inspiration salad! We devoured this for dinner.

Here's what I did:

1 C hard wheat berries, soaked overnight
1/2 C wild rice
2/3 C toasted walnuts
1/2 C chopped fresh parsley
1/2 C chopped green onions
1 small bunch of steamed asparagus, cut into thirds*
1 can drained artichoke hearts
1/2 C diced sun dried tomaotes
1 C chopped cherry tomatoes

romaine lettuce (but any kind of greens would be fine, I just happened to have some romaine)

6 T fresh lemon juice
2 T honey
2 T dijon honey
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 C olive oil
1 small shallot minced
1 clove garlic minced

1 lb shrimp, sauteed in a bit of olive oil

Drain the wheatberries and boil in 6 C of water for 50-60 minutes, adding water to keep berries covered. Berries should be chewy.Drain.

Cook rice in 2C of boiling water. Simmer, covered for about 45 minutes until rice is al dente. Drain.

Combine berries and rice in a large bowl and add all the veggies, toss together.

Mike the dressing: mix together the lemon juice, honey, mustard, shallots and garlic, whisk in the olive oil, season with salt and pepper.

Toss the greens with some of the dressing. Stir in some dressing into the rice mixture. Top greens with rice and top with shrimp.

* for a better presentation next time I will leave the asparagus whole. Cover plate with a layer of lettuce, put rice mixture in a mound in the center then lay a couple of thin asparagus spears cross wise over the rice mixture.

http://www.wholegraingourmet.com/recipes/46-salad/33-red-wheat-berry-salad.html

 
The date-nut bread sounds wonderful. What is teff flour though? My weekend six

are:

Made tea-poached salmon the other night. So, so, but the citrus-cucumber sauce was very good.

I'll have to try a recipe for Shaker Lemon Pie I saw on Cooks Country this a.m. Looked so good.

A mouse ate my red chard seedlings that were coming along nicely, so I had to replant some! Arggh.

Local ice cream stand is already open... summer's getting closer?

Went swimming at the lake park instead of walking today. A little cold, but not too bad.*

Also made soba noodle peanut chicken. Good cold for lunch!

*April Fools!!

 
Weekend six

1) Went to Costco and ran into the Vitamix demo guy I bought mine from at a different Costco. Raved how wonderful they are and sold them to all standing there. Discovered they didn't have the garden tools I went there for. The only food related item on the list: bought frozen organic peaches/strawberries there to make ice cream in the VM.

2) Went to 3 big box stores, local hardware store, and finally the fancy pants nursery - no one had the type of hoe I wanted.

3-6) Overwhelmed with the weeds from all the rain/all the sun from those chopped trees. I bought/use a crappy standard hoe to just start randomly chopping them down when my torn rotator cuff shoulder said "excuse me, what do you think your are doing?" Followed by "oh H*LL NO." So I'm now laying down typing this thinking I should get up and put ice on it.

Bonus item:

Season 2 Game of Thrones tonight!

 
Dawn, I am not sure you need to worry about the teff flour, it is only 1/2 C and

I am not sure what it lends to the bread. I can't tell without a side by side taste test! I think I would just use 1/2 C more AP flour.

 
Barbara, I think you win the Weekend Six Award for Greatest Variety of Flour Used... smileys/wink.gif My six:

1. Went on a French Onion Soup quest last night with friends. GMT Tavern had one of the best I've tasted in a long time. I think part of the secret (aside from whatever they did to the onions) is very good wheat bread, which gave the soup a faint nutty flavor.

2. Made Chicken Soup on Friday, let it chill overnight, took off the fat on Saturday and added quickly sauteed onions, carrots, celery. Not bad.

3. Still not sure what to do for Easter lunch...

4. I started a blog a month or so ago and, while the focus is sort of scattered--mysteries? Czech baked goods? New York?--I'd love any feedback: click (Plus, if I'm missing a link to someone's blog in the sidebar, please let me know!)

5. Last week's entertaining food debate with J. involved the virtues of Czech doughnuts (which are usually made sans hole) versus American doughnuts. I was unable to convince my husband that a chocolate cake doughnut covered with chocolate glaze and sprinkles is a consummation devoutly to be wished.

6. Trip to Kalustyan's with Sandra last week for great falafel and beans! And I bought what I thought was the Persian ice cream of deliciousness a few weeks ago, only to arrive home and find that it's more like very sweet gelato. smileys/frown.gif

 
Thanks, Barb. smileys/smile.gif I always seem to mow down "fun" in the first week, and then agonize

thereafter. But here's hoping this time is different!

 
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