Chef Lisa

Here’s another spent grain recipe I’ve come up with. It’s not a complete invention of my own – I’m not good enough at baking to do that yet. It’s based on the Oatmeal Cookies recipe from JoyOfBaking.com. I substituted spent grains for half the oats. The rest was a delicious cookie that was a bit too moist. Next time I will increase the flour to 1 cup.

So, check the recipe out after the break and let me know what you think. Oh, and this time I remembered to take pictures of everything!

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I decided today (well, last night actually) to make some sourdough completely by hand. The dough is resting now after kneading, waiting to be split into two loaves for the second rise and then bake. I thought I’d share with you a couple of things I’ve learned about making my whole wheat sourdough bread:

1. I need to get a much larger bowl to mix everything in. I had flour flying all over the place. A bowl that holds about 3 gallons might do the trick.
2. The dough is very sticky. While spraying the mixing bowl and dough hook when using the machine might be enough, oil must be used on your hands, otherwise you’ll end up with a half inch of dough caking them.
3. Kneading by hand is not something I should do for that amount of dough ever again. My hands and wrists are killing me.
4. Every time I make bread, I love doing it more and more.

I’m glad to see I’m getting people here, looking at my recipe for sourdough bread. I just want to point out that the recipe isn’t for 100% whole wheat bread. I use a combination of unbleached white whole wheat and unbleached all-purpose flour for my starter, mainly because I use it for more than just bread. The recipe itself also uses a combination of whole wheat and bread flour.

But don’t think I’m going to give away my bread machine. I love to use it to make pizza and pasta doughs.

I love Chinese food. One of a favorite/comfort memories from my childhood was going to visit Uncle Norbert and Omi (my paternal grandmother), and then going to the Blossom Inn for supper. We’d order a wide array of dishes for everyone to share, but there’d always be the Blossom Inn Special Shrimp, a special little dumpling of spiced ground pork on a small chunk of green pepper, topped with a slice of spicy Chinese sausage (I can never remember what that dish is called), and my brother and I would get Shirley Temples. Oh, and we mustn’t forget the almond cookies. I liked those better than the fortune cookies.

I haven’t been to the Blossom Inn in over 20 years, but I remember those dishes so well that I can almost taste them, and it makes my mouth water. Donovan has my love of Chinese food, and we’re working on converting Ari. I get really excited when I find recipes that interest me, and I always try to find ways to sneak Chinese (or Chinese inspired) food onto the menu.

Finding the Slow Cooker Char Siu Pork Roast recipe was one of them. I adore the dim sum steamed bbq pork buns, and while I know a store nearby that sells them, I always go “eek!” when I see the price. No, it’s not really that expensive, but I always think I can make them cheaper. The recipe you’ll find below the break is actually double the original, as I wanted to make sure I had extra to make the buns.

I served the roast with home made vegetable fried rice. The roast was a hit (even with Matt, which is truly gratifying, as he’s an “I’ll eat Chinese, but only when I’m in the mood” (which is almost never)), and I will make the fried rice again, but adjusting the seasoning. My memory of the pork was that it was sweeter, but then in finding the recipe for the buns, I see there’s a sweet sauce you mix the pork with, so it could be that. Regardless, this recipe is being moved from the “to be tried” binder to our “family favorites”.

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I’m doing some baking today. I just took a batch of Sourdough Chocolate Cranberry Cake out of the oven, and I’ve learned three things about sourdough today. First, I prefer thick sourdough starter to runny starter, especially when baking this cake. Second, this cake really does better as bars cut out of a 9″x13″ pan than as cupcakes. And third, there are 24 g of carbohydrates in a serving of this cake. (I’ve added the nutrition info to the recipe.)

I love this cake, so I’m going to have to see what I can do to bring that carb count down a bit.

It’s time to plan out our meals for the next week. Breakfasts, lunches and suppers are listed, but there’s always some flexibility if I forget to take meat out to thaw, or if I simply don’t feel like making that meal.

Saturday Breakfast: self-serve
Saturday Lunch: self-serve
Saturday Supper: Slow Cooker Swedish Meatballs

Sunday Breakfast: Pumpkin Spiced Pecan Pancakes I made this dish as per this recipe (but as waffles instead of pancakes). I was very disappointed, and I’m not going to make it again.
Sunday Lunch: self-serve
Sunday Supper: Turkey and Stuffing Pie

Monday Breakfast: Waffles or Pancakes
Monday Lunch: Lisa – soup & sandwich
Monday Supper: Slow Cooker Char Siu Pork, Rice, Salad

Tuesday Breakfast: waffle sandwiches (peanut butter & a slight drizzle of dark chocolate syrup)
Tuesday Lunch: Lisa – sandwich & salad
Tuesday Supper: Spaghetti

Wednesday Breakfast: hash browns and sausage
Wednesday Lunch: Lisa – sandwich & veggies
Wednesday Supper: Pasta with Winter Greens and Walnuts

Thursday Breakfast: Waffles/pancakes
Thursday Lunch: Lisa – sandwich & veggies
Thursday Supper: Pizza

Friday Breakfast: scrambled eggs & toast, fruit
Friday Lunch: Lisa – sandwich & salad
Friday Supper: Eat Out?