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| Sunday, January 06, 2008 |
| From Scratch |
In attempts to make our food budget even smaller (most people would drop dead to hear we spend less than $200 in an average month on groceries - partially due to coupon and sale items), I have taken to making a greater number of things from scratch. Not only is this fun for me as I've always loved cooking and baking, but it's been really great to pick up some new skills. Mostly skills which our current culture has caused to become nearly extinct (except in some ethnic traditions where this kind of thing gets passed down as a family heirloom).
I have started baking bread regularily, up to 3 times a week. So far the favorite has been this "Rich Egg Bread". It's slightly chewy when cooked just a few minute less than the recipe calls for (which in my opinion is the better way than over cooked and dry) and good with just about anything on it, or nothing at all. I let the bread machine to most of the work on this one: mixing, kneeding, and the first rise. Then I take it out, punch it down, shape and let it ride again before baking.
Also tonight I attempted traditional flour tortillas. Though without the proper authentic equipment and no Abuelita to instruct me (being Scandinavian and all), they aren't quite circular an a little too thick in some places. I now long to own a Comal and Palote (tortilla griddle and wooden tortilla rolling pin) to have a better chance of getting it right. I'll have to update you on how they taste later as they are slated to be part of lunch tomorrow with a spicy sausage, onion and green chili filling: taco of sorts.
Last week, I made a pizza and two installments of calzones with dough made from scratch. Well really the whole thing was "from scratch" except I used a jarred spaghetti sauce. The sausage I used was some of the venison sausage we made previously. Oh, and I didn't make the cheese, but I did grate it off a large block.
 Labels: food, musings |
posted by Jen @ 9:51 PM   |
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