Desayuno

Today I made my first real sourdough. Well, to be precise, today I baked my first real sourdough. Overall, the making of it was a three day process. I am posting a picture for now, and will be filling in the details, with a recipe, later.

These came to me in a dream. Well, not quite. I was lying in bed, and my mind was drifting around like it usually does right before I fall asleep, and all of a sudden I was thinking of the loukamades a friend of mine made a few weeks ago. And then I was thinking of goat cheese. And here we are! That doesn’t explain my attempt at a French name, but I didn’t know “spinach” in Greek. Read more

When I was little I didn’t have a very good sense of holidays and special occasions. Sure, I loved Christmas as much as any kid, but at five years old, as far as I was concerned Christmas was something that had happened three times in the history of the world. It couldn’t be counted on, and it was unrealistic to try to think far enough in advance to see it coming next time. Being told that my birthday was in eight months was like being told that Ghana is to the west: Entirely true, but I’d never make it all the way there, even if I packed a lunch. No, I celebrated smaller and more frequent holidays: Beach day; dad letting me ride on the hood of the car up the driveway day; going to the movies day. And perhaps the most important of them all was baking day. Read more

I have had New York bagels at five thirty in the morning when they were still almost too hot to touch, and I have had Montreal bagels right out of the oven on the coldest day of my life. These are not those. But they are fun to make, and any bagel is good right out of your own oven.

This recipe is based on the one in the New York Cookbook. At least, I think it is. The first time I made bagels, that was the recipe I used. Read more