To the Hilt

of bread and foodies

{ 02:46, 2006-Aug-25 } { Posted in homestead projects } { 1 comments } { Link }

Laurel, you've come through yet again! After becoming dismayed at the quality of the quick bread I was creating when I began to use whole wheat flour instead of that white stuff, I did not know what to do. I knew it was more nutritious. I knew it was turning out wonderful yeast bread and oatmeal pancakes. Why, then, had it suddenly turned its back on me, crossed its arms, and refused to cooperate?

I came upon a solution Tuesday afternoon while I was preparing to make oatmeal cookies to take to the neighbors. On a side note, it is amazing how one's tastes can change over the years. As a child, I never liked oatmeal. I still do not particularly care for it as a hot breakfast cereal, but I've found that I'll eat it in nearly every other form. As a child, I could not stand spicy things. I have added enough cayenne pepper and chipotle seasoning to recipes over the past six months to satisfy quite a large quota. I even enjoyed it. Hence why I decided to make oatmeal cookies to take to our dinner with the neighbors, despite having not had an oatmeal cookie for half a decade, nor having liked it at the time.

In my thumbing through of my copy of Laurel's Kitchen (which has earned itself a rank as an immeasurable guide, thumbing its nose at other books that lie in my room, neglected, while I search through it for the next recipe I wish to try) to find her oatmeal cookie recipe, I stumbled upon her recipe for banana bread. Ah, banana bread. My mouth watered and my mind twinged. Banana bread? My last attempts at that had been futile. But Laurel's recipes had never failed me before. Why not try this one? After all, I already had the ingredients gathered for my oatmeal cookies, and there were some old bananas sitting there, just waiting to be thrown to the chickens. (Did I mention that, a) I never used to like banana bread, and b) my family refuses to eat a banana once it develops color and an altogether dislikable texture? I digress.)

So, I tried her recipe. The loaf was still hot as I removed it from the pan and placed it beside the oatmeal cookies. I sliced it into squares, and set off for the neighbors' house.

'Twas a success! My banana bread was now moist and fresh, the wheat flour filling every bite with a taste that I have yet to tire of. Why was this recipe successful, yet the one from my mother's old cookbook was not? I can only guess that it is because Laurel has a mastery over wheat that she exemplifies in her recipes, while the other cookbook simply added a notation that if you wished to use wheat flour instead, to substitute thus and such an amount for part of the recipe. Her recipe centered around the wheat, theirs simply added it as a footnote to the bread, kicking it off like dust on their feet.
Before I give you my version of her recipe - because I rarely follow word-for-word what they tell me and I blame that on the Scottish in me - I would like to point you in the direction of the Foodie Farmgirl. A while back, I had asked her what the definition of a "foodie" was, because I feared that I was slowly (yet quite surely) becoming one. I did not hear back, and I considered the idea that she has many comments left on her blog, and that perhaps that one had slipped through the cracks. Ah well, I thought, and shrugged it off. Well, after submitting a quote entry to my blog, I popped on over to StatCounter to see if my statistics were once again recording. (I had edited my template and lost the tracking for approximately three days, a problem that I remedied this morning.) They have a setting where you can see your recent "came from" links. This shows you what page someone came onto your website at, and from whence they were directed. It seemed as if nearly every other one was directed from the Farmgirl Fare blog. I blinked. This was a rarity. Certainly, I would occasionally get a hit from someone clicking on my link when I've commented on something on their blog, but to be receiving this many hits? It could only mean one thing. I had been linked. But where? For what reason? And why in such a blatantly open spot that everyone and their grandmother seemed to be clicking on it?

I meandered over to her website and found that she had written an entry entitled, Finding Foodies. Not only had she read my comment, she actually posted an entry asking the food afficiando side of the blogosphere to help her define the term "foodie". I was floored. I offer her profuse thanks and intend to watch the comments of her post quite closely to see what they have to say. I would also offer her banana bread, since it is now behaving quite edibly, but I believe it would be moldy by the time it reached her. Now, on to the recipe!

1 Lemon, juiced
3 very ripe Bananas
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
1/2 c. Butter
1 1/2 c. Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 c. Wheat Germ
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mash the bananas together with the lemon juice in a mixing bowl.
3. Melt the butter, then stir in the sugar.
4. Add the banana mix to the butter and sugar.
5. In a different bowl, stir together your dry ingredients.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mix, slowly stirring it bit by bit until you have added all of the dry ingredients. The dough will be very stiff. I personally was surprised by how stiff it was and would have thought it needed more liquid, were it not for her notation that it would, indeed, be stiff. Imagine that: she was correct.
7. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
8. Bake for thirty to forty-five minutes. Mine took approximately forty, but I think it will vary by oven (and how often you pull the door open to check on its progress, for that matter).

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Laurel\'s kitchen

{ 03:43, 2006-Aug-26 } { Posted by Farmgirl Cyn }
You have inspired me to dredge up my old copy of Laurel\'s Kitchen (bought when Laurel\'s Kitchen was a NEW book!) and check her out again! My favorite part of the book was the beginning chapter, when it told about the lunches she used to make for her skinny hubby!

I guess I am a foodie! Love to cook, and mess with recipes. I, too, rarely follow a recipe.

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