sandwich

* Carl's sourdough
* uncured ham
* dijon
* Romaine
* purple onion
* some kind of fancy-ass creamy cheese

Carl's

Carl's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough starter, two days slow proofed on balcony. Actually, back and forth between near 0℉ balcony temperature and 68℉ inside temperature, easier than it sounds, the bubbly mass is remarkably stable. [Paragraph removed, deemed too arcane to be of general interest. Relocated here.]

I am sooooo Jones'n for bread lately. I'm going to have to watch it to make sure I don't scarf the whole thing at once.

One of the loaves goes to my new neighbors, if they want it. They're adorable.

salad with rice and beans

* ginger and garlic and mustard

* oil and vinegar and salt/pepper

* rice steamed on low heat 25 minutes + no heat 10 minutes covered for the full 35 minutes. Shaped inside a dampened ramekin.

* beans with ham hock prepared previously.

eggs with oatmeal breakfast

Where oatmeal is substituted for bread toast and thus firmly within The Zone™.

* 1/4 cup oatmeal pre-combined mixture with brown sugar, raisins, cinnamon, salt
* apple wood bacon
* two eggs fried in butter. The butter used to cook the eggs also coats the oatmeal, so no butter in the oatmeal.

provolone cheese crackers

This turned out to be a particularly good batch of cheese crackers. By using good cheese, how could you go wrong?

My original idea was to substitute Maytag blue cheese for butter, but that appeared not to work so well, the dough failed to look like proper dough before adding water to bring it together, so I added a few daubs of butter. Butter tends to soften the final cracker, so I held back on my impulse to use a lot. The amount of dough was determined by the amount of cheese, the size of the pile within the blender. I estimated an equal amount of flour and let 'er rip. That's when I decided it really did need some butter. Then water drizzled in until it pulled together. That turned out to be a little too wet so I floured the working surface heavily. The dough took up approximately 1/2 cup of flour as it was being rolled. Cut to the size of a pre-cut sheet of parchment paper. Transfered to the paper and cut into separate crackers, then docked. Oh blast! I forgot to press in sea salt or kosher salt. No matter, the cheese is plenty salty to satisfy any salt lust.

* mostly provolone cheese grated in Cuisinart.
* a chunk of some unidentified semi-hard white cheese, probably Romano
* 1.5 cups flour added and blade replaced from grater to chopper
* about 2 oz of Maytag cheese added into cheese/flour mixture and blended
* water drizzled until dough came together and rolled around the blender bowl.
* baked at 400℉ on second to top rack of oven for 11 minutes.

pre-mixed oatmeal breakfast

* 3 cups oatmeal
* 4 Tbs brown sugar
* 1 Tbs cinnamon
* 3/4 tsp salt
* 1/2 Cup raisins

red kidney bean with ham hock and pasta

* dried red kidney beans soaked for a few hours
* ham hocks pressure cooked for 1/2 hour until tender
* beans and ham cooked together with herbs and aromatics briefly in pressure cooker
* pasta dough made with 50% home-milled whole-wheat flour and 50% semolina with three egg yolks and olive oil. Extruded through grinder.
* canned tomatoes with jalapeño.
* basil, cilantro, and some kind of unidentified relatively hard cheese, probably provolone

Most commercial pastas are extruded through Teflon coated dies. Teflon dies are more economical for the manufacturer than bronze or steel dies. They're much less expensive to replace. Pasta extruded through metal dies have a rougher texture than Teflon-extruded pasta. The difference can be seen and felt with your fingertips. Dry bronze-extruded pasta feels like sandpaper. The rough texture makes it possible for sauces to adhere. Otherwise, oils and thin sauces tend to slip off. Please note the texture of this pasta, and imagine its excellent sauce-adherence capability.