Well, I just got a message from dear Lisa over at Parsley, Sage , Desserts and Line Drives asking where I’ve been. Good question. Here, but not here. Still working on the kitchen since the smoke fire. After the new stove (Maytag Gemini double oven – best. oven. ever. At least in my price range…) was installed last month, I decided to repaint all of my 30-year-old kitchen cabinets. Which were painted over white before I even lived here. I always thought that they were just cheap plywood cabinets painted white, but after taking off all of the hardware and stripping the doors I found out they were cheap, wood grained chip board. Boy, how wrong was I (that’s sarcasm right there… )So I stripped, sanded and painted all 17 doors. I wish I could say they were smooth and beautiful. Not. Oh well, moving on. I painted the outside and inside of all of the actual cabinets. I say inside because when I moved in I had to by a hippie freak and paint the insides of all of my cabinets purple. Looks cool until you have to paint over it like 5 freaking times so it doesn’t show through the lovely lemon mousse colored you are going with now. Oh, and how about how every item stored in those cabinets has to be taken out and placed somewhere else. In my tiny house. To spare you of the nasty details let’s just say that there was a small trail left open to walk through between the living room and the dining room with a small plate sized clearing on the table for my 6 yr old to eat. We ate standing up. A lot. After many days of this I get new hinges for my newly painted cabinets only find that after struggling put up doors (meaning that I butchered my newly painted cabinets with new holes) that the hinges would not work after all.
This is where small nervous breakdown occurs and I take it out on my poor unsuspecting husband and run out of the house crying.
Thank you to my friend Russell (a carpenter) for calming me down later in the day with encouraging words… He lets me know that all is not lost, but I do in fact need different hinges. Arghhhh! I would also have to patch over the new “holes” I drilled about. BUT, I could and should put all of my stuff back in the cabinets since the paint was now dry. So I did just that, then took all of the unhung doors and hid them away in the basement for a few days. Break time. At least so I could still have my monthly supper dinner club. And what a fine supper it was.
June menu:
pulled pork
coleslaw with boiled dressing (from the Southern Cookbook 1951)
succatash
collard greens and smoked pork hock
cornbread
rhubarb crumb pie
lemon shaker pie (from The Joy of Cooking)
Seriously, this was fine eating
Well, that was a lovely break. Sitting around the table with a large group of friends |(well, 7 of us) with interesting conversation always makes me feel better.
Since now I was mentally stable again (sort of) I bought new different hinges and only after 3 days was able to proudly say that all of my cabinet doors are now up. Well, one is a little wonky but I will wait for Russell to come back over to help with that one. Luckily I had a Danish almond cake in the freezer to give him as thanks last time. IT should be all smooth sailing now. Oh, except that since my crappy cabinets were built pre 1979 all of the measurement specs for door handles have changed! Talk about a sharp stick in the eye. So right now I am enjoying my lemon mousse cabinets with white doors. Without handles. To be continued. I can say with confidence that the next time I get the silly notion to do something like this again I will take a 2nd mortgage out on my house before the thought gets too far…………
The bread chosen this month for us Bread Baking Buddies is oatmeal twists. Elle, from Feeding my Enthusiasms, was the host, and her inspiration came from this post by Farine ( I must add that I find all bread bakers inspiring). These are lovely little twists packed with oatmeal, dried fruits and nuts. At least that is what was in mine. I want to try these again with cheese and seeds as recommended by Elle. I don’t keep a sourdough starter (I will complete this mystical achievement one day)so I made an overnight poolish instead. I also added some rye flour to my poolish for a little extra something. Did it make a difference? I don’t know . I will try these again with all white flour. I will say that they were delicious and wonderful treat with a little butter and a cup of coffee. I split the dough in half and put dried blueberries and pecans in 8 of them and dried figs, walnuts and anise in the other 8. Bake on!
Oatmeal Twists
based on Morning Cuddles at Farine
makes 16 twists
700 g sourdough starter (or poolish/starter of 350 g all-purpose flour mixed with 350 g water and 2 teaspoons yeast. Sit 3 hrs, stir down, put in fridge overnight, or at least 8 hours – use where recipe calls for sourdough starter.) I used 75 g rye flour and 275 g white flour
320 g all-purpose flour
230 g whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
115 g rolled oats, coarsely ground in a food processor
15 g salt
1 1/4 cup water
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
100 g pecans, chopped (I used 1/2 cup each dried blueberries and pecans OR 1/2 cup each chopped dried figs and walnuts with 1 tsp anise seed)
Mix the flours together with the yeast, oats and salt. Stir the water, buttermilk and butter into the starter. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the starter mixture until a soft dough forms. Let sit 10 minutes. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead in additional flour if needed until dough is tacky but not sticky. Knead in the pecans. Shape into a ball and put dough ball into oiled rising bowl or container, turning dough to coat with the oil. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk. This might take 2 hours or 6. (Also fine to cover and let sit overnight in the fridge, then let rise until doubled on the counter the next day.)
When dough has doubled, turn out onto lightly flour board. Shape into a log and cut into two pieces. Return one piece of the dough to the rising bowl and cover.
Shape the second piece of dough on the board into a log and cut into 8 pieces, each about 100 g. Cut each piece in half and shape each piece into a snake and twist two pieces together a a time or two, then place twist on a parchment or silicone mat lined baking sheet.
Repeat with remaining 7 (100 g) pieces. You will have eight twists. Take the remaining large (about 800 g) piece of dough and repeat the shaping into a log, cutting into 8 pieces, cutting those in half and shaping into twists. You will finish with 16 twists set out on parchment or silicon mat covered baking sheets. Cover twists and let rise until doubled in bulk. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F when twists are almost doubled.
Uncover, glaze with buttermilk with clean pastry brush. If desired sprinkle with finely chopped pecans, or preferred seeds or with sea salt.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. If browning too rapidly, turn down the oven temperature. Turn the pans back to front and bake another 10 – 15 minutes or until breads are 180 degrees inside. Cool on a rack then serve.
Elle’s Variations: When you knead in the pecans you can knead in dried fruit like dried cranberries or diced prunes, apricots or dates to make a breakfast twist. If you prefer savory you can knead in herbs and/or Parmesan cheese and/or seeds. This bread loves to have you make your own combinations, so other nuts can also be used in place of the pecans or with them. I made my second batch without any nuts, seeds, fruit or herbs and they were yummy, too.
So please take a moment and go to Elle’s page to see her fine baking skills and make sure to check out the other extremely talented Bread Baking Babes masterful creations. The links are all on Elle’s page. It’s well worth it.
Hey San,
I love reading the blog! Makes me feel like you’re right in my living room chatting and catching up. Keep those great stories and recipes coming. Give you big 6 year old a hug and kiss and much love to you and your “unsuspecting” husband.
OXOXOX
L
Thanks Lis!!
Miss you guys
Loved your blog this week! You are a trooper and an inspiration!
There you are! I’m so glad you’re getting your kitchen back..and a new stove is like a new car (to me anyways lol)! Oh, I felt for you with those kitchen cabinets, all of that sanding, painting and repainting, then the hinges don’t fit after drilling holes! I would have freaked too! Love that you painted the interiors purple! On a tasty note, these oatmeal twists look divine! They remind of Danish twists aesthetically – beautifully twisted (sister lol)!
Your dinner party sounds delightful. The kitchen cabinet tale reminds me of a similar project years ago. Wouldn’t you think that the hinges and handles would be standard?, but no that would be too easy.
Love the shape of your twists and also that you did two kinds with different fruits. Glad you are a Buddy!
oh I am so glad you are back! and not only are you back but with the most amazing recipe for bread ever! Oatmeal twists. my son would go crazy for these. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT
Wow, these twists look to be the perfect comfort food after all that work. (Handles on cabinets are overrated – they just make cleaning the outsides of the doors trickier….)
I love the sound of blueberries and pecans and that little bit of rye flour. Figs, walnuts and aniseed sound pretty fabulous too. How on earth did you choose which twist to eat?
Many thanks for baking with us.
Gorgeous shaping on those twists. … and the pies make me want to grab one off the screen 😉
Anybody taking on a kitchen re-do of any sort is always in for surprises! You write a great time of it. I think your break time is sooooo healthy.
Thanks many for baking with us again. Noting your variations on these.