Leftover Rice became a Dessert

I am out of practice making white rice because I make it once a year. True! So my batch was a mess. I am making into leftover rice pudding.


3/4 cup uncooked or ( 3 cups cooked leftover) white rice

2 cups milk,

1/3 cup white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

2/3 cup raisins

1 tablespoon butter or smart margarine

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Leftover Saturday Supper for Breakfast

I ate my home cooked broccoli garlic ginger carrot celery and peanut stir fry for breakfast on rice. And for lunch!

I Need 1,000 Dogs to Kiss Me!

My routine has been altered now that I am sporting three broken foot bones. I didn't feel any pain for two and a half weeks. Now I have to pop the ibuprophen every 4 hours and I hesitate to lug the vacuum cleaner up from the cellar. Walking the daily loop downtown hurts like hell but I do it anyway and take my time because I refuse to be a hermit. This too shall pass. A friend gave me a tray of brownies. The best gift in the world. How did he know. I normally ignore sweets but crave them since the pain kicked in. I need 1,000 dogs to kiss me!

Annual Romanian Macedonian American Festival in our Neighborhood

St. John the Baptist Romanian Orthodox Church hosts a celebration with Romanian cuisine, ethnic music and dancing, and children's activities on Saturday from 4 to 11 p.m. and Sunday from 12:30 to 7 p.m. The church is at 501 East School St., Woonsocket. (401) 766-3343, stjohnroc.org.

Patience

Okay I am done with my broken foot. I am done, done, done. Glad I wasn't named Patience. I have none.

Paula Poundstone

The Potato Growers Of America Association is staying at The Doubletree in Portland, Maine. In case you're looking for them.
-Paula Poundstone

Poet in the Pantry

Checkout Carrie Vibert's blog poetinthepantry.com

Salty Deep Dark Chocolate Brownies

Here

Dawn Lerman's New Book: My Fat Dad

My Fat Dad: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Family, with Recipes - Now available for pre order.

Dawn Lerman grew up Jewish in the 70's. I grew up Italian. Might sound different, but for the most part, it's the same. Especially when it comes to food. The philosophy was simple, food = love. My Fat Dad hilariously and poignantly captures that essence. Whether you're Italian, Jewish, or anything else you can relate to how family, food, and the love of both affect how we grow up, and live our life. Mangia!”
- Ray Romano, Emmy award-winning actor

Margaret Mead

“It is easier to change a man's religion than to change his diet.”
― Margaret Mead

“I measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her fellow human beings.”
― Margaret Mead

“Sisters is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.”
― Margaret Mead

Waffle Obsession

Old-Fashioned Maine Sourdough Waffles
from The Baking Sheet Newsletter, Vol. XI, No. 4, Spring 2000 issue KING ARTHUR FLOUR.

Two weeks ago we made our first foray to a little house in Maine that we retreat to as often as we can, tide and season willing. We have no electricity there, but we do have bottled gas and a generator, so we have a gas stove and refrigerator—and kerosene lamps and a woodstove and lots of books. (There's no rhubarb there, but I'm in the process of correcting that.) I usually restock the Maine house's supply of yeast, levain and sourdough every spring. One can't be without those things, wherever one goes. But this time we traveled light, and yeast was all I took.

Sunday morning was clearly a morning for waffles. No sourdough! I tried a couple of other waffle recipes, both of which convinced us that we loved our sourdough waffles best. So I include this recipe here just to state my recommitment and loyalty to sourdough waffles and to give them a little "PR"—and because I'm going to eat the next batch with baked rhubarb and whipped cream.

Making waffles also creates an easy excuse to feed your starter without getting into anything very time-consuming. That said, it's best to start this recipe the day before you want to cook. (Although, being the queen of shortcuts, I know you can make great waffles even if you mix this all up at the last minute.)

The Sponge
1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 cup (4 ounces) King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour, Premium or White Whole Wheat
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups (16 ounces) buttermilk
1 cup (8 ounces) sourdough starter*

The Batter
2 large eggs
1/4 cup (2 ounces) butter, melted (or vegetable oil)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

*If your starter has been neglected, you would do it (and the waffles) a favor if you
refreshed it the morning before you want to make waffles. To refresh, mix together a cup
of water and a cup of flour. Stir your original starter, since it probably has
accumulated a layer of alcohol on the top. Take a couple of tablespoons of this original
starter and blend it into the flour/water mixture you made. Cover the mixture, and let it
work all day. (Consign the original starter to the "gone and to be forgotten"
bin.) Then proceed with the following. Note: If you want to double the waffle recipe,
which we do regularly, mix together 2 cups each of water and flour, and feed it with the
same amount of starter, about 2 tablespoons.

The Sponge: Mix together the flours and sugar in a medium-sized ceramic mixing bowl. Stir
in the buttermilk. (If you're doing this at the last minute, take the chill off it; a
microwave does this nicely. Don't worry if it separates a bit.) Add 1 cup (or 2, if
you're doubling the recipe) of your refreshed sourdough starter and cover loosely with
plastic wrap. Let sit at room temperature overnight, or for whatever shorter time span is
practical.

Feeding Your "New" Starter: While the sponge is resting, feed your
"new" starter. Do this the same way you fed your original starter. Take 2
tablespoons of the "refreshed starter" you made initially (before starting the
sponge), and combine it with a cup of water and a cup of flour. Discard the remaining
"refreshed starter."

Note: You might substitute a couple of tablespoons of pumpernickel for the same of wheat
flour. Pumpernickel contains minerals that make sourdough organisms happy plus it adds a
nice fleck to your subsequent batter or dough. Also, if I'm refreshing a starter by
adding a cup of water and a cup of flour, I usually add an extra ounce of flour. This
makes it a bit thicker and heartier. Sourdough starter tends to thin out as the organisms
feed. (But only people who chronically neglect their starters would know that.) Let this
new starter rest at room temperature for 12 hours, then refrigerate it for future use.

The Waffle Batter: Beat together the eggs, butter or oil, salt and baking soda until
light. Blend this mixture into the sponge, and see dramatic chemistry begin to happen.

Spray your waffle iron with a bit of vegetable oil pan spray. (This is probably necessary
only for the first waffle.) Pour 1/2 to 1 cup batter onto the iron, depending on its
size, close, and cook for approximately 2 minutes, or until it's as done as you like.
Remove gently with a fork.

Waffles are best eaten as they come off the iron; they don't take well to stockpiling.
This makes for serial eating, but it builds anticipation and probably contributes to
general squabbling about who deserves the next one. Ultimately all will be satiated,
blood sugar will return to normal, and you and your starter can rest until once again the
waffle pixie gives you a poke.

FYI, sourdough waffles are extraordinarily light, and their flavor has an edge (because
of the period of fermentation) that puts them in another category from the more usual
baking powder version. Traditionally they're served with butter and maple syrup, but
their unique flavor combines well with things savory as well.

Tip: Need some sourdough starter to get started? See our step-by-step directions for
creating your own sourdough starter from scratch. Or, if you’re looking for a head-start,
check out our classic fresh sourdough starter, a simpler path to fresh, ready-to-use
sourdough starter.

Nutrition information per serving (1/12 of recipe, 1 waffle with 1/4 cup rhubarb sauce,
149g): 226 cal, 5g fat, 6g protein, 23g complex carbohydrates, 16g sugar, 2g dietary
fiber, 47mg cholesterol, 297mg sodium, 266mg potassium, 58RE vitamin A, 3mg vitamin C,
1mg iron, 93mg calcium, 106mg phosphorus.

This recipe reprinted from The Baking Sheet Newsletter, Vol. XI, No. 4, Spring 2000 issue.

Pepper Biscuit Bender!

Oh my we love the pepper biscuits! I am making them again and this time as Donna advised me I am adding fennel seed. Stay tuned.

I LOVE Wendell Berry

The Blue Robe
by Wendell Berry

How joyful to be together, alone
as when we first were joined
in our little house by the river
long ago, except that now we know

each other, as we did not then;
and now instead of two stories fumbling
to meet, we belong to one story
that the two, joining, made. And now

we touch each other with the tenderness
of mortals, who know themselves:
how joyful to feel the heart quake

at the sight of a grandmother,
old friend in the morning light,
beautiful in her blue robe!

-Wendell Berry from New Collected Poems. © Counterpoint Press, 2012.

Hershey's Cocoa Cookies

Cocoa Crinkle Cookies Recipe

Cookies HERSHEY’S Cocoa HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa

One of our most fun cookies yet, speckled with powdered sugar for a sweet touch.

Ingredients

2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa or HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup powdered sugar for rolling

Directions

1. Combine granulated sugar and oil in large bowl; add cocoa, beating until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to cocoa mixture, beating well.
2. Cover; refrigerate until dough is firm enough to handle, at least 6 hours.
3. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in powdered sugar to coat. Place about 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet.
4. Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched lightly and tops are crackled. Cool slightly. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes about 48 cookies.


This is one of the best cookie recipes I've tried. I used the special dark cocoa and refrigerated the dough overnight. Baked for ten minutes and they came out perfect!

Victoria's Thai Cuke Salad

Thai Cucumber Salad

By Victoria L
Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon lime zest
1/2-1 small jalapeno, seeded and minced
salt and pepper
1 seedless cucumber
1 small red bell pepper
1 medium carrot
1/2 small red onion
1 -2 tablespoon chopped cilantro (optional)
1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts, chopped

Directions

Whisk the first 7 ingredients (lime juice through jalapeno) in a large bowl.
Season with salt and pepper.
Trim the ends from the cucumber.
Split lengthwise in half.
Slice very thinly.
Toss into the dressing.
Halve the red pepper vertically, core and remove seeds and white membranes.
Slice the pepper, horizontally, into very thin strips.
Add to the dressing and toss.
Peel the carrot and trim off ends.
Slice diagonally into very thin slices.
Add to the rest of the salad.
Peel the onion and cut in half horizontally.
Then slice vertically into very thin strips.
Add these to the bowl and toss everything together until well mixed.
Set aside for at least one hour, stirring occasionally (this can be marinated for up to 8 hours, but refrigerate if marinating for longer than 2 hours).
Transfer to a serving bowl.
Sprinkle cilantro (if used) and peanuts over top.

Pepper Biscuits: Biscotti de Pepe Taralli

I will make these a few hundred more times. I could have a bakery based on wine and pepper biscotti and my bread.
Delicious!!
If you fall in love with these, you will want to double the recipe.

Biscotti Di Pepe - Taralli - Italian Pepper Biscuits

By DeSouter

A great hard biscuit with a twinge of hotness! A staple in Italian delis and "pastosas".

1 (1/4 ounce) package dry yeast (equals 2 and 1/4 teaspoons)
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees) (I used 1/2 cup of my liquidy sourdough starter)
2 cups flour (I used half whole wheat and half bread flour)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I used a heaping teaspoon of Kosher salt)
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper (I used twice that, cracking the peppercorns myself)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
(I added a Tablespoon of fennel) thanks to Donna Ruzzano who grew up on Da Hill!

Directions

Dissolve yeast in water.
Sift flour salt and pepper onto mixing board.
Make a well in the center and add yeast and oil.
Blend together and gradually incorporate into flour.
The dough will be stiff.
Knead 10 minutes.
Place in oiled bowl, turn to coat, cover with towel and let rise until doubled in bulk.
Preheat oven to 375º.
Break off small pieces of dough and roll into ropes about 6 inches long. (I baked mine straight like bread sticks or cigars)
Form a ring and pinch edges together.
Place on baking sheet and let rise 20 minutes.
Brush with oil and bake 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. (I had to double the baking time)
(I turned the pepper biscuits over halfway through the baking time so they could gently brown on the other side)

THEY WERE FANTASTIC!!!!!
NOTE: My husband pointed out that the reason why I needed to add salt pepper and increase baking time from the recipe was because I used one cup of whole wheat flour instead of white flour and this increased the oil content and need for more spices and salt.
Don't be afraid to pinch a taste of the raw dough to test seasonings.

A Day in the Life

I work standing at my desk until my dog begs me for a neighborhood walk. The backyard is temporary relief and in dogs terms doesn't count. After our walk which averages at 2 hours, I resume work snacking constantly, until I have to lie down and sleep.

Diner for Sale on my Street

The Diner on my street is for sale. I fantasize about running it. But its not really what my life is about except sometimes.

Short-order Cook
by Jim Daniels

An average joe comes in
and orders thirty cheeseburgers and thirty fries.

I wait for him to pay before I start cooking.
He pays.
He ain’t no average joe.

The grill is just big enough for ten rows of three.
I slap the burgers down
throw two buckets of fries in the deep frier
and they pop pop spit spit…
psss…
The counter girls laugh.
I concentrate.
It is the crucial point-
They are ready for the cheese:
my fingers shake as I tear off slices
toss them on the burgers/fries done/dump/
refill buckets/burgers ready/flip into buns/
beat that melting cheese/wrap burgers in plastic/
into paper bags/fries done/dump/fill thirty bags/
bring them to the counter/wipe sweat on sleeve
and smile at the counter girls.
I puff my chest out and bellow:
“Thirty cheeseburgers, thirty fries!”
They look at me funny.
I grab a handful of ice, toss it in my mouth
do a little dance and walk back to the grill.
Pressure, responsibility, success,
thirty cheeseburgers, thirty fries.

"Short-order Cook" by Jim Daniels from Places/Everyone. © The University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.

Breakfast Sandwich: Toast, Cukes, Red Onion, Green Olives

Summer means iced coffee for breakfast and red onion with cukes and olives on toast! And lots of boiled garbanzos to throw around.

I live for these Sensual Pleasures

Happiness is iced coffee and the Paris Review standing at my desk. I made wine biscuits yesterday and they will taste even better today after a swim and a cup of tea. I live for these sensual pleasures.

Wholesale Grains J.A.R. Baker's Supply

We bought inexpensive steel cut oats at Price Rite and a few jars of natural peanut butter. PR is starting starting to have more natural foods and bargain prices on dried fruit and nuts.

It's all about quantity with me. The next time I have cash I will buy steel cut oats at JAR bakers supply in Lincoln, where I buy wholesale bread flour, whole wheat flour, wheat berries, raisins, peanut butter, raw sunflower seeds, and raw almonds.

JAR Baker's Supplies Inc
Bakery
Address: 12 Crow Point Rd, Lincoln, RI 02865
Phone:(401) 725-9660
Hours: m-f 8-4

Bakers Niche
12 Crow Point Road
Lincoln, RI. 02865.
(401) 725-9660 X118
ap@bakersniche.net

Mini Skinny Yogurt Cheesecake Bars

Make your own yogurt and then strain it (save the whey) and make it into yogurt cheese and then...make mini yogurt cheesecake bars with backyard berries.
Recipe

Veena Mehra's Yogurt

Foodways
The 'Immortal' Homemade Yogurt That Traveled 'Round The World
July 14, 2015 6:41 PM ET
Eliza Barclay

A recent batch of Veena Mehra's yogurt in Houston. She's been making yogurt the same way, with the same starter, for about 40 years.
Courtesy of Nishta Mehra

As Dan Charles reported on Monday, yogurt has a way of igniting passions. In his story of arson, the flames were literal.

Once you start looking, it's really not hard to find people — even entire countries — deeply attached to this nourishing and calming food.

Back in 2012, I learned an amazing fact: With a little TLC, yogurt can essentially live forever. How? Because yogurt is swimming with billions of bacteria that are busy all the time (as long as the temperature is right) fermenting the sugar, or lactose, in milk into lactic acid.

If you're making your own yogurt at home, you need an old batch to make a new batch. And the community of microbes in that yogurt starter — and the flavor — should remain relatively unchanged if you make it the same way every time. That's what Rachel Dutton, an assistant professor of microbiology at the University of California, San Diego who studies cheese and other dairy products, says, anyway.
To make yogurt with an heirloom starter, add freeze-dried starter or a spoonful of yogurt to fresh milk.

Of course, most Americans are in the habit of buying their yogurt at the grocery store. We like our yogurt sweet and mild.

But in many countries, like India, most yogurt is still made daily, even twice a day, at home. And that homemade yogurt tends to have a different flavor and texture — thicker and more sour — than the stuff made in a big yogurt factory. (For more on big yogurt factories, sit tight for Dan's forthcoming story on Wednesday.)

Veena Mehra, who emigrated to the U.S. from India, discovered when she first arrived in Oklahoma in 1970 that American yogurt wasn't like what she was used to eating back home.

"It just did not taste the same," she tells me. Her husband was studying at the University of Oklahoma, and there weren't any Indian groceries in Norman. "I tried buttermilk, and then I tried to use the yogurt I found at the store to make my own, but it just didn't work."

She continued to long for her homemade yogurt, so in 1975 or 1976 (she can't remember exactly what year it was), when she returned to Mumbai to visit her family, she decided to bring some yogurt starter back with her on the plane.
Cooling cucumber raita made with yogurt is a common accompaniment to spicy Indian dishes.

"I just put it in a container and then in my purse," she says. The yogurt survived the 21-hour journey to Memphis, Tenn., where they'd moved. Two days later, she was making yogurt again. And, most important, she says, "It tasted good: tart and thick."

Some 40 years later, Mehra, now 68, has kept that same starter going. She says she shared it with other Indian families in Memphis, and brought it with her when she moved to Houston three years ago after her husband died, to be closer to her daughter, Nishta, and grandson.

Nishta, who has a food blog called Blue Jean Gourmet, tells me she's also very partial to her mother's yogurt. "I think all of the American yogurt is really gross — I can't eat it," she says. "And I have this weird experience where I feel like my ancestors are looking down on me, and I can't bring myself to buy it."

And she's learned how to make it herself. "We make a batch every two weeks, or my mom makes a batch and brings it over."

Mehra says they both eat yogurt pretty much every day, in a classic Indian cucumber condiment called raita. Or they'll put just salt and pepper in it. And she says it tastes the same as it always did.

Each time she makes it, she follows the same simple process: She takes two cups of whole organic milk out of the fridge and lets it get to room temperature. Then she warms it over medium heat on the stove for 2.5 minutes. Next, she pours it into a plastic tub and adds a spoonful of yogurt from the old batch to the warm milk, mixing them together. Then she covers it with towels and puts it in the microwave (not to zap it, just to get it out of the way). The next morning, she's got her yogurt, and it goes back in the fridge.

The key to this method, of course, is that you always leave a little yogurt to make the next batch. And Mehra has managed to do that for 40 years.

According to Dutton, the microbiologist, it's plausible that Mehra's 2015 yogurt is very close, biologically and flavorwise, to the yogurt she brought over in 1975 or 1976. After all, to make yogurt, you really only need two species of bacteria: Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus.

"It's possible that the two species have been evolving over that time period, so maybe they're a little different, but they may be behaving in a similar way because you're always asking them to do the same thing," says Dutton.

In this sense, yogurt is different from a fermented food like sourdough bread. "Yogurt is much more controlled," she says, because you heat the milk and kill most of the microbes in it before adding the yogurt starter. So in theory, the only active microbes in the starter are the same ones that Mehra brought over from India four decades ago.

Sourdough, meanwhile, would adapt to a new place much more quickly because you have to add grain to starter, Dutton says. The grain, unlike the milk, hasn't been heated and could be carrying new, local microbes.

Want to try making your own flavorful yogurt at home? If you don't have a neighbor with heirloom yogurt like Mehra's who can share a spoonful, you can buy heirloom starter. It will probably yield a better yogurt than using store-bought yogurt because the bacteria in industrially produced yogurt can't regenerate very long — maybe just for a generation or two.

Heirloom yogurt, however, can theoretically live forever in good hands.

Flavored Yogurt Cheese on Oat Cakes

Make yogurt cheese or buy cream cheese and flavor it. Try on toast or a bagel or Highland oat cakes.

Try this too.

THE ICE CREAM BARN: Tom and Jocelyn Seiter

THE ICE CREAM BARN: A magical place Something magical is happening in Swansea, Mass., thanks to a collaboration between Baker Farm owner Kenny Baker and ice cream artisans Tom and Jocelyn Seiter. You can feel it the instant you turn into the parking lot and see the lovely Ice Cream Barn building. Outside are handmade benches and farm views that go on forever. For six generations, family farmers have worked this land. You won't believe Route 6 is just miles away. Inside, old ice cream scoops make for dramatic wall art while staff can be seen boiling cranberries and other natural ingredients at the stove. None of it would matter if the ice cream weren't delectable. And it surely is. The milk for the ice cream comes from the Baker cows. That is just one key to the exquisite flavors. Alan Winsor of Winsor Dairy, in Johnston, picks up the fresh milk and fashions a base according to the Seiters' specifications. Once the mixture returns to the farm, all the natural ingredients are mixed right there beyond the granite countertop to create a very special ice cream. The setting, the ice cream — all create a place you won't want to leave. Details: 289 Locust St., Swansea, Mass., theicecreambarn.com, (508) 567-6278.