Tag: baking

Le Boulangerie de Marguerite

~ Meg ~ 57 Comments

“How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?” Julia Child

Let’s forget about calories, carbohydrates and gluten* for just a moment shall we? Bread is the stuff of life. There is nothing like the aroma of warm loaves fresh from the oven. Cut a slice of that crisp crust and smear it with butter, let it drip down your fingers as it melts and savor … Accompanying hot soup on a cold day, with aged cheese and good olives for an hors d’oeuvre, good bread is one of life’s small pleasures.

Like my character Maya, in Breaking Bread, I love to bake. And even more than sweets, I love to bake bread. I fantasize about living in Paris in an apartment over un boulangerie, waking every morning to the smells of bread and strong coffee…. and in an effort to bring that fantasy as close as I can to reality (at least until I figure out a good plan to fake my own death, collect on the insurance and make my escape…) I have been baking my own bread for the last … well, a long time.

Some of my favorites: A simple baguette – water, salt, flour and yeast. A brioche – sweet and rich with eggs and sugar. Challah – braided and risen in a pretty pattern. And a simple maple buttermilk bread, perfect for toast in the morning. Oh, and home made deep dish pizza…

 

J’adore le bon pain. Avec un cafe, sil vous plait!


*unless of course you are intolerant to gluten or have celiac disease

A cocktail fail but a food and beer win!

~ Meg ~ 36 Comments

Week 6 in the Year of Drinking Adventurously!

The Far East is not being well represented so far!  This week is another fail, I’m afraid.  The beverage to sample this week was supposed to be Huangjiu, which translates to ‘yellow wine’ or ‘yellow liquor’ but really isn’t quite either one.  Like Japanese sake, it’s a unique thing of its own.  Which I hope to try someday, maybe when I get back to San Fransisco for a visit.  I think I should be able to get back on track next week.

So, since I can’t tell you about Huangjiu, I’ve decided to torture you with the beer brewing adventure instead!  The first batch -a Belgian blonde ale- is kegged and ready for consumption.  Most brewers name their beers so this one is called:  Blondes Prefer Gentlemen.  The next batch is an English Ale so I want to name it Naughty Princess Meg! (Not that I’m a princess or anything…)  Here’s what it looks like:

I’m not really going to torture you with the process. You’ll need more than my blog to figure out how to brew your own beer.  Anyway, once it’s all cooked up, it goes into a fermenter, which is nothing more than a glorified 5-gallon bucket with a valve in the lid to release the air bubbles created by the yeast “burping” out CO2.  Next, it gets transferred to a glass “carboy” for secondary fermentation and to let the dissolved particulates settle to the bottom.

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Secondary fermenting
Three weeks or so later, it should be ready to go into a keg or bottles and chilled to your desired drinkable temperature.  We were able to drink Blondes Prefer Gentlemen this weekend in celebration of America’s biggest unofficial national holiday:  The Superbowl.

The first Sunday in February is a time of great rejoicing or great sorrow, depending on which football team wins.  It is also a great time of feasting and merrymaking.  At the party we attended, most of the gathered crowd cheered for the Broncos who eventually prevailed.  When your team isn’t playing (we’re in Philadelphia Eagles territory), the party is more about the food and drink. 

One of my few domestic skills is baking.  Not desserts, cakes, pies and the like… No, I bake bread:  Italian loaves, French baguettes, brioche, challah, cinnamon bread, English muffins, AND pizza and stromboli!  And yo, it’s Philly, so the native dish here is the cheese steak. The cheese steak Stromboli (actually 2 of them) I took to the party was filled with a grilled New York strip steak, sauteed peppers and onions, and mozzarella and cheddar cheese.  Served with my own marinara, it was wiped out in minutes!

Anyway, that was my Superbowl weekend.  I hope you all enjoyed yours! Weekend, that is, I know not everyone was glued to the fiasco that passes for the National Championship.  Back to drinking adventurously next week!