Sweet Tea and Coffee Spoons

Freedom Bean Salad for 25 July 3, 2010 When it comes to preparing food for holidays and family gatherings, I find myself teetering between tradition and exploration. Part of me rejoices in a Thanksgiving sideboard groaning with turkey, stuffing, cranberries, green beans, and sweet potato soufflé, yet another side sighs with boredom. When tradition becomes too routine, too predictable, too staid, then I feel we’re simply living our lives on repeat. On the other hand, I eagerly anticipate creating favorite dishes year to year. Where do we find the balance between respecting the familiar and introducing the new? A few years ago, Aunt Judy decided she’d had it with routine and started planning new holiday menus, assigning each family a contribution. I recall processing with horror my 4th of July, 2006 assignment: coleslaw. Coleslaw? Really, there had to be a mistake. I’d been bringing pasta salad for years. Pasta salad with Greek dressing, olives, tomatoes, summer squash, zuc...

Baking Bread: One Loaf at a Time Entry Six Memory: Enjoying a spring afternoon in front of the Peace Center. Let’s face it. No one was too sure about that last loaf’s texture. We’d been out of oatmeal, so I substituted quinoa, thinking it’d soften over the 4-hour process. It did – somewhat, but the whole wheat studded with quinoa threw off the family. Although it was truly fine, delicious even, no one touched it but I. Another attempt. Step one: Use oatmeal. Step two: layer the ingredients, avoiding surprise. With the exception of using black peppered cashews, the final product should be rather predictable.

Baking Bread: One Loaf at a Time Entry Two To start the experiment, I hauled out my GoldStar Bread Maker HB-152CE, used only once. The problem was that I didn’t have the direction booklet and didn’t know how to operate the stubborn gadget. My first experiment a few months back resulted in a crispy banana bread that was raw in the center. I had to slice it in half and toast it for 45 minutes to achieve edibility. It was not a pleasant experience. After searching online, I found basic instructions. Apparently, I needed to layer all the ingredients in order, snap that pan in place, THEN plug in the machine. Genius. Pure genius. Next, I found a 1996 Gold Medal and Fleischmann’s Bread Machine Yeast recipe booklet stashed in with my cookbooks and looked for a whole wheat recipe. Even though all the coupons in the back of the promo expired in 1997, I figured the recipes were still good. The rest was ridiculously easy: I added the ingredients in order, plugged in the machine, and pressed...

It’s Sunday morning, and I’m feeling smug as I drizzle newly harvested honey over my freshly baked bread. Yesterday, as I collected and spun racks laden with honey from our downtown hives, I wandered around the garden and clipped herbs: mint, lemon-balm, parsley, thyme, rosemary, parsley, basil, and sage. While the kitchen filled with the amazing aroma of honey releasing from its wax, I assisted with jar duty, washed and chopped herbs, and prepped for bread-making. Here’s my recipe for a large loaf, modified from “Fresh Herb Bread”: Sun-dried Tomato and Herb Bread Water 1 cup Egg, extra large 2 Olive oil 3 tablespoons Honey 4 tablespoons Sea salt 2 teaspoons Celery seed 1 teaspoon Fresh chopped herbs 2/3 cup Sun-dried tomato (soaked in olive oil or water) 2 tablespoons Bread flour 4 cups Dry yeast 2 ¼ teaspoons Follow basic bread machine directions. I chose “wheat” setting for 4 hours. Later in the eve...