Welcome to The Rainy Day Baker

Any given rainy day, I feel called to the kitchen to bake something yummy and comforting for myself and my family. I love to cook and think about food. Like most food lovers, I have a large collection of recipes, cookbooks, and links scattered about. This blog will be a place for me to share my cooking adventures, archive those favorite recipes and links, and share my general thoughts on food. Thanks for joining me!

The Challenge - Follow Up

I realize that I never followed up on the results of my Lent challenge to cook all my own food from scratch. Let's just say that I have been recuperating since Easter and filling myself with some less than healthy convenience food items (BBQ potato chips...how I love you so!). But I am ready now to get back on track and eating more healthfully again. I have joined with Stephanie at Keeper of the Home for her "Cook More Real Food Event." I want to refocus my efforts at whole foods cooking, utilizing my freezer and making my own. Before I do that, however, I need to get some closure on my last efforts. I conducted an exit interview with the family at Easter. The results were not that surprising:

What was the one thing you missed most?
Me: "Orange juice. Juicing your own by hand is a pain."
The Husband: "Not much. It was all good." (But he cheated and bought his own food for work.)
The Girl: "Cereal." She could eat this everyday, and usually does.
The Boy: "Kraft Macaroni and Cheese." He could eat this everyday, if I would let him.
The toddler didn't have much to say about the food. She ate as she usually does.

What was the one thing you liked most?
Everyone agreed that the homemade ice cream was the best. The Husband said that the bread was good, too. I think he just said that to make me feel better. I was surprised at the ease of shopping. I could ignore over half of what was in the store since I focused mostly on raw ingredients. Plus, I spent at least $25 less each week despite the fact that I was buying a few items that were more expensive than I usually would, such as King Arthur Flour instead of Kroger brand.

What didn't you really miss?
I thought I would miss my snack crackers and cereal, but I really didn't. I found other things to snack on and enjoyed the variety at breakfast. No one missed the store bought ice cream; and the yogurt, though runny, was a good substitute for the store bought.

What should I keep making?
All - "Ice Cream!" No surprise there. Are you sensing a theme? We really liked the ice cream. The chocolate chip was the best, in my opinion. I have been wanting to try some other varieties. The Girl says I should also continue to make "white bread" in the bread machine.

What was surprisingly good?
The tortillas were a big hit once I got the hang of making them. The last batch I made turned out beautifully. I would still like to get a tortilla press/cooker gadget. It would make them go much faster.

What should I never make again?
Me - "Bread! LOL I had some successes and many failures. I need to continue working at it to find the right recipe that everyone likes. The yogurt was runny, but tasted good. I need to play with some other methods of making it and perhaps straining it to make a thicker consistency.
The Husband - "Bagels! LOL" My bagels were a complete disaster. The dough that I used was not very good and had sat in the refrigerator too long. They turned out completely inedible.
The Girl - "Whole Wheat Bread!" She didn't even like the bread made with white whole wheat flour.
The Boy - "Vegetables!" (He just doesn't like them any time.)

The Rainy Day Baker takes on bananas

photo by KB

My family loves bananas. If I can, I usually buy the cheaper grab bags of ripe or loose bananas at Kroger for 10 cents cheaper per pound. These bags sometimes include organic bananas, too. We often eat them in a few days, but just as often we get a few that end up looking like this.

photo by Debasis

What to do with over ripe bananas? Here are our top five favorites:

1. Banana Bread - There are lots of recipes for banana bread out in the world.  I personally have about six, but our favorite by far is Classic Banana Bread. I sometimes add chopped walnuts. If I have lots of ripe bananas, I double the recipe and freeze (or give away) a loaf. The recipe makes great muffins, too.
2. Banana Muffins - Again, recipes abound for banana muffins.  My favorite banana muffins are these Double Chocolate Banana Muffins. I made these tonight and used peanut butter and milk chocolate chips. They were yummy and require a cold glass of milk on the side.
3. If I only have one banana, I will make another Banana Snack Cake: Monkey Bars. This tastes like banana bread and are very moist.
4. Of course on the simpler side there is always using them in a Fruit Smoothie - the riper they are, the sweeter your smoothie will be. Freezing the banana chunks make the smoothie nice and creamy without any yogurt.
5. And the simplest thing of all is Banana Fingers - My friend Linda does this and they were a hit with the children. Simply split the ripe banana down the center into three strips. Put the strips into a baggie and freeze. Eat them while frozen. These are a great snack for toddlers.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

A mildly stressful day today. Three tornado sirens for three separate storms. The children and I spent a some time huddled together in our "safe place." Fortunately, the major stuff went around us. We had heavy rain, some pea-sized hail and a bit of wind. Communities to the west and north of us had tornadic activity and very strong winds. We heard several reports of trees blocking the highways and homes lifted from their foundations. Injuries were few and no deaths reported, thank the Lord.

Rainy days always make me want to spend some quality time with my Kitchenaid mixer. Today "old blue" and I mixed up a batch of Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies. I've had this recipe in my collection since 1998 (so says the date stamp on the print out). My sister made these for a family gathering (4th of July maybe?) and I was smitten. Chocolate and peanut butter is one of my favorite flavor combinations. (I <3 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.) There used to be a candy that I loved that was like a Reese's Pieces, but was half chocolate and half peanut butter. For years I thought I was just making them up. No one I asked could remember them. But I found them!

S

Sadly, they are no longer manufactured and peanut butter M&M's just don't compare. Anyway, I don't know that the recipe is available online anymore, either, so I'll just include it here.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2 cups quick cooking oats - uncooked
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 (10-12oz) package semi-sweet chocolate chunks (or chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine the butter and peanut butter with an electic mixer until smooth. Beat in the sugar and brown sugar until blended. Add the eggs and vanilla. At low speed, beat in the flour mixture just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. If necessary, refrigerate the dough 15 minutes until easy to handle. Roll tablespoons of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.
Makes 6 dozen.

Note: With a 2 tablespoon scoop and considerable snitching of the dough, I made 4 dozen. These make great ice cream sandwiches, too. :)

P.S. If you love this flavor combination, too, Stephanie O'Dea -- aka The Crockpot Lady -- posted a recipe this week for Slow Cooker Peanut Butter Cup Cake. I can't wait to give that one a try. :)

The Challenge - Part 4

So we have reached the point in the story where everything goes wrong. The best intentions and the excitement of new challenges has tapered off. Now is when the dirge plays and our heroine walks alone with her thoughts or runs home (or away from home), devours a pint of Ben & Jerry's while watching sad movies, wistfully thinking about what went wrong.

What went wrong was a day spent out of the house not cooking. A faulty weekly menu that had us eating bread for every meal: toast & eggs for breakfast, pb&j sandwiches for lunch, soup and grilled sandwiches for dinner. It was running out of bread and not wanting to bake any more. It was scrounging around the next day for something to eat for lunch. It was getting home late from running errands. It was hungry children who did not like what I hastily pulled together from the fridge. It was hungry children who did not appreciate the 20 minutes I spent cooking Irish Oatmeal for St. Patrick's Day breakfast. It was the new bread recipe that failed. It was the surmounting disappointment and discontent over the many things I had wanted to do this week besides cooking. It was the dirty dishes piling up and the bread dough needing to be made and the beans to be sorted. Ack!!!

Husband put the children to bed. I washed dishes and grumbled. I mixed the flour and the yeast and the water and the honey into a dough-like substance while thinking of nothing at all. I pulled out the beans and thought about Bible study from earlier that night and Jesus as the "good shepherd." I thought about all the people who made the movie The Gospel of John and I prayed for them. I thought about the sadness I will feel when we get to the part where He lays down His life for mine. I ran my fingers through the tiny black beans and my thoughts slowed down, my breathing slowed down. I thought about my children and my husband perhaps enjoying these beans in tomorrow's dinner. I thought about how whenever I make something for someone, I think of them with each stitch or each stir. I pray for them and bless them all the while.

As I sorted beans, I thought about something my husband said the night before, about mirror neurons. He often watches/listens to TED Talks on his Ipod. One of the recent ones was by VS Ramachandran, "The neurons that shaped civilization." (watch it below) Ramachandran says we can see someone else scratch their arm or their head and "feel" the same sensations in our brains. The touch receptors in our skin keep us from being confused about whose skin is being touched. The only thing that gets in our way of truly feeling someone else's body is our skin. If you remove the skin by numbing it, for instance, you dissolve the barrier in your mind. But what if we simply remember a touch? Is it possible to feel it again?

I thought about how many times I watched and helped my mother sort beans, the sound they made as she would drop them by handfuls into the metal colander. Standing together by the sink time and again, we would talk about things I can't remember now. I can see her and her hands so clearly in my mind. They looked so much like mine do now. Through these mirror neurons, could our movements become intertwined? Could we but touch except for the skin and time?

Together we sort.

Photo by jmccammon

My reverie is broken by my oldest daughter walking into the room. "What are you doing?" she asks.

"Sorting beans."

"Why?"

I begin to explain about dirt, mechanical separation, the lack of a human factor. She begins to help pick out a piece of grit here, a broken bean there. We stand together now, just as my mother and I did then, talking about things I don't remember now, and the circle is complete.

The lamentation ends. The story moves on. Our heroine is emboldened by these insights to once more make another meal, change another diaper, do another load of laundry. What seemed impossible an hour ago, is doable now. A connection is made, a memory, a blessing, a gift. You certainly can't get that from a can opener. I guess slow is better.

The Challenge - Part 3

(I'm a bit behind in my posting. This would have been technically last week? I can't remember). New items made this week: 2 loaves of bread, chicken stock, tortillas, refried beans, more yogurt, pumpkin muffins, museli.

I really enjoy shopping in this new regiment. It is much easier. I can skip whole sections of the grocery store, both the weekly sales flyer and the aisles themselves. I mostly focus on produce, meat (sparingly) and dairy. I have often read that that is where we should be shopping anyway, but felt that I was doing well with what I was purchasing. Now I realize what it takes to only shop the outside of the store. All those processed foods! Cereals, canned goods, crackers. I don't miss it as much as I thought.

The thing that has been most difficult is when I try to use my old recipes that included "convenience items" that I must first replicate before I can make the "quick" meal. The example this week was Roast Chicken Chimichangas. A quick recipe, usually, that uses precooked chicken, refried beans, and tortillas. I saved some chicken breast from the roast chicken I made on Sunday. So that wasn't a problem. It was the tortillas and refried beans. I cheated a bit on the beans and used a can I already had in the pantry. I then cooked up some chopped onion and added the canned beans. In no time at all I had some tasty refried black beans. Then we come to the tortillas.

I have made tortillas before. I recall that they took some time, but that they tasted good. Unfortunately, I did not allow myself enough time to make the tortillas. Life got in the way of my best intentions. So I did not start them until 5pm. The dough itself was easy enough to mix together: flour, salt, baking soda, shortening, and dried milk powder. As I went to get started, at 5pm, I realized that I had forgotten to buy the shortening and was pretty sure that butter would not work as a substitute. (This is why it is so important to check the recipes when making the list, Jenn!) So off to the store. By the time I got home, the toddler wanted my attention and was fussy. I quickly made the dough and let it rest while I took care of her. Then I divided the dough and got to work rolling and frying each tortilla.

Now I have seen tortilla making appliances. I really try to stay away from "uni-tasking" appliances and tools. The Baker's Catalogue had one that I've looked at from time to time, but could never justify purchasing it. I can now appreciate how handy one would be. I was able to roll the dough very thinly, but not very uniformly round. All the tortillas ended up looking like Africa or Deimos. They also puffed up as they cooked. The resulting texture was more of a flatbread or roti than the tortillas we are used to buying at the store. They were fairly simple to make and only cook for 1 minute on each side. But that's 2 minutes per tortilla x 16 tortillas = 32 minutes of time spent on one part of the meal. Not terribly convenient when you only have 30 minutes to make dinner.

By the time I finished, I opted to not make them into the baked chimichangas that we usually have. Instead we just topped the tortillas with the beans, chicken and cheese and cooked them up quesadilla style. Quite tasty in the end, but more work that I had anticipated.

So the lesson learned from this week was to stop trying to duplicate store-bought items. Stop trying to make it look and taste like what I can buy, but rather look for and make recipes that rely on simple cooking of real food. That is not to say I will not be making tortillas again, I just won't be thinking that it is a quick and easy dinner that I can throw together in less than a half and hour.

The Challenge - Part 2

During the first full week of making things myself, I made yogurt (which was much easier than I had anticipated), granola, three loaves of bread, banana bread, ice cream (more on that later), and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Many of these things I have made before, except for the yogurt and the ice cream. I have been wanting to make my own yogurt for some time and found a way to make it in the crockpot over a year ago, but still I resisted. Why? It only takes less than five minutes of hands on time. The rest of the time is spent waiting. The consistency was a bit runny, especially after I mixed in the sugar and vanilla that my family likes. I'm looking for ways to make it thicker and easier for my toddler to eat.

The ice cream....good heavens! Technically it is frozen custard. The recipe is the one that came with the ice cream maker I bought on clearance at the end of last summer. (That was a saga in and of itself. I didn't realize that the summer shopping season ended on July 4th. I went to every store in town that might carry one and had no luck. I nearly ordered one online when chance would have it that I found one in the clearance aisle of Wal-mart. If you need an ice cream maker or a swim suit, now is the time to buy one... yes, I realize that it is just the middle of March, but really... you won't find one come June!) But back to the making of the ice cream, aka frozen custard...

First, the custard. I love (to eat) custard. Jell-o pudding has nothing on homemade custard except that pudding takes 5 minutes and custard...a bit more. If you've never made custard or pudding from scratch, let me tell you that it is agonizingly slow going. Get a good audio book on the mp3 player before beginning. After about 15-20 minutes (okay...more like 30) of slowly stirring the flour and milk and sugar into a thickened mass, you add eggs and get an even thicker mass which is creamy and delicious in its own right. But then, you add vanilla and heavy whipping cream, churn it in the ice cream freezer and...

Now I made ice cream for a church event last summer that tasted and looked like melted ice milk. Not terribly satisfying. Truth be told, I was expecting the same sort of thing when the ice cream freezer motor signaled that it was finished. I took off the lid and saw the mashed potato consistency that the directions said I should. I dipped in a spoon to sample my creation and nearly swooned the moment it touched my tongue. I've never tasted anything so creamy in my life! I sampled again. The kids came in and were equally speechless with the results.

So was the time spent stirring and mixing worth it? Yes. The time it takes to make bread, yogurt, ice cream...well, just about anything myself...has given me a greater appreciation for what I eat. I read somewhere, that when we eat good quality food, we tend to eat less of it. After my experiences these last few weeks, I must believe that it is true. When one works hard to prepare something, it must be slowly enjoyed. We live in a culture where everything is fast and easy to get. If I'm out of something, I can run to the store and get it. If I don't feel like cooking, our little town has a couple of dozen places to get something prepare for me. Need a new shirt? Just buy one. Plastic dishes, silverware, cups...use it once and out it goes! That quickness and facility leads to excess consumption of food and other goods. We waste, we hoard, we gorge. We don't respect, appreciate and savor! One of the reasons I wanted to do this project for Lent this year was to really focus on my consumption. I already recycle and reuse what I can, but to reduce my consumption at the store was something I hadn't done to my fullest ability. It has been a challenge, to be sure, but the rewards have been worth it.