Foodies BS Thread.

Made a loaf for a neighbor.
(Hope it doesn’t suck. Haha. )

 

Forgot to eat today. Getting all my calories in one go.



…and a water because

 

Should be on a Christmas Card.

 

Tis the season:

Pasta Fagioli Soup

 

Come on over. I made a plate for you…

 

Savory egg custard. Japanese Chawanmushi!

 

Wife wanted it for breakfast. I complied.

 

Jumped on the trend…chilli + corn bread

 

Baguette, half loaves with my oven and sheet pans

 

Yum

 

Looks amazing! I don't think that I could ever bake bread because as soon as it came out of the oven I would slice it, butter it and eat it all while it's still hot!

 

Yep. Its so good though!

 

That was yesterday's batch, today's is still holding.

 

2 hot skillets of corn bread; one of which is a little more hotter

 

Chicken pot pie

 

It's like the rule of firewood. Whenever you think you have enough you actually need 3x that amount.

Check out this book called make the bread buy the butter. It's over ten years old by now but still surprisingly applicable.

$12 Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should (and Shouldn't) Cook from Scratch to Save Time and Money

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1451605889

My approach to bread (including sourdough) was/is simplicity. When the thing takes 18 steps and needs exact timing - not worth it.

Give me recipes to slop together and throw in an oven until it's done and I'm happy. Almost all my breads are that way. The sourdough takes time but not effort. I've only done a handful of rustic loafs because dealing with the pot and lid and shenanigans is annoying. Focaccia and sandwich loaves are super easy. Bagels are an accepted level of annoyance.

 

Snow in the mountains, cold and rainy here in the valley. Felt like a good night for chicken noodle soup.

 

I thought someone here had recommended this book, I searched to thank them - but no dice. Must have been somewhere else, maybe Reddit.

Either way - this book is from 2012, is the story + recipe finding mission of a woman who was laid off in 2008 and decided to figure out what it makes sense to make vs buy. She starts off explaining she got inspired by Smucker's Uncrustables vs a regular PB&J sandwich. There's a lot of very simple DIY recipes instead of an off-the-shelf solution, like simple hot cocoas, etc. One that I remember off the cuff is she talks about smoking meats and making her own Canadian (back) bacon.

And my favorite line: "Our town's laws allowed us to have up to a dozen hens. So we got nineteen hens."

It went a lot less into the "why" things cost they way they do vs making your own than I thought it would, she did list a lot of (2012) per-unit costs vs buying, so that was nice. I thought it was going to be more on the "Well, flour is X$ per lb, and here's the steps that go into making FLOUR to get to that cost". But she did make hot dogs - which was a surprise when I got to that section.

I HIGHLY recommend this book, she has some really complex recipes that take 2-3 pages, and some that are just a tagline for all intents and purposes. And goes into the effort and HER effort into it, and why some things make sense to make vs buy even if it's more expensive.

A lot of it is recipes, so it's a quick read. See if your local library has a copy, worth having for a couple weeks to get some inspiration.