Daniels Coco Crazy Cake

Daniel had an idea for a Coco Crazy Cake with cocoa, coconut and coca cola. I said immediately that you couldn't bake a cake with coca cola. However, a quick search on Google proved me wrong. There is especially one recipe with cocoa and coke that is all over and comes from coca colas webpage. In fact they have recipes for salads, chicken and everything you can imagine with coke. Not what I want to start making. But our Coco Crazy Cake is delicious. Its a variation of my basic cake.
COCO CRAZY CAKE
Mix together:
1½ cup whole wheat flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup dried coconut
1 t. baking soda
Add:
1 egg
½ cup oil
½ cup coca cola
½ cup buttermilk (maybe a little more)
Bake in 9" round pan, 350 degrees, approximately 30 minutes
We made a white icing- just boiled water and confectioners sugar.

More about bread

When we were teenagers, my friends and I loved to go to Georgetown. We could spend a whole afternoon going in and out of the boutiques looking at everything, talking about our likes and dislikes and never buying anything. Most of the shopkeepers probably hated us.
But it was also in Georgetown we discovered Sam the Argentinian Baker. Or Argentinian, Russian, Jewish baker. He was a wonderful, gentle, friendly, white haired, little man who had a small bakery, where only he and his wife worked. He made the best bread I have ever tasted- a round russian bread, which had a dark crisp crust with a moist whole grain bread inside the crust. When asked the secret he said that he used all the different grains. I have never been able to bake a bread that came close to his. He would always beg us not to eat the bread hot, because it was bad for your stomach he said. But of course we couldn't wait and would break off pieces of the warm bread. He also baked fantastic knishes.
I have discovered that one difference between European bread and American bread is that in America there is often honey, molasses or other sweetener in the bread. I never use these anymore. Sams bread was without any kind of sugar.

Baking bread using the sponge method

Many years ago my sister sent me "The Tassajara Bread Book" by Edward Espe Brown. This book taught me to make bread by the sponge method. I gave the book to a friend over 10 years ago so this is my recipe and not necessarily the same as in the book but maybe it is. I love the sponge method because it's so easy to start a bread dough- no dirty hands, no kneeding, just mix everything together and let it stand. at least one hour but up to 24 hours. Often I have started my sponge in the evening and baked the next morning before work.
BREAD BY SPONGE METHOD
Sponge:
for one whole baking sheet of rolls (about 20) or one large loaf of bread or two smaller loaves
4 cups liquid. I use 2 cups buttermilk and 2 cups water. I heat my buttermilk and add cold water and then I have a liquid at room temperature.
Add 1 T. dry yeast
flour after choice so that the mixture is like porridge. I use oatmeal, rye flour and whole wheat flour. Mostly the first two at this stage. You can also add whole grains here. (I would soak them first)
Cover and let rise.
As I remember, the point of the sponge method is that the yeast develops best without salt, egg and oil which hamper its growth.
After at least one hour, (tho I always wait at least 2 hours) add olive oil (I use one large wooden spoonful which is 2-3 T) 1 T. salt and more flour to make a dough. I use whole wheat flour here. Kneed well and shape. I roll my rolls in poppy seeds or sesame seeds. Bake on a greased baking sheet. Cover with a dish towel and let rise ½ hour. Baste with water or with beaten egg. Bake ca. 30 min. at 350 F.
The varients in this recipe are what kind of liquid. Regular milk gives a more cake like bread. How much oil, which oil or melted butter for a cake like bread. Egg/eggs can be added in the second step. what kind of flour. I use all whole grain flour but white flour can be used in varying amounts for a lighter whiter bread.

The Perfect Turkey

The turkey starts with the stuffing. I buy a loaf of bread that is a little denser than french bread, but not full of whole grains and cut off the crust and cube it and dry it in in the oven. Then I take a big slab of butter and melt that in a large iron pot. I add bay leaves (2 small ones from my potted trees), timian and sage. The smell of these herbs is heavenly and for me the essence of a good turkey. Then I sauté diced onion (about a cup), diced celery and at the end sliced fresh mushrooms. I add the dried bread cubes and mix. This I stuff in both cavities of the turkey. The small cavity usually has loose skin around it which keeps the stuffing in place, but I use a slice of bread to keep the stuffing in place in the big cavity. This is a tip I learned from my mother.
The beauty of turkey is the lack of fat, but this can be a problem roasting it. I take a piece of clean white cloth (for many years I used my stash of cloth diapers up this way) and cut it to be able to drape over the whole turkey. Then I rinse it thoroughly to make sure there is no detergent left (5 times). I melt some butter in a little water and moisten the cloth with this. Then I drape the turkey before putting it in the oven. The oven is preheated hot and then turned down for baking. The turkey sits on a rack with the cloth over it the entire baking time. My cookbook says 20 minutes to the pound for large turkeys. I continually baste the cloth. First with butter and then with pan drippings. The turkey gets perfectly golden brown under the cloth and stays moist this way.

Stand by me with Timon and Pumba and Frogs-listen it's fantastic!

Learning to eat fruit in France

The summer I was 18, I spent two months in France and Italy with the Experiment in International Living. The first month I lived with a French family in Annecy, a town on the edge of the French Alps right on a beautiful lake. My French family bought milk because I, an American, was staying with them. Strangely enough, they kept it under the kitchen sink instead of in the refrigerator. I am not a milk drinker to begin with and could not touch this sour milk, so I had to dissappoint them.

In France I learned to shake hands. At this time, in 1966, my French family shook hands with everyone, including family members, both the first and last time they saw each other during the day. I think this is a wonderful custom.

My French "sister" was very determined to be "une jeune fille elegant". She would not let me smoke on the street or stare at the other café guests.

My French family carefully explained the difference between a "gourmet" and a "gourmand" and then went on to label me a "gourmand". So I guess I did live up to lots of their prejudices about uncultured Americans.

During the month I lived with them, they only served a cake (bakery bought) for dessert once. That was to celebrate their son's university degree. Otherwise, we ate fruit and cheese after the meal. Having only eaten apples, bananas and oranges this was an adventure for me. I decided that I would eat everything they served. There was always cantaloup and the first night I fought my way through my cantaloup that tasted like soap to me. It took three days, before I began to appreciate the sweet wonderful flavor of cantaloup. It is sad to admit, but it was first in France, at the age of 18, that I tasted fruit that I picked from a tree. Neither my parents or neighbours had fruit trees. My French "sister" and I would drive around town on small "mopeds". She would stop at fruit trees and we would eat cherries and other fruit right off the tree.

CHOOSING FRUIT

Choose fruit by the appearance, the feel and the smell. Ripe, tasty fruit looks good and most importantly smells good.

Ode to Basmanti Rice

Even though I am fanatical about baking with whole grain products, I have to admit that I love and often use basmanti rice instead of brown rice. Not that I don't like the nutty flavour of brown rice.
In my teenage years the micro macro diet was popular and they said that brown rice was the most perfect food with the perfect balance between micro and macro. I cannot remember what micro and macro were but I think something to do with acid foods and basic foods maybe. They reccommended a diet of just brown rice to cleanse your system. I never did that, but I did during college suddenly go on a diet of only cooked oatmeal. It was the only thing I felt like eating for 9 days. I would eat cooked oatmeal three times a day. On the ninth day I woke up feeling tired and unenergetic and realized I better start eating some protein quick.
Back to basmanti rice. This is the perfect rice for chinese wok dishes (more about that later) and altogether a tasty, perfect rice.
A QUICK MEAL
Put 2 t. curry powder in the water with your basmanti rice.
Eat the curry rice with a large salad and a piece of lean chicken or turkey.
QUICK MEAL 2
Cook basmanti rice with curry powder.
Sauté some frozen peas in a little oil
Mix in basmanti rice and chunks of ham or chicken nuggets or meatballs.
This makes a colorful and delicious meal. Serve with salad.
MEATBALLS
Mix together:
1 egg
1 t. garlic salt
1 t. pabrika
2 T. maizena
add: 1 lb lean ground beef
form into small meatballs and fry.