Some Recent Favorites

No posts for February yet, shame! Anyway I thought I'd update with some news. A recent documentary I saw and loved was "Exit Through The Gift Shop," which I have been trying to see since it came out. It details the infamous street artist Banksy and h is documentarian, Mr. Brainwash (once you s ee the movie please let me know if you think it is for real!). A documentary I wasn't so fond of was "I'm Still Here" about Joaquin Phoenix's entre into the hip hop music world. I think this is a well-pulled off stunt but basically, I don't care that you're still here, Joaquin. He makes himself out to be quite an annoying and slovenly jerk in this film.

My new years resolutions are coming along better than expected- I have been working out on a regular basis and trying to keep things more organized (hanging my jacket up everyday proves to be a difficult task still though :-). The idea of running a 5 and maybe 10k in the spring have kept me motivated. I got the "couch to 5k" program on my ipod which is great. It tells you when to run and when to walk and basically progresses slowly over about 9 weeks. I'm on week 4 right now and loving that I can actually run outside occasionally now. I hope to not only do a race or two but to be able to run non-stop so I can cover more ground on all of the great trails and paths around here. I still have to put some books on my new nook color so that I can read for pleasure- I have many books on the list so whatever I can download free will be first.

As far as food goes I've been trying a few new recipes, although I find myself so busy during the week that I often end up with quick and easy eats. Doing more cooking and prep work on the weekends is a new goal. I will never tire of salad with spinach, blue cheese, walnuts and dried cranberries though (that was lunch today).

I took action and started a girl's craft group so this will help me harness my creativity (not that it is out of control) and spend some weeknight time socializing. We have our first get together Friday and I am excited to try cooking a new artisan bread from AB in 5. More to come soon!

I got the book!

And it's awesome! It goes into detail about the whole baking process of the bread and every recipe in it sounds amazing (I will post all those I try). I have been trying to adjust my recipe for high altitude to get a less dense loaf that rises more. There are some good tips on the bread blog: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com. I used only 1 tbsp. yeast this past time and it was more airy. I think I will try bread flour, and possibly vital wheat gluten next. The loaves are still fairly flat, not the size of sandwich bread, but there is a recipe in the book for a loaf pan version which could very well replace the need for store bought sandwich bread. This past week I made the "Light Whole Wheat". It is basically the same with the addition of whole wheat flour:

3 C. lukewarm water

1.5 Tbsp yeast (I used 1)

1.5 Tbsp kosher salt
1 C. whole wheat flour
5.5 C. unbleached all purpose flour
whole wheat flour for pizza peel

-Mix dough, allow to rise 2 hours. Use or refrigerate up to two weeks. On baking day, scoop out grapefruit size chunk.
-Shape dough into ball, pulling top around to form cloak. Allow to rest on cornmeal covered pizza peel for 40 minutes. Preheat oven at 450 with stone and broiler pan.
-Slide bread onto stone, pour 1 c. hot water into pan underneath and bake about 35 minutes.

I think the addition of wheat and other flour makes a tastier bread.
I stretched this dough out using lots of flour and made a huge spinach and cheese calzone.

I am almost fully equipped for these baking adventures. Instead of a baking stone, I invested in a Lodge cast-iron pizza pan: http://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Pro-Logic-Pizza-Pan/dp/B0000E2V3X . The reviews were all stellar and unlike baking stones, it can't break. It can also be used on the stove as a griddle pan and can be used in the oven for bread, pizza, biscuits- just about anything. It came pre-seasoned and I'm very pleased with it so far. I also bought a bamboo pizza peel from amazon which is solid and well made but a tad heavy for the oven transfer.