Rosemary Sea Salt Bread -

I am always thinking up new ways to freshen old recipes especially when it comes to adding something very simple that will make a huge difference. We all love our bread around here and there have been endless recipes tried out making it better all the time.

One of my favourite for this time of the year is Rosemary Seasalt Bread. Perhaps I like it so much because it goes with nearly everything - any kind of meal you might cook, this herby bread is tasty and versatile. 

But, it also packs a punch as far as wholesome goodness is concerned as well. This past week I have been giving some thought to flu season, colds and winter bugs in general as they are so common this time of year - one food to always include in your cooking would be herbs to help strengthen your body.

It is no secret how much I love and use herbs - the vast majority of the ones used in my cooking are from my own garden. Planted, raised, grown and then dried by hand. These taste the best in cooking and baking adding superior flavour and freshness.

With this in mind I started making a Rosemary bread which by itself tastes great - I follow my usual recipe for baking spelt bread - which means to not measure anything, just start adding the ingredients! But, when I adding the simplest sea salt over top - the taste is outstanding!

To make this bread, I might use about 4 cups of organic whole grain spelt flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoons dried rosemary (or fresh if you have it), 1/2 cup ground linseeds, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, pinch salt, water. This is all mixed up into a thick batter until it resembles a bread mixture and then spooned into a lined loaf pan.

Once the loaf pan is filled I sprinkle more rosemary over top together with coarse sea salt such as Celtic sea salt. I might press this into the bread dough a little bit to get it to stick as well. Then this is baked in a hot oven for about 50 minutes until done...

This is one of the simplest and tastiest breads that I have ever made and I can't wait until Solstice to try some out with a piece of smoked fish... Yumm!

April

Rosemary Sea Salt Bread 

Winter Warmer - Cheese & Olive Spelt Bread

Today I have been keeping myself busy with a few tasks, only to realize that we were almost out of bread. Of course, I was only too pleased to use up some more items in the fridge as more of us will be fasting before the weekend is over.

I have a bowl of olives and some Chèvre goat's cheese that needed to be used before it had to went off- and these are great items to put into a loaf of bread. Because it will be mainly my daughter eating pretty soon, I made mini loaves that can be frozen if need be. 

Right now the house smells warm and comforting - the kind of scent that only bread and melted cheese can give! LOL

To make the bread I wanted to give it some strong flavours to go along with the cheese and olives so I put in a generous helping of thyme, oregano and rosemary. Then I chopped the olives into pieces and grated the cheese.

Once I started to make the bread I put in the usual baking soda, salt, the herbs and then some poppy seeds (I always use some kind of seed but it is usually sunflower or linseed). Next I poured in the whole grain spelt flour and mixed this thoroughly.

Once the dry ingredients were dealt with I kept stirring in olives, cheese and lastly the water. I didn't put too much cheese in with the flour because it sometimes can make this bread break off into chunks. Or separate once cooked.

As well the cheese was well crumbled and mixed in once the dough was formed. I then spooned out the soda bread dough into mini loaf pans and put more grated cheese over top as well as pushed in some olives pieces that were sticking out. They can burn and not have a pleasant taste.

These were put into a hot oven for 35 minutes or so until done. So, now the house smell delicious and there is a lovely bread ready to go with the cream of broccoli soup I am making for their dinners.... 

All in a days work!

April

Mini loaf of Cheese & Olive Bread 

A Food 'Memory' - Bread Pudding

I have been planning for the past couple of days to make a bread pudding and of course have been duly saving the old pieces of bread, instead of given them to the animals in preparation for this dish. It is something I remember having in my childhood, but not having eaten it since.

It is not a difficult dish to make either - if I remember correctly, it was basically, bread, eggs, milk and spices. Perhaps if someone was industrious there might be a sauce over the top. But often it was served and eaten, just as it was. 

So, today I got the large dish ready and had been mulling over what I might do to make this pudding tasty. I decided on  a few things and as is my usual style - I just dove in to it. The dish was buttered, the bread was placed on the bottom and I prepared an egg mixture with duck eggs, milk,  and all spices. 

Bread pudding seeded spelt bread pieces

The egg mixture was poured evenly over the top of the bread and allowed to sit for about an hour. I had a jar of unsweetened cherries in juice so, in place of additional raisins (there were some in the bread) I poured this jar of cherries over the top as well. 

Then I put this in the oven for about half an hour. In the meantime I made some hazelnut butter (always a lovely treat!) and some custard. I ended up mixing these two together to see what kind of taste I would get - it was tasty but the custard did not set enough.

Once the bread pudding was out of the oven and served up into dishes, I spooned out some of the hot custard mixture over it and voila - there was now some kind of dessert. Everyone loved it - except for me. I ate it while trying to analyze just why I was not enjoying it.

Then I realised, I don't remember if I like bread pudding. I don't even remember eating it - I just remember that it was there. But, perhaps I didn't like it then and I wasn't impressed today. I thought it was bland, which surprised me because there were so many flavours in there.

I think this was a classic food memory of an association between an unpleasant time and food - or unpleasant food and time....whatever! 

It's back to the drawing board for me with that one....

April

Bread pudding with hazelnut custard sauce 

Love Food

Yesterday was fairly productive for me in terms of coming off of a 10 day Master Cleanse and getting back to cooking and eating. The difference between the fasting state and the food state is profound in terms of creativity, focus and clarity. It is a transition that I have not really enjoyed mainly because I am afraid (there's that word again) of not being as focused or feeling as good as I do when fasting. 

However, they are just two different states of being and here I am on to the next phase of what I would call day on/day off food and fasting. Although yesterday was mainly a juice day, I did do some baking and made a small batch of jam with the fruit that I had on hand. 

So, the jam story thus far has taken me around the world to find ideas about combinations for the fruit that I had available - something that would taste good and be an interesting flavour at the same time. I am determined to use organic and local as much as possible even if it only forms the base of the final product. 

I had a small amount of local strawberries but not enough to make a batch of jam on it's own, so I needed to put something with it. I found mention of strawberry kiwi jam - but it called for sugar and lots of pectin. I reasoned if I used some kiwi, a couple of tart apples, apple concentrate and perhaps a thickener like agar flakes, then I could make some kind of jam from this and it should taste ok. 

Late last night I chopped up all that I had on hand - strawberries, kiwi and 2 tart apples, these went into the pot with the other ingredients and 1/2 an hour later out came the jam. It was not as thick as I would have liked, but it did thicken, once blended it looked and smelled really nice too. It was not overly sweet but not tart or tangy, just pleasant tasting.

It nearly filled 3 full jars - which by the way I am getting to be very proficient at, as they all sealed right up within a minute or so after coming from the boiling water bath. It is so interesting how canning my own foods was something that I had talked about doing for years, kept putting it off because I thought it would be so complicated and tedious. And it is none of these. 

The other adventures yesterday were the normal ones for me of baking breads. When not fasting, I bake 2 small loaves of organic whole grain spelt bread each day - this will usually be sweet bread with sultanas, cinnamon and seeds, herbed bread with rosemary and thyme, honey oat bread with our own honey, or naan bread with sesame seeds. Or some combination thereof. 

Yesterday I made honey oat muffins (which were gone so fast I couldn't even get a photo of them all!) and sweet bread. I have been making my own bread for awhile and made bread each week as a young girl growing up. It is something of a comfort food for us here and so easy to make. 

I am baffled by those who buy anything that comes from a shop in terms of bread - this is the one food which should be your link as a family. Bake the bread together, eat and enjoy it - this food conveys your love and care for each other always reminding us of home. 

Honey oat and sweet spelt breads

Feeding ourselves well is what this is all about, this is not work, this is love.

April