nw2s

• 330 g flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 400 g sugar
• 1 1/2 c butter
• 4 eggs
• 2 c raspberries, slightly mashed
• 1/2 c sunflower seeds
• 1/2 c flax seeds
• 1/2 c oats

Vegan version:

• substitute 1 1/2 c oil for butter
• substitute 1/2 c flax meal processed with 3/4 c water for egg

We picked another 3 lbs of raspberries this weekend. I used about 2 lbs making 4 loaves of bread! I’m going to a friend’s house for some grilling whose wife is vegan. I’ve never cooked vegan before (on purpose, anyway), so gave it a shot.

For the vegan version, combine the flax meal and water in a food processor and process until it becomes thick. Refrigerate until needed.

Grease 2 5×9 bread pans. Mix dry ingredients including the nuts and oats. In a separate bowl, mash the raspberries with a potato masher and combine with the sugar, melted and cooled butter (or oil), and eggs (or flax meal concoction). Combine with the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes at 325.

• 320 g bread flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 sticks butter
• 50 g white sugar
• 248 g dark brown sugar
• 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1.5 tsp vanilla
• 1 12 oz package semisweet or milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 package toffee chips (optional)
• 1 c  buckwheat groats (optional, but oh so good)

Melt the butter in a saucepan and allow to cool. Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. Combine the sugar and butter in a stand mixer and beat at a medium speed until whipped up. Add the eggs, vanilla and milk on a slower speed and mix until combined. Use the mixer to mix in the dry ingredients. By hand mix in the extras – chocolate chips, toffee, and groats.

Katrina asked me if the groats made them more healthy. My guess – no. They taste good tho. They’re nutty and crunchy, but not as heavy as walnuts or hazelnuts.

• 330 g flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. cinnamon
• 400 g sugar
• 1 1/2 c. butter
• 4 eggs
• 2 c sliced strawberries, slightly mashed
• 1/2 c sunflower seeds
• 1/2 c flax seeds
• 1/2 c oats

This is a little different from most strawberry breads I found. I reduced the sugar a little, changed the oil to butter, and added some grains and nuts. Overall it’s a little less sweet, and if you cook it the full 1:15, it turns out a little chewier than you’d expect, but I like that.

Slice the strawberries and add 100g of the sugar. Allow to macerate for an hour or so and speed the process along a little bit by mashing them up with a potato masher.

Grease 2 5×9 bread pans. Mix dry ingredients including the nuts and oats. In a separate bowl combine the remaining sugar, melted and cooled butter, eggs, and macerated strawberries. Combine with the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes at 325.

For the potatoes:

• ‘B’ size red potatoes (about a peck’s worth, or enough to fill your roasting pan)
• olive oil
• 2 tbsp ground curry powder
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• pinch of ground cinnamon
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• pinch of ground cloves
• hefty pinch of kosher salt

For the yogurt:

• 8oz strained yogurt
• half of a bunch of cilantro
• 1/4 tsp salt
• juice of one lime

Preheat the oven to 425 – we’re roasting the potatoes, not baking them! Rinse the potatoes and slice them into 8ths – once each in the x, y, and z planes. Dump them into the roasting pan and toss with enough olive oil to coat. Add spices and salt and toss. Roast for about 45 – 50 minutes, stirring them (scrape the bottom!) once every 10 – 15 minutes. Turn on the broiler for another 10 – 15 minutes, shaking every few minutes for even browning.

While the potatoes are in the oven, finely chop the cilantro and mix with yogurt, salt, and lime juice. Allow to set in the fridge for the remaining time.

I’ve made a couple of batches of peanut butter and cashew butter. I don’t know what got into me, but I thought If just peanuts taste good, it’s gotta taste better with everything in it! Honestly, I think I need to add a lot more oil to the butter than I’m comfortable doing. What I’ve been making should be rolled in parchment paper and sliced instead of spread out of a tub. I should probably use peanut oil instead. We’ll see next time.

• 5 oz peanuts
• 5 oz cashews
• 5 oz almonds
• 1/2 c sunflower seeds
• 1/2 c flax meal
• 1/2 c cappings
• 1/2 c honey
• 1/4 c vegetable oil

Roast the nuts and seeds in a 425 degree oven until they start to smell toasty.  In a food processor combine the cooled nuts and seeds, flasx meal, honey, cappings, and vegetable oil. Process until it’s smooth. I’m seriously considering rolling it up in some parchment paper next time, but for now, it’s sitting in my fridge in a 24oz jar.

Serve with raspberry preserves that you made from your roadside raspberries.

Last year when barb and I were biking around so much, I think we just missed prime raspberry season before we had everything together enough to notice. Raspberry collecting involves an amount of patience. First, you need to be traveling by a means that’s slow enough to realize you’re passing patch after patch of the bright red berry. Second, you need to have a little extra time to stop and collect them. Lest you forget, you’ll also need something to collect them in — unless you want to gorge yourself on the spot.

Yesterday, we were walking the Briarcliff-Peekskill trailway and took a detour along the road a little ways to avoid some of the muddier sections. We filled up a 1-liter Nalgene bottle… Great excuse to have ice cream for dessert.

I thought I’d take advantage of the short span of sun and 80+ degree weather to make some summery sodas. I’d been wanting to make some sort of tea soda, but it felt a little odd just making green tea alone, so here’s my recipe…

• 1 tbsp (or more to taste) grated ginger
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
• 4 bags green tea
• 3/4 c white sugar
• 2 liters water
• 1/4 c lime juice

Heat the water to near boiling and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir to dissolve the sugar and allow to steep for 5 minutes. Use a few layers of cheese cloth and a coffee filter to strain the tea into a 2 liter soda bottle. I had some trouble with my Chemex filter clogging, so I’d use cheese cloth next time just to make it go a little faster. You don’t want any pulp, though, as it’ll cause the soda to go flat faster.

Chill for a few hours, carbonate, and allow to settle.

There was a great story on NPR a few weeks ago that finally spurred me into buying one more buckling spring keyboard.

Unfortunately, most of my collection of umpteen early 80’s Model F’s and Model M’s, from vintage square logos with the large 5 pin din connectors to Lexmark manufactured ones from the late 90’s haven’t been getting much use. Day-to-day, I’m developing on a MacBook Pro which doesn’t work with the PS/2 to USB adapters, and even if it did, would require remapping almost every single modifier key to be able to work.

Luckily, Unicomp is making them (or at least REALLY good copies) now, including the Apple/Windows key, and putting USB connectors on them. I ordered a couple, and though the quality is about 90% of what it once was, that’s still 90% more than you get with anything else. I do like the Cherry and Alps keyboards in my collection, but nothing beats the buckling spring. Great work guys – please keep it up as long as you can!

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