Wild Yeast

Notes from my kitchen, in which I bake bread and raise a few other matters

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BlogHer Food Conference Pass Giveaway!

Attention food bloggers!

You probably know that BlogHer Food, the eating-blogging-meeting-eating conference to be held in San Francisco on September 26, has been sold out for a while.

Here’s your chance to bypass the wait list and the $99 pass price, and get in on the action. Back in May, I grabbed a conference pass while the grabbing was good. Little did I know at that point that I would be having to walk a 22-mile training walk on September 26, and somehow I don’t think I’ll be back in time for a 9 AM conference start. Bad news for me, but good news for you.

I checked with the BlogHer people, and my ticket is transferrable, so I’m happy to pass it on to a lucky random winner. In order to be eligible for this giveaway, you must:

  • have a food blog, or at least a blog that mentions food once or twice.
  • be sure you can attend the conference.
  • give (not sell) the ticket to another deserving blogger in the event that something comes up such that you cannot attend.
  • understand the pass is for the conference only; you will have to make your own arrangements for accommodations and transportation.
  • leave a comment here by 11:59 PM PDT on Friday, August 21. Don’t forget to enter your blog’s url in the comment form.

Finally, if you like that I’m giving up this conference in favor of a 22-mile hike in preparation for walking a marathon, please feel free to donate to my Team in Training Fundraising to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. There’s no obligation, of course, but I’d sure appreciate it!

I Am A Lazy Cook

rice mushrooms squid artichokes

Daring Cooks is supposed to be all about learning. And I have to say, I did learn something important with this month’s challenge: I am lazy.

The dish proposed by Olga (Olga’s Recipes) was José Andres‘ Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish, and Artichokes, accompanied by allioli (kind of like a garlic mayonnaise). And a very lovely and wonderfully tasty dish it was, its shortcomings fully accounted for by my own indolence:

  • I did not perform an exhaustive search for cuttlefish. After calling three fish markets and finding none of them to have it, I went to Whole Foods and bought frozen squid. It was not bad but I would still like to know what cuttlefish tastes like.
  • I used canned artichokes, even though this is very much artichoke country. Canned artichokes do not compare with fresh at all. Shame on me.
  • I made the Modern Allioli (blender, less garlic, with egg) rather than the Traditional (mortar and pestle, more garlic, no egg) even though this is very much garlic country and I actually do own a mortar and pestle and I do worry about raw egg. It was good, though, and I suppose if the egg were going to make me sick, it would have by now.
  • I had to cut down on the water because I knew the rice wouldn’t all fit in the pan with all the water. However, I was too lazy to then recalculate the rice amount, so I just threw it all in. Consequently, this did not end up being what you would call a moist and creamy rice dish.

rice with mushrooms squid artichokes

Secrets of Failure

[This space reserved for a gorgeous photo that didn’t happen.]

The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

I am happy to report that the planets have aligned, the ships have come into port, and all is once again right with the world. After two months of Daring Bakers successes, I can once again plant a tick mark firmly in the FAIL column.

And there’s even an added bonus: It was cookies. I was defeated by cookies! Not something even a little hard like genoise or lemon meringue. Who the hell is ever undone by cookies?

So yes! I can once again lay claim to the the title of world’s worst non-yeast baker. Go me!

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Daring Bake(r)well Tart with Reliable Cherry Jam

The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England.

Talk about a no-brainer.

No, I don’t usually use that term in conjunction with a Daring Bakers’ challenge. But in considering what I would use to fill this month’s Bakewell Tart (pudding, whatever)…well, if it’s June in this part of California, we’re talking cherries. No need to pull out the old thinking cap for that one.

And what a glorious cherry season we’ve had this year. You know how you always feel like you need to taste cherries before buying to make sure they’re not too sour, or too mushy, or just plain tasteless? Well, not this year. I mean, I don’t think I’ve put one single bad cherry in my mouth.

From farmers markets, from roadside stands, from the open-air market across the street from my clinic, even from the supermarkets, they’ve been good. And by good I mean perfect. And by perfect I mean firm, sweet, juicy, and 100% reliable. You just can’t do any better than reliable cherries. Like a good night’s sleep, reliable cherries make your problems a little less problematic, and the sweet stuff just that much sweeter.

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Potstickers!

This month, Jen of use real butter challenged the Daring Cooks to make potstickers from scratch. That means wrappers too, and that means dough, and that means I love it!

Although we could fill the dumplings with anything we liked, I chose to stick with Jen’s pork filling, following her recipe exactly. For anyone who thinks this was not daring enough, let me just point out that pan-frying potstickers involves pouring water into a pan of hot oil and, in Jen’s words, “duck[ing] while everything spatters violently.”

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Rolling the Rhubarb

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

I have a large piece of natural linen that until this week had been sitting around waiting for me to cut it into pieces for lining proofing baskets, or maybe sew a pair of summer pants. Not any more. Thanks to this month’s Daring Bakers strudel challenge, this linen is now designated as my Official Strudel-Pulling-and-Rolling Cloth.

Because I’m sure I’ll be making strudel again. Who knew gluten without yeast could be this fun, this easy, and this good?

The only problem with the cloth is the color; it exactly camouflages the strudel dough, making it impossible for me to show off my tissue-thin sheet. See what I mean?

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