Weekend adventures in baking

I had an unusual amount of free time this weekend, as I only had to drop into lab briefly on Saturday morning to maintain some cells. I made an ambitious list for the apartment, the garden, although the kitchen ended up dominating my time. When I have a few hours on Sunday (and I've been successful in my grocery shopping), I like to make lunches for the week and portion them out ahead of time - a trick my sister taught me, and one that makes me much more likely to bring my lunch to lab instead of buying it (saving me money and probably healthier as well). So I made herb dijon salmon (which is totes delicious, but I can't claim credit for it - I love Trader Joe's selections of pre-marinated meats that come with clear and easy-to-follow instructions, so even a recovering semi-vegetarian like me can follow them).

Lunches for the week! It uses almost the same number of leftover dishes I would if I separated the meal parts, but so much easier to just grab and go.

To accompany, I sauteed some frozen green beans I had (also from TJ's) and decided to roast some baby potatoes as well (also from TJ's, if you notice a theme). I tossed them in around a tablespoon or so of garlic-infused olive oil (from...well, you get the idea), and then cut up and threw in some dill, thyme, rosemary, and one sage leaf from my window. The first official use of my herbs! I was overly delighted by this. The potatoes came prewashed (much appreciated!) and after some good tossing in a bowl, I simply threw them in the oven in a pan for thirty minutes at 400F. I probably should/could have roasted them for less time - for potatoes this small, twenty minutes would be plenty. But they came out smelling delicious and looking lovely. As a side dish, it couldn't get any easier - no measuring, very little cleanup, and quite fast. For larger potatoes, I would cut them into pieces, but these are the perfect size bite whole. I can't claim originality for this idea - found through supercook.com - although the dill was my idea as I thought it would accompany the salmon well. Next time, I would throw in some sea salt and pepper as well to help spice it up more.

Setting the stage - an overabundance of all things Trader Joe's. I would highly recommend the olive oil for anyone who enjoys garlic - it adds great flavor to just about anything.

Just before the oven - my, what wonderfully chopped herbs you have.

I also put my three herbs (minus the dill) to good use in a buttermilk biscuit recipe I found online. I love biscuits of any kind, so this recipe was right up my alley. I was liberal with the amount of herbs I put in, and I also tossed in a good handful of grated sharp cheddar - because how could cheese not go with this? I didn't do drop biscuits, instead rolling out the dough and cutting them with my improvised biscuit cutter (classy, I know).

Butter, pre-melting. It already smelled delicious, although I wondered why the recipe didn't just put all these herbs directly into the dough.

Sometimes you gotta make it up as you go. As long as the edge is floured well beforehand, this actually works quite well.

Smeared with butter and ready to go in the oven!

You can see the cheese now that it's baked and melted. I paid for early sampling with a burnt tongue, but it was totally worth it.

Next time I would add significantly more cheese and also put more of the herbs actually in the dough. However, the texture of the biscuits turned out beautifully and they would be wonderful with soups, stews, or eggs for breakfast. They weren't good enough for me to convert from my standard baking powder biscuit recipe (the one adapted to produce this berry shortcake), but I'm glad I tried them.

That was the end of my window garden-based cooking adventures, but I didn't stop there. Jenn, a friend whose baking I can only aspire to, gifted me a donut tray some time ago, and I was eager to try it out. I ended up trying out this recipe, with more vanilla and a dash of cardamom added (I have a slight obsession for cardamom, so I will toss in a pinch with just about any dessert I make).

First time use of the donut tray! I had no idea what to expect....

...but they turned out pretty near perfect.

The donuts fresh out of the oven reminded me of bagels, which have now gone on my list of "some day" baking. They were a wonderful, light texture but a bit tasteless pre-sugar. And after sugar - well, how could they not taste good?

Doused in butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar! I have no idea how the missing bite came about from the top donut. Must've been the dog.

 I ended my baking adventures with this recipe for what claimed to be "homemade oreos." They ended up being somewhere between a whoopie pie and the classic sandwich cookie - not a bad thing! I took the cookies out of my oven at exactly nine minutes as the recipe called for, even though my oven usually takes a few minutes longer. This left the cookies chewy (delicious - I much prefer soft cookies to crisp ones). I didn't have any vegetable shortening, so I only used butter for the filling - next time I would definitely use a lighter, fluffier filling, more akin to whoopie pies than this recipe. Overall, though, a wonderful baking weekend, and now I have lunches and sweets to spare!

Vodka + vanilla beans = cheap vanilla for baking (you can also use other alcohols). This bottle had been sitting in my room at my parents' house for years (not for drinking but as a centerpiece for the ads I used to collect), and I finally opened it up and put it to use.

The cookies just out of the oven, cooling. I was pleased that they remained soft, even the next day.

My presentation may be lacking, but they certainly tasted delicious. And quite like oreos, though strangely the individual components did not. It's a mystery.

Growth!

This weekend I plan to return to Haymarket (this time with a plan and a shopping list) and also hopefully bake (and take pictures of) many successful foods. Also on the "to do" list this weekend - transplant the pea plants. I already had to rig one up, with questionable success.

My pea plants. The tallest had fallen over when I woke up yesterday, so I tied it to a chopstick with a broken hairband. A temporary solution at best. On the far left are two pepper sprouts - I had another emerge within the past three days! Still nothing from the English pea plants, though.

 It's been raining off and on this week, so I haven't felt the need to water the plants. I have started watering the seed trays, and just this morning I did a thinning of some of the cells, so that I have no more than three seedlings per cell (most of them only have two - I couldn't bring myself to pluck out all but one - what happens if that one fails!?). I also moved them from the bathroom to a place where they will get at least a few hours of afternoon sun in my living room. Unfortunately I don't have room on my window ledge leading to my iron patio, where they would probably get more direct sunlight.

My other seed tray, somewhat thinned. The three types of basil are on the right, and I can't remember what I put on the left. I have misplaced my seed diagram, which makes things interesting - good thing I took a picture of it!

My closet kitchen, with the window leading to the iron balcony on the left. Newly purchased (and as yet unused) garden gloves are on the windowsill. What is not visible is the dog food and water bowls that I keep below the window, making access near impossible. I am still looking for an easier way to actually reach the plants than rearranging my entire kitchen every time.

The reason for this post, though, is that when I checked my plants this morning and removed various bits of trees that had blown onto them, I was surprised to move a strawberry leaf and reveal three berries! Because of the view from my kitchen window, I hadn't known they were lurking, so I was super excited to see they all look healthy and in various stages of growth.

Hello, little friends!

I still have to find/create an appropriate lattice for the peas, which I will hopefully put into their new home this evening, so I'll be sure to get pictures of that as well as any food this weekend. The weather is forecast to be quite cold this weekend with a nightly low for both Saturday and Sunday at freezing - so I may bring my plants inside each night. I just hope my dog doesn't try to eat them.

She certainly looks innocent enough.

Rain, peas, and bees

Boston has been in the midst of a short-term drought this spring and much-needed rain finally arrived Saturday. Unfortunately, it then rained off and on for over an entire day, and I am now concerned about the lack of a drainage system for my plants. However, the sun is back this morning and the plants no longer look like part of the scenery for "All Summer in a Day." In fact, the pepper plant has definitely perked up and even the questionable strawberry plants are standing a little taller. It's so convenient when Mother Nature does my job for me.

These are not my plants. But they capture how my plants looked - I didn't feel like opening my window and letting all the wind and rain into my kitchen for what would have been a soggy, sorry picture.

New leaves on the pepper plant! Note that despite all the rain, the packing peanuts were still not completely dissolved. Hmm.

I am currently searching around for recipes to use the sage, rosemary, and thyme from Trader Joe's. I went to supercook.com and highlighted "thyme" and found a recipe for focaccia rolls that looks quite appetizing. It uses both rosemary and thyme, although I'd have to use dried basil, as I don't have any fresh. I'm not sure about how the dried/fresh herbs will mix. I have a hard time finding time to make bread, so this may be an endeavour for some unknown future date. The other possibility that is more likely to happen is to roast some fingerling potatoes with herbs and some olive oil. Unfortunately I was already a bit too enthusiastic for food this week (baking and cooking are my other escape from lab, and this week I've already made raspberry granola cookie bars, whole wheat pizza, lamb and couscous, tomato/chickpea/cucumber/feta salad, and for dessert a blend of strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries), so I'll be waiting a few days to use the herbs.

From top, moving clockwise: One portion of lamb and couscous, raspberry granola cookie bars, berry mix, and finally a tomato/cucumber/feta salad that I use as topping for the lamb and couscous. Not pictured: the whole wheat pizza with green peppers and onions (I purchased the pre-made crust dough, so I'm not sure that counts).

My seed trays are also doing well, particularly the pea plants. They are actually growing 1-2 inches a day at this point, and I'm concerned something will happen to them before I find some sort of lattice to put in a pot with them. It is exciting to be able to measure the difference each morning and night, though!

Pea seedlings! If the tray were mobile, which is currently isn't, I would have tried to avoid my lovely bathroom wall as backdrop. Oh well. The tallest one is now well over nine inches tall and definitely searching for a lattice to cling to.

This afternoon I went to a lecture that Harvard was hosting as part of a week of Earth Day celebrations titled "Urban Beekeeping." It was given by Dr. Noah Wilson-Rich of Best Bees, a Boston-based company that sets up and maintains bee colonies all over the metro Boston area as well as the cape. What is neat is that he then uses the profits from his business to fund his bee research. I loved his story as it obvious that he has truly melded both his scientific curiosity and his passion into one harmonious job. If we could all be so lucky! Since my father actually maintains several hives in West Virginia, I was familiar with a lot of bee basics. However, I didn't realize how easy it is to adapt bee hives for urban living - in fact he showed statistics showing that urban bee hives produce more honey and have a higher chance of surviving the winter than do rural hives. Other neat factoids:

1. Major die-offs/disappearances of bees have been reported for over a thousand years (including one a hundred years ago when the Isle of Wight lost 100% of their bee colonies), although it is unclear if these deaths have been due to the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder or another issue.

2. He suggested using a tray to collect pollen that falls off the bees when they land at the hive and then mixing it year-round with tea. Why? Because by constantly exposing your body to pollen throughout the year, apparently you can lessen the severity of spring allergy symptoms. Sign me up!

3. I loved this story about the red honey of Brooklyn.

4. Finally, he had a great picture up of a hive that he had helped install in a math/geometry classroom at Fenway High. With one side of the hive entirely made of glass and the opening to the outside, it's totally safe and an awesome idea to teach students about ecology, biology, social behavior, and geometry (ever wonder why the bees make their comb in a hexagon?).