Sourdough Focaccia

Those that know me are aware of my passion for bread baking. The entire process just makes me happy. And earlier this year, I resolved to conquer my fear of sourdough. At some point in the past, I tried the "DIY sourdough starter" and it didn't work and ended up getting pretty gross. A few months ago, I found a starter in one of my favorite health food stores, so I thought I'd try it again. And it's been wonderful.
 

We lovingly refer to the starter as "Hank," because, well, everything in our house gets nicknames. So we'll talk about feeding Hank and making sure Hank has had dinner and well...Hank has really become part of the family.

Here's his home on top of my fridge.

Anyway, so Hank has been maturing and has the most delightful "sourdough" smell to him and makes the best breads. I've tried him in baguettes and multigrain sandwich bread and pancakes and there's still so many things I want to try.

But one of my favorites is sourdough focaccia. This recipe is definitely a staple around here and we make it.....let's just say we make it rather frequently. But it's easy and you can top it in so many ways. Today's variety was just Italian seasoning, garlic powder, cracked pepper and coarse sea salt.

Or we've done kalamata olives and thinly sliced onion. Or my favorite combination - raisin and rosemary. Seriously it's crazy delicious. But what I love about the recipe is it's relatively simple. You mix it all up, knead it for a few minutes, let it rise twice, and then it's ready to go.

There are so many great primers out there for sourdough, so I won't go into the nitty gritty, but suffice it to say it's so much easier than I thought and it really doesn't require a lot of extra work. I keep Hank out on top of my fridge because I use starter almost every day (between baking and giving it to friends) but you can easily keep it in the fridge and only feed it once a week. Very very easy. So give sourdough a try. It's so worth the effort.

And if you live close, you're welcome to stop by and get a little Hank Jr. to take home.

Sourdough Focaccia

1 cup sourdough starter, fed or unfed
3/4 cup warm water
2 tsp instant yeast
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp. olive oil

Topping
1-2 tbsp. olive oil
Italian seasoning, garlic powder, coarse sea salt, pepper, etc
kalamata olives, onions, etc

Combine all dough ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together well and knead for 5-7 minutes until dough is smooth. Place in a lightly greased bowl and let rise for at least an hour. Punch down, then let rise again for at least another hour.

Lightly grease a 9x13 baking pan or cookie sheet and pat or roll dough into a long rectangle in the pan. Brush the olive oil over the dough and sprinkle with herbs and desired toppings. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425. Remove plastic wrap and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from pan and slice when warm.

Clean-Out-The-Fridge Crockpot Curry

Around these parts, we like to do Pantry Week every once in awhile, which is a great opportunity to use up some of those items that seem to languish forever in the fridge and pantry. It's also a great time to clean out any of those just-about-to-turn vegetables that seem to lurk in the corners.

This recipe is perfect for Pantry Week and Clean Out The Fridge days. You can use pretty much any vegetable that you want, and the rest is just spices and items that you probably have in your pantry already. And it spends a few hours simmering in the crockpot after only a few minutes of throwing everything together, so it comes in clutch for those days you don't have much time.

I used a potato, onion, some carrots, and a zucchini, but you could easily use mushrooms, sweet potatoes, celery, green peppers, or whatever else you want. A can of garbanzos was thrown in, but feel free to use black beans, navy beans, or cannellini beans if you want. I've even thrown in a cup of uncooked red lentils, which cook up beautifully. Seriously - don't overthink it. Just chop up your vegetables, mix in the rest of the ingredients, and let it simmer for 6-7 hours.

It's deliciously warm and comforting with just the amount of spice. We had it over green bamboo rice that's been eyeballing me from the corner of the pantry for an embarrassingly long time, but you could easily use quinoa, your favorite rice, or any other grain that makes you happy.

So go ahead, clean out that pantry and fridge and give this recipe a try!

Clean Out The Fridge Crockpot Curry

1 potato, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
2 large handfuls of baby carrots, chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 (15oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp yellow mustard seed
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp celery seed
1/4 tsp (or more) cayenne
Salt/pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in crockpot and simmer on low for 6-7 hours, until vegetables are tender.

Looking for more Pantry Week recipes? Try these!
Spicy Zucchini and Mushroom Saute
Grilled Enchilada Pizza
No Knead Bread
Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Bisque

A Garden Update

Can't believe how fast time is flying. Here it is - already the first day of June. In just a little over a month, the baby will be a year old. How did that happen so fast?!?

We've been so busy working on a project which we'll be sharing later on our blog, but for now, I thought we'd do a little update of what our garden looks like right now. I apologize in advance for the picture heavy post.

We'll start with fruit. Our black raspberry bushes have EXPLODED in our yard, which is fine by us! We planted 2, just 2, small plants 2 years ago. Last year, we picked 9 QUARTS from those bushes. This year, we will far far outdo that total.

They should be ready in a few weeks, and I can't wait.

We also added a potted blueberry bush this year. We don't have any real space to devote to any more fruit, so we've started adding some things in containers. This tiny bush has a surprising amount of fruit on it!

I've been wanting a citrus tree for years. Not only do the flowers smell amazing, but then you get citrus fruit from them! This year, we added a Meyer lemon tree, and we already have quite a few tiny fruits on it. I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Now on to the vegetables. One thing I really like about the gardening process is that it's an everchanging game. Every year, we make adjustments, crossing things off the list we don't really use or that don't have a good return on the space they take up. Last year, we learned that although we love watermelons and broccoli and cauliflower, they just take up far too much space in our little yard to make it worth our while. Some things stay on the list though, like tomatoes. Here's our tomato beds.

Here's our peppers and eggplants. And yes, we need to weed like WHOA! =)

We also have kale and lettuce, which is doing quite nicely. (You can see our cinderblock strawberry plants around the border)

Then we also have a cucumber and squash raised bed. This year, we planted patty pan, yellow squash, 8 ball squash and 2 types of cukes.

Hello little squash baby!

And here the herb section. We have lovage, basil, chamomile, oregano, sage, rosemary, parsley, chives, stevia, and thyme.

You can see the lemon balm has exploded.

 

And every year, we like to try something different. Last year, we did dried beans and they turned out quite amazing and will be a repeat. This year, we decided to try peanuts! We have 2 going in our potato bags and so far, so good.

We still have to plant our beans later this month, and we have 2 flower beds that are planted but are pretty boring to look at right now so I'll share those when there are more blooms going on. Here's the only thing blooming so far - a gorgeous fuchsia plant.

Hope your gardens are doing well!