Tenebrae and Passover

 Tonight our choir along with an orchestra does a Tenebrae Service. It is Good Friday today. Tenebrae is a Latin word meaning "darkness". By the end of our service the room will be dark and we leave in silence to ponder the impact of Christ's death and await the celebration of the coming Resurrection of Christ. The Story from the Gospels will have readings, and after each, a candle will be extinguished. This practice goes back to the ninth century. 

We have a flagstone stage that can hold a small orchestra, and we the choir sit in back up on a few stair levels. The stage has a railing across the front where the candles can sit. Our candles were handmade by someone in our church - separate pieces of swirled colored glass with a candle holder in the back. 

This is last year's service. I'll return to this post and post tonight's service. 

 Passover is also this week. This year I'm chronologically reading through the Bible. Not long ago I read the Exodus story from Egypt. I like the art work in the next video shows us that story -

 Have a blessed Easter. "Jesus is Risen. He is risen indeed!"

Ferments Including Sauerkraut

 

Fermented Sauerkraut

 

Yesterday I transferred my sauerkraut to other jars to put in our garage fridge. This past garden cabbage was bagged and put in the bottom of that fridge all this time. I was lazy and just did not get to it till last month.

My favorite fermenting book is The Complete IDIOTS Guide to Fermenting Foods, by Wardeh Harmon. My book is from 2012 and I have so many notes and post-it notes in it. I have other books as well and often consult them, but it all gets put into this book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the years I've tried a lot of ferments and have narrowed down to my favorites. That being sauerkraut from our garden, fermented pickles (which I like way better than vinegar made pickles), and then Cranberry-Orange-Apple Relish. Once cranberries hit the store my mouth waters for this ferment. I like Dilly Green Beans, but don't make them every year. Since I grow turnips and beets I'm going to try that recipe again. I also usually ferment my garlic scapes. And I occasionally make Beet Kvass.

Now that I'm looking at the book, I realize I also often make the fermented Mayonnaise as well as Ketchup and Dijon Mustard. Instead of the Veggie Tomato Juice, this year, I canned my own version of V8 Juice. And too, we occasionally want the Ginger Soda. Sometimes I've added turmeric root with the ginger root.  

I didn't make the sauerkraut earlier because I still had some in the fridge from the previous year. Usually I pressure can whatever is left from the year before. But now that I have a freeze dryer, I often freeze-dry my older sauerkraut on a low setting to keep it's probiotic nutrients - I've reconstituted it and it tastes fresh.

It's funny, cuz at first when I started writing this post, I thought I wasn't fermenting many things, but as I kept listing them ... I guess I do! 

 

Kamut & Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

 

Fresh baked sourdough loaves from fresh milled kamut and whole wheat flour I started two days ago. It was autolyzed (the grain flour soaked in the recipe's water). Then once the sourdough starter was added, it went through the folding process, and then was bulked a bit. Put into the cambro container, it was refrigerated (see that post from 2 days ago for the process). I did fold it a bit yesterday and shaped it into a nice boule, then back into the cambro and fridge. Today, straight from the fridge, it was baked! 

These are the containers I'm baking in. The long one is clay and the closest one is cast iron. They go into the oven to preheat to 500 degrees, so the pans get hot. 

I shape the cold dough on the counter and it sits while the oven and pans are preheating.

I typically do just one slash with a razor blade. 

 

Cambro

Once in the oven with the lids on, I turn the heat down to 450 degrees. Turn the timer on for 20 minutes. When it goes off, I remove the lids and have the timer go for another 20 minutes.  

 Because it is just the two of us I cut the cooled loaves in half and they store in the freezer. I have bread freezer bags I use for freezing the bread without plastic bags.

 I always have bread stored in a beeswax bag in our bread box in the kitchen. A breadboard sits near the bread box along with the sourdough knife. 

 

New Sourdough Book

 

A new to me book

When I was researching the nutrition in fresh ground whole grains, and moreso sourdough, I found this gal, Vanessa Kimbell. She's called the sourdough queen in the UK and started a sourdough school.

When reading Amazon's sample (and I read the samples of all three of her books) I knew I wanted them. Their Kindle versions were so cheap I got them first, but then realized I needed the physical books so I can flip back and forth to differing pages and even mark them up ...

(The mention of owning them and liking to mark them up reminds me of a series I'm reading. At Christmas my granddaughter was reading them and her mom eventually told me she'd give me the first two for my birthday, I am savoring them!!! I'm on book 5 of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion series, by Beth Brower. I can't show you book number 1 because a friend came today for tea and borrowed it. I've already heard from her, that she loves it and is going to savor it! Anyway, Emma M. Lion LOVES books and likes to own them so she can mark them up. I periodically text my daughter-in-law to tell of a part I'd recently read that kept me chuckling!) 

The sourdough queen Vanessa, has really studied the 'chemistry' of sourdough and our gut. You can read about it in The Sourdough School book. Her first taste of sourdough was when 9 years old in a French bakery. By the time she was 11, she was working there. She moved to the UK and could not find any sourdough bread. She got sick. She ate gluten free for four years and then when visiting France, at her old bakery, she ate half a loaf and knew she'd soon be suffering ... but she did not get sick! At that point the trajectory of her life changed - she had to understand why/what was so different about sourdough. This book is about answering her questions and the knowledge of this magical fermentation process that is integral to making the most nourishing and delicious bread in the world!

I have a large collection of bread making books. I am going to work my way through this book and its recipes. I have friends who have had the experience of being able to eat bread in Europe, and my bread, and not gotten sick. 

The fresh milled Kamut, and Whole Wheat bread I started yesterday, I put in a Cambro overnight, I decided to make a lot of folds and form the dough into a nice boule and put back into the fridge. I'll bake it tomorrow.

 I read in her book that this method of getting the dough autolyzed and fermented, then leaving it overnight to proof (what I've always done), even to 48 hours, is the healthiest. It is more digestible.

And she takes it from the fridge, and puts it to bake in the hot oven. This too, is what I've done for years! She likes the spring of the dough from cold fridge to hot oven.

I bought another sourdough book that adds lots of veggie or fruit pastes into sourdough bread. It's a seasonal book, even adding mashed chestnuts, which I only see at Christmas, into the bread. I'll probably be mentioning it at some point. I have to start baking from it as well.

 This morning I ate not just oatmeal, but a mixture I'd ordered from Azure, that has lots of rolled grains. I mixed it with reconstituted freeze dried strawberries. It was so good. A 7-grain cereal. 

I've really missed, leaving by the wayside for awhile, all the whole grains I used to eat. After reading people's healing stories from eating fresh milled whole grain flour products, I'm starting to look at my health history over the past almost 15 years . . . 

The cereal bag is next to my ancient yogurt maker. It was already used when I bought it almost 40 years ago and is still working. I've made our 1/2 gallon of whole milk homemade yogurt all those years to this day still. 

Tomorrow I'll post about the bread baking. 
 

Fresh Milled Flour (FMF) From Many Grains!

I used to make bread, for almost 30 years with fresh ground flour - primarily hard white wheat. In one day I'd have 6 sandwich loaves, 4 french bread, and four dozen cinnamon rolls made. I'd freeze the majority of it all. That was when our kids were here. They were raised in this house, but now off raising their own families.

 

I started making sourdough bread. My research showed the nutritive value of sourdough, as well as its aid in digestion as a ferment. It's basically predigested.  It's also the way bread has been made forever. Yeast is new as of very late 1800, so from 1900 on our breads in the US have been made quickly and don't go through a ferment time using a starter culture. Anyway, I'm making everything sourdough from my almost 15 year old starter. I keep it in the refrigerator in between baking.

 

Fresh Milled Flours

 In the picture I've ground-

• 600g Kamut
• 200g Hard White Wheat 
• 200g Hard Red Wheat   
   

Sourdough starter proofing in the oven

I've got it soaking in 800g warm water while my sourdough starter, which I added some flour and water to, is proofing in my Breville Smart Oven Pro. It almost always takes 2 hours to proof from the refrigerator to a bubbly state.

 

Soaking (autolyse) grain flour in the water

The soaking of the grain, in my third picture, is an Autolyze step I now do with all fresh ground whole grains. It softens the bran, primarily. I was told in the beginning of my sourdough process that you cannot use whole grain for sourdough bread because the bran would cut the bubbles and you'd end up with flat bread, so I used store bought (or Azure bought) bread flour, which are basically sifted for removing the bran (and probably the germ of the grain, which goes rancid, thus not shelf stable) and adding about 10-30% fresh ground flour. Because I made the Tartine sourdough bread for so many years, I really have the sourdough bread process memorized and great loaves of bread. I kept the freezer stocked for the two of us. 

 

I've got the bowl in above picture sitting on a heating source set at 80 degrees, while the starter is proofing in the oven, which is also set at 80 degrees. Our house is generally cold so a warmer temperature for proofing is good.

 

 Once the leaven is bubbly, I measure 150g of the leaven into the soaking ground grain. Then I let it autolyse some more. I usually wait about 30 minutes before adding another 50g of water and 25g of salt. 

  

 

Ready to mix in extra water and salt

Now, in this picture I'm ready to fold in the water and salt. I often just use my wet hands. I like to work the salt and water into the dough well. So I mix it in with lots of folds, almost like kneading.

 

Then about every 30 minutes with my wet hands I'll do several folds for about 2 hours. Most times I'm really good about this and sometimes very irregular. Then you're supposed to let it bulk rise for awhile. And again, sometimes I'm good at doing this and other times when busy I forget. But in the end, once folded several times and maybe bulked for awhile I put it in a Cambro container overnight in my fridge in the garage.

 

So stay tuned for the formed and baked bread, most likely tomorrow. Sometimes I'll keep it refrigerated for 2 days before baking if it fits my schedule better. I'll show you what I typically bake 2 loaves in, and then other pans I don's use as often. I'll give you a clue tho, I prefer bread easier to slice to eat with our fresh cooked chicken eggs, or sandwiches.

 

 

Should I start writing again?!?

 It's now 2026, March 22. It's been ten years since I wrote on this blog. I still love to write, so should I take up writing on this blog again? I'd like to catch you up on what I'm still doing and not doing. Looking through many of my posts I'm still doing quite a few of all that's here. 

We still live in the same house and I'm still gardening. In fact, I'm soon to start seeds for this year's gardening. The yard sure has changed over the years. The fence has extended (fence needed to keep critters out - we have more deer than elk these days). I have 2 greenhouses.  A bigger one has extended our fenced yard. And we're still needing to finish that greenhouse for this growing season. Trying to replace the plastic with actual old windows.

I'm still cooking from scratch and grinding whole grains to make everything from. My bread making has changed, making everything sourdough - which mainly means a longer fermenting time, beyond one day, using a leaven instead of yeast,  for better body assimilation and health. I still make a lot of the recipes on this existing blog, but of coarse a lot more.

We have been empty nesters for a long time. No one lives close by, so no Grandkids often coming and going. We have great neighbors, community, and church. There's distance between neighbors since the smallest acreage we can own is ten acres. We built this house 42 years ago, and love living here.

 I still have chickens. I love fresh eggs and sell some eggs. I have a local health food store that gives me lots of veggie and fruit scraps to supplement my organic feed. Every two years we get new chicks and butcher the old when the new start laying. We try meat birds every so often, but just prefer keeping laying hens. No other pets. Our cameras around the house show our consistent fox, skunk, coyote, rabbits, bobcats, a lion once in a great while, deer and elk often, and then bear. And we usually see wild turkey each summer. 

Then too, I love our birds. A bluebird couple have taken up residence in their house. Flickers are starting their mating calls. Pygmy nuthatches are starting to show up, and someone saw robins. Then of coarse soon we'll have hummingbirds. We have them big time, with their constant humming on the air everywhere, and very active at the back deck feeder. 

I thought I'd show you a chalkboard drawing I did a couple years ago. I used to make a chart every year for the kids to draw what "Firsts of Spring" they saw (or smelled, as someone added a stink bug). I like the drawing so much I keep it as is. It's in our entryway on your way to the Great Room (or as we call the individual areas: the kitchen, dining room, and the keeping room which has couches).

 I better quit for now. I have an Azure pick up soon. Gotta go meet the truck. 

Feast of Epiphany

This year's Christmas tree with my felted "Gift of the Magi" picture on the wall

Today, the Feast of Epiphany, is symbolized and enacted by three important men who fell to their knees, finding themselves seduced by the vulnerability of God--sleeping in straw among the animals. Epiphany is the "Self-Manifestation" of God. It is the twelfth day of Christmas.

Do you put away your Christmas decor right after New Years Day? Many do after Epiphany. There has been a year I waited until February 2, the day Jesus was brought to the temple and old Simeon recognized the baby as the "light of the world".

Pinecone decor in the windows

My decor is still up and being enjoyed. I do usually leave my pinecone adorned windows in place till Valentines Day.

My kitchen with my pinecone and fir tree greenery on the windows

My wool "bean bag" Nativity

I don't put my bean-bag creche away. We have 9-10 foot ceilings in our great room and for the rest of the year it's put on the high book shelf that runs around the room. Like Easter, Christmas and Epiphany may be a day on the calendar, but they are with me in my heart year round!

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with fruits (any Veggie actually)

Roasted veggies, fruit and bacon

Everyone raves about this brussel sprouts dish. Though I tend to make all recipes my own with my twists and variations, I rarely tweak this recipe from "The Splendid Table", an NPR weekly radio show. I subscribe to their free weekly recipe email www.splendidtable.publicradio.org/  (I have gotten a lot of great recipes from them!). I crave this dish, so I make it often.

I made it the other night. I had only 1# brussel sprouts and 1 1/2# green beans, which I cut in half. Only one apple, but 4 pears, and my onion was a red one. I also had some fresh rosemary from a Thanksgiving fresh herb pack, so used it along with the sage and thyme. Tasted great!

ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS

2 1/2 lbs brussel sprouts, halved if small or quartered if large (A key when roasting vegetables is to have a lot of the ingredients chunked about the same size) 
1 large onion, cut into 1-inch chunks
2 apples (any kind, I tend to use Granny Smith), cored and cut in 1-inch pieces
2 firm ripe Anjou or Comice pears, cored and cut
2-4 slices bacon, cut in pieces
1/2 tsp each thyme and sage (fresh is always best if you have it, and use more)
5-6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup good tasting extra-virgin olive oil
1/8 tsp spicy red pepper flakes
1 Tb brown sugar (I use Sucanat - unprocessed sugar cane)
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Toss all together. (Sometimes I'll put the bacon pieces in the pan to start cooking while the oven is preheating and get it started.) Bake in a 450 degree oven in a very large shallow pan. You want the mixture to spread into a single layer. Stir it several times - baking about 40 minutes to an hour till nicely browned.

Cultured Cranberry Relish and Veggie Dippers

Fermenting veggies for serving with a dip, and cranberry relish - for Thanksgiving Day

For several years now I ferment veggies for a platter with dip, and then a cranberry mixture for Thanksgiving. I ferment them for at least 24hours. The process breaks them down a bit for easier digestion, besides being healthy for our gut.

I by organic broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cucumber and carrots (and this year added red pepper). I slice and put them in a large bowl, along with some slivered fresh garlic. I sprinkled on about 3 Tb sea salt and occasionally stir to start the veggies juicing. I also add a couple teaspoons of pickling spices and then about 1/4-1/3 cup of liquid whey (from strained yogurt). Just make sure the veggies are covered with water, which with the salt becomes a brine. There's a glass weight in the jars to keep the veggies submerged. A brine is typically 3 Tb salt per 1 quart of water.

Pulsing cranberry relish ingredients

CRANBERRY ORANGE APPLE RELISH

4 - 7.5oz containers of cranberries (around 32 ounces)
8 tangelo type oranges, skin and all (remove seeds)
3 apples
1/2 cup sucanat (dehydrated sugar cane)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup raisins
1/4-1/3 cup whey
1/2-1 lemon

Pulse all but the whey in a food processor. Don't puree. This mixture filled my 1 1/2 Liter and a 1 Liter Pickle-It containers, with a glass weight, and airlock on top of jar. I squeezed some lemon juice on top of both for extra submerging liquid. You can do this in a regular fido jar or canning jar with a plastic lid. But I have tasted a difference in the foods fermented with the airlocks - better tasting!

I keep on making the cranberry relish thru-out their season in the store - on into February. I store the jars in my cool cellar. I like to eat this with yogurt, walnuts, shredded unsweetened coconut . . .

Any leftover veggies can be jarred up and stored in a fridge or cool cellar as well. I've opened a jar months later and they're still fairly crisp and yummy!

Mystery Pecan Pie

Mystery Pecan Pie

I was asked for my Mystery Pecan Pie recipe and realized I've never posted it! It's my all time favorite pie, and a favorite of many guests. I make it every Thanksgiving. I found the recipe when we were early married in a Tucson realty little cookbook. It's in my Hearth & Home cookbook and that's what I'm typing this recipe from.

Mystery Pecan Pie

1 8oz pkg cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Combine these, blending well. Spread in the bottom of an unbaked pastry shell (I use whole wheat and butter). Sprinkle with 1 1/4 cup slightly chopped pecans.

Combine these topping ingredients:
3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup (which I no longer use; I'm using the healthier brown rice syrup)
1 tsp vanilla

Gently pour over pecans. Bake at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes or till firm.

Pecan

My pen and ink version