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What did you read last month?
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What I read March 2012
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I should have mentioned that I like REALLY heavy breads, which is why I like the Irish brown bread. It could be used as a weapon, it is so heavy! I do not like light fluffy breads, which I think are a waste of carbs.I probably do not have as discerning a palate as you, Deb, because the beer breads I have had taste the same to me as other breads.
I make mini dampers for soup in Winter. They are heavy, quick and don't use yeast. Maybe they are just an Australian bushcraft thing?
Madrano wrote: " I like quick breads too. I tried a beer batter bread, thinking the yeast in the beer might make a taste difference but it wasn't enough to satisfy me."I'm not normally a fan of beer batter quick breads as they tend to not have a strong enough taste for me either. However, I have a great recipe for for a yeasted Stout/Porter and Flax seed bread where the beer just serves as flavor. It takes about 24 hours to make, but most of it is inactive time that's necessary for developing a great flavor. I highly recommend it.
http://dessert-before-dinner.blogspot...
I love flax breads. Fortunately, there is a store near me at the beach where I can buy a good one.
JoAnn/QuAppelle wrote: "I should have mentioned that I like REALLY heavy breads, which is why I like the Irish brown bread. It could be used as a weapon, it is so heavy!... DEB EDITED...I probably do not have as discerning a palate as you, Deb, because the beer breads I have had taste the same to me as other breads. "You make a good point about carbs & the light breads, JoAnn. I like both heavy & light ones but seeing a squat loaf after hours of breadmaking is a tad discouraging. The taste atones, though!
I suspect, as Stephanie hinted, that my choice of beers may be the problem. Usually i use whatever we have at hand, which is often a pale imitation of Real Beer. I guess my thinking is the "good stuff" is for my drinking pleasure! One wonders why i bother, then, right? I'll change. I promise.
Stephanie, that recipe sounds perfect for me. Thanks for including it.
deb
Lesley wrote: "I make mini dampers for soup in Winter. They are heavy, quick and don't use yeast. Maybe they are just an Australian bushcraft thing?"It must be, Lesley, as i've not heard of it. I found this on Wiki, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damper_%... Sounds good. Do you actually cook yours on a fire or is there an adaptation? I think it would be fun to prepare them on my home fireplace. Maybe.
Alias, i wasn't familiar with the bread but HAD to look up the scripture line, Ezekiel 4:9. "Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches*, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof."
*fitches is spelt, a sort of wheat
Damper sounds like my kind of bread....heavy, quick, and no yeast!!!I found this recipe, which sounds pretty easy. Thanks, Leslie!
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/australi...
The above recipe is very similar to mine. Additions/variations: herbs,garlic, bacon & onion, olives, corns etc. I make several mini dampers from the one mix to serve individually with soup. Also an 'oldtimers' treat is with golden syrup.
We used to have damper when I was a child when we couldn't get to town to buy bread during floods (before freezers/electricity were common for freezing bought bread). It's not common now but may be coming back into fashion the way many old rustic styles of bread are... I hope so!
Thanks for the hints about additions, Lesley. They would perk up the damper, for sure!
I think it's neat to have such good memories about this food. My mom rarely made breads, quick or yeast. Her biscuits were light & served almost weekly, though.
FYI- if any of the recipes mentioned in this thread are ones you want to refer at a later date. Please cross post them into our recipe thread. Thanks !
Madrano wrote: "I think it's neat to have such good memories about this food. My mom rarely made breads, quick or yeast. Her biscuits were light & served almost weekly, though."My mother only baked cookies, and she was locally famous for them. People used to ask her if they could pay her to make their Christmas cookies!
I've been in a slump but I did get two books read in March. Both of them 3/5 stars and both for my f2f book club. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt - A western somewhat in the style of True Grit. It concerns two brothers - last name Sisters - who are hired killers in the time of the Gold Rush. This is a relatively quick and read - somewhat quirky for lack of a better word. Eli, the voice of reason of the two brothers, is too passive to be a hero but he is a fascinating character nonetheless.
Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe I thought that this was a well-written autobiography. I enjoyed the stories and it made me laugh to think back on some of the movies, etc. from back in the day. There were lots of things that I had forgotten (relationship with Princess Stephanie, for example).
I hope this is the start out of your reading slump, Toni. Though reading two books sounds good to me. I know many people that don't read a single book all year.
Toni wrote: "I've been in a slump but I did get two books read in March. Both of them 3/5 stars and both for my f2f book club. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt - A western somewhat in the style of T..."
I really liked The Sisters Brothers and felt it was a worthwhile read.
JoAnn/QuAppelle wrote: "My mother only baked cookies, and she was locally famous for them. People used to ask her if they could pay her to make their Christmas cookies! ..."Nice. My mom mostly made cookies & pies. My dad loved pies, so she learned to make good ones. But no one offered to pay her. Oh, and cakes. For our birthdays around age 5-8 she made doll cakes. They were, as i suppose most people here know, cakes baked in angel food cake pans with a naked doll inserted in the center. Then, mom would frost the doll's dress, making the cake one of petaled layers. I don't remember how they tasted but they were special. None of our friends ever made one, that much i know.
lovely memories
Toni wrote: "Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe I thought that this was a well-written autobiography. I enjoyed the stories and it made me laugh to think back on some of the movies, etc. from back in the day. There were lots of things that I had forgotten (relationship with Princess Stephanie, for example). ..."When i read autobios of film actors, i like to reflect upon films of theirs i saw. It is sometimes interesting to learn what was going on in their lives as the scenes were shot. It's also interesting to see how many films they made which i never saw or barely remember.
Glad you are on your way out of that slump, Toni!
Madrano wrote: "Toni wrote: "Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe I thought that this was a well-written autobiography. I enjoyed the stories and it made me laugh to think back on some of the movies, etc. fr..."Our f2f book club actually watched St. Elmo's Fire the night of our discussion. :).
Deb, I never heard of those doll cakes. Didn't the dolls melt? I am surprised that the dolls did not melt!!!We had five kids in the family and kids under 1 were only allowed egg yolks, so my mother DID make angel food cakes after she saved the whites for a few days.
Toni, I loved St. Elmo's Fire. Did it seem terribly dated to you? My daughter once skated to the theme from that movie. It was great skating music!
JoAnn/QuAppelle wrote: "Toni, I loved St. Elmo's Fire. Did it seem terribly dated to you? My daughter once skated to the theme from that movie. It was great skating music!"Of course St Elmo's Fire seemed dated, but that's what makes it awesome. I saw it for the first time one summer in college when movie night in the park was doing back to back showings of Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire. We were the youngest people there, in a crowd of drunk middle aged people singing "Don't You Forget About Me"
The doll cakes -- at least the ones my mom made -- were baked in a bundt or angel food cake pan sans doll. After the cake was removed from the pan and cooled, the doll was inserted in the center and the cake and the doll's bodice were frosted. (Now they make doll head & torso on a stick that you can insert in any cake.) You can google "doll cake" images and see an infinite variety.I'd forgotten about them. Thanks for bringing back a fun memory.
Thanks, Alison, for answering JoAnn's question. As you noted, they can be seen online but the ones i have seen (haven't looked for awhile) were less elaborate than what my mother made. Her efforts didn't look like a frosted cake but like a doll with a gorgeous dress. I used to think i was imagining it better than it was but then saw a photo of one. Such work!Now my sister has picked up the craft of cake decorating. She's getting good at it but it's different from my feeble attempts, in that i tried to do everything with frosting, usually buttercream. Molding chocolate and fondant are her "frosting" tools. Incredible work. She even created one for a Boy Scout sale which resembled a pot of stew cooking at a campsite. It brought in the most money that night, i can tell ya.
I marvel at some of the cake creations I've seen, but I'd rather bite into buttercream frosting than fondant and ganache. Heck, sometimes that frosting mysteriously dwindles twixt bowl and cake. : )
I like chocolate ganache AND buttercream. Together. Preferably on a spoon! Who needs cake?!?!?!!
Alison wrote: "I marvel at some of the cake creations I've seen, but I'd rather bite into buttercream frosting than fondant and ganache. Heck, sometimes that frosting mysteriously dwindles twixt bowl and cake. : )"I tend to agree with you, Alison. And with JoAnn. I don't need no stinkin' cake! Years ago i had a friend who made fancy cakes for "pin money", as she called it. She served leftover icing to her kids by spreading it on saltine crackers. It was a good mix of sweet & salty.
deb
I read Steve Martin's Object of Beauty which was unexpectedly great. www.bradgeagley.net
BradAn Object of Beauty
Welcome to Book Nook Cafe Brad. I look forward to your posts. Though please note, we do not allow self promotion of books here. Thanks!
Welcome to the group, Brad. I'm thinking that someone else here read & liked Martin's book. Or was it just the opposite & found it disappointing? LOL--clearly all i recall is the title. ;-)deb
Madrano wrote: "Welcome to the group, Brad. I'm thinking that someone else here read & liked Martin's book. Or was it just the opposite & found it disappointing? LOL--clearly all i recall is the title. ;-)deb"
That would be me. I even BOUGHT it, thinking I would love it because I love Martin and the art world. I had to struggle to finish this slim book!
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Here is my (2 star) comment:
The writing in this book was very odd....almost as though it had been written to be a movie (which it probably was).
I never felt engaged....the main character, Lacey, was so "veiled" that I never felt that I knew anything about her inner self. The peripheral characters, including the narrator, were not developed at all. I did not like any of the characters, especially Lacey. She was a real "piece of work" to put it mildly. Such a user, caring about no one but herself. However, disliking a main character does not always damn a book for me. It was a lot of other things.
I liked Martin's book Shopgirl so finished this, but glad it was not any longer than it was. It was a daily chore to pick it up.
Thanks, JoAnn. Now i remember it all. Years ago i read Cruel Shoes & was only so-so about it. I haven't read Shopgirl but liked the film. Even Martin's films have been hit or miss for me, so i've been very hesitant to read another of his books. Not that they are related, it's just the way my mind works, i think. deb
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Books mentioned in this topic
Cruel Shoes (other topics)An Object of Beauty (other topics)
The Sisters Brothers (other topics)
Stories I Only Tell My Friends (other topics)
Restoration (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Patrick deWitt (other topics)Rob Lowe (other topics)
Jeff Hertzberg (other topics)
Olaf Olafsson (other topics)
John Steinbeck (other topics)
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LOL, JoAnn. I like quick breads too. I tried a beer batter bread, thinking the yeast in the beer might make a taste difference but it wasn't enough to satisfy me.
I really like the yeast-risen taste. And the idea of this "magic" rising in the bowl awes me almost every time. And what is there about "punching down" the risen dough after the first rising that thrills people? My kids weren't always interested in making the dough but were there for the punch down. And now that the kids are gone, it's DH who wants to do it!