Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Bread
Not the 70s group, or the colloquialism for money, I am talking the real thing - gluten goodness. In case you missed it (I did) there was a earth shaking moment in the baking world about 2 years ago (Nov 8, 2006). The NY Times published a "no kneed" bread recipe from a guy named Jim Lahey. This thing was bigger than bread before it was sliced. I was alerted to this fact a couple of weekends ago when I read in the Sunday paper about an improvement to this recipe. I was intrigued, I looked up the original and I was flabbergasted at the number of hits you get when you google "no kneed bread" go ahead - try it.
Sooo, I had to bake it, and I did. It was the best I ever made. It was very simple, it just took time and a dutch oven with a lid (I used my Le Crueset). I highly recommend you give it a try.
Side note: I cracked the plastic handle on the top of my dutch oven in the oven and my wife went to get me a new one. The lady at the Le Crueset store knew just what had happened and pointed to a new mental handle and said "they started making those just because of that recipe" Bon Apatite
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.
In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Wake up to thee Oat-Man, can't afford ya
On the dock, there's a highway, cool whip in my hair
One smell I could eat dust, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw she moon light
My head grew heavy and my sack rolled in
I had to stop for the night
Dead fish in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
’this could be heaven or this could be hell’
Then she lit up a Ken doll and she showed me the way
There were horses down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...
Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Renting a room at the Hotel California
Any time you're here, you can buy me beer.
Her mind is definitely-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls fins
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some days to remember, some days to forget
So I called up the captain,
’please bring me my wife
He said, ’we haven’t had that spilled in here since nineteen sixty nine’
And still those voices are calling from far away,
We threw-up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...
Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin’ it up at the hotel California
What a nice surprise when you're out of ice
Mirrors are deceiving,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of our own device’
And in the bastards chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their silly knives,
But they just can't kill the feet
Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
'Relax', said the nice man,
'We are, go back to your seat.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never pee!
Monday, October 13, 2008
The List - 1970 - 1979
Back by popular demand, another music challenge. Pull out your Walkman and sharpen your pencil, we are working on a new list.
50 top songs of the 70s
10 most important or influential songs of the 70s
10 songs that scream “this is the 70s!” or epitomize the 70s musically
10 songs that are better now than they were in the 70s (the original is preferred but remakes are OK)
Your 20 favorite 70s songs
Bonus Picks:
What year had the best music in the 70s?
What was the best album of the 70s?
The Rules
o A song can only appear in one of the lists above with the exception of your 20 favorite songs (the ones in that list could overlap with the first 3 10 song compilations)
o The song had to be released between Jan 01, 1970 and Dec 31, 1979
o The songs can be from ANY genre
o We are ranking SONGS from the 70s not artists
o Each list should be in order (“they are all good how can I pick” will bring you mockery and shame)
The proposed deadline is November 1st when we will all meet to discus the anticipated errors in judgment and lack of musical taste. If you can’t be here in person you can email us the list. I can post them on the site.
PS not everyone looked like the groovy brother above. Stuart for example was still working
on his groove in the 70s 
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