Sun tired

Do you know what I mean when I say; "sun tired"?  You know, it's that wonderful, totally zonked, eyelid drooping, feel it in every bone and muscle kind of tired that comes from spending a couple of days in the sun when you haven't in a long time.  A long winter to be exact.  This weekend was a backyard weekend.  We washed my car, we splashed in the kiddie pool, we even did some gardening and had a visit from Oma and Opa.  And it all, almost all of it anyway, happened out in the sunlight and the fresh air. All of it, however, except the cooking.  Which we did a lot of. Starting with the rhubarb coffee cake courtesy of my Mom (see last post!). 

And although the children didn't really like it, you can see here that someone liked the cinnamon sugar topping!  After my yogurt came out of the oven this morning, I had just enough left over after I filled our yogurt jar to begin making tonight's dessert: strawberry frozen yogurt.  I've never made ice cream/sorbet/frozen yogurt before but I thought I'd wing it.  With a little help from my eldest, it was pretty good.  So with no further ado, today's recipe:

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

About 4 Cups plain (preferably homemade) yogurt

1 large container strawberries

Between a 1/4 to 1/2 C sugar

Zest of one lemon

Cut strawberries into small pieces, if you aren't doing it with children I suppose a 1" dice would be fine but I like the irregularity in shape and size that results from my daughter's helping hands.  Put all cut up strawberries into a bowl (that is big enough to eventually handle the 4 Cups yogurt) and sprinkle with sugar.  Add zest of one lemon, mine was on the smaller side, and mix together with a spoon.  Let this mixture sit for the time it takes to fill a kiddie pool with water, about 45 minutes.  You will notice that the strawberries will have made a lot of juice, that's the sugar pulling the juice out of the berries, sort of like salt will do to a cucumber.  When the berries look nice and juicy, mix in the yogurt.  To be honest, I didn't measure, but just stopped when I ran out of yogurt and it was a nice pink color.  Put the whole bowl in  the freezer and come back and stir once in a while; maybe every half hour, 45 minutes or so?  I didn't want mine to freeze solid, I was hoping it would stay creamy but just get really stiff.  You'd probably have great success if you were to try this in an ice cream maker.  We had some after dinner when it was nice and cold and getting harder, but not as hard as ice cream.  Pretty yummy I must say.

Finally, and really, most exciting: The Magic Amazing Delicious I-CAN'T-BELIEVE-IT-ACTUALLY-WORKED Rye Sourdough Bread!!!!!  This recipe was given to me by my friend Kelly whose family we recently visited out on Whidbey Island, WA.  Along with the delicious Honeyed Coffee, we also had this incredible rye sourdough bread which we ate with copious amounts of butter that had freshly pressed cloves of garlic mixed in it.  The starter takes seven days to make, and it was like being pregnant for the first time again!  Not knowing what to expect, growing a little bigger every day and then (gasp) bubbles!  

I was breathless with anticipation each day as I mixed a little more flour, a little more water.  Then, on day seven, you can finally bake the darn thing.  It just came out of the oven and man, let me tell you, it is hit-the-spot good.  Just sour enough to make your mouth water a little bit when you think of it and those fennel seeds add just the right exotic note that lifts the heaviness of the rye and carries it through.  Phenomenal really.  I'm just about to go back for my THIRD piece in a little less that 20 minutes.  Overkill?  Maybe.  Delicious?  Definitely.  Here is Kelly's recipe, exactly as she sent it to me.  Follow it with to the letter and it will work like a charm.

Here's the bread recipe (with lots of room for variation as the author had endless examples of mistakes that turned out beautifully.)

 

Starter is 1 cup of ground rye and 1 cup of water, kept at a oatmealy consistency in the kitchen under a towel, nursed daily with one cup of each til day 7 when you reserve some and bake the rest as follows:

 

1) remove starter to keep (repeating but sad when one forgets!)

2) add about 1 Tbsp rock salt to mix for each intended loaf (I usually add 2 Tbsps)

3) Add ground rye til you can push in the center of the dough with a spoon and it holds it's shape

4) We add fennel (about 2 Tbsp) but you might experiment with other herbs or molasses

5) Your pans should be oiled and we coat with brown sesame seeds.  Spread the dough in the two pans, smooth and maybe give a little indentation down the center of the loaf.  Leave some room to rise.

6) Put them in a cool over for 8 hours.  Bake for 1 - 2 hours @ 350-400 (I bake for a little over 2 hours at the lower temperature. You smell the bread for a while but it clearly can go for a long time as it's pretty wet stuff.)  We let them rest and then store what we don't plan to eat in a plastic bag in the fridge. 

The butter is just softened butter (and we were using unsalted) with as much minced garlic as you can tolerate (I know - is there a known limit?)

Like I said, the anticipation was everything.  I'm hoping these results weren't beginner's baker luck, at least I made two loaves!  At this rate they'll be gone by Tuesday.  Have a wonderful week.