Baking: Garlic and Rosemary Hearthbreads

Lately I've been getting more into bread making. There is something very satisfying in the slightly time consuming but none too difficult process of baking fresh bread. The kneading is methodical and therapeutic. The smell that begins to emit from you kitchen is intoxicating. And it's WAY cheap. The pictures don't really do this justice. I wish there was some way to record smell, because this was absolute gold.

This inspiration for this recipe comes from one of my many Nigella Lawson cookbooks. If you know me well, you know that I have an unhealthy obsession with her. She's the mother I never had, the English goddess that would be the woman of my dreams if I were oriented in that direction. And she's beautiful to boot! I would have named this blog after her, but there are so many dropkicks who have done it already and I don't intend to join them. At any rate, we're talking about bread, so here goes:

Garlic and Rosemary Hearthbreads

3 1/2 AP or bread flour
1 package yeast
1 TB salt
1 1/2 C warm water (you may need more or less)
olive oil (keep it handy)

2 heads of garlic
3-4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
salt and olive oil to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast and salt. Add warm water and stir to create a gooey mess or what will eventually become dough. You may need more or less water. Turn out your dough-mess onto a large cutting board covered in flour and knead. You may need to add flour. A lot of flour. This dough was pretty sticky when I made it. Knead for 5-10 minutes. You'll know it's done when it's come together nicely, isn't too sticky or dry and forms into a nice mound when you ask it to. Grease a clean bowl (you can clean out the one you just used, says my Buba in my head) with olive oil. Place your dough in it, flipping it over so that all sides get to be covered in a bit of oil from the sides of the bowl. Cover in plastic or a towel and let rise for at least an hour.

While the bread is rising, chop the tops off the head of garlic. Drizzle a little olive oil on their tops and wrap each one loosely in some tin foil. Throw them in that pre-heated oven of yours for 45 minutes, raising the oven temp to 400 after you throw them in.

When they're done, pull them out and let them cool. (Side note: It was at this point that I poured a glass of wine. It was 4PM and time to get things started.) Anyway, when they're cool enough to handle, squeeze out the sweet garlicyness into a food processor (a mini prep is perfect for this job!) Remove the rosemary from its sprigs and add to the garlic along with 5ish tablespoons of olive oil. Pulse for 30 seconds or so, until the garlic, rosemary and oil are combined well. Set aside.

In the meantime, punch down the risen dough. Let it sit for 10 more minutes and the take half of it and roll out onto a floured surface. Try for a rectangular shape, but remember it IS dough, and will do what it will. Take a baking sheet, line with parchment, and place your rectangle on it. Do the same for the second half of the dough. Cover this with a towel and let rise for half an hour.

Now comes the fun part. Use your fingers to poke perforations in the rectangular dough shapes. Spread your garlic-rosemary paste on top as evenly as you can. Throw 'em in the oven at 400 for 20 minutes, and you're gold!

These are phenomenal straight out of the oven, but will last a day or two if handled with care. Just toast them up and they should reconstitute themselves nicely.

Nikki McClure

I have just discovered a new artist through the CrimethInc website. Nikki McClure is a self-taught artist who makes beautiful paper cuts, from a single sheet of paper. She has done several covers of magazines, records and books. For more info, click here.

St. Arbucks: Patron Saint of Familiarity

Next time you are in Starbucks drinking your vanilla latte and doing the daily Sudoku puzzle in the calender section, I want you to take a minute to look around.

What is it that is so attractive about Starbucks (or any other chain coffee place that you may frequent?) Is it the calming shade of green? Is it all the pretty and over priced coffee mugs they have on display, different colors and patterns that change seasonally? Or is it the girl behind the counter who knows your name and drink order? When you walk in do you feel a sense of relief? Everything will be OK now that you've made it to Starbucks.

I find Starbucks habits to be fascinating. Starbucks is interesting because EVERY single one is the same. No matter what city you live in or what neighborhood you happen to be walking around, you know that exactly what you are going to get when you walk into a Starbucks (or St. Arbucks as my friend Dave likes to call it.) You know they will have your drink of choice. They have pastries, things to "eat". They have tables to work and chairs to lounge. There are relatively clean bathrooms and you can stay for hours on end. You can even sit outside to enjoy the sunshine and second hand smoke from your fellow customers.

THEY ARE ALL THE SAME. But rather than being a deterrent, I think that is what brings people back. I mean, we all have OUR Starbucks, the one we go to most often and where the people making our coffee look familiar. But we also know that when we stray from our typical neighborhood destination, the other one will pretty much be on par with what we are accustomed to. So Starbucks hooks you two ways: by at once being your local venue and also being your preferred choice when outside your typical nucleus because it reminds you of home. In fact for some, it is a kind of home away from home. A place to go and regroup before you continue with your day, or a place to kill a few hours in between appointments.

When it comes down to it, do (some) people go to Starbucks because they want coffee, or because they want familiarity? I'm sure you can find a Korean-run donut place in your neighborhood with better coffee for a whole lot less. But that isn't the point, is it?

Sometimes, a Starbucks can be the only thing constant in your life. I cannot study at home so I often go to Starbucks to work. Often their are multiple establishments in a three block radius and so I know that all I have to do is find a Starbucks. A moment of panic about where to go does not even have time to register because I know I will be safe at home in the warm embrace of my purple chair and grande percent mocha.

Compliments of Stella Mars

Poem X

Gwendolyn Brooks has always been a favorite of mine. Her poem, We Real Cool is one of my all-time favorites. As far as her credentials go, poetryfoundation.org puts it best when they say: Gwendolyn Brooks was a highly regarded, much-honored poet, with the distinction of being the first black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. She also was poetry consultant to the Library of Congress—the first black woman to hold that position—and poet laureate of the State of Illinois. Many of Brooks's works display a political consciousness, especially those from the 1960s and later, with several of her poems reflecting the civil rights activism of that period. Her body of work gave her, according to Dictionary of Literary Biography contributor George E. Kent, "a unique position in American letters. Not only has she combined a strong commitment to racial identity and equality with a mastery of poetic techniques, but she has also managed to bridge the gap between the academic poets of her generation in the 1940s and the young black militant writers of the 1960s.

I came across a poem of here I had not read before. Her style reminds me of a quiet morning when your thoughts are heavy with meaning and you see the world starkly-clear. She combs through difficult subjects without blinking at the beautiful ugliness of the reality in which she (and we) live.

a song in the front yard
by Gwendolyn Brooks

I’ve stayed in the front yard all my life.
I want a peek at the back
Where it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows.
A girl gets sick of a rose.

I want to go in the back yard now
And maybe down the alley,
To where the charity children play.
I want a good time today.

They do some wonderful things.
They have some wonderful fun.
My mother sneers, but I say it’s fine
How they don’t have to go in at quarter to nine.
My mother, she tells me that Johnnie Mae
Will grow up to be a bad woman.
That George’ll be taken to Jail soon or late
(On account of last winter he sold our back gate).

But I say it’s fine. Honest, I do.
And I’d like to be a bad woman, too,
And wear the brave stockings of night-black lace
And strut down the streets with paint on my face.

Gwendolyn Brooks, “a song in the front yard” from Selected Poems. Copyright © 1963 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Reprinted with the permission of the Estate of Gwendolyn Brooks.

Welcomness

In the spirit of having spent all day at Jury Duty and it being the eve of July 4th, here are some insightful but rather sardonic commentary on the present state of our country's cultural incongruity. Or maybe its just a beautiful song.

"Going to Town", Rufus Wainwright from new album Release the Stars.