A Few Quick Notes 616

-Today has been see-sawing between sunny periods and grey periods.  Despite the less than perfect weather, it is much warmer and generally much nicer than when we arrived in Regina at this time of year two years ago.  At the time Wascana Lake had already frozen and it wasn't until Spring that we had temperatures this warm.

-Yes, we've now been in Regina for just over two years (though three Halloweens).  Last night we had dinner at the restaurant we first visited on our first night in town.  The time has really flown by.

-Yesterday we went to Moose Jaw for the day to participate in an Ultimate tournament.  Because we're too old for that kind thing (though we did manage to beat two younger teams) we're really feeling the effects today in a bad way.  Hopefully we won't be in too much pain by the time we need to head to work tomorrow morning.

-My Margaret Wente pumpkin was a bit of a bust - not a single kid (or parent) commented on it.  Maybe today's kids just aren't up on their national newspaper columnists?  Or maybe I did a bad job carving her likeness? Or, more likely, both?

Three ingredient bread pt. 7

Well, today's bread project has now drawn to a close - and I feel pretty comfortable deeming it a success.

While the bread doesn't have an overwhelming pumpkin flavour, it certainly does taste like a little more than just white bread (in a very good way).  Furthermore, eating a few slices will provide you with a serving of vegetables.  If I had just slipped some protein in this loaf would practically be a balanced meal.

The only problem with this dream recipe being a success is that I am already thinking about other foods that I might use to make waterless three ingredient breads.  Raspberries came to mind first, but just a few minutes ago Nutella popped into my head as a potential ingredient (or maybe raspberries and Nutella for a four ingredient waterless bread).

Whatever happens with these future attempts to make waterless breads I will at least know that I did have at least one successful attempt.

Three ingredient bread pt. 6

So it at least kind of looks like bread.

Even if I did slightly over-bake it.

The real test will be what it looks like on the inside (and what it tastes like).

So far it looks as though it might actually be something approaching a passable result.

Three ingredient bread pt. 5

After a seeming unending period of rising, the liquid-less pumpkin dream bread was finally approaching a level of risen-ness I was comfortable with.

Obviously, I then placed the risen dough in the oven.

Placing the dough in the oven reminded me how dirty our oven door window is.  Gross.  I need to get on this cleaning project soon.

Oh, and while I was fooling around with this project (and doing some work), Jeannette baked and iced another batch of vegan cupcakes. 

This batch is chocolate-zucchini with chia seeds replacing the eggs.  Unfortunately I have an issue with zucchini so I won't be able to try them, even though they look great. 

Three ingredient bread pt. 4

There, I did it.  I rolled the bread dough into something approximating a baguette shape.  Now I will let it rise for a while and then stick it in the oven.

It was actually a little stickier than I expected.  This is something I am hoping bodes well for this loaf, of course I am also hoping that there will be enough gluten to hold the whole thing together.

Three ingredient bread pt. 3

So the bread is still rising slowly.

I am starting to think I am about read to roll it into a baguette shape and just throw it in the oven.

This is definitely looking as though it was worth my while (and the ingredients).

Three ingredient bread pt. 2

Well, my no-real-liquid added/recipe-came-from-a-dream bread is progressing somewhat slowly.  The rising process seems to be taking a little longer than I might have expected given the sugar in the pumpkin puree.  Maybe the fact the puree was cold when I started is the reason for the slow gas creation?

Shortly after this photo was taken I was able to knead in a little more flour.  I am thinking I may try to repeat this step a few more times.  I am worried that if I don't get enough flour into the puree that the who thing may not stick together.

At least I started with a small batch.

A Few Quick Notes 555

-After a remarkably warm and rainy day yesterday that wiped out our White Christmas snow we are back to wintery sub-zero temperatures.  Overnight we also managed to replace some of the snow that we lost due to yesterday's rain.  Given the current forecast it looks as though we may be able to ride this wintery mix into the new year.  Hurrah.

-Because of some recent holiday baking miscalculations I  recently found myself with an extra litre of buttermilk in my fridge.  Jeannette, as one who seems to have been completely unaware of the existence of buttermilk until a few days ago, has been less than helpful when it comes to suggestions for how to use this stuff before it spoils.

Fortunately I am on the case and actively trying to come up with reasonable uses for this specialty dairy product.

This morning I threw some into some pumpkin bran muffins with positive results.  Actually, I think I am now going to be disappointed with buttermilk-less pumpkin bran muffins.

When I next have to make bread, probably in a few days, I will try to toss some in.

Even with this two projects (one completed and one still in the conceptual stages) I will still probably have between one to two cups of buttermilk left.  Hopefully I can come up with something reasonable in the next few days.

-I am hoping that later today I can finish off the rest of the turkey by preparing a turkey pot-pie.  Once this is taken care of I think I will be through with Christmas leftovers.

Jack-o-Lantern time

So because we finally live in an apartment that might be visited by Trick-or-Treaters we decided it would be appropriate if we had a jack-o-lantern. Because my family has a long tradition of having politically themed jack-o-lanterns I realized that I needed to come up with an appropriate and well-known figure on the Canadian political scene to morph into a jack-o-lantern.

Of course, it didn't take long to narrow the pack to Darryl Dexter and Stephen Harper. Given Dexter's more limited weight on the national stage Harper became the choice by default.

The next part of the project was to figure out how to get Harper's face on a pumpkin. At first I tried to find a stencil online. Much to my surprise I was almost immediately successful.

Harper

Not too long ago the Globe and Mail made the above stencil available to the public. Sadly, this wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I was less interested in caricature and more interested in just a standard rendering of Harper.

After we purchased our pumpkin last night I settled on making my own stencil, even though I had no idea how I would go about such a task.

This morning I started my stencil making project by looking for suitable photos of Harper. Almost immediately I came across the classic Harper and kitty shot.

I then chopped the head out and started to turn it into a stencil.

After just a few iterations I had something I thought I could work with.

With my stencil now in hand I was reading to start the carving process. To start I affixed the
stencil to the pumpkin and began tracing the black areas by jabbing the pumpkin with a pin. After maybe twenty minutes I had a largely useless partial outline of the stencil. Eventually I reattached the stencil and began re-tracing the black areas with a knife.

Eventually the face began to take shape from the mass of the pumpkin. And then almost immediately it was clearly a face, if not clearly Harper's face.

Now that I have had a chance to examine my work my guess is that my stencil wasn't quite as good as I thought it was. Maybe it was also a little too large? Anyway, I think I will need to work on my technique a little for next year's iteration.

At the moment I suspect that my pumpkin would really only be recognizable in the following context.

And that's hardly a context in which I can display the pumpkin.