Hankering for thick dark bread, and there’s a baker in the house

Friday night and we head for the farm. Cher and John are staying at the apartment. We will have dinner together on Sunday evening. I am restless. My achy back isn’t improving, and I feel worse for wear. My Friday session with the physio reveals I may have a slipped disc and pinched nerve. A few weeks ago, I didn’t take him seriously when he said do these exercises 5 times a day. I do now. From yesterday, I have my phone timer set at two hourly intervals, and every two hours I am up and about I do 3 exercises 10 times each. 

 So with all this in mind, we head for Masterton. All I want to eat is thick dark bread. We stop off at Countdown and head for the organic section. Found. Pumpernickel. Friday dinner is pumpernickel smeared with avocado, and topped with fresh tomatoes. Dinner was deeply satisfying. Who would have thought? 

First thing this morning, David is up and make mixed grain bread! Kibbled rye, wholemeal flour and oat flakes. Pip and Pete gave the bread maker to David a few years ago, and recently some of his bread hasn't mixed well and has come out rather firm and definitely stodgy.

Top L: Rising, cut the cross on the loaf, the loaves have risen! DB testing (20 mins at 190C), the loaves!
 These mini loaves are great. Moist and delicious and fun to eat!
My work for the weekend is to make a dish for to go with the bread. I decide on green beans in tomatoes. My friend Maria from Tuscany taught me this dish a couple of years ago. Gently simmer one diced onion in olive oil. Remove. Add the whole green beans minus their tops and tails. 
Move them around gentle until they soften slightly. Add the simmered onions, two or three handfuls

of chopped tomatoes, fresh basil, pepper, a fresh red chilli (my addition), ground pepper and simmer together. When soft and lush, add 1 – 2 cups of vegetable stock. I’m using Rapunzel organic vegetable bullion from Commonsense Organics via Germany. This one is low salt. Put the lid on, and simmer for 20 minutes, take the lid off and simmer until the juices are thick. This final bit takes between 5 – 20 minutes, depending on your taste preferences. Cool and reheat when you are ready to serve. Goes well with crusty bread, and off course lamb!  (which I don’t eating any more). I’m appreciating a lot I like mucking around in the kitchen. And appreciating I have the time in the weekends to do this.

On Thursday night David and I went to The Grand Budapest Hotel, a Wes Anderson movie. A Christmas gift from Pirimia and Darrin were vouchers for the Roxy. It was a great fun movie. Exquisite visually and rather ‘dark’. We both really enjoyed it. I was lucky enough to have an almost vegan dinner, a bit of butter here and there, and I didn't mind a bit!

Arancini with mushroom and parsley, followed by pumpkin and sage ravioli with sage butter and pumpkin seeds. So it was only the butter, and sage butter is close to heaven especially with pumpkin ravioli! This is the second time I have had butter in 4 weeks. Not so bad.

Much to my surprise, being (almost) vegan is not so difficult. As with any food preferences, one of the secrets is to have a well stocked pantry and fresh staples in the fridge, and some prepared frozen meals.

There's been something I have been looking forward to trying.  Corn bread. So into the range of flour we now have. Vegan corn bread http://vegetarian.about.com/od/sidevegetabledishes/r/cornbread2.htm  Just like the recipe! You may notice there is a lot of baking and

carbohydrate eating in our house now. I am quite amazed in that over the past few years, we had both 'given up' bread, rice, pasta, and anything with white flour. I've taken baking on with a vengeance. The recipe was pretty firm, and the bread crumbly (no gluten), however just what I imagined. So into the freezer half of it goes.

Farm work this weekend - cutting the lavendar, planting broad beans, digging the red onions ready to dry, and David straighted the weeping birch. (Its an obsession of his)