chipolte honey mustard dressing

This.  This is where my life is.  I need to make for the refrigerator:

1) chocolate syrup

2) orange syrup

3) ginger syrup

4) caesar dressing

5) ketchup

6) chipolte honey mustard dressing

If I have not made it, one of the boyos is at least willing to try.  If there are directions.  Last week I got asked to send the link.  

The only recipe of the above I have not written down is the chipolte honey mustard dressing.  That is because I just came up with it.  I usually want a chipolte aioli with my tacos.  The boyos have a tendency not to like it very well.  I like more chipolte then they do.

There has been talk of a honey mustard dressing being added to my repertoire.  That is how I came up with the idea.  But maybe I should not have.  Because most of the time I do not have enough chipolte aioli in this form for my tacos.  I have to share.  

By the way, the caesar gets put on tacos too.  At least two, if not three, of the list will be made for dinner tonight.  It will depend on if Koda Bear wants chocolate milk or not to drink with his dinner

chipolte honey mustard dressing

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

1 crushed and peeled garlic clove

3 tablespoons mustard (I use my fermented mustard)

3 tablespoons honey or agave

1 teaspoon chipolte

1 egg yolk

1 cup olive oil

I have a container I can use with my immersion blender and that is what I use for this dressing.

In the container, put in the salt, pepper, garlic, mustard, honey, chipolte, and egg yolk.  Blend.

Slowly start adding in the olive oil, blending very well after each addition.  Keep adding until the dressing is the consistency you wish or all the oil is gone.

Serve on tacos or fish or french fries or salads.  Yes.  Really.

sweet bread dough

I hope every one had a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Quiet was happened for me which I have to admit is my favourite.  New Year's Eve was movies and tea.  There was a bit of sparkling wine with a nice steak and salad.  To me, it was about perfect.

There were a lot of experiments last week and over the weekend.  Which I will get to.  But the one thing I discovered when I made the St Lucy's buns that I am still itching from, is a lovely sweet bread dough.  It is nice to have a go to sweet bread dough.  Again, from the tome.  This dough works really well with sourdough.  Since I only do sourdough, pretty huge.  

I made it into cinnamon rolls and punky monkey bread.  The monkey bread started to be called funky punky monkey bread.  And then it started to get called zombie bread because of the reactions it was getting.  It was like zombies going after brains.

I am getting ready to try panettone next.  I am making the candied citrus peel for that.  It would help if it did not get thrown out.  I have helping hands.  Which is a good reason to have a sweet bread dough that I can use as a guideline.

sweet bread dough

Note:  Modified from The Nordic Cook Book to use sourdough and a bit of whole wheat flour.

sourdough starter

100 grams water

100 grams flour

320 ml / 1 cup 5 tablespoons milk

150 grams butter

1 tablespoon cardamom

1 egg

125 grams sugar

1 teaspoon salt

250 grams whole wheat pastry flour

500 grams all purpose flour

Eight hours or the night before, mix the starter, 100 grams flour, and 100 grams water in a large bowl.  Cover.  When it is bubbling, take out a portion for next time.

To the starter, add the milk, butter, cardamom, egg, and sugar.  Mix well.  Mix in half the flour.  Cover and let rest for about an hour or an hour and a half.  It should be bubbling and the consistency of pancake batter.

Mix in the salt.  Mix in about half of the last of the flour to make a soft dough.  It may be very soft.  Turn out on a clean surface and use the last of the flour to knead until smooth.  You might need a bit more. 

Put into a clean bowl and let rise for one hour.  Take it out.  Flatten into a rectangle.  Fold the long side of the dough into the middle, and repeat with the opposite side.  Fold the ends toward the center.  Gather it up into a cubish round and put back into a bowl.  Cover.  Repeat this process three times.

At this point, I sometimes need to put the dough into a ziploc and put it into the refrigerator until the next day.  It works well.

If you refrigerate it, the next day let the dough come to room temperature.

Shape and fill the bread anyway you please.  The middle picture is the zombie bread.  Above is cinnamon rolls.  Put the shaped dough in the correct pan for shape with the pan buttered and lined with parchment paper.

Let rise until puffy.

The oven temperature will depend on shape.  Higher for smaller and a shorter bake time.  Longer bake and lower temperature for larger loaf.  Most loafs I bake at 350 degrees Farhenheit for an hour.

Whatever you make of it, this is a good sweet bread.  Have fun!

it is the season of pajamas

I still make pajama bottoms as Christmas presents.  They are supposed to be for stockings but that did not happen this year.  

I am about a third to halfway done in my pajama bottom production.  It will depend on how many I finally decide to make.  And how many Koda Bear can talk me into.

The number of pajama bottoms has also increased due to the request that Koda Bear must match Grandpa.  Matching pajama bottoms.  It just makes me laugh.  I go into my thrifted flannel and find pieces large enough.  Nobody gets to chose the print.

I am moving slowly.  I wish to shred my skin off due to the saffron sensitivity.  It is a good thing that I am working on pajama bottoms and not something new currently.  I do not have to think as hard.  And the fabric is soft.  It is slowly getting better which is great.  But still!

St. Lucy Day buns

I have been wishing to try St. Lucy Day buns since I have seen them pictured in multiple places.

I decided why not in this season where I am busy doing so much.  I tried a recipe out of the tome.

Shaping was a bit interesting just because I had not tried it before.  But the buns turned out beautifully.

The crumb was just lovely.  And the colour!  The flavour of cardamom and saffron was lovely.

There was just one tiny littly problem.  I found out the hard way I appear to be sensitive to saffron.  I have eaten everything in these buns before but the saffron.  I have ended up covered in a rash.  I still have the rash even though I stopped eating these buns when I truly realized what was going on.  I itch.  And I sighed.  Lovely buns.  Just not for me.

Oh well.

orange for Koda Bear

Koda Bear has been helping me sew everything this season.  So there are no surprises for him.  His eyes lit up so when he saw this quilt win I had it on my machine.  Even though his favourite colour is now black.

I did something different with this quilt and made some nine squares without white.  I like how they turned out.  

Koda Bear picked out the back for the quilt.  It is a type of polar tech.  Short faux fur.  I do not know.  It is soft and cuddly and awful to work with.  But it makes him happy.

I am taking a little bit of time and spinning for myself today.  Then back to stitching.  I will not have everything finished but eventually, everyone I am making for will get gifts.

I just seem to be running to and fro.  I actually go interrupted during this post.  I needed to get Koda Bear off to his other family and I gave advice/lesson on bread.  But then, I think everyone should be able to make their own bread.  

I only need to go out of the house for groceries and books before Sunday so life is pretty good.