Whole grain bread

Fresh baked bread. Yummy! My brother shared this recipe with me. It's very adaptable depending on the ingredients that the baker has on hand. My favorite commercial bread that we buy includes sprouted grains. I didn't have the patience to wait and let them soak a few days, but I decided to try adding cooked wheat berries and purple barley.

As it finished baking, I was just keeping my fingers crossed that it would taste okay, because the house had that wonderful fresh bread smell.

The bread had a really nice flavor and texture except that the barley was a little too chewy (even crunchy for those kernels on the outside). I would experiment again with the cooked grains, but probably soak them longer next time.

Sam's better bread

Part I

2 1/2 c scalded milk

1/4 c oil

6 T molasses (or other sweetening honey, brown sugar)

1/4 c warm water

1 T yeast

3/4 c rye flour (from Open Oak CSA)

2 c Red Fife wheat flour (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1 c white flour

Scald milk, then let it cool. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add molasses and oil to cooling milk. When milk cooled, add in yeast mixture. Stir in flour until thick. Mix on medium/high in mixer for 10 minutes. Let rise 50-60 minutes.

Part II

2 T salt

1/4 c dry purple barley cooked (1/2 c cooked) (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1/4 c dry wheat berries cooked (1/2 c cooked) (from Open Oak CSA)

2 c Red Fife wheat flour (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

2 c white flour

Cook purple barley and wheat berries together on stove top with 3:1 water ratio until soft and water is absorbed. Switch mixer to dough hook. Fold in salt. Fold in flour and mix until dough comes away from the bowl. Transfer to oiled bowl. Let rise 50-60 minutes.

Punch down. Divide into two, shape, and transfer to prepared bread pans. Let rise 50-60 minutes.

Bake 350F for 50-60 minutes.

Five Spice Chicken and Wheat Berries

My friend Renee wrote a blog post about the delicious and much appreciated dinner delivery of Five Spice Roast Chicken and Ginger Scented Rice from our friend Katharine. I also was delighted when Katharine arrived at my door with this wonderful meal when my daughter was born.

This week, I finally got around to attempting to make it on my own. The original recipe calls for 8 pieces of chicken, but I had only 2 chicken breasts and scaled the marinade down accordingly. It was the perfect amount of food for my family with a little chicken left over for quesadillas the next day.

I have also been thinking about how our Open Oak Farmers have mentioned that wheat berries (from Open Oak CSA) are a bioregional alternative to rice. I thought I'd give it a try with this recipe. The original calls for grated fresh ginger, but 1t of ground ginger was a reasonable alternative. The wheat berries take longer to cook than the jasmine rice, but it was great!

We also had some bok choy (from Open Oak CSA) so I sautéed some onions and garlic (from Open Oak CSA) in grape seed oil and wilted the greens with some more of the five spice powder.

I'm going to put this recipe in my dinner rotation because it is so tasty, enjoyed by everyone, and easy to make! Yum! Thank you Katharine and Renee!

Wheat Berry Salad

I'm looking forward to trying new ways to eat the whole grains from our Lonesome Whistle CSA. I made this wheat berry salad to go with poached chicken. For the deconstructionist 4-year old member of our family, I served just plain wheat berries, cucumbers, spinach, and feta. He said that all the ingredients were good and finished everything on his plate! Yeah! We ate it up so quickly that I didn't even have a chance to take a picture!

Wheat Berry Salad

1 c wheat berries (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

3 c water

1T olive oil

5 shallots (from Open Oak CSA)

3 cloves garlic (from Open Oak CSA)

several handfuls of spinach

sliced cucumbers

crumbled feta cheese

salt and pepper

Place wheat berries, 1T olive oil, and water in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and simmer until wheat berries have absorbed all of the water. In another pan, saute shallots and garlic. Add and steam spinach with salt and pepper until bright green. Combine wheat berries, feta, spinach mixture, and cucumbers together.

Wheat berry breakfast

I had some cooked wheat berries left over from the chili that I recently made and turned it into breakfast!

I defrosted blue berries, which we had picked and frozen during the summer, and mixed in Nancy's Vanilla yogurt.

Simple, delicious, and very filling!

Rainy Day Chili and Cornbread Dinner

It was one of those days when I couldn't decide what to make for dinner, and we seemed to be missing key ingredients for everything I wanted to make. I did find 1 pound of ground beef in the freezer and several cans of beans in the cupboard, so I decided to make chili and cornbread. We were out of onions, but I thought that I could probably substitute onion powder if I increased the amount of real garlic.

I also found a package of wheat berries from our CSA in the freezer (they've been in a freezer for several months) and decided that these would make a nice addition to the chili.

I hadn't make chili yet in my new slow cooker, so this rainy fall day seemed like a good day to give it a try. My chili recipe originated from a college friend. Beer is the key ingredient. It's fun to see how different beers change the flavor of the final product. This time I used the last beer in the house, an Inverness IPA from Deschutes Brewing. To adapt it to the slow cooker, I tried an idea from Slow Cooker Revolution to make a panade of beef, bread, and milk. We did not have any white bread (as recommended in the recipe), so I used up the last of the heel of the sprouted grain bread and the last 1/3 c of milk in the house. I also used the cookbook suggestion and added 3 T of soy sauce to make a more "meaty" flavor.

Chili

olive oil

1 onion chopped (or tonight onion powder)

cumin to taste

chili powder to taste

oregano to taste

2 cloves garlic

2 cans beans (today 1 can black and 1 can kidney)

1lb ground beef

1 slice bread

1/3 c milk

1 bottle of beer

1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes

frozen or fresh corn (I completely forgot to add this today!)

Heat pan on the stove and saute onion with the spices until onions are soft. Transfer to the slow cooker. Add in beans, tomatoes, beer, soy sauce, and garlic. Mix milk, bread, and beef together in bowl. Cook on skillet with more cumin, chili powder, and salt until browned. Transfer to slow cooker. Cook on high for 3 hours. Serve with cheese and cooked wheat berries.

Wheat berries

2/3 c wheat berries (from CSA)

2 c water

Rinse wheat berries in water to remove extra husks, rocks, and dirt. Bring to a boil with the water. Simmer on low for 45 minutes. Drain extra water or let it sit to soak up more water.

The corn bread recipe is known in our house as Nana's Johnny Cake. I used up the last egg and had to use soy milk since I used the very last of the cow milk in the panade. The soy milk gave the corn bread a nice nutty flavor.

Nana's Johnny Cake

1 c corn meal or flour (from CSA)

1 c wheat flour

1 T baking powder

1/4 c sugar

1 egg

1/3 c oil

1 c soy milk.

Mix everything together. Bake 425F for 25 minutes in an oiled 8-inch pan. Serve with Willamette Valley honey or homemade strawberry jam (made from Willamette Valley strawberries).