Tools of the trade/Sprouts

The equipment: Wheat berries, a jar, and a top with holes.



Soak the wheat berries in tepid water overnight.


Drain off the water, and rinse the berries twice daily with cold water. Three days later, I have sprouts which I'll add to bread to give a sweet flavor and chewy texture.

Tools of the trade/Yogurt

In her book, More Home Cooking, published posthumously in 1993, Laurie Colwin writes:

When I was growing up, yogurt was eaten by food faddists and Europeans. Health food stores were few and far between. They smelled funny and were inhabited by people with long braids or truman shirts, wearing sandals and socks.

The sixties changed all that. While it is now fashionable to knock the counterculture, we should not forget that it was those long-haired weirdos who gave us, among many other valuable things like the antiwar movement, the natural food movement. Now there is a health food store on almost every corner, and we can have whole-grain bread, unsprayed apples, and free-running chickens. We can also buy yogurt at the supermarket.

Well, Tom and I were a couple of those "long-haired weirdos" and "our" sixties/early seventies weren't communes and drugs, but music and organic, vegetarian food. The first yogurt we fell in love with was in England in 1971. It was made by a company called Loseley Farms, and I can still taste it in memory. What a joy to find out it still exists for all you lucky people who live over there.


I'd like to introduce a guest commentator for this particular entry, because Tom is the yogurt maker of the house.

Our Yogourmet yogurt maker, which we bought from King Arthur Flour, makes great yogurt every time. There is an inner container that fits inside an outer, electrified container into which you put a small amount of water. The outer container maintains a warm water "sleeve" around the inner container at the perfect temperature for making yogurt. You make about a half gallon at a time, although I think Yogourmet measures it in liters.

First you put any kind of milk into a pot to heat. Stir constantly or it will stick and burn on. The company gives you a thermometer with the yogurt maker. Heat to 80 degrees Celsius, then cool milk in cold water in the sink until the thermometer registers in the "green zone," about 40 degrees Celsius. Pour milk into the inner container and add yogurt culture, also provided by Yogourmet. We buy Yogourmet replacement culture packets at our health food store. Drop covered inner container into outer tub. Leave plugged in for 5 or 6 hours, then put inner tub into fridge to cool. The cooling stops the thickening process. After yogurt is cold, whisk to get rid of any clumps; you want a smooth consistency.

Tools of the trade/Waffles

The 2007 Maple Syrup is available! We bought some today from a place down the road, where we buy our pumpkins in the fall. What a taste! There's nothing like it. So tonight we're having waffles made in the super duper waffle maker our son gave us for Christmas a couple years back. The recipe comes from Mrs. Whaley Entertains. Do you know about her books? The first one is Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden. She is no longer living, but thank goodness she wrote these wonderful books.



Mrs. Whaley's Waffles

1 1/4 cups flour (I use 3/4 c. whole wheat pastry and 1/2 c. white)
4 t. baking powder (I use 3)
1 t. salt
1 T. sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
8 T. (1 stick) melted butter

Sift together dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine eggs, milk, and cooled butter. Add to dry mixture slowly, beating well after each addition. You don't want lumpy batter. Have waffle iron hot and greased.

Tools of the trade/Cosmopolitan

1 1/2 oz. Van Gogh Pineapple Vodka
1 oz. Bols Triple Sec
1 oz. Santa Cruz Organic Cranberry Nectar
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Tools of the trade/Coffee

Tools of the trade/Bread

If you watch Grey's Anatomy, you know that Izzie is a baker. When she feels badly, she bakes. If someone is in need, she bakes. In a Thanksgiving show, when she is left to do the whole meal, she says something about being a baker, not a cook. I've thought about that statement a lot. I do make meals, I do cook, but in my heart, I'm a baker. I love to bake cookies, and muffins, and cakes, and most especially, bread. My mother baked our bread, which is probably why I began baking in my twenties, as soon as I had my own place. Fresh bread is like air to me. I can't really live without it. It is probably the most magical thing I do. There is no explaining why sometimes it rises well and other times it doesn't. Sometimes it is soft and fluffy, other times hard. I usually can tell as soon as the rising is done if it will be good or not. I've learned to just throw it away then rather than bother putting it in the oven. Bread making can be influenced by mood. If I'm just going through the motions, it is never very good. If I'm tired and try baking at night, it doesn't come out well. I want to encourage those who are thinking of trying, like Les, over at Lesley's Book Nook. Even those of us who bake all the time, don't always have success. Sometimes, I'll have three or four bakings in a row not be very good, and then the fifth is perfect, though I've done everything the exact same way. You'll see the finished product doesn't look like usual loaves. Again, my mother always made it with four rounds instead of two. I've found it rises better without a droop in the middle.

Tools of the trade/Orange Juice

This is the season for Florida Temple oranges. They are a fine eating orange, but I squeeze them into the sweetest juice imaginable.

Tools of the trade/Christmas cards

On the beautiful oak desk some friends gave us years ago, you can see my old, worn Susan Branch address book, the winter-y return address labels, the religious and secular stamps, the paper for including notes in the cards, the envelopes, and my cards, themselves. Every year we have a photo card. I often look at the beautiful boxed cards in the stores with appreciation, but when it comes down to it, we send a photo. This year, for the first time, the picture was taken by our son. For twenty years, the pictures were of the kids, and then last year we sent one of our four sleeping dogs. This year the sheep are the stars of the Christmas card show.