My mother typically uses her grandmother and my great-grandmother, Mae Achorn’s recipe for “everyday” white bread. On a side note, I love the name and spelling of Mae and I’m officially calling dibs on it for a future (many years from now!) kid’s name.

As promised, mom sent me the recipe and I’ll share with you her preface:
This is my grandmother, Mae (Russell) Achorn’s, everyday bread recipe. She was a true pioneer woman having homesteaded in Canada in the early 1900s. She was of Scottish/Danish decent. She married three times, outliving two husbands. My grandfather, Arthur Russell, was husband #2. He was Irish. I never knew him, as he died when my mom was six. She raised seven children often without the help of a man, which was extremely difficult in the early 1900s.

As you can see, we Bernard women (my mother’s maiden name) are sturdy stock. Now this recipe made a ton of bread — two loaves and twelve hearty cinnamon buns. And it took a full five pound bag of flour. Mom says its okay to halve it which I plan on doing when I attempt this feat solo. This recipe has served three generations before me, and with a little luck it will serve many more. Simple and delicious, this bread would be a good accompaniment to any meal or sandwich. I ate a least four slices the day we made it.

The recipe that follows is from my mother. I only added a few clarifying points to my her directions, but the majority is copyright of Elaine Cummings, Sylvia Bernard and Mae Achorn.

Mae Achorn’s Everyday White Bread Recipe
5 pounds all-purpose flour
4 cups boiled water or 2 C boiled water and 2 C scalded milk (we did the latter)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tbsp salt
4 packets yeast
1 cup luke warm water
1/2 cup sugar + 1 tsp sugar
2 eggs can be added for richer dough (for cinnamon rolls etc.)

Place boiled water/scalded milk in a large mixing bowl. Stir in butter, salt, and 1/2 C sugar and mix together. Allow to cool to luke warm. Meanwhile dissolve yeast in 1 C luke warm water in which 1 tsp. sugar has been dissolved (check water temp on wrist). Set aside and allow to rise (about an hour).

This is a picture of scalded milk. Milk is scalded when tiny bubbles begin to form around the edges.

When yeast has about doubled in volume, stir into water/milk combination. Sift flour gradually into liquids, beating very quickly with a wooden spoon. Add as much flour as possible, beating as you go, until dough sticks together and pulls away from sides of bowl.

Pour out onto a large floured surface (a bread board or pastry mat) and knead until no longer sticky, adding a little more flour as you go until dough becomes smooth and elastic. Knead by pulling dough slightly up and folding it towards you twice and then turning 30 degrees and repeating, over and over again for about 10 minutes. This is the part that you need to get the “feel” for…it takes a little practice.

Grease a large bowl with butter, place the dough ball into the bowl and roll around to cover dough with butter. Cover and place in a warm spot in your house/apartment to raise. This may take an hour or more. Dough will rise up over the bowl. You will know it’s ready when you gently poke two finger into the side of the dough and the marks stay indented and do not resume their shape.

Before:

After:

Once ready, punch dough down, pour out onto floured surface, and gently knead about 10 times. Cover and let relax about 10 min. Place into appropriate bread pans or baking pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover with cloth and let dough rise again for about 30 minutes. When ready, bake in oven. Bread requires 40 min and rolls 25 to 35 min. When done, bread will sound hollow when tapped on bottom of pan and will be a nice golden brown color. For softer crust, run a stick of butter over the bread when bread is removed from oven. Allow to completely cool before storing, freezing or slicing

This makes 3 large loaves or 6 small loaves. Alternatively, it makes 2 large or 4 small loaves and a 9 x 13 pan of dinner rolls.

Besides breaking out the skirts (sans tights!), another exciting aspect of the season is spring vegetables. Think less squash and more asparagus, artichokes, and peas. You can check out a great list of seasonal ingredients on Chow.com here. This weekend I picked up some asparagus and I’ve been poking around online for the past couple days in search of a solid soup recipe. I envisioned something fresh, not cream-based, yet still flavorful. I find that most self-identified “light” dishes fail to pack a punch and have you reaching for the salt shaker for salvation. Yogurt seemed like the answer for providing depth without heaviness, and I stumbled upon this recipe from food52. For the foodies among you, food52 is Amanda Hesser’s latest undertaking.

Make this! It’s light, but the greek yogurt makes it taste richer than the calorie count would let on. I’m not going to repost the recipe since I followed it pretty closely with only a few exceptions. I didn’t have any fresh tarragon, so I left that out. I used sherry rather than cognac, again it’s what I had on hand. And I also used my brand new immersion blender instead of a food processor with solid results. Oh yeah, I skipped the “straining” step — too much work and I rather enjoy the slightly uneven texture as opposed to a puree. To make it a meal, you could complement it with toast or a hearty cracker.

For this noodle bowl I used a couple of Mark Bittman’s Japanese noodle recipes in “How To Cook Everything” as a reference point and took it on my own from there. I’ll be honest, I skipped a couple of steps. I generally like to take the long way, but it was late. And I was tired. I’ve courted Japanese cuisine as of late, so I’ve managed to learn a thing or two about what you’re supposed to do. Dashi is to the Japanese what stock is to the French — except it only takes about 30 minutes to make. I promise you that an upcoming post will feature homemade dashi, but for this recipe I just used a vegan bullion cube. I linked to Amazon for convenience, but I’m pretty sure you can get these in any Whole Foods and likely other chain stores too.

Miso Noodle Bowl with Shiitake Mushrooms
1/2 box of soba noodles
3-4 scallions, chopped finely with whites and green parts separated
2 T miso — I used brown, but you can really use any kind
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup Mirin (Japanese rice wine)
2 cups of shiitake mushrooms, discard the stems and slice in long slices (about 4 slices/cap)
1 vegan bullion cube dissolved in 4 cups boiling water (or 4 cups low sodium chicken/veggie broth or dashi)
2 t red pepper flakes (optional)

Cook soba noodles according to package and make sure you rinse them in cold water once they are strained to stop the cooking process. Meanwhile, bring 4 cups of water to a boil and dissolve bullion cube. If you are using stock/broth heat up to almost a boil. Bring liquid to a slow simmer and add soy sauce, Mirin, mushrooms, and white parts of green onion. Heat at just under a simmer for about 5 minutes. Pour noodles in with broth and cook for another minute. Portion noodles and broth into bowls and top with green onions and red pepper flakes, if desired. Serves 2 as a meal and 4 as a side dish.

A wheat berry is simply the whole kernel of a grain of wheat. Although they don’t have as much protein as the more-popular quinoa, they do have a high fiber content (~4 grams per 1/2 cup, cooked). I happen to prefer the texture of wheat berries to quinoa. They’re very chewy and I guess that just makes them seem more substantial to me. The only downside is that they take about 60-80 minutes to cook, but if you plan ahead a little this shouldn’t be a big deal — just boil some water on the stove, plop them in, and go about your business for the next hour.

This recipe can be made with quinoa or even bulgur if you don’t have or don’t want to use wheat berries. Feel free to modify the roasted vegetables. I used carrots, radishes and red onion because it’s what I had on hand. Although, I can say with confidence that this is a great combination.

Roasted Taproots on a Bed of Wheat Berries
1 C wheat berries (or alternative grain such as quinoa)
2 C baby carrots, cut into quarters
2 C radishes, cut of greens and cut into roughly the same size pieces as the carrots
1/2 medium red onion, cut into large chunks (if you cut them to small they will burn when roasting)
2 T lemon juice
3 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T coriander
1 bay leaf
fresh cilantro, roughly chopped (optional)
goat cheese to top (optional, you could also use feta cheese)
sea salt and black pepper, to taste

First, bring a pot of water to a boil (about 6 cups) and add 1 T of salt and the bay leaf. The water should be heavily salted so that the wheat berries absorb some of the flavor. Cook for 60 – 80 minutes stirring occasionally, testing after 60 minutes. When wheat berries are done, drain and pour back into pot. Combine with 1 T olive oil, 2 T lemon juice, 1 T coriander, and any fresh herbs that you are using. I used fresh cilantro.

While cooking the wheat berries, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Chop up carrots, radishes, and onions and combine in a bowl with 2 T olive oil, 1 T coriander, and a generous dose of salt and pepper. Line a shallow roasting pan (it must be big enough that the vegetables will only form a single layer) with tin foil and rub olive oil over the foil so that the vegetables will not stick. Put the vegetables in the pan and roast for about 40 minutes (or until vegetables just begin to brown, start checking after 30 m), taking out once half way through to give the pan a shake and flip vegetables with a spatula. Place vegetables on a bed of wheat berries and top with goat cheese or feta cheese, if desired. Serves 2 for a meal-sized portion.

In unrelated picture news, I thought I would include some of the quintessential DC spring pictures that I took this weekend when I went down to the tidal basin to look at the cherry blossoms.

After a little web research, it seems that in addition to Lebanon and Armenia, many other countries claim tabbouleh as their nation’s pride. Wikipedia ultimately settled the debate — this isn’t school, I can cite Wikipedia! — by pointing out that the origin of the word in itself is Lebanese Arabic. Apparently, the Turkish version is known as kisir and the Armenian dish as eetch. It’s one of the most popular salads in the Middle East, with traditional Lebanese recipes calling for more parsley than bulgur.

I’m not sure that mine was traditional as it came by way of Ina Garten. There was definitely more bulgur than parsley, so I am guessing tabbouleh purists would not approve. Nevertheless, it was very, very good and I will likely make this again to enjoy as both a side salad or a meal.

Tabbouleh adapted from Ina Garten here
1 C bulgur wheat
1.5 C boiling water
1/3 C lemon juice (about juice of three lemons)
1/4 C olive oil
1/2 C chopped scallions, white and green parts
1/2 C roughly chopped fresh mint leaves
1 C roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
2 tomatoes, seeded, and diced (I used hot house tomatoes)
3 tsp kosher salt (more or less to taste)

First, put the bulgur in a large bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Add one teaspoon of the salt and let it sit for an hour. While the bulgur is sitting, peel/seed the cucumber and tomatoes. This should only take about 2 minutes, so you’ll have an extra 58 minutes to do as you please. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. After the bulgur has soaked for an hour, add all the remaining ingredients and stir together. Taste and adjust salt and/or lemon juice to your liking. Serves 6 as a side dish.

Although you can eat it immediately, I would recommend waiting at least a couple of hours to give the flavor more time to develop, and it would be even better if you let it sit overnight. When you serve it make sure you give it a good stir as the juices have a tendency to sit at the bottom.

The Atlantic has a pretty expansive food section, and has quickly become one of my favored online news outlets for food news, recipes and policy alike. This article, “India Understands Health and Agriculture (but the U.S. Doesn’t)” was posted last week. While it’s quite brief and doesn’t go in-depth into any one topic, it does highlight a few important issues like the absurd amount of money that the U.S. doles out in corn subsidies and the differences in school lunches between a so-called developing country, Brazil, and the United States. At a conference organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute, the organization’s director — Shenggen Fan — asserted that the U.S. needs to “re-imagine agriculture.” With soaring food prices and a renewed national focus on stamping out obesity (thanks, Michelle Obama), never has this statement been more true.

During the week my 9-5 tends to keep me pretty busy, and lately I seem to have even less free time. I have to admit that this is primarily self-induced. So on Sundays I try to make a soup or something similar that I can make a meal out of during the week when I don’t have time to cook. Tonight I made red lentil and butternut squash soup. It had the earthy Indian flavors that I love, and was light enough that it will make a good lunch this week.

The recipe I followed was from the now defunct Gourmet, by way of Epicurious. I followed the recipe pretty closely, so there is no need to post it here. In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I made these exceptions: I didn’t have any celery so I left that out, I added an additional couple teaspoons of both cumin and coriander, and I put in few cloves. It turned out quite nicely — it had the earthy Indian flavors that I love, but is light enough to eat for lunch.

Here’s the finished product:

Mexican Spicy,  Marinated Carrots

• 4 large carrots, peeled and cut diagonally in 1/4″ slices
• 1 medium onion, sliced in half and then cut in 1/4″ slices
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed and diced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 large jalapeno pepper, sliced in 1/4″ slices (more/less depending on how much heat you want)
• 2 cups white vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp salt

Put all  ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a container, close and let marinate for at least 24 hours. The longer it sits, the spicier it will get!

Chana Masala

• 1.5 – 2 cups of chickpeas (I used dried and soaked and cooked them, but you could use canned)
• 1 medium onion, cut into fourths and sliced very thinly
• 1 green pepper, halved and sliced very thinly
• 2 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 1 medium jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1″ fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• juice of 1/2 of a lemon (reserve other part of lemon for wedges)
• 1.5 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 2 teaspoons coriander
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (less or more, to taste)
• 1 teaspoon salt (more or less, to taste)
• fresh ground pepper, a lot
• cilantro for garnish, coarsely chopped

Melt butter over medium high heat. Add onion and saute for about 5 minutes, until translucent. Add garlic, ginger, jalapeno pepper and green pepper. Saute for another 5 minutes. Add dry spices and fry for about 2 minutes.  Then add water, stir and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add chickpeas, tomatoes and lemon juice. Taste and adjust salt as necessary. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and lemon wedges, and serve over rice.  Serves 4.

Cucumber Raita

• 2 cups of greek yogurt
• 1 medium cucumber, peeled
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons of cilantro, coarsely chopped
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds

Cut cucumber the long way into 1/4″ strips and then chop into 1/4″ pieces the other way. Toast cumin seeds, dry over high heat for about 2-3 minutes or until they pop. Add cucumber, garlic, cilantro, cumin seeds and lemon to yogurt. Stir and refrigerate until use.

For dinner last night I made a Thai feast to reward myself for finally finishing grading the 65 exams that were my responsibility for the sociology class I am “reading” for. Suffice to say it took me far longer than I expected and I was up until the wee hours of the night! This chicken recipe came from a cookbook called “Thai Cooking Made Easy” that my mother sent me. It was awesome and much simpler than I would have expected! The coconut, mango rice is one of my favorite comfort-type foods, and generally a crowd pleaser. I ended up making the carrot & cilantro salad because I needed a vegetable to complement the rice and chicken, and I only had carrots, so voila- carrot & cilantro salad was born in all of its vinegary goodness.

Thai Barbecue Chicken (adapted from “Thai Cooking Made Easy”)

• 2 chicken breasts (you could also use chicken tenders)
• 1/2 cup light coconut milk
• 1.5 T Thai fish sauce
• 2 t soy sauce
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 T brown sugar
• 1 t turmeric
• 1 t ginger powder
• 2 t coriander
• 1/2 t cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)
• fresh ground pepper (to taste)

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Place chicken in the bowl and cover with mixture. Let marinate in the fridge for at least an hour, but ideally 4-5 hours (I only marinated it for an hour, but it came out well anyway!). Preheat oven to 425 and cover a shallow baking dish with tin foil. Place chicken in baking dish and coat with mixture, reserving about half of it for future use. Bake chicken for about 20 minutes, then flip over and baste with 1/2 of reserved liquid. Bake for another 20 minutes, then baste with the rest of the mixture, turn the oven up to 500 and cook for another 5-10 minutes until browned.

Coconut, Mango Rice

• 1 cup of jasmine rice
• 1 cup of light coconut milk (or you could use 2 cups of coconut milk if you have it)
• 1 fresh mango, peeled and diced

Bring 1 cup of coconut milk and 1 cup of water (or the other cup of coconut milk) to a boil. Add rice, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed.  Remove from heat and stir in diced mango.

Carrot & Cilantro Salad

• 3 large carrots, with the outer layers peeled off
• 1/4 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
• 3 T rice vinegar
• 1 T sesame oil
• 2 tsp chili paste (I used Sambal Oelek brand- so good, but you could use Sriracha or leave it out if you don’t want the heat)
• salt and pepper, to taste

To slice the carrots uber thinly, I just used the vegetable peeler and peeled them into a bowl.  Combine rice vinegar, sesame oil and chili paste in a separate bowl.  Pour mixture over carrots and cilantro and mix to coat evenly.