2013 in Review Part I

...it should rain. It didn’t. The year was the driest on record: 3.6 inches, making it a desert not the Mediterranean climate it should be. It seems to be a dry winter again this year and I’m worried. March A texting music video producer totaled our car and thus began a six month experiment in living without a car in Los Angeles. That experiment ended in September when we bought a car. Living in LA without a car was easier than I thought it would be...

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Stern Sprouted Wheat Vegan Cookie or Health Bar Type Things

...ot get so dry that they turn hard and crumbly. Mine were done in 1 hour and 45 minutes, and my oven runs cool. When done they will have a little color and will hold together, but will be soft to the bite. These need to be wrapped up and stored in the fridge. The ingredients. It looks like Heidi’s breakfast. The grind The dough Rolling out with parchment Just out of the oven *Bonus: How to Sprout Grains Start by measuring your grain into a bowl and...

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Recipe for the World’s Best Whole Wheat Pancake

...ea salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder The night before making these pancakes I take a tablespoon of mature starter and add it to 100 grams of freshly milled Sonora wheat flour and 110 grams of water. This mixture will be the 200 grams of starter you’ll use in the recipe. The next day mix all the ingredients together, fry them up in a pan and get ready to have your pancake paradigm shifted. New frontiers in baking Freshly milled...

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Dave Miller on Baking with 100% Whole Wheat

...ed by Chad Robertson’s first cookbook. Results were better but I was still making white bread. My new bread baking adventure began this weekend when I took a workshop taught by Chico, California baker Dave Miller. His breads are almost all 100% whole wheat. He mills his own flour from carefully sourced heritage grains. Using a levain (a starter), he creates loaves that foreground the flavor of the grain. In short, he shows that bread can have as m...

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Party in the Bathroom!!!!!

...I do lock the door, she scratches on the other side in protest–tirelessly– making a noise so annoying that I have to submit and let her in. The boys, Buck and Trout, being handsome but sadly thick, can’t even begin to open the door without her. Phoebe is deeply bathroom obsessed, though, so the boys will never be locked out. Wherever Phoebe is, she comes running when she hears me entering the bathroom. Maybe she doesn’t hear me–maybe she’s set up...

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