BBA: Italian bread
Another weekend which means two more breads in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice challenge are done. I wish all we did was bread but it felt like from sun up to well past sun down we were constantly tethered to the kitchen or garden. Heck here is the just what I remember we did:
- Canned 19 more jars of cucumbers, jalapenos, sweet peppers, and hungarian hot peppers (total canning jars used to date is 31).
- Turned compost
- Removed another colander full of tomatoes and of course had to remove the skins and boil them down with the other tomatoes for tomato sauce. We started with about 8 quarts of tomatoes and ended with about 10 cups of tomato sauce.
- Removed about eight feet of beans that we deshelled and prepared for drying.
- Removed the rutabagas, blanched, and froze them
This is also in addition to fun stuff like grilling jerk chicken, making three pound of meatballs, catching a movie, and going out to dinner with friends.
On a side note I am starting to get sad because the beans and rutabagas were the last bit of life left in one of the raised beds. However, the plus we have already started plotting and planning for next year’s garden and yes it is growing again. Pretty soon my backyard is just going to be a garden.
The breads we did this weekend were the Italian and the French. Since both of these were two day breads it was easy to start the starters on Friday and then finish making them on Saturday and Sunday. We also went with measure over weighs for both of these breads (actually Heather started the starters she used measure which is part of her evil plan to convert me from the scale to the measuring cups). It does seem the breads that are made with measure come together easier and quicker than the ones that we slave over a scale.
Besides the bread sticks we also made a loaf which was awesome served with melted butter and some roasted garlic. Oh wait add roasted garlic to the list of stuff we did over the weekend.
French bread to follow later this week and as a hint it will feature the meatballs and some of the tomato sauce…..
As always in closing if you are interested in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge our fearless host is Nicole at Pinch My Salt and you can read more about it clicking here.
For crying out loud I feel like a slug next to you two!! The bread looks fantastic and I’m really looking forward to seeing the meatballs , homemade sauce and bread
Jeff I want some of that hungarian canned peppers! Man that sounds good. I never had those. Are they like reg peppers? You were kicking ass in the kitchen is right. What is turn compost? Is that like playing in the trash?
Still the bread looks awesomely good!
Look good Jeff! Love the crumb too…
If I can have some of the bread sticks, I’ll have them by dipping in a bowl of hot chicken curry! Heaven!
What an awesome weekend, I wish you guys were my neighbours - you are so inspiring!
You’re a pro at bread now. It must be a piece of cake for you!
Two things…one - that first picture is absolutely gorgeous! and two - wow. I’m exhaused just reading about your weekend.
Beautiful pics of great food, as usual. And although it looks like you are swamped with food-realted work over the weekend, I get the sneaking suspicion you don’t actually mind it
Love the passion.
your breads look awesome!!!
You definitely know how to pack your weekend full, and you don’t even have kids. I am jealous! ha ha. The bread looks fantastic and your photos turned out gorgeous. I am truly envious of your garden. My tomatoes were on their last legs since the heat is starting to ebb around here so I took them out this past weekend. I found this huge tomato hornworm (google him, he is cool!) that was happily eating the whole left side of my tomato garden. Yikes! The kids have him in a box and are happily feeding him arugula. I do miss my tomatoes though….lol!
Wow, Jeff, can I just tell you how JEALOUS I am of all your produce adventures???? My produce is just dying(literally) in the blazing FL heat. Just found 2 more rotted peppers this morning. I haven’t gotten a SINGLE bell pepper this year. Next year will be a whole different thing though! I love that bread, it looks amazing!
Are you guys getting ready for hibernation! That’s a lot of food for the winter!
I’m impressed with your canning industry
Love your bread. I still have to make that Italian Bread.
Your bread sticks look fantastic. Can’t wait to get to this bread.
Your weekends with Heather make me sound very lazy. It’s a miracle I can make one bread a week.
Wow! Fantastic pics, i want a piece of everything! Looking forward to the meatballs and sauce.
BTW Thanks for the tip on putting the Rosemary on the coals of the BBQ!! Excellent idea!
Good italian bread is one of the best things in the world. I remember spending weekends at my grandmother’s in the Bronx where I only ate Italian bread smeared with butter. Good memories.
Sounds like you had a really productive weekend! I can’t wait for the meatball recipe.
I am so impressed with all that canning! It sounds like you had a great garden this year. Good for you!!
By the looks of your gorgeous bread, it doesn’t seem like you’re a bread apprentice. I am thoroughly enjoying browsing through your blog and especially am loving the camelized onion and parm foccacia.
Sounds like an awesome foodie-filled weekend, and that bread? Gorgeous!
I’m so jealous of all of the cool stuff you guys are making! Sounds like another jam packed weekend full of great company and great food. Great photos, too.
I am exhausted just looking at all of that stuff you did and I’m not the one doing the cooking.
Great bread. You are inspiring me. I want to bake some bread so badly, but my time is so limited. I am getting closer to taking a vacation day and using it just to bake bread!
Your garden sounds great! I wish the weather here would cooperate and help with my gardening. Also, great looking bread. I have to try this.
I love the grissini shot, very nice
Crazy weekend!
WOW..you’ve been busy! Italian bread looks so darn good, I am so jealous of your crumb!
I’m canning too but not as much as you. No toms this yr, we still have plenty from last yr. Dried a ton of toms and ground them up for tomato powder.
wow this bread looks amazing!
You had a GREAT Idea to make bread sticks! Were they crispy or soft like the baguettes? Your garden sounds awesome! We have lots of herbs and exotic tropical fruit ripening here in Hilo. We have tomatoes all year here. Right now Lilikoi (passion fruit) is keeping me very busy.
I have to say that the Italian was one of my favorites so far. I am going to do a batch of torpedo rolls with this formula and then I am going to try the breadstick formation!
Aloha!